“Well nothing puts a damper on a girl’s libido like someone trying to kill her,” she snapped.
Aria laughed. “Is that what you call it?”
“Afterwards when I left the motel,” Juliet retorted. “I heard you call my name before I was attacked. You’re lucky I didn’t tell the Congress this morning.”
The Congress was involved?
Good for them and all the witches they just might be able to save.
Aria rounded the table keeping her eyes on Juliet. “Instead of making baseless accusations, why don’t you thank me for saving your life instead of screaming like a shrew?”
Juliet’s lips flattened as Aria joined her on the other side of the desk. Her perfume was light and flirty, just like Juliet, and Aria took a step closer, crowding her. Instead of fear in Juliet’s eyes, she saw hunger.
“Thank you,” she said nervously and her gaze darted away for a second.
“My pleasure,” Aria murmured. “Pissed off ex or was that a current flame?”
Juliet shook her head. “I don’t know who it was,” she said quietly, now that the shock had worn off. “She just attacked me out of nowhere. Are you a witch or something?”
“Yes.” It wasn’t a lie, just not the whole truth.
“Then you have to tell the Council about her,” Juliet’s words came out in a rush. “They’re investigating. Did you kill her?”
“She took off.”
Juliet told her and put her handbag on the table. “The Congress won’t hold killing her against you.”
“You didn’t tell them what happened to you?” Aria asked curiously.
Juliet tucked her fine ginger hair behind her ear and shrugged, a guilty look on her face. “No.”
Aria slid her hands into the pockets of her slacks. She regarded Juliet carefully wondering how much more difficult it be would for her to claim her love in this lifetime.
Aria was willing to bet Juliet wasn’t even out to her family, let alone her friends. And they’d ask questions about last night that Juliet didn’t want to answer.
“Why not?”
“I—my mother would have wanted to know what I was doing at the hotel. She’d have demanded to meet the man I was with.” Juliet moved away from her, going to the window as she rubbed her arms.
“Your mother sent you here to convince me to design the dress?” She followed in Juliet’s wake, her gaze sliding down the other woman’s slim figure.
Aria savored the sway from gently flared hips and flex of her rounded ass in the slim gray skirt. Her delicate stiff shoulders encased in a pale yellow fabric with a white peter pan collar, and matching cuffs sagged.
“Yeah.” Juliet nodded and looked at her. “But I guess you’ll tell me to take a flying leap and get my mom to back off, or you’ll tell her, right?”
“I don’t have time for those kinds of games, Juliet,” she replied.
“What kind of games do you like to play?”
Aria’s lips tilted up faintly at the glimmer of interest in Juliet’s pretty eyes. “The kind that involve me and a woman getting naked.”
Juliet frowned. “The shelter is important to the human women of the community,” Juliet told her, closing the distance between them. “The money will go to funding an educational center as well as a new dorm for runaway teenagers that the shelter is now taking in. Most of them are pregnant with nowhere else to turn.”
“Baby, I already donate to the shelter,” she said evenly.
“But this is different,” Juliet insisted softly as she moved toward her, her doe eyes threatening to draw a promise from Aria. “You’re very successful. Surely you couldn’t object to helping the needy.”
Aria knew as she dragged the violet scent of Juliet’s perfume in, let it fill her senses, this was not a game she was going to win. Her consort had always had a way of seducing her even when she didn’t want to be.
She gripped Juliet’s arms, but didn’t draw her closer. “You’re using magick?”
“No.” She gave her head a little shake and batted her lashes.
Aria’s fingers tightened reflexively and this time she did pull Juliet closer. “If I was human, you might be on your way to breaking my resolve,” she crooned and her gaze dropped to Juliet’s mouth. “As it is, sweetness, I’m still not in your thrall, so how much harder are you going to work this thing?”
Chapter Eight
Juliet’s eyes widened and then narrowed and Aria smiled. Juliet’s beautiful eyes darkened with even more ire.
“I’m not working anything,” Juliet continued in a tart tone. “I’m stating facts, Aria. You might be a witch, but I bet there was a time in your life when you were in the same place emotionally. Confused, unsure.”
“Once.” Her hands drifted from Juliet’s arms to rest on her hips. “It was a different time, Juliet.” Literally. She’d been a victim of a decimated race, growing up in the shadows of a war winding down.
“And you could have used someplace like Ivory to guide you,” Juliet murmured putting her hands on Aria’s arms to caress her lightly.
“Juli, baby, you’re not affecting my wallet, just my libido,” she told her evenly. “So how much do you want me to do this?”
Juliet frowned, cocking her head to the right a little.
“Your spell is too weak and that’s probably due to your reticence. Your tradition is probably a light one and bending wills goes against your teachings, so you weren’t formally trained in mind control, right?”
Juliet drew in a breath and let it out. “No.”
There was no regret in her clear azure eyes nor was her scent marred by the tang of a lie. Aria could smell the subtle changes in body chemistry so easily thanks to her keen sense of smell.
“So.” She caressed Juliet’s hips. “How far are you willing to go to make this happen? And before you balk—I can see it coming because you’re too sweet, think about it.”
“I’m not that sweet,” she muttered.
Aria cocked her brows. “You didn’t defend yourself nearly as well as you should have last night and I bet you know a few spells that would have hurt the woman who would have killed you,” she said angrily.
“I was surprised.” She pulled out of Aria’s grip.
“You were temporarily paralyzed by fear.”
Juliet made a face. “I’ve never been attacked by a dark breed before, but the Congress is all over this. You have to tell them anything she might have said so they can find her.”
Aria snorted. “Not happening. I don’t bow to them or the Council. I’ll just lie if you send them to my door.”
“Why? She tried to turn me into a meal!”
Aria extended a hand and sent out a wave of blue air. The breeze snaked around Juliet, and she gasped, batting at it. Aria contracted her hand and the air rushed forward pulling a startled squeal from Juliet.
The breeze pushed her quarry right up to her and Aria gripped her hips again. There was something so familiar and right about it, like her hands belonged there. She lowered her head and Juliet’s heartbeat filled her ears.
“Again I say, what are you willing to do to get my agreement?”
“What do you want me to do?” she asked huskily.
“I want you in my bed from now until your auction.”
“I—no way!”
“No pussy, no dress.”
“You’re not that primitive,” she snapped incredulously as she tried to pull out of Aria’s hold and failed.
Aria laughed and released her. “Think it over and get back to me. Now, in the meantime, I have a collection to finish. Call the office when you’ve made up your mind. I think your mother has the number.”
Juliet stared at her in disbelief and Aria was sure she appreciated the irony of her statement.
“Out, baby. Now, before I lose control and feast off your delicious body.”
“You wouldn’t force me,” she said in a whisper.
“No, but I might seduce you.”
***
*
“No pussy, no dress.”
She couldn’t say that to her mother. Juliet stared up at the brick two-story building that housed Hartspun twenty minutes later.
How was she going to explain to her mother she’d failed?
And her stinking love spell had more than manifested, if not quite the way she’d expected.
Juliet swallowed tightly as she shook her head. How was she going to get out of this mess?
She could nullify the spell to start with and then go back to Aria’s, but did she have that kind of time? It would take a day or two for the spell to fizzle, but that just left her closer to the auction with no agreement.
And who said it was all the magick anyway?
Aria hadn’t seemed in the least affected by the subtle spell she’d done on site.
Juliet growled and banged her fists on the steering wheel.
She had only one choice. Get Aria’s number or just go back over to her office. She’d have to explain to her mother why she needed the number.
She climbed out of her car and headed inside going straight to her office. She had to meet with the event planner to check on the building.
“How’d it go?” Samantha was in her office within seconds after Juliet entered it.
She faced her mother as she put her purse on her desk.
“Did you get her to change her mind?”
“I went, but she wouldn’t see me,” she said evenly. “She told me to call back later for an appointment.”
“I’ll get you her number,” Samantha said quickly. “Did you get the impression she might be receptive?”
“Yes.” She smiled. More than, as long as she was willing to play bed bunny but—but why should that bother her so much?
She craved heat and passion and Aria had given her a taste last night. She’d gone home satisfied and sated. The only problem was, she woke this morning burning for more. If she did what Aria wanted, she would get more of the toe-curling sex she ached for.
“I’ll text it to you,” Samantha said with a grin. “I knew you could do it. Take her out for drinks.”
“Okay. I’ll call and set that up as soon as you get me her number.”
Samantha rushed from her office and Juliet got the text message a minute later. She made the call deciding it was better to get it over with before she lost her nerve.
“Miss Hart, I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon,” Aria said coolly.
The coolness irritated her for reasons Juliet didn’t understand, but it felt like distance, a wall she wanted to scale.
“You don’t have to do anything now except design the dress, and make it for the wedding.”
“I have a lot of work to do before quitting time today, so why don’t we meet for drinks at your place? You can give me your best pitch then. I’ll give you fifteen minutes to win me over.”
“What time?”
“Seven and if you don’t convince me, you’ll have to get what you need someplace else because I won’t be taking any more calls from you or your mother.”
“I’ll see you then.”
“Give your address to my secretary, and Juli, don’t try to use magick on me tonight.”
Juliet gave her address to the secretary and hung up.
She leaned back in her chair contemplating how she would handle things tonight. She’d thought it would be great if her one-night-stand wanted more than one night and Aria had asked for that.
She was glad, but didn’t want it to be on those terms.
“Juliet?” Samantha entered her office with a hopeful smile. “Well?”
“Drinks tonight.”
“I want you to be careful moving around at night,” Samantha told her. “There might be a dark breed coven in the city.”
“Okay,” she said debating whether to tell her mother about last night’s attack.
Samantha studied her. “Juliet, I’m really starting to worry about you. You don’t seem to show much interest in men anymore and it’s not because you’re working late or anything.”
Juliet shrugged. “I just haven’t met any man I like.” An understatement.
“It’s important that you produce an heir, and you can’t do that if you’re not dating. You’re the guardian of magick that will only get stronger. Dark men will be able to sense your power and only try to kill you for it.”
“I know the history, Mother, but nothing in it states that I have to marry a man,” she said quietly.
“I’m going to set you up with someone tomorrow night. He’s from a strong magical family and looking for a wife, so be open to him,” Samantha ordered. “You know the magick of mid-summer is perfect for beginning love.”
She wanted her consort to be a woman and someone who wouldn’t want her for her magical lineage. They could hire a surrogate later when they were ready for children.
“I don’t want to have to turn my attentions from you and groom one of your cousins, but if you don’t take a consort this year, I’ll have to consider investing in someone who wants to carry on the family’s legacy.”
She knew which of her cousins her mother would choose and it irked her. She was even more upset that her mother’s support was contingent on her being straight.
“Does that mean I’ll never have a chance to run the business?” she asked quietly.
“No, but you don’t show enough promise to say that I’m thinking about putting you in charge of anything major anytime soon.”
She nodded, anger sizzling in her stomach. “So, you’ll have Alice run the business and take over leadership of the coven when it’s time?” she demanded. Her cousin was already handling bigger accounts than she was.
“Yes.”
“I’m not surprised. I’m just not sure why you didn’t have her approach Brees. I’m sure she’d have her agreement rather than a maybe.” She got to her feet.
“I know you’re upset, it’s time you face facts, Juliet,” Samantha told her. “The witch world respects truth and confidence which you don’t exactly ooze.”
“So true, so I better ooze my butt out of here so Alice can take her place,” she spat and stormed from the room.
“Juliet, don’t be so childish,” Samantha called from behind her. “You still have work to do.”
“Let Alice handle it. I’m sure she’ll get my work and hers done in a snap.” She screamed the words and collided with Alice on her way to the front door.
Alice let out a cry as she stumbled back.
“Where’s the fire?” Alice teased.
She glared at her cousin and stalked out, shoving the door harder than she’d intended, her anger a pulsing thing that caused the glass of the door to shudder and crack.
Juliet gasped and tried to reign in her anger. Her hands burned, and she rubbed them together in hopes of breaking up the energy.
“Juliet,” Alice came out after her. “What’s wrong?”
“You know what’s wrong,” she snapped as she whipped around to glare at her. “You’ve been trying to take my place since we were kids. Did it never occur to you that I wanted my own life, my own mother?”
“Honey, I don’t know what’s got you so upset, but I never meant to do anything to hurt you. I love you.” Alice tried to touch her and Juliet jerked her hands back.
“You love making me a project and fixing me up, you love trying to change me, but you don’t love me.” She tapped a finger to her chest. “Well, it ends here and you can just stop trying so hard to impress my mother because you’ve arrived.”
“Juliet, you’re not making sense,” Alice said softly as she gently touched her arm. “I only do the things I do to help you.”
“Like when you stole my ideas and pitched them as yours? I didn’t hear you giving me the credit for suggesting someone famous design the wedding dress for this year’s giveaway either.”
“You’re not driving in this condition,” Alice told her firmly.
“That’s the one thing you can’t take over,” she muttered. �
�My decisions.” Juliet shoved Alice and a wall of fire rose between the two of them.
“Juliet!” Alice screamed.
Juliet gasped, stunned. She’d never done a fire wall spell before, despite Alice’s attempts to teach her. She snapped out of her surprise and raced to her car.
Juliet unlocked the door and climbed in as she fought back tears, but she couldn’t stop the anger gnawing a path through her heart.
With shaking hands, she shoved the key into the ignition not sure where she was going. One thing was for sure, she had to get away from here.
Chapter Nine
“Carrel is dead.”
“I know,” Voltaire retorted blandly from behind his desk. Carrel had been the only half-breed in his coven who had a limited control of the air element as well.
One day, he’d planned to kill her and take the powers on for his own. Too bad he wouldn’t get them now.
“I don’t understand what went wrong,” Tucker murmured. “She was more than capable of carrying out the task.” He shook his head, his face a mask of sorrow.
“The Light Congress is investigating this as a possible dark breed on dark breed killing with one coven seeking to gain favor with Kryto,” Voltaire repeated what Necron had told him earlier.
Tucker frowned. “If they suspect—why does he think it’s us?”
“I don’t know, but Necron is trying to find out what Dillon knows and why the conclusion was reached.”
“Do you want me to launch a quiet investigation?” Tucker asked.
“I just want you to find out if Juliet has a lover who could be a problem,” Voltaire told him. “Carrel was found at the No Tell so I’m assuming Juliet wasn’t there because she wanted to spend some time alone. This lover might be a rival and a threat. I want him eliminated.”
“We might be able to blackmail her into a relationship with Morgan,” Tucker said. “If she’s keeping the guy secret from Sam, he might be someone she doesn’t approve of.”
“Too big a risk of exposure,” he said. “Send a PI to the motel with a cover story. I don’t want to blow things now.” If Sam got it into her head that he was a dark breed all bets would be off.
Taken by the Wind Page 5