Page 26 of Untraced Magic (Cutters Cove Witches #1)

I looked up at him, a good foot taller than myself. The clouds had parted, and a full moon filtered the sky behind him, leaving his features shadowed. One of the street lanterns flickered down the street ahead of us, and his attention turned to it for a heartbeat, scanning the street ahead.

My spine crawled with caution. “Is someone there?” I asked.

After a long moment, he gave my hand a squeeze. “I don’t think so, but stay close.”

I held his hand tighter, moving into his warmth.

“Never walk home on your own, okay? If you ever need a ride, just call me,” he offered.

I sighed, nodding in agreement. I really needed to get myself a car. Or a bike.

“Thank you, yeah, I get it. It’s insane how fast vampires move; I could never outrun them. I find it hard to comprehend them walking around town, mingling with everyone else. It’s crazy.”

Tyler kept his gaze alert, continuously watching the shadows.

“It is, but that’s life here,” he said, his tone distracted, alert. “Friday’s going to come around before we know it, so let’s at least give you a fighting chance at whatever is headed our way. Reid’s right; self-defense is a good idea. ”

We rounded the final corner, and our houses came into view. Relief spread throughout me at the sight of them.

I was sure as shit never walking home alone.

“Our way?” I said, staring up at him with a raised brow.

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, our way. We’re in this together. You don’t have to do this alone.”

I smiled. It was a comfort to know I had Tyler in my corner. He had somehow become a strength I never knew I needed.

We climbed the steps of my creaky front porch, pausing in front of the entrance when Tyler circled his arms around my waist. He pushed a stray hair behind my ears.

“I have something I need to tell you,” he stated, his voice tainted with uncertainty.

I skimmed his forearms with my hands, my head tilting with interest. “And what’s that?”

His lips pressed together as he drew in a breath, releasing it sharply.

“There’s this event on Saturday night. As crazy as this might sound…

the local wolf pack host the town of Cutters Cove for one night every year at their pack house.

It’s for the supernatural only, and… it’s frowned upon if you don’t attend. ”

Unease settled in my stomach. That was one supernatural being I had yet to really encounter, save for the guard at the door at the bar. And even then, I didn’t see him in all his wolfy glory.

I raised a brow. “Wolf pack? As in werewolves?”

He paused before answering. “Yes, as in werewolves. They’re a big part of the community.

I don’t like the idea of it any more than you do, putting you at risk like this, but the Alpha of the pack likes to know any new supernatural arrivals into town.

It’s his way of… ‘keeping in the know’ you could say. ”

Holy. Crap.

This was seriously out of my comfort zone. I felt bile rise in my throat at the thought of it, quickly swallowing before it surfaced.

“Is that really a good idea? You mentioned us not letting our guard down,” I reminded him with a frown.

His head nodded to the side in agreement.

“If you were to avoid it, you would be considered hiding something, untrustworthy. I know it sounds ridiculous, and it’s probably the last thing we need to be worrying about the day after you get your magic, but Vampires would never step foot in the place.

There’s high security, and not to mention our whole group will be there as well. ”

“Wow, this is all so new.”

“I understand if it’s too much. And I’ll respect your decision if you really don’t want to go.”

I paused, gripping his shoulders. “As much as I would love to come to a dance with you, this is…” I struggled to find the right words without offending him. “I mean, the spell is broken Friday. I’m just a little nervous about everything .”

His knuckles grazed my cheek. “I know you’re nervous. But if your gift is anything like mine, it will come naturally to you. If you don’t feel up to it on Saturday, we don’t have to go. I can have a quiet word with the Alpha, make him understand.”

I stilled, knowing every word was his promise. That if I didn’t want to go, there truly would be no questions asked.

“Okay,” I said with a nod. “I’ll think about it. ”

Tyler cupped my face with his hands. “I wouldn’t leave your side, I promise.”

“I know. I trust you.” I felt it throughout me. I did trust Tyler— even with my life. My gaze dipped to his mouth. “Would you like to come in?”

“I thought you were never going to ask,” he said, then kissed me as if sealing his promise.

I melted into his arms as he moved me backwards to the front door and I pulled away from his grasp, turning and fumbling with the key.

He brushed my hair off my shoulders, his breath breezing against the sweet spot at the base of my neck.

“Ty,” I whispered when his lips replaced his breath, leaving a hot trail of kisses in its wake. My back arched into him, and I felt every inch of him aching to be freed.

“Feel that?” he rasped, pressing harder against me.

I moaned in response, words failing me.

“That’s all you.” He tugged me back against him. “You do that to me,” he said, his voice low and husky.

His hand moved to the front of me, cupping me through my jeans, and I whimpered at the contact between my thighs, hearing a light chuckle behind me.

Pressing his palm against the denim, Tyler teased me until I was an aching bundle of need, until his hand finally slid into the front of my jeans, dragging his fingers through my arousal .

I gasped at his touch, my palm landing on the front door. Oh. My. God. He knew what he was doing, reading my body like he could read my freaking mind.

As his fingers moved over me, sounds I didn’t recognize pulled from my lips.

A smile tickled my ear. “I love the sounds you make when I touch you here,” he breathed as I shamelessly rocked against his palm.

Suddenly aware we were still on my front porch, I shakily managed to slide the key into the lock until it finally clicked. His other hand caressed my bottom as the door opened, pressing on my hips behind me as he moved us into the hall.

He spun me around, his fingers never ceasing their torturous movements as our eyes connected again, then his mouth crushed mine. I swept my fingers through his hair as his tongue moved in perfect rhythm with his hand like some indecent dance of our own.

I kissed him like he was my last breath. Two souls floating on a breeze. Then we tumbled , scattering our mad souls. He broke me from the inside out, his touch scorching his mark on my skin, an overwhelming urge surging through me.

To touch him. To please him. His length pressed into my stomach as my back hit the wall, and I ran my hands over him through denim, earning me a lust-drenched groan.

Our foreheads connected, eyes colliding.

Tyler cupped my face, drawing a hand down one side of my cheek. “I’ve never felt like this before,” he whispered in awe.

I swallowed at the intensity burning between us.

“I feel the same,” I murmured breathlessly .

I hadn’t expected this. To be consumed by one person, so entirely, it scared me to death.

He tugged at my hand, pulling us down the hall, his strides quick and short as he dragged me into the bedroom. My core ached for what was coming.

I chanced a bold tongue. “I was quite fond of the wall,” I said cheekily, unable to hold back my grin.

He raised a brow, heat filling his irises as he stepped closer, taking me in his arms, my own wrapping around his neck.

“Morgan, I don’t fuck. And what I have planned for you will not be against a wall.”

My mouth practically dropped to the floor, heat rushing to my cheeks.

His irises danced like a flame before covering my mouth with his, coaxing my lips apart, his tongue caressing mine leisurely, like he had all the time in the world.

I undid each button on his shirt, and he studied my hands as they released each one, pushing his shirt over his shoulders until it fell to the floor in a crumpled pile.

My hands slid up the ridges of his stomach and into his hair, as he watched me with intrigue. He pulled me in for another kiss, in no rush as he pulled my top over my head, leaving me in my barely-there black bra, his fingers slipping the straps from my shoulders.

When the clasp released, cool air circled my breasts, my nipple hardening as he rolled it between his thumb and finger. I undid his jeans, pulling him from his boxers, and a curse fell from him as I moved my hand over him, hard and heavy in my palm .

I explored the wonder of him in my hands, relishing the power I held in that moment, like an addiction I knew I could never break free from.

Tyler cupped each side of my face, landing a kiss on my mouth. “What you do to me is incredible.”

His words spurred me on, and I dropped to my knees.

Steel gray storms looked down at me as I took him in my mouth, drinking in my every movement, a guttural moan forcing from him as he hit the back of my throat.

When his head rolled backwards, relinquishing all power to me, I knew I was his and his only, the small movement sent a ravaging wildfire through me. His hands gently fisted my hair, winding it around his wrist as he slowly pumped into me, and I moaned as he hit me deep.

“That’s it, that’s so fucking unreal,” he groaned as I circled him with my tongue.

From my knees, he looked like a god as he searched a world of his own, lost behind his eyelids.

The carves of his chest lead to the subtle V of his hips where a dusting of hair gathered at the base of him. He was deliciously, utterly, so fucking beautiful. His lips parted slightly before he stared down at me.

I felt his restraint wavering before his hand pressed my shoulder.

“You need to stop. It’s too much,” he rasped, pulling me to my feet. He traced his thumb above my brow, his voice a whisper. “You’re something else, you know that? ”

I felt every word, each syllable like a beat of my own heart, thumping in time with mine.

Tyler kissed me again, devouring my mouth. He pulled us onto the bed so I was above him, discarding our clothing one piece at a time, like we had an eternity left to live and all the time in the world.

His hands slipped between my thighs again, his fingers curling against me, and I dug my hands into his shoulders as I melted under his skilled touch.

I couldn’t stop the cry that tore from my lips, opening my eyes to find him watching me under heavy lids.

His voice hit a new depth, and he laced his free hand with mine. “I could watch you like this forever.”

My eyes slid closed, lost in a building pleasure, his fingers still inside me as he twisted us until he was above me again. When an unfamiliar warmth wrapped around my clit, I found him between my legs, his eyes spearing mine, the darkest I’d seen.

A predatory tint of the night sky dominated his pupils as he lapped at my sex with his tongue—it was almost too much.

A rush of air left me. “Tyler, oh my God, I…”

No one had ever kissed me there. The sensation was so overwhelming I tried to pull away, but his arms were tucked tightly under my legs, holding down my hips.

I found it more intimate than sex, having him tasting the most sensitive parts of me, and I finally gave into his tongue.

Tyler brought me closer and closer so many times before backing off, a torture I never knew I needed until he finally undid me, the combination of both his mouth and touch arching my toes, my insides combusting around him.

I cried out, but he didn’t stop. Stars burst behind my eyelids, a new heat spreading through me, lifting me like I was watching myself come apart from above.

His voice seemed to come from everywhere, sinking into a subconscious I didn’t know I possessed. “You’re so damn beautiful when you come for me.”

I couldn’t speak, choosing to kiss him instead. Tasting myself on him.

He slid between my thighs, hovering above me, his hand grazing my cheek. “I’ve only ever been with one person. I’m clean,” he whispered, not breaking eye contact.

I whimpered at the thought of having him bare inside me. “Same. And I’m on birth control,” I assured him.

He let out a growl of approval, then sank into me, the movement causing me to cry out in pleasure as every inch of him filled me.

A groan came from him as he thrusted into me again, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, barely able to hold on as we molded into a steady rhythm. My nails dug into his back, and he slowed his pace to match the torturously slow glide of his tongue against mine.

It was intimate and so intense, I could barely catch a breath, each and every sensation in me filled with him. His scent, his touch—he was everywhere .

A shudder tore from his lips and into mine as we chased our highs together until we were one, a cloud surrounding us made of licks of orange and slices of ink before it misted away again.

“Oh my…” I didn’t understand what was happening. Was this magic? Did we… create this?

Tyler stared at me, wonder pouring from his wide eyes as our tangled limbs lay together.

His hand traced the line of my collar bone. “That was unreal.”

“What was that?” I questioned, still catching my breath.

An expression I couldn’t read embedded his face. “I think that was our magic.”

I didn’t answer. My body spent and lids heavy, I gave into euphoric sleep.