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“Let’s go for a run,” he said.
I jerked my head back in surprise. “What?”
“You’re in shorts, you’ve got your sneakers over there.” He pointed to the desk chair I’d abandoned hours earlier, and sure enough, my sneakers sat beneath it, abandoned with my sweater, when I couldn’t manage to sit still long enough to read a paragraph, let alone a whole book.
“It’s hot.” I frowned. “Why do you want to—”
“I can smell the adrenaline burning through you. You need to run. You need to move, something. Before it drives us both insane.”
I blinked at him in shock. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
He shook his head and came closer, lifting his hands to touch my arms. He stopped short, and his hands fell back to his sides. “I know you, Bex. You’ve been feeling off. I can tell. So, let’s go for a run, and figure it out. Just like we did at Tulane.”
I glanced up at the ceiling in the direction of Poppet’s bedroom. “I don’t want to leave her with—”
“I’ve already talked to Tate and Shado. She’s not going anywhere,” he said. “They’ve got it covered.”
“Oh.” My shoulders sank. He really wanted to go for this run. He’d thought of everything.
“Come on.” He jerked his head towards the door and turned around, taking a few steps away.
Doing a double step, I slipped my shoes back on and before I knew it, we were on the grass outside, waving to Astrid as we jogged our way into the woods.
Jackson started out slow. Kept our pace even, and then ever so slightly, I felt his stride change beside me as he pulled ahead.
That familiar tingle of dark magic vibrated in my veins, and I smiled, pushing a little harder. Jackson glanced at me for a brief second and then sped up, taking off at near preternatural speed.
In shock my jaw dropped, but there was no way I’d let him win. It wasn’t in my nature. Sprinting ahead, I caught up to him.
My feet pounded into the ground, magic powering my stride. Wind whipped past my face, and abruptly my foot caught on a root. I went tumbling end over end across the dirt, and I cried out in pain as I felt something snap in my right calf.
“Rebekah!” Jackson cried out, skidding to a halt at my side, collapsing beside me. “Shit, are you okay? What happened?”
Without thinking, he took a hold of my leg, lifting it up even as the magic in my veins knitted the bone back together. He watched wide eyed as the wound where my skin had punctured closed up, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from his face.
“How did—” He looked up at me. “How did you do that? I’ve never seen you heal like that before.’
I cleared my throat and shifted back to sit upright on my own. “A gift from Esme, I guess.”
“You healed like a werewolf,” he said, running his hand over the barely blemished skin.
“It’s apparently not the only gift from Esme,” I said, speaking carefully. I didn’t want to jinx what was happening, but I had to say something. I had to make sure I wasn’t going nuts.
“What do you mean?” He asked, brushing his thumb over the swell of my calf muscle.
Licking my lips, I swallowed. “You’re touching me, Jack. You’re touching my skin.”
His eyes went wide and he looked down at where his hands rested on my leg. He jerked them away. “Oh, my god. I’m so sorry.”
“No!” I grabbed his right hand and pressed it back to my leg for a second, and then lifted it, pressing his palm to my cheek. “Don’t stop. I can…I can’t feel a vision. I can’t see anything. It’s just...it’s just…” Tears flooded my vision.
“It’s just what?” he asked, his own voice filling with unshed emotion.
“It’s just you.” I smiled at him. “All I feel is you.”
He leaned forward and pressed a hard kiss to my lips, his weight forcing me to lay back against the ground. He shifted to hover over me, and his kiss trailed across my cheek, to my jaw, my neck.
“Oh, Rebekah.” He exhaled, pressing his weight into me from head to toe. His warmth was staggering, as was the spark of desperate energy that ignited inside me. I needed to feel him. All of him.
