Epilogue 5
Jenny
Iwalk in the door and kick off my shoes, bending down to rub the arch of my foot. Groaning in appreciation, I spend another minute cursing myself for wearing those torture devices to begin with, knowing I’ll wear them again tomorrow because they’re sexy as fuck and do amazing things to my legs.
Stripping out of my suit jacket, I hang it on the back of the kitchen chair as I make my way to the fridge and grab the open bottle of white wine.
I use my teeth to pull the cork free before grabbing a long-stemmed glass from the cupboard.
I fill the glass with a healthy amount before I take a sip and sigh. “Much better.”
I take another mouthful before I head upstairs to the bedroom, leaving my briefcase downstairs so I’m not tempted to keep working.
With my free hand, I pull the clip from my hair and let it fall down my back.
As I walk into the bedroom, I place the clip and the glass on the dresser as I take in my sexy man, reading in bed, a pair of black-framed glasses perched on the end of his nose.
His salt-and-pepper hair is sticking up all over the place where he’s likely been running his hands through it, which he tends to do more when it’s in need of a cut.
“Hey, babe, how was your day?” he asks without looking up.
I glance in the mirror as I sit at my vanity and pick up a wipe.
I drag it across my face, removing the makeup that I keep light anyway.
Women of a certain age have to work with what they have, and a foundation that illuminates the lines of my face instead of hiding them is not the way to go.
A little mascara, some concealer, a red lip stain, and a small amount of bronzer are all I really wear, so it comes off easily enough with makeup wipes.
“Babe?”
“Sorry, I zoned out there for a minute. It was okay. Client took a plea. Given the circumstances, it was the best he could hope for.”
I study my reflection. Even without makeup, I have to say I look good, but still convincing, for seventy.
Of course that’s by design. I focus hard as the reflection shimmers, the secret ingredient in the wine working overtime.
The lines on my face smooth out as the skin becomes taut once more.
The extra skin around my eyes and jaw lifts and pulls tight, and the lines on my forehead disappear.
The only things that remain untouched are my eyes.
Now staring back is a woman two decades younger.
Wearing my real face, I get to my feet as I strip out of my clothes, a grin tugging at my lips as I feel James’s eyes on me. His book and glass soon end up on the nightstand as he leans back and takes in the show. I pick up my glass and drink my wine as my husband rakes his eyes over my naked body.
His hand pushes down the blanket, uncovering his naked torso to reveal his thickening cock. He wraps his hand around the root and holds it up. “Hungry?”
“Starving,” I admit with a smirk.
I finish the wine and place the glass back down. The lights turn off as I walk closer, but as I pass the candles that litter the room, they ignite, bathing us in a soft glow. When I reach the foot of the bed, I climb on and crawl between his legs and swirl my tongue around the head of his cock.
He murmurs approval before pulling my hair out of the way so he can watch me.
Wrapping my lips around just the tip at first, I suck lightly.
I take a little more of him when he starts to groan, using my hands to work the rest, stroking and twisting as I take him deeper and deeper.
His grip on my hair tightens, making fire race through my blood before my pussy tightens.
“Fuck, get up here and ride me, baby.”
I grin and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “Can’t refuse an offer like that.”
I crawl up his body and grip the headboard as he holds his cock in place. Using his free hand to guide me, he presses inside me and holds steady as I slowly ease myself down. When I’ve taken him all, his hands move to my hips as I grind into him, moaning when his thumb moves to my clit.
I tighten my grip on the headboard and start to move, slowly at first, until I pick up speed.
When that’s not enough, I bounce up and down on him wildly like it’s a competition to see which one of us will come first. My hubby knows me too well, though, adding more pressure to my clit until I can’t take it anymore.
I throw my head back and come with a deep moan.
He curses, gripping my hips hard enough to bruise as he plants himself deep and comes hard.
When I can catch my breath, I collapse over him, my hair covering us both as I kiss him, softly, reverently, never taking a second with this man for granted. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He tugs me until I’m lying beside him, my head on his chest, my leg hooked over his. He trails his rough fingers down my arm and back up again as we lie in the silence. I lift my hand and swish my fingers through the air, making the candles blow out so the darkness can envelope us.
“You want to go out to dinner tomorrow?”
I rest my chin on his chest. “I can’t tomorrow, I’m driving down to see Calliope. What about Saturday?”
“I’ll see if Camelo’s has our usual table free.”
“For you, they’ll make it free.”
“True.” He chuckles, his fingertips now drawing circles across my shoulder blade. “So…”
“James.”
He sighs. “Calliope deserves the truth, Jen. And you deserve the peace that comes with unburdening yourself.”
“This isn’t one of those cases of the truth setting us free. It won’t. It can’t.”
“Babe. She loves you. She deserves to know she’s your daughter.”
I roll away and get off the bed, the lamp turning on as I grab my silk robe and wrap it around myself.
“You don’t get it, James. Joanie Hart failed her daughter in every sense of the word.
It doesn’t matter that she was scared and traumatized.
What matters is that she ran, that I ran, and I left behind that precious girl to take my place.
There is no righting that wrong. All the truth would do is make me lose her all over again. ”
He sits up and pulls my robe, forcing me to sit on the bed beside him. “I’m sorry. I just hate seeing that sad resignation in your eyes. I hate that you have to literally wear a mask of an older woman and pretend to be someone else whenever you see her.”
“That’s the price I have to pay. But what you don’t realize, James, is that it’s worth it. She loves me as Jen. She trusts me, and I get to be a large part of her life, which I would never get to be otherwise.”
He presses his forehead against mine as my eyes slip closed and memories of another life batter my defenses. Pressing a kiss to my little girl’s forehead while she slept, begging the house to keep her safe before I slipped away in the dead of night.
The house howled in despair, but I put one foot in front of the other, my arm wrapped around my broken ribs as I fled, knowing I’d die if I stayed.
I planned to make myself strong again. To get educated and have money to fight for custody.
I needed a home and a job, something that could compete with Martin’s.
But these things took time, and before I knew it, five years had turned into ten and then fifteen.
It was my fear that kept me away. I know that now.
And my cowardice cost my daughter years of her life.
The second I heard, I went back and used my degree as a way to get close to her.
Fifteen years of planning went out the window.
I had untold powers at my fingertips, and yet I was impotent to do anything to spare her.
All I could do was make sure she had me fighting for her on the outside and an ally inside, to protect her, which is where Mama Ray came in. I might have paid her to be the mother Calliope needed, but over the years, she ended up loving that girl as much as I did.
When I came face to face with the man who had made my life hell that day at the ranch, the one I thought was dead, I almost lost it and revealed who I really am.
Of course, I’d used magic to change my appearance in much the same way he’d used cosmetic surgery, but I couldn’t do anything about the bond.
And yet his eyes didn’t even flicker, whereas I knew who he was right away.
I’d recognize his brand of evil even if I were blind.
It took some digging for me to find out why the bond didn’t snap between us.
I found an obscure reference about heirs in one of the books I sourced for Calliope over the years.
I’d thought, naively, that Martin’s evil must have been what severed the bond, that it was a punishment from the gods so he couldn’t use me anymore.
But it was I who was responsible. When I left Crowhurst, everything that connected me to the place and the man I’d married withered and frayed until it died off completely.
I was completely free for once in my life, but it came at the expense of my daughter.
As the only living Hart heir, she was the one who remained bonded to the land. Even when she was incarcerated, the bond remained, though it was weak. There was nobody else for the land to bond to, and Hannah, regardless of her witch blood, isn’t a Hart.
“Can you live with it? Can you keep up this ruse until you’re dead and gone? Because that’s what you’re suggesting.”
“I failed her once, James. I failed her in every way a mother can. But not this time. This time, I’ll do anything, give anything, even if that means I’m always watching from the sidelines. Her happiness is the greatest reward I could ask for.”
“And her men?”
I sigh and lay my head back down. “Nobody is who they seem anymore, not even Calliope. I don’t know how things will play out. Every one of them has the potential to hurt the other. But Calliope is so much stronger than I was. If anyone can right the wrongs of Crowhurst, it’s her.”
I don’t mention Austin because there is still something about him that makes the hairs on my arms stand on end. Though I guess it’s better for Calliope to have him as a lover than an enemy, I can’t shake the feeling that he skates too close to the edge of being both.
James strokes his finger down my face and sighs. “I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit.”
I snap out of my thoughts.
“You’re still here, you’re still doing everything you can, even if it’s behind the scenes.”
“Maybe. But the main difference between Calliope and me is that while I found the strength to run, she found the strength to stay, to fight, to break the rules and draw others in instead of living a lonely, solitary life. The Hart witches were once used as a warning to keep people’s kids in line.
Now they’re used as a symbol of hope and protection. And Calliope did that.”
He presses a soft kiss to my temple. “You’re not alone anymore.
I’ll keep your secret for you. You know I will.
There is nothing on god’s green earth I won’t do for you.
Just don’t ask me to downplay what an amazing woman you are.
Where you see flaws, I see obstacles you overcame.
Where you see weakness, I see the fear you pushed through to come out the other side.
Calliope is strong, kind, funny, and all those things because she learned them from you.
You might not have been there for the first fifteen years of her life, but you were there for the next, and you’ll be there for fifteen more, god willing.
“Your ex-husband was a piece of shit, but more importantly, he was weak. And you know how I know that? Because Calliope is all you. That fierce need to protect? To change the hand she’s been dealt? It’s you, my love.”
I smile softly, feeling a tear run down my face. “Like mother, like daughter, huh?”
“Exactly. Just two badass witches, saving the world, one bleeding heart at a time.”