Magic and Mayhem: Wicked Is As Wicked Does (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Cherie Marks

This time he did give me a big, cheeky grin, which spread to his eyes, making them sparkle with humor, and my traitorous body reacted. My cheeks heated, and I felt waves of warmth flowing through my body, centralizing right at the spot where my legs met. I couldn’t seem to look away from him, and I knew I was in serious trouble.

  He shook his head and said, “Because I wanted to lighten the tension and maybe see you panic at the thought of seeing my bare, naked ass.”

  “What? Well, aren’t you a bundle of laughs.” My gaze dropped to his ass then, and it occurred to me that I wouldn’t exactly complain at seeing it right now. Might’ve even been slightly excited, simply because he’d jumpstarted my curiosity. Now, I kind of felt cheated that he wasn’t going to follow through.

  “What size?”

  “Hmmm?” Immediately my mind strayed into dirty territory. No to pinky-sized but no King Kong sized ones either. I mean, I certainly wasn’t greedy when it came to male members. Just needed a guy who knew how to use what he had.

  “What size bathing suit do you wear?”

  “Bathing suit? Oh, of course. What was I thinking?” I laughed nervously then remembered that I hadn’t said any of my dirty thoughts out loud. “Size four…maybe a six…okay, okay, I wear an eight.”

  “It’s not an auction. Give me one number.”

  “Eight. Honestly, I’m an eight.”

  “Okay. I’ll be back in just about thirty seconds with a suit in your size. Stay put and stay out of trouble.” He held his hands out like he was ready to take out two large platters in a restaurant, still wearing that knee-weakening grin. Just before he disappeared, he said, “And for the record, I’m not pinky-sized and I’m no King Kong. And I know exactly how to use what I have.” Then he was gone.

  I knew it! He could read my mind.

  True to his word, he was back within seconds, a red string bikini still on the hanger in his right hand. I marched around the car and shoved a finger into his chest. “Stay out of my head. I consider that an invasion of my privacy, and I don’t like it.”

  “I usually can block your thoughts easily, but when you looked at me like I was dessert and you were starving, I had to listen in to make sure you weren’t planning to devour me, non-sexually, of course. Imagine my surprise when I hear your thoughts trying to figure out my measurements.” He couldn’t seem to stop grinning now. “Maybe I’m the one who should feel violated.”

  “Shut up and give me the bathing suit.”

  He handed it over, and as I held it up between us, it occurred to me that if he’d paid much for this, he’d been cheated. It couldn’t have been more than an eighth of a yard of fabric.

  “What’s this?”

  His palm over his mouth hid his smile as he explained, “I had to pick quickly. Wasn’t sure who might be lurking and ready to pounce on you the minute I stepped away. I’m sure it will work for our purposes.”

  I motioned to the board shorts he held in his other hand. “I see you didn’t snag a banana hammock for yourself. Must’ve missed those in your hurry.”

  He shrugged, a half-smile still on his face. “Let’s get changed and meet in the water.” It occurred to me as we moved in opposite directions that he was really enjoying this. And, if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t hate hanging with him, even if the circumstances weren’t ideal.

  He was nice to look at, and I liked his sense of humor. He seemed to be a decent guy, even if he was a warlock. One of my earliest memories of my mother was of her telling me never to date a warlock, not that I planned to date Dane Calvin. I didn’t at all, but the fact that he was supposedly bad for me only seemed to make him that much more attractive.

  I ducked behind some high bushes and removed my clothes. The suit fit perfectly—if I were a stripper. The top had two triangles that barely covered my nipples, matter alone the rest of my breasts, and my breasts weren’t even that generous. If I tugged them down to cover the undersides of my tits, the top of the triangle revealed the arch of my areolas. There really was no way to wear the top without exposing something.

  The bottoms weren’t much better. A thong that accentuated the roundness of my ass, there was no pulling it one way or the other to cover anything. I was raised to be modest, but I left a lot of that behind when Clooney and I went to California. Yet, I wasn’t ready to walk out there in basically band-aids covering my bits and pieces. I grabbed my white t-shirt and pulled it on over my head. The hem covered about half my ass and the water would make it see-through, but it was better than nothing.

  I grabbed my discarded clothes and shoes and made my way to the water’s edge. Dane was already there and standing waist-deep, sweeping his hands back and forth slowly on the water’s surface.

  He dipped his chin and lowered his eyebrows at the sight of me. “You don’t trust that I can control myself around you?”

  “I don’t really know you that well. And that poor excuse for a bathing suit you brought me seemed a little skeevy.”

  For a few heartbeats, he just stared intently at me, like he could see right through the t-shirt and wanted to study everything there…or not there…as the case actually was.

  “I’ll have you know, I have impeccable restraint.”

  I motioned toward my covered upper body. “Well, now you won’t have to prove it.”

  “If you get your t-shirt wet, what will you wear home?”

  “You can zap and get me a new one, or maybe, you can be a gentleman and loan me yours.”

  “Funny. I’ve been mistaken for being a gentleman about as often as I have for being a friend.”

  Touché! I followed the declining shore into the small pool of water, but it dropped off drastically when I got a little over ankle-deep. I maneuvered down until I was standing with the cool water lapping against my stomach. I sucked in a breath at the immediate discomfort but continued to make my way toward him until I was around a couple feet away.

  “So, what you got, teach?”

  I didn’t miss his eyes dipping to my chest before meeting my gaze and asking, “Don’t you want to go under so you can get used to the water?”

  I tilted my head slightly and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to mind your own business, pervert? No reason to show off everything until I absolutely have to. Now, bring it on. I’d like to get this over with some time while the sun’s still in the sky.”

  “Okay, but you’ll have to come closer, Evie.”

  “We are talking about the same kind of magic, aren’t we? The kind that doesn’t involve sex?”

  He chuckled. “Now, don’t go jumping to conclusions. I just need you to relax.”

  With slow movements, he cut the distance between us and put his hands on my shoulders. “Have you floated on your back before?”

  “Yes, but I thought this was a magic lesson, not a swimming lesson.”

  “Trust me. In this case, they are one and the same.”

  I eyed him suspiciously for a few more moments before finally giving in and laying backward in the water. I used my hands to push water under my body to maintain my buoyancy. Then, I felt his hands under my shoulders and head, cupping me underneath the water.

  “Close your eyes and just relax.”

  “Easy for you to say. You don’t have a perverted warlock standing over you.”

  But I followed his directions to the best of my ability, closing my eyes and only squinting through my eyelids a little as my muscles loosened ever so slightly.

  “Your eyes have to be shut all the way, Evie.”

  “Okay. Okay.” I did as he insisted, beginning to feel the slosh of the water over my torso as I noticed the tension of the situation melt away.

  His hands began to lift me from the water, and even though they were only stabilizing my head and shoulders, my entire body rose upward. As I felt myself clear the surface, I stopped moving my hands since I no longer needed them to stay afloat, considering I was no longer in contact with any water to float on.

  After a few moments, I hea
rd the splash of someone getting out of the water, and I started to open my eyes. But, I kept them closed because, right by my ear, Dane soothed, “Relax, Evie. Just feel the wind moving around you.

  With purpose, I concentrated on the air circulating around me and felt energy seep into the pores of my skin. Warmth flowed from the center of my chest and radiated out to my hands. I recognized the sensation immediately. It was magic, and I wasn’t panicking. It felt good and right, and I wanted more of it.

  “That’s it, Evie. It’s coming back to you,” Dane called out from a distance. But that couldn’t be right because he was holding up my body.

  In an instant, I turned around and spotted him sitting on the grassy area beside the water. I glanced down and saw that I was indeed floating above the water, about three feet above the water, and the magic holding me there was coming from my own hands. I was doing some sort of levitation spell. Except, that meant I was using my powers. I was doing magic! Oh, no! I was doing magic, and bad things happened when I did magic.

  The panic set in as my vision went blurry and my body began to quiver. I began gulping in great breaths of air, and my ears began to ring. I flailed wildly before dropping straight into the water like I’d been thrown there. I bounced against the bottom of the small lake and surfaced, choking on and spitting out the water I’d inhaled on entry. My feet slipped out from under me, and I went back under.

  Why wasn’t Dane here? How had he gotten so far away so quickly?

  He was right beside me now, scooping me out of the water and into his arms.

  “Son of a…! Where the hell…were…you, warlock?”

  He slogged through the water until he laid me out on the grass and stared down at me with fierce worry in his gaze. “What happened? Are you okay? I shouldn’t have left your side, but you were doing so well.”

  I leaned up on my elbows and stared in awe at how much he seemed to care that I’d almost swallowed half the lake.

  “I panicked when you called out from so far away.”

  “Goddess! But, I’m an idiot. Twice today I’ve failed you, Evie. I don’t doubt you will want a new instructor.”

  He seemed so genuinely upset that I couldn’t say anything for a few seconds. No one, in my memory, had ever been this concerned over me. It was, in a strange way, quite flattering. He stood and ran his hands through the sides of his hair before turning away and beginning to pace.

  “I should reach out to Baba Yaga.”

  “No, Dane. I’m fine.”

  “She could find you someone who won’t get…distracted by…well…by you.” He motioned toward the ground where I was still laying, and I looked down at the picture I gave. My white t-shirt was so transparent, it was practically non-existent, and my ridiculous excuse for a bikini was completely out of place.

  I glanced back up and swallowed at the heavy-lidded gaze staring back at me. My gaze dropped to the large bulge in the groin area of his board shorts. From the size, clearly it would’ve been hard to miss. Yes, I said it…in my head…where no one could hear it. I eyed Dane carefully. At least, I hoped no one heard it. But that’s right, I said it, and I laughed at my own play on words.

  My gaze snapped back up to his face, and I didn’t know how I was melting into a puddle with the scorching look he gave me. He scrubbed a hand over his mouth before emitting a low growl and turning away. “Goddess, this is too much. I’m going to get us both killed.”

  “Dane! Dane, calm down before you burst a blood vessel. I’m fine. I just got a little nervous, but before that, it was amazing. It felt like I had control…until I didn’t, of course. But, I think you could really teach me.”

  “Are you…sure? I mean, I don’t want to make things worse than they already are.”

  “There’s no way you could possibly make it worse.” I sat up and adjusted the triangles back over the ‘girls,’ before standing and marching back into the water. “What’re you waiting for? Let’s do it again.”

  Chapter 9

  By the end of the second full week of school, I was dragging my ass everywhere I went. I began every morning in the gym with Dane. Then, I taught my high school chemistry classes all day. Finally, Dane and I met at the waterfall for an evening magic lesson. Now that we were in September though, I wasn’t sure how long the air and water temperature would stay comfortable. Hopefully, I improved sooner rather than later. Though he assured me otherwise, I didn’t think I was getting better at controlling my powers. My anxiety was at all-time high because I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop on this one. At any time, something bad was going to happen. It was inevitable.

  Not new, was my physical reaction to Dane. At times, my defensive magic sucked outrageously because I got distracted by his lean, athletic body. Every evening was spent shirtless, and I wasn’t made of stone. I watched the undulations of his muscular chest and abdomen and tried not to let my thoughts turn to what it would be like to press little kisses to every inch of his skin. Even now, I felt the need to fan myself at the image invading my mind as I slipped my papers to take home and grade into my bag.

  “Hey, there’s disappearing act Barbie. I was wondering when I was going to see you again.” Celia stepped into my classroom, and I cringed with guilt. “Where’ve you been hanging out? You’re harder to pin down than a feather in the wind.”

  “Sorry. I’ve been working so hard on getting my curriculum just right. I know I’ve been a bad friend, but I’ll make it up to you tonight. How about we get drinks around eight? We could invite Liz, Matt, and Selena. What you say?”

  “Will Dane Calvin be there?”

  Shit! What did she know?

  I scoffed, totally convincing in my derisive sneer, surely. “Why would we invite him?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you’ve been secret lovers behind my back for a full two and a half weeks?”

  “What? That’s just crazy-talk.”

  With a twist of her lips, she pegged me for the horrible liar I was. “Just so you know, I like my baloney fried and my bullshit in the damn pasture where it belongs. Something’s been going on with you two. You’ve left work with him every day after school, and unless I’m completely mistaken, and I’m not, you’ve both gotten here early every morning. Are you really going to hold out on your best friend? I thought I was your wing woman.”

  “Look, it’s not what you think, Celia. I…got a…kind of…bad evaluation. He’s helping me fix something that I haven’t been able to master on my own. It’s in his job description that he has to help me. That’s all.”

  “Again, I don’t like bullshit. Fine! You don’t want to tell your homegirl the truth. Just remember, I have ways of making you talk.”

  Now I was genuinely perplexed. What, in the world, was she talking about?

  Time to change the subject back to something more neutral and less…Dane. “So, how about those drinks?”

  “Why wait until eight? We could go for happy hour right now.”

  Yeah, except I had a magic lesson at the lake in about thirty minutes, which I couldn’t very well admit to. I glanced into the hallway, across from my room and spotted the ubiquitous cat poster with the poor fluffball barely hanging on and the pitiful caption telling it to hang in there. I felt its pain, but it also gave me an idea.

  “I have to get home and feed Clooney. He’ll tear up the house if I don’t stick to his schedule.” I tried not to let my lack of lying skills ping her radar, but Celia certainly had a way of detecting when someone was being craptastically dishonest.

  But, this time she let it slide and said, “Alright. Let’s meet at eight. We really have to discuss this year’s crop of new teachers. There are so many incompetents. We’ll have to divide and conquer.”

  “Sounds like what the Mounters are best known for.”

  * * *

  I spotted my friends sitting around a high, circular table, but as I got closer, I slowed my approach. Something was up. They were all staring at me with their heads close together, cle
arly whispering furiously to each other. I had no doubt I was the topic of conversation. More than likely, a certain school administrator and I were giving their tongues plenty to wag about.

  As I eased up on them, I took a deep breath and gave my best, guiltless smile. Nothing to see here. Nothing to talk about.

  “Hey peeps! Looks like you got started without me.”

  Celia gave me a one-arm hug as I took the seat beside her. “We’re just so glad you’re here.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be? We talked about it this afternoon.”

  “So, what’s new with you?” Matt’s question wouldn’t normally set me on edge, but the lascivious grin that he was wearing as he asked it told me everything I needed to know.

  Maybe I should make excuses and get out of here as quickly as possible. Clearly, they were all ready to pounce and dig for details I couldn’t give. But, I’d just gotten there, and I knew walking out would just make the situation seem worse than it was.

  Instead, I shrugged and motioned for the waitress. It was time to get a drink and maybe something to eat. Difficult to talk with your mouth full of potato skins. I turned back and glimpsed the eager faces in front of me. They weren’t going to give up easily.

  “I don’t have time for anything new. Aren’t you all as busy as I am right now?”

  Selena laughed with disbelief. “Um…I wish I was as busy as you are.”

  Liz snorted and nearly spit her drink out on the table in front of us, confirming my fear that Celia had blabbed everything. I turned a cutting look her way. Her response was an unapologetic shrug. Some wing woman I had.

  “Come on. You know I wouldn’t do anything like that without dishing everything. There’s nothing going on between Da…Mr. Calvin and me.”

  Their looks were giving the clear message that they hadn’t believed a word of what I’d said. The waitress sidled up though, and I nearly hugged her in relief.

  But before I could get an order in, Celia leaned over and said, “Tequila shots for everyone and keep ‘em coming. I’m buying.” I was fairly sure she exchanged a wink with the other members of the table, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out her plan. Alcohol was Celia’s own kind of truth serum, especially tequila.