Page 33 of Meet Cute Magic

“You need to bond him as yours.”

The goddamned kiss bond.

“Oh, that’s so antiquated,” I say with a giggle, waving a hand at him despite the fact that my heart is racing. I don’t know what idiot part of me thought I could avoid this, but here we are.

“It’s the rules. Unless he’s not yours,” the bouncer says, taking us in with a new light, “and he’s going in unaccompanied.”

Internally, I sigh. Externally, I gasp.

Unaccompanied would mean Jack is free game. He’d get a wristband marking him as willing to mix and mingle with any of the supernaturals in whatever way they see fit. And even though that would make things simpler, I can’t put Jack at risk like that, especially not without warning him properly.

Which leaves one option.

In order to bring Jack in, I’m going to have to give him the kiss bond, something I’ve never actually done and something Jack is fully unprepared for.

“How dare you question that! Of course, he’s mine.” I let out a sigh that I hope sounds disgruntled instead of panicked. “Fine, I guess I’ll bond him. No big deal.” I turn to Jack, who is looking somehow more confused than before, something I never would have thought possible. “Just have to… bond him.” I stare up at Jack’s wide eyes, my stomach in knots as I try to get up the courage to do what I have to do. It’s not that Jack isn’t attractive. Of course he is. It’s just that he’s… well… Jack. And so uninterested in me, if my ego wasn’t as big as it is, I might be offended.

And worst of all, he is so unprepared for what’s about to happen.

God, I should have warned him. I’m a shit person for throwing this at him with no precursor.

“People are waiting,” the gargoyle says.

“And they can wait a minute longer for me to bond my partner,” I snap, feeling the electricity of my irritation zap to my fingers. He must see or sense it as well because he raises his hands up in surrender before I turn back to Jack. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, stepping further into his space. I’m not wearing my locket, the amulet that normally would stop the bond from taking hold, as the club doesn’t allow any kind of unauthorized magical suppressant within its walls.

“What?” Jack asks, just as quietly, but there’s no other chance for explanation as I lean in, pressing my lips to his.

Instantly, it happens just like I’ve read about before, just like Violet told Poppy and me when we got drunk together last year. The golden swirls of bonding magic leave me, interestingly less pink than my normal magic, wrapping around us with tiny threads and pulling us closer together. My magic is marking him as mine, at least for the next week until it wears off. I feel those threads dig into my heart at the same time his hand moves up, cupping my jaw and angling my face, deepening the kiss. His arm moves to my waist, tugging me closer.

I know it’s part of the magic, the kiss bond. A temporary mark that he is mine, under my watchful eye, and a note for all other supernaturals to leave him be. It affects humans by creating feelings of desire and a need for an attachment they can’t control, all the more reason why I wanted to avoid it.

The kiss lasts longer than it has to for the simple bond to take place, and I find myself melting into it with a sigh as his thumb grazes over my cheekbone almost reverently. Finally, the kiss breaks, and I take in a fake gulp of fresh air, forcing my head to stay clear, to remember we’re pretending that this isn’t the first time this has happened, that this isn’t the first time we’ve kissed, that this is a normal feeling between us.

That Jack is mine.

“It’s ground-shaking every time,” I say with a little laugh, trying to play off the shock of it. Jack stands there in a daze, lifting his hand and for the first time, seeing the golden strands of my magic swirling over him like glittering threads along his skin. I need to act like I’ve done this a dozen times, but I’m sure I’m failing, and looking at Jack’s face and wide eyes, I know I totally and completely fucked this up. I should have warned him; I should never have assumed we could sneak in without this step.

“What—” Jack starts, but I turn to my new enemy, Dan, instead with a smile.

“Are we done here?” He looks at me skeptically, reading me before finally nodding. Thankfully, while gargoyles are good guards, they aren’t the best at human interaction, much less reading a lie. Now, if a vampire were working as the guard, we’d be totally fucked since they can sense an elevated heartbeat and smell minor changes in your pheromones. Before Jack can blow our cover, I nod to Dan, grab Jack’s hand, and drag him toward the doors that lead into the club.

“What the fuck was that?” he demands through gritted teeth, and I put a finger to my lips as we walk quickly. The hallway branches off up ahead, and I just have to get us there. When we reach the cutoff, I look left and right, then grab his wrist and tug him into a dark corner.

“Listen, I’m going to say this now, and we have very little time because I believe there was a group of dragons behind us and they have insanely good hearing—” His eyes go wide, but we don’t have time for me to explain another supernatural species. He can pick my brain until kingdom come if and when we make it out of here with what we need.

“Dra—”

“Right now, you don’t ask me a single question. You act like this is all normal. I should have given you more of a heads-up, but I didn’t, and now we can’t go back. Not for nothing, but this is why I wanted to do this myself. I will answer as many questions as I can once we’re home, but right now, all that matters is that you’re my human guest. I just marked you with a kiss bond, so no one else will mess with you. You are safe.”

“That kiss—”

I groan into the universe. I should have known there was no way he would just accept what I was saying as truth without at least a little questioning.

“Was magic. Yes. Please, Jack. I can’t think of another easy way to get the ingredient we need besides this, and if you get me kicked out by revealing I brought an unbonded human in here with me, I’m kicked out forever. Please. Just… trust me.” He stares at me for long moments, and I expect him to argue. To ask how or why he should trust me, to question what an unbonded human is, fuck, to ask about the dragons, whose steps I can hear down the long, echoey hall.

I have done nothing to earn his trust, so he doesn’t owe me anything. We both know that.

Long moments pass where my heart beats erratically. The way we’re standing, I think I could play off the pulse the dragons hear as lust, but not if Jack starts fighting me. But finally, he nods, and my nerves slow, a breath I didn’t realize I was holding releasing from my lips.