“Hey, Montana?” Clay popped in next to me, scaring the bejebus out of me.
I slapped my chest. “How are you able to teleport in here? I did it this morning and still don’t understand how. We aren’t supposed to be able to do that.”
“Au contraire, mi amore. We can teleport anywhere we want inside the magic bubble and even teleport outside the veil. We just can’t teleport back in. Believe me, I tested that theory. It’s true.”
“How’d you get back inside without a crystal?”
“It wasn’t for lack of trying. I was stuck on the outside for, like, ever until Stace came by and cut us in.”
“I didn’t notice you missing.” What did that say about me? Not noticing my boyfriend had disappeared? Another “go, me” and nomination for Girlfriend of the Year.
This time, he slapped his chest. “I’m crushed. Crushed, I tell you. I figured you were worried sick, pacing the entire magic bubble as the search party you sent looking for me combed the entire globe.”
“Overdramatic much?”
He laughed and kissed my cheek, then popped us out. Next thing I knew, we were back inside the treehouse. Only this time, my insides didn’t feel like they’d battled to exchange places with my outsides.
“I would like sex, please.” He waggled his eyebrows.
I coughed out a laugh in surprise. “Is that your version of seduction? Besides, we’re a little busy here.”
“All the more reason to take a break and get busy.”
19
Certain things in life were a given—being forced to learn something we’d never use like algebra, for example. There were also certain things in life to be expected—happiness, disappointment, the fact Clay Williams wanted sex at an inopportune time.
It was the latter that had me shaking my head and giving in to the hungry dance in his brilliant green eyes. I stepped into his personal space and wrapped my arms around his neck. It was wildly inappropriate timing. We had a crowd of Sentry members ten feet below us that would hear every little noise, every whimper, every cry. When he moved to kiss me, I hesitated.
He seemed to sense my unease and wrapped his arm around the small of my back, pressing our bodies together. “Hold on tight, Montana. I’m going to take you on a little ride.”
“What—oof.” We teleported out and landed in an area I didn’t recognize. I immediately panicked. Giant boulders surround us, shading us, shielding us from prying eyes. “Are we outside the veil?”
“Relax, Montana. I may act like I don’t have a brain half the time, but I’m not an idiot. We’re safe inside our magic bubble. As you can see, I’ve scoped out the perfect little hideaway. Our boy Bry helped me set it up. The rocks will act like sound barriers in case, you know, one of us cries out in the throes of passion.”
I pinched him on the back of his arm, and he hollered. No echo from his outburst. No one suddenly appeared to inspect the source of the noise. I nodded, impressed. “You’re right. It’s pretty soundproof.”
The words barely fell past my lips before his mouth was on mine. I curled my fingers into his shirt and pulled him closer. His kiss was relentless as he devoured me, swiping his tongue and searching for mine. I moaned and tightened my grip. He slid his thigh between mine, spreading my legs and giving me the perfect amount of friction to spring my clit to life.
And then he abruptly pushed me to the ground. I braced myself for slamming into, well, whatever was below me—I didn’t really notice at the time of arrival—but to my surprise, I bounced as if on a trampoline.
What the…
I didn’t have time to analyze the situation before Clay yelled, “Incoming!” I made an X with my forearms to protect myself just as he landed on top of me. We both bounced. Several times. He pulled me on top of him and looked up into my eyes. I lost my smile as I stared back. He brushed my hair away from my face and caressed my cheek in a rare moment of seriousness. “I love you, Katy.”
Hearing him call me by my real name and not his nickname for me sent my heart into spasms. It took me a minute to recover. “I love you too.”
“Promise me something.” He brushed his thumb across my cheek. “When shit hits the fan, and you know it will, you won’t do anything stupid like get yourself killed.”
Way to kill the mood, dude. I climbed off him and was surprised at how buoyant the ground seemed to be, like walking on the bloated floor of a bouncy house.
Not that I would know anything about that, mind you. I did not sneak into a bouncy house at a traveling fair after it’d closed and stay up half the night drinking with friends and bouncing around like teenage morons. That never happened despite what the police report stated.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
I gingerly walked across the unstable ground, wondering how he’d done this. I knew his control over air was impressive as hell, but I’d never seen him transform the ground into a bouncy house. “Are you doing this?”
“Doing what?” He sprang up and landed with both feet firmly planted, the impact knocking me off-balance. From ten feet away.
I nearly fell but shot my arms straight out to catch myself. “Holy hand grenade.”
Clay bounced again, and I widened my stance to keep from falling. He popped out and back in between my legs, grabbing my ankles and giving them a good yank. I fell back, half laughing, half shrieking, and spouting off a few of my favorite curse words on my way down. He rolled out of the way just in the nick of time, and I landed hard. He quickly pinned me.
I bucked him off, stood, and blew the hair out of my face. He wanted to spar, we’d spar. He
