Confined (A Tethered Novel, Book 3) (17 page)

“I told Kace about our kiss…and I can’t, I won’t…” I fumbled
for words. “I said I wouldn’t let it happen again,” I finally managed to choke
out as I gazed into Theo’s mesmerizing caramel-colored eyes.

I’d spoken the words aloud, not only to tell him where I
stood, but also as a reminder to myself of my promise to Kace.

“I understand,” he whispered. “We shouldn’t have done that
anyway. It was a mistake.”

“I agree,” I said.

I licked my lips, which caused my stare to fall to his as if
pulled there by a magnet. I remembered how his lips had tasted during that
mistake of a kiss. How his hands had felt across my skin in that moment, the
warmth that had slid through me from the mere brush of his tongue against mine.

Before I knew what was happening, I had risen up on the tips
of my toes and pressed my lips to his.

My magick exploded through me as soon as we made contact,
and I closed my eyes to deepen the kiss. Theo’s hands found their way to my
hips, and I pressed myself into him more, enjoying the feel of his hard body
against mine way more than I should. What the hell was wrong with me? I
shouldn’t be doing this right now; the tether should be gone. I’d told Kace I
wouldn’t kiss Theo again, and now it seemed like I couldn’t stop.

Theo’s full lips felt cool against my skin as they left my
lips to slip along the length of my neck for the briefest of moments, before
coming back up to meet with my lips once more. My body seemed to be giving off
more heat than normal, as if I were close to boiling. My skin dampened with
sweat, making my tank top stick to the small of my back. An electric pulse
flitted through me as Theo’s tongue slipped between my lips and met with mine.

We should stop.

The words fluttered through my mind in Theo’s sultry voice,
but I wasn’t willing to listen to them. Apparently, neither was he, because
seconds after he’d said them, he peeled my tank top off and tossed it to the
floor.

His lips slid along my throat once more, before dipping down
to the hollow area between my breasts. I gripped either side of his head,
marveling in the feeling of his shaved hair pressed against my palms and the
erotic sensation of his tongue against my cleavage. A sudden warm breeze
flittered across my damp skin, cooling me and calling to my magick all at the
same time. Tiny sparks of warmth danced around where his lips continued to kiss
and lick between my breasts.

I opened my eyes as his hands came up to slip the straps of
my bra off my shoulders. Theo had it unclasped and at my feet seconds later.
His mouth descended on my right breast, and closing my eyes, I melted against
him. A fever like nothing I’d ever felt before rushed through me, and I
suddenly felt Theo jerk back. I didn’t understand why, until I opened my eyes
and noticed the cause of his alarm.

I was on fire. Literally.

Tiny orange-red flames licked away at my skin. I watched
them, captivated by their dancing little sways.

“What’s happening?” I asked. My voice was thick with a
mixture of panic and awe.

“Your magick,” Theo replied, sounding nearly as astounded as
me.

My eyes zeroed in on the small flames slipping along the
surface of my skin. In my mind, I knew this shouldn’t be possible, but it was.
The proof was right in front of me. I focused on how it felt to have actual
flames flickering over my body. Surprisingly, there was no pain. Instead, it
was a bearable heat brushing not only across the surface of my skin, but coming
from within me as well.

This was my magick, my element, my Fire…and somehow it had
finally been set free.

“But how? I don’t understand what this is. I’m not doing any
spells with the others right now,” I said without moving my eyes from the
flames.

“The tether, combined with you becoming initiated last
night, must have altered you somehow.” His voice was stuck in a tone I’d never
heard before—in a place of awe.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” I said, taking note of how
he’d made me sound like a mutated freak of some sort.

Theo moved closer and extended a hand to touch me. I wanted
to flinch back in case I burned him, but once I saw his fingertips touch my
arm, and become engulfed in orange flames without him crying out, I relaxed a
little.

“You’re part Conjurer now,” Theo said, his voice still low.

The words rang through my mind on repeat as I watched him
ease his hand along my inferno-covered arm.

“That’s not even possible,” I breathed. “Is it?”

“Apparently.”

The flames along my body grew and flickered. Theo took a
step back. My vision swirled for a second as my stomach clenched, and saliva
pooled in my mouth.

“Great, I’m sure Kace will just
love
this news,” I
muttered.

Kace
. The thought of him made guilt swell in my
throat, choking me.

“Let me point out a silver lining,” Theo said. “At least
your clothes don’t singe off your body when your magick is turned on.” He
pointed to my shorts.

I looked down at the length of my body and realized that,
while I may have shorts on, I did not have on a bra or a shirt. Finding both on
the floor near my feet, I bent to retrieve my bra and watched it go up in
flames as soon as I touched it. Dropping the burnt material immediately, I
stared open-mouthed as it continued to melt and smolder against the wood floor,
before it finally snuffed itself out.

“What the hell?” I shouted, crossing my arms over my chest
for coverage. “I just burned my favorite bra!”

Theo chuckled and reached for my wrist. “Calm down…that’s
what you need to do.”

“First off, that wasn’t funny. You have no idea how hard it
is to find a good-fitting bra, and second, how the fuck am I supposed to calm
down? I’m on flipping fire!”

“I know, but it’s fueled by your emotions,” he reasoned. “If
you would just calm down, then the fire would dissipate. The reason your bra
caught on fire was because you focused on it directly.”

His thumb began to move in gentle motions back and forth
against the inside of my wrist as he spoke. It had a lulling effect on me, the
same way his smooth voice did.

“Focus on the heat; tame it. It’s a part of you, Addison,”
Theo said in a hushed voice, his fingers still massaging the inside of my
wrist.

He was right. This Fire
was
mine. This was the
missing piece of me, the piece Kace had awakened and Theo had freed. I was
whole now. Reveling in that realization and the feel of Theo’s soft touch, I
felt little trickles of cooling relief begin to slip through me.

“Close your eyes and focus on your breathing,” Theo
instructed. “Sometimes that helps.”

I did as I was told. Pulling in steady, measured breaths, I
controlled my breathing until it became in sync with Theo’s. My pulse slowed,
and the heat I felt flickering along my body slowly diminished to nothing.

“There,” he said.

Opening my eyes, I found I was no longer on fire—just naked
from the waist up. I met Theo’s eyes as I bent to retrieve my tank top from the
floor; they were dark and full of want. Two emotions—desire and pride—blurred
together in me, and I couldn’t be sure whose was whose.

Slipping the tank top on, I felt Theo’s eyes taking in the
sight of my bare skin one last time, and it sent a shiver along my spine. Once
I was dressed, I hesitated to meet his stare.

“Well, that was unexpected,” I said, tucking a stray strand
of hair behind my ear.

“To say the least.” He walked over to the couch and sat.

Placing his elbows on his knees, he brought his fingertips
together in a steeple and pressed them to his lips in thought. I didn’t feel
right to sit beside him, but my legs felt like Jell-O beneath me. Spotting a
single chair off to the side, I walked to it. Spinning it around to face him, I
sat. Even though I’d figured out what I’d come here to learn—that we were still
in fact tethered—I found that I still wasn’t ready to leave.

Not after a moment like that.

“How do I keep that from happening again the next time
I...?” I trailed off. There was no way I was finishing that sentence. The
embarrassment I felt was enough; I didn’t need to add to it any. The only
reason I’d spoken at all was because I was curious, frazzled, and someone
needed to say something to fill the awkward silence between us.

Theo raised his eyes to mine. Amusement filled me, and I
knew it came from him. The thought that I’d amused him with my words sent a
little chuckle free from my mouth.

“I guess you’ll just have to learn to control it.”

“And how do you suppose I do that?”

His lips twisted into a small smile. “By letting Kyra teach
you.”

Kyra
. I thought of the mischievous gleam in her eyes
when she’d opened the front door and nearly startled me to death earlier.
Getting help from her in this department would be
fun
, for lack of a
better word.

“Great, this should be interesting,” I said with heavy
sarcasm dripping from my words. “By the way, what is she doing here anyway?”

“The Spirits told her to come,” he said. Theo stood up and
started toward his front door. “Come on. Let's go talk to her.” He paused and
turned back to look at me. “Unless you think you can master this all on your
own and not melt a bed when you go back home to
lover boy
.”

Irritation coated my throat and stung as it floated through
my veins. This was another one of those emotions that was hard to pinpoint who
it came from. I was feeling irritated by his boldness, and I was one hundred
percent positive he was irritated at the thought of Kace and me in bed
together. I could sense it.

“No, it would be best to learn some sort of pointers before
I leave…I guess.” I stood to follow him without looking at him directly.

We exited his house and started down the tree-covered
pathway leading to the main house. Kyra was sitting in the backyard, sipping on
what looked like a tall glass of lemonade, while reading a paperback. She set
the book down on the little glass table in front of her and glared at us as we
approached.

“You two don’t look so happy,” she said, glancing between
the two of us before her eyes locked directly on mine. “What’s the
matter…didn’t like seeing each other so early in the morning?”

“No, more like…didn’t like finding out the tether is still
in place and that she’s now part Conjurer too,” Theo chimed in.

Kyra’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding!”

“No, actually he’s not,” I muttered.

“How did you find that out?” Kyra asked. An excited gleam
shifted through her caramel eyes.

Images of exactly how we’d figured it out flashed through my
mind in vivid clarity. My cheeks heated, and I wondered if either of them would
be able to notice the color that had appeared in my face.

“How isn’t what matters. What matters is that she needs to
learn to control it before she gets out of hand and becomes some sort of fire
starter all over town,” Theo said, never once turning his attention my way. “I
can’t teach her how to control an element I don’t share with her, and we don’t
have time for her to learn control like the rest of us did. She’s grown. It’s
already at its peak. There’s no easing into it like with us while we were
growing up.”