Craved (29 page)

Fiona rushed down the hallway and into
the kitchen, no doubt having heard my magic crashing into our
cabinet. “What happened? I heard a cracking and yelling?” she asked
me. My magic instantly went out and I took a few deep breaths to
calm my anxious nerves.

“Sorry I woke you; everything’s fine,”
I told her. Her eyes found the scorch mark on the cabinet and she
gawked at me like I had gone crazy.

“Were you purposely trying to burn
down our apartment?” She sounded like she was scolding a child. I
eyed Ian with ire and Fiona gasped as she realized that I had
actually been trying to burn Ian down.

“What has he ever done to you? We’ve
only known him for a couple of days, geez Gwen,” Fiona rushed to
Ian’s side to look him over for any injuries. The anger I thought I
had gotten under control spiked back up. Fiona’s fascination with
Ian irked me.

“Listen I don’t wanna fight with you
but, from what I’ve learned in those couple days, Ian deserved that
and much more. I don’t fire my magic off willy-nilly Fiona.” I told
her, keeping my voice as calm as my anger would allow. A thought
suddenly dawned on me as I looked between Ian and Fiona. “Did you
glamour her? Is that why she’s all gaga over you?” Fiona gasped
from embarrassment and gave me a look of anger. I wasn’t trying to
embarrass her though. I’d known Fiona for ten years and she had
never acted this involved with a guy, especially one she’d only
known for a couple days.

“That’s ridiculous, vampires can’t
glamour witches, Gwen,” Fiona said sarcastically. I dragged my gaze
away from her angry eyes and to Ian. He had a thin-lipped smile but
didn’t say anything.

“Well, did you?” I asked him. He
looked down at Fiona and then back at me, releasing a heavy
sigh.

“I had to, I needed to get closer to
you, to find out if you really were a spirit

walker and I knew you wouldn’t see me
otherwise.” Fiona’s hurt was apparent as she considered his words
and I walked over to comfort her, but she shrugged off my
embrace.

“Undo it,” I told Ian. I
was hoping that once Ian’s glamour was lifted, Fiona would be back
to her normal
diva
self.

“Look at me,” he told Fiona. She
lifted her eyes from the floor and met his unwillingly. I couldn’t
imagine what having a glamour put on me would do but I doubted I’d
like it. I could tell that Fiona really thought she liked him, even
without having any reason to. No one is that hard up for a person
they just met. I worried that once the glamour was lifted, Fiona
would be heartbroken, but in the end, I knew it was the best thing
for her. Ian Despereaux was bad news.

“I release you,” Ian said as he stared
into Fiona’s eyes. A tear slowly started to travel down her pink
cheek but as soon as Ian spoke those magical words, Fiona’s hurt
disappeared. She blinked a of couple times at Ian and then looked
around the kitchen, as if wondering what was going on. She looked
back at Ian again and then turned and went down the hallway,
slamming her bedroom door.

“Is she going to be okay?” I
asked.

“She’ll be fine, she’s pissed off, but
otherwise okay. Now, can we get started on capturing Liam or would
anyone else like to take a crack at me?” Ian said. I pursed my lips
as I considered taking him up on that offer.

Hiding out in brush wasn’t the
smartest idea. I had stumbled over my stilettos and grabbed onto a
thorn bush to steady myself. A stinging sensation cut into my palm
as the thorns dug into my flesh. I cursed under my breath and shook
my hand, as if that would make the pain go away. Aiden grabbed my
hand and his tongue licked the length of my palm. I was about to
yell at him for drinking my blood, but, when the stinging sensation
waned, I realized he was only trying to heal me. I mouthed the
words “thank you” and settled in for our stake out.

Liam’s home was a very
large Victorian style that looked like it’d come straight out of
the pages of Better Homes and Garden
magazine. Wood siding, painted white, covered the entirety of
the house. Arched windows lined the whole front of his home. A
large wooden wrap-around porch hugged the front of his house.
Intricate detailing along the dormers and porch lent a gingerbread
feel. Liam Fawns seemed more of the modern type, not the homey
kind. I had only met him twice and our conversations had never
lasted more than five minutes. Still, when I had spoken with him, I
never imagined his home to have a white picket fence. His lawn was
perfectly manicured, not one piece of nature out of
place.

“This is so stupid, there’s no way
Liam is responsible for the witches’ deaths,” I said to Micah and
Aiden, my stakeout partners. We’d gone along with Ian’s plan to
visit Liam’s home while he went inside, outfitted with a recorder.
I trusted Ian Despereaux about as far as I could throw him, which
wasn’t far.

“Gwen, I’ll follow any leads at this
point. Whoever is responsible is good at covering their tracks. The
most we have on this guy is what you’ve told us and that isn’t
much,” Micah said.

My feet were killing me so I abandoned
my crouching pose and sat on my butt in the dewy grass in Liam’s
backyard. I honestly couldn’t believe that Micah was going along
with this. First of all, Micah was a hell of a detective and took
his job seriously. He wasn’t one who followed crazy ideas without
proof. Second, we were in the middle of staking out one of the
founders of our town, a major bigwig who could have Micah’s job
should he find out what we were up to. It wasn’t like Micah had
gotten a warrant.

“Exactly, the man I saw
wasn’t Liam. He was British and had light hair, two features that
Liam doesn’t have. Ian openly admits that Louis wants to
collect
me and we’re
stalking Liam? Am I missing something?” I was beyond annoyed by the
whole situation. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ian was up to
something yet again and Aiden and Micah were just going along with
it. Was I the only one who saw him as a sleazeball?

“You also said that you
thought he might be a warlock because his face was blocked from
you, like he used a spell to protect his identity. That’s why I’m
following Ian’s crazy plan,” Micah said, defending his detective
status. I was quiet while I considered his words. Witches and
warlocks could glamour their appearances, so Liam
could
have changed his,
but it still didn’t sit well with me. I couldn’t say anything else
though; I’d already voiced my objections to the whole nonsense, now
I’d have to wait until my intuitions proved right.

I decided watching Aiden would be a
much better use of my time. I admired the way his muscles played
under his white, long sleeve t-shirt and the way his muscular legs
filled out his jeans. I felt a familiar heat radiate through me,
the same one I’d felt every time I was around him. He was beyond
beautiful and even if I saw him twenty-four hours a day, it
wouldn’t be enough to appreciate his mouth-watering good
looks.

Aiden’s body stiffened and if I hadn’t
been staring at him, I wouldn’t have caught the way he sniffed the
air. His head swiveled around and his eyes burned into mine. I
sucked in a deep breath at the intensity, but licked my lips as my
desire grew.

“We’ll be right back, we’re going to
check on the other side of the house,” Aiden said to Micah, holding
a hand out to me to help me from the ground. I looked at him
quizzically but followed him around the house. Liam’s yard was
large and covered with trees, plenty of spaces for us to
hide.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered, once we
were hidden behind a large oak tree. Aiden peered around the tree
and then turned to me, his lips on mine before I could even gasp. I
happily returned his kiss, twisting my tongue with his as the heat
stirred within my stomach. His hands roved all over my body,
igniting every last one of my nerves on fire. I was breathless when
his lips broke from mine. He trailed kisses from my ear and all the
way down my neck until he got to the top of my breasts.

“This isn’t exactly the best time for
this,” I said breathlessly. My hormones wanted to smack me for
telling Aiden to stop. My body definitely thought it was the
perfect time to experience Aiden again.

“Then you shouldn’t have been thinking
naughty thoughts earlier,” he laughed.

I arched my eyebrows and said, “How’d
you know?” I moaned as he pulled open my jacket and ripped my shirt
down the center, exposing my breasts. He flicked his tongue against
one of my excited nipples and I thought I’d spontaneously combust
from the thickness of my lust.

“Your magic may be gone from my
system, but your blood still runs through my veins, I’m attuned to
you, my Gwen. Plus I could smell your desire.” He grinned at me and
I returned the smile. In normal circumstances, it would embarrass
me that he could smell my desire, but all it did was turn me on
more.

His finger slipped under the waistband
of my jeans and popped the button open easily. He pushed my jeans
all the way off so that I stood in only a pair of thin, red
panties. I was half excited about what we were doing and half
scared of getting caught. I was, in no way, a prude but I also
wasn’t that big on PDA, especially in the yard of one of the
founders with my ex-boyfriend within hearing and smelling,
distance.

Aiden’s jeans disappeared quickly and
I gasped when his erection was hard and ready for action. “We
shouldn’t be doing this,” I whispered. I thought I should throw it
out there, even if I didn’t believe it, I wanted nothing more than
to feel him inside me again. Flashes of our first time together
flooded my mind and I visibly shuddered with want.

“Are you afraid we’ll get caught? Or
that Micah will hear us?” he whispered, his lips close to my ear. I
closed my eyes as tingles traveled all through my body. The boy
knew how to turn me on.

“Both,” I said huskily.

“That’s the fun of it.” He grinned and
without another word, lifted me up so that I was straddling his
waist and thrust into me. I clung onto his strong shoulders and
absorbed the feel of him inside of me. Everything about Aiden set
me on fire. His energy swirled around me like a million electric
currents caressing my skin, sending my lust into overdrive. I found
his lips and kissed him feverishly. I moaned against his mouth and
shook as an orgasm erupted within me. Aiden pumped a few more times
and held onto me tightly as he reached his orgasm. We held onto
each other, kissing, touching and absorbing each other. When Aiden
reluctantly set me back on the ground, I started to giggle. I felt
like a teenager who’d just done something extremely
naughty.

I noticed that my panties lay torn in
two on the ground. I hadn’t even remembered him doing that. I
picked them up and pulled my jeans up in the process.

“You’re playing hell with my underwear
supply,” I said with a smirk.

“I prefer you panty-less anyway,”
Aiden said, leaning in and pressing a soft kiss on my
lips.

We were walking back around the house, holding
hands when we noticed a loud crash from inside the house. I looked
up at Aiden and then to where Micah still stood by the rosebushes.
Three things happened all at once. Micah ran toward the house, a
loud crack of bright green magic sent Ian flying through the window
that Aiden and I were standing in front of, and the magic didn’t
stop with Ian. It slammed all the way through Ian and still
traveled its path, directly toward me. Aiden screamed, “Gwen!” and
tried to shove me out of the way, but was too late, a burning
sensation hit my chest like a Mack truck and I hit the ground,
falling into oblivion.