Fire Spell (21 page)

I
AN HEADED
for the couch in the living room. “I’m going to turn in here. That ok?” he asked Finn.

I wasn’t sure if he owned the house or was only visiting. It didn’t look like anyone lived here. Most of the rooms only had one or two pieces of furniture. There were no pictures on the walls. I wondered how long ago Leo lived here. I had more questions than answers.

“Yeah, man. Sounds like a plan. See you in the morning.” He reached for my hand and led me down the hall.

“Good night, Ian,” I called.

“Work on that spell,” he shouted as we rounded the corner, “or whatever.”

“Got it.” I squeezed Finn’s palm against mine. With his hand in my embrace, I felt like I was with the part of me that had been missing for months. He was here, standing next to me.

He led me up the flight of stairs to the second story and along a hallway. We were on the same side of the house facing the garden. The rain hadn’t let up. I could hear it pelting the roof.

With only two days until the full moon, I was more anxious. I had no idea how we would perform the spell. I only had bits and pieces of how it worked. Gigi never mentioned the incantation. If it were anything like the
Cover Spell
we had produced in New Orleans, it would take extreme focus, certainty, and connection. We would need to be completely connected. The way Leo and Lily were together, there was no doubt they were in sync with each other’s moves, each other’s thoughts, each other’s feelings. He could just look at her, and she knew what he was thinking. Were Finn and I already in that place together?

I sighed.

“What’s wrong, babe?” He turned to face me. We were outside of a closed door. I knew what was on the other side of the door—a bed. His bed, a bed he would want to take me to and reconnect with me all night. The way we always did—skin against skin, losing ourselves in each other.

He pushed open the door and led me inside. There it was. The tears welled and trickled onto my cheeks before I could gain control. I wasn’t the one who was supposed to cry. He was the one losing people under his protection. But, the guilt surfaced and spilled over.

“Ivy, what’s going on?” He sounded worried.

I sniffed and wiped a tear with the heel of my hand. “I can’t do this tonight.”

He tilted his head to the side. “I need you.” He ran his fingers along my neck, brushed my hair back, and grazed the skin with his lips. “I have to get back to me, and I can’t do that without you. You make me whole.”

I felt the electric tingles he always gave me surge under my skin.

I pushed against his chest. He hadn’t let up on his workout routine since he had been gone. I felt the hardness of his torso through the shirt he was wearing. “No, we need to work on the spell first. We only have two days.” That didn’t seem like much time to save the world.

He pulled me toward him. “I have missed you.” He nipped at my bottom lip. “And I missed your lips.” I moaned as he kissed along my throat. His hand tangled in my hair as he brought my mouth to meet his. His kisses were intoxicating and dizzying. I didn’t know which way the bed was or the door. All I could do was feel everything Finn was doing. The rawness of his sadness and hunger for me invaded my body.

“But…aah.” His fingers unbuttoned the front of my shirt, and he shoved it to the side, exposing the pink lace on my bra. He kissed my shoulder. “There are people counting on us.” My voice was raspy, and I knew he had already melted my resistance.

He tugged his T-shirt over his head and wrapped his arms around me. I felt the clasp on my bra loosen and the straps slide along my arms. Standing, pressed against him, skin to skin like this made my pulse race. How did we keep getting torn apart? We were best together, just like this.

I heard the sound of my zipper, and then his as he worked us both out of our jeans. I stood while he peeled them over my legs and off my ankles. I was burning and aching to be with him again, but I was terrified.

I had been strong before when he left on the quest. It was my choice to break things off with him even though he had asked me to wait for him. I was also the one who broke it off the first time after he took my ring. I was angry he made me choose the impossible choices to protect myself. What if it happened again? I wasn’t sure I was equipped to handle my heart being shredded with another Finn goodbye.

While I was rehashing the safety of my heart, he reached behind me and picked me up, taking me toward the bed. His eyes were mischievous. Whatever dark place he had gone too when I found him, he had left. All I could see was the old Finn, ready to devour me, ready to make me glow. I just didn’t know if I could surrender myself to him again.

He blazed kisses along my stomach and against the inner softness of my thigh. I arched toward him, unable to control my body’s response to him.

“The spell— We have to work on the—”

His mouth descended on mine. I tried to wiggle out from under him. He stopped and propped himself on his elbow. “Do you really want me to stop?” He made a circle on my stomach with his finger. The circle widened as he toyed with my matching pink panties. If his finger dipped any lower, I wouldn’t be able to turn back. He had the most amazing magic fingers.

My body screamed no, but my head said this was not the best idea. Falling back in bed was our go-to. We had to be able to connect in another way. I needed to know we could. I needed to know we weren’t drawn to each other like predestined Laurel-Guardian magnets. Then, there was that little thing about kissing Jack. There was no way Finn would be ok if he found out—break or no break. He was always territorial where I was concerned.

“Finn, I’m just worried that we always do this. The entire world is depending on us. Is sex really the answer?” My eyes trailed the lines of his sculpted body. Sex or not, I could spend the rest of the night staring at him just like this.

“I just want you to know how much I missed you.” He kissed my forehead. “But, I guess after we save the world, there will be time for all of this.” His fingertip started at my breasts and drew a line between my legs. It took everything in me to keep from bowing off the bed just from that. He knew exactly how hard he was making this for me. He knew everything about me, and lying here with him, I had never felt more vulnerable or turned on. I missed him too. It was impossible to ignore the magic that lingered between us; it was palpable.

“I missed you too. I’ve been worried about you.” I sat up, pulling the sheet with me. There was no way I could stay naked with him and not give in. I needed something between us.

“I wish I could have called you.” He closed his eyes as he rolled back on the bed. “I needed you the entire time I was gone.” His voice was filled with pain. “I thought about you every day. I thought about us and what it would be like when I saw you again.”

I touched his cheek. I always loved the perfect symmetry of his face. “I know you had to go. I didn’t like it. I’ve never liked it, but I know there’s no way around it until it’s over.” I had decided I wasn’t going to use the Q word anymore.

His hands rose to cover his face. “Oh no. No. No.” His expression had changed from calm to anguish. “Not again, no, not again.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, moving closer to him.

“I lost another one.” He sat up, his face buried in his palms. “There’s nothing I can do. My God, I can’t save them. They are being ripped from the spells.” His eyes looked distant. I couldn’t let him dive into those murky waters again.

I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I held on, trying to absorb as much of the pain from him as I could. It had worked on the porch; maybe I could do it again. I felt the searing sensation as the pain worked its way into my veins.

“Ivy, stop. You’re crying. It’s too much.” He tried to break free, but I crawled into his lap, abandoning the sheet, and wound my arms around his neck. “I can’t let your heart break like this. Stop. I can handle it,” he pleaded with me, but I didn’t listen.

A tear rolled down his cheek and I leaned to kiss it away. His mouth turned and caught mine. His tongue tasted like salt. There were too many tears to count. Mine melted into his as they streamed down our faces. My tongue danced in his mouth, twisting with his tongue, and I kissed him with all the breath I had in my body. As I pressed against him, I felt the sadness shared between us. I had never been able to feel his emotions like this before. It engulfed all of my senses. As much as it hurt taking on his pain, I wanted more, I needed more from him.

He lowered me on the sheet, his mouth hot on mine. The kisses grew deeper and feverish, our faces wet from the tears. I felt his fingertips skim the side of my breast and glide over my hip before he reached between my legs and began a circular motion. I gasped as I felt his fingers dip inside me. They spun circles, arching me off the bed until I was almost levitating. He added another and another until I thought I would melt into his hand.

“Please,” I begged him. “Please. I need you, Finn. I’ve never needed you like this.” Everything hurt: the hot sweet spot between my legs, my heart, and my head from trying to figure all of this out. I didn’t know anymore if the pain I felt was from losing him or from all the loss he was dealing with. All I could think about was being completely fused with him, all of our magic joined and giving him everything I had.

“Baby, I missed you,” he growled in my ear as I spread my legs for him, allowing him to thrust inside me. He filled me with such intensity, every nerve raged with fire. He rose and began the slow descent that would fill me again. I clutched his back, desperate to anchor myself to him, to keep him inside me. It hurt and felt magical all at the same time.

“Don’t leave me again,” I whispered. The tears had never stopped.

He pushed harder and deeper until I didn’t think there was more of me to give. I opened my eyes. Finn’s tears fell on my chest. I dug my heels into his backside, anxious to take more of the pain from him. His eyes swirled with clouds of sadness.

“I won’t. I swear I won’t.” He threaded his fingers through mine, pulled back, and crashed into me again until our bodies began to dance with the sparkle of the divine haze we were making. I smiled as the drunken sensation rolled over me and our bodies glowed.

My head rolled to the side; my eyes fluttered closed. My body wasn’t mine anymore. I had given everything to Finn. I loved glowing with him. I knew then I would do anything to have this pain, heat, and magic. Even wait for a man on a Shadow Quest.

T
HE KITCHEN
was white. All the cabinets, the countertops, and the floor. The last owners must have been going for a Zen look, I thought. I sat on the corner of the counter, my legs dangling below me. I knew we had the most horrific evil ahead of us, but it didn’t matter right now. Finn was making me waffles.

He walked over, making sure to press up against me between my legs. He had pinched a bite of waffle in his teeth and toyed with it over my lips. “First bite?”

I giggled and took it from him. “Mmm. These are good, babe.”

He kissed my neck before turning back to his waffle iron. I loved it when he did that. He looked especially sexy this morning in a pair of blue pajama pants that rested on his hipbones. All I wanted to do was rip his T-shirt off, but Ian was still sleeping in the other room and that didn’t seem appropriate.

“Thanks.” He closed the lid on the next round and retraced his steps to me. “How about after breakfast we take a shower?” He bit his lower lip, another move he knew I liked.