CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Skye
As soon as the parents peel the last of the children from my legs, I assure a slightly jittery Bumbleboots he’s doing a great job. He steps out of sight, and all around me, books the children played with slide back into place on the shelves.
I check my phone, grinning when I finally see the text I’ve been waiting for from Naomi—the dragons of Alarria accepted my proposal. My surprise for Luke is going to happen!
Luke stalks over to me, a strange intensity burning in his eyes. “That was amazing.” His voice emerges as a husky rumble that makes my knees go weak. “You were amazing.”
“Thanks!” I beam up at him, happy to bask in his warm regard. Even if he doesn’t want me romantically, it’s good to know he respects me.
It’s also a great sign that my surprise will be something he’ll like, which makes me wish it could happen now. I’ve only got to wait a couple more days to surprise him, but it feels like forever.
Happiness bubbles up inside me, building on the high I already have from interacting with the kids.
I adore reading to them, to seeing their little faces light up as they get lost in the magic of a book.
If I can get more funding for my charity, I want to be able to buy enough books that each child who attends story time also gets to take home a book of their own.
And maybe someday, when I get control of my magic, I can do what Harriet did, and offer any magical child who needs it a way to actually experience a book.
For now, I’ll take the joy of knowing Luke’s going to love my surprise. I carry it with me as he gathers me into his strong arms and leaps into the air. We fly back to the castle, ready to continue our research.
The top of the towers rise above the trees ahead when golden sparkles surround us and the world starts to spin.
“Fudging fudge!”
Then I’m plopped down into the passenger seat of a car, with Luke behind the wheel as we hurtle down a country road.
“Skye!” he yells, taking a death grip on the steering wheel as the right tire bumps off the edge of the pavement.
“Snickerdoodle!” I grab for the wheel, steering us back onto the blacktop. “Take your foot off the pedal.”
We immediately start to slow.
And the golden shimmer of my magic picks us up and puts us right back where we started, going full speed once again.
I don’t ask permission—I clamber straight onto Luke’s lap, wiggling to fit between him and the steering wheel. Thank god the book character drives one of those huge pickup trucks with a roomy cab. I’d never be able to do this in a regular car.
Gripping the wheel, I keep us on the road. My legs dangle, barely reaching halfway down his shins. I’m like a little girl in a world of adults. So I press each of my heels into his corresponding shin. “Feel that?”
“I’m feeling a lot of things,” he growls, his hands tightening on my hips.
I fight to keep from wiggling my butt against his crotch, but it’s really damned hard not to. “I mean my feet.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so if I tap on your leg with my foot twice, you stop pressing on that pedal. If I tap once, you press the pedal. But do everything gradually. No stomping.”
“All right.”
Fudge me, I love a man able to understand when I’m more of an expert at something. Chalk one up to Luke’s heightened intelligence and healthy ego—he knows his own worth, so he’s not threatened by mine.
“Where are we going?” he asks.
“No idea,” I say. Then the book takes over my body. “Why, Luke, I can’t believe you’re taking me here.” I point, right as the sign for Mystic Springs Farmers’ Market flashes by on our right.
“Remembered you said you wanted to come, babe,” he says.
I giggle as the book character, while the real me taps my right heel twice against his leg.
This time, when he eases off the gas, the book lets us slow without sending us back to the start of the scene.
So I tap my left heel, and he brakes enough that I can take the right turn into the parking lot for the springs.
We roll to a halt, taking up three parking spaces, but we didn’t hit anything, so I’m counting it as a total win.
As soon as we stop, I slam the truck into park and turn off the engine. The movement shifts my hips, and Luke groans. “Do that again.”
My next wiggle makes it really clear he’s hard as stone, a solid bar of desire pressed against my butt.
Days of being near him, longing for him, fill me with neediness.
Hot prickly excitement clenches my core.
I imagine us sitting like this, me riding him in a reverse cowgirl.
If the steering wheel weren’t in the way, I’d be tempted to try it right here, right now.
“Come on, babe.” He opens the door of the truck and starts sliding out, pulling me along with him. “We gotta make this worth skipping dance lessons for.”
“Just as long as you promise we’ll be ready for the Valentine’s dance competition next weekend.” I bat my eyelashes at him so quickly you’d think I’m trying to fan his face. Flutter. Flutter. Blink. “That’s the deal we made, remember?”
“We’ll be great,” he says, all easy confidence. “You said this market was the best place to get the food and decorations for the fireman’s fundraiser.”
“It is!” Blink. Flutter. Blink. “We’ll find everything. I just know it!”
We spend the next hour hand in hand, winding our way through the stalls of the outdoor market.
Exactly as my book character said, we find everything needed to run the fundraiser in two weeks, placing orders for all of the food.
We also select lovely handmade decorations for the party, loading down the canvas bags Luke now carries.
It’s the most adorable little market, and I should enjoy this more than I am, but the book characters control us the entire time, so even though I’m spending time with Luke, I know it’s not really him.
Only one tiny glimpse of him shows through.
When we stop at the stall carrying carved wooden animals, I coo over the cats, which to be fair could be me or the book’s heroine.
But Luke’s fingers linger over the back of a tiny dragon curled into a ball like a sleeping cat, tail tucked around its front legs, which pillow its head.
My heart skips to see the longing on his face.
Does he want kids? I know I do. Can he even have kids with a human?
We move on to more food stalls, sampling as we go. It’s a perfect romantic-movie date, filled with lots of laughter and a shared ice cream cone we lick far too suggestively for my peace of mind.
Or for his, it seems.
A cedarwood plank building stands past the end of the stalls. Luke tugs me around the far side, where trees close in and everything gets instantly quieter. He runs a hand across the top of the door frame, takes down a key, and unlocks the door.
“Luke, what is this? Are we allowed to be here?”
“I saved the manager’s house from a fire last Christmas. Called in a favor to give you a surprise.”
He pulls me inside, humidity immediately coating my face. A naturally shaped pool steams in the center of the room.
“This is how Mystic Springs got its name.” He drops the bags, toes off his shoes, and reaches behind him to fist the back of his T-shirt, pulling it up over his head in one easy move.
My mouth goes dry, my heart racing as his glorious chest and abs come into view.
As his hands drop to the button of his jeans, the book character takes over my body, shucking off my clothes with a self-confidence I wish I shared.
Soon we stand naked, my heart racing as his heated gaze rakes over my body, leaving licks of fire everywhere it touches. “You’re so gorgeous, babe.”
His cock bobs in excitement, thick and erect and wanting me.
“You are, too,” I say, sounding breathless and flirty. It no longer matters if it’s the heroine speaking, because the words are also mine. Even if I prefer the weredragon, I find Luke gorgeous no matter his form.
He offers me his hand to steady me as I step down into the hot spring. I inhale sharply. The water’s almost too warm, but in that perfect way that sensitizes every inch of my skin.
Luke finds a place to sit, so that only his shoulders and head emerge from the surface. He pulls me onto his lap, and I gasp when I feel his erection, hot and hard against me, a jolt of desire tightening my nipples. The idea of riding him reverse cowgirl fills my mind, and I grind down.
“Hey, now, none of that. That’s not what today’s about.” His hands grip my hips, forcing me to stillness.
“What did you bring me here for if not this?” I twist to look over my shoulder, pouting at him, eyelashes moving a mile a minute. I squirm harder, feeling his cock jump. “You can’t tell me you don’t want me.”
“Hell yeah, I want you. But I promised I’d make today special. I want to show you that I want you for more than just sex, babe.”
The heroine sinks back against him with a little giggle. “That’s so sweet.”
It is.
It’s also really fudging irritating.
I don’t get mad easily, but I feel like I could scream right now.
Book-Luke is the only Luke who wants me, and if we break the spell soon, this might be our last chance of being together.
So I really, really want to have sex. It’s probably a horrible idea that will only lead to more heartbreak when he walks away from me in the real world, but I don’t care. This is now, and I want him too much.
It’s almost a relief when the golden sparkles of my magic surround us.
Until it drops us into the real world.
In midair.
Both stark naked.