Love Potions (17 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Lydia felt a tickle along the nape of her neck. Her limbs were numb with the residual effects of deep sleep, but she was warm and safe…and really hungry. Her muscles stiffened and trembled as she gave a small stretch. The tickling traveled down to where her neck met her shoulder.

A low moan sounded, and she realized Erik lay beside her on the bed lightly kissing her. “
A stóirín
, ya are a handful of trouble, but I kind of like it.”

Her eyes opened, but she had no desire to run away from him. She felt safe—safer than she had in days. It was clear the instant she saw the room that she was in the MacGregor mansion. The style of the dark wood and a portrait of Erik in full MacGregor plaid surrounded by the Scottish countryside was a dead giveaway. Feeling the wandering hands moving along her waist under the covers, she could well guess this was Erik’s bedroom.

She smiled at the portrait. He did look pretty sexy with long hair, like some sort of romance novel hero. “I’m the handful? My life was tame before you MacGregors moved in next door.”

“We do what we can, lass.” He kissed her shoulder, the lips pressing harder this time. Erik’s body shifted, and she felt the full press of his arousal against her hip. “Had I known all I had to do was save ya from mortal danger to get ya into bed I would have found trouble sooner.”

His hand found the flesh of her waist and slipped around to her stomach. When she reached her arm out from beneath the covers she noticed she wore black silk pajamas. They weren’t hers. “Am I still hallucinating?”

“Hallucinating?” Erik’s kisses stopped. “What do ya mean, love?”

“I could have sworn I heard your dad planning a picnic before I passed out.” She gave a small laugh. “Something about setting up tables and putting out casseroles.”

His hips rocked against her gently. “That he would have. The townsfolk would need a reasonable explanation for a bunch of strange memories and the Sheriff’s ruined lawn. They’ll think someone used bad mushrooms in a potluck casserole, and they all were drugged out of their minds. The doctor will explain the rest of it away as temporary amnesia due to hallucinogens.”

“I don’t even want to know why you had illegal ’shrooms around.” Lydia gave a small yawn. The feel of his hands made her forget all about being hungry. “Or an old strobe light.”

“Niall had them. Hallucinogenic drugs leave people open to influence. The hippies had it right—black lights and strobes keep the
lidérc
away and out of their compromised brains.”

Her smile fell and she turned in his arms to study his face. “What about Charlotte?”

“Safe,” he assured her. Erik propped up on his elbow. The covers fell along his waist and his chest was bare. “Everyone is safe.”

“What were those things? Are they coming back? Are there more of them? Why did they want to kill…?” She paused. “No, I know the answer to that last one. They needed me to take your powers from you so they could become human form again to wreak more havoc. There was so much hatred and anger in them. Right now they’re confined to the shadows, but if they became full bodied monsters I can’t imagine what they’d do.”

“The Hungarians call them
lidérc.
Others know them as a kind of incubi or succubi. Ya killed one, and Niall banished the other for the next hundred years or so. It will not be coming back for a very long time.”

“Succubus?” Lydia frowned. “Like vampires?”

“Not the blood suckers. More like psychic vampires and possessor demons. They find weaknesses in people’s psyche and crawl inside the shadows of the mind to control them. We warlock have a natural immunity to them. The only way they can get our magick is through an
inthrall
. You’re my natural
inthrall
so ya were used to try and take my powers.” He touched the tip of her nose. His eyes flashed and instantly her skin began to tingle where he touched her, more so than normal. “I can see some of my energy is still inside you.”

Her breathing deepened. Lydia’s hand strayed to his waist. “And Charlotte is Iain’s
inthrall
?”

“Not naturally, no. She had been exposed to Iain’s magick when they petrified her, and then she was given something to make her a portal in which to take a warlock’s powers. Iain was trying to see if she was harmed when her spell and his magick connected.” Erik’s expression fell a little. “It was a very rare collection of events. The
lidérc
must have been watching us very closely. Setting up magickal security takes time, which is why we always send a group in advance to a location before the clan moves to the area. Apparently, our normal protocols weren’t enough to keep the evil out.”

“Oh, no, Iain?”

“He’s in a coma. My mother worked an enchantment spell to preserve him. Ya were able to reverse the process between us a little and give my strength back. Charlotte and Iain do not have our connection. It’s not her fault. She didn’t know what to do. The process nearly killed them both. Charlotte rests, which is the best thing for her. We’re trying to pull some of the magick out of her. We need to decide what to do with her before she wakes up.” Erik’s hands resumed their exploration. His finger slid down her nose to her lips. Everywhere he touched erupted with tiny explosions of pleasure. “But nothing needs to be decided at this moment, except for one thing.”

“Which is?” she whispered. The heat of his body drew her closer to him. The magick in his fingers worked their spell over her. She felt his powers lingering inside her. She knew if she wanted she could drain him of his magick, his life. One touch is all it would take, the simple will of her to do so. The fact made her much more powerful than the warlock next to her on the bed.

“Are ya going to stop playing hard to get and let me catch ya already, Lydia? Because ya have more than captured me, my love.”

Her heart quickened. “Please tell me your sister didn’t cast another misguided spell.”

“No, love, those words are all mine.”

“You may be a powerful warlock, but you’re a silly man.” Lydia pressed her lips up to meet his. She kissed him softly. “You caught me that first day we met.”

Erik moaned cupping her cheek to hold her face to his. He instantly deepened the kiss, letting her feel by the subtle movements of his body just how much he wanted her. “Ya might have let a man know it, lass.” A deep laugh rumbled in his chest.

“I sent you erotic dreams. I saved your life. I tamed you when you shifted into a beast.” She touched his cheek, pulling at his magick only to release it back into him. The feelings it awoke were very seductive. “I’m allowing you to live at this very moment. So, what were you waiting for, a gilded invitation to spell it all out for you?”

“I’m told we men can be rather dense. It could help.”

“Fine,” Lydia gave a pretend sigh of exasperation. “Erik, hon, enough with all the talk. Can you shut up and kiss me already?”

He growled and buried his face in her neck. Nipping at her, he said, “Not exactly the ‘I love ya’ I was looking for.”

“Are you kidding?” Lydia pulled him by the hair to make him look at her. “Like I’m going to commit fully before I find out if you’re all talk. I mean, you did lead me to believe you were something of a god in bed.”

“Oh, now ya challenge my manhood?” He flipped her over on her back and pinned her down with a heavy thigh. “I’m trying to be a gentleman and let ya recover from your ordeal, but—”

“Stop talking.” Lydia leaned up and pressed her mouth to his. She let her hand glide lower to his hip. To her surprise, she discovered he didn’t wear any clothes. Unable to help herself, she let her hand glide over a firm ass cheek, her fingers cupping the bottom edge.

“Aye, love, whatever ya want.” His words were light and playful, but she had a feeling he meant them completely. He would give her whatever she wanted. When she’d pulled at his magick he hadn’t tried to stop her. The residual effects of what happened to them lingered inside her. She felt so much of him, a connection she’d never had with another person before. It was an invisible thread reaching out of him and coming into her. She knew him intimately, not by memories but by instinct and emotions. Lydia understood him, and when she kissed him there were no doubts in her mind that this is who she was meant to be with.

His fingers skimmed over the silk of the pajamas. The material seemed to melt against her flesh from his warmth. With very little effort he undressed her. A brush of his finger against a button caused it to unfasten. A whisk of his hand drew her pants down her legs without his even needing to physically pull on them. Silk tickled her flesh, but the sensation was instantly replaced by the hard muscles of his naked thigh.

Without pulling the sleeve from her arms, he tugged the shirt out from under her body. Apparently, it had melted through her. She gave a small laugh. “Interesting magic trick. For your next act, please don’t pull any rabbits out of my…well, hat.”

“There’s no trick to my magick,” he assured her. He took her hand from his ass and glided it around to the front. Erik pushed her fingers against his arousal. “It’s all very real.” Then chuckling, he licked playfully at her mouth. “And ya can’t call my manhood ‘rabbit’. At least give it a manly name I can brag about.”

She began to form a smartass answer, but instead gasped loudly as his hand moved over her flesh to leave tingling trails of magick in its wake. She saw the blue marks of it over her breasts and arms before it dissipated. Erik cupped her sex. The tingling intensified. She gasped, arching off the bed when a finger entered her. His grin widened. Pulses of energy vibrated from his hand along her body. She jerked violently, trembling as a climax was ripped out of her with his power.

Lydia gasped for breath, completely shocked by what had just happened. Her bones felt as if they melted inside her legs. She couldn’t move. Her heart hammered, pounding in her chest and ears and throat. It was all she could do to draw breath.

Erik looked very proud of himself. He kissed the corner of her lips before whispering by her ear, “And that was just my hand, love.”

“Ah,” was all she could manage to answer. Yes, physically he was a great lover, but there was more between them, so much more. The real pleasure came from their emotional connection. It was strong and more real than anything else she’d ever experienced with a man. The very idea of Erik left her breathless.

“I’ll take that to mean ya think I’m more than proving my worth as a lover,” he said playfully. Something in his happy gaze said he felt their connection too.

Taking advantage of her weakened state, he began kissing the length of her body. Lips grazed her stomach and thighs before his tongue licked the center heat of her sex. Every thought left her as her brain focused on the moment.

Erik took his time, not rushing even as the hard length of his arousal attested to his need. He appeared to enjoy torturing himself—and Lydia while he was at it—drawing out the perfection of the moment. He kept his kisses light and constantly moving. He licked the folds of her sex, nipped at her inner thigh, sucked on the sensitive flesh of her hip. Only when her legs stirred, trying to force him up her body to finish her did he draw his cock to her pussy.

He entered her deep and sure, thrusting hard. Erik filled her and one word whispered through her mind as he did, “Finally.” The restraint inside him broke. His skin glimmered with magick, coating their naked flesh with its light. She felt the power inside him building and renewing, feeding off their sexual energy, luring her to take some for herself. There was more, just behind the sexual need. After this moment, nothing would tear them apart. She belonged to him, and he to her. They were bonded.

A breeze swept over the room, but there was no natural cause for it, no open windows or doors. It blew his hair around his handsome face and cooled her heated flesh. With each thrust of his body in hers the magick around them became more fervent. He pulled out. Covers flung from the bed across the room. He pushed in. The portrait on the wall rattled. Out. The bed shook and lifted off the ground. In. The bed rocked, rotating them in a slow circle over the floor. Out. A dresser slid sideways and hit a wall. In. She couldn’t take the pleasure building inside her body, couldn’t think to fight the feelings growing inside her heart.

Lydia cried out, climaxing as she’d never climaxed before. Pleasure rippled over her in a wave, pulsing with a visible yellow glow over Erik and the magickally possessed room. Erik had ahold of her hips, gripping tight as if he’d fly away if he let go. His knees were braced and he managed to thrust a few more times before he too met release.

As her tremors subsided everything stopped moving and the bed dropped hard on the floor. She breathed hard, unable to get enough oxygen into her sated body. Gasping, she said, “You weren’t kidding. You are like a god in bed. That was some show you put on.”

Erik collapsed next to her and chuckled even as he too panted for air. “That wasn’t my show, love.”

Lydia stiffened. Was he saying
she
did that?

“Luckily for me, sex replenishes my magick or ya would have sucked me dry of more than my seed.” He touched her thigh. “I’ve never had my magick pulled out of me by the tip of my cock before, well except when ya had your mouth on me in the car.”

Lydia glanced around the room, mortified that someone might have heard. She wasn’t ashamed of her relationship with Erik, but this was a family home.

“Don’t ya worry about the mess, love,” Erik said, following her gaze to his room. “As soon as I can muster the energy I’ll clean it up. Though, ya keep fucking a man like that and I’ll gladly let ya rearrange the whole mansion.”

She wanted to answer, but she was too weak. Lydia stared up at the crooked portrait of Erik in the Highlands of Scotland, presumably done very long ago before the ancestors of her ancestors had even met and had children. She wasn’t even a possibility in that world. In that moment, she felt very mortal. She had what? Another fifty years? Sixty? He would live forever.

“Ah, don’t worry love,” he whispered, misreading her expression. “That feeling is normal after ya expend so much magick. Just close your eyes and rest. Ya will feel great when ya wake up.”