Dread Delight: Rosewood Academy for Witches and Mages (Darkly Sweet Book 2)

by Juliann Whicker

  She gave me her most ‘I’m beautiful and you are so lucky that I’m leaning over this table so you can see my cleavage’ look. “I want to do a musical number with you.”

  “Only if it ends with you spontaneously combusting and burning to a painful and hideous death. I’m busy.”

  “Drake,” she said, putting a hand on my arm.

  I had her wrist between my fingers and inserted a lightning bolt of pain between that joint. She fell back, blinking at me in shock and quickly rising fury. “You dare touch me?”

  “You touched me. The entire cafeteria can witness to your subtle claim on my arm. I said no.”

  I turned back to my email and replied perhaps a little more cruelly than necessary.

  Before I knew it, I was headed to Business class where I’d see Penny Lane and she’d stare at me from a distance. Would that be better, to stay away from her, or close in early? Close in early. She had to think about me today, tonight, tomorrow, and then tomorrow night when I had her alone in my car, I’d finally kiss her.

  I smiled at her wickedly as I slid into the seat beside her. I brushed her hair away from her shoulder, feeling the delicate bones beneath the creamy blazer she wore over the round collared blouse. She was so adorable, turning towards me with a flush on her cheeks, eyes bright with delight as she stared at me.

  “Did you rest well?”

  She nodded, pressed her teeth against her bottom lip. “Did you?”

  I shrugged. “I had no choice. Ian drugged me. Mages are so untrustworthy, particularly the golden ones.”

  “Are the green ones any better?”

  “The green ones are much worse, but at least when they drug you, they won’t use nasty tasting bilge-water.”

  “Bilge-water?”

  I smiled at her. “Don’t ask. Some things are too vile for words.”

  “Like green mages?”

  “Exactly. You’d better stay far away from the mages and the wolves.” I slid my fingers over the back of hers where I’d kissed them, too long ago then I winked at her, opened my laptop and focused on the business merger that Jasper had been pestering me about for months. It was going well. What did he want me to do about it? He thought I had some kind of magic business ability that would make all the liens and tax laws disappear. What would be the fun of that?

  Business was fun for me. Her business would be delicious. I was going to do some wonderful things with it. She would be furious. But only when she found out about it. It was for her own good. Mostly.

  That day was a flurry of meetings, polo practice on the frozen field, and then more meetings after dinner and more emails after that. The chess club wouldn’t give up. To be perfectly fair, the club did consist of some incredible dancers. Would an interpretive chess dance be too bizarre? Penny might like it. Late that night, I rolled my eyes, emailed that I would look at a rehearsal and see if it had any potential.

  So much happiness in the hearts of those mages.

  Tuesday was our day, Penny and mine. I’d specifically moved everything around so that I wouldn’t have any meetings before or after class, before or after our Community Service. No constraints for this one day. In ballet, she was already waiting by the bar her eyes meeting mine before she blushed and glanced away when I came into class.

  She focused on warming up while I stood behind her. I brushed a wayward curl up, and fastened it into the rest of her hair, ‘accidentally’ brushing my fingers over the pale column of her neck in the process.

  “Penny Lane, a real ballerina never lets a lock of hair escape.”

  She made a slight sound of irritation. “Be polite or I’ll let my savage hair have its way with you. Suffocation is a real danger.”

  “Really? Death by hair? That does sound promising.” I put my hand on her hips, subtly pulling them to help with her turn-out. I couldn’t possibly have had any other motive. I would never let my hands linger on the contours of her body, sliding up her waist and over where her ribs should have been. I narrowed my eyes and forced myself to focus. This was class. Class was serious. Except when I turned her to face me, she was so close, and her eyes went to my lips. No good. I turned her away from me and led her into the first position, her leg extended, her delicate wrist in my fingers. She did have the body of a dancer, and when she forgot herself, she moved with exceptional grace. I was going to make her forget herself completely.

  Chapter 25

  Witch

  I spent my study time with Orc who assisted me in Chemistry, which I really hadn’t asked him to do. As I was walking down the marble steps afterwards, unwrapping my lollipop, a girl called my name.

  I looked up and saw the girl from my Chemistry class waiting at the foot of the steps. She looked different. She wore pink but not pretty pink, edgy pink, her pink t-shirt with unraveled sleeves and the unicorn on it fierce with glowing pink eyes and in a pose like they were going to impale you at any moment. Cool cute.

  “Hi! You’re from class.” Had she told me her name? I couldn’t remember.

  “Hi, Penny. I won’t keep you. I know you have a thing with Drake; I just wanted to know what ingredients list I’ll need for the first batch of potions.”

  I stared at her. “What?”

  “Hi, Penny. I won’t keep you. I know you have a thing with Drake, I just wanted to know what ingredients list I’ll need for the first batch of potions.”

  I stared at her. “What?”

  She shrugged. “I noticed that you’re out of stock of dream-wishes lotion and your sun-bite healer. If you give me a list, we’ll whip up a batch for you to check later.”

  I stared at her. I hadn’t told anyone other than Drake about Darkly Sweet, had I? “An ingredients list? That’s not going to be enough. There’s a whole process. Not that you aren’t fine at chemistry or whatever, but these lotions have to be perfect.”

  She nodded seriously. “Of course. I’m sorry. How about tomorrow afternoon in the witch’s lab you can demonstrate dream-wishes and sun-bite. Three forty-five? I won’t keep you any longer. See you then.”

  She waved and took off, her pink shirt at odds with the other students. What in the world? I walked to Drake’s car, feeling quite weird, and he stood there leaning against the door, hands in his pockets like it was cold and he didn’t bring a warm enough jacket. I inhaled deeply of the cold air. It did smell like snow. I should have worn tights. My knees were already cold.

  “You’re late,” he said with a smile as he tugged a curl. “I was starting to think you were getting cold feet.”

  “No, just cold knees.”

  He opened the door and helped me in, not like he needed to, but his hand lingered on mine for a moment longer than necessary while my heart pounded. His eyes were so bright, so intense in spite of his lazy smile. He was planning mischief.

  I smoothed down my skirt as he got in and started the car. “Drake, has anything seemed weird to you lately?”

  “Other than Ian drugging me? Not really. Actually no, come to think of it, the witches have been acting quite peculiar. A whole half dozen or so of the females have been treating me like I have acne or something and can’t bear to look at me. What do you think? Do I need some of your special lotion?”

  He leaned his chin in my direction. I laughed and pushed it away, the feel of his chin smooth in my fingers. I expected stubble. “Perfect as usual. It’s a glamour anyway, isn’t it?”

  He blinked at me, his face blank for a moment. “That’s right. My actual face is so handsome you couldn’t bear looking at it without fainting. But you faint anyway.”

  I touched his chin again, the skin so soft and smooth, so delicious. “Do I feel your actual skin, or is it the glamour?”

  “Glamours are part of me. I can feel your touch as though you were touching my skin, but you’re feeling the glamour.”

  “Why do you have one, I mean other than because you don’t like making females weak from desire, other than me, of course.”

  “Of course.” He smiled at me
wickedly. “Do you have any idea how rare it is to meet a witch who knows that mages wear glamours? Even rarer is a witch who talks about them. It’s not considered polite. It’s as though I were to talk about your bra which accentuated certain things you didn’t feel held up well enough on their own, or a girdle which minimized certain things you felt held out a little too well.”

  “You’re insecure about your real skin? I don’t think that’s what it is. I think it’s one more layer of protection, like your shield spell you have up. You don’t want anyone to see your real skin because that’s one step closer to knowing the real you.”

  “You’re assuming I have a real me. Perhaps I’m nothing but an empty vessel, beautifully, perfectly empty.”

  I took his hand and spread his fingers with mine. “I think that would be too much humility for you. You’d at least be full of yourself.”

  “Ouch! Such a cruel woman.” He laughed and brought my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss before he focused once more on the road.

  The trip passed in the ordinary way, but something about the way he looked at me made me tremble and not from the irrational fear. That was still slithering through my intestines, but none of that mattered, not when he was there, so there.

  At the hospital, it was so nice to see the princesses and to see that none of them were dead. I’d been worried. I played with them, singing horribly and telling stories while their small hands tangled my hair. It was over too soon, Drake leaning on the doorway while I gave multiple hugs to all my princesses, all but sweet Lulu, our angel princess.

  I was quiet while we walked out, but Drake took my hand, squeezing it while we crossed the parking lot. It was so cold.

  “The regular place?” he asked.

  I nodded and climbed in.

  “Are you all right?”

  I turned to look at him while he turned on the car and aimed the heaters in my direction. “I’m fine. It’s a little bit hard to go back. She’s still gone.”

  He nodded slowly. “You don’t have to go.”

  “I do. I want to. All of them are alive now, and so now is what we have. I suppose that’s all anyone really has. I don’t want to think about anything else, not today.”

  He flashed me a grin. “No arguments from me. Now I’m hungry. Shall we?”

  Soon enough, we were at the Chinese restaurant, pulling into the mostly deserted parking lot. He parked and got out. I slid out, heading into the restaurant after him. The waiter beamed at us and led us to our separate booths, Drake across the room from me, but I could see the back of his head. He had a beautiful back of his head. I noticed him glance at me over his shoulder a few times before he ducked down all super spy-like.

  I was giggling by the time I got my fortune cookie and paid for our meals. I didn’t have to wait long before Drake came out, hands in his pockets as he crossed the parking lot towards me where I shivered beside his car.

  “You should have waited inside.”

  I shrugged. “You’re probably right. It’s terribly rude to be right all the time.”

  “It’s true, I am a terribly rude person, but I’ll try to pretend otherwise for this evening. How are your classes?” He opened the back door for me and I hesitated.

  “I want to sit with you.”

  He stared at me. “Really? You’re not plagued by the fear?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think I’ll throw up on you if that’s what you’re worried about. I just want to hold your hand.”

  He smirked. “You want me.”

  “Your hand.”

  “Which is part of me.”

  I pushed him over, but he didn’t go over, only blocked my wrist and pulled me hard against him. His hand was spread over my lower back, his jacket brushing mine as he stared at me, his eyes intent and dark.

  “Penny, is there any other part of me that you want?”

  “If you’re wondering if my stalker tendencies have progressed to wanting to chop off your toes for souvenirs, I’m afraid it’s true. How could you tell?”

  He shook his head and let me go. I climbed into the front, settling down while he went around to the driver’s side. He watched me as he walked, staring at me through the windshield like he was a wolf stalking his prey, unable to take his eyes off me for a moment. Usually he acted so ambivalent, vaguely interested and flirtatious, but that look, those eyes, they were full of a hunger I didn’t know what to do with.

  My stomach tightened when he got in, turning towards me and holding out his hand, palm up. I lowered my hand slowly, but no sooner had our fingers touched than he pulled away, brushed my lips with his thumb and then put his thumb in his mouth.

  I stared at him, leaning closer and closer to him. Had he tasted my mouth? I couldn’t breathe. He looked so beautiful, smelled so delicious. Was he going to kiss me? He was going to kiss me. Wasn’t he? He had to kiss me. I could kiss him if he didn’t kiss me, but I’d kissed him last time and it would look really pathetic if I kissed him when he didn’t want to kiss me, but surely he wouldn’t be tasting my lips if he didn’t want to kiss me.

  “Drake, what are you doing?”

  He pulled his thumb out of his mouth and grinned at me. “Soy sauce. You had some.”

  I sighed and rubbed my mouth vigorously with the back of my hand. “Oh. Thanks.”

  He took my hand, turning it over while he stared at it. He traced my lifeline with his strong fingers. “You have a long life intersected deeply by love. Here is your first love, your true love, but here is another. And another? Penny, I’m utterly shocked by your future.”

  I pulled my hand out of his so I could wipe the sweat off on my skirt. It was cold in his car. He hadn’t turned it on so no heater. Why was my hand sweaty? “Sorry.”

  He cocked his head to the side. “I think the only possible payment is for you to be shocked by your future as well. Are you ready?”

  “For what?”

  “To be shocked.”

  I frowned at him, and then he leaned forward, brushed my nose with his while his eyelids closed and his hand brushed my neck, sliding up to tangle in my hair. Tangle was the wrong word. His fingers massaged the base of my scalp making me limp and relaxed while the scent of black cherry filled every one of my senses. He leaned even closer, sliding his other hand around my waist while he leaned in and I closed my eyes.

  I woke up with my head on Drake’s thigh. He was singing under his breath, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. I sat upright and blinked at him then looked around. We were back at school, in the parking structure.

  “What happened?”

  He grinned at me and handed me a slip of paper he took out of his breast pocket. “You fainted. Tell me what you think.”

  I licked my lips and tasted cherry. I couldn’t help smiling at him too brightly. “Did you kiss me?”

  He shook his head. “Read the paper.”

  I took it while I stared at him, but his face was kind of expressionless. “What’s this?”

  He only stared at me until I unfolded the paper with trembling fingers and read.

  The Rules

  No Soy sauce.

  Nothing below the belt.

  Even if you don’t wear a belt, Penny.

  For security reasons, no kissing in excess of two hours.

  Kissing should occur no more than one day per week. Except for holidays.

  Cheek kissing may be allowed in extreme circumstances but no more than twice daily. Referring specifically to face cheeks.

  Hand holding is allowed but not required except when riding in cars.

  While kissing there should be good music.

  Drake will be in charge of music.

  Penny will be in charge of falling in buckets.

  More rules as required.

  I read the list twice before I looked up at Drake. His red hair glowed in the orange security light, his eyes dark and fathomless while he studied me.

  “These are kissing rules?” I accidentally crumpled the paper and smoothed i
t out with my shaky hands.

  “I think of them more as non-fainting rules, but you can call them kissing if you like. It makes it sound more positive.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “It isn’t that I mind you fainting, per se, but it does take up a good deal of time that could be spent in separate booths.”

  “That’s important.”

  He nodded soberly.

  “Okay. Let’s start with the first one. No soy sauce? Is that a euphemism I don’t understand, like fortune cookie?”

  He smirked. “No. It’s soy sauce. Soy sauce mixed with lavender and dirt is too heady a combination. I moved too quickly.”

  “And the soy sauce is the culprit? Makes sense. The second one, nothing below the belt, and the next one, is that…” I closed my eyes tightly to keep from looking at him anywhere inappropriate while he laughed.

  “I want my intentions to be clear. I’m not trying to get you into my bed for a night of passion.”

  “Why not?” I blushed and stared at him, leaning away from him until my back was against the door.

  He gestured at me. “You’re very sweet. I don’t want to change that.”

  “I wouldn’t be sweet anymore after… I mean, I’d be the same person.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Are you arguing for…”

  “No! I’m not going to do that. Ever.”

  He smiled at me, a mischievous smile that made my stomach tighten. “Naturally.”

  “Okay. Next one. Two hours kissing? Who can kiss for two hours? Wouldn’t you get bored? Wouldn’t your lips get tired?”

  He shrugged. “It’s the upper limits. I really adore being bored, so hopefully it is dreadfully dull. As for my lips, they can take as much as you can give them.”

  I licked my lips and stared at his, so soft, expressive, lovely. “Right. Security reasons? Never mind. What about only one day a week? Does that mean you must kiss every seven days, or that you should kiss eight days apart, progressing so you rotate through the kissing days every seven weeks?”

  He laughed. “You kissed me on Saturday, today is Tuesday. That’s not long enough for you to bear the desire for me that overwhelms your frame senselessly.”