Page 39 of A Touch Enchanted

Sitting on my couch with my legs tucked under me, I tried to write down what I remembered from my dream, growing more frustrated as the details hovered just out of reach and my letters began to overlap each other. I needed to slow down. I shook out my cramping hand and tried again, saying the words out loud as I wrote.

When I finished, I read over what I’d written. It wasn’t a lot. Two gates, black and gold, a fight, and an accident. That was all I could remember. I couldn’t recall the purpose of the gates or the face of the person I’d been arguing with, but it had been someone I loved. As my head hit the stone floor and the bones in my neck snapped, I’d been more worried about what my death would do to him than the life that slipped away from me.

While this vision, or whatever I wanted to call it, had come to me in a dream, the texture of it felt more like a memory. It was more weighted and solid. More important. A piece of the puzzle, though I was unsure of exactly where or how it fit.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to bring more details to the surface, but they were lost to me. At least I’d gotten some of it down on paper. I’d call Audrey in the morning and see if Selene had ever mentioned gates, even metaphorically, in the island’s history.

“What are you doing?” Donovan leaned against the opening to my bedroom.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough.” He nodded to the notepad on my lap. “Writing about all my awesome sex moves in your diary?”

I snorted. “You wish.”

He ate up the space between us in three strides. My mouth watered as he stood in front of me, fully naked and fully hard, his cock bobbing against his stomach. “Come back to bed.”

I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then I guess I’ll have to convince you otherwise.”

He dropped to his knees and gripped my hips, yanking me to the edge of the cushion. Taking the notepad and pen from my hand, he tossed them over his shoulder, then spread my legs wide open, baring me completely to him.

The hem of the T-shirt I’d thrown on scrunched up around my waist. He rubbed his thumb between my folds, brushing it over my swollen clit, before he bent his head and licked me up the center. I jerked against him. He smiled and took that as encouragement to go wild, licking and sucking and biting me until my thighs quivered on his shoulders.

I gripped his hair, smashing his face against me as I fucked myself against his mouth. A deeply satisfied groan rumbled from his chest. He shoved two fingers deep inside me, and that’s all it took. I fell apart, sobbing his name as he licked me through every tremor until I came back down. Lifting me up, he wrapped my legs around his waist and carried me back to bed.

After making me come another two times, once again with his mouth and then with his cock, he went to my kitchen to scavenge for food. I didn’t have much. He had already eaten his way through everything edible in my cupboards, going so far as to heat up a bag of peas last night as a midnight snack. The guy was insatiable in more ways than one.

He came back to the bedroom empty-handed and pouting. “There’s nothing to eat.”

“Come on, Hungry Caterpillar.” I stood and pulled him toward the bathroom. “Let’s get ready and go down to the beach. I’m in the mood for corndogs.”

At the mention of corndogs, he instantly perked up. We showered quickly and got dressed. Donovan took my hand as we walked down to the cluster of food carts on the beach. A light breeze blew in from the water, carrying the scent of sea salt and coconut oil. As Donovan paid for our lunch, I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the sun heat my skin, and took in the sound of the ocean lapping against the shore.

Even with all the tourists milling about, I loved the island in the summer.

It was almost noon and the beach was packed. We dodged two kids who were trying to catch a sandpiper and sat on the stone wall that separated the beach from the rest of town. It was a perfect, cloudless day. From this perspective, I could almost forget about the curse, the growing discontent and suspicion from locals, and my torn loyalty between supporting Donovan’s efforts in a shutdown and protecting my parents’ business.

I’d been so lost in my thoughts, that I didn’t notice the black fog that rose from the depths of the ocean, blanketing the shallow water. People who had been swimming and splashing in the waves looked around in confusion.

Then the screams began.

“Shit.” Donovan threw his corndog and grabbed my hand, pushing his energy into me. His palm glowed with a brilliant sapphire light as our magic tangled together and activated.

We ran toward the water, pushing through the swell of the crowd that ran in the opposite direction. People shoved each other out of the way in their panic. It took every bit of effort to hold on to Donovan, to keep our power charging, and not get lost in the chaos.

At the shoreline, we took a second to catch our breath as absolute horror unfolded in front of us. The water crackled with jet blue sparks as hundreds of electric eels circled the shallow waters. People crawled onto shore, clutching their legs or sides where the eels had zapped them. The rubbery scent of burnt hair and charred meat wafted in the air and my stomach protested. I gagged and choked down the urge to vomit.

A blur of motion zipped in front of my eyes, and I blinked as Finn appeared in front of me. “Wes and Audrey are coming. They’ll freeze those bastards. Until then, Thora and I will heal whoever comes out of the water.”

“I’ll pull out as many as I can.” I took a step toward the now rocketing waves.

Donovan grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop. “I don’t fucking think so.”

“The shocks don’t hurt me.” I gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll be fine.”

Once the water hit me mid-thigh, I dove in. The eels tried to form a barricade, but I was too skilled a swimmer to be held up by them for long. I kicked their faces, using the momentum to propel me through the water at a faster clip.

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