“Oh yeah, the roof. It needed fixing. So I fixed it. For my friend here,” he said. Very convincingly too, Cassie thought. In fact, she could see on Nancy’s face that it had worked. She didn’t seem skeptical in the least.
But unfortunately, Seth didn’t seem to think so.
Because he clearly decided that something else needed to be done. A little extra underlining of the idea that they were just good buds. And so he put his arm around her shoulders. Just lightly. Barely touching her, really. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if any contact was made. It felt more like the air between them just sort of brushed her.
But it made no difference.
It still hit her like lightning anyway. She came within a hair’s breadth of screaming. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that her teeth seemed to be welded together. And she had no idea how she kept from falling out of her chair. Maybe Seth’s hand, squeezing her shoulder?
Though that seemed impossible.
He was in a worst state than she was. She could feel him shuddering all over. He couldn’t even speak when Nancy said, “Well, I’d better get going.” All he could manage was to hold a hand up in a stunted sort of wave—and even that looked bad.
It shook like someone had started an earthquake inside his body.
And there was nothing they could do about any of it. They just had to ride it out, until Nancy disappeared down the lane back to town. But even after she was gone, there was no real respite. Because now they were in the aftermath of whatever the fuck all that was.
“Oh my god, I think putting an arm around you made me come,” Seth blurted out, the second they were in the clear. As if that would really help the situation. Instead of making it insurmountably worse. Now all she could think about was whether it actually had, and what that looked like, and if she could make it happen again.
Just slipyourhand aroundhiswaist, some devil voice inside her said.
But she fought it. She managed to wrench herself away from him.
“Talk about something else,” she gasped, as she stumbled to the other side of the table.
Yet, all he could come up with was this: “You’ll be pleased to know that we are perfectly safe, and there’s no sign of current danger.”
Which was garbage, it was terrible, why on earth would he think she’d be pleased by that? She wanted danger, right now. She wanted to be scared. She even found herself grasping at any hint of it. “But how did you get that torn shirt?” she asked, desperately. “Why were you all breathless when you burst in here?”
Though she knew the answer wasn’t going to be good.
She could see it in the frustrated, confused expression he gave her, before he spoke.
“Because I had to stumble here in some kind of frantic, lust-filled stupor. A tree got in my way and my body tried to walk through it. Somewhere around the middle of the woods I lost a shoe, and couldn’t make myself go back for it. Seriously, it’s no wonder your friend forgot how to drink,” he said. Then even worse: “What is goingon, Cass? You said that the dragon scale would make the potion work, but it clearly hasn’t. It’s barely made a dent. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
But it was fine, it was fine, because as soon as his words came out, the answer popped into her head. The exact and only solution. As if it had been inside her all along—which she kind of suspected it had. She’d been hearing the words “Fulfill the requirements” rattling around in her messy witch brain for days.
She just hadn’t let herself face what they meant.
She wasn’t even sure if she could face it now.
For one wild second, she actually considered not telling him.
But not telling him wouldn’t have worked. He took one look at the maze of terror and excitement and horror and arousal all over her face, and guessed. “Ohgod,Cass, if you tell me we actually have to fuck, I might lose my mind. I mean, it was bad enough doing all the things we’ve done so wedon’taccidentally end up frantically fucking each other’s brains out. And now you’re saying we somehow must?” he groaned. And to make matters worse, both Pod and the microwave seemed to agree with him on this. Pod called him a bad beast and tried to attack him with a teacup; the microwave declared that it would explode if they dared do such a thing.
They had to go in the pantry to talk.
Not that either of them really wanted to. The tiny shelved room immediately became seven thousand degrees hotter than it had been, the light in there refused to work, and the only words they had to say to each other were hopeless. Practical, but hopeless. “Okay, look. Don’t panic, okay? I’m going to think of a way out of this that doesn’t involve me having to take your virginity,” she said.
But in response he just looked at her like she’d grown three heads.
“You thinkvirginityis the thing I have a problem with here? Cass, virginity isn’t even really a thing. It’s just a made-up concept from weirdo ancient times, to better sell child brides to disgusting old perverts,” he said.
Rightly, she had to say. Even if it really made no difference in their situation.
“Okay, so call it something else. Like you having to experiencesomething for the very first time with someone you don’t love and only find hot because of rampant werewolfism,” she pointed out. Yet somehow, he still tried to protest.
“But I do lo—I mean, I do very much feel—I do care very much about you,” he stumbled out, face flushing harder and harder as he did, in a way she understood only too well. Clearly he wanted to draw a line between friendship feelings, and romantic feelings. And werewolf sex feelings. “You mean a lot to me, is what I’m saying. So that’s not a concern, for me. That would never stop me from being completely willing to do this.”
