Witches for Hire (Odd Jobs #1)(54)

“I said I didn’t say anything.”

“Funny how two words would help you save face.”

“Fuck me or get out.”

Desmond slapped Jeremy’s ass hard. “Say you’re sorry.”

Or not. Jeremy slid his magic into the ward’s spell. I’ll nick a little of this and use it on the arrogant bastard. Warm power flowed into him. Jeremy smiled. This should shut him up for a while. He tried to shape the borrowed magic into an attack, but something zapped his hand, and he flinched back. What the hell?

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll find out.”

“Desmond, what did you—ah!” Invisible hands circled Jeremy’s wrists and ankles, separating his limbs while keeping him glued to the door. He laughed. “The show running you down, and you need the extra help?” Desmond’s real hands cupped his ass.

“The more you talk, the more I know you’re afraid of how good I’m going to make you feel,” Desmond said, emphasizing his words by jabbing his thumb against Jeremy’s hole.

At Desmond’s mercy was not a good position to be in after they’d both used a great deal of magic and had it tingling through their skin. That was when they made their worst decisions. “I’ve spent years trying to create some independence from your touch. Why shouldn’t I be afraid of you destroying those efforts?”

Desmond kissed Jeremy’s cheek while still stroking his hole. “Why are you so afraid of repeating our past mistakes? We are not stupid teenagers anymore. Would you perform that spell today?” He didn’t wait for an answer, nibbling Jeremy’s shoulder and pressing his fingers past Jeremy’s entrance. “I’m not saying we forget our past, but I think it’s wrong to suffer for it all of our lives.”

“Look at what happens when we’re together,” Jeremy whispered, hanging on to what little reason he had left. “Back in England, you murdered a man, albeit an evil one, so you could steal his power in order to keep me alive. As soon as you arrived in America, you played tit for tat with the energy vamps until they started killing to keep up with your power. And then I go on a mental vendetta because my favorite NA attendee got the life sucked out of him by those fuckers. We are a plague.”

“Would you feel better if you succeeded in being a murderer like me? Do you want to take that back?”

Jeremy closed his eyes and didn’t answer. Out of all the hard choices he’s made, he actually sounds proud that I failed to kill Rosaline. “You’re a strange man.”

“No stranger than an angel who chose not to fall.”

Jeremy opened his eyes and couldn’t help but smile at the corny use of his nickname. “Aren’t you too sophisticated now to say such things?”

“I’m being sensible, unlike an irascible man I know.”

“Expensive toys and bigger words.”

Desmond’s glowing eyes made it hard to differentiate pupil from iris, so they seemed larger. “It’s building, isn’t it? You’re wondering what I have planned.” He trailed his finger under Jeremy’s eye, forcing their gazes to meet. “No need to wait any longer.”

Red light flared off the door, and Jeremy’s breath hitched. “I’m not….” Desmond kissed him, his lips barely touching Jeremy’s at first, then pressing harder. Jeremy tasted Desmond’s bottom lip and licked across perfect white teeth that were probably insured.

“Be good, and I’ll pretend you’re not trembling,” Desmond whispered in his mouth.

“Your imagination.” Jeremy locked their mouths together as the light grew brighter. We’ve performed every damn sex spell there is. He’s simply talking big.

Desmond sucked on his tongue one last time and then said, “Bite on this.” He held up the staff at Jeremy’s mouth.

Jeremy looked at him and at the staff. “What are you going to do to me?”

The small staff gently tapped on Jeremy’s teeth. “Open.”

If the door’s ward wasn’t strong enough, the dead could sense the coming sex magic between them. Jeremy licked his lips. “Clive will—” The rod went in his mouth. Jeremy glared at Desmond.

“Spit it out, and you don’t get to keep it.”

Jeremy clenched down on the rod, looking away from Desmond’s smirk. Free magic was free magic. The red glow deepened, forcing Jeremy to squint. Not wanting to fully surrender, Jeremy tried summoning his magic for various spells, but it ignored him as if it wasn’t part of him. He grumbled around the rod in his mouth, and another of Desmond’s fingers went in his ass. They pushed deep inside him, so Jeremy had to clamp down on the rod or risk it falling.

“That’s a good boy.”

Warmth traveled from Desmond’s fingers buried in Jeremy’s ass to his legs, passing through the magical channels sliced with a razor blade sharpened for flawless precision. The magic rose higher, its heat almost burning as it reached Jeremy’s chest. He breathed heavily as it moved up his throat.

“Where do I start first?” Desmond murmured. “Here?”

Jeremy’s hand pulsed with Desmond’s power, and Jeremy’s magic blossomed inside the appendage in defiance of his wishes. Life sang in the door’s wood under his fingers. It wanted to tell Jeremy thousands of stories about how it lived and what it had seen. The magic in his hand continued growing, pinpricks of pain needling his skin. Unlike Jeremy, the rod in his mouth cooled with magic streaming into it. The longer he held on, the stronger a weapon it would be. As if offended by Jeremy’s greater lust for the rare artifact, the magic in Jeremy’s hand vanished. The already captured magic didn’t dissipate from the glass rod, but being stingy with the power produced by Desmond’s spell was unforgivable. Jeremy faced the door and refused to look at Desmond.