Page 42 of Meet Cute Magic

“Hate it?”

“Kissing you. It was… nice. You’re a good kisser, Jack.” Those golden threads seem to throb against my skin with her words, and I wonder if she feels that too, or if that’s my own unique torture.

“We could try it again. We could…” She licks her lips, eyes locked on mine. “We could make out?”

“Make out?” I ask with a laugh, thrown back by her suggestion. “What do you mean by make out?” A beat passes before her eyes go wide with shock before a teasing smile takes over her face.

“Oh my god, Jack, have you never made out with a woman before?” It puts us on more even footing, since this is the version I’m used to: the teasing version of Rosie, not the nervous one. “I mean, I know you’re all nerdy, but…” Those big blues go somehow wider, and she gasps. “Oh my god, are you a virgin?”

“No, I’m not a virgin,” I say quickly with a shake of my head. She smiles, and I realize I fell into some trap of hers with my quick answer. I sigh, rubbing a hand over my face. “I’m not a virgin. I’m just… I don’t see how… making out would fix anything.” She nods with understanding before explaining in shockingly patient terms.

“The magic of the kiss bond is more protection than anything, but magic has side effects, so it makes us both feel a bit protective, like when you felt jealous at the club, but it can also make you feel… needy.”

“Needy?” I ask, but the word sounds like a whisper to my ears. Her smile goes from soft to embarrassed.

“That untamed feeling, you said? It’s you needing to know I’m nearby, to get reassurance that I’m not going anywhere. I feel it too. It’s the protection aspect of it. When you walked into my place and locked eyes on me, did it lessen?” I remember the feeling like a weight was lifted off my chest and nod. She gives me another soft smile. “The magic of the bond. You saw me, could confirm I was safe, the magic eased off.”

“But…”

“But the magic also doesn’t really love that we’re in the same room and not touching. Remember in the car? Holding hands?” I nod. “It eased you. Being together for that length of time helped, bonus points that we were touching. It built up during that evening, making the separation from the bond endurable for a bit, especially with both of us busy and distracted with work and right across the street.”

“Okay…”

“It lingers, the ease, but since you’ve been avoiding me for days—”

“I haven’t—” I correct, but she shakes her head.

“It’s fine. I was avoiding you too. I feel bad, doing all of this to you.” Her fingers glide over one of the golden strands lightly, and I give her a soft face.

“You had to. I insisted on coming to the club with you.” She shrugs like that doesn’t matter.

“I could have warned you. I could have given you more of a choice. I kind of made that decision for you, and that isn’t right. I’m sorry for that.” It’s a genuine apology, one she doesn’t need to give, but one I appreciate all the same. “But I’ve never, uh…” Her words trail off before she takes a deep breath, like earning the courage. “I’ve never done a kiss bond with someone.” She tugs a locket out of her sweatshirt. “This amulet typically blocks it, and since I’ve never told a man what I am, I’ve always worn it. All of this information is from my research on the bond.”

“You’ve never done it?”

She shakes her head. “Revealing who and what I am is a big risk if I tell the wrong person, not just to me, but to my sisters too. It’s a leap of faith. If I couldn’t trust that I would be able to tell a man I loved him without things ending terribly, I surely didn’t want to tell him about my magic.” I nod then, still contemplating. “But it’s pretty… typical of witches and supernaturals to have a kiss bond with their partners. It’s a public claiming, so to speak.”

The words settle in my stomach, and the idea of Rosie publicly claiming me makes me feel warm in my gut. Fuck, this kiss bond is some heady shit. I’ve never liked a woman who took control, much less claimed me. Yet here I am, fantasizing about Rosie claiming me for real.

“If we kiss now, halfway through, the bond will probably be sated until it fades completely. If we don’t, there’s a good chance you’ll feel the same pull as you did before you came over in the morning, and you might have to spend more time with me to sate it.” I try not to think too hard on how the idea of spending time hanging out with Rosie once felt like a painful punishment, and now I’m starting to actually enjoy her company.

“Will it make it last longer?” I ask. She shakes her head.

“No. I’m wearing this again.” Her fingers move to the locket and lift it. “It stops kiss bonds from forming.”

“And then this urge will fade in a few days?”

She nods. “But if we… sate the urge now, it will be a more tolerable few days. You can go back to ignoring me more or less until our next excursion.” I don’t have the mental fortitude to think about our next excursion, not when her eyes keep drifting to my lips, not when all I can think about is the kiss outside the club, her lips on mine, the way she felt in my arms.

It’s the magic, I know. That’s what has me feeling this way about this woman who typically drives me up a wall, but I can’t seem to rationalize with myself. Not right now, not when she’s looking at me this way.

“Okay,” I say low, taking my glasses off and setting them aside.

“Ok—?” she starts, but my desire wins when I reach across the couch and tug her into my body until she’s pinned against me, until my lips are moving against hers. A small sigh leaves her lips as if relief is flooding her, her body going a bit lax as she does, and it’s a feeling I understand as well. The second our lips touch, that feeling in my chest loosens, the magic loosening its grip and leaving my chest, the bond moving around us to tie us closer together.

She shifts then, moving and pushing on my chest, and with an arm on her lower back, holding her close to me, I gently fall back onto the couch, her body pressing against mine. I fight the consuming urge to grab her ass, to pull her into my front and grind my hardening cock into her.

Even though it’s creating a new issue, a different form of need and desire coursing through my veins that I don’t want to look too closely at, the gold-tinged need that’s been fueling me for days seems to be slowly satisfied, like this touch of her lips to mine was what I needed.