Page 18 of Seven is Swell

“For the love of the goddess, how long have you been in school now, eight years? You need to visit me more because I’m missing way too much. You bringing everyone home this weekend to meet them?”

“Yes, Adler. Here,” I say before opening up my texts from Papa Foster as I hand my brother my phone. I haven’t checked to see what Dad wanted me to tell him, but Adler just stares and then starts laughing, handing me back my phone. I’m curious.

“You're an asshole for walking all the way down here for that. Ten minutes,” he says as he hits the door frame on his way out.

The door shuts behind him and then I look at my phone to see a meme that my dear old dadso desperately needed me to show my brother that he asked me to walk all the way over here to deliver it. When a a gif of someone flipping off the camera in a very dramatic fashion plays, I feel really stupid for not looking at the message beforeagreeing to play messenger.

“Your family seems…interesting,” Spencer says as hetakes a glimpse at my screen.

Chapter Five

Spencer

Your family soundsinteresting?

That’sthe line I’m going with? To the girl that's been haunting my dreams with naughty things for the last week?

“That’s an understatement,” she says. “So, how do you want to do this?”

I start putting my sock and my shoe back on, trying to hide how bad it fucking hurts, wantingto maintain some sort of dignity. “Look, I appreciate the offer, but you don’t have to. Honestly, it was an accident. I’ll figure something out. Missing one game isn’t going to wreck me. I’m sure I’ll be fine by the next one.”

“Wow. You’re saying you’d rather deal with a sprained ankle than kiss me? I'm not doing so good here, am I? Well, if you’re sure…” she says as she starts to walk out the door.

Of course I see her tactic, she's trying to push me into calling her back, and I fall right into the trap. “Wait,” I call out because Istand and immediately realize I can’t. Now that I’ve been sitting for a few minutes, it’s even worse. How the hell did I twist it that bad from one simple fall? Maybe this is the goddess' way of forcing us together? I’ve always believed in that type of shit. Serendipitous situations that have no rhyme or reason to them that end up creating something wild.

“Yes?” She bats her eyes and has her arms crossed in front of her, her fingers linked down by her hips, so her incredible chest is kind of squished up even in her T-shirt.

Fuckshe’s gorgeous. Honestly, I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t notice she was a bodysmith. Not at first, anyway. It was her energy. “I have a confession to make,” I tell her.

The expression on her face when she looks at me is hard to decipher. Amusement? Suspicion? Undying love? “I’m listening.”

“That day, when I nearly hit your guy here with the football?”

“Let me guess, it wasn’t an accident?” Jackson asks.

“Oh, it very much was,” I assure him. “But I have a bodysmith somewhere in my lineage. Few generations back. Clearly I don’t have any of the characteristics other than my vaguely purple eyes, but that’s not my main magic presentation.”

“What is, then?” she asks. “You told me that asking about what you’re studying was too boring. I thought that asking about your magic was too personal, but now you’re making me feel like you want me to ask.”

“I can read emotions off people if I want to. I have to be touching them, and consciously look for the emotions, it’s not automatic. I didn’t cross any lines, just to be clear. When I touched you earlier? Yeah. I didn’t look. I promise. However, like you probably know, lust is different.”

She purses her lips. “So there’s a bodysmith somewhere in your lineage and you’re sensitive to emotions...” Then she starts laughing, remembering what she was up to right before the football came at them, most likely. It’s a joyful, tinkling sound full of pure amusement. I’m dying to touch her and see exactly what she’s feeling, but I won’t cross that line unless she invites me to.

“Yeah, well, you guys were kind of putting on a show. I didn’t have to be touching you or even be close to you to sense the insane amount of lust you guys were brewing up. You’re pretty potent, you know?”

She turns to her, I'm assuming mates or boyfriends or something… no. I look closer and notice they all have matching marks on their arms, so they’re definitely mated. Something I just simply can’t wait for, because to belong to somebody like that? Knowing you've found your place in the world? I can’t imagine there're many things better.

She runs a finger along each of their collarbones at the same time, and that potency I was just claiming ramps up. In such a small space it hits me even harder, and I almost want to curse whatever ancestor gifted me with this ultra sensitivity to lust, because it doesn’t do anything for me other than wind me up. It doesn’t refuel my magic like it might do for other bodysmiths, because there’s hardly any of it in my blood. Just enough so thatwhen somebody else is wanting, I definitely know. And right now, those two menwant.

“We are, are we?” she drawls, then she stands between them so all three of them are facing me, but she pulls one down to kiss her mouth and the other to kiss her neck. It's impossible to see such a display and not want to know what it’s like to be involved in it.

She saunters over to me, taking care to avoid my injured foot. “Now Spencer, don’t think this gives you carte blanche to re-injure yourself."

Oh my gods it’s like she can read inside my head.

“But because I was accidentally involved in this, and I don’t want you to miss your game, and you know, the whole brother aspect, which isn’t sexy at all…maybe I should go back to the kissing thing?” She turns and looks at her mates and that little bit of awkwardness sets me at ease.

She might seem unobtainable; everybody knows who she is. Daughter of our queen, who's in commune with the goddess, goddess blessed, goddess favored, handpicked even. But right now, in this tiny little office that smells faintly of sweaty socks, she’s just a woman that feels slightly weird about kissing a somewhat stranger. Even if it’s for ulterior motives.

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