by Celeste Raye
“How could I not want to?”
She bit her lip again before she realized what she was doing. How hard would it be to get the words out from between her lips?
Laura couldn’t speak. Her mouth was too dry, and her throat felt like there was cotton in it. Her brain was functioning slowly, and it seemed like everything was coming to a head. He was leaning closer, and Laura knew what was going to happen next. She was waiting for it, dying it for it, and she let out a soft gasp when their lips met. It was better than she could have imagined, and she kissed him back just like before. She wanted him to give her what she needed.
John was on her quickly, and Laura could feel his body pressing against her again. It was so close that she knew just how needy he was. It made her shake inside, the feeling of his hard length pressed against her. It made her want everything that he could give her, and at the moment, it felt like a lot.
“Please don’t make me stop this time, Laura. I know that there are reasons to, but I want you so damn bad.”
There was a raw honesty in his eyes and his words that made it hard for her to concentrate. As much as she tried to pull herself together, she couldn’t.
“I have no intentions of stopping you, John.”
That was all that he needed to hear apparently because he was on her in seconds and she was wrapped up in the moment. His lips crashed down on hers, and she could feel his hands starting to roam a little bit. It was enough to have her shaking inside, sure that she was going to lose it right then and there. It was insane how turned on she was, even though he hadn’t even really touched her yet. Just his lips were on her, and she was already on the edge of reason.
“Good, because I don’t know if I would be able to, Laura. The things I am going to do to you…”
Chapter Fifteen
John was sure that something was going to go wrong. He didn’t want to waste any time with Laura because every time that he did, something seemed to get in the way. This was his chance.
He pulled her back onto his lap, and she had this twinkle in her eyes. He kissed her lips until she was just as pliant as she had been before. Her blonde hair was tickling his neck, and her blue eyes were vibrant. Laura was ethereal, and he knew that it was her powers coming out.
“I’ve never been with a witch before.”
“No?”
He assured her that he hadn’t.
“Well, I have never been with a shifter.”
He chuckled. “I bet not.”
She paused on top of him, and then he realized what he was saying. That wasn’t the time for those sort of talks. It was time to do what he needed to do. It was time for him to take the chance and follow his gut. It was telling him that Laura was everything that he needed and wanted, plus more.
Lifting her for a moment, John undid his pants, enough to pull himself free. She was wearing a light and breezy nightgown that made it very easy to find her flesh with his own. He was so in need; John could feel the desires rising inside of him. He had to be inside of her soon, or he wasn’t going to be able to handle himself.
“I need you, Laura.”
She smiled down at him and then pressed her hips against him, as well as her lips. John couldn’t even feel her mouth on his, not after he felt her insides closing in around him. John was vibrating inside; he needed her so bad. Now that he was inside of her though, it was somehow worse.
“Now you have me, John.”
He growled at her loudly and then bit the side of her neck. He heard her whimper and then gasp when he started to thrust up inside of her quickly. She was holding onto his neck to keep herself in place. Her body moved like a rag doll on top of him. He was manipulating every inch of her body to give her just what she needed. All that they both needed, for them to be whole.
Laura’s head went back, and the most delightful sounds came out of her. There was also a purple glow in the room. He’d closed his eyes to feel every last bit of her as he slid in and out, but the light became so bright that he could see it through his eyelids.
When he opened his eyes, the whole room had spinning particles that were purple and seemed to glow. It was witchcraft, he knew that, but it was almost like she didn’t know what she was doing. The look of sheer joy on her face was hard to ignore.
“Look at me, Laura.”
Her eyes fluttered open, and her gaze fell on the light show around her. She missed a beat riding him, matching his every move, but John didn’t mind. He just held her up, slid in deeper, and moved a little faster. He wanted to see her face as she reached her peak, and he knew wouldn’t have to wait long at all.
Then it happened, and he thought she was going to choke him. Her arms tightened around his neck, but it was the suffocation of other parts of his person, that got to him the most. It was all more than he could take, and he called out her name as he filled her with his seed.
John was breathing hard, and he had to hold her still, Laura’s hips still moving on top of him. It was more than he could handle, and he was doing his best to hold it together.
“Stop, Laura; you’re killing me.”
She giggled and told him that he would be fine.
“Doesn’t it feel good?”
She asked the question with false naivety. John knew better, though. Laura knew exactly what she was doing, and he was finding it hard to come to grips with it. Laura was driving him crazy with her inner muscles and slight tipping of her hips.
He growled louder, and she kept moving her hips to give herself more pleasure. He was still hard, in need, and before Laura could drag him down the rabbit hole, John grabbed her, slammed her down onto the bed, and slammed in. Nothing was left but the sound of her whining as he started to move inside of her quickly. She had asked for it, and John was going to make sure that she got more than she bargained for.
Only when Laura was begging for a break did John give her one. He left her passed out on the bed when he went to get something to drink. Only then was he worried about what was going to happen next. It was no longer an idea of the what-if when it came to him and Laura. Now it was reality, and he had to figure out where that left them.
But only after he had sampled her a few more times…
Chapter Sixteen
“What are you doing, coming out of my dad's bedroom?”
Laura heard a soft voice from behind her, and she wanted to disappear at that moment. She would have given anything if she could have just closed her eyes and melted into the carpet.
It was about six o'clock in the morning; she had on her nightclothes and Laura’s hand went up to her hair, which she was sure was a mess. She pushed back the blonde hair that was in her face and tried to think up an answer before she turned around. Laura hadn’t realized that Dana would be back from her sleepover so early. Ernest must have gone to get her without them knowing about it.
“There was a call earlier for him, and I wanted to make sure that he got the message before he left for work. What are you doing up so early?”
Dana paused for only a moment before she told Laura that she hadn't been able to sleep. “I kept waking up at Lisa’s house, so I asked them to bring me home.”
“What do you think we should do to make it better?”
Laura knew that she had something on her mind too. She could see it written all over her face, and it was rather endearing to her. She couldn’t lie very well.
“I think that pancakes would make it better.”
Laura didn't know what it was about Dana, but the little girl acted like she’d never had pancakes before. Laura had a feeling that she would request it every single day if it were possible. Laura didn’t mind because it gave her the opportunity to get the subject off the fact that she had been caught leaving John’s bedroom.
The two of them walked into the kitchen, and she directed Dana to get the pancake mix out while she started a pot of coffee. She wasn’t usually up that early and Laura just needed a minute to wake up. She had been blind-sided, but it gave her the option t
o pull herself together first, especially after the night that she’d had. Her whole body was sore.
John came down a little bit later, and he smiled at the two of them. If Laura wouldn’t have known any better, she would have thought that he looked just about as guilty as she was. There was a smile on his face, but at the same time, there was something else in his eyes. What had gone on the night before had blown her mind. Laura didn't think that she was ever going to be able to look at him the same again.
When he was on his way out for the day, he called to Laura at the front door. Laura wasn't sure what he wanted but was rather surprised that he pulled her in for a kiss.
“I have wanted to do that since you snuck away. I don't want to wake up with you not there again. It wasn’t pleasant.”
“Well, in my defense, we woke up and went back to sleep a couple of times. I don't think I slept a full two hours all night. I don't know how you look so chipper. I still need a lot more coffee to get anywhere close to that.”
“After what happened between us last night, Laura, there is no other way that I could possibly be.”
“Well, I need some sleep. I'm going to choke down a couple of cups of coffee, and hopefully, I'll feel better. What time are you going to be back later?”
It was the first time that Laura had asked something like that, and she wished that she could take it back. It showed that she cared too much and Laura didn't want to make that known. She still didn't know where they stood. They had had great sex, repeatedly, but what was to come of them? Everything was up in the air and she really didn't like that feeling at all.
“I will be home pretty early. Should be back before dinner.”
That wasn’t normal for him, and Laura was sort of surprised. He must have noticed it because he waved her off and told her that he would do anything to get back home to her. Just the way he said it made her believe that anything was possible. Maybe she was looking at it the wrong way.
He gave her one last kiss before he left, and she stared at the door where he had been moments before. Her mind was full of so many questions, and she had no answer for any of them. The complication factor in their relationship had magnified by ten, and Laura still didn't want to admit to herself that she had made a mistake. It was hard to feel that good around somebody and to consider them a mistake.
Dana had her aunt come over, and she wanted to leave with her for a while. They were rather close, and Laura welcomed a short break. Dana was full of questions, and Laura just wanted a bit of peace. They were only supposed to be gone for a little while. Laura found herself walking around, and instead of going to her room, she started walking around other places.
In the midst of it all the night before and then in the morning, Laura had left some of her underthings in his room, and she went to retrieve them. It certainly wasn’t something that she was going to want to explain to anyone else if they were found there.
When she got to John’s bedroom, it was still a little untidy because of his daily mad rush to get out the door. He had drawers open and things half in and half out of them. The part of her that needed order found the little nuisances more than she could ignore. She walked over to one drawer and started to push the boxers back in, but then she saw a manila folder.
Laura would have stopped looking, but then she saw that her name was written across the top of it, in his neat handwriting. An immediate bad feeling came over her. Laura didn’t know exactly what was in the folder, but she knew she wasn't going to like it.
A big part of her wanted to walk away. She didn't want to know what was in the folder with her name on it. Laura had a feeling she knew exactly what it was. It was about her family. She had thought that she could start a fresh life somewhere else, without the past and their deeds coming back to haunt her, but it did not seem possible. Laura pulled the folder out and opened it up, bracing herself for what she was going to find within.
Her worst nightmares came true and then showed her that there was something worse than John knowing about her past. Not only did he know about her family and what they had done, but he was using her because of the documentation in front of her. As much as Laura wanted to believe that there had been some kind of connection between them, that wasn't the way it was at all. He had lured her to his home just to keep her close so that he could use her as a weapon. Or a bargaining chip. It was not fully known to Laura, but she knew enough that it broke her heart.
She stopped the whimper that was trying to come from between her lips. As much as Laura wanted to believe she was wrong, the proof was there. He was using her. It wasn't something that she wanted to think about, but she had to. It was staring her right in the face. Everything that had happened between her and John was a lie.
Laura made a couple of calls and effectively quit. She found someone to watch Dana for when she came back, and Laura wanted to make sure that she wasn't there when John came back later. There was no way that Laura was going to be able to stand up to him.
The problem was that she didn't know what she was supposed to do. The whole reason she had left her house was still just as valid as it was before. Her family was up to another devious plan, and apparently this time, they were going to burn a bunch of people alive. She did not want to go back there and deal with that.
Laura had never been like her family. She had always been the outsider and just as they had shunned her goodness, she had shunned her magic. All she had ever seen, was magic do bad things, even though Laura knew that good could come out of it as well. But with her family and her experience, good was a lot harder to find than bad. Especially when it came to the witching world. Power and magic had a way of bringing out the evil in everyone that used it.
Now, Laura didn't know what to think. She had fallen head over heels for John. She thought he was different. She thought a lot of things, but now Laura was realizing that all of it was a lie. It felt like everyone that she had ever known or ever cared for had lied to her, and Laura did not know where to go from there.
The idea of taking off and being by herself did not really sound all that good to Laura. While she liked her quiet from time to time, she also liked a conversation. Maybe she had thought wrong about her family. Maybe they were going to do it and then get it out of their system. Maybe it was justified. She certainly hadn’t asked any questions or tried to understand the situation.
The sentiment did not extend to John. She did not find any way to justify what he was using her for. It seemed not that hard to imagine that her family was going against him or someone that he knew. Laura did not want anything to happen to him, that was sure enough, but at the same time, she had to remind herself that he wasn't all that worried about if something happened to her. Why was she ready to lose everything and suffer so dramatically when he would not do the same?
Before Laura could make any more decisions, one was made for her. John was home early, and instead of confronting him like she should have, she ran out the back. Ernest had left the keys in the car, and she used them to get as far away as possible. Laura knew that her employer could outrun her if he wanted to, but she was thankful that he didn't.
The last thing that they needed was a fight to be started in front of a bunch of humans that would remember and start stories about them. It might even start a manhunt.
Laura went as far as she could. She hadn’t thought that home was where she would feel safe, but at the moment, it was all she had. Everything that she had felt for John was gone.
Chapter Seventeen
When John first got home, it was like everything was normal. There was nothing out of place in the house, not that he could see anyway. It was a little quieter than usual, but there was nothing right away to tell him that something was off. John did not realize for several moments that what he was feeling was that something was wrong.
He checked some of the areas that he usually found Laura in. He had called her name a couple of times, but she didn't answer. He tried to explain it away. She was at the library.
There was some little nook and cranny where she couldn't hear him, and he was bound and determined to find her.
All that time, John was avoiding her bedroom. It was the place that made the most sense. He had said her name on the other side of the door, but he still didn't hear her answer. As much as he wanted to keep going, sure that she wasn't there, something told him that he needed to open the door.
The door opened, and he immediately could see that the nanny wasn't there. That wasn't the biggest cause of alarm. One of the dresser drawers was out, and he looked closer to see that there was nothing in them. There was nothing in any of the drawers. Not only was he not going to find the nanny, but she had gone of her own volition. She had packed her bags and left him.
John didn't think there was a point in looking anymore. He knew that she was gone, but there was no ‘Dear John’ letter to tell him why. He was left to wonder as he walked back to his room. The wondering did not last very long though. If he didn’t understand at first, he had only to take one look at his bed to see why. It was all his fault, and again, the guilt washed over him. It was bad enough, the guilt, when she didn't realize how much he had betrayed her, but it was certainly worse when she did.
He picked up the folder that he had painstakingly collected. John had paid several investigators to get all the information that he needed and to find out where he was going to accidentally meet up with Laura. It had been this grand plan, his ace in the hole, but at the same time, it had turned out to be one of the worst decisions he had made. And now it had finally ruined the one thing that had come out of it that was good.
If that wasn't enough, John’s phone started to ring, and it with his father. Something was going on with the witches, and of course, he needed his son’s help.
