This Coven Won't Break - Isabel Sterling Page 0,41

of you.”

Morgan watches me with those impossibly blue eyes. Looking at her is like trying to see to the bottom of the ocean, fathomless and unknowable.

And then she’s kissing me, moving so fast I don’t register her touch until my back is pressed against the door and her lips are tight against mine. The runes shimmer around us like a bloody halo, but when my mind catches up to what’s happening, I pull her close and feel along the wall for the light, casting us in darkness.

Morgan reaches for my shirt, slipping her hand beneath the hem. Her fingers roam over my skin, unsure where to rest or unable to choose her favorite place. There’s a touch at my waist, pulling me closer. A brush of her fingers along my spine. Then her hands in my hair and her teeth grazing my bottom lip. The sensation draws a desperate, wanting sound from my throat, but before I have a second to feel embarrassed, Morgan tugs me away from the wall and guides me across her room.

The backs of my knees hit the bed, and I fall onto her mattress. I barely have time to miss the heat of her before she’s lowering herself after me, leaving a trail of kisses down my neck that makes me squirm with desire.

I hook a finger in her belt loop and tug her hips to mine. She pauses for a second, braced above me on the bed, then leans down for another kiss. This one is quick and hard, and then she’s trailing her lips across my collarbone, obliterating every other thought in my head.

She kisses me like she wants to remember every second.

She kisses like she wants to forget everything else.

Her hand slides beneath my T-shirt again and trails up my rib cage, stopping at the edge of my bra. I don’t want her to stop. I want so much more. So when she pulls away and meets my gaze, a question in the rise of her brow, all I can manage is a broken yes.

And then we’re in new territory, testing our boundaries to see where they match. Lips against skin usually hidden beneath our clothes. Legs tangled together, pressing our bodies as tight as they’ll go. My magic is wild and free, currents of air slipping along exposed skin and getting tangled up between us.

When her fingers reach for the button of my jeans, I’m tempted. So tempted I almost beg her to keep going, but I don’t know when her parents will wake up, and I don’t want to rush. Not our first time.

“Soon,” I promise, guiding her hands back up above my waist. “But not tonight.”

We kiss until our lips are numb. Learn the places that tickle and the ones that make us shiver. We kiss until we forget what we’re hiding from.

11

MY PHONE BUZZES WITH a series of texts, the vibrations against my thigh pulling me out of sleep. When I wake fully, I find myself wrapped in Morgan’s arms, but I still feel cold.

My entire body is sore from the fight with Alice. It seems like weeks have passed since her fingers were around my throat, but it’s been less than a day. Less than a day, and yet so much has changed.

I reach for my phone. It buzzes again as I unlock it.

GG: How’d it go?

GG: Did you recruit the vampire?

GG: Hannah? Come on. I’m freaking out over here. Are you okay? Are you still at the hotel?

GG: Did you and Morgan have fun???

Gemma’s texts make me smile, and I glance at Morgan sleeping peacefully beside me. Last night wasn’t the romantic hotel getaway that Gemma’s implying, but it was the first night we fell asleep like this. I listen to Morgan’s soft intake of breath as the early morning light highlights the dusting of freckles across her face. I want to reach out and trace each one, want to brush a finger along her full lips, but I don’t.

Instead, I text Gemma and try to ignore the guilt and anger playing a percussive duet against my rib cage.

HW: Vampire?

Gem’s response is swift.

GG: She needed a code name.

GG: And don’t think I missed that little deflection. Can I assume you two had a good time in NYC?

HW: Not exactly. I’ll fill you in later.

The only good thing about NYC was everything that happened before Alice’s show. I still can’t believe the Hunters drugged Sarah. They almost drugged Morgan and me, too, and despite