Wicked Love

by Lisa Manifold

  “No, you didn’t,” Jasper’s voice was raspy and low. For the second time that night, his arm stopped me. Slowly, gently, he pulled me to him, and walked into my room with me. He turned, and sat on the edge of my bed. “You didn’t have the wrong idea at all.” He paused again. “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Are you?” I cupped his face in my hands. It didn’t matter that he was a librarian, that I was hiding secrets—none of that mattered. What mattered was right now, the two of us, together. This was right. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew.

  “Yes,” Jasper said. He lifted my shirt, and this time, he drew it over my head.

  I reached down and slid his jacket off. I’d gotten home and changed into shorts and a tee shirt, but Jasper was still in his suit from the ball. Once his jacket was on the floor, I undid his tie, and then unbuttoned his shirt.

  All the while he watched me with dark eyes that held hunger and desire. Staring into his eyes and seeing his desire made me feel strong and powerful.

  He reached for my shorts, and tucking his thumbs in the waistband, slid them down, taking my panties with the shorts. I stepped out of them, and stood before him, naked.

  His eyes were hooded as he gazed at me. “You are beautiful,” he said, his voice husky.

  I stepped closer to him, and he wrapped his arms around me again, his head at my stomach. He was still for a moment, and then I felt his lips against my skin. He kissed my stomach, and then his mouth followed his hands to my hips.

  It had been a long time since I’d let anyone see me naked, much less this guy. But he felt so good, and his hands on me felt right.

  “I’m sure,” Jasper murmured into my hipbone. “I want you.”

  I reached down and tilted his head up. “Good,” I said.

  He stood up, turning me around, and sat me down on the bed.

  “Lie back,” Jasper grinned as he spoke.

  I couldn’t help but to grin back, and I let myself relax onto the bed. I made to scoot up, but he grabbed my legs.

  “No,” was all he said.

  With my legs hanging over the edge of the bed, Jasper knelt down between them. He shuffled around, and I heard him kick something.

  Oh, shit. My bag.

  “Hey!” Zelda hissed.

  “Oh,” I sighed loudly, pushing myself up onto my elbows.

  Jasper’s eyes met mine, questioning.

  “I want to watch you,” I said, making my voice husky. The thought of watching him do what I thought he was about to was making me wet, but I didn’t need him to turn around and see my bag. Zelda’s skull was still in the bag. I hadn’t had a chance to take her out before Jasper knocked on my door.

  Thankfully, he didn’t turn around, but bent down and kissed between my legs, making my head fall back.

  Watch. I needed to watch. At least for a little bit. I forced my head back up.

  Jasper’s eyes were on me as his tongue dipped into me, and watching him watch me was so sexy, I could have come right there in that moment.

  My legs jerked and his hands came up to hold them still. He leaned into me more, pushing his tongue further inside of me, and then out, in and out, and then licking around my folds.

  Then he circled my clit, slowly, deliberately.

  I nearly came off the bed.

  With slow, careful movements, he licked, and sucked, and nearly drove me to distraction. Every time he brought me closer, my legs would tense, and Jasper would stop me from moving too much.

  It made everything even hotter.

  I wanted to come, and he’d brought me close a few times, stopping just before I arched up in release.

  Bastard. He knew what he was doing. I could tell from the glint in his eyes.

  His tongue got faster, moving in tighter circles around my clit, and then he took my clit in his mouth and sucked on it.

  “Oh, Goddess!” I said in a whisper.

  Jasper sucked harder, and I felt myself falling over the edge, my legs coming up and my back arching. He kept sucking and I came hard. Jasper didn’t stop, and I came again, crying out in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own.

  He gently moved away from me, and my legs relaxed.

  As I watched, he bent his head to the side and took off his shoes and socks. Then he stood, and undid his pants. When they dropped to the floor, his cock sprang free, and I smiled in appreciation. It jutted out before him. I couldn’t wait to get up close and personal.

  “I need you,” Jasper growled.

  I pushed myself onto the bed, moving up towards the head. Leaning over, I pulled open the drawer on the bedside table, scrabbling inside. Finally, I came out with a small foil packet.

  Wordlessly, Jasper took it from me, and rolled it on, never taking his eyes from me.

  I found his intent stare to be both intoxicating and disconcerting. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had watched me with such intensity. With such desire. Because they wanted to. I wanted him to take me, make me his—and the thought shook me as much as everything he was doing.

  He crawled onto the bed and settled between my legs. His cock nudged at the entrance to my pussy, and I found I didn’t want to wait. I spread my legs, and thrust my hips up at him, taking him in.

  Jasper drew in his breath, stopping as he entered me. Then he thrust forward, seating himself to the hilt.

  I felt stretched, filled. My hands went to his shoulders and then down his back to his ass, pulling him to me.

  Jasper reached with one hand behind him, and pulled my hand away. He moved it up over my head. Then he took the other, bringing my hands together. He covered my hands in his, and thrust.

  “Oh!” I cried out.

  Chapter Six

  Jasper

  Watching her come—twice—as I buried my face in her nearly made me lose control. It was the most gorgeous, sexy thing I’d ever seen. And through it all, Melasina watched me, her eyes never leaving mine.

  I couldn’t look away. Everything about her, her smell, her taste, the feel of her—it made me want to possess her, take her for mine. I’d never felt this way before. As I moved her hands up over her head, and then held them there as I thrust into her, I thought, I could die right now and be happy.

  She spread her legs wider, and I pulled back, and squeezed her hands as I thrust forward into her again. I could feel her wetness as she clenched around me. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever felt.

  No one had ever felt the way that Melasina did right now, with my cock buried in her. No one had ever made me feel the way I did with my face between her legs, watching her lose herself because of me.

  In and out, in and out, I thrust hard and deep each time, wanting all of her. She didn’t look away, her mouth falling open.

  “Next time, my cock goes in that mouth,” I murmured.

  An answering wetness in her pussy told me that she liked that, a promise of what was to come.

  I felt myself getting closer, and I thrust harder, and faster, unable to keep the slow tempo I’d started with. I wanted all of her, and I couldn’t stop myself.

  My hands gripped hers as I pounded into her.

  Melasina’s legs curled around me, her heels hitting my ass. Her head rolled to the side, and for the first time, she closed her eyes, looking away from me.

  From us.

  “Look at me,” I said, in a voice I nearly didn’t recognize as my own.

  Slowly, she turned her head back to me and opened her eyes.

  It nearly killed me, but I slowed down, and kissed her. Then I moved in and out, slowly, slowly, and with a shout, I emptied myself into her.

  Melasina cried out, and her pussy clenched around me once more.

  I leaned down, my forehead to hers, both of us breathing heavily. I couldn’t move.

  “Wow,” Melasina said. She was smiling. “That wasn’t what I expected when I opened the door.”

  “That’s because you wanted to throw me out again,” I grinned.

  “Partly. And partly becaus
e I wanted you right where you are.”

  “I’m glad that side won out,” I said.

  “Me, too,” Melasina said.

  I carefully lifted myself off her. “Bathroom?” I asked.

  “Through the kitchen,” Melasina pointed toward the back of the house.

  She was beautiful, lying on the bed naked, her skin pink and warm, mixed with cream, her hair a mess. She looked like a woman who’d just had great sex.

  Which she had.

  With me.

  I was grinning as I walked through the kitchen. Her house was a Creole cottage, and the bathroom was off the kitchen at the back of the house. I cleaned up, and headed back to the room.

  There was dirt on her tile, and I moved to the side to avoid it with my bare feet. As I did, I stepped into another little pile, and then another. I stopped, brushing my feet off, and went back to her room.

  Frowning, I bent down to brush at my feet again.

  “What’s wrong?” Melasina asked. She’d slid under the blankets on the bed.

  “There was dirt on the floor of the kitchen,” I said. When I looked up, her eyes were wide, and she looked… nervous. It wasn’t the look of a satisfied woman I’d seen only seconds before.

  In the back of my head, a warning bell rang. Soft and faint, but it was there. And it rang. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  At that moment, my phone rang. I looked down to the pile where my clothes were, and knelt down to find it. It rang twice more before I fished it out of my pocket and got it to my ear.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Jasper, I’m sorry to do this to you, but you need to come in,” Lavinia said.

  “What’s up?” I asked, standing and shaking out my pants.

  “Those graves? The bodies are back.”

  “What else?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but there’s too much that’s happening all at once. Delphine wants us all back at Magnolia House. We need to see what magic was cast tonight at the house.”

  “How did you find out about the graves?” I asked.

  “I had people moving through all of the city. They reported back that two bodies were found outside of the previously disturbed crypts.”

  “Outside of them?” I asked, pulling on my pants, keeping my back to the bed.

  “Yes. What’s that noise? Are you all right?”

  “I hadn’t made it home yet,” I said. “Just finishing up some things.”

  “Well, finish up and get over here.”

  “On my way,” I said. I ended the call and slid the phone into my pocket. I reached down and got my shirt and jacket, and finished dressing before I turned around.

  “Is everything all right?” Melasina asked. She still had that scared, deer-in-the-headlights expression.

  “No, I have to go back to Magnolia House,” I said.

  She nodded.

  “Um.. can I call you later?” I asked.

  She nodded again. I walked over to the side of the bed and leaned down to kiss her. Her arms wrapped around me as she kissed me hungrily.

  “I can’t wait to see you again,” Melasina whispered to my lips.

  My cock jumped at the feel of her voice next to my lips. “Shit, I have to go.”

  Melasina let her arm slide away from me. “Then I’ll see you later.”

  “Yes, you will.”

  I smiled as I let myself out. As I walked down the steps of the small porch, I noticed another clump of dirt.

  Stopping, I picked it up. It was… it had an odd smell. Then I laughed at myself. “Stop it or you’ll go batshit,” I said. Dropping the dirt, I walked to my car. She had a courtyard. One of the best things about a courtyard, no matter how small, was having a garden.

  It didn’t mean anything. I was just hyped up, with the information about her mother, and then the curse with Thea.

  And not to mention the best sex I’d ever had in my life. I’d never been with a woman who made me feel like she did. I wanted to give myself to her, and master her all at the same time. The feel of her under my hands, my lips, with my cock inside her—I could feel myself getting hard again.

  “Settle down, old son,” I said as I drove back toward Magnolia House.

  When I arrived, the guard at the gate let me through. On the drive over, I’d gotten myself together. I did a quick cleaning spell just to tidy up anything I might have missed. I didn’t need anyone asking about this new relationship or whatever it was. I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I parked and hurried inside.

  Once there, I found Lavinia standing on her own, watching a group of witches in the garden.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Lavinia turned to me, and her nose wrinkled. “What in the name of Hecate have you been doing?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You smell like you got hit by a skunk,” she said, covering her nose.

  “What?” I asked. I’d just done a cleaning spell. I sniffed at myself. “I don’t smell it.”

  “Well, it’s there. Desiree!” She gestured at one of the witches near us.

  Desiree, an older woman with strawberry blonde hair, came over. She smiled, and then her nose wrinkled.

  I’ll give her credit. She kept the smile on her face.

  “What do you smell?” Lavinia asked.

  “Well, it smells like, well…” Desiree hesitated, obviously not wanting to be rude.

  “Be honest,” Lavinia said.

  “Skunk,” Desiree said.

  Lavinia turned to me, her eyebrows raised. “I wasn’t lying. Thank you, Desiree,” she said to the other witch.

  Desiree smiled and moved away.

  “What were you doing?” Lavinia asked.

  “I did a cleaning spell before I came in.”

  “Why?”

  I wasn’t telling her what had happened. No way in hell. “I went to a bar,” I said.

  She nodded. “Did you forget how to do a cleaning spell?”

  “No,” I grumbled.

  She eyed me, and then sighed. “All right. Hit me with it.”

  “What?”

  “Hit me with the spell you used.”

  “Why?”

  “Am I your boss, or am I your boss?”

  “You are, but that doesn’t tell me why—”

  “Jasper Thibodeaux, just do it!” Her voice rose.

  “All right, all right.” I cast a cleaning spell for her.

  Nothing happened, and then the smell hit me. “Whoa,” I said.

  “Skunk?” Lavinia asked.

  I nodded, feeling my eyes water.

  “Well, we know how the curse hit you,” she said with a sigh. “It’s showing up differently for everyone. I’d hoped that you hadn’t been hit, but Thea’s spell was too powerful. And here I was hoping she was merely being optimistic,” Lavinia finished with another sigh.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Have you really looked at the curse?” Lavinia asked, crossing her arms like she wasn’t stinking of skunk ass.

  As I did too, I supposed I shouldn’t cast stones. “Nope. I haven’t been thinking about it at all,” I said truthfully.

  “Well, the last three lines say it all.” Lavinia closed her eyes and quoted,

  “I damn you to your darkest fear

  I bind you to dread’s cold embrace

  Until your truth you boldly face.”

  “What does that mean?” I asked. I couldn’t think, couldn’t process it.

  “What’s your darkest fear?” Lavinia asked.

  “What?”

  She waved a hand. “Never mind that. You don’t have to tell me. But you will need to figure it out. Because until you face it, your magic is fucked.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve done two cleaning spells, and the recipients of both have come out smelling like the back end of a skunk. Does that seem right to you?”

  “No,” I shook my head, trying to process what I was hearing.

  “So
you need to go home, and face your fear. And when you do, your spells will work right.”

  “You can’t be sure of this,” I argued.

  Lavinia rolled her eyes. She grabbed my hand and brought me to a small fire pit on the side of the garden. “Start a fire.”

  I looked at her, and then cast the spell for fire. Nothing happened. I cast it again, and this time, the rocks from the pit flew straight up into the air.

  “Shit!” I jumped back.

  “Exactly. Shit,” Lavinia said. “Well, you’re not going to be any good here. Go home, and get some sleep. See if you can get rid of the smell. And I’ll see you at the library tomorrow. Only—” she held out a finger, “If you get rid of the smell. If not, you stay home. Got it.?”

  “No,” I said. This couldn’t be happening. Not to me.

  “Listen, this is going to take some time to sort out. I’ve already talked to some of the witches here, and not everyone is showing signs. But those that are, it’s different for everyone. So for you, Jasper, your magic is going to be off kilter until you identify your fear and face it.”

  “You don’t know that!” I nearly shouted.

  “No, I don’t, but I’m taking an educated guess. Now go.”

  “I can—”

  “Do your part by breaking your piece of the curse,” Lavinia finished firmly. “We didn’t realize it when she cast it, but it seems that everyone that has been affected will need to break it on their own. Damn her,” she added. “It’s brilliant on her part, even as it’s a pain in the ass.”

  “Thea is a powerful witch,” I agreed. “Which is why you need me here.”

  “No, not smelling like that. And not with your magic on the fritz. Go home. Call me when it’s sorted. And by sorted,” Lavinia said, “I mean you cast twenty spells a day and they all come out right.”

  “I don’t even cast twenty spells a day now!” I protested.

  “Well, start! Go, Jasper!” She shooed me away.

  I watched her walk away, unable to process what had just happened. Slowly, I turned and walked out of Magnolia House. I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination or not that everyone stared as I left.