Witch's Wrath (Blood And Magick #3)(34)

“Really?” My voice was a whisper, now, and I became aware of our faces slowly drifting toward each other.

“Don’t do that again, okay?”

“I won’t.”

Our lips met, and Jared’s hand tightened around my knee. I cupped his face, despite the pain in my side, and surrendered to the kiss, my lips parting to accept his tongue. Before I knew it, adrenaline was rushing through my system as fast as my heart could pump it, and—ignoring the pain—I straddled him, propping one leg on either side of his abdomen.

The kiss intensified, and I felt his hands trailing up my thighs, past the shorts I was wearing, and up my back. But he stopped kissing me and gently pushed on my shoulders. “I can’t,” he said, “You’re hurt.”

“I was hurt before,” I said, reaching for his lips, “But I’m okay now.”

“I don’t want to risk it. What if I hurt you some more?”

“You don’t know that you will…”

“I don’t know that I won’t, either.”

I pouted, but kissed his lips lightly. “Okay, not tonight.”

Dismounting caused me to wince, and to realize that, yes, maybe I had healed from the most serious of my injuries, but I was still hurt. So, I lay on my back, shut my eyes, and let my body relax. When I felt the bed move, I opened my eyes to see that Jared had slid down to my legs. My heart began to thump, and as he removed my shorts and started kissing my thigh, it began to pound.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my breathing already ragged.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, “But I do want to take your mind off the pain.”

My legs opened for him, and he brought his mouth and tongue to rest between them. He was right. The pain in my ribs disappeared after a couple of minutes of his delicate kisses. And when he brought me to climax using only his tongue, I felt myself start to float away on a sea of tingles and quick, short breaths.

Jared returned to his side of the bed when he was done, and I let myself lay on his chest, fully satisfied and strangely more alive than I had ever felt in my life. Jared’s heart was also pumping hard and fast against my ear, but it, too, was starting to slow, to calm down. Gently he drew his fingertips across my back, but then he stopped.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

“What?” I asked, looking up at him.

“I touched your ribs. Did I hurt you?”

“No,” I said.

Thinking about it, I hadn’t felt anything—only the tickling sensation that came with the passing of his fingertips across my skin. I had expected a little pain, at least, had he touched the damaged flesh.

“Maddie, your bruise,” he said.

“Oh shit,” I said, after craning my neck around to check. The once purple, black, and yellow skin was starting to take on a healthy, peach color. “It’s… healing.”





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


From the moment I woke up and read the time, I knew my sleeping cycle was well and truly screwed. It was early afternoon, the morning birds had long since stopped chirping, and Jared was asleep next to me, his chest gently swelling and dipping. I rubbed my eyes and propped myself up on one elbow, pulling the sheet up to my neck before gently shaking Jared awake. He stirred after a time, then opened his eyes and looked up at me, smiling a sleepy smile.

“Morning,” he said.

“Afternoon, actually,” I said.

“Really?” He checked his phone. “Damn. Did it again, huh?”

“Yeah, this could turn into a nasty habit.”

“Or a great one.”

“No, a nasty one—and if it does, I’m blaming you.”

“Me? Why me?”

He sat up, and I leaned forward to kiss him lightly on the lips. “Because you’re the one who kept us up.”

“You would have kept us up longer. I acted decisively.”

I shoved his shoulder and turned my face away to mask the reddening of my cheeks. He was right. I had kept us both up, and I wasn’t sorry. The best part was, I wasn’t feeling tired. I almost felt like I could get up and run laps around the building.

“Are you working tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah, I am.”

“That sucks.”

“I know, but I get off at around nine. Maybe we can… hang out?”

I picked my phone up from the nightstand. “Yeah… that actually sounds really good.”

“You got any plans?”

“Wait a second…” I said.

“What is it?”

It was a message from Nicole. The preview on my phone’s lock-screen read ‘I have something for you. A letter. It arrived this morning. Thought you might...’

“Nicole wants me to go over to her place,” I said. “Says she has mail for me.”

“Your mail came to her place?”

“That’s weird. I haven’t forwarded anything to her house. Could be something that needed to be signed for, and they dropped it off at her place… but that doesn’t seem right.”

“Do you think she’s just trying to get you to come over so you can talk?”

I swept across the screen and read the message in full. It didn’t say much more than the preview had displayed. She thought I might have wanted to go and pick it up, and wanted to let me know she would be at her house today.