Chapter 18

Skyler lost all train of thought at the sensuousness of Chad’s touch, the precision of his tongue as it rolled with hers in imitation of lovemaking. He tasted of salt and wine and of his own masculinity, and she wanted so much more. Her body was on fire, and everywhere he touched her, another spark ignited. Perhaps she’d been too long between lovers, or maybe Chad just knew exactly what he was doing. Either way, she was going to let him do it, at his leisure, in his way.

Gasping as his lips trailed away from hers and down her throat, Skyler tilted her head to give him what he wanted and asked, “Is your bedroom far from here?”

Without responding, Chad bent, sweeping her legs up with one arm behind her knees and the other behind her back, carrying her as he moved in a silent glide across the room. He didn’t even seem to be taking steps, so gentle was his movement, and she nibbled at his ear, smiling as he groaned in pleasure. He pushed open a door that led off the study, and suddenly, they were in a room lit with electric lanterns that winked like old-fashioned flames. The bed was large and luxurious, with purple satin sheets and what looked like millions of pillows. As he laid her back on the massive structure, she glanced around to find the walls covered in works of abstract art, all in shades of grays, blues, and purples.

She didn’t take long to peruse, though, the weight of Chad’s body on top of hers as he covered her and kissed her more deliciously than she could have imagined. He was rock hard, pushing against her stomach, and she moaned as his had covered one breast, squeezing and massaging gently as he kissed her with fervor. She wasn’t shy, never had been when it came to sex, and she reached down to cup his buttocks in her hands, manipulating the very firm muscles to her own delight. She pushed upward, making his body slide enough to rub his length through his pants against her so he sighed.

Chad pulled away, and she cried out in protest, her body suddenly cold and left wanting, but he merely rolled her over to release the zipper of her dress, then moved her to her back again and slowly drew the material down her body. She wore nothing beneath except the garter belt that held up the thigh-high hose, and she watched him gulp visibly at her nudity, obviously taken by it. She’d worked hard to remain flawless, and tonight, it was definitely going to pay off.

She sat up and began to undress him as well, their mouths locked together as she removed his suit jacket, unbuttoned the shirt beneath, loosened the tie, and opened his fly. With a little help from a silent spell, everything came off gracefully, falling into a pile on the floor beside the bed. She ran her fingernails down the expanse of his bare chest and was delighted at the feel of the taut muscles beneath, and then she switched, feeling the movement in his back and shoulders as he explored her body. They moved with rhythm and precision, and it made her wetter between her thighs before he even reached that juncture.

When he drew one nipple into his mouth, Skyler cried out, nearly losing it, and she arched her back as he sucked, nipped, licked at it, begging him not to stop. All the while, her hands slipped to his hips, narrow and slim, then to the front of him, where she wrapped her fingers around his base, sighing in happiness at his thickness. He grunted and jerked as she moved her hand up the length of his shaft, and she could feel his body shiver with need, the same need she was feeling.

Intensifying the sensation, she cupped his sac in her other hand, rolling it gently in her palm until his eyes rolled back in his head and he came down on her mouth with such force it was nearly bruising. But it was delicious and inviting, and she returned the kiss with all her effort. She was fierce and would take what she wanted, just as much as she was willing to give.

Still stroking him, Skyler wrapped one long leg around his waist, drawing him closer to her, wrapping him in her own warmth, even as the pleasure built within her, low in her gut, and threatened to explode. Chad’s mouth was everywhere, kissing her breasts, her neck, her stomach, and his hands followed, tormenting her with the gentlest of caresses across her body. Her abdomen clenched with the effort not to release just yet, but when his fingers found her folds and her cleft, rolling it in circles and stroking her until the tip of one finger slid inside her core, she couldn’t hold it anymore, and the waves of ecstasy crashed over her.

“Yes,” Chad breathed as he kissed her mid-scream, swallowing her cry of joy as she came with strong seizures of her entire body. “And that’s only the beginning,” he muttered against her ear. He reached down and took hold of her other leg, wrapping it around him, and she latched one ankle over the other, inviting him to have his way with her, ready to open her mouth and beg if he didn’t give her what she wanted, what she needed.

But he needed it, too, as evidenced by the strained look on his face as he moved with maddening slowness until just the tip of him pressed at her entrance. She pushed her hips up, swallowing the head of him inside her and nearly came again, just from that contact. Her inner walls invited him in, squeezing and tugging at him, begging to be touched. With small, slight thrusts, he began to take her, inch by inch, and she thought she might pass out from the erotic movements of his body over her. Every part of her burned and seized, and she tightened her hold on him with her arms around his neck.

Chad’s kiss was like gasoline, making the flames burn higher, and he mimicked the motions of his body with his tongue until Skyler couldn’t stop the orgasm from taking her once again, crashing through her like a defunct airplane. She clutched at him, clawed at his back, but he kept his rhythm, finally sheathing himself completely inside her. Once the tip of him reached the end of her, and she could feel his sac resting against her bottom when he paused for just an instant, she became fierce. She threaded her fingers through his hair, fisting her hands and taking hold, yanking him down for a deeper, more insistent kiss, devouring him with her mouth the way he was about to devour the rest of her.

It shocked Chad into motion, and he began to thrust faster, in rocking motions of his hips, that satisfied the cravings inside her, only to bring on more desire. She moved with him, meeting his thrusts with her own rolling hips, and she panted as the final explosion built within, the pressure so great she thought she might actually burst out of her skin. In her head, she chanted a quick spell, one that would assure that, when Chad finished, she’d join him in his ecstasy. She arched her back, changing the angle so Chad pounded into her, deeper and deeper, until he was grinding his hips into hers.

With a final thrust, he let go, spilling into her with a savage growl of passion, and she came with him, the sensation more like an implosion as everything inside her body seemed to collapse, her inner walls milking him for everything, her blood almost feeling as though it flowed backward so that her heart would be too full to contain itself. The orgasm seemed to last forever, and finally, Chad’s muscles lost their tension. He rested, slowly dropping on top of her in a delectable heap of weight that helped calm her shivering body. She could feel this all the way to her bones, and it was the closest she’d ever come to complete contentment.

She dozed a bit, and she felt his breathing grow even and light as well as he rested atop her. She didn’t make any move to push him off, just enjoyed the heat and the feel of him. At some point, he rolled over, pulling her body back against his to cradle her. Skyler found it comforting and frightening all at the same time. Is this what she could expect as status quo? Would she be spending her nights screaming her ecstasy and sleeping in Chad’s arms, all because of her need to get him under control? And worse, did she actually want that?

No, of course not, she told herself, remembering how the incantation and the binding could affect her own emotions. Chad was her boss, and she’d hexed him into loving her. That’s all it was, and if this became too much, she could easily reverse the spell. Of course, with that kind of performance, she was certain she could stick with the program a bit longer.

Sliding out of his arms, she stood, trying to determine which direction would lead to the master bathroom. They’d come through a door behind her, so she discounted that one as leading to the study. But there were still two in front of her, and she had no idea where either would take her. Assuming one of them must be the restroom, she picked the one on the right first. She just wanted to clean up a bit. After all, if Chad woke up and wanted her to leave, she would have to call a cab, and she couldn’t go anywhere with her hair mussed like this and moisture from the both of them coating her inner thighs.

She opened the door, stepped inside, and flipped on the switch. She sighed, having made the wrong choice. This was obviously a library of some sort. She turned to go back and use the door on the left, but something in the center of the room caught her eye. She frowned and narrowed her gaze to try to make it out. The room was large, and it was a fair distance away. She didn’t mean to snoop, but she had a dark feeling about this. Chad was asleep, so it wasn’t like she was going to get caught. She only wanted a closer look.

She approached the table and chairs she’d noticed and tilted her head in consideration at the tablecloth, which was black and red with depictions of several of the ancient runes. In fact, as she studied it, she realized all the runes were there, and her curiosity piqued. There was another table, farther across the room, with several objects on it, and she wondered what they might be. Her heartbeat quickened, but she had to know.

Atop that table were a pestle and mortar, several candles of various colors, a container of rock salt, and a small knife. Her eyes wide, she had to look beneath the table to confirm her suspicions. Bending and looking at the underside of the tabletop, she gasped. A pentacle was drawn, perfectly, with no start and no finish to the intertwined lines of the star in the center. She certainly hadn’t been meant to see this room. There were only two types of people who used these items, who kept them clean and ready to call on at any moment.

One was her people, witches, which Chad certainly was not. Her brother suffered from madness because he’d been born with the powers of a witch. Men could not be witches. But they could belong to the other group of individuals who practiced with these particular items.

What had she stumbled on? Moving quickly, she exited the room and went through the other door, silently thankful this actually was the bathroom. She needed to catch her breath and gather her thoughts. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

Could Chad be a warlock?

How had she not seen it from the start? Granted, she’d never met a warlock she hadn’t been introduced to through magical people. Several of her coven were married to warlocks or friends with them. But as far as she knew, she’d never run into one outside of those circles. Maybe she had and just didn’t know it, or perhaps her sense of magic was off. Whatever the case, if he really was a warlock, it held several implications.

First, her spell meant nothing. Love spells and other such incantations could only work on mortals and couldn’t be leveled on a warlock with expectations of success. So, though Chad carried the talisman Skyler had formed for him and though he’d been acting as she’d hoped once she’d hexed him—or even better—it wasn’t due to the talisman, hadn’t been invoked by her magic. Something else had changed the way he treated her, and Skyler was at a loss for what that could be.

Second, she had to be careful. Unless there was a real relationship between them, she could not let him find out she was a witch. It was a bad enough offense to let a human know. To give over the secret to a warlock could be disastrous for the entire coven. If he were part of his own coven, they could easily use Skyler to destroy every witch in her circle, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. There were already signs that he could know what she was; he’d hinted at it more than once. She would have to find out just what he knew, and she’d have to tread lightly doing so.

But the biggest question was this: if he was a warlock and if the spell hadn’t worked on him, why the hell was he being so kind to her? Why was he suddenly interested, flattering her and talking about the ‘future of their relationship’ and taking her to bed? Not that she wanted to question the last, especially since her motives probably weren’t any better than his. But still, he had to have a reason for the sudden appearance in change of heart. What did he want from her that he could stand to gain by being this way?

Was he really that set on changing the way she wrote, on controlling her in the office? Is that what this had been about? If that was the case, he had a war on his hands. She wouldn’t give up that easily. At the same time, it broke her heart because a part of her had thought they’d bonded in some special way over dinner. Similarly dysfunctional families, obviously being raised under similar circumstances . . .

And that made her stop and think about her own reactions to him. Just as Jayden had warned, an effective spell would cause Skyler to believe she was falling in love with Chad, and she’d had tender feelings toward him the past few days. She’d put it all up to the spell. But again, if Chad was a warlock, then the spell hadn’t worked on either of them.

What did that mean about Skyler’s feelings toward Chad?

Almost in a panic, she left the bathroom with every intention of grabbing her clothes, calling a cab, and running for the nearest street corner, just to distance herself from Chad until she could get home and think. She decided that she should try to break the spell, just in case she was wrong. Then, if he was acting the same way, she’d have to start digging into his purpose. What magic was he trying to wield over her?

But Chad lay on his side on the bed, his elbow at an angle so his head was propped up on his fist. “You disappeared pretty fast. Is everything okay? You look a little bit like a deer in headlights.”

Brush it off, she told herself. Smiling, she shrugged. “I’m sorry. I got a little panicky. After all, I just slept with my boss. It’s a big deal, whether it means something or nothing, and I had to stop and take it all in because it happened so fast.”

His eyes sparkled in the dim, flickering light. “I understand completely. But . . .” he hesitated as he crawled off the bed, suddenly looking predatory in his movements as he slunk toward her, “it was far too good, and I’m afraid I might want it again.” He brushed his hand over her stomach, his fingers resting on her hip as he kissed her, softly, convincingly, wrapping her back into that blanket of euphoria she’d only just left.

She wanted more, too, but how could she? Skyler needed answers, and she wasn’t going to get them here. “Are you trying to make that an order?” she teased as she broke the kiss.

The frown on Chad’s face expressed not only offense but hurt at her question. “Skyler, I may be a bit of an overbearing pig at work, but I would never force you into anything you didn’t want, especially as penance for keeping your job.” He brushed his lips over her collarbone, his fingertips sliding again so they caressed one side of her buttocks, and she felt moisture building all over again. “Can’t you just trust me?”

She so wished she could. But he’d hidden the most important thing about him from her. She couldn’t even cast stones, since she’d done the same to him, even used her magic against him—or tried to. Had he tried the same? When it hadn’t worked, had he easily come to the conclusion that she was a witch? Skyler didn’t know if she could let go and give in to her baser desires with all these uncertainties that plagued her now. “It’s not about trust, Chad.”

He pinched her nipple, rolling it gently between thumb and forefinger as he dipped one hand to caress between her legs. Those legs betrayed her, trembling so hard it took all her effort not to collapse right there, and her eyes fell closed. “Then what is it, Skyler? What do I need to do to convince you that we should be together?”

A voice in the back of her head screamed, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Through the fog of arousal, she tried to interpret that and use it to make a decision, but as long as his hands were on her, she couldn’t think straight. No, she had to, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, ignoring the swimming desire in her belly and the heaviness of her breasts at her sudden need, which should have been satisfied for the evening already but only cried out for more.

In a single instant of clarity, she knew what she had to do. Giving in to the pleasure finally, she grabbed his throbbing shaft in her hand and moved him backward toward the bed. “Well, first, I need a date to a friend’s wedding.”

“Done,” he sighed as she pushed him down on his back. “Whatever you want.”

She knew exactly what was going to happen from now on, and she just had to hold onto her determination and strength to keep secrets safe. “And second, you’re going to lay here and let me have my way with you.”

“Definitely done.”

Oh, yes, she may have lost this round, but the next one was going to her!