Мишель Роуэн - Hot Spell

When the thrusting of his hips ceased she stayed locked against him, her hands pressed to either side of his face, looking into his vivid green eyes. His hands remained low on her hips, half-cupping her buttocks.

“I think we might be in serious trouble,” he said gruffly.

The blaring screech of somebody lying on the horn as they zoomed past snapped her out of the daze she’d been in. Something must have changed in her eyes, from passion to clarity, because Jacob’s grip tightened.

“No, Amanda, please—”

She got off him and scrambled for her jeans, putting them on quickly. Unfortunately her underpants wouldn’t live to see another day since they were ripped in half. She stuffed the torn patch of silk into her pocket.

And then she went very quiet. She was afraid to speak. She was afraid of what she might say. She might beg him to make love to her again. She hadn’t even tried to resist that time. Not even a little bit.

Jacob was right. In the room he’d put up a valiant effort to stop what was going on and she hadn’t. She’d wanted it. She’d wanted him the way she’d wanted him from the first moment they met.

Did the clock know that?

“Amanda, we need to talk about this.”

“No.” It came out a little louder than she’d meant it to. She took a deep breath. “We don’t need to talk about this. We need to go back home and then we need to never see each other again. Obviously there’s something wrong and we need to stay the hell away from each other until we figure out what it is.”

She hates me so bad she can’t even look at me.

“I don’t hate you,” she said.

Jacob frowned. “What?”

“I said I don’t hate you, even though maybe I should. And I can look at you, I just choose not to.” She cleared her throat nervously, ignoring the way her body still tingled all over.

“Why do you think I think you hate me?”

“Because you said it.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Is she okay? Maybe all that pain did something bad to her head. Maybe I should take her to the hospital.

“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” she sighed. “I’m fine, I’m just…a bit disturbed. To say the least.”

Jacob was silent for so long that she finally looked at him.

He studied her with a stunned expression. “I didn’t say that out loud.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The thing about the hospital. That wasn’t spoken, but I did think it.”

She felt confused. “You must have said it. I heard you.”

Can you hear this?

“Yes,” she said. “I can.”

Jacob’s brows drew together. Oh shit.

She heard his voice that time also, even though his lips didn’t move.

Her eyes widened. “I can hear your thoughts. Why can I hear your thoughts?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“Think something else.”

Sorry about the panties. Were they expensive?

She gasped. “I heard that!”

Jacob stared at her for a very long time before a slow grin spread across his face. “That’s pretty cool.”

“No, it is not cool!” Her mouth was dry. “Last night…right after the flash and the pain I could have sworn I could read your thoughts then just a little. But I ignored it. Now it’s much louder and clearer.” She put a hand over her mouth to stifle the shock of what she was saying. She could hear what Jacob was thinking. For real . “We need to get back to the office before whatever this is gets any worse.”

“What else do you think is wrong with us?”

“Other than my reading every thought that flits through your brain thanks to the grandfather clock from hell?”

His mouth quirked. “Don’t forget about the fact that you can’t seem to keep your hands off of me. As proven a minute ago. Which, if it wasn’t obvious, was fairly mind-blowing. ”

How could he be so blasé about this?

She gritted her teeth. “Drive.”

He obliged her without further argument and pulled the car back onto the road. They weren’t that far outside Mystic Ridge. Another uncomfortable twenty minutes and they’d be back and ready to deal with this latest disturbing side effect.

She tried to ignore the thoughts moving through Jacob’s mind that were mostly memories of her naked. She shot him a dirty look.

“What?” he asked.

“Please stop thinking about me like that. I can’t block you out anymore.”

She’s so cute when she’s mad. I can’t imagine her boyfriend ever gets her this worked up. Maybe I’m special.

“And stop thinking that, too!” She covered her face with her hands. “Don’t bring David into this.”

“Consider the subject off-limits.”

“Good.”

Not long now. Almost back. And then she was going to run as far away from Jacob Caine as she could as fast as her legs could carry her.

JACOB CLEARED his throat ten minutes later. He thought enough time had passed that it might be safe to speak again. “So, you can hear everything in my head?”

“I think so.”

That was disturbing. He had some thoughts—hell, he had a lot of thoughts—that it would be best that Amanda never listen in on.

If she could really mind-read, thanks to that enchanted clock, then she would have been able to see that his bravado this morning after her swift dismissal of him had been put on and he was still pissed about being rejected like a piece of garbage.

Shit, he thought. I can’t think that. She’ll hear me.

He glanced at her. She gave no indication of listening in, in fact, she looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but in the car next to him despite what had happened between them just a short time ago. His body was still on fire from the uncontrollable need he felt for her, but his ego was definitely taking a beating.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Maybe if they spent some time together to break whatever spell this was he could…

What? What was he going to do? Convince her not to move away?

Damn. I’m thinking too much. Have to stop that .

“Yes, please do!” Amanda said. “The sooner the better.”

Not good . And he didn’t seem to be able to read her mind in return to even the playing field.

He’d thought it was amusing or even interesting for a moment, but this little side effect to their magically induced tryst wasn’t even slightly funny anymore. He forced himself not to think about anything except the highway ahead of him as he pressed down on the accelerator.

“This actually brings to mind the conversation we had before we got to the house last night,” Jacob said, then gritted his teeth as he thought about it. “Shit. It’s like the clock heard us even before we got there.”

“What conversation?”

“The one where you told me you know exactly what I’m thinking.”

“Did I say that?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“A coincidence.” But she didn’t look convinced.

He gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter. He knew that some spells worked using the energy that the victims already had—passion, anger, fear, love, hate, you name it. If they’d argued about Amanda being able to read his mind and now she could do just that, then maybe it wasn’t simply a coincidence. Maybe the clock’s spell had latched on to the strong emotions they felt about each other, even before hitting the sheets.

“It was the same conversation where you said I couldn’t lie to you,” Amanda said, using her unnerving new mind-reading ability to follow along with his thoughts.

“I did say that.” He concentrated on the dashed line in the center of the road. If Amanda couldn’t lie to him, that would be very interesting. He couldn’t remember if he’d asked her any questions that morning. “You don’t think that—”