"You-" Megan began, but she was cut off.
"Megan," Tucker bit out sharply before a full argument could ensue, "Out. Now."
The other girl was about to argue, but she couldn't very well deny a direct order from her leader. Instead, she gave me one last withering look and I shot her the most dazzling smile I could muster in my exhausted state. She slammed the door to the office shut behind her. I turned my attention warily to the alpha now.
To my surprise, his eyes were twinkling in a mixture of amusement and something else. My throat grew thick under his gaze. Desperate to change the mood somehow, I nodded my head toward the door that Megan just left out of.
"Love her," I remarked sarcastically, "I think we'll be best friends."
Tucker's head tilted as he inspected my face. I wondered what he saw there. Neither of us spoke as the mixing our our energy in the room became tantalizing.
"Lou," he began softly and walked over to me. He sat on the small couch next to the chair I was in, only feet away. His close proximity made me anxious, I felt it like pin pricks into my arms. "What's going on?"
"I'm here to help you and your third-in-command was having some issues with my morale but she can shove her morale up her-"
"Lou," Tucker interrupted, "I know you better than that. Last night you were- you were shaking and screaming. Something is up and you're not telling me."
"I don't have to tell you anything," I bit.
He sighed, his face falling slightly as he looked at the ground and I began to regret my harsh tone. When he looked back up, there was a wistful smile on his face.
"I deserve that," Tucker nodded and continued, "whatever you're going through...you don't deserve to go through it alone."
I swallowed a little. He could tell. He could see that I was slipping. The exhaustion must have been more noticeable than I thought. But I thought of Sophia Angelos and Tilly. All of the witches and I had to know something.
"Do you know about the restrictions put on witches by werewolves?"
The expression on his face was enough to tell me what I wanted to know. His brows had furrowed and his face was scrunched up in confusion. His confusion was marked by the 'huh' he huffed out at my question. He knew nothing about it, and I decided that filling him in on some of his responsibilities wouldn't do either of us much good. I would have to ask Anna.
"Never mind, forget I asked."
The look of confusion hadn't left his face, but it was growing now into concern. "Is that what's wrong? Is that what your nightmares are about? You look- er rough."
He scratched the back of his neck and I rolled my eyes. I looked like shit, I knew, but it was always so nice to have someone else point it out.
"Gee thanks," I murmured sarcastically, then continued a little more seriously, "It's been awhile since I had a good night's sleep."
It wasn't technically a lie. It was the truth, it just wasn't the whole truth.
He reached out his hand, tentatively, asking with his eyes for my permission. My eyes went wide and I nodded my head-as if I could ever say no when he looked at me like that. Our skin touched and the exhaustion in me was slowly soothed. Still present, of course, but the electricity that crackled from our hands jump-started my heart.
He reached his hand up to my cheek, the pad of his thumb brushed over the bags under my eyes. My eyelids fluttered closed at his touch and I leaned into his palm.
"You worry me," he whispered, "And I don't- I'm not sure what to do to help you."
I ought to have pulled away. It was the right thing to do. Stolen kisses and stolen touches hurt worse than yelling at each other. I should have pulled away.
But I didn't.
Instead, I used one hand to tug his shirt and pull him toward me. I expected him to resist, to tell me that it was a bad idea, but he didn't. The thing that I wanted right now would help me for a little while. If he wanted to stop what was about to happen, then he had to be the one to do it. I had told him I wanted him at the festival.
And, it seemed, that he agreed- at least for now.
I was too tired of resisting, too tired of everything.
Instead, our lips met like the start of a good rain- slowly at first and then destructively. His hands tangled themselves in my hair as our bodies strained awkwardly in the separate chairs we sat in. Distantly, I felt his hands move to wrap under my thighs, but I was too lost in the feeling of his mouth moving on mine to notice.
That is until he swiftly lifted me from the chair and onto his lap. His arms wrapping around me, and my legs straddling him on the couch. A fire burned hot within me and the strength of the power on my skin was scorched by the vibrancy of Tucker's skin on mine.
His hands gripped my hips, squeezing tightly as my lips dropped from his mouth to his jugular and my hands tangling in the curls at the nape of his neck. I left hot, hasty kisses along the soft skin at his throat, nipping the sensitive skin as I went. The scent of him- teakwood and pine- was strong and it was addicting. One of his hands gripped my chin fiercely and brought it back to his mouth as his tongue sent sharp shivers down my back.
He bit my bottom lip, pulling it back slowly and my fingers trembled.
I had been gifted with god knows how much power. I was strong. I didn't faint or have to pay the balance after I used my abilities anymore. I was the dominant force over supernatural creatures and the energy that bound them.
But at that moment, when he was kissing me, I was completely under his control.
His hands moved to my shoulders, his lips never leaving mine, and pulled my jacket down my arms. Aching to limit the obstacles between us, I pulled it off quickly before my hands went to his shirt.
He helped me pull it over his head, giving me a smirk as I leaned back on his lap to admire him in all his shirtless glory. My hands spread themselves along his chest below his collar bone, my finger tracing the planes of muscle and bone.
His breath caught in his throat as sparks of energy from my fingers connected with his skin. Our eyes found each other, his hooded and mine wide, as I slowly drifted my touch down his chest, the pads of my fingers barely brushing his soft and dark skin. My fingertips trailed the hard muscle that ran down his middle, swallowing nervously as I neared the top of his jeans. My finger brushed along the edge, over a prominent vein. His eyes screwed shut as if he were in pain. A delicious kind of pain.
I removed my hand and his eyes shot open. A smirk formed on my face and I aimed it at him. I was in control again.
But not for long.
His hands cupped my thighs again and flipped us around on the couch so I was lying beneath him. He dipped low, his mouth meeting mine and his tongue overpowering and trailing along the inside of my mouth. My hands tangled themselves in his hair as he left razor-sharp kisses along my throat.
Swiftly, his hands went to the bottom of my shirt and I leaned up to let him pull it over my head. His breath and his hands stopped as my shirt fell to the floor. I was nervous, suddenly realizing that I'd never been shirtless in front of him before. He'd stopped kissing me, allowing my brain to work through millions of possibilities on why he'd stopped. Perhaps something was wrong. There was a strange look in his eyes and I wondered if I had enough control over my abilities at the moment to see what he was thinking without being swept away. He lifted himself up and I thought, for a moment, that he was pulling away.
Instead, he used one arm to hold himself above me and the other hand trailed the softest touches over my collar bone, on top of my chest. His hand paused over my heart, the warmth of his touch and the electricity of his body spread to my toes. A smile grew on his face.
"Your heart is beating really fast," he told me, his voice husky and breathless, but his smile was cheeky.
I rolled my eyes and responded just as starved for air as he was.
"You think?"
I felt his smile against my lips as he kissed me again swiftly before moving his focus to my chest. He began leaving a slow, achingly slow, trail of hot, wet kisses down my body.
My eyes struggled to stay open. I didn't want to shut them. I didn't want to miss a moment. A part of me knew that this was going to end, and I wanted to savor every image of it before it did.
This was different than Halloween. When we'd kissed in the alleyway, we'd both been angry and irrational. Neither of us had the capability to resist the other and it had ended in an explosion. But every time his lips touched my skin, I knew this time was different. We'd still been unable to resist the sting of electricty, but now he seemed resigned to it. There was a complete willingness that hadn't been there before.
His fingers undid the button on my jeans pressing a kiss to my hip and softly biting the skin, then soothing it with his tongue. I took in a sharp breath at the low dipping sensation in my stomach. He looked up at me and I practically melted into his hands. Softly, he dragged his nails down the smooth skin on my stomach and goosebumps covered my body.
He kissed along the line of my jeans, his bottom lip brushing a sensitive spot on my hip. My hand went to his hair in surprise, a small gasp falling from my mouth.
"My sunshine," he whispered against the skin at my hip, "I don't deserve you."
I couldn't speak. He was the only one who'd ever had that effect on me. The words I wanted to say, to reassure him, died in my throat as the gentle feeling of his fingers on my skin was like putting my body over an open flame.
When he looked down at me his eyes were dark, his smirk was cocky, and I was completely and willingly at his mercy. He pressed his lips to the soft skin above my jeans, a gentle kiss dangerously close to where I felt the desire for him grow. His breath was hot against my skin as his fingers worked the buttons on my jeans.
He stopped when a loud banging sounded on the door. Groaning, he lifted his head for only a moment to shout at the door.
"NOT NOW."
His lips reattached themselves to my hip, biting into the skin causing my heart to thump loudly and a shaky laugh to leave my lips. But the thumping came again.
This time, when he lifted his head his eyes sparked a vibrant blue.
"Fuck," he muttered to himself, then louder, "I said: NOT NOW."
Before he could even turn, the banging continued and this time a voice followed from outside the office door.
"Aisha's here. She's ready to see Lou."
The voice sounded vaguely like Jacob's but I was too dazed to process any information. Tucker sighed, visibly flustered. He crawled on top of me again so his face hovered over mine. His expression was far too serious and I sensed that he was about to ruin the moment...again.
So before he could, I pulled his face down to connect our lips in a slow, sweet kiss- much different than the fiery, electricity-filled ones from before. When he pulled away, his eyes were lighter, if only slightly.
"We're going to talk about this later," he said, trying to sound stern.
I made a face.
"Do we have to? We're bad at talking but we're good at- well," I blushed and motioned to his body on top of mine, "this."
Despite himself, an amused smile grew on Tucker's face. Instead of responding, however, he kissed me cheekily on the nose and rolled off of the couch. He buttoned his pants and shrugged his shirt back on. I frowned. I had liked it much better when it was off.
He picked my shirt up off the floor of the office where he'd haphazardly thrown it onto the ground and held it out in his hand. I grumbled incoherently as I stood, he smiled wistfully as he watched me get situated again.
Once I was fully dressed, I went to open the door but he pulled my arm back till I was pressed against his chest. The exhaustion from before had faded and now the only feelings that ran through me were the crackle of energy and the memory of the heat between us. He held my face in his hands and gazed at me with those gold-flecked eyes that held such power. He leaned his forehead against mine, our breathing, still irregular, mixed together.
"I didn't want to stop," I admitted in a whisper.
He chuckled lightly. My heart lifted at the sound.
"You have ruined me completely, Lou, and it's terrifying but I don't think I mind."
He pressed his lips to mine and this kiss, while short, sent shivers down my spine and stole the breath from my lungs. His words, I hadn't realized, were true for us both. My mind went back to the vision I'd first had of him- holding my heart in his hands. I'd known for a long time that Tucker Joy would ruin me. I hadn't, however, expected to ruin him as well.
"Did you guys fucking murder each other?" Ben's familiar voice yelled from outside the door.
We broke apart and I made a mental note to smack my best friend in the face. Tucker pulled away and went to open the door. I did my best to smooth down my hair as four people entered the office. Ben, Jacob, and Megan were followed by an unfamiliar woman with long braids down her back. She eyed me warily.
Ben inclined his head to me in greeting and I tried to act normal and give him a small smile, but when I did his eyes narrowed at me. I squirmed under his intelligent gaze. My cheeks were flushed and my lips were swollen and when I looked up again at Ben, he was biting down hard on his lip to keep from laughing.
"Aisha?" I asked ignoring my best friend, and the woman nodded. "I'm Lou, I'd like to help you."
Megan snorted in the corner and I barely paid her a glance.
"You can get my memories back?" She asked, her voice strong but her eyes were nervous.
I spoke softly, seeing that she still seemed shaken from what she'd experienced. If anyone could understand the fear and the strange guilt that came with killing someone, I definitely could.
"I can try. Or, I can see the memories myself. There's no reason for you to have to see them again."
"No," she cut in quickly, "I want them."
At that, I nodded my head. I understood the feeling of wanting to know everything, even if it wasn't good for you. I wished I could change her mind. She knew she'd killed somebody but she didn't remember it. She didn't know how lucky she was not to remember it. Sometimes ignorance was worth the pain of knowing.
But that wasn't my choice to make.
So, I took her outstretched hand.
—————
WE HAVE REACHED 70% SAUCY. Was it worth the wait?
What do they have to talk about?? What will Aisha remember?
Let me know your thoughts!!
Thanks for reading!
Stay safe. Be kind.