The Fairer Hex
Page 21
“There is a lot going on out there,” he said.
“You’re groping my boob,” I said, but it didn’t come out very upset.
He still drew back the hand. “This is what happens to me,” he said. “When I’m vulnerable, my body screams for something to satisfy me. But it’s never been this bad before. Resisting you is a sport with its own league…”
“You can’t touch me, anyway,” I said, but we already knew there was a lot of ground left to cover. His hand was proving that right now as he began a more focused teasing of my nipple, plucking the nub between his fingers through the sheet as a pang of pure desire shot through me.
This was probably a bad time to recall that my grandmother was, even to this day apparently, living with an entire rock band of men. Holy crap.
“How many wolves are in a pack of wolves?” I said, arching back into him until, through the covers, my ass found the hard length of the Incubuster.
Alec chuckled close to my ear. “Depends whether they’re a straight up rock pack of wolves with your classic guitar, drum, bass, or a prog rock pack of wolves with two synth players and a flautist.”
“Ohhh, I need to tell you to go,” I said.
He groaned with plain anguish and rolled away from me. “Yes.”
“Wait,” I said. “I mean—is there something I can do to heal you?” When he didn’t answer right away, I turned to him. He was laying back on my bed, one hand kneading his forehead, the other limp at his side, and between those tattooed arms was just a gorgeous shelf of man muscle. My eyes trailed to his navel, then the line of dark fine hair that led to his black sweatpants and…his very obvious arousal.
“That is one hell of a tent. I could camp in there,” I said.
“I wish you could…,” he groaned. “You need to send me away.” His eyes almost had a low glow in the shadows as they lifted to me. “Teenage girls are usually more intimidated by me than this.”
“Don’t say ‘teen’,” I said. “It makes it sound like you’re not a teen. And almost nineteen is like, hardly teen anymore. I bet most of the teenage girls you’ve known in the past didn’t spend as much time on Deviant Art as I have either. Looking for…stuff. Stuff like you.” I smirked. “The only thing is…I just…I haven’t been very open with the three of you.” That slipped out on accident.
“You like Harris?” Alec asked. “Wait—you mean—you mean Firian.“
“I—“
“It’s okay,” he said. “You know, it’s more common than people think.”
“You mean familiars…?”
He nodded. “My familiar has…helped me control myself, on rare occasions,” he said. “Don’t ever tell anyone that. But it could be a lot worse if they hadn’t. It feels so good here with you, but this is really a curse.”
“Oh, Alec…I understand,” I said. “I’m…glad you told me that, actually. Everyone has been acting like it’s so wrong. But Firian doesn’t seem that different from you and Montague to me…” I bit my lip. “Alec, I really do like you too. I like all of you. That’s why I’m so confused. Maybe a Roller Slut was born that day after all.”
He grinned. “For the record…I’d be a member of your wolf pack.” He started to shift like he was going to get out of bed, and instead I grabbed him and kissed him. I just barely had time to taste his lips before the magic shoved us apart.
“Is there something I can do?” I asked again.
“My magic is fed by you coming,” he said. “For me.”
Heat flooded me. Every inch of my skin screamed for him to touch me.
“I…don’t want Firian to hear me.”
“You probably won’t make any noise in real life if you don’t make noise in the dream,” he said. “So…how quiet can you be for me?”
“For you? I’m not so sure…”
“I hope you’re not entirely quiet.”
I see such a different side of Alec in these dreams, I thought. But it feels just as much like the real Alec as the quieter artist side of him…
He pulled my sheet up to my neck, but threw the quilt off my body, and reached between my legs.
“I know you try to hide this part of you when you’re awake, Alec…”
“Hush,” he commanded, his warm breath brushing my ear.
His fingers slowly worked their way over my thigh, and then down the midpoint of my body—from navel to my hot center. Only a flannel sheet stood between his hand and my skin. I could feel his heat through the cotton fibers. I spread my legs a little, encouraging him to take what he needed.
To give me what I needed.
I could feel his strong body just behind me, his cock throbbing against my tailbone as his fingers felt around my folds.
Admittedly, this would have been better if the sheet wasn’t in the way. Especially since the sheets had bunnies on them.
“Close your eyes,” he said. “I can see you thinking too hard. Just feel this and only this. Just me…and only me.”
“Mm…” I only let out a tiny sound as he got fully acquainted with the makeup of my lady bits through the sheet, and then went in for the kill. His fingers found my clit with such perfect precision. Even I wasn’t this good at finding it, I thought. “Nnn…how do you…oh…”
“God, this feels so fucking good,” he said, my little sounds seeming to encourage him to stroke harder. “Incubi must have a lot more fun than warlocks. Your power, Charlotte…you’re so beautiful and whenever I see you I just want to fuck you dry. It’s torture…but incubi have a pretty high tolerance for torture like that. As long as we get what we want eventually…”
In the last dream, I freaked out when I realized he was drawing power from me, but this time I wasn’t surprised. I wanted Alec to enjoy the holiday here with the Christmas lights and microwaves. And it didn’t hurt that this was like every adolescent girl’s best sex dream. I had a hot, shirtless demon with a ripped bod in my bed telling me I was gorgeous while he pleasured me and only me. I could feel his cock throbbing and grinding more urgently against me but I couldn’t touch him so I didn’t have to do anything except enjoy myself.
I felt myself coming way too fast. I was falling into his hand, the way he stroked me with insane precision. Like when I tried to pleasure myself, my sweet spot always seemed to be moving around like, “Ha, ha, you thought I was here? No, I’m over here!” Alec’s fingers had a homing device built in. Up, down, sideways, swirl, flick, hard rub—whatever my body wanted, he did. Instantly.
“Oh nooo…”
I actually lunged forward a little, as if in panic, as the feeling swamped me. I was afraid I would scream and everyone would hear me. I was also afraid I might have a heart attack because my chest was pounding. But mostly, I was afraid because I knew the dream would end and Alec would disappear and I would go back to the real non-dream world where guys couldn’t just crawl into bed and pleasure me.
“That was…everything, Charlotte. Just sleep peacefully,” he said.
I woke up.
The room was dark. No Alec. Just Firian. Still asleep. Oh, thank god for that.
But…
I felt like a pool of melted goo. Deliciously tired. But not…exactly satisfied. I mean…that was way too tame.
But you just let Alec give you your first boy-to-girl orgasm, I thought. In your dreams. While your fox familiar who loves you sleeps at the foot of the bed and Alec’s air mattress is right next to his vampire best friend that you kissed at the ball.
That was a little weird, right?
I had been trying my best to be up front with these guys, but this dream space was where it got really tricky. I don’t know how much the dream was considered reality. It was a shared dream, so it wasn’t just a dream. But in the dream, I didn’t quite act like myself, and he didn’t either. The guards of the real world were gone. We acted on instinct more than sense. How much was I capable of resisting him? And how much was he capable of avoiding me when my house made him sick?
Well, I thought. No one has t
o know.
But I sure wish I could ask my other grandmother a few questions about her love life…
Chapter Forty
Charlotte
On Christmas morning, Alec looked very healthy and I was groggy, but not really in a bad way. Still, it was awkward when our eyes met over my grandmother’s cinnamon buns at the kitchen island. Some Christmas parade was blasting over the TV and Grandma was loudly apologizing for not having presents for the boys.
“I got my present,” Alec said in a low voice to me. “Thanks for last night. I hope you don’t have regrets.”
“I—um—no.”
“I’m in the race,” he said. “I want more.”
“The race?”
“For you,” he said. “Firian, Montague…and, like it or not…I think Harris too. We all want you.”
My eyes widened. “I must be better at glamour spells than I thought.”
“Or maybe you’re just that fun and sexy.”
I coped the only way I knew how at that point, by shoving a cinnamon bun in my face and scurrying to the table.
“These’r th’ bes’ yet,” I said around their doughiness as Firian lounged into a chair beside me, with his unearthly grace.
“They taste like the faeries made them,” he agreed, delicately licking a little frosting off his knuckles.
“Oh, well, thank you! Faeries! You’re funny.” Grandma smacked his shoulder. “Where did you find this one? It sounds like something your mother would have said.”
“Do you remember my mother very well?” I asked, very surprised to hear Grandma mention her. She glanced at my dad.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s gotten a little easier to talk about Emily.”
“She loved fairy tales and things like that,” Grandma said. “She had funny little superstitions about the faeries! She used to make little offerings for them when we had extra food. When you were born you already had teeth. She used to call you her little goblin. She said goblins are born—“
“Little goblin!?” I cried.
“Not as an insult or anything! It was cute!”
“Oh—uh—right…that is cute, actually.” Little goblin? Was it a coincidence? The demon who attacked Royce and Ronan…
Firian raised his brows at me. I knew he was thinking the same thing.
But I couldn’t even find the time to talk about it. We had breakfast to eat, and presents to open. “Good thing I forgot to mail these on time because I’m a terrible father,” Dad said, bringing out a bunch for me. “Merry Christmas.” We had Christmas movies to watch, while Grandma started frying up some chicken.
After dinner, Dad and Grandma both fell asleep in their chairs so we packed up the leftovers to sneak them to Ron and Dwayne. While we were huffing up the mountain—okay, while I was huffing up the mountain—I said, “Is my mom…a demon? Like…not just a sinistral…but a scary wolf-demon thing?”
“That would explain how she got past the school wards,” Montague said. “Your blood tie called the demon in.”
My hands clutched tight around the Pyrex casserole dish. “But—I mean—she’s not, right? She’s not a monster. She just…left us to—become a badass dark witch.”
Firian stopped and retraced a few steps down the steep path to stand in front of me. “It is possible…that wasn’t quite it.”
“You know something.”
He had this expression like he was far away. Like something had broken him inside.
“You’ve known something all along, Firian…haven’t you?” I cried.
“I don’t know much,” he said. “I really don’t know much. Just…familiars know each other. And familiars are born with more knowing than humans. I was only a year old when your mom turned to the sinistral realm, but I could already talk. So I remember a little bit. Your mom’s familiar told me that your mother made a deal with the Withered Lord. He is a powerful high demon who used to have control of your grandfathers. The werewolves. They got free of him, but he was furious. He doesn’t like when his wards get free of his clutches. He knows how to prey on people and the things they want. Your mother was raised as a human, but she was half witch and half werewolf. She didn’t really belong in the human world, and she had some resentment of being ‘held back’ from her power. He probably tempted her with power. I don’t know anything more than that.”
“My mom…” I swallowed.
“It’s really not that different from what you already know.”
“I didn’t know she was a monster. I didn’t know she would show up at my school and try to kill people!”
Alec took my Pyrex dish. I guess I looked like I was going to drop it.
“I’m fine!” I declared, not that anyone had asked.
“I wouldn’t expect you to be entirely fine,” Montague said.
“Sinistrals aren’t nice,” Alec said. “That’s why they’re Sinistrals. The truth is, Monty and I are both somewhat Sinistral ourselves. So we understand the potential. The…temptations.”
“To take from someone else,” Montague said. “To become stronger. Some Sinistrals aren’t evil, but all of them are a little ruthless. Alec is right. But…maybe your mom could be saved.”
Firian shot Montague a look. “Don’t give her false hope,” he snapped. “You know how rare it is for a Sinistral to return to Etherium. Once that gate is shut, that’s it.”
“Usually,” Montague said.
“But there’s a chance?” I asked.
“No,” Firian said. “It’s not worth thinking about.”
“It isn’t? But it’s my mom!”
“You’ll drive yourself to Sinistral if you start trying to pursue a quest like that,” Firian said. “Trust me, Charlotte. Please.”
“I want to summon her,” I said.
“I’m not sure you should do that either,” Alec said. “I wouldn’t summon my mother.”
“But my mom still loves me!” She must, I thought. She was trying to protect me from Royce and Ronan. It made sense now. “She’s watching over me. And I owe it to her to try. Harris wants me to summon a demon? Well, I’m summoning one that I know will come.”
Chapter Forty-One
Charlotte
Returning to school, I had some quiet time to get centered. I felt so much better having seen my family. I had some time for extra magical study with Firian and daily yoga.
Then Harris came back.
I saw him appear in Lancelot House’s common room in the morning. I had already eaten the grapes that he preferred. But I knew I needed to thank him. It was all thanks to him that I got to see my dad and grandma for Christmas. Is it true? Does he like me?
It made me a little nervous, but I didn’t want to show that. I was going to treat this like ripping off a bandaid. I stalked over to him. “Harris, I just want to—“
He cut me off. “Those guys had nothing else to do, that’s all. They work at our winter home, but we weren’t there because it’s being renovated. I just didn’t want our employees to get stir-crazy, so don’t get your knickers in a twist or anything.”
“You did not just accuse me of getting my knickers in a twist when I’m trying to thank you.”
He looked down at me with his chilly blue eyes. “I’m just letting you know that thanks are unnecessary. I guess if you want to owe me one, that’s all right, but I think you already do owe me one.”
“You are—the most—jerk—arrogant— I don’t owe you anything. You’re the one who keeps deciding to help me. I never asked for it.”
He shrugged. “Well, there isn’t much you can do for me anyway.”
Montague dropped his hands on my shoulder. “You probably shouldn’t goad her, Harris. She is as much werewolf as she is witch. We learned a lot about our Charlotte while you were gone. Her dad and grandma were a picture of hospitality.”
I saw Harris’ nostrils flare ever so slightly before he calmly stirred his coffee. “You went with her?”
“The more protection, the better, right?”
Montague turned me around to face him. The guys had developed an increased level of physical contact with me over the holiday break, I’d noticed. Montague, Alec, and Firian when he was around—all three of them were more likely to tuck my hair behind my ears, adjust my collar, put a hand on my shoulder, and little things like that. Somehow we had gotten comfortable. Well, they had gotten comfortable, I guess, and I hadn’t stopped them.
“I never knew what he looked like when he actually cares,” Montague said. “Now we know. He’s even more incorrigible.”
“He doesn’t really care about me. He just likes getting a rise out of me,” I said.
“That might be the same thing,” Montague said. “But I don’t need any more competition. I’m glad that one can’t touch you.” He nodded at Alec who had just wandered downstairs and poured himself a cup. “What class did you have first? I’ll walk you.”
Hmm. Montague was getting a little more possessive now that Harris was back.
I wasn’t sure where all of us stood. The guys had been avoiding the subject too. I wondered if Alec had told Montague about any of the dreams. I was pretty sure he hadn’t told him my confession about Firian. And Firian was staying away during class hours nowadays, but when we were alone he definitely treated me like I was his. We already had such a bond that it happened naturally. I wondered what Montague would say if I told him about Firian.
Alec was looking at me as I talked to Montague. He was, specifically, looking at Montague’s hand, which had moved casually to my waist.
I’m in the race. I want you.
My body tingled all over, remembering.
At the same time, this was moving too fast. I couldn’t lead them all on, letting them kiss and flirt without agreeing to be their girlfriend because I liked them all equally. Plus I had a demon mom to summon. A “Demomma”, if you will, which was a monster in Lorna Caves in Fortune’s Favor that looks like a bat-winged woman with tiny bats around her that attack you.