I made no comment.
He reached for my jaw. “I’m the last thing you need in your life right now, Calli.”
I cleared my throat. Stuck my hands in my pockets to keep me from touching him. “Didn’t we have this discussion a couple hours ago? On the ground beside my house?”
“Can we talk a little bit more?” he asked, taking another step closer.
“You’re not the only one with baggage,” I said. “The day I met you, I had come here straight from Rowan’s clinic. I went to see her because I was convinced I was pregnant. I’d had sex with a shifter, and the condom broke and my period was very late. And I’m kind of fuzzy on the timing, but a day or two later, a spell my ex-husband had tattooed on my body almost burned a hole in my belly. I have teenagers, Tanner, and a job that means a lot to me. I just found out I have a grandfather I don’t remember ever meeting and that my father wasn’t the most loyal husband.”
My body had gravitated closer to Tanner’s as I spoke, until the fronts of our chests were touching and my fingers were looped through the waistband of his jeans.
“But you know what?” I continued. “I like how I feel when I’m around you. You wake me up to a part of me I want to know more about. And without the interference of that tattoo—which you removed—I’m feeling my magic in ways I haven’t felt since I was six years old.”
“Are you saying my crazy ex cancels out your crazy ex?”
“Totally,” I said, balancing on the balls my toes. I couldn’t see his face very well, other than the outline of the lips coming to claim mine.
The kiss I wasn’t ready for earlier blossomed into an electrical current, running its thrum and hiss between his torso and mine. I pressed closer, ready to own that Tanner’s response to me was something I deserved. And as I tilted my head, he slid his fingers through my tangled hair and held me tight.
His other hand grabbed the side of my butt and brought me against an alive and insistent part of his anatomy. I wrapped my leg around the back of his thigh, rolled my tongue over my top and bottom lips, and went for his mouth.
Tanner let go of my ass. With both hands now cupping my head, he danced us farther from the Pearmains’ front porch, deeper into the shadows close to the gate. My feet stumbled over the uneven ground even as my lips and tongue kept contact with his. When did kissing become such a frenzied thing? And wasn’t I supposed to be searching for Abi and Cliff?
Tanner’s back landed against the side of a truck with a thump. My eyes flew open. The laugh burbling up from my chest stopped short, and I opened my eyes.
This was his truck.
My hands were on the zipper of his pants, the top button undone. Tanner’s mouth followed mine as I broke away, leaned back, and pressed a finger to his lips.
“Tanner.” Guilt surged through me. Guilt and fear. Here I was, getting lost in Tanner’s kisses when I should be finding my friends. “Your truck is here,” I whispered, “and it wasn’t here ten minutes ago.”
He wrapped his arms around my back and held me close, his mouth near my ear. “Can you sense her presence?”
“I’m wearing my boots. But she hasn’t spoken to me, no.” I closed my eyes to the dark and listened. Tanner’s heartbeat quickened. His breathing was ragged, in and out through his nose. I caught the faint but familiar scent of mint. “Do you think she’s here? Is she looking for you or for the—”
Tanner pushed me away and clamped his hand over my mouth.
“Shh, Calliope. Don’t say it. Don’t think it.”
I expected his eyes to go all flickering gold on me. If they did, I didn’t see. His hand stayed on my face as he pivoted his body and tucked me under his arm. He again brought his lips to my ear.
“Take off your boots,” he whispered. “Now.”
With a shuffle, he released me, slipped out of his flip-flops, and bent to help get the boots off my sweaty feet. My toes reached for the ground and spread.
He. Is. Mine.
“Shit. She’s here.”
Before, the Apple Witch had broadcast her presence by sending her voice into my head. This time, she went for a grander entrance, stepping out from behind the curtain of night like a Vegas magician’s assistant.
Jessamyne in human form was as stunning as I had imagined. The waves of hair falling to her waist were the color of apple wood, the palest soft brown. Her wrap dress showed off voluptuous breasts and shapely legs. Gold bangles circled each wrist, clinking as she moved, and the air was redolent with apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
I had to take a deep breath. I was terrified of her deviant mind, yet I was staring at her breasts because she had one hand resting on her stomach area and the other just under her navel. Every gesture was clearly meant to announce one thing and one thing only.
The bitch was belly-cupping, a gesture familiar to every pregnant woman on the planet.
She grinned at Tanner, came to a stop, and let her hands linger before she pulled her hair away from the side of her face and twisted it into a loose knot at her nape. Hands on her hips, she dropped all pretense of a blushing, newly impregnated nymph and got to the point.
“Something tells me you two know one another.”
I ignored the comment. I wasn’t going to let her bait me into doing something stupid. Kissing Tanner wasn’t supposed to make me feel stupid, but right now? I had to shake off the lingering sensations and get my head into whatever game the Apple Witch was playing.