Page 82 of Forbidden Magic
A hot, arrogant mouth meeting my sullen pout and parting my lips.
We’re quite literally hanging on this moment, our limbs floating in a thick, murky sea that makes us both blind and careless. I revel in the taste of this sinister indulgence as my mind screams at the self-betrayal.
My skin starts itching, flames licking my insides. I snap my eyes open, a trail of light slowly building from my chest, chasing away the protective cover of darkness.
Cole is frozen for a second, his eyes reflecting the fiery hues.
The crown is ten feet below us, directly beneath our feet.
I make the first move, using my arms to propel me deeper and shift myself upside down.
Cole grips my ankle and yanks me up. I stretch my fingers and graze the top of the jeweled mermaid crown.
Then, as though someone flipped a switch off, my lungs explode into a torrent of pain. I choke on an icy mouthful of Fairy water, my whole body cramping in panic. A hard arm closes around my waist. Cole pulls me away from the treasure and closer to the surface, and we both erupt over the water a minute later in a fit of coughs. I spit out water and cough until the taste of drowning is chased off my tongue.
We’re probably miles from the start point. I stagger up a flat rock. It’s night here in this pocket of Fairy reality. The thin moon rays filter through the dark rumbles of the streams that tumble down into the silvery sea.
“You bastard. I almost had it.” Water drips down my back, my breathing ragged.
He wipes his dark hair away from his forehead, chasing after me. “Did you fuck him?”
It takes me a moment to catch up. We’re back to our conversation from the other night. “How dare you—”
His lips quirk up like he’s reading the truth on my face. In a blur, he leans in and crushes his mouth to mine again.
This time, I keep my wits and shove him off. The slippery rocks under our feet offer questionable footing, so I jump to the grassy bank. “Fuck off.”
The smile that was blooming on his lips turns into a lopsided scowl. “You didn’t seem so angry with me in the water.”
I throw my hands in the air. “Before you tried to drown me!”
His palm slices the space between us. “I saved you! Look, I’m not jumping for joy about it, but you’ve got to admit there’s something between us.”
“We hate each other. That’s what’s between us.”
“Call it whatever you want. It’s something.” He slithers off the rocks, too, the thick wall of a cliff at my back offering no escape. “My friends would disown me for this. Hell, my mother would banish me to Fairy.”
“Wow, listing all the people that think me inferior to you is really helping your cause.”
His fist curls and opens again. “I hate it. Not you. This…whatever. It’s annoying as fuck.” The words are so quiet I barely hear them.
He’s close now, close enough that I can see the droplets of water sticking to his eyelashes. The fabric of my swimsuit fails to hide my taut nipples. He leans in again, but I sink my fingers into his shoulder. This can’t happen. Not here. Not anywhere.
A hot shudder quakes my body when his thumb traces my bottom lip, making me rethink that assessment.
“You’re trying to run me out of school.”
“I’ll make you a deal, Fire Girl. You kiss me again and hate it, and I’ll leave you alone for the rest of your life. No more pranks. No more stolen notes. No more trouble.”
I meet his gaze and relish the obvious desire in it. “One kiss.”
“By the Dark Gods, I swear it.”
His lips are confident and ravenous.
My elbow bumps against the rock wall, and my nails dig into his chest. The hard grooves of his stomach contract underneath my fingertips, and I find myself tracing his tattoos.
The more I get, the needier I become. Each kiss is only a preamble to the one that comes next, the urgency increasing, the boldness of his hands against my sides stealing my breath and what’s left of my sanity. Cole is a drug. A beautiful, seductive, destructive drug.
