Chapter 6

Kate

Marlowe locks himself in my bedroom when we get back to the house.

I’m okay with that. He probably needs space to decompress.

“You fucked in the front yard, huh?” Tanner asks, a little spark of jealousy in his voice. I glance his way, but he’s only smiling, Ebon sitting on his shoulder. He reaches up with two fingers and strokes them down the silky length of the crow’s back, the pair of them staring at me. Since Tanner, you know, has two eyes and his crow has six, there are eight eyes fixed on me, and I shift in embarrassment.

“I guess so.” I fiddle with my skirt. I really need to hit the shower. “That was pretty messed up, huh? The Miriam stuff.”

“Makes me glad that my family is dead,” Brooks says as he breezes past and into the kitchen. I watch him go, poking my tongue against the inside of my cheek. Brooks. Hmm. In the beginning, I got the idea that he was only fucking me because of the spell, that he had zero want for me beyond the technical aspect of the magic.

Tanner … I knew Tanner wanted me. Marlowe, I think he might’ve wanted me and felt guilty because of Miriam. Because of the assault. Brooks though? Brooks is a tough nut to crack.

I look back over at Tanner.

“Tomorrow, I’m having breakfast with my friends. Is it okay if I go alone? You all acted like I couldn’t even be in a different room, but those restrictions seem to have lightened up.” I’m talking to Tanner, but it’s Brooks who answers.

He moves to the kitchen doorway, holding a dish towel between his massive hands. His eyes are so sharp that it feels like they’re cutting into me.

“I made the decision that we weren’t going to be in separate rooms for a while.” He shrugs, and I love the way his big shoulders move beneath his shirt. “I was afraid you were going to bolt and I wasn’t going to take the risk. You seem to get it now, so we can be in different rooms.” He laughs here, deep and dark and authoritative. “No way you’re going out alone though.”

I grit my teeth.

“I’m a grown-ass woman,” I tell him, and he shrugs again, cleaning his hands off with the dish towel.

“So? Tanner and Marlowe are grown-ass men, and they’re not fucking going anywhere either. We need as much magic as possible to deal with the situation in the woods. This is practicality as much as it is choice, North. Proximity builds power.” Brooks moves back into the kitchen, but his eyes … God. They latch and hold, dragging pieces of me along for the ride when he finally looks away.

Proximity builds power. Shivers.

I look at Tanner, but he only raises his fancy brow at me. Bisected gold and black. Pierced. Scarred.

“He’s a stone-cold prick. I’ve known him for over a year now, and he’s never shown me anything different.” Tanner leans in, running a finger down the side of my bloodied throat. “Although … I’m not a pretty young woman, Kate.”

I push his hand off, but he snatches my wrist and grins at me. It starts off cheeky but quickly morphs into something hungry and wild. There it is. A flash of real honesty.

“Marlowe interrupted us when we were in the middle of something important. You came to me in the living room, invited me to fuck your mouth. Spent the entire night with my cock inside of you. Let me screw you awake. Does that mean you want me, Kate?” He releases my wrist and takes a step back, reaching down to scratch Flick behind the ears. Tanner clicks his tongue, and my dog follows him into the backyard for a game of fetch.

Somehow I get the message that he didn’t say aloud.

Prove it. I chased you plenty, Kate. It’s your turn.

I close my eyes and breathe through it all.

Too good to be true. Too wild to be made up. Reality is stranger than fiction, isn’t it? And my entire reality shifted because of a single, bold choice.

I need to keep making those.

But first, I’m going to take a shower.

Nobody touches me for the rest of the night. It doesn’t occur to me until I wake up the next morning that I was hoping they would.

Marlowe slept in his chair in the corner of the room without a word to anyone for the rest of the night. Brooks slept beside me in the bed, as cold and impersonal as ever. Tanner had the cot—and my traitorous dog—but I think I was right in my assessment last night.

He isn’t going to chase me until I do the same to him first.

Fuck it. Fine. I roll off the edge of the bed in the dusky morning light, hitting my feet and shooing Flick off the end of the cot. He immediately takes my place on the mattress as I stare down at Tanner, sprawled on his back with a lump of blanket over his crotch.

With two fingers, I pull the blanket back and let it slump to the floor. He’s wearing … absolutely nothing. I exhale and turn my attention back to Brooks. Still asleep and unmoving. I turn to Marlowe, but he’s curled up in the chair like a gremlin.

Alright.

Here we go.

I shove my panties to the floor and straddle Tanner’s waist, hoping that he’ll wake up and see me staring down at him in challenge. He doesn’t. He grumbles and wets his lips, but that’s about it. Fine. He fucked me awake, so I’m going to do the same to him.

I scoot back until I’m straddling his thighs, and then reach down, stroking his already half-hard cock into something rigid and glorious. It’s hard to see in the dusky light, but I can feel the slippery pre-cum at the tip of him. He moans, but he doesn’t move.

This asshole. Somehow, I feel like I’m being played. He wants me to make another bold choice, so I’m going to do it. I’m here now, and I’m all in. I want a coven? I have to put the work in. I want … three men in my life? I’ll have to do the same.

I lift up and edge forward, positioning myself above Tanner’s cock. Slowly, I guide my hips down, using my hand to slip his body into mine. And then I sit down hard, exhaling as my ass slams into his pelvis, taking him deep.

It’s almost too much, so I pause right there and put my palms on his chest, waiting for him to come to.

He’s still asleep.

What the fuck?

“He took a sleeping potion last night,” Marlowe mumbles, suddenly standing next to the cot and blinking down at us with bleary eyes. He scowls, but I can’t figure out what the expression means exactly. “If you want to wake him up, you’ll have to try harder than that.”

He leaves the room as Brooks sits up, glancing over at me in my too-big t-shirt and no panties.

He says nothing, just stands up and leaves me alone with a grumbly, sleepy Tanner. Flick stays because, you know, he’s in love with this man I have trapped between my thighs.

“Hey.” I give Tanner a little shake, but he doesn’t stir. I rock my hips, and he moans in his sleep. “Shit.” I’m debating what to do, my core aching as I resist the urge to grind my hips against him. He’s clearly not awake, and this is … We talked about this, and I gave him the green light.

I scrape my nails lightly down his chest and belly. He shifts again, murmurs incoherently. I slide my hand back up and press my palm against the side of his throat, stroke my thumb over his pulse point. The power dynamics between us have shifted completely, and I decide that I like this just as much as when he’s on top.

My hips roll against him, drawing his cock out and pushing it back in quickly. I wait again to see what he’ll do. He sighs heavily, but that’s about it. How good is this sleeping spell? I decide that we’re going to find out, working my body on his and closing my eyes. Even if he doesn’t wake up, am I going to keep going?

Yes.

I let my head fall back, using Tanner for my own pleasure. There’s a bit of guilt at first, but it fades away as I fuck his hard body the way he fucked mine that first morning in the Witchwoods. There’s consent, but … it’s edgy. Bold. Provocative.

I must be color-blind; the red flags look green.

I drop my chin down and open my eyes, noticing that he’s still asleep but breathing hard. Beads of sweat appear on his skin as I lean forward, working my clit against his body while keeping a steady in-and-out rhythm. Tanner’s right hand curls into the sheet underneath him, his head turning to one side, another groan escaping his gently parted lips.

I’m panting now, working myself harder and faster, chasing an orgasm that he won’t get to see unless he opens his eyes. I press a finger experimentally against his lips, and he opens for me in his sleep. I push it in, tracing his tongue before bringing my moist fingertip to his lips. I stroke these, too, and he inhales so sharply and deeply that I’m sure he’s finally going to wake up.

Doesn’t happen.

“Fuck, Tanner,” I murmur, grabbing onto his shoulders and riding him so hard that the cot squeaks and creaks under my frantic grinding motions. I’m moaning now, too, mesmerized by the apathetic neutrality of his sleeping face. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen this expression while he was awake.

And then, to my surprise, his entire body seizes up, muscles tensing, a groan slipping out of him that’s all pleasure and zero restraint. Tanner’s cock twitches inside of me, and I slow my rolling hips as he orgasms, spilling his cum into me while his eyelids flutter and finally, in the middle of a climax, open up.

We stare at each other, and I wonder suddenly if I haven’t just violated this man.

He blinks at me, attention dropping from my face to the excess fabric of my baggy t-shirt. It pools around my hips and hides my dirty deed from sight. Tanner reaches out with one hand and drags the fabric up, staring at the place where we’re joined together.

A lazy smile etches itself on his moist lips.

“You naughty, little witch,” he says, and I shiver all over as he takes my ass in two hands. “Finish yourself for me, baby. I want to watch.” He relaxes back into his pillow, and I breathe out a sigh of relief.

“I hope—” I start, but Tanner presses a single finger to my lips.

“Don’t apologize, or it’ll make it less hot. You just made me come while I was asleep. Fair’s fair, don’t you think?” I know what he’s asking, and I nod. “Good girl.” He slaps my ass, and I puff air into my cheeks, suddenly feeling a lot less sorry for what I’ve done.

“Good boy,” I tell him, and he laughs like the prick that he is.

I don’t take it easy on him, leaning over and yanking open my nightstand drawer. I pull out a vibrator, and Tanner watches from half-lidded eyes as I click it on and press it to my clit. My cunt immediately locks down on his dick, and he moans, putting his hands on my hips.

Those hot fingers, capable of so much violence, are surprisingly tender on my skin. Tanner’s thumbs trace my hip bones, his pupils big and dark against his brilliant eyes as he watches me like I’m the center of his entire universe, the sun that he happily orbits.

Our shadows couple on the ceiling above us.

He’d chase me to the ends of the earth. I’m not sure why that thought is so comforting. It should piss me off. And it does. But … if he’s chasing me then he isn’t running away, right?

“You’re so good, Kate. My God. That cunt of yours is a powerhouse. You’re suffocating my dick, and all I know is that I love it. I could die happy underneath you, baby.”

I make an embarrassing sound, pressing my palm into his chest and digging my nails into his scarred skin, scraping them over the coven sigil. It’s somehow so hot that I have the same design on my own chest, hidden underneath this big, ugly shirt.

Tanner doesn’t look at me like a weird girl in awful pajamas. Oh no. I feel like an untamed goddess with my thighs spread around him, my sweaty skin slippery against his, my own lube and his cum soaking a sweet puddle underneath us.

“More. Keep talking,” I pant out, putting the cushioned head of the vibe just where I like it. I never used a vibrator with Nathan because it a€?made him feel insecure’. Tanner doesn’t look insecure at all, but like I’m giving him a gift by pleasuring myself with his spent cock inside of me. He’s getting hard again, but he doesn’t move, letting this moment be all about me.

Uh. Wow. Crazy stalker he may be, but damn.

“You like fucking me while I’m asleep, kitten? Do it again. Do it every morning, and I’ll return the favor.” He slides his hands up and under my shirt, capturing my breasts and kneading them like that, too, is a treat. “Come for me. I want to watch your face in the sunlight. I want to see how good you feel when you’re using me, North.”

“Oh, East. Fuck.” I can’t breathe. I’m giving these little hiccups, my skin slick against Tanner’s as I lock my thigh muscles together and trap him underneath me. He curls his fingers around the neckline of my shirt from the inside, using it to yank me down, and spearing my lips apart with a demonic tongue.

Ahhh.

With the buzzing of the vibrator, and the memory of the unlawful thing I’ve just done, I’m quick. I climax on his stiffening cock and then collapse forward onto his chest, letting the vibrator roll off onto the floor. Flick barks at it as Tanner lets his hand slip over the side of the cot, feeling around until he’s able to turn it off.

Then we just lie there, me with my cheek on his chest, him with one arm slung around my waist. I can hear his wild heartbeat. And he smells good. Like the woods, but with the sting of iron underneath. Dangerous. Wild. Feral.

Cozy? Somehow also that.

“Don’t embarrass me in front of my friends,” I warn him, and he laughs again.

“You don’t want me to tell them that you fucked me while I was asleep? Why not? They’d probably be jealous.”

He’s right. Fernanda would loooove to hear all the X-rated details. Georgia might kill me for this one though.

“Keep it to yourself,” I grumble, sitting up and finding him smirking at me. He doesn’t look taken advantage of or violated in any way, just … ridiculously pleased.

“I told you that we could be good together, didn’t I?” Tanner says, and something strange shifts in that room. It’s not erotic anymore. It becomes … romantic. I have no idea how to deal with that. Am I falling for the real Tanner or the act that Tanner puts on?

Then I look up, and there’s the Hag staring at me from the other side of my bedroom window.

My expression must say it all for me because Tanner sits up and spins us around so that he can see what I’m looking at.

There she is, the Hag Wytch with her beak and her mouth and her creepy human eyes.

Before either of us can do anything, I blink and she’s gone. Tanner sets me down on the edge of my bed next to Flick who’s now barking at the window instead of the vibrator. My lover moves over to the glass and throws it open, putting his hands on the windowsill and leaning out to look around the yard.

“She’s still not here,” he says contemplatively, voice low and dangerous. I can see violence written into every muscle of his body. “Not yet anyway.”

We need to seal that tree.

If we don’t, then all of this … this life stuff that I’m working on with the Witchwood men, it’ll be gone as quickly as it came.

“Can’t even appreciate some top quality sleep-sex,” Tanner grumbles, turning to look at me as I reach out and place my palm on the top of Flick’s head, quieting him.

Tanner and I look at each other in silence for a while, and I wonder if we’re thinking the exact same thing.

“We need to hurry the hell up, don’t we?” I ask, and he nods, expression grim.

The Witchwoods giveth … and the Witchwoods taketh the fuck away.