Page 17 of Once Charmed, Twice Cursed
My body lights up, new pathways igniting along every nerve. My stomach tilts, tipping me toward some fiery precipice I didn’t even know existed.
Jack makes a noise deep in his chest. It’s not a moan or a groan, but something greater. Something starved. It’s a miles-long yearning, compressed into sound.
That, more than anything else, makes me come undone.
Logic deserts me. I don’t pause to watch it go. Our exchange turns ravenous, Jack’s tongue parting my lips and plunging inside. He maps my mouth as his hand rises to cradle the back of my head, and the searing heat of it pulls me up on tiptoes. I fist my hands in the softness of his shirt, trying to anchor myself, but I’m lost. Adrift in the satin thrust of his tongue.
Instinct demands I press the length of my body to his. Jack responds by walking me backward until the backs of my knees meet the plush carriage bench. Then he’s lowering me, his solid weight settling against me, one hand pillowed beneath my head as the other skims down my body. I hoist my legs up around his hips. A hungry rumble tears from his chest as he deepens the kiss, and I answer with the wanton moan climbing from my throat.
My skirts ride up. Our position is downright indecent, but it doesn’t matter, absolutely nothing matters except the way this man kisses. It’s like a storm is breaking inside him. Like we’re falling into a bottomless abyss and I have no desire to resurface.
It’s like he actuallywantsme.
I shudder, arching against the delicious friction of his hips grinding into mine. Goddess help me, I’ve never been kissed like this. Not by Theodore, not by anyone. I’ve only ever experienced anything this unchecked in my most private, aching dreams.
Then I feel it. What begins as a tingle in my tongue spreads outward, a hum that sets my nerves abuzz. At first, the sensation blends with the layers of intensity detonating inside me. Except this part…this is familiar.
I’ve felt it before.
My eyes pop open. Jack must notice something amiss, too, because his lashes whip apart. His mouth releases mine, all at once, and he rears back an inch.
Energy crackles as our lips part.
Silence crowds the carriage. My chest rises and falls. His does, too, his breath no more than a ragged tumult. His enormous body molds to mine in a way that lets me know he is very,veryturned-on by this.
“Shit,” he says. Shadows lance across his face, but I can still track his gaze as it races over my skin. But we aren’t touching anymore, not with all this black fabric in the way.
I unwrap my arms from his broad back—slowly, so as not to spook him—and slide my hands into the scant inches between us. His shirt laces at the neck, so I ease the tie through the eyelets and pull the thing open.
Then I stare. Stare some more. There’s just enough light left to confirm.
My eyes lift to his. Our gusted exhales entwine.
“You’re a Null,” I say.
Chapter Seven
Jack drops me onto the bench seat and rockets away like I’ve burned him.
“Wait,” I say. “Where’re you?—”
“I’m sorry,” he pants, and then he’s flinging himself through the carriage door, yanking it shut behind him. He just...leaves me there, flat on my back, my skirts hiked up around my hips. Quiet flames pulse beneath my skin.
I stare at the ceiling. What the hell just happened? Never mind that a man has never touched me like that—how did I not know there’s another Null in Pine’s End?
Questions swarm me, so rapidly I can’t make sense of them. I eventually straighten my skirts and right myself, then smooth down my hair with shaking hands. When I open the carriage door, Jack stands across the clearing, his back turned. He’s little more than a black blot amid umber shadows, but his stance is filled with so much regret that I can’t miss it, even in the dark.
“I’m sorry.” His gruff baritone captures a wealth of feeling.He turns his head, though not enough to look at me. “I don’t know what happened.”
A beat passes. “I kissed you,” I say. “Which you were...not averse to, apparently.”
His back flexes, his shoulder blades flaring like wings. He doesn’t answer.
I step down from the carriage, careful not to catch my wedding dress on the footplate and go tumbling face-first onto the ground. With a Null standing fifteen feet away, it’s a distinct possibility. “And I...didn’t exactly hate it, either. Actually, if you really want to know, that was the most?—”
“I don’t.”
The desperation in his voice shuts me up. “What?”
