“Oh shit.” Xavier swivels his head toward me, pleading with his eyes. “Can we?”
“Youcan. I hate that stuff.”
Jasper gives me a faint smile. “That’s a shame, considering you just ingested an entire cup of it.”
“What? Do you mean…” Panicked, I peer into my nearly drained drink.
“Where do you think it gets the pink color?” he asks in amusement.
“Why wouldn’t you warn me?” I accuse. “Who just doses people without permission?”
“Who would complain about being dosed with seraphis?” is his response. He appears genuinely mystified that I might not want to walk around in a state of arousal.
God. I’ve been drinking an aphrodisiac.
I don’t feel any effects, though. Maybe it’s not going to—
“You’ll start feeling it in about thirty minutes,” Jasper says, shooting down my hopes. “Takes a while to enter your system when it’s that diluted. But it’ll kick in real fast if you chew it.”
He breaks off a small piece of the dried, bright-pink root and pops it into his mouth.
Xavier is agape. “That was a lot of seraphis, brother.”
“What? I’ve had a shitty night. I plan to not leave a bed untiltomorrow afternoon.” Jasper winks. “This should keep me going for a while.”
He breaks off another piece and holds it out to Xavier, who turns toward me with a hopeful look.
“Can I?”
“Do whatever you want!” I sputter. “Oh my God. I’m going back to the party.”
Thirty minutes on the dot, I feel it.
It starts as a low ache.
Like the ache I’d get when I was kissing Cross and his tongue was in my mouth and his hands were roaming my body. An ache that turned into a persistent throb when he finally touched the one place that craved him the most, right between my legs, stroking, teasing…
Ignore it,I order myself.
The party is still going, but it’s quieter now. The drums have stopped. Harmonica strains have faded away. Someone else picked up the guitar and is playing something softer, more seductive.
I’m sitting with Gray on a blanket. He’s lying back on his elbows, laughing at the antics of a few teenage boys across the fire.
Nearby, Xavier and Jasper are holding court. They’re both undeniably magnetic, drawing attention without even trying. Jasper oozes more sex appeal. Every time he leans in to talk to someone, he gives off the air that he’s sharing a secret, just for them. Whereas Xavier possesses a sarcastic kind of charm, an intensity in his eyes when he looks at you.
I see that lure working on the woman he’s currently flirting with. She touches Xavier’s arm, dragging her fingernails over his biceps. The gesture feels familiar, triggering a memory of…the other morning. During the briefing, when Gray stroked Evlynne’s arm.
“I have a guess,” I blurt out.
His forehead wrinkles. “About what?”
“Your Mod ability.”
“All right, let’s hear it, cowgirl.”
“You’re an empath!” I say triumphantly.
“You already guessed that. And I already said no.”
