“That was longer than a second,” he said quietly. “Your potion is probably ruined.”
“Probably. But I have to make sure there aren’t any more loose threads.”
His goatee was always so neatly trimmed. I ran my fingers over it, marveling that Zafir hadn’t told me to get a grip on myself yet. His fingers grazed my side so lightly it felt like a feather brushing across my skin’s surface. Was heteasing me just as I had teased him when he overdosed? If so, he had endured sheer agony. I ought to pull back. I ought to…but I couldn’t. What would it be like to kiss Zafir? Had he studied the art of kissing just as rigorously as he had studied all the other sciences he was familiar with?
“Do you have any loose threads?” Zafir whispered.
“You should probably check,” I told him, just as softly.
His hand crept up a little higher to stroke my back. Every moment was heaven. His eyes were searching my face, just as I did the same to him.
What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I stop touching him? I almost bent to graze my lips on his cheek, but then my eyes fell on my drained cup.
I froze, then my gaze snapped up to glare at Zafir. I snatched my hands back and pulled away. “You spiked my drink with love potion!”
He rubbed his chin where I’d been touching him. “What?”
I examined my empty teacup. “You mixed something into it! Admit it!”
He held up his hands defensively. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I may as well have had steam gushing out of my ears. “It tasted bitter. You experimented with an infatuation potion on me! That’s why I’ve been reacting to you this way and feeling all…feeling all…” My cheeks burned too hot for me to finish the sentence. “You wanted to get back at me for making you try it out!”
His eyebrows raised. “The elixir I made would only work on men. Any other feelings or sensations are exclusively your own.”
We stared at each other, silence swelling to a bursting point between us.
“You’re lying,” I said, too mortified to say anything else. “I know you added something to my drink.”
“What gives you that idea?” A smile flickered to life on his face, and I realized it might be the first genuine smile I’d ever seen on him. “Are you swooning? I must be better at teaching flirting than I first thought.”
“You’re ridiculous.” All the girlish, fluttering feelings I’d imagined from before evaporated. I turned and stormed away, but he followed, delighted with my embarrassment.
“Apparently ridiculous enough to capture your attention. What sort of infatuation were you feeling?”
“An acute desire to murder you,” I snapped. “Want to keep going? Maybe I’ll agree to take this chain off just so I can kill you.”
“An enticing offer, but I’m going to bed.” He shot me a side-eyed expression filled with amusement. “You still get the cot. No sneaking in to cuddle with?—”
I shoved him. He caught my wrists as he fell back against the sofa, and we tumbled over it onto the floor together so I landed on top of him. He let out anoofof pain, and a corresponding pain jabbed at my own back from the charm’s reciprocal pain effect.
“That isn’t how an infatuated woman is supposed to act,” he croaked, lying breathless on the floor and still holding onto my wrists.
I leaned down to whisper into his ear. “I guess I’m not infatuated, then.”
He didn’t let go of me. “I guess not.”
I made no effort to get up. My heart was thudding madly against my ribcage. The idea of being attracted to Zafir was completely absurd. It was only because he smelled so good and was handsome and intelligent. Just because I liked teasing him and found our conversations interesting andadored that he had helped my sister didn’t mean I was falling in love with him. I was using him and he was using me, that was all.
I clenched my fists around the fabric at his shoulders. If all that was true, then why couldn’t I stop thinking about him?
“Alia?”
“What?”
“Get off me.”
I hastily scrambled to my feet and clawed my fingers through my hair. Zafir wasn’t looking at me and I found it difficult to even glance in his direction. If we weren’t chained together, I would have run out of the room, never to return. This embarrassment and humiliation were too much to bear.
