Page 30 of Magic & Matchmaking
Emma huffed. “I think I’ve heard enough, and I’ve had a long day?—”
I closed the distance between us, wrapping my arms around her back and bringing her to me. She let out a gasp, and I gazed down at her, running a thumb down her cheek.
“She also happens to be my best friend.”
Her mouth dropped open, then she closed it. Then it fell open again. She did that a few more times before finally speaking. “Me?” she asked. “That picnic was for me?”
I shrugged. “Surprise?”
She let out a laugh of disbelief, then stood on her tiptoes andpressed her lips to mine, winding her arms around my neck. I moaned in response to her soft mouth. Fuck, I could spend all night kissing her. Tasting her.
She pulled back and cupped my cheeks with her hands. “We should talk.”
That was the absolute last thing I wanted to do with her lips so close to mine, but she was right. I swallowed and nodded. “I know just the place.”
Chapter Fifteen
EMMA
Riven and I walked in silence as he led me back to the little clearing with the picnic he’d planned. I felt giddy after that kiss, after realizing that Riven had done all this for me. When I’d first seen the picnic, I’d been so sure it was for someone else, that that was why he’d been distant since the other night. But I’d gotten it all wrong.
Riven felt the same as I did.
I’d wanted to keep kissing him in my cottage. I’d wanted him to lay me down and press me against that table like he had in the tea shop, but we had to talk first. After so long of not talking about us, this conversation needed to happen.
We came into the clearing, filled with fairy bugs that floated in the air like twinkling lights. Riven gestured to the blanket, and I sat down, looking at the beautiful wicker basket, the hard cheese, the bottle of wine. It was so romantic.
“I can’t believe you set this all up for me,” I said.
Riven patted the blanket. “These were actually gifts I brought you from my travels. I was going to give them to you, then figured, why not enjoy them with you?”
I gasped. Riven always brought gifts for me. He opened up myworld when I couldn’t do it myself. He knew how important understanding and seeing the realm was to me, and the fact that he’d done something so thoughtful just made my heart swell even bigger.
“There’s a story behind each of these, you know,” he said.
There always was, and Riven made sure he knew the history, the origin, the interesting facts about each item he brought. I soaked up all his stories, reveled in them, in the fact that now I had one more small piece of the big world.
“But,” he said, drawing up a knee and hooking an arm around it. “I’m not sure I feel like doing a lot of talking right now.”
I raised a brow. “Oh?”
“Emma,” he said, “in case it wasn’t abundantly clear in your cottage, I have feelings for you. I’ve had feelings for you for a long time, but I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, so I pushed them away.”
Those were the words I’d been wanting to hear. “I have feelings for you too,” I admitted. “But now what?”
A wicked smile crossed his face. “Well, we could keep kissing.”
I shoved him. “Riven! Don’t you think we should talk about this?”
“The thing is I’ve spent a decade wanting you.” His face grew serious. “Then we kissed the other night, and it was like the floodgates opened. I don’t want to think about the future right now. I don’t want to think about all the complications. I just want you, Emma. Right here. Right now. And if you don’t feel the same or you’re not ready for that, that’s okay. But no, I don’t want to talk. I want to kiss you until you’re dizzy. I want to touch you until you’re panting. I want to bury myself between your legs until you’re so satisfied you can’t form a single thought. That’s what I want. It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time.”
Witch Superior.
Heat flooded between my legs. I wanted that too. I wanted him so badly that every question, concern, thought, disappeared. All I could focus on were his lips, his heated gaze, and his words rolling through me.
We both moved at the same time, our mouths crashing together. I pulled him over me, and we toppled to the blanket, laughing and kissing and fumbling with each other’s clothes.
“Why does this dress have so many buttons?” he murmured into my mouth, his deft fingers working quickly to undo the brass buttons trailing up the front of my dress.
