Page 33 of Faerie Gift

“For sure,” I said. “I think you secretlythriveon it. Now start with this spell and see what you can do. Rewind time to place the pen in front of you again. Maybe I’ll compliment you when we’re done. Make you feel like you’re the only person in the world.”

Except to mehe was.

“You are a hard taskmaster.” He shook his head and when he met my eyes, the air went out of the room and I could hardly breathe. Close, so close to me. Close enough I could reach out and kiss him if I wanted to. If I had the nerve.

“Am I?”

“Yes. Cracking the whip. Making me work double time for you with only a shred of incentive.”

I didn’t have the nerve, no matter how badly I wanted him. No matter how I melted when he looked at me. Mike moved toward me inch by inch and he didn’t pull away. He did nothing except stare.

“What are you doing?” I asked him breathlessly.

“What do you mean?”

His voice had dropped low and part of me wanted to groan.

“You…you aren’t working on the spell.”

“There are some things more interesting than the spell.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “More interesting and more important.”

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He lit me on fire.

Another inch and his lips would be on mine. His eyes became a brand on me and at once the room became too small. Too hot and stifling.

If only I had the nerve to close the distance between us. To kiss Mike…it would be a dream come true. It would meaneverythingto me.

His gaze stayed on my mouth and everything inside of me stilled. Frozen with anticipation. Waiting for something I desperately wanted and only dreamed about receiving.

I listened to him whisper a word. Something I couldn’t be sure I really heard. A slight buzz flew past my ears and when I looked down, the pen was back where it should have been. Where I’d first put it down.

“You did it!” I exclaimed.

“Maybe I had to have the right incentive.” Mike shifted away from me, still smiling. As though he’d never been worried about it. As though he were utterly confident, with no trace of his former nerves present.

“Oh, sure. The right incentive,” I repeated stupidly. What could I say?Hey man,why didn’t you kiss me? I want your tongue in my mouth.

He did a little happy dance in his seat. And the smile…wide and without restraint. No one had ever smiled at me like that. Certainly not Jason, the wolf in my pack I’d been flirting with before Uncle Will dropped the “fated mate” anvil on me. Jason never made my breath catch the way Mike did.

“Give me something, Tavi,” he demanded happily. “Give me a spell to try and I’ll do it.”

Another night and another almost-kiss, I thought, scrambling to focus through the fried-brain feeling. If he and I kept tiptoeing around each other like this then I would slowly go mad. No, forget slowly. I’d crossed over into dangerous territory already.

I didn’t need another added level of anxiety to think about, to worry over.

But not a day went by after that when I didn’t think about Mike and how I felt about him. How it would be to finally have those lips pressed against mine. The clutch at my heart when I thought about it told me—although I’d tried hard to fight it—I’d given everything away to him.

I was a goner.

* * *

Another few weeks went by, and our first test of this semester loomed mere days ahead, another test designed to cull the student body yet again. Professor Marsh told me it would be a test involving proof that we’d begun to master our innate skills, formulated to our specific powers. I wasn’t sure what she meant but nodded at her anyway despite the sickness creeping up my throat.

A test on our powers already?

It meant I’d be grouped with the few other students who also manifested cognitive manipulation and not only see what I could do, but do better than the rest of them. Let the competition begin.

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