“Stop me.” His hands lifted, smoothing over the tight fabric covering my hips.
“I …” I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to, though I knew I should. I should stop him before this went too far and there was no going back.
“Stop me, Ana.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Hello?”
A voice caused us to jump back and away, flushed. Hands running through his dark hair, he paced quick steps in a circle. If he kept it up, he’d fall right through the floor.
“Hey, guys?” Faith called up the stairs. “Are you coming back, or are you going to keep screaming at each other for a while? Gertie wants to know if she should put out more cups for tea.”
18
SUMMER
Ilaughed as I rolled over from where I had been lying, being attacked with an onslaught of kisses down my spine, all the way to the ribbed bodice of my sundress. Dom lifted the edge, trying to pull it farther down.
Turning around onto my now-damp back, I whacked the attacker with my book.
Dom seethed as he reached for his arm, looking at me with wide eyes, as if he couldn’t imagine why I’d do such a thing. “Ow.”
“Please, it hurt the book more than you.” I tried to bend it back the way it had been. I rolled my eyes at his sweet dramatics as he reached for another grape that made up our small picnic along the river, which included the berries and fruit from the farmers market—which had been going bad in my fridge—and a half-eaten loaf of bread with jam I’d previously intended to make sandwiches with, though I’d long since run out of condiments.
The sun was hot, and the shade was becoming harder and harder to come by.
“I’m not sure.” Dom pouted, still crawling up toward me. His hands slid up from my knees and up my thighs until my dress was bunched at the hips. “You might have to kiss it better.”
“No! Stop it. You’re disgusting,” I cried, knowing that it was far from the truth. “We are supposed to be relaxing!”
“I, for one, am very relaxed. Don’t I look relaxed?” He crawled on top of me, draping his body over mine, and I was in heaven. “I don’t see the problem.”
“I’m sweating.”
He licked behind my ear and down my neck, breathing me in. “Delicious.”
19
It took Dom and me both a minute longer than it should’ve to make our way back downstairs and say our good-byes to the rest of the ladies and Ryan for the night. Neither of us looked at the other, afraid of what would happen if we did.
“I don’t know what I expected when I said I’d meet your coven today,” said Dom.
Dom absentmindedly rubbed his hand up and down my back, gently guiding me inside the apartment building.
My hands shook as I turned my key in the lock.
“But I didn’t expect such entertainment.”
“That’s one thing where the coven never disappoints,” I murmured.
Stepping away from his touch, I made my way inside my apartment. He closed the door behind us. When I clicked on the lamp, the room took on a glow, somehow making the continual mess of both of us living here look somewhat more manageable compared to in the light of day. Right now, I wasn’t going to worry about it. After today, I needed to get out of this dress, take a shower, and get some sleep.
When I turned around, however, Dom stood in the middle of the room, still staring at me.
I cocked my head to the side, preparing myself to either run or … well, run. Because I certainly didn’t have it in me to have another rendition of what had happened back at the house, my body still on edge from another close kissing call.
And I knew where those lips led.
