Chapter 8
MADDOX
The witch I’d somehow married glared up at me with malevolent glee. “Do you get it yet?”
Her terrifying implication knifed through me, but I had to push the thought away. It was too painful, too unthinkable. She can’t have really done anything to my cock. She can’t. Nothing permanent anyway.
Maybe there was a lot I had never known about Callie, but she wasn’t the kind of person who could do something that brutal. She was hurt and lashing out, and these had to be theatrics to scare me. It would pass.
But even as I tried to cling to these thoughts, I saw the delusion in them.
How could I have fucked everything up so badly that I ended up in this powerless position?
The woman I loved for her sweet submissiveness and forgiving nature was really a superpowered, hardass, vengeful witch?
One with a completely unrealistic idea of how male sexuality worked.
And now, because I had missed all of that…
“Please. Just say it,” I implored her.
As she giggled in response, I couldn’t stop the words from erupting out. “Just tell me!”
And suddenly I was falling. The magical energy that had been snaking around me vanished, and I plummeted, smashing to the floor at Callie’s feet.
As disempowering as it had been to be held suspended in the air, unable to move, whipped around like a toy whenever her emotions flared, it was even more emasculating to find myself unexpectedly crumpled naked at her feet.
Before I could stand, she leaned down, putting her face an inch or two from mine. “I cursed your dick, Maddox. Your performance problems with Gwen tonight… that’s going to be a regular thing for you now.”
As soon as she said that, I saw her lie.
Time to show some strength. I jumped up. “Bullshit. You had your hands on my hard cock a minute ago.”
That sent her into another wild laughing fit, and my fleeting sensation of regaining the upper hand evaporated.
“Yes, because you were getting turned on by me! I am the exception! I’m the one and only woman on this planet that you can still get it up for.”
I physically stumbled back, reeling. I knew I would loathe myself forever for the weakness of my reaction in that moment. This was why she released me from the levitation hold. This was what she wanted to see: me staggering around like a clown, reeling from what she’d done.
“How could you do that to me?” It came out in a whispered whimper, increasing my shame even more.
“How could I do what? Hold you to your word? That’s all this is.
You remember our marriage vows, right? I wanted to write our own, but you insisted we were fine with the standard script.
To forsake all others, for as long as we both shall live.
You chose to make that promise to me. I didn’t force it on you.
All my curse does is enforce a promise you made. ”
She was right. I had promised that.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and was disgusted by what I saw. A slumped and pathetic man, stripped and exposed, whose defeated state could not have been more obvious. I would not allow myself to become this.
I immediately set my back ramrod straight and puffed my chest out… but I felt no actual power in the move. The empty bluster of it was as clear to her as it was to me. She had me, and we both knew it.
And was she ever enjoying it. “How does it feel? To know that the only woman you can still fuck will never let you fuck her ever again?”
I felt frozen. I had no words for this situation. The most devastating thing that could ever happen to me had just happened. The life of sexual variety I’d been loving was over.
I felt pressure building behind my eyes. Was this more magic? Was my next punishment a spell that was going to send my eyes shooting out of my head?
A second later, I recognized the sensation. It wasn’t magic. It was much worse—I was about to cry.
I hadn’t cried since I was five. That’s why the sensation was so alien.
But I would not cry tonight. I was not a man who cried, and no matter how shredding this was, I would not let myself start now.
Not in front of this woman I had trusted, but who had done this to me, and was laughing about it! (A vague memory of laughing with a buddy about all the ass I was getting behind Callie’s back popped into my memory just then, for some reason, but I pushed it away.)
I refused to give Callie the satisfaction of seeing me suffer like this. I had to get away from her. I had to get space. There was absolutely a way out of this curse, I just needed time to think of it. I grabbed my clothes from the floor and hastily began putting them back on.
Callie settled herself back onto the pillows, languid and pleased as could be. “Running off so quickly?”
“I just need to get dressed!” I snapped.
“I’m surprised you haven’t asked the obvious question yet.”
Nothing about this situation was obvious to me. “What question?”
“How can you break the curse, what else?”
That caught me off guard. “You mean this isn’t permanent?”
“It’s the nature of curses,” Callie explained with a grin. “There’s always an out. There’s always something the cursed can do to lift it.”
I was wary. Why would she offer me this information?
Maybe this was the Callie I thought I knew reappearing. The forgiving soul who couldn’t stand to see me, or anyone, suffer. Maybe it was time to appeal to her merciful side.
“Callie, I’m so sorry about all of—”
“SAVE IT! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!” she thundered. The tone of her voice was deeper, heavy with magical power. The house shook, and the tiny flames on the candles around the room suddenly all blazed to immense size.
The panic on my face brought the smile back to hers. The house settled, and the candle flames returned to normal. “I don’t need to hear your empty apologies,” she purred. “I just want you to know that the only way to lift this curse… is to win my forgiveness.”
“Okay,” I said cautiously. “What could I do that would make it up to you?”
“That would be up to you to figure out, though I can’t say your odds are good.” She looked happier than she had on our wedding day. “It’s pretty perfect, isn’t it? The only way you’ll ever have sex again is if your betrayed wife truly and completely forgives you first.”
The rage that surged through me in that moment was beyond any anger I’d ever felt before. I tried to stop it from snarling my face. Who was she to think she could do this?
Callie kept going, delighting in each word. “If you want to fuck anyone else, I have to forgive you. If you want to fuck me again, same deal. Winning my forgiveness is the only way you will ever be able to make love to any woman ever again.”
“What do you want me to say?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Nothing. There’s nothing I want from you anymore.” Her voice dropped. “Just know that no matter what you do, no matter what you try, forgiveness is not something I am ever going to grant you. Your days as a player are over.”
Her enjoyment at my devastation was finally too much to endure. “There’s no way! No fucking way!” I yelled.
“I know, I know. This will take some time to accept. Why don’t you go try to fuck some of your other women?” she suggested brightly. “Let me know how it goes!”
Good idea! I may not know much about magic, but I knew my cock. And it was time I regained some faith in him.
I’d had enough of being toyed with by Callie. I charged for the door. “All right, maybe I will! I’m getting a hotel.”
“Have fun! I hope the ladies aren’t too disappointed,” she said with mock concern.
I turned back to her one last time from the doorway. I knew I had to exit strong. “My dick is more powerful than your magic!” I roared.
Her ecstatic cackling echoed behind me as I fled the house.