The boys walked off the playground. All eight swings occupied by their classmates. It was the first day Elliot could remember that he didn’t care he wasn’t one of them.
Chapter One
Senior Year of High School
“Stop!” Elliot laughed. “No, I hate it. Stop!” Elliot giggled like a little girl, which only encouraged Damon to continue tickling him.
“No! I’m not going to stop until you admit that I’m right,” Damon said.
“Fuck you, Montré.” Elliot pushed his shoulders, but Damon’s quick hands found his ticklish sides again.
“Come on, Croft,” Damon said, dodging Elliot’s knee as it attempted to kick him in the nose. “Admit it. Say it!”
“No! Never!”
Damon made a weird growling noise in the back of his throat and launched himself on top of Elliot, flattening him to the carpet in Damon’s bedroom. He pinned Elliot’s arms over his head, straddling him. Damon’s chest expanded and contracted in heavy pants.
Damon’s brown eyes glittered with a bright animation that Elliot knew he’d never be able to conjure for himself.
“Admit it,” Damon huffed, his breath falling over Elliot’s face. It should have helped diffuse the predicament Elliot was currently in that Damon’s breath smelled like nacho cheese and soda.
And yet, it didn’t.
Elliot screwed his eyes shut as the parts of his body that were rubbing on his best friend started to perk up. He jerked around, twisting his body left and right in an attempt to wiggle out of Damon’s hold, but Damon was stronger. He was the baseball team’s star hitter. With his beefy biceps and wide shoulders, Damon could overpower Elliot whenever he wanted.
Elliot groaned inwardly. He shouldn’t havelikedthat as much as he did. He turned his face toward the carpet to give himself enough time to mumble a spell under his breath.
By the power of Eros, hide my lust, conceal the truth before I bust.
Not the prettiest spell, but it came in handy when needing to a hide a boner from your best friend.
The spell redirected the blood from his lower body, not entirely, but it bought Elliot a little more time.
As a healing witch, he could manipulate the biomechanical functions of the body. Not very well, mind you. His grandmama could heal people who were in fatal car wrecks and have them walk away without a scrape.
Not Elliot. He usually choked when the people who were counting on him needed him the most.
He didn’t have control over his secret powers, so he used spells to align his intentions. If he’d been better at magic, maybe he could’ve found an anti-boner spell, so he didn’t have to ever worry about this particular situation.
Alas, he had not.
“Say it!” Damon demanded, and since he couldn’t tickle Elliot while also pinning his arms over his head, he leaned down and pressed his face into Elliot’s sides, tickling him with his nose.
Yeah, the spell was definitely not going to be enough. Not with Damon’s mouth so close to his junk.
“Fine!” Elliot said. “I’ll say it, if you get off me.”
Damon grinned and rolled off.
Elliot took his time sitting up and fixing his shirt. He flipped his head to flick his long blonde hair out of his eyes. He felt Damon watching him with rapt anticipation. With a heavy sigh, Elliot said, “I’m just as good looking as you, and girls would like me if I actually talked to them.”
Damon pushed his shoulder. “That’s fucking right, Croft.”
Elliot rolled his eyes. “Are you happy now?”
“Ecstatic, Elliot. I’m ecstatic.” Damon threw an arm around his shoulders and leaned in, his mouth against Elliot’s ear. “But if you really wanna make me happy, you’d believe it.”
Elliot’s breath stuttered, and he tried to shove Damon away, but Damon only tightened his arm and put him in a headlock, ruffling his hair.
