Chapter Ten #3
I took the hand he offered, sucking in a sharp breath when desire thrummed through me. I felt like a plucked guitar string, vibrating from the intensity of the lust pouring through the contact. Another hand slid into my left one, and I turned my head in time to see RJ giving me a sheepish grin.
An insane urge seized me, and I acted before I could stop to think better of it.
I seized a fistful of his hair, guiding his face down to mine.
With the cobwebs of fear and despair burned away by lust, I could admit that I wanted the mundane.
Not for the forbidden draw of him, the way things had played out with Anthony.
But because he’d been kind to me. His sculpted face could have so easily conveyed cruelty.
But instead, he was here, helping a woman he barely knew because he believed it was the right thing to do.
“Ah gross,” I heard Finn say.
“Look!” Wanda’s voice startled me out of the liplock, and I hastily stepped back from each man. Angelo gave me a knowing smirk before retreating to his position at the rear. I scowled. The demon had done that on purpose.
RJ, for his part, looked torn between surprise and arousal.
On any other day, and without onlookers, I would have drawn him down for another, longer kiss before straddling his lap.
It had been so long since I’d been with a man whom I wanted for the sheer pleasure of it.
Anthony and I had chemistry, but our proximity had been forced.
There was a constant barrier in the shape of his mother hanging between us.
“Thank you,” I said.
RJ blinked rapidly, gathering his thoughts before mumbling, “You’re welcome?”
I laughed. “Was that a question?”
His eyes finally focused and softened. He raised a hand as if he might cup the side of my face, but then thought better of it. “No. It was nice. It was really...”
“Nice,” I finished with a smirk.
“Yeah,” he finished, rubbing the back of his neck. He wouldn’t quite meet my eyes. At least I knew it was embarrassment at my lack of shame than hostility that kept him from meeting my gaze.
“You two lovebirds can make out later,” Wanda said, hitting the end call button before Lucretia Boline or Aurea Grimsbane could comment further.
“Actually, no, you can’t,” Angelo said as he gave us both a look. “Indigo, you’re still borrowing Lydia’s body, and I don’t appreciate her making out with… him.” He finished as he pointed in RJ’s general direction.
I thought about protesting. I thought about tugging RJ to me, just to make a point. Instead, I turned on one heel and marched through the rippling surface of the mirror...
And fell about five feet onto an expensive Tunisian rug.
Air exploded from my lungs when I hit the floor, and I had to roll desperately to avoid being crushed by the next person who walked through.
It left me blinking black spots out of my eyes.
I couldn’t understand why the mirror had been fastened to the ceiling.
Was Poppy’s grandmother a sadist or just insane?
We ended up in a series of tangled limbs.
I was pressed uncomfortably close to RJ, who’d landed inches away from me and shoved part of his weight on top of me to avoid being crushed by Angelo when he came through.
Our bodies were angled toward each other.
Our eyes met, and I couldn’t blame Angelo’s power for the frisson of pure want that flashed through me.
In better circumstances, I would have been thrilled to be under this man.
Before any of us could sit up and take stock of the room, a door opened.
A petite woman stood in the gap. She’d been thinned down by time and curled forward by age.
She leaned heavily on a cane, taking in the tableau with more calm than I would have expected from a mundane.
Instead of screaming, she sighed and tucked a lock of snowy hair behind one ear.
“Oh, Poppy,” she said in a chiding tone. “If you wanted to introduce me to your friends, you could have used the front door.”
Poppy’s hair looked like it had gone through a wind tunnel.
Finn looked shaken too, as though the journey through had been harder on some of us than others.
As soon as he stood up, his great grandmother pulled him into a hug.
A glance around confirmed that most of us looked ill or annoyed.
Angelo still looked smug, but that was his de facto expression. The jerk.
“Um... GG, why is your portal mirror attached to the ceiling?” Poppy asked.
GG grinned. “To deter unplanned guests. You never know when a tricky witch might get it in their heads to visit.” Then she turned to face me. “Isn’t that right, Indigo?”
It was my turn to stare. The unassuming woman looked barely strong enough to pour her own tea, let alone to divine who I was. Not to mention that I didn’t look a thing like the Indigo who’d perished in Lydia’s shop.
“How did you...?” I began.
“I knew your mother very well,” she said by way of explanation. “I suppose that witch isn’t done with me, even after all these years.”
“You knew witches before?” Finn asked, frowning at her. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
The kid almost looked… hurt.
“Come in, all of you,” GG answered. “I’d say Poppy and I have some catching up to do.”