Page 21 of Soulmates

“Well, I’m not scared of you.”

“You should be.”

But Maddox wasn’t. “Never again.” He snuggled into Jake’s arms, hoping to give Jake the security that he wasn’t mad at him. As they caught their breath, Maddox noticed the light creeping across Forrester’s floor. “Jake, the dawn. It’s morning.”

Jake turned toward the window and frowned. “But we didn’t finish the task, right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe enough for the challenge?”

“Maybe,” Jake replied.

“Now, can we get up because you’re sweaty and disgusting and I want a shower?”

Jake huffed out a small laugh, which Maddox counted as a win.

Showering proved a bigger dilemma than either of them bargained for when they first managed to get out of bed, which was its own feat involving Jake getting out of bed and helping Maddox scoot one-handed to swing his legs over.

After they ran through their morning necessities, they were faced with showering together and seeing each other naked with overhead lighting after they…well…

Maybe the sex was a spur-of-the-moment, stress-induced, one-time thing? Maddox couldn’t be sure, though he hoped not as Jake turned on the water and adjusted the temperature. Maddox stood frozen to the spot as Jake pulled his underwear down and went to step in. Jake looked back at him and, seeming to sense the panic gripping Maddox, moved into his space, put a hand to his cheek, and kissed him. Not a quick peck, but a firm and dirty kiss, licking into his mouth with intent. Maddox tried to give as good as he got, tried to impart his emotions into the kiss. Something like, I could never fear you, I will never leave you, I will do anything to fix this, I love you, all in one deep and all-too-brief kiss.

“Clear enough?” Jake asked.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to.” And he dragged Maddox into the shower with him.

Despite their obvious arousal, they kept their shower relatively chaste, trading kisses as they swapped toiletries back and forth, helping each other with hard-to-reach places. Being that they were both one-handed, Maddox figured that was just good teamwork.

They wandered out in their towels, finding clean clothes from their own rooms on Forrester’s guest bed. Jake jerked his eyes to the nightstand, and Maddox noted with no small amount of horror that the tissues Jake had used to clean them up while Maddox existed in a half asleep, boneless, postorgasmic haze were gone. Hopefully, the dean used magic for that. Anything else was too horrible to think about among a night of horrible things to think about. Though, Maddox supposed, as far as the list of awful things that had happened in the past however many hours, that might be at the bottom of the list.

They dressed with difficulty, having to forgo shirts until they had help in separating their hands. Downstairs, they were greeted by Dean Forrester, Professor Hooper, and Santiago.

Jake frowned at Santiago. “What are you doing here? Are you okay?”

“Am I okay? Am I? What in the hells about you two?” Santiago said, clearly exasperated.

“We’re…fine,” Maddox mumbled.

She actually laughed at that. “Sure you are. The good dean here filled me in.”

Maddox looked at Dean Forrester. Never one to push for formalities, Maddox wondered how Forrester would react to being called the good dean, but he didn’t even twitch a muscle. Just sat on his settee with a cup of tea like it was any other day and two of his students hadn’t made an incomplete soul exchange during a challenge at the school he ran, but apparently had very little control over. Maddox envied his calm. He wanted to keep it together for Jake, but with the light coming through the windows bending in their direction, his problems seemed to amplify. The day brought with it hours where his problems couldn’t be hidden while humping his best friend in the dark of the dean’s guest room. Gods, did that really happen?

Jake jerked on Maddox’s arm. “What?”

“I swear the two of you are purposefully using selective hearing today…yesterday…whatever day,” Professor Hooper said.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Maddox said.

“I said, I know someone I think can help you. He’s what you would think of as a scratch witch whose family has kept to the old ways. I called him, and he thinks he can complete the bond.” Professor Hooper paused. “He’s eccentric and not what you’re used to, but he’s an old friend of mine. And right now, I’m out of other ideas.”

“What if Maddox doesn’t want to complete the bond?” Jake asked.

Maddox started to protest, but Jake stopped him. “You didn’t ask for this—I accidentally shoved this whole thing in you…on you…whatever, you know what I mean, stop smirking. What if we want to reverse it?”

Cold nausea rolled through Maddox at the thought of reversing it, but before he could gather his thoughts, Forrester spoke.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of completing or reversing. I don’t think reversing is even an option. Like we said, this is old magic. You read the task clue. You were giving him something that already belonged to him. So you didn’t give it to him. It’s more like you returned to him something that was already his.”

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