Chapter 37
in, all the way
Callie turned into the cul-de-sac after work. She frowned slightly, seeing Jess’s SUV in the driveway. Rare for this time of day, Jess’s garage door was up, but the mammoth vehicle had been left outside. Angled a little, like Jess had come home distracted.
Pulling to the opposite side, she put the car in park, then caught movement.
Jess was already walking towards her; her expression was shy, with a little gleam in her eye. She walked up to Callie before she could get out of her car. Callie rolled her window down. “Hi, babe, we're going somewhere?”
Jess didn’t answer and leaned in the window, “Kiss me.”
Callie blinked, “Here?” Jess tilted her head toward the many windows of the cul-de-sac, “Let ‘em learn something.” She stuck her head in the window. The kiss was slow, unrushed. Pulling back, Jess slipped something into Callie’s hand. A garage door remote. “Took me forever to find this,” She said, “You should have it.”
Callie blinked, “Jess…”
Jess followed with a new set of house keys. “We’ll end up chasing around some days. I want you to have everything.” Her eyes were focused on Callie, unflinching.
Callie’s throat tightened. She opened the car door slowly, stepping out like the air had gotten heavier. The garage door in front of them was still shut.
Jess nodded at the closed door, “Try it out.”
Callie pointed the remote and pushed the button. The door jerked, and so did Callie, startled by the expected but still surprised moment. Another surprise awaited inside.
Once the home of domestic disarray, the parking stall had been swept and organized. Plenty of room for Callie’s Camry to park, with a little left over for the workbench and lawnmower.
It was her space. A landing zone, and with it, another invitation from Jess to share her life.
Callie stepped inside, eyes stinging, “Jess…”
Jess lingered outside the garage threshold. “You okay?”
Callie sniffled, still holding the remote. “Yeah. Still processing. What about Cam…his stuff?”
Jess shrugged, “Not an issue. He heard me cleaning out here and jumped in to help. Now he’s up gaming. Likely won’t surface until dinner.” Jess stepped forward, but Callie clicked the remote, and the door began to close. Jess stopped.
Callie clicked the remote, and the door stopped moving, shuddering on the door tracks. Jess froze. Again, up it went. Jess raised an eyebrow, “Should I be in or out now?”
Callie grinned through misty eyes, “In. All the way.”
Jess stepped in, and Callie clicked the remote. The door slowly settled on the concrete behind them with a definitive thud.
Callie set the remote on the workbench. “Cam’s upstairs?” she asked, opening her arms. “Won’t be down for a while?” Callie puckered her lips, “wanna christen the garage?”
“Oh, uhhh…”Jess’s teeth settled on her lower lip, and her brows bounced, and she smiled, “Like-”
Jess shrieked as Callie grabbed the waistband of her jeans and pulled her close. One hand went up Jess’s shirt, and the other briefly cupped between her legs, and Callie began to flail against the button of Jess’s jeans. “I might have been thinking about something like this today. Not exactly the setting I’d envisioned.” She winced, but the clasp came free, and Callie slid the zipper down. “What color do we have today?”
She put her hand between denim and silk, then yanked the fabric to the side. Jess yelped, “Gahhhd.” It wasn’t a bedroom-style moan, “Owwie…shrubbery alert,” Jess gasped, “Little, but still attached….maybe.”
Instead of showing concern, Callie laughed, “I just made the Raven say owwie. Want me to kiss it and make it better?”
Callie was about to apologize when Jess’s expression changed, “So aggressive,” Jess said suddenly, her teeth gritting, “Let’s see what you’re wearing.”
Callie only blushed as Jess unhooked the clasp of Callie’s high-waisted pants, then pulled the zipper down far enough to slide her hand inside. She was expecting fabric, lace, something. But there was nothing.
Just heat and skin, the soft curve of Callie’s hip, the bare slope beneath. Jess’s fingers paused, as did her breath.
Callie shrugged, her cheeks blushing pink, “Laundry day?”
“Nothing to the library?” Jess checked but gripped Callie harder, slipping lower. Her thumb brushed deliberately across that newly discovered territory. “You sat like this in your little librarian chair?”
Callie gasped, “Mmm. I might have crossed my legs carefully,” she whispered, her breath catching, “But I definitely thought of you every time I uncrossed them.”
Her hand pushed up under Jess’s bra, the snug fit constricting Callie’s fingers. She growled and then pushed harder to make room as Jess moaned into her neck. Their movement was confined to very specific, tightly targeted locations.
“Your thumb,” Callie murmured, “Stroke me. Right there. Mmmm.”
“Two fingers,” Jess countered, rolling her hips against Callie’s hand, “Slow. N-not all the way. Tease me.”
For a few more moments, the garage was filled with kissing and panting and quiet staccato moaning. The impromptu coupling was rapidly heading towards a delicious ending, but suddenly, the light in the garage shifted. Jess caught it just before Callie. A beam of light flashed across the parking stalls as if someone had cast a spotlight.
Jess looked up and caught sight of the image in a mirror she had set next to the garbage bins, slated for pick-up on that day.
Jess stepped back, pulling her hand from Callie’s pants. Callie did the same, elastic snapping against Jess’s belly as Isabel stepped through the mirror. No longer cracked glass and reflection, the full-length panel shimmered, dark, silver-veined, rippling like water under spellight.
Unbuttoned and unzipped, Callie and Jess stood there, shocked, disheveled, and likely seconds away from release.
Isabel’s eyes swept the scene, Jess and Callie, flushed and tangled, breath still ragged with shirts and pants open to imply everything. She took them in fully. Her expression was amused, but not unkind.
“Well,” she snickered, “this definitely explains the mana burst.”
“You cannot be serious,” Callie growled, embarrassed but still holding right on the edge of Jess’s stimulating movements. “You couldn’t wait another minute…ugghh, thirty seconds. Fuck.”
Jess, still catching her breath, added flatly, “You better have a damn good reason.”
Isabel folded her hands, poised but unusually measured.
“I do. And, for what it’s worth, I’m truly sorry for interrupting.”
That froze Callie. Isabel didn’t do sorry. “It’s happening,” she whispered.
“Max intends to initiate Virelich’s crossing over at midnight on Friday. He thinks he’s got something figured out, and I can’t keep stalling him. You need to start getting ready.”
Callie went still.
Jess’s jaw tightened.
Isabel nodded once as though acknowledging their shared dread. “I’ll send word tomorrow. Coordinates and,” her eyes darted to Jess, “I’ve procured some gear that is appropriate for both of you, tailored to your particular synergy.”
She started to turn, facing the mirror as it began to shimmer, ready to accept the witch’s passage.
“Reinforcements?”Jess asked softly, succinctly.
Isabel turned, “For you two?” She smiled, “Only the best. You two have something rare, so don’t waste time worrying.” Her voice had cracked, just barely, “Find something fun to do in the meantime.”
Isabel stepped through the mirror and was gone.
The garage was quiet. Callie’s shoulders heaved, and she looked down at the floor. “Did she actually…apologize?”
In the silence, Callie looked up, stunned to see Jess with two fingers in her mouth, a devilishly wanton look on her face. She stepped closer, pulling her shirt over her head, “Yeah,” she said, pursing her lips, “and she told us to find something fun to do.”
In the dual gravity of the moment, Callie gasped, already trembling, “We must be so fucked.”
Jess dropped to her knees, reaching to slide Callie’s open trousers over her hips, then looked up at Callie, “Time to prove her correct.”