Page 70 of Meet Cute Magic

“What? What did I say wrong?”

I shake my head, then try to shift away.

“No, tell me. I said something wrong.” He tries to move over his thoughts before landing on something. I realize quickly that it is the right thing. “Shit, I didn’t mean your magic was a rush. Well, it is, of course. God, I’m fucking this up.” One of his hands comes up, rubbing over his face as he takes in a deep breath, his other hand still holding me tight so I can’t escape.

“The magic was a rush. But that feeling… the intimacy of it. The closeness. The… need. Fuck. I want to experience it once more with you. Before this is all… you know.” The dread curls in my stomach, the same way it has every day this week, as I thought of ending our time together.

It’s just the uncertainty of it, that’s all, I remind myself for the thousandth time. It has nothing to do with Jack. It’s the fear that, if my love life is still in shambles when there’s no curse to blame, I have no option but to realize I am the problem.

And despite it all, I want to feel that too: the intimacy, the need that filled my veins for Jack. In fact, it would be smart to know what it felt like before I did it with my one true love. What if it’s too much? Or not good? Or ruins something? I should know that, after all.

“Oh,” I say, finally. “That makes sense. I think it would be… very satisfying.” Those are the only words I can think of to describe how I think being with Jack while bonded would feel. Or at least, the only ones I’m comfortable with saying out loud. He smiles then, like he sees right through me and my hesitation.

“Have you ever had sex with someone while on the bond?”

My gut turns and churns, and I realize I have never told him the truth.

“I uh,” I start. “I’ve never done that with anyone.”

“Had sex while bonded?”

I shake my head. “None of it. The kiss bond? I’ve never done that. Never, uh, had the opportunity.” He stares at me for long, long moments before I start to word-vomit an explanation. “My mom gave me my locket. She warned me of the impacts, that it would undoubtedly expose my magic to anyone I bonded with, and I needed to trust that person fully. She basically talked the fear of god into me, so I told myself I wouldn’t do it unless I were in love. And, well, with the curse…”

“You never did it with anyone,” he says, understanding, and I nod before we fall into a silence. It’s not uncomfortable, but also not… great. Finally, he breaks it, staring at my lips.

“Can I kiss you, Rosie?” It’s sweet and soft, and I know he’s saying so much with it beyond can I kiss you.

Can I ignite the bond?

Can I be the first?

Do you trust me?

The answer to each of those three questions is the same, though, so I whisper it aloud.

“Yes.”

CHAPTER 25

Rosie

15 days until Halloween

His lips don’t touch mine.

Not immediately. Instead, his eyes go hot, and the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen slides over his lips, and he sits up, forcing me to do so with him before his hands are on my hips, guiding me off the couch.

“Stand up, Rosie,” he says, and even though I’m confused, I do as he asks. I’m rewarded for my obedience when his arms cross behind him, tugging until his long-sleeve Henley is off, tossed in some corner without a concern. My eyes follow it on instinct, but I never find it because I’m distracted when he reaches for me. The touch of his fingers on my heated skin snaps me back to attention, but I don’t watch his fingers as they move: I watch his face, fascinated by the subtle change, by the clear focus written there.

Slowly, reverently, with need and desire and something else I can’t quite describe, he begins to undress me. His fingers glide up my belly underneath my sweater, moving to guide me to pull it over my head gently. When it’s gone, tossed into the same corner his shirt went, I reach for him, desperate for his lips on mine. My hands move to his jaw, trying to pull him into me, but he doesn’t let me. Instead, he shifts away, not in a way that I find alarming, but adorably frustrating, especially when he smiles at me the way he does.

“Patience, Rosie. We’ve got all night. We’ve got as long as we need.” For a quick moment, common sense speaks. Not as long as we need, it says. Only until Halloween. It settles uncomfortably in my gut, the knowledge, the confirmation, but then he’s leaning in, still sitting as I stand. He presses a kiss to the place right above my panties, and all thoughts of timelines and expiration dates are long gone from my mind. Even more when his fingers hook beneath the waistband of them, tugging them down just as gently as he’s done everything else.

This is not the normal version of us, the one where he takes control, where he bosses me around and I concede. This is different, achingly intimate in a way I should find worrisome, but my responsible mind is long gone, replaced by the one controlled by my need for Jack.

If it was still there, it might recognize that this is something more than friends with benefits, more than a placeholder until my happily ever after walks into my life. This is a complication, a diversion.

But I’m too far gone in him to even recognize it. Especially not when his hands move to my hips, when he pulls me to him until my knees are on either side of his hips on the couch cushion, when I steel onto his thighs.