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“You’re taking it,” I breathed out. “Greedy little witch.”

“Oh,” Juniper breathed, as she drew the amber-golden vapor into a glass vial with a flick of her wrist, “you’ve so much to give.” She blinked a few times as she stared at the vial, awe and shock on her face.

I couldn’t look away. “That’s...my sin.”

“It’s beautiful,” she gasped, staring at it, transfixed. My chest puffed out a bit at that.

Yes. It was beautiful.

“Not as beautiful as you,” I said before I could stop it. Heat immediately surged into my cheeks as her head snapped up to me, lips parting a bit in surprise.

Desperate to cover my slip into seriousness, I dropped down beside her, my lips a whisper from her cheek. “Careful. The more you take, the more you’ll want.”

She drew back and smacked my arm, the awkward spell shattered.

“Wouldn’t that be a shame?” she taunted, putting the vial up on the shelf by standing up on her tiptoes. She turned on her heel from the shelf, running straight into my chest. She kissed the corner of my mouth, then pulled away with maddening slowness.

“No. Shame isn’t a sin,” I said seriously. I watched her lips, unable to rip my gaze from them.

Kiss her again.

So I did.

And oh...shit.

I’d kissed people before, but this was so much different. Everything about her was perfect: the warmth of her skin, the sweet pressure of her lips against mine, and the way her small tongue darted nervously forward into my mouth.

I drew away and attacked her throat.

Or would have, if she hadn’t started to glow.

“What?” She asked, confused as light glowed from her chest and hands. The magick was gold and amber like my sin.

My hands hovered near her, not touching—but gods, aching to. Because of the magick? Her? Both?

“Do it,” she whispered, shaking.

My hands greedily grabbed her waist, fire meeting fire. Hot magick tingled at the pads of my fingers, and I know she felt it too—a rush of heat, an unraveling. My own magick was pure want, distilled. My hand slid down to cup her hip as Juniper smiled, reaching over me for another bottle above my head. Without thinking I lifted her by the hips, and she snatched one down. I set her down easily as she waved her fingers between us.

“Witch,” I growled, not wanting to delay my exploration of her, now that we’d both decided to give into our sins. She saw my hunger, I know she did—how it curled around my heart like vines, how it pulsed through every cell, begging to be sated and stolen.

Still clutching the empty vial and waving her fingers, she kissed me hard and slow. As our mouths met, she pulled another wisp of gold and amber from our lips, catching it between her fingers.

I groaned into her mouth. “You like taking pieces of me.”

“I love it,” she said, breathless.

I gripped her hips, lifting her onto the cluttered wooden table behind her, sweeping aside books and herbs. She let her thighs fall open for me and despite the black leggings she wore, she left nothing to my imagination. Her fingers wove into my hair,anchoring me between her legs. I was hanging onto control of my sin by a thread, and I wondered if she had any control either.

“Then take it,” I grit out roughly. “Take everything.”

Juniper tilted her head back as I kissed along her throat. Another wisp rose—this time from the hollow of her chest, where my mouth lingered. She caught it, trembling. Her magick pulsed through her veins now, humming with every draw. She dropped it into the vial and sealed it in, bending over backwards to put it in front of me.

Twisting, she grabbed my collar and pulled me to her. Her body burned—part with stolen heat, part with her own awakening.

“Are you doing this?” she asked in a whisper. “You’re making me feel things I didn’t think I’d feel again.”

Another laugh bubbled up in me, but I tamped it down, aware of those large, scared eyes on me.