Grinning wickedly, he didn’t move, staring down at me, instead. “Like what you see?”
“As if you can’t tell.” Sighing, I let my hand drift over his bare skin and his muscles twitched beneath my touch, a slight groan escaping him.
“So, how do you feel about fair trade?” he asked.
“Fair trade?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
Still grinning, his eyes drifted to my shirt and he gave a slight gesture with his head.
“You want me to take off my shirt?” My pulse rate picked up about a thousand percent.
“Actually, I’d like to be the one who takes it off. Fair is fair, after all.”
Unmoving, until I gave what was surely a barely perceptible nod, he grabbed my hand and guided me into a sitting position. Staring at me, his hands went to the bottom of my tank top and he slowly bunched it in his fingers as he gently slid it upward.
Suddenly I was very happy I’d thought to put my bra back on, because I felt extremely exposed. I’d never been this . . . naked . . . in front of a guy before. At least I wasn’t self-conscious about my body, though. I’d inherited the perfect genes of both my gorgeous parents.
Seth clenched my shirt in his hands, gazing briefly at my chest, before returning to my eyes. “You’re beautiful,” he said, awe in his voice.
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” I demurred; embarrassed, even though I didn’t want to be.
“No. I don’t believe I’ve ever said that to anyone.” Leaning forward, he kissed my forehead and slid an arm around behind me, pressing me backward to the cushion once more. His lips moved, slipping to my cheek and then near my ear. “I want to keep your shirt,” he whispered.
“Why?” I replied breathlessly. Was he like some card-carrying trophy collector who gathered pieces from all his conquests? Because if he was . . . who am I kidding? He was hot and I’d probably still give him my shirt—just because it was damn sexy when he said that and I was swooning hardcore at the moment.
“Because it will remind me of this—of you—every time I look at it. And, well, it smells like you—all fresh and sweet.” He placed a kiss against my neck causing an explosion of tingles across my skin.
“Body spray,” I said in a short quick breath. “Caramel apple.”
“Keep wearing it—it makes me want to . . .” he dwindled off.
“Eat me?” I supplied with a laugh that obviously caught him off guard because he snorted and pushed up on his elbow to look at me.
“I didn’t think you’d go there.” He laughed, brushing the back of his hand over my cheek.
“It’s a good thing you aren’t a demon or I’d be in a whole lot of trouble right now.”
He looked perplexed for a minute and then burst out laughing hard.
“What?” I was completely confused.
He shook his head. “Nothing. I get what you mean now. My mind, uh, went somewhere else entirely.”
“Oh,” I said, my brow furrowing as I tried to figure out what the heck he was talking about. Then it dawned on me. “Oh!” Heat flooded me and I knew I was blushing furiously. “Is that what . . . I . . . wait . . . is that what you want to do to me?”
Holy Hell! I sounded like a damn idiot.
Seth grinned even wider and nodded his head. “When and if you’re ever ready.”
Biting my lip, my heart raced even more. “I . . . I’m pretty sure I want to . . . try new things, but I’m still . . . well, I wouldn’t want my dad to freak out and kill you or something equally bad.”
This gave Seth pause and he stared through the glass toward the large dark house. “I understand, but your dad really doesn’t have to know, does he? I mean, I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to come up in casual conversation.”
I groaned. “You don’t know my dad. He’s fearless. Uh, can we not talk about him and resume whatever it was we were doing?”
“You mean this?” Seth asked, trailing lower and placing a kiss against my collarbone.
“Yes, please.” Hands sliding behind his neck, I moaned when I felt his hot breath pass through the fabric of my bra, causing everything inside me to tighten.
Placing a light kiss against the material, he moved even lower, and I was slightly disappointed, until I felt his lips brush my bare stomach. His tongue darted out, leaving a thin wet trail as he moved toward the waistband of my shorts. “You taste good everywhere.”
Finger dipping slightly, he rubbed the flat skin of my low belly, just on the inside of the waistband of my dance shorts. Glancing up at me, I could see the question in his eyes, but my whole body was trembling in anticipation of what he might do and I couldn’t answer.
When I didn’t reply, he shifted upward, his mouth recapturing mine and he kissed me deeply. My fingers tangled into his hair and I wrapped my legs around him intimately and he groaned, pushing himself against me.
Gasping, I couldn’t believe I had the capacity to even remotely control the reaction of Seth’s body to mine. Knowing what I was doing to him was somehow powerful. Of course, he was making me feel exactly the same way.
A light flicking on caught my attention and I glanced toward the house, noting that it was my parents’ bathroom window. “Someone’s up!” I said, pushing frantically at Seth. “You’ve got to go! Go! Go!” Spying his shirt, I tossed it at him and he shrugged into it.
“Do I need to go through the front again, or can I just jump the back fence?”
Glancing toward the rear of the heavily treed lot, I stared at a large bolder in a flowerbed by the back corner. “I’ll come with you and remove the ward.”
Panic seized me as I grabbed his hand, glancing briefly at the house before we scurried to the area I’d just been eyeing. Searching for the ward, I located and deactivated it.
“Hurry!” I said in a loud whisper.
“Kenna, I . . .” He hesitated.
“Text me!” I suggested, encouraging him to hurry, but he still grabbed me and kissed me, making me go weak in the knees.
“See you soon.” Watching, I made sure he was clear of the fence and on the run before reinstating the ward.
Turning back to the house, I gasped, realizing I was missing my shirt. Had Seth still been holding it? I raced to the gazebo, checking under the pillows, but found nothing.
Damn it! I needed to do something fast.
Racing toward the house, I paused at the back door, removing the barrier and slipping inside, reinstating it.
“Kenna?” My dad’s voice filtered into my head as I ran into the laundry room, digging through the clean clothes and grabbing the first tank top I saw. “Where are you?”
Dragging the shirt on, I raced into the large kitchen, near the open space by the table. “Dining room,” I replied to him in like fashion, knowing he would instantly be able to detect my heart rate.
Cheer coming to the rescue, I began going through the movements of the latest routine we’d been learning. The steps came easily and effortlessly to me, but dad didn’t need to know that.
Pausing in the doorway, he stared at me for a few moments before going to the fridge and opening the drawer that held his synthetic blood serum. He seemed on guard and stiff. That made me nervous.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I promised the girls I’d be ready and know all the routines by the first game. I have limited time between practice, homework and now adding a job, too. I just wanted to make sure I kept my word.” Okay, it wasn’t really an answer to his question, but that was the point wasn’t it? Saying, “Oh, I’ve been in the gazebo making out with Seth. He wanted to eat me,” probably wasn’t going to do any good for anyone.
“At four A.M.?” Raising the vial to his lips, he downed the contents and I noticed he instantly calmed, as did I. It was a blood thing, not a “mad dad” thing.
“Couldn’t sleep.” I continued moving through the routine, counting it out in my head. “How about you?”
“Time for my . . . medication.”
“At four A.
M.?” I echoed.
Grunting, he disposed of the container. “I try to do it before you wake up, so there won’t be any temptation.”
Eyeing him closely, I paused, my attention riveted. “Seriously? Are you tempted around me?”
“Do you not remember anything I said to you in training when you were a child?”
Dropping my arms, I walked over to the large, granite island counter, slouching against it. “Yeah, but that was years ago. I’ve never noticed you suffering with it, so I thought maybe it was a thing of the past.”
“You don’t see me suffer with it because I plan it that way. I do it to keep you from seeing things you shouldn’t have to. I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
Moving beside him, I threw my arms around his neck, hoping it showed how much I trusted him. Immediately it made me feel guilty because I knew I was being dishonest with him. “I trust you, Dad. I’d trust you even if you didn’t have the synthetic stuff. You’re my dad. You love me and I love you. Nothing will change that. I know you won’t hurt me.”
A wry chuckle escaped him and he hugged me back. “I’d rather die than hurt you, Firecracker. Now what do you think? Shall we make your mom an early breakfast in bed before she has to leave for work, or are you going to try and catch some more sleep?”
“I’d love to help make breakfast,” I said, excited to do something nice for my mom.
Man, I was going to be tired today.
Chapter Fourteen
“What’s the matter with you today?” Jett asked from his “private” booth at his parents’ restaurant. Megan was apparently out sick and Seth had vacated the table to go refill his drink. Even though there were still several other students milling around, it was just the two of us sitting together—if you could count across the table from each other as “together.”
Glancing up from my barely touched pizza and salad, I stared at him, giving a slight shrug. “I was up most of the night.”
“Is something wrong?” he asked, actually sounding concerned.
“No.” I didn’t want to say anything to anyone about the ghost, which I guessed was an accurate term. I still wasn’t convinced I hadn’t dreamed it all up. “Seth and I snuck out last night.” I wasn’t sure why the idea of shocking Jett brought me such inane pleasure; but, for some reason, seeing the alarmed look on his face followed by a thunderous scowl was rewarding.
“Really? And how did that turn out—the G rated version, please. I don’t think my heart could handle hearing the X rated one.”
His words surprised me, but still managed to bring out my inner bitch. “I wasn’t aware you had a heart,” I replied nastily, immediately regretting it when I saw his pained expression.
“Well, I do. And right now you aren’t being very nice to it.”
“It’s not my job to be nice to your heart. It’s Megan’s.”
“Did you do him?” Jett asked point blank.
“Excuse me?”
Leaning in closer, his eyes flashed as he enunciated every word. “Did. You. Do. Him? I don’t know how much plainer I can say it.”
I was completely offended. “That’s none of your business.” Heat flooded my body, and not in a good way. Anger streaked through me. How dare he ask me something like this? The dude seriously had no boundaries whatsoever.
“I’m thinking no,” Jett said still staring at me. “Otherwise Seth would’ve called to tell me about it.”
“Maybe he didn’t want you to know.” Gosh, I hope Seth didn’t tell him these things.
“He tells me everything.” So much for that idea.
“Somehow I doubt that.” Rolling my eyes, I wondered where Seth was. I quickly glanced around, looking for him.
Jett read me perfectly. “Lover boy is taking a phone call outside. I saw him answer it and step out.”
Instead of replying, I took a big bite of pizza. I couldn’t talk to him with my mouth full, right?
Wrong.
“You didn’t answer my question.” It was obvious he wasn’t going to let this go.
“What’s it to you?” I spoke rudely over my mouthful of food, just to gross him out, but he seemed unmoved.
Frustration crossed his features. “What’s it to me? Well, let’s see. Seth is my very best bud in the world—and he’s trying to bang the girl I want more than anything.”
Choking, I coughed hard, spraying pieces of pizza onto my plate like an idiot. Jett reached across the table and politely pushed my bottle of water closer to me. Taking it, I chugged for several seconds before lowering it and coughing some more.
“Are you okay?” Seth asked, appearing next to me, but all I could manage at the moment was a nod as the coughing continued.
“She just swallowed wrong,” Jett added casually, as if he weren’t at all responsible for my current state of distress.
Seth nodded. “Hey, I hate to bail, but my dad just called from work and he forgot some of his drafting paper and blueprints at home. He needs me to bring them to him and help him out with something really quick. Do you mind catching a ride back to school with Jett and I will meet you there?”
I tried to protest, but was still coughing too hard. Seth absently reached out and began pounding on my back.
“I can totally take her,” Jett volunteered before I could get a word out. “Not a problem at all.”
“Thanks, man,” Seth said, obviously relieved. “I’ll catch up with you both in a bit. It shouldn’t take too long.”
With one last pat on my back, he leaned over and bumped fists with Jett and was gone before I could even speak the word, “Bye.” Great. This was just great.
“Well, that worked out nicely, didn’t it?” Jett smirked, leaning back against the booth, spreading his arms out behind him. “Now we can have a little more alone time.”
“So help me, if you lay one finger on me, I swear I’ll kick your ass.”
Laughing heartily, he shook his head. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Why?” I glanced up as one of the football players walked by, headed toward another table. Lowering my voice, I continued. “So you can throw the fight again?”
“No. This time I’d let loose and give it to you good.”
“Then you have my permission to touch me.”
“Excuse me?” It was his turn to look surprised. “Did I hear you correctly? Was I just given permission to touch the Holy Grail of Witchiness?”
Gathering my plate, I nodded and stood. “Yep, but only because I’ve been dying to kick your ass.”
Laughter erupted from him once more. “I should’ve known you’re only interested in fondling my body parts. You know I’d let you do that without fighting, right?”
“I give up.” I muttered under my breath. Turning away, I didn’t wait to see if he was following; instead, I disposed of my items in the trash and headed downstairs to wait by his car. I couldn’t sit in there a moment longer.
Heading across the lot to where the sexy white Charger, with its masculine black racing stripes was parked, I leaned against it. I didn’t want to like the car because it was Jett’s, but I’d inherited my dad’s extreme love for all machinery that could be driven. I couldn’t hate this car any more than I could hate myself.
“Hey, watch the paint job!” Jett called out, pointing to where my butt rested.
“Whatever. You do realize the paint is actually dry, don’t you? It doesn’t stay wet all the time.” It was like a need with me—a need to annoy him to the highest level possible. For some reason he just got under my skin.
Coming around to my side, he paused to stare at me, casually glancing between my butt and the car. “The way I see it, either you move of your own free will, or I will happily come drag you against something else I’d love to have you lean against.”
Instantly I was off the car.
“See now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him as he popped the lock and opened the door for me. “Gee,
what a gentleman you are.” I batted my eyelashes furiously, as if I were stupidly twitter pated over him.
“Hey, uh, you’ve got something in your eye,” he replied snarkily, not even slightly put off by my act.
I gave a huff and slid into the car, leaning away as he closed the door behind me. Reaching into my bag, I grabbed my cellphone and pretended to read it. Other than a handful of old texts from Seth, there wasn’t really much else to do on my phone. My Facebook, while getting many friend requests after the fight, was full of a bunch of people I didn’t know. It’s kind of weird to comment on a complete stranger’s status when I’d never even spoken to them.
“Uh oh. No phones,” Jett said as he slid into the driver’s seat and neatly picked it from my fingers.
“Hey, give that back.” Lunging toward the phone, I was stunned into silence when it disappeared.
Sighing, I stared at him. “That’s not fair to use magic.”
“Why not? You’re just as magical as I am.” Without pause, he started the engine. That was promising, at least. Maybe he was finally sick enough of me that he was ready to ditch me as quickly as possible.
“Can I please have my phone back?” Holding my hand out expectantly, I waited.
Jett pulled from the parking place and out onto the street, heading in the direction of the school. “So you’re polite when you want something?”
“I’m polite all the time, except for when it comes to you, for some reason.”
“Why do you think that is?” he asked.
“What is this? Therapy? You’re an ass, that’s why. Now give me my damn phone!”
“No. I want to talk to you. If you’ll just pipe down and be decent, you’ll get your phone back when we get to the school.”
“You’re going to blackmail me into talking to you?” He really was an exhausting piece of work.
“If that’s the only way I can get you to, yes.”
“Why? I don’t understand why you feel the need to annoy me all the time.”
“I annoy you?” He sounded frustrated.
Looking over at him, I stared. “This can’t be news to you.”
“It is, actually. I haven’t been trying to annoy you.”