Joy lit his face then, and when he came, his body arched up toward mine. I leaned down and increased my rhythm and hardness, wanting so badly to be even closer and have as much of him in me as I could. His mouth parted in a soft moan that mirrored my earlier one, and when he started to instinctively close his eyes, he quickly opened them again to stay locked with my gaze. There was no looking away between us, no avoiding what we felt. As I stared into his eyes and felt his body’s trembling fade, energy seemed to crackle between our souls in a way that had nothing to do with succubus soul-stealing.

Carefully, I eased myself off him and lay down on my side again, draping my body over his. I was drowning in feeling and emotion.

“Georgina,” he murmured, pulling me closer. “You are the world.”

I’d heard that somewhere before, but I was too overwhelmed to parse it much. I was too lost in Seth. Instead, what I said was unoriginal but absolutely true: “I love you.”

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

When it was over, I rested my cheek against his chest while still staying mostly on my side. His heart beat heavy beneath my hands, and the smell of his skin and sweat nearly overpowered me. I lay there, perfectly still, scarcely daring to breathe. I was afraid that if I moved too much, I’d break this spell, this dream that I’d somehow stumbled into.

Slowly, carefully, Seth ran his fingers through my hair, idly twining the strands into loops. He let his hand drop and shifted slightly, just enough to press a kiss to my forehead. I exhaled and snuggled closer, realizing that I really wasn’t going to wake from this dream.

At least, that’s what I thought until his cell phone rang.

The ring was “Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2, not a particularly hard or jarring song but one that made me flinch anyway. For a moment, we each held our breath, both of us frozen. I wanted the phone to disappear off the face of the earth, to get smote the way I kept fearing some demon would smite me. I needed it to go away because if it kept ringing, it meant none of this was real. That we were going to have to face reality.

But it was already too late. The spell was broken. The phone was reality.

“You should answer that,” I said.