Your Magic or Mine? (44 page)

It still wasn’t enough.

Move! He had to move
.

He pulled slowly part of the way out of her torrid depths and thrust slowly back in. A second time. A third. Each time she squeezed her inner muscles as he withdrew, welcomed him in on the return.

It was seduction of the highest order. It was heaven. It was home.

The energy, the beat, the heat, the hum, all spurred him on, and he began to move more rapidly, with greater and greater force. He thrust with his tongue and his body, powerful driving lunges that almost raised her off the bed. She gripped his hips tighter with her legs and rose to meet him.

The hum accelerated, deepened into a roar, the drum beat faster and faster as he coiled and recoiled, withdrew almost all the way and plunged back in. His world compacted to them alone, the rhythmic thrusts of his cock and his tongue, her answering responses—and the transcendent energy coursing through them.

They were melting, fusing, becoming … becoming one.

Climax came with a lightning bolt of energy and a bone-vibrating clap of thunder in a simultaneous storm of contractions that seemed to last forever. When it subsided, the tempest left behind great wonder, enormous elation, and ecstatic bliss.

And utter exhaustion.

Marcus managed to gather enough presence of mind to hold on to Gloriana and roll to put her on top, sprawled across him. For a while, only the sound of their breathing broke the silence.

After a few minutes, she lifted her head. She blinked lazily and whispered, “Wow.”

He nodded. “I agree. Wow.”

She slumped back down and wiggled until she had aligned herself to him, centers parallel and touching, his cock right between her folds. She stretched one arm up on the pillow next to his head and rested her own head on it. He idly rubbed her back and let his mind go blank. They both dozed.

Some time later, Gloriana stirred. Their magic centers still hummed—more of a purr, really. His hands, which had been holding her hips, began to move up and down her back in a light caress. She raised her head. His blue eyes were looking straight into hers out of a solemn face.

“Hi,” she said, wondering what his expression meant. Surely the man wasn’t reverting to his past behavior.

“Hi to you, too.” He smiled, turned it into a grin, and hugged her fiercely, rocking them from side to side.

She hugged him back and returned his grin.

“Oh, Glori, I love you so.”

“I love you, too, Marcus.” The words, both from him and her, sent thrills down her spine. She kissed him to seal the pact.

After they recovered from that, he said, “That had to be a bonding mating. There was enough magic energy between us to levitate the building.”

“I have no idea what I had been anticipating, but the reality was stupendous. Daria and Francie were right when they said it was transcendent. When you said this time was for keeps, their words came back to me. Touching centers seemed the thing to do.”

“It certainly was.” He gave her another hug and a kiss. When they surfaced for air, he asked, “What next?”

“What time is it?” She stretched to see the clock. “Oh, it’s going on eight. I had planned a leisurely dinner, as I remember. What about something to eat?”

“Room service,” he stated and grinned. “Then we can practice mating again.”

A shower first involved some creative uses of soapy hands and more “practice” and delayed them until they barely had time to don the plush robes the HeatherRidge provided before the food arrived. After they’d shooed the waiters out, Marcus looked over at his mate—
his mate
—and grinned. He was simply so damn happy he was giddy.

“My goodness,” Gloriana said, surveying the huge dinner. “Steak, lobster, everything from soup to nuts. Oh, look at the scrumptious dark chocolate dessert. We didn’t order all this, did we?”

“No,” Marcus answered with a laugh. “I was going to tell you but I got distracted by the sight of you in the shower. When I called them, Room Service said Fergus had taken care of ordering for us and asked when we wanted it delivered.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Look, here’s a note.” He picked up the envelope leaning against his wineglass and took out a card. He read it aloud.

Dear Gloriana and Marcus
,

Enjoy! If your first days as soul mates are like mine and my Bridget’s were, you’ll need to keep up your strength
.

Fergus
.

“He knows?” She didn’t look happy at the revelation.

“Yes, I told him and John.” Her frown said he’d better explain, and he continued, “When we couldn’t find you, I got a little anxious, I guess. They asked why, so I told them.”

“I hope they’ll keep the news to themselves.”

“I asked, and they will.” He brushed away thoughts of John and Fergus to concentrate on what was before them. He picked up his knife and fork. “I’m starved. Let’s eat.”

They both ate like they hadn’t seen food in a month.

After dessert, Gloriana leaned back and patted her stomach. “I’m stuffed. I don’t remember eating this much even when I’ve been casting spells all day.”

“Me, either. Must be that expenditure of magic energy.” Marcus took a last swig of coffee. “Speaking of spells, we haven’t figured out the other benefit of bonding—the possible change in magic potential.”

“So, let’s see. Here’s my old level twelve,” she replied. She cast her red lightball and took it up the levels to an indigo sphere with a few higher violet swirls. “Now I’ll push it.”

The violet curls increased in number, size, and color intensity until the ball was almost totally violet with only a tiny bit of indigo showing.

“I think that’s a level thirteen,” Marcus said. “Let me try.”

He cast his sphere in the same manner she had, bringing it up from red to his old level of eleven, an indigo ball with a few lower bright blue swirls. “Something feels different …”

He focused his energy in his center and projected it outward to the glowing globe. As the blue melded into the indigo and violet appeared, the well of power in his center expanded like it never had before. He poured on the power until he could find no more within him. In front of him floated a sphere identical to hers.

“That looks like another level thirteen to me,” she said. “That’s great! A two-level increase in power. My research said that much augmentation is rare. How do you feel?”

He rubbed his center. “I’m fine, I think. When I started pushing higher than my old level, it felt like my center inflated and more and more energy cascaded in. Man, I can’t wait to try the higher-level math spells.”

“Oh, you’re right. I didn’t think that far ahead. What fun we’ll have learning new ones, and the power increase will help my plant growth spells.”

Marcus looked at her, and the sight of her animated face, her thoroughly mussed hair, and her sparkling eyes tossed all ideas about spells out of his head. He rose, came around the table, and pulled her up into a hug. “Looks like a successful mating to me!”

He was luxuriating in the sheer feel of her in his arms and thinking they had to get out of these thick robes, when she stiffened and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Marcus, turn around,” she said in a low, wondering tone.

He leaned back to look down at her, but she was gazing toward the table. Keeping one arm around her, he pivoted—and froze, staring in amazement.

The two spheres they had left floating over the table had drifted to touch each other, and while he watched, they began to merge—and grow. A low hum reverberated in the background.

“I’m not doing a thing to my sphere,” she whispered.

“Me, either,” he whispered back.

When the two globes had joined completely, the resulting orb was twice the size of one of the originals and totally violet.

“Are you still supplying power?” he asked. “I had mine on automatic pilot.”

“Yes, so did I. I usually don’t even think about cutting maintenance energy until I don’t need it.”

“Cancel your spell on three. One, two, three.”

With a little “Bink!” the lightball vanished.

“Cast yours again,” Gloriana said, the excitement in her voice matching his exhilaration at the discovery.

They cast, the balls appeared, and with no compunction from either, drifted together and blended into one. The hum returned, a low thrum in the air.

“Marcus? Do you feel something in your chest?”

He glanced down at her. She held a hand to her magic center. He concentrated on his. “It feels like there’s even more power in it than there was a minute ago when I cast the first
lux
and all that energy rushed in. I thought when you bonded, the enhancement took place, you rose in level and acquired more magic energy, and that was it. The way I feel now, my energy is still increasing. What’s going on? “

“I have more energy, too, all of a sudden, but I didn’t feel a rush. The energy is simply there for me to use. Furthermore, the hum is back, and if we can go by the colors, that combined, totally violet ball is a higher level than we are individually. Maybe there’s more to our enhancement than we realize.”

“I’ve got an idea,” he said. “Let go of each other.”

They separated, and the hum disappeared, although the larger sphere remained and did not change color.

“My center went back to its former enhanced state,” she said.

“Mine, too.”

“Isn’t that the damnedest thing?” she said. “I wonder what it means. We have to show that to somebody. Lulabelle, of course. Who else might know about it? I found no reference to blending lightballs in my research.”

Marcus looked down at her as she rattled on about research. The merging of the two spheres had had a definite effect on him—or maybe he was simply in a “merging” mood himself. The last thing he wanted to do at the moment was talk about lightballs, so he silenced her in the most effective way he knew how.

When he raised his head some minutes later, their robes were open, they were skin to skin, both of them were panting, and she had been moaning. “Come on, woman,” he murmured. “Let’s do some coalescing and fusing of our own.”

Saturday night Gloriana tried to keep her face expressionless as she looked out over the place she least wanted to be—another HeatherRidge ballroom filled with contentious people. She’d much rather be back in the Soul-Mate Suite with Marcus. They’d been apart for only a couple of hours today—shopping for new clothes to wear tonight—and it had seemed like an eternity.

Now, here she was, and there he was at the other end of the table.
Her soul mate
. There had been times she wondered if they’d make it to the mating. What had she decided? Trust in the process. It—with the help of his parents—had proved true.

They’d talked about nothing and everything in between their lovemaking. What they’d been like when they were young, how to get along in a family with siblings, how they’d decided on their talents and professions, what they liked and disliked in movies, books, food, music, art. The time had been like one long date where they got to know each other as they hadn’t had the opportunity to do while running from one debate to the other.

Once Marcus relaxed and lightened up, he’d turned out to be a lot of fun. Oh, he still had a touch of stiffness, but he was learning to tease her back, and lo and behold, the man was ticklish!

He was also a generous, caring, wonderful lover. Now she understood why Daria went around with that fatuous, smug, blissful look on her face. Gloriana rubbed her cheeks to stop her own lips from curling upward.

She rested her chin on her hands and focused again on the audience. The very last debate. Hallelujah!

Ed was talking to John and Fergus. At least he was blocking her view of Marcus. Even glancing at each other was getting them in trouble. At lunch the editor had taken one look at them and said, “I’m certainly glad you two finally got together.”

When asked what he was talking about, he’d said, “Soul mates, of course. It stuck out all over you from the beginning.”

She had only been able to shake her head at his announcement. Marcus managed to mutter something about keeping it quiet, and Ed had agreed. The editor had grinned like
W
²
‘s
circulation had doubled and warned them that rumors were flying after someone discovered they were in the same suite.

All they had to do was survive the last debate, and she and Marcus could go home and back to their normal lives—as normal as it could be getting used to having a soul mate. They’d called their parents at the farm and notified them that they’d come to a satisfactory conclusion. Her mother immediately started planning a party on Sunday and told Marcus she’d invite George and Evelyn and they’d bring Samson. Gloriana wasn’t sure she was looking forward to the get-together. She was still coming to terms with the reality of Marcus and a soul mate, period, and the two of them could use some downtime.

Uh-oh. A flurry of activity by one of the doors brought Gloriana back to the present. Gordon Walcott and Bambi Kemble walked into the room with a swagger that dared anyone to take exception. The two fanatics took seats in the middle section on the aisle closest to the Traddies. Several of the THA supporters on the right pointed them out to others, yet didn’t look happy about their presence. Word had gotten around about the vandalism and its possible perpetrators. Walcott denied participation in the stunt, but it looked like he had lost ground with both the middle and the THA. The woman sitting beside Kemble made the man next to her scoot over a chair so she could move away.