‘It’s not working.’
He frowned like a petulant child, which made her bite back a smile. She wondered if anything had ever been difficult for him; it tickled her that this one thing she had never had trouble with was what would give him a tough time. The superiority she felt added a little pep in her step, actually.
‘Here,’ she said, taking one of his hands out of the soil. He let her, pouting like the dramatic person he was. She cleaned his hand with a cloth, then set it against his heart. Then she put her other hand into the soil.
‘Do you feel that?’ she asked, holding his hand above his heart.
He swallowed, looking down at her.
‘I sure feel something,’ he said. His eyes were dark.
Shoving aside her murderous impulses, she gave him a disapproving look. ‘Focus, Alexander.’
‘Yes, right, but how exactly to do that with a pretty girl’s hand on my heart?’
She scowled. ‘Be serious.’
‘Bis, I am deathly serious.’
He was telling the truth, she could feel it in the soil, and in the pound of his heart. He was allowing himself to feel, opening himself up to the magic. She drew closer, pulled in by the magic, and felt the heat of his body beside hers. She inhaled the sweet scent of cloves.
‘The magic will wait for instruction inside you,’ she said. ‘Don’t think about it too much; just imagine what you want to happen and make it happen. You have to be a little bossy with the magic.’
He smiled at that. ‘I’m not at all surprised that you excel at the magic in which a key quality is being bossy.’
‘Now do it,’ she said.
He released a long breath, and she waited, watching. Then, slowly, something began to grow.
A flower sprouted from the soil: it was pretty, pink with red streaks. They both pulled their hands out of the soil, and she let go of his hand.
‘I did it!’ Xander exclaimed, clearly proud of himself.
They both looked at the flower. Xander held it up between them. It had a sweet scent.
She breathed it in.
All of a sudden, she felt … parched. But not for a drink, forhim.
She looked up at him, into those gorgeous eyes, a perfect glinting green the color of grass after summer rain. Thoughthere was hardly any green left now; his pupils were blown wide. His eyelids fluttered as she looked up at him, and he set the flower down, his hands empty for hardly a second before they came to seize her waist.
With a swift tug, he pulled her close. Her heart started pounding in response, a haze coming over her. Everything around him blurred, fading away until all she could see was him: the fall of his copper hair, the cut of cheekbones, the full shape of his mouth.
He was similarly focused on her, his attention razor-sharp. His fingers dug into her skin, the pressure deliciously painful. She brought her hands up to his neck, slipping her fingers into his beautiful hair.
‘So soft,’ she whispered, running her hands through the locks. She twisted his hair around her fingers, pulling.
He made a strangled sound.
‘Bisma,’ he choked out, his nose brushing her cheek.
Heat flushed through her.
Sheneededhim.
‘Xander,’ she sighed back, nipping his ear.
He held her tighter, gasping. His teeth grazed the sensitive skin of her throat. As her heart hammered, she didn’t understand why he wasn’t already kissing her. The bed was right there. What on earth was he waiting for?
