I burrowed between the sheets and pulled a pillow over my head. How could I face that insufferable man in the morning?
My six months in the mountains had brought me a lot of pleasure and, at least I’d believed, some confidence for the first time in my life. Magic didn’t matter to me here. Not with my grand business plan to bring together the magical and non among us, in friendship and harmony. A relationship or sex never even came into the picture, but what do I do?
First hottie that crosses my path, I fling myself, sexy terry cloth robe and all, into his arms. And after some light canoodling—a fine Victorian word—he rejects me. Just like everyone else. Why did I even bother? When the tears came, they came from a place so deep, I didn’t even know they’d been stuffed there. Ugly choking sobs. I held the pillow tighter over my head so nobody would hear, but all that did was cut off my air. The way I felt now, it didn’t even matter, but my body had other ideas and forced me to lift my head and suck in life-giving oxygen.
After a life of rejection, I so had not needed to set myself up for another one.
And why? The fury and desolation rose again, sending me into another fit of weeping. Goddess, since when did I do this? I mourned as if I’d lost my husband like Tinsley. But all I’d done was make out a little with a guy who then found that more than enough of me. What witch, what woman would care?
Why did it hurt so badly? I felt rent in two, like my life’s blood was soaking the pillowcase instead of some silly girly tears. Struggling to contain the crying, telling myself to settle down, get over it. I was only this upset because I was tired. Exhausted. Had been working nonstop for six months to achieve something and was worried it might not be a success. Yes, that was it.
Flopping onto my back I sucked in a deep breath and let out a bansidhe-worthy howl.
Thrashing and wailing, I flung myself from one side of the bed to the other, tangling my hands in the curtains and shrieking with the onset of pain such as I’d never felt, and it was no longer just emotional. Every muscle in my body was beset with agony like being pierced with swords.
I lifted into the air and found myself by the ceiling for a moment before I heard a crack and darkness closed in, and I fell to the bed. Blackness closed around me, sending me into a space far from the torture of my carefully decorated Victorian era bedroom.
Chapter Six
Early
Fifteen minutes earlier
After Karina dismissed me, so to speak, I headed out to the car to fetch my bag. On the way back, I had a little concern about a repeat of the earlier issue on the steps and feeling silly, I tossed my bag over the railing and scrambled over it. I just wasn’t up to spending the night on the cold boards. If anything, the wind had kicked up even more and I’d be chilled to the bone. But despite the weather, I stopped to admire the moon which had risen higher since we’d stood at the kitchen window and now hung honey golden over the house. I thought the place was dark blue but couldn’t be sure in the moonlight. There were other colors, too, but I’d see them in the morning.
For a place owned by a supposedly non-magical witch, the place was heavy with the stuff. I still couldn’t figure out her angle. Why would she pretend to be mundane when she was anything but?
I’d never touched anyone who had as much of the good stuff as Karina. When I held her in my arms, she almost vibrated with it, and the connection between us was not one a human would recognize. Almost as if we already knew each other. I traveled a lot and okay, dated a lot, but I would never have forgotten someone like her. Those deep-blue eyes, hair like heavy silk. Breasts like raspberry-tipped mounds of creamy snow. And they’d tasted just as good.
If Tinsley had taken another ten minutes to finish flying around the yard, we’d have been naked on the floor. And since my lion was already entranced and sure she was our mate, that would have completed the circuit, at least for us. Karina was not a shifter so she probably could have walked away if she wanted, but I’d never have another.
She’d ruin me for all others.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I loved my free-wheeling life and after growing up in the pride where everyone was in a big hurry to pair up, I had no desire to do that. Had never met a woman who even tempted me to do so, me or my lion.
It just was not going to happen. Not now. Not later, not ever.
I doubled over as my lion made his opinion of that known. It felt like the cuff of a giant paw in my solar plexus accompanied by a roar that I could barely suppress, though I held my mouth closed by main will. I’d have a hard time dealing with him, but that could be resolved by hitting the road as early as possible tomorrow, right after the grand opening festivities began, if possible. Once we were thousands of miles away, he’d figure out I meant business.
And screw the ache I felt at the thought of leaving. Those thousands of miles would cure me, too. Damn magical women, it’s why I gave them a wide berth. They could be addictive.
Shouldering my bag, I turned toward the front door of the inn and headed inside. I twisted the lock on the door, noting it seemed to be the original from when the house was built, although the door itself had been refinished. Why wouldn’t the owner have installed a more secure lock if she had the opportunity? Sure, they were way back in the mountains. But that didn’t mean no creeps ever made it by. I had visions of lone strangers hiking through the mountains. Or, once word got out about the inn, driving up to rob her.
But, of course, she’d be able to protect the place with magic. She had done a pretty good job of giving me the “uninvited vampire” treatment. A good trick to make it work against a shifter. Truly sophisticated magic there. I flipped off lights as I went, leaving the downstairs dark and quiet and my footfalls on the carpeted steps sound loud, but when I reached the upper landing, another noise became apparent.
I’d been directed to the room on the right, but the noises seeped through the one on the left, whose windows should, if I wasn’t getting turned around, face the back patio and the forest. Feeling like a real snoop, I rested my ear against the solid wood panel, and sure enough that’s where the soft cries were coming from. Then they weren’t soft anymore but wails, and whimpers and sobs followed by a loud thump, and I couldn’t wait.
Twisting the knob, I called out as I entered, “Karina? Is that you? Are you all right?” No answer. I reached behind me and flipped on the light switch, sending a brilliant glow from the white glass orb suspended on a trio of chains over the bed. Or what I was fairly sure was the bed because at the moment, it was an elaborately carved four-poster structure covered with a heap of dusty-rose velvet fabric. Lumpy dusty-rose fabric. Sure the weeping had come from in here, I carefully approached the bed. When dealing with a powerful witch, something I was now positive I was indeed doing, it’s always best to be wary. Anything could lie under those covers. The bansidhe, whose wail could steal a man’s soul or lead him to destruction. An ogre relative of Tinsley’s ready to bounce my head like a basketball. Or it could be the witch herself, ready to turn me into a toad.
Okay, people rarely got turned into toads. Anymore.
But something was under all that cloth, because I could hear it breathing.
And the fact the crying stopped just as I was making my entrance, or maybe a few seconds before, was suspicious. For a moment, standing there with my knees touching the dark wood, I considered leaving. Running for it.
Then my lion laughed.
The bastard.
And I grabbed a handful of velvet and yanked.
Sleeping Beauty never looked like Karina Jewel, huddled in her red-striped flannel pajamas in the center of a bed big enough for a half dozen of her. Nah, that skinny princess had nothing on my witchy woman. Neither did anyone I’d ever shared an hour or a night with. My heart sped as soon as she came into view, with her mussed hair and tear-streaked cheeks. Her long, dark lashes were stuck together and damp, her hands fisted at her sides, legs curled up.
A deep purr rolled out of my chest. I hadn’t
seen anything below the waist, hadn’t had her under me while I drove my dick into her body...and I was lost anyway. And stone terrified.
I gave her shoulder a little shake. “Karina. Wake up.”
I stepped back and waited, expecting her to sit up and yell at me. Or at least be shocked, and a guy did not want to be too close to a surprised witch.
Toads were always an option.
When she didn’t move, I tried again, a bit stronger shake, and didn’t move back quite so far. I dragged the heavy curtains to the floor—noting the hangers still on the tops of them. And when she still lay there, I crawled up next to her and propped up on an elbow, trying to decide what to do next. She was clearly breathing and her color was good. She was just asleep. But what had happened to bring those curtains down? I rolled onto my back and looked up at the ceiling. Like the living room, it was elegantly finished. This one was painted in various shades of cream and goldish yellow, truly elegant—except for the divot about a foot from the hanging light. Putting fallen curtains and dented ceiling together, I rolled back toward Karina and brushed her hair back from her forehead.
Sure enough. A goose-egg-sized lump swelled from her temple. No wonder she was out like a light. I’d dropped my bag outside the bedroom door, but my phone was in my pants pocket, and I plucked it out and dialed 9-1-1. We needed an airlift in here right away. Or an ambulance, fire truck...something. But apparently the back country was not in contact with anyone in the outside world. Zero bars. I tried to remember if I’d seen a landline phone anywhere in the place.
Tinsley would know. If I could find her. And maybe she’d have some good ideas on how to wake up her sister-in-law. Ogres didn’t have a big rep as healers, but I’d take anything right now. My lion was prowling inside me, grumping and upset, and I couldn’t settle him down, but I got that. Where magic was involved anything was possible.
Kiss her. Okay, my lion was fairy-tale contaminated. I blamed my mother. She’d read them to me every night until I was twelve. It was our only interaction, with servants and my nanny doing everything else, so I hadn’t ever asked her to stop.
That stuff doesn’t work in real life. I’m going to see if Tinsley has a way to reach the outside world. A sat phone or landline or I don’t know, magic mirror.
Kiss her.
Stubborn beast. You don’t kiss unconscious women. It’s rude at best and criminal at worst.
Kiss her.
I knew when I was licked. Besides, what could a peck on the cheek hurt? Best-case scenario, she woke up and slapped my face. Then, when nothing happened, I could still go for Tinsley, and arguing with the lion was just wasting precious time.
I bent close, bringing my lips toward her pale cheek, and stroked back another errant lock of hair. She had the most errant hair. Hah. Okay. Nervous laughter. Closing my eyes, I descended and touched...lips. Lips that parted to emit a gasp and, before I could retreat, a hand came up and twined in my hair. And just like that, we went from wake-up kiss on the cheek to full-on openmouthed devouring kisses in her bed.
I was in so much trouble.
But I could no more stop kissing her than stop breathing. Her bedding was infused with her light perfume, and it went right to my head. I rolled, bringing her on top of me, and locked my hands at the back of her waist. Let her take control of the kiss.
Karina tilted her head and parted her lips wider, moving against my mouth, making soft little sounds in her throat that absolutely delighted my lion. The big guy purred in response and she jumped back, eyes fluttering open.
Oh shit. Maybe she hadn’t been awake while kissing me? I was very glad she was the one on top so she wouldn’t feel trapped. But as soon as she focused on me, those blue, blue eyes deepened, and the flame flared to life, and she kissed me again.
Mate.
I know.
Chapter Seven
Karina
I had no idea how it had even happened, but somehow I’d gone from ramming my head into the ceiling, to kissing Early, the reporter who came to write an article about the inn, insulted it and me, ended up making out with me in the kitchen, and now somehow was in my bed. I was stretched out over him, full length in my sexy flannel pajamas.
And nothing but that bothered me.
But then, a girl would prefer her first time to take place in something a little sexier.
His eyes were golden and amber. I’d never have said those were different colors before, but now I knew for sure they were. Shades of the savannah where his lion lived when not with him. I didn’t know where I came by that information, either, but it was there. I could feel the animal within him, not just the scent from before, but as a full-blown cat ready to race after prey, and I might be the prey and I liked it.
Together they were what I’d been looking for. The whole package. I just hadn’t known I was looking for them. And a reporter for a national magazine was not going to live in the High Sierras. So we were looking at a night or two...maybe three if everything went well. Then the whole package would pack up and head back to wherever he came from, taking his lion with him and most of my heart.
That feeling of familiarity was there again, a homecoming of sorts however brief. I’d been lonely all my life; why should my future be different? I breathed in his scent again, filling my lungs and making a memory.
I suddenly remembered my top was gaping, since Early had bitten off my buttons in the kitchen. Which meant my breasts were essentially bare. And...that didn’t bother me, either. I dipped in for another kiss, ignoring the questions in his golden eyes. Talking now would just mess up what had the potential to be the best moment of my life.
“Karina, are you sure...”
“Shh, tell me one thing.” Because I didn’t have the brains to follow my own good advice. “You weren’t interested in me before. You just walked away. What changed?”
“Everything,” he said, cupping my chin and kissing me again until I didn’t even remember what my question had been. “Everything has changed.”
“Yes.” Hadn’t it, though?
Early reached for my open shirt, arching a brow for permission and accepting my smile as that. He eased it off my shoulders, kissing the exposed skin until the scruffy, washed-a-hundred-times top fell to the bed before he untied the pants and the waist and helped me out of those as well.
“And you?” I nodded to his fully clothed bod. “I feel funny being the only naked person.”
“Karina, you hit your head pretty hard.”
I reached up and rubbed my temple, only now aware of the throbbing that must have been going on all the time. “Yeah, I guess I did.” Not that I cared. “So, clothes?”
Early rolled to the side so I lay on the bed, one leg artfully bent at the knee like I’d seen in a movie once when a woman was being very seductive. I had the feeling it worked better for her until I saw him watching me with admiration in his stare. That helped me to let go of any reticence and open myself to the experience fully.
Not that watching Early do a striptease for me hurt. He was as lean and muscular as I’d thought as he’d felt through his clothes. But also, golden, burnished tan, with elegant long feet and surprise six-pack abs. Maybe he did work out.
It didn’t take him long to kick off his shoes and socks, unbutton his pants, and drop them to the floor then step out of them, unbutton his shirt—why hadn’t I bitten his buttons off? Then he wore only boxer briefs, the sexiest of men’s underwear, outlining a bulge that even my inexperienced libido knew was impressive. Fingers tucked in his waistband, he watched me, and eased them down, an inch at a time until his erection popped free, jutting toward me in open invitation. I’d seen pictures, but in person. “Wow.”
He paused. “Wow?”
“Yeah. Come over here, big boy.” Dear goddess, did I say that?
Judging by his expression, I had. Hey, inexperience will show from time to time. I lifted my arms and drew him down for a kiss. It felt like coming home, that intense familiarity flooding my veins as his
hands wandered my body, touching and teaching, his lips following, once again sampling my breasts, licking circles around the nipples before drawing one into his mouth then the next then the first again. He caressed my abdomen, an area I’d always been self-conscious about, until now. His kiss to my naval was a revelation. And when he drifted farther south, I clenched my legs together, nervous, but he kissed my knees then lifted them to his shoulders.
“You still good?” he asked, fingers stroking into a place I’d never allowed a man. “You’re so wet. So ready for me.”
My lids floated closed but I snapped them open, wanting to experience everything about tonight. Afraid to miss a second of this reunion.
Early bent to place a kiss in the most intimate place. Then another and another, sucking and lapping, circling my clit with a stiffened tongue until I was thrashing and begging him not to wait any longer. But he didn’t stop, just continued to torment me with his mouth until I teetered on the edge of fulfillment. At which point he stood and let my legs drop to the floor, placing his cock at my entrance. Holding my gaze, he plunged in, piercing me, taking my virginity and my heart in one smooth stroke.
I drew him down to me, clinging to his shoulders, lifting my face for his kiss and submerging myself in the moment. It felt a thousand times better than I’d ever dreamed, and we moved together as if we’d choreographed the whole thing. I rocked my hips to meet each drive and retreat, climbing higher and higher, feeling something coil deep within me tighter and tighter until Early let out a roar and his cum filled me.
A condom would have been genius. Not that shifters could spread disease, but still...
Before the thought could finish, the coil reached its limits and began to unwind, hurtling me through space and slamming me back into the moment with a crash.
Suddenly, opening the Witch Way Inn fell second to bonding with this man. My body surged with energy, arms and legs tingling in a most alarming way. The overhead light flashed on and off, and the window opened and closed. The curtains, discarded on the floor, swirled like a whirlpool of fabric. I flung my arms around Early’s neck and hung on for dear life as the bed itself began to spin.
Witch Way Inn Page 4
