Chapter 16
Sixteen
“Idon’t understand the appeal of this.” Theo stood at the kitchen counter, knife in one hand and pumpkin in the other. He looked inside the top he’d taken off. “It’s disgusting in there.”
A thunderstorm that was still raging had kept me inside most of the day, so when Theo had asked if I’d needed anything on his way home from Lori’s shop, I’d told him to pick up a couple of pumpkins.
“You have to clear it out,” I instructed. I’d tried to take the top off myself, but Theo had snatched the knife away from me insisting he couldn’t deal with a second hand injury.
His eyes went wide before his face turned into a grimace as he looked from the pumpkin to me. His biceps flexed underneath the T-shirt he wore and I could see his tattoos snaking up his neck.
“What do you mean, clear it out?”
“I mean, stick your hand in there and get all the guts out.”
“Absolutely not.”
I snorted and tried to shove him aside with my hip. He held on strong.
“You can’t with your hand.” He shook his head and his scowl deepened.
“Here.” I opened a drawer and pulled out a big serving spoon. “You can use this to scrape the sides.”
He took it, sucked in a breath, and leaned over the open pumpkin. He cringed as soon as he began the task.
“This can’t be worth it. What’s the point?”
I laughed as he stifled a gag. I’d never seen him this uninhibited. “The point is, it’s fun. And it’s decorative. It’s not Halloween without a jack-o’-lantern.”
“A jack-o’-what?”
“Jack-o’-lantern. It’s what it’s called. The pumpkin after you carve it. I thought you spent time here as a kid.”
“We didn’t cover this particular custom.” He grimaced as he pulled out a handful of stringy innards. “What does it mean?”
I paused, wracking my brain for any autumnal trivia facts I might have buried somewhere while he continued to scrape out the pumpkin. “I don’t know, actually.”
“There, that’s the last of it,” he said, and shuddered as he dumped the remaining seeds into a small bowl.
“Perfect! Now it’s time to carve.” I collected the pumpkin and brought it over to the coffee table. Before I could set it down, a newspaper came floating underneath it. I eyed Theo who was watching me while furiously scrubbing at his hands. “Really?” I arched an eyebrow.
“We shouldn’t make a mess. That looks like an antique.”
“Everything in this house is an antique.”
He shook out his hands before drying them on his black sweat pants and joining me at the table.
“Should we freestyle it or draw it on first?” I asked, holding up a pairing knife I’d swiped from the kitchen.
His eyes went wide as the knife lifted from my grasp and hovered between us.
“Hey!” I tried to snatch it back, but it had already landed in his hands. “I can wield a knife, believe it or not.”
“Why take the chance?” he said.
“I’m the artist. And the only one of us who’s carved a pumpkin before.”
“I can do the carving, you can do the directing. It’ll be a learning lesson for me.”
I smirked and lifted my uninjured hand to cover it, not bothering to fight him on it anymore. It was nice to be looked out for. I wasn’t used to having someone worry about me, however misguided it might be.
I curled my feet up underneath me as I instructed him on what to do. His carving was suspiciously smooth as he sliced effortlessly into the pumpkin. I accused him of using magical assistance but he insisted he had a steady hand.
It was nice; doing this just the two of us.
Lori was at the shop and she’d been spending long days there. October was, no surprise, her busiest month.
Carving pumpkins wasn’t something I did every year. It was more like if my mom and I remembered or we saw a sad one on sale at the grocery store last second.
But I liked the tradition. It was cozy. All that was missing was some fall movie I’d seen a million times playing in the background.
I was about to suggest seeing if there were any old DVDs lying around when a loud crash of thunder sounded and the lights went out.
A scream escaped me and even in the dark I could see Theo jump across the table.
“You scared me more than the power going out.”
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“At least we managed to finish the pumpkin,” he said, spinning it around.
“Where’s the candle?” I asked, feeling around the table for the tea light we’d already gotten out.
A flame sparked out of nowhere and I could see Theo holding the candle and setting it carefully inside.
“It’s perfect,” I said, taking in the meticulously carved, traditional jack-o’-lantern face.
“I’m still not sure it was worth it,” he muttered, looking down at it disdainfully.
“So can you fix this?” I asked, waving my arms into the dark air around us.
He smiled. “No. I don’t have the capability to fix the entire town’s electrical grid.”
“Sue me. I don’t know your abilities. You just lit that candle without a lighter.”
“Flames I can do.” He moved to the kitchen and came back with an armful of candles.
In minutes the living room was lined with flickering flames, most of them sat inside the ancient fireplace whose flume I was sure hadn’t been cleared out in decades.
“Cozy.” I nestled into the couch, wrapping a blanket around me. He hesitated for a second, before sitting on the couch next to me instead of his usual perch on the too-small armchair.
The only sound was our breathing and the aggressive pounding of the rain against the window.
“How’s your hand?” he asked after a minute.
“Barely feel it,” I said, even though it stung and was still sore. I’d always been against taking medication, it was stupid and drove my mother nuts. It was like a mental challenge, as if I’d be tougher if I avoided it.
It occurred to me that it would probably drive Theo nuts, too, if I told him.
He took my hand from my lap and pulled it gently across my body as I held my breath.
He turned it over, studying the bandages. He’d inspected it about a hundred times in the two days since the accident.
Ever since he’d opened up to me—about not having people to care about—I’d felt even closer to him. Because if I was being honest, I wanted him to care about me. Craved it, even.
He was testing my self-proclaimed loner status like nobody had before.
“Hey, I’m fine. Really.”
I surprised myself then.
It was like some magnetic pull. I leaned in and brushed my lips to his cheek.
He turned to look at me, eyes wide and dark. Our foreheads were practically pressed together at this angle. My breath caught as I started to back away, feeling less brave than I had been a second ago.
His fingers skimmed my cheek and I froze. His eyes scanned mine. Careful. Waiting.
He leaned in, slowly, his thumb moving from my cheek to my lip, tracing it.
A sharp inhale filled the room. Logically, I knew that it came from me, but I could barely register the sound.
Theo’s gaze dropped to my lips.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I leaned in, closing the distance between us, and kissed him. He cradled the back of my neck. Tentative. Firm, but gentle. Exactly what I would have expected from him.
His right hand moved to tuck my hair behind my ear and the soft touch sent my stomach into a backflip. It felt like I was thirteen again, kissing a boy for the very first time in his parents’ basement.
I pulled away after a second to catch my breath. My heart was beating so fast.
“Sorry,” he breathed between us. “Was that okay?”
“Yes,” I said through a breathy laugh.
He was nervous, which only made me that much more enthralled by him.
“Can I…” I fisted his shirt and tugged it up slightly. He grabbed the bottom and lifted it, helping me remove it with zero protest.
I traced his tattoos that I’d found so intimidating when I’d first met him. He’d told me they were all family crests and symbols, and it was common in his realm to start getting them when you reach your teenage years.
He traced the skin on my shoulder that was visible where the neck of my slouchy sweater had slipped down.
I melted into him, kissing him again.
His touches remained careful and deliberate as our clothing slowly became a pile on the floor.
It was an exploration. Giddiness kept bubbling up inside of me.
Every time his large hand grazed a new part of me, I unraveled more.
He was hesitant, thorough…
Then when he got to the waistband of my underwear, he stared deeply into my eyes. “Can I?”
“Please.” His strong hand pressed against my abdomen and slid further down. I gasped when he finally stroked me where I needed him to.
I was frazzled and greedy, my body panting for more.
His fingers moved slowly inside me as his mouth remained soldered to mine.
I was no stranger to casual sex, in fact, it was typically the only kind I had. But this wasn’t like that at all. My mind couldn’t recall the last time I’d felt this close to someone else.
He continued to pump his fingers slowly inside me and I rocked against him. I shuddered as a familiar pressure built deep inside me. Theo moved his lips from my mouth to my neck before nipping my earlobe.
A shiver wracked through me. This was so intimate.
Tears pricked my eyes at the intensity of it. I hoped he didn’t notice.
“Would you want to have sex?” I asked breathless after an embarrassingly loud moan had escaped me.
I needed more of him. This feeling.
He froze. “A-are you sure?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “If you want to, that is,” I added, suddenly self-conscious of the intense emotions coursing through my body.
He pressed his forehead against mine and nodded. “I do, very much.”
We both tore the remainder of our clothes off as he moved back over me.
I was lost in his kiss, high from it as he pushed into me.
Slow, purposeful thrusts.
I cried out as he pushed in deeper each time.
Claiming me in the best possible way.
When I finally teetered over the edge, I wasn’t sure how I’d ever come down from this.