Page 50 of Witch You Would
I leaned in, closed my eyes, and... our foreheads bonked.
I flinched back, more from surprise than pain. My first time trying to kiss a guy in forever, and of course I’d messed itup.
“Sorry,” I said. “Are you—”
Leandro grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me.
Our lips pressed together softly at first, sweetly, his mustache tickling me. He smelled like sweat and apples and lavender and a little pepper. I put my palm on his chest and tilted my head, mymouth opening enough to taste a hint of the chocolatey dessert I must have missed. I wanted more, so I licked my way inside.
One of his hands slid to my neck; the other arm wrapped around my back. He held me tighter than he had in the studio, so Icould feel his muscles flexing through his sleeves. I shifted in his lap, trying to get closer, wanting more of my body totouch more of his. Was I rubbing against him like a cat? Maybe. I didn’t even know. My hormones, which mostly hibernated,had woken up and gone feral. My fingers dug into the pleats of his guayabera and grabbed fistfuls of linen. I kissed him andkissed him, and he kissed me back. It went on forever and not nearly long enough.
We broke apart to catch our breaths. Leandro looked like I felt, like we’d just stumbled off the teacups ride at the fairand everything was still spinning.
Something moved out of the corner of my eye.
The glass sculpture bloomed, opening to reveal an egg-shaped bubble, milky white and iridescent like an opal. As the lightcaught it, there seemed to be a shadow inside, like some creature was about to be born. I gasped and waited. Then the tendril-petalsclosed and went back to writhing as if nothing had happened.
“Wow,” I breathed. How many people had missed that because they’d wandered off too soon? How long did it take for the enchantmentto go through that state change? Or was it triggered by something environmental?
Oh no. My brain had started up again. Also: I was still in Leandro’s lap, his arm around my waist. Also also: I had just kissedLeandro Presto. The day after we had been told to pretend to be into each other.
Apparently we didn’t have to pretend very hard.
I stared at the sculpture, blushing. What could I even say to him? What was I supposed to do now?
Kiss him again? I mean, it was an option.
“Penelope,” Leandro said.
“Mm-hmm?”
“Do I need to apologize?”
Now I did look at him. His eyebrows scrunched together, and he’d leaned away just enough that I could wriggle out of his armsif I wanted to.
“No,” I said. “Do I?”
He smiled softly. “No way.”
Well, that was good. Wasn’t it?
My brain inhaled deeply and started to spew.
Now every time you look at him for the next two days you’re going to think about this kiss. You’ll be distracted and makemistakes. And then you’ll lose and Leandro’s charity will shut down and you’ll have to move in with your sister. Or worse,do the drive of shame back to your parents after you said you’d never, ever live with them again when your mother told younot to waste your life studying magic theory when you could major in something useful like your sister. Why can’t you be morelike your sister? Why do you always have to make everything so hard?
What about Gil? I’d spent months crushing on a guy, and all it had taken was two and a half days of nice-smelling, muscular,curly mustached distraction to make me jump to a new ship? I didn’t even know Leandro. His videos were clearly a front, sowho was he, really?
“There’s steam coming out of your ears,” Leandro said. “What are you thinking?”
Oh no, I’d made him feel bad. It wasn’t his fault my thought trains were actually thousands of corgis riding around on skateboards until they got distracted and started chasing bubbles.
“Too many things,” I said.
He rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you want to talk about it?”
No, I wanted him to kiss me until my thoughts went away again. Instead, I looked him in the eyes and my brain said helpfully:Gil has dark brown eyes, too.
“Later,” I said. “Talk later. We should... confessionals.”
