Surrender Dorothy

by R. G. Alexander

  The door opened and shock held Dorothy frozen behind her manipulative stepsister. She should have known. With his sexual appetite and Emily’s ego, it was only a matter of time before her sibling made sure their paths crossed. If it didn’t feel like a knife stabbing her straight in the heart she may have even laughed. She’d swallowed her pride to escape the temptation the mere sight of him presented, only to find him here, with no walls or windows separating them.

  And no shield to protect her.

  “Z, I’m so glad I finally got you to come. I can’t wait until you return the favor for me.” Emily giggled as if she’d just said something incredibly clever, gripping Z’s thick wrist to tug him inside.

  He quirked his lips, but his gaze immediately gravitated toward Dorothy. “I didn’t realize your sister would be joining us.”

  Liar. Dorothy wasn’t sure how she knew, but Z was not surprised to find her here. Somehow he’d known. He licked his lips, and she glared at him. She knew how he operated. The slimy sorcerer. If he thought he could get two sisters for the price of one, he was sorely mistaken. Thinking of Emily put an immediate damper on the sexual awareness that had been shimmering up her spine since he walked through the door.

  “We’re having a little family sleepover. Although why she’d want to leave her house when she has such an amazing view, I’ll never know.” Emily chuckled, shrugging. “But a sister’s job isn’t to question. Is it, Dorothy?”

  “No.” According to Emily’s definition, a sister’s job was to betray all your embarrassing secrets and humiliate you in front of handsome men. Gotta love family.

  Z’s grin widened as though he’d heard her thoughts. “Well, I for one couldn’t be happier. I was beginning to think my neighbor was merely a figment of my imagination.” He stepped in close, towering over her. Did all wizards smell this good?

  “Hello, Dorothy.”

  Finally. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, the triumph difficult to contain as he realized she was here, really here. Close enough to touch. And he wanted to touch. In fact, in his long life he could never recall feeling the kind of frustration and need that had consumed him the moment he saw her on her balcony that first night.

  He doubted Kansas had known that he lived next door to such a powerful witch. Although if Z wasn’t mistaken, the magical barrier he could sense along their shared fence line was not Dorothy’s. It had kept him away, pushed against his every attempt to remove it, thwarting him at every turn. Just as she had. She went to great lengths to keep her distance.

  Except in her dreams. The one doorway open to him, other than the nightly displays to tempt her, and he’d taken advantage at every opportunity. Yet even then, even when all her defenses were down, she still tried to resist him, resist her own desires. And Z had had enough.

  There was no force on Earth or in Oz that could get between a wizard and his heart’s desire. And Dorothy was his mate, his match in every way. Even in her ability to call the wind.

  No one was more surprised than he that he’d found her in this dimension, but he wasn’t one to question the will of the Makers. And he wouldn’t acknowledge the twinge of guilt he felt at manipulating her the way he had. She belonged to him, and she would give in.

  She was beautiful. Hair like a sunrise and a body made to caress. To wallow in. To feast on. He found it hard to believe that she could be insecure about it, or find it lacking when compared to her rail-thin sister. The blonde was pretty enough, but she faded into the background next to Dorothy. She knew it too.

  It was Emily who had given him the perfect opening. Her jealousy and ego were plainly evident, and easy to manipulate. Dorothy no doubt believed he wanted her sister, but Z hadn’t truly wanted anyone except her since he’d arrived.

  The humans had often called him dirty and insatiable. If they only knew. He was not the same randy wizard he’d been before the storm brought him to California. Now the only haven he craved could be found between Dorothy’s thighs. The only home in her arms.

  Z rolled his eyes. He was getting ahead of himself. First he had to win her trust, discover why she’d been resisting him. Then he could work on winning her heart.

  His “date” snapped her fingers beside his temple, drawing his attention away from Dorothy. The cool blonde looked a bit miffed, so Z smiled soothingly, sending her a blast of heat to distract her ire. “Emily, dinner smells marvelous, shall we?”

  “Shall…we?” Emily’s eyes glazed over, gaze fixed on his lips. That happened a lot on this planet. If he hadn’t realized that his natural elemental energy was what made them react this way, he’d believe the population of Earth a little tetched in the head.

  Dorothy narrowed her eyes, and Z winced. Obviously she was immune to his usual arsenal. He shouldn’t be surprised. She wasn’t the usual human.

  He guided the dazed Emily to the table, all his attention focused on the voluptuous redhead lagging slowly behind, undecided. He squeezed Emily’s hand, winking at her to get her attention. “I think your sister is a little wary of me. She looks like she’s trying to decide whether she wants to throw this luscious looking lasagna at my head or run home before I eat her instead.”

  Emily snorted, turning toward Dorothy with one eyebrow raised. “Don’t be ridiculous, Dorothy. You aren’t in any danger of becoming the main course.” She rubbed her body against Z’s suggestively. “That’s my job.”

  Dorothy could not believe this was happening. Her own private high school reenactment. No matter how careful she was as an adolescent, Emily had always managed to discover her secret crushes. If she liked them, you could bet they would end up following Emily around like a puppy by the end of the week. Only this one felt worse, which didn’t make any sense. After the nightly orgies she’d personally witnessed, what difference did it make if he added Emily to the list? But it did. Bastard.

  She began to turn on her heel, determined to get as far away from this nightmare dinner party as she could, when Suki streaked past her legs. A joyful meow and one joyful leap later, and she knew she wasn’t going anywhere. Not with her cat steadily purring in Z’s arms.

  “Fine.” She knew Emily was looking at her oddly. She was used to Dorothy being the gracious one, putting on a polite face for company no matter how torn up she was on the inside. But she didn’t feel like being gracious. Not today. Not for this wizard.

  Emily giggled a little awkwardly, starting that constant stream of chatter required for her circle of friends. She covered shoes, world affairs and the California fire season in the first five minutes, with no pause for breath in sight.

  Dorothy dug into her lasagna, eating with gusto, none of her usual fear at the inevitable comparisons between her and her step-sibling. What was the point? There was no way she would ever be able to compete. She’d long ago stopped trying.

  It was the sudden silence that had her looking up from her plate. Her fork clattered to the table when she saw Emily, frozen in mid-sentence, her arms poised mannequin-like in the air. Those perfectly glossed lips began to turn blue from the icy wind that had put her in her unnatural stasis.

  “What the hell did you do to her?”

  “She’s not hurt. She’s just…on pause.”

  She knew it. Aunt Glen had tried to teach her how to do it, but she never felt comfortable taking another’s will away. “I don’t care. Reverse it. Now.”

  “I was just watching you eat. The way you licked that fork clean has me harder than I’ve been in years. Do you make love just as greedily?”

  Oh God. She swallowed over the sudden lump in her throat. “Unfreeze her.”

  “I thought I was hungry, Dorothy. But being this close to you, I realize hunger is not a strong enough word. I’m ravenous. I’m not sure I can wait.”

  Dorothy whimpered, throwing out her hand toward Emily, sending a wave of warmth to break the spell. Emily shivered. “Ooh. I just got a chill. Weird. Where was I?”

  Z’s gaze never wavered, his facial expression never changed, as Emily dove
back into her irritating prattle. Dorothy made it through the meal and served the cake without making a fool of herself. But all she could think about was diving across the table and inviting Z to dig in to her instead.

  “Oh, Dorothy. I know you wanted this cake, but I am so full. But then, you’ve always had a bigger appetite than I did. I’m just not sure I can eat another bite.”

  Zap.

  “You jackass!” He’d frozen Emily again. What really ticked her off was how happy she was that he had. What kind of person did that make her?

  “Does she always talk that much?” He grimaced. “She was lying. I can tell. She really wishes we were both gone so she could eat the entire cake herself. Besides, she was trying to hurt your feelings.”

  “I’m used to it. You shouldn’t use the power just because you can. There’s something called responsibility.”

  “As Kansas would say, ‘bullshit’. The worst misuse of power is to hide it, to repress it or pretend it doesn’t exist. Why do you hide from your magic, Dorothy? And why do you hide from me?”

  He was driving her crazy. Before she could stop herself, a hunk of chocolate rum cake flung itself across the room, directly onto that gorgeous square jaw. Dorothy covered her mouth, a shocked laugh escaping through her fingers. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to but, you, well, you—”

  “Lesson one. Never start a food fight with a wizard.”

  That was the only warning she got. Seconds later Suki ran screeching from the room and cake was decorating Emily’s beautiful cream-colored condo walls.

  Dorothy couldn’t breathe she was laughing so hard, running around the table as the mad fool pretended to chase her. After all the intensity and tension of the last few weeks, getting hit by globs of chocolate was just the release she needed. Okay, it was the next best thing.

  She grabbed one particularly gooey blob as it slid down the wall and turned to fling it at him, only to find him directly in front of her. He took her hand, sliding his fingers through the sticky mess and entwining them with hers.

  Dorothy looked up at him, breathless. Even with cake in his long, dark braid, the man was still unreal in his beauty. A golden pirate god. A wizard. And he was touching her.

  A fine hum started beneath her skin at the feel of his body pressing hers against the wall. She could feel the power rising inside her, mingling with her desire to get closer, to feel more.

  “You feel it now, don’t you, Dorothy? Feel the way your magic calls to mine? The way your body cries for me?” Z bent his head, his tongue curling around her chin, licking the streak of chocolate icing he found there. “Mmmm. Delicious. I need more.”

  He released her hands and her arms rose up against the wall, held by some invisible force, her body pinned. Momentary panic filled her when he stepped away and began to unbutton her blouse.

  “Don’t fight it.” He forced her gaze to meet his. “I know you can. But don’t fight me. All I want to give you is pleasure. I need to touch you, taste you. Trust me.”

  “How can I trust a wizard at his word?”

  Z stilled at the last button, looking up at her from under his lowered eyebrows. “Ah. Known a lot of wizards, have you, witch?”

  Dorothy glanced over his shoulder, her body shifting guiltily against the wall. “I know of them.”

  He let her shirt hang closed, only a thin line of skin showing, and the white lace of her bra. He ran one blunt finger from her neck to her belly button, circling the soft skin until she shivered with hot longing. “The other witch, the one who shielded your home. She told you of these wizards?”

  Dorothy nodded, somehow completely unsurprised that he knew.

  “She told me wizards lie. Not some of the time, all the time. And when they aren’t lying they are manipulating the truth to suit them. She told me they are physically incapable of fidelity. Told me that for a witch to trust a wizard could mean the loss of her power forever. Or death.”

  Z reared back as if he’d been slapped. An expression of disbelief flashed across his face. Dorothy lifted her chin, unwilling to look away, though the longer she stared, the harder it was for her to believe he was like the wizards Aunt Glen had told her of. From the moment she’d seen him, regardless of his lascivious actions, something inside her had known he would never purposefully hurt anyone.

  His mouth took a grim turn, and he stepped closer. “Tell me if this is a lie.” He pressed his lower body against hers. She could feel his hard, thick erection pressing against her through his pants. She moaned and he gripped her face in his hands, covering her in chocolate and blazing heat.

  “Tell me if this is a lie.” He took her mouth, owning her with lips and teeth and tongue. Wind whipped around their bodies, lifting his braid and wrapping it around her waist as the kiss went on and on. She couldn’t get enough of his taste. She sucked his tongue inside her mouth, desperate for more of him, and he growled.

  His hips thrust against her, her arousal soaking her jeans at the delicious friction. She bit his lower lip, arching off the wall as she tried to get closer. He pulled her shirt apart, tugging down her bra to fill his hands with her breasts. He tore his mouth away from hers to trace kisses along her chin, her neck.

  “Makers, yes. These have tormented my dreams. So soft. So lovely. Do you want to know what I’ve fantasized, what I imagined last night as you touched yourself?” He pumped his arousal hard against her hips. “I want to suck them until they’re too sensitive to touch, cover them in oil and press them around my cock.”

  Dorothy groaned, and he smiled along the slope of her breast, massaging them in time to the movement of his hips. “You’d let me, wouldn’t you? You’d let me fuck you in any way I wanted, however long I wanted. Your breasts, your hot pussy, your ass. Wouldn’t you, Dorothy? You’d let me, and you’d love it.”

  “Yes! Yes, please.”

  He opened his mouth over one hard nipple, sucking it deep into his mouth. He slid his palm down her stomach and inside her jeans. Two fingers pressed deep inside her sex and she screamed at the sensation. She was going to come. Still dressed, standing here against the wall as Emily sat frozen at the dinner table.

  Z’s chest rumbled with pleasure as he suckled. His fingers slipped in her slick juices, and he added a third, curling it against a spot that had Dorothy keening with pleasure. “I knew you’d be like this. Knew you’d match me, need for need. That’s it, sweet Dorothy. That’s it. Surrender. Come!”

  Dorothy couldn’t resist. It rose up in her like a summer storm. All fire and fury and sweet release. As her climax shattered around her, she felt his energy join with hers. The living room window shattered. The porcelain Mardi Gras masks fell from the wall, crashing to the ground. Even the table lifted from the floor, bringing the serving plate still full of lasagna dangerously close to Emily’s lap. But Dorothy couldn’t care, could only feel. And when his cries joined hers, she knew he felt it too. Knew he’d come just from touching her. And pleasure rose inside her again.

  The wind died down, disappearing as quickly as it had come. Her body was released from its prison against the wall, and she wobbled when her heels touched the floor. She looked around at the mess and chuckled a little hysterically. “How am I going to explain this to Emily? Oh my God, Emily!”

  Emily’s eyes were open and unblinking, staring directly at her. She knew she couldn’t see, wouldn’t remember a moment since she’d been frozen, but still, it was weird to think she’d been so caught up in what Z was doing that she’d forgotten her stepsister’s plight.

  A bright light flashed in the room, and when Dorothy could see again the mess was gone. The walls, the windows, even her clothes—all spotless and unbroken, as if nothing had happened. “How did you…?”

  Her throat closed when she turned to find him pulling a necklace from underneath his shirt. It was a ruby inside a silver starburst. And the ruby was glowing bright and brilliant. He caught her gaze, the helpless anger in his whiskey orbs unmistakable.

  “You’re leaving.”
She’d given in to him, let him touch her, and he was leaving. She knew it to her bones. Her arms wrapped around her waist defensively. “So quickly then? You usually spend a few more hours with your conquests.”

  “Damn it, Dorothy!” He dropped his amulet, hands fisting as he stalked toward her. “I want…” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter what I want. I don’t have time to prove wizards aren’t all bad. Don’t have time to show you how I feel about you.” He grabbed her arms, pulling her close. “You spoke of responsibility. I have one that must supersede all others. My king needs me.”

  “Your king?” Dorothy pulled away, her face mocking. “How dumb do you think I am, Z?”

  “Dorothy, you belong to me. You know it. I know it. Think about what you felt here tonight. You know me. All that matters you know. When you decide to come to me, I’ll be waiting.”

  She watched him head to the balcony door, heard a thundering rumble growing louder outside. “What the hell are you talking about? Come where? Where are you going?”

  “When I leave, Emily will wake without remembering that I was here. But you’ll remember. Call my name, and the storm will come for you. Zenamulous. Call my name. Come to me, Dorothy. I’ll be waiting.”

  He stepped into the night, and the lightning lit around him, showing him encased in a funnel of dark clouds. With the next strike, he was gone. Dorothy ran to the balcony, the rain instantly soaking her as she searched for where he’d fallen, but there was no body below.

  The storm had taken him. But where? Why was she suddenly terrified she’d never see him again?

  “Dorothy? What the hell are you doing there? And close that balcony door. I’m freezing!”