Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

18: If I Tell You to Run, Then Run

That night, after the movie, Ollie retreated to her side of the bed. Legs tucked up and book immediately opening on her lap, she began reading about vampires until past midnight. I drifted off before she set the book down.

And when I woke up the next day, the bed was empty. Stumbling out into the living room, she was seated on the couch, book already in her lap and hair almost dry from having already showered.

With our holidays now in full swing, she seemed to be devoting her time to studying my world... our world.

So I got ready for my day, interrupting her here and there to give her a drink or food. She'd look up at me with a smile, mutter her thanks, then turn straight back to the book.

Three days it took her. Three days to read each book cover to cover, the final one—Basics of Bonds—closing with a soft thud as she set it down Tuesday evening on her nightstand.

I looked up from my own book I was reading, glancing at her expectantly.

She gave me a small smile then turned her attention to my text. "Jane Eyre?" she asked.

"You said it's your favourite," I mumbled.

She let out a soft laugh and corrected, "Favourite classic. I cannot pick simply one favourite book without—"

"Considering genre and series, I know."

Rolling her eyes, she adjusted her pillows and laid down, shifting onto her side to look at me.

I marked my page, set the book on my bedside table, and joined her, staring at her across the nonexistent pillow fort between us.

Slowly, I moved my hand up, an offer for her to hold it. But when she shook her head, and my heart dropped. 

Yet before I could completely feel dejected, she began to shuffle across the bed. Head burying into my chest, she wrapped her arms around me. "Don't worry," she whispered. "I'm not going to ask you to kiss me or label this... I get the gravity of it all. But I just want you to hold me for now."

And so I did. Pulling her tight against my body, I took in her warmth pressing against the length of me. Her legs tangled with mine as she nuzzled even further into my neck.

"Wow," she whispered after a while.

"What?" I replied, concern lacing my tone as my body went rigid.

"It really does feel nice... Like all worries disappear with a touch."

"Bonds... have their pros," I said back, relaxing back into her, resting my head atop hers. She felt so warm... so safe... so right.

"It was when we shook hands, wasn't it?" she mumbled.

I knew she was talking about when the bond invitation started. "Yeah."

"Can they call to you? Before that?"

"Not that I've read."

"Odd... Ever since you looked at me in our gothic literature class... I felt like I was always aware of your presence without having even touched you."

"Me too. I don't know what that was. I thought perhaps you were a siren."

Laughing, she said, "As in like a mermaid?"

"Kind of." I went on to explain the backstory of them, their ability to make you lust for them. "But you didn't have that effect on anyone else," I ended with.

"So you're just saying you were overwhelmed by my beauty then?"

Chuckling, I pulled back, staring into her emerald eyes as I brushed her copper locks out of her face. "You quite literally took my breath away when I first saw you. And I thought I was so pathetic having such a reaction."