“I don’t know who that is,” I whispered to the sky. Never had someone made me feel safe enough to be whatever I needed to be.
“Who do you want it to be?”
“That’s an impossible question,” I said lightly. I changed with every move, every friend group, every situation. I wastoldwho I had to be to survive each new school and town. I never got to decide. That admission was too hard to speak out loud, so instead, I asked, “Who do you want to be?”
“I don’t know either,” she admitted. “I see myself living in the city. Going out to shows and concerts, awake at all hours,exploring the mayhem. Having a cute, witchy girlfriend who can show me around . . .”
“I think I might know someone,” I added with a giggle, even as the thought of leaving this place gave me a sudden flash of sadness. “Maybe I could see myself doing that too. Doing social media marketing for a company that pays me boatloads,” I said. “So my girlfriend and I could live in a cute little apartment, and I could take her to shows and concerts. And in the fall, we could go back to her hometown and see the Halloween Festival and be a part of both worlds.”
It hit me all at once thatthatwas what I wanted—to be a part of this world. Maybe it was the memory ofThe Little Mermaid, maybe it was the magic of the haunted woods, or maybe it was Sabine telling me that I could be all the things, but I realized the reason I wanted so badly to be invited to join the Sinclair Society was for the very thing that was freely given to me here: I wanted to belong to something more than me.
“Both worlds,” Sabine mused, lazily trailing her fingers up and down my back.
I swallowed back a nervous laugh. “I’ve never had a girlfriend before,” I admitted. “Let alone one who’s a witch.”
She grinned at me, her hand gently squeezing my hip. “You’re a witch too.”
I smiled. “I am.”
“I like seeing you step into that more, accept who you are, embrace your magi?—”
A frog gave a loud ribbit beside us. “It wasn’t me,” I said, holding up my hands in defense, and we both laughed.
“You have no idea how glad I am that I’ve met you, Gwen,” Sabine said. “I think you might be the best thing about this place.”
“Funny,” I replied. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
21
Sabine
We shared a silent moment, letting the tension between us grow and take on a life of its own. Every touch or look lingered to test the water. I brushed my thumb down Gwen’s cheek, then tilted her chin up for our eyes to meet. Hers searched mine for a long moment and I wondered if she had some sort of psychic ability that drew her attention to my mouth.
Kiss me, I internally begged.Please, kiss me.
She leaned in, pausing a breath away. “Is this okay?”
How could I answer that without any oxygen in my lungs?
“Yeah,” I managed to huff out.
Our lips touched, slow and sweet. Fireworks exploded in my gut as her tender touch became more confident. I knew I should take it slow, coax out this new experience, but my eagerness was getting the better of me. As much as I loved a slow ravishing, I wanted to hold her spent body in my arms after making her moan my name over and over again.
Gwen made a wanton hum that vibrated against my lips, and I took it as a green light to deepen our kiss. I smoothed my hand up her thigh to the hem of her shorts, loving the feeling of her silky-soft skin under my fingertips.
Quick, gentle touches and smoldering kisses gave way to seeking fingers and imploring tongues. I thanked all the stars that she was meeting me with equal fervor because I was desperate to unravel her. She gripped my hip, willing me to pull my body over hers. We giggled as we toppled over, finding our balance in this new position. The canoe wasn’t my ideal place to be intimate, but it was far from prying eyes—and owls.
Her legs spread just enough for me to wedge between them as her hands traveled up the back of my shirt. She dragged her nails across my skin and it erupted with goose bumps.
A rumble escaped my throat.
I needed her more than ever.
I pulled at the ribbing of her hoodie in a silent request for her to take it off. Unfortunately, that meant I had to stop kissing her to guide it up and over her head. Placing it carefully on the seat behind me, I turned to look down at the beautiful woman wrapping herself around my hips.
Fuck. She was perfect. Her white crop top clung to her chest, giving me the outline of her peaked nipples underneath. I pushed the hem up her stomach, edging both of us when I stopped just below the swell of her breasts. I planted kisses between her ribs and down to her navel.
She giggled and squirmed. “I’m ticklish.”
