by Ts McKinney
“Stop wasting my time,” Morgan hissed and raised both her hands to send fire flying in mine and Corbin’s directions.
I never winced…never felt fear. I wanted to look at Corbin, but my eyes were locked with Alastair. I saw his fear and his doubts, and then I saw his conviction. With a graceful movement that could only be described as sexier than shit, he waved his beautiful arm into the air…and the world froze.
One Second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Four seconds. More time than I needed. The clock ticked past the second of my birth, and I was free.
The second Alastair’s magic released us, I blasted Morgan with a wave of fire. It was a concoction of Banks’ magic and the interesting Corbin mixture that my lover had been dosing me with on a regular basis…and it was strong—strong enough to fling her across the clearing and slam her against a tree, emptying the contents of the gasoline container she was still clutching, onto her gown. My fire licked at it. Her shrieks of pain and horror echoed in the forest, but no one dared move. No one wanted to help her. Within a few moments of bursting into flame, black greasy smoke spiraling off her body, she exploded into black particles of dust and was carried away by the wind.
I turned immediately to Corbin and was shocked to see his magic begin to shimmer all around him. He should have been powerless in Salem, but I quickly guessed that with Morgan’s death, all of her magic—the magic that should have been his by right anyway, reverted to him. Riker’s magic sizzled, as well. I watched in amusement as he used his magic to release the ropes and then the next thing I knew, a limb was in his hand, and he was flying toward Alastair and his twin.
I watched long enough to see Riker shoot flames from his fingers at his twin and Roman disappear into a cloud of black smoke. Riker enveloped Alastair into his arms. After that, I only had eyes for Corbin. As I walked past them, Morgan’s witches knelt down and pledged their allegiance to me and to Corbin. I didn’t care. I didn’t need their allegiance. I only needed Corbin. The responsibility of hashing through the coven mess would fall to him, and I’d gladly let it fall at his feet. My only thought was that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.
When I was close enough that our chests were touching, he whispered, “Happy Birthday, Nico.”
“You aren’t mad at me for escaping your magical entrapment?” I asked. I knew there was a silly smile on my face, but I didn’t really care. I’d earned it. Hell, we’d all earned the rights to be giddy with happiness.
“Of course I’m mad at you for disobeying me,” he countered. “I’ll include your punishment with your birthday spanking,” he teased.
The ropes fell away from his wrists, and I immediately stepped into his embrace. “I had to try, Corbin. My mother visited me through the mirror—she told me I was the one who was supposed to break the curse. It had to be me. Don’t be mad, babe. I didn’t really have a choice.”
His hand was stroking my back, and I half expected him to land a hard swat to my ass, but he kept stroking me like a cat. It felt so damned good that I wanted to purr my delight.
“I saw your destiny, as well, Nico. I can’t say that I was happy with what the goddess planned. I even tried to stop her because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you again. But there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. Yesterday when you found me in the yard with fire shooting from my fingertips—that was me having a temper tantrum and showing my disapproval over the fact that you had to be the one to confront Morganna. She was my sister—I suppose you heard that. Even though she’d hated me and the rest of her siblings her whole life. She seduced a warlock twice her age—old Nathaniel Banks, one of your ancestors—and stole some of his power. He left Salem then, in fear of his life and she killed our mother and made a bid to take over. I was still too strong and I defeated her, but she didn’t give up easily. She engineered this terrible spell to torment me and wrest power away for herself. She came close to succeeding.”
“But she didn’t. I stopped her.”
“Yes, you did.” He smiled at me. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
I frowned. “No wonder you looked so calm. You knew ahead of time that I would find the magic to defeat your sister.” For some reason, it burst my bubble to know that Corbin had been given a vision of the future. I would have preferred to keep believing that he’d been willing to risk everything just to be with me, whether it be in death or life. But his next words took away any doubt from my mind.
“I looked calm because I had faith in you, Nico. The only future that had been revealed to me was that you were going to be the one to confront Morganna. I wasn’t aware of the outcome.” He squeezed me tighter. “I was terrified that I might lose you again, but when I got here and saw your face, I knew this was the end of the curse.” He nibbled on my earlobe. “Your confidence was rather…arousing.”
My hands reached down and cupped the globes of his perfect ass. “Really? How do witches feel about public displays of affection?”
He chuckled and kept nibbling. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I feel pretty damned good about it. Did you have something in mind?”
“Thinking about it,” I answered with a laugh. I pulled away and looked into his eyes. “There’s nothing sexier to me than a man in love and not afraid to show it.”
As always, love danced within those beautiful orbs of his. “Then you’d better get ready,” he said, as he took me in his arms and proceeded to show me just how unafraid he was.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
T.S. McKinney lives in East Tennessee with her high school sweetheart/husband and all the countless dogs she picks up from deserted country roads. Her professional career has been in business but her heart has always belonged to the fantasy world found in books.
Creating wicked worlds where one can meet the perfect hero – and then do anything to him that you want – has been a hobby that has brought her plenty of hours of fun and naughty entertainment. When not working, reading, or writing, she loves to spend time with her family and forcing them (because they don’t really have another choice) to allow her to redecorate their houses…and listen to her naughty…sometimes sadistic stories.
PAINTED HEARTS PUBLISHING
Painted Hearts Publishing has an exclusive group of talented writers. We publish stories that range from historical to fantasy, sci-fi to contemporary, erotic to sweet. Our authors present high quality stories full of romance, desire, and sometimes graphic moments that are both entertaining and sensual. At the heart of all our stories is romance, and we’re firm believers in a world where happily ever afters do exist.
We invite you to visit us at www.paintedheartspublishing.com.
