Chapter Seventeen
Ria
Asoft squeal pulled Ria from sleep the next morning, ripping her from the perfect dream she’d been having about Lissa making love to her on the beach.
Ria always thought beach sex sounded incredibly hot with the crashing waves as a soundtrack, but who wanted to deal with the discomfort?
She wasn’t trying to make pearls in her vagina, so she preferred to keep that place sand-free.
Dream beach sex, on the other hand, was like falling through a magic portal into a place where everything was perfect.
The stars twinkled overhead, and the waves swept over the pristine sand, gently licking their bare legs.
Lissa’s head was buried between Ria’s thighs, her pink hair practically glowing in the moonlight.
And the things she was doing with her tongue?
Only in magical dreamland did a woman ever make Ria orgasm that quickly, just to start again on the next one. It simply did not get any more sublime.
And not once did a single grain of sand make it into any crack or crevice it wasn’t supposed to be in.
Needless to say, Ria was somewhat less than pleased to have the dream fade away when hushed whispers filtered into the living room. It took her a second to realize she wasn’t in her own room, and those hushed whispers were not her mom and whatever random witch she was taking tea with that morning.
When the reality of last night came crashing back to her, she groaned internally.
Ria never passed out. Ever. She was the type who always brushed her teeth, combed her hair out, and put on her pajamas before sliding purposefully under the covers.
Falling asleep on someone’s couch, dressed in their clothing? That was a first.
And hopefully it would be the last, if her aching lower back had any say in the matter.
The whispers from the kitchen grew a little louder, and Ria couldn’t help but shut her eyes and snuggle under the blanket.
She could stretch out the tightness in her body later.
Taking a quick sniff, her muscles melted a little more into the lumpy couch.
The blanket still smelled like Lissa, and Ria wasn’t quite ready to give that up and face the reality of her situation.
She didn’t do one-night stands, so she wasn’t great at the morning after awkwardness.
She also wasn’t sure if the fact they didn’t have sex would make things more or less uncomfortable.
There had definitely been heat and wanting between both of them, and save for the damned spell, Ria would have been glad to help make her dream a reality.
But the spell was still there, and the awkward morning interaction was inevitable.
“Are you kidding me right now?” came a hushed female voice with a faint accent, maybe Latina or South American. “I can’t believe you spent the night with the witch. Where are the details? Damn, girl, I knew she was going to turn your life upside down. Was it good? I bet it was good.”
The witch? As in her? They were talking about her?
Okay, that was definitely the point where she needed to get up and let them know their hushed whispers were not as hushed as they thought, and she could hear every word. Ria didn’t do eavesdropping. She was better than that.
“It’s not like that,” Lissa protested. “Nothing happened. Well, something happened, but not what you’re thinking.”
Right, any second Ria would fake a loud yawn and alert them to her awake status.
“So you didn’t go to Pound Town?” the unknown woman asked. “No ride on the Orgasm Express? No layover between the legs? Come on, I know how you feel about her, and I saw she’s wearing your favorite shirt. Surely you at least got a little taste of that forbidden peach pie?”
Definitely time to put a stop to listening in on this conversation.
“Okay, I don’t even want to know what that last one is referring to,” Lissa replied, sounding distracted, “but no, we didn’t do anything beyond kiss. She has trust issues and honestly, rightly so. She shouldn’t trust me.”
Come again?
All Ria’s good intentions flew out the window, and she squeezed her eyes shut to double down on the faux sleep act.
Surely it wasn’t bad if you were listening in on someone saying you shouldn’t trust them.
That seemed like the one time it should be okay to eavesdrop.
And maybe it was a rationalization, but Ria was going to cling to it for now as she waited for Lissa to elaborate.
“You’re being too hard on yourself, babe,” the other woman said. “I know how much you like her. Have you considered telling her the truth? I’m sure she’ll understand.”
Ria heard Lissa sigh, so she held perfectly still, waiting for the truth that had apparently been kept from her.
“I’m going to… Hell, I planned on it last night but then…it wasn’t the right time. I’m just scared of losing her, Daria. She’s so committed to this magic thing and helping me find love that the truth is going to crush her.”
Wait, was that the supposed harsh truth? That she didn’t believe in magic? That wasn’t a secret. Lissa had been fairly open about her skepticism.
“Well, it’s your call, Liss. Trust goes both ways. If you want her to trust you, you might want to try trusting her to understand.”
“I guess. Look, I gotta run. If Penny is texting me ‘SOS’ at seven a.m., then whatever’s happening at the studio can’t be good. So as soon as I find my damned keys I need to head over there. Can you stay here until she wakes up and give her a ride home if I’m not back yet? I’ll try to be quick.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the woman replied. “Go. Do manager things. Save the world. I’ll just help myself to your coffee in payment.”
Lissa snorted. “So you helping yourself to my Stumptown dark roast every other morning has been payment for what exactly?”
Ria could practically hear the grin on the woman’s face when she replied, “My friendship. Duh. Now shoo. Your keys are under the microwave.”
Ria heard the sound of jingling then a door closed softly. After a second, a body plopped down on the couch opposite her.
“You can stop pretending now,” the woman said. “Lissa’s gone.”
Ria’s eyes shot open at being called out.
The gorgeous, possibly South American woman across from her settled back into the couch, eyeing Ria with something like a mixture of amusement and wariness.
“How did you know?” Ria asked, pushing up to a sitting position.
The woman shrugged and took a sip of her coffee.
“You were snoring when I snuck in this morning, but then you stopped a couple minutes ago. I’ve dated more than one snorer in my life; they don’t randomly stop unless they wake up.
Also given what Lissa has told me, I’m not surprised you wanted to wait until she left.
I’m somewhat of an expert at the morning-after awkwardness, but I doubt it’s something you deal with much. ”
Ria grimaced at how accurate the woman’s assessment was. “Yeah, okay, you got me. Although I don’t think I snore that loud.”
The woman laughed. “I mean, you weren’t pig snorting or anything. It was cute, like little puppy chuffs.”
“Right. So, Daria is it?” Ria asked, remembering the name Lissa had used.
The woman nodded, taking another sip.
“Well, Daria, since everything is out in the open, I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what Lissa’s hiding from me?”
“Oh, please,” Daria scoffed. “That’s a family platter of no with a side of no rolls and a can of nopa-cola. I am not getting involved in your relationship. You need to talk to Lissa. That’s all I’m saying.”
Ria sighed and lay back on the couch, burying her face in the knit blanket. “Has anybody told you that you’re not very helpful?” she mumbled.
“Constantly. But that’s not my job.”
Ria pulled her face out from under the blanket and raised an eyebrow. “So what is your job?”
Daria tapped her chin as if thinking hard. “Right now? Making you a cup of coffee, then driving you home since Lissa had to run into work.”
Ria glanced at the mug in Daria’s hand, nose wrinkling at the burnt garbage smell wafting from it. “Any chance I can skip the coffee? I’m more of a tea girl.”
Daria gave her a look like Ria had just sprouted a third eye. “No coffee? But that’s… that’s…blasphemy. Nope, I can’t do it. You and Lissa need to break up. I can’t have my bestie in love with a heathen.”
Ria couldn’t help but chuckle at Daria’s faux outrage. She was starting to like this woman. There was an infectious quality about her energy that rarely existed in people before noon.
“Well, I’ll save you the panic,” she replied, sitting back up and running her fingers through the rat’s nest that came from falling asleep with wet hair. “Lissa is definitely not in love with me. Not really, anyway.”
Daria’s eyes narrowed at Ria over the rim of the coffee mug, her jovial nature subdued slightly. “And how exactly can you be ‘not really’ in love with someone? Kinda seems like a yay or nay situation in my mind.”
Ria scrunched up her face in thought as she continued to finger comb the snarls from her locks. “It’s complicated.”
Setting her cup on the table between them, Daria leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “So make it easy. Explain it to me like I’m five.”
Ria finally abandoned her pointless efforts to tame her curls and sank back into the couch cushions that tried to swallow her up.
“Well, I’m sure you know I cast a destiny love spell on Lissa, but magic is very precise.
With a simple tweak of an ingredient, the outcome can be twisted into something quite different from the original intention. ”
Raising a hand to stop Ria, Daria interjected with, “Yeah, I don’t know how many five-year-olds you’ve been hanging out with, but I’m gonna need you to dumb it down a smidge more.”
Ria ran a hand over her face in frustration, knowing she might as well admit what happened. “I fucked up, okay? I tried to cast a destiny love spell on Lissa but made her fall in love with me, instead. I feel awful and I’ve been trying so hard to get it removed, but nothing is working.”