Their loss, Vivi thought as she studied a pile of crystals heaped on purple velvet there on the counter. “Anyway, they want us to ‘fix this,’ which, I mean, same.”
Gwyn snorted. “Tell them about the curse. You’ll have a fifty-page paper on curses by next week, but probably no actual solution.”
“Rhys said we were being snobs.”
Gwyn hooted at that. “Oh my god, a Penhallow Witch Boy calling anyone a snob is rich as fuck. And tell him they were rude to my mom first.”
“I tried,” Vivi said, “but I didn’t want to actually get into all of it, you know? The less Rhys and I talk, the better.”
She didn’t add that when they weren’t talking, they were kissing, which was a problem all its own.
Vivi honestly couldn’t believe it had happened at all. Even now, it seemed like a dream, or like something that had happened to someone else. Surely she hadn’t been so completely stupid as to make out with Rhys as . . . what? A dare? A bet?
This is why she’d ended up in this whole situation in the first place. She was normally a completely rational and calm person, and Rhys Penhallow made her totally lose her mind. Which is why they had to break the curse and send him on his way as soon as possible before she did something truly nuts like sleep with him.
Again.
Gwyn finished her arranging and turned around, brushing her hands off on her thighs. “Well,” she started, “Mom is gonna be thrilled—”
She broke off suddenly, staring hard at Vivi.
“What?”
Narrowing her eyes, Gwyn leaned over the counter, getting closer. “Vivienne Jones. What happened with you and Rhys today?”
“Nothing,” Vivi immediately said, but the fact that she could literally feel herself turn pink didn’t exactly back her up.
And Gwyn knew it. Squealing, she clapped her hands. “Did you bang him in your office?”
“What? No!”
“In the library?”
“No,” Vivi said, pushing off the counter and suddenly taking a lot of interest in the display of tarot cards. “There was zero banging.”
Which was true. She and Rhys hadn’t done anything more than kiss. Technically.
But if they hadn’t been interrupted?
Vivi had never been one for sex in public, but she’d forgotten that Rhys could make her feel like that, like she’d die if she didn’t have him right that second. Like her skin was too tight, and his was too far away, like she wanted to crawl inside him.
And that’s why he was dangerous. She’d forgotten herself once with him, and look what had happened.
“Girl, if your kissing him can make you make that face, I have to say, I’m less surprised you were so devastated when the two of you broke up. The whole curse thing actually makes a lot more sense now.”
“Ha-ha,” Vivi replied before covering her face with her hands and groaning. “It was just . . . such an intensely stupid thing to do.”
“Sweetie, again, you were nineteen and really upset, and—”
“Not that. I mean, yes that, that’s way up there on the stupid meter, but I meant kissing him today. It just complicates things.”
“How?”
When Vivi just looked at her, Gwyn lifted both her hands. “No, I’m serious. How? You’re not nineteen anymore. You’re not thinking he’s gonna be the one and planning to marry him on a hillside covered with bunnies.”
“Bunnies?”