Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(67)

Aedan stiffened, but his voice was smooth. “She’s mine.” He grabbed her arm and whipped her around to face him, capturing her cheek with one hand. Eyes burning equal parts passion and apology, he bent over, kissing her fiercely, possessively. She held back a squeak of surprise and relaxed into his kiss. He made her burn16.

Molten gold rushed through her veins17.





41


My first co-counseling module with Dev was the most uncomfortable morning of my life. Neither of us spoke about the night before or what he’d said on the docks, but we had to work together. Theoretically. I could barely make eye contact with him. I grabbed the box of compasses and he gravitated to the fire pits, so we had silently sorted ourselves into two unrelated teams within seconds of getting to the field.

It started out the same way for the archery module as we silently pulled the targets, bows, and arrows out of the storage hut and set up the field. I saw him watching me out of the corner of my eye and matching my setup. But as I took a few test shots with my competition bow, his expression grew serious and he made his way over to me.

Dev cleared his throat, staring down at an arrow he pulled out of the bucket. “Phoebe, I’m sorry about what I said yesterday on the docks. I didn’t mean to upset you.” His fingers pulled at the fletching and I was convinced he would destroy that poor arrow. “You know I was just trying to get you to join the fun, right?” I nodded ever so slightly and he stuck out his hand. “Truce?”

I completely failed at not letting a smile slip while shaking his hand. “You saved me from totally embarrassing myself with Kris. I owe you an apology for dragging you into that. Truce, as long as you don’t try to force me onto another boat.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to bring down the Wrath of Phoebe onto myself.” Dev picked up and twirled one of the learner recurve bows and pointed it at me. “Can I get a refresher? I haven’t touched one of these since the mod in gym last year.”

I gently set my bow down on its stand, the teal riser and Niamh’s gold autograph shining in the sunlight. “Okay.” My hands fluttered in the air around the bow and his hands, not quite touching either. “Show me what you remember. Try to hit the target.”

“Easy enough.” Dev grabbed the arrow he had been abusing out of the bucket and slid it onto the arrow rest.

I watched him nock the arrow and cringed. “Wait.” When he squinted questioningly at me, I reached out to un-nock and rotate it into the right position. “The different color feather faces out.”

“Oh, yeah. Forgot that.” He stared intensely at the target and started pulling back on the bowstring.

“Elbow level.” I reached over and put my hand on his elbow, gently pressing down as he pulled his arm into position. I was deep into teacher mode but still noticed how his arm muscles moved and the energy that seemed to radiate through my fingers. My voice lowered to a soft whisper. “Anchor at your jaw.” I tapped the top of his hand and guided it down, my hand brushing his cheek by mistake. I pulled away quickly and moved my hand back to his elbow, glad he couldn’t see my face. “Pick a spot on your arrow or your bow to aim. Breathe.” I felt his arm respond and my brain catalogued the fact that we were now both breathing at the same time. “And release.”

I stepped away from him, keeping my eyes on the arrow. It was definitely off-center, but at least it hit the target. Behind me, I heard Dev reach for another arrow out of the bucket. “That was awesome. Can I try again?”

“Go for it.” I turned and busied myself with counting all of the bows we had laid out at the stations. He did not need to see how much that lesson had thrown me off. If I tried to shoot right now, my shot would probably be as bad as his.

“Is this right?” I heard him call out to me.

I turned and took in his awful position. Dev seemed to have forgotten everything I’d just corrected. “Not really.” I took a deep breath to steel myself and tried to look professional as I walked back to him. “Elbow?” Dev dropped his elbow, but it was still way up over his shoulder. I tried to force an annoyed sigh and positioned myself alongside him again. From here, I could smell the spicy-soapy Dev smell and our breathing was once again back in sync. Time slowed. I swore he could feel my heartbeat through my fingertips. I was in trouble.

Once his elbow was in the right position, I gently pushed down his shoulder and leaned in a little to gauge his aim. The hair around his ear moved with my breath as I said,

“Okay, now.”

He released the arrow and right away his aim was much better than the last time.

Dev dropped his bow and jumped away from me. “Shit.” He rubbed at a welt quickly reddening on his arm and looked at me apologetically. “Sorry.”

I tapped at my arm guard. “It’s my fault. I should have made you wear an arm guard.” Happy to have an excuse to step back a little bit more, I almost backtracked all the way to the table where we’d laid out the equipment and pointed at the target. “But at least you got a bull’s-eye for it.” I watched as he glanced up and seemed to forget his arm in a nanosecond.

Dev walked over to the target and poked at the arrow sticking out of the side of the yellow circle. “Huh. Watch out, zombies. I’m ready to shoot you back to hell.” He wiggled the arrow free.

“Yeah, not that ready. And am I the only one who isn’t into Perfect Zombieism?”