rounds before finally falling into an immobile, sated sleep. When I woke, I roused Jocelyn for another before admitting that we should probably get back to working with our magic again. Even though I didn’t want to let her go yet. I’d spent a fair amount of time in my youth with my dick in my hand, imagining her gorgeous lips wrapped around me. The way she’d arch her back and moan my name when I was deep inside her.
My fantasies didn’t touch the real thing on any level.
Being with Jocelyn felt right, like nothing had ever felt in my life before. My friendship with Kyle, my place in my family, my role on this island, all of it had been a little too tight or snug or loose, but Jocelyn fit me perfectly. Like I’d known she would from the moment we met.
Everyone else was still sleeping. Though the clock on the microwave said it was just after twelve, I had no clue if that was AM or PM. Hours bled together in meaningless ways, time rushing at us so quickly, clocks ceased to be of any use. We did what we could with the time we had left, not taking a second of it for granted.
We quickly showered and I snuck into Kenna and Galen’s room to steal some clothes from them, since all we’d managed to make it out of the hotel with was what we had on our backs. In my rush to get out of their room before either of them woke up and accused me of creeping, I ripped whatever I could find off the hangers and left without looking.
I’d managed to grab two T-shirts and shorts that belonged to Kenna for Jocelyn, but failed to get my hands on anything more than a pair of Galen’s pants for myself. A misjudgment in the dark. Jocelyn seemed disappointed that I’d gotten ahold of cargo pants instead of another pair of gray sweats, and I gave her a wolfish grin as I tugged her against me.
“You know, you don’t have to rely on sneaking peeks at the outline of my cock anymore.” I touched her nose, loving the way it scrunched in annoyance with me. “I’m more than happy to give you the real thing anytime you want it.”
She slapped a hand against my chest to push me away, but couldn’t quite make herself do it, and pulled me in for a kiss instead. One of my favorite things about her. She was steady in a way that grounded the Gemini in me. I could be moody and flip on a dime, but her attributes perfectly balanced my flaws.
Taking her hand, I led her out to the backyard. The scent of overgrown grass and pine surrounded us. Fireflies blinked on and off as they danced at the edge of the forest. The moon hung bright and full in the sky, casting a silvery glow across the yard.
It was almost peaceful enough to lull me into believing there was no curse, we had no ugly past, and I was just enjoying a beautiful night with a beautiful woman. Almost, anyway. In the dark space between the trees, the curse lingered. Black smoke wove in and around the thick canopy of leaves overhead. Watching, but not daring to slink onto the property.
Jocelyn took my hand and shot out an illusion of Galen, burning bright with the killing fire he shared with Kenna. The smoke scattered. Blue light danced on her palm and her hazel eyes darkened to a brilliant green as a mischievous smile played on her lips. She was breathtaking. Stunning. And mine.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to drag your ass back to the greenhouse. Then we’ll never get anything done.” She licked her lips, her gaze tracking the corner of my mouth as it ticked upward, letting me know she wasn’t messing around. “Focus.”
“Is that a command for me or you?”
She gave me a withering stare. “Let’s just call it a good reminder for both of us.”
“Fair enough.”
She wasn’t wrong, we needed to start practicing. As much as I wanted to spend the next few minutes, hours, days making up for lost time, another earthquake would strike in a day or two. The curse was just gathering energy to make another push. It practically hummed in the air.
And while the curse’s smoke had all but vanished from the surrounding area, and I liked to think that illusion of Galen on fire had put a bone-deep fear of certain death into it, I knew it would be back sooner or later.
It hadn’t even tried to get near us while we were in the greenhouse, exposed, with our guard down, but I had been stupid to make both myself and Jocelyn so vulnerable. Everyone knew where we were, but we were well out of sight and earshot. I should’ve been more careful. More considerate of the current stakes. But I didn’t want my first time with Jocelyn to be in a crowded cabin with Finn and Kenna making wisecracks.
Last night had been just about us. The time we’d lost and the quiet promises we were making to each other to move forward. We needed to be alone. So, as reckless as that had been, I couldn’t bring myself to regret it.
“It’s quiet out here,” she said.
The trepidation in her voice had me pulling her tighter against me, wanting to do anything I could to make her feel safe. But she was right. It was eerily quiet. No chirping crickets or hooting owls or branches snapping in the distance. All sounds that were normal and expected this close to the forest.
“Maybe your illusion scared everything away.” But even as I said those words, they rang false in my ears. Nature didn’t give a shit about our magic any more than it cared about technology or the hustle and bustle of tourism season.
“I don’t think so.” She tapped a finger to her lips. “The curse knows my magic. It has to know that illusion wasn’t real. It might’ve scared it off for a moment, but why is it still keeping its distance? Shouldn’t it be hitting us with wasps and warthogs and whatever else?”
“I think it’s saving its energy for the next earthquake.”
While the curse hit the rest of the couples pretty hard with various weapons, it had mostly left us alone. It put on one show, but even that was a half-hearted attempt. Probably because it was conserving its energy. Which made sense. It could burn itself out trying to kill us when we had two healers and two smoke-eaters in close proximity. Or it could race us to the finish line and try to sink the island before we figured out the last piece of the puzzle.
“I think we should take advantage of the quiet time, even if I don’t like it.” She touched my cheek, concern in her eyes. “We got next to no sleep last night. Are you up for this?”
I shrugged. I would’ve preferred going to bed, though not to sleep. But we’d have plenty of time for other activities later. For now, she was right. The curse wasn’t messing with us, which meant we had free rein to practice as we pleased and plenty of open space to test the limits of our magic without breaking anything.
“I want to try something a little different. I can cast illusions without issue, but so what? Shouldn’t there be something more to this than scaring away a few puffs of smoke?” She bit her lip as she looked around the yard for inspiration. “Hold on.”
She ran to the edge of the forest and came back dragging two branches the size of small trees that had fallen into Kenna and Galen’s yard. She grunted and her arms flexed under the strain of tugging them across the grass.
“I could’ve levitated those over here,” I said.
“No, I don’t want your magic to get a feel for them yet. I’m going to set the two of them down and add a third from my mind, then I want you to try to lift each of them individually.”
I watched Jocelyn as she carefully arranged the two large branches a good distance apart on the grass. She stood up and surveyed her work, then turned to me and smiled. Warmth bloomed inside me. This was what it felt like to fall for a fire sign.
Though I didn’t see how her experiment with the branches was going to work, or what she hoped to accomplish. I had little control over my magic, so I’d probably end up lifting the two real branches off the ground at the same time and leaving her illusion on the ground.
“You do know your branch is only a trick of the eye, right?” I kept my tone light so I wouldn’t give away just how pointless I found this whole thing. Despite our night in the greenhouse, our trust was new and tentative, and I couldn’t joke around with her like I used to. “I can’t lift something off the ground that only exists in your mind.”
“Yes, thank you for that astute observation.” She pursed her lips, giving me a look that suggested it was my job to stand here, keep quiet, and look pretty.
She finished placing the second branch where she wanted it, then dusted her hands together. Her cheeks were flushed with the effort, and I recalled the way she blushed when she came. Instantly, my cock was hard and the cargo pants weren’t much better at concealing my reaction to her than the sweatpants had been.
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “What?”
“What what?”
“You’re looking at me like I’m not wearing underwear.”
I approached her, moving with the kind of stealth grace I’d learned from spending my life preparing for quick exits. Wrapping a hand around her back, I yanked her against me. “I know for a fact you’re not wearing underwear right now.”
Her cheeks flushed to a deeper shade of pink. My favorite color. “I’m not, but you’re looking at me like you shouldn’t know that and do anyway.”
I couldn’t help myself, I needed to get another taste of her. Just a little nibble. Running my lips along the curve of her neck, my teeth bit into her soft flesh. The scent of lemon that always seemed to cling to her filled my senses. Her short gasp had my cock straining painfully against the pitiful confines of these borrowed pants.
She put her hands on my chest, her palms glowing brightly with that brilliant, comforting blue light. “Maybe you should see if you can borrow a shirt from Galen.”
“Only because you find me distracting,” I smirked. “And we really do need to focus.”
Everyone else had woken up and they were sitting on the back porch, sipping coffee and talking amongst themselves, not paying us any mind. Kenna watched me with a narrow-eyed glare as I approached and asked Galen if I could borrow a shirt.
I tilted my head at her, not one to back down from what was clearly a challenge. “You got something you want to say to me, Kenna?”
“If you break her heart again, I won’t hesitate to light you on fire next time.” She said it calmly, smoothly, and I had no doubt she’d do it, too.
Galen opened his mouth to say something, his sense of loyalty to me as strong as Kenna’s to Jocelyn, but I held up a hand to stop him. “If I break her heart again, I’ll not only let you do it, I’ll seek you out and ask for it myself.”
She nodded. That seemed to satisfy her. Shaking his head, Galen stepped inside to grab a shirt. He came back out and handed it to me, and I pulled it over my head without checking it out first. When Kenna choked on a laugh, I glanced down and gave Galen a bland stare.
The T-shirt was neon orange with a picture of a man reeling in a fish, and the words “Master Baiter” written above in bold black script. It had been one of Finn’s many attempts to get a reaction out of our literal brother, but Galen wore the shirt around town like it was no big deal, oblivious to the joke.
“Thanks,” I muttered, wondering how I could slip a laxative into his coffee.
“No problem.” Galen slapped me on the back to send me on my way, and the glint in his eye told me he wasn’t completely oblivious to the joke.
Jocelyn took one look at the shirt Galen had given me and burst out laughing. “Oh my God. What did he do to you?”
“It’s the quiet ones you need to watch out for,” I grumbled.
“Poor baby.” She cupped my neck and rubbed her thumbs over my jaw in sympathy. “I have another shirt you can wear, but I have to warn you, I’ve slept in it every night for the last four years. The fabric is a little thin.”
I rubbed my jaw. “How did you end up with this shirt?”
“There was this guy in high school who let me borrow it. I had an enormous crush on him, but he had no idea. I sort of forgot to give him his shirt back.”
“Oh, yeah?” The corner of my mouth kicked up. “Was he hot?”
“The hottest.” She rubbed her hands over my chest. “He knew it too, but for some reason, he didn’t think I looked at him that way.”
I brushed her hair behind her ears. “Maybe because you saw him as more than a snack or a temporary good time. Maybe you always made him feel like more.”
Tipping her head back, I kissed her with the kind of all-consuming energy that made me forget everything except the two of us and how perfectly we fit together.
I pulled back and smiled at the dazed look on her face. This woman had me completely spellbound and she had no idea. “Practice,” she hummed. Then appeared to come to her senses as she jumped back from me. “Oh, God. I forgot all about practicing. What are you doing to me Rafe Wilder? Stop distracting me with sexyface.”
I gave her a solemn nod. “Doing my best.”
“Okay.” She maneuvered me to where she wanted me in the yard. “You stand here. Now lift each of the branches and let’s see what happens.”
She grabbed my hand, our light sparking between us. Focusing my energy on the branch on the far left, I willed it to move. The power to lift and bend the branch to my will surged through me. It lifted into the air, and I flipped it over a few times, giving a circus-worthy performance. Everyone on the porch clapped and cheered like I was a sideshow attraction. But I wasn’t doing this to entertain. I flung the branch back toward the woods. It made it about halfway, which let me know the range of my control.
Next, I focused on the middle branch, but it didn’t have any weight or texture. My magic dismissed it as nothing more than air. That was Jocelyn’s illusion. Though she didn’t seem surprised or disappointed when I quickly moved on to the last branch and flung it halfway across the yard with the first one.
“The branch still on the ground is obviously yours.” I rubbed her shoulder. “I could tell right away. My magic didn’t recognize it as anything more than air.”
“I expected as much. For now.” She kept her eyes tightly focused on the third branch on the ground, pushing more of her power into it.
The magic that flowed from her also twined around mine, giving me an extra boost of control. The branches that I’d flung across the yard lifted off the ground again. From this distance, I couldn’t get as steady a grip on the branches as I’d had up close. They bobbed and weaved haphazardly over the grass, but managed to make it another twenty feet before they were once again out of my range of magic and dropped to the ground.
Jocelyn murmured words of encouragement to me as she continued to focus in on her illusion. Since she hadn’t told me what this experiment was intended to prove, I began to play with my power. Twisting my wrist, I lifted a rock and sent it zooming through the air on a whim. Unlike when I’d launched myself and Jocelyn off her balcony, I had much better control over objects within a certain range. And the more my confidence grew, the better my control.
Deciding to take it another step further, just for fun, I directed my magic toward the back porch. Winding it around Galen’s dick-shaped coffee mug, I plucked it out of his hand just as he’d lifted it to his lips to take a sip.
“Hey,” he yelled. “What the fuck was that for?”
“You have a hundred T-shirts asshole. Your fault for assuming there wouldn’t be payback.” I caught his steaming mug in my hand and took a drink just to piss him off.
“Dude, you’re the one drinking out of a giant cock,” Finn said. “Pretty sure the joke is still on you.”
I directed my magic at Finn and ripped his coffee mug out of his hand, flinging it to the other side of the yard, where it bounced on the grass, spilling dark liquid into the dirt. “Does anyone else want to test me? Because I could do this shit all day.”
They all shot me annoyed looks, but no one said anything else.
“Since Rafe took all the fun out of this little gathering…” Finn stood and stretched, rubbing a hand over his stomach. “I’m going to go make myself useful.”
The edges of Jocelyn’s magic strained against mine, letting me know she was almost tapped out. She released her magic, and the fake branch she’d been toying with instantly disappeared. The outline of the golden woman didn’t appear this time, and I got the feeling that was on purpose. That she was only for us.
Dropping her hand, I let go of my magic too. “Okay, so that was fucking awesome.”
I stretched my arms over my head, shaking off the last of the energy that flowed through me. I should’ve been worn out, but I was energized. Not uncontrollably horny, just pumped up on adrenaline. Though I wouldn’t have said no to sex right then.
She gave me a faint smile. “I’m glad it went well for you.”
“But not for you?” I asked. “What are you trying to do anyway?”
“I’m trying to get my illusion to become solid enough for you to pick up.”
My brow furrowed. “Why? That’s not really what illusions do.”
“I know.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “I can’t help but feel like I’m supposed to do more than that, though. What I can do, what we can do together, it’s important. I can’t make my illusions solid right now, but the ability to do so is in me.” She pressed a hand against her stomach. “I can feel it. And if I can do it, doesn’t it stand to reason that I should be trying to make it happen?”
“Absolutely.” I put my arm around her shoulder, pulling her against me, and kissed the top of her head. “I’m just not sure why.”
“I’m not either, but it’s worth exploring.” Her stomach rumbled and she slapped her hand over my mouth. “Not one word. I’m hungry.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I mumbled from behind her hand. “Let’s go see what we can dig up from the abysmal offerings in Kenna and Galen’s cupboards.”
As I took her hand to lead her back to the cabin, the ground began to shake beneath me and the grass rippled like waves on an ocean. Jocelyn looked at me, her eyes widening with confusion and fear as her grip on my hand tightened. The shaking intensified. The vibrations reverberated through my body. We stumbled around, trying to keep our balance, as the trees swayed and the ground trembled beneath us.
Suddenly, the earth between our feet split open. I shoved Jocelyn to the side, protecting her body with my own in the fall. A large spray of ocean water shot out of the chasm and into the air before raining down on us. Covering her head, I held her against me and waited for the world to stop breaking apart.
