The room exploded in applause. More important, Griffin was grinning at her and looking proud. A surge of adrenaline filled her with creative confidence. Lifting her wand again, she conjured a mini fireworks display near the ceiling. Bursts of color transformed into blossoms that drifted slowly toward the audience before winking out right above their heads.
When the music swelled she swept her wand around the room, creating more colored mist that gradually shaped itself into a twenty-foot dragon with purple and silver scales. She’d chosen the dragon to represent her power and her dreams. She wondered if Griffin would understand.
The crowd gasped again as the fantasy she-dragon circled the room, beautiful and fierce, her tail whipping, her eyes glowing red. Lily’s exit required split-second timing, but she was in the flow. She could do this. Beckoning her dragon illusion toward the center of the room, she lifted her wand and called forth its fire. As the flames roared down, she disappeared.
She didn’t really disappear, of course. She used the she-dragon and its imaginary fire to distract her audience so she could duck back down the hallway and run into the storeroom. She made it before the flames and the dragon dissipated.
Even inside the storeroom with the door closed, she could hear the crowd’s reaction. She was a hit. If Griffin chose to get advice from the Lowells so he could break the spell, so be it. If he left her once the spell was gone, she couldn’t stop him. But she’d allowed him to glimpse the spirit and inner power of the woman he’d be giving up.
Griffin hadn’t wanted to be impressed by Lily’s display of magic. Maybe he’d expected her to pull rabbits out of a hat or saw Anica in half. He was used to magic like that and knew it was all illusion.
But this . . . this was incredible.
She
was incredible, as magnificent as the dragon she’d created out of thin air, the dragon that made him think of Lily in all her untamed beauty. No, he hadn’t expected that. He hadn’t expected to have his heart swell with pride as she dazzled the crowd.
Most of the people here would think that she’d used special effects—lights, mirrors and hidden cameras—to create the show. He knew she’d had none of those things, which made everything so much more amazing. She could do all that and yet she’d chosen him, a man who seemed boring by comparison, to be the recipient of her love potion.
That didn’t make what she’d done right, but it did make it flattering. He had to break the spell, though, or they would never meet on a level playing field. She was more powerful than he’d imagined, and he could no longer be her puppet.
A woman like Lily might not require a magical man, but she certainly required a man who could think for himself, act on his own. As the mist cleared and the guests began returning to their drinks and their conversation, Griffin scanned the room.
Dorcas and Ambrose Lowell weren’t far away. Each held a martini, which seemed to go perfectly with their look. Griffin caught Dorcas’s glance and started toward them. She touched Ambrose’s sleeve. Carrying their drinks, they moved in his direction. They met near the bar.
“That was quite a show,” Ambrose said.
Griffin nodded. “Quite a show. Lily’s an amazing woman.”
Dorcas set her martini on the bar. “Even amazing women can make mistakes.”
“Even you, dearest.”
Dorcas flicked a slightly annoyed glance at her husband. “We don’t need to be going into that right now, darling. We have limited time. So, Griffin, what can we do for you?”
“How much do you know?” When Griffin looked into Dorcas’s amber eyes, he had a feeling she knew a great deal.
“We’ve been in touch with Anica.” Dorcas kept her voice low. “We know about the elixir.”
Griffin’s heart hammered. This woman, so far as he knew, was a witch, and she’d just confirmed that he’d been put under a spell. This wasn’t Kevin making wild guesses anymore. It felt frighteningly real.
He swallowed. Jasper seemed to trust these people, but Griffin didn’t know Jasper all that well. Still, there weren’t any other options. He gazed at Dorcas. “Can you break the spell?”
She shook her head. “No.”
Panic climbed from his chest into his throat. “But I thought—”
“Daisy can.”
“Daisy?”
Griffin stared at her. From the corner of his eye he noticed that her husband was also staring, which was not a good sign. “The dog?”
Ambrose put a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “I assume you’ve researched this.”
“Of course.” Dorcas folded her arms and gazed up at her husband. “Will I ever live down that incident, or will you bring it up every blessed time?”
“It’s just that—” Ambrose glanced apologetically at Griffin. “A few years ago my dear wife created a spell that went awry.”
Griffin’s confidence, not in great shape to begin with, wavered even more. “What happened?”
“Well, she—”
“Let me tell it, Ambrose.” Dorcas picked up her martini and took a healthy swallow. “It was an impotency problem, Griffin, something I’m sure you’ve never experienced. The man’s wife wore panty hose, so I created a spell that made him aroused by the sight of her panty hose. I simply forgot to limit the spell to her particular panty hose, so he . . . well . . .”
“Became quite uncontrollable, actually,” Ambrose said. “Wanted to do the nasty with every panty hose- wearing woman he came across. Unfortunately, he was the brother-in-law of the Grand High Wizard, so we were banished.”
“Which turned out very well, if I do say so.” Dorcas lifted her chin. “We’ve rehabilitated a problem dragon, found a mate for a lake monster and helped four wonderful couples find happiness. None of that would have happened if we hadn’t been banished to Big Knob.”
Griffin gripped the edge of the bar. He needed something real to hang on to, and that was the closest thing. Dragons? Lake monsters? Obviously repairing a mirrored ball was child’s play compared to what these folks could accomplish.
Ambrose handed over his martini. “Drink this, dear boy. You look as if you could use it.”
“Thanks.” Griffin knocked back the entire contents of the glass.
Dorcas gazed at him in sympathy. “I know it’s a lot to absorb.”
“Yeah.” He set the glass on the bar because he was feeling a little shaky and didn’t want to drop it. “So what about Daisy? I know she’s an unusual dog.”
“She’s magical, and Lily used her qualities of love and devotion when she created the elixir. I checked through all my resource books, and—”
“Did you check online sources, too?” her husband asked. “I wish you’d told me you were researching this matter.”
“I didn’t tell you, Ambrose, because you wouldn’t have approved.”
“Well, there’s that.”
She glanced at Griffin. “You and Lily are out of our jurisdiction. We couldn’t offer you advice until you asked. But now that you have, I’m free to tell you how to break the spell. The more time you spend alone with Daisy, the quicker you’ll break it.”
Ambrose nodded. “It does make sense.”
Nothing made sense to Griffin in these uncharted waters, but spending time with Daisy sounded innocuous enough. He’d been afraid his cure might have involved toads and snakes. “How much time do I have to spend?”
“It’s hard to say exactly.” Dorcas sipped her martini. “Every time you have sex with Lily, you increase the power of the spell, which means you’ll have to counter that with more Daisy time.”
Griffin’s face grew warm. He’d never met this woman before tonight, and now she was discussing his sex life. He took a deep breath. “Okay. What if I don’t sleep with Lily again? How long do I have to hang out with the dog?”
Dorcas set her glass on the bar and slipped her hand in a pocket hidden within the folds of her curve-hugging dress. She pulled out a piece of lavender paper and handed it to Griffin. “Here are my calculations.”
He studied the paper covered in an elaborate gold script. Dorcas had style, even in her penmanship and her choice of ink color. He’d never been handed a note written in gold before.
She’d set it up as a series of equations. Griffin scanned the first four of them.
1. Five-minute quickie = fifteen minutes with Daisy
2. Twenty minutes, missionary position = forty minutes with Daisy
3. Ten minutes oral sex (for Lily) = fifteen minutes with Daisy
4. Ten minutes oral sex (for Griffin) = thirty minutes with Daisy
The list went on, with various addendums and asterisks. He glanced up. “Are you saying I have to go back and figure out how many minutes I need with Daisy based on the sex I’ve already had?”
“That’s right, plus any future sex you will have.”
“Considering I’ll have to get out a slide rule to figure out what I owe so far, I’m thinking there won’t be any. It’s just too complicated.”
Dorcas’s eyebrows rose. “You obviously have tremendous willpower, then.”
That was his dearest hope. “I want to beat this spell, which means I have to play catch-up on my Daisy minutes. I don’t have time for backsliding and recalculating.”
“I don’t know,” Ambrose said. “She’s a very good-looking woman.”
Griffin was well aware of that. “I also have a piece of jet in my pocket.”
“Is that like a rocket in your pocket?” Ambrose laughed at his own joke.
“Ambrose.” Dorcas frowned at him. “This is not a time for levity. Griffin has a serious problem.”
“Oh, I agree. But I sometimes think it helps to inject a little humor, and when he talked about the jet in his pocket, I started thinking of the kind of jets that are planes, which made me think of rockets, so that’s why I—”
“Right, dear.” Dorcas patted him on the arm. “Why don’t you go see the bartender and order us all another round of drinks? He’s at the other end of the bar.”
“Excellent idea. I’m on it.” Then Ambrose leaned close to Griffin. “There’s that other funny line—
Do you have a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to
—”
“Ambrose. Drinks.”
“Yes, my love. Right away.” Ambrose turned and walked to the other end of the bar.
Dorcas shook her head as she gazed after him. “Wizards. Can’t live with ’em, can’t play strip poker without ’em.” Then she turned back to Griffin with a gentle smile. “I know this isn’t going to be easy.”
“You mean the math or the self-control?”
“Mostly the self-control.”
“I know, but this is important. And as for hanging out with Daisy, that part will be fun. I love that dog.” He thought he might love the woman, too, but while he was under this spell, he couldn’t know anything for sure.
“But in order to hang out with Daisy, you’ll have to spend time with Lily and somehow resist the urge to go to bed with her.”
Griffin rubbed the back of his neck. “I know. I’ve been trying to figure that one out. For example, if Lily and I go back to her place after the party tonight, the most I can expect is ten or fifteen minutes alone with Daisy, and that’s assuming Lily agrees to let me walk her by myself.”
“And then Daisy goes to sleep.”
“Right. It’s bedtime.”
“Bedtime?” Lily walked up to them wearing the slinky black dress she’d arrived in. “Did I hear somebody mention bedtime? It’s barely ten!”
Griffin could tell from the slight tremble in her voice that she was nervous. “Great job out there.” He couldn’t stop himself from giving her a hug, which meant he was surrounded by her warmth, her softness, her signature scent that drove him wild. He released her with difficulty. Oh, boy.
“Yes,” Dorcas said. “It was a fantastic show. I loved the purple-and-silver dragon.”
“Thank you.” Lily looked pleased but still nervous. “It’s an honor to perform for someone who could do far better.”
Dorcas shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. I’m not good with performing in front of crowds. You have a talent for drama that would probably serve you well if you decided to go on the commercial circuit.”
“There’s our girl!” Lionel, wearing his Peruvian headdress, hurried over. Simone followed close behind and the two of them spent the next several minutes fawning over their daughter and raving about the show.
Griffin watched Lily blossom in the midst of the praise and attention. Shortly afterward Jasper and Anica arrived to offer their congratulations, and Griffin edged away from the crowd surrounding Lily.
He still tingled from the brief contact of their hug. Reaching in his pocket he closed his fingers around the piece of jet. Already he could feel the crack widening, and if he spent much more time with Lily, the stone would probably break apart again.
Considering what he had to do regarding the spell, it made no sense for him to go home with her tonight. He’d get very little time alone with Daisy, and the way he felt now, he’d surely take Lily to bed. But he didn’t know if he could walk out of this bar without her.
Chapter 26
The moment Lily had stepped out of the hall she’d spied Griffin talking to Dorcas and Ambrose. Her first impulse had been to rush over and interrupt whatever they were talking about. High on the adrenaline pumping through her system following her magic show, she wanted nothing more than to dance the night away with Griffin and then take him home to bed.
Dorcas could at this very second be putting a serious crimp in that plan. Lily might still be able to stop it though. She might still . . . and then, despite the adrenaline rush and her desire for Griffin, she paused.
For the first time she could remember while under the influence of doing magic, she paused to consider her course of action. She found it to be selfish and dangerously impulsive.
Despite the needs raging through her, she thought of Griffin and what he needed. He was looking for a way out, and the time had come to let go with as much grace as she could muster.
That would mean disguising how much she dreaded what was about to come. In binding him to her, in creating that forced proximity, she’d opened herself to loving him. And she realized the loving thing to do now was to back away.