Chapter 30
Nevan
Enid leaned over a petri dish that bubbled with blue foam. “That’s from my pantilian?” she asked, staring at it in awe.
I let out a soft laugh. “It is. Though it’s harder to see without daylight.”
Sconces flickered on the walls, setting the room in a dim glow. Stars twinkled outside the window, and moonlight poured into my lab.
Enid turned, and I wasn’t even sure she’d heard me, her deep umber eyes alight with excitement. “So you really think you can use this as an antidote for certain poisons?”
“We’ll have to see,” I said, not wanting to get her hopes up too much. “But that is the idea. It’s going to take some time and—”
She threw her arms around my neck. “But that’s amazing. You can do all that just by mixing different magical properties?”
“Well, yes,” I said. “That’s what alchemy is.”
She pushed away from me and walked toward my wall of shelves that held the potions I’d created over the years, just sitting and collecting dust. She picked up a bottle of a dark blue liquid that could be poured over ice to melt it in cold weather.
“What’s this one for?” she asked, nail tapping against the bottle.
“I noticed a lot of older residents couldn’t get out during the winter. The streets were so icy that they’d slip and fall. They couldn’t even walk out onto the sidewalk. So I created a potion that melts ice in cold weather.”
“That’s brilliant.” Her eyes crinkled. “How you take bits and pieces of the godwitches’ magic and blend it together to make something new, something powerful.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, my cheeks heating. “It’s not that powerful,” I said. “Just potions I hope to be able to sell one day.”
She put it back, studying my other creations. There weren’t nearly enough of them, but I hoped to keep adding to the collection. Especially now that I could work with Enid and learn more about her bog, about all the possibilities. The potential.
“It is amazing,” she said. “You don’t give yourself enough credit for all of this.” She turned and pointed at the petri dish sitting on the wooden table. “For that. That could save lives.”
“That’s the idea.” What I didn’t say was that I wanted to create this more for Enid than for anyone else. She was so convinced these plants in her bog that she clearly cared for were useless, that she was the only one who’d ever appreciate them. I wanted to prove to her how wrong she was.
She came to a stand beside me, studying the little dish of blue foam. “I owe you an apology, you know.”
“For what?” I asked.
“I thought healing was boring, and I had no idea why you wanted me to come on that house call with you last week. But I was so wrong. In another life, maybe I could’ve been a healer.”
“In another life? Enid, why can’t you be a healer in this life?”
She turned her head to stare at me like I’d grown a third eye. “It’s too late. I’m—I—”
“You what?”
“I’m not healer material, that’s all.”
I detected a hint of disappointment in her voice, but I wasn’t sure she was ready for me to push this on her. In fact, I suspected the more I pushed it, the more she’d reject the idea.
Enid would make an amazing healer. She already had a strong connection to botany, and she could use that knowledge to help patients. Maybe I’d subtly suggest a book or two for her to check out, or even better, ask Niamh to.
“So that’s what you do up here all night?” Enid’s gaze heated with desire, dipping to my crotch. “Tinker with potions?”
“Mostly,” I said, my voice going low.
She trailed a finger down my chest, and I shuddered under her touch. “What else do you do?”
“Well, lately I’ve been a little distracted,” I said. “So I haven’t worked on my potions as much. I’ve been doing other things . . .”
“Oh.” She bit her plump bottom lip, and godwitches, I wanted to be the one biting it right now. “Like what?”
My breath hitched as her finger hooked into my waistband and trailed over a patch of skin. “Last night, I stroked myself,” I said.
She sucked in a sharp breath. “And what were you thinking about?”
“Oh, I think you know.” My gaze bored into her.
“Tell me anyway.”
I grabbed her hips and lifted her onto the counter behind us as she gasped. “I was thinking about doing this.” I lifted her dress and yanked down her panties. “Fucking you right here in my lab.”
I’d never come so hard by my own hand.
“That,” she said, breathless. “I want that too.”
She worked at my trousers, undoing the laces, freeing my uncomfortable cock.
A low growl escaped my throat as I yanked her forward so that her ass was on the edge of the counter. She roped her arms around my neck, and I pressed myself right against her entrance, stopping before going any farther.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
“Not remotely,” she said.
I stiffened.
“You need to be inside me.” Her voice was pained. “It’s torture what you’re doing right now.”
I laughed, relief flooding me.
Desire filled her eyes, and godwitches, I wanted her so badly. I hadn’t lied about her being a distraction, but what I hadn’t said was that she was the best kind of distraction. The only kind I ever wanted.
She tipped her pelvis, my cock entering just a few inches, and I sucked in a sharp breath. Fuck, this already felt so damn good I might actually combust once I was all the way inside.
“And you claim I’m the one trying to kill you,” she said, nudging forward again.
“Like you said in the water—it would be a glorious way to die, though, right?” In one quick motion, I pushed all the way into her, and she cried out, her head sinking to my shoulder as she clung to me.
Her nails dug into my shoulders, the prick of pain mixing with the pleasure and sending shockwaves through my body.
I made quick thrusts, gripping her thighs tight. “Fuck, this is so good,” I said.
She hummed in agreement, then leaned back and adjusted her position, rocking with me, rolling her hips.
I was unraveling under her touch, unraveling with every tilt of her pelvis, every moan escaping her mouth.
Every piece of me was coming apart, and I didn’t want to be put back together.
I wanted to be undone by this woman again and again and again.
“Fuck, Enid,” I said, quickening my pace into a pounding rhythm.
I could live inside of her forever.
“That might be awkward,” she said, breathless, and I realized I’d just said those words out loud.
“Maybe, but it would also be fucking divine.” I groaned as she rolled her hips in a slow motion and threw her head back, tipping me straight over the edge.
“I’m going to come.” And then my orgasm was shooting out of me.
Enid’s walls tightened around my cock, her entire body shuddering and convulsing until we were both slicked with sweat, panting, reduced to nothing but loose limbs and heavy breaths.
“I think I saw actual stars when I came.” She straightened, and I slipped out of her, but I kept a grip on her thighs.
“I think I might’ve seen the whole damn solar system.”
We pressed our foreheads together, and her rose scent filled the space between us. “So damn delicious,” I murmured.
“I think we’re going to need to do that again,” she said.
This woman was going to kill me, and I was quickly finding out that I’d gladly let her.