"I know," he said. "But it's what the spell calls for."
I side eyed him. "Are you sure your not making this up? Like is this some kinked out fantasy?"
"Iz, I swear, I am not making this up," he laughed. "Although, I certainly am not going to argue the spell."
"Finn," I hesitated. "Between this get up, and the black candles, and everything. I don't know if I am the right witch for this."
"Iz, you are the perfect witch for this. I don't think I could pull this off with anyone else."
I froze at the thought of him being with other women. I mean, I knew he hooked up. Okay, he hooked up a lot. "Have you ever tried...I mean, like this...before...with someone else?"
"I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "Not exactly this, but yes."
"Oh," I said quietly.
"But I think your magic is stronger. Strongest I've felt," he said. "The power coming off of us worked, almost. If the target of Tara's spell hadn't been me, that first spell would have worked. Free will be damned."
He put the potion he was carrying down and took my hands, pulling me up off the bed. One by one, his fingers deftly unbuttoned the shit. When he got to the last, he gently pushed the red flannel off my shoulders and took a step back. I stared at the floor, unable to meet his eyes. My hair tumbled over face, hiding me from him.
Finn took me in. "Wow. You're just...Wow."
I felt my face flush, and peeked up at him through my hair. "Is that good?"
He reached forward and cupped my breast, running his thumb gently down my nipple. "Very good," he said, his voice husky with desire.
I swallowed as he stepped closer. With one hand still on my breast, he pushed my hair away from my face with the other. Fisting it, he pulled back, and my head lifted. Our eyes locked.
"You are so beautiful," he whispered as he dropped his head, running his lips lightly along my neck, just stopping at the sensitive dip just below the ear. My breath quickened, and I tugged at the towel knotted at his waist.
"Hold on, Iz," he said before kissing me gently, almost tentatively. "As much as I want this, and just this right now, we have to do the spell."
Right. The spell. There was no hiding the disappointment that crossed my face.
"Iz, there is nothing I want more than to make love to you. Several times. And we will."
"But we're doing sex magic," I countered.
"Which means sex is part of the spell," he corrected me, although judging by the bulge in the towel I could tell he was anxious to get on with it too.
"Well I feel foolish in this get up," I grumped, fidgeting a bit. This outfit didn't scream comfortable spell work. It moaned sex and orgasm.
"You look crazy hot." And as if to prove it, he grabbed my hand and pressed it to his crotch. "You'd be coming right now if this spell wasn't so important."
I gulped, rubbing his stiffness under the fabric. "How does this work?"
He pulled me closer, continuing to caress my breast. "Since you haven't really practiced much sex magic, I need to control this. Are you comfortable with that?"
I nodded, a small sigh escaping my lips at the sensation of his palm pressing on my nipple.
"I promise I won't hurt you. But if you get scared, or something hurts, you tell me to stop, agreed?"
I nodded again, feeling electricity rise between us as I scented his musk.
He pulled away from me, sensing it as well. "Wow, okay, you felt that right? We have to be careful. We're already raising a lot of energy and we haven't even started yet."
He guided me to the middle of the pentagram and eased me to the floor. My breast felt cold without his warm hand on it. He handed me several pillows.
"Lay down in the center and position the pillows so you are comfortable," he instructed.
While I got comfortable—no small feet given what I was wearing—he walked a circle around the pentagram, performing a banishing ritual. This would keep negative energy away from us. My eyes landed on the black candle at the base of the pentagram and I shivered. We were practicing black magic and sex magic. We definitely needed the protection.
With the banishment done, Finn took the potion bottle and dropped beside me. "You okay?" he asked. "Comfortable?"
I nodded. He opened the bottle and took a long drink before handing it to me. "Drink this," he said.
"What is it?" I asked.
"A love potion," he smiled. "But I mixed it with wine."
"But we don't need a love potion," I argued, confused. "They do."
"Exactly, but they're not here to drink it, are they?"
I took the bottle and gingerly took a sip. It wasn't unpleasant, sort of a spiced red wine. But it had a weird under-taste, and finished almost chalky. I stuck out my tongue.
"You've got to drink a little more than that," he teased.
"Bottoms up." I tipped the bottle and poured the liquid down. I choked on something stringy.
"Sorry," he said, taking the bottle back. "Hair."
Taking deep, focused breaths was the only way I held back a gag. As "magical" as witchcraft was, sometimes it was simply disgusting.
Finn lit the black candle, followed by a red pillar candle and then a pink one. Returning his attention to me, he gently pushed me down on the pillows, so I was on my back. He took my hands and raised them above my head. "I have to tie your hands. Is that okay?"
"Yes," I whispered, my heart racing. He wrapped a piece of black silk around my wrists and, with my arms above my head, he tied my hands to the leg of the bed.
"Too tight?"
I shook my head. "It's okay."
"Ready to begin?"
I nodded, breathing in the smell of the fresh burning wax and lingering sage.
"I need you to clear your mind," he started. I snickered, my nerves getting the best of me. Clearing my mind seemed impossible. It was racing. "Izzy, listen. I need you to clear your mind and, once cleared, focus on Johnny and Tara. Send the energy you feel through us to them. Focus on this."
"Okay," I said, forcing my mind to go blank, and then conjuring an image of Tara. It looked as if I was floating above her in her bed. I frowned and explained it to Finn.
"It's okay," he said. "This is actually good. It's a vision, not your imagination. You can push our energy into her much easier this way. And since she's the resistant one, we needed this break."
"Does this mean..."
"No, this is just our sexual energy," he said. "She's dreaming about Johnny, and Johnny's dreaming about her. If we do this right. But you cannot focus on us, you need to focus on them."
Finn leaned in and kissed me, his tongue slipping gently into my mouth, teasing my own. My body shivered with anticipation. His towel still covered his lower body, it's damp roughness teasing the skin on my thigh as it brushed against me. Forgetting my hands, I attempted to reach for him to remove the towel, but my arms jerked against the silk restraints.
Finn's laugh was throaty. "Sorry, Iz. I have to control the spell, so I have to have control of this. You can't touch me. But when we're done, you can do whatever you want to me."
With that delicious promise for the future, I resigned myself to give into him.
He worked his way down my neck, his tongue following a gentle path to my clavicle. His mouth worked down to the dips of my breast, while his hands found them at the same time. With palms barely touching my nipples, he rubbed over them clockwise. My whole body caught fire, the heat branching out from my center. My back arched, longing for a more forceful touch.
A flood of Latin spilled from Finn as he continued to work his hands over my nipples.
"Fuck, it's hard to focus on this spell," he said gruffly. "You are such a distraction."
"I know the feeling," I murmured, finding my own concentration waning. I clamped my eyes closed tighter, refocusing on Tara. I was still hovering over her in bed. Finn's Latin was lulling me into a trance like state, his warm breath now moving over my nipple as he took one into his mouth. My body burned with need and
small groan escaped my lips. Just as that happened, Tara moaned quietly. Something was working.
Finn began chanting with more intensity, and his hand moved down to my thigh, sweeping around the inside and just grazing my wetness. I shifted my body up towards him, wanting more of his touch. But he tantalizingly, infuriatingly, continued his gentle sweep along my legs, dipping quickly into the crevice between my legs before pulling back out again. He pulled gently on my nipple with his teeth. With the vibrations of his voice mumbling the spell and the light pressure of his teeth on my sensitive nip, my sex ached for him to mount me. I bucked up again, catching his hand between my thighs and squeezing.
He tugged me back down with his hand, this time slipping his thumb into my slit, drawing back the folds of my labia before diving into my wetness. It was soaked in my juices as he ran it up to my clit, where he circled the sensitive nub. My breath uneven, I squeezed my Kegels and forced myself to push my growing energy at Tara, whose own full-throated moans told me the spell was taking root.
I felt Finn's rough towel drop away, and his hard cock pressed against my leg as he climbed over me. I opened my legs, desperate to take him.
"Ready?" he asked, his voice an intense whisper.
I nodded, unable to speak.
He paused to sheath his cock with a condom. Then he slid his shaft into me, filling me up. I gasped in the pleasure of finally feeling him inside me, feeling him drive his hard cock into my warm, wet center. He angled and pushed up, searching for my G-Spot.
He found it.
My hands tugged hard at their bindings again. The waves of pleasure that coursed through my body made it increasingly difficult to focus on pushing that energy into Tara. I was losing sight of her, my own ecstasy overwhelming the spell that we were unleashing.
Finn's breath ragged as he pushed harder into me, driving both of us to orgasm. "Focus," his voice was barely a whisper, as if he was reminding himself, too.
But it was too late, and I yelled out Finn's name as I climaxed just as he shuddered inside me.
Finn collapsed on top of me, the room suddenly eerily silent. I longed to wrap my arms around him, but my hands were still tied above my head.
"Finn," I whispered. "Do you think it worked?
He propped himself up on his elbow. "I don't know," he responded. Not exactly the answer I wanted to hear. "It was so damn hard to focus on the spell." He pushed deeper into me, his cock still hard. My body shook in anticipation of going another round. But when he reached to untie my hands, he pulled out of me. My wetness ran down my leg.
Struggling to sit up, I tried to hide my disappointment. But Finn flashed a sly smile and gently pushed me back down again. "I didn't say we were done."
"Oh," I said, curling my toes in anticipation.
"This is for us." His head slid down and rested in between my legs. He gently separated the folds of my vulva with his fingers. Starting with a light kiss on my clit, his tongue took over, working over my nub gently at first. As my breathing intensified, so did his tongue. He slipped a finger into my pussy, then a second one, hooking both around and once again finding my G-spot. With my body already primed from before, coming was fast and intense. He plunged his tongue into my pussy, lapping up my juices.
Finn raised himself up and kissed me, and I could taste our co-mingled sex on his lips. Exhausted and sweaty, I nuzzled against him, my eyes still closed.
Before I even realized what I was saying, words flew out of my mouth. "I love you."
Finn pulled away from me, puzzled. I clapped my hand over my mouth.
"Sorry! That was the spell talking," I lied. "I was still tuned into Tara."
"Dammit, you were?" he asked, and my heart soared for a moment. "I mean, that one was just for your pleasure, so I hope it didn't muck up the spell."
My heart crashed back down to earth. "Oh, yeah, that would suck."
"We'd just have to do it again," he said. "And I could think of worse things."
His smile warmed me a bit, although I still felt monumentally stupid. "I think I should get out of this now. Is there some sort of magical protocol or something I need to do."
"Let me do another banishment, and then we're good," he said, getting to his feet.
I watched him move around the pentagram, once again casting the circle. While I admired his firm ass and ripped muscles, I marveled at how completely at ease he was in his body. I suppose being brought up to view sex in magical terms had something to do with it. I wished Grams had been more at ease with it.
When Finn blew out the candles, I scrambled to my feet, turning my back to him while I tried to extract myself from the witchy lingerie.
"Here, let me help you."
Finn came up behind me, and helped unhook the straps from my back. He slipped them off my shoulders, running his hands down my arms as leather fell.
"Thanks, but I got it," I said, quickly grabbing the flannel shirt off the floor. I wrapped it around me before shimmying out of the bottom of the bondage wear. It was a relief to have that strap out of my butt. I was totally not a thong girl.
"How do we know if it works?" I asked, turning to face Finn. The towel was back around his waist.
He shrugged. "Hard to say. Magic works at its own pace. If nothing changes in two days, we'll try it again."
"Right," I said. Part of me hoped that the spell didn't take, and that was just stupid. Was I willing to lose my house just for another romp with Finn?
I pointed to the door. "So, I guess I'll go."
"'Night," he said, placing the throw rug back over the pentagram on the floor.
"Goodnight," I replied, pulling open the door. I glanced down the hallway before stepping out of the room, half expecting Amanda to pounce on me. But the house was quiet. I stalled a second more, hoping that Finn would call me back to him, ask me to spend the night in his bed. But there was nothing but silence from his room.
I closed his door and leaned against the wall of the hallway, my eyes stinging with tears. That was the most...magical night of my life. But that was all it was—magic. Finn separated the sex from the love. Of course he wanted to do it again. We were electric together, no doubt. But that was sex. That was magic. That was not love.
Palming my eyes I took a deep breath before heading back to my own room. It was time for me to man up. Finn and I were perfect sex magic partners, nothing more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Finn
Finn kept his back to Izzy when she left the room, busying himself putting away the spell accouterments so he didn't have to engage with her. He couldn't face her. Not after botching the spell.
As much as he tried to focus on sending the energy to Johnny, Izzy was on his brain the entire time. To her, they did sex magic. But to him, they made love.
But when she said "I love you," he knew he botched it. It could have been worse, he consoled himself. His own "I love you" almost slipped out in response to hers.
Now laying on his bed, he breathed in her scent, which was marked on his pillows. The lingering smell of lemon grass triggered his brain, recalling how her body trembled under his as they climaxed together, and instantly felt himself getting hard again. Swearing, he pushed the pillow to the side and reached for the bottle of rum on the side table, washing down her taste with a long pull.
The upside was that if the spell went wrong, they could do it again. And that was something Finn very much wanted to do. But time was not on Izzy's side. They needed to get Danny and his loan shark father off her sexy little tail, and this spell was one step in keeping her financially stable. Finn blew it, letting his emotions get the better of him.
Now it seemed like the spell not only didn't work, but it backfired. Izzy's "I love you" was the spell talking. He just snatched away her free will. He snorted at the irony. Some sex magic practitioner he was.
Reporting back to the coven about this wasn't something he wanted to do, but he needed to get Izzy out of this jam. Besides, he had to ask for the money anyway
. Even if things were back on track with The Witchery business, it wasn't going to be enough to call off Stevenson's goon lawyers. Izzy would lose the house, regardless of Tara’s love spell being cast, with that crippling debt.
Grabbing his phone, he pulled up Demeter from his contact list then hesitated. He hated calling the coven's High Priestess when he should be taking care of this himself. But Izzy was in a hole too big for him—and for magic—to fill. He pressed the call button, then swung his feet around to touch the floor and rubbed at his temple. Izzy exhausted him. The thought of that lifted his spirits, if only slightly.
"Finn," Demeter's voice was warm on the other end of the line. Finn was relieved that he caught her in a good mood. "How's my girl?"
"She's good, Priestess," Finn said, which was not a lie. She was better than good. "But, I think she could use some money."
"Money? For what?"
"You know how her grandmother hired that private detective?"
"Of course," Demeter laughed. It was not unlike Izzy's laugh, open and inviting. "What about it?"
"Priestess, it cost her 25 large," Finn explained. "And she got the money from a loaner of last resort. Isadora didn't even know about it, so it's gone unpaid for the last six months. I could try a spell to leave her be, but this guy...I'd have to pull some serious black magic to get him off her back."
"Blood magic," Demeter responded, a chill went through the phone. "Absolutely not, Finn. Even we have limits."
All magic came with a price, but death was the required payment when practicing blood magic. Most covens drew the line at that, but there were some outlaw covens that went down a very dark path. While sex magic covens weren't exactly the pride of the witch world—and they certainly took a lot of liberties where black magic was concerned— it was not illegal like blood magic. They did not take lives.
"I'll send the money tomorrow," Demeter continued. "My mother was foolish to put Isadora in this position. That money belongs to my little girl."
"Thank you, Priestess," Finn said, the relief in his voice carrying the requisite appreciation.
"You've fallen in love with her, haven't you?"
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