Page 21 of Unmarked Magic

“Ah, hey,” I stammered, curling a hand around her waist. Her fucking curves. “I didn’t see you arrive.” I forced a smile for the benefit of this roleplay she had started. “Glad you made it.”

Her palm slid down my chest until it found my free hand. My entire body locked when her fingers slid between mine.

For the love of… I fought the urge to pull my hand from her grasp. I wanted to slam my eyes shut. This was all too much. I needed a fucking drink. Now.

“So sorry, I had this client who needed an urgent tonic and the mixture just wasn’t doing what I needed. It went all gross and…” She giggled. Red never giggled. “Oh sorry, I’m babbling. How rude of me. I’m Scarlet.” She turned to the group, and the majority acknowledged her arrival with a wave. The brunette eye gouged her with invisible claws.

I subtly pulled my hand from her grasp. “I’m just happy you could make it. The rest of the group is over the back.” I nodded to where I knew she had just come from. “We should join them.”

“Oh, of course.” She turned to the group. “It was nice meeting you all.”

The brunette looked to be plotting Red’s murder.

I led her to the opposite side of the bar where velvet curtains billowed from the roof, blocking our view from onlookers. To anyone else, it would look like we had gone to make out in private.

“Red.” I scrubbed my hand over my face. “What the hell was that?”

Color crept into her cheeks. “I was just trying to help.”

My jaw locked tight, my hands fisting at my sides. “You kissed me.”

This was so fucked up. I couldn’t afford to kiss anyone, much less her. Because I’d kept my attraction to her to myself the moment Colt had introduced her to me, unbeknownst to him, for the second time. When I realized she wasn’t some random girl sitting on a bleacher, but one of his closest friends.

“Wow, sorry, I didn’t think it was that bad.” She looked like I’d slapped her in the face with a wet fish.

“I. Don’t. Kiss,” I ground out.

“Yeah, but —”

“Hard no, remember?”

She stared at me like I was delusional, all potent eyes and confused brows. “You were serious?”

“Dead fucking serious.”

She didn’t miss a beat. “Why?”

I silenced her with a look that I hoped she would interpret as ‘never ask me that again.’ Because there was shit I didn’t talk about and lines I didn’t cross. For reasons she didn’t need to know.

A new soundtrack started to play, and its baseline pounded through the bar, mimicking my heartbeat. I instinctively wanted to be behind a drum kit to blur life into the background. But I hadn’t picked up a pair of drumsticks in years. Something about the way it forced you to surrender to the music completely felt too out of control.

I needed to be in control. Always.

“Okay, sorry,” she stammered.

She folded her arms around herself as she stared up at me, and I suddenly noticed how close we were standing. With her boots on, we were the same height, and I found myself lost in the smallest of details. Her irises were a mixture, like fall had dripped from a paintbrush, splattering hues of amber and moss in them. Behind her makeup, freckles scattered her cheeks, and I wondered why she would cover up something so naturally beautiful. She was fucking gorgeous. A danger to my burdened heart.

Red stared at me as if trying to figure me out. Gods, I needed to put space between us.

I made to walk away, having said all I needed.

“It won’t happen again,” she said, and I turned to find her slumped against the wall in defeat.

“You’re right. It won’t.”

Her eyes ignited with fire. “You don’t have to be a dick about it. Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy it,” she tossed back.

Usually, that tone made me chuckle. But, right now, it fired me up.