by Ashlyn Chase
***
While Roz was at the courthouse, trying to change the date of the big trial to a waxing or waning moon, Konrad decided he should bone up on the law. Unfortunately he didn’t have any law books, so he pulled out his copy of John Grisham’s The Jury.
He remembered enjoying the story the first time he’d read it, but now he was a defendant. I might as well prepare myself for the inevitable.
He had barely started reading when he heard a commotion from upstairs. It sounded like women yelling, and not in ecstasy, so he put down the book and hoped the witches weren’t killing each other again.
“I should mind my own business,” he said out loud.
He retrieved the book and tried to read. After he had scanned the same sentence three times, he realized it was no use. He had to intervene.
Upon opening his door, he was able to identify the voices. Yup. Morgaine and Gwyneth were at it again. Suddenly a new voice was added to the cacophony. Joe?
“Look, it’s not her fault. I told her I like to listen,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean she should forward all the calls to your apartment. I didn’t receive a single phone call for two days. I thought all my customers deserted me. Instead I find out my dear cousin is stealing them!”
“It ain’t like that, Morgaine.”
“Oh, yeah? Then what is it like?”
“Like Joe said, he likes to listen to me handle the sex calls.”
Joe cleared his throat. “If you ladies will excuse me…” He retreated to his apartment and closed the door.
“So you just did it because you were being nice to him and didn’t think about how that would affect me?”
“Yeah. I’m not mean, just stupid sometimes.”
Morgaine covered her mouth as if trying not to laugh.
“I see you smirkin’.” Gwyneth advanced on her cousin, but Konrad inserted himself between them.
“Hold on, you two.”
Morgaine peered around him and continued to talk to Gwyneth as if there weren’t a six-foot-four-inch werewolf standing between them. “Why not just invite Joe to our apartment?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“On account o’ he gets horny from all the dirty talk comin’ out of my mouth. Then he just has to start—”
Konrad cleared his throat. “Not to change the subject or anything, but I thought Joe was moving out.”
“He is.”
“What?” Morgaine seemed shocked. “I thought you changed his mind.”
“Well, he changed it back.”
Konrad folded his arms. “It might be for the best. You two have been fighting ever since he moved in. You were the best of friends before that. Isn’t that true?” He looked from one witch to the other. “I never heard fights in the hallway before.”
At last Morgaine answered. “We’ve had our disagreements, but not like this.”
Gwyneth sniffed. “You liked me better when you were my teacher. Now I find I can do things on my own that you can’t, like writin’ dirty books.”
Morgaine lowered her voice. “Yeah, how will you do that, if Joe moves out and can’t correct your grammar for you?”
“I’ll think of somethin’. Maybe Konrad here can do it. You used to be a teacher, didn’t ya, Konrad?”
He held up both hands and took a step back. “I’m not getting involved in anything that might make one of you furious or my girlfriend insecure.”
“Aw.” Gwyneth tipped her head. “Y’all are a right stand-up guy, Konrad. I wish I had someone as dedicated to me as y’all are to Roz.”
“What about Joe?” Morgaine asked.
“That was just sex.”
“Ah-ha! You finally admitted you were just using him!”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
Dottie appeared at the stair landing and called, “What’s going on up there?”
Gwyneth leaned over the railing. “None of your bees—”
Konrad slapped a hand over Gwyneth’s mouth. “Just a little disagreement, Dottie. I’m sure the girls will work it out.”
“Well, do it quietly, for God’s sake. I can’t hear myself think.”
As soon as the door slammed, Morgaine snorted. “Dottie thinks?”
Konrad smiled. “I guess now that she’s a magazine writer, she needs to use her brain.”
Gwyneth’s eyes widened. “She’s a what?”
“A writer.”
Gwyneth practically flew down the stairs, not bad for a witch without a broom.
Morgaine groaned.
Konrad scratched his head. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told her that, since she was looking for someone to edit her books.”
“What’s that, Chad?” Morgaine cupped her ear. “He says Dottie will do it. He heard her offer to help Jason write his memoirs.”
Konrad stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry. I totally didn’t see that coming.”
“No worries.” Morgaine tipped her head. “Hang on, Chad has something else to say.” She chuckled. “He said that once Dottie reads Gwyneth’s erotic novels, she’ll probably jump Ralph’s bones, and maybe that’ll help her relax.”
“Hey, can you ask Chad something for me, since you’re talking with him right now?”
Morgaine paused a moment and laughed. “He said, ‘Sure.’ Go ahead and ask him yourself. He’s invisible, not deaf. I’ll just let you know what he says in response.”
“Oh, okay. Uh, Chad, would you allow another roommate to move in when Joe moves out? If it’s someone you know and like, one of us, I mean.”
She cocked her head and listened. “He wants to know why you want to move in with a ghost.”
“Dottie said half the rent is better than none, and since I only have half the rent and will be spending a lot of time at my girlfriend’s place anyway—”
Morgaine nodded. “Makes sense, but maybe Gwyneth could move over there for a while, if not permanently. Since we’re not getting along all that well, maybe putting a little distance between us would help. What do you think, Chad? Would you be willing to have Konrad or Gwyneth as a roommate?”
She paused and then said, “He’s thinking it over.”
She tipped her head back and forth as if ticking off the seconds it took to answer a question on Jeopardy. At last she had an answer. “He says he’s still not sure, but if he did allow it, he’s partial to Gwyneth.”
“Why?”
She listened another minute, crossed her arms, and sighed. “He said, not only can she talk to him, she’s wicked pretty and walks around in the buff.”
Konrad sighed. “Oh, well, it was worth a shot.”
Morgaine straightened, and her eyes lit up. “I don’t think you need to worry. You might be moving in with your girlfriend soon anyway.”
He balled his fists. “I won’t sponge off my girlfriend.”
“I’m not saying that.” She smiled, and there was this knowing look on her face.
“Do you know something I don’t? Did you get one of your psychic flashes?”
“Maaaaybe.”
He leaned back and studied her for a moment. “If anything I’d rather she move in with me. I can’t imagine finding room to house my whole library. Her place is smaller than mine.”
“It sounds like you’ve thought about it.”
Konrad chuckled. “Maaaaybe.”
***
Roz took her fighting stance. Hands on hips. Eyebrows knit. Torso leaning forward. She wasn’t going to let some client tell her how to do her job, even if he was her two-hundred-thirty-pound werewolf boyfriend.
“Don’t give me that look,” Konrad said.
“What look?”
“The one that says you’d like to wipe the floor with me.”
“Sometimes I wish I could. This is one of those times.”
He threw his hands in the air and paced across his living room. “There’s got to be another way. I don’t want you using the pack for my alibi.
Besides, it’s not as if any of them would remember where I was on any particular evening in the early 1990s.”
“I beg to differ. It sounded as if some of them remembered a meeting that took place that night.”
His jaw dropped. “You…you spoke to them?”
“Oh course I spoke to them. How would I know if you had an alibi or not?”
“How?”
“I did my research and found the only private school once run by a certain Konrad Wolfensen, and then I went to Newton and asked to meet with the faculty.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Well, at first I just said that I was your lawyer and that you were being accused of a crime I believed you were innocent of committing and that we needed an alibi if they could provide one.”
“Roz, these are the same people who ran me out of town and threw me out of the pack.”
“Well, they wanted to help. It seems like the guy who replaced you as the dean is a real ass hat. His secretary’s words, not mine.”
He laughed. “Good. What else did you talk about?”
“Well, they wanted to know how you were, and how much I knew about you.”
He looked at her askance. “What do you mean?”
“They seemed really concerned for you.”
“Not that. The other thing. What did you tell them you knew?”
“That you were a werewolf.”
Konrad gasped. “Why the hell…Do you know how much danger you were in?”
Roz shook her head. “No, they seemed really nice.” I sounded really lame, saying that just now.
Konrad dropped onto his sofa and covered his face with his hands. “That was insane. I thought I told you that the number-one responsibility of werewolves was to keep humans from finding out we exist. I don’t know why they didn’t kill you.”
“Well, they were getting their hackles up until I told them I was your mate.”
He looked up at her in wonder. “You said that?”
“Yes.”
“How did they take it?”
“They wanted me to prove it, and when I told them we had telepathic communication, it seemed to change everything.”
He patted the seat next to him.
“Does that mean you don’t think I’m insane anymore,” Roz said.
“Oh, I’m still sure you’re certifiable. I just want to make sure I heard you right.”
She sat next to him. “Heard what right?”
“It sounded like you’ve finally accepted me as your mate.”
Roz folded her hands in her lap and stared at them. You may have showed your hand a little too soon, Roz. Now what?
“Now we celebrate, my love…in the bedroom.”
Roz chuckled. “I should have known you’d hear that. And react that way, too.”
He scooped her up in his arms, carried her to his bed, and said, “You and I are two of the luckiest creatures on earth. So many people never find their soul mate.” He gently placed her in the middle and crawled in beside her. “I love you, Roz.”
He wasted no time pulling her into his tight embrace and kissed her senseless.
Roz found nerve endings she never knew existed tingling to life. His shadowy stubble subtly scraped her face.
He pulled back a moment. “Do you know how rare this is?”
“You mean making love with your soul mate?”
She noticed the tiny lines crinkling outward from the outer corners of his eyes as he smiled at her. “Yeah. Making love, not just having sex.”
“Rare and beautiful.”
He delivered another intoxicating kiss and stroked her back all the way to her buttocks, which he cupped tenderly.
She inhaled deeply, loving his scent, loving him so much it almost moved her to tears.
Chapter 17
“Konrad?”
“Mmm?” He ran the backs of his fingers down the column of her neck, his touch so light and feathery she trembled. “Are you cold, love?”
“No. On the contrary, I’m heating up big time.” It was true. Heat raced up her chest to her face.
“Your sexy blush turns me inside out.”
She laughed. “I’ve never heard that one before, but I don’t think anyone but you has ever turned my cheeks pink, either.”
He began unbuttoning her blouse. As his fingers reached her breasts, he slipped his big hand inside and fondled one. Excitement ripped through her body.
“Oh, God,” she said breathlessly as she arched into his hand. Her nipple must have poked through the stretch lace of her bra, because he gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Oh.” Her knees went weak. She couldn’t wait for a slow seduction. She grasped the hem of her blouse and undid the remaining buttons quickly. “I want you, right now.”
He chuckled. “Eager, are we?”
“Uh-huh.” She sat up, peeled off her blouse, and tossed it to the floor.
“Well, I intend to seduce you a little longer, so lean back and enjoy it.”
She giggled but flopped backward on the bed as he’d asked.
He leaned over, and his hot, moist lips slid softly against hers. She inhaled his faint exotic scent, some kind of musk-scented toiletry, if she had to guess. Or maybe it was just pure him. The movement of his lips over hers intensified, and soon he was demanding entrance.
She parted her lips and met his tongue as their mouths fused. The bliss she experienced when he kissed her like that was beyond description. Warm, undulating waves of pleasure invaded her from head to curling toes.
He tasted good, slightly sweet. He ran his velvet tongue around hers in an erotic dance and then sucked it. The resulting vacuum sealed their lives together as well as their lips.
She inadvertently moaned. He lifted his face, dipped into the hollow of her neck, and feathered kisses from her ear to her collarbone. His hand found her breast again and massaged it. She arched into his hand and begged, “Please, Konrad. Please—”
“What do you need, angel?”
“I need to get rid of these barriers. My bra. Our jeans. Everything.”
He smiled at her, stood, and peeled off his clothing while she lay there, doing the same. When he freed his enormous cock, it bounced up full and erect.
“Oh, God. You’re so—” Words failed her.
“Turned on?”
“I hope so. Either that or you took an overdose of Viagra.”
He laughed. “I don’t need any help making love to you, Roz. You’re my aphrodisiac.”
Crawling back onto the bed, he stared at her like he was starving and she was a juicy steak. The intensity of his gaze alone sent her heartbeat skittering. When he reached her breast he took the puckered nipple into his mouth and sucked. Meanwhile, his hand slid down her torso until he cupped her mons. His fingers teased her labia, collecting and spreading her moisture.
She moaned and arched with the pleasurable onslaught of sensations. Just as she thought she couldn’t take any more, he broke the suction and turned to her other breast. As he suckled her thoroughly, he slipped one finger into her passage and then two. He thrust and withdrew until she was desperate for his cock.
“Please… I need you.”
He rose on his hands and locked his elbows. Gazing down at her, he smiled. “How about a little sixty-nine?”
“Ooo—” was all she had to say.
He turned around and straddled her.
No sooner had she taken his beautiful cock in her hand than he lapped her slit from the bottom of her labia to the top of her apex. She jolted.
“So not fair,” she cried.
“Why not?”
“I can’t get your whole cock in my mouth from this position. I think it’s the height difference.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty long in the torso. I guess you’ll just have to wait.” He went back to licking her clit.
“Ohhh…mmm…” She was able to run her tongue around the tip of his cock, so she wet it thoroughly, sucked the head, and pumped the shaft with her hand. Hi
s groan let her know he was getting plenty of enjoyment.
He increased his pace, flicking her clit with his tongue almost as fast as a hummingbird flutters its wings. The glorious friction created that familiar welling up of sensation deep in her core. Moaning, she had to let his cock pop out of her mouth. Tremors took over her legs as sensation shot through her. She exploded in pleasure and cried out. Ripples of bliss spread out to every nerve ending. Her orgasm lasted longer than usual and left her weak.
“Can I have your cock now?”
He peered down between his legs and grinned at her. “I think that can be arranged.”
Instead of moving a few inches, he vaulted over her and turned around so they were facing the same way, lying on their backs.
“You’re going to make me move?” She stuck out her lower lip in a fake pout.
“Only if you want to. I can skip—”
“Oh, no you don’t.”
She scrambled up onto her hands and knees and positioned her mouth over his erect cock.
“You don’t have to, you know.”
“What?”
“Some women find that distasteful.”
“Not me. I know it makes you feel good, and it gives me pleasure knowing I can do something so erotic for you. I love you, Konrad.”
He grinned.
She positioned herself between his knees so she could look up and see his face. He smiled and folded his hands behind his head. She sunk her lips down over his shaft and withdrew, applying suction. His eyes closed as he moaned.
She flicked the cock head with her tongue a few times until he moaned again and then took the length of his erection into her mouth—or as much of it as she could fit. She teased his balls with her fingers while she sucked his cock. His face held a look of pleasure and pain, yet he reached down and ran his fingers through her hair.
Knowing she and Konrad could bring each other such intense joy filled her with sexual power. He’d taken her to the brink and over. She wanted to do the same for him, and she knew she could, if he’d let her.
She let his cock slide from her lips long enough to whisper, “I want you to come in my mouth.”
His eyes widened and he stared at her. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “I’ve never wanted to do that before you.”
He grinned. “Well, if it’s really what you want—”