She spun around again. “Okay, I take your point. But the last time I did this, there were sparks of lightning at the edges of my vision. A huge emotion had built up in my body and it didn’t have anywhere to go, at least not until it shot out of me. I don’t know how to access that. I can’t…” At his expression, she swallowed down the rest and made a frustrated noise at the back of her throat.

He snatched up another beer bottle, stalked to the center of the parking lot, and set it into place. As he returned, he pointed at it. “Go.”

She glared at the bottle and tried to push out mentally. It remained upright. She tried again. And again.

And again, until her head started to pound with a dull ache. Josiah stood watching, arms crossed. He looked unimpressed, impatient.

“Stop staring at me,” she snapped.

One dark, sardonic eyebrow rose. “Certainly. That should fix everything.”

“Oh, shut up. I can’t—” His face darkened, and the words hitched in her throat. She growled and started again, this time reaching for better words. “I don’t know how to access that part of me. It’s… it’s…”

“Tied into your emotions, you said.” He sounded bored, his voice cutting. “So access your emotions.”

“Agh!” She pressed her fists against her thighs and tried to remember just exactly how it had happened. She had felt so full of pain and rage she could barely see straight, let alone talk coherently.

The memory was easy enough to access. But pulling up the emotion itself was another matter. Violent, powerful emotions didn’t just lie around waiting for someone to trip over them.

Maybe she was defective. Maybe she wasn’t going to be as Powerful as he thought she was. Maybe she didn’t have the full range of capability other awakening witches did…

Josiah hauled her into his arms. Her lips parted on a shocked gasp. He clamped a hard hand at the back of her neck, and his head plummeted down.

What. The. Hell.

That was as far as she got. Then her spinning thoughts blew to smithereens as his mouth came over hers. He kissed her hard, clamping her against his long, muscled body.

It had been years since anyone other than Austin had kissed her. Years and years. The shock of contact jolted everywhere, followed swiftly by astonished pleasure and outrage.

No, she was pretty sure that was pleasure. Wait, outrage.

Pleasure. Outrage?

She forgot to breathe as her lips moved tentatively under his. Somewhere in her head, a siren began to blare in a klaxon warning.

Austin might have cheated, but she never had. Even though she was getting divorced and no longer owed him a damn thing, she was deeply faithful by nature. This felt like crossing a line she wasn’t supposed to cross. It felt good, but it also felt wrong.