Page 42 of Spelling Disaster

“Well, I didn’t have your number, and this is important.”

He chuckles and holds out a hand for me to help me even further out of the bush. “You’ve got shit all over you. The bushes, seriously?” Deft fingers remove a few stray twigs from my hair.

And his hands linger a bit along the line of my jaw.

“You want to talk about last night?” he asks softly. “You have an answer for me?”

I nod, gnawing on my lower lip. Why is this so hard to get out? “I was thinking about your proposal. And I think we can make it work, but the only way for this to work is if people know I haven’t put a spell or a hex on you.” I shift in discomfort. “I actually heard two girls at the campus store talking about it just now.”

“Talking about you? Putting a spell on me?” Theo chuckles again, biting back from outright laughing, his face tilted to the sky. Finally he says, “Somehow it always surprises me how quickly news travels, good or bad. There are always eyes on me.”

Yeah, which worries me on a deep level. “No one is going to buy us as a couple if we can’t prove that magic is not involved. They see I’m totally beneath you.” He’s standing in my breathing space, close enough for me to reach out and touch, and for some reason the pulse of his heartbeat in his neck has me in a thrall.

“Hey, no.” Theo reaches out to take me by the shoulders and lightly shake. “You’renotbeneath me. You’re overthinking things. This arrangement is between you and me, and as long as we have each other’s backs, then nothing else matters.” He sounds strong and assured, the way I’ve wanted to feel and somehow found too far a reach. “We can overcome any bad bridges later.”

Sure,latersounds good.

Later sounds doable because right now things feel a little too tense and prickly for my liking.

“If you’re good to say yes, then I’m all in, Yas. Starting now. You want it to be believable?” He shifts his hands down along the line of my arms, links his fingers through mine to hold my hand. “I need you.”

He needs me.

Well, poo. It’s the one thing he can say that is guaranteed to burrow beneath my skin and lodge there. Right above my heart and spreading out through every corner of my body. Theo needs me. And right now, I don’t want to stop and think about all the other people at the school who are so much better equipped to tutor him. Or what people will say when we’re together.

I look into his eyes, the color deep and rich and swoon-worthy, and I melt.

No matter how afraid I am of what’s going to happen.

“Okay, fine,” I finally agree. “Yes. We’re doing this.”

His face breaks out in a wide grin and I find my own expression shifting to match it as he squeezes my hand. “That’s great. I’m really glad you agreed. Really glad.”

I have no idea why and I’m done trying to understand. I swallow the girlish giggle wanting to erupt. “Great.” I tuck a lock of hair behind my ear, remembering Theo doing the same for me last night, and I break out in hives.

Metaphorically speaking.

The way my face burns, though, I’m definitely blushing again. I hope it’s not going to be a regular occurrence.

“Let me walk you to class,” he says. “We might as well start this deal off right. Are you free later?” His arm winds around my shoulder and he tugs me close. My insides go right up in flames. “I want to start tutoring as soon as possible, especially with tests coming up.”

I yelp out something affirmative at his excitement.

I’m not capable of real words at this point.

Because Theo is touching me, and there is no mistaking his possessiveness. Or his public display of the two of us together. My muscles tense. I’m not relaxed at all.

Which of course, Theo notices.

“Yas, you’re going to have to calm down,” he tells me. “You’re as stiff as a board. I’m sure you’ve walked like this with one of your exes.”

“I don’t have exes.”

I want to slap myself. Why did I say something so pathetic?

“Come on, Yas, I’m sure you’ve had them lining up down the street for you.” Theo doesn’t believe me.

I’m also unable to touch him back even when my arm is itching to shift to his waist. To land there. Already the heat of him seeps into me.

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