Chapter 3
3
E li cleared the oh shit clogging his throat. The look on Avery s face-those sultry blue eyes, her parted lips and wavy auburn hair-it took every single ounce of self-control to break eye contact and not pounce.
The heels are nice. Eli gazed at the spiky black shoes, wracking his brain for even one memory of her in heels like these that made her legs so long. He kinds of missed the art grad student who was too lazy to put in contacts and had a love affair with her flip-flops.
She bit the corner of her luscious bottom lip, tapping her chin with a pointer finger as if considering where to start undressing him.
I didn t agree to you staying.
Yet.
An unexpected urge to suck on her bottom lip formed and shot straight to his dick. It had to be the spell. No other explanation for this kind of reaction to her made sense. Ah, what a crock of shit. Even after everyone declared her sister, before she died, to be his fated match and painted a huge off limits sign above Avery, this woman in front of him fascinated him. He d buried his sexual feelings toward her deep down and tried to be interested in the woman considered right for him, not that it d worked. Now all those feelings surfaced and refused to be ignored.
This was magic. Not real.
She licked her lips.
Yep, magic and one very wicked witch. Magic or no magic, he wanted her. This want hadn t started tonight because of some spell. This was years of watching Avery from afar. He d finally given up on anything with her out of necessity to his sanity.
Her knee-length black dress stretched across the generous curves of her body and offered a teasing view of her glorious breasts. No peeking. Don t do it.
Too late.
You promised her father you d stay clear. Her father knew she had a crush on him. Hell, everyone did back when they were teenagers. He had more than an infatuation right back, but he needed her to grow up. Waiting didn t get him Avery. It did get him the all-clear for Amber, Avery s sister, from Mr. Donovan. Why everyone took Avery s mom at her word when she read Tarot cards baffled him.
Eli s heart will settle-wholly, irrevocably. It ll be the chosen Donovan sister. That had been interpreted by all to be Amber, the eldest in line to inherit the Pleiades powers.
No one ever wanted to listen to him or Amber when they insisted they had no spark. They did experience the urge to puke when they touched. Watching Avery shut down and block him out of her life after the card reading almost killed him. But he convinced himself what he d perceived as something between them had been no more than two people in the grip of juvenile hormones.
Once Amber died, he often dwelled on the Tarot reading, wondering if it hadn t been bullshit. Standing here with the most fucking sexy woman on the planet, he wanted to believe it.
This was a piss poor spot. Eli didn t break promises, especially those to the dead, on a whim. Avery in his room right now, him kissing her and touching her, wasn t him keeping his promise to her father. Or his vow to the druid order, a sacred promise not to get involved with a Pleiades.
Maybe Avery and he were
This was a spell activating a grade school crush. God, he despised being the victim of magic.
Avery granted him a double eyebrow raise. She d caught him ogling.
I see the wheels grinding. You re considering it. There re probably some promises you made at some point that make all of this wrong. But for one night, one freaking night, kiss me, Eli. Blame it on the spell. Or don t. But- please -kiss me like you mean it and don t overthink it.
You re not going doing this.
This wasn t the virgin teenager he d kissed on her sixteenth birthday, before the stupid Tarot reading, because he couldn t resist when she gave him the sultry look and partly because he was selfish enough not to let anyone else have her first kiss. It hadn t completely sucked as he d expected, but it also hadn t been great. Not the earth-shattering moment he d expect had they been destined to be together. Also, not the expected nausea.
He d been ordered to join MI6 to remove him from Avery-an order to follow a different Pleiades witch who was hellbent on joining, someone dynamically opposite of Avery. It hadn t been a personal choice to leave. Mr. Donovan wanted him as far away from Avery as possible. Yet, they sent Amber to college in the UK to be closer to him, even though he never visited her in England.
Let me jam the bugs. Didn t have time after I checked in. Then we ll talk about you leaving. He yanked open the door. What felt like an hour later but had only been mere minutes, all three listening devices had been taken care of.
Be tough. Make her leave. He faced her, resolved.
Ah. Second thoughts. Let me see if I can be more convincing. Avery toed off her heels. She pushed down the straps of her dress and paused to smile. The witch knew she had his attention. Full, absolute, and undeniable.
Her black dress hit the floor in a sexy swish of soft material. His mouth went dry. A strapless bra hid breasts he d only seen in fantasy. He hadn t expected her to go full Monty, not this fast. No complaints from him, though. He stared at the lines of her body and her tiny panties.
This wasn t the Avery he knew. The siren side of Avery he d seen before, but this throw-caution-out-the-window woman both enchanted and terrified him. The spell.
The hot staring is good. Really good. She leaned forward. But I m not taking any more of my clothing off by myself. She unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned the trousers. With a gentle push they fell to his ankles. Better.
He muttered something incoherent when she unbuttoned and removed his shirt, his body compliant to her hands. She pushed him backward until his legs hit the bed and caved, landing him in a sit. At this point there was clear evidence that everything about this, and her, had his full attention.
We shouldn t, he whispered. Wow, intelligible words.
Do you not want to? She gazed deep into his eyes.
Want and should are two entirely different issues.
Be bad with me, Eli. They put a freaking spell on us. She kissed along his jaw. That s bad form on their part.
She put a hand on his chest to push him backward onto the luxurious bed. Her gaze dropped to his chest where her fingers tangled in his chest hair and then traced the contours of his muscles. She stared at her fingers as if willing them to stop touching him. Her eyes darted up to meet his gaze. I don t want to stop, but I will if your no is real.
Remember your vows. Pleiades are off limits. Avery doubly forbidden.
No denying whatever was going on here felt real, whether bespelled or not. His will to fight it vanished beneath the warm, silky skin pressed tight against his front.
If I kiss you, I m not stopping. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her lips to his, but hovered an inch before touching them. Say no, he ordered. That s all you have to say, baby. One little word. On a whisper he added. Save us both.
Shut up and kiss me.
His lips crashed down on hers. Oh, sweet relief. The touch of her mouth on his soothed him with the rightness of the moment.
He toed off his shoes and trousers, rolled her under him, and pinned her roaming hands above her head in order to stop all distraction from her mouth. He kissed her until they both needed to breathe.
She pulled a hand free and traced the likely now visible scar spanning his face, which he couldn t focus to hide with her beneath him. He hid it in public since it attracted far more attention than he wanted. She whispered, This might be the spell, but I ve never wanted anyone like this.
Me either. For real. He swept his tongue into her mouth to stroke the sensitive skin behind her teeth.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him back, shamelessly rubbing against him. He might die from the friction alone. Desire burned him from the inside out, demanding to be acknowledged and appeased.
Hoarsely, he said, Once? We do this once and forget it happened?
How about: what happens in France stays in France?