“On foot? I don’t think I’m up to that.”
“Me either, but everybody will be asleep. It should be safe to ride my broom.”
* * *
Maggie watched the little green light until it disappeared. “That is the strangest couple I’ve ever met in my life.”
“They’re different, all right.” Sean glanced over at the spot where they’d left the skunks. Then he took Maggie’s hand. “Come on. Let’s check out the skunks and see if Dorcas is right about them waking up.”
“I wish I’d asked her about the red eyes.” Maggie had a feeling Dorcas and Ambrose knew a lot about what was going on in these woods. How they knew was a mystery, though.
“I still say it was some animal, and a trick of the light made the eyes look red.”
“And the roar came from?”
“God only knows.” About twenty feet from the skunk lair, Sean squeezed her hand and let go. “You stay here. I’ll check. No point in both of us taking the risk of getting sprayed.”
“I’ll go along with that.” She waited while Sean crouched down and peered into the space under the tarp and pine boughs.
“Whoa!” He scrambled backward. “They are definitely awake in there. Let’s go.” Grabbing her hand, he pulled her back along the path they’d come in on.
Moments later they were in the truck, and Sean had it in gear. “Mission accomplished.” He turned around on the dirt road and started back toward the highway.
Now that the skunk situation was under control, Maggie’s thoughts turned to the sexy guy sitting beside her. Her thoughts had never quite left him, but with red eyes and something roaring in the woods and the sudden appearance of Dorcas and Ambrose, she’d put her sexual urges on hold.
Now those urges had returned, and it seemed as if the short break had only made them stronger. She’d had more orgasms in the past eight hours than she’d had in the past eight months. Shouldn’t she be over the impulse after all that? Well, she wasn’t.
She still wondered if the wine was responsible. Thinking of the wine made her remember Dorcas and Ambrose. She watched for them on the road, but they must have made good time because they were nowhere to be seen.
As Sean pulled the truck into his driveway and shut off the motor, his cell phone rang. He unclipped it from his jeans and checked the number. “It’s Madeline.”
Maggie clapped a hand to her mouth. “I should have called her. She must be wondering where in the world I am.”
“Want me to answer it?”
“Um, well…” This was awkward. Sean had talked about coming back here and having more sex, but he hadn’t mentioned it recently. She also hadn’t stopped to think about having to answer to anyone about spending the night here.
“I’ll let it go to voice mail.”
She glanced at him. “I feel as if my mother just called to check on me.”
“Believe me, I know what you mean.” He leaned an arm over the steering wheel. “What do you want to do?”
Make love to you all night. But she didn’t have the guts to say so.
“You must be tired,” he said. “You traveled all night and have been through a lot today.”
She had the horrible thought that he’d reconsidered asking her to come inside. Suggesting a woman might be tired could be a polite way to get her out of his hair. Maybe the effects of the wine had worn off for him. He had more body mass, so that made sense.
“You must be tired, too,” she said, steeling herself for him to agree, preparing herself to climb back in her rental car and go back to Madeline’s house. “You had that fender bender to deal with today, on top of everything else.” Like having sex with me.
“For some reason, I don’t feel tired at all.”
Her hopes took an upward swing. “Really?”
“Really.” He glanced over at her. “Look, I have no right to expect anything. You probably need your rest.”
“Probably.” If she wanted him, she’d have to say so, but she wasn’t used to being assertive when it came to personal relationships. Business was different, but this wasn’t business. Her heart raced as she gathered her courage.
He opened his door. “Then let me get the Tupperware so you can—”
“But I don’t want to go back to Madeline’s.”
He glanced back in her direction, his eyes shining in the overhead light in the truck’s cab. “You don’t?”
“Nope.” The triumph of going for it gave her a jolt of adrenaline. “But I have to let her know I’m okay. How do I accomplish that?”
“I’ll take care of it. But are you sure you want to—”
“Yes.” Her blood pumped heat through her veins. “Yes to whatever you have in mind.”
Sean flipped open his phone and punched in a number. “Madeline? It’s Sean. Yes, she’s fine. We didn’t want you to worry, but…she’ll be staying with me tonight.” He paused. “Uh, okay. Talk to you later.” He closed the phone.
“Was she scandalized?”
He clipped the phone back onto his jeans and looked over at her. “No.”
“But you said she was super-conservative.”
“She is. It’s the darnedest thing. I thought she’d ream me out for keeping you here and corrupting you with my wild ways, but she didn’t.”
“Then what did she say?”
“Just one word. Good.”
Chapter Twenty
Once Sean knew Maggie was back in the game, he didn’t waste any time hustling her inside and getting her naked. Although he’d considered the idea of outside sex, it was way too cold to be fun. Besides, having a naked woman in his bed was novelty enough. He’d never allowed that to happen before.
Maybe that explained Madeline’s reaction to the news that Maggie was sleeping over. Madeline might have figured this situation was different from his other sexual escapades. Either that or she’d do anything to keep him from going blind.
As he tumbled to the mattress with a very warm and willing Maggie, he realized he might be crossing into commitment territory. He might be able to forget that he’d had sex with her on his kitchen table, but he’d never forget this picture of her lying beneath him in the glow of the bedside table lamp, her head resting on his pillow.
A condom lay ready on the table and Maggie had wrapped both hands around his eager penis. Knowing it was long enough to require two hands reassured him that the nerd herbs were no longer messing with his appearance. She was doing wonderful things down there in his southern hemisphere, stroking his cock and fondling his balls.
He ached from wanting her and was almost ready to use that condom. Almost.
She rubbed her thumb over the moistened tip of his penis. “Let’s get you into your party clothes.”
“In a minute.” Her caresses were heaven, but if she kept them up, he wouldn’t be able to ignore the pressure building in his groin. He didn’t want to hurry this time.
Sitting back on his haunches, he gently took her hands in his. Leaning forward, he raised them over her head and pressed them into the pillow. “Let me look at you.”
She blushed. “I’m just an ordinary girl.”
“Not even close to ordinary.” He’d never appreciated twenty-twenty eyesight more than now, when he could use it to gaze at Maggie. Everything about her fascinated him—her milky skin dusted with pale freckles, her wide blue eyes and up-tilted nose, her breasts tipped with taffy-colored nipples, her slender waist and the inviting flare of her hips.
As he studied her, she began to squirm on the mattress. “You’re making me self-conscious.”
“A woman who looks like you should never be self-conscious.” Soon he would be rocked in the cradle of those hips. Soon he would thrust past the soft curls guarding the entrance to his own personal paradise. Soon their passion-slick bodies would writhe on this mattress and send the headboard banging against the wall.
He’d never had the luxury of anticipation before, and it was sweeter than he could have imagined. He allowed his glan
ce to roam slowly back up to her face. “You’re beautiful,” he said.
“I’m not, but thank you.”
“You are, and thank you.” He kissed her mouth, her throat, her breasts. He could spend forever on her breasts. They were the nicest size—not too large and not too small. Perfect for nuzzling, licking, sucking. He took his time, savored the feel of her nipple rolling between his tongue and the roof of his mouth.
She began to breathe faster and struggled half-heartedly, as if to break free of the grip he had on her wrists.
He’d never held a woman prisoner like this, and his heart hammered with the excitement of it. He lifted his head to gaze into her eyes. His voice was thick with lust. “Do you want me to let you go?”
She gulped and shook her head.
“Good.” He lowered his head to her breasts again.
She continued to struggle, and her breathing grew ragged. As he sucked rhythmically on her breast, she tensed. He used his teeth, just a little.
“I’m coming!” Arching her back, she gasped and trembled beneath him.
He waited until she sank back to the mattress before he released her and scooped the condom off the table. Trembling himself, he had to concentrate to get it on. Finally he managed it.
Her skin was flushed from her orgasm, her channel hot and wet as he slid deep inside her. Instantly she began to tighten around his cock, and he rocked forward, making her come again.
As she shuddered in his arms, he began to thrust, first slowly, and then faster until the headboard slammed against the wall exactly as he’d imagined it would. What a beautiful sound. When they climaxed together, his surge of joy told him what he already suspected. It might be inconvenient, but there it was. Maggie was the one.
* * *
“I’m too old to be pulling an all-nighter,” Ambrose grumbled as they sailed over the leafless trees on Dorcas’s Kama Sutra broom.
“It’s not my fault dragons sleep during the day.” Personally, Dorcas was thrilled with that particular behavior. She was loving this nighttime ride.
She didn’t dare fire up her broom in broad daylight, so visiting George in the dead of night was the perfect excuse to fly. Steering was a little trickier with Ambrose adding extra weight on the tail section, and she couldn’t do any barrel rolls or he was liable to puke. Even with those disadvantages, it was great to be back on her broom again.
Sabrina had wanted to come, but Dorcas had made her stay home. George didn’t need an extra distraction like Sabrina around when focusing was already a problem for him. Dorcas had promised to give Sabrina a ride another night. That kitty loved feeling the wind through her fur. She could hold on like nobody’s business during the barrel rolls, too.
This particular flight was over way too soon. Dorcas took a spin around Big Knob for the hell of it before setting the broom down in a small clearing in the trees.
Climbing off, she glanced back at Ambrose, who was holding the gift-wrapped iPod. “Good. You didn’t lose the present.”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t lose me. When you buzzed Big Knob I almost fell off.”
“Sorry about that. It’s just that I miss flying so much.”
Ambrose’s expression softened. “I know. We need to convince George to assume his duties so we can move back to Sedona and get on with our normal lives.”
“Let’s hope tonight is the beginning of that.” Dorcas leaned her broom up against a tree. Then she pulled a recharged fairy light out of one pocket and a small wooden flute out of the other. She set the fairy light on a stump.
“I’m still not sure about the iPod, Dorcas. We have no way of knowing if the Perpetually Charged spell worked or not. What if the thing has to be charged on a regular basis? That could cause more problems.”
Dorcas glanced at him. “It’s the thought that counts.”
“It feels like a bribe.”
“Well, it’s not. It’s a gesture of friendship and good will.” Dorcas lifted the flute to her lips and played the summoning tune that would bring George out of his lair deep under Big Knob.
Drawing him out of the lair was no problem. George was always up for a distraction. Dorcas knew he might not even be in his lair. He could be off somewhere playing poker with the raccoons. The flute would bring him, though. Dragons were powerless to resist the lure of this type of flute.
For a dragon weighing two thousand pounds, George was amazingly light on his feet. She didn’t realize he was approaching until she saw his red eyes hovering about eight feet off the ground. The wind must have been blowing away from him, because she didn’t smell smoke yet.
For the second time tonight, he’d decided to pull his invisibility trick, so that all anyone could see were his eyes. He’d done that earlier and scared poor Maggie half to death. Dorcas was used to it.
She lowered the flute. “Hello, George.”
“Good evening, George,” Ambrose said. “How’s it going?”
George blew a smoke ring in the shape of a heart. “Pocket aces, that’s how it’s going, and then, bam! you do the flute thing. Those raccoons cheat, so I go don’t you dare switch those cards, because I’ll be right back. But I know them. They’ll switch ‘em. This better not take long, because they’ll steal my chips, too.”
Dorcas vowed to stay calm. “So you must have already made your rounds tonight.”
“Making rounds is lame, man.” His next smoke ring was in the shape of a diamond. “Nothing ever happens in this freakin’ forest. Total waste of time to go around checking it out like a dweeb. Besides, I’m ADD.”
“That’s never been ascertained medically,” Dorcas said.
“Who cares? I totally fit the profile, dude, ’cause I can’t concentrate.” He blew a club-shaped smoke ring at them. “If I can’t concentrate, I’m, like, crappy at doing rounds, so why bother?”
Ambrose cleared his throat. “Because it’s your job. Because it’s the only way you’ll earn your gold scales.”
“Gold scales are for losers. Brownish green is camouflage, man. It’s cool.” He finished his playing card smoke rings with a spade. “So what’s that on the stump? Looks like a present.” His eyes lowered until they were even with the wrapped box. “Or a bomb. A bomb would be cool.”
Dorcas picked up the package. “It’s a present. But before I give it to you, I want your word that you’ll start making rounds every night.”
“What is it?”
She wrapped her arms around it. “You won’t find out unless you give me your word about making your rounds.”
“Sheesh! Okay, okay, I’ll do the dumbass rounds! Give me the present.”
“Reveal yourself first,” Ambrose said.
“Or…I could just take the present.” George’s eyes hovered closer.
Dorcas stepped back. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You’re dealing with a fully functioning witch and wizard.”
“Blah, blah, blah. Oh, all right, don’t have a coronary.” Suddenly George stood before them in all his scaliness. He had a horn in the middle of his snout, ears that flopped sideways and wicked looking teeth. Because he was still young, only about three hundred years old, those teeth were razor sharp. “Now give me the present.”
“And you will do rounds?” Dorcas asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I’ll do the rounds. Give it here.”
Dorcas handed over the package with more than a few misgivings. She had no real confidence that George would keep his promise, but she had to start somewhere.
He tore into the package and had the iPod out in about two seconds. “Word! Perfectamundo!” In another two seconds he had the earplugs in and was gyrating in time to the music only he could hear. “Oh, yeah. I’m bad.”
Ambrose glanced at Dorcas. “Great. Now we can’t talk to him.”
“I have to admit I didn’t think of that. But I did get him to say he’d do his rounds.”
“Uh, huh. And you believe him?”
Dorcas took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m going to ch
oose to believe him.”
“Dreamer.”
About that time George became invisible again, so all they could see were his eyes and the iPod jiggling around. “Catch you later, dudes. Rock on.” He blew a smoke ring in the shape of a guitar. Then the eyes and the iPod bobbed off through the trees.
Ambrose sighed. “That went well.”
“One night at a time, Ambrose. One night at a time.”
* * *
Maggie woke up to sunshine coming through a completely unfamiliar window. Besides that, she was naked, and she never slept naked. As memory returned like a slap to the head, she rolled over and confronted an equally naked Sean lying next to her, his green eyes filled with welcome and his smile promising immediate seduction.
There was a reason why she couldn’t give in to the lust that washed over her as she looked at him, but what was it? She had to do something today, something very important. But as Sean pulled her close, damned if she could remember what it was.
From across the room, her Phone played The Yellow Rose of Texas and she remembered. She wiggled away from Sean and climbed out of bed. “Sorry. I have to get that.”
“Are you sure?” His voice was deep and sensual, his gaze hot. “Doesn’t that thing take messages?”
As she turned to gaze at him lying in the rumpled bed where they’d made love six ways to Sunday during the night, she realized why she couldn’t get back into that bed. For all she knew, he’d be willing to keep her occupied there all day. It could be his tactic for making sure she didn’t contact the owner of the property.
The knowledge that she was tempted to ignore H.G.’s call and climb back in bed with him scared her. Sweet as it was to have sex with him, he could be using it as his ultimate weapon. After all, that had been his goal in the beginning.
“It takes messages,” she said. “But that’s my boss calling. If he’s calling, that means he hasn’t fired me yet. If I get him his location today, I might still save my job. I can’t afford to ignore him right now.”
Over Hexed: The Hex Series Page 20
