“Dark sorceresses swing that way.”

He pulled me closer and kissed me again, presumably to ward off the toad curse. After a moment, the kiss grew into something more and with a sigh I rested against him, enjoying it. Adam always started every kiss with a soft touch—like a light taste. An amuse-bouche that left you craving more.

It usually didn’t last long. Soon that taste kindled a hunger that demanded fulfillment. From taste to indulgence, it invited complete immersion, a mutual relish. Then came the back and forth. I’d feed him, he’d feed me. We’d feast on each other and the more we did, the hungrier we became.

His hands were now on either side of my face, holding me still, holding me against his mouth. The kiss deepened and I found it hard to breathe, my heart racing like I’d just stepped off a treadmill. A cold thrill went through me. He was touching me like a lover again. Finally.

Pressing my mouth to his and opening it, I slid my tongue inside and I felt it—a sudden sharp intake of breath, the staccato of his heartbeat under my hand. I had no doubt in that brief moment that he wanted me. And I wanted him, too. And the heat that was generating between us held a promise in it.

That was, until he pulled away—very gently and without warning. His face was flushed and I could easily tell he was aroused. But he ended it with another one of those goddamn kisses on my forehead—like a grandpa kissing his granddaughter. And I sat back, exasperated.

“Adam—”

“Aren’t you hungry? I’m starving.”

I raised one of my drawn-in eyebrows. “Yeah, I’m hungry and so are you. But not for food.”

He took a deep breath and let it go, sitting up and causing me to pull back from him.

“Why don’t you want me anymore?”

He blinked. “Who said I didn’t want you? It should be obvious that is not the case.”

“Should it?”

He glanced down, indicating his very ready erection. I moved a hand toward it but he grabbed my wrist. “That’s not going slow.”

“You’re making me crazy. It’s been months…”

“Let’s not argue about this, okay? You are going in for a new treatment tomorrow.”

“That’s tomorrow. And I have almost twenty-four hours until then.”

He didn’t say anything and I stared at him while he avoided my gaze.

“When, then?”

He shrugged. “When you are feeling better?”

“I have a month of chemo left.”

“I know,” he whispered. He pulled me against him. “I don’t think we’re ready yet.”

But if not now, then when? And why not? What was fucking with his mind? Because it was obviously something. It was clear that he wanted it, that apparently the fact that I looked like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings had not completely repulsed him.

What was it, then?

Chapter Twenty

Adam

I knew she had questions that I couldn’t—or wouldn’t—answer. I knew she needed to feel close to someone. I needed it, too. But we weren’t ready. We were just getting our life back on the rails from the fucked-up mistakes we’d made.

She needed a friend right now and I was determined to be only that. Because the last time I’d touched her—well, we couldn’t stand any more disasters. At least not until the debris from the current ones had cleared.

***

“Ugh. Okay, let’s go again, I guess. Time for try number three hundred and sixty-two,” Heath muttered. He may have thrown a dirty look in my direction, too.

With a long sigh, Emilia rubbed her forehead below the edge of the bandana wrapped around her head. “We must be missing something super obvious here. We’ve been at this for days and keep getting wiped out.”

We were in the gaming room in my house, all sitting around a table with our laptops in front of us. Since we were all in the same room for once, we didn’t need headsets. I stifled a yawn. They always got extra irritated when I appeared bored. What did they expect? I had to mentally sit on my hands and let them figure this out by themselves.

Kat straightened. “Okay, I’ve got all my spells back. We are good to go again.”

“Shit. We have to do something different. I’m not just going to keep doing the same thing over and over again. This is bullshit. Seriously,” Heath moaned.

Emilia was going over her notes again for the tenth time. “I agree that we are missing something…but what? We’re at the right location. There’s a fortress on top of the mountain and I’m ninety-nine percent sure that’s where she’s being held. The clues state that there is a tunnel that leads to a secret underground entrance to the castle. In theory that should be here, next to Sergeant What’s-his-face. But every time we talk to him and he gives us the key, that horde of goblins pops out of nowhere and wastes us.”