Page 62 of Big Witch Energy

“Quite a pair, aren’t we?” he mumbled into her neck.

“We were,” she said, stroking his back. “As I recall, we were quite the pair, in this very room.”

“We are. And I happen to recall the things that we used to do in this very room. I’ve gotten way better at those things,” he promised, making her laugh.

“You weren’t bad in the first place,” she assured him.

He kissed her, and it felt different than those kisses in Riley’s office. There was a giddy anticipation to it, because this was heading somewhere. Somewhere naked.

Ben pulled her into his lap, throwing her leg over his hips. He was so much bigger than she was, able to move her around easily. And while that could be intimidating with someone she didn’t know—this was Ben.

Ben, who loved her. Ben, who would never hurt her. Ben, who was growing hard underneath her, dragging his hips against hers. His hand slipped carefully up her ribs, teasing along the sides of her breasts in that way that always made her ache—teasing but never quite touching where she wanted. He gently gripped the back of her neck, pulling her mouth to his.

She moaned into his mouth, chirping as he stood, carrying her back to what was her guest room. She took her lips from his, panting, “My room’s at the end of the hall.”

“Oh, right,” he chuckled, nodding, turning into the primary bedroom. He didn’t comment on the fact that it used to be her grandmother’s bedroom, for which she was very grateful.

No, no, don’t think about the potential ghosts of family members that could be watching you right now, her brain commanded. Thank goodness, her body obeyed, because she might have wept otherwise or finally unlocked Riley’s upsetting telekinesis, powered by sexual frustration.

He set her on the bed with a tiny bounce, crawling carefully over her as she kicked off her shoes and then his. He dragged her jeans down her hips, dropping them to the floor. He bit gently at her hip bones, making her jerk up off the mattress. That had always been her secret weakness. And no one else had managed to find it unprompted.

“Unfair,” she groaned.

“Never said I was,” he said, grunting when she rolled onto him. Her ribs protested a little, but she ignored them for the sake of pressing his wrists down on the quilt while sucking on the pulse point at his throat. He whimpered, and that made her grin.

“Oh, that smile scares me so much,” he whispered as she shimmied out of her shirt. While she was distracted, he tossed her back on the bed and dragged his lips between her breasts, down her stomach, until he reached her navel. He bit down gently on the skin of her belly as he reached between her thighs. He pushed her panties aside and found just the right place to touch, making her squeak.

“That’s a new one,” she murmured.

He grinned up at her. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

She rolled her eyes and yanked at his collar, pulling him to eye level with her while also removing his shirt. She felt his knee spreading her thighs, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He kissed her and she tasted a memory—cinnamon toothpaste and summer nights and the sneaky thrill of stolen hours in a “misappropriated” bedroom.

With no little difficulty, she leveraged her way up on her elbows and rolled over him. She hissed at the pain rippling up her torso, but muffled the sound against his chest. He felt just like she remembered, sliding down his body until her hand wrapped around something that was also quite familiar. He groaned, the tail end of the sound just a little desperate. And when she wriggled her thumb in just the right spot, he shuddered as he always had.

It was good, knowing someone this well, knowing all the places and noises and scents. It was strange and yet not, even when he arched up, sliding inside her without the fumble and hesitation of their younger years. She rolled her hips, balanced on that edge of pleasure-pain, moving with him. His fingers clutched frantically at her hips to slow her down, something he used to do when he was afraid of finishing too quickly.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he whimpered, making her giggle. “That’s not nice.”

Fueled by desire and delight, she canted her hips again until he made a little bleat of surrender. She leaned down, kissing him as they moved together, over and over. Teasing him was forgotten as the heat rose in her belly, making her dizzy. That sizzle of nerves seemed to spread through her entire body in a way that was entirely new. Was it magical? Or the sweetness of connecting with someone whose fingerprints were etched so deeply on her heart?

Ooof, reunion sex was making her weirdly poetic…and it wasn’t particularly good poetry. But the sex…that was definitely good. Sweaty and satisfying and…when had Ben learned to do that with his thumb? It was almost too much, but…oh.

Caroline wasn’t sure if she fell or she was pulled when she hit the mattress. But suddenly, Ben was splayed over her, and she could only hold on and wait while the stars building behind her eyes reached supernova.

She clutched at his shoulders, holding him close, listening to his heart thundering at this throat. He cupped her chin in his fingers, pulling her mouth up to meet his just before he cried out, hips stuttering, breath mingling with hers. She feathered her fingers through his damp hair, enjoying the expected spicy pine scent.

Ben collapsed, careful not to drop his entire body on top of Caroline’s smaller frame. He pulled the sheet over them both as he leaned his forehead against hers. “I missed you.”

She smiled. “I missed you, too.”

Chapter 13

Ben

In the familiar dark of his room, Ben rolled over and found Caroline’s side of the bed unoccupied.

He sat up, blinking, looking toward the bathroom. Nope. Dark. He paused, listened. He could hear Josh snuffle-snoring down the hall, and Mina’s muted music—to deal with the snuffle-snoring. But he couldn’t “feel” Caroline in his house. Her cheerful energy was conspicuously absent.

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