Spring Rain (22 page)

“With you.” He stopped inside her personal
space.

Unwilling to back down, she stayed put and
leaned her head back to gaze up at him.

“We’re in this together, whether or not you
want to admit it,” he continued with the same firmness. “You aren’t
leaving, Morgan. You’re safer here.”

“But you aren’t.”

“I can handle me,” he said with a brief
smile. “I can handle you, too.”

She was surprised to realize she believed
him. His steady gaze and powerful magick were trained on her. It
was as much the Master of Light as Beck addressing her, and the
combination of earth and Light magic transfixed her.

Fire leapt into the space between them, and
he subdued it with his earth magick. She already knew she’d lose in
a magick battle, partly because her control was tentative at best.
A small voice warned her Beck wasn’t going to back down. It was
smarter to wake up early and leave, but something about him made
her want to push him, as reckless as it seemed. Her eyes slid to
his lips, and she recalled too well how incredible it had been to
kiss him. She often wondered what it would be like to provoke his
gentle earth magick to the point he lost control. Beck was
powerful, and earth magick was the oldest, the strongest. If he
ignited her fire with a simple touch, what would a night with him
be like?

Not that she was ready for such a thing.
“I’m not staying.”

“For me?” The moment he took her hands, some
of her resistance began to slide away. Morgan tried not to let his
earth magick deflate her anger and resolution, make her want to
agree to whatever he asked. She stepped back only to run into the
coffee table.

The intensity between them was climbing, and
she felt ready to combust. She needed a distraction, a way to take
his focus off her so she could put some distance between them
without backing down from her decision. She wouldn’t get far if she
left now. She was too tired.

But if she drove him away …

He had backed down whenever she tested his
control. She just had to remind him of it.

With need and his claim to love her
clamoring inside her, she stepped into him. Taking his cheeks with
her hands, she pulled his face to his and kissed him.

The moment his lips
touched hers, her fire ignited. She felt the surge of his earth
magick attempting to rein it in and realized he was fighting
something, too. He was fighting
her.
As much as he said about them
being destined to find one another, he was resisting.

The thought intrigued her, and she unleashed
more fire, loving the thought of pushing him off balance, of
challenging him.

Beck’s arms went around her, and he deepened
the kiss. The moment she tasted him, her world began to crumble and
burn from the inside out, crippled by yearning for the man who
touched her soul and feeling as if crushed to mere smoldering
embers by the power of his earth magick. His body was outlined by
the fire he was absorbing.

He feels right.
Her magick tangled with his, pushing and teasing,
while their kissing grew heavier. She sensed his restraint and
poked at it, pressing herself the full length of his lean frame and
wrapping her arms around his neck. His scent filled her senses
while she melted into the heat and strength of his body. His
erection grew hard against her lower belly, and she pressed her
hips to his, wanting to experience all of him. His warm lips and
hot tongue guided her less experienced ones, and she let him show
her, let him lead them both towards the molten desire lurking just
below the surface, waiting to consume them.

“Morgan,” he whispered in a husky tone and
broke the kiss. “You have to control it.” Despite the words and the
struggle she felt through their magick, Beck traced hot kisses down
her jaw and neck. She stifled a groan, amazed at the amount of
pleasure something so simple could give.

She said nothing and closed her eyes. This
kind of blaze was new to her. It was different than that of a
bonfire, more intense, her whole body rendered sensitive to the
slightest sensation and her magick for once flowing in a single
direction – towards Beck. It was pleasure and desire so intense, it
left her intoxicated by the burn and dancing of flames in her
blood.

Normally, she felt fire.
With Beck, she
became
fire, and not only could he handle the flames, he was feeding
off them.

“Morgan,” he whispered again. “Tell me what
you want.”

She hesitated, enthralled by the sensations,
yet a little overwhelmed, too. She was almost out of control. Beck
was regulating everything from the pace of their kissing to the
fire magick she couldn’t. What would it feel like to entrust him
with all of her, to release the fire that was never fully free and
trust him not to hurt her?

Or … was every intimate experience going to
end up how it did when her uncle hurt her? In such pain, she wanted
to die and with so much shame, she couldn’t look in the mirror the
next morning?

This is Beck.
He was different. He was
hers.
Chosen for her by the
elements, by her own magick, which wasn’t capable of betraying her
the way a person could. Yet the doubt and fear remained. “I don’t
know,” she replied, breathing hard. She pressed her cheek to his,
loving the feel of his skin against hers.

“I won’t hurt you,” he said.

Her breath caught. She hated his uncanny
ability to guess her thoughts.

“If you aren’t sure, then we’re stopping
here. I’ll never push you, Morgan,” he added. His breathing was
uneven, his embrace tight around her and his hands clasped together
behind her back as if to prevent them from roaming. “Even when your
fire is doing its damnedest to push me.”

She opened her eyes with a small smile and
traced his jaw in awe. Beck was beautiful, the most handsome man
she’d ever met, and the best person, too. How did she end up in his
arms? How did she deserve anything this wonderful?

Her amulet was warm, pressed between their
bodies. It struck her for the first time this night that she really
had turned Light. It wasn’t what she expected. There weren’t
fireworks or epiphanies or parades to celebrate or anything else
she expected. In fact, she hadn’t noticed, because the soul stone
sucked up the Light inside her and that radiating off her
amulet.

She didn’t feel any different, and the world
still frightened her the way it had before. The only change she
cared about: nothing stood between her and Beck except … her. Not
his status as Light and hers as in-between. Not her shame or
embarrassment about not being good enough to be Light. Not the
knowledge he was incapable of the flaws she carried. Not her past
or the insistence by her father and uncle she wasn’t good enough to
be Light.

She was and had proven everyone wrong. Not
only that, but she had burned away the Dark in Noah and turned him
Light, too. For reasons she didn’t fully understand, she was Light,
and that meant she had a shot with Beck, a shot at helping him.

Morgan lifted on her tiptoes once more and
planted a kiss on his lips.

“Morgan …” He raised his head. She sensed
how hard he was fighting her and the attraction between them.

She met his gaze. “Please.”

“Please, what?”

“Stop fighting. Show me what it’s like to be
loved.”

“Oh, god.” He sighed and crumbled at the
words like she knew he would. He searched her gaze. “You’re
sure?”

She drew a breath and lowered the barrier
remaining on her magick. Flames shot up around them.

He groaned and kissed her hungrily with
intensity that startled her, his restraint slipping. “If I … rush
you or … hurt you …tell me. I’ll … stop,” he said between kisses.
“Okay?”

“Yes.”

Fire swept through them, and Morgan let his
magick soothe away the remnants of her fear, instead focusing on
the heady pleasure of Beck’s skin against hers, pushing him when
she could and diving head first into the heat, passion and hunger
with which he quickly consumed her.

Biji arrived to school in the same
frustrated mood in which she’d left it.

“Thank you for allowing me to accompany
you,” said the man beside her.

She glanced at him as he parked in the lot
behind the school. “My parents insisted,” she replied curtly to the
fiancé she didn’t want. A fellow air witchling, he came from a
good, wealthy family like hers. He was pleasant, nice, friendly,
handsome and considerate. He was the perfect Prince Charming.

And she wanted nothing to do with him. At
nineteen, she had the urge to scream at her parents more than once
and remind them she was old enough to do whatever she wanted with
her life, which meant not marrying the man they picked out for her
as was customary among some of the more traditional and wealthy
Indian families.

Biji climbed out of the car and waved at
Summer, who waited in the Square for her as she had the past week.
Biji was spending her nights at the nearest resort with her
family.

“Mind if I pop in and see Amber?” he
asked.

Biji cocked an eyebrow and gazed up into his
dark eyes. She started to count to ten to keep from going off on
him.

“Look, Biji, I know this is awkward. It is
for me, too. We can talk about it,” he said.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She spun
away and strode towards Summer and the Square, unconcerned about
Sanjay following her. Half a dozen feet from Summer, someone else
appeared in her line of sight, and she froze.

Noah was on the Light
campus. She had thought it was locked down, but clearly it wasn’t.
He seemed to be waiting for her, too, and he almost looked …
happy.
The sexy,
brooding water witchling had been her first kiss, her first
snuggle, her first ever real crush – and ditched her. Complicated
did not begin to describe Noah, and his beautiful, high cheekbones
and the body that should’ve been modeling Calvin Klein underwear
were emblazoned in her memory. He’d risked his life to save her –
then vanished.

Biji’s agitation increased and kicked up a
small windstorm she quickly suppressed. She was burning up from the
inside and hated her body for its reaction to the guy who hadn’t
spoken to her since the events of winter, except to call her last
week and tell her he was alive. The short conversation ended with
her hanging up on him. Part of her wondered if that was his plan:
to run away so he didn’t have to let her down easy.

Selfish, stupid, sexy,
kiss-worthy Noah.
She clamped her lips
together at the memory of their kiss and tore her eyes from his
features to look at Summer.

“You’re, uh …” Summer patted the air,
seeking the right word. “Frazzled.” She glanced at Sanjay and
offered her hand. “I’m Summer.”

“Sanjay. I thought I’d drop by and see Amber
while I was here. She was always my favorite teacher.”

“Mine, too.”

Biji’s attention shifted again, this time in
surprise that Noah was actually approaching her. There was
something different about the Dark boy, something she couldn’t
pinpoint. Dawn’s younger brother wouldn’t stop looking at her and
held her gaze as he stopped a short distance from her.

Too startled and infuriated to speak, Biji
stared at him, aware of Sanjay’s discomfort and Summer’s nervous
shifting. She stared up into Noah’s gorgeous blue eyes.

“Um, Sanjay, this is Noah. Noah, Sanjay,”
Summer said awkwardly. “You’re both … witchlings.” She drifted off
and nudged Biji.

“You must be the fiancé,” Noah said and
looked away finally to offer his hand to Sanjay.

“And you’re …” Sanjay prodded.

“Nobody,” Biji snapped.

Noah didn’t appear fazed. His cool water
magick was reaching out to her, and she pushed it away angrily with
her air, ready to hurl him into the forest.

The thick silence that fell made even Biji
overly aware the two men were sizing one another up. She had never
fancied being fought over by men and didn’t like either of the two
near her for them to bother.

Except she did like Noah. Her anger said no,
but her heart was doing somersaults.

“I can take you to see Amber,” Summer
said.

“Um. Sure.” Sanjay replied with absolutely
no enthusiasm. “Talk later, Biji?”

She waved him off.

The two of them moved away, and Biji crossed
her arms. Noah shifted closer. The tension between them was tight,
hot and more than a little uncomfortable. She struggled with
emotions she had repressed during the months between December and
now, the fear she’d experienced watching Noah in action, the desire
she’d experienced in his arms. There was no place in her world for
a man like Noah, even if she didn’t want Sanjay either.

“What do you want?” she demanded
quietly.

“To ask you out.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Craziness must run
in your family!”

Noah flashed a small smile, his gaze riveted
to hers. “A few things changed while I was away.”

“Yeah, you’re bald!” she snapped. “Why would
I care? It’s not like we had a moment or anything.”

He studied her. “Didn’t we?”

“No.”

“Okay,” he murmured. “Then you won’t be
interested in knowing this.” He tugged his amulet from beneath his
sweater and let it fall back to his chest.

He was Light.

Biji stared at the brilliant, pale blue
crystal glowing in the middle of his dark sweater. “How is that
possible?”

“Come grab coffee with me and I’ll tell
you.”

Her face grew warm while her heart took off.
In addition to her anger, she’d been almost relieved he disappeared
when he did, because he left her too conflicted to know what to do.
She would never date a Dark student, no matter how many years she’d
drooled over Decker. After seeing Noah hurt people in winter, no
part of her could cope with the idea of being with him. It went
against everything she believed in, the Light, her rationale.