“No,” Ollas moaned, hips cuddled flush with her ass as he clung to her. “You’re going to laugh me out.”
The complaint only made her laugh harder. She nudged him. “You’re squishing me.”
Ollas dragged himself up, casting about until he found a stack of clean, folded towels on a nearby shelf. He offered her one, a nervous smile tugging at his lips. “Are you okay? I… That wasn’t what I meant to do.”
“No?” Eunny said, wiping herself off. “What happened to ‘I’ve been dreaming about seducing you in the greenhouse, Eunny?’”
He blushed. “I think you seduced me first.”
“Maybe. But I wasn’t the one living out my fantasies.” She stepped back into her trousers, then leaned against the counter. “So? Did reality disappoint?”
He indicated his still semi-hard cock. “Never.”
Once they were both clothed, Eunny went to unlock the door. She turned back to see Ollas squinting around, blinking in confusion.
“What were we talking about before?” he asked, rubbing his eyes with his hands.
Perfect. Awkward conversations avoided for another day. Which should’ve done more to allay the tumult inside her when it came to this fun they were having and its inevitable expiration date. Because Eunny knew Ollas wouldn’t say no to her. She’d exploit that goodness in him if need be.
“Can’t help you there,” she murmured, grabbing her cloak. “I’ve got to— Whoa! Nev, look!”
The fresh cuttings had exploded with new growth, leaves crowding against the glass. Ollas stared at them, fingertips pressed against the nearest enclosure. Abruptly, he pivoted away and dug out his journal, one hand scrabbling across the counter for a pencil.
Eunny found one hidden beneath an empty fertilizer bag and handed it over. “Have you ever seen?—?”
“No, never,” Ollas mumbled, frantically jotting down notes. He paused long enough to glance at her, an odd look on his face. Curious, yet apprehensive. “Did it feel like, just for a moment, um, like… magic?”
“No,” Eunny said, the word coming out sharper than she meant.
A furrow marred his brow. His mouth opened, but uncertainty blocked any words.
Eunny forced herself to soften, an easy smile forming on her lips. “I know it was good, Nev, but let’s not get carried away.”
Ollas held her gaze. Something flickered behind his eyes, a moment of indecision, like he might argue. But then he relaxed, wiping a hand across his mouth and sighing. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just… unexpected.”
“No argument from me.” She took a step away. She had to get out of here, away, before he could dwell more on what had happened. Ask questions. “I need to check on something for the café.”
He stopped her to give her a soft kiss before she could duck out the door. “See you later?”
“Sure,” she said. “I’ll find you.”
Eunny stepped outside, heading back toward her apartment. A nervous shiver had her rubbing her hands briskly along her arms. It wasn’t magic. She couldn’t have just oozed light while Ollas was getting her off. If that was a thing, she’d have known about it by now, right?
Hard to argue with the evidence, though; something about those plants called to them. Something had taken advantage of how uninhibited they’d been in the moment. But pulling magic? No. Ollas didn’t have a strong enough grasp of his own to have given the plants a hold, and Eunny, she hadn’t summoned any of her light. This was just weird happenstance. She’d just had mind-blowing sex in a godsdamned greenhouse. Brought one of his fantasies to life. Shit, she’d certainly felt how enthusiastic he was about it. But plants and sex magic? Best to take her own advice and not get carried away.
“Pull it together, Song,” she muttered.
Forward only. Nothing serious. If a small—infinitesimal, really—part of her was feeling some kind of way about discovering this kinky side of Ollas, it changed nothing. And that strange way he’d looked at her, the hesitancy in his voice when he’d asked if she’d felt any magic…
The way he’d been nervous to ask, but not necessarily surprised…
Eunny shook her head. She was slipping up around him in too many ways. Had been foolish enough to start to feel safe. It couldn’t happen again.
Chapter Twenty
Though their initial growth spurt had been impressive, in the days that followed, the secret delegation cuttings plateaued. The intangible pull from them was undeniable now, stronger and more pointed in its need. Whenever she was around the plants, Eunny felt a resonant tug at her center, at her inner sphere. It was a soundless whisper at her core, asking for her magic. In response, power hummed beneath her skin, just waiting to be let out. To be fed into the plants, laced through the living essence within them. It would’ve been simple, not so different a process to mixing healing remedies and giving the traces of magic in a leaf or a bud a gentle nudge. The mental motions came back to her with hardly any thought, so engrained were they from years of practice.
Eunny ignored the call. Easy; she’d spent six years learning how to keep such urges at bay. And though she didn’t indulge Ollas and his greenhouse kink again, to prove an unspoken point between them, she kept the magical urge on a tight leash when they fucked at her place. It was easier now that she knew what to look for, now that she knew to ignore the spark that wanted to build. She didn’t let it catch with Ollas’s feather-light magic. Ignored the reflexive way her magic tried to carry over to the pair of water-rooted cuttings still on her table.
