Alec was kissing me. The real me—not an impostor, not Madison, not some fake version of Kate. His tongue stroked along the seam of my lips, and I opened up for him, and he took me up on the invitation. I almost moaned when his tongue stroked mine and more heat pooled in my belly and slowly settled between my legs.
“Tess.” He whispered the word against my ear and throat. His kisses lost their frenzy. My heartbeat slowed. He buried his face in the crook of my neck. I listened to our ragged breathing and placed my hand over his hand, which rested over my rib cage. His hand was so huge it nearly spanned the entire width of my chest. I bet he could feel my heart pounding against his palm.
“I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” he murmured against my throat.
Happiness erupted like fireworks inside my body. There it was, the one thing I’d wanted to hear from him for so long. A small voice in my head wanted to ask him “Then why the hell haven’t you done it sooner?” But I knew where that would lead us and I didn’t want to go there—yet. He pressed another kiss against my collarbone before he straightened in his seat. His hair, I noted with satisfaction, was thoroughly disheveled from my fingers and his lips were swollen from our kisses. I didn’t want us to stop, but I knew there were things we needed to discuss before we could take this further, mainly Kate. Maybe I should have felt guilty, but I was still too high from the kiss.
The shrill sound of ringing almost sent my heart flying through my chest. Alec fumbled in his pockets for his cell and rolled his eyes when he saw the screen. “Mom” read the caller ID. I thought Alec hadn’t seen his parents since he’d come to the FEA.
“What do you want?” As soon as I heard his tone, I realized how stupid I’d been. Of course, it wasn’t his real mom. It was Summers, his pretend Mom for the mission. “Jesus, Summers, you sound like a nanny.” I couldn’t hear her response, but it must have been something equally insulting because Alec grinned. I wanted to reach out and grab him, just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but I wasn’t sure if our kiss gave me the right to keep touching him.
His face tightened at something she said. “Okay. Tell him I’ll be home soon.” He ended the call.
“I never thought Summers was the motherly type,” I said.
“She isn’t, believe me. She’s not happy without someone to boss around and she’s worried I’ll bust our cover if I’m not home like a good schoolboy. And Major showed up a few minutes ago. Apparently, he wants to talk to me.” He looked anxious at the prospect.
I touched his cheek, the stubble prickling my fingertips. “It’ll be okay.” Without thinking I leaned over and kissed him on the lips. For one heart-stopping moment I thought he’d pull away, but then his arms came around me. His tongue found mine again and his arms tightened around me as we kissed for several minutes.
When Alec finally pulled back, I was breathless and flushed.
“We need to get you back home,” Alec said after a moment. “Can you shift?”
I tried to relax against the seat and closed my eyes, acutely aware of Alec’s gaze on me. I reached for my Variation, tried to coax it.
Nothing.
“You can do it.” Alec’s voice was calm and full of confidence and suddenly I felt it too. Calm and confident. It was like his words had crept into me and washed away all the doubt and worry.
The rippling started in my toes and snaked up my body and after a few seconds it was over.
“And?” I asked.
He smiled. “You did it.”
I couldn’t resist. I leaned over and kissed him again. I never wanted to stop.
The next morning, Devon remained silent during our ride to school. I was exhausted. I hadn’t dared to fall asleep all night, scared I’d change back into my own body again. He looked like he hadn’t slept much either, like something was bothering him.
“Is anything wrong?” I asked. My voice was suddenly loud in the silence of the car and Devon cringed in surprise as if he’d forgotten I was beside him.
“Why do you ask?”
“You look tense,” I said, watching his face for a reaction.
“I didn’t sleep much.” Then, as if a switch had been turned, he gave me the grin that seemed to lighten everything around. “Don’t worry, Maddy.”
We eased into the parking lot, where Ana stood waiting for me. Devon scuttled out of the car before I could ask him anything else. His behavior didn’t really help to stifle my curiosity. Something was definitely wrong. Ana approached us as I climbed out of the car, but Devon was immediately on his way toward the school building. It looked like the devil snapped at his heels.