by Carli Castle
“Elle. Hi. What are you doing here?” His voice sounded hoarse so he cleared it.
“Should I not have come?” She stood by the door.
She was definitely in a sour mood, he could feel it coming in waves. It was in the way she looked at him, but he tried to ignore it as he stepped aside so she could walk in further.
“Please, come inside.”
“I am inside,” she said and didn’t move. When he went to put his hand at her arm, she jerked away. “Back off.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I don’t want you to touch me before I talk to you about things.” She stuck her chin in the air.
“All right,” he mumbled because there was nothing else he could say when she looked so annoyed at him. “What’s going on?” He was so confused.
“Don’t try to act all innocent with me Lucas Ferrin, I saw you with my own eyes.” She stalked toward him and he took a few steps back. “You think you can warm up my ear and then do the same with my sister, you have another thing coming.”
“Who? What?” he asked. “Wait.” He added when she began walking back to the door. He caught up with her and took her by the shoulders.
The zap of energy had him pulling away his hands and shaking them to make the currents go away.
“What did you do that for?” he demanded, more than a little annoyed now. There was nothing he hated more than being accused of something and not getting any explanations when he was just trying to understand. It wasn’t like he’d done something wrong on purpose. He rarely did things wrong on purpose anyway, it just kind of happened.
“You’re not allowed to touch me,” she shot back, face pink.
“I’m allowed an explanation as to why you’re upset with me. It’s only fair.”
“I hate when people try to be sneaky. I am not an idiot, Lucas.” She glowered at him. “You don’t just talk sweet to me and then go doing the same with my sister. That is definitely not allowed.”
“Now wait just one damn minute.” He took a breath, trying to contain his anger. “There is nothing going on with your sister.”
“Lucas, don’t lie to me. I hate people lying to me.”
He took her by the elbows, ignoring the zap she directed at him, lifted her, the tips of her toes barely touching the floor. “I’m not lying. I’ve done nothing wrong. All I did was dance with your sister when she asked. I thought saying no wasn’t allowed with a princess.”
Her eyes were still sparkling with anger, but her voice was bland, almost calm, when she spoke again. “Take your hands off me.”
He set her on her feet and took a step back, unwilling to be that guy who handled women in a less than gentle manner. His mother had taught him differently, and she would skin his sorry behind if he didn’t act the way she expected him toward women.
“Fine, you don’t want me to touch you, then I won’t touch you, but I’ve done nothing wrong. Your sister came up to me and asked me for a dance. I didn’t deny her out of courtesy. If you must know, she used her power on me, and I hated it. I don’t like people playing with my head. I also don’t juggle women, I don’t have the time or the desire,” he explained, trying not to sound too angry. “I’m also not that coordinated.”
“People can reject being under her influence. I saw you go all doe eyed with her.”
“She took me by surprise,” he protested. “What was I supposed to do?”
She turned away from him, her face pink.
“You’re jealous.” He turned her around and she zapped him again, this time much harder, making it run up his arms, every little hair standing on end. “Cut it out!”
“I am not jealous.”
“I may have found it flattering if you didn’t just try to electrocute me.”
“I am not jealous,” she repeated, sounding less annoyed and more mortified this time.
“Really, we’re playing that game now?”
She didn’t say anything.
It wasn’t his intention to make her feel badly at all, but she did need a little lesson on trust.
Look who’s talking! Said the little voice in his head. Aren’t you the guy who’s lying to her about his powers? You know why you won’t tell her, too.
“Maybe I’ll just go.” She turned away, but his hands went back to her shoulders before she could walk away. She zapped him again.
“OW!” He shook his fingers. “Would you stop doing that?”
She bit her lip. “It was a reflex, I didn’t mean to this time. Sorry.”
He blew out a breath. He was still a little mad, but he studied her face. She looked mortified and he wasn’t the kind of guy to keep punishing someone on purpose. No matter how crazy they had acted. If he was honest, the jealousy had been a little bit annoying, but now he found it really flattering. He couldn’t recall anyone ever being jealous for him.
“Come on.” He held out his hand, waited for her to take it. When she did, he walked toward the office, taking her to his desk where his sketchbook was lying open, a flurry of eraser bits over it.
She looked down at the page, then up at him.
“You were drawing me,” she said, her blush deepening.
“Yes, I was.” He moved a curl away from her forehead. “I wanted to draw you the minute I laid eyes on you tonight, but I think I’m missing something.”
She looked at the picture for a moment.
“It looks good to me,” she commented.
He looked at the paper, then at her. He’d gotten almost everything right, but her eyes were not right yet. Maybe he could convince her to pose for him for a moment so he could get it right once and for all.
“Listen, I’m sorry for coming here acting like I did,” she blurted out before he could ask her. “It was uncalled for, and it wasn’t even your fault.”
“Apology accepted.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it, suppressing a smile. She looked mortified. “And please, don’t look so embarrassed, I think it’s actually nice that you got so jealous.”
“Don’t give yourself too much credit for that.”
He laughed and a smile almost cracked through her face. He turned her so she was facing him and he drank in her face. Heavens and all its hosts, she was beautiful.
“What,” she asked with a small smile.
“I was just thinking how I want to kiss you silly right now,” he confessed, getting another smile from her. His heart floated in his chest.
“Really,” she asked, putting her arms around his neck.
“Really,” he echoed, running his finger under her chin. “You just look so cute when you’re mad, I can’t resist.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You like it when I’m mad?” she whispered. His hand went to her hair, enveloped them into the mass of curls. “Should I get mad more, then?”
“No, but maybe you could kiss me instead,” he suggested and watched her eyes dance. “Since you were the one that had to apologize an all.”
She bit her bottom lip, sending his brain into overdrive for the second time that night. Then it was her turn to take his hand. She led him to the leather chair in front of the desk, pushed him down on it. His heart raced like a young mustang on a field at that look in her eyes.
He kept his hands on the arms of the chair, gripping them at the edge. She was nervous too, her hands were shaking when she leaned over, letting her hands run through his hair before they caressed down his face and rested on his shoulders. She deliberately kept her eyes on his as she moved closer, lips only a breath apart. He didn’t move an inch. She had all the power this time. She brushed his lips with hers, nipped at his lower lip with her teeth, then ran her tongue over it.
She pulled back slowly, still watching him. His eyes were hazed over, much like they’d been earlier with Aiessa, and she smiled knowing she hadn’t used magic to get that look from him, that his eyes were focused only on her. That his mind was only thinking of her. So her fingers dove into his hair, gripped, and she took his mouth in a deep kiss.
His hands left the chair and gripped at her waist, fingers biting into her skin.
The instant heat was enough to burn her from the inside out. Her heart spiked to her throat when he kissed her back. He was like a drug to her system, making her tingle and numb all at the same time. Excited and calm.
She nearly pulled back, so many emotions running through her. Something happened to her when they were together, when they kissed. Something she didn’t understand most of the time. It shocked her every sense. It made her tremble and her mind jumble into a million thoughts per second.
Even now, when she was the one in control, she was the one falling. A quick tumble over a precipice.
He trembled, mirroring her own reaction, and let out a ragged breath when she pulled back. His eyes were deep, and she noticed the pulse at his throat going a million beats per second it seemed, much like her own heart was beating.
He stood when she took a step back, put his hands on either sides of her face, and kissed her again. He walked forward until her back against the wall, while his lips did all the taking this time. He was the one in control now, and she liked it. She liked to be this close to him, to feel his chest pressed against hers, his lips on hers before they wandered down to her neck, soft as a feather.
Her arms went around his neck when he lifted her against him for better access to her mouth. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, like she would burst into spontaneous flames at the very touch of his hands on her skin. And she wanted him to touch her. She wanted his hands, his lips on her. She wanted her lips on his skin, feel him go crazy with need for her. She wanted that and more.
She felt him move, then her back was against cushions. When she opened her eyes, she realized they were lying on the couch, his body on hers, and when his lips roamed down to her chest, so close to her breasts, fear struck. Was this really going to happen?
Her fingers were in his hair, his lips against her beating heart, her breathing labored and hard to catch.
“Lucas,” she whispered, unsure why she felt this way when this was what she wanted. She was sure it was what she wanted, and yet her throat was closing tight.
He lifted his head and when he saw her, the glazed look left his eyes. “Are you alright?”
“I’m not sure if I’m ready for this.” She shut her eyes, mortified, and she only opened them when she felt his hand on her cheek.
“I’m sorry to have pressured you,” he whispered, his eyes concerned.
“No, you didn’t pressure me,” she clarified, wanting desperately for him to know this was not his fault. “I want this. I want to be with you, but I’m scared.”
“I am, too.”
The quiet admission warmed her, and they both sat.
“Let’s make a deal,” she said. “Let’s not rush it. We will wait until we’re both ready and have no doubts about it.”
He looked at her in silence for a moment, and she wished she could read what he was thinking, but she would not peek into his emotions right then. She barely had a handle on her own without adding to it.
He smiled and nodded. “Deal. Only when we’re both completely ready.”
They slowly untangled and she put her head on his shoulder, smiling broadly. And that was when she knew.
That tumble of her heart, and the happiness he brought into her life. She loved him. She loved him deeply, with every single fiber of her being.
Then, as if their thoughts were connected in some bizarre way, he said:
“I think I love you.”
She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him for signs of jesting. There was a sparkle in his eyes, and he was looking straight at her, serious and unwavering.
Tears prickling at the back of her eyes, she climbed onto his lap.
“I think I love you, too,” she whispered holding tight as his arms came around her.
And she had never been happier than at that moment.
“Will you stay with me tonight?” he asked, his voice muffled, so she lifted her head to gaze into his eyes. “Nothing will happen, I promise. I just want you here with me.”
“Okay.”
She let him lead her to the bedroom, where he pulled back his comforter. His bedroom was clean, as was the rest of the house. In the time she had been seeing him, she had not been in his bedroom. She just stood there, not quite sure of what to do with her hands.
“Do you prefer a side?”
“Not really.” She had never thought about it, since she’d never slept with anyone next to her.
“I don’t care which side,” he said, sitting at the edge.
She took the other side and slipped into the covers, facing his way. When he lay down, he pulled her to him so her head was on his shoulder. It felt right. So right.
They talked about unimportant things, laughed, and when she began to drift off, she did with his scent filling her senses.
He felt peaceful. He was content. Lying there, with her head on his chest, breathing deeply as she slept, joy lit his entire being. He wanted to shout. He wanted to put the moon at her feet. He felt like he could walk on water at that moment.
He settled her on the pillow and looked at her for a minute longer, her beautiful hair falling over her face as she curled under the blankets.
When he’d told her he loved her, it hadn’t been planned. He’d been so caught up in her, in that moment, his heart so full. The words had just come out, and he regretted nothing. He loved her and she loved him.
He looked down at his hands, which were glowing a faint green color. This was happening more and more often lately, since she came into his life and changed it. She calmed him and brought happiness into his life he had never imagined existed.
The energy coursing through him told him he needed to do something, maybe work on his plants outside, but another side of him didn’t want to leave her side.
He burrowed into the covers, facing her, watching the rise and fall of her chest. Her lips were slightly opened, making a tiny noise as she exhaled.
When he finally drifted off to sleep, it was with the image of her face ingrained in his mind.
Chapter Fourteen
Caleb hadn’t been able to sleep almost at all in the days after Elle’s birthday. It had been the night when things had finally ended between him and Harper, and he was having a harder time than he’d thought he would.
Memories of that night flooded him again. The more he tried not to think about it, the more he did. It was driving him insane.
The moment he’d laid eyes on her, he’d wanted to be alone with her, kiss her, touch her. And she wanted the same things. He knew her. And when he had her alone in his house, having escaped the party early, she’d stopped him. She was sad, he could tell she was. It was in her eyes, in the way she looked at him when she told him they couldn’t continue doing this if they wanted to get over each other. That it was not what she wanted for her life. That she needed to move on.
It had nearly killed him.
It didn’t help that he’d had to see her at the last meeting and she looked as miserable as he felt. She didn’t show it, but he knew her too well.
He was having a hard time remembering the reasons why they couldn’t be together, as well. So she had to be queen one day. They could still be together. He could be her consort. He would be anything for her. And then he remembered there was nothing royal about him, and he knew it would never work. Her sense of responsibility was too strong, and so was his. He had to be president, he had to take care of the people alongside her.
What killed him was thinking that one day she would choose someone to marry, some prince that was suitable for her, and he’d have to watch her do it. He would have to sit back and pretend to celebrate and be happy for her, when he was dying inside.
He wanted to do nothing at all, but he’d thrown himself into his work, because otherwise he would go insane. After work, he went home and did nothing. He found no joy in anything anymore. He was just tired, and yet, he couldn’t sleep
for more than a couple of hours.
He wrestled with his thoughts for hours, trying to get even a brief rest, but woke up after snoozing for a total of forty-five minutes, according to the clock, which told him it was five in the morning.
“This is getting ridiculous,” he mumbled to himself, sighing and sitting on the edge of the bed.
Standing, he knew there was no way he would fall asleep again, so he decided to go out for a walk. He needed to do something other than wallow in self-pity and miss Harper.
Everything in his house smelled like her, his sheets, the comforter, the walls. Even after washing everything several times, it still smelled like her, it was all impregnated with her.
He kept seeing pictures of her everywhere. When had he taken that many pictures? Lucas would be proud of how much he’d used the little camera. It was from the sleeper realm, and it was quite a contraption. It spit out the picture right after you took it. It was truly like magic, but every time he opened a drawer, he saw another one he’d forgotten about. It was like his entire house was conspiring against his sanity.
He walked to the bathroom, thinking, hoping, the warm water of a shower would help clear his head, even if for just a moment. As he stood under the spray, he thought what he needed was a good cleansing spell for the house. It would get rid of the remnants of her. Maybe his mom would help him do it. She was pretty good at that kind of stuff.
As memories of Harper jumping in the shower with him started to fill his head, he sighed. There had to be a way for him to move on. Maybe a potion. Or poison. Or a cliff from which he could jump.
What was worse was not knowing. Not knowing if it would have ever worked out. Not having expressed the real feelings they had for each other.
He shook his head. He had to stop torturing himself.
He turned off the water, refusing to brood anymore. After he dressed, he went to the kitchen, intent on making himself a cup of tea before he went anywhere. There was no work that day, but he needed to do something other than being home. Maybe he’d go home after his walk, spend time with his parents. He did have a conversation pending with his mother.
