by Heather Long
“It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s chosen her…the magic that linked us is gone.”
Pretty sure it had evaporated a long time before Angus met Rika, but my comment wasn’t likely to be helpful at this moment, so I settled for, “I’m sorry.”
The words penetrated her wailing, and she looked at me through teary eyes. Huh, she had one blue eye and one green. Kind of interesting. “Why are you sorry?”
“Well, that’s a damn good question, but if you’re done raining hell down on my house, maybe I can help.”
“Can you get me Angus back?”
“No, probably not.” I didn’t even hesitate to turn down the nutty. “In fact, I would recommend not mentioning your participation in his incarceration. Pretty much against the law, and the Baba Yaga frowns mightily on that.”
Gripping her green hair in her hands, she seemed to be tugging on it. “The Baba Yaga doesn’t care about me.”
“I wouldn’t say that too loudly, either.” Their great and masterful witch of witches had a peculiar sense of humor, a long memory, and a wicked sense of spell casting.
“Just leave me here to die. My heart is forever broken.”
Before I could come up with some pithy remark, Martin appeared with a bucket, and he flung the contents over Georgiana, soaking her to the skin.
She shrieked, jumped up, then danced in a circle.
“Ice water,” Martin said cheerfully. “That’s a wakeup call. Stop sobbing over a man who didn’t want you and who you had to trap into a tree to keep. It’s undignified and rather sad. You’re pretty enough, and powerful enough, and one would hope intelligent enough, to recognize your own value rather than basing it entirely on a man.”
I adored him. He was so practical.
Georgiana stopped circling and stared at Martin. Her wild unhappiness ebbed and a speculative gleam entered her eyes.
“Do it, and I’ll shatter every bone in your body.” I didn’t like violence, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t use it if she didn’t take her skank gaze off my guy.
Her attention jerked to me and she bit her lip. Whatever she saw in my face must have convinced her, because she nodded and backed up a step. Then another. Finally, she turned and began trudging away in the direction of town.
We stood there, watching her go, and I sighed.
“It’s okay,” Martin told me, rubbing my arm. “You want to help her.”
“Not really, I want to go back to bed and wake up and send Rika to school and get back to the fixing the problems I already had.” Yet, I couldn’t take my gaze off her. Right or wrong, Georgiana was hurting. I felt bad for her. I didn’t want to feel bad for her, I wanted to utterly ignore her plight. I had windows to fix, and a mess to deal with upstairs.
Whether she was really forty-five or sixteen, the Baba Yaga charged me with teaching Rika. I’d already made a colossal mess of that.
“Well, on the upside, we don’t have to fight with her to go to school anymore.”
I couldn’t help it, that did make me laugh. “And we can charge her rent.”
The humor didn’t last long. “Bridget…” Martin slid his arms around me, and pulled me back against him. Georgiana had vanished in the distance. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel like the jokes on me. Rika was annoying, but she was—ours, and now she really isn’t. She’s just another recipient of re-education courtesy of the Baba Yaga.”
He said nothing for a long moment, but his hands settled against my abdomen. Finally, he asked, “Were you nesting, witchypoo?”
Making a face, I pulled away. “Don’t you get any ideas.” The idea of nesting meant I was thinking of settling down, which meant babies were an option. Martin would make the most beautiful babies, and a darling of a father…nope.
Not doing it.
“Let’s go clean up.”
I made it all the way to do the door before he caught up, and he didn’t even try to hide his chuckling at me.
“We have all the time in the world, witchypoo…”
A hint of white light hit the corner of my eye and I jerked, ready to shield Martin. That time warp spell was not welcome. But it wasn’t a spell, it was the light hitting Angus’ sword, which Martin had set in the corner next to the shotgun.
“Wait a minute, he was in a tartan and carrying a sword, right?”
“That’s what we saw.”
Georgiana had been in a long white shift, it kind of reminded me of an old granny gown…and Angus said he’d been in a tree.
The where Angus came from suddenly had a lot less impact than the when. Chronomagic—stealing people out of time—that was not a crime she wanted anything to do with.
“Martin…hypothetical question?”
“Hmm?” He’d fetched a broom and already begun sweeping up the glass debris.
“Someone steals someone else out of time, stores them away, and they’re freed now. Who’s guilty? The person who took him? The person who set him free? Or the witch who just let it all happen?”
He paused. “Interesting question.”
So not the answer I wanted to hear. Above—the squeaking started again. Martin and I shared a look and I started to sing. Soundproofing took precedence over everything else.
6
Rika
Angus had an insatiable appetite, and Rika thoroughly enjoyed being the recipient of all his passion. Sometime between her first orgasm and her third, the assault on the house ceased. They’d sprawled together, all naked limbs and with the magnificent male beneath her. He curved his hand around her hip possessively. The tingling in her body spread out and his expression softened.
One by one, the chains on her magic fell away, and she sat up abruptly. A hint of a stretch mark appeared on one of her boobs. They were fuller, heavier and her hips seemed to spread a fraction. A glance at her hands revealed hints of tougher skin.
“Oh!” Wiggling away, she stalked across the room to the mirror. The face staring back at her was fuller, the hard angles of youth having softened over the years. A little more weight sat on her hips and her tummy had rounded out—her passion for ice cream cakes biting her in the ass and her abs.
“Lassie, don’t look so distressed.” The mirror filled with his presence as he came up behind her. “You’re exquisite.”
“I was kind of hoping I’d keep the firm body.” She wasn’t bad looking, but she didn’t have a pert ass anymore. The hard-bodied highlander pressed up against her and drew her to him. He covered her breasts with his wide hands. They were heavy and calloused and warm.
“Your body is beautiful, Rika.” He promised her, then dipped his head to tease her cheek with a kiss even as he began to massage her breasts. “You’re a woman, strong, proud, and utterly perfect for me.”
“You do know I was in that tight little body you debauched all over that bed a few minutes, ago, right?” The debauched word had been his choice, but she rather liked it.
“I know, and I enjoyed you immensely.” He turned to nuzzle a kiss on the other side of her face. Against her bottom, the evidence of his interest thickened against her bottom.
Okay, now she was certain she’d summoned him from fiction. No guy had that kind of stamina unless he was a Shifter.
“Lassie, don’t get any ideas in that head, ye ken? I’ve spent centuries locked away, the prisoner of a witch who wanted me to love her, and while I’d thought well of Georgiana, she never had my heart. You? You stole your way in at first glance.” The depth of emotion in his voice had her meeting his gaze in the mirror. “Don’t lock yourself away from me because your body has changed. Twasn’t the body I wanted, but the woman I see in your eyes. The woman who is still there.”
It seemed forever since she’d been herself, she’d almost forgotten what being an adult felt like. Angus’ declaration took her out at the knees. “We barely know each other.”
“Then we take the time, you still have to study with the witch downstairs, aye?”
“Aye…”
&nb
sp; “Then while you study, we shall court, if the lady be willing.”
Court. It was so—archaic a gesture and yet her heart fluttered. Why now? Why had she gotten her body back? She’d confessed her transgressions, more out of self-preservation than anything else.
Because you thought of someone besides yourself. The Baba Yaga’s voice held an element of annoyance in it. Now, the spell is done and you’re free. Just remember, I’m watching you.
The last link containing her magic faded away and Rika snapped her fingers. The room around them filled with candles and rose petals. The bed grew, and the highlander watched her with the most besotted look.
“I think I’d very much like to court with you.” Elation curved through her heart. “Does that mean we’re not allowed to debauch each other anymore?”
Flexing his considerable muscle, Angus lifted her into his arms and turned her so he could press a kiss to her lips. “That is entirely up to the lady. If you wish me to remain chaste while I prove my worth, then I shall suffer for your favor.”
Oh, bringing him into the present was going to be so much fun.
A chittering sounded from the center of the bed and they both paused. From beneath the rose petals a pair of chipmunks scurried and Rika felt her eyes grow round. Angus’ arms tightened.
“Hello!” One of the chipmunks declared.
“Hi hi!” The other echoed. They scurried around each other in circles, then paused at the end of the bed. Their heads tilted in unison. “Whatcha doing?”
“Witch,” Angus said in a controlled voice.
“I think I just got my familiars.”
It was Christmas, witch style.
“Then rodents are good things?” The careful question suggested he wasn’t as comfortable with the little woodland creatures.
“We’re not rodents.” The chipmunks chorused. “We’ve waited ages for you.”
Had they really?
Happiness ballooned inside of her and she grabbed Angus for another delighted kiss before looking to her familiars. “I’m so happy to meet you, but we’re naked and going to have lots more sex. Could you two go find Bridget and introduce yourselves, and I’ll find you later?”
The critters high-fived each other and vanished in a poof. Angus walked onto the bed with her, knocking the rose petals aside with his feet before he settled her onto the bed and leaned down to steal another kiss.
“So now I know you’re a witch with delectable curves and rodents for a familiar.”
“Chipmunks,” she corrected, deliriously happy. Who knew thinking of others could pay off?
Maybe she’d been in the wrong racket all these years.
“Indeed,” the highlander began kissing his way down to her breasts and she forgot about anything except Angus.
“Are we courting?” Breathless, she didn’t want to miss a thing.
“Debauching,” he answered as he continued his descent. “Court later.”
All right by her.
Music filled the air, soft jazz that Rika loved. Overhead, stars began to dance and her magic swirled through her.
The only explosions she created were all Angus’ fault.
Bridget
It took two days, but Rika and Angus finally came up for air. After sending Angus off with Martin to get clothes, supplies, and a twentieth century crash course, I found Rika in the kitchen playing with her chipmunks. Searching her face, it took me a moment, but I located the girl we’d been ‘raising’ for the last month in the woman before me.
“I feel like I should apologize,” Rika began. Even her voice had changed. It had grown huskier, and the haughtiness in her manner vanished. The woman held herself with confidence and poise, but without the bitchiness of her younger self.
“For what?” Genuinely curious, I poured a couple of mugs of coffee.
“For misleading you. And, yes, I know the spell kept me from telling you what was going on, but I thought I was stuck until I learned magic all over again, and you weren’t thrilled with the plan to begin with…”
It made sense. “You were worried I would kick you out if I found out about your crimes?”
“Something like that,” Rika admitted. “And even when you were driving me nuts, you and Martin were great. For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
After handing her a cup of coffee, I gave it some thought. “I’m not.”
“No?” Rika sounded so surprised.
“No.” I couldn’t really think of her as the younger witch anymore. Not when we were apparently the same age. The wistfulness I’d experienced after her ruse had been discovered remained. Martin was all on board with the idea of giving me babies, but I kept that tabled for now. “I’m glad I got to know you. I learned a lot about myself.”
“Me, too.”
“Yes, but we’re talking about me right now,” I reminded her. Rika laughed then waved at me to continue. “I learned I don’t have as much patience as I thought I did. I learned that helping someone else doesn’t necessarily mean I’m ignoring what I need to do for me, too. Even if I am, then sometimes it’s worth it.”
“I hear you on that.” For a moment, we were in perfect accord. “I don’t think you were great as a fake mom, but I would like to be your sister.”
I considered it for a long moment, then raised my coffee cup. “I should warn you, I come with a lot of baggage.”
“Hello, my lover was a romance hero for several years, and before that he was a tree.”
Hmm. I could see her point. “Mine is a teacher for the ages, and when I met him he was a skunk.”
Rika’s lips twitched. “I defied the Baba Yaga.”
“Been there, done that—and I pissed off a whole nest of vampires. Spent a few years as their pet siren.”
“You got me there.” Rika considered her coffee cup. “We’re kind of misfits.”
“Yes, but I win.” I toasted her with the coffee mug, then began to take a sip. Just as the mug touched my lips, an explosion rocked the house, and we both looked at each other
“Again?” Rika raised her eyebrows.
I sighed, then set the cup down. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Hang on!” Rika grabbed my arm. “Sisters remember?”
A strange sensation settled in the vicinity of my heart, near where Martin had taken up residence. When he said he’d always have my back, I believed him.
“You don’t have to go out there alone. The only person who gets to give you a hard time is me.” The possessive note in Rika’s tone was almost cute.
“Fine, but if you take my diary again, I’ll sing your hero impotent.”
“Mean.” But she laughed.
Another explosion rocked the house.
A drunken voice yowled from outside.
“It’s Georgiana,” I sighed. I knew I should have gone to find her after she disappeared from the house.
“Then let’s go see if we can fix her problem.”
“You do know, we don’t really know what her problem is.” Losing Angus wasn’t it. That was just a symptom.
Rika winked. “I’m an expert investigator, and you’re the witch singer…we got this.”
Crazily enough, I believed her. When she led the way to the door, I followed.
First Martin. Now Rika.
Family was a pretty cool thing to have.
Especially when a drunk witch was flinging spells at the house…
Who knew? Maybe we’ll adopt Georgiana next.
Don’t scoff, I hooked up with a skunk, remember?
No one knows what the future holds.
I just know it’s going to be sweet.
Bridget, Martin, Rika, and Angus will return in The Witched Away Bride.
June, 2017
About the Author
National bestselling author, Heather Long, likes long walks in the park, science fiction, superheroes, Marines, and men who aren’t douche bags. Her books are filled with heroes and heroines tangled in romance as hot as Texas summertime. F
rom paranormal historical westerns to contemporary military romance, Heather might switch genres, but one thing is true in all of her stories—her characters drive the books. When she’s not wrangling her menagerie of animals, she devotes her time to family and friends she considers family. She believes if you like your heroes so real you could lick the grit off their chest, and your heroines so likable, you’re sure you’ve been friends with women just like them, you’ll enjoy her worlds as much as she does.
www.heatherlong.net
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