“Are you trying to get me to attack you?”
She straightened up. “Will you?”
“No! We agreed that we wouldn’t do this. We’re proving—”
“We’re in control. No magic.” She stepped away from the wall and threw her arms out wide. “Well guess what? I’m so hot and horny I can’t even think straight. So no, we’re not in control. I mean yes, you haven’t thrown me over your shoulder and taken me back to your cave, but hell yes, I want it. It’s taking all my willpower to not strip naked right now.”
He growled at her, not in fury, but in raw hunger made audible. Need radiated out of him. “I will not give in to this. Not until you choose it.”
She gaped at him. “I’m choosing it, Hank.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re not. You just said it’s the magic.”
“You said you were the one with the magical compulsion, not me. I’m completely normal so the magic doesn’t work on me. Right?”
His expression tightened, and his hands balled into fists at his side. “I don’t know.”
She stared at him while her body throbbed. And in the silence, she realized he was all about control. His every action was balanced, his every thought chosen. Which meant this was about him establishing control over his own body. He didn’t want to be compelled by some mysterious force. He wanted to choose, and she had to respect that. Even if it meant she was left all revved up with nowhere to go.
“Okay,” she finally said. “You need to stop, so we stop.”
He nodded. “I’m going for that shower now. Don’t leave the room. I’ll know. Even in the shower, I’ll know, and I’ll come get you.”
“Are we back to kidnapping again?”
He opened his mouth to argue, but then froze. She watched as realization flowed through his entire body. He curled inward then in defeat. His eyes grew bleak, and his knuckles went white where they gripped the doorknob.
“Yes.”
“So the magic will let you take a shower, but it will compel you to follow me if I leave.”
It wasn’t a question, but he answered it anyway, and his one word came out dark. “Yes.”
She stared at him, finally realizing that this was a lot more serious that she’d thought. The ramifications of how they were apparently bound together were horrifying. Was he doomed now to follow wherever she went? To want to bed her no matter what else was going on? At the moment, that sounded A-okay with her, and that was even more disturbing. What if this wasn’t magic but a ramped-up biological urge? What if she was doomed to want him forever? She had a job to do, a flu to end, and patients to save. It was her guiding mission. And yet all she wanted right now was to follow him into the bathroom, strip naked, and get it on.
“Okay, this is bad,” she murmured.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m going to shower now. You staying?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Can’t have your naked ass chasing me down the street. What would Mrs. Stotts say?”
“She’d probably pull out her cell phone and start taking pictures.”
Cecilia smiled, though the expression felt difficult what with the clit throbbing and all. “Go on. Take your shower. I’m going to see if my nipples can cut glass.”
It took him a moment to process her words. His gaze dropped to her chest and the obvious bumps even through tunic and coat. As expected, his nostrils flared, and his hands tightened, but he didn’t move for her. Instead, he slowly lifted his gaze.
“Let me know the results, will you?”
She gave him a thumbs-up, then watched with an aching pain as he disappeared inside the bathroom and firmly shut the door.
