Page 47 of A Touch Enchanted

Okay. So he was pissed. “A simple yes would be fine.”

“A simple yes.” He said the words slowly, as if his jaw didn’t fully work. “Have I once, at any time, given you the impression that I’m interested in anyone other than you?”

“No.” Geez, he didn’t have to make me feel bad for asking.

“Have I not told you, repeatedly I might add, that you’re mine?”

“How am I supposed to know what to take seriously when you’re inside me?”

He lifted me up onto the stone retaining wall that separated the forest from the town and moved in between my legs. “Do you want me to show you right here just how serious I can be when I’m inside you?”

I swallowed as heat flooded my core. “Probably not.”

He smiled, but there was an edge to it. “Do you really think I’m the type of guy who would tell you that you’re mine and then go behind your back? Do you think I’d have condomless sex with you, then sleep with someone else?”

“No.” I’d questioned his integrity and it hurt him. I owed him an apology for that. “I’m sorry. I know you’re not that guy. I’m just …” Scared. “Insecure.”

“Cricket, you are many things. Insecure ain’t one of them.”

“Fine. You make me nervous. This”—I gestured between us—“makes me nervous.”

That got a genuine smile out of him. The sadist.

“Finally. A truth.” He gave me a gentle kiss.

“Get a room, pervs,” Finn called out as he approached. He and Thora materialized out of nowhere, their hands glowing with a clear pearlescence. “There are kids out here.”

“Yeah, but it’s past your bedtime.” Donovan lifted me off the wall and set me on my feet beside him. “What you see after that is your own fault.”

Finn slapped him on the back. “Ready to face the firing squad?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Donovan nodded to Thora. “Are you afraid this is going to mess with your chances to win the election?”

“The election isn’t until the fall,” Thora said. “There’s a lot of time left.”

“She’s not worried.” Finn pulled her against his side and kissed her temple. “She knows she’s going to kick Warren’s ass. Then we’re definitely going fucking fishing.”

Making plans for the fall felt foreign to me. I’d gotten so used to living day to day, ever since the curse appeared, that it was jarring to remember there was such a thing as a future. Would Donovan and I still be together once it was no longer necessary? I’d like to think so, especially with the talk we had just a few minutes ago. But that was all part of the arbitrary future that might not ever come.

We walked the rest of the way to the town hall meeting as a group. Wes and Audrey were about twenty minutes behind us, even though they’d left at the same time as Finn and Thora.

The meeting wouldn’t start for another half an hour, but standing around the parking lot and mingling was as much a part of the experience as the actual meeting. Seventy-five percent of the people here had no reason to be. They just showed up hoping there would be enough drama to supply them with conversation fodder for their morning coffee meetups.

The four of us stood at the center of the parking lot, our palms glowing, and I couldn’t help but notice the wide circle that had been carved out around us. As if people didn’t want to get too close. Donovan made it sound like the problem was just a vocal minority, but I was beginning to think there was a little more to it than that.

Brooke took my arm and pulled me aside. “I heard about the bullshit the mayor is trying to pull. Are you doing okay?”

Her large gray eyes, usually filled with sweetness and light, narrowed on the residents who eyed us with caution. They averted their gazes, blushing under her scrutiny. People I’d known my whole life looked at me like they feared me. Like they thought I might hurt them. As the light began to dim on my palms, they visibly relaxed.

“I don’t know.” Seeing the town react to us this way was unnerving. I had a feeling the shutdown conversation was not going to go the way Wes and Donovan hoped. “This is weird, right? The way people are acting … it’s like they forgot who we are.”

“The mayor is working hard to spread discord.”

“I don’t understand.” It didn’t surprise me that the mayor would sink to this depth just to get back at Thora for challenging him, but it did surprise me that people went along with it.

“Do you want me to touch Cole and give them something else to talk about?”

I laughed. “Tempting, but the last time someone got touched by surprise, Kenna lit her bar on fire. We’re trying to make peoplenotbe afraid of us.”

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