Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
My gaze lifted to find Roxanne watching me, her pupils blown wide, her lips parted, her breath coming in deep puffs between her parted lips.
It wasn’t just me.
I knew it wasn’t.
It was there any time we touched.
When I’d carried her and held her after her attack.
Back in the House of Mirrors, with my arms around her.
I couldn’t forget what I’d overheard back at the hotel room.
I wasn’t listening. Of the human principles that I did understand, privacy was at the top of the list.
It wasn’t my fault. I had superhuman hearing.
I heard each splash of water as she moved.
Then I heard the ragged breathing, the soft sighs, the sweet moans as she took herself to the edge, then crashed over it.
Despite our natures and the centuries of tradition that said we hated each other, our bodies clearly had other ideas.
Logically, I figured I could blame that on the curse, on the fact that each day, I was becoming more human than vampire. But there was enough vampire left in me that I should have been repulsed by her.
Still, most of what I’d felt for her since I’d first lain eyes on her was… interest.
Recovering herself a little faster than I did, Roxanne closed her eyes, this time she spread one of her arms wide. As if drawing something to herself as she whispered a spell under her breath.
The other arm occasionally pushed down into the water, making her body pop back upward.
Each time it did, my fingers slid against her stomach. Inevitably, her body would start to sink again as she concentrated on her spell, making my fingers gather more of the material as I tried to pull her back upward.
It wasn’t long before my fingers were no longer on her stomach at all, but that triangle of flesh above her sex.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but I swore I could feel the heat of her, the way need was coiled in her stomach, just aching for my hand to slip down, to tease up her cleft, to slip inside of her wet…
Suddenly, my feet were on solid ground again, making my gaze scan around, finding the water not moving away, but the ground raising around it, creating a new island for us to stand upon.
I could stand first, and I used Roxy’s pants to pull her closer to me, keeping her steady as she continued to work her spell, driving the ground higher and higher. Until there was no water licking at our bodies anymore.
A laugh, relieved and joyous, escaped Roxy as she threw her arms around my neck.
“I did it!” she said.
“You did,” I agreed, forcing my hands out of her pants, even if every urge inside of me wanted to slip down, to hear her sighs and whimpers up close as she clung to me.
“And you didn’t drown!”
“I didn’t,” I agreed as she pulled back just enough to beam at me.
I couldn’t help it.
My gaze slid to her lips. I watched as they parted. As her tongue flicked out, wetting her lips, making desire stab me in the core.
Up this close, I could feel the thump of her heart against my chest, could draw conclusions to why her pulse had quickened.
It was right then, though, that a shiver racked her system. And, I fear, not a desire-filled shiver. The kind that came from being almost burned up from the fire, then chilled to the bone in water that nearly submerged her completely. Her body was exhausted and having trouble adjusting to the temperature shifts.
In fact, I felt my own flesh pebble with goosebumps.
How… annoyingly human.
“I think I should conjure some wind to dry us,” she said.
“Don’t you worry you might blow us away?” I asked, thinking of the torrential rain.
“I think I’m getting a hang of the magic here. It amplifies any small spell. So if I work the spell to just barely work, I think we can avoid pulling a The Wizard of Oz on us,” she said, then looked over to find a tree that hadn’t been there before. “But maybe just to be safe, we wrap ourselves around that tree?” she suggested.
We did just that.
But there was no reason to doubt her skills.
Roxanne really was a talented witch when she applied herself.
Not only did she conjure up a wind just strong enough to dry us without blowing us away, but she somehow managed to make it a warm summer breeze.
“Okay,” she said as she moved away from the tree, reaching automatically for my hand. “What next?” she asked.
“I have a feeling that has something to do with it,” I said, nodding toward where a massive crystal ball had appeared in the distance.
“Divination,” Roxy grumbled. “My least favorite practice. Well,” she said, sucking in a deep breath, “let’s get it over with.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Roxy
Honestly, as pathetic as it might sound to admit, even just to myself, Nathaniel’s faith in me really was helping me find confidence in myself.