Chapter 32
Cece wiped away the fog on the bathroom mirror and studied her face.
She looked exhausted with dark circles under her eyes, pale skin, and trembling lips.
She’d had a good cry in the shower, which had helped some of the emotions running rampant through her system, but had also left her with puffy eyelids and a swollen nose.
She held her hands up and whispered a simple light incantation, one she could easily do even when she’d thought she was only an apprentice witch. No small orb of light appeared above her hand, and she whispered the incantation again, concentrating fiercely before sighing and giving up.
It was no use. Her magic was completely drained from the fight, and she had a feeling it would take days to return.
Briggs can help.
She sat down on the side of the tub and towel-dried her hair. She needed to leave the bathroom, but it wasn’t just that she didn’t want to go out into the freezing air and slide into her cold bed. She wasn’t sure she could resist going to Briggs.
Her stomach clenched, and tears threatened again. While they were in the office, Ava had told her and Rosalie what happened after the witch attacked them. Briggs had taken a full blast of the witch’s spell to save her, and it was only the protection spell from Monroe that had saved him.
Her body shuddered, and a few tears leaked down her cheeks. If Monroe hadn’t done the spell on him, Briggs would be dead, and it would be all Cece’s fault. Her magic wasn’t strong enough to protect him, and never would be unless she used him to increase it.
You wouldn’t be using him, you’d be protecting him. Increasing your magic means you can keep the man you love safe.
She took a deep breath. She did love Briggs.
Her terror that he would die tonight, her fear that she would lose him, had forced her to acknowledge her love for him.
It might have felt foreign to her, she’d never been one for believing that falling in love happened quickly, but there was no denying it.
She loved him and wanted to be with him, but had no way to prove to Briggs that she truly did love him and wasn’t just using him for her magic.
She drew in another shuddering breath. He’d desperately wanted to touch her as soon as they were home.
She could see it in his eyes and practically feel his need coming off of him in intense waves.
She wanted it too, but not like this. He wanted to touch her because of the taste of her magic he’d gotten earlier, and while she understood it and craved that magic and connection herself, she couldn’t let it happen. Not now, when they had both nearly died, and they were feeling raw and exposed.
She pulled on her flannel pajamas and, steeling herself against the cold, left the steamy bathroom. She crossed to the bed and pulled back the covers, pausing when a flicker of movement caught her eye.
She turned toward the door, her breath catching when she saw Briggs standing in her room. He wore his usual sweatpants and tank top, and she stared at him greedily, her body responding despite her exhaustion. His thick hair was damp from the shower, and his usual stubble was almost a beard.
Hating herself, she said, “Briggs, you can’t be in here.”
He strode toward her, brushing past the vines that hung from the ceiling, the floor shaking minutely with every step. He stopped in front of her, but the desperation and raw need she expected to see in his gaze weren’t there. Instead, warm desire and love radiated from his pretty blue eyes.
“Briggs,” she whispered.
“You almost died tonight. Don’t ask me to stay away,” Briggs rasped. “I can’t, my mate.”
“What happened tonight was awful and scary, and our emotions are crazy right now,” she said. “But -”
“I love you, Cece.”
Oh, how she wanted to believe that. A small part of her wanted to pretend that what Briggs felt for her was real, that he loved her like she loved him. To take him and make him hers and allow her magic to convince him that what he felt for her really was love.
But she couldn’t. She loved Briggs too much to manipulate him, even if it meant being separated from him.
“What you feel isn’t real,” she said gently. “My magic -”
“It’s real,” he said fiercely. “It is, and I almost lost you tonight. When that witch hit you with that spell and the fire…”
She heard the click of his throat when he swallowed.
“I wasn’t thinking about the loss of your magic.
It was the loss of you, of my mate, that had me so fucking scared, I could barely breathe.
I can’t live without you. I don’t love you because of your magic, Cece.
I love you because you’re kind and sweet and brave and so goddamn strong.
If you had died tonight, it would have destroyed me.
You are my mate, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. ”
Before she could stop him, he took her hand and flattened it against his chest. She could feel the beat of his heart against her palm as her magic flickered to life in her veins, its pulse matching the rhythm of his heart, beat by beat.
“Everything I am, everything I will ever be, is yours,” Briggs said. “I love you, little witch.”
His words rang with sincerity and truth, and his gaze was full of love and longing. Tears sliding down her cheeks, her magic a steadily growing force within her, she said, “I love you, too.”
He growled and pulled her into his arms, cupping her skull in his big hand as he kissed her. She returned his kiss, wrapping her arms around him when he placed kisses across her cheeks and along her jaw.
“I love you,” he repeated.
“I love you.” Her magic was now a hot rush in her veins, a pulsing need for the man in front of her, and she was so tired of denying it. “Briggs, I need…”
“I know,” he growled.
The sweetness in his touch turned to hot urgency, and he stripped her of her pajamas with a few quick movements. The smell of pine trees, fresh flowers, and good, clean earth filled Cece’s head as Briggs yanked off his clothes and tossed them aside before pushing her onto the bed.
Her pussy was already soaking wet, her nipples tight buds that had nothing to do with the cold air and everything to do with the man kneeling between her legs.
She spread her thighs wide, urging him down against her body and at his touch, her magic flared again, bright and hot, sending an aching need through Cece’s entire body.
She’d waited so long for him, had spent so many days denying what belonged to her, refusing to take what was hers, that she hissed at him like an angry cat when he bent his head to kiss her breast.
“No!” She lifted his head, her fingers digging into his scalp. “I need you, Briggs. Don’t deny me what’s mine.”
He was just as frantic as she was. She could see it in his face and how his body shuddered above hers as he tried to maintain control.
“Baby, I don’t want to hurt you,” he groaned, but he was already lining his cock up at her entrance, the blunt head pushing against her.
“You won’t,” she panted. “Please, honey.”
He growled and pushed into her with one hard thrust of his hips.
Despite being soaking wet, there was a brief flare of pain.
Christ, he was so thick, so long… for a moment it felt like she was being split in two, and then her body relaxed around him, her walls stretching to accommodate his width, her inner muscles fluttering rapidly as they adjusted to his size.
He held himself perfectly still above her, his eyes squeezed shut, and a muscle in his jaw ticking wildly. She ran her hands over his warm, broad chest, relishing the feel of the coarse hair that covered it and how it sent a tremor through his entire body.
“My mate,” he moaned.
She cupped his face in her hands, squeezing lightly until his eyes opened. The blue was gone, his irises now a deep, rich brown that reminded her of freshly turned earth, and when he opened his mouth to suck in a breath, she could see his sharp fangs.
She pressed a kiss against his lips and whispered, “Fuck me, my mate.”
With a harsh growl, he braced his hands on the bed and fucked her.
He wasn’t gentle, his hips driving forward with a reckless speed that revealed his need for her.
There was another brief flare of pain and then nothing but pure heat and desire, and the incredible, addictive pulse of her magic throbbing in her veins.
She clung to him, moaning his name as the pleasure grew in her body and her magic flared in a burst of bright green that flooded her senses.
She gasped, her body arching beneath Briggs as her orgasm hit her with an unexpected intensity that took her breath away.
The pleasure and magic were woven together in a bright explosion of light and heat within her.
Her pussy squeezed around Briggs’s thick cock, and he roared her name, his back arching as hot warmth flooded her pussy.
He stared down at her, his body pumping furiously into hers, and she watched in fascination as his eyes turned the colour of jade, and a flash of green light surrounded him before it winked out of existence. He slowed to a stop and buried his face in her neck, his entire body trembling wildly.
“My mate,” he whispered before kissing her throat. He eased off of her, collapsing on his back in the bed, and she pulled the covers over both of them before curling into him.
He held her close, his big hand rubbing her back. She was suddenly utterly exhausted, and she cuddled closer, only vaguely aware of how deliciously warm she was for the first time in what felt like forever. Briggs was already asleep, his big body limp and his breathing slow and even.
She slung one leg over his and rested her head on his chest, the beat of his heart slow and even below her ear.
“I love you,” she whispered.