Psychic Lies (Wiccan Haus Book Four)

by Sara Daniel

Gorgeous, sexy Armando wanted her. He wanted Fiona the woman, not Fiona the Vetter or Fiona the Orgasmic Psychic. And she wanted him with every fiber of her being. She unsnapped his waistband.

  He threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed. “We don’t have to rush. I want you to be ready.”

  “I’m ready.” And she was. Ready for him. Ready to let go of her powers. Ready to be his mate.

  If she’d had any ice remaining around her heart, his brilliant smile would have melted it. Her body tingled as he reached up from his prone position and pushed the tiny top button of her blouse through the button hole. “Do you want me to undress you?” he asked.

  “Only if you promise to touch me too.” Her body ached having his hand so close, casually brushing her chest as he worked each button free, but not fulfilling her need for him.

  “Touch you here?” He slid his palms along her bra cups.

  “Yes.”

  “Or here?” He dispensed with the bra and covered her with his hands.

  “Yes.” She sighed her pleasure, but quiet contentment wasn’t enough to satisfy her restless need. She crawled off the bed to stand over him and work his pants down his hips, taking her time enjoying his nude body spread out for her. She tossed her skirt and panties aside so she was as naked as he was. Then she knelt next to him and wrapped her hand around his full, firm erection.

  “A man could get the idea you want him for his body.” Armando said thickly, his eyelids lowering.

  “You have a problem with that?” She stroked his length.

  His breath hitched in time to her movements. “No problem. But if you keep touching me like that, you’re going to have a problem with how quickly this is all over.”

  “I sincerely doubt it.” Keeping her hand on him, she shifted to kiss his mouth again, claiming his tongue and immersing herself in total sensation.

  He massaged her breasts until her body hummed and she needed more than the aching pleasure building in her chest. Carefully, she positioned one knee on either side of his hips and settled her body over his, gliding him inside her.

  His fingers squeezed and then went slack.

  “Keep touching me,” she gasped. Her soul called out, joyous and longing all at once.

  Anything for you. His words were an exact echo of his thoughts. It didn’t matter that she wouldn’t be able to discern a distinction when she mated. She had nothing to worry about. He was completely in tune with her this time. The mating would be perfect, and as a member of a non-mating race, he wouldn’t be bound to her, so she wouldn’t take away his freedom or choice.

  He lifted his head and drew her nipple into his mouth. She strained toward him, savoring the connection from all sides and then deliberately opened her soul to receive him. His presence filled her, and her soul sighed with contentment. He was hers. She was at one with her mate.

  Her body, however, was far from satisfied. She rocked against him. “More, Armando.”

  If I give too much more, I’ll come before you’re ready.

  “No, you won’t. I’m right here with you.” She hardly had a moment to marvel at the absolute truth she had spoken. She was coming. The orgasm was building inside her. Every movement of Armando’s body inside her drove her need and her pleasure higher.

  That can’t be possible. He clenched her thighs with his big hands. Ride me faster. Touch my chest.

  She stroked his chest, intensifying the rhythm to a fevered pitch. “I’ve never felt this way before,” she admitted.

  What do you mean?

  She lifted her gaze to his face and stared deep into his brown eyes. “I love you, Armando.” She meant it with her entire heart and soul.

  His body shuddered, sending her over the edge of orgasmic bliss. She convulsed again and again around him. She smiled at her mate, enjoying the soul-deep satisfaction. She’d never dreamed this kind of connection was possible. But anything was possible now that she’d found Armando. And she would never let him go.

  She leaned over and touched her lips gently to his.

  That was amazing. She answered my thoughts.

  Fiona lifted her head. She’d answered his thoughts? No, she hadn’t. He’d been talking. His words had echoed his thoughts. She hadn’t given anything away.

  What the hell power is that, anyway? His lips didn’t move, but she heard the words just like they’d been spoken. Holy Apollo, you’re an Orgasmic Psychic.

  Holy Goddess.

  He’d discovered her power.

  And she didn’t have a clue how to protect herself now.

  Chapter 11

  FIONA EASED OFF HIM and then scrambled away from the bed. Armando sat up much more slowly, unable to stop staring at her while she avoided his gaze and snatched her discarded clothes.

  He tried to find his voice. Suddenly, everything made sense, the way she’d run from him in the lake, the way she practically anticipated his desired rhythm. “You’re an Orgasmic Psychic. No wonder sex with you is so good. You know my thoughts. You know what I want.”

  He swung his legs over the side of the bed, instinctively reaching for her so he’d know the truth, but she’d moved out of his grasp.

  “I’m not. I’m a woman with no powers.”

  He didn’t need his own powers to confirm the lie. He’d figured out the truth without them.

  She grabbed her shirt and shoved her arms into the sleeves, buttoning it haphazardly. “Well, let’s say I was one, hypothetically. What would you do with me?”

  The hell with hypothetical. “First, we have to protect you from the Chameleon race and people like Dex.” The Chameleons were practically godlike when mated with an Orgasmic Psychic. They could already make themselves invisible while seeing and hearing everything around them, but when mated with an Orgasmic Psychic they could also read thoughts from their invisible state.

  “I thought the Chameleons were wiped out by the commander’s executions last year.”

  “Most of them. A few rogues are believed to still be at large.”

  She shuddered as she pulled on her long skirt. “I’ve managed to keep away from them for this long. I’m fine.”

  If she mated with someone else first, the threat would be gone. Armando hesitated as he reached for his pants. Could he give up his truth-finding power with her to keep her safe? Of course, he would. He decided to test out what she thought of them as a couple before he suggested it. “You could work for the Syndicate with me. They’ll set you up for life. You’ll never have to worry about a thing.”

  The look of pure horror on her face caught him off-guard. Why wouldn’t she be happy about an honorable government job when days ago she’d been lamenting her lack of career prospects?

  “Easy for you to say. You wouldn’t be the one screwing scores of people you abhor just to get answers for a government who only wants to use you for your power.”

  That was what she thought? No wonder she was traumatized. He rushed to reassure her. “You wouldn’t have to sleep with anyone. They put an end to the prostitution and sexual slavery of Orgasmic Psychics years ago. You would wear a psychic suit, so you could read people’s thoughts whenever you touched them, kind of like my power.” Only more powerful. She could get so much more information to protect the government and its people than he was able to with his limited truth or lie rating.

  “So I would walk around with—what?—a fake penis shoved inside me?”

  Armando had only met one other Orgasmic Psychic, and she was a top-notch Syndicate spy. He didn’t know the details of how Monica’s psychic suit worked. He only knew she was extremely good at her job. “You’d adjust to it.”

  “Adjust?” she echoed, horror etched in her voice. “I’ll tell you what I had to adjust to. I grew up believing for seventeen years that I was a Vetter. Then I gave my virginity to a boy I stupidly thought I loved. He penetrated, and I discovered he was only sleeping with me to get close to my best friend and to brag to all the other guys that he scored with the girl least likely to put out.”


  Armando closed his eyes briefly, trying to control the fury coursing through him at what she’d had to endure. “Who was he? I’ll beat the hell out of him.”

  “I don’t need protection from him. I kicked him in the nuts and ran home. I told my mom everything, and she confessed I was adopted and my birth mother was an Orgasmic Psychic. I could never let anyone find out the truth or I would be forced into a life of sex slavery for the Syndicate like she had been.”

  “Were there three of you?” Armando asked. “Dex mentioned triplets. Is it possible the spy Monica is your sister? You could talk to her about her job.” Even as he said it, he couldn’t imagine Fiona as a spy or undercover investigator. She was too sweet, too gentle.

  “If there were other babies, I never knew.” Fiona wrapped her arms around her chest. “Not even my Vetter father knows the truth about me. Mom was pregnant when she went away. She miscarried her baby but came back with me and, other than telling me after I’d already stumbled on the truth, she carried the secret to her grave.”

  Armando tried to convince himself they were making progress. Despite Fiona’s fear and frustration, she’d trusted him with details she didn’t trust her father to know. “Think about the possibilities of a career with the Syndicate. You’d do a good and honorable service for your world.”

  She shuddered.

  He crossed the room to her and cupped his hands on her shoulders. “Of course before you apply to the Syndicate, you’d have to mate first. Your power is too vulnerable of falling into the wrong hands if you don’t.”

  “I have mated,” she said, looking him directly in the eye. “Just now.”

  “You didn’t. I would have known.” But his powers didn’t give him a reading. He released her and stumbled back.

  “With the bounty hunter on my trail, it was my only option. My soul had already chosen you, and I love you.”

  Armando stared at her, unable to believe she was capable of this deep a betrayal. It was one thing for him to consider suggesting it and quite another for her to outright rob him of his power with her. “Mating without my consent. That’s not love. That’s violating my rights. You took away my truth-finding ability with you. Your soul can stay empty for eternity now because your mate won’t come anywhere near you again.”

  Too furious to stay in the same room with her, he threw open the bedroom door and stalked to the elevator, jabbing the button.

  “I was wrong,” Fiona called, her voice full of heartbreak. “I didn’t know I would alter your power. I didn’t think it would affect you at all. I’m sorry.”

  “Well, it did.” He glanced back at her standing in the bedroom doorway, staring at him with tears shimmering in her luminous gray eyes. He couldn’t speak without lashing out at her, and despite her unforgiveable act, he couldn’t find it in himself to hurt her more. Instead, he shoved the elevator doors closed and stormed through the lobby as soon as they opened again.

  “Are you trying to make a liar out of me and my cards?” Myron demanded from the front desk.

  Armando turned to her slowly. “Excuse me?”

  “I gave my word to the Rowans that you’d be good for Fiona.”

  “I have been. I cleared her name in a murder investigation. I got her to stop hiding the truth about her powers. I even protected her from races that only want to exploit her for her powers.” He laughed humorlessly at himself. “I’m checking out of here, this time for real and going home tonight.”

  “You have the crystal you need to return?” Myron frowned at her cards, and then swiped them all aside and reached into a drawer for a new deck.

  “It’s in my pocket.” He wished she would hurry up with the process. He just wanted to get out of here, even if he had to sit on the bench for hours and wait for the portal to open.

  Myron took her sweet time spreading her cards out. “You’re sure?”

  He’d forgotten the original question she was referring to, but he was definitely sure he wanted to go back to concentrating on his job, doing his best for the Syndicate, even if he never lived up to Cyrus’s legend or had as great a power as Fiona was capable of. “Of course.”

  Myron pitched the second deck over her shoulder and reached for a new deck. “I don’t know what’s wrong with my cards today. They keep showing the crystal fell out of your pocket and you lost it.”

  He reached his hand in his pocket, where he had an assortment of keys, his Syndicate identification card, and the simple lifebond ring he’d bought on impulse before coming through the portal. He fingered the ring, remember Fiona’s vow during sex. I love you.

  His powers hadn’t given him a truth or lie rating. He’d been so sure it was truth because nothing had felt more like truth in that moment. But the feeling had been from the great sex, not from his powers, and proved exactly why he needed his powers so emotion didn’t cloud his judgment.

  “Forget the crystal,” Myron said. “I’ll have housekeeping keep an eye out for it. Let’s talk about Fiona for minute. What if her gift to the world is really her art? What if she would have been able to make the most of that talent and fill the world with beauty and make it a better place?”

  “There’s more than one way to serve the greater good. I get it,” Armando said. The more he thought about it the less he liked the idea of Fiona at the Syndicate’s beck and call. She was untrained in using her powers and would need to use them against some of the world’s most evil villains. He wasn’t willing to sacrifice her for the greater good.

  “What if your interference will eventually leave both of you bitter with your lives and your government?” Myron continued. “Who are you, Armando Verdad, to say what really is the greater good?”

  Armando leaned over the desk for a better look at her cards to see if they correlated with the thoughts running through his head. “What do your cards predict for Fiona’s future?”

  Myron swiped the deck up on in her hand. “My cards aren’t available for easy answers. Figure out what kind of man you are. Depending on what you choose determines if you belong in Fiona’s life. She’s already made her choice. The rest is up to you.”

  Armando closed his eyes and tried to imagine his life as it had been before, without her, but all he saw before him was emptiness. If he wasn’t part of a soulmate race, why was his soul clenched in agony?

  Fiona sat in the bedroom doorway, oblivious to the other guests walking by. Armando was right. She’d violated his rights and his trust by mating with him without his consent. She’d insulted his intelligence by assuming he wouldn’t find out.

  Then instead of denying it, she’d revealed her darkest secret to a man with incredible Syndicate power to use it against her, a man who believed it should be used against her will for the good of their people. She’d ruined her chance to create a life without powers, and she’d ruined her chance to build a life with a man she really cared about, a man who focused exclusively on her during sex.

  Worse, she’d mated with this man who knew all her secrets, linking herself to him for eternity.

  Worst of all, she’d fallen in love with him, going so far as to tell him she loved him. Guilt over Lizbet’s death and ruining her family’s reputation had left her heartsick and miserable. But those feelings were nothing compared to this gaping wound in her soul.

  Armando hadn’t wavered from his principles. He’d made no secret of what would happen when he learned the truth about her. She had only herself to blame for her foolish choices.

  Down the hall, the elevator doors opened. Fiona jolted, hoping Armando had come back, willing to give her another chance. Instead, Rekkus, Cemil, and Sage strode toward her.

  She stood shakily to face them. She was being kicked off the island for what she’d done. It was no less than she deserved. When she’d been fighting to protect Armando, Rekkus hadn’t intimidated her, but now knowing she deserved his wrath, he did.

  So, she focused on Cemil and Sage. “I know I have to leave, but I can’t go home and pretend I’m a Vetter like n
othing’s changed. If I promise not to have any contact with Armando, can you help me find a safe place where I can live my life and paint without anyone knowing who or where I am?”

  Cemil cupped his hand around her elbow. “Your week isn’t even half up. You’re not ready to leave, and we don’t want you to go.”

  “But we have talked it over, and we think a change of scenery will help you heal,” Sage said. “Cemil and Rekkus will escort you to a cabin in our apple orchard. The other guests rarely venture up there. You’ll have that section of the grounds to yourself. I’ll oversee the staff in relocating your belongings. We’ll deliver everything to the cabin. No one will know you’re there, except those of us directly attending to you.”

  “Any questions?” Cemil asked, squeezing her arm gently.

  They were taking her away from Armando, and he wouldn’t know where to find her, not of course that he would look for her. Cemil and Sage were offering her the chance to give him what he wanted by removing herself from his life. Except her soul revolted, making her physically ill. Well, she’d mated with him. Now she had to face the consequences of life apart from her mate. “An apple orchard, did you say? Am I allowed to eat the apples straight from the tree?”

  “We encourage it,” Cemil said.

  Chapter 12

  ARMANDO SWAM IN THE LAKE until his arms and legs were rubber and he was breathing too hard to take another stroke. Then he dried off and wandered the island. He discovered the hot springs, which was thankfully empty, and soaked his aching limbs.

  Nothing took away the memory of the bone deep pleasure on Fiona’s face as she’d proclaimed her love for him and her corresponding horror as he discovered the truth of who she was. She hadn’t tried to take away his truth-finding power. Hell, he’d suggested mating as a way to protect herself, and he certainly hadn’t wanted her to mate with anyone but him.

  He returned to the second floor of the lodge and paused outside his door. Across the hall, the door to Fiona’s room was open. His heart quickened. He was still frustrated, but the thought of losing her upset him more. He knocked softly and stepped inside.