Amethyst Tears (YA Paranormal Romance) (Luminescence Trilogy) (12 page)

At least I was looked
the part. My cheeks grew red as I remembered I was dressed like a hoochy. What had I been thinking?

“Hey,” he stepped aside
with a hand propped on the door over his head and waited for me to walk inside. “Do I dare hope you came to see me?” he asked. There was always a playful trouble to his voice.

Stepping over the threshold, I was washed with feelings of love, family and home. I gave him a halfhearted apologetic smile. “Is he here?” I asked unable to keep the hopefulness from my voice.

“Nope. Sophie either. It’s just you and me, babe.”

I gave him a glare that clearly stated I was no one
’s
babe
.

His grin only widened. “But he just texted me that he was on his
way home if you wanted to wait,” he added after realizing there wasn’t a chance in hell. Jared was so less complicated than Gavin. He was more muscles than brains.

“Sure. Is it cool if I wait in his room?”
I asked, wanting to escape anymore advances from meathead. And then at least maybe Gavin couldn’t throw me out of the house without making a scene.

Jared
smirked and there was a gleam in his eyes. “Knock your socks off.”

“Oh,” I added,
spinning around towards him. “Could you not let him know I’m here?” I chewed my lip as I waited for him to answer, wondering if I had pushed my luck.

Crossing his arms over his bro
ad chest, his expression lost a little bit of its playfulness. “Anything for you, but I am warning you. He is being a total asswad lately.”

I swallowed hard. “Thanks for the heads up,” I muttered
and made a beeline upstairs. The last thing I wanted to do was loiter around and get the third degree from Gavin’s, very flirty, older brother.

Gavin’s
room was stamped into my memory. Every. Teeny. Detail. The french doors to the balcony were left open, a black hoodie was thrown over the back of a chair, and his bed was neatly made. It looked exactly as I remembered, yet not. I felt closer to him than I had in weeks, and I vowed then that I had to find a way to get him back into my life. It was just too drab and miserable without him.

No
thing smelled like Gavin, pure sin. I missed it painstakingly. My magic missed him. The stirrings swirled inside me the moment I stepped into his room. It seemed to awaken. Trailing a hand on his bed, I only thought about it for a second before I crawled in.

Five minutes
, I thought.

I just wanted a few stolen moments to savor in his lingering presence. His energy was everywhere in this room.

Laying my head on his pillow, I drank in the feeling of being in the one place that oozed Gavin. My whole body relaxed and my muscles felt weightless. Of course I dozed off with the scent of him surrounding me like a blanket, and the frothy ocean waves from his window lapping at the sandy shore.

In my dream,
his hand caressed down my cheek. My eyes were still shut, but I knew his touch. Heat unfolded through me and I stretched towards his warmth. I couldn’t help think that this was far better than dreamscaping. It was better than doing magic. This was the best dream of my life.

Gavin.

He was lying stretched out beside me. Our legs touched, and he was propped above me on an elbow. Faces close, he brushed a lock of tousled hair from my cheek, his touch electric. Like everything between us, it charged through my body. My violet eyes fluttered open, wide and I stared into his luminous sapphire eyes. I wet my lips nervously, afraid to move, to shattered the spell. His eyes settled on my mouth, and I knew he was going to kiss me.

This was
, after all, my dream, so why shouldn’t he kiss me? It was what I wanted. Before I even thought about what I was doing, I willed him to kiss me even knowing that it might be just magic and a dream.

Memorized, I couldn’t tear my eyes from his as his mouth descended to capture mine. The moment
our lips touched, I knew I wasn’t dreaming. No dream could be this real. This hot. This mind-blowing glorious. It was all the encouragement I needed before I threw my heart and soul into kissing him senseless. All I could think was that Gavin was kissing me.

My arms stole around his neck needing to keep him close, afraid it would end too soon. I sunk
my fingers into his dark hair and with each brush of our lips I could feel our magic shimmering to the surface. Not just mine. Ours. Swirling together. His answered mine just as I mirrored his kiss. There was something happening here, something more than just a heavy make out session. And heavy it was getting.

In one fluid movement I found myself spread across him, his hands burning through the back pocket of my jeans. My surprise and pleasure was swallowed in his kiss. My jeans were so tight it felt like he was stroking my skin.

He had me spellbound.

His lips left mine and kissed both my eyelids softly. Pulling back, he stared into
eyes that glowed as brightly as his. His gaze dipped and he reached out, knuckles brushing my chest. “Does it still chase away the dreams?” he murmured, holding the amethyst and moonstone necklace in his fingers.

Only when I wear it
, I thought, which hadn’t been as often as I should. His question brought back the dream I’d had with Morgana. How could I have forgotten?

Simple.

When Gavin was near it was impossible to think of anything else. “Actually I wanted to ask you something about dreamscaping.” Again I wondered why I hadn’t told Lukas. He was after all a dreamscaper, but it just didn’t feel right. Telling Gavin was a no-brainer.

His brows drew together sensing my distress. At the same time a light of fury flickered into his eyes, turning them a menacing deep shade of blue. They were almost black.
His lip curled into a snarl.

God how could I be so stupid. Of course he would immediately thi
nk of Lukas. The intoxicating mood we had going was slipping away. I lowered my chin, blinking. “It’s not about him, it’s about Morgana,” I rushed before he could condemn me from his room.

That got his attention as I had hoped. I watched as some of the hard lines on his face softened. Dropping the necklace back on
my neck, he moved away from me and sat up on the bed. I followed facing him. “I had another dream with her,” I continued.

He exhaled roughly.
“When?”

I felt the heat creep into my cheeks and shifted my gaze to my fingers nerv
ously picking at the stitching on his comforter. “The night I told you about Lukas,” I replied in a barely audible whisper. I really hadn’t wanted to bring up his name. I could feel the invisible force field being thrown up between us. Lukas’s name brought fresh, painful memories into his dark blue eyes. Anger lurched there.

I watched as he pushed the darkness from his eyes.
It was impressive. I knew that I didn’t have that kind of control over my emotions. Not even close. “What happened?” he finally asked.

I shrugged.
“It wasn’t like the last time. She didn’t threaten me or try to hurt me. Actually…she claims that she is my…” I counted in my head. “Great-great-great-great grandma.”

Gavin cracked his neck.
“Interesting. Is that all she said?”

I narrowed my violet eyes. “Is that all? Why are you not surprised by that?”
I expected the same outrage I had felt when she told me, but I got none of that from Gavin. Why?

He twisted on the bed toward
to me. “I always knew there was something… special about you.”

I know that the word
different
had been at the tip of his tongue; he knew how much I hated that word. “So you believe her? You think she was telling the truth?”

“
I think what she is claiming is a very real possibility. Something inside me agrees with what she said, but I don’t trust her worth a damn. And neither should you.”

“
If I am her granddaughter, what does being related to her even mean?” I asked.

His dark worried expression wasn’t helping.
“I am not entirely sure, but for her to seek you out, it must be important. Have you been wearing your necklace?” he asked and again reaching out, touching the cool stones at my neck.

“Yeah,” I admitted sounding a little defeated. “They don’t work with her. She bypasses their protection. She’s just too strong.”

Staring straight ahead, his jaw worked. “All the more reason to be careful. You might need to learn how to block the dreams on your own.”

The mention of my dreams was like letting a giant
purple elephant into the room.

“I miss y
ou,” I said, trying to break through the suddenly strenuous clogged air.

He sighed heavy, rubbing his hands over his face, a face that was etched in my thoughts. “This doesn’t change things Bri.
I’m still dealing with everything.”

And just like that, my world tilted over the edge again. How can he keep doing this t
o me? “How long do you plan on ignoring me, punishing me?”

“I’m not punishing you. I just needed some space. I needed to think some stuff through.”

I was probably pushing my luck, but the words just tumbled out of my mouth. “Well are you about through?”

“Bri,” he growled.
“Let’s just focus on figuring out why granny dearest is suddenly interested in you. We can deal with… other stuff later.”

It was
a start and far better than not seeing him at all. “Does that mean you’ll be back in school on Monday?”

He laid his dark head back and stared at the ceiling. “I guess Monday is as good as any.”

A sprinkle of hope and excite trickled inside me. I would be able to see him every day again. There was nothing right now I wanted more than time with him, however I got it.

He swallowed hard. “Have you seen him?”

Then my exhilaration came crashing down. I stared at my hands. “Yeah. He’s been helping me hone my magic.”

I knew that it was extremely difficult for him to hear. Lines of strain pulsed at the sides of his temples. “Is it
working?” he asked, the words sounding forced.

I sighed.
“Some. I was able to move an object from across the room.” Sitting beside him, I tucked my legs up against my chest.

He ran t
he back of his knuckles down my check, and his eyes grew sad. I couldn’t stop the shiver or the drop in my heart. “It really should be me.” He pushed off the bed, and I was helpless to do anything.

And once again I watched him walk out the door.

I squeezed my eyes shut and swore.

He might be right. Maybe I was making a huge mistake with Lukas. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
Who was right? Who was wrong? Who to trust? I felt like my head was going to fall off.

So much for talking to him, I’d spent most of our short time together with my tongue down his throat. Not that I was complaining, it had been glorious.
The problem was I didn’t know if and when it would happen again.

And I so wanted it
to happen again.

Chapter 14

I
HAD MY HEAD PROPPED on my hands daydreaming about nothing in particular when I heard the door to the shop chime. Tugging on my red turtleneck, I slapped on a smile and glanced up. A sprinkle of magic danced along my skin, announcing my guest was a witch. I was getting better at recognizing the feeling. The warm greeting I had on my lips never made it out. My smile lessened as I stared at the greenest eyes like rolling plains.

Lukas.

This was unexpected. What was he doing here, at the shop nonetheless?

I watched him
saunter leisurely across the shop until he stood in front of me with a saucy grin. It wasn’t nearly as lethal as Gavin’s but effective even so. He was apparently really fond of college t-shirts. This one was grey and stretched across his wide chest. I would have to be dead to not appreciate his hotness.

“Hey.”
My voice gave away my surprise. I wasn’t going to lie, I was shocked to see him, but really I had this coming. I’d been sort of avoiding him all weekend, and now looking at him I was guilt-ridden. Apparently he found another way to catch me after I dodged all his calls and texts.

Seriously
, sometimes I could be such a shitty friend and procrastination should be my middle name. It was mostly the practicing that I had been eluding, not Lukas.

Well maybe Lukas a little.

“I hadn’t heard from you. I hope it is ok that I just popped in?” There was such a sincere and boyish charm to him.

I smiled. “
Of course. I’m sorry I didn’t return your calls. I’ve been super busy.” I cringed inside. What a lame excuse.

His hip leaned against the counter, bringing our faces closer. “B
usy with Gavin?”

Did I detect a hint of jealous
y? Hmm. I wasn’t entirely sure that I liked his implication. Or that he in fact was spot on. Was I really that readable?