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Audrey
Atsixonthedot, Wes walked into my shop. His gaze zeroed in on me. Everything else melted away. My pulse raced to my throat, sending warm tingles in its wake. I wanted to crawl into his embrace, build a treehouse in his arms, and live there forever. He gave me a heated once-over and I could only image the dopey expression on my face right now. Was this what Gretchen had been talking about? Were these the looks we’d been giving each other?
My grandma said something, but Wes had his dark eyes on me and it buzzed right past my ear. It might’ve been to have fun? Be safe? I’d ask her about it later.
Wes placed his hand on the small of my back, then quickly removed it when clouds gathered over my head and moisture began to collect in the air. Risky for him to touch me in my shop when I wasn’t mad at him.
“I figured we could go out back, by your spring, where it’s private.”
“Private is good.” If things escalated like they had at the cave yesterday, there was a solid chance we’d be arrested for indecent exposure if we practiced within view of the hiking trails. Best if we kept ourselves tucked away for now.
The second we stepped outside, the hair at the nape of my neck began to frizz and sweat rolled down my spine. We usually didn’t see these kinds of temperatures until August, if at all. I wondered if there were supernatural forces at work. It was hard to say either way, since the curse wasn’t even strong enough to dig into our minds. Yet.
I stopped by my condo to change into a pink sports bra and matching cotton shorts. I had a feeling our magic was in the mood to put us through it. In this heat, the less we wore, the better. After I grabbed two water bottles, I headed back downstairs. And stopped short at the sight of Wes without his shirt on.
Holy shit.
Strong shoulders, hard chest, defined abs with a dusting of light brown hair leading right down the center of the V. I fully understood that Wes stayed in excellent shape. He ran on the beach every morning, lifted weights, and all of us got stuck walking a million miles in the summer. But it had been a really long time since I’d seen him shirtless, and I was not prepared. The raw energy inside me strangled my lungs, pushing me to reach for him, and he hadn’t even touched me yet. How the hell was I supposed to practice like this?
“You’re drooling, Baby Teeth.” Amusement gleamed in his eyes. “Might want to get that checked out. Could be a serious medical condition.”
Was he incapable of taking a single day off from being a jackass? I snapped out of the unfortunate daze I’d stumbled into and sauntered toward him. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, even as his nostrils flared while he tracked my motion. I stopped in front of him, inches from skin-to-skin contact, and walked my fingertips up his chest. He stopped breathing. His pupils dilated and a muscle ticked in his jaw.
With the tip of my index finger, I drew a circle on his chest. “This must be where you store your alleged heart.”
He placed his hand over mine, flattening it against him. “You want to play this game out in the open? Or do you want to wait until we get to the spring?”
“Why wait? It’s hot out.” I lifted my other hand and spread my fingers across his chest, letting the golden light swish and twirl into the air. “I could use a little rain.”
Thunder rumbled the clouds and the sky opened up, sending a massive downpour over the two of us. The temperature dropped ten degrees as I turned my face skyward and laughed, giddy with what I’d been able to do. Energy flowed through me, around me, wrapping me up in its warm embrace that allowed me to direct the consistency and volume.
“Well done.” Wes grinned and swept a hand down the length of my hair, gently tugging and squeezing the water from it.
He threaded his fingers through mine and led me to the clearing. Touching him felt good, but not overwhelming. Maybe I was finally getting a handle on the side effects. Energy rose and fell again, like gentle waves within me, but it didn’t push or demand a release, and for the first time since the earthquake, I thought it would be nice to touch Wes without worrying about the weather. To touch him just because I wanted to.
As soon as we stepped behind the protective wall of foliage that blocked off the spring, he faced me, rubbing his calloused palms up and down my arms. My nipples pebbled and I was both delighted and annoyed that my powers had no hand in my reaction. That was all me.
The tart scent of nearby raspberry bushes mixed with the earthy smell of dry grass. I kept my gaze on his chest as I traced little patterns on his hard muscles, fascinated by the goosebumps I created from that small bit of contact.
When a golden light began to illuminate my hand, I backed it down until it dimmed to a subtle glow, wanting just him and us and this. No magic.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
“Yes.” We’d been touching each other for over a minute and I hadn’t tried to impale myself on his dick yet, so I’d call that great progress. “Maybe we just needed to build up a tolerance to each other, like taking sips of poison until our bodies became accustomed to it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s one way of putting it.”
I gave him a light shove. “You know what I mean.”
“I’d like to try something. Push the limits on this poison, as you call it.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I want to kiss you.” A sharp flare of energy lit up my insides at his words, igniting a fire within me. A funnel of rain poured over us both. He tightened his grip on me. “As an experiment. To see how our powers respond to heightened physical contact and whether or not we can still keep it under control.”
“Itisnecessary“—my gaze dropped to his lips—”to test all possibilities.”
He cupped my face, his mouth a breath away from mine. “Just an experiment.”
