Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Despite it not being real, I felt goosebumps prickle up on my skin at the intensity of his gaze.
My belly flip-flopped at the way his eyes went to half mast, and he pushed aside the book, then patted the desk.
My sex clenched hard.
Then I watched myself walk toward him, the pace slow, a wedding march, a tease, a love scene.
I rounded the desk, sliding between Nathaniel and it, then scooting up onto the surface.
Reach out I silently demanded, then watched as the fantasy me reached for the arms of Nathaniel’s chair, drawing him closer.
A growl moved through Nathaniel at that.
Through both Nathaniels.
That had just been a coincidence, right? The whole ‘reach out’ thing? It was just a natural progression of the fantasy.
But… but what if it wasn’t?
Before I could test the theory, though, Nathaniel’s gaze moved out, teasing the sides of my ankles, moving glacially upward, taking the material with him as he went.
I could feel the touch, felt my own skin warm, my own pulse quicken, my own breathing go fast and shallow.
His hands got to my knees, the material ruched up, exposing my calves.
Nathaniel’s hungry gaze lifted to mine, waiting.
In my mind, I saw it unfold.
My legs spreading, him slipping between…
Then that was exactly what happened in the crystal ball.
My thighs parted inch by inch, a silent invitation.
The growl moved through both Nathaniels again, making my belly flutter.
Then, in the vision, Nathaniel’s head ducked.
His lips met the bare skin of the inside of my knee.
A shiver racked my system. I swore I could feel him right there as well. As he moved upward, inch by delicious inch.
Soon, his head had disappeared beneath the filmy fabric, and all that was left was the sensation as his lips and tongue meeting the ultra-sensitive skin of my inner thigh.
A whimper moved through both of me as the crystal ball me leaned backward, pulling her knees up, and resting her feet on the arms of Nathaniel’s chair.
He made the delicious little rumbling growl again, but this time, I could feel it vibrating against the crease of my thigh, could feel his warm breath on my panties.
Breath?
No.
No, vampires didn’t breathe.
It was that little fact that had the crystal ball suddenly start to fog up again, drawing inward like a curtain to force the fantasy away.
Just me, though.
At my side, Nathaniel was still rapt. His hand was crushing mine as desire bloomed through him.
My own responded.
But this wasn’t the place. It wasn’t the time. It wasn’t real.
My hand wrenched from his, making his head turn, watching me with hazy eyes for a moment before they slowly cleared.
“It’s not real,” I told him.
“What?”
“What you’re seeing in the crystal ball. It’s not real. It’s… I don’t know what it is.”
“What did you see?” he asked, brows scrunching.
“The same thing you did,” I admitted. What was the use of lying? We were in this dangerous labyrinth together. We had to be honest with each other.
“The library?” he asked.
“The library, the nightgown, everything,” I told him.
“That makes no sense,” he said.
“It does,” I said. “If you don’t think of the crystal ball as a normal divination tool. What if we aren’t seeing the future?”
“What else could we be seeing?”
I glanced back at the crystal ball, watching a small break in the fog. Behind it… a stack of pizza boxes. As my stomach let out a growl.
“It’s showing us our desires,” I admitted, finding it hard to look at him as I confessed to desiring that scene in the library just as much as he had.
“What purpose does that serve?” he asked, glancing back at the ball, but the confused look on his face said he was just seeing the fog as well.
“I think it’s a test.”
“What kind of test?”
“To see how badly we want it.”
“Want what?”
“Whatever it is you’re seeking at the end of the labyrinth,” I told him. “The problem being, of course…”
“That we don’t know what it looks like,” he filled in for me.
“Yeah, exactly.”
“We could try focusing on the feelings of success and relief at finding it,” he suggested. “Of walking out of the maze and back into our lives.”
“That… that might work. It’s more about the feeling with magic than anything else,” I said, offering him my hand again.
“We just stare at it?”
“Yeah, like… you know how you daydream in your head? Kind of, like, project that toward the ball. Hopefully, it will show us… something that we can use to keep going.”
With that, we both fell silent as we focused.
I imagined the maze again, following it around until we hit a center where a table was situated. On it, I conjured up a spell jar. I mean, these were witches who created this labyrinth, after all. Spell jars and potions made the most sense to me.
I imagined reaching for it, then handing it to Nathaniel.