“I don’t think I can be mean to her,” Ria replied, shifting uncomfortably under the rather insistent pulsing between her thighs.
“You like her, don’t you?”Kelly asked softly, a sad yet understanding smile on her face.
Ria chewed on her lip for a second, then nodded.Unlike most people, she was much better at lying to herself than others.“Yeah,” she admitted.“Maybe the ritual affected me too?”
“Not possible,” Jess said, smudging the two hearts in the dirt with her sandal.“You can do a ritual for someone else accidentally, but you would know if you cast magic on yourself.If you didn’t expressly include yourself in the will portion, then it wouldn’t affect you.”
“She’s right,” Bootsy insisted, plucking a piece of grass to chew on.“Face it, Ri.You got the feels for this woman.
“Great,” Ria mumbled, her shoulders slumping in defeat.She thought it was hard enough helping Lissa find love with someone else, but that was starting to feel like a cakewalk compared to being the recipient of affection she wasn’t allowed to return.“So what do I do?I can’t go out with someone who’s under a spell.That would be ten kinds of all wrong.”
“Love is more transient than a whispering wind,” Willow sang out in a melodic voice without looking away from her tree bonding.
Five heads swiveled to stare at her for a second, then turned back when it was clear no more pearls of bizarre wisdom would be coming.
“I’m going to assume that’s one vote for letting it run its course,” Hailey said.“I guess it is your only option if you can’t turn her off from you.”
“Actually, that’s not entirely true,” Bootsy interjected, finally sitting up.“Even if there’s no full reversal, you might be able to dampen the ritual.Fade her feelings a bit so it passes quicker.”
“You’re right,” Jess exclaimed, smacking herself on the forehead.“I almost forgot about that spell.And I call myself a ritual expert.”She tapped the little stick on her chin, her blue beads clacking together gently.“Oh, but I don’t know if Ria is going to want to go that far.”
“You make a good point,” Bootsy agreed.“The conditions should be perfect tonight, but she’s never done it before.”
“I think she can handle it,” Kelly said.
“Me too,” Hailey added, earning her a quick smile from Kelly.
“Hey,” Ria interrupted, waving a hand in their faces.“Sheis right here, andshewould like to know what you’re talking about.”
Everybody turned to Jess, who straightened like an obscure scholar whose time had finally come.“A ritual can only be lessened by another ritual,” she stated.“Specifically, the Ritual of Reduction.”
The thought of fixing broken magic with more magic wasn’t exactly what Ria wanted to hear, but she had fewer options than Bootsy had full coverage blouses.“Okay,” she said reluctantly.“So I guess I’ll do another ritual.What does it involve?”
The girls all glanced amongst themselves, their lips tugging upwards into tiny smiles.
“You know I really hate when you guys do that,” Ria said.“What does the ritual entail?”
Silence, until Willow’s ethereal voice rang out, “Her decorated earthly shell must fall prey to Poseidon’s grasp under the most blessed of signs.”
“Uh-huh,” Ria replied.“And in English that means?”
Bootsy gave her a wicked grin.“It means you’re about to pop your naked moonlight cherry.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lissa
WetsandsquishedbetweenLissa’s toes as she strolled along the surf with Ria at her side.She had chosen the seafood grill for its proximity to her place so she could suggest this intimate moonlit walk home along the beach.Unfortunately, an uncomfortable silence had settled upon them shortly after leaving the restaurant, making the trip far from romantic.Though it might actually be an improvement over the epic levels of awkward their dinner conversation had reached.
She’d done her best to act like nothing had happened and just pick up where they left off, but the easy way they’d hung out together at Pride was gone, replaced with something painfully tense.Short of the blind date a few years back with a girl who thought talking in a baby voice was sexy, Lissa hadn’t had a more uncomfortable meal.Right around the time Ria mentioned the lack of clouds in the sky, Lissa gave up any hopes she could get the witch to open up to her.No good date ever involved conversations about the weather.
Now they didn’t even have the meal to make small talk about, and Lissa was about to lose what little of her mind she had left.Was it possible everything she’d felt from their kiss was one-sided?She wasn’t always the most astute when it came to women, but she could tell the difference between a pity peck and a heated embrace.There was no way her panties had been about to burst into flames without sparks flying from both sides.
She snuck a peak at Ria out of the corner of her eye, but she might as well have been staring at a completely different woman.It wasn’t just the fact that a bikini and body paint had been replaced with a stiff button-down shirt and tight bun, there was more to it.Ria’s entire vibe toward Lissa changed, becoming more closed off.Lissa had barely been able to get Ria to look her in the eye all night.
Maybe she deserved the cold shoulder—her intentions weren’t exactly honorable.Not that they wereentirelydishonorable.Lissa genuinely couldn’t stop thinking about the Elixir Enchantress.She should be turned off by the stiff librarian persona Ria was projecting, but all she could think about was how it would feel to be the one to loosen that bun and unbutton that blouse, revealing the naughty woman Lissa knew was in there somewhere.
Marketing secrets, Lissa’s brain reminded her.You’re not here for seduction; you’re here to get the information.
