Chapter 25
It hardly seemed fair to have to wait for something so urgent, but taking her right there in Rick’s room would have felt all wrong… more like perfectly disgusting, so Crowe relented when she asked him to wait.
He still couldn’t believe he’d confessed his needs to her. Even crazier, he couldn’t believe she was cool with it! Now he just had to hope she wouldn’t change her mind when sanity returned in a few hours.
They had gathered ALL the League members from the mission, plus an ecstatic Stan Gold, the agent, to deliver the good news. Four models were huddled in a corner of the hotel lobby, away from listening ears.
“I can’t believe I missed most of it,” Sahara, still jet-lagged from flying the red-eye from Egypt, said. “So how did it go down?”
Joell took a deep breath. “We followed a lead that brought us to the hotel where we thought they were being held. I couldn’t intimidate the perps into spilling their guts since pirate-boy took me out of the room too soon.”
“Why did he do that?” Rayna asked.
“Because he doesn’t know how we work. We charm what we can out of perps, then put the screws to them until we get the rest.”
A communal chuckle affirmed her assessment of the League’s tactics.
“He was hung up on having no reason to barge in there without a search warrant, yada, yada… Anyway, a quick sweep of the place showed no models, but I could sense their presence. I was afraid we’d lose them if we didn’t act fast, so I rushed back here, dropped Rick like cargo, and grabbed some of the model’s possessions for the K-9 police dogs to sniff. ”
“Who called the K-9 unit?”
“I did. But it was Rick’s suggestion… Probably his only valuable contribution.”
Victoria, who’d just arrived that morning, spoke up. “I suppose it would have been easier to have one or two of us covering your derriere.”
“Totally. But the hotel manager finally called in the cops, and Stan at least managed to convince them to go about it undercover. By the way, thanks for doing that, Stan.”
“You’re more than welcome.”
Crystal ran her hand over Stan’s proud chest. “Can you imagine uniforms roaming through the convention questioning everyone? It would have been a disaster.”
“I know. We’d be so hampered by police procedure we’d wind up looking after our own asses,” Lioness said. “Not only that, but the romance readers wouldn’t know if they were looking at real cops or more cover models!”
Group laughter said they knew exactly what she was talking about. Crowe reflected how glad he was to be on this side of the law, meaning the League of Amazing Witches, of course.
Magda tipped her head to the side. “What was it like when you found them? Set the scene for us.”
“Okay. The dogs were waiting when I got there. I was glad it didn’t take forever, because I would have had to bust them myself with my empty Derringer if they’d tried to move the models. Especially since I was already pissed off, I didn’t trust my aggressive use of magic.”
“Understandable,” Stan said.
Funny how he could accept the babe’s superpowers without question, yet Rick, who could have used the advantage, continued to be skeptical, Crowe thought.
“I gave the officers the items, and they did their thing with the dogs. Crowe could have done the sniffing, but with the absence of firepower, having the armed police and attack dogs was the way to go. You should have seen their faces when we burst in on their makeshift studio.”
“What studio?” Rayna asked.
“They were shooting porn movies. Now I don’t have a problem with that as long as the actors are willing and paid for their work.
However, these guys were not going to be doing the ‘pizza delivery guy meets the woman of the house in her negligee’ movies.
They had planned to use them for gay and slash porn. ”
“Jesus,” Stan exclaimed. “Thank God you got there before they began shooting.”
“Or slashing. Yeah, I know. The models were damn glad to see us.”
“I’ll bet!” he said. “And I’m damn grateful to all of you too. When I first heard you might not take the case, I was desperate. At first, it was only to save my own pride, but now…” He shook his head with his mouth hanging open, as if he didn’t have the words to say more.
Crowe had been quietly standing with his hands at his sides, and no one questioned his presence since he’d arrived with Joell.
They probably figured he was with the hotel or the police.
He didn’t want to get into a long explanation of his human presence, and apparently, neither did she. She turned to him and smiled briefly.
Stan was particularly anxious to be reunited with at least half of his models at the mansion.
The witches assigned to the other group had captured the ugly dudes on their way across the country, and as Lioness returned the van with the models, Victoria flew her helicopter over the Pacific Ocean and dropped off the criminals.
As in, dropping them miles from land of any kind.
Crystal agreed to take Stan to his men right away, and the rest decided on a time to meet in the mansion’s library later that evening.
Joell pulled Rayna aside and whispered something in her ear.
The fiery redhead looked over at Crowe, winked, and handed a key card to Joell.
Oh, joy! We might not have to wait much longer!
Joell took Crowe’s hand, and he followed her in a haze. When they reached the privacy of the elevator, he didn’t know what to say or how to act. He stared at his borrowed sneakers.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”
An automatic smile stole across his face, and when he looked up, she grinned and bumped his hip playfully.
He couldn’t ask for a better person to fulfill his greatest fantasy.
Plus, he knew exactly what she liked, so it shouldn’t be too hard to please her in return.
His only worry was something he couldn’t quite put into words yet.
Some sort of insecure, but will she love me tomorrow?
thing. He was stuck in this body, so what on earth would he do if she kicked him to the curb?
By the time they reached the top floor, Crowe felt as if he’d eaten a whole flock of birds. They were alive and well and flapping around in his stomach. She seemed to understand his anxiety as she smoothed his hair away from his face.
The elevator doors whooshed open, and she took his hand again, leading the way to the model, Gabriel’s, room. “The first thing we should do is clean you up.”
“Oh, thank the Goddess!”
She unlocked the door and said, “I’m so sorry it took this long to get around to giving you a bath. You must have been miserable.”
“A bath?” Crowe halted, halfway in and halfway out of the room. “You mean in a tub of water?”
She touched his arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right there and won’t let anything happen to you. Besides, as a human, you might really enjoy relaxing in a tub of warm water. Most of us do.”
That was true. All of the superwomen got into the hot tub or took a bubble bath at least once a week, and they looked almost as content as they did after sex. “I’ll try it, but I doubt I’ll like it.” With that, he managed to enter the room.
The door closed, but before it locked behind them, she put the ‘Do not disturb’ sign on the handle.
She led him right to the large whirlpool tub in the nicely decorated bathroom, which was the size of Rick’s entire room.
“Why don’t you just sit on the wide ledge, and I’ll fill the tub with water as soon as we find a temperature you like.”
Crowe sat down with trepidation pricking his nerves. Joell turned on and adjusted the faucets until she seemed satisfied with the water running over her fingers.
“Here. Try just putting your hand under the faucet. See if you don’t enjoy the feeling of warm water rolling over your naked skin.”
“Oh…” She said naked.
Anticipating the reward at the end of the trial by water, Crowe stuck his hand into the flow and withdrew it promptly.
“Too hot?” she asked.
“No. I think it’s okay.”
She put her hand on her hip and gave him that look. The one that said, ‘Oh, come on, don’t be a baby,’ without coming right out and saying it.
He reached for the water again and let it flow over his fingers for a while. It really wasn’t an unpleasant sensation. Maybe I could give it a chance.
She smiled at his effort. “Doesn’t feel half bad, does it, Crowe?”
“No, it doesn’t. I think it might be all right.”
“Good!” Joell started to walk away.
He grabbed her arm in panic. “Don’t leave me!”
She seemed to understand and walked back to him, patting his shoulder. “I won’t go far,” she said softly. “I was simply getting the soap and shampoo from the countertop.”
“Oh.” He felt warmth rise to his cheeks. This must be embarrassment setting in. He had seen people blush—not the L.A.W. babes, though. “I—I’m sorry that I’m so nervous about this. I feel perfectly stupid to tell you the truth, and I don’t want to act like this in front of you.”
She rubbed his shoulder and spoke softly. “That’s all right. Before you know it, you’ll be swimming in the mansion’s pool.”
He tried not to show it, but terror invaded his being at the thought of that big, deep body of water. Then he looked at the much smaller tub and realized it was less of an ocean than he’d first thought. Okay. I can and will do this… For my witch.
She retrieved the products she wanted and said, “Let’s get undressed.”
“Let us? Are you going in with me?”
“Unless you’d rather I didn’t.”
“I’d love you to join me!”
“Okay, then.” She pulled her red dress over her head and tossed it behind her on the floor. She stood before him wearing only her garters, stockings, and a matching black lace bra and thong. Crowe swallowed hard. He’d seen her take her clothes off thousands of times. Why was it suddenly so erotic?
Crowe glanced down and noticed his rod hardening up again under the sweatpants.
“Come on, Crowe. Don’t be shy. I’ve already seen it, remember?”
“Yeah, and I’ve seen you too, but I’ve never felt so…” What the hell was the word I was looking for?
“Aroused?”