Page 10 of Cursed Touch
“Oh, he’s hot all right, but nah, he’s not right for me.” Georgia sat back in her chair and took a deep pull of her wine. “So you haven’t met anyone new? What about Tyler on your floor?”
Vanessa leaned forward with wide eyes. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I forgot to tell you!” She caught her friend up on finding Tyler injured and meeting the sexy-as-sin Dr. Tingles. Her body warmed, and her thighs clenched tightly as desire pooled between them at the memory.
Georgia pushed her water toward Vanessa. “Take a drink, Nessie. You’re all sorts of flushed just talking about this man.”
She chugged, but the ice water did nothing to soothe the fire burning in her belly. “I don’t know what it was about him, Georgia. I’ve never reacted so strongly to a man.”
“And you have no idea what his name is? Do you think Tyler might know?”
She shook her head. “No idea, and well, Tyler got pretty cagey about his bite. I swear I thought he was going to die in my car and then hours later, I was driving him home.” Vanessa bit her lip in thought. “I guess it’s another strange event. It’s like aliens have swooped in, and we have a case of pod people.”
Georgia shifted in her seat, and her eyes shifted around them. “You can’t seriously still believe that.”
Hurt clouded her eyes. “You don’t believe me…”
Georgia leaned forward. “I believe you, honey. Let’s say you are right. What if the wrong person hears you and… I don’t know. I don’t want anything bad happening to you. That’s all.”
Chapter 6
“I’m here for a gift,” he told himself for the hundredth time. Carter stood before Enchanted Ever After’s large windows, peeking into the “boutique,” as his sister had referred to it. Most pedestrians passing him on the street probably assumed he was window-shopping, checking out the display of trinkets meant to entice passersby.
He wasn’t.
His heart raced, his pulse thumping against the skin at his neck. He licked his suddenly dry lips and swallowed thickly. Running a hand over his face, he exhaled and then sucked in a deep breath.
“Quit being a coward!” he chided and stepped toward the door. His slick palm pulled the handle, and he stepped inside.
Soft music flowed throughout the shop, and he breathed in a flowery scent. The space was inviting and peaceful.
“I’ll be right there!” a woman said from out of sight.
He wondered if it washer. A couple weeks had passed since he saw her at the hospital. The clear memory of a spark he had experienced at their touch remained at the forefront of his mind, but her face and smell had blurred over time.
Carter forced his feet toward a random display so he would not look like an idiot gawking around the store. His hands shook with each step, and his body hummed with an unseen pulse of energy.
Before him was a case of earrings. He tried to remember if Andrea’s ears were pierced and mentally kicked himself in the ass for not knowing. She had been a part of their family for years, and he did not know her favorite restaurant, let alone if she wore earrings.
He pulled out his phone, opened his messages, and clicked on Brandy’s name. He sent her a text and sighed as he moved to a display with bracelets.
“Please let me know if you—” Her eyes widened, and her lips parted as their gaze met. Her throat worked as she swallowed hard, and his ears began to ring at the sight of his mysterious woman. “If you needanything…”
His mind went to dirty, sexy images of her fulfilling his needs. Her pink tongue darted out across her lower lip, and a sweet blush crept up her neck and to her cheeks. He needed to say something, rather than continue standing there like some dolt.
Sucking in a breath, he relieved the pain forming in his chest from holding his breath at the sight of her. “Hi…” He nearly winced at himself for his inadequate greeting. “You’re the woman who brought her boyfriend in with the bite.” He mentally patted himself on the back for sounding like the intelligent man he was.
“You’re Doctor T… the doctor who helped him.” Her voice was shaky, and Carter could not help but deflate when she did not correct him.
A pang shot to his heart, and he regretted coming to see her. It would only freshen the feeling she was someone to him. If she was taken, he would not be that man. There were not enough sparks in the world to allow himself to do such a thing.
Taking what wasn’t yours was what had caused the women in his family to be cursed—before Brandy and Ryan had been able to end it.
Refusing to look like a dick by running out, he stared, unseeing, at the jewelry in the case in front of him. He really could use a gift for Andrea that was not another gift card.
“Are you shopping for yourself or someone else?” she asked, taking another step in his direction.
The damn invisible thread between them urged him to close the distance. “Someone else,” he said, and he could have sworn he saw a flash of something cross her face. Could she feel jealousy toward a woman who did not exist?
Boyfriend,he reminded himself before he looked too far into her expression.
