kate storm 04 - witches dont back down (19 page)

A second later they both appeared in the entry to the kitchen.

"You okay?" Ash asked.

Al tilted his little head up at me. "Ya look better, Doll. You're not quite as green."

I glowered at him and took another small sip of my water.

My stomach had almost settled down.

I was pretty sure I could now cast a spell to get rid of the rest of the queasiness. A few minutes ago, I'd been afraid of what would come out if I opened my mouth.

All the stress and the emotional turmoil I'd been feeling had come to a head. Along with the blood.

Sweet Spirits, I couldn't forget the blood.

I took another sip of water.

Al's wolf shows were obviously on a cable channel. No way could what I'd seen pass a network review board.

I didn't like the show.

I didn't like Al watching the show.

I didn't think it was appropriate for getting in touch with his inner beast.

And I didn't think I had an inner beast. Inner witch. Whatever.

I'd been horrified. The hitman had loved every gruesome second of it.

How the hell was I going to face Morgause in a fight if I couldn't stand to watch a wolf attack a baby elk?

I'd gone back to embracing my lie. Screw the inner beast.

I pointed my finger at Al. "You better not attack anything. Especially not in the jugular."

"Doll, I'm telling' ya, it didn't suffer." Al sighed heavily. He looked up at Ash. "Ya know how it is with arterial spray. Once the vein is nicked, ya bleed out quick."

Ash set the bags of take out on the table. "It's true."

I slapped my hand on the table. "Enough! You two, eat. I'm going to change."

There was no way I could eat now.

I felt like different parts of me were on different roller coaster rides. My stomach, my heart and my determination had all jumped into separate cars. Each car peaking and plummeting and climbing at different times. I'd set my mind to being able to beat Morgause and then I'd peak and go screaming downwards. I'd look at Ash and Al and feel so much love I simply had to go forward and fight, even if it was all uphill. And my stomach seemed to ride along on its own trajectory. Up and down and sideways.

And in the back of my mind a large clock counted down. Tick. Tock.

Tick. Tock.

I shut my bedroom door, leaned against it. Pulled the tiny wand out of my bra and cast a spell to calm my stomach. I waited a minute.

Wonderful. My stomach wasn't responding.

The door at my back began shoving me forward.

I jumped out of the way and turned to face Ash.

"Al's eating his meatball." He stepped into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.

I nodded at his chest. I hadn't really looked at him since he got back.

My roller coaster cars were still cruising at different points. I'd managed to pull myself back from a meltdown in his truck and I desperately wanted to be the semi-together witch. If I back tracked and melted now, I was afraid Ash would decide I wasn't strong enough, and, despite our conversation in his truck, he would leave and go after Morgause on his own.

I couldn't let him fight my battles for me. It didn't matter what anyone else thought, I couldn't live with it.

"Kate."

I forced myself to look up. Willing myself to hold it together.

And everything changed the moment I looked into his eyes.

Molten pools of melted amber.

A need so fierce it nearly scorched me from feet away.

Ash leaned back against the door. Planted his feet and lifted his hand.

"Come here." He curled his finger, beckoning me to him.

My worries vanished. I couldn't hear the ticking of the clock. And my stomach settled.

And then flip-flopped hard.

Scarlet tipped sapphire flames sprung to life over Ash's shoulders and raced down his chest.

"Cast a spell." Ash said. His amber eyes almost glowed. "Fast."

I took a breath and cast my spell. As quickly as I could.

His finger curled again. "Come. Here."

My feet moved on their own and the next the I knew I was pressed up tight against him.

My breasts smashed into the cool leather of his vest. The heat of his skin simmering just below the leather.

His powerful arms wrapped around me. One pressing against the center of my back. The other cupping under my ass and lifting me up and forward, forcing me to spread my legs until Ash had me positioned exactly where he wanted me.

His hard thighs were spread apart which shoved my legs even wider. I couldn't balance my body. My hands wrapped around his neck, holding me up right. I was suspended. Held in place by Ash's strength. His hands and thighs maneuvering me. Adjusting my chest and my ass until he went still and let out a deep sigh.

His forehead coming down to rest on mine.

His hard cock pressing directly into my center.

He held me like that for a few minutes. Our breaths mingling. Lips inches apart, but not touching. Our hearts finding each other and adjusting to the same fast beat.

I stared into his eyes. This close together, the swirling lines of melted amber went in and out of focus.

My breasts ached and my nipples tightened into sharp points, trying to stab through my support bra to Ash's skin.

And between my legs I could feel his cock. Hard and urgent. It pulsed as if it had a mind of its own.

His cock jerked again.

"Now," Ash grunted. It was less of a word and more of a sound emanating from deep within his chest.

Ash shifted his hand to the back of my jeans and yanked. The material caught and dug into my skin for a brief second before it gave way to his strength. Ash tugged and yanked until I felt cold air against my bare skin. And then his big hand replaced the cold, sliding down my ass and between my spread thighs, to the moisture that had soaked my panties before he destroyed them. And then two thick fingers slid right inside of me.

I groaned.

"Hold on tight."

I heard the words. My brain processed them. I even understood them, but I couldn't move. I was completely focused on his two large fingers pushing forward, deeper and deeper inside. As far as they could go until they couldn't go any farther and his rough, hot palm pushed against the very bottom of my ass.

Ash removed his hand from the middle of my back.

Somehow his fingers slid even further inside as the full weight of my body came to rest on his hand.

"Ash." I wasn't sure if I said his name, thought it or felt it. All I knew, all I was, every part of me was caught up and held, not just by his hand, but by the massive tide of nerves and feelings, coming together in an enormous wave that rose and rose and rose, swelling to a peak so high I was afraid I would break when it crashed. And yet at the same time I didn't want to ever leave the peak.

Ash's other hand brushed against my clit. I didn't think I could take another touch. He'd barely touched me at all and yet any little caress was too much.

I'd gone from utterly still to mach speed in no time.

His hand touched my clit again and I opened my mouth to protest.

I think I screamed instead. I couldn't be sure.

Ash pulled his fingers out, leaving me empty and aching. Lost. No longer connected. The tidal wave evaporated beneath me without warning and I was left gasping, torn between screaming and wailing. Then the large, broad head of his cock was at my entrance. A brief touch before he shoved forward with his hips, pulling mine down at the same time. Ash went all the way inside of me in one deep thrust.

The ring of hard nubs at the tip of his cock rubbed me every inch of the way.

The tidal wave returned in a flash. Pushing me up.

I could feel Ash's heartbeat pounding against my own through skin and cotton and leather and I knew he was riding the wave with me. Rising up ever higher, propelled by a powerful force so great it pushed against my skin, then through my skin, inside, all the way through me until it reached the deepest, darkest parts of me. It wrapped its way through every section of my being until there was nothing it hadn't touched.

Until Ash and I were bound together by the force of it, our heartbeats, our blood, our souls, everything tied together in one giant knot of need and desire and love so intense and tightly intertwined there was no beginning and no end. There wasn't Ash. There wasn't Kate. There was just us.

"Hellfire, Kate."

I opened my eyes. I wasn't aware I'd closed them.

I don't know if Ash said it as a curse or a promise or both, but we were surrounded in it. Scarlet tipped blue flames of Hellfire raged and raced up and down Ash's skin and onto mine. It wrapped around us like a blue cocoon.

At the reminder of Hell, my gaze went to Ash's sin. I'd been avoiding it, with my eyes and my touch.

The lines of his sin still writhed and twisted over his powerful bicep. The arm pressed against my side, his muscles flexing and bulging as he held me to him. His hands gripping my hips so tightly I knew I'd have to cast a spell to get rid of the marks.

The red flames intertwined with the marks of his sin glowed an incandescent purple with flares of green.

Without thinking, I moved my hand to touch them.

My hand moved easily through the Hellfire, like swimming in water, I was engulfed in, but not harmed by, the fire.

I paused just above the broad curve where Ash's arm connected to his shoulder.

The glowing tendrils of his sin flicked up toward me. A short whip, uncoiling in between our bodies. I braced for the sting of the lash.

It didn't sting, it snapped lightly over the back of my hand, leaving behind a trail of tingling nerves.

I moved my hand forward to the edge of where his sin struggled. Caught in the Hellfire, my hand moved easily through Ash's sin until I was able to touch his skin.

I gasped. Astounded.

Then I moaned.

Ash tightened his grip on my hips. Holding me still, he pulled back then thrust forward.

I completely forgot about Ash's sin.

Ash started moving within me in short hard thrusts and I forgot about breathing.

Nothing existed, but Ash, inside of me.

Ash held me still the entire time. His large hands gripping my hips, holding my weight and keeping me in place for his thrusts.

I would have complained, but Sweet Spirits, I loved it.

Every thrust forward, every grunt, every harsh moan.

Building the wave, the peak I'd thought was so high and yet continued to grow. The crest grew to dizzying heights and still climbed ever higher.

Ash thrust deep. His hips pressing into mine. His cock stretching and piercing me so deeply it felt as if he'd been a part of me always.

He didn't pull back.

"Kate."

I looked up to where he waited for me. My gaze became trapped in his.

I let go of his neck. My one hand holding onto his sin. I lifted the other hand, relying on Ash to hold me up, not worrying about whether Ash could hold my weight or not. I trusted his strength.

I pressed the back of my hand over his scars.

"Ash."

In that moment the tidal wave broke. Crested over and consumed me in its pulsating grip.

I didn't fall. I flew. Higher and higher.

Until I reached the sun.

That bright star of light and heat.

So massive and turbulent.

It didn't stand a chance against Ash either.

The moment I reached it, we both exploded.

26. Every Witch Needs A Thick Bedroom Door.

"
Doll?"

Steel bands contracted around my hips.

I sighed. What was it about steel bands?

Honestly, they shouldn't be comfortable. They shouldn't be anything a witch would want to sigh over and yet . . . I sighed.

Everyone should have steel bands.

Thick and powerful and . . .

"Doll?"

Tiny nails scratched at the door.

Ash grunted.

Sweet Glinda and all the little munchkins.

I bolted upright.

Ash was leaning against the bedroom door, his head tipped back, eyes closed, his arms wrapped under my hips and ass now.

My very bare ass.

"Doll? You okay?"

I wiggled tentatively. Not certain how precarious my current perch was.

Ash's hands tightened briefly then loosened. He opened one very sated eye.

Ash grinned and started to lift me up. His cock, still very large and still lodged firmly inside of me, gave a jerk.

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head
no
.

Ash raised one eyebrow.

His cock jerked again.

I pantomimed my head bursting into flames and bulging eyes blinking mournfully.

Ash tilted his head to one side. His cock jerked yet again.

"Are you all right, Kate?" Ash shifted my weight to one hand and pressed my forehead with the other.

I groaned. There was no way Al hadn't heard Ash's deep voice.

"Doll?! What's wrong?" Al quit scratching at the door. "Step back. I'm going to break the door down."

I heard a tiny
thump
.

"What was that?" Ash shifted his body sideways. I shifted with him.

I pulled myself up and put my mouth over Ash's ear. "It's Al."

Another tiny
thump
echoed up from the bottom of the door.

"What?" Ash shook his head and pulled back. "Did you say something? I can't hear you."

"Doll?! Can you talk? Are you breathing?" Another
thump
. "Damn it, Ash. Open the door so I can help her! Something's wrong with Kate! "

Ash shook me. "What's wrong with you?"

"Doll!"

I heard another little
thump
.

Al was going to end up seriously injured at this rate.

I sucked it up. "Stop it! Both of you!"

Ash quite wiggling me back and forth. There was silence on the other side of the door.

"Kate?"

"Doll?"

I decided to deal with the more immediate issue first. "I'm fine, Al. I got something stuck inside me." That something gave another twitch. "And I'm having trouble getting it back out. Just give me another minute and I'll be fine."