Chapter 20
Marcus
I watched in the glow of the candles as my cock parted her folds and disappeared into her slick entrance. It looked fucking good. Gigi held her robe to her face, and all I heard was a muffled gasp.
With every thrust, I stretched her, filled her, each movement punctuated with her reaction, barely contained by her robe. I loved every moment of it. She was so reactive, so vocal, and it made me feel invincible.
I savored the moment, fucking her slowly, pinning her body in place with a hand over her collarbone. Her nipples hardened in the winter air, and her hair was a sexy, messy halo around her head.
“So fucking hot, Kitten.” She was beautiful like this, and I’d never tire of it.
Her channel started to flicker around me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to keep control.
There was something she still didn’t know about me yet, a secret I’d kept from her that night we were together. She’d find out today because I could keep nothing from her. I only hoped she would not react with disgust because that would destroy me.
As her cunt tightened around me, I rolled my hips at the end of each thrust, grinding my pelvis against her clit. The extra friction had her whimpering and moaning, tears squeezing out of the corners of her eyes. She screamed, her robe barely stopping the sound, as her pussy squeezed and milked me.
Instead of pulling out and taking myself in hand like I did the other times, I buried myself in her to the hilt. I wasn’t a bull shifter; I was a minotaur. And we were different, like some wolf shifters.
“Wha—” Her eyes went wide. “What’s happening? Oh god!”
I panted as the base of my cock swelled even more, locking us together. She started to struggle, shoving at my chest, and I held her hips in place.
“It’s okay, Kitten,” I gritted out.
“It’s too much,” she panted. Then, understanding lit in her eyes. “Oh! We’re stuck.”
“Yes. Don’t move. The knotting only lasts a few minutes. Just let me hold you. Please.” I didn’t mean for the last word to sound so desperate. What would I do if she rejected me now?
I closed my eyes, afraid to open them, until I felt her hands on my cheek pulling me down toward her. Then she was wrapping her arms and legs around me and burying her face into my neck.
We stayed this way until an errant gust of cruel winter wind blew into our cocoon of warmth, putting out the candles, and reminding me that we were still on the roof. I wanted to continue this somewhere a little more comfortable, but remembering the size of her bed and Triscuit, I decided my place was the best choice. I got up, taking her with me.
“Hey!” she gasped, her arms tightening around me.
“I’ve got you, Kitten.” I stopped in front of the heaters, and she reached out to turn them off.
“The dishes,” she said, looking down at them.
“Forget the dishes. We’ll come back for them tomorrow. I want to finish my dessert.”
She giggled, and nipped at my ear. “I thought you already had it.”
“Nah.” I squeezed her ass. “I’m not done with you yet tonight. Not by a long shot.”
I placed the tiny sticky note on the wall I’d just knocked on, marking it as searched, before moving on to the next square foot. I knocked on it with my knuckles and listened carefully. Nothing. I moved to the mallet. It still sounded the same. I peeled off another pink sticky note and stuck it on.
Gigi had shown up at the front door of my gym at 6:05 p.m. on the nose, ready to try again in the basement. Elise hadn’t stopped by the Witch’s Brew all day, which had been disappointing.
The good news was that with our Faux Hobo gone from the front, business was back to usual, and she was getting a lot more walk-ins from the street. Apparently, she’d come up with the idea of using something bright and colorful to mark all the places in the basement we’d checked while searching for the oat milk in the fridge. The Witch’s Brew employees usually stuck a pink sticky note on the oat milk to make it easier to find.
I stepped back and gazed at my wall of bright pink, blues, and yellows. The sticky notes did their job. It was extremely clear where I’d searched and where I hadn’t. I’d checked every square foot of wall and floor on my side of the basement.
“I’m out of wall space,” I said, turning to Gigi, who had her hair in the cutest little messy bun on the top of her head.
“And I’m out of sticky notes.” She held up her last yellow note.
“You missed a spot.” I took it from her, gently tapped on her head with two fingers, then stuck it on her forehead. “Now we’re done.”
“Are you saying there’s nothing there?” She didn’t remove the sticky note. “Because I did lend my last brain cell to Triscuit today.”
“Nope, just wanted to mark you as thoroughly checked.” I wanted to mark her as so much more. As Mine. The need to own her, possess her, had grown by the hour.
We started at the door and moved, going clockwise around the basement, being careful where we stepped so we didn’t move any of the notes on the floor.
I noticed a section about two by two feet at the bottom of the wall that was not marked with anything.
“What about that?” I asked.
Gigi furrowed her brow. “What about it?”
“It’s not marked. “
“Yeah, it is. That whole wall is marked.”
“No. Right there.”
“Where?”
“At the bottom, along the floor.”
“The floor is marked too.”
“No. On the wall! Right fucking there!” I realized I was raising my voice, and I cleared my throat. “Right here, about two feet squared,” I said softer, this time squatting down to draw my finger around the empty area.
Gigi was breathing heavily now and shaking her head. “I don’t understand.” She grabbed my upper arm and pulled me back up, and suddenly I found her huddled against me, hiding her face in my chest.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m scared.” Her voice was so small. “I don’t know why, but it just hit me. I’m so scared.”
I wrapped my arms around her protectively, my eyes and ears scanning for possible danger. “I’m right here. I’ll protect you.”
She nodded and peered at the spot I’d indicated again. I didn’t feel what she felt, but the need to guard her and make sure she was safe was nearly unbearable. Something significant was happening.
“Tell me what you see,” I said.
“A narrow sliver of wall. Too small for sticky notes.”
“Not two feet worth.”
“No.”
“And what’s making you scared? The fact that you can’t see it?”
“I-I don’t know. But I’m scared to look at it.”
“And it just started when I pointed it out to you?”
“Yeah. I think it’s spelled. Don’t you feel it?”
“No.” I tapped on the wall outside of the area, right next to a sticky note with the mallet. It sounded solid. Then I tapped on the center empty area. It sounded hollow. “I think we found it.”
I squatted back down and reached for the wall again, this time with my hands.
“No! Don’t touch it.” Gigi pulled at me desperately. “Let me think first. Somewhere else. Not here.”
“Okay.” I took her hand, and we went back upstairs.
Instead of stopping in my apartment, she continued out through the roof and over to her own place. She looked traumatized, like she’d just experienced something horrible. She didn’t relax until she had Triscuit in her arms.
“Talk to me, Kitten.” I felt useless. How could I fight something I couldn’t even detect? “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I think so. I’m just trying to get over that vile feeling.” She blew out a breath. “It felt like the world was ending. It was dreadful, and it fucking sucked.”
In her arms, Triscuit perked up. “Focking Socks! Focking Socks! Focking Socks!” He sounded just like Gigi.
“Oh no!” Gigi grumbled. But it had lightened the mood, and Gigi was already looking much more relaxed, and my need to go fight some invisible foe waned.
“Oh no!” Triscuit mocked. “Stop it! Stop it!”
I grinned. “He already knows what you’re going to say.”
“Yeah. He thinks if he says it first, then I can’t say it.”
“Focking Socks!”
Gigi put Triscuit back into his cage, and he complained by screaming the line several more times at the top of his lungs, which was quite a bit more powerful than a creature his size should have the right to be.
Gigi made her way into her second bedroom, which she used as a spare room and a mini library full of books. She stood in front of one of the bookcases and scanned the spines.
“Well, the good thing is I think we found it. But we need to be careful. The spell on it is strong, and it didn't really start affecting me until I realized we weren’t seeing the same thing. Like it knows.” She turned and frowned at me. “Did you not feel an overwhelming sense of doom when you saw the empty spot on the wall?”
“No, not at all.”
“Hmm. I wonder if that means whatever it is wants to convince me it’s not there but doesn’t care about you.”
“It took me a while to find it too. And I looked in that area before. The first time, remember? I took that side of the room. I still missed it.”
“It might be two separate spells. One could be something like a look-away spell. Those are not targeted and have a certain area of effect instead, so it affects both of us. But the magic making me scared is targeted if you’re not feeling it, but I am.” She rubbed the goosebumps on her arm.
“Now that I’m away from it, I realize it is irrational. There was nothing to be afraid of. If it was really dangerous, it wouldn’t need to trick me with a spell.”
“I don’t like how you’re talking about whatever we’re looking for like it’s alive.”
“You’re right. They could be spells put there by the witch who’d lived here. If it only uses power when it’s active, like trying to stop us from seeing it or scaring me, she could have left a source of magic for it so it would work long after she was gone. Or she could have set it to use whatever source of magic that was nearby. Like me. Ah, there it is.”
She picked up a book and flipped through it before repeating the incantation on a page that had a lion on it. I couldn’t feel anything happening, but something must have happened because she seemed quite pleased with herself.
“Okay,” she said resolutely. “I think I can do it now. Let’s go back down there and see what we find.”
“What did you just cast?”
She grinned sheepishly at me. “The spell is called Lionhearted . I borrowed some courage.”
“You can do that?”
“Yeah. But it doesn’t last long. And it could become a crutch and have negative side effects if used too often. But it’s safe to use once in a while. Come on, let’s go before it wears out.”
“Are you sure?” I didn’t like how terrified she was.
“Yeah, I am. That fear was completely irrational. There is nothing to support it. It was clearly put there to convince me I didn’t want to look at or even be anywhere near it. It was fucking with my brain, trying to control me with fear.” She looked angry.
“And that only pissed you off.”
“Damn right it did! Don’t fuck with my brain or tell me what to think. It was the wrong spell to use if they wanted me to leave it alone. Plus, I’m a hell of a lot more curious now. I want to know what it’s hiding.”
Her sudden bravery was affecting me as well. We could do this. Together.
“Alright then, Kitten. Lead the way.”