A Kiss Of Shadows   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

Neitherof us had used power—it was just the feel of skin on skin, our bodies touching. We'd gone further than this years ago. But something was wrong. I just couldn't remember what.

Galen leaned over, kissing my stomach. He licked a thick wet line down my body. I couldn't think, and I needed to think.

His tongue played along the edge of my panties, his face burying against the lace, moving it aside with his chin and mouth, working lower.

I grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his face up, away from my body. "No, Galen."

He spilled his hands up my body, forced his fingers under the wire of my bra, lifted it, exposed my breasts. "Say, yes, Merry, please say yes." He rolled his hands over my breasts, kneading them, massaging them.

I couldn't think, couldn't remember why we shouldn't be doing this. "I can't think," I said out loud.

"Don't think," Galen said. He lowered his face to my breasts, kissed them gently, licked the nipples.

I put a hand on his chest and pushed him away. He stayed over me, an arm on either side, his legs out behind him, half on top of mine. "Something's wrong. We shouldn't be doing this."

"Nothing's wrong, Merry." He tried to lower his face back to my breasts, but I kept both hands on his chest, kept him pushed away from me.

"Yes, there is."

"What? "he asked.

"That's just it, I can't remember. I can't remember, Galen, do you understand? I can't remember. I should be able to remember."

He frowned down at me. "There is something." He shook his head. "I can't remember."

"Why are we in the back of this car?" I asked.

Galen eased back off of me, sitting with his pants still undone, hands in his lap. "You're going to see your grandmother."

I slid my bra back in place and sat up, moving to my side of the car. "That's right."

"What just happened?" he asked.

"It's a spell, I think," I said.

"We didn't drink the wine or eat the food."

I looked at the black interior of the car. "It's here somewhere." I began running my hands along the edge of the seat. "Someone put it in the car, and it wasn't the car."

Galen ran his hands over the ceiling, searching. "If we had made love…"

"My aunt would have had us executed." I didn't tell him about Doyle, but I doubted seriously if the queen would let me defile two of her guards in as many days without being punished for it.

I found a lump under the black cloth of the floorboard. I raised it gently, not wanting to hurt the car.