Instinct made him kiss her, and he didn’t regret his impulse. She had even kissed him back. He didn’t imagine that part.
“You’re mine, Claire,” he said. “I can feel it, can’t you?”
She stared up at him. “Whatever I feel doesn’t mean we’re meant to bond together, and what cruel joke is the world playing anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“You of all people.”
Ouch. That hurt. He wasn’t expecting rejection, so what did he think? He’d find the woman, sweep her off her feet, and take them back to the loft?
Actually, that’s exactly what he hoped, crazy as it sounded. What he didn’t expect was to see Claire and that she would be close enough to touch. To kiss. Oh, hell did the witch know how to kiss. She tasted like ripened strawberries ready to be picked and immediately consumed. She was sweeter than he’d ever imagined, and he wanted more of her.
“Look, I know I’m not what you were expecting,” Axel said. “But I’m glad it’s you.”
“You are?”
“Yes. The entire time you were with Matt, I...well, I wanted you for myself.”
“Where is this coming from? You never even spoke to me, Axel.”
“I never knew what to say to you. You were intimidating.”
“Then you haven’t met my sisters.”
Claire moved back from him and paced, reminding Axel of Jett’s habit to do the same.
“Now, you decide to kiss me out of the blue?” she asked. “It’s a little too soon."
“It’s been six years since you’ve been with Matt, Claire. Can’t you entertain the possibility of giving me a chance?”
“A chance? You had six years to ask me out or even see me. Why wait until Firewick when we’re forced to see each other?”
Axel didn’t talk. He didn’t know what to say to ease her mind. He wasn’t going to admit to watching her. That would run her off for good.
“Are you saying you never liked me that way?”
“What? No, I—“
“I know you liked when I kissed you just now.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Oh, but it is.” He eased closer to her like a predator studying his prey. He could smell her magic and the scent of arousal filled his nose. That confirmed it. Only a true bonded triad or those with the potential to bond could smell each other’s arousal. It was a magical ability everyone gained, but it only worked when you found your third.
He was almost certain Claire could sense him as well, though she’d probably deny it, if his hard cock didn’t give him away.
Axel was making her uncomfortable. Good because he wanted her sexually frustrated and wanting. He needed her to beg for him to consume her until they were nothing but a tangle of bodies and a merging of magical forces.
He had waited too long for this. For her. Claire wasn’t getting rid of him that easy.
“Can you put some pants on at least?” she asked. “I can’t talk to you when you’re naked.”
“Try,” he said with a grin that went up to his eyes. He was enjoying this.
Axel walked up to her slowly. When she didn’t move away, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Matt shouldn’t have allowed a catch like you to slip away, but I’m glad he did.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?” Her voice sounded whimsical as if her fight was slowly ebbing away.
“Because there’s nothing stopping me from taking you the way a real warlock should,” he said.
Her mouth opened slightly.
“I want to take you, Claire. I want to make you come for me the way Matt never made you come for him.”
She licked her lips, and that was it.
He couldn’t and wouldn’t hold himself back anymore.
He took her lips like a starved beast, hungry for the next meal and afraid another would never come. This time his kiss was persistent and eager. He roamed the inside of her mouth with his tongue, exploring her tasty depths.
She was his all right, whether she knew it or not.
Claire didn’t fight him as he pulled her closer.
Axel’s hands slid down to the fullness of her ass and gripped her so each cheek filled both of his hands. He went under her skirt to explore what rested below it, covered flesh that waited for his discovery.
He lifted her until her legs wrapped around his waist. He took all of her, and even with her full and curvy body, she weighed nothing.
He squeezed her ass, and she moaned into his mouth. He liked that, and when he did it again, he slid his hand to her covered pussy. Her panties were soaked.
Try as she might to deny it, she wanted him, and he wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stop them.
“Am I interrupting?” an amused male voice asked.
He growled at the intruder, angry to be taken away from the woman who consumed his body, soul, and mind.
The intruder was none other than Jett himself, and the idiot had the worst timing ever.
***
Jett easily found Axel. The man was sending out magic pulses in giant spurts. He came to Firewick as promised, and already he regretted it. Seeing triads testing their link and meeting up annoyed him to no living end.
When he couldn’t find Axel, he started to get upset. His partner, for the moment anyways, had the nerve to invite him and not show up himself. That’s what he got for doing something he didn’t even want to do in the first place.
As he was pacing through the groups of witches and warlocks, a wave of familiar magic washed over him, but it wasn’t coming from anyone at the bonfire. It was further off.
The feeling of his partner was mixed with something else too. Another magic he’d sampled before.
Each magic combined and lured him closer to it until he came to Axel ravishing a woman. The man wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted a witch.
He started to leave them to it, but he realized the woman Axel was getting hot and heavy with wasn’t just any witch. It was the woman he’d kiss earlier.
A possession like no other stirred in him, and he wanted her too.
“Jett?” Axel asked.
Jett wasn’t listening. He stormed over to the woman whose eyes were wide with recognition and kissed her for the second time.
The first one was exploratory, almost innocent compared to the one he gave her now.
Her shock lasted only seconds before she fell into the kiss with him.
She was savory and delightful to his mouth. It was like he had been thirsty as hell, and she was the only thing that could quench it.
He sensed when Axel came up behind her and explored the back of her neck with kisses of his own.
This witch had a hold over both of them, and Jett didn’t understand why that was.
His hands explored her sides and finally came up to cup her breasts, such full and soft breasts that seemed like the perfect match for his hands.
She moaned at his touched, and that spurred him on to squeeze the lovely mounds even more.
Jett needed to be with this woman, needed to be inside her as if his life depended on it.
That thought alone scared him and forced him to break their intimate kiss. It was too much. Too damn much, and Jett had to stop it before he lost his soul to another witch for good.
***
Claire was officially losing it. She had kissed two guys in the span of hours. One was someone she didn’t know at all, and the other was someone she just barely knew.
She shouldn’t be surprised. Her sister hadn’t known either one of her warlocks before their bond. At least she knew Axel a little. The length of their relationship didn’t matter to her magic or body, and her mind was starting to fall in step.
Finally knowing both of their names and that they could possibly be hers made her understand what completion and joy could feel like.
Jett. So that was the hot warlock’s name.
Jett and Axel. Each time she said the words in her head, the two seemed like they went
together. Two parts of three, with her being the third.
She didn’t know them the way lovers usually knew their partners, but each time these men kissed her, everything seemed right in the world. Absolutely everything.
Yeah, doubts floated through her mind, but she felt sensual, whole, and full of magic. Everything a witch was supposed to experience and then some. Everything Matt never gave her. That provided her with a kind of peace, and it washed over her from head to toe and sunk in deep.
When Jett pulled away from her mouth, she was in a lusty haze.
“Why did you stop?” she asked him.
When he didn’t respond, she came back to reality quick.
Fear flooded the warlock’s face. Was she the reason for that look he gave her?
She moved away from him and closer to Axel. Something was wrong, and she had a feeling it was because of her.
“She’s ours, Jett,” Axel said. He pulled her closer to him, her back close to his chest.
The way Axel said it made her warm up inside. Still, it didn’t erase the awkward look Jett was broadcasting her way like a high frequency tower.
Axel wanted her. Really wanted her. But what about Jett? And what exactly did she want? So many questions with too little answers.
Everything was happening so fast, but she couldn’t deny the chemistry between the three of them. That was too obvious to ignore.
“Axel, maybe we should take a moment,” Claire said. “Talk this over.”
“No, Claire,” Axel said. “There’s nothing to talk about. Not for me.” He stared back up at Jett. “Why can’t you see that she’s made for us just as we’re made for her?” Axel asked.
Then Jett had to speak and make Claire’s decision a clear one.
“Because I don’t even know if I want her, okay?” Jett said.
Oh. No. He. Didn’t. That was so not okay with her.
“Then let me make it easy for you, Jett,” Claire spat out. “I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me. I don’t want either of you.” She jerked out of Axel’s reach. Although she saw sadness in Axel’s eyes, she wasn’t giving either one of them the opportunity to hurt her. “Just leave me alone and stay the hell away from me!”
Claire was done. Done with warlocks. Done with Firewick. Done with everything. She turned and walked away from it all.
She wasn’t going to cry, and if she did, they didn’t deserve to see her do it.
Damned indecisive warlocks. To hell with both of them. To hell with all warlocks and their crazy asses.
Claire told herself not to look back as she stormed off. She forced herself to do just that.
But right before she had them out of her sight, she turned around just in time to see Axel right-hook Jett in the face. She couldn’t stop a small smile from filling the side of her mouth. Good. Served the warlock right. Maybe that would comfort her all the way back to Ethereal Delusions and long after this horrible day ended. She doubted it though. False hope was a bitch in disguise.
***
That was it. Jett was done fucking up Axel’s life. Rage filled Axel like no anger had before.
Part of it came from Jett being pissed off that Axel had hit him, but most if it belonged to Axel this time. He didn’t need his soon-to-be ex warlock partner’s emotions to get angry.
The punch wasn’t enough. Axel let loose his fury along with his magic and knocked Jett on his back. It didn’t help anything, but kicking his ass sure felt good. Not as good as Claire in his arms, and that thought made him flare up again.
He used his air force to trip Jett over before he could stand back up.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jett screamed.
“Me?” Axel couldn’t keep the sarcastic tone and bitterness out of his voice. “I’m not the one who just took a shit storm to our chance at happiness!”
“Your happiness, you mean,” Jett said. “That witch can’t make me happy. Staying here won’t make me happy.”
Axel felt his power consume his eyes as he knocked Jett in the face again with his closed hand, and it felt damn good. He hadn’t realized how long he had wanted to do that. Forget his magic. A good old-school fist fight was what he needed right now.
His blood rumbled under his skin, edging him on. He cracked his neck and allowed his power to run free. It was on.
“Fine,” Jett said. “You want a fight. Let’s fight.”
Axel had no time to block Jett’s magic. It sent him flying feet back into the water.
Good. He could use another element with the wind. He spun the water around him until it made a Jett-sized cyclone. He tossed it over until it lifted Jett up in the air. The water and air spun him fast until Axel allowed him to fall back down on the sand.
Axel was so focused on Jett that he didn’t see the giant wave rise far above his head until it was too late. It crashed down onto him, knocking the air magic out of body. He tried to gulp for breath, but each time he did, the water tumbled him deeper into its dark depths.
Suddenly, he was snatched out of the water and tossed onto the sand right next to Jett.
Axel gasped for air like the lifeline that it was and steadied his panicking body.
The glow in Jett’s eyes confirmed that he had been the one who pulled Axel out of the monstrous wave before it sunk him to the bottom.
They both fell back on the sand, physically and mentally exhausted from their heated battle, if you could call it that.
“You don’t know what it’s like, man,” Jett said between rough breaths.
“Then tell me,” Axel said. He had no more fight left in him, so he could only talk and listen.
“I loved a witch once, and she almost ruined me,” Jett said. “I can’t go through that again. It’ll kill me, Axel.”
Axel took a moment before responding. “What do you think you just did to Claire?”
“It’s not the same.”
“It is. The warlock who used to be my best friend broke her, Jett. Not completely, but he broke a part of her. She hasn’t been with anyone since, warlock or human.”
“How do you know?”
“Trust me. I know. Matt wasn’t worthy of her, but what you did to her was so much worse than him.”
“How’s that?”
“Because you’re worthy of each other. You just don’t know it yet.” Axel sat up. “All of us are fucked up, Jett. But this bond with Claire can help us heal each other.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I am.” Axel said. “Never felt more positive about anything, Jett.”
He watched Jett analyze him until the other warlock knew he was serious.
They stared at each other, neither one of them backing down, until Axel saw that Jett actually got it. It wasn’t just about him trusting another witch or Claire trusting another warlock.
It was about all three of them starting something brand new together, a triad that could give all of them a clean slate without living in the past.
“I really fucked this one up,” Jett said.
“Yep,” Axel said, “but it’s not too late to fix it.”
“Because of me, she won’t even see us again.”
“I’m sure we can persuade her to hear you out.”
“We don’t even know where she ran off to.”
“I have to get dressed first, but I know where she is,” Axel said, digging his clothes out of the sand pile their fight had buried it under.
Axel glanced back over at his quiet partner, a man he was finally starting to see deserved that designation. An equal warlock who needed their witch just as much as he did.
“Trust me,” Axel said.
When Jett nodded, Axel realized that Jett was starting to do just that.
Chapter Eight
Claire was frustrated. No, she was horny as hell. Okay, maybe she was frustrated and horny as hell, but she sure did not want two ego-driven warlocks, especially if they didn’t want her.
She’d come back to Ethereal Delusions. At least sh
e knew the magic shop. That was familiar. Not two bull-headed men who didn’t know what they wanted from a damn bent cauldron.
She shoved books onto the shelf, no longer caring about their order or proper place.
Claire had to do something, or she might just go back and look for Axel. Kind and sexy Axel. Why didn’t she see that kindness six years ago? Maybe then they could’ve been something. Something nice and new after Matt’s crazy shit stunt.
But Jett was a messed-up story all on his own.
How dare he? she thought. Jett didn’t want her, did he? Well, she didn’t need his indignant ass either.
She grinned, thinking about catching Axel punch him before she ran away. Axel with his quiet strength and gentle words. She thought about him walking naked out of the water. The moon made him seem like a god ready for a woman’s taking, or at least one ready to claim someone all on his own.
When Axel attacked Jett, it was the first time she’d ever seen Axel angry, and it was all directed his warlock buddy with attitude. He was defending her, just like he defended her against the asshole warlock who tried to hit her. He was a savior in disguise.
Good. Jett deserved to be knocked around a few times. Served him right.
Why did she ever think Jett was sexy, anyway? She thought about waking up in his arms earlier when she passed out from doing magic with Carmen. Jett’s strong, muscular arms held her tight, almost protectively.
“Some protector,” Claire scoffed under her breath.
Screw Jett’s gym-ready six-pack abs that looked like an eight-pack in training. To hell with his tight grab-worthy ass that she was getting more than used to seeing walk away from her.
Claire felt moisture build between her legs. She rubbed her legs together to lose the sensation, but it persisted.
Damn her body, too! She couldn’t even get angry at her warlocks without her body betraying her. Her warlocks. Where did that come from? They so weren’t hers and never would be.
She threw a book across the room and crossed her arms.
Men were idiots. Warlocks were worse.
“Good throw, witch,” a voice said. It wasn’t an unfamiliar voice either. It belonged to Jett.
The Alpha Warlocks' Desire: An Alpha Warlocks of Kala West Story #2 (A BWWM and BBW Paranormal Erotic Ménage Romance) Page 6
