* * * *
By the time the knock came on the door just past ten o’clock, Jolene was once again exhausted and knew she had only mastered the basics. Arion insisted she eat and made her a sandwich so huge she despaired closing her lips around it. To her total surprise she devoured it right down to the last crumb and hopped up to make another to share with him. Arion was an excellent, patient teacher, but there was a great deal to consider and learn. Jolene learned how to build a filter between her emotional outbursts and her involuntary actions by thinking of things that strongly affected her and seeing the results of her thoughts. Arion used his own magyk, as he insisted it was correctly spelled, to contain her actions harmlessly, but only because he knew what to expect. He assured her it would become second nature over time but she must continue to practice. He was quite astounded she managed to fool the Caprines with a cloaking spell, giving the impression she was dressed and quite respectable that morning she collected Becky. And without giving it conscious thought. Jolene wanted to speak to him in Klingon or Romulan, but didn’t think he’d get the analogy. She was hard-pressed to do so, given the circumstances. Who would have thought Jolene Etain Phillips would be even vaguely compared to the brilliance of Eugene Wesley Roddenberry?
She couldn’t help but curse the fact meeting Xander apparently unleashed this thing, except Arion was convinced it had been simply a matter of time for her to come into her own as he put it. Although, he had mused, it was likely destiny. He suggested she would have always been fey, always just a trifle different, and eventually things would have come together with meaning. He again indicated it was destiny she and Xander had connected, and, albeit vicariously, also Sulieman. He advised it was something quite meant to be, and something that could turn out to be highly fortuitous.
Jolene privately wondered if Arion was a little dense despite his magykal skills, because she received the message from Xander, loud and clear. He might want to have sex with her, but it was like the Caprines. It was perceived as harmless pleasure, and he was going to break her heart, despite Sulie’s seemingly different intentions. And blood, particularly the blood of twins, was thicker than water, magyk aside. Surely Sulieman wouldn’t choose her over his brother. Would he?
Arion planned to teach her more about how to hold people in a spell, rather than shove or hurl them a distance, as well as other, kinder ways to protect herself, but when the knock sounded again, the lessons were over for the time being. Jolene knew the twins were back and conveniently realized while Becky texted her periodically during the day, she hadn’t said anything about going out with Terry again. She called her friend and was relieved when she answered because Xander and Sulieman filed through her door the moment Arion had opened it, just when she’d managed to convince herself they weren’t ever coming back. The highly charged emotions immediately permeating the room had her turning away and heading for her bedroom, her cell glued to her ear.
“Becky! Where are you?” Jolene was thrilled to hear her friend’s voice.
“Terry and I are having a drink, Jolene. Then we’re heading back to the ranch. Isn’t that like some kind of old country song?” Becky sounded exuberant and maybe a little drunk.
“Did you want to come out with us? We’re having a party. A few other girls are already there, apparently, and Giles really liked you. We can come get you.”
Jolene could hear the rumble of Terry’s voice in the background. That was all she would need, them coming to pick her up here with the three horse men present. It would be like the gunfight at the OK corral. She thought hard to come up with a way to keep her friend from going, wishing she would simply go home and sleep, rest up until Jolene could talk with her in person.
“Hello?” It was Terry.
“Hi, uh, Terry. Where’s Becky?”
“She must have had too much to drink. She kind of dozed off, Jolene, and dropped the phone. That’s okay. I’ll take care of her.”
Well, great. Just terrific. Jolene thought fast. “I’ll come get her, Terry.” There was no response. The phone had disconnected, and no one answered despite repeated redials. Jolene threw hers onto the bed where it bounced and landed on the pillow before sliding off and hitting the floor. Shit.
“Are you all right?”
It was a day for shrieking. But this time Jolene didn’t shove Sulieman through the bedroom door, managing to keep her hands down and her thoughts to herself. Already the tutoring was having results. But what was it with these guys? Had they been born in a barn? They never respected a closed door, and it was really annoying. She glared at him.
“Becky’s going out to the ranch, and I put her to sleep so it’ll really be easy for Terry to do his thing.” She stood up and went to her closet to look for something to wear for a rescue.
“The team is at the ranch and will interfere if that is what you think is best, little one.”
Jolene didn’t know what was best, if she ever had. She didn’t know if she had the right to deny Becky such pleasure. She didn’t have any idea what to do or what to think now the twins were back in her home and in her life for who knew how long. She was totally conflicted. She decided to get dressed and be ready for whatever the plan was, if one actually came to her.
Sulieman leaned against the wall and watched her. He still wore jeans, but had changed his shirt, and it clung to the broad expanse of his chest. He’d pulled his hair back into a little ponytail at the nape of his neck with a leather tie, and he looked very Old World and incredibly sexy. She felt his gaze move across her like the warmth of the sun’s rays, so diverse in the coolness of her room, now lit only with her little boudoir lamp. She was drawn to him so intensely it made her entire body tingle with awareness, and her fingers crept to the tie on her robe. She pulled the knot free and let the garment slip from her shoulders, dropping to the floor to pool around her feet. Her nipples hardened for him, and her pussy flowered and brimmed with liquid heat in fragrant invitation. And he was on her, his eyes hot in his face, full of desire and something far more worrisome because she knew it was reflected in her own, and it didn’t need to be said out loud. He stole her breath with an openmouthed kiss and groaned into her, and she recognized that sound for what it was, too. Sulieman longed for her as much or more as she longed for him. It was far more than simple lust.
Jolene kissed him back with equal fervor, and his hands ran down the length of her to grasp her buttocks and pull her tightly against him, lifting her effortlessly as he did so. The muscles in his back and arms rippled and shifted under his shirt and beneath her hands as she wrapped her arms around him. He took her down to her bed and braced his hands on either side of her, staring deeply into her soul before lowering his head to her breasts. He suckled her and then bit down on her nipple, and she arched against him, whether in protest or a plea, she didn’t know. Her magyk soared to meet him, surrounding them both, and Jolene accepted Arion told her the utter truth. Regardless of the painful inference of Xander’s adamant opposition, they were destined. She then lost herself in Sulieman’s ministrations.
He paid homage to her breasts until she writhed with sensation, running her fingers through the silky waves of his hair, pulling it from its restraint. When he kissed his way down her body, pausing at each rib then at her navel and on the jut of either hipbone, Jolene heard herself whimper, little bites of sound that reverberated in her head. She whined in protest when he withdrew. He knelt between her knees and yanked his shirt off, then jackknifed his hips to shove his jeans over them. His cock sprang free to slap his belly, and his own musk filled the air. Jolene forgot about her own weeping pussy as Sulie’s cockhead dripped for her. She sat up and reached out. He obligingly shifted forward to allow her to take him in both hands. He groaned at her touch, and his pre-cum oiled her palms.
“I want to taste you, Sulie.”
“I fear that I will not last if you do. We have time for all of this at some point, but it is my hope to give you pleasure now.”
; Jolene gave him one last stroke, drawing the edge of a fingernail over the vein on the underside of his cock, and he narrowed his eyes in warning. Jolene released him, and his hand pressed on her belly to urge her to lie flat on the bed. She felt him settle at the juncture of her thighs and gave over to him. The sound of her panties shredding as he ripped them from her body made her shake with anticipation.
The flicker and slide of his long, hot tongue had her senses reeling, and she whimpered louder as he teased open her folds and found her opening. He lanced inside, and she felt her juices flow ever faster, hearing the sounds of him drinking her, sucking and nuzzling. When he lashed her clit and pushed his fingers deep inside, Jolene rose up from the bed as if electrified, and it was only the press of his other hand on her abdomen that kept her in place for his pleasuring. She could feel her moisture literally run down her cleft, and she marveled at her decadent response. She, who rarely had sexual encounters because most men left her cold, her relationships usually morphing into friendships, was responding like a sex goddess to not one, but two men in as many nights. Jolene would worry about the implications of that at another time because Sulieman was bringing her to orgasm with the clever use of his tongue. Another digit slipped through her cream and down to lubricate her anus. Jolene opened her mouth to automatically protest when her climax overtook her and a scream of pleasure emerged instead, the insistent press on her bottom hole taking her higher. Her vision narrowed and spun, and she shuddered against the sensuous assault.
Sulieman lunged up over her body and fit his cock to her, pressing in against the incessant clenching of her channel, shoving high and hard her to stretch her impossibly wide and push her right up and over again. His thrusts held her in the throes of her second orgasm until he groaned his own release. She was transported, just as she had been with Xander, her magyk flexing and preening like a live thing. She came back to herself and opened her eyes, and met Xander’s. He sat in her little brocade chair, the one she found at an antique store for such a reasonable price. He looked totally out of place in it, leaning back, fully dressed but with his cock uncovered, held in his hand. He leisurely stroked himself, and pearls of cum beaded on the wide, reddened head. Jolene knew she should be horrified at his intrusion, horrified that she had just fucked his brother and confirmed her fall into whoredom, but she felt no such thing. She felt replete and satisfied and very much in love, so she smiled at him instead, a perfect replica of the smile she imagined Eve gave Adam, and Sulieman was her apple. If Xander thought he could use her and then discard her because she was human, deny what had transpired between them, then he could think again. And if he had just shared in their pleasure, as her magyk inferred, then it could serve as a memory. At least Sulieman was honest in his intent, just as she now was in hers. She wasn’t going to let Xander take that from them. She wasn’t prepared for the response.
Xander came up off the chair in a gravity-defying leap, his abandoned cock swelling before her fascinated eyes. Sulieman rolled to the side, slipping out of her, their combined juices flowing with him, compounding the loss. He handed her off with effortless ease to Xander, who drew her sweaty, sticky body to him as he swiveled to sit on the edge of the bed. He plopped her across his knees on her belly like a loose-limbed doll, trapping her legs between his own. Jolene was too surprised to react initially, but the crack of Xander’s hand on her ass had her senses focusing in a rapid hurry. She hissed at the second blow and raised her head to struggle. Sulieman crouched to push his fingers through her hair and hold her steady. He stared into her eyes. She locked her gaze with his and opened her mouth to tell Xander to cease and desist or pay a price. Sulie forestalled her.
“You will accept this, my witch. No matter you can best us both. If you look within your heart, you know you must accept this correction.”
Xander snorted above her and muttered something about the correction being long overdue, but he didn’t distract her from Sulieman’s assertion. She dropped her eyes in shame and supplication. She’d done a very bad thing, even if it had felt righteous in the moment. She had no right to come between these brothers, these twins, no matter the provocation. She resigned herself to endure, although a stern talking to might have also served the purpose. The significance of their unequivocal response, as well as their wordless, choreographed actions was also not lost on her.
Xander’s big hand applied itself to her backside without mercy. Her bottom heated and stung and burned, and she felt the tears drip down her cheeks and off her chin. She cried out her shame, her confusion, and her longing while Sulieman stroked her hair. Jolene felt herself begin to slip away, go somewhere else, and the first spanking of her life created a whole different battery of feelings within her, but the sadness and resignation of what she learned ultimately ruled. Xander gently rubbed her buttocks, spreading the heat, then slipped his hand between her legs to sweetly pinch and roll her clit. Jolene climaxed on a gasp, and Sulieman caught it with his kiss. He lifted her from Xander’s lap to snug her up against his chest and carried her down the hall to the bathroom.
She lay back in the tub while Sulieman bathed her, much as his brother had done not so long ago. Jolene tried not to think, tried hard not to process what just happened. Her poor brain was like a big, old bath sponge, much like the pink one Sulie was using, full to capacity, leaking thoughts and knowledge and feelings at the edges. She had discovered there was a realm unlike her world, found out she was actually a witch, and had sex with not one, but two brothers who were from that other realm and had her ass paddled for the cause. She loved them both, and only one acknowledged his love for her.
She needed another nap, no, a whole night’s sleep, because she had to resolve this. She cast about for an idea to manage it with the least amount of distress, and something niggled on the edge of her consciousness. Jolene sat upright in the water, sloshing bubbles and lather every which way. Sulie was deluged. Xander sat on the closed toilet, again watching, but this time he deprived her of the sight of his cock, tucked back in his pants where it belonged.
“Becky!” She’d forgotten about her friend in her mindless need to have Sulieman inside her. And now her friend would unknowingly rescue her. Becky was her out.
“It is all right, Jolene,” Sulieman soothed. “The team reported she was awake and willing when she arrived at the ranch. There is a party to end all parties going on there right now, and I assure you our team members will watch to ensure none of the women come to harm.”
Jolene bent a dark stare on him and was gratified to see him look a little wary. She spoke to him for Xander’s benefit. “I know what no harm means in your realm now, buddy. It’s a little different with me. Make that a lot different. Your kind think only in terms of pleasure, and you don’t give a care if somebody feels more than that.”
“Our kind?”
She winced at Sulieman’s pained response but ignored him, standing up in the tub and gesturing for a towel as the water ran down her body. Xander wordlessly handed her one, but didn’t take his eyes from her, and she flinched before the need reflected in his eyes. Well, he might have done the nasty with her three times, but that was three times too many, because he was withholding from her, and worse, from himself. There wouldn’t be a fourth time, because the twins’ recent tag team was the true indication of where things really were going. This had to be over, now. They were a matched set, and she couldn’t have one without the other. And she would never come between them. She’d made a mistake, and while she couldn’t regret the sex, the magyk, with Sulie, even as it spilled over onto Xander, she did regret how much harder it had made it for her to move on. She committed her soul and now would have to leave it behind. Well, it would have a piece, a big piece, of her heart for company.
But she had a plan just come to her. She would go and stay with Uncle Marshall and learn her craft and hone it if it wouldn’t go away, although she was certainly going to try and lock it up. If not, surely there was something she could do with it to
bring her satisfaction and happiness, and if that meant she’d be without a man forever, she would just have to manage. It couldn’t be worse than the way she was feeling right now.
She toweled off and wrapped the fabric around her, ignoring Sulie’s attempts to help as well as Xander’s heated gaze. She walked out of the bathroom and called her good-byes to Arion who was probably thinking sage and wise thoughts right at her kitchen table. When he wasn’t hearing her orgasmic screams. She would go to bed and sleep herself sane and try and figure out what to do about Becky in the morning. Maybe her friend deserved some incredible sex before her world crashed around her, too. Arion would help her if she needed it, and Jolene knew he was already sussing out the issue with the Caprines. There was no need to prolong this bizarre dual sex thing. That sounded better than saying she just had her soul taken and her heart broken and that she wanted to lie down and die. If she could just think about it as being an unfortunate sexual encounter, a two-night stand, then she could survive it. She had to.
She shut her bedroom door in Sulieman and Xander’s surprised faces and cast a locking spell. Listen to her! Witchy talk. It was nothing fancy. She simply wished for the door to stay closed against them and everyone else until she chose to open it, and there was no question that it wouldn’t. Even against Arion. She cast one at the window opening onto the fire escape as well, as an afterthought. She pulled the linens from the bed and wadded them into a bundle before tossing them at the trash can where they unfurled to mock her. So she turned her back and floated a spare soft duvet onto the mattress. She climbed into bed, shedding the towel as she did so, flipping up one corner of the coverlet to swathe her in a parody of comfort, and for the second time in her memory, fell asleep quite naked.
Chapter Thirteen
Riding Magyk Page 9
