Turning back to Vivienne, Rhys raised his eyebrows. “Have you been here before?”
She shook her head. “Never. I mean, I knew where the cave was, but Aunt Elaine was always really strict about this being a sacred space not to mess with.”
Frowning, she shook her head. “But it’s weird. It’s like I knew where the opening was before I saw it. Like I knew if I looked in that spot, I’d see it.”
Rhys wasn’t sure what to make of that. It was possible she was just better at picking up the magic here than he was, family bloodline be damned, or maybe she’d caught a glimpse of it earlier that hadn’t really registered. In any case, he no longer had to stand here looking like a complete tit, so he nodded toward the cleft. “Onward, then.”
As soon as they stepped into the hidden entrance, the air around them seemed to change. It was immediately colder, so much so that Rhys shivered, wishing he’d brought a jacket.
Here, the passage was so narrow they had to walk single file, the damp rock brushing their shoulders, and the farther they walked, the more insistent the hum of magic became, Rhys’s ears feeling like they were stuffed with cotton, his body covered in goose bumps.
From behind him, he could hear Vivienne’s breathing getting faster and knew she must be feeling it, too.
But that was nothing compared to what he felt when the slim passage opened up into another chamber, and the ley lines glowed before him.
The whole cave was lit with a soft purple, flowing rivers of pure magic pulsing on the floor, and Rhys’s mouth went dry, his knees feeling shaky.
That was, unfortunately, not the only thing he was feeling.
Turning behind him, he saw Vivienne standing just inside the entrance, her eyes wide, her chest rising and falling, and when she looked over at Rhys, he saw the same mix of surprise—and heat—in her face.
Thank sweet fuck, or this would’ve been truly embarrassing.
“Right,” he started, clearing his throat, “so this is awkward and probably why this sort of thing is usually done alone.”
He should’ve expected it, really, or maybe his father should’ve warned him, but then no, that conversation would have been excruciating enough to cause death, so maybe that was for the best.
Magic always had a physical effect. Some spells made you tired, some made you giddy. Some left you crying for reasons you didn’t understand.
And some magic, for whatever reason, turned you on.
Apparently the ley lines were of that variety, and given the intensity of the magic in this cave, the effect was . . . similarly intense.
Probably magnified by the fact that he was currently sharing this cave with a woman he’d once had a lot of truly spectacular sex with, and he should not be thinking of that even a little bit right now, not the slightest bit.
But as he slammed his eyes shut, it was all there, unspooling in his brain in an X-rated highlight reel: Vivienne’s legs wrapped around his waist, Vivienne’s hair against his chest, the feel of her nipple under the lazy sway of his thumb, the hitch in her breath when his hand slid between her legs, the way she laughed when she came, which had always seemed extraordinary to him, that perfect, breathless laugh against his ear—
“Rhys.”
He didn’t shriek exactly as he opened his eyes to find her standing very, very close to him, but the sound wasn’t far off, and then he made the mistake of putting his hands on her arms to steady himself.
Even through her sweater, her skin was warm, and as he looked in her eyes, he saw her pupils were huge, the black nearly swallowing the ring of hazel around it. “This is some kind of magic thing, isn’t it?” she all but panted, and he nodded, his hands now moving up and down her arms when what he needed to be doing was stepping far the fuck away from her and possibly running back out into the main cave to stick his head in all that cold water.