Page 17 of A Touch Enchanted

“My business is going to suffer.” Kenna clasped her hands together under her chin, a heavy frown pulled the corners of her full lips down. “Who’s going to come here if they think I might burn down the building?”

“Anyone who wants a drink, seeing as this is the only bar in town.” Audrey rubbed Kenna’s shoulder. “I iced your bar not too long ago, and it didn’t slow down business a bit. No one got hurt. If anything, more people are going to show up now hoping to see some magic.”

“Oh, God.” Kenna pushed her fingers into her temples. “I’d rather they be afraid of me lighting them on fire.”

I still couldn’t wrap my head around why magic bothered Kenna so much. She was the girl who’d streaked our school library on adare, for crying out loud. I’d never known her to back down from a challenge, and learning how to wield fire? It didn’t get any more challenging than that. While Galen absolutely shouldn’t have ambushed her at work like that, I was still secretly relieved that something had happened to wake her up. She might’ve been unhappy about having magic, but at least she was no longer denying it.

We all pulled up chairs around the table where Kenna sat as she stared at her slightly charred wall with a vacant expression on her face. All of us, except Galen. He stood off to the side, rubbing the back of his neck as he pushed his thin wire-frame glasses up his nose. His mop of curly, dark blond hair hung over his forehead while he stared at the floor and shuffled his feet, as if unable to decide if he should sit or stay standing.

Finn made the decision easy for him by grabbing a chair and patting the seat. “Come sit next to me, bro. I want you within smacking distance if you step out of line again.”

Galen glanced at Kenna, but after a beat of hesitation, he took a seat.

“And then there were eight,” Wes said.

Donovan shivered beside me. “Damn. You didn’t need to make it sound so ominous.”

“I’m going to head out.” Brooke held her potted plant close to her chest. “I’m not in the magic users club yet and Girls’ Night is kind of a bust.”

Brooke was always so sunny, but melancholy had settled over her like a dark cloud. I stood and walked her to the door. As soon as we were out of earshot from the rest of the group, I lowered my voice. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She gave me a forced smile. The one that didn’t make her dimples pop. “It’s just hard, you know? I’m dying to use my magic, but I got stuck with Cole. Meanwhile, Kenna didn’t even want hers, and Galen is in the same boat as me. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

I couldn’t argue with her there. She was friends with Galen. The two of them were neighbors, and she regularly kept him fed. While there was no attraction between them—they thought of each other like siblings—there was no rule saying there had to be a sexual attraction between the pairs. Case in point: Galen and Kenna, who couldn’t stand each other.

It would’ve been so much easier if Brooke had been paired with Galen. Both of them were eager to experiment, and with the curse gaining power and stepping up the attacks, the more pairs we could get using magic, the better off we’d all be.

“Call me later, okay?” I gave her and Betsy a hug. “We’ll get this figured out. Cole may be a stubborn ass, but he cares about this island, too.”

“Thanks, but I’m not sure if he’s capable of caring about anything.”

I didn’t want to tell her that she might be right. It wouldn’t help.

As soon as Brooke left, I headed back to the rest of the group. Another argument had broken out in the five minutes I’d stepped away. This time between Kenna and Wes.

“There is no way in hell I’m shutting down for the summer, and there is no way you’ll be able to convince anyone else to do so either.” Kenna flipped her fire engine red hair over her shoulder. “I don’t give a damn what your family is promising, our lives are here. We can’t just pack up and go because the Lathams snapped their fingers.”

“Told you,” I whispered under my breath.

Donovan squeezed me beneath the table, his thumb sweeping gently over my inner thigh. I opened my legs just a fraction. His gaze shot to mine, a predatory hunger blazing in his eyes. I shrugged and gave him a tiny smirk.

As Wes and Kenna continued to argue their points, neither one of them backing down, I tuned out everything. All sound, all bickering, all the other people at the table. My focus belonged wholly to Donovan and his thumb, which continued to inch higher up my thigh.

I’d pulled my hair down around my neck, so no one could see my gills, and kept my webbed hands under the table. No one knew Donovan was touching me right now, and I found that oddly thrilling. The possibility of getting caught only added to my arousal.

His thumb continued to graze higher. My skin tingled with every pass. My lower stomach trembled with that familiar need that spread through my heated body. His gaze bored into me, challenging me, daring me to put the brakes on.

I opened my legs wider.

When he had almost reached the spot where I wanted him most, he paused and rubbed his thumb in slow circles designed to drive me out of my mind. It took everything in me not to grab his wrist and direct him where I wanted him to go.

Sensing my growing frustration, he let out a chuckle, which he quickly disguised as a short cough. After an eternity of him fucking around, he finally, finally, pressed his thumb against my clit, and sucked in a sharp hiss when he felt my drenched cotton underwear. Just that tiny bit of contact had me letting out a small whimper. Which caught Audrey’s attention.

Damn it.

Her gaze snapped to mine and her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t a fool. I had no doubt she knew exactly what Donovan was doing to me under the table. My cheeks burned with equal parts arousal and humiliation. I could only imagine what my face gave away.

I stood abruptly on shaky legs. “Bathroom. Use. Need to.”

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