Page 142 of First Ritual
There were other magus like me. They’d already congregated in the meadow where I first met the coven members. I enjoyed the short walk down the slope as I filled my senses with the smell of coming rain.
“You made it.” Berry grabbed my arm and led me to a group. “Bronte is here, everyone!”
A cheer went up, and I waved. The fuss over the win would die down quick enough. I wouldn’t make a big deal about their reaction. I smiled and someone offered me a drink. Strawberry cider. The drink was no gunpowder gimlet from Rooke, but I accepted the red bubbling liquid and was rewarded with a complex burst of tart and sweet.
Vero magus flooded the meadow soon enough.
“Will Fertim magus come to the party?” I asked Berry.
She nodded. “Yeah, the younger ones do. We’re all one coven at the end of the day.”
Were they? I had my doubts about that after the scowls I’d received.
Sure enough, when Fertim magus started to arrive, they chatted in groups to one side of the meadow. Divided. No older Fertim magus were here, as though the grain of division got too much to ignore after a person hit their mid-twenties.
Lips brushed my ear, and a low voice spoke, “We need to talk.”
“Do we?” I murmured to Wild. “I’m fine right here.”
“Hey, Mr. Astar,” Berry said, and I tucked away a grin at her breathless tone. Was calling him Mr. Astar part of her fantasy?
Bet it was.
Wild slid his hands around my waist, and I shivered at the contact that felt so damn good. His hands were warm. Those long fingers. Ah.
He trailed kisses up my bare shoulders.
People were watching.
I swallowed back a moan. “What are you doing?”
His hand swept lower on my stomach. “You proved today that you don’t mind others seeing your body. I’m simply giving you what you want.”
I turned in his hold, and he pressed a hand in the middle of my upper back so my breasts crushed against his chest. I sucked in a breath as the material rubbed on my nipples with his light movement. “You’re pissed I made you take out that guy. Whatever. You can be all the pissed you like. You had the option to flash your dick to see how I’d react. You chose not to seize the day. Try not to be an ass because you lost.”
Darkness flashed in his gaze. He gripped my chin. “I don’t lose.”
He crushed his lips onto mine, and something in me was set loose. The yearning to be lost in the fury of a storm was what I felt in his touch. Here, I could forget. Here, I felt too much to feel what I feared.
I could just drift away and forget everything.
Our lips moved together. As the kiss deepened, our bodies molded close. I could stay this way forever.
Wild ended the kiss, and we remained, foreheads touched together as we panted in the wake. Reality slapped me as surely as I’d slapped Huxley with that book.
Drowning. That’s what nearly happened to me during that kiss. Panic touched the frayed edges of my mind.
“We’re going to talk,” Wild said this time. “In private.”
I was wrapped around him, and remnant lust shook me along with acute rage. Because this display was happening for one reason. He was asserting his claim and power over me for all to see.
Tension rolled off us both, and that was enough to convince me to take this into the trees. I had shit on him, but he definitely had shit on me.
I forced a smile and tucked my hand into his. “Let’s go, sugar pea.”
“Lead the way, darling,” he answered.
Whistles and cheers followed us as we strode away. We passed the rest of the quad, who watched on and didn’t say a word. They didn’t join us either, which I was glad for. That was all I freakin’ needed. Another orgy rumor.