My legs still felt like Jell-O as I buried them under the blanket. The storm that lingered overhead all day finally unleashed itself. Thankfully, it didn’t take out the reception. Or maybe I shouldn’t be that thankful. If Eryn didn’t stop laughing, I was taking all the thanks back.
“It’s not funny!” I whisper-shouted. The last thing I needed was Ezra coming in here and hearing my best friend’s unfiltered opinion on what went down in that cave.
“You swore all last semester that you’d marry a worm-infested heifer off your parents’ farm before you let him near you,” she countered, still snickering. “Which is exceedingly overdramatic, by the way. Yet two months alone with him and he had his fingers—”
“I know exactly where his fingers were,Eryn. And again,no, I don’t want to hear about how his cousin has the same proclivities, the dirty, dirty things you both are into, and how I should start toprep. Nothing else is going in my ass, bitch. Nothing.”
She laughed so hard that she snorted. I fought to keep my lips from curling; this was a serious matter. I didn’t care that Ezra made me come harder than I ever had in my life, his finger in my ass was a one-time deal. One I was going to make sure he understood before he tried to get into my panties again.
“W-who knew you were s-such a prude,” Eryn gasped, her giggles still out of control. At my growl, she fought to contain them. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just ironic, okay?”
What was ironic was that I swore up and down never to settle for a playboy, and yet here I was, falling for one anyway. Granted, he was my bond and so fucking obsessed with me I didn’t have the slightest doubt that he was done with that life… but how could I be sure that anythingIfelt for him was real? It felt like I’d gone from hating him, to tolerating him, to attracted, toBAM; full-fledged feelings in less time than it took me to choose what scents to add to my body wash collection.
“For all I know, this damn bond is making me like things I wouldn’t normally be interested in,” I grumbled, and her laughter finallytrailed off. “I mean, we can feel each other's emotions, right? So what if I’m just feelinghislove of all things to do with my ass?”
“Hmm, nope,” she argued, popping the P for emphasis. I could picture her puckered face clear as day. “The bond doesn't work like that. It can’t make feelings and interests appear from nothing. Sure, you may get that extra intensity from his side, but his feelings won’t suddenly override or become your own. Does that make sense?”
Goddammit. There went my theory.
“Rani?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I answered. “So, what you’re saying is—”
“You liked his finger in your ass,” she deadpanned, and broke into giggles all over again.
Worse than that, I think I was in love with him.
The realization slammed into me hard enough that the world around me shuddered. Or maybe that was the storm. Did the power go out? The little lightning bolt on my phone said it was still charging, and the plug-in in the bathroom glowed as usual. So what the hell was that?
I was all for an epiphany having the ability to rock your world, but it didn’t have tangible effects like this. This was a stillness. A shift. Kind of like when the power shuts off and all the appliances in the house go silent; which is why I assumed that’s what happened.
The door to my bedroom swung open, and Ezra appeared, chest heaving like he’d run all the way up the stairs. I saw the whites of his eyes in the next flash of the storm and knew something had gone horribly wrong.
“Eryn, tell my cousin that we’ll be back home by morning,” he called, somehow knowing I was on the phone.
How much more did he know? Was helisteningto our conversation? But as Eryn’s panicked calls for Kai registered, my outrage faded, and fear weaseled its way in.
“We’re leavingtonight?”
Was that even possible? I glanced out the window; it was end-of-the-world level shit out there. If a coyote almost took us off the road, how did he expect us to fare against a flying tree?
“The second the roads are drivable, we’re out of here,” he replied, the phone in his hand lighting up with an incoming call. “The barrier is down. The house isn’t safe anymore.”
Shit moved real fast after that. I hung up with Eryn, who made me promise to be careful, then started grabbing whatever clothes I could reach and shoved them into my duffel bag. A few toiletries went next, but I honestly wasn’t paying too much attention to what I grabbed. Which was saying something.
Ezra told me to pack my things and bring them downstairs. The second the rain let up, we were loading the truck and takingoff. Hours later, it was still pouring outside, and I had a neat collection of bags ready to go.
I couldn’t help but stare out of each window I passed, the feeling of being watched something I couldn’t shake. I had to squint through the rain and prayed that this wasn’t a ‘they can see you, but you can’t see them’ kind of situation. No one in their right mind would be out there in this.
Not that any djinn I’d met so far were in their right minds, in my opinion.
Stop freaking yourself out and focus, Rani!
My mental scolding did nothing to curb the growing fear, so I went to see what else Ezra needed help with. His own clothes and a few other bags were already piled at the front door. When he came around the corner, arms laden with the large box he’d hidden in the front closet our first week here, I raised a brow. He still hadn’t told me what was in there.
“Don’t even think about peeking, babe.” He set it on the floor and stood in front of it with his arms crossed. “If you ruin my surprise, I’ll have to punish you, and right when you’ve been doing so well.”
My eyes narrowed. That was practically a dare. The asshole couldn’t covertly dare me to open something and then punish me for it, right? Who was I kidding? That’s one hundred percent something he would do, and take great enjoyment out of it too, I’d bet. I also bet that that punishment would have something to do with my ass. Swear to God, the man had a fetish.
