Magic at Work: a Love or Magic novel

by Sotia Lazu

  “The key is on the dresser,” she told him between kisses.

  He stood, to get it.

  “No. This is me giving myself to you. You better take what’s offered, mister.”

  He could see the fear of rejection in her eyes even as she joked, and he did what he could to reassure her. He sought her lips and claimed them, losing himself in her taste. He needed her to alleviate his fear, too. Needed to hear her say the words. He let her need come first, as he plundered her mouth. Afraid he wouldn’t hold back if he touched her body, he cupped her cheeks in both palms and held her to him.

  Lips pressed to hers, he found her wrists again and gently massaged them, before he trailed his fingers down her forearms. He took the time to stroke the inside of her elbows with his thumbs, before tracing his way to her shoulders. Pulling back from the kiss, he looked into her eyes. “Do you think you can turn on your stomach?”

  She nodded and squirmed, trying to roll over. Both wrists were constrained by the same set of cuffs and wouldn’t strain her much if she managed it, but it was hard to get into the position he wanted without the use of her arms.

  As tantalizing as her jiggling breasts were, he didn’t want her to hurt herself while trying to flip her body over. “Here. Let me help you.” Once she was face down, he stood to take in the sight of her body. He’d felt it more than once, but had never been allowed to look at it to his heart’s content.

  She was on edge, her toned muscles tense beneath her smooth skin. There was little doubt in Ric’s mind that she’d try to flee if she weren’t bound.

  “Um, are you still there?” She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “I know I said I’m giving myself to you, and I’m not taking it back or anything, just… please, be gentle. ’Kay?”

  He smiled, kneeled on the bed, and crawled up her body. When her thighs were trapped between his, he leaned down and nuzzled her neck. “Not taking you yet, love. I want to see you. Feel you. Map every centimeter of your body. And when I’m inside you, it won’t be me taking you. It will be us taking each other. For good. You will be mine, and I will be yours, and you will start telling me what’s in that pretty noggin from now on. Yeah?”

  “But what if I can’t?”

  He sat back, trying not to let her feel his erection. “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Can’t. I mean, what if I don’t know how to share and be all open. And you think my head’s pretty?”

  “Yes, I do.” Her head was beautiful. She was beautiful. And he tried hard to stay civil. “But you want to try?”

  “I don’t do my best trussed-up-Christmas-turkey impersonation for just anyone, you know.”

  “Then we’ll figure everything out together. I’m here for the long haul, if you’ll let me.”

  “I want to let you. Just promise not to let me push you away without a fight?”

  “Cross my heart and hope to die. Now hush and let me take care of you.” He leaned forward again and kissed between her shoulder blades.

  “But—but this is for you.”

  “And I want to take care of you. Any more objections? Should I gag you?”

  “Nope. No gagging necessary, thank-you-very-much. I’m shutting up.” She turned and buried her face in the pillow, only to throw her head back with a gasp when he used his teeth to graze the spot his lips left.

  He feathered touches along the sides of her breasts and rubbed his cheek against the smoothness of her back. He caressed down her ribcage, until his thumbs met at her waist and his fingers were on her hipbones. “Like warm silk, you are. Can’t have enough of touching you.” He rained open-mouthed kisses first to the back of her neck and then down her spine, sliding his body backward at the same time. He spread her legs with one knee and kept retreating until he was kneeling between her calves. Unable to stop himself, he bit one of her buttocks. “Sorry, love,” he told her wriggling form. “Too tasty, for me to resist.”

  She giggled and swayed from side to side, but he held her down and gave her one playful bite after the other.

  “Hey. Stop that.”

  “Make me.”

  The easy, playful atmosphere was forgotten when he tried to bite her again, and her movements brought his mouth to her pussy.

  *

  “I want you.” Lexi bucked her hips. She ached for more contact.

  He swiped his wicked tongue along her slit. “Not yet, pet. Haven’t had my fill of you, have I?”

  “But I want my fill of you,” she said, before remembering what the night was all about. “Fine. Have it your way. Just wait till you’re at my mercy.” Ric nibbled on her inner thigh, and a moan slipped past her lips.

  She continued to moan and mewl while his lips went lower, until he flicked his tongue over the inside of her ankle. When he moved to the other leg, this time starting from the foot up, she could only gasp. She pushed her body harder into the mattress below her, seeking some friction to release the pressure his ministrations built inside her.

  When Ric reached the apex of her thighs again, she sighed with relief, certain he’d do more this time. He’d finally bury himself inside her.

  Nope. Damn him.

  With a light slap on her ass, he crawled over her body again and turned her on her back once more. He grinned. “You didn’t think after this long a wait, I’d hump you like a horny teen?”

  As a matter of fact, this was exactly what she thought. “No, I just—”

  *

  He cut her off with his index finger on her lips. “Liar-liar, pants on fire.” He winked, but lost his smugness in a groan when Lexi wrapped her lips around his finger and sucked, circling the tip with her tongue. “Tease.” He burrowed his face into the crook of her neck, to worry the flesh there with his teeth. Satisfied he’d left a decent enough love-bite, he ran his tongue around one of her breasts and then the other in ever-narrowing circles, until just the nipples remained wanting.

  The perky tips strained upward, begging to be suckled. Ric couldn’t say no to their pleas. He placed a palm flat on Lexi’s belly, to stop her from arching into his touch, and enveloped one peak with his lips, rolling the other between his fingers. He grazed the rosy tip with his teeth, sucked on it until it was impossibly hard, and then blew on it. Goose bumps rose on her skin. Nodding his approval to himself, he licked his way to the other nipple, flicking the deserted one with his thumb.

  He loved how she sucked in a breath whenever he did something different, and made a bet with himself to guess how many such little gasps he could get out of her by keeping busy with her breasts.

  He licked and nibbled, nuzzled and bit on the fleshy mounds, making her moan louder. He kneaded and rubbed, one moment laving her breasts with barely-there touches, the next squeezing and flattening them, pinching the nipples between two fingers so he could attack them again with his mouth.

  Her breath came out in short pants. No other sound escaped the silent O of her lips. Her eyelids were heavy with desire, but her grip on the bed railings was so tight, her knuckles turned white.

  And still Ric wanted to draw out her pleasure.

  *

  Mind and body in a frenzied state of arousal and need, Lexi wanted more. More of his touch. More of his mouth. More of him. She needed to feel him against her core, but he kept his body a couple of agonizing inches above hers. She raised her legs when he bent low, to dip his tongue in her belly button, and pressed the heels of her feet into his ass to push him toward her.

  He wouldn’t budge.

  Instead, he grabbed her ankles, lowered her feet to the mattress, and stood in one liquid, graceful motion. Lexi whimpered as a caress of cool air replaced the warmth of his body on hers. Her next whimper was for the show he put on as he opened his shirt, letting the fabric reveal his naked flesh a bit at a time. He pulled the plush material out of his waistband and undid his cufflinks, then let it float to the floor in that unique way silk has of defying gravity.

  Lexi was mesmerized by the contrast of black on white, but instead of followi
ng the shirt, her gaze was fixed on his carved muscles. He undid his belt, biceps flexing, pecs and abs coiling and stretching. She ached to caress his body. Feel its warmth on her. Suck on the spot beneath his jawline that drove him crazy.

  God help her, she wanted to have the length of him impale her, and the bastard knew it. It was evident in the sway of his hips when he freed his cock. He stroked himself a couple of times, leering at her.

  He turned his back to the bed, to take off his shoes and socks. Lexi forgot all about her restraints when the perfect curve of his ass stretched the fabric of his pants and then peeked above it, as his trousers slid down. She longed to dig her nails in the taut flesh, while he pumped inside her.

  Ric read her mind, or their thoughts coincided. He stalked to the foot of the bed and climbed to her on hands and knees, covering her body with kisses until they lay face to face. His hips cradled between her thighs, he rubbed his length against her wet pussy and coated himself in her juices.

  “Please. Please. Please,” she chanted every time the blunt head of his cock brushed her clit.

  Finally, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him. “I love you,” he said and pushed inside her in one smooth, long stroke.

  Her vision was blurred. Tears threatened to make their appearance again. More than threatened—they rolled down her cheeks. Fully seated inside her, Ric peppered her face with kisses and murmured soothing words. He didn’t move, and if he wanted her half as much as she wanted him, staying still took a lot of effort.

  “Ric, it’s okay,” she murmured, voice choked. “Happy tears. Promise.”

  *

  He studied her face. Her beaming smile underlined the truth of her words. He began thrusting slowly, his gaze never leaving hers. Absorbing and memorizing every reaction, and reveling in the slightest catch of her breath. He expected her to close her eyes, throw her head back as she’d done before, in the throes of passion, but her gaze didn’t waver. Their lovemaking was everything he hoped for. Everything she denied them both all this time. A merging of not only bodies, but also souls.

  It was what he promised—or warned her—it would be. Both of them taking each other. For good.

  Sensing she was close, Ric redoubled his efforts and raised her legs to his shoulders so he could plunge deeper and harder within her. He changed the angle of his thrusts, barely staving off his own release as he curled an arm around her thigh to massage her throbbing clit.

  She thrashed under him, her body clenching, as if to strangle his cock. Yet it wasn’t her orgasm that brought him to completion.

  Lexi cried out, “I love you,” as the burst of her passion engulfed her.

  Ric came hard, ravaging her lips while her lax limbs fell to his sides, allowing the length of his body to touch hers. He didn’t know if it was his heart, thudding loud enough to consume all other sound, or if it was hers.

  He didn’t care.

  She loved him, and at long last admitted it.

  They fell asleep, still linked. At some point in the night, Ric got up from the bed and unlocked the handcuffs. He massaged the blood flow back into her wrists, gathered her into his arms, and buried his nose in her golden mane that came loose during their coupling.

  “So, this means we’re going steady?” she asked sleepily.

  He chuckled. “Couldn’t pry me off with a crowbar, love.”

  “And you love me?”

  “And I love you.”

  “Good. Keep it that way”—she dropped her voice to a whisper—“’cause I love you, too.”

  Next time he awoke, he was chained to the bed, and Lexi grinned down at him. “Told you you’d be at my mercy.” She lowered her body, so her hardened nipples dragged down his chest.

  He didn’t mind being at her mercy one bit.

  Although, he might have begged a little in the end.

  Epilogue

  Lexi checked her watch and tried to hide a grin. Four twenty seven.

  Thirty three minutes to go.

  For the billionth time, she wondered what Ric’s plan for the evening was. If it was too sappy, she’d bolt.

  She snorted. Still living in denial. Sappiness was her second nature these days. She cooed and sniffled at romantic comedies and took moonlit strolls on the beach without whining about the cold. And it was Ric’s fault she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face.

  As a matter of fact, the only time she’d been sad since she and Ric became an item was when she tried to find the book again and got an error message for her efforts. She was in the upper floor, but had taken her PC with her to her new position, and didn’t think that was why the book disappeared.

  She guessed it was because the reason Exotic Beast found her in the first place no longer existed. She’d found her soul mate—and yes, she’d made her peace with that frightening fact.

  A new email notification blinked on her phone, and she prayed it wasn’t some work-related emergency that’d ruin her date. It wasn’t. It was a message from her own e-mail address. It had to be spam, but she opened it anyway. Amazingly, it just read, “Exotic Beast has been updated.”

  Lexi didn’t think twice before trying the book’s web address. All she found was an advertisement for a place she’d never visited.

  The ad said a local bar called Willy’s Dreams hosted a party tonight. Lexi brushed it off. The name of the bar nagged at a buried memory, but work and anticipation for whatever her boyfriend had in mind drove the thought away.

  She chanced a glance at the heap of papers neatly stacked to her left, and sighed. She had to go through it all by Friday, which gave her three days. A smile formed on her lips as she contemplated the long hours she’d spend at the office. She wouldn’t start today. There were much better things for her to do with her evening.

  She stood and rounded her desk, to bury her nose in the six long-stemmed red roses that stood in a vase on its far corner.

  “Did it change?” the man at the desk opposite hers asked, flashing startlingly white teeth.

  “Huh?”

  “The scent of this magnificent bouquet the stud downstairs not-so-subtly left you this morning—did it change from five minutes ago?”

  “Um… no?” She batted her eyelashes innocently.

  “Then why not stop sniffing it, and go do what you have to, to be where the card says you need to be, by the time you’re supposed to be there?”

  “What I have to do… be where…” She went over the impossible phrase he uttered. “You read the card.”

  “It was looking me straight in the face. And you were late coming in. Besides, that blue-eyed specimen of British superiority said I could read it, if I let you off early. You’re done. Go.”

  “Hey. That’s only”—she checked her watch—“twenty minutes early.”

  “I couldn’t give you the day off. Pedelty’d kill me.”

  “You’re my boss now, Larry.” She closed the distance to his desk, leaned over it, and pulled him up by his fuchsia tie to give him a smacking kiss on the cheek. “The bestest-est boss ever.”

  “Flattery will get you everywhere. Now off you go. And I want details.”

  “Ladies don’t kiss and tell,” she said over her shoulder, already on her way out the door.

  “Two things wrong with that sentence, my beauty. A) You’re not a lady, and B) Nobody said anything about kissing.”

  “Ah, shut up.” She rushed out the door. She had a place to be in a couple of hours, after all.

  ****

  A few months ago, Lexi was stuck in a position she didn’t like, unable to do anything about it even though the company was owned by her stepfather. She expected nothing of her life, and not only career-wise. She refused the possibility a thing such as true love existed, let alone would come her way, and now…

  Now she was assistant to the head of the Marketing Department in the same company, and about to celebrate her sixth-month anniversary with the man she loved. A man who’d tried hard to get her to denounce her stubbornness a
nd cynicism, and for whom she’d managed to do so.

  Her mother and stepdad bounced with joy every time they saw them together, which was why she finally moved her butt and got an apartment of her own. She still dropped in announced, especially if her insecurities resurfaced and she needed her mom to provide a comforting hug or mental slap.

  Lexi wasn’t bitchy on purpose when he happened to be a few minutes late; she was afraid this’d be the time he didn’t show up. She didn’t mean to be snarky when he was right about something and she was wrong; she worried he’d realize she wasn’t as smart as he thought, not as well educated, or not as witty, and he’d leave her.

  She’d spent her entire adult life trying not to be clingy. Not to depend on others for her happiness. Not to need anyone. The first time she let her guard down, she was badly burned. Since then, her gut reaction if she feared things might go wrong was to attack and lay the groundwork so she could leave first.

  Ric would have none of that. He reassured her and grounded her once he realized what was wrong, but there was only so much guessing a man could do. Luckily, her mom’s wisdom was always on tap, to snap Lexi out of her funk when trivial things triggered her self-doubt.

  As months went by and Ric showed no signs of leaving, the insecurities reared their ugly head with decreasing frequency, and things kept getting better between the two.

  Things were better all around, actually. At times frighteningly so. Lexi was amazed at how much she meant it when she told Angie or Sarah she was doing great.

  The stunt she pulled when she asked Ric out for the first time meant she couldn’t keep working for Sales. She knew it, as did Edmund. Fortunately for Lexi, Larry, head of the Marketing department, had been impressed enough with her presentation, to ask Edmund to appoint her as his assistant the moment he found out about the show she put on.