Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1)

by Margo Bond Collins

  “So?” I said and pushed her thighs apart. The moment my tongue parted her, I think all her thoughts and retorts disappeared. She sighed and twirled a lock of my hair in her fingers, enjoying the spoils of my mouth. I gently slid my finger inside her and she moaned softly, further fueling the fire inside me.

  I tapped into her mind, reading the things that she liked and those that were ‘eh’. She wanted more, more of me, and I followed her desires, bringing her over the brink more than once before I worked my way back up to her mouth.

  The urge to tear off my shorts and fuck the daylights out of her took hold but I resisted. Valerie shifted, pushing me onto my back and then she broke the kiss, traveling down my body with her lips, teasing me in a way I never knew existed.

  She pulled my shorts to my knees and I propped up on my elbows. “Val,” I warned and then her mouth swallowed the tip of my cock and I forgot all about my warning. Instead, I watched her suck and lick and swallow me whole. She was fucking fantastic.

  She shifted again and I smiled when she planted her knees on either side of my head. She might be a virgin, but damned if she didn’t know the art of oral sex. I pulled her toward me and fucked her with my tongue and fingers, making her moan around my cock. She came again and again and I forced myself to hold off, to prolong the heaven that was her mouth. Each stroke of her lips brought me closer to my own climax and finally, I let go.

  My entire body went rigid with the power of it and I sucked her harder, groaning against her soaking pussy. Valerie didn’t pull away; instead, she swallowed, gently sucking until I said okay.

  She shuffled into the crook of my arm and we stared at the ceiling, unable to speak. Hell, I have no idea how she was able to move because I certainly couldn’t right now.

  “That was fucking brilliant,” she whispered.

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Brilliant?” I turned my head toward her.

  She grinned. “Fucking brilliant.”

  I had never been referred to as fucking brilliant in bed, but then again, I really only had Sandy as a reference and nothing we ever did compared to this.

  “You were fucking brilliant,” I smiled.

  “I’m not sure about that,” she said and her cheeks turned crimson almost glowing in the darkness.

  “This surpasses anything I’ve experienced to date. You were fucking brilliant.” I leaned towards her and grabbed a kiss.

  “So, I’m better than a houseful of demons?” she teased.

  “Worlds,” I said. “Even without the bondage.”

  She covered the laughter with her hand, stifling the sound. I chuckled softly wondering just how mind blowing that would be. The only thing more satisfying than what I just experienced would be making love to the girl. My smile faltered and I stared at the ceiling again as the thoughts stirred me back to life.

  I started to slide out from under her before I did something she didn’t want and she pushed me back down.

  “Don’t go.”

  “Val, hon, if I stay, I’m going to pin you to this bed and...” I inhaled and went to sit up. This time she pushed me down and swung her leg over me, coming up into a straddle position. I stared into her eyes, the swirling pattern as hypnotizing as the ocean’s moon dance.

  “Val,” I said, again, as her hips slowly swirled, grinding me back to life. “Ah, fuck, Val,” I whispered and pulled her to my lips.

  The sweetness of sliding inside her overwhelmed me and she winced, stiffening for a moment before settling down on top of me. She met my gaze and offered a forced smile and I put my hands on her thighs, holding her in place.

  “Relax,” I said, and little by little, she did.

  She started with slow hip grinding circles and I moved my thumb to her clit, circling lightly enough for her to forget the pain. I let her set the pace, keeping eye contact with her through it all and prayed she wouldn’t regret this in the morning light.

  She smiled down at me, rolling her hips in circles in time with my thumb.

  “You like that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes.” The breathless quality of her voice reached into my heart taking another piece of it with her.

  Valerie started sliding herself up and down my shaft in concert with her hip twirls and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. She was hot and wet and so fucking tight. I wanted to flip over and take control, but I didn’t want to hurt her again, and I was sure my control meant complete loss of such, so I let her get off with the slow ride.

  I gripped her hips, moving her a little faster, until I felt the buildup start. She arched into me covering her own moan with her hand as she contracted, squeezing the cum right out of me. She shuddered, twirled her hips a couple of more times and collapsed on top of me while my body trembled with aftershocks.

  “Holy Christ,” she whispered in my ear, and I wrapped my arms around her, planting a kiss on her cheek.

  “Complete and utter mind fuck,” I said and she pushed away, meeting my gaze.

  She didn’t understand what I meant and the hurt in her eyes made me sigh.

  “I’m now sure,” I said.

  “About what?”

  “You are not a rebound.”

  Her head tilted.

  “Everything before you was.”

  Her hands fluttered to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. Valerie’s mind was open enough for me to know they weren’t tears of sadness. I’d touched her in a way she had never felt before.

  So we were pretty much even in that respect.

  Chapter 20

  Sunshine streaked through the room and I blinked, wiping the sleep from my eyes, and looked down at the head of brown hair resting on my chest. I turned toward the clock and stared at the numbers as they changed from 12:59 to 1:00.

  “Shit,” I whispered and tried to shuffle out from under her, but my arm was dead weight, sound asleep underneath Valerie. “Val,” I said softly and she stirred lifting her head. She stared at me and then us still naked and entwined and then back at me, with arched eyebrows.

  “Yeah, it wasn’t a dream,” I whispered and grinned.

  “Holy crap,” she said and moved her gaze to the clock. I sensed the panic and when her gaze came back to mine, it was there. Thoughts of what Damian would do surfaced in her mind and then on the heels of that, she looked down at me and covered her mouth.

  My smile faded. We didn’t use protection. It never even entered my mind last night; or hers for that matter. I blinked and slammed my head back into the pillow. Pregnancy was a complication neither of us needed right now.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered and tucked the hair behind her ear.

  “It’s not entirely your fault. I didn’t think of it either.” She dropped her head to my chest.

  “Still think it was fucking brilliant?”

  She looked up at me and grinned. “A complete mind fuck.”

  I chuckled and she did too.

  “Utterly impractical of both of us,” she said and dimples appeared in her cheeks. “Who would have thought?”

  “Raven, actually,” I said, thinking about the blood sacrifice needed for the spell. “She knew I loved you before I did.”

  Valerie pulled the sheets around us before refocusing on me. “How?”

  “Beats the shit out of me, but she said only love’s blood made the spell work.”

  “Sounds like a fairy tale,” she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

  “Yes, it does,” I said, and I really didn’t mind as long as the fairy tale had a happy ending.

  Her brow creased. “That’s sappy as hell,” she said to my train of thought.

  “Come on. And you don’t want a happy ending?” I prodded.

  She stared at me and then moved her gaze to the window and the bright sky beyond. “I didn’t think I was destined for it, with all that’s happened.” When she brought her gaze back to mine doubt laced them.

  “And now?”

  “I’m still afraid of the big bad wolf,” she sai
d and offered a hint of a smile. “We need to get moving,” she added and slid off me, crossing to the bags on the floor.

  I stared at her beautiful form and sighed as she pulled on a bathrobe and collected her clothing and headed toward the bathroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

  I rolled onto my side, squeezing my fist open and closed as pins and needles struck. I hated the feeling of a limb coming back to life and gritted my teeth, shaking the feeling back into my arm. I rolled out of bed and grabbed a pair of clean underwear and jeans, sliding both on before straightening out the bed and headed downstairs.

  Steve sat in his chair with the paper again, but this time he folded the corner over and stared at me. I didn’t need to read minds to get that he was not pleased with me. Damian stepped into the kitchen from the living room with a baby in his arms. The look on his face was ten times more damning than Steve’s.

  “We’re both adults,” I said, clamping down on the urge to say she started it. I put my hand out to stop whatever wrath the ex-vampire was planning on sending my way.

  Raven sat at the table opposite Naomi feeding the other two children. Both women wore the same “I told you so” shit-eating grins.

  “Under my roof?” Steve said and I shot a glare in his direction. It was enough to shut him up, but he folded the paper and set it down on the table next to her shredded night shirt. He picked it up and held it out to me.

  I stared at the ripped fabric and uttered a laugh. “Oops,” I said and shrugged. Tom snorted laughter from the loveseat, looking up from the book he was reading and gave me a silent high five.

  “You...” Damian began through a set of clamped teeth.

  “He loves her,” Raven said, announcing my secret to the world and diffusing a potentially explosive situation. Well, the only world of people that counted anyway.

  I shifted and looked at the floor, sliding my gaze to hers and then rolled my eyes and crossed into the kitchen. I figured I was safe from Damian’s wrath while he held a baby in his arms.

  “You’re not out of the dog house yet,” he whispered as I walked past and I stopped, turning on him.

  “We can take it outside again if you’d like,” I said, leveling a glare at him. “Because, that worked out so well for you before.”

  His jaw tightened and he turned, stomping back into the living room. I smiled and grabbed a glass of orange juice, thinking about how I would feel had the tables been turned. My smile faded and because the jackass meant a lot to Valerie, I headed into the living room and took a seat opposite Damian.

  “When did you know you loved Naomi?” I asked and he glared at me. I knew the answer, but I wanted him to say it.

  “When I bit her,” he finally said.

  “So pretty much at first taste.”

  His lips pressed into a thin line and his gaze hardened. “It wasn’t the same as seducing a virgin,” he growled.

  “Oh?” My eyebrows shot up and I leaned forward. “Wasn’t she a virgin when you swept her away?” I didn’t think it was possible for the man to get redder, but his face transitioned to the beet color of fury and I felt the waves wash over me. “Besides, I didn’t just take her virginity in the heat of the moment.” I tilted my head, making my point.

  “That still doesn’t make it right. You took advantage...” he trailed off, glaring at me a second before his gaze moved to the entry.

  Valerie stood with her arms crossed, sending her own glare, but this time it wasn’t aimed at me.

  “He really didn’t have a choice in the matter,” she said and stepped into the room.

  It wasn’t entirely true; I probably could have stopped if I wanted to.

  She shot her loaded gaze in my direction raising her eyebrows in jest, to my train of thought. I offered a one shoulder shrug and then she shot her dagger-like eyes back to Damian. “So, if you’re going to go on one of your tirades, it better damned well be directed at me, not him.”

  Holy hotness, she was a fireball and I couldn’t help but smile and be thankful her fury wasn’t aimed at me.

  “Besides, he was the one who bet on me. You were ready to write me off.”

  Ah, the real reason for her wrath and I leaned back in my chair watching the show unfold, wondering if it was going to be a comedy or tragedy.

  My analogy drew a smirk on Damian’s face and he slid his gaze to me. The redness in his face had tempered a bit and he pulled the bottle from the baby’s mouth, propping him on his shoulder for a burp before meeting Valerie’s stark stare again.

  “You have to understand...” he started.

  Colossal mistake.

  “I don’t have to understand a fucking thing,” she growled. “I’ve known you all my life and you gave up. I’ve only known him for what, three days? Three days and he had enough faith to believe saving me was possible.”

  “Faith has nothing to do with it. He wanted to get you into bed. That’s it.”

  “Bullshit!” she yelled. “He chose to save me, you didn’t. What would Michael think of that?”

  Damian winced. She nailed a nerve and he looked down at the angel’s namesake with an expression full of regret.

  “Or did you just choose to give up on him, too?” she asked, her fury pulling the low blow.

  “Wait a minute, Val, that’s not fair,” I piped in. “I was there, what Michael and Gabriel did was to save Naomi and the babies regardless of the consequences.”

  “You don’t need to defend me,” Damian said.

  I glanced at him. “You didn’t kill them. You didn’t kill my father, either. They made the choice. As much as we’d like to take the blame, it was their choice.”

  “Yes. But she’s right. I gave up on her and you didn’t. It was my choice and I chose my children.”

  His words were like a blow in Valerie’s mid-section and she reached for the wall. A blend of aggravation and understanding ran through her as her gaze moved from him to his child.

  “I would have made the same choice if it had been Naomi,” he said and her gaze jumped back to his. “I didn’t believe banishment spells worked and you’re damned lucky it did because I would have dropped you in the middle of the Atlantic otherwise.” His mouth curled into a frown. “I would have hated myself forever, but I would have done it.”

  Her mouth dropped open and her eyes glazed over with tears.

  “You’ll understand someday,” he said and stood, leaving us alone in the living room.

  Her horrified gaze snapped to me and I stood, crossing and taking her in my arms. Her last vestige of family ties unraveled and she hugged me tightly, retreating into herself and she began to rebuild the wall I broke down last night.

  “Please, don’t shut me out,” I whispered feeling her pull away.

  She tilted her head up, meeting my gaze.

  “How can I trust anyone?”

  I smoothed her hair back and gazed into her eyes. When I kissed her, I opened up my mind to her. Everything I kept locked in the dark corners, things that didn’t transfer with my memories. My fears, the hurt, the betrayals, the loneliness, everything that molded me into the man I was. Things I didn’t even share with Tom, I shared with her and when the kiss broke, she stared at me.

  “Colossal mind fuck,” she whispered.

  I smiled and shrugged. “Now you know me better than anyone on earth, better than even my brother.”

  She cupped my cheek and gave me a small peck on the lips, knowing just how much I opened up, but her eyes still held doubt.

  “What do I need to do?” I asked, my smile fading at the blockade building between us.

  “I don’t know,” she said and pulled out of my arms.

  I stared after her as she walked back inside the house with the rest of the family. Instead of following, I went upstairs and jumped in the shower to wash off the irritation building under my skin. It wasn’t easy for me to open up, either, and to get so brutally shot down just fed into my insecurities. And I hated that I had insecurities to begin with.
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br />   The shift of air interrupted my destructive train of thought.

  “I didn’t shoot you down,” Valerie said.

  “Then what was that?” I gestured toward the main part of the house.

  “That was me freaking out.” She leaned against the wall. “It doesn’t happen often,” she said and a dimple appeared in her cheek. “But since I’ve met you, I’ve had my fair share of freak outs.”

  I finished rinsing my body and turned the water off, reaching for a towel before addressing her comment. “I thought you didn’t freak out.” It wasn’t a question, just an open ended statement.

  “You unhinge me,” she said and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Stop laughing at me,” she snipped and turned toward the door.

  I grabbed her arm. “Then we’re even,” I said and she spun toward me. I cornered her against the door. “Unhinged is as good a word as anything to describe what I’m like around you.” I stepped closer. “I have a bitch of a time forming a coherent thought and become a bumbling fool when I’m near you. I’m a fucking genius for god’s sake, and yet, with you I feel like I have an I.Q. of an infant.” I was mad now.

  “Calm down,” she said and put her palms on my chest. Just her touch shut my brain down for a moment and I stepped back, giving us both some breathing room so I could get my thoughts together from jumble land.

  “I opened up to you, and you shut down on me.”

  “I’m not very good at this,” she said.

  “No shit.” I couldn’t help the sarcasm. It was my favorite default and she knew it.

  Her arms crossed and her stormy eyes darkened. “You aren’t exactly the smoothest, either.”

  I laughed and took another step back. I knew it was a way to psychologically put distance between us and her eyes narrowed. She called it before the words formed and I put my hands up in surrender.

  “You started the barricade. I’ll finish it because I don’t want to be crushed beyond recognition.”

  She stepped toward me and I steeled myself against the need to give in. She froze and drew her hand back slowly.

  “You could destroy me,” I said, meeting her gaze, not really understanding how it could be such a solid fact with so little time invested. I didn’t want this type of dependency. I guess mind fuck was really a good term to put to this overwhelming certainty.