Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next morning, Calli woke with a strange feeling. With Malcolm’s warm, hard body in her bed beside her, she felt the loneliness she carried for years start to slip away from her. She cuddled closer to him, basking in the comfort of the heat of his bare skin.
After his father’s visit last night, she and Malcolm had stayed up until two in the morning talking about their pasts, about everything they’d been through over the years, and Calli felt like she finally knew Malcolm.
He had expressed shame and frustration at feeling like a failure when it came to magic.
He had shared how he’d felt when he’d set up his software company, how he had loved feeling he’d finally taken charge of his life and loved what he did.
She could understand that so well. She loved running her grandmother’s bookstore.
She loved having a chance to connect people with the kind of stories that would change their lives.
Malcolm was no longer a stranger to her. He was a friend…a lover…and the possibility of so much more hovered around them. The witch-lock.
When Sage had first pointed it out, the idea had scared Calli.
A witch-lock was forever, and Malcolm had been an albeit handsome stranger who had wrecked her pumpkins and torn up her lawn.
What if witch-locking to him was more a matter of their magic matching and not about them falling in love?
She knew her parents had a deep love for each other, but she’d always wondered if that was true for every witch-locked couple.
It would be just her luck if she and Malcolm didn’t suit and were trapped together forever.
But that fear…was really no longer a fear, now that she felt like she truly knew him.
Even at the start, she couldn’t deny the connection she shared, but he had been a stranger and the idea of being chained to someone she didn’t know was terrifying.
Especially when she’d lost her whole family.
Being witch-locked hadn’t protected her parents.
Part of her feared that type of connection, that bond of her lifetime to another person’s.
But then her own potential life partner had dropped into her life with malfunctioning magic in her magical town, and she didn’t know what to think.
Helping him with his magic, letting him into her home, into her life, and listening as he shared his feelings about magic, his family, his responsibilities—the idea of being witch-locked with him didn’t hold the same fear, and she found herself trusting him more and more. And that had led to this moment.
Malcolm yawned and stretched with her still lying half on top of him. He chuckled, the sound low and rough as he opened his eyes. His lips twitched into a smile, as if her being there was a pleasant surprise.
She rested her chin on his chest, staring up at him. “What?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“You’re adorable, you know that, right?” He threaded a lazy hand through her hair, his green eyes soft as he studied her face.
“Adorable? I was going for sexy.” She sat up a little, aware her bare breasts were on full display. His eyes settled on her chest, and a wave of heat simmered in his gaze.
“Oh, honey, you can be two things at once.” He sat up and shot her a wicked grin. “If you’re not too sore, I’d be happy to show you exactly why shower sex is amazing.”
Calli burst out laughing as Malcolm tossed the sheet off their bodies. But when he picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder, she realized he was being completely serious.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he chuckled as he carried her off toward the shower.
Soon they were inside the shower, hot water cascading over them as they kissed.
Malcolm’s kisses were playful now, flirty and lighthearted.
He cupped her breasts, playing with her nipples, softly pinching until she gasped.
Then he bent his head and sucked one peak into his mouth.
The pull of his lips made her body burn with an excited warmth.
He lifted his head, and she gently pushed him back so that his body shielded her from the spray. She knelt down and ran her palms up his thighs toward his cock. She had never gone down on a guy before, but she desperately wanted to try now.
“Calli, you don’t have to—”
“No, but I want to.” She stared up at him, those eyes of his such a rich shade of jade. The water droplets, enhanced the lines of his gorgeous face…as if the god of rain had come to life just for her.
He braced his hands on the glass walls of the shower. She grasped his cock and moved her hand up and down his shaft, stroking him.
A soft sound escaped him and Calli grinned.
She stroked him a few times more before she leaned forward, licking the head of his cock.
She licked the entire mushroom shape, listening to the sounds he made and his reactions to what she was doing.
Then, when he was ready, she slowly took him into her mouth.
“Oh fuck…” Malcolm growled, dark and dangerous.
She took in as much of him as she could, her mouth moving over him as she still gripped the base of his shaft with her hand. She tried to relax her throat as she sucked, letting him sink even deeper.
He closed his eyes. “Calli, honey… I’m gonna come…”
She continued to move her mouth faster, not letting him escape when he tried to pull out.
Then he gave in and cupped the back of her head, pumping into her, fucking her mouth until he suddenly tensed with a gasp of her name as he came.
She swallowed his release. Then she let his cock slide from her lips as she caught her breath.
She’d never done that in her entire life with any romantic partner and she had no regrets.
Being with Malcolm made it easy to be bold, to want to experiment and explore her passions because he made her feel safe and cherished.
“Are you okay?” He knelt beside her on the floor of the shower and cupped her face in his hands.
“I’m good. I promise.” She was. She’d made him lose control and come apart, and she’d enjoyed having that power over him. His concern softened into tenderness. “This was supposed to be me showing you shower sex, not the other way around.”
With a laugh, Calli reached down to fondle his semi-hard cock. “I think you’ll recover soon enough.”
He half closed his eyes. “Oh God, keep touching me like that and I’ll recover faster than you think.”
Malcolm helped her to her feet with gentle hands, and they playfully washed each other.
Malcolm turned Calli around and held her close against him, kissing her slowly, his mouth curling up in a grin that did things to her heart that would have terrified her a week ago.
Before she knew him…before she started to fall in love with him.
“This is so crazy,” she murmured.
He kissed the shell of her ear. “Hmmm?”
“This. Us. I’ve never hopped into bed with someone like this before. Or the shower. I don’t…” She stopped herself from saying she didn’t open her heart to them either. She couldn’t tell him how she really felt. Neither of them were ready for that.
“I think it’s the witch-locking. It’s matched us well.” His smile suddenly became rueful.
Calli frowned. “What is it?”
“Sometimes the irony of life is hilarious. My father and I fought the night before I showed up here. He basically told me I’d be better off if I got witch-locked.
Of course, he just meant getting married to some witch and hoping for the best, but he didn’t know I’d find someone who could form one of our world’s strongest and purest bonds.
How annoying is he going to be now that he will have a son who’s accomplished a rare true witch-lock bond?
He’ll be bragging to everyone at his warlock gentleman’s club in Boston. ”
Calli placed a soft kiss on his shoulder. “Won’t he disapprove of me though?”
Malcolm’s low chuckle rumbled through her. “Once he gets past you being a hedge witch, I think he’s going to love you.”
A part of Calli flinched at the idea that Malcolm’s father wouldn’t like her because she used natural magic.
But magical prejudice wasn’t unusual. She’d grown up knowing that being a hedge-witch was seen as less impressive, less authentic, less powerful than the kind of magic Malcolm and his father used.
When she had first met Malcolm, he had been interested, not disgusted, by her magic.
Whatever his father’s influence might have been, his non-magic mother had raised him to be curious, not to judge, and to keep his mind open.
“What did you and your dad talk about last night?”
A shadow passed over Malcolm’s face. “He wants me to return to Boston and serve on the Salem Witch Council.”
“That’s an important position,” she said quietly.
“And…you’d have to leave.” She wasn’t stupid.
She knew that sort of occupation in the witching world would require a lot of time and dedication.
He’d need to move to Boston… She’d either have to go with him or lose him.
She couldn’t imagine the council being okay with him bonding with a hedge-witch, and she imagined they’d expect him to stay in Boston full time.
His face hardened. “I have no place among those witches or warlocks. They are all powerful, all able to control their magic. Not like me.” The self-loathing in his voice made her want to hold onto him, to remind him just how powerful and talented he was with magic when he trusted himself.
“I think we’ve proven you’re powerful too, and you’re getting better at your control.” It was true. He still had the occasional mishaps, flares of unexpected power but he was getting a lot better.
“But I don’t want to be on a council like that. It’s not my passion. I don’t want to be forced into politics, not when I’ve only just reconnected to my magic.”
It was easy to hear the frustration in his voice. He’d been on the outside for so long he couldn’t seem to imagine anything but failure when it came to magic, despite all the gains he’d made.