“I thought maybe you were— I don’t know, it’s probably silly,” I tittered, shoulders hunching forward.
Aspen settled against my shoulder and I drew firm circles over his back in case he needed to burp.
“I admit, I came by to introduce myself so I could meet you, like I do with everyone in the neighborhood when they move in, given my gifts. I can’t say much, but I promise everything we’re doing is to help. We’re on your side.” He came closer. “But ever since I met you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
My watch said it’d been about ten minutes since he’d taken the potion. It would still be working for another twenty or so.
Which meant he wasn’t lying.
Which meant I hadn’t been misreading things.
“But why?” Placing Aspen back in the crib, I watched him a few moments before guiding Lynx out of the room.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Well, you’ve got that whole everyone-in-the-neighborhood-would-want-to-spend-a-full-moon-with-me vibe.”
He stopped walking, grasping my hand and pulling me into him. “Yet, here I am. With you.”
“Look, I don’t fully understand what is going on with you and Saros…romantically, but I’m not going to be some side fling. I may be months into a dry spell and covered in spit-up half the time, but I’m not desperate.”
I did have some standards, even if my gift didn’t.
“There you go making assumptions.” He swept back my hair, leaving his hand at the nape of my neck, fingers tangling in the strands. When I tried to back up a step, he held me in place, speaking in a hushed whisper. “You assume I’m not interested or that I think you’re desperate.”
His breath was a warm caress, flitting across my skin and igniting things in me I’d tried to push down deep. To forget about. “And you assume Saros doesn’t know I’m here.”
He waved to the window. My gaze darted to the coffee truck, its light silhouetting Saros. He was fumbling around within, and though I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, I did see his hand lift to us.
“If Saros wasn’t okay with my interest in you, he’d try to stop me from doing this, wouldn’t he?”
“Doing wh—”
His kiss crashed into me like a storm, brutal enough to make my knees buckle but calm at its center. My Desire crackled under my skin, spreading low past my belly and making my thighs clench. A wave of it surged upward, tingling up my chest, my neck, my lips.
When Lynx pulled back, he trailed a finger along my bottom lip, as if he could sense my gift kindling below. A familiar sensation coated us in its decadent lather, so sweet and thick it seeped down to my bones, and all I wanted to do was become submerged in it.
It wasn’t mine, though. It washis.
A thousand tiny particles ignited in my belly, shooting in every direction. I wanted to be saturated by the feelings he poured into me through his kiss. Meanwhile, my Desire sensed the full moon above, nudging me to follow through on my feelings for him and take him directly under its light.
To throw off this dress and do more than just kiss.
To have those hands pull me closer, stroking every inch of my skin.
To sink him deep within me, nothing between us, letting his magic and pleasure rush through me like an explosive wave.
“You can’t just—be kissing—me—by an open—window,” was all I managed to heave out, catching my breath and clamping my thighs together. “What would—the neighbors—say?”
My eyes darted around the street, which was empty aside from Saros, who remained silhouetted in Luna’s window, attention glued to us. I couldn’t really see his expression, but the fact that his focus still hadn’t budged sent a bolt offuck yeahbetween my thighs.
“You haven’t experienced a full moon in our pines if you’re seriously asking me that.”
I’d put that part of the pamphlet out of my mind, but now I was wishing I’d saved it to look over again. When we’d moved here, Hazel had raved about the pine forest that all the supernatural communities shared. Every neighborhood touched them, and they served a sacred purpose for each. For witches, our covens used the pines both for rituals and to replenish our gifts in semiprivate. It helped deter nudity in the streets, which the HOA had determined was not a suitable place for such activities.
“You’re curious,” he said, mirth rippling over each word as he arched a brow at me.
I crossed my arms, shifting from one foot to the other, still trying to dispel the naughty thoughts I had around this witch. “What do you want, Lynx?”
