CHAPTER 7 #3
After exhausting all of the relevant magic in the books I possessed, which was a lot, none were capable of breaking whatever impossible-as-all-hell hex that had been placed on them. So, I’d been forced to turn to the internet for answers.
I had even specifically searched “sex handcuffs that won’t come off” only to be redirected to multiple porn sites. And, after saving one of the more interesting sites to my favorites tab while Cam wasn’t looking, I’d continued my search.
Cam and I could watch porn together someday, but I was on a mission now. And nothing could stop me. After all, I was a scientist. If there was a puzzle to crack, a spell to break – or blow up – I was physically incapable of letting it go.
I would not be defeated. Especially not by tacky sex-cuffs.
I cleared my throat, cheeks flushing at his direct attention. “Here,” I said, sliding the mortar and pestle over to him, the stone bowl half filled with the measured-out ingredients. “Can you grind this up for me? I’ll prepare the wrappings.”
He nodded and scooted his chair forward next to mine, eager to help.
The focus on something to do really did help to distract my brain from...
other things. One being how particularly close Cam was sitting beside me with is warm, muscular thigh pressed tightly against my smaller one.
He seemed to press further into me telling me that he was certainly aware of what he was doing.
We were each wearing sweats and I could vividly feel the hardness of his muscles pressed against me.
I exhaled a long breath through my nose for concentration and began to cut small squares of the magic-infused black, cotton fabric.
It was the material I used for most of my spells that needed contained for convenience, like my Morning After Powder Bombs.
If these worked, what could I call them? Maybe I’d ask Cam.
My brain churned as Cam and I worked in companionable silence side by side. But yet again, I found my mind drifting as it tended to do. Toward far less appropriate things. Maybe I was just pent up.
Despite being held literally inches apart and forced to sleep next to one another, nothing further had developed between us physically after that bathroom incident.
Not that I didn’t want to. Fuck, I did. I really did.
But that was how I tended to mess up relationships in the past. By barreling in headfirst. People would get what they wanted from me and dip out.
They’d smash and dash, hit it and run, screw and fuck right off.
Not that I thought Cam would dine and dash, but I wanted to take my time with him.
Part of me didn’t want to rush things while the other half wanted to jump his bones if he so much as breathed on me.
My horny antics were a juicy contradiction.
Either way, lack of confidence and my inner fears had won out, and I’d resorted to letting him make that move.
The ball was in his court if he wanted to breach that boundary. And if he did? Fuck, I would be ready. So ready.
But it was becoming increasingly more difficult to hold back.
Especially with the pressing heat of his leg and his constant glancing over at me like he was currently doing.
With those big, sultry blue eyes of his and those full, pouty lips slightly pursed in concentration as he ground the ingredients into a fine powder.
Other than my scissors cutting through the fabric and the crunching grinding of stone, it was quiet.
Peacefully so. But the quiet had gone on for so long that I didn’t really know what to say.
What could I say? Hey, once we’re done, ‘wanna pick up where we left off in the bathroom?
I nearly snorted. How about, Once these cuffs are off, how about you take me to pound town big daddy.
This time I actually huffed a breath; that was definitely a hard no.
In my musings, it seemed Cam was at least able to work up the courage to break the silence,
“You have... a lot of ingredients in here.” He paused, then, “And books. So many books.”
The cutting of my scissors paused as I turned to glance over at him, head tilting up. Because, even while sitting, Cam still towered over me, the damn tree.
I nodded. “As you’ve, uh, probably noticed, I do a lot of experimenting. Occupational hazard requires me to keep everything I might need handy. I work at the university close by as a professor for the arcane studies majors.”
His brows rose with interest before his gaze seemed to focus on the nearest shelf laden with jars and sachets and, of course, books.
“And... the eyeballs?”
I tracked where he was staring and chuckled a light laugh.
There was a jar of fake eyeballs, the floating white orbs with different colored irises suspended in a yellowish-tinged jelly substance.
It sat right alongside more jars of varied insect wings, plant roots, leaves, dried flowers, beetle carapaces, multi-colored powders, and other spell ingredients.
I probably had a little bit of everything, even less common ingredients and those I had purchased through...
anonymous sources. And, of course, everything was organized and clearly labeled.
“Those are just for decoration,” I said with a smirk and a touch of deviousness.
I didn’t bother to mention that they weren’t real, just a fun Halloween prop I’d thrifted with Alice.
But it got the desired effect. Right up until Cam did something I hadn’t expected.
His eyes widened slightly before a smile broke out over his face and he...
laughed. He let out that loud, charming laugh that made my heart skip in my chest. My breath caught so suddenly I nearly choked.
When the sound tapered off, he sighed and wiped at his eyes because apparently that had made him laugh so hard he’d nearly cried.
“You are an interesting person, Victor,” he told me.
I chose to take it as a compliment, cheeks instantly flushing with a mix of pleasure and embarrassment.
“And what about the stuff in there?” he asked, gesturing to the locked mahogany box resting on the middle of the shelf. He must have noticed me pulling a few ingredients from the small chest earlier.
I cleared my throat and resumed cutting. “Some of my experiments lean toward the... less than legal.” He gazed at me silently, and I added, “Okay, a lot of them do.”
“Like how you brought me back?” His question was blunt but with no traces of judgement.
“Yeah.”
I looked up to questions filling his eyes. Almost as if he wanted to ask me why I had done it, used banned arcane necromancy to bring him back to life. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to admit my motives to him just yet, but I didn’t have to worry for long.
“You must be very talented. You said you’re a college professor?” he asked, circling back to what I had mentioned before he was distracted by the jar of eyeballs. “At an actual university in an arcane lab?”
Pride swelled within me. I might not have been the most sociable, outgoing person, but I loved my job.
I loved being a part of helping younger arcane lovers and magic nerds fuel their passions through science, experiments, and research.
And despite the rumors that college professors were always busy, it did allow me the flexibility to pursue the passions in my personal life, like my own experiments, research, and getting lost in romantic, swoon worthy books.
Cam leaned into my space to exclaim, eyes bright with excitement,
“That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to see what an arcane lab looks like.
Could you show me sometime?” My mouth popped open and I had to lean slightly back in my chair so that his nose didn’t bump directly into mine.
“I don’t remember ever being able to use magic, but it’s always been fascinating to me.
I used to wonder if I could learn to use magic, even if it didn’t come naturally to me, like it does with you. ”
He had ceased his grinding, the mortar and pestle abandoned as his cheeks flushed a light pink. I was stunned. Thoroughly flabbergasted.
This was the most words Cam had said at once since I had met him.
And honestly, I wished he would keep talking.
I loved the sound of his voice and how animated he became when he was talking about something that intrigued him.
He had grown far more open as the days had gone by.
He was already a long way from the quiet, reticent man that had been reawakened from an untimely death.
My tongue had tied itself into knots as I struggled to respond to him. He was just so... beautiful. Handsome and charming and utterly breathtaking. Even just sitting here in a t-shirt and sweatpants with his ebony hair slightly messy from him running his fingers through it.
He seemed to come to the sudden realization of just how close he had gotten. His eyes flicked down to my mouth then back up just as fast. My lips tingled under the brief attention, but he wasn’t leaning in to kiss me. He was patiently waiting for me to speak, to say something, anything.
Words, Vic, use your damn words!
“Of course,” I croaked hoarsely. “Yeah, I’ll take you. When I go back. We can do anything you want, Cam.”
His eyes flared. “Anything?” His voice was low, so much seduction bleeding through just one word that it had me clamping my thighs together tightly.
“Uh-huh.” I nodded breathlessly.
He smiled at my eagerness then, to my disappointment, leaned back into his seat to resume grinding the ingredients. I was beginning to suspect that Cam was a bit of a tease.
Shaking my head clear, I grinned to myself and cut a few more little squares then some pieces of hemp cord coated in beeswax.
When we were both done with our respective tasks, Cam helped me carefully measure and pour the powder into the little black squares and securely tie them up.
His had little bows while mine were simple but secure knots.
Cam and I both grinned down in triumph at the baker’s dozen black pouches sitting before us.