Free The Magic Between Us (Faerie) by Tammy Falkner Page B

life.” He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “That’s the crux of it. And I’m sorry.”
    She said something quietly against his chest.
    “What was that?” he asked, pulling back from her.
    She looked up at him, her blue eyes like limpid pools he could fall into. “I am not ready to forgive you yet.”
    “My father warned me that you wouldn’t be so easy to sway.”
    She elbowed him in the ribs. “You talked to your father about us?”
    “Who else am I going to talk to? Allen? He’d just as soon take you from me as help me.”
    “Allen’s not so bad.” She took his hand and led him back to the bench. She sat down and pointed to her lap. “Come on. Put your head here.” She motioned him forward with wiggly fingers.
    Oh, thank heavens. He could breathe again. He stretched out on his back and laid his head in her lap. The firmness of her thigh made him feel like he was coming home. She didn’t put her hands in his hair right away, and he needed for her to touch him. He wouldn’t feel complete until she did.
    “Tell me what it was like for you when I left,” he said. He might as well hear it. He would have to hear it so he could help her get past it, because the fact that she wasn’t touching him, aside from letting his head lie in her lap, was telling. She still had some reservations.
    “Someone took away my best friend,” she said. “Only it wasn’t like he was stolen. It was like he ran away from me. He went as quickly and as far away as he could. He went to a different world. I had no one to tell my secrets to. No one to tell me ridiculous tales just to make me laugh. No one to talk to about the horrible happenings in my life…” Her voice tapered off.
    “My tales are not ridiculous,” he grumbled playfully. He lay on his back and looked up into her blue eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “Can you ever forgive me?”
    Her hand finally lifted, as though of its own accord, and she began to slowly run her fingers through his hair. “Perhaps someday,” she said, but a smile broke across her face.
    He snorted. “I don’t expect you to make it easy.”
    Her eyes met his. “I’d say I’ve made it pretty easy so far.”
    “So,” he prompted, “there was no one else back home who took your attention?”
    She looked away from him for a moment, so he jostled her arm. She looked down at him and lightly tapped his forehead. “Be quiet and look at the stars,” she said.
    “I’d so much rather look at you,” he breathed, cupping her cheeks with his hands. She looked into his eyes, her hair falling around her face. He brought a lock of it to his nose and sniffed it. She smelled like sunshine. She always had.
    “Stop looking at me,” she groused, but she turned her head and kissed the palm of his hand. The heat shot straight to his groin, and he raised a knee in hopes she wouldn’t notice how she affected him.
    “Cece,” he whispered.
    “What?” she whispered back dramatically.
    “I want to kiss you,” he said softly.
    “You already did that,” she replied just as quietly.
    “I want to do it again and again, until I get it right.”
    “I’d say that last kiss was right.” Her skin flushed and she closed her eyes.
    “I was afraid I would do it wrong,” he confessed. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment I saw you in the ballroom. And every day before that. Every day we’ve been apart.”
    “That kiss was a welcome surprise,” she admitted. “But you didn’t give me much of a choice.”
    “We can practice,” he suggested, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips.
    “Maybe,” she said with a wistful sigh.
    “Maybe?” Certainly she wasn’t serious.
    “I think this courtship thing is supposed to go slowly.”
    If it went any more slowly, Marcus would lose his mind. He’d tasted her. He’d finally kissed her and had her back in his arms. And now she wanted to go slowly. “How slow?” he asked.
    “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Perhaps I should ask