Page 33 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

I nodded. I believed him. He looked so sad, so sincere. I wanted to hug him. I did no such thing.

“Don’t sweat it,” I told him, and I grinned at him. “You forgive me. I forgive you. Bam. Problem solved. Time to move on.”

I really wanted to move on. I wanted to hang out in my bedroom and relax, get reacquainted with my new space.

“Did you really just say don’t sweat it?” Quinton mumbled against my neck, his lips brushed against me with every word spoken.

I shrugged, embarrassed, and pulled away from him. He let me go reluctantly and I could tell he didn’t want to let me go. If we had been alone, I wouldn’t have pulled away from him.

“Yeah,” I said. “I said don’t sweat it. I was trying to make light of the situation and now you’re trying to ruin it.”

From his place on the loveseat, Addison started to laugh. I shot him a dirty look before taking that last step and moving into Julian.

His eyes widened in surprise as I placed my hands on his chest, palms splayed flat against the soft, smooth material of his shirt.

If I were him, I’d be surprised too. This was a bold move for me. I couldn’t remember ever actually having touched Julian before. He’d touched me, of course. He’d just rubbed goop into my face an hour ago. Before today, I could remember only two times where he’d touched me, but I could be forgetting something. Once before, he’d rubbed his special treatment into different places on my body. And just before this, he’d picked my naked and beaten body up after a really rough session with Vivian. Both had happened on the day she’d died.

Those were the only times outside of today that I could remember Julian having touched me.

And I had never, not once that I could remember, reached out and touched him.

Until now, that was.

I was very well aware of our audience and even though it made me incredibly self-conscious, I forced myself to forget the others.

This was my moment with Julian. He needed my reassurance, my acceptance of his apology. What he didn’t need was me letting my embarrassment over the eyes that were right then watching over our every move, scrutinizing every little thing. The flick of an eye, the curving of a lip. Their eyes would see it, take it in and digest it. Maybe they would even tell the others all about it.

That thought bothered me more than knowing we were being watched did. I didn’t want to be talked about. I didn’t want my every move to be cross examined as if I were on trial here. I shook my head in hopes of clearing my thoughts.

It worked.

Thank the Gods, however many there actually was, be it none, one, or twelve. I didn’t think I believed in much of anything, but whatever. Sometimes you just needed a holy deity or object to give thanks to. I wasn’t about to choose one I didn’t believe in when I could simply lump them all together.

Julian’s body was tense as he waited for me to move, to do something. I could feel Quinton behind me, his heat a tangible thing despite the fact that we weren’t touching. He was waiting, watching, wanting to see what I’d do next. Quinton wanted me to embrace Julian, I could tell. He wasn’t shy about letting me know that he wanted me to embrace all of them.

I moved in before I could manage to talk myself out of it, and I knew that if I waited I would talk myself out of it. His eyes were wide in his face, showing off too much white. I ignored this and placed my lips against his smooth cheek in a soft, quick kiss.

The moment my lips left his cheek, I removed my hands from his chest and took a step back. And another step back. And another one. I kept stepping back until I ran into something. Well, not something but rather a someone.

It was Quinton.

Always Quinton.

I knew that no matter what, where we went or the situation we found ourselves in, I knew Quinton would be right there with me. Always.

My rock. My protector. My safe haven.

I looked back at him over my shoulder and smirked at him. His dark eyes dropped to my smirking lips and they heated.

And that was my cue to move things on from here. I didn’t want Quinton to put his tongue in my mouth. Really, I didn’t.

I was a liar, even to myself.

I reached up and dragged a fingertip through the smelly mess on my cheek. There was a decent amount on my finger and I didn’t care what that meant for my face.

I whirled around, struck out with my finger and flung it at Quinton. It landed with a plop on his nose and forehead and I couldn’t keep the giggle inside of me. I wasn’t the giggling type but felt it was necessary for the situation, it was appropriate. The look of disgust mixed with horror on his face made it worth it, worth having let out the girlish giggling.

“What the?” He said and paused mid-sentence. His nostrils flared, and he gagged. “What is that smell? Oh my god. It’s horrible. Ariel, what did you just fling at my face?”

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