My heart sank a bit. But if he wasn’t calling about Hazel… “Why did you call, then?”
“I was thinking about you, Wicked,” he said, leaving a long pause after. When I didn’t respond, rendered speechless by his admission, he continued, “I know I left things a bit unsettled earlier.”
If byunsettledhe meant horny as fuck on a full moon… It had taken me a full ten minutes and a quick cold splash to my face to clear away the desperate ache. “Yes.”
The phone remained silent, and I wondered if I was supposed to say more. It had been so long since I’d dated, if that even was what this was or where it was headed. That seemed like such a distant concept, especially with having Aspen. “What did you have to do?”
“I had to go before I dragged you out under the stars.”
Silence filled both ends of the line.
My chest warmed, and my Desire crackled under my skin, perking up at that idea. When I realized he wasn’t going to say anymore until I broke through the quiet, I stirred up every ounce of courage I could, summoning a sultry lilt to my tone. “Why didn’t you?”
The words came out raspy and rough, like those spoken just after waking in the morning. My lilt was rusty. Maybe rustier than my Desire.
I winced at my own awkwardness.
“We both know you weren’t ready.”
Oof.I didn’t know whether to swoon at his perceptiveness or be resentful of it. My Desire was definitely feeling the latter.
“If you want your magic, that is your choice. Not one I will influence.”
My small crest of ecstasy was eclipsed by a surge, knocking the wind out of me and drenching me in molten heat. It seeped into every part of me, liquid magma coursing through my veins and into my core. I clenched my thighs tightly together.
Lynx chuckled on the other line.
This witch.
“You are doing a pretty poor job ofnotinfluencing me right now.” My voice was breathy as I gulped back the sensations rippling through me. Some decadently familiar, others dangerously new. This wasn’t just my own lust or Desire coursing through my veins, this washis. “I thought you could only manipulate emotions if you are touching?”
“Sometimes I get a little temporary linger time afterward to share my own feelings. It just depends.” He paused for a moment, then added, “Just because I want you to have the space to decide for yourself doesn’t mean I didn’t want more tonight.”
He wanted more tonight.
He wanted… me.
“What did you have in mind?” My voice must have cracked at least twice to get the words out. I shook my head to make sure I wasn’t still asleep in the rocking chair in some sort of hormone-induced daydream.
“Come to the window,” he instructed. “Leave the phone next to you.”
Yes, sir.His voice was firm like the way he’d set up a circuit in his bootcamp, only my body was much more eager to listen to these commands.
“Okay.”
I pushed to stand, padding over to the window. A thin sliver of coppery moonlight caressed the pane, beckoning me to its glow. I hesitated, staying a few steps back from its illumination, unsure how much claim I wanted to give my magic yet, if at all. Moonlight could still recharge our gifts through the enchanted glass that’d been installed with all the houses in Celestial Haven, lunar paneling constructed into the molding.
My gaze dropped to the light popping on diagonal from me and the silhouette caressed by it. I could see enough to tell he was only in a pair of pants, his muscles defined by the glow around him.
“N-now what?” I stumbled over my words, throat suddenly dry. Every part of me felt parched.
“Show me how you like to be touched.”
Great Goddess.
Now not only was my throat dry, all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. My chest heated, my gift prickling beneath its flush. “I-I don’t even know anymore.”
And I really didn’t. It’d been so long since I’d had the urge to act on acraving.
