by Anna Abner
But now her magic was bound as tight as shrink-wrapped steaks. She could have experiences she’d previously assumed were impossible. She could touch a man. No, not any man. David.
She could touch David.
He pulled into his driveway and killed the engine.
“Come inside for some coffee?” David’s gaze seared over her face and then lower. It was very obvious coffee was not all he was hoping for.
Dani flushed so deeply the tips of her ears burned. She should go home. Call a cab or call Georgie or take a bus. Whatever was necessary. Because accepting his sham of a coffee invitation would only lead to one thing, and despite that amazing kiss, she wasn’t certain she was ready for more. She’d only been without her magic for one day. What if the spell hiccupped? What if Jeff remotely removed it without warning? What if she fried David’s brain into scrambled eggs and couldn’t fix it?
Coffee or no coffee, Dani didn’t have any excuses for staying. “I should get home.”
“It’s late,” he countered. “And dangerous. We don’t know where those men are. They could be waiting for us to separate.”
He had a point.
“Come in and rest for a bit,” he pressed. “There’s no rush. Ryan’s with his grandma.” Then he went in for the kill. “Dani, I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
She knew the feeling. She wasn’t ready to go home to her quiet, empty apartment and lie in her cold bed. Even though she’d only shared the basement with David for two days, she wasn’t used to the solitude. By herself, there would be nothing and no one to stop the tide of fear and memory from drowning her.
She nodded, and they walked across his tiny square of lawn together, his keys jangling in his hands. His condo looked different in the dark. More menacing. She stood awkwardly at the kitchen counter—the stainless steel pots and the utensils throwing monstrous shadows on the walls and ceiling.
“Coffee or tea?” David asked as he turned on the machine.
“Tea, please.” Her voice was deeper than usual and a little husky. It hurt to swallow or speak above a whisper. She didn’t blame Cole, though. It was tricky coming out of a nightmare spell. Reality would feel like the dream. He hadn’t known what he was doing.
David crossed the room and reached around her to lift two mugs off a shelf, and Dani imagined he did so to get closer to her. To narrow the always-there gap between her and every other person in the world.
David frowned and, without asking permission, probed the sore spots on her throat with the pads of his fingers.
“When’s the last time you touched someone?” he asked.
“On purpose?
He released her to pour two mugs of steaming tea and, holding himself stiffly, handed her one. “Yes, on purpose.”
Dani sipped thoughtfully, the ceramic mug cold on her lips as she pictured Bailey the way he’d looked ten years ago. She’d been fourteen and just coming into her power.
“I was born a witch,” she muttered around the rim of her mug. “But it’s mostly a funny buzz in your nerve endings until you reach puberty. Then it hits full force.”
He raised one eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
“I was fourteen—”
“The last time you touched someone?” David blurted out.
“No.” Of course not. She’d had several heart-stopping brushes of skin-to-skin contact over the years. “I’m trying to explain.”
“Sorry.” He settled his hip against the counter and blew cool air over his tea. “Go on.”
“Bailey was my boyfriend, or whatever boyfriend means when you’re fourteen.” She recalled the hallway coat closet in her former foster home. A white-walled cubicle that smelled like sweaty shoes. “We were fooling around.”
“Oh, yeah? This is getting interesting.”
Dani rolled her eyes and continued. “Just kissing. But then my magic fritzed on without warning and I—” She swallowed, remembering the panic and the screaming and the heavy footsteps in the hall. “I hurt him. Blinded him. He was unconscious for a few hours.”
“Jesus.”
“I lived with foster parents at the time. Mr. Lamont came running, and when he got there, Bailey was seizing on the floor. His lips were blue, and his eyes had gone white. They thought I’d given him drugs. I guess it looked like that. They sent me back to the group home.”
David set his tea down and pulled her against his chest. She didn’t fight, but melted into him. Like puzzle pieces, their bodies snapped together.
“I’m so sorry.” David said into her hair, tickling her ear, “I didn’t know.”
Dani squeezed her eyes closed as his heartbeat thumped against her cheek. As crazy as it sounded, her heart slowed to match his, and the rhythm was a balm for her nerves.
“It’s okay. I love my job. I love working with kids.” It was the reason she got up every morning. Her job was the most important part of her life. “I’m happy. Mostly.” All true, but this day had taught her one monumental lesson. She wanted to love and be loved. She wanted all of it—the good, the bad, and the scary.
His arms tightened incrementally. “No one is happy when they can’t touch other people without hurting them.”
It didn’t matter if she enjoyed keeping up her no-touch zone. A normal life, no matter how much she wanted it, wasn’t possible for her. Dani had to be happy with the cards fate had dealt her.
“What happened to Bailey?” David asked. “You went back, right? Fixed it?”
Guilt, sharp as a knife. “No.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was fourteen.” It sounded like an excuse. Like a damned, immature excuse for her lapse in common decency. “I got moved around after.”
“You left him like that?”
“I went back.” Dani cared, damn it. She thought about Bailey all the time, and she hated what she’d done to him. Hated that she’d been unable to control herself. “About two years ago, when my life had settled down—I had a good job, and I had my own apartment—I went back to his house. But his family had moved away, and no one knew where they’d gone.”
“What’s his full name?” David grabbed a torn white envelope off the counter and wrote a note on it with a pen. “And his former address.”
She rattled off everything she knew about her teenage crush. “Do you think you can find him?” She’d searched, but maybe not as thoroughly as she could have. She’d been to his old home. She’d googled him, but she’d had no luck and eventually got distracted by other things. Her heart twisted at the thought of righting a ten-year-old wrong and fixing Bailey.
David nodded. “I’d like to try. If it’s okay with you.” He folded the envelope into thirds and stuffed it into his pocket.
“I would really appreciate that.” Dani held up her hands. “Though I’ll need to get my magic back before I’ll be any good.” She wasn’t helping anyone the way she was now. God, she sounded like Cole. Always helping. If she wasn’t careful, she’d organize a coven in Springfield and start blessing candles for weddings and baby showers.
“We’ll get it back,” he assured. “If you want it.” David drained his tea like it was water. “My shoulder hurts,” he said. “But I can’t reach the cuts.”
Touch him? Run her bare fingers over his warm, solid body?
He added, “I’d be really grateful if you’d look at them for me.”
Chapter Twelve
David headed for the master bedroom, and Dani followed more slowly.
His personal space smelled masculine, like leather and cologne and an earthy scent that was David’s alone. He’d left shoes by the edge of the bed and a pair of trousers over the arm of a chair, but otherwise the room was clean and neat. Like David.
Dani hugged herself, not sure what to do or say, and the fire in her belly faded to an ember, at best. She nibbled the nail on her left thumb.
“In here,” he called from the bathroom. “The light’s better.”
He stood bare chested in front of the mirror
, first aid supplies laid out on the sink. “There are gloves somewhere.” He faced away, and she got her first good look at his wounds. About twenty-four hours had passed since he’d squeezed through the hole in the basement ceiling, and a lot of blood had dried. It was hard to see how many cuts there were or how deep.
“You should shower first,” she advised, her voice husky and low. “Let the warm water wash away the blood.”
“Okay, sure.” He turned on the water in the stall and steam curled into the air.
For a moment she lingered, her mouth drying out at the sight of a nearly naked man. Even wounded, he was sexy. Muscles bunched and rippled under the taut flesh of his shoulders and chest. He was a beautiful man.
She glanced at the webs on her arms. It was possible. She could touch him.
Dani backed away and perched on the edge of his bed, listening to the water hitting David and the sides of the shower and cascading into the tub.
The bathroom door wasn’t completely closed. The water turned off, and as David dried himself, she could see slices of tanned skin—a bicep, the side of his hip, and then a thigh sprinkled in dark hair. He whipped open the door, his blond hair damp and mussed, a chocolate-colored towel wrapped low around his hips.
His body was incredible. This guy could be an athlete. A model. A combat Marine. He’d taken good care of himself, and it showed. The tingle in her belly kicked up a notch.
“That felt amazing.” He grinned at her, shaking water from his head like a happy puppy. “Do your worst, Nurse Ferraro.” He flopped facedown on the bed.
Dani stared at his bruised and scratched back, not sure what to do next. She didn’t often find herself alone with hot, half-naked guys. Her skin got all tingly and kind of itchy.
I can do this. I can control myself. I will not leap on him like a cougar and latch on.
“Dani?” The muscles across his back bunched, popping hills and valleys up and down his back. The tip of her tongue moistened her lower lip, but what she really wanted to lick was all that exposed male flesh. His firm, smooth shoulders. The warm crook of his throat. The velvety patch of skin behind his ear.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“No. What? No.”
She rushed into the bathroom and scooped up everything she could carry. Dumping it all on the bed, she searched for latex gloves, but didn’t see any. Warning alarms blared in her ears. Her bare skin hurt people.
She clenched and unclenched her hands. No, her magic was bound. She could touch David without maiming him. She could enjoy every minute of this without feeling guilty.
Dani sanitized her hands and started with the hydrogen peroxide, dribbling it over the deepest scratches. The last wound was under his right arm and on top of his ribs.
“Does this hurt?” She brushed around the scratch with her fingers, feather soft.
He shivered. “Yeah. That’s the worst.”
She smeared antibiotic cream across each cut and taped sterile gauze onto his wounds.
Slowly, David rolled onto his back, his towel coming loose. His right thigh lay visible. She stared open-mouthed at a strong, muscled thigh and the line where towel met skin.
“Dani.” He propped himself up on one elbow, but he didn’t fix his towel as his steamy breath puffed against her cheek.
He closed the gap and kissed her, his lips pressing gently against the seam of hers. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she savored every second, every touch, every tingle.
David drew back a fraction of an inch. “Please tell me you’re not going to just sit there. Please, Daniela, please kiss me back.”
He did not need to ask twice. She rose on her knees, dug her fingers deep into his bare shoulders, and slanted her face to kiss him harder. He groaned deep in his chest, a rumble of unfiltered pleasure that vibrated into her as he urged her mouth open. She met his tongue with her own. Slick and warm, he tasted of everything dark and male.
Her belly warmed and went liquid like the uncoiling of a snake. Between her legs and on the back side of her belly button, her need built to previously unknown heights. When David’s hand slapped her behind and squeezed, she thought she’d climb him like a tree and finish this now.
David broke the kiss, panting. “Good God, Dani, you’re going to have me coming in this towel.” He chuckled, low and throaty, a masculine sound of approval and desire. “Little firecracker,” he purred.
“You don’t understand how long I’ve…” Her mind flipped through all the things she wanted to touch and feel and taste and do.
“Have you ever?”
She lowered her gaze. It wasn’t like she’d had a lot of opportunities. She couldn’t lay hands on people without mutilating them.
“I should light candles or something.” He chuckled. “It’s been a while for me, too.” Smiling, he urged her back against the bed. They tumbled on top of the comforter. “Don’t feel any pressure,” he said, rising on one elbow. “We can stop anytime you’re not—”
Dani laughed huskily. “Are you kidding?” She grabbed his biceps and yanked him flat against her chest. His thigh landed between her legs, and she moaned.
He kissed her again, slower this time, as his thigh continued brushing her core through her clothing. His hand slid along her collarbone and then dipped to the hem of her shirt. She jumped to help him, but David stilled.
“Slow, darlin’. Go slow. It’s better that way.”
Did he not realize she was on fire? Go slow? She could barely keep from grinding his leg to find relief. And he wanted to draw this out?
His mouth turning up on one side, he tugged her shirt up by inches, slipping it over her head and tossing it away. Cool air slithered over her ribs.
“Cold?” he mused, drawing squiggles around her belly button with his blunt fingertips.
“Yes,” Dani sighed. “No. Hot.” She squirmed. “I’m hot.”
“Damn right you are.” He replaced his fingers with his silken lips, kissing a slow, torturous path across her abdomen. He latched his mouth onto the peak of one breast through her plain cotton bra. As he wet the thin fabric over her nipple, all she could think was if she’d known she was going to finally have sex, she would have worn a cuter bra.
She clenched her thighs tight, sending lightning bolts of pleasure up into her belly. “Please.” Her spine arched off the mattress. “David. I…” Oh God, she needed him inside her. Like, yesterday.
His fingers dove under the waistband of her pants and pushed aside her panties. “Jesus, Dani,” he groaned. “You’re so wet.”
She lifted her hips to get more of him. More touching. More thrusting. More David. “I need you.”
He tore her panties down her legs and buried his face between her thighs, suckling her in a rhythmic, pulsing roll. She thrashed, her legs sawing around his head. That burn in her belly imploded like a dying star, shooting warm sprays of light through her abdomen and down her legs.
She went as limp as a used dishrag. “Oh,” she moaned, incapable of further speech.
“Let’s get these off you.” David rose up and stripped her from the top down and then slipped his hand between the mattress and the box spring. “I have a box of condoms.”
Dani roused, her interest good and piqued. “How many in a box?” Because, though satiated now, she was far from finished.
“Uh.” He tore it apart and pulled out a roll. “Three.”
“That’s it?”
He briefly closed his eyes. “You make my head spin, darling.”
Enough was enough. “Get inside me.”
He knelt between her legs, fully nude and gorgeous and quivering and so hot her vision wavered. She opened her thighs wide and he hovered over her, his entire body stiff as a piano wire.
“David,” she whispered, her palms skipping up his forearms to his hard-as-stone shoulders and cupping them. “Thank you for this.” Because she’d remember tonight for the rest of her life, a precious memory, a frozen moment in time. And until Dani got her magic back, she
was going to treasure every sensation like it was her last.
He lowered even further onto his elbows so they were nose to nose. Lightly, he kissed her as he entered her in tender thrusts until they were merged completely.
Her body woke with a jolt. She clutched him, wiggling and straining. He drew out and then surged, increasing the pace of his thrusts. He glistened with perspiration, and she panted.
His body was so different from hers, and she explored as many places as she could touch. The hair sprinkled up and down his legs was coarse and tickled the insides of her thighs. His chest was broad and solid where hers was soft. And the muscles on his arms were thick under her palms.
He tensed, his entire body going rigid, and then he kissed her as he came.
David’s weight upon her increased, a delightful pressure, before he rolled onto his back. Like a magnet, her body followed his, and she plastered herself across his chest. Their scents mingled in her nose, her coconut conditioner and his spicy aftershave, and they meshed into something new and delicious.
“I miss touching.” Her eyes fluttered closed. “I had forgotten how nice it feels.” She snuggled into David’s warmth and strength, fully prepared to doze for the next couple of hours. Maybe days.
“Daniela,” he said, his voice a contented purr. “Don’t tell me you’re tagging out already?”
Dani perked up. “What did you have in mind?”
“Now that I’ve gotten you good and dirty, darlin’, it’s time I cleaned you up.”
She pushed onto her elbows. “Shower?” she guessed.
“Shower.” He snatched one of their remaining condoms, pulled her into the bathroom, and ran the water.
Warm steam bloomed in the air as Dani stepped inside and turned her face to the spray. David closed the door with a click, sealing them in.
He reached for her, grasping her hips in both hands.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you.” Dani explored his chest, playing with the crisp hair curled and plastered against his pecs. It tickled her palms, and she pressed her face to his flesh, kissing her way toward his pebbled nipple, so different from hers.
