It felt like his hands were made of fire, warming her skin everywhere he touched, but once his hands moved to a new location, goose bumps were left in their place. Suddenly his head ducked beneath the covers and she gasped as he took her breast into his mouth, sending warm new waves of tingles up her body.
It seemed he kissed and rubbed her for hours and finally she couldn’t take anymore.
“I need you now” she said to him in a loud whisper. He came back up out of the covers and pulled her tight and lay down on his back, pulling her on top of him.
She had never taken this much control, but she needed this badly and had no problem with it now. She lowered her body until he slid inside of her. After that the world went hazy as they frantically made love.
Once they were finished, she looked back over at the clock and saw that she hadn’t even heard her alarm go off almost twenty minutes before.
She jumped out of bed and ran to the shower as Tom laughed behind her. She turned on the water and jumped in, grabbing the soap and lathering it up. She heard the shower curtain rattle behind her and turned to see Tom sliding into the shower behind her, with a grin on his face.
“Tom, what are you doing? I’m going to be late for work” she said to him while she tried to rub the lather over herself.
Tom shrugged, “I just want to help you get ready” he said, taking the soap from her and rubbing it along her back. She tried to argue with him, but having someone rub on her back felt too good, so she relaxed and enjoyed the feeling. Once he was done with her back he turned her around and started to lather the front of her.
She had to fight herself with the urges that it created in her, knowing that she had to get to work soon. Finally he was done soaping her up and she rinsed it all off of her. He then grabbed the shampoo and started to lather up her hair. She felt like she was five years old and someone had to help her shower.
“You know, I can do this myself, you don’t have to do it for me” she told him.
He laughed, “I know, but I like doing it” he replied back. After he was finished with her hair and she rinsed it, he gave her the soap and turned around with his back to her.
“My turn” he said. She rolled her eyes but immediately started to lather him up, and when she got to the front, he had an entirely different look in his eyes, and she knew right then that she was going to be very late to work.
***
She ran into the store nearly thirty minutes late and as she pushed open the door, she noticed that Jasmine was working with a customer, so she hurried behind the counter and dropped her purse under the desk and started to straighten up the counter around the register, just to look busy.
She didn’t know if she thought Jasmine just wouldn’t notice, or if she would be happy that she got right to work, but her instincts told her to just act busy. After a few minutes of straightening things up, the customer came to the counter with a few items to buy and Abby stopped and rang up the customer, making sure to move a little slower than usual, she had no idea what would happen when it was just her and Jasmine left in the store.
Finally the customer walked out of the door and Abby looked around and saw that Jasmine wasn’t in the front room. She walked to the back of the store and saw Jasmine piling some new books on the rolling cart she used to move products around in the store. Abby ran over and started to help her pull books down and put them on the cart.
Jasmine looked up at her and instead of the angry expression she thought she would have, she was actually smiling at her.
“I’m sorry I was so late, I got hung up at home” She said.
Jasmine smiled, “It’s okay.” Abby stood there with her mouth gaped open in shock, this was not what she would expect a boss to say to someone who was thirty minutes late to work.
“You aren’t mad?” she asked quietly.
Jasmine laughed, “Well, no, you have been here a while now, and this is the first time you have been late. I’m sure I can over look it this one time, as long as you don’t make it a habit or anything” she said, smiling. Abby felt her heart lift in relief.
“I’m so glad you are an understanding person, and I promise it will never happen again” she said.
Jasmine nodded, “So, tell me Abby, how are things going with you and Tom?” she asked.
Abby blushed, Jasmine had an all too knowing look in her eye that told her she knew exactly why she had been late this morning.
“Well, he told me something last night that I want your opinion on, because I’m not sure how to handle it” she said as they continued to stack the books on the cart.
“What is it dear? You can ask me about anything” she told her.
They had filled the cart completely to the top, so she asked the question as they walked back into the front room.
“Well, Tom got a call from a girl last night, and he sounded really upset about it, and when I asked him about it, he told me that he basically has a stalker ex girl friend that will not leave him alone” she explained.
Jasmine nodded, “So you are wondering how you should handle this?” she asked.
Abby nodded, “Yes. Should I just ignore her and hope that she goes away, or face the problem head on and confront her? He says that she is super crazy and jealous” she said.
Abby watched Jasmine think about it while they started to put the new books up on the shelf in the main room.
“Well Abby, problems like this rarely just go away on their own, so my advice would be to confront this girl. But, I wouldn’t do it alone, I would do it with Tom there beside you, so that she knows that you two are together now, and there isn’t anything she can do to come between you” she finally answered.
Abby smiled and grabbed Jasmine into a hug, making her drop the two books she was just about to put on the shelf.
“Thank you Jasmine, I really appreciate all of your help and understanding” she told her.
Jasmine giggled as she hugged her back, “you are very welcome sweetheart, any time you need anything do not hesitate to come to me. In fact, I was thinking that it was time I properly met Tom. The first time we met wasn’t exactly ideal.” She told her. Abby blushed again, picturing Tom standing naked, trying to hide himself when Jasmine popped into his apartment on the night she changed.
“I think you are right. Maybe we can have a dinner this weekend?” she asked. Jasmine smiled and nodded, then went back to the books, humming to herself while Abby went to text Tom her idea.
As Abby walked out of the shop, she noticed that it was already starting to get dark. She hadn’t even realized how late it had gotten; she had been so busy practicing her magic with Jasmine. Abby looked down the nearly deserted street and realized that she really didn’t want to walk all the way home.
She looked around her to make sure nobody was looking and made the little lights come and take her home. She landed in her bedroom and immediately lay down onto the bed, more exhausted than she could remember being for quite a while. She checked her phone and saw that Tom had texted her saying that he was just going to stay home and go to bed early.
She walked to the kitchen and made herself a sandwich and while she ate noticed that she had gotten used to him being around, and that the quiet was too much for her to bear so she decided that she would surprise him at home. She went to her closet and changed into one of the new skimpy little lingerie outfits she had recently bought and pulled her longest jacket over it.
She had seen people do this in the movies and she always thought it looked sexy, so she figured she could try it too. She closed her eyes and flashed herself just right outside of his door.
Once she landed she rang the doorbell and waited. She heard what sounded like two people talking and stepped back looking at the number on the door, making sure she had the right one. She was sure he told her he was going to go to bed early, but it sounded like there were at least two people in there.
The door opened and she saw Tom before he noticed her, he was looking behind him gettin
g his wallet out of his back pocket. She looked over his shoulder and saw a girl sitting on his sofa with her arms and legs crossed, like she was annoyed about something.
She had shoulder length curly brown hair and was much thinner than she could ever imagine being healthy, and as she looked over at her, she noticed that she had dark brown eyes that pierced her from across the room.
Finally Tom looked over at her and when he saw that it was her, his mouth dropped open and he started to stutter.
“Oh uhm, well, uh, hey Abby” he finally got out.
Abby felt her stomach start to tie into knots, and she was afraid to open her mouth, because she felt like she just might throw up. As soon as the girl heard her name, she stood up from the sofa.
“What the hell is she doing here?” she asked in a pointed tone. Abby looked back up at Tom.
“Is that Nicole?” she managed to squeak out. Tom nodded and Abby turned to leave, she didn’t want to see any more.
“Wait Abby!” Tom yelled to her. She stopped but didn’t turn around. He came up behind her.
“It’s not what you think” He said in an apologetic tone. Abby felt a fury rise up inside of her that she had only felt once, when she was facing Elysia. She turned around and knew from the look on his face, that her eyes had turned red again.
“You have no idea what I’m thinking!” she yelled back to him. He looked down blushing, not knowing how to handle her being so angry.
“Why did you come here? Is everything okay?” he asked.
Abby laughed, “Why did I come here? I came here for this!” she yelled as she opened her jacket to show him what she was wearing. He looked down at her with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“But you had to go and ruin that didn’t you?” she said to him again, and before he could give her an answer, she felt the heat in her fingertips, so she pointed to the floor in front of him and watched as a spark of fire flew from her fingers and hit the ground.
Tom jumped back with a yelp, and as the smoke cleared she saw that there was a picture of a heart that was bleeding burned into the floor. He looked back up at her finally looking scared as she disappeared. She landed back in her bedroom and crumbled onto her bed where she finally started to cry, and she cried until she finally passed out from exhaustion, still wearing the lingerie and coat.
Chapter 24
The sound of knocking woke her up and as she crawled out of bed and walked toward the door, the events of the night before came swirling back into her mind. She felt as though her heart was breaking all over again and felt her eyes burning as the tears welled up ready to fall at any minute.
When she finally reached the door and opened it, she saw a delivery man standing there with a large bouquet of red roses.
“I have a delivery for Abby Kane” he said without looking at her.
“That’s me” she managed to croak out, which made him look up at her. She saw his eyes widen when he caught sight of her, so she must look as bad as she felt, but when his eyes traveled down, she realized for the first time that she was still wearing the lingerie.
She closed her jacket quickly, before he got too much of an eyeful and took the flowers from him in silence. Closing the door, she looked down at the flowers and frowned, she just knew they were from Tom, but she wasn’t ready to even acknowledge what had happened, but she couldn’t resist pulling out the card and opening it.
‘Dear Abby, I hope your first month has gone well, and I can’t wait to meet Tom. Love, Daddy.’
Abby looked up from the note, surprised that it had only been a month since she moved in and started working for Jasmine. It seemed as though a lifetime had gone by since the day her father had told her about her mother’s offer.
She looked back down at the note and felt her heart break all over again at the thought that her father was so anxious to meet Tom, knowing that she had fallen so deeply in love with him.
She needed to get away, so she decided to go and see her mother, but after catching a look at herself in the mirror, knew that she needed to take a shower and make herself at least decent.
***
As Abby stepped out of the shower, she felt relaxed for the first time since the night before and decided that she wanted to get ready fast so she closed her eyes and wished that she was wearing comfortable jeans and a loose t-shirt. She stood there for a few more minutes waiting for the heat to come over her body, the way it always did when she used magic to dress herself, but it never came.
She opened her eyes and looked down at her body, frowning when she saw that she was still wearing her towel. Shrugging her shoulders, she walked to the closet and quickly dressed in the outfit she had in mind before.
After pulling a brush though her hair, she closed her eyes once again and thought of the castle in the Other World, but once again, nothing happened. She was starting to feel a little scared when she decided that she needed to talk to Jasmine, if anything Jasmine can take her to the portal at the gazebo.
She grabbed her purse and ran out of the apartment, not even bothering to lock her door and she was so anxious that she didn’t even wait for the elevator; she decided to run down the stairs. She figured exercising would at least pull her out of her funk a little bit.
Finally she arrived at Jasmine’s door, out of breath and she rang the doorbell. After just a few seconds, Jasmine opened the door and when she got a look at Abby, her eyes went wide.
“Abby, what’s the matter? Why didn’t you just flash in here?” she asked her curiously. Abby walked into the apartment, trying to catch her breath.
“There is something wrong with my magic” she finally managed to wheeze out. Jasmine led her over to the sofa.
“Sit down, I’ll get you some water” she told her as she ran toward the kitchen. Abby sat down and focused on slowing her heart beat and taking deep breaths. Finally Jasmine came back into the living room and handed her a tall glass of ice cold water.
“What do you mean there is something wrong with your magic? You did beautifully yesterday when we practiced” she asked while Abby drank half of the glass of water in one drink.
“Well, I tried to use magic to get dressed, and it didn’t work. So, I tried to flash in to see my mom, and nothing happened. I don’t know why I can’t use any of my magic!” she yelled hysterically.
She felt as though she was about to lose her mind, but as always, Jasmine knew exactly what to say to her.
“Maybe you are just stressed out and need to relax a little bit. How about I take you to the gazebo so you can see your mother?” she asked.
Abby sighed in relief knowing that Jasmine would make sure she got to her mother and grabbed her hand, closing her eyes and finally feeling the heat go through her body letting her know that she was finally going to the Other World.
When they landed, Abby looked out at the orange flowers and for the first time realized that she was scared that they would have turned purple on her. Since they were still orange then she must have only lost her magic temporarily.
Abby sat down on the bench while Jasmine disappeared again to go and get her mother. She didn’t even want to walk through the portal; she would rather just sit here and talk to her mother in privacy.
After only just a few minutes she saw the tiny orbs of light and Jasmine reappeared with her mother next to her, and just the site of her long red hair made all of the emotions she was hiding inside of her come out at once and she burst out in sobs.
Her mother ran over to her and sat next to her, putting her arms around her.
“Abby what’s wrong? Why are you here? You could have just popped in to see me, I was at the castle” her mother said.
Abby shook her head and put her head down on her mother’s shoulder, reveling in the fact that for the first time in her life, she had a mother’s shoulder that she could cry on, one that would listen to her and make her feel better.
Jasmine walked over and sat next to her on the other side and put her arms around the both of the
m rubbing Abby’s hair while she continued to cry. Abby felt the air around them start to stir with a warm breeze and as she closed her eyes to enjoy it, she realized that she had stopped crying.
She felt as though she had no emotions, she didn’t feel sad, happy, angry, or even scared; she just felt calm. She pulled her head up from her mother’s shoulder and looked over at Jasmine, whose eyes were closed.
“Did you do that?” she asked quietly. Jasmine opened her eyes and looked at her.
“Yes, I couldn’t stand to see you hurting so badly” she answered her.
Abby sighed as she enjoyed not having to feel anything, even if it was just for a few minutes. She looked back over to her mother.
“Now that you are calm, please tell us what is wrong?” her mother asked her. Abby took a deep breath and started to tell them exactly what had happened.
Chapter 25
They both listened to her in silence while she poured her heart out to them, and when she was done they looked at each other, as though talking to each other in silence. Finally after what felt like an hour, her mother spoke.
“I know your heart is breaking right now, but things are not what they seem” her mother told her. Abby finally felt an emotion, and it was surprise.
“What do you mean? I saw her in his apartment, and now my magic isn’t working. Do you think it has anything to do with being so sad?” she asked her mother.
Her mother nodded, “Yes, you are grieving, and I think because of the original spell I put on you to have your magic unlock only when in love, there is a lingering effect causing the magic to stop working for you. I can pull the rest of the spell but, I think you were too quick to judge the situation. Things are not what they seem” her mother repeated.
Abby looked into her mother eyes and knew that she was trying to get her to understand something, and not trying to make the situation just seem better than it was.
“Yes, I do want you to take the rest of the spell off, but what do you mean by it’s not what it seems?” she asked. Jasmine touched her arm.
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