Chapter Three
Drake…oh Drake-a-licious. C’mon, lover. It’s time.
Drake blinked awake. As he lay in bed, wondering what woke him, he heard the lyrical voice again in his mind.
Drakie poo. Draaaaaaaakie poooooooooo.
Be-damned! He sat up and looked down at his sleeping wife. Wife. How long he’d waited for this day. He and Rosemary married and Bound. His joy was short lived as apprehension clawed through him. Rosie. Swallowing the knot of dread in his throat, he slipped out of bed. Rosemary sighed and shifted, her arms clutching his warm pillow. He waited. Soon, she slept deeply. He drew on a white robe and hurried out of the room.
Drake went to the small garden on the left side of the castle. A month after his parents passed on to the next realm, he’d spent nearly every hour of every day planting and crafting and weeping. He’d commissioned the brass fountain too. The artist had used a picture of his parents at their last anniversary party. The two shining figures, a man and woman both laughing, were in mid-dance, forever celebrating life in a garden created by their son.
It was here the nymph had found him three years ago.
Sexually frustrated, aching in body and soul for Rosemary, he’d been an emotional mess—an emotional mess with a hard-on. Hours before, he’d nearly kissed Rosie. And even a chaste kiss would’ve have been his downfall, and all his reasons for not making love to her would’ve fallen like lined-up dominoes.
He had wanted to wait for her, for the Binding. He loved her. Had always loved her. He’d learned to stave off his baser needs by fantasizing about his wife-to-be and masturbating. Be-damned! Imagining intimacy would never match reality. Soon, his memories and his hands weren’t enough to satisfy his lusts. He spent too much time with his Rosie. She smelled good. Her skin was silky soft, her hair glittered like finely spun gold, her lips the colors of rosebuds. If he tasted her just once, he’d break.
That night, he’d sought solace in the garden. Usually the green space with its fragrant flowers, soothing fountain, and oak benches gave him comfort. He spoke to his parents there, sought their wisdom. They never answered, of course. But he always felt their love.
Brooding about the past in general and that long ago evening in particular, Drake sat on one of the oak benches and let the burbling water in the fountain calm him. Yes, he remembered it all too clearly. He’d been too involved in his own thoughts to notice anything awry. He had only thought about Rosie. She had never understood his noble intentions. She teased him because he let her see his desire without ever acting on it. She was just as frustrated as he. Yet, he’d been a man of twenty. And she had just turned eighteen.
There was a reason a woman committed to the Binding had to wait until her twenty-first birthday to have sex. It was unfair, too. A quirk of gender. A warlock’s magic was solid, complete and strong from birth. A witch’s magic reached its peak in her twenty-first year. The Binding had to be consummated when the witch and warlock’s powers were strongest.
Drake, you were such a bloody fool.
No, he hadn’t noticed the faint hint of magic in the garden.
But he had noticed the woman.
Because she had been the very woman he’d been thinking about…the woman he loved…the woman he desired…
Rosemary.
Only later, after he’d lost his sanity and his inhibitions did he realize he’d sacrificed his virginity and slaked his lust not with Rosemary…but with a nymph. Goddess in Heaven. To his everlasting shame and regret, he’d fucked Andromeda.
And Rosemary had seen him do it.
In a way, it had been a blessing. Andromeda’s deception had prevented him from taking Rosie, from risking a premature Binding at a point where her magic was not yet fully gifted.
“Fond memories, lover?” the nymph cooed as she sparkled into solid form next to him. The look in her sky-blue eyes promised untold delights, but a man who chose to partake of Andromeda’s charms paid a heavy price.
“There is no fondness in my memories or my heart for you,” he said. “Why did you summon me on my wedding eve?”
“I was bored.” She trailed her fingers up his thigh. He slapped away her hand and stood. She giggled, the sound as pretty as wind chimes, and shook out the mossy green locks of her waist-length hair. “Oh Drake. I’m not going to bite you.” She smiled and revealed her sharp, white teeth. “Much.”
Like most nymphs, she eschewed clothing. Her beauty was ethereal, dangerous. Her naked perfection would tempt the most principled of men. “I want payment for services rendered, Drakie poo.”
“The conditions of your bargain have been met. Rosemary chose to Bind with me even though she believed I betrayed her.”
Andromeda tsked tsked. “That was not the bargain struck, lover. Rosemary must choose her love for you above all else. No matter what she hears, no matter what she sees, she must believe her heart. Submitting to her duty as eldest daughter is not love.”
“Witches and warlocks who Bind are in love. It’s a condition of the spell.”
“So is love real?” asked Andromeda, her eyes wide and beguiling. “If you can make someone fall in love with a few words and a smattering of herbs, then the whole world should be in love.”
Drake clenched his teeth. “It doesn’t work that way and you know it. The souls choose each other before the spell is cast.”
“Funny how that works. Parents put a pinch of quintessence from their oldest daughters and sons into a big ol’ pot and hold a love lottery. What if you were meant for another Thorne sister? Or another witch who wasn’t yet of age to be considered for the Binding? What if…” she sauntered toward him and dipped inside his robe to run her palm over his chest, “you were meant for me?”
“No mortal man is meant for a nymph, Andromeda.”
She shrugged. “I am drawn to sexual energy. No man in this world had ever been as frustrated and aroused as you, lover. I could practically drink from the need that pulsed around you.” Her fingers stroked his neck. “I presented myself as I was. You saw what you wanted. Your greed cursed you, Drake.”
“No,” he said as he pushed her hand off him and backed away. “You did.”
“You’re so stubborn!” Andromeda flounced away and plopped down on the bench. She spread open her legs and gave him an unrestricted view of her pussy. The mossy green pubic hair was neat and trimmed. There lay a garden of poisoned delights. He shuddered, repulsed by her sexuality. She smiled at him as she pushed a finger inside herself. “Remember what it was like to fuck me?”
“I will regret touching you for the rest of my life,” said Drake. “If I had not believed you were Rosemary—”
“Oh! Shut up about her! She will fail you, Drake. She doesn’t love you enough. She is weak-spirited, weak-minded, and weak-willed. She is not worthy of you.” Andromeda cupped her breasts, playing with her nipples until they hardened. Her breath shallowed and her eyes glazed. “C’mon, lover. Want me. Love me.”
Drake felt the pull of her magic, the strength of her desire weave around him. He shook off the spell’s wilting tendrils and crossed his arms. “I am Bound. You cannot compel me to betray my wife.”
“Maybe not,” she said. “But I can do much worse.”
Andromeda rubbed her hands all over her body, from breasts to ribs to thighs. Then one hand serviced her pussy while the other tweaked a nipple. She moaned, loud and long, and Drake looked away in disgust. His gaze traveled to the window that overlooked the garden. In his bedroom, no, their bedroom, his wife slept. How he wished he could be next to her. But he had to rid himself of Andromeda and make sure her curse was lifted. In the window, he saw a flicker of light and a soft red glow appeared. What the—? Oh no! Rosie must have awoken and found him gone.
“Andromeda, stop it! Stop it right now!”
She fucked her own pussy with two fingers, her thumb rubbing her clit. Her breasts were engorged, the nipples distended. The damned woman wouldn’t stop moaning, wouldn’t stop pleasuring herself. Then she
seized, her eyes rolling back in her head. As she came, she screamed, “Drake! Oh my darling Drake!”
Drake saw Rosemary look out the window. Their bedroom was on the third floor of the castle. While the garden was visible from that vantage point, it was still a good distant away. And at night, chances were good she couldn’t see much. But she would know he was here. His robe was a white beacon in the darkness.
Andromeda looked at him with malicious satisfaction. She stretched like a cat arising from a nap. The ripe smell of her cum overpowered the garden’s sweet floral smells and made his stomach curdle. Leisurely, she left the bench to walk toward him. He turned away, tried to run, but she whispered a string of words. A root broke through the ground and wrapped around his calves. Another snaked up his back and secured his arms.
“The curse is broken,” he said, even though he wasn’t sure it was at an end. “Rosemary is Bound to me. She loves me. I’m free of you.”
“Drake, Drake, Drake. You really should pay attention to the fine print of a curse. I agreed to leave you alone until your wedding eve. She must be willing to sacrifice anything to free you. Given her lack of trust and faith in you, you might as well start puckering up…to kiss my ass.” She patted his cheek. “And various other parts.”
“How do you expect her to meet your challenge if I am forbidden to tell her of our bargain?” He couldn’t prevent the desperation that crept into his voice.
“It wouldn’t be much of a challenge if you tell her why you’re in this mess. How easy it would be for her to do something self-sacrificing because she knew in her heart of hearts that you fucked me because you wanted her more than your next breath.”
“Why do you want me, Andromeda? You know I don’t desire you. Not really. And I could never love you. Even if Rosemary doesn’t honor the tenets of the Binding, I always will. She is my heart.”
Andromeda scowled. “You will be mine because I say so. I’ve been patient and I’ve been extremely generous. I’m tired of waiting.”
Drake’s gaze strayed to the window. The red glow and Rosemary had disappeared. He knew she was looking for him. She would come down here, find him with Andromeda, and believe that he had betrayed her again. Pain stabbed him. No, Rosie. No! He looked at Andromeda. “And you wouldn’t care that breaking the Binding will strip me of everything? Even the ability to have children?”
“Poor warlock. So much has been lost to time. The Binding is a very old ritual. Passed down orally from parent to child. There is one other way to break a Binding.”
“How?”
“The faithlessness of one Bound.”
“There’s no such thing. Never in our history—”
“Oh poo! Sometimes the souls who choose each other are weak, like your Rosie. The Binding, for whatever reason, just doesn’t work. Do you truly believe that every Binding throughout all time has led to perfect relationships and forever love? You really are a fool.”
“Drake? Are you out here?” Rosemary’s voice filtered into the garden. Goddess help him! His heart tripled its beat as fear pounded through him. “Be right there,” he yelled.
“Aw. You want me to go away, don’t you?” she whispered. “Okay, lover. I will leave you…with a gift.”
Andromeda reached between her legs and plunged her fingers inside her pussy. She undid his robe and grabbed his cock then rubbed her essence all over it. Anger roared through him. “Stop it! Keep your taint off me!”
She brushed his lips with sticky fingers. As he spit away the residue of her cum, she sparkled out of sight. The roots that held him slid into the ground and the holes in the earth closed over them.
“Drake?” The red ball of light drifted into his line of sight. Rosemary entered the square on the left side, the very same place she’d entered from three years ago. Then, she had caught him sitting on the bench, ecstasy holding him hostage as Andromeda rode his virgin cock. Tonight, he faced her with Andromeda’s defilement on his body.
She saw him on the other side of the fountain and stopped. “I thought you might be down here telling your parents about our wedding and our Binding.” Her laughter was soft, sweet. “I hope you didn’t tell them too many details though.”
“No,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Of course not.”
She came around the fountain. Her smile faded as she took in his appearance.
“What happened to you?”
He shrugged, unable to tell the truth and unwilling to lie.
She frowned. “And your robe is open because…?”
“Oh. That.” Be-damned, he was nervous. Nervous and afraid. He loved her so much. And he believed in her…though she could never believe in him.
“What’s going on, Drake?”
He heard the suspicion in her voice and knew she was thinking about the last time she’d been in the garden, when she’d caught him with Andromeda. “What do you think I would’ve done, Rosie, if I had found you with another man?”
“You would’ve knocked him out and asked me to explain myself.”
“And why didn’t you do the same for me?”
She looked as if he’d punched her. She reeled back, stunned. “Why didn’t I…do what?”
“Fight for me. Knock out Andromeda and ask me to explain myself.”
“I was scared. I saw the man who I knew—didn’t hope or wish or think—but knew would be my husband make love to another woman. I felt so betrayed, so mortified, so angry.” She paced in front of him, obviously struggling with the burden of her roiling emotions. “I saw how well she…uh, pleasured you and feared I could never do the same. What if you wanted her more than me? What if, by the time we were to be Bound, you loved her?”
“’Tis not the way the Binding works, Rosie.”
“So every Binding throughout time has been perfect? Maybe no one records the Bindings that went wrong, but there had to be a few.”
Drake felt dread deep and low in his belly. Rosie’s words echoed Andromeda’s. Goddess. What if she doesn’t really love me? “Three years passed…and not a word from ye.”
Her frown deepened. “I was furious with you. Furious because I thought you loved me…for real. And not because of the Binding.”
“I do love you. And not because of the Binding. You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted. That’s the truth.”
She shook her head, as if denying his words. “I know I’ve been hard-headed about everything. It just got to be so easy to stay mad at you. It was better than admitting that…be-damned! That I still wanted to Bind with you. And that horrible nymph Andromeda—” She stopped, apparently unable to articulate the rest of her feelings.
“Rosie…” He sighed, sadness wrapping around him. “Sometimes, you must believe with your heart and not your eyes.”
“You are seriously weirding me out. See with my heart? We’re Bound. We love each other. We will honor the tenets. What’s in the past is in the past.” The red light floated above their heads. Rosemary looked at him closely, her expression tight.
Silently, he watched her take in his disheveled form. Dirt clung to his open robe and, at least to his own nostrils, the faint scent of sex was still present. Rosemary had to trust him no matter what. If she did not, there was no point to trying to cover up Andromeda’s attempt to make him look bad. If Andromeda was right and his sexual greed for Rosemary had caused the curse to befall him, then maybe he deserved punishment.
“Oh no,” she said, her gaze full of angry tears. “On our wedding night?”
“No, Rosie. I dinna do what you’re thinking.”
She pointed a finger at his chest and said, “What transpired in this garden dear, Make apparent to those standing here.”
Andromeda’s dried fluid glowed green on Drake’s lips and cock. He met Rosie’s gaze without shame. He didn’t do anything wrong. Either she believed her heart or she believed her eyes.
With his fear clutching his insides, he awaited her judgment.
Chapter Four
“Where are you?” yell
ed Rosemary as she entered the forested land around the castle’s ground. “Andromeda! Show yourself!”
She heard the nymph’s laughter seconds before a green shimmer appeared. The sparkles coalesced into the very lush and very nude Andromeda. “What do you want, human?”
“Your head on a pike,” said Rosemary. “But I’ll settle for you leaving my husband alone.”
“I come only to those who want me.”
“Oh puh-lease. I’ve done my research, sister. I read some very interesting information about you and your kind. Nymphs are selfish and willful and vain and liars. They trick and they deceive and, did I mention, they lie.”
“If Drake uttered one word to you…just one about the bargain he made with me, he’s mine forever.”
“He didn’t tell me anything,” said Rosemary, stepping within the nymph’s space. To her satisfaction, the tart moved back a step. “He is, in fact, standing in the garden where you left him. I put him under a sleep spell so he’ll be there a while.”
“Clever.” Andromeda fluffed her hair and looked bored.
“You feed off sexual energy. Your little radar pinged Drake that night. My guess is that you sashayed into that garden looking like me, seduced him and then lied to him. Did you give him the speech about how he wanted me so badly his own greedy nature took over? Did you tell him that you offered yourself as you were and he saw you as the one he wanted?”
Andromeda’s expression darkened. “So what if I did?”
Rosemary rolled her eyes. “You’ve been doing that same song and dance for centuries. You’ve done it so often and to so many men, it’s written down in histories and mythology and novels. I don’t know why Drake didn’t figure it out.”
The nymph’s lips curved into cruel smile. “I’m afraid that any time he searched for nymph-related information, a little spell I cast prevented him from finding it or, if he accidentally happened upon a text, from reading it. He delved into a number of books—many of them dealt with dark magic.” She shrugged carelessly. “Not that it matters. You see, once a bargain with a nymph is struck and sealed, it must be honored. It doesn’t matter if I lied or I deceived to get the bargain.”
Sex With Your Hex Page 3