Dancing With The Devil, Witches Anonymous Step 5(2)

“Did I mention,” he said, breathing as hard as I was, “that banana splits are my favorite treat next to you?”

My heart double-tapped my ribcage. Next door, my imprisoned magic rejoiced.

Danger, Will Robinson.

Luc and I had a long, complicated history. Seven years of wickedness and creating havoc on Earth before my sister, Emilia, intervened and tried to save my soul from eternal damnation. Instead, she ended up Luc’s playmate and I ended up with a giant archangel headache named Gabriel. Luc and I broke up and that’s when I joined Witches Anonymous. I’d been keeping my magic under lock and key ever since.

But that wasn’t all. I went to Hell and back, literally, because of Lucifer, and now here I was, ready to chuck my magic-free life in the Witches Anonymous garbage can over a sweet, romantic line comparing me to a banana split.

Sweet, romantic lines get me every time. “You had me at I’m hungry, witch.”

Luc smiled. Lust and magic swirled around us, tingling my skin the same way Luc’s breath had. The sigil on my forehead—the worst gift ever from my guardian angel—warmed. “No magic,” I reminded Lucifer.

The sigil was the Mark of Cain, a protection symbol that came direct from God. Anyone who tried to use dark magic on me or hurt me in any way would be obliterated by said mark.

Being that I was in love with the Devil, and he’s the essence of darkness and magic, you can imagine the problems this could cause. Talk about cramping a girl’s love life. Luc and I had been stepping around both our magics for six months and never getting past first base. My frustration level had hit DEFCON 1…maximum readiness coupled with imminent nuclear meltdown if I didn’t get some hellacious relief and soon.

Which brought me to my current take on the whole good/bad situation. A magic-free lifestyle was heroic and all that, but totally, totally, overrated.

Especially as we approached the New Year. So what if we survived the Mayan prophecy about worldwide doom? Who was to say we wouldn’t all die at the stroke of midnight, our New Year’s resolutions dying with us? Hell, at the rate I was going, I could be the apocalypse that wiped out civilization. How absurd would that be? I’d stick to my magic-free oath but self-combust, taking out the world like some ass-backwards martyr.

Either way, at that moment, with Luc’s lips trailing their way down my neck, I, for one, planned to go out with style. I didn’t want to be saved from magic, Lucifer or anything else, and I was tired of having God’s stupid mark dictating what I could and couldn’t do.

“Why do you still have clothes on?” I asked the Devil.

Luc chuckled low and deep. Every nerve in my body sat up and said hello, sin. “Ladies first.”

Grabbing the box from his hands, I broke free from his hold and ran into the kitchen, shoved the cake in the freezer and ran back to the living room. On the way, I shucked my sweater and started unbuttoning my pants.

Another chuckle rose from his throat and he grinned a very sexy grin. “For real? You’re not just teasing this time?”

This time. There had been a lot of this times since the summer when I’d returned from Hell with a new attitude and a slight complication in the bad-witch-dying-to-have-sex-with-her-ex department. “No magic. No spells. No hexes. We should be safe.”

Luc and I had fooled around every day since I’d been resurrected from Hell, but I hadn’t been able to seal the deal. Giving the Mark a test run seemed imprudent when it could fry someone you care about. Didn’t mean I hadn’t tested the boundaries…we’d had a few close calls where the Mark struck and Luc ended up slamming into the wall across the room. Still, my libido kept me coming back for more, Will Robinson danger or not.

Luc seemed to need to remind me of the fact I was a tease. “You give me that line about no magic and we’ll be safe every time I nuzzle your neck, and then, right when push comes to shove, you back out.”

He meant the push-comes-to-shove part literally. And it was true.

But not this time.

“No backing out.” I kicked off my boots, wiggled out of my pants and reached for his belt buckle. This was it. I was going to do it. The sigil on my forehead be damned. “Just keep your magic to yourself.”

Clothes went flying as Luc joined me in disrobing. “I’ve never had sex without magic.”

Memories of sex with magic skipped joyfully through my mind. The way Lucifer had used it to seduce me. The way he’d used it to enhance the experience…

Heat flooded my body and the room swayed. An uncomfortable tightness set up camp in my throat. “Holy hexes, Batman.”

Luc tossed his black jeans on the floor. “Are we role playing? I thought you were over your Batman fixation.”