Covens and Cocktails

by fox, angie

  Kat fanned herself with her hand, her emotional energy giddy with attraction.

  “Stop. You’re entirely too into that guy, and it’s making me uncomfortable.” Kat was my best friend, and because I was an empath, I was pretty much always tuned in to what she was feeling. Usually that wasn’t much of a problem, but when it came to sexual energy, it just made me feel gross. There were some things I shouldn’t be privy to.

  Kat ignored my remark and said, “He doesn’t look like a model.”

  I had to agree with her. The ones that Pyper usually hired for her body-painting gigs were metrosexual in the extreme; bodies entirely waxed, hair styled with fruit-scented products, and often wearing concealer to hide any blemishes. They were pretty, but not manly men. Not like the perfect specimen standing before us.

  He had a couple days’ worth of growth in the facial hair department, thick, wavy, dark locks that fell to his chin, and a well-defined upper body without an ounce of extra weight. He had broad shoulders and a trim waist, his muscles well defined but not bulky. And judging by the slight farmer’s tan, I guessed his workouts came in the form of construction rather than weightlifting. He was ruggedly handsome in the extreme.

  “They don’t make them like that anymore,” Kat said.

  I elbowed her and was treated with another wave of her barely suppressed lust. Closing my eyes, I imagined my glass silo, the one I used to block out other people’s energy, and sighed in relief when I could no longer feel anything radiating from her. “You have a man. A gorgeous one.”

  She grinned at me. “Oh, I know. Believe me, I haven’t forgotten. Did I tell you what he did to me last—”

  “La, la, la, la, la,” I chanted, sticking my fingers in my ears. “I told you I don’t want to hear about any more sexcapades between you and Lucien. He’s my second-in-command. I don’t want to be picturing the two of you…doing whatever it is you do when I’m at the next coven meeting.”

  She shook her head, laughing. “God, Jade. How can you be such a prude when your husband owns a strip club?”

  “One has nothing to do with the other. Besides, I’m not a prude. I just don’t need the details.”

  “Whatever you say.” She scooted closer to Pyper and asked, “Where’s everyone else?”

  The black-haired beauty finished outlining the design on her model’s chest. “They’ll be here in an hour or so. Julius was a little early, so we went ahead and got started. Check it out.” Pyper waved me over and pointed to a jagged line she’d drawn on his chest. “See this?”

  Kat and I both nodded.

  “I’m going to paint a skeleton hand ripping his heart right out of his chest. What do you think?”

  Kat grimaced. “It’s awesome. And a little gruesome.”

  “Well it is a Halloween party,” I added. “And it sounds amazing. Can’t wait to see what everyone else is going to look like.”

  Pyper winked and went back to work on Julius. He was completely fixated on her every movement. I had a hard time deciding if he was enamored with her work or just her. She was tiny, with a dancer’s body, and had black hair with a bright electric-blue streak in the front. She was sexy as hell and usually a total flirt. But at the moment, she was all business.

  She glanced up at him. “Do you need a break?”

  “From what?” he asked, his blue eyes nearly searing her with their intensity.

  She stepped back and averted her gaze as she vigorously dabbed her dirty paintbrush over a clean surface of her painter’s palette. Only instead of wiping off the excess, she pushed it through two colors, making an even bigger mess. “Oh, crap!” She tossed the brush into a cup of water and put everything down, wrinkling her nose. “From standing still. If you need to sit for a while, just let me know.”

  “No. I’m fine here.” He pulled his shoulders back and seemed to grow an inch or two taller.

  “Look at those shoulder muscles,” Kat said, fanning herself again. “Whoa. I think I need a drink.”

  Pyper glanced back at us, her expression amused. “I think we could all use a cold one. Get us something from the bar?”

  “Sure.” I suppressed a laugh and yanked on Kat’s arm, pulling her into the grand ballroom. “You need to cool off.”

  She frowned and shook her head as if trying to dislodge whatever had come over her. “Wow. I don’t know what happened back there, but either I was spelled or my hormones took a turn down slutville alley.”

  I slipped behind the temporary bar and pulled a couple of beers from a giant bucket of ice. “Spelled? You think he was a witch of some sort? What did he do, cast a lust charm?”

  “Oh, shut up,” she said, smiling. “It could happen.”

  “Maybe. But I don’t think so. I would’ve felt something.” The thought had me frowning in confusion. I hadn’t gotten a read on Julius at all, had I? When we’d first walked in, I’d felt Pyper’s intense concentration and then Kat’s inappropriate lust connection, but I hadn’t sensed one thing from Julius. Interesting.

  “Well, whatever it was, I’ll stay here. If I’m gonna start in on that beer, I don’t want to get caught drinking and drooling.”

  “Good plan.” Chuckling, I opened two Abita Ambers and retreated back into the meeting room. “Okay, beers—whoa.” I stopped in my tracks and gawked. Pyper was wrapped in Julius’s arms, and the pair of them were going at it like sex-starved teenagers. He had one hand on her ass and the other curled into her hair, while she had one leg wrapped around his waist and her nails dug into his bare shoulders.

  I silently placed the beers on the nearest table and backed up slowly, trying my damnedest to not be seen. I was almost to the door when—

  “Oomph.”

  I ran smack into someone coming in from the other room. “Oh, no, I’m so sorry,” I said, spinning around right into the arms of Kane, my husband. My husband. Was I ever going to get used to thinking of Kane that way? We’d been married for six months, and I still got giddy every time he called me his wife.

  “Hey there.” He circled his arms around me. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

  I grimaced and jerked my head toward the make-out twins.

  Kane glanced over my shoulder and grinned. “Oh, I see.” He inclined his head in greeting. “Hey, Pyper. Looks like we might be intruding.”

  “Uh…well, no, not exactly,” I heard her say breathlessly.

  Kane laughed while I turned around and sent her an apologetic look. She was completely rumpled, her face flushed, and her smock smudged with beige and white body paint.

  “We’ll be in the other room,” I said and tugged Kane back into the ballroom as fast as I could.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Kane said, wrapping his arms around my waist.

  “Interesting?” I glanced up at him, exasperated. “He’s a client. And what about Ian? Holy cow. What if he’d walked in?”

  “Oh my God! Is Pyper macking on that model?” Kat asked, her eyes alive with excitement.

  Kane nodded, his lips curled into a ghost of a smile.

  “Oh, good for her. Someone needed to taste that delicious piece of man meat.”

  I shook my head. “Does no one care about Ian? Did you two forget about him?”

  “Ian’s out of town. Again,” Kat said. “He’s working on that ghost-hunting cable show with what’s-her-name. The high school friend that has a crush on him. If I had to guess, he’s not exactly worried if Pyper walks in on him, if you know what I mean.”

  Kane grabbed a beer from behind the bar. “About time she moved on. Ian’s been gone more than he’s been home for the last three months.”

  “But that’s work,” I said. “Don’t you think we need to give the guy the benefit of the doubt?”

  “I would if he stayed in touch.” Kane’s expression turned flat with irritation. “Did you know she hasn’t heard from him in over two weeks? Not even a text.”

  I frowned, worried now. Ian wasn’t the typical guy. He was a ghost hunter and was known to
care more about his work than anything else. But going a few weeks without touching base with Pyper wasn’t normal, even for him. “Something must’ve gone wrong on his investigation. He’d never—”

  “I talked to him yesterday.” Kat popped a piece of chocolate in her mouth. “The investigation isn’t leading to anything. He’s considering going to another site before he comes home.”

  “Seriously?”

  She nodded. “I think they might’ve already broken up, but neither is really talking about it.”

  The door flung open and Pyper came striding into the ballroom, wearing a fresh smock. She grabbed my arm and tugged me over to a corner away from Kane and Kat. “I need a favor.”

  “Like a reminder you have a boyfriend?” I asked as gently as possible.

  “Oh, fuck Ian.” She scowled. “He wants to break it off but doesn’t have the balls to do it.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “And you know this because…?”

  “He said as much the last time I talked to him. Something about needing some space and having to figure out what he really wants. You know, guy code for ‘I don’t want to be an ass.’ Whatever, I’m over it. Forget him. I need you to be my chaperone for the rest of the day. I don’t know what it is about Julius, but when I’m around him, I can barely control myself.”

  I cast a glance at Kat. “You’re not the only one.”

  She followed my gaze. “She felt it too?”

  “Yeah. But I didn’t.” I pursed my lips in thought. “It’s weird. I didn’t feel anything radiating off him.”

  “Good.” She grabbed my hand and tugged me back toward her workroom. As we passed Kane, she said, “I’m borrowing your wife for the rest of the afternoon.”

  Kane bent and gave me a soft kiss. “Take care of her.”

  “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” Pyper pushed the door open and then stopped dead in her tracks.

  I glanced around the deserted room, my heart sinking for her. In the short time she’d been in the ballroom, Julius had vanished.

  Chapter 2

  “Interesting costume choice,” Kat said, eyeing me.

  I glanced down at my slutty red-leather demon outfit. The micro-mini showed ample leg, while the bodice did a fine job of amplifying my cleavage. “What? Cliché?”

  “In the extreme. But fitting, I guess, considering you hang out with your fair share of demons and angels.”

  “Funny.” I smirked. “And what are you supposed to be, a milkmaid?” I asked, eyeing her lace-up black-and-white bodice and poufy red skirt.

  “Oh.” She shrugged into a red hooded cape and twirled. “Little Red Riding Hood. Better?”

  “Much.” I secured a staff badge to my outfit and passed one to Kat. “Ready?”

  “Yep.”

  Kat followed me out of the hotel’s meeting room and across the hall to the ballroom. The party was scheduled to start in thirty minutes, and we just needed to do a quick sweep to be sure all the last-minute details were in place.

  “Can you check with the girls at the raffle-ticket table and make sure they have everything they need?” I asked her.

  “Sure. What’s the prize?”

  “VIP tickets and balcony access for Mardi Gras.” The party was being thrown by one of Pyper’s biggest clients. He was a music producer and often threw parties to promote his musicians. He’d employed Wicked, Kane’s club, to see to all the details, even though the party was being held in the hotel. The club just wasn’t big enough.

  While Kat made sure the raffle was ready to go, Pyper, Charlie and I stuffed the gift bags of CDs, USBs, and other swag. Thirty minutes later, the booze was in place, the dancers were standing by, and all we needed was the partygoers.

  “Hey, beautiful,” Kane said, grabbing my waist from behind.

  I twisted in his arms and let my gaze wander from head to toe. “Hey, yourself.” I raised one eyebrow, taking in his kilt, the demon-hunter dagger strapped to his belt where a traditional dirk would be, and the white linen shirt that was partially open, revealing his chiseled chest. I resisted the urge to check my chin for drool. Holy eff, he was hot. “A highlander?”

  He winked. “I thought you’d like it.”

  Suddenly I was very warm in my little leather dress. “‘Like’ might not be a strong enough word.”

  A seductive laugh rumbled from his throat as he leaned down and then whispered, “Maybe later, if you’ve proven yourself a naughty little devil, I’ll let you see what’s underneath.”

  I rolled my eyes to hide the fact I wanted to jump him right there. Goddess above, kilts should be illegal on a man as sexy as Kane Rouquette. “I’m never naughty,” I said, batting my eyes innocently.

  “Never?” He ran his fingers down my neck and lightly brushed them over the crest of my breast. A ripple of anticipation shuddered through me, and I shamelessly arched into his touch.

  “Maybe not never,” I breathed and tugged on his shirt, yanking him to me. And when I looked up into his desired-filled dark-chocolate eyes, I melted right there in the middle of the ballroom.

  I wanted nothing more than to push him back into the meeting room, slide my hands up under that kilt, and have my way with him in every way possible. My gaze landed on his partially opened lips. “Kiss me,” I demanded.

  “Aye,” he said in his fake Scottish accent. Then his lips were on mine, his teeth nipping at my bottom lip as he tightened his grip around me.

  I was lost in his demanding kiss, pressed against his hard body, my head swimming with not only my own intense need, but his too. Every part of me was on fire, aching to be touched.

  His hands landed on my hips, his fingers gripping me hard. “Jade?”

  “Yeah?” I tilted my head slightly and took the lead, kissing him, my tongue dancing along his as my hands clutched at his shirt.

  He pulled back slightly, breaking the kiss, and grinned down at me. “I think we have an audience.”

  “Huh?” I jerked back and glanced around at all our friends staring at us, amused expressions on their faces. Heat crawled up my cheeks as mortification took over. What had I been thinking? “Oops.”

  Cheers and wolf whistles erupted around us, Pyper’s the loudest of them all. Her hair was now all electric blue, and she’d painted her face white with black eyes and stitches from the sides of her mouth across her cheeks. She was the perfect zombie bride.

  “Nice show,” she said, slipping her arm through mine. “How in the world did you get him into a kilt? Damn, girl. Can’t blame you for going all whore-of-the-damned on us with him looking like that.”

  Snickering, I snuck another glance at Kane. I didn’t know why his bare knees were so damned sexy, but they were. “I might have mentioned something about a fantasy involving a highlander a week or two ago.”

  She shook her head. “If I didn’t love you both so much, I’d have to stab you from pure jealousy.”

  I knew she was talking about the relationship Kane and I shared and not that she wanted Kane in any way. They’d dated once, way back in college, but she’d been the one to end it. Something about him being too conservative for her. Which was laughable, since conservative was the last word I’d use to describe him. But Pyper was ultra alternative in almost every area of her life, from her business choices, to her art, to the men she dated.

  “What about you and Julius? What happened there?” I asked, now that she was all up in my business.

  She shrugged. “No idea. One minute I was painting him, the next we were staring at each other, locked in that moment. You know the one. When everything stops and the only thing that exists is each other?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  “Well, we were right there. And then I couldn’t help it. The next thing I knew I was kissing him, and he was into it like a sex-starved man. Things were moving so fast and heated, we were moments from being naked and sweaty.”

  I widened my eyes. “Really? That’s…”

  “Stupid,” she said. She clamped her mouth shut, her cheeks
reddening. “We barely know each other, but there was this strange pull I couldn’t step away from.”

  “Until we interrupted you and he bolted,” I added.

  “Yeah.” She frowned. “Not my finest moment. Usually I’m much more professional.”

  I sent her a sidelong glance and smirked. “Well, your performance certainly didn’t look amateurish to me, if you know what I mean.”

  Her frown disappeared, replaced by mock offense. “Are you sexually harassing me, Calhoun?”

  I laughed and handed her one of the staff badges. “Not yet, but maybe later if we have time. Come on, let’s get this party going.”

  Chapter 3

  “First things first,” I said, standing in the middle of the empty ballroom. “Seeing as how it’s Halloween, I think it’s imperative we cast a protection spell.”

  Lucien, my second-in-command and Kat’s boyfriend, joined me. “I agree.”

  “Okay,” Kane said. “What do you need us to do?”

  “Be the points on our circle is all.” I raised my hands, imagined a pentagram, and reached for my magical spark. It responded immediately. As I focused on the ground, I said, “Illuminate.”

  A large, glowing pentagram appeared in the middle of the ballroom. I stood on the point facing north and waved for the others to take a spot. Pyper, Kat, Lucien, and Kane completed the points, even though Lucien was the only one with magic. It didn’t matter for a simple protection spell.

  Lucien and I met each other’s gaze across the pentagram, and after I counted to three, we each unleashed magic within the circle. Our magical energy collided and mixed, slowly spreading out within the confines of the pentagram until the entire area glowed with magic. I raised my arms once more and said, “From point to point to person to person, may the gift of the coven watch over our guests tonight to keep them safe from evil forces. From person to person to point to point, may the night be full of fun and smart choices.”

  The combined magic from me and Lucien brightened, converged into a ball, rose high above us, and then burst like confetti into tiny specs of light all over the ballroom.