Pretty Potions and Sexy Spells, Volume 1

by Juliet Cardin

  She was no maiden; she had experienced the love of a man before. Although it had been more lust than love. She had come upon a May Day festival in England, over three hundred years ago, where all were wearing masks. The wine had flowed freely that night, and when others were leading their mates off for lustful encounters in the woods, Glenna, so starved for love, had allowed a young man to take her hand. Off he’d led her behind a thatch of bushes near the fire and laid her down upon the soft grass. They’d kept their masks on the entire time, or surely she would have scared the man away. Passion had ruled them for hours that night, so gently he had taken her, over and over. Afterward, before the dawn, when he had tried to remove her mask, Glenna had fled like a coward deep into the forest. Never had she forgotten that encounter, or the gentleness of that young man.

  Richard reminded her of him. His tender voice and touch. Now he leaned toward her and claimed her lips once more. She felt his hand upon her leg as it eased up the hem of her dress. He shifted his body on the wide sofa so that he lay more beside than atop her. Using both hands, he peeled her tight dress up her body and over her head, then tossed it aside. Glenna held her breath as Richard took off her lacy bra and panties next and gazed at her body longingly. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to cover herself with her hands. She wanted to die of shame when he smiled, and she closed her eyes tight to prepare herself for the laughter she was sure to come.

  But I am beautiful! She opened her eyes and stared at Richard, defying him to mock her. What she saw on his face reassured her. He was not eyeing her with revulsion, he was feasting his eyes, it appeared—on her.

  “How lovely you are.” Richard got to his feet and began unbuttoning his shirt, his eyes on her all the while.

  Feeling bold, Glenna sat up and began tugging at his belt. After she slid it from around his waist, she began to remove his pants. He soon stood before her wearing only his briefs, and Glenna could see he was aroused. She placed her hands on his hips and maneuvered him directly before her. Then she slowly lowered his briefs until his enormous cock was right before her face. Gently she reached out and held him in her hand. She stroked him, marveling at his velvety softness.

  “You’re so soft, and yet, so hard,” she said. She bent forward and gently licked round the rim of his cock with her tongue. She marveled over her brazenness; never before had she done such a thing. Richard groaned softly, and Glenna smiled. She took him fully into her mouth and suckled deep for several minutes. When she felt Richard stiffen, she began to run her tongue up and down the length of his shaft while continuing to stroke him with her hand. She suddenly felt powerful and uninhibited. She rained kisses on his belly and massaged his buttocks, savoring this new role she played as seductress while Richard panted in frustration.

  “Please, Glenna!” It seemed he could take no more of her torment. Quickly he laid her back upon the sofa and moved his body atop of hers. His hot mouth latched onto her nipple, and his hand traveled down her hip and then beneath her to lift her bottom. She could feel him at her opening, and Glenna arched her body in invitation. Pausing, he looked into her eyes. When she gave a quick nod, he plunged forth, unable to deny himself a second longer.

  The size of him overwhelmed her. Holding him and tasting him, she had seen how large and powerful he was, but she’d never imagined he would fill her so completely. He paused for a moment, waiting for her to adjust to his size before he began to move within her. He withdrew almost completely before again pushing deep inside. He did this for several minutes, all the while Glenna’s head thrashed side to side against the softness of the sofa. “Yes, yes! Love me, Richard,” she moaned.

  “I do,” Richard said, caught in the throes of passion. “I do love you, Glenna.”

  His declaration made a tear slip down her cheek as her incredible climax claimed her. “I love you, Richard. I love you.” It was wonderful to be able to cry out her feelings this time. For the last time Glenna had felt this way, she’d had to remain silent. She felt Richard reach his peak, and she rocked with him while waves of pleasure crossed his face. When they finally broke apart and he moved his body off her, Glenna felt strangely bereft, as though she had lost something. Richard sat close by and pulled her up so that he could take her into his arms. Glenna peeked at his face and saw he was smiling.

  “I got a little carried away there. Sorry,” she said, feeling embarrassed about what she had said, now that the moment was over.

  Richard held her tighter. “I told you I loved you, and in that moment I believed it.”

  Glenna was moved by his admission. “I meant it in that moment too.” She rose and picked up her dress and undergarments but didn’t feel like putting them back on. “I’m going to throw on a robe,” she said. “I’ll just be a moment.”

  When she returned, she could see Richard had pulled on his pants. He was standing before the fire with his back toward her, a glass of wine in his hand. When he heard her approach, he turned. “I topped up your drink,” he said.

  “Thanks.” Glenna picked up her glass and went to join him by the fire. In the dim light she could see shadows of bright flames dance across his bare skin. He was at least a foot taller than her. His chest was massive and bare—muscular, as were his arms. His legs were long and powerful. Glenna felt in awe over the beauty of him. If it hadn’t been for the spell, she was certain he would never have given her the time of day. That thought should have made her angry and resentful toward him, but it didn’t. Despite his commanding presence, there was a vulnerability about him that she could relate to.

  Richard saw her staring at him, and he set his glass upon the mantle. He took Glenna’s glass from her and set it aside as well. Then he pulled her into his arms. It was exactly what Glenna was hoping he’d do. They only had this night together, and after midnight she would never see him again. She tried to console herself with the fact that the spell had worked, and in one hundred years she could use it again.

  One hundred years.

  As Richard turned his lips toward her neck and began pushing her robe off her shoulders, Glenna tried to drown out the chant in her mind.

  One hundred years.

  Her robe dropped to the floor, and she helped him pull his pants off. Soon they stood naked before each other, and blissfully, the chant faded, replaced by her lustful thoughts.

  “Love me, Richard. Love me like there’s no tomorrow,” Glenna begged.

  Richard lowered her to the thick carpet before the warm flames. His lips trailed kisses down to her belly and then lower. He parted her legs and found her moist center with his hand. He teased her with his fingers before lowering his head and tasting her with his mouth. As he suckled upon her, Glenna’s hips rose up off the floor. Her fingers entwined in his hair as she urged him on. Soon she felt one long finger enter her. What he was doing was torture, pure, heavenly torture.

  A few moments later, when Glenna thought she’d surely cry out in desperation, Richard moved back up and plunged deeply inside of her. His strokes were frantic this time, unlike earlier, when he’d taken her slowly. Now, it was as though he too felt the precariousness of their situation. Faster he moved while Glenna rose up to meet each thrust. Simultaneously, their world exploded. Together they cried out their release, and then Richard sought out Glenna’s lips once more.

  “That was fantastic. I’ve never...” Richard said, rolling to lie beside her.

  Glenna propped herself up on an elbow to look at him. “I know,” she said, understanding his loss of words. She stroked his cheek tenderly and was about to ask him to make love to her again when suddenly she heard a single bong from the grandfather clock, signifying half past the hour. Glenna turned sharply and stared at the clock. Eleven thirty!

  “No!” she gasped, jumping to her feet.

  Richard sat up abruptly. “Glenna, what’s wrong?”

  “’Tis almost the witching hour!” she hissed, forgetting herself in the moment.

  “Glenna?”

  She had no time
to explain, not if she had any hope of delaying the inevitable. She donned her robe and then waved her hands at Richard when he began to rise and come toward her. “Feta me, salla tes!” He froze in midstride, and Glenna turned and ran from the room. She didn’t have long before her spell wore off. Quickly, she jogged up the stairs to the attic.

  She waved her hand at the light and on it came, casting a dim glow around the large room. Glenna knelt before her ancient trunk and lifted the lid. She knew she had a spell to stop time, and she cursed herself for not thinking to use it earlier. If she had all the correct ingredients, she could recite the spell and this night would not end. She didn’t know how long exactly the spell would last, for she had never attempted it before. Centuries ago she had been warned it was only to be used in extreme emergencies, but she could think of no greater reason than right now.

  She put the book on the table and frantically flipped through the pages until she found what she sought. Taking quick stock of the ingredients, she breathed a sigh of relief. Everything she needed sat on her shelves. She took jars and vials, pouches of herbs and powders, and placed them on the table by her caldron. Just like the beauty spell, the potion required no heating, so she did not have to heft the heavy caldron over to the attic hearth.

  Reading over the spell, Glenna dropped the ingredients into the caldron and began to stir. She looked at the clock that was ticking away ominously and tried to work faster. Her mind was working as fast as her hands, and she tried desperately to ignore her conscience. His love is not real! it taunted her.

  “’Tis real enough for me!” Wasn’t she entitled, after all this time, to have love? Even if his love wasn’t real...could she not just pretend it was?

  “Glenna?” Richard stood before her in the doorway.

  She tried to ignore his presence as he came to stand before the table she worked upon. “What are you doing?”

  “’Twill all be over soon, my love,” she assured him.

  Richard looked at the potion she was stirring and then at the book of spells, which lay open before her. “You’re trying to stop time?” His look was incredulous.

  “Aye. I mean...yes!” she snapped, wishing he would leave the room and let her work. She had no time to explain what she did or why she was doing it. Soon, they would have all the time in the world.

  “You need to stop, Glenna.” Richard reached out and snatched the spoon from her hands. Before she could retake it, he backed away. When she lifted her hands to freeze him again, he cast her a warning look. “Do not.”

  Glenna lowered her hands and walked around the table. “Tomorrow be damned, Richard. I do not wish this night to end.”

  “Think about this, Glenna. Think of never again seeing the sunrise. Perpetual night is what you will bring to this world. Aye, it will continue on, but in darkness. Think of all the babes who will never grow up, all the people who will never be born and all the people who will never die. It is the natural order of life.”

  She momentarily overlooked his use of the word “aye,” thinking he had picked up the old language from her. “But this way you will never die, my love. We will be together forever.”

  She picked up a glass vial and put some of the potion into it. She snapped her fingers, and suddenly bright flames came alive in the hearth. Glenna walked toward the flames with the potion, preparing to throw it within. All she needed to do was recite the magic words as she threw the potion, and then time would stop.

  Richard came up beside her and tried to reach for the potion, but Glenna pushed him away with her free hand. When he went to step toward her again, Glenna raised the potion in warning. “I do this for us.”

  “I’ll not die,” Richard yelled.

  Glenna eyed him and wondered at his words. “Aye, ’tis why I do this.”

  “Nay! I will not die no matter if you say the spell or not,” he insisted. Then suddenly, before her eyes, Richard turned into a cat.

  “Slylock?” Glenna gasped. Unintentionally, she dropped the vial, and it shattered upon the floor. “What manner of magic is this?”

  A moment later Richard turned back into a man and looked at Glenna ruefully. “Let me explain.”

  At that moment the clock struck midnight, and Glenna stared at Richard in fear as the bongs droned on. On the fifth bong, she fled the room. She didn’t pause until she reached the foyer. Hurriedly she grabbed the mantle and tossed it over the mirror. Once it was covered, she went toward the front door and grappled with the handle. Her intention was to run and hide, before Richard could see her turn into an ugly old crone. Never mind that he was magical as well; it would not ease the ache in her heart if she had to bear the cruel laughter she was sure would come.

  Before she could open the cursed doors, Slylock the cat ran forward and wedged himself between her feet. A moment later he turned himself into Richard the man and stood large and wide, barring her way out.

  Glenna heard the last bong of the clock. It was midnight, and she had not escaped. Richard would see her true form, and he would leave her forever. But first, she would have to live through the terrible laugher. She could not stand it. “Do not look upon me,” she warned, covering her face with her hands.

  She heard Richard walk toward her, and then he was pulling her hands away. “Glenna.” Gently he said her name.

  She felt herself being turned toward the mirror. Still her hands covered her face, but she could feel the slight blow of air as Richard whisked off the mantle. Holding her steady, he again tried to pry her hands off her face.

  “Nay, Richard. I beg you, do not!”

  “For one year I have lived in this house, and never have you uncovered this mirror until this night,” Richard said.

  Glenna was shocked but still refused to budge her hands.

  “One year ago today I came to you. Do you remember that night?” he asked.

  “Aye,” Glenna said miserably, her voice muffled.

  Richard sighed. “Before that time, I searched for you. Searched for you for days, then weeks, then centuries. Do you not know me, Glenna? Surely it has not been so long that you do not recognize my body, if not my face.”

  “Nay. I do not know you.” He had seemed familiar to her, but in her loneliness and desperation she had thought it was a trick her mind played upon her.

  “I came to this land long ago. I came looking for you when your trail grew cold in England. I searched for you after the night we spent together at the May Day festival. Never before this night had I felt such passion...such love.”

  “It cannot be you. That man is long dead.”

  “Nay, Glenna. I live as you live. I too am a witch,” Richard admitted.

  Glenna’s heart felt as though it would break. For three hundred years she had relived that night in her mind and thought never to feel that way again. But tonight she had. Being in Richard’s arms had transported her back to that moment. She had felt as loved and cherished as she had so long ago.

  And then, caught up in the throes of passion and self-indulgence, she had almost done the unthinkable and cast that terrible spell. Glenna began to struggle against Richard’s grip. She could not allow him to see her.

  “Even before that night, I knew you, Glenna. You lived at the edge of a small village near Kent. Think, Glenna. Remember my voice, my face.”

  Glenna froze as deep in her mind she recovered the memory. Before her eyes the scene flashed; three young men, deep into their cups, leaving the tavern. They had stopped her late at night and blocked her path. Feeling brave in his inebriated state, one of them, amidst the urging of the other fellows, had tried to steal a kiss. Glenna had slapped him. She remembered berating him soundly, much to the young man’s embarrassment. As his friends had mocked him, he had grown angry. He began to hurl taunts at Glenna as she strode away. He had called her ugly and witch-like, taunting her long dark hair. He’d said that he had not desired her but only pitied her. And now, as she thought about that moment, his face came back clearly to her.

  “�
�Twas you,” she gasped, her face still hidden from view.

  Richard sighed. “Aye, ’twas me. I was hurt and embarrassed, ashamed in front of those fellows. I searched for you days later to apologize, but I’d heard you’d left the village.”

  Glenna nodded her head, too shocked to speak.

  “I didn’t know until seven years later, when I reached the age of twenty-five, that I too was a witch. Only then did I begin my search for you. You moved around a lot; I always seemed to be just one step behind you. And then, I found you. The May Day festival. I knew you at once despite the mask you wore.”

  “Why did you seek me out? Why did you lead me behind the bushes if you found me so repulsive? What game is this you play? Do you wish to torment me still? Have I not suffered enough?” Glenna cried.

  “Have you not in all these years seen your reflection? Do you not know your own face, Glenna? Nay, I can see that you do not. For over a year have I watched you. All this time you have kept the only mirror in your home covered from view. ’Tis why I created the spell.”

  “To make me beautiful?”

  Richard put his arms around her and held her tight. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek as he spoke. “Nay. The spell is not real, ’tis only a fabrication.”

  “What say you, Richard?”

  Richard put his hands on Glenna’s, and this time she allowed him to pull them down to her sides. Glenna stared at the reflection before her. It was true. She remained the same.

  “How?” she asked in amazement. “The townsfolk here, they turn their gaze away and pull their children close when they see me coming. I was hideous and frightening to them.”

  “I saw that you wore your old cloak and covered your face when you left the house. They feared you, aye, but only because they could not see you. And too, I’m sure you walked about town as you did in this house, like an old woman. Bent over and in pain. ’Twas all in your head, Glenna. You thought yourself to be that way, and so you were. I saw you every day, and I knew you to be beautiful, but I knew nothing would convince you. ’Twas why I came up with the spell.”