I’m hoping when this is over, I get to keep the clothes.
When we’re both facing the tree, he extends his hand.
I stare at it.
“Take. It.” He glowers.
“No.”
He closes his eyes and says in a pained voice, “We’ll be holding hands for the ceremony.”
“We’ll do it then. But not now.”
“Why not?”
Because every time we touch I want to throw you on the ground and lick every inch of your skinis not the answer I want to give, and the less I have to experience that feeling, the better. “Because my hands are clammy.”
A shadow jumps on his jaw. “Going to be sick?”
“No, I’m not. I just prefer…not to touch you.”And tonotthink about you with your clothes off.
He rolls his eyes. “We’ll have to look like we love one another in a few hours.”
“I’ll smile a lot. How’s that?” And then I smile to prove how good I am at it.
He shifts his weight from one leg to the other. “Do you want to back out?”
“No,” I say quickly. “Besides, how can I? There’s no way out of the joining. Unless you’ve found one.”
“I haven’t.”
“Have you been looking?”
His dark gaze could scorch the hair right off my head. “Ever since I saw you on the floor.”
No way am I going to let him rile me up. “The whole magic thing. We just aim our power at it?”
“That’s it.”
“We don’t have to, like, conjure up fireworks or do anything fancy to show off?”
“Not unless you want to.” He cocks a brow. “Do you want to?”
“No, no. Not at all. I’m just wondering.” I clasp my hands in front of me. “Want to make sure I’ve got it all down pat beforeshowtime. I like to be prepared, have all my ducks in a row, that sort of thing.”
I am so rambling. He’s going to know something’s off if I keep this up.
But he only murmurs, “There’s one other thing.”
“That is?”
“Our story.”
He says it so low, raking his fingers through his hair as he does so that it takes me a moment to figure out what he’s murmured.
“Oh, our story! Is that what you said?”
His gaze zips around. “Yes. We need one.”
