“I need out of this room,” I whispered.
“They locked it, which means you and I are stuck here until they’ve finished.”
My cheeks were crimson; my hands trembling as my eyes unwillingly went back to the show. I wasn’t sure what terrified me the most, that I was turned on by it, or that I was an unwilling witness to it.
“You’re okay here, no one will do anything to you,” he assured me, but my eyes, traitors that they were, were glued to the absolute debauchery happening in the other room. His eyes watched me, and yet it took one hell of an effort for me to remove mine from where she was pleasuring them all now. I wasn’t even sure it was humanly possible, but she had all three of them inside of her and she was making noises that indicated she was more than just enjoying it.
“That’s…wow,” was all I could get out as I finally turned around and faced him, but the look in his eyes didn’t make me feel safe, it made me feel hunted.
“You like watching,” he commented casually as his eyes narrowed on me, and then lowered to my moist heat that was definitely wet. “That’s unexpected.”
“I do not,” I whispered and yet my brain demanded I turn around so that it could see what was happening now. Two of the men were grunting, and a third must have finished because she was screaming like a banshee. She wasn’t screaming any of their names though; she was screaming his. “You’re being called.”
“I’m not interested in her,” his voice rumbled softly as he pulled me close to his body, ignoring the fact that I was stiff, so stiff a board would be jealous of my posture. “You, though, you’re just full of surprises.”
He spun me around in his arms, his arm trapping me there as it pressed against my breasts, his lips pressing against my ear. “You think she’s going to say its fine when they’ve finished with her?” he teased huskily, his tongue touching against my pulse as it raced.
“Yes,” I whispered unwilling to change my opinion.
“You’re wet,” he announced, his hand slowly moving down my body until he cupped my sex. “Do you want to take her place? I could arrange it.”
“No, definitely not,” I replied quickly. No way in hell!
“Liar,” he whispered as he turned me around and smiled at me. “Sex isn’t a vile act, no matter who tries to convince you otherwise. God didn’t make a mistake by placing Eve in the garden with Adam; he knew what he was doing. For fuck’s sake, he put them in there naked, and they were only human. It was in their nature to take what they needed. They did what came naturally. They fucked and ultimately blamed it on a serpent. How perfectly fucked up is that? I personally believe that they blamed the wrong serpent.”
“I’m not sure the bible belongs in a place like this,” I replied as I tried to avert my gaze. “I’m pretty sure even the devil would blush here.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” he mused softly as his eyes moved to the other room. “Do you think you’d like pain?”
“No,” I whispered.
“Why not?” he asked softly, his eyes filled with molten heat. “There’s a fine line between pain and pleasure; sometimes it can’t be separated.”
“You gave her pain,” I murmured.
“I gave her what she enjoys.”
“I don’t think she knows what she needs,” I whispered. I was unsure if I meant myself or her, and he’d caught that.
He smiled and picked me up effortlessly, then tossed me unceremoniously onto the bed, hard. I tried to sit up, but he slammed over the top of me, knocking the air from my lungs painfully. His hand cupped my sex, and pinched it, making my hips buck against him as I cried out, and then he rubbed it carefully, making fluids rush to my entrance.
His mouth moved over one breast, finding the nipple and biting it hard through the shirt I wore, then released and rubbed it with his lips as his hot breath fanned it to a painful ache. I was helpless against the sensations that rushed through my body. I was wet, soaking wet. His hand captured both of mine and held them painfully above my head, in a vise like grip. His teeth skimmed over my carotid artery and nipped it, then kissed it. It was intoxicating, and no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, I was enjoying what he was doing to me.
“Your heart is racing, Lena. Do I scare, or excite you?” he whispered hoarsely as his mouth crushed against mine painfully; teeth slammed together, his tongue demanded entrance and took it. He was hard, unyielding as he laid claim to me. As if he had lost control, just as I had while witnessing the act in the other room. His fingers dug into my wrists painfully, making me moan and scream at the same time, which opened my lips further to his enticing, demanding kiss.
I kissed him back, and he groaned as he dug his free hand into my jeans, finding my clit and squeezed it hard. I bucked against it, and cried out as the storm of emotions built inside of me. He released it, and with two fingers entered my body painfully, spreading them until it was pain and pleasure. The jeans ripped, the button and zipper breaking free under the pressure. He smiled against my mouth as he held me there, kissing me, fucking me hard with his fingers as the moans and cries from the other room filled the one we were in. Or maybe it was our own now.
I felt the storm crest, and then I came undone. My entire body trembled and quivered, and wetness coated his fingers, my body clenching against his intrusion. My ears rang from the cries that filled the room, his mouth cutting them off as he kissed me softly through the storm. His fingers continued to move slowly inside of me, his thumb tenderly rubbing against my clitoris. Tears leaked from my eyes as I tried to comprehend what was happening to me.
“I own your first orgasm, Magdalena. Only me,” he growled as he pulled away and rolled from the bed. I watched as he left through the now unlocked door. I moved from the bed on shaky legs, and ran.
Chapter Twenty
I’d tried to dodge Lucian for the rest of the day, and had somehow managed it. I hated that I’d enjoyed his touch, but mostly, I hated that I’d been turned on by watching the foursome in the other room. I wasn’t kinky by nature. Curious would be a better description. What I’d witnessed in that room was so far out of my comfort zone that I might as well have been in Hong Kong trying to speak and understand Chinese.
I’d skipped dinner, and didn’t leave the room other than to try and find a bathroom to take care of my personal needs. I just stepped out of the room when I heard soft footsteps behind me and spun around to see my sister and mother coming down the hallway.
“You’ve been to the house?” I asked, noting that they were dirty with soot.
“The people Lucian hired just finished with the house cleanup and the coven is done with their inspection. It’s been cleared, but the damage is more than I thought it would be,” my mother said sadly. “The abbey is being prepared for the Awakening ceremony, so Lucian has been kind enough to allow us to stay a few extra days until rooms can be made ready for us there.”
“A few days?” I groaned, wondering how I was going to manage to dodge him for that long. The contractors Lucian hired for his club had done an amazing job overnight, perhaps we could hire them to work their magic on the manor house, and move back into it.
“Magdalena, it’s a kindness you shouldn’t complain about. Besides, the coven wants us here. Well, at least until we know for sure it’s safe to go home,” my mother hissed quietly, as if she feared the walls had ears and would report my words straight away to the master of the house.
“I’m not complaining, but we have events coming up. Tomorrow is the first mixer to allow us to get to know the men from the other covens better. Kendra has nothing to wear! Neither do I,” I lied. I had a few things, but nothing really dressy, or appropriate for the events that would be taking place in the next few days. Lucian had mentioned purchasing clothing for us, but I’d yet to see them, which meant I had no idea if they’d fit, or what to expect.
“We will manage, we always do,” Kendra said, her eyes daring me to argue.
“You need to be perfect so that you can carry on the family’s bloodline,” I teased with a small smile.
“I don’t think it will matter to our ancestors if I’m dressed in couture or not. Are you okay?” she asked, noting that I was searching for pretty much any excuse to get away from the house we were currently stuck in, or more to the point, away from him.
“I’m fine,” I said, because other than my total embarrassment, I was fine. I just had to figure out a way to continue dodging Lucian until the abbey had room for us or the manor house was fixed. “What did the coven figure out?”
“The fire wasn’t an accident,” Kendra confirmed, her blue eyes lighting with anger. “Someone tried to kill us; they think it was someone close to us. They also think I’m the one who was targeted. They said it was some sort of alchemy.” Something in the way she said alchemy and wouldn’t make eye contact with me caught my attention and set off warning bells.
“How is that possible?” I gasped. “Alchemy is only done with the approval of the elders; the slightest mistake is deadly.”
“They don’t know how or why, but they think the bomb was the work of the same person. It could be that Benjamin is in league with them, but it’s highly unlikely; if anyone around here used it, the elders would have sensed it. The spell was pretty complex, and they said this type of magic has unique fingerprints.”
Alchemy was bad news. Especially if the coven couldn’t trace whoever was creating nasty spells that seemed to be getting entirely too close for comfort. Those weren’t the type of things we needed this close to the Awakening.
I looked at my mother as she studied me carefully. Her eyes seemed to see through me, as if she was trying to read my mind.
“Mom?” I asked carefully.
“You took botany, Lena. Classes that could help you learn alchemy,” she whispered.
“I took botany to help the business,” I said with a frown. “I took business ethics, too. I took anything I thought would help us with the growth of the business, shit, I even learned how to make soaps and other things to sell in the shop. I haven’t had my curse lifted and nothing I learned could help make bombs or supernatural fires. It’s not like they have a class on how to create magical flames at the community college.”
“The coven is just looking into every possible scenario, Lena. Just as you come back to town, things start going boom…” Kendra said softly, her eyes filled with worry. “You’ve been gone a long time, and they are just being careful. One of the elders has suggested that we try a memory spell, just to be sure. It would get you off the hook,” she said quickly.
“Memory spells are usually blood magic, aren’t they? Wait, just who the heck will be doing the spell?” I growled.
“Me,” Lucian said from behind me.
I closed my eyes and shook my head; so much for the dodging. “You really think this is necessary?” I asked, refusing to turn around and deal with the wild storm of emotions that ran through me knowing he was directly behind me, probably from remembering what he’d done to me just a few hours ago.
“We have already agreed for you to do it, that way they can move past you and on to who is really behind these vile acts. There’s also the concern that we have girls who were eligible for the Awakening, who have seemingly vanished into thin air.” My mother’s eyes pleaded with me anxiously to not disagree.
“Thanks for having my back, Mother,” I whispered through the pain that sliced through my heart. Most types of blood magic hurt; it was old magic, and hardly ever done in our coven. It could link the participants, create a false bond that wasn’t there.
Of course they’d put me together with Lucian, and why wouldn’t they? Except for Kendra, no one knew I’d kissed him or that he’d been in my pants, literally. I turned to look at him, only to find him looking at me as if he didn’t feel a damn thing.
“I was just going to shower,” I said softly, before I expelled a deep shuddering breath. “Guess it can wait since we have to be purified…together,” I finished with a cringe.
The preparation for blood magic had to be done carefully, the area quarantined to keep any outside magic from influencing the spell. The elders would be present, erecting a wall around us to keep anyone out while we were vulnerable. It would also give Lucian a fast ride through my past, my horrors, my sorrows, and pretty much everything he had no damn right to see.
“It’s not as bad as you’ve been told,” he said with a wicked look in his eyes that was for me alone. “We should go; it takes a while to be purified, and the coven will be here shortly.”
I rolled my eyes, and followed behind him, refusing to acknowledge my mother or sister behind us, even when Kendra tried to get my attention. I didn’t have anything nice to say. They’d agreed to this, this medieval bullshit ritual that would show him everything about me! Why him? Of anyone they could choose from who knew blood magic, why him?
I knew that there weren’t a lot of people who knew how to safely do the ritual, but I was willing to take my chances with someone else. I was willing to do pretty much anything to clear my name that didn’t have me going through this particular ritual with him.
We walked down the long, winding stairway at the end of the hall, and moved partway down a darkened hallway. I paused as he placed his palms on the wall and pushed, revealing a set of rooms that I never would have guessed were there.
Inside the room was dark. He whispered a short chant and candles leapt to life. The earthy scent of sage was overpowering and we could hear the sound of running water, as if a spring actually ran through the room. Maybe he had a fountain in here why not? The man had his own sex club, so anything was possible.
He indicated one of the other rooms and I looked in that direction to find a huge bubbling pool, which had steam billowing from it. A curtain was suspended from the ceiling and encircled it for some semblance of privacy.
“Your mother and sister will bless the room. The water will act as the purifier to remove any outside taint. I will cast the spell once we are sure there is no outside influence present.”
Dark eyes held mine captive as his sensual mouth curved into a lopsided grin. He was daring me to fight with him about this situation, as if I had any actual say in what was going to happen. This was going to be an awkward situation at best if my mother and sister were going to be in the room while he and I were both naked.
“The sage, what is it for?” I asked, changing the subject to something safer.
“It’s to cleanse the air and help open your mind to allow me inside,” he said softly, his eyes lowered to the shirt that fit a little too snugly against my breasts.
“The red salt around the pool is to keep evil out, or in?” I asked pointedly with a little smirk of my own. This guy was evil; maybe not in the biblical sense, but the way those eyes peered through me wasn’t good.
“Outside,” he acknowledged with narrow eyes.
“Do we have to be naked for this?” I questioned, hoping to any God listening that they’d take mercy on me.
They didn’t.
“I’m pretty sure no one has ever gotten clean with their clothes on in the bath or shower, Lena,” he said absently as he turned to watch my mother and sister, and offer advice as they purified the room. Sage and saffron burned around the edge of the pool in small cauldrons. I watched Kendra as she added a thick line of black and green salt in a circle around the pool. My mother tried to reach the sheer material that surrounded the pool, and when she couldn’t reach it, Lucian offered to loosen it, and put it in place for her.
Kendra added purple and white flowers into the water, and I shivered as Mom murmured a spell that seemed to slide over me with each syllable.
“Scared to be alone with me?” Lucian whispered softly.
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“Yes,” I admitted with a nervous laugh that bubbled up from deep inside of me. “Terrified, actually,” I returned with a pointed look.
“You should be, considering the things I want to do to you,” he replied easily as he let the words soak in. He reached down, grabbed the bottom of his shirt and swiftly lifted it over his head, revealing sinewy muscles that looked as if he never left the gym. My eyes latched on to the tattoos and runes that my fingers itched to trace.
He stood there, allowing me to take in my fill. He knew he had this effect on me, and he was enjoying it. I stood motionlessly, needing him to continue his little perverted strip tease, but instead he purposely ran his fingers down his chest. It was a slow, deliberate move to make my eyes latch on to the dark tendrils of hair that disappeared into his jeans.
“I’ve finished the cleansing, Lucian,” my mother said as she whispered one more spell to light the candles that now circled the pool. I wanted to scream at her, because it looked like some romantic little lovers’ nest instead of a ritual site.
The flowers floated on the water, and the scent of sage and saffron irritated my nose, yet the subtle hint of the lilies and the hyacinth flowers soothed it. The candles glowed, illuminating the room in a beautiful contrast of shadows and light. The sheer material of the tent that surrounded the pool gave it an alluring appeal. I turned to my mother and started to speak, but she shook her head, stopping me.
“We will be just outside the door, Lena. Relax; Lucian won’t allow anything to go wrong.”
I opened my mouth to explain that everything was already wrong, but shut it as Lucian gave me a warning look. Interesting; he didn’t want my mother to know we’d been in a scandalous position just this morning.
Kendra gave me a reassuring hug and patted my back. “You’ll be fine, the sooner this is over, the sooner they can start looking for whoever is really responsible,” she said comfortingly.