Page 16 of Hex Appeal

His arm is braced beside me. My hand is against his chest. I can feel the heat of him through his shirt.

Neither of us moves. His gaze drops to my mouth.

Oh.

My lips part.

He leans⁠—

“Miss Serena!”

We jump apart. I turn. Ivy comes running toward us. Of course she does.

“Hey!”

She stops in front of me and immediately launches into a breathless recap of her week. She did well on both tests. Better than she expected on one. Her English paper is done, and she thinks it might actually be good, although she changed the conclusion at the last minute and now she’s second-guessing it.

I grin. “Did you light your candle?”

“Every night.”

“And?”

“I focused.”

“That was the idea.”

“It worked.”

“You worked,” I remind her.

Her smile gets bigger. After she runs off to find her friends, I turn back to Welles. He’s watching me.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

There’s that word again. I close the back of my car.

“About your investigation…”

His expression changes. Ah. Back to business.

“Would you still like to investigate my shop and workroom so you can find the source of all the fires I’ve been setting around town?”

He grimaces. “I don’t think you’re starting fires. I just want to make sure there isn’t anything in your candles that might be causing them.”

“Right. Something beyond the fact that they’re an open flame, and people aren’t always smart about reading the warning label on the bottom.”

“If you can give me a few minutes to look around, I’ll be quick.” His jaw clenches. “You’re not in any trouble.”

“That’s a shame.” My lips twitch. “I like a little trouble.”

His eyes darken. Oh. I like that. A lot.

“Are you free tonight?”

He nods.