Chapter 11

Eleven

I pull up to the guys' house just before sunset, and Chase opens the door again, looking a little sheepish.

I know what he's thinking about, but I kiss him and pretend I don't. It was a question I shouldn't have asked. And until he wants to bring it up again, I'm not going to make him.

"I have come bundled and ready to go." I say, holding up my gloved hands when I see Joshua.

His smile is worth being a little overwarm inside the house.

"How did your spell go?" Johnny asks, pulling on his jacket.

"Good and bad." I shrug. "There's something going on with the Sheriff, but it's not the enchantment I thought, so it's not likely that he's been bewitched and doing someone else's bidding. It's more likely that he's just an ass."

"He's in law enforcement… being an ass is kind of a prerequisite, isn't it?"

"Technically," Johnny says, zipping himself up. "I'm in law enforcement."

"And you are definitely an ass." Chase dodges out of the way of a swipe.

I laugh with them, but Joshua isn't laughing when I turn back to him. He studies me with a scrutiny…

"You should have worn pants."

I look down to the heavy wool skirt that covers my legs and while I could just tell him… I gather the hem and lift the thick fabric up, showing them my boots, knee-high socks, and thick stockings. The red-wine cable knit disappears under the satin slip and I watch as all three of them let their gazes travel up me.

"Do I pass inspection?"

Chase groans and shifts his pants while Johnny murmurs something I don't hear, because Joshua is shaking his head.

He stalks toward me, walking me back until my spine is against the wall. "More information is required."

I swallow back a pert comment, because he sinks to his knees in front of me, and he drags a hand up the back of my leg. Rough skin catching on bits of wool as he goes.

When he reaches the edge of my slip, his other hand comes to my thigh, and—eyes on mine—he watches me as those fingers press upward, dragging that smooth fabric up until he finds the top of those stockings and the garter belt that holds them in place.

"This doesn't look very warm," he says, drawing a finger down the front of the black lace that covers me.

"I couldn't find my bloomers."

I expect someone to laugh, but the other two are focused on Joshua, and he—

He presses hard against my clit and he rolls his thumb.

The breath I pull in is sharp and a little too loud for the quiet that has descended over the house.

"You didn't wear these for the game, did you? You wore these for after." Joshua looks up me, taking his hand away.

I can't stop myself from teasing. "Or before."

"Keep holding that skirt up, sweetness."

He slides one finger up the front of me. "You like pretty things."

"Don't you?" My voice is breathy with need.

"Yes. Yes we do." Joshua presses a kiss to my mound, his tongue poking out to taste the wetness soaking through the lace.

"And there's something very pretty you're hiding from us, isn't there."

"She's not hiding," Chase says from the wall where he's leaned, arms crossed over his chest, fingers tight around his arms. "She's a freaking present waiting to be unwrapped."

Joshua makes a sound of agreement and hooks one finger in the front of the fabric and pulls it down.

"Is this how you're supposed to put these on?" Joshua asks, snapping the garter strap against my thigh.

I pulled my panties on over the garter belt tonight. "It is when you want to be fucked in them."

"That sounds like the wants of a very wicked woman." Johnny looks just as tense as Chase.

"It does," Joshua slips them the rest of the way down my legs. "Wicked women deserve to be rewarded."

He looks up at me with a dark fire in his eyes and nudges my legs, I don't need any encouragement to open myself for these men.

"Fuck…" The low word is filled with awe. He might be surprised by how wet I am, but I'm not. The moment I'm in arms reach of them, that want starts to build.

The second they touch me… I'm wound so tightly, I don't have any idea how I manage to string two words together, much less act like a human being around them.

His hand snakes deeper into my panties, and he groans. "We don't have time to take care of this properly, sweetness. But we're not going to let you go out in the cold like this, are we?"

"Please." The word is a whisper, and he takes the invitation I offer, sliding those thick fingers into me the way I wish their cocks would fill me instead.

On his knees in front of me, Joshua growls out a curse. And then, his mouth is on me, tongue and teeth working my clit to the sweetest pain.

I fall back against the wall, and Chase reaches out to steady me. But he lets go of me as soon as I'm supported. Johnny still doesn't touch me. He leans on the opposite wall, watching.

"What were you thinking, wearing that, wicked girl?" Johnny meets my eyes, but only long enough to be sure I'm listening, then, his gaze travels down me to where Joshua's tongue and fingers threaten to distract me from breathing. "Did you want to sneak one of us back behind the bleachers so we could bend you over a support beam and fuck you so hard you had to cover your mouth so you weren't heard between the cheers?"

"Yes, I want that." I might not have thought of that, but… "I want to be wicked with you every chance I can get."

Joshua presses another finger into me, "Any chance we can get."

I have to close my eyes as he presses in deeper, and when I turn my head, I bury my face in the coats beside me, breathing in the scent of them. I want to drag the other two into this, to find our way back to their living room and its memories. But Thomas isn't here. And it would be hollow without him.

I have every intention of winding up in an exhausted pile of limbs and blankets before the sun rises. But damn it if this doesn't fuck up my control.

I have to take hold of Joshua's head to keep myself upright. Especially when his hand moves to my thigh and he lifts my leg up to rest it on his shoulder.

I can't form coherent words, all I can do is watch Johnny and Chase through heavy lidded eyes.

Johnny chews on the dead skin on his lower lip while Chase's grip on his arms just gets tighter and tighter. And damn me if I don't want to make it harder for them.

I have too many buttons, but slowly—torturously slowly because I have to stop each time Joshua changes position—I get down to my shirt and slip the last tiny buttons free. I'm wearing too many clothes to be this naked.

When I pull the soft lace of my bra down, exposing the pale flesh of my breasts, the hard bud of my nipple.

Johnny straightens. Chase shoots him a look and moves his head in the smallest "no" ever.

Neither of them come to me.

It's Chase who says, "You can tease us all you want. You only get one mouth and three fingers right now."

Joshua spreads those fingers, making me gasp, and when I look down at him, he's glaring up at me.

I feign innocence until he sucks on my clit with another hard pull and I have to drop my head back, letting him do as he pleases with me. Letting him wind me tighter and tighter while I pinch my own nipples. And he toys with me all the way to the end. Right up until I come apart, riding the waves of my orgasm with one hand locked to his head, holding him to me until I've crested that last wave.

I'm left gasping for breath, my nipples hard and cold in the chill air leaking in from the front door.

Joshua presses something into my hand as he stands.

"God, you're amazing." He kisses me, brushing his nose against mine. "I need to get cleaned up and we've got to get going, or else we'll miss kick off."

He disappears into the back hallway and I take a deep breath, waiting for my knees to solidify again.

I've let my skirt fall back down, but everything above it is a wrinkled mess. I need a mirror and maybe five minutes.

Glancing down, I see my panties in my hand and can't help but laugh.

When Chase holds out his hand, I take it and let him pull me up off the wall.

"I don't think we've mentioned this enough, but you are stunning when you come."

"It hardly seems fair…" I start buttoning the layers of tops I need to get myself back together.

"Oh, we enjoyed the hell out of that." He pulls me against him and whispers, "Besides… We want you to spend the weekend with us. Consider that orgasm the first of many."

"Promises, promises."

I brush past him, going into the front room to sit down long enough to get my underwear back on. It's far too cold to be out and about without anything on beneath my skirt.

But I am definitely wearing garters and nothing else sometime soon.

Joshua comes back, his face clean and he looks me over.

The way his eyes focus on my knees a moment before I flip my skirt back down makes me wish we could skip the game.

"You good?" He asks.

I nod, not quite up for full sentences just yet.

"We could drive, but parking is hell, so we usually walk." Joshua looks down at my boots peeking out from under my skirt. "But we're never wearing heels, so we'll leave that up to you."

"A walk would be nice. I need to clear my head." I pull my gloves on more snugly. "For some reason, every time I walk through that door, it seems like I lose all reason and just want… all of you."

"We aren't going to complain."

Joshua shoos the other two out the door, and I go with them, waiting on the steps as Joshua locks up.

I'm not surprised—though it seems I'm the only one—when Mrs. Miller appears in her brightly lit doorway.

"Good evening, Boys! Headed to the game?" She locks her door too and starts toward the sidewalk. "Care to escort an old lady up the hill?"

Her smile hardens when she finally notices me.

"We'd be happy to, Mrs. Miller." Joshua steps between the three of us and her, offering her his arm, and that appeases her a little.

"How many times have I told you to call me Dot?" she asks as she wraps her arm in his and the set off ahead of us.

The high school is lit by the bright lights of the stadium below it, but we can't see the field from here.

There are too many trees and the square block of the north bleachers in the way.

The sidewalk isn't big enough for three, and I don't know how Chase—so much smaller than Johnny—won the shoulder shoving match and takes the place beside me.

When Mrs. Miller looks back, seeing it's Chase beside me, she seems to relax a little, so maybe it wasn't the shoving match that decided after all.

The football field is below the main school, so the hill we have to walk up isn't too steep, but the sidewalks have buckled and shifted over the years, so I have to pay attention to where I step in the dark and I only half hear the story Ms. Miller loudly tells Joshua.

The impending granddaughters will be here before Thanksgiving. And she is so pleased.

Chase leans close as Mrs. Miller starts in on one of their accomplishments in college. "You've got nothing to worry about."

"Oh, I know. She's made it obvious I can keep you ."

He laughs, drawing Mrs. Miller's attention and a glare, but we've reached the actual incline that leads up to the lower parking lot and there's a crowd.

I don't hear what he says to her as Johnny and Chase draw me back, but Joshua walks Mrs. Miller to a line in front of a booth constructed out of plywood.

"You have a nice night." Joshua leaves her in that first line and then rejoins us, leading the way to the main gate.

"Don't we need tickets?"

"Thomas got them for us ahead of time."

"Always nice to know somebody." Joshua hands over the tickets and for a moment, we have to weave through the press of bodies headed for the bleachers.

It has the same feel as a fair. Dozens of people with no real destination other than a vague ‘over there'.

One of them takes my hand and leads me through, not to the tall stands of bleachers on either side, but around to the side behind the home team benches.

Bright lights, a chain-link fence and the orange rubberized lanes of a track lay between us and the field.

Thomas is wearing a dark purple windbreaker and a baseball hat that hides most of his hair.

He doesn't look over, doesn't see us. His attention is on his players, on the other coaches riling them up. And that level of focus is… kind of beautiful.

"Think she's going to try to come find us?" Johnny asks, and I follow his gaze toward the entry gates. "I saw a few of the women from her church quilting group. They'll keep her distracted, I'm sure."

Johnny didn't look sure, but then, the announcers said something garbled over the loudspeaker and a girl who didn't look old enough to be in High School took her place center field to sing the national anthem.

I used the moment to look around the crowds. Mostly worried that I'd see Aphrodite and have to answer why I'd been ignoring her texts.

But no one overly familiar jumped out at me.

And as the crowd clapped and whistled, and the girl walked off the field and the teams sent out their starters… Johnny drew me into his arms.

"I thought we'd have a little more time, but it looks like you get to play guard straight from the beginning."

I look to my left and see them. A small group of high school girls who clearly have the guys in their sights, they strut past, jackets open to show off more skin than anyone needs to see, especially in this cold.

Five girls who have no idea how cruel the world will be if they encounter men who do take what they've got on offer. None of the guys even glance their way.

The game proceeds and the guys explain things to me as they happen.

The girls walk past two more times.

Chase and Johnny get a little more uncomfortable each time they do, but Joshua has mastered the art of ignoring them completely.

"I probably would have done the same in their shoes. Remember, they're told being desired is the most important thing."

"Doesn't mean we have to like it."

I pat Chase's arm. "You'd be a creep if you did."

A shrill whistle blows and I grimace at the sound. "I'm going to have to leave you defenseless for a little bit."

They look at me, concerned.

"Point me toward the bathroom?"

I'm not sure what they thought I meant, but they immediately relax. Joshua's the one who takes my hand this time. "We'll walk that way with you. Chase wants a hotdog anyway."

"How did you know?"

Joshua doesn't answer and Johnny just laughs.

We get to the line for the concessions before the bathrooms, and Chase nods toward the back of the north bleachers structure. "It's underneath, follow the signs."

And it is clearly marked. But before I get there, unearthly movement catches my eye.

The wolves have been absent all night, but one appears in front of me now.

When I see why, I breathe a little easier.

Out of everyone at the field tonight, I'm probably the only one who doesn't need to worry about a vampire.

But that doesn't mean I'll tolerate his presence.

Movies would have you believe blood suckers are always beautiful creatures. That they have some hold over of class and elegance from an earlier age. This one looks like he was probably turned in the early nineties and is still grieving Kurt Cobain.

He was turned young enough that he doesn't stick out while his eyes follow high school girls around, but knowing how easy it would be for him to pull one that needed a confidence boost, I make a detour.

He stiffens when I get within thirty feet of him. The crowds no doubt hid me from his nose. They can smell magic. It's meant to help them avoid us.

"What's a bitch—I mean witch like you doing here?"

He gives me a tight lipped smile even though we both know he doesn't have to hide his fangs from me .

"Get lost." I glance at everyone around us. "Or tomorrow morning, you'll wish sunscreen worked for your kind."

His dark eyes study me, for a long moment and then catches sight of the wolf. He looks sharply away, "Horrible menu offerings anyway."

I wait, long enough to watch him pass through the exit gate and then, after I take a long breath of chilly air, I continue on.

Another problem to add to my ever-growing list.

I shake off the sickly feeling of being near him and continue on. My ghostly wolf escort gone.

The bathroom has that eerie familiarity.

Cold porcelain and painted block. The lighting is somehow green.

And I don't plan on sticking around any longer than I have to, but when I'm done—before I can get out of the light blue stall—something catches my eye.

There's a spellform woven into the scratched paint on the inside of this stall. It's a benign protection, but it's just a little bit off.

Whoever put it here is definitely a baby witch. She just needs a teensy bit of help.

I pull the pocket knife from my purse and carefully carve out the correction. Whoever she is, if she's here, she'll feel it immediately.

As I fold up the blade and put it away, the door opens, a brief wave of cheers and chatter washes into the room, and then, only the voices of the girls who've come in.

Through the gap in the door, I count them, five…

The gaggle that had gone past the guys multiple times.

Disappointment hadn't killed their spirits yet.

"Trevor is going to ask you out again." One in a bright pink, puffy coat says.

Another girl groans. "Can't he take a hint? High school boys are the worst."

Two of them lean into the mirrors, checking their make up and another pair fix each other's hair.

The last lets out a long groan. "Ugh. Mr. Howard's roommates are so fucking hot."

"And they haven't looked at us once. Do you think they're…"

"They live together, but they are definitely not together. "

"Right, did you see the woman they were with? They definitely aren't gay."

"Unless she's their beard."

"No. I refuse to believe it. They're at least bi. Don't kill my dreams." She sighs wistfully. "Next Thursday can't come fast enough."

"What are you going to do? Walk up to their door, knock, and when they open it, announce that you're eighteen and want some dick."

"Maybe."

The others snort, and I decide I've eavesdropped long enough.

When I flush the toilet, I hear them go silent. I can almost feel their apprehension.

And when I step out, their eyes are round, their faces pale and I consider pretending I didn't hear everything they've said.

"I would have to agree." I say, washing my hands. "Dating high school boys was an exercise in frustration when I was your age… but I promise you. Men, a decade or more older than you are not going to be good for you right now."

When I look up, they've congregated together and are watching me like I've got all the answers.

"You've got a lot of time ahead of you, and you'll get a taste of what men are like in college. Don't rush the fun stuff. Besides, any guy who's that much older and is going to date you is just going to use you and spit you back out.

"I don't care how hot they are, it's not worth it."

They watch me for a moment longer and I shake my hands out, going to the paper towel dispenser.

"Which one are you dating?" The one in the puffy pink coat asks.

It's not something we'd discussed, but in this case, the truth should do more good than harm. I know well enough that teenage girls are rarely believed by their elders.

"All of them."

One of the girls nearly chokes on a laugh. "How?"

Tossing the paper towels in the trash, I raise my brows and give them a sharp smile as I push out the door. "Witchcraft." I whisper, and leave them to titter about it on their own.

The guys are right where I left them, but they're not alone.

The woman standing with them isn't trying to gain their attention the high school girls did. She doesn't have to. I'm not sure they could turn away from her if they tried.

"Mother." I say as I rejoin them. "What are you doing here?"

Her glare disappears as she turns to me. "I needed to do my due diligence"

"I'm not sixteen. This is not a choice you have a say in."

"It is as long as you are protected by the coven. All of your choices are up for debate."

Which is one of the reasons I'd tried to break ties with them completely a year ago. But a solitary witch has their own rules and restrictions… and it was easier to not fight the witches who wanted to keep me.

"I'm glad to see you remember some of what you were taught, even if you've managed to put yourselves at these men's mercy."

"Not here, mother."

Her jaw tightens and she glares at them.

"We would never hurt her." Johnny says, his posture rigid.

"If you knew the risk she's put herself in, I might believe you. But in some misguided selflessness, I assume she only told you the consequences that would apply to you."

"Enough." I look back at the field. "You and I are going home and we are having a long conversation about what is and isn't appropriate."

Nose in the air, my mother doesn't agree, but she doesn't disagree either, and that's the more important part.

I turn to Joshua, only because he's closest. "Will you make sure Thomas knows I was here… and that I thought he was amazing?"

He nods and his gaze travels past me. "We'll talk in the morning."

They're going to want answers to questions I'd hoped they'd never ask.