Page 18 of Charmed, I'm Sure
My eyes locked onto pink and blue tresses piled into a messy bun above iridescent fairy wings. How I’d missed her in the crowd, I had no idea. Maybe it was because most everyone was in wigs, or perhaps it was because I never expected to find her on Bourbon Street. But out of all the bars in Louisiana, somehow, Magnolia Bellevue was standing a few people away.
Her irritation was palpable as she shoved the man away when he reached for her.
“Come on, princess. Dance with me. I know you want to,” the swarmy guy crooned, his hands reaching for her waist once more.
Pushing away from my spot, I closed the distance and stepped between them. “I believe the lady said no.”
“Who the fuck are you?” drunk guy slurred, puffing his chest out in an attempt to look intimidating.
My eyes met Magnolia’s, her crystalline blues shining brightly beneath darkened lashes as she stared up at me. God, she was breathtaking. Gauzy white fabric draped down her arms and wrapped around her torso before fanning out at her hips into a delicate skirt that barely covered the tattoos on her thigh. Iridescent glitter covered every inch of her exposed skin, from her cheeks to her chest and everywhere in between.
She looked like she’d just stepped out of a fairytale.
“Hey, I asked you a question, asshole!” the guy spat as he shoved my shoulder.
Peeling my gaze from Magnolia’s, I glared back at him. “It shouldn’t matter who I am. The lady said no. And last time I checked,nowas a complete sentence.”
“Fuck this shit.” Throwing back the rest of his drink, the man slammed his cup down onto the bar and stumbled away.
When I was sure he wouldn’t come back, only then did I turn my gaze back to the ethereal woman next to me. “Sorry about that. I was down at the other end of the bar and heard you tell him no, and—”
“You wanna dance?” she asked, abruptly cutting off my rambling. Her eyes sparkled as they searched my face, a small smile tugging on the corners of her lips as her hand met my chest.
“As you wish,” I replied, leaning into the insufferable costume that I was wearing.
Her smile broadened, fingers twining with mine as she began to pull me onto the dance floor. “Okay, Westley. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
I was lost. Lost in the music. Lost in the feel of her hips beneath my hands as she swayed with and against me. With the way her hands played with the hair at the nape of my neck just below the tie of my mask. The way the lights reflected off the glitter coating her body as she threw her head back in unabashed bliss.
One song shifted to another and then another, each one bringing our bodies closer together. I couldn’t believe she was dancing with me. Of all the guys in this bar, she’d chosenme. The guy she continuously tried to light on fire with her eyes anytime she saw me.
“Air!” The huskiness in her tone pulled me from my thoughts, her eyes glowing as they met mine.
I nodded, but when I let her go, she wrapped her hand around mine, a sly smirk on her lips as she tilted her head toward the back patio and began to pull me with her.
As we turned down the hall, the crisp outside air kissed my cheeks and chilled the sweat on my skin. Good lord, I hadn’t realized just how hot I was until I’d finally started to cool off. We were just about to the door that led outside when someone yelled, “Out of the way,” as they came barreling down the hall with a tub full of glasses.
Yanking Magnolia to the side, I pressed her body against the wall with my own, my hands braced on either side of her head.
“Well, hi there,” she breathed, her chest heaving against my own as her eyes met mine.
“Hi, yourself.” Her perfume penetrated my senses this close and without a bunch of gyrating bodies around us. She smelled like sex and sin and every man’s dream. Spicy with the faintest hint of floral and something sweet.
Neither of us moved away, her hands slowly sliding up my chest as her eyes flicked over my face before landing back on mine.
“So, what now?” she asked breathlessly.
“What do you want to happen?” I pressed my hips into hers, relishing in the slightest hitch in her breath.
Her fingers wrapped around the edges of the opening in my shirt, slowly pulling my face closer to hers as she arched her hips into mine. With a slight shrug, she said, “I guess we could start here.”
Within the next instant, her lips were on mine. Soft and pliant with an edge of need as they moved against my own.
I had a feeling I was toast the moment I walked back into her life. But now? With her melting beneath me, her kiss growing more demanding as each second ticked by, I knew without a doubt in my mind that I was, indeed, completely and utterly screwed.
A groan slipped up my throat the moment her tongue slid across the seam of my lips, begging for entrance. I opened for her, my tongue sliding against hers in a battle of wills as her hold on me tightened. Pressing my hips back into hers, I pinned her to the wall and slid my hands down until I could untangle hers from my shirt. Pushing them above her head, I held them there as I trailed languid kisses down her neck. Fuck, she even tasted good.
“You taste like cotton candy,” I said against her skin, the irony of that statement not lost on me as I kissed my way across her collarbone.
