Page 36 of Bewitched By the Headless Horseman
“I like the one you showed me,” Kit said while running his finger over the plastic of her train stamp collection.
“Then there’ll be more.” She winked before passing him a set of the presidents.
As he sifted through the boxes, Stevie’s eyes fluttered while she watched him. It was late, and the day had been jam-packed, so she gave into temptation and closed her eyes. She slipped further away, possibly into dream state mode, when something hard and cool pressed against her shoulder. A few seconds later, two cool hands wrapped around her legs and back, then lifted her. Was she dreaming about a vampire prince this time? A phantom prince?
But when her body jostled, she realized shewasn’tdreaming.
Stevie flicked open her eyes to a white glow cradling her. She screamed bloody murder and fell, her backside colliding with the hardwood floor, pain radiating from her tailbone up her spine.
The haze cleared from her vision as she stared up at Kit. “You were holding me!” she shrieked. “And then you dropped me!”
He knelt beside her. “You’re the one who opened your eyes.”
“And that’s my fault?” she whisper-shouted. “How did you touch me?”
“I’m not quite certain, to be honest.” He shrugged. “It was a peculiar thing. I closed my eyes briefly and felt you, so I thought I would be a gentleman and bring you to bed.”
But how? Stevie thought about when Lucia had come over… “Is it possible because of the wishbone?” Biting her lip, she pressed her hand forward and it slipped through Kit’s chest—not even a hint of coolness brushed her flesh.
“I believe it’s only if our eyes are shut, Pumpkin.” He edged closer, his voice gruff.
“How about you do that then?” she murmured, stretching her hand out for him to touch.
“Only if you don’t scream again. I don’t believe my borrowed eardrums will last through another one of those screeching sounds,” he said, his hand passing through hers, giving her thatCaspermoment she’d always dreamed about. But she wanted more than that—she wanted to feel his palm against hers.
“You’rehilarious.” She stared at him and waited, a smile breaking. “Are they shut? Because, you know, I can’t see your face.”
“They are closed nice and tightly.” And by the sound of his voice, he was smiling too.
“All right. Here we go.” Stevie inhaled and closed her eyes, stretching her arm forward again. This time, her hand didn’t slip through his but pressed to something solid. His velvety soft palm, its coolness spreading across hers. Becoming a bitmore daring, she took her other hand and placed it against hischest. Stevie’s heart accelerated, her pulse erratic.Stop that, she chastised herself. She chalked it up to being a bit freaked out that his chest didn’t rise or fall, nor did a heart beat against her palm. But underneath that layer, she knew it was because she liked the way his muscles felt, especially as she glided her hand to his shoulder. Unable to fight her eagerness, she skimmed her fingers up his shirt collar, to his cool neck, then to his … jaw.
Kit’s head was there like he’d said, and she ran her palms over the planes of his face. His chin, cheeks, nose, eyelids, forehead. His hair. It wasn’t the long locks she’d seen when Lucia performed the spell, but the shorter hair of the guy he’d stolen the head from. Even though these features didn’t belong to him, a low sound rumbled from Kit when she trailed her fingers across his lips.
Stevie bit the inside of her cheek as she left his coolness, not wanting to seem too weird and linger longer than she should’ve. “So, did you feel all that?”
“Verymuch so.”
The urge to feel him again pulsed through her veins, but there was something she needed to do. She opened her eyes and grabbed her phone to call Lucia.
“Stevie?” Lucia answered groggily.
“I know it’s late, but this is sort of an emergency.” Stevie glanced at Kit, and her heart picked up as if bats were flapping around inside it. “Or a me emergency who needs an answer. I can touch Kit. Does this have something to do with the wishbone?”
“You can touch him?” Her voice rose, sounding wide awake now.
“Only if we both close our eyes.”
“Hmm…” Rustling stirred on the other end of the phone. “It could have something to do with you being a seer and winningthe larger portion of the wishbone, which in this case would be a heck of a spell I performed. Tell him to come here and let me try it with him.”
Stevie nodded to Kit and he slipped through the wall. “He’s on his way.”
A handful of seconds ticked by when Lucia finally said, “Nope, he can’t do it with me. Just you. Is he the only one you can do this with?”
“I literally just found out, so I have no idea,” Stevie said as Kit came back into her room.
“Try Roxy.”
“Roxy! Come here, girl,” Stevie called. She thought about how she’d slept beside her sidekick for years, and even though the fox didn’t sleep, her eyes were closed the majority of the time. Not once had she ever felt her.
