by Lane Hart
Speaking of my only friend, Rowan and I have been meeting every night except for last night’s full moon, spending more and more time together. We talk about everything and nothing, and he makes me laugh. Eventually, he always gives in and kisses me, even though I know he still feels like we shouldn’t be messing around together or that I’m too inexperienced. Either way, he does cave, and for that I’m glad because the way I feel in Rowan’s arms is…magical.
Tonight, I’m hoping I can convince him to do more than just kiss me. I want his hands on me, but he has yet to touch my skin. I can’t help but wonder if part of his hesitation has to do with how he still cares for and misses his ex-fiancée.
“There you are!” Rowan says when his flashlight lands on me. “You were walking so quietly I could barely hear your footsteps.”
“Hey,” I say in greeting. He lays his light down on the boulder, then picks me up off my feet into a fierce bear hug while I grasp onto his thick biceps.
“I missed you last night. I hate having to shift even once a month,” Rowan says before his lips press a kiss to my temple. When I turn my head toward his, our mouths meet and engage in a deep, passionate kiss. He tastes yummy, like cinnamon, probably thanks to the stick of gum he chewed after smoking a cigarette.
And finally, finally, his large hands roam over my clothes, first upward to cup my breasts gently before moving down to grip my hips, pulling me against his lower body. In one quick move, he grabs my bottom through my skirt and lifts to encourage me to wrap my legs around his waist. My breath catches during our kiss when I feel both of his palms slip up the back of my thighs, his skin on mine. When he squeezes my bare butt cheeks, Rowan groans into my mouth.
“No panties. You’re killing me, witch.”
“I’m ready,” I whisper against his lips, meaning for him to take my virginity.
“No, you’re not.”
Even though he said I’m the one who is not ready, I think he’s the one who isn’t just yet.
Rowan
Harper is going to be the death of me.
I know this, and yet I can’t seem to stop meeting her at night or kissing her even though I’m way too old for her. But being with her goes beyond logic. It feels…good. And good isn’t exactly something I’ve had a lot of lately.
So maybe I’m greedy and taking advantage of her when I know I’m just an escape in a bad situation.
Although, Harper is the one who showed up in her short academy skirt and no panties.
Despite what she says, she’s not ready for us to take things any further. I’m not quite there yet either.
When I’m with Harper, I feel guilty, not just because she’s young and off-limits, but because I haven’t been with anyone since Rachel. She’s moved on, though, and so should I.
Easier said than done.
“I want you inside of me,” Harper says as she works her core on the bulge of my pants, which I admit makes it a little easier to imagine being with someone other than my former fiancée. In fact, my dick wants to know what the fuck I’m waiting for, while my head tries to convince me to put her down and stop touching her.
A compromise is made when I sit Harper down on the edge of the boulder.
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“Getting inside of you,” I reply.
“Oh. Right-right now?” And there it is, the hesitation and uncertainty in her voice. She isn’t ready for sex, no matter what she may think.
“Right now, darlin’. But I’m not fucking you tonight.”
“Then what?” she inquires before I slant my mouth over hers, silencing her questions. She came out to the woods without panties because she needs something from me, and I intend to give it to her.
Once Harper relaxes again, I place my palm on her knee and slowly skim it up her thigh, underneath her skirt, giving her a chance to understand my intention and object. She doesn’t. The pad of my thumb reaches her pussy first, barely brushing over her slit. I swallow her soft moan that I take to mean she liked my touch and wants me to keep going. Up and down, up and down my thumb goes, making her gasp and squirm a little each time, but Harper doesn’t tell me to stop or push my hand away. She grows wetter by the second until my thumb is coated. I use the moisture to rub her swollen clit.
“You like that?” I ask her, just to be certain.
“Mm-hmm,” she mutters and nods her head eagerly.
And fuck, I’m so hard that my dick may rip the zipper from my uniform pants. But tonight is just about making Harper feel good. Giving her a little taste of what she thinks she wants to help her decide.
Since she’s all in for the moment, I keep my thumb circling her clit and start wiggling my index finger along her pussy lips, pressing forward each time until I’m prodding her tight entrance. Fuck, she’s burning up and dripping wet, which is so damn hot. I ease my fingertip inside of her, stroking her inner walls while my thumb continues its assault. When one of Harper’s hands clamps down around my forearm that’s between her legs, I think it may be too much. But instead of pulling me away, she bears down.
“Rowan! Oh…oh god,” she exclaims in a rush right before her pussy starts clenching around my finger as she gets off on it. Her head is thrown back, eyes shut as her body trembles. She’s beautiful and so sexy that it hurts. No, literally I’m in pain. My balls ache so badly that they may actually be turning blue. And I know that, as soon as Harper leaves me tonight, I’ll be taking myself in my hand, thinking about her in this moment right now and all the times I plan to make her come in the future.
For once, there’s something to look forward to in my future, and I owe it all to the little witch who somehow got a grip on my heart and refuses to let it go.
Chapter 12
Kingston
“How is our witch settling in?” my father asks after he summoned me to his office.
“Fine,” I answer as I lower myself onto one of the sofas, resting my ankle on one knee and throwing my arm over the back because I know the lazy posture offends him.
“Any idea on the whereabouts of her mother and father?”
“No, she’s never mentioned them,” I say, even though I wouldn’t tell him if she had.
“Two guards showed up at the address the school had on file and the house was empty.”
“Wow. That’s a shame,” I mutter. I’m sure my father was looking forward to finding the couple and throwing them in the dungeon for hiding a witch from the coven masters. I swear he gets off on other people’s pain.
“She’s attending her classes with you regularly?” he asks.
“Yes.”
“And she’s been sleeping in her room every night?”
“Yes.”
“It’s been over a week. Have you started wooing her?”
“No, Father, I haven’t wooed her,” I tell him with a roll of my eyes.
“Kingston, you need to be the one to put a child in her. It’ll be the most powerful supernatural being in centuries!”
“No thanks,” I tell him, keeping my face blank because I don’t want him to know how much I actually do want Harper.
“You have no idea how lucky you are to come across a witch while you’re both in your prime,” he says.
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want her, and she doesn’t want me.”
“If I were younger,” he starts, making me wince because I have a feeling I know where this conversation is going. “I would’ve taken her already, created life, a daughter and son so strong no one could stop them.”
“You are greatly disturbed, you know that?” I sneer at him.
“And you’re a disgrace!” he shouts at me. “I ask you to do one thing, and you’re too stubborn, too set on disobeying me that you don’t see what a gift she is!”
“Please just leave us alone. She’s too young for motherhood and forcing the issue is only going to make her hate us more. Hate doesn’t exactly lead to romantic nights in bed, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“If one
of those weaklings knock her up first, you’re going to regret it!” he roars.
And unfortunately, he is right about that. The thought of Harper with one of the other warlocks is nauseating because I want to be her first, her first lover and the first to impregnate her. But I won’t let my father and the masters rush her into anything she’s not ready for. Until she comes to me, I’ll just have to sate my needs another way, the one that’s been working well for the past few months. The one that if my father found out about, he would gladly hand me over to the human police and watch as they burn me alive.
“Are we done?” I ask him when I stand up and look at the watch on my wrist. “Harper is probably waiting for me,” I say since it’s time for her potions lesson.
“Go,” he says with a wave of his hand. “And I’ll be watching.”
“Watch away, just don’t try and interfere,” I warn him. He may think he’s the most powerful warlock alive, but he’s sadly mistaken. I’ve grown more powerful than he can ever know until I win Harper over; because if he finds out before, I’ll have to explain exactly how that happened.
“Witches can only birth other female witches with a human, while warlocks can only birth other male warlocks with a human,” I tell the senior warlock class and Harper two hours later as I begin our lesson. Looking to the witch, I add, “That’s why it’s so important for us to have found our own witch. Now, does anyone know what gender you get when a witch and a warlock mate?”
Marshall raises his hand and I nod at him to answer. “Can the baby be either?” he asks.
“No. The couple will actually conceive both, a boy and a girl. Fraternal twins,” I say and let that bit of information sink in. “Does anyone know when the last recorded case of witch and warlock twins was recorded?”
Another hand raises. “Yes, Diego?”
“All the way back in 1816.”
“That is correct,” I respond, and Harper’s arm immediately shoots up in the air. “Question, Harper?”
“Yeah,” she replies. “Does he mean 1816 as in the year?”
“That’s right.”
“How can you be so sure that the last twins were born over two hundred years ago?”
“Because the coven documents these things,” I explain. “There’s a registry of witches, warlocks, and all of their births. Warlocks and witches haven’t reproduced together since the last set of twins.”
“Is the coven omniscient?” she asks, sounding a touch sarcastic.
“Of course not.”
“Then there could be a lot of twins they don’t know about,” Harper says.
The warlocks in class all look at her like she’s beautiful but crazy since the masters have their own secretive ways of searching the world for witches and warlocks that even I don’t fully understand.
“The coven makes it a point to know these things. It’s nearly impossible to hide a witch past puberty, much less a coupling of a witch and a known warlock.”
“It was possible until a vampire kidnapped me.”
Now some of the boys chuckle.
Clearing my throat, I tell her, “We can continue this discussion after class. Privately.”
And unfortunately that pronouncement causes excitement to bubble up inside of me since we’ve already finished potions. I enjoy being alone with Harper, more so than I know I should. More than she enjoys being alone with me I’m sure. She’s not attracted to me in any way but maybe a tiny bit physically, and even then she stays far enough away from me that we won’t accidently touch.
But I didn’t imagine the jolt of heat from her finger the first night we met. If she wasn’t at least a little bit interested in me, her touch would’ve been lukewarm at best. That little trick makes it impossible for a witch or warlock to feign a sexual interest when there is none. Thank fuck I’ve never been attracted to any of the coven masters as many times as I’ve had to shake their hands. I’m assuming the same principle applies to witches.
The bell finally rings while I’m still churning that over, and the warlocks all jump up and grab their books, fleeing the room as fast as possible.
“You’re wrong about the twins,” Harper says from her seat once the last student leaves and we’re alone.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Sorry to break it to you, but you and the coven masters are very, very wrong.”
“What makes you, a witch who didn’t know of her species until days ago, so certain of that?” I challenge when I take a seat on the desk in front of hers.
“Forget it. It doesn’t matter,” she says when she stands up and closes her book.
“Now you’ve got me curious, so you have to tell me.”
“I can’t.”
When she starts to leave, I call out, “There’s a truth serum that could make you talk”, causing her to freeze with her back to me. And I have to say that I’ve never been a bigger fan of the uniforms than I have lately seeing Harper’s heart-shaped ass in the short red and black pleated skirt.
“No, there’s not,” she replies over her shoulder. “If there was, then the coven masters would’ve given it to me by now to get the information about my parents.”
“They don’t know that I have one that works. Their blood was never strong enough. Mine is.”
“How is that possible?” she asks. “I thought you said that warlocks get weaker every generation.”
“They do. But there are other ways to become more powerful, ways in which the masters have never tried and probably never will try, not even for the major benefit it provides.”
Turning all the way around with her books clutched to her chest, she asks, “How?”
“I’ll tell you my secret if you’ll tell me yours,” I say since she’s obviously interested in gaining strength. Maybe she thinks she could get strong enough to get out of here. She’s likely wrong, but I won’t tell her that.
“Do you promise you won’t tell anyone, especially your father and the masters?” she asks.
“Yes. As long as you’ll make me the same promise.”
Harper shuts the classroom door, locks it and then hurries over to me with her pinky out. “Pinky promise?” she asks with a half-smile gracing her lips.
“I’ll do you one better,” I say, pulling my small pocket knife out and slicing a small cut along the pad of my thumb. A few dark crimson beads of blood leak out, nowhere near as dark as Harper’s blood that had dried in her bandage the night they found her, but darker than my father’s has ever been. “May I?” I ask, nodding to her hand.
She places her books on the desk next to the one I’m sitting on and then holds out her thumb. “It’ll only hurt for a second,” I assure her before I make a similar cut on her thumb.
“Ouch,” she hisses and jerks away when I’m done, bright red drops running from the cut. Fucking hell I hope we weren’t wrong about her since there’s no sign of the black inky blood now.
“Press it to my wound,” I instruct her, eager to feel her skin on mine again, to see if there’s any heat there or if she’s gone cold when it comes to the thought of being with me.
I watch in what seems like slow motion as she moves closer, her body nearly standing between my spread legs in order to cover my wound with her own.
“Oh fuck!” I shout when our blood and skin converge, nearly pulling away because it feels like she’s scalding me through my skin, down to the bone, incinerating the veins and everything in between.
Harper doesn’t pull away; but when I look up at her face, there are beads of sweat on her brow, which means she feels it too.
“Repeat after me,” I say before I forget the reason why we’re doing this. “I swear I will not speak, write, or communicate your secret in any other form unless this blood oath is broken.”
“Seriously?” Harper asks.
“Just say it.”
She repeats the words and then both of our cuts are healed as if the knife never touched them. All that’s left behind is a few drops of blood smeared on
our thumbs, a distinctly black color that must have changed after our connection. There’s no doubt in my mind now that she’s a witch, a powerful one who wants to get naked with me even if she’ll never admit it to me or herself.
“You first. Out with it,” she says through panting breathes, her choice of words somewhat ironic.
“You felt that exchange of heat between us just now. Well, when two of our kind are…intimate, there’s also an exchange of power. Or maybe exchange isn’t the right word since neither lose any strength, but both gain it. What I mean is, it’s like a surge of energy occurs and it happens every time.”
“I don’t understand,” Harper says with her brow furrowed. “How could you have been with other witches when I’m the first one they’ve found in a bunch of years?”
“I didn’t say I’ve been with a witch…” I trail off.
“Oh,” she says before her lips forms the word and her emerald eyes widen. “Oh!”
“The masters are not open-minded and would never condone two warlocks together, not even if they knew the full benefits.”
“So you like men?”
“Men and women,” I amend. “Although lately I’ve been with men because the way it feels to get that burst of power is better than with females.”
“Warlocks?”
“Yes. And only those who are at least eighteen and consent, of course,” I add. “I would know if they didn’t with a single touch.”
“How would you know?”
“Just like you can see a human or warlock’s erection, you can also feel a warlock’s arousal in the heat of their touch. Or a witch’s arousal, as the case with you may be.”
“What do you mean? That you know if I…if I’m, ah, well, um…”
“Down to fuck, as the human kids say?” I finish for her, causing her cheeks to rosy right up. “Yes. But no pressure. I know you’re not ready.”