Page 49 of The Underachiever’s Guide to Love and Saving the World

COURTNEY

Holding my gaze, Bryce dropped to his knees before me.

My vision swirled. His hands coaxed my legs apart, mouth trailing kisses up my thighs. When he nipped the side of my knee, I yelped, swatting the back of his head.

He laughed, his hot breath against my inner thighs, tickling sensitive skin.

I gasped at his touch, my hand winding in his hair.

My world narrowed until all I could focus on was the swirl of his tongue, the feel of his lips, the gentle pressure of his teeth.

He gave before I asked, coaxing me higher and higher.

My hips rocked, and he let me follow each sensation.

When I fell, I didn’t think of the fragile pieces of my soul. I thought only of him catching me.

Standing, Bryce pushed his hand lightly against my chest, guiding me to lie flat on the desk.

He crawled up after me, pulling my legs around him as he went, kissing me long and slow, his mouth soft and warm from my skin, his eyes feverish.

He whispered steamy nonsense into my ear, and goose bumps tickled along my neck.

With each murmured assurance about how good I was, how perfect, how right, I let myself go, losing myself in his fantasy, letting myself believe him.

A pleasant shiver went through each of my nerves, a warm feeling of absolute happiness radiating behind my ribs.

Orange light tinged my eyelids, and I opened them to find the magical glow around my skin brighter than ever.

Ribbons of it swirled from my body and coiled around Bryce, twining and mingling with his own blue light.

I hooked an ankle around Bryce’s hip, pulling him closer.

He searched blindly for the condom, hand sweeping across the desk, sending ancient texts fluttering through the air.

And then he found it, and he was whispering into my ear, asking me if I was sure, and I was pulling him tighter and nodding because I, the girl who wanted Nothing, also wanted him .

Bryce touched his forehead to mine and held my gaze through that first breathless, pleasure-filled moment. He moved slowly at first, and I arched back, relishing the sensations.

“You’re so pretty,” he whispered, breath ragged against my neck, and I burst out laughing.

“You talk so much shit,” I gasped, “and now all you can say is ‘You’re so pretty’?” It was ridiculous and somehow ridiculously sexy.

He rocked into me. “If you keep laughing and wiggling around like that, this is going to last about five more seconds.”

That only made more giggles bubble up. He was the most precious human I’d ever encountered, and it made me… furious and confused and blissfully happy. That he, of all people, could make me feel like this. I felt free. Free of all expectations. Free to be myself.

Bryce paused, propping his hands beside my head, drawing back to look down at me, a dry Really? expression on his face that made me laugh harder.

Looking at him made it worse, so I closed my eyes and tried to breathe deeply.

Bryce peeled my hands away from my face, pinning them on the desk.

He shook his head, mouth cracking into a smile.

Then he laughed, and when he laughed, it made me wonder why we spent so much time not laughing.

It was stupid, him inside me, and us laughing over nothing, but that only made it funnier.

The tendrils of blue energy swirled off his skin like early-morning fog over still water. It tickled over my skin like butterfly kisses. Our laughter faded as the magic wisps melted into the golden light around us, vaporizing and mingling with streams of sunlight, opaque with dust.

As he began to move again, he smirked at me, but it was a nice smirk. “You like me.” The words were slow and teasing.

“You like me .” I sighed back dramatically.

He laughed and swung me up, sliding me to the edge of the desk and hooking my hands around his neck. “You can’t take any part of me seriously, can you?”

“Do you have a problem with how I’m taking you?”

“God, no,” he managed weakly.

Orange magic shone from my skin, sheer streaks of it cascading to the floor like a waterfall, pooling to hover over the ground.

I grasped Bryce’s shoulders, meeting his movements, our breaths quickening and smiles fading.

Subtle moans, light whimpers, and half words created our own language in our own world where only we existed.

He brushed hair off my sticky neck, winding it tightly around his fist at the base of my skull.

My muscles tightened and tingled. He kissed me once, a gentle, barely-there caress, focused eyes never leaving mine as his breaths grew broken.

His nose brushed my cheek, hand slipping between us, pressing where I wanted him.

When I gasped and clung tighter, the corners of his mouth twitched, his smile ghosting over my lips.

As my legs clenched around him, he whispered my name into my ear like a curse—something widely considered foul that he liked having in his mouth.

It sent a shiver down my spine, triggering my release.

Wave after wave soared through me, making me feel lighter than air.

It was like the adrenaline-filled satisfaction of getting the last word in during an argument or the heady exhilaration of ditching work.

He followed shortly after, breath hitching into a soft sound that nearly undid me all over again.

After, we lay on the desk, Bryce’s arm tossed over my ribs and our legs entwined as we caught our breath. He turned to his side, gaze flitting over my face.

“You’re shadows,” he said softly, trailing a finger over the slope of my cheek.

“Hmm?” I let my head roll to face Bryce, the hard desk digging into my spine.

“You have to have shadows to have light. That’s you.”

“Gross,” I whispered, smiling. “Is this you trying to say I’m the light of your life again?”

“It’s me saying you’re the dark hellish abyss that makes the rest of my life look brighter in comparison.”

I warmed with pleasure. Being with Bryce made me feel discovered, like I was a crusty old painting yanked down from someone’s attic and appraised on Antiques Roadshow for eighty-five dollars.

Which admittedly wasn’t much, but it surpassed all expectations, so he was pleasantly surprised.

The painting didn’t become something too grand to hang in a home.

Instead, it was something to cherish, to hold on to a little tighter because there was more to it than once supposed.

I liked being the mediocre keepsake Bryce had a soft spot for.

I liked that he looked at me like he thought I was worth far more than any rational person would suspect.

The lazy blue glow around him flared a little brighter. I tucked in closer to him, the overwhelming, comfortable do-not-care feeling I experienced the last time we kissed settling warmly behind my ribs. I’d be happy to stop the world and melt with him.

“What are you thinking about?” he murmured against my hair.

“If a volcano exploded right now and lava engulfed us, when archaeologists come to explore years and years from now and fill our magma body shells like they did in Pompeii, we’d create the cutest little plaster people.”

“Fucking hell. What goes on in your mind?”

“Well, I was thinking about melting—”

“Shh.” Rolling over me, he pressed his lips to mine, cutting off my words.

Thinking about the end of the world reminded me we had to save it, which reminded me why I’d come to the library in the first place.

Just like that, our magical little space really was engulfed by a metaphorical volcano. The do-not-care feelings trickled away, replaced by doubts and fears and hesitation. Bryce said he’d tolerate me as I was, which was all I’d ever wanted. To be tolerated. The bare minimum.

And yet.

When we were trying to save Amy, Bryce listed all the things he liked about me—and they were all my positive traits: I saved water and sent birthday cards and rescued puppies.

But I was still difficult and stubborn and prickly, and I wondered if he accepted my less desirable traits, too, or if he was actually just looking past them—and if he was, how long would he be able to ignore them.

“I found a book,” I said around kisses, voice muffled.

He smiled against my mouth. “In a library?” he breathed. “Inconceivable.”

I elbowed him lightly in the ribs. He caught my hand, thumb rubbing slow circles around my knuckles.

“A potion book.” I furrowed my brow. “I wasn’t able to read it thoroughly before you arrived to seduce me, but there’s one in there called a hero potion.”

“Like a superstrength potion or something?” he said distractedly, trailing kisses down my neck.

“No. Like I think it would turn us into heroes. I think it would change us, make us stop being bad at everything.”

He went still. I imagined he was wondering the same things I had. The consequences of a potion like that. What would be left after everything bad was removed—if there would be anything left at all.

In order to get home, I needed to be a hero. Becoming a hero would have the added bonus of removing my less lovable side. With it gone, I’d never have a reason to doubt Bryce’s affection because I’d be so genuinely good and perfect inside and out that every piece of me could finally be loved fully.

The temptation of the potion called to me, promising that for once, everything could be easy.

“No,” Bryce said quietly.

“What if it’s the only way? The only way to get home, the only way to…” To be together , I thought but didn’t say.

Just then, something caught my ear. A faint ringing. I shoved Bryce off me and sat up. “Do you hear… bells?” I asked.

He planted a kiss on my open palm. “If you’re hearing wedding bells, we have more miscommunications to hash out.”

“Hush.” Stretching, I plucked my nightgown off a stack of books and slipped it on.

I ran to the nearest window and peered out. Bryce came up behind me, buttoning his pants and squinting against the sun. The city bells clanged their warning louder by the second. A sinking feeling settled in my stomach.

The dragon soared over the city, huge wings creating dull thuds that made my ears throb. Below, villagers scattered away from its shadow. The beast didn’t attack, only made pass after pass over the city, forcing people to their homes.

Worse, tarnished armor flashing in the sun caught my eye. Surrounding the city was an army that stretched, a blanket of iron and bone, all the way to the tree line. The city was under siege.

Behind us, the library door creaked open. I couldn’t tear my eyes from the landscape below until a voice wrenched my attention away. “You won’t get away with this.”

We turned to find Amy standing behind us, looking very pissed indeed.