Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(53)

My eyes bugged out of my head as my heart thumped against my ribcage. “Did that really just happen?”

“I think so,” he said, apparently not trusting his eyes either.

“What was that?”

“I’m not sure.” He was shaking his head, his arm still looped tightly around my waist. “I think…”

“You think what? What is it?”

He looked down at me, his stormy eyes nervously searching my face. “I think it might have been you.”

“Me what?” I blinked up at him, confused.

“I think you…somehow…suspended the furniture.” His brows creased as though he were troubled by his own words. His eyes roamed the room again as though scouring it for evidence. “Everything dropped as soon as you sat up.”

“And what exactly did I suspend it with what, Trace? My magic breast?”

He cracked a smile. “They are pretty magical.”

I smacked him on the chest. “Be serious!”

“I don’t know, Jemma. With your mind, with magic. I’m not sure,” he said and furrowed his brows again.

“I think you’re drunker than I thought.” I said and unlatched myself from his hold. “And I’m not sleeping in here. There’s something wrong with this room.”

“I don’t think it’s the r—”

I held my hand up to silence him. “Not tonight, Trace. Tonight, it’s the room.”

His eyes met mine and softened as understanding set in. “Okay.”

He knew that I knew there was something going on with me, something I unleashed when I’d invoked, but not tonight there wasn’t. Tonight, I was just a normal girl with a beautiful boy and everything was right in the world.

I lifted up on my toes and kissed his soft lips. “Should we continue this in the other room?” I whispered, trying my best to sound seductive, to lure him back into me.

He glanced back at the bed and then the dresser that had been floating about not even two minutes ago and he clenched his jaw. “I think we should call it a night. It’s late and you need to get some rest.”

“But I’m not tired,” I said, lifting on my toes again to entice another kiss from him.

He didn’t take the bait. “I’m going to grab a quick shower.” He kissed the top of my head and then started to turn.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to me. “Do you want me to join you?”

Honestly, I had no idea where that came from or what kind of voodoo had gotten into me.

There was a flicker of heat in his eyes but he quickly shuttered it as his gaze traveled over my head again. “A cold shower,” he clarified and then kissed my forehead before stalking off.

Disappointment settled in my gut.

“One of these days you’re going to have to finish what you started,” I called after him, but he had already closed the door.





23. IMPLOSION


I dreamt of Dominic that night—short blond curls and wayward fangs at every turn of my unconsciousness. What were once nightmares filled with torment had now become something else. Something illicit and inviting. I stirred awake in the bed next to Trace, sweat dotting my forehead as an uncomfortable heat needled through me.

Trace had mentioned that the longer I stayed away from Dominic, the stronger the pull would be. And he was right. Only it wasn’t a pull anymore. It was more. An urge. An unrelenting craving for something my body had grown use to receiving. I needed it—him—and I couldn’t seem to shake it no matter how hard I tried.

I quietly climbed out of the bed and tiptoed out of the guestroom and down the hallway to the kitchen. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard, I turned on the water and let it run cold before splashing my face with it and then filling up the glass. My hand tremored as I brought the glass to my lips.

This is so not good.

It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours yet since the last time I’d made physical contact with Dominic and already I was starting to lose it. I mean, my mind was still all there—I could reason through it well enough. But inside, my emotions were stirring, twisting into a funnel that was ransacking my body from the inside out.

I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold it together before everything came spilling out.

“What are you doing up?” asked Trace from the hallway. He leaned his shoulder into the entrance wall.

“I couldn’t sleep.” I decided to leave out the part about how I couldn’t stop having illicit dreams about Dominic. He really didn’t need to hear that part.

“Your hand is shaking,” he said, ticking his chin to my trembling hand and then pushing off the wall. He walked up to me and picked up my hand, trying to soothe me.

I didn’t want him reading my thoughts so I quickly pulled my hand back. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.”

“Jemma—”

“Were you serious about finding an antidote for the bond?” I asked him, my voice cracking as I spoke the words I’d been too afraid to think of. “Because if this is another pipedream, I don’t want to waste my time hoping for it.”

“I’m not stopping until I find a way to break it.” He caressed my cheek with the back of his knuckles.

I turned my cheek into his touch.