Free Jumping in Puddles by Barbara Elsborg Page B

ever beyond hope,” she said firmly.
    Black square. “Really?”
    She sighed. “Well, unless you’re in the middle of a shark-infested sea and bleeding profusely. I think things would be pretty hopeless then.”
    White square. “Is my house doomed?”
    He puffed hot air onto Ellie’s lips. “Am I doomed?” he whispered.
    “Ah,” she choked out. “I’ve had a few ideas. Let me think about it, make some calls, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Now she was the one who wanted to pull back.
    “I can’t wait until tomorrow.” He grabbed her face with both hands and kissed her.
    Ellie felt as if every molecule of her body had been charged with electricity and blasted into the sky before plummeting to earth and slamming back together. Pummeled head to toe by lightning-fast strikes of sexual excitement—every one of which arrowed to her groin—she lost her ability to think and could only respond.
    His soft tongue trailed along the line of her lips, and when Ellie opened her mouth and let him in, what had seemed magical before now erupted into a blaze of colors inside her head, the spectrum exploding in every direction. Jago sagged slightly as if he’d feared she’d pull back, and Ellie moaned low in her throat, fearing he’d let her go, but he wrapped his hands around her and held her tight.
    He explored her mouth slowly, feeling his way over the edges of her teeth, circling the tip of his tongue over the fleshy pads of her cheeks, skating up and down the bony curve at the top of her mouth—an action that made her wriggle against him so he did it again. Ellie made her own journey of discovery, her tongue dipping and diving, sliding alongside his. She nibbled his lips with her teeth, licked until he groaned into her mouth. Jago tasted sweet and strong and sexy, and she wanted to kiss him forever.
    Hot and gentle slipped into fast and greedy. Jago pulled her closer, grinding the hard ridge of his cock against her belly, rocking into her. When his arms slid down her back and his fingers curled under the bottom edges of her shorts, she reached for his hands, threaded her fingers with his, and pressed their entwined hands against their hips. If he touched her between her legs, she’d collapse.
    They pulled back for oxygen though didn’t move far. Foreheads glued together, they breathed each other’s air, their noses bumping, tongues darting out to flick a mate. Then Jago’s tongue was back inside her mouth, surging back and forth in an imitation of sex that wound her up like a mechanical mouse. Ellie feared she’d fizz in circles when he let her go.
    She didn’t. She staggered back and collided with a chair. The knowledge that someone was knocking at the door filtered through into her head, and as she watched Jago pull himself together, she did the same. He dragged his fingers through untidy hair Ellie would have loved to style for him and pulled his shirt straight.
    When Jago opened the door, two guys stood there.
    “Good morning. We’re from Robertson’s. We’re surveying for Jeff Preston.”
    Jago sighed. “Oh yes.” He turned to Ellie. “Sorry. I have to show them round. I’ll see you later. Okay?”
    She tried to tell herself it was for the best they’d been deprived of the opportunity to go further but failed to convince herself. She almost left the house until she realized this was an opportunity to look for the Kewen. Before thinking stopped her, she sneaked back to Jago’s room and started to search. And while she searched, she tidied.
    Ellie rarely used her magic. She suspected out of the six Norwoods, she used hers the least. Her father expended his searching for the Kewen. Her mother held the family together with hers. She had no idea what her brothers did with theirs. They no longer lived at home, but Pixie used hers up fast. Her younger sister said she didn’t have the control to stop herself doing something weird by accident. Ellie regularly had to put right Pixie’s mistakes.
    The