Chapter 21 Kayla
Kayla
Ipushed the door open, glancing up at the new sign Sebastian had ordered fixed into place. It read Lettie’s in fine gold script. The old bell tinkled my arrival and I inhaled deeply, bringing the combined scents of patchouli and assorted herbs deep into my chest.
The aroma sparked my power immediately, but I shoved it down inside myself, into a burning knot of energy deep in my gut. It was uncomfortable sometimes, but I was getting used to it. I shivered as I stabilized, bringing myself perfectly under control.
Naomi glanced up from where she was rearranging a group of crystals on one of the low shelves that tourists tended to aim for.
“Hey, Kayla!” she greeted me. “Oh, I mean, boss.”
“Nope.” I shook my head then stopped. “I mean, kinda. But don’t worry, your job is safe.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t worried about it. I mean, where else would you find someone so easily micromanaged as me?” But she grinned.
I held up my hands. “I won’t be watching you change any lightbulbs, so don’t worry about that, either.”
She laughed and stepped away from the shelf as I wrapped an arm around her waist. She rested her head on my shoulder.
“I miss Lettie,” she said.
“Mmm. So do I. We just have to honor her memory, right?”
“How do we do that?” Naomi pitched her voice low.
“By just continuing being the best.” I shrugged, the movement slight. “We just have to keep her memory alive by making sure this shop stays great.”
And we’d already had plenty of customers, even from witches from covens where I’d been rejected from. Most of them were probably here out of curiosity, but our till didn’t care about where the money came from or why.
“We just have to keep proving ourselves, Nay.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I know.” Then she turned toward the curtain that led through to the little room that was partway between storage and the kitchen in the back. “Can I get you some tea?”
Holy crap…tea. Lettie had created her own brew, and my mouth watered just from the memory. “Did you find Lettie’s recipe yet?”
She sighed again. “Nope. There’s so much back here. I’ll be wading through it for months, I think.”
I nodded. I got that. Lettie had been an oracle.
Like the bank of all knowledge. She had solutions to problems I hadn’t even thought of yet.
I wanted to be that person. I wanted to be Lettie, with all of that knowledge and all of the respect her position commanded.
With my new immortal life, maybe I could succeed in that goal. It wasn’t like I was lacking time.
But for now, I just wanted a connection with Lettie. “I’ll take some of the paperwork to sort through. I’ll get Andrews to bring it back to the house tomorrow.” Looking over her familiar handwriting would bring her close again.
I followed Naomi into the back room and breathed deeply again before helping myself to one of the old grimoires on the shelves. “Are you okay if I borrow this?” It was what I’d really come for. Not to check up on my friend.
“Borrow it?” She quirked her eyebrows. “I think you’ll find you own it now, lady.” Her words brought me another pang of sadness.
“Oh, yeah.” I hefted it into my arms.
The bell jingled in the shop and Naomi started to move back toward the curtain we’d come through, but I moved as well.
“I’ll get it.”
“Great.” Naomi stepped away, back to the stove. “I’ve got a couple of spells I’m working on in here, anyway.”
I resisted the urge to check her bubbling cauldrons.
Naomi was an excellent potion maker. Her mistake with me had only been the wrong page for the incantation.
I paused as I swept the curtain aside. Could I even refer to it as a mistake these days, though?
It wasn’t like I was disadvantaged by it.
In fact, I was very, very happy by what had happened since Naomi had reversed my virginity-hiding spell instead of reinforcing it.
As I walked into the small shop interior, I stopped. The witch facing away from me turned around, and I met her cat-like, green-eyed gaze before she ran it up and down me. But she didn’t speak, and neither did I.
Maren had tossed me out of my very first coven. Before I even knew enough to control myself. Before I knew the magic that I was best at was bad.
I waited her out. Asking her what she wanted would sound rude. Asking if she needed help would just sound passive-aggressive.
“Maren.” I spoke anyway, despite my resolve not to. “Can I help you find anything today?” I still sounded like that desperate young girl trying to preserve her place in the coven.
“Kayla.” Her gaze remained cool. “They were right about you. I can feel your power now.” She reached out, flicking her fingers in the air closer to me. “It’s tangible now.”
“Right about me?” I repeated her words. Who the hell were they?
But whatever the answer was, Maren didn’t seem to have an issue standing in the same space as me anymore. Well, it was hardly like my magic could blacken my immortal soul, these days. I probably didn’t even have a soul to worry about.
But Maren didn’t say anything else. Instead, she simply turned around and left.
“Wow, what did Maren want?” Naomi touched my back softly as she stepped up behind me. “She doesn’t come in very often.”
“But she comes in?” I looked at my friend.
“Sure. They all do.” She nodded.
“That’s great.” I looked at the door again, the bell still swinging gently above it. “But I have no idea what she wanted.”
Naomi shrugged. “Oh, well. Who knows with Maren.”
“Who knows,” I agreed.
“You coming back for that tea?” She headed away.
“Sure. Just let me check…” I glanced at my watch. “Oh, shit. I didn’t realize the time. Can I get a raincheck on the drink?” I swept Naomi into a quick one-armed hug and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. “You’re the best shop manager I’ve ever had.”
She rolled her twinkling eyes. “I’m the only shop manager you’ve ever had.”
“And the best.” I shifted the grimoire against my chest and walked to the door. “I’ll send for that paperwork tomorrow. We’ll get through it.”
“Ha! If you have time.” She returned to looking at the tourist trinkets as she had been when I first came in.
“True. It’s why I need to rush off now, I need to prepare my set.”
“Oh, please.” She made a pshaw movement with her hand. “A set? You’re the main attraction.”
My lips quirked into a small grin of acknowledgment at her words. It was pretty much my show these days, and I loved singing at Nightfall.
With one last wave, I hurried out of the door and slid into the waiting car.
The ride to the club was uneventful, and entering the club was like entering the shop all over again—another jolt of energy, but not my power this time.
No, this was pure adrenaline. Even as anxiety buzzed nervous wings all through my body, excitement lit me up from the inside.
Everything about this place—the beautiful decoration, the position of my stage, the delicious, heady scent of blood as it hung delicately, perfuming the air—made my blood race, and the urge to sing ripped right through me.
It was as if Sebastian had created the club just for me. Maybe he had. I met his eyes as he stood at the railing outside his office, and he crooked a lazy finger at me, signaling me his way.
Of course, he said that he was installed here to settle tensions in New Orleans for Nic’s reign, but I preferred to believe fate had a hand in everything, including true mates. Perhaps especially true mates.
I climbed the stairs toward Sebastian, maintaining eye contact with him. I almost floated to his side, safe while he watched me.
“Kayla.” His greeting was warm, and it wrapped me up in comfort and something else, when paired with that expression in his gaze.
“Yes, Sebastian?” I kept my voice low as I played lazily with a curl of my hair.
“In my office,” he growled, and I glanced back to his eyes at the unexpected tone, but only amusement shone there.
Wait. Not only amusement…lust too, and my heart rate kicked up.
I stepped inside his office, and he closed the door behind me. It shushed over the thick carpet and the delicate sound made as many promises as the soft click of the lock.
“We won’t be disturbed now.” Sebastian’s mouth was right by my ear, and I shivered as his lips barely grazed my skin.
I could never get enough of this man.
His mouth pressed against my neck, and I stilled, waiting as I always did to see what he’d do next.
“You still need to get changed,” he murmured as he tugged my long-sleeved T-shirt over my head. “Let me help with that.”
He dropped his head and kissed my collarbone as he unfastened my bra. Cold air hit my breasts and my nipples hardened as my skin tingled at the rush of sudden blood from Sebastian’s touch on me.
On a day when just a glance from him was enough to arouse me, this was almost too much, and I pressed my thighs together, trying to find some gentle friction.
I was already wet for him, and he’d barely touched me.
He ran his hands over my shoulders and down my arms, discarding my bra to the floor as well as sending showers of sparks across my skin at his touch.
I turned to face him and he captured my lips before I could speak or think, his kiss gentle but completely in control.
He pressed his hand to the back of my head, holding me to him, and I wound my arms around his neck, happy to be close.
His tongue probed between my lips, and I met him with equal, unbridled enthusiasm, flicking my own tongue against the inside of his mouth and over his descended fangs.
I grinned. He wanted me. His body couldn’t hide that. I pressed myself closer to him, grinding a little against the front of his body as the evidence of his arousal presented itself.
I drew back. “Pleased to see me?”
His eyes glinted as he lifted me, and I perched at the edge of his desk. “Always.” He unfastened my jeans, some urgency in his movements, and I slid back to the floor to lower them.
Soon I’d be naked in his office, but I glanced around and wasn’t worried. The glass walls were one-way only. No one could see the two of us in here.
As I lifted myself back to the edge of the desk, he bent and took one of my nipples into his mouth, his tongue swirling delicious heat over it as he sucked gently. I tugged on his hair.
“You’re overdressed,” I blurted the words out.
“So I am,” he murmured softly before straightening and discarding his clothes at vampire speed.
He grinned at me, his expression almost bashful, and I laughed.
“Now you’re not,” I said.
“Now I’m not,” he agreed before stepping forward to stand between my legs. He pushed a curl of hair behind my ear. “You make me happier than I’ve ever known, Kayla.”
I ginned. “Me too.” Then I grabbed his ass and pulled him against me. “Now come here.”
He chuckled as he dropped his head and placed kisses at the base of my neck. I arched away, offering more of myself to him. His erection nudged the inside of my thigh and I shifted restlessly.
“Sebastian,” I murmured.
“Yes?”
“I want you.” Hell, I was hot…hot and impatient and needy. “I want you inside me.”
He caught his breath at my words, but angled himself differently. “Are you ready?” Concern laced his tone, but it was my turn to laugh.
“Always ready.” And I was. I was so wet for him still.
I sucked in a breath as he pressed inside me, stretching my body to accommodate him. “That feels so good.” I spoke on a breath.
He pulled out a little before pushing back in, the rocking motion anything but gentle, and I met him thrust for thrust.
“Touch yourself.” He grunted his command, and I reached between us, finding my clit, and rolling it under my finger, letting him nudge me every time he pushed back into my body.
His breathing began to change, and I looked up at him, meeting his gaze before I exposed my neck to him again. His eyes bled to the deep red I was used to seeing, and a growl rumbled through his chest.
He leaned down and his fangs scraped my skin before he pierced through, sucking immediately.
As soon as his venom hit my system, an orgasm ripped through me, and I cried out at the unexpectedness of it.
My body pulsed strongly around his cock and he thrust into me one last time before holding himself still.
Warmth filled me, and I sighed at the completeness of it.
When he moved away from my neck, he licked me gently to seal the puncture marks before tilting his head. “You wanna...?” He didn’t finish his sentence, but I smiled.
“Raincheck for after my performance?”
His eyes shone with fresh lust. “Already looking forward it.”
He pulled me against him, and I relaxed into his hug as our breathing slowed. I relaxed even more as his heartbeat regulated under my ear. Eventually, I was just leaning against him, soaking him in, leaching strength from him as he held me.
“What time do you sing?” His voice was deep against my ear from where I heard it inside his chest.
I drew back a little. “Too soon.” Then I slid from the edge of the desk and gathered my clothes before shoving my legs into my jeans. “You gonna watch me?”
He paused from where he was grabbing his shirt. “Always. You gonna come back up here after?”
I grinned. “Always.”