“Damn, you’re beautiful.”
“This”—she swallowed, took a breath—“this isn’t going to help anything.”
“Help what?” Then he was kissing her, slow and easy like he had all the time in the world. She tried to turn away, but his hand against her cheek kept her right where she was and the knee pressing against her pussy, kept her right on edge. He kissed her until she kissed him back and that’s when he felt confident enough to move his hand from her cheek and slide it down her body. He teased her nipples, stroked her belly while he continued to kiss her mouth. He languished in the beauty of her, reveling in everything about her.
When he knew he needed more, that he could no longer wait, she had her hands dug in his hair and her hips rocking back and forth, her pussy working on his knee. He had no idea how long they were like that, simply enjoying each other. But he knew when it was time to move, rolling her onto her stomach, sliding his arms under her, he lifted her up until she was on her knees. She braced herself with her hands but he wanted control of her pleasure so he caught hold of her hands and pulled her arms around until he had them at the small of her back. He gripped both wrists in one hand while he took his cock and led it to her pussy. Tully had never been inside a woman without a condom, not even as a teen popping his cherry for the first time, and the thought he was about to do it now and do it with Jamie had him so hard it was painful.
Placing the head of his cock against the mouth of her pussy, he pressed in far enough so he could move his hand away. Once done, he straightened up, his free hand siding across her back. Her pussy clenched hard and Tully’s eyes crossed at the sensation. He took a breath, gave himself a moment, and then shoved his hips forward, his cock powering into her.
They both gasped out, Jamie whimpering after as Tully held himself for a long moment inside her. His head thrown back, his breath coming out hard, he had to admit, he didn’t know if he would ever experience anything more astounding than being inside this woman. Then again, maybe that was just his cock talking, because it was so damn happy.
Jamie’s fingers wiggled in his grasp and he understood she was more than ready. Tully tightened his grip on her wrists and gripped her right shoulder with his free hand, holding her steady for him. He pulled his hips back and then slammed them forward.
Jamie cried out. And she did it again each time he pushed into her, each time he took her. When it sounded like she was about to come, he stopped pushing and instead slowly ground his hips against her. After the third time, she panted out, “Tully, come on. Please!”
Unable to wait any longer, he released his grip on her shoulder and brought his hand down between her thighs. He brushed his fingers against her clit and Jamie’s body immediately began to shake. He pounded into her while his fingers drew the orgasm from her.
When it came, it was as powerful as a hurricane, her entire body tightening before she exploded around him, her pussy clamping down on his cock like an industrial-strength vise. He let go a shout and, with his fingers keeping Jamie’s orgasm going, he came hard inside her, his toes curling, his body shuddering over hers. When he was completely spent, he crashed on top of her and, assuming it was his mind playing tricks on him, as soon as their skin touched light exploded all around them, blasting from their joined bodies and bursting through the room and out of the house.
It was the last thing he remembered, too, before everything went black.
Chapter Eleven
Jamie heard the banging at the door but she was relieved to realize it was merely a human being at her door rather than something…else.
A bit confused—for instance, why was she naked in her living room?—she glanced around but the brightness coming from outside the windows made it impossible for her morning gaze to take in any details. Although she did realize one thing—she wasn’t alone.
She glanced over and saw Tully Smith sleeping next to her. He was turned away, his arms around him like he was cold. Then again…she was cold. Freezing cold. Maybe the AC kicked on during the night. She didn’t know and she didn’t really care at the moment because the banging started up again.
“Yeah, yeah. Hold on.” She stood and was about to open the circle she’d created the night before…but it was gone. The blood, the salt, the raw power. All of it gone. That was strange. Most times the power of her circles lasted for twenty-four hours unless it was taken down by someone else. And the items she used to visually create the circle lasted until she cleaned them up. She examined the room and didn’t see anything that suggested those who’d wanted in had gotten in. She even took a moment to go inside herself and she was pretty confident there was no one else in there.
She got to her feet and walked over to the couch, grabbing a blanket. She wrapped it around her naked body and walked to the front door. It was slow going, though, with her body feeling sore as if she’d run a marathon the day before.
Arriving at the door, Jamie cleared her throat and opened it. She looked at the huge expanse of chest taking up her doorway and raised her gaze up to what had to be nearly seven feet of cranky male.
“Hi, Sheriff.”
“Miss Jamie,” he said with that unbelievably low voice and with a tip of his head, his fingers touching the brim of his Sheriff’s Department baseball cap. She had to admit, no matter how cranky the man ever got, he was always so damn polite. The perfect Southern gentleman.
She blew out a breath which tossed the hair covering her face out of the way. “What can I do for you?”
“Explain something to me.”
“If I can.”
“Why’s there snow? And cold?”
Jamie frowned. “Sorry?”
“Snow, Miss Jamie. In the middle of May.”
Jamie shrugged. “Freak storm?”
“I’d believe that except”—he moved his shoulder so she could see over it—“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many flowers blossom during a freak snow storm.”
Jamie stepped into the doorway and looked at either end of her porch since Bear didn’t seem to be in a mood to move out of her way more than he already had. She was wide awake now. Wide awake and shocked. Especially since she didn’t have flowers in her garden. She hadn’t been in the mood to try, so she hadn’t bothered. Now she had a fucking garden covering the front and sides of her house, down the path and into the woods.
“It’s all over town,” the cranky male went on. “Flowers and snow damn near everywhere. I was hoping you could explain that to me.”
“Uh…” Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
“What’s going on?” that voice said behind her and Jamie cringed, wondering why the damn wolf couldn’t stay put until she’d gotten rid of McMahon.
The sheriff eyed Tully, then eyed Jamie. Then he eyed Tully being naked except for one of her blankets around his hips. Then he eyed Jamie being naked except for the blanket she wore.
“I’m hoping this isn’t some kind of trouble I need to worry about, Miss Jamie,” Bear finally said.
“Uh, no. The snow will melt and, uh, the flowers can always be removed. Or kept, if someone wants to. Should bring them years of enjoyment.”
He grunted—no, really, he grunted—and turned away from her. She watched him walk down her porch steps and, as he moved lower and lower, she saw what had been behind him the entire time…her coven.
Their gazes moved back and forth between her and Tully, even while their expressions remained frustratingly blank. They were all dressed in thick winter clothing and sipping Starbucks coffee from those paper cups except Kenny who had her own steel travel mug since she had what could only be called a serious addiction to overpriced coffee beans from foreign countries.
Bear, with a nod to the coven, walked around his inhumanly and not-very-PC SUV, got in, and drove away.
Tully stepped into the doorway beside her. “I guess it worked then, huh?”
“Seems so.”
“Good. Will they be back?”
“Doubt it.”
“All
right.”
They turned at the same time and faced each other.
“Jamie—” he began.
“Thanks,” she said softly.
Then she shoved him out onto the porch, closed and locked her door, and headed off to the shower.
Tully slid to a stop on the front porch, a few splinters digging into the bottom of his left foot. The door slammed behind him and he spun around in time to hear locks turned. His mouth open, he stared at that closed door. She’d just thrown him out of her house. No breakfast, no morning fuckin’, no nothing! He’d been treated better by she-lions the morning after too much tequila and barbeque at the Fourth of July Smithville Annual Picnic.
Not only that—but there was snow on the ground! She’d thrown him out in the snow!
Tully glared at the door again, debating whether he wanted to simply pick the locks or kick the dang door in. But before he could do either, Mac was beside him, pulling out her own keys and opening the door. She stepped inside, holding the door open as the rest of the coven walked in. They all looked at him as they walked by but no one, not even little Emma, said a word to him. And when Kenny, the last, finally made it inside, Mac stared at him for a long moment before she shook her head and quietly closed the door in his face.
He’d just been dismissed. By witches! Tossed out like yesterday’s trash. And to be quite honest, he didn’t like the feeling at all.
But it wasn’t that simple, was it? It was Jamie that had him frowning, something he prided himself on not doing much of since most of the men in his family—blood and family by marriage—seemed to have been born frowning. It was the High Priestess who had him wanting to kick that door back open, toss those other witches out, before slamming Jamie up against the wall and fucking her blind. Making her come until she screamed his name so that everyone in town heard it and knew…knew…
Lord.
And knew who she belonged to.
The one thing she said she didn’t want to happen. The one thing she said she had absolutely no interest in. She didn’t want to be “attached,” was her word. And she’d said the word the same way he said “taxes” in April.
Tully shook his head. Good Lord, what was he doing? It was one night. One time.
Deciding the last thing he needed to do was go back in that house, Tully raised his foot and pulled out the splinters before shifting to wolf and heading off the witch’s territory.
Jamie stepped out of her shower. She’d scrubbed every bit of Tully Smith off her but she could still feel him everywhere. Inside and out. And she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it because once she was done, she was done. Even with her ex-husband, she didn’t sit around feeling him after they’d gone a round or two. She’d forget him as soon as she turned over—and she liked things that way. She considered it a skill actually, and appreciated it as such. So where was her skill now?
Wrapping a towel around her, she walked into her bedroom and found her coven sprawled on her bed, floor, and witch’s chest. Sen held up a cup of coffee for her and Jamie gratefully took it. They all watched her as she sipped her coffee and she watched them back.
She wasn’t exactly sure how long that went on for but finally Jamie said, “Well?”
Mac, sitting on the old witch’s chest that held all of Jamie’s most-used witch items, raised her leg until the heel of her boot rested at the edge of the chest, her arm around her knee. “Well…I have to say we’re damn proud of you right now.”
Jamie didn’t think anything could have surprised her more as that one sentence, especially coming from her cousin. But she hadn’t counted on the sentence that followed.
“Because I had money on you sacrificing a human to get out of this thing with Aengus. It never occurred to me you’d go with sex magick.”
“We’re so relieved we didn’t have to kill you first!” Sen said with a happy clap of her hands. And all Jamie could do as she looked into those beaming faces was stare.
Tully was stretched out on a large boulder when he saw his parents. They were both bundled up in their winter clothes and his mother clutched a bunch of flowers in one hand while she held his daddy’s hand with the other. They were laughing and chatting, simply enjoying the day as was the rest of the town. As Tully had headed over here, he’d seen his neighbors building snowmen, having snowball fights, sledding down hills, and hunting down elk until snow in some of the prime hunting spots was drenched in blood. If anyone was concerned about the fact that there’d been a sudden snow storm combined with a burst of seasonal and unseasonal bloomings it didn’t show at all.
His momma spotted him first, grinning and waving at him as Jack walked her over.
“Mornin’, my pup.” She kissed his forehead and scratched his neck until his back leg tore at the boulder he was on, leaving marks. “Wonderful day, isn’t it?”
Tully barked in reply and she kissed him again. “I’m going over there to get some of those blue flowers. They’re so pretty!”
“Careful now,” Jack cautioned her before he leaned back against the boulder, his arms crossed over his chest. “This is all just weird. Your momma loves it, but the snow and the flowers…I think it’s weird.”
Tully laughed, the sound coming out as a soft bark.
“I’ve never liked any of this witch stuff. Doesn’t seem natural, if you ask me.”
But shifting from human to a four-legged puma…completely natural.
“But they have a purpose here, so I won’t bother complaining.”
You complain when you breathe.
“Anyway, when I saw all this when I woke up, I called up the other Elders and Miss Gwen had Bear look into it. Kind of surprised to hear you were at that woman’s house. Naked.”
I’ve never been a fan of fucking while clothed.
Jack stared down at him. “You going to answer me or you going to sit there looking like a big, dumb dog?”
Tully shifted. “Not sure what you want me to say.”
“You had something to do with all this?”
“I was there to offer a helpful—”
“Cock?”
“I was going to say hand.”
“I’m sure either word will do.” Jack shook his head. “I don’t know what you were thinking. Involving yourself with that woman.”
“I’m not involved with anything, Daddy. She threw me out after Bear left.”
“That surprises you?”
“A little.”
“She’s a cold girl, no matter how much she smiles. You’re just lucky she didn’t shoot you in the back of the head when she was done with you.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“I’m bettin’ you’re the only one who thinks so.”
“You’ve never liked her.”
He shrugged. “Don’t need to. It ain’t my job to like anybody.” Jack glanced at him. “And you’re a fool if you think you’ll be the one to break her.”
“Who says I’m trying to break her?”
“It’s the only way you’ll hold on to someone like her. She’s like a wild mustang who only lets you get right up to her so she can kick you in the head.”
“Thanks. You’ve made me feel so much better.”
“That ain’t my job either.”
“Come on, Jackie!” Millie called out, her cheeks bright red from the cold. “Let’s go into town and get hot chocolate before it warms up again.” She frowned at her son. “Lord, Tully! Put some clothes on before you catch your death!”
“Yes’m.”
Jack stood straight, watching Tully’s momma in a way that her son still wasn’t comfortable with. The feline could at least hide that sort of thing from her only boy!
“You sure about that dinner with Buck?” Jack asked.
“No. But we’ll all be there. I’ll make sure Momma’s safe.”
“That man’s here for a reason, but I don’t think it’s your momma. Not this time.”
“He says he wants to mend bridges or some such horseshit.”
&nb
sp; “Do you believe him?”
“Let’s just say I’m watching my back.”
Jack nodded and followed after Tully’s momma. “I’m glad you’re doing something.”
“Thanks for the support, Daddy.”
“Whatever.”
Jamie, bundled up in her jeans, NY Knicks sweatshirt, boots, and fur-lined parka, stomped through the snow-covered forest, her coven behind her.
“I didn’t think you’d take this so personally,” Mac called after her.
“You’re right,” she snapped back. “Why should I take it personally that those closest to me think I’m a murdering sociopath?”
“We don’t think that,” Emma said.
“It’s not a big deal,” Jamie lied. “It actually allows me to unleash my true homicidal tendencies. I think I’ll wipe the town clean and then move on to the world!”
“Jamie!” Mac grabbed her jacket and swung her around. “Would you stop?”
“I don’t wanna stop. I wanna walk.”
“Can’t we just talk?” Sen begged. “For a minute. Please?”
“What’s there to say?”
Mac threw up her hands. “Look, I didn’t mean to say—”
“That my own cousin thinks I’d kill those of innocent blood? ’Cause that’s kind of what you said.”
“I didn’t mean it like—”
“And you knew!” she accused. “You knew what Aengus was doing. But you were so busy testing me—”
“I needed to know what you’d do. How far you’d go.”
“Aaah!” Jamie yelled, startling the four women as her hands waved around as if to ward her coven off. “Get out of my face! All of you!”
“Jamie—”
“Rico!” The falcon dropped down between Jamie and her coven. “Don’t let ’em follow me.”
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