Page 30 of Unhinged Magic
“What is it? Skip, tell me what you need, and I’ll do it.Anything.”
She stared at me as if she looked deep enough, she would find what she was looking for.
Whatwasshe looking for?
She looked away nervously. “I do want you,” she said, caution smudging her words into a shaky sentence. “But it’s not the mate bond, it never has been.”
This again?
“What do you mean? You kissed me back.” I pulled away, sitting upright, as did she. She pulled her legs to her chest again, shutting down.
No. Don’t do this to me.
I hated seeing her pull away from me again.
“I know, but…” She paused, as if not sure to continue. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m attracted to you. But it’s not likethat, like the bond, I mean.”
Color drained from my face. She really couldn’t feel what I did. The unhinged hunger ravaging my insides every second of every day.Clawingto be with her.
My gut almost emptied. “I don’t get it. How could you not? I don’t understand?”
“I don’t know what to believe right now.” She couldn’t look at me.
My heart sank.
I broke my rule, because fuck, I was desperate and almost on my fucking knees for this woman. I rested my hands on her forearms, our connection bending my self-restraint to breaking point. “Tell me what I need to do to prove it to you. Because if you can’t feel this too, then something isverywrong here.”
She dropped her head, eyes closing momentarily. I knew my touch was having some effect on her. When she looked up again, she focused on my thumbs gingerly stroking the delicate skin above her wrists. So soft, so smooth. I wanted my lips there.
She didn’t argue, nor shy away. Just consumed me with her energy. I noted the moment it shifted: a bright, shining star suddenly dimmed.
“If you truly believe you feel this bond, then what’s wrong with me?” she said shakily, blinking back tears.
I opened my mouth to speak when her attention suddenly drifted over my shoulder.
I pulled back, finding her flushed cheeks now pale, her panicked stare fixed on the chair I had sat in only minutes ago. Her body went rigid as steel. Something wasn’t right.
I followed her eyeline and saw nothing but the dove-covered armchair.
“Skip?” I frowned, turning to the chair again. “What is it? Can you see something there?”
Whatever held her attention had it on a tight leash.
When she spoke, fear nestled in her icy tone. “Wes, I think you need to go,” she whispered, turning deathly pale.“Now.”
I shook my head. “Absolutely not. I’m not leaving you like this.”
“Wes,please,” she pleaded, turning to me for a split second.
I shook my head swiftly. “No,” I insisted. “I’m not leaving you here with whatever has done this to you. Is it a spirit? What is it? Skip,tellme.”
I wanted to grab her by the arms and shake her, untangle her from this disturbing daze.
I barely heard the word leave her. Quiet, like she was both afraid to speak it and let me hear it. But, as it ghosted from her lips to my ears, every hair on my body raised in awareness.
Her eyes found mine in a haunting glance.
“You.”
