Jolene sat up and stared wildly around her. It was getting light, so dawn must be close to breaking. If she wasn’t insane, then Uncle Marshall was probably the “kin” Xander referred to when he talked about her magic and how she had been able to see him and the goat men for who they really were. Great. Another nail in this particular coffin. So Uncle Marshall wasn’t crazy. He had second sight or was an animal-communicator person, and his witchy genes had been passed down to her. Goody. And maybe being in “proximity” to Xander tonight had indeed made the witch side of her wake up. Another little thing to blame him for. Jolene groaned out loud and shrieked when the focus of her animus pressed his face against the window. She caught her breath and pushed the door open to hop out, wincing against the stiffness and the little prickles of numbness resulting from the time she had spent sitting, idle. She wasn’t stiff because of the amazing sex earlier. She wasn’t.
Xander was naked again, but then it was probably hard to wear pants when one turned into half a horse. She shoved his jeans at him and cooled her heels, her eyes averted, until he put them on. Then she tapped her booted foot on the ground, awaiting his news.
“Becky is ensconced in one of the bedrooms. She appears to be fine, but is sleeping deeply. She didn’t respond when I called to her and rapped on the glass.” Xander spoke perfect English, but his cadence and word choices seemed off sometimes, Old World or something. Jolene idly wondered what he spoke in his world before homing in on the fact that Becky was unresponsive.
“Maybe she’s drugged! She had a lot to drink tonight, too,” Jolene sputtered. “We need to get her out of there.”
“I think she’s simply sleeping from a very busy night with her Caprine,” Xander said ruefully. “The room reeked of sex.”
Jolene closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about Becky having sex with a goat guy, even a goat in Terry’s kind of nice, buff, smiling human form. It reminded her of her own indiscretion earlier. She steeled her resolve never to let Xander get to her like that again. It should have felt disgusting, impure, rather than totally awesome and hot and awesome…shit! Freaking hormones.
“How are we going to get her out of there?” she asked, dragging her mind back to the task at hand.
“There is a good chance she will leave in the morning.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then we will need to rethink this, Jolene,” he said solemnly. “If the Caprines are keeping human women for long periods of time, then something very different and strange is going on. Something that is going to have ramifications for both your world and mine. This could be much bigger than just Becky. I ascertained signs of other women there, but was unable to see any of them. Perhaps they will return. We need to wait for additional help. There are too many Caprines for me to deal with.”
Jolene began to shake, and her hands heated up as she thought of ways she would like to deal with those horny halflings. She looked down to see sparks emanating from her fingertips. She heard Xander take a whistling breath and say something, but there was a strange roaring in her ears, and she couldn’t hear anything other than the beating of her heart and the rush of her blood. She willed whatever it was back, and it grudgingly receded, slowly at first, and then with increasing speed. Jolene tucked it deep inside her and raised her head to stare at Xander.
He was looking back at her, his eyes narrowed, and she knew he had seen something, seen whatever it was nearly escape, so she spoke quickly to avoid a time-consuming discussion. She would deal with this later. Becky came first.
“I don’t want Becky to stay there one minute longer than she has to. I’m going with my original plan.”
Xander grabbed her arm, and Jolene warred with both the temptation to let him hold her or unleash the thing inside of her. Instead, she pulled away and gave him her best bitch look. He didn’t retreat like most people did, but he didn’t touch her again either, absently rubbing the palm of his hand.
“How about I watch over Becky, and if anything happens I call you and then you knock on the door?” he suggested. “That way my reinforcements will have a little more time to get here.”
Jolene considered Xander’s suggestion. It made sense. She nodded. “I’m not waiting in the car. I can’t stop thinking.”
Xander bobbed his head. “It would be better if you waited and explained the plan to the team, but I’ll send another text so they know where to find us. The technology here is very efficient, and we have merged it with our own.”
“They?”
“As I told you, Arion won’t be coming alone.”
As soon as the text was sent, Jolene followed Xander. They skirted empty areas around the buildings, sticking to the tree line until they were by the big barn. Taking advantage of the sightline to the house blocked by the huge structure, they scuttled along until they could get to the back of the dwelling. His sleek skin and muscled back and shoulders held her gaze, and it was all she could do not to trip over the small rocks and hillocks beneath her feet. When they came to a window situated in the middle of the wall, Xander boosted Jolene up to allow her a glimpse of Becky. Her friend was indeed sleeping heavily, sprawled in the middle of a huge bed in a dimly lit room. Xander hadn’t said Becky was naked, and Jolene could tell by the state of the bed and the clothing scattered all over there had indeed been a party. Hopefully Becky was all right, although she couldn’t see any signs indicating a problem.
She became aware of how her perch on Xander’s shoulder put his head right next to her hip and felt the heat from his body on her pussy and his breath against her thigh. A wave of desire swept up and over her, and she abruptly struggled to get down and away from him. He staggered under the shift in weight.
They fell as one, and he twisted to land beneath her and cushion her fall. Her whole body felt aflame, and she unashamedly ground herself against his hard form, her mouth blindly seeking his, forgetting all attempts to distance herself. Her underwear and jeans somehow made their way down her thighs and calves. Her tight boots slipped off as if by magic, and her clothing followed. She was suddenly naked from the waist down. She worked her swollen folds over Xander’s freed cock and impaled herself on him in one quick movement. She rode him hard, glorying in the stretching fullness, throwing her head back in primal joy as her back arched to take him deeper. She thrilled to the feel of his hands sliding under her shirt to grasp her breasts, to twist and pull at her nipples. Jolene felt powerful, in charge of her own pleasure, and Xander must have felt it, too, because he made to roll with her, to assert himself. Jolene resisted with all the strength in her dancer’s body and succeeded in holding him for that necessary fraction of time beneath her, his heart thundering beneath her pressing, questing hands. She clenched on him as her orgasm rolled up and over, and felt a savage satisfaction when his erection broke within her, bathing them both with his hot seed. He dragged her down to his chest, wrapping his hands in her hair, and growled into her ear.
“No female masters me, witch.”
Jolene let out a muffled shriek when Xander rolled them both, successfully this time, his cock hardening again to what felt like even larger proportions. He pinned her beneath him and took his pleasure, ignoring her attempts to break his rhythm, to duel with him. She fought against another climax. It was too soon after the last. But he thrust against her sweet spot and ground her clit with his pelvis, and she spiraled again. His hoarse shout signaled his own release, and they lay spent on the hard packed dirt beneath the window of the room where her best friend slept in her own sated oblivion. Jolene hated both herself and Xander in that moment. This thing, this pull between them had to stop before it consumed her, magic or no. She had the urge to bite him, to chew him up, and shut her eyes tightly to ward off the tears of rage and something else. Something she didn’t care to examine at this point.
An amused male voice grabbed her attention and had Xander scrambling to his feet, struggling to tuck himself back inside his pants, taking his heat with him.
“The others didn’t expect this, Xander, when you asked for reinforcements. You appear to be managing quite well on your own. Unless of course you have changed our personal preference regarding sharing?” The voice now held a shard of something less amused.
Jolene pulled her shirt down as far as it would go to and cast around for her jeans, avoiding eye contact. Her panties were placed in her hand, and she struggled to cover herself, flinching at the fluids seeping from her. The voice and the helping hand withdrew a few feet, and Xander bent down to snag and pass over her jeans, his face set and flaming with embarrassment. Jolene somehow knew he wasn’t embarrassed at being caught screwing, but because he’d been caught screwing her. Well, fuck him and the horse he rode in on. Pun intended. Bastard. She stood to hitch her jeans up and zip them, then stomped into her boots. She glared at the man behind the voice. Oops, the horse man behind the voice.
Her head swam, and the dizziness had her sagging to her knees. Xander quickly reached to support her, but there was another Xander looking at her with intent, his eyes heated, and his features taut with desire. Christ, she was in Oz or maybe Wonderland. She sucked in air and searched the second Xander’s face, willing her legs to strengthen and be able to carry her far, far away from here. It was too much.
“I felt her, my brother.” Xander number two’s voice was slightly higher in timbre than Xander number one’s, and even as he continued speaking, Jolene could see a very slight difference in eye color, a hint of gold amongst the dark brown, and a tiny star-shaped mark on his forehead. Twins. The word popped into her mind and brought a sense of relief followed closely by a strong, visceral attraction. No! This wasn’t happening. There was no way she could be attracted to both of these changelings. Jolene closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on what he was saying. It was easier when she didn’t have to look at them.
“I must admit I was astonished to realize you were taking your pleasure with her again in the middle of a mission, but now I see her, I totally understand. And while I hate you for not waiting to share her, I realize you had little choice.”
Jolene’s eyes popped open. “Share? What the fuck are you going on about?”
Xander number two smiled, a sweeter, kinder smile than Xander had ever shown her, even when she was rescuing him, the prick, although Jolene knew a charmer when she met one. His twin had charisma by the bucketful.
“Language, little one. Xander opposes foul words in our females and disciplines them if they use them. I can’t say I disapprove of his tactics because it leads to solace and making amends. That would be my cue.”
Jolene backed away until she came up against the side of the house, looking warily between the two gorgeous men, or horse men, or whatever the hell they were. “You need to back off, buddy. I have no clue what’s happening here, but we’re saving my friend and then you’re going away.”
“My apologies, little one. My name is Sulieman. Our females call me Sulie. I am Xander’s twin, a few minutes younger than he, and thus the nicer brother because he feels the need to act like he is in control and ever so much wiser and stronger. I will protect you from his excesses.”
The Twilight Zone. That was where she was. There would be vampires and werewolves and other stuff from the movies coming along right about now. She put up a hand, and the light sparking and emanating from her palm had both brothers stepping back, their faces now quite serious and wary. Maybe she should get a costume or something to go along with her new image. Jolene was aware she was holding onto her sanity by her fingertips, and that thing inside of her was roiling again, surging to the surface. Abruptly, another man moved into her line of vision, and she was instantly calmed. It was as if he climbed inside of her head and soothed her. She knew instinctively who he was and came to herself again with such a sense of relief she thought she might cry from it.
“You must be Arion,” she said sweetly instead, ignoring Xander and Sulieman, trying to come across as dignified as was possible after being caught doing the deed in the freaking dirt in a freaking barnyard! Arion was a gorgeous, large horse man with a kind and gentle smile, even if it was a knowing smile. His hair was so blond as to be a shade of silver, glowing in the light of the sunrise, and she was unable to see past his human persona, although she knew he was Ipotane. Jolene decided she liked him, mostly because he wasn’t Xander. Or his brother. She noticed the way his big, pale-blue eyes narrowed and how his nostrils flared. Now what?
“Her magyk is indeed strong, if untutored, my friend,” he said to Xander.
Well, at least he wasn’t commenting on how she must smell after having sex, twice, with his colleague! Jolene wished for the ground to open up and swallow her and screamed when there was an ominous cracking and heaving beneath her feet.
Chapter Eight
Sulieman managed to get to their little witch before his brother, although only because Xander lost his footing, standing as close to her as he had been. Sulieman grasped her around the waist and flung them both backward, ensuring she landed on him so as not to be hurt. The fact Xander already had her twice spoke volumes to him, and her magyk was encompassing him as well. Their union would be an incredibly strong one, and he and his brother would be able to help her harness and use her abilities to even greater heights once they were fully mated. His thoughts halted at the look on Xander’s face as he clambered away from the sinkhole and raced to where Sulieman and Jolene lay. Xander had read his thoughts.
“We are not mating with her! I will not mate with a human, let alone a witch!”
Sulieman rose to his knees and helped the little witch to her feet. She was looking between them now, her face puzzled and angry, and not a little hurt. She pushed at him, and he let her go, gave her space because Xander had obviously fucked up. Her bottom lip was trembling, and Sulieman wanted desperately to comfort her before he had her on her back, under him and the loving thrusts of his cock. Or riding him to completion, her full breasts unbound and her glorious hair spilling around her like a cloud. Not to mention the times he and Xander would take her together to bring her the very best of pleasure. Human form was even better suited for that!
Before anything more could be said or done, Arion was there, weaving a spell that cocooned them all, the little witch glowing within it like a beacon. Sulieman could vaguely hear shouting and bleating and realized he’d been so intent on the little drama playing out in his head between his intended and his brother that he missed the main act. The Caprines had heard the commotion and were out to investigate. Arion’s quick action saved them from discovery. Sulieman wasn’t worried about the goatheads causing them any real injury or grief, but he knew Arion wanted to find out what was going on and didn’t want to give away their presence. If the Caprines moved, it would mean finding them again, and they would be on far better guard the next time.
“What’s going on?” The little witch reached out to touch the wall of the spell with a tentative hand.
Sulieman took her fingers and held them in both of his hands, managing not to wince from the residual heat. He smiled at her, willing her to connect with him, and when she turned her amazing eyes to his, he fell into her. He’d never seen eyes that color before. From the way they widened and her skin paled further, she felt whatever was between them, too. He raised her hand to his mouth and nuzzled it before pressing a kiss on her palm, hoping she didn’t panic. He felt her breathe through it and marveled at her strength and resilience. Chiron had sent this female to his brother and him, and he wasn’t letting Xander screw it up.
“Arion has cast a spell to hide us from the Caprines, little one,” he said quietly. “The other members of the team are scattered among the trees, awaiting our signal, but we will wait until the goatheads calm down and suspect nothing other than a freak of nature.”
“Did I do that? Did I make the ground open up?”
Arion’s deep voice intruded on their connection, and Sulieman, who never became impatient, longed to kick the other man
. “I believe you did, small witch. Do you remember what you were thinking? Hoping for? Asking?”
“My name is Jolene Phillips, and if people, horses, whatever, don’t quit calling me witch I might just have a thought none of you will care for.” His witch’s dark tone vibrated the walls of the spell.
Sulieman’s cock surged at her feistiness. She carried an old family name, lover of horses, lover of him and his brother. She was perfect.
“Jolene, then.” Arion’s voice soothed and calmed.
“I was wishing the ground would open up and swallow me.”
Arion nodded. “You must be careful what you wish for, Jolene, until I can teach you how to manage your powers. Although, I suspect Xander and Sulieman will be of even greater help.”
Her voice was shrill when she asked, “What do you mean greater help?”
Riding Magyk Page 5