Heck yeah, he was ready for magic. But since he wasn’t ever going to get to the ultimate magic with her, he tried to be happy with what he did have.
With her small but strong hands over his, they threw the clay in the center and began to form it into a cone shape.
“That’s it,” she encouraged. “Can you feel how right that is?”
Sweet Lord, all he could think was that she could have been talking to him in bed while he was tasting her. He grunted a yes and let her keep manipulating his hands with hers.
She sped the wheel up with her foot, then wet both their hands one after the other so their fingers slipped and slid against each other until it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended. Just like in the sculpture she’d been working on that morning.
Keeping their left hands on the outside of the wheel, she had them press down with their right hands from the top of the clay. A few seconds later, she maneuvered their hands again so that they were pressing on either side of it to force it upward.
“We’re ready to make the opening now. We’re going to have to work together to keep our hands really still so that the hole doesn’t get all wobbly.”
Her voice sounded breathy and he could feel her heart pounding through her back against his chest where he was pressed against her.
“Start with your thumb,” she said right before she moved his right thumb into the top center of the mound, then held it steady with their left hands, “and then when you feel like we’re deep enough, you’ll use both hands to widen the opening, like this.”
Ryan couldn’t make sense of a word she said after deep enough, not with all the blood rushing from his brain and pounding south. Fortunately, Vicki was moving his hands for him on the clay and all he had to do was let himself be led by her.
“How does that all feel so far?”
“Great.”
She slowed down the wheel and backed off the pressure of their hands on the clay as she looked over her shoulder at him. “Do you want to try pulling up the sides?”
Thinking that he would barely have to move his head forward at all to kiss her, he blurted, “God, yes, I want to try it.”
Her eyes widened. “If I’d known you would be this enthusiastic about it, I wouldn’t have let you quit so soon when we were kids.”
It took him several beats to figure out what she was talking about. Finally, it hit him what he’d said...and what an idiot he must sound like. In any case, it was for the best that they hadn’t done this as teenagers, because there was no way he would have had a prayer of controlling himself back then. Even as an adult, there wasn’t much slack left on his self-control.
Before he could figure out how to backpedal from his earlier statement, she turned back to the wheel and said, “Oops, it’s going to squash in on itself if we don’t get moving. The quick and dirty is that you’re going to reach in with your left hand and pull the walls up. On three. One. Two. Three.”
He tried to let his hands go loose in hers again, but with the words—and visual of—quick and dirty playing over and over in his head, he couldn’t manage it. In under five seconds, the clay beneath their hands went from a well-formed almost-bowl to a haphazard blob.
She exclaimed in dismay at the exact moment he cursed.
And then they both started laughing, her back shaking against his chest.
“I was so sure you were going to get it this time.”
“I guess this proves I’m not that good with my hands after all,” he joked.
She laughed again at his wildly inaccurate statement and he was finally letting himself enjoy the feel of her hips against his thighs, her ponytail tickling his neck, when a figure appeared in the doorway.
Ryan felt Vicki’s entire body tense...and his own hands fisted in the clay until it seeped out grey and viscous between his fingers.
“James.” Her voice shook slightly on the man’s name, but was perfectly steady again a moment later. “I didn’t expect you to come by until later this afternoon with the rest of the board.”
“Hello, Victoria. Ryan.”
Vicki pushed the potting wheel away and stood up.
Ryan moved with her and nodded his greeting. “Hi.” He made sure the two letters came out as menacing as possible and were easily translated to read: Hurt her and I’ll find a way to hurt you back.
James focused his attention on Vicki. “Has your solo work turned into a group project?”
He was smiling, but Ryan didn’t buy it. He was about to advance on the man, but Vicki put her hand on his arm before he could get his fist any closer to the creep’s face.
“Ryan and I were just taking a little break together.” Despite how flustered he could tell she was, she sounded remarkably calm. “Is there anything you needed before this afternoon, James?”
“I wanted you to be the first to hear the good news about Anthony.”
Hearing her ex-husband’s name from the douchebag’s self-satisfied mouth had Ryan seeing red.
Blood red.
Chapter Seven
Panic—and hot on its heels, fury at the sensation—skittered up Vicki’s spine. She should have known her ex wouldn’t be able to keep out of her business.
It didn’t help, of course, that James and Anthony had been friends so many years ago. In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised to find out that James had been the one to contact Anthony, simply to try to get under her skin.
“How is he?” she asked in an easy voice as she remembered to play her part of happy girlfriend by wrapping her arms tightly around Ryan and leaning into his broad chest.
She thought she saw a flash of surprise cross James’s face at her relaxed response and was pleased she’d pulled it off.
“Very well, actually. And quite generous to do us all the favor of joining the fellowship board at such a late date.”
Vicki couldn’t stop her eyes from widening this time. Anthony had joined the fellowship board?
Ryan beat her to the punch. “Are you saying that Anthony will be voting on Vicki’s project?”
Despite the fact that James was wearing his best poker face, it was perfectly clear to Vicki just how pleased he was by this turn of events. He’d found the perfect way to punish her for turning down his advances.
“Yes, he will, along with the rest of the board. He and I were just going over the fellowship contenders’ portfolios, but of course he’s already quite familiar with yours.” He gave Vicki an understanding look. “And while it’s understood that he has a special familiarity with your skills, I have no doubt that he will be well able to judge your project on merit alone without favoring you unduly.”