Spellbound

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “Is this a warlock booty call?” Jane’s voice brought him back to the conversation. “Did you come over here looking for a little magick surge?”

  “What? No.” He cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably to hide his rampantly growing attraction. “I came here to tell ya I trust ya. I’m being very gallant. You’re a lady, and I would never presume to—”

  “I didn’t know my trust was in question.”

  “I’m not explaining this right.” Iain wanted to hold her. With each passing second, the bottle in his pocket became hotter, fueling his guilt over what he was expected to do. “Everything about ya is nature. That’s why Niall called ya a green witch.”

  “Do you think I’m a witch?”

  “No, not necessarily a real witch with magick but a woman of nature talented with plants.”

  “Okay, because I don’t have any magickal powers. I just grow things.”

  He studied her hand. “I think there is more to ya than just growing things.”

  She gave him a small smile. “I see things.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “I see a potato. Here. Standing before me. Able to light up like a Christmas tree.” Jane laughed softly. “What about you? Any special powers?”

  “My gift, my power, is to help nature recover after it fuels us. When I’m near ya, I feel more powerful like my own energy is bouncing back at me through ya.” He breathed harder, feeling that energy grow between them. “Ya smell like honey.” He closed his eyes. “Your skin feels like flower petals.” He reached his hands toward her.

  “Iain, what is this all about?” Her voice was soft, gentle. Fingers glided over the backs of his hand, and he trembled at her touch. “If you’re worried about what your mother did, don’t. I’m relieved that it wasn’t a hallucination. I can’t always tell if something is real, a hallucination or a ghost trying to play games. Life is too short to live in fear. Well, my life anyway. I don’t startle easily, and the idea of warlocks doesn’t scare me. You don’t scare me, Iain.”

  He opened his eyes and found her standing close.

  “But I think I understand what you’re trying to tell me. Your family doesn’t trust me. That’s why you’re here.” She nodded sadly. “If I affect you, they must sense it and they naturally become protective of you because they don’t know my intentions.”

  Unable to help himself, he gave a small smile. “Ya have intentions?”

  Her eyes dipped, and she released his hands. His skin tingled in protest. She shook her head. “No.”

  He waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t.

  “I wasn’t kidding when I said it is too early to be awake. Are you going to stay?” she asked after a long silence.

  “Are ya asking me to stay?”

  Jane laughed. “I didn’t think coyness was in the MacGregor DNA.” She tilted her head, indicating that he should follow. “Come on, Potato.”

  Iain chuckled at the use of the nickname. “Now, lassie, don’t ya be callin’ me that in front of anyone.”

  “What? You don’t want your brothers hearing me call you my little sweet potato?” She turned to wink at him.

  How could Iain resist following? Wood planks creaked with each step. Her apartment looked nothing like the elegance of the mansion, yet there was a bohemian charm to the faded wallpaper and big square art canvases. Worn paperbacks were piled on side tables. He noticed herbs growing in small pots on the windowsills. With a couple of spells, he could transform her room into a palace, but he didn’t want to change a thing. Why change perfection?

  Her metal bed frame creaked with age when she climbed onto it. The disheveled bedding blended with her clothing in the dark. The room smelled of honey, luring him to her. Unbidden by his conscious mind, tiny lights danced along his fingers, swirling from the tips into the air like tiny stars to cast a soft light over her features. She looked at him with complete trust, no fear or hesitance in her gaze. The lights moved, surrounding her. She lifted her hand, letting her fingers collide into the starry heaven he’d created for her.

  “They tickle,” she whispered, giving a small laugh.

  If his family could only see what he saw in her, they wouldn’t ask him to test her. Iain let his clothes slither from his body, magickally melting into a pile on the floor. Her eyes instantly turned from the dancing lights to him.

  “Come here.” She reached for him, her smile open and welcoming. “I promise no one is storming in here to interrupt us this time. It’s a perk of living alone.”

  Iain tried to think of something charming to say. After centuries, seduction should be second nature. It should be him seducing her, him coaxing her to his bed, and yet here he was, helpless as a virgin in front of the goddess of temptation.

  Iain crawled naked onto the bed, making it bounce in his excited haste. Jane laughed as she slipped and fell back onto the pillows. Her hair spread in loose, wild curls around her head. She lifted a finger to his forehead and brushed his hair aside only to have it fall forward once more.

  “Say something,” she whispered. It was then he realized he merely stared down at her. His body was tight with desire, that much evident by the straining arousal between his legs. Yet his heart hesitated as if this was a dream he could chase away.

  “Ya make me want to freeze time,” he answered.

  Iain lowered his mouth to hers. The suppleness of her lips again reminded him of the softest petals in nature. She was a flower, in some ways delicate and soft, yet hearty and bold like the heather of his homeland.

  Home.

  Iain’s breath caught, and he had to end the kiss. His magick danced along her cheek in tiny blue sparks. Jane reminded him of home. Not the mansion on the hill, not the endless cityscapes and towns before that, but of his real home—the Scotland of his youth, of the feeling he had standing on the moors, land uncluttered, the air stirring, the people unrushed and unafraid of hard work. It was something from so long ago, sometimes an unclear notion, but still so much a part of him. He’d never thought to find the feeling of home again.

  * * *

  “Iain?” Jane whispered when he didn’t move.

  His naked body molded against hers, kept away only by the thin layer of clothing. The material did nothing to protect her from the hard shape of his lines. Where his magick touched, she tingled, sparks lighting her nerve endings like fire lit a slow-burning dynamite fuse.

  Relief had filled her when she learned that the power she’d seen shoot out of Margareta’s hand was real. She hadn’t hallucinated it. She wasn’t getting worse. The knowledge gave her hope.

  “I want time to stand still,” he whispered. “I don’t want to lose this moment.”

  “It is a good moment,” she agreed, keeping her words as soft as his. The tiny specks of magick he’d created drifted around them as if to cocoon them from the outside world. She felt safe as if nothing beyond the bedroom could touch her.

  “I have to tell ya something.”

  Jane smiled. She saw the hesitance in him and wondered what had caused the sudden insecurity. “I know. You trust me.”

  She lifted her head to close the distance between their lips. Iain didn’t resist as she kissed him. He instantly deepened the contact. The tingling sensation of his magick infused her lips. Iain’s hand traveled between them, down her chest. At first, his fingers moved over material, but suddenly he touched skin. Jane gasped, breaking the kiss to glance down. Her clothes had disappeared.

  Iain merely smiled and resumed kissing her. Magick trailed his fingers, heightening her desires. Her legs intertwined his. She explored his body, running her hands over his smooth flesh. His ass flexed, and his hips pushed forward.

  The pleasure of his touch caused a euphoric rush through her veins. She felt him pulling emotion from her, a physical tug that left her both weak and helpless. Her hands began to fall from his chest. Iain thrust her energy back, filling her with his very essence. The sudden rush of feeling invigorated her. It was more intimate
than a thrust of the body.

  “I told ya that ya replenish me,” he whispered.

  She felt him inside her, connected to her emotions. No words were needed as he instinctively knew how she liked to be touched, kissed, loved. It was an intimacy she had never known before. She felt him more than she felt herself. His magick joined his flesh to hers, tiny blue threads that strung between them. The glow illuminated his handsome face in the dark room.

  “Iain,” she said, the word shaky. “I-I feel…”

  His hips came between her thighs. “Aye, I feel too.”

  Iain rocked his body against hers. The length of his arousal tingled her sex, rubbing her clit. Jane tensed and jerked as an orgasm racked over her at the stimulation. She gasped noisily for breath.

  “Not bad for a Christmas light, huh, lassie?” Iain grinned.

  Her heart pounded. All she could manage as an answer was a panting laugh.

  Before she’d recovered, he angled his cock to enter her. She moaned. The connection between them grew, this time without magick. He gazed into her eyes, keeping his face close to hers. Nothing existed beyond this moment.

  Iain made love to her slowly. The residual magick clung to their skin, shimmering like glitter. He cupped a breast before sliding his hand along her hip and down her leg to hold on to the back of her thigh. Pleasure built naturally between them until she couldn’t hold back any longer. She came, her body clutching his. Iain stiffened, and his eyes changed. The pupils become wide as he climaxed and then returned to their normal size.

  He dropped his head forward, and the magickal stars dancing around them rained over them. They crashed onto their skin and then faded. The aftermath left her relaxed, and she turned with Iain as he lay down next to her on the bed. Snuggling into his arms, she suppressed a yawn.

  “Not bad for a potato,” she said, chuckling as she closed her eyes. No part of her wanted to move.

  “For ya, love, I will be anything ya want…even a potato.”

  Chapter 14

  Jane’s mind awoke, but her eyes remained closed. Iain’s naked body curved along her back. Blankets cocooned them. For the first time since she could remember, she didn’t care what time it was. She didn’t have the need to crawl out of bed to work one of her many jobs. She was in a moment.

  One perfect moment.

  Sex had been…well, mind-blowing, magick-blasting, toe-curling awesome. But this moment was perfection. Her skin made contact with his skin. His steady breathing stirred her hair. It was a feeling she’d always longed for but until now had never felt. It was exhilarating. It was frightening. It was indefinable.

  It was perfect.

  “Mm,” Iain moaned sleepily. “What are ya thinking about, love? I feel ya radiating onto me.”

  They lay in silence for a long moment, but the sound of his voice had stimulated her conscious mind.

  “I don’t want to move,” she whispered.

  “Then don’t move,” he answered just as quietly. “Green Vallis is a great town…now that the MacGregors are here.”

  She gave a small laugh. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t want to move out of bed.”

  “I don’t want to move out of bed either. Let’s live here.” His body made small movements as if he snuggled deeper into the mattress.

  “Don’t you think your family will notice and come looking for you?”

  “My brother and cousin will probably come looking for ya.”

  She stiffened against him. “They don’t think highly of me, do they?”

  Iain brushed the hair from the back of her neck and kissed her nape. “Just the opposite. If they think I’ve gone missing, they might get ideas and start to think they have a chance with ya.”

  Jane smiled at the compliment. “It must be nice having so many people around all the time. You said you move quite a bit? Do you always move together?”

  “We’re a giant clan of Scots. It’s easier to control our magick if we’re together. Plus, we’re family. Ya don’t leave family.”

  “I don’t have a family. Not since my father died.” Jane turned in his arms to study his face. She lay next to him, their heads facing each other on the same pillow. “Well, there’s Sean, my stepbrother, but he’s not really my family. I don’t even know what he’s doing in town. He keeps trying to have dinner with me, and I keep avoiding him. Not really the best way to handle the situation, but he doesn’t take no for an answer. I should just go and get it over with. I’m sure he’s just here to finalize his mother’s affairs. I’m told my stepmother passed away.”

  “I’m sorry. Were ya close to her?”

  “No. I know that makes me sound like a horrible person, especially to someone like you who has such a close connection to your family, but she was an unhappy woman.”

  “Over the centuries, we have had our moments, but I know I am lucky to have them.”

  Centuries. The word struck her, and she found herself staring at his chin. He had centuries. She had limited moments. There was no use crying about how unfair life was, but she also didn’t have to dwell on the fact.

  “What about your mother?” he asked.

  “My birth mother left us when I was a baby. I guess she couldn’t handle family life. I don’t remember her so I can’t really miss her. But enough of my poor-me family talk,” Jane dismissed, only to add before he could protest the change in conversation, “Since you move around so much, where was your favorite place to live?”

  “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on the island of Anglesey in Wales,” he said, without stopping to consider the answer.

  “Did you just have a seizure?”

  “No, it’s a real place.”

  “Lan. Vire…” Jane gave an unladylike laugh, cutting off her own attempt at repeating what he’d said.

  “Would ya prefer the shorter version? Llanfairpwllgwyngyll?”

  “You are just making things up. That can’t be a real place.”

  “Technically, I haven’t lived there, but it is fun to say.” Iain chuckled and drew his finger down the slope of her nose to press it against her lips. “But maybe don’t try to speak Welsh. Ya butcher the language.”

  Jane pretended to pout. “The romantic answer would have been to say Green Vallis is your favorite place.”

  “Mm, this apartment is my favorite place. Let’s never leave it. We’ll stay cocooned here in blankets.”

  “And starve?”

  “I can materialize tomatoes out of the garden if ya want, love. All ya have to do is ask…and refuel my magick.” He winked and tried to nuzzle her neck.

  “Lan. Vire. Pool…” she tried to sound out.

  “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch,” he said against her skin.

  “Show off!” She playfully hit his arm.

  Iain drew a fingertip from the tip of her ear down the slope of her neck. It tingled where he touched, and she knew he was stirring her nerve endings with magick. It wasn’t necessary. He didn’t need magick to stir her to him.

  “Are you hungry?” She closed her eyes and gave a small moan of pleasure. “I can materialize you something un-magickal in the kitchen if you like.

  “Only for ya.” He brushed his lips over hers.

  Jane melted against him. Her heart pounded so hard she heard it knocking in her ears. Wait, no, that wasn’t her heart. Was it Iain’s?

  Iain pulled back. “Are ya expecting company?”

  “What?” She tried to lean back into the kiss.

  “Someone is at the door.” He rolled up from the bed and reached for his jeans. “Would ya like me to get it?”

  “And shock my customers?” Jane asked, slower to get out of bed.

  “Either someone is having a tree emergency or…” Iain frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that knock. Ya wait here, love. I will handle this.”

  “Iain, wait—”

  He strode from the room naked only to have his clothing materialize on his body as he m
oved through the doorway. At his use of magick, she felt a tiny pull at her skin as if he’d taken part of her to make it happen. The sensation was weird, but she shook it off as she hurriedly tugged on clean clothes.

  “Who are you?” Sean’s voice demanded as she rushed down the stairs. “Where’s Jane?”

  “I think it’s time ya took a hint and turned yourself around, laddie,” Iain answered, the condescension clear in his tone.

  “What? You have no right to speak to me like that,” Sean yelled. “Get out of my way.”

  “She doesn’t want to see ya,” Iain said. “If she did, she’d have shown up to dinner.”

  Jane cringed at the blunt statement. Though it was true, she normally tried handling things a little more delicately. She passed through the aisles of her store. The shelves were filled with supplies, but she didn’t keep regular shop hours for the public. She grabbed Iain’s arm and put herself forcibly in front of him. “Hey, Sean, what’s going on?”

  Sean’s angry eyes stayed focused on Iain for a few seconds before he turned his attention to her. “You did not make it to dinner yesterday. We had plans.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.” She lifted her arms to gesture that he should go outside, away from Iain. He didn’t move. Making a weak noise, she glanced over her shoulder. Iain’s narrowed eyes focused on Sean in an expression of what could have easily been perceived as a threat.

  “Iain, would you mind giving me a second?”

  “I’m fine where I’m at,” he said, refusing to give them privacy. “Take as many seconds as ya need.”

  Jane frowned. “Sean, why don’t we go outside?”

  “Fine,” Sean grumbled. He held the door for her as if to make sure she would go outside with him.