Page 152 of Pixie Problems

"Look," I said. "I thought I was helping the other day. Clearly I screwed something up, and I'm sorry." I clenched my eyes and groaned. "Don't tell me 'sorry' is as bad as thanking someone?"

One corner of his lip lifted. "No, it's not. I mean, it's not great, and it's usually seen as a sign of weakness back on Faerie, but it's not the same."

"Gotcha." I turned for my bed - where I had my math book. "And yes, I do need help."

"I heard you have a test - " He stopped hard when the bathroom door jerked open.

Aspen's head peeked out. "Tor said you were headed over. Thought that was you." She looked at him and winked.

My head jumped from one to the other. "Did I miss something?"

"Aspen..." Hawke warned.

She flashed me a smile. "Someone's a dumb - "

"Out!" Hawke growled, pointing deeper into the bathroom. "Rain needs to study. I need to help her, and you are currently in the way. So if you want me to do this..."

Like some kind of manic pixie, Aspen giggled, spun, and fuckingskippedinto the bathroom, leaving the door open behind her. "I need help with math too, you know."

Oh yeah, she was giving him shit. Damn, I loved her when she was like this. Wait. Did I really just think that? Fuck!

Yet before I could send myself into a full-on panic, Hawke twisted his wrist and deep, verdant green ran around the edge of Aspen's door. From where I was standing, I had a clear view of the gate opening. The color raced around the edges of the entire thing, leaving lighter, almost emerald trails in its wake. Once the entire thing was lit, it flashed brightly - in silver? - then turned invisible.

Aspen looked back, aware she couldn't walk into her room without passing through it. "Hawke?"

"Just go with it," he told her.

Which made her smile. "Yep, I can take a hint," she assured him. Next, her eyes turned to me. "Close the door if you're going to make out." And then she took one more step and was gone.

"Court," Jack grumbled, waking up long enough to shake his head before tucking it back under his wing.

"I definitely missed something," I said, mostly to myself.

"I'm trying to explain!" Hawke snapped, but then he stopped, twitching like he wanted to take that back. Letting out a heavy sigh, he corrected to, "I'm trying to apologize, Rain, and I don't have a lot of experience with it."

"For kissing me and running?" I asked.

"Yeah..." He set his tablet on my desk, took one step towards me, then paused. "Jack started yelling at me, and I realized what I'd done." He grunted and shoved a hand into his hair proving this really was hard for him. "Rain, I should've asked. Consent, right? Keir told me it's the rightway to do it. I need to ask, let you answer, and then accept the outcome. And Aspen said I don't have to exactly ask. More give you the chance to say no, but I thought maybe you thought you had to, so, um..."

"So what?" I wanted to know, hanging on his words.

"I fucked it up!" he groaned. "Fuck! I've been trying so hard not to be noticed and now - " Again, he stopped, but this time his eyes jumped up to check on me.

"Hawke?" I asked carefully. "What's going on?"

"Just..." He licked his lips quickly. "Are you mad at me, Rain?"

"Disappointed," I clarified. "Mad's too strong of a word, but you fucking kissed me! I was trying to be a friend, and then you kissed me - andthenyou made me feel like I'd screwed it all up."

"You didn't screw it up," he breathed, crossing the distance between us just to reach out, pausing before he touched me. "I did. I wanted to kiss you so badly, and then you kissed back, and I stopped thinking. I just forgot everything! Torian was getting shit, Keir was trying to handle that - and Tor doesn't like him at all. And Wilder's in the middle, but he's not going to shut Torian up, and there I was, kissing you. Shit, I shoved you against a wall, and Jack said something, which was when I realized I hadn't asked, so - "

This time, I was the one making his rambling stop. Taking one last step between us, I grabbed both sides of his head, pulling him down, and kissed him again. Hawke's hands jerked out to his sides and hung there for one single heartbeat before he wrapped them around my back, crushing me against his chest as he kissed back.

And kiss he did! Damn, this boy wasn't gentle at all. His mouth started with mine, then wandered. When his lips reached my neck, I tilted my chin, making room for him. He nipped, sampling the skin along my pulse, then higher so he could flick his tongue across my earlobe. From there, he kissed his way back down to my mouth.

I couldn't get enough of it. Oh, my panties were getting quite damp, but I was used to ignoring that. Still, my dirty little mind had my hands sliding lower, across those flat muscles on his chest, across the ridges of his abs, and then back up, under his shirt. My palms slid across his skin, making him clench, and I felt his lips curl against mine.

"Don't be bad," he breathed before kissing me again. "My willpower is low."