Page 21 of A Touch Enchanted

Then my eyes rolled to the back of my head and everything went dark.

Rough hands pulled me to a sitting position. I was gone, but somehow, back again. A sharp slap across my face had the world around me coming back into focus. Finn pulled his hand back, ready to smack me again, and I grabbed his wrist.

He grinned. “Damn, it’s good to see your ugly ass scowl.”

“Did you have to slap me?” I rubbed my sore jaw. “Fucker.”

“Trust me, it hurt me more than it hurt you.”

I pushed his face out of my way and stood. My head felt fuzzy and bile rose to the back of my throat, but I choked it down. I glanced down to where the arrow had been moments ago to find it had been removed and my skin had healed over. Only a small hole and circle of still wet blood on my T-shirt remained. Violet stood to the side, gazing at me with tear-soaked eyes, her hands tucked under her chin. Sandy stood stoically at her side, completely healed from whatever injury the curse had flung at her.

“How did you know to come down here?” I asked.

“Luckily, Violet has more sense than you and called me right away,” Finn said. “Good thing we vanquished the poison or you would’ve been dead as a doornail within seconds.”

“Small miracles.” I expected some lingering pain, but there was none. It was as if I’d never been hit with an arrow at all. “That healing power is potent.”

“Only the best for those on the curse’s shit list.” Finn dusted his palms together. “Next time, don’t fuck around. My phone is always on.”

“Got it.” I blinked and he was gone.

I turned to Violet, who started trembling the second our eyes met. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“I’m okay.” I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her tight to me. The feel of her small frame shaking against my chest nearly undid me. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“I’m sorry I left you here alone.”

“Hey. No.” I pulled back and held her beautiful face in my hands. “We’re not going to do that. You needed to search the water and I can’t go with you.”

She nibbled on her lower lip. “I didn’t even find anything.”

“My fault. I had you pulled out before you could get far.” I closed my eyes and all I could see was the sea boiling, dead fish rising to the surface, and Nirah telling me I couldn’t save her.

“Who knows what would’ve happened to me if you hadn’t.” She traced my lips with the tip of her finger, her eyebrows pinched together in concentration.

“What are you doing?”

“I want to kiss you.” Her gaze remained focused on my mouth, like it was a complicated problem she wanted to solve. “Not because of my magic, but not because I want you, either.”

She was lying about one or the other, but considering that I’d almost just died, I was going to let myself have this one. I needed the validation of life just as much as she did. Proof that I was still here and still breathing, and still capable of loving the woman in my arms more than both of those things. Slowly, I dipped my head toward her, pausing a hair before touching my lips to hers, needing her to close that distance.

She pushed up on her toes and captured my lips with her own. With one hand pressed into the small of her back and one lost in her thick, silky strands, I pulled her closer and took the kiss deeper. She opened for me on a moan. The sound traveled down my throat and straight to my dick. The feel of her body against mine, her tongue tangling with mine and giving back as much as it took, nearly pushed me over the edge.

This was more than a validation of life. More than a comfort offering. And this sure as shit wasn’t a sweet little kiss between friends.

This was a consuming, endless fire that wouldn’t ever go out.

If I’d thought she owned my soul before, I just got a reality check. I’d only begun to fall for Violet Fischer, and there was no telling how much further down I could go. It felt to me like I could fall forever, in a million different ways, and still never hit the bottom.

She pulled back and stared at me with a dazed expression. “That was …”

She touched her swollen lips, and I took her hand, kissing the pads of her each of her fingers until she was shaking again, but for a far different reason. While her palms glowed with a faint aqua blue light, her magic wasn’t in control here. There had been nothing between us and that kiss, and if she tried to convince me otherwise, she’d only be fooling herself.

Her eyes were heavy-lidded and bright with arousal. I wanted to take her in the sand, right here, out in the open, and never stop. I wanted to taste my name on her lips as she came undone beneath me. But I couldn’t do any of that without giving her the full story first, about why I left and why I stayed away for so long.

She rubbed her hands over my chest and leaned in, and God, I wanted to keep kissing her so bad I ached. But instead, my dumbass need to do the right thing got in the way. Again. I turned my head to stop her. “Violet. Listen. Before this goes any further—”

“Ugh. Not again.” She hid her face in her hands.

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