Charmed in Vegas: Bad Potions (14 page)

It wasn’t that he was rude. He said thank you as prettily as he could. He bowed, kissed her hand, held doors, rushed to serve her, just as he had before, but there was no joy in it. No flirtatious anticipation. The Queen was beautiful and a passionate lover, but his heart was no longer hers.

So far he’d managed to stay out of her bed through cunning and outright manipulation, but sooner or later, he would run out of distractions. Sex with the Queen could not be avoided forever.

Next to him, the Lady laughed in delight as a troupe of jugglers finished their performance. Dancers shimmied onto the floor, seamlessly taking over the stage and the orchestra began to play a sensuous melody full of high, sweet notes singing counterpoint to a deep harmony.

The Lady reached over and clasped Aidan’s hand in hers. “Oh how I love the music of Fairy. Did you miss it?”

Aidan nodded. He had...until he met Marion. Now all he missed was her.

“I was beginning to worry that you would never return. I hadn’t thought my curse was so challenging.”

“Perfection such as yours is hard to attain.”

“Ooo, very nice, Aidan. Such an improvement. Stick out your tongue, I want to see if you’ve gilded it.” She leaned in and kissed him, her tongue darting between his lips. “You taste good, too,” she said reaching to stroke him through his pants.

Aidan flushed at her bold attention, a dark dread beginning to roil in his stomach.

The Queen kissed Aidan again and whispered in his ear, “Come. I tire of this banquet. There are other delicacies upon which I would feast.” She stood, and taking him by the hand led him from the ballroom to her chambers.

With a wave of her hand, her gown disappeared, leaving her naked before him. Cupping a large breast in her hand and caressing its cherry tip, she waved her other hand and Aidan’s clothes disappeared. Despite his reservations, his body still responded to the Queen’s beauty. His shaft was rock hard.

She beckoned. “Come. I've missed your touch.”

Aidan walked toward her, his heart heavy in his chest. He teased her nipples to hard peaks with his thumbs and kissed her ruby lips with as much passion as he could muster. The Queen for her part, was an ardent lover as always. She caressed him in sensitive spots, heightening his pleasure with her experienced touch.

With a sigh she turned to face the large mirror against the back wall of her bedchamber. Wiggling her bottom suggestively against him, she said, “Look how beautiful our natural forms are together. No one looks quite as good on me as you.”

Aidan paused from where he was kissing the nape of her neck and looked up to see their reflection in the mirror. His heart skipped a beat. He recognized his own reflection, but the woman he had wrapped his arms around wasn’t the Queen, it was Marion.

Before he could stop himself, he said, “Marion.”

The Queen stiffened in his arms, a dark look crossing her fair face. “Marion?” She snapped her fingers, “Mirror, show me what he sees.”

The mirror flickered and showed the Queen a petite woman with blonde hair and brown eyes. Nothing like the Queen’s dark-as-night curls and violet eyes.

She turned to Aidan with a frown. “What is the meaning of this?”

Aidan kneeled. “I beg pardon, Lady.”

“Who is Marion?”

Aidan bowed his head, avoiding the Queen’s gaze. “She is the woman who fulfilled your curse.”

“You have feelings for her?” Her voice was sharp.

Aidan remained silent, reluctant to say anything that might incriminate him.

“You are wise to say nothing, but the mirror has already betrayed you. It has shown me your heart’s desire and it is not me.” The Queen’s voice caught and she turned her back on Aidan, head bowed. “Leave me.”

“Lady?”

“I said, leave me. Before I do something you will find painful and I will later regret.” She picked up a vase of flowers and dashed it to the ground, a stony expression on her face.

Aidan stumbled to his feet and fled.

“S
o you’re a witch, I’ve always been curious about witchcraft. You know, my great grandmother had some magical talent, but this was back before you could study magic in college.” Darren prattled on, oblivious to the glazed expression in Marion’s eyes.

This was the third blind date Raven had forced her on in as many weeks and they’d all been so excruciatingly bad, Marion was seriously considering joining a nunnery.

Sure, Darren was cute, with artfully windswept blond hair and gray-green eyes, but he also talked nonstop, even when there was food in his mouth. And he was fascinated with magic—unhealthily so. Marion was in a mood to indulge him and finish their ridiculous, going-nowhere-fast date.

With a bright smile, she interrupted him, “Would you excuse me, please? I need to use the restroom.”

“Of course.” Darren said with a polite smile.

Marion grabbed her purse and ducked into the women’s restroom. Quickly digging through her bag, she found the invisibility charm she’d made the week before with Professor Snooks’ help. The professor had survived Eric’s attack and had since been mentoring Marion, a relationship both women enjoyed.

With a sigh, she muttered the word that activated the charm. Whether Darren ever figured it out or not, tonight he was going to experience real magic.

Once she was confident the charm had taken effect, Marion strode out of the restroom and the restaurant. Darren never even noticed.

Thank the Goddess for magic.

A
idan spent several days lying low in the servants’ quarters, sneaking food from the kitchen when he was hungry, and filling his time reading books he smuggled from the Queen’s library. As far as he could tell, the Queen wasn’t looking for him. She hadn’t set the Hunt on him either, which was a good sign. There might be hope of salvaging the situation. Perhaps if he wrote a suitably romantic poem coupled with a custom piece of silver jewelry, he might ease her anger.

Resolved, he made his way into town and visited the silversmith. Together they designed an elegant pin with intertwining hearts that the craftsman promised he would have ready the next day. Aidan then went to the local tavern where he imbibed mead freely and applied pen to paper, struggling to write a suitable testament to the Lady’s beauty. The only problem was, for every verse he wrote, it was Marion he pictured.

By the next day, he'd downed enough mead to fill a pond and had something he thought would pass muster, even if he’d written it with another woman in mind. Stopping at the silversmith’s, he picked up the pin and made his way back to the Queen’s Court where his discreet inquiries revealed she was abed with a sickness.

Concerned that he might’ve caused her harm with his heart’s betrayal, Aidan rushed to her chamber where the Lady lay, peacefully, sleeping under thick covers.

Aidan watched over her while she slept, working out in his head what he would say when she woke. They had parted on bad terms and he didn’t want to raise her anger again. He noticed the mirror they had used was gone. Perhaps destroyed by the Lady in a fit of rage, or simply taken somewhere else until she could bear to look at it again.

He sat by her side through the night. She lay so still, so silent, he once leaned over her, listening for her breath. At dawn, she finally stirred. She yawned and looked at him with bleary eyes.

“Aidan, is that you?”

“Yes, Lady.” He kneeled before her.”Lady, I must beg—” he began, but she shushed him.

“Not now, Aidan. It’s too early for the conversation we need to have. Leave me to bathe and we’ll meet later this afternoon in the garden.”

“Yes, my Lady.” Aidan bowed, but before he left, he set the box with the pin next to her pillow.

***

I
n the garden she bid him walk with her, two of her guard trailing after them. They stayed far enough behind that they couldn’t overhear their conversation, but close enough to watch the Queen’s back.

“So, you fell in love with a mortal witch.” She plucked a purple rose from a nearby bush and held it to her nose, inhaling deeply.

“Yes, Lady,” Aidan said.

“Yet you came back to me.”

“I am honor-bound to do so.”

“But I do not hold your heart.” She tossed the rose onto the lawn, the petals scattering in the wind.

“No,” he said, unable to bring himself to lie.

Her hand went to the pin he'd given her, fingers tracing its delicate design. She'd fastened it right over her heart. Closing her eyes, she retreated into herself for a long moment. Then, with a sigh, she said, “I free you of your obligation to me.”

“Lady?”

“I do not want the body without the heart. I have to be able to trust my honor guard. There must be no chink in my armor. If you are not wholly mine, you are a weakness my enemies can use.”

Aidan bowed his head. “I have failed you.” And Marion, he added to himself silently.

She laid a hand on his arm. “No, Aidan. Don’t think that. It’s true I’ve always preferred you to some of the other guard, but this is where our paths part. There is no honor guard without heart.” She gestured to the end of the stone path they’d been following where the air shimmered with magic, a portal to the human realm. “I will miss you.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed him gently on the cheek. “Now go.”

“Lady, I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

She smiled at him and fumbled to unfasten the pin. “Here, take this.”

“It’s yours.”

“No, it’s not. It’s hers. Take it with my blessing. Be happy, be well.” She pressed the pin into his hand and wrapped his fingers around it.

Aidan’s throat clogged with emotion and he struggled to find the words to express his gratitude. The Lady had taught him everything he knew about women and the guard had made him a man. He would’ve never met Marion or captured her heart without them. Unable to find the right words, he settled on a hug instead, sweeping the startled queen into his arms.

She laughed and kissed him on the cheek again. “Go, before my selfish nature reasserts itself.” With a gentle push, she shoved him toward the portal.

Aidan stepped through the portal and blinked in the dim light of the dance club he had first met Marion in. Sun streamed in from windows set high on the walls, illuminating the scuffed dance floor. Aidan barely noticed his surroundings as he made a beeline for the front door. All he could think about was finding Marion.

M
arion aimlessly flicked through the cable channels, watching as a succession of images flashed across the screen. Raven was out with friends, leaving Marion to wallow in her depression in peace. A depression that involved a lot of chocolate as evidenced by the pile of candy wrappers on the side table next to the couch.

She’d never anticipated how bad the downside of love could be. It felt like someone was hacking out her heart with a spoon. A task she wished them well at because, as far as she was concerned, she was better off without one.

She just wasn’t cut out for romance. Sure the broken wrist and bruised neck Eric had left her with had hurt, but the intangible pain of Aidan’s abandonment was worse. Much worse. There was no surgery to fix it. No police to put the source of her pain in jail. Although she was now convinced there ought to be a unit devoted to heartbreak justice.

The idea of falling in love again with someone else, made her stomach roil. Or maybe that was just a side effect from too much chocolate. At that last thought, Marion put down the chocolate bar she’d been about to open and pulled the afghan on the back of the couch down around her shoulders. Settling on a made-for-TV movie, she lay on the couch and let the screen work its mind-numbing magic.

A sharp knock on the front door brought her out of blissful apathy. With a sigh, Marion went and peered through the peephole, her heart going still at the sight of Aidan on the other side.

What was he doing here? Hope and then anger ran through her. Did he think she was going to welcome him with open arms? Not a chance in hell. She frowned and then jumped back as Aidan put his face to the peephole.

“Marion, are you there?” he asked his deep baritone muffled by the thickness of the door. “Let me in, please. I need to talk to you.”

She crossed her arms and stared at the door, debating. Should she pretend she wasn’t home and let him suffer? Or let him in and tell him exactly what she thought of him? In the end, she flung the door open and greeted him with a sullen frown.

“Marion.” The way he said her name made it a caress. He looked at her, an unspoken plea in his eyes.

“Aidan,” she said coolly and with a jut of her chin. His voice might be making her knees weak, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. “I didn’t expect to ever see you again.”

“I know.”

“What happened? Another curse?”

He stepped into the apartment, shutting the door behind him. “I didn’t want to leave you, Marion. You have to believe me, but I couldn’t ignore the queen. My life was not my own.”

“You’re here now, why? To rub my nose in it?” Marion crossed her arms and glared at him.

“No, she let me go.” Aidan’s eyes went glossy with emotion as he said again, with wonder in his voice, “She let me go.”

“So basically, you lost your job and need a place to stay. Is that it?” She shook her head. “I’m not that easy.”

“Yes, I lost my job, but I got my heart out of it. And my freedom. I am yours, Marion.” He moved to cover the distance between them, taking her hands in his. “If you will have me.”

She went still, refusing to look at him, but not pulling away either. Hope fluttered inside her and she tried to squash it before it got her into trouble. “You're really free?”

“I swear it. You are my lady now.” He brought her close and gently kissed her cheek. “To love and honor.”

“I-I-I...” Marion was lost for words. The damn elf was getting to her. Again. And her aching heart was stupid enough to yearn for his kiss. Again.

Aidan looked deep into her eyes. “I understand if you don’t trust me. The thing is, I have all the time in the world to earn it back. Just give me a chance.”