Suddenly Sorceress (8 page)

“Jackson Blake—”

His fingers cupped my chin, pulling my face upward. “Ivie, we’re standing naked in the woods. Do you think it would be okay to call me Jack?”

I opened my eyes, peering into his. “Jack.” As I whispered his name, the heat surged in.

“Give me your hands,” he murmured, taking mine and turning his palms up, twisting our fingers until only the tips were touching.

A glimmer of electricity prickled over my skin. “It’s working. I’m starting to tingle. Can you feel it?”

His breath wheezed out in a jagged rhythm. “Mmmm. I do.”

“It’s magic.” I giggled, giddy with excitement.

“Definitely magic,” he agreed.

Then the blue heat penetrated my core like shock waves. An electric ripple tore through me, and just like the other times, a rush of something completely different followed close behind. With no outlet for the surge of magic, an intense static charge sparked off the tips of my fingers and toes before rushing swiftly to my blazing hot center.

A soft whimper escaped me as Jack pressed his mouth to mine. He tasted of maple syrup, butter, and passion. With gentle pressure, he nibbled on my lips as his warm hands skimmed up my arms and over my shoulders to cup my face. His touch thrilled me to my toes. Not just his touch… his sweet flavor, his clean boy scent, the warmth radiating out from his delicious body. A simple kiss would never be enough to satisfy the three-alarm fire raging inside me.

I wanted to devour him, and no one had even come close to eliciting feelings so carnal in me before that moment. My fingers inched up the solid planes of his chest until I reached the light stubble on his jaw, forcing him away from me. “I can’t…”

“What? Why?” He panted, resting his forehead against mine.

“No. I don’t mean I can’t
do this… I mean, I can’t get
enough
. I want more.” I crushed my mouth against his again, my fingers tangling in his hair. “I want you. Here.
Now
.” My body burned for a total stranger, and I no longer had the willpower to stop.

He groaned, his hands sliding down my back until they cupped my behind, pulling me tighter against him. “You have no idea how much I want to, and I can’t believe I’m actually going to say this, but…” He chuckled. “I
can’t
.”

My lips stopped moving against his, and he lifted his head just enough to look into my eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He held my face, a pained expression on his. “It’s really cold, Ivie. I… I literally
can’t.
”

My breath came out in little white puffs as I stood there blinking at him. Understanding dawned on me and I sneaked a peek at the flat front of his gray boxer briefs. “The car.” I pushed away from his warmth to search for my things. “Put out the fire and grab your stuff. We need to get back to the car.”

Hopping from one foot to the other, I yanked on my boots then scooped up the rest of my clothes. I reached for his outstretched hand, letting him drag me through the woods. As we stumbled over the underbrush, giddy anticipation consumed me. I barely noticed the bitter cold or the sting of jagged vines clawing at my skin.

“Christ, Ivie, you’re freezing.” Jack hugged me, kissing down my neck as he tugged me toward the BMW.

“No! Not mine. Yours.” I shoved him toward the silver SUV and latched my lips to his while he fumbled for the keys. The last thing I needed was bodily fluids discovered in Matt’s car, and there would
definitely
be bodily fluids exchanged.

Who the hell are you, Ivie McKie?
I’d wandered into the woods to perform a spell and ended up unearthing a side of me I had no idea existed.
If only Chloe could see me, she’d be so impressed.
And Matt—boring, my ass! Not that either of them would believe me if I told them. Magic was one thing; sexual exploration was quite another.

“Wait,” Jack said into my mouth as he uncurled my fingers from the rear door handle. “I have stuff in the backseat.”

I nodded as he steered me to the front of his vehicle without detaching his lips from mine.

I nuzzled into his shoulder as he opened the door and lifted me into the front passenger seat. He climbed in behind me, scooting under me until he had me straddling his lap, then pulled my face to his for a searing kiss that literally took my breath away. As he kissed me senseless, I let my hands explore his warm skin. They skimmed over his shoulders, across his chest, and reached between the seat and the door to pull the lever, hurling our bodies backward as we moved into the fully reclined position.

“Better?” I giggled.

“Much.” His lips curved against mine before taking his tongue on a journey over my chin, down my throat, finally reaching my chest. His teeth grazed my lace-covered nipples, making me moan as the muscles between my legs clenched. “You like that?” He unhooked my bra before sliding the straps down my arms and tossing the flimsy fabric away.

“So good.” I wriggled above him, snaking a hand between us to cup his growing erection. “You’re not so cold anymore?”

“No. Not anymore.” He grinned as his fingers slipped into the waistband of my thong, making me tremble as he teased the top of my sex.

“Just rip it,” I whispered, still caressing him through his boxer briefs.

He pulled his face back, searching my eyes. “What?”

“My thong. Just fucking rip it. I can’t wait.” I ground my hips into his, pressing my hand harder against him.

“Fuck.” He shuddered, tore the tiny scrap of fabric from my body, and slid a long finger deep inside me. “You feel so fucking good.”

My head fell back as a second finger slid into me. “Oh, God… Inside,” I ordered, fumbling to set him free as I coiled my fingers around his hot, velvety length. “I need you inside me
right
now
.”

“I can do that.” Jack nodded, gripping my hips as I slid my wetness over him.

All I had to do was raise up and impale myself on him, and he would be buried inside me. But before I could take matters into my own hands, he shifted away slightly. “God, will you just fuck me already?”

He twitched beneath me, screwing his eyes shut as he repeatedly slammed his head against the headrest. “Damn it.” He groaned. “What about protection? Shouldn’t we use some sort of protection?”

“Oh, shit, protection. Do you…”

“Yeah.” He leaned forward to open the glove box and pulled out a strip of condoms.

“You keep condoms in your glove box?”

He tore a foil square open with his teeth and held it out to me. “Are you really going to complain about that right now?”

“No, not complaining.” I snatched the latex, smiling when he let out a low hiss as I slowly unrolled it over him. “Okay, Houdini, time to make it disappear.”

“Oh, hell, yeah.” He thrust his hips, and I gasped as he plunged into me with a deep growl. “So fucking tight.”

“Oh, God… Never had anything so… like this.” I held my breath as my body adjusted to his thickness. Every upward stroke reached places I didn’t know existed. “Mmmhmm… right there. God, I fucking love magic.” My fingers bit into his shoulder as he pounded into me.

“Fuck
magic
. I love being inside you.” He grunted, sucking my nipple as I bucked my hips into his.

My hand flew against the cold glass, and condensation pooled between my fingers as I balanced myself. “Jesus, fuck… do that again. I think I’m going to…” My entire body shook as I exploded, tightening and convulsing around him.

“Me too, baby. Me too.” With one last violent tremor, he slammed into me, squeezing his eyes shut.

My arms wrapped around his neck. I panted as I nibbled the shell of his ear. “How long… before… we can… do that again?”

His face broke out in a wide grin. “How long does it take to get to your house?”

Nine

J
ack missed the exit more
than once, prolonging the ride, but I didn’t mind. I relished the chance to catch my breath before reentering my private nightmare. I slid my key into the lock then turned to face Jack in all his rumpled goodness.

“This may seem a little strange to you, but I promise my life isn’t normally this bizarre,” I said.

He beamed at me. “Are you kidding? After tonight, I can only
hope
the rest of my
life is this bizarre.”

“Trust me, I have no doubt it will be. You look very”—my eyes swept over his bare chest—“
sexy
in nothing but a pair of ripped jeans.”

“Well, you, my little witch”—he bent down to capture my bottom lip between his teeth and brushed a stray piece of hair from my face—“look fucking
hot
wearing nothing but my shirt.”

We stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like forever before the cold seeped into my consciousness, making me shiver. “We should go inside.”

Jack reached around me to open the door, ushered me inside, then closed and locked it.

I flipped on the lights and noticed the clothes basket—though still over the big black snake—wasn’t where I’d left it. Matt had managed to wedge it against the hall table. He raised his head to stare at us through the slats in the plastic.

“Interesting cage you have there.” Jack tilted his head and frowned. “Not the most secure thing I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s all I had.” I shrugged and peered at Matt. Even though I wasn’t cold anymore, looking into his beady eyes sent an involuntary chill through my bones. “I’m not exactly keen about having a snake in the house. I’d much rather just turn him back straight away.” Jack made an unintelligible sound, and I spun around to find him still scrutinizing the snake—his body tensed. “You aren’t afraid, are you?” I was mystified. He’d seemed perfectly comfortable with a snake earlier.

“No. I don’t know. I’m—” Jack scratched his head as he studied Matt. “
Confused
, I guess. When you say ‘turn him back’…” He searched my eyes.

“Yes, of course, I need to turn him back.” The thought of leaving him like that any longer than I had to was
laughable
.

“So the…” Jack waved toward the basket.

“Is he not as big as I described him? I’m sure I exaggerated. Like the old fish story. ‘I once caught a snake
this big
.’” I stretched my hands as far apart as I could and forced a laugh, but it came out a little hysterical. “He seemed pretty big as he slithered in my direction this afternoon.”

Jack looked away from the makeshift cage, his eyes roaming the rest of the house. “You’ve gone to a great deal of effort here, haven’t you?” He cracked half a smile. “Is this even real?” He tapped the laundry basket with the toe of his leather shoe, and Matt reared up and hissed at him. “Pretty real.”

“He wasn’t always a snake. I told you, that’s my fiancé. Well, ex-fiancé.” I dipped down to look at Matt, and he struck out at me, ramming his head into the slats again. “Gah!” I flinched.

“Is it my imagination, or does he really not like you? Like,
at all
.” Jack let out a nervous laugh.

“It wasn’t an amicable breakup.” I remembered the look on Matt’s face when he had asked for his ring back and rubbed the spot where the rat had bitten me. “I don’t think he’s very happy with me. I can’t blame him really, not after, you know…” I held my nose for an instant then wriggled it like a rat before slithering my hand through the air. “Anyway, are you ready to try the magic again?”

“Absolutely.” Jack’s posture relaxed, and he flashed a wide smile. He stepped toward me and gripped my hips to haul me against his growing erection. His warm breath fanned over my neck. “I’m more than ready to make more magic with you.”

Without speaking, I locked my fingers with the handsome magician and dragged him into my kitchen.

Trying to draw on the power from where our fingers laced together, I concentrated on the heat from his skin. “This is exciting,” I whispered, stepping closer to him until our faces were only inches apart.

“Exciting,” he repeated, his lips curving up at the corners.

I could only imagine what he was thinking. How often had he worked magic with someone as inexperienced as me? I rested my forehead on Jack’s shoulder as the sensations washed over me. “I’m starting to tingle,” I said with the giddy excitement of one of my kindergarteners. “I can feel the heat coming from you.”

“I’m
definitely
hot for you.” Jack groaned, pressing his lips against the hollow behind my ear.

“Not yet.” I wriggled away and struggled to contain my enthusiasm.

Straining against the blackness of my memories, I tried to pull up an image of Matt. His face still eluded me, so I concentrated on what I
knew
of him. His aura perhaps. Vague impressions flickered in and out of focus, and they were nothing nice.

Jack raised our linked hands up over our heads, dragging me closer until our bodies pressed together. I let my head fall back and closed my eyes, too caught up in the new feelings building inside me to notice anything other than Jack nuzzling my neck, rasping his stubble against my shoulder. I definitely felt something deep down. I didn’t know if it was magic, but I wasn’t interested in stopping.

“Ivie…” he whispered as he feathered light kisses along my jaw.

The familiar tingling moved from my outstretched fingers, through my arms, and down my torso, heating me in places that had nothing to do with magic. My lips searched for his, starting at his jaw and working across to devour his mouth, while I still tried to conjure Matt in my thoughts. It grew more and more difficult as the power that was Jackson Blake drew me in.

I didn’t know how long I’d been distracted, but it was long enough for the black snake to tangle around Jack’s legs and up his body, poised to wrap tightly around Jack’s throat. When I heard the faint flutter of snake tongue flicking near my ear, I opened my eyes. Jack was frozen, his face twisted in terror. He’d noticed just before I did that he was about to be suffocated by my former fiancé.

I swallowed a scream as fear replaced arousal in a single horrifying shudder. One heat replaced another. The new emotion burned me from the inside out. As if a big bubble had burst, the buildup of energy ruptured, sending shock waves out from my body in swells. The lights went out. Or maybe they didn’t go out as much as they were swallowed up by the dark. In the time it took me to take a single breath, the light had returned.

Jack sat on the floor as if he’d just casually plopped down for a rest. The snake was gone. A graying Scottish terrier sat in his place.

We stayed quiet for a minute. From his spot on the floor, Jack stared between me and the dog. Then he stood slowly, running his hand through his hair until it stuck up. The sight of him, combined with the residual magic pulsing through me, drove me into a frenzy.

“Jack.” I grabbed his face roughly, tugging him to me. “I need you to fuck me.”

That seemed to shake him out of whatever spell he was under.

Jack’s fingers bit into my shoulders as he shoved me against the refrigerator then used his hips to keep me pinned. He slid his hands down my arms and lifted up the bottom of my shirt…
his
shirt… to sink a finger into me.

“God, you’re so wet. Is that for me?” He groaned.

“Just for you.” I slipped one hand into his waistband as the other struggled with the button.

He shoved my hands away, unzipped his jeans, and pushed them down to set his erection free. “I’m going to fuck you standing up. Right here against the refrigerator. Do you have a problem with that?” His growl sent Matt running out of the kitchen and made my thighs tighten in anticipation. I shook my head before he hauled me up, wrapping my legs around his waist, and slammed into me. “So. Fucking. Hot.” He grunted, his hips grinding against mine at a punishing pace.

“Oh, God,” I said, in a shaky breath.

Jack continued his merciless attack, pounding into me over and over again. “Come on, baby, come for me. You know you want to.”

I was so close, every nerve ending within me on fire. My body shuddered each time he hit that spot that no one before him even knew existed. Arching my back as if responding to his spoken command, wave after wave of pleasure spiked through my body, making me cry out. I’d never climaxed so many times at once, and I’m certain if he wasn’t holding me up, I would have collapsed to the floor in a puddle.

“Hold on to me, baby.” He wrapped my limp arms around his neck, shifting me for a better angle. A light sheen of sweat beaded across his forehead as he thrust deeper, then again, stretching me a little more each time as he swelled within me. “You feel so good. Oh, baby, I’m gonna… ahhh.” He froze, squeezing his eyes shut, his mouth open in a silent scream.

He jostled me, trying to shake me awake, maybe. Perhaps just to get a better grip so as not to drop me; I didn’t know. My body was boneless against him.

“Jesus.” Jack blew out a breath and shuddered hard. “I just fucked you without protection.”

My eyes opened, taking in his horrified expression. “I… um… it’s okay. I’m on the pill.”

He relaxed slightly and nodded but still looked shaken. Then the little dog barked, and Jack’s face turned an unflattering shade of green.

“Holy shit, you turned that snake into a dog,” he choked out. His grip loosened until I slid gently from his grasp to stand on my feet. His hands went back to his already chaotic after-sex hair.

My lips tipped up into a smug little smile. I may not have done the spell I’d intended to do, but I had certainly channeled the magic. “I told you I was a witch. You didn’t believe me?”

Jack pulled his jeans back up and fastened them before pacing the kitchen. “Hell no, I didn’t believe you. I thought you were just one of those”—he waved his hands around—“magic groupies.”

My mouth dropped open. “
Magic groupies
?” I didn’t like the image that conjured up.

“Yeah, the girls who hang around after the show.” He seemed to struggle to keep his thoughts together. “It’s a Goth club. We see a lot of strange characters there.”

I didn’t understand how he would make such an assumption about me. “But you do magic. You said your whole family was magically inclined. Surely you have to realize other people can do magic, too?”

He looked down, suddenly interested in the tops of his shoes. “Ivie, I have a confession to make…” Jack pulled on his hair so hard I feared it might come out.

His discomfort made my stomach twist and I tugged on the hem of my—
his
shirt to cover myself. “Well?”

“I’m a fake.”

A fresh surge of heat flowed through me, as if the energy hadn’t fully left my body and churned just below the surface. “A fake?” I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean a
fake
?”

“I mean, I don’t really do magic. My tricks are just
tricks
. There is no magic involved whatsoever. But I am a really good illusionist who learned from a skilled magician.” He didn’t show the least bit of remorse. Like a spoiled child caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.

“I don’t understand. You
lied
to me?” My face must have been a mask of shock.

I didn’t know why I was surprised. People lied to me all the time. Matt hadn’t told me the truth about anything. But Jack? I’d known him for only a few hours, and I was completely taken aback. We had a…

“What about the magical connection we shared?” I gasped. “What about our merging with nature and drawing upon the strength within us?” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “What about the
sex
?”

He winced, his eyes filled with guilt. “Ivie, you’re very sweet, and I’m sure you know you’re beautiful, but I honestly thought you were just playing a game. I’ve heard about girls who like to pretend they’re Wiccans and spend a night roleplaying the whole magic thing in the woods. So I made up the convergence to play along.”

My face flamed, and I was unable to raise my voice above a whisper. “We took our clothes off in an open field. We had sex.
Twice
!”

He bit his lip and blushed, his guilty face almost apologetic. “The sex was amazing.”

Somewhere deep inside me, deeper than I knew existed, a tap opened. No… a pipe burst. Like a raging river or an underground aqueduct, it flowed through me into every nerve ending in my body. As if I’d harnessed the electric current running through the house, the lights dimmed as I pulled the current from the outlets into me. Faint sparks radiated from my fingertips. I knew I should be afraid, but I was too angry to register fear.

Matt, in his new form, let out a sharp whine and cowered against the wall.

“Ivie,” Jack said in a shaky voice, “Ivie, you’re…
glowing
.”

That tamped down my anger somewhat, as I was almost instantly enthralled by my power. I caught my reflection in a dark window, and Jack was right. I was glowing. I couldn’t take my eyes off myself. That was the first time I’d seen what happened when the magic surged in me. Faint blue sparks shot out of my outstretched fingertips, and I saw my eyebrows knitted together in angry concentration.

“Christ, your hair… This isn’t
possible
. None of this is possible. I think you should try to calm down. Didn’t you say you turned your fiancé into the snake when you were angry?”

His question pulled me further away from the rage pulsating through me. “Not a snake.” I shook my head, still watching my every move in the window. “A skunk.”

“What?”

Even as I turned toward him, I couldn’t quite tear my eyes away from my reflection. “I didn’t turn him into a snake that first time. He was a skunk.” I watched his reaction in the glass, certain he was afraid. “I was angry.” I forced myself to look directly at his face. “So angry I tingled with heat. I burst with it.” As I said the words, for the first time since I’d felt the initial rush of electricity flow through me, I remembered what had happened that night. I’d been out of control with rage, pointing my sparking fingers at Matt and shouting at him. Shouting that he wasn’t a man, that he was a... “Oh, my God! I did this!”