Page 49 of Poison Nights & Twilight Alchemy

“It doesn’t seem to bother the plants or birds,” Reed pointed out. “Unless they’re an illusion and in actualitywe’re surrounded by death and decay.”

“Ah, not the worst it could be then.” Dulce removed her cloak and untied her skirts—Reed spun from her to face the meadow.

“I’m not removing everything!” She laughed, and Reed glanced over his shoulder to find her cheeks flushed a deep pink. “My mother taught me a drying spell on rainy days years ago, when the washing was forgotten on the line.”

His throat bobbed as Dulce stripped away all but her thin black chemise, and he looked toward the meadow again while trying not to imagine what she looked like beneath the fabric.

“You can keep all of your clothing on,” Dulce called. “But I can’t promise your overcoat’s fur lining will thank you.”

Reed turned to find her wading into the pool until she lay floating at its center, her chemise clinging to her curves, a wide smile painted across her pretty features. He bit the inside of his cheek harshly to control where his mind was veering off to.

Once he gathered his wits, Reed chuckled. “You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“If this is an illusion, I’ll enjoy it before it fades!” she shouted at the blue sky above her. “Who knows when the next opportunity for a hot bath will present itself!”

Shedding all but his drawers, Reed entered the water, petals of flowers he’d trampled on his way swirling around him as he swam beneath the falls, his sore shoulders luxuriating under the force of the cascading water. He wondered absently if it was safe to be enjoying this astonishing place, or if the world was ending thecloser they journeyed across this cursed land. But as he watched Dulce, her joy so contagious, Reed decided that even if he died tomorrow, he would never regret coming with her on this mad adventure.

The horses grazed along the meadow, and Reed distracted himself from Dulce while he observed them, their tails swishing lazily in the fading afternoon light. As the water fell around him, Reed’s worries drifted away.

Exhaling, he let himself sink beneath the water, his body weightless, the current lifting him slowly back to the surface. Pushing his hair from his brow, he opened his eyes to find Dulce standing before him, close enough to touch, her golden-brown eyes shining like a million stars, her raven hair falling around her perfect face, water dripping to her parted lips.

They looked at each other in silence, Reed’s heart pounding, his blood scorching.

“Would you mind terribly if I kissed you?” Dulce whispered.

Reed blinked, certain he had misheard her. Was this some haunting ghost, trying to deceive him again? No, this was real, this was Dulce. He had almost kissed her lips twice before, yet here she was, askinghimto? It seemed impossible that such a thing could be true. He knew he was nothing but a swamp rat compared to this beautiful creature—however, Reed inched nearer to her and lifted her chin with his forefinger. He brushed his lips along her warm cheek, and she arched toward him as he dipped his other hand to her lower back, closing the distance between them. And then his lips,finally, captured hers.

Dulce sighed against his mouth when he drew her intohis arms, and she tasted of the sweetest nectar of any flower. While time seemed to stand still, Reed thought of nothing but this utopia of wanting. Wanting nothing but Dulce, more of her, all of her.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

DULCE

A kiss that could light up the darkest skies. A kiss that could ignite a million stars.

That was the only way to describe kissing Reed.

Dulce kissed him as though this were her last chance, which it very well could be if she didn’t get the witch to break her ghastly spell. As the lake’s water swished against her, her breasts pressed against the hard planes of Reed’s chest, her chemise and his drawers the only layers of clothing between them.

She threaded her fingers in his ivory hair and knew with certainty that if she didn’t end the kiss now, she wouldn’t leave this lake with him until morning.

Breaking apart from Reed, she bit her lip and fought a smile as she drew back. “Well, Mr. Hawthorne, you truly know how to sweep a lady off her feet.”

His lips were handsomely red and swollen, his chest heaving in sync with hers. “Why, Ms. Bancroft, I do believe you were the one who asked to kiss me, so it’s you who knows how to sweep a man offhisfeet,” Reed drawled.

Dulce laughed softly and waded through the water to the fall’s bank. Byzantium marigolds decorated one edge of the field, and she added cloves and cinnamon to the mix, invoking the element of fire in one of her mother’s favorite magical tricks until her chemise was dry. Next, she turned it on Reed, keeping her gaze strictly trained on his deep brown irises instead of his drawers.

The sun had begun to set by the time they were both dressed, and Reed tugged a lock of her hair as he said, “I’ll start a fire.”

The horses slept soundly while he gathered twigs and leaves, and she unpacked their provisions, determined to make them last the longest they could.

Dulce watched him light the kindling, his hands gentle and delicate despite the scars across them. She marveled at the thought that she’d never once been so exposed with any man as she was with Reed in the lake. How easily she had removed her clothing. Her behavior would be considered unladylike, scandalous for a woman of her station. Yet, instead of feeling ashamed, she found it to be rather liberating. After months of tiptoeing around Cornelius with barely so much as a few chaste pecks, her kiss with Reed was the one she’d wished had been her first.

They warmed their hands by the fire, and she ate dried fruit and hardtack accompanied by one of her poisoned berries.

The corners of Reed’s mouth curled up. “I really enjoyed kissing you.”

“Me too,” Dulce murmured, a kaleidoscope of butterflies swarming in her stomach.

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