Hexed and Vexed

by Rebecca Royce

  Humming to herself, Ava finished up the store. It would be ready for business the next day. A pop sounded, and she grinned to herself before she turned around. Lawson leaned against the wall. “I thought you’d have had this done days ago.”

  It was almost ten o’clock at night. Perfect timing since she was finished. “I’ve been having some adventures.”

  He raised a dark eyebrow. “Other than your mother’s matchmaking?”

  “Other than that.” She walked toward him. “I missed you.” As she spoke the words, she realized she meant them.

  He pulled her to him. “I missed you, too. So damned much.”

  “Are you done? Did you get him?”

  He shook his head. “No. We’re re-evaluating. Starting from square one. This has never happened to me before, tiny. I always get my guy or girl.”

  She palmed his shirt. “You’ll get this one.”

  “Thanks for the belief in me.” He kissed her, hard, and his body shuddered against hers. The strangest thought struck her, and she sucked in her breath. Lawson was the most powerful witch she’d likely ever know, and he trembled just to kiss. Ava pulled back just an inch. “Take us home?”

  He nodded. “Sure.”

  When they popped away, it wasn’t Ava’s house but somewhere she’d never been before. Without a doubt, they were in Lawson’s place. Dark, warm colors painted the walls. Pictures of people she didn’t know, except for an occasional one of Stefan or Kim, lined shelves surrounded by books. She turned around. This wasn’t a small space. He’d set them down in the living room, and all she could see was a long hallway from it.

  Ava raised her eyebrows. “You brought me to your home.”

  “I sure did.” He grinned. “I’ve been wanting to.”

  She nodded. “Where are we?”

  “Titus, actually. On the edge of your town. The border.”

  Elijah had called it well. He really had grown up near the Enforcers. “My brother-in-law used to live here.”

  “Is that so?” He followed close behind her. “We mostly talked about Egypt. And Athens. The man wants to travel.”

  She nodded. “I know. They’re going to. Don’t tell my parents.”

  “No intention of that.”

  Ava whirled around. “Only one problem with this, as far as I can tell. What happens when you pop out of here in the middle of sex? I need you to give me directions on how to walk to the train.” Titus was pretty remote. For a person who’d never left her small world, she’d been doing a lot of running around lately.

  He stroked her hand, his thumb playing with the skin there. “First off, no chance of that tonight. We’re not hunting. Not for two days. I want to give the hexer enough time to hang himself, so to speak. I’m all yours. Second, I’ve taken a precaution for you. Come along. I’ll show you.” He tugged her with him toward the fireplace. Without stopping he walked straight into it like the wall wasn’t there. She shrieked, expecting to hit the wall. Instead… she stepped into the warehouse where she went to speak to him when he wasn’t around.

  Ava shivered. The cold night air in the unheated warehouse was a stark contrast to his warm home. “Lawson? Did we just walk through a spelled portal? I thought they weren’t real.”

  “Well”—he grinned—“they are in my world.”

  Chapter 12

  Portals were real. Okay, she would deal with that fact in a moment. “So you connected your house to this abandoned warehouse.”

  He nodded. “I own this place. So it’s not like I’m infringing on anyone else’s space.”

  “And when I come here and start talking… How exactly does that work? Were you standing in your house listening to me?”

  Lawson scrunched up his face. “Absolutely not. I’m almost never home. No, so when someone walks in here a spell signals and whatever happens in here starts to record in a device in my home which then gets automatically sent to me. There’s also a spell in here that makes most people want to leave.”

  Well, that made sense. “I had that sensation the first time I came and then less and less as I came.”

  “That’s about our relationship. The spell works so that the more I want you around, the less you feel the need to leave. Basically, I have to be okay with coming into my home. I was always okay with you coming, and now I really want you there. You’ll feel the spell less and less.”

  She shook her head. “I can feel your spells. I can feel Zoe’s. Just the two of you. What do you suppose that’s about?”

  He brushed her hair out of her eyes. “I don’t have those answers. There are a million things I’d like to understand when it comes to you and a gazillion when it comes to the world around us. Who sent that tsunami? How did they do it? Where is that brother stalking the woman who lost that necklace? But I can’t focus on any of it because I can’t catch someone that should have been easy for a person with my particular skillset to find.” He brushed his finger down the length of her nose, and she shuddered with warmth. “One more thing to show you, and then back to my place.”

  He laced their fingers together, and she let him lead her toward the window. Outside was her car. “How did it get there? Wait. You spelled it.”

  “If you’re at my home, it’ll be there. If you’re not, it’ll be wherever you’ve left it.”

  She sighed. It was an extremely considerate thing for him to have done. “You know that some people wouldn’t like this. They’d feel it a violation, you moving their car around without their permission.”

  He ran his hand through her hair. She did love how he always seemed to want to touch her. She’d never had that before, not to the extent she did now. Even when Mitchell had been attentive, it hadn’t been like this. Lawson made her feel like she had his total attention. “Do you?”

  She shook her head. “Thank you for thinking of it.”

  He tugged her again, and she went to him without hesitation. They walked back through his portal. “Is this just open all the time?”

  “No. It only opens for me. But, come to think of it, I’m going to have it open for you. I like the idea of you being able to escape to my place any time you want.”

  She pressed her forehead against his chest, and he put his arms around her. “Lawson, when we’re together, everything feels so completely right. But when we’re not, I start to question everything. I can’t help it. How could this work in the long run?”

  He sighed. “You’d be crazy not to worry. But for the first time in as long as I can remember, you make me think there might be a chance for real, there might be a way for us to be a couple that could work. Right now, it’s nuts. Stefan popping in and out, interrupting things. That’s not typical. We’re all crazed that this hasn’t been settled yet. Normally, thirty-six hours and I’ve got the person. Give me time to prove to you this can work.”

  She raised her eyes to meet his gaze. “I’ve fallen for you so hard. I’m not sure I could pull myself out of this if I wanted to, and I don’t want to. You should have questions about me. Think about your children. I mean, if you ever wanted any. I’m so screwed up and…”

  He cupped her chin. “Ava, don’t you ever say that again. Okay? There’s no part of you that is screwed up.”

  Lawson kissed her, and she sighed against him. She expected him to press for more, but he didn’t. Instead, he drew back. “Come with me? To my bedroom? Let me make love to you.”

  Her cheeks warmed. She must have been bright pink, and she wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor. “Yes.”

  Lawson drew her back toward the hallway she’d noted but not gone down earlier. “You’ll always be safe with me, Ava. I’d take on the entire world to keep you that way, to ensure that what is mine stays protected, always.”

  “I want to protect you, too. But I guess that’s not realistic, is it?”

  He never answered her. The door opened a second before he led her through it. She wondered if Lawson even had to think to do some spells or if it all came naturally to him, like breathing
. Sometime she would ask him. Not then.

  His bedroom was of similar color to the rest of the house, dark but warm, and his bed covers were black and silk. She raised her eyebrows. Somehow the whole attire suited Lawson—intense and unapologetically just who he was.

  He laid her down, coming over her with his body. “The world could explode tonight, and I swear, Ava, nothing would stop me from being here with you.”

  She believed him. “Lawson…”

  He didn’t let her tell him how she felt in that moment. Instead he kissed her with such gentleness she could hardly breathe. Leaning only on his elbows for support he kissed her all over her face, anywhere he could reach without moving too much. She kissed his chin, loving the scratch of the few whiskers there.

  He shuddered, and she felt it again—that power that came with knowing Lawson wanted her so much. She would never, ever take advantage of that. She wanted to protect his heart, and maybe in that way, she could actually keep him safe.

  Ava backed up just enough to take off her shirt and throw it aside. Lawson lowered his head, kissing her gently on her collarbone and the skin right above her breasts. He was painfully slow in how he caressed her. The last time they’d been together, they’d both been frantic and Ava knew she could get that way quickly. Her heart was already beating so hard it might explode through her rib cage. But Lawson seemed to be moving at a very different pace.

  His hands were steady, his lips caressing her so softly they were like butterflies over her skin. “Lawson?”

  He raised his eyes to meet her gaze. “I only get one chance to do this with you the first time, and I don’t want you to know how completely worked up I am. I’m not going to disappoint you.”

  “You couldn’t. I just want to be with you, Lawson.”

  He scooted back, pulling her close until she sat up, face to face with him. He breathed hard. “We can’t live like someone is going to come through the door any second and interrupt us.” Lawson bent over and kissed the side of her neck, biting down just a touch. She moaned, the sound catching her by surprise while pleasure moved through her. “I want to worship your body.”

  Ava wrapped her arms around his neck, practically climbing on top of him. He was hard, right where she wanted him to be, and it ground slightly into her stomach. She pressed into him a bit more, and this time, it was his turn to moan.

  They kissed like that, over and over again. Lawson eventually picked up his pace, his breathing quickening and the hardness was already apparently lengthening in size. He couldn’t be comfortable trapped beneath his clothes. She tugged at his shirt. “Off. All of it.”

  He nodded, not vocalizing any response, before he stripped off the remainder of what he wore. He tugged at the waistband of her pants, and she followed suit. They were completely naked together. He was a beautiful man, although she doubted he would care for the description.

  A dusting of brown hair covered his hard chest, but she could still see perfectly well just how strong and fit he was. She reached out and stroked his stomach, and his muscles jumped beneath her touch. Ava leaned forward, kissing where she had brushed her fingers downward. What would it be like to have him in her mouth? How far could she push him before…

  He caressed her cheek gently. “If you do what I think you are aiming to do—and believe me, I love the thought—I won’t make it. I’ve never been this worked up in my life.”

  She raised her gaze to meet his eyes. “But sometime I can?”

  “As much and as often as you like.” Having delivered that statement, he pushed her on to her back, pushing her legs apart slightly. She raised her eyebrows, and he grinned at her. “Well, maybe I’m not so far gone I still can’t play.”

  He pushed a finger inside of her, and she closed her eyes. Okay, this was happening. Usually, she had to really relax if she wanted it to…

  “Oh.” She sighed while his thumb found the spot with no fumbling and stroked her in a circular movement that made her body clench, immediately. Well, that didn’t usually occur so fast. “Wow.”

  He sucked in a long breath. “Oh and wow. And I’ve barely touched you. I love your body, Ava.”

  Lawson stroked her again, and again, until she panted from it. She needed him. Yes, she wanted it, and the pressure inside of her built to a nearly unbearable level. She squirmed on the bed, and the more she did, the more Lawson’s breathing picked up. Knowing he got turned on giving her pleasure only added to the experience.

  Then suddenly, it was too much. Her body exploded, her eyes were closed, but she saw colors pass under her lids. She trembled from the release, and the need to see Lawson pushed her to open her lids. He stared down at her with such an adoring expression she wished she could suddenly freeze the moment and capture how he looked right then. That way, when things were awful, she could pull it out whenever she needed to remember what it was to feel this kind of passion.

  “You are so beautiful. I can’t believe you get to be mine.”

  She tugged his head down to kiss him, slowly, with as much heat as she could find inside of her. Ava wanted, no needed, to show him what he meant to her, too.

  A thought dawned on her. “Lawson, oh gosh.”

  He blinked, his eyes not focused. “What’s the matter, love?”

  “I… I can’t spell my birth control.” Most witches just did it. They took care to see to it they weren’t going to get pregnant. “In the past.” She deliberately didn’t use the other person’s name because that would be weird. She wanted to stay in this moment, alone, with Lawson. “We’ve had to use condoms. Could you, I don’t know, spell one to appear?”

  He sucked in a breath. “I don’t think that’s necessary. Would you… that is… can I spell you to not get pregnant?”

  “Could you? Like is that something you are capable of doing?” She’d never heard of a man being able to do it before.

  He placed his hand over her abdomen. “Let’s see. I’ve never tried. If I have to, I’ll make one of those human condoms appear.”

  A warmth settled over her belly, and she giggled. It tickled. “I can feel you.” And it was like a miracle that she could.

  He kissed her gently. “That should do it. For tonight. I mean, I’ll have to every day that we’re going to be together like this. I can’t do any long-term spell. But this? Yes, it worked. I can feel you, too, Ava. Deep inside of me all the time.”

  And then he was inside of her. Her body stretched to accommodate him as though they had been lovers for a very long time. The muscles in Lawson’s neck strained. “I didn’t get that it would feel like this to be with you. I didn’t get how at home I would feel.”

  She hadn’t either. “Like I’ve always known you this way.”

  He nodded once, and then he kissed her. She raised her hips, drawing him deeper inside. Lawson pulled out slightly before he pushed back into her. Over and over, their bodies danced. He kept his movements shallow, and with each thrust back to her body, he rubbed against her sensitive spot. She cried out. Her body had come so hard just moments earlier. Ava really couldn’t get enough.

  She dug her fingers into his back, and he grinned at her. And then his expression changed. “I’m close, love.”

  She was, too. The best she could do was nod. He seemed to understand. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him as close as she could manage. She wanted to be one with him, to know what that felt like.

  As pleasure wafted through, different than the explosion of earlier but no less beautiful for the slowness with which it moved, Lawson cried out her name. The muscles in his back clenched, and she clung to him, embracing him inside and out.

  He was hers. Right in that moment, nothing else existed.

  * * *

  Later, she lay in his arms, listening to the rain pound on his roof. This weather had been expected. Lawson ran a hand over her stomach. He kept touching her, and she loved the contact. Having him inside of her had done nothing to stop the craving for him. She wanted more, and she wondered
if, when it came to Lawson, she always would.

  Tiredness played with her mind. It would be easy to close her eyes and just fall asleep. Truth was, she didn’t know if she could let herself do that. He’d not officially invited her to stay the night. Of course, that was probably implied.

  She rolled to her side, splaying her arm over his chest, and he shifted slightly to accommodate her. “I’m falling asleep.”

  He sighed. “Do it. It’s late.”

  “So that’s okay, then? I can spend the night?”

  Lawson groaned. “I didn’t realize I had to say it. I’ve slept in your bed twice. Yes, please stay, Ava. Stay in my bed as much as you want. Don’t ever leave it. Spend every night. You’re my girl. I don’t think I’ll ever want to be in it without you again.”

  She smiled against his skin. “I don’t think I’m going to sleep here if you’re not here. But thank you.”

  “You could. It’s safe here. Lots of wards. No one comes in that I don’t want. I’d like that, actually. You, always here.”

  Ava nuzzled closer. “You’ve got that post pleasure promising thing going on. You might regret proclamations in the morning.”

  He shook his head. “I’m in love with you, Ava. I’ve been, I think, since I was fourteen. I don’t know. I couldn’t really think about it. You were never available, and guys like me don’t trespass into Sharpe territory while we’re in school on scholarship. Not if we’re smart and want to graduate. But that’s how it is. I’m currently in a life where I can’t make you promises because I never know what my day will be like. Doesn’t change how I feel. Take as much time as you want to process that.”

  She rose on her elbow so she could look him in the eye. “I want to say that right back to you. Please forgive me for being less brave than you. I’ve heard very similar things, and then I ended up in the blue gown of my family waiting to be bound to someone and stood there alone. I have a hard time with promises. I’m a coward.”