Starfire (Grim Gate Book 2), page 10
Both naked, Ethan wets two fingers with his mouth and puts his hand between my legs, slowly rubbing my clit until I come, pussy spasming against his hand. He moves on top, and I reach down, guiding his cock to me. I pump my hand up and down, spreading the precum down his thick shaft, and then bring him to me. He pushes in and I buck my hips, moving along with him. We’re smashed together on the couch, and my head hits the arm as Ethan fucks me harder. My breath leaves in a huff as I get close to coming once again.
Everything inside me tightens like a wound coil, finally releasing as the second orgasm shudders through me. I dig my nails into Ethan’s skin and bring my hands to his hips, driving his cock in deeper. Ethan comes only seconds later, resting his forehead against mine for a moment. He reaches down and picks up his boxers from the floor, giving them to me so I can wipe myself up and not make a mess on the couch. He covers us both with a blanket, intending on staying naked and tangled together for a little while longer.
But as soon as we get comfortable, something loudly bangs against the front door.
CHAPTER 12
“You heard that, right?” I jerk up, heart racing.
“I did.” Ethan reaches for his phone on the coffee table, and I feel a bit of relief when I see the notification from our doorbell, letting us know someone is on the porch. Ethan pulls up the live feed and we see Donna with another woman, both holding casserole dishes of steaming hot food.
“Normally, I’d say ignore them until they go away, but I’m not one to turn down free food,” Ethan says, setting his phone down. I give him a look, waiting for him to tell me he’s joking. When he doesn’t, I make a face, shaking my head. He plants a quick kiss on my forehead and reaches for his pants. I’m slower to get dressed, pulling my sweater dress back on and hurrying to find my underwear. My leggings are…somewhere? I suppose I don’t need them.
I’m smoothing my hair as I walk behind Ethan to the door, fully aware that my cheeks are still flushed from having sex. That’s three-for-three for looking like a hot mess—or acting like a total whack-job—when it comes to meeting Donna. Really, she should learn and stop showing up uninvited to my house.
“Ladies,” Ethan says, cheeky grin on his face when he opens the door. Hunter comes down the stairs, sitting by my feet. “To what do I owe this surprise?” He’s wearing gray sweatpants with no boxers underneath, since his were used for cleanup and are currently discarded on the living room floor, halfway under the couch. It’s not hard to see the outline of his big cock through his pants and, I swear to God, Donna just dropped her gaze.
Twice.
“Hello to you too,” she says, a little flustered.
Wonder why. I cross my arms over my chest, but it’s because I’m cold, not from being annoyed by this middle-aged woman who is obviously checking out my—holy shit, she just did it again!
“This is Selena. She lives in the house about a quarter-mile from mine, which makes her another neighbor.”
Ethan steps aside, welcoming the women into the house, eyes on the food they’re carrying. It does smell good; I’ll give him that.
“Hi,” I say awkwardly as they step into the foyer. Selena flinches when she sees Hunter, eyes going wide. I can’t blame her; Hunter is much larger than the average German Shepard dog and has an air about him that’s intimidating. “This is Hunter.” I run my fingers over the tip of his ear. “He’s very friendly.”
Selena’s head bobs up and down. “You must be Anora.”
“I am.”
Silence ticks between us, and I look at Ethan for help. It was his idea to invite them in.
“Let me take that from you,” Ethan offers, thinking with his stomach again. Donna blushes when she hands him the dish.
“It’s lasagna,” she tells him. “My grandma’s recipe.”
“Can’t wait to try it.” Ethan sets it down on the dining room table. “Now, you two didn’t come all this way just to bring us food, did you?” He flashes his famous cheeky grin again, and I can’t help but admire him at this moment. He knows he’s good-looking, from his whiskey-colored eyes to his muscular arms covered in tattoos, looking like that bad boy you only meet when you’re pages deep into a dirty romance novel.
“Guilty.” Selena laughs. “When Donna told me that the people in the old Estelle House were here to stay, I felt like I’ve been such a bad neighbor. We didn’t realize you’d moved in for good.”
“The Estelle House?” I echo as Ethan takes the second dish from her and puts it next to Donna’s lasagna.
“It’s what I’ve heard it referred to.” Selena looks around the foyer, just as obviously curious about this house as Donna is. She’s older than Donna, in her sixties maybe, with her blonde hair teased in such a way I know she believes the higher the hair, the closer to God to be true.
“Did you know my great-aunt?”
“Not well.” Selena unzips her coat, obviously expecting to be invited in. I don’t want to make a bad impression on the neighbors. Though, finding out more information on Aunt Estelle is my real motivation for playing hostess. “She kept to herself and wasn’t around much. I believe she worked at a boarding school if I’m not mistaken.”
“You’re not,” I say, feeling like I’m under a microscope from her expectant glare. From the outside looking in, it’s fucking weird that someone I don’t remember left me everything. Though, if anyone saw me with Aunt Estelle—like my own brother—they kept their memories.
“What school was it? I don’t think it was anything around here.”
“I’m not sure,” I say, fiddling with a loose string on my dress. “She worked there when I was just a kid.”
“Is this a bad time?” Donna asks, and her audacity almost impresses me, though annoyance overrules anything. “I don’t want to impose, but I did tell you I’d be back to tell you all about our book club. Selena saw you buying a whole armload of books at Novel Grounds a few days ago, so we think you’d love to join. You can even suggest the next book!” She cups her hand around the side of her mouth, stage-whispering. “We love dirty romance novels.”
Well, fuck, I do too. But I’d rather read them on my own, not with a group of nosey women. “I do like paranormal romance.”
Both women’s faces go slack. “We won’t read anything with vampires in it,” Donna says sternly. I won’t bring up the fact that vampire romance has been carefully avoided since vampires came out of the coffin, since most vampire lore isn’t really lore anymore. And those who took the creative license and didn’t get their facts right are looked down upon now.
“Zombies,” I say, mind going to the last series I read. “I’m really into post-apocalyptic right now.”
“Oh, I do love a good end of the world love story.” Donna waggles her eyebrows. “What about you?” she asks Ethan, shedding out of her cast. “What do you like to read?”
“I prefer the classics,” he says without missing a beat. I know for a fact the last thing Ethan read was a video game magazine, but he knows his audience and he knows exactly how to play them.
Which is how we end up in the kitchen only a few minutes later with four glasses of red wine in front of us. I ate not that long ago, having stuffed myself on chips and salsa before starting my cheese enchiladas, but take a small plate just to be polite.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to meet Anora’s great-aunt,” Ethan starts, taking a sip of wine. “Though the stories are legendary. I keep saying they can’t all be true.”
Both Donna and Selena lean in, hanging on his every word. I’ve been shooting him silent looks this whole time, mostly impressed with how well he’s able to play these women. If I didn’t trust him so damn much, it would almost be unnerving to see how easy this is for him.
“She was an interesting woman, that’s for sure.” Selena picks up her wineglass. “I always felt safe when she was around, as crazy as that sounds.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, sinking my fork into the lasagna. It’s good, but my stomach can only hold so much.
“I didn’t grow up in Thorne Hill,” she tells us. “I married my Edgar at the young age of eighteen, moving up north from Tennessee. Things were…they were odd. There were an alarming amount of animal attacks, which I wasn’t expecting. I grew up in the backwoods and I didn’t see that many people go missing or wind up mauled.” She turns her head, looking out the window. “We’ve lived in the same house since the day of our wedding, and when your great-aunt was home for the summers, the animal attacks lessened.” Her cheeks redden a bit, knowing how crazy it sounds. “I don’t know what she did to keep the animals at bay, though some people say it was that big black horse of hers.”
“My aunt had horses?” I rush out, unable to help myself.
“Just the one. Biggest draft horse I’d ever seen. She’d ride it up and down the streets right at twilight and some mornings at dawn. My kids were young, and they loved seeing her cantering down the road.” She smiles at the memory. “I told them the sound of the hoofbeats kept the rogue bears or rabid coyotes away. It’s silly,” she says with a chuckle. “But you tell your kids what you have to.”
My phone is in the living room, and I’m already dying to call Harrison and ask if he remembers Aunt Estelle having horses, or specifically, one horse. Though, I know if she did—and he remembered it—he would have mentioned it. Nothing would jog my memory more than horses. Which means this horse was one thing and one thing only.
It was Aunt Estelle’s familiar.
I rub my hands together, breath clouding around me. Narrowing my eyes, I try to discern what’s in front of me, but it’s so freaking dark in the attic that I can’t see more than a few feet past the circle of light the single bulb gives off.
“Babe?” Ethan calls, opening the attic door. “What are you doing? I thought you went upstairs to brush your teeth.”
“I did.” I pull my blanket tighter around my shoulders and climb over a dresser. “But then I thought I’d come up and find one more box full of helpful items.”
Ethan raises an eyebrow. “And did you?”
“No.” I hop off the dresser and shimmy over to the bookshelf. Sam will be here in a day or so, and this would really tie the room together. I heft a box of junk that I’d already sorted through off and turn, shivering. I pull another box off and accidentally knock the wooden box full of ashes to the ground. The lid pops open and I make a face, mentally debating if I need to be respectful of whatever dead pet this is and try to sweep up the ashes or just leave it, sweeping it up later when the attic is finally cleared out.
Picking up the box, I’m surprised to see there are no ashes at all. Dammit. They must be underneath more crap, and I’m way too cold to shuffle more stuff around tonight.
“Let me help at least,” Ethan says, coming over to me. We end up bringing three boxes into the attic landing. It’s still chilly up here but feels so much warmer than being in the actual attic. “Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“I really want to find a picture of my aunt’s familiar. It’s crazy, right? I never outgrew being that horse-obsessed girl and Aunt Estelle’s familiar took the form of a horse.”
“I don’t think we can say anything is a coincidence anymore.” He looks at Hunter, who’s lazily watching us dig through the boxes. “A dog or cat makes more sense to me. You can take them anywhere.”
“But you can’t ride them,” I add, earning a glare from Hunter. “Though, you’re right. Hunter really can go anywhere. More and more places are allowing dogs to come inside, but you can’t just show up with a horse.”
We spend the next twenty minutes sorting through the stuff in the boxes. One is full of old fiction romance novels, and another has an art project Harrison and I made. They don’t provide any sort of information, but it’s entertaining to look at them, hoping they spark a memory.
They don’t.
The third box is full of schoolbooks, ranging from accounting to the magical properties of commonly found gemstones. I take the books about magic downstairs, adding them to the library shelves. It’s getting late, and the wind has picked up outside. The house creaks and groans with each gust, making the power flicker.
I clean Romeo’s cage as Ethan looks up stuff about getting a generator installed, and the power goes out right after we get into bed. Knowing we’ll wake up freezing, we move into the library, making a nest of blankets on the floor by the fireplace. I put Romeo in his small cage and set it on the coffee table.
It would be easy to be freaked out with the house dark and quiet like this, but I’m warm and safe, snuggled up with Ethan next to me and Hunter by my feet. We both drift to sleep for several hours, and I wake to Ethan adding another log to the fire.
The power is still off when we get up in the morning, and I have to take pots of hot water out to the barn to thaw water buckets since my heated buckets are no longer working. It’s annoying, yet almost fun in a way, and we heat up soup over the fire, eating it tucked in blankets in the library. We keep ourselves busy playing board games, having sex, and snuggling in blankets by the fire most of the day. Finally, driving into Thorne Hill to eat at Susie’s Café for dinner.
Sam calls Ethan when we’re headed back, saying she arrived in South Bend, about an hour from us. I wasn’t familiar with the location of the city, but it’s to the east of us, and coming here really isn’t on her way home to New York. Really, though, I don’t care if she comes to visit. My parents and Harrison came to visit this Christmas, staying at the house with us.
The house has four bedrooms. One is ours, one is currently Romeo’s, and the other two were set up as bare-bones guest rooms. I have one fully decorated now, and I’ll get to the other one eventually. I absolutely love living with Ethan. It’s really made us get to know each other, both the good and the bad. It was fun hosting a holiday together and, though I know I made the right decision to pack up and move halfway across the country, I missed my family. I’m looking forward to them coming again for another visit, and I can’t wait until Laney can come out this spring when she gets some time off work.
The power doesn’t come back on until Wednesday evening, and I’m beyond ready for it by then. My mind has been at ease, but holy fuck, do I want to shower. We crank up the heat and Ethan promises to start up the shower, warming the water for me. In the meantime, I head outside to feed and clean stalls.
He’s already in the shower, waiting for me when I come inside, ready to help me warm up. We got to bed early that night, eager to watch TV after going a while without it. I fall asleep with my head on Ethan’s chest and the TV still playing. I have a weird dream that I’m sitting on the porch and a big black horse trots around the house, looking for demons. Hunter is there with me, and Mystery joins the black horse. I wake up startled, but sure that it was not real—just a dream.
Ethan is asleep and I reach over him to grab the remote on the nightstand so I can turn the TV off. The room goes dark, and I lay back down, wanting nothing more than to wiggle in close to Ethan and go back to sleep.
But then I remember something—not from my childhood, but from a few days ago. It’s still just as jarring.
The night Ethan was out of town, the night I heard…something…we saw a dark shadow on the doorbell camera footage. It looked like a deer, but it was too big[ I’ll change this to make sure it fits with the previous text ]. We chalked it up to the grainy camera footage, but what it if wasn’t a deer at all?
What if I saw the shadow of Aunt Estelle’s familiar? And if I did, it makes me wonder—what happens to a familiar when their witch dies?
CHAPTER 13
I scoop another spoonful of bruschetta onto a piece of bread, laughing so hard I almost drop my bread.
“It was so bad,” Rene says, nearly wheezing with laughter. “I still don’t know if it was the taco or the street corn, but pair either with drinking beer on a hot as fuck day and I should have known it was a recipe for disaster.”
“I want to say I wish I was there to see it, but I’m glad I wasn’t there at the same time.”
Rene shakes her head, reaching for her glass of iced tea. “Be glad you weren’t. My sister is never going to let me live this down and she busts out the video she took any chance she gets.”
“That’s something I would do, and I do have several incriminating videos of my brother that I’m saving for a rainy day. You never know when you might need to blackmail a sibling.”
Hunter, who’s lounging on the floor next to us, jumps up and lets out a soft woof. He lets me know that Sam is here, having just parked in the driveway. He recognizes her energy, but the person with her is unfamiliar.
“Speaking of siblings,” I say and get up. “Ethan’s sister is here. She doesn’t really like me,” I add, making a face.
“Ohhh, I’m here for the drama. But why doesn’t she like you?”
“No real reason,” I start, though me being a witch has something to do with it. “She’s overprotective and doesn’t think I’m good enough for her brother, that’s all.”
“Ah, classic older sister.”
“She’s younger.” I shrug. “It doesn’t really bother me and, really, I appreciate her caring about Ethan since I do too.”
“Definitely. I suppose it could be worse.”
“Right? I haven’t seen her since Thanksgiving so maybe she’s mellowed with time.” I make a face and turn my head to the hall. “Ethan,” I call. “Sam’s here!”
