Kiss and Spell (11 Valentine's Day Paranormal Short Stories) Read online

  “So… it doesn’t make people fall in love?” Beau asked.

  “No, it just heightens what’s already there,” Miss Elva said.

  They both froze and stared at each other in shock for a moment.

  “Bless your heart. You’re not telling me Theodore’s got a crush on you, Miss Elva, are you?” Beau asked, calmly wiping the bar top as they both fought to keep the giggles from erupting.

  “I wouldn’t dream of telling you that, child. Though I can’t deny what I just saw,” Miss Elva gasped, biting her lips to keep her laughter contained.

  “My, my, are we going to have some gossip to talk about tomorrow,” Beau said.

  “I need to reverse it. I just need a minute to figure out what to do.”

  “In the meantime, can we address the fact that both Althea and Trace have disappeared?”

  Miss Elva turned, gasping as she saw the blonde girl wrapped around a tall dark-skinned man in board shorts.

  Beau was right. Althea and Trace had disappeared.

  Chapter Six

  Althea

  “Trace, where are you taking me?” Althea giggled as Trace grabbed her hand and pulled her from the Tiki Bar.

  The humid night air brushed at her skin and Althea felt a warm buzz press at her mind, easing her into a really relaxed state of mind. Enjoying the feel of Trace’s hand in hers, she hummed a little tune to herself as they left the Tiki Bar and detoured down to the beach.

  “I needed to get out of there,” Trace mumbled, his palm rough against hers.

  “What about what’s her name?” Althea asked, deliberately ignoring the fact that she knew the name of Trace’s girlfriend.

  “Didn’t seem like she was all that interested in me tonight. Speaking of – where’s Cash?”

  “I don’t know. Miami, maybe,” Althea shrugged.

  “I’m surprised he’s not down here taking you out to a nice dinner for Valentine’s Day. For all the talk that guy has, you’d think he’d have the walk too. Is he all flash then?”

  Althea opened her mouth to immediately defend Cash, but then paused. Cash – a dead ringer for Channing Tatum as far as Althea was concerned – did have a lot of flash. And a lot of money. And a lot of…everything. He was the type of dream guy she’d never thought would be interested in a tattooed psychic such as herself. In fact, the blonde that Trace was with was more Cash’s type. Yet Cash had been kind to her, had wooed her, and had done things to her in the bedroom that were surely illegal in some states. But he was gone now – and she wasn’t sure if he was coming back.

  “He’s a good guy. But I just don’t think we’re a good fit. Our lifestyles aren’t conducive to dating long-term,” Althea enunciated carefully – repeating the words Cash had said to her, sadness lacing his grey eyes.

  “Conducive? Isn’t that more of a business term?” Trace laughed and shook his head as they reached the path that wound along the water towards the wharf. The wind had kicked up a bit and the water crashed against the rocks.

  “He thinks I live too dangerous a lifestyle, and he doesn’t want to be always worrying about me,” Althea said, looking up at the moon suspended in the blue velvet of the sky, a smattering of stars winking down at them.

  “What? Reading tarot cards is dangerous?” Trace asked as they began to walk towards the wharf where his dive boat was docked. Althea felt a low hum of – something – begin to thrum in her blood.

  “Apparently I meet with a lot of nefarious individuals and – being the person that I am – can’t keep from intervening, helping, or trying to stop various people in their tracks,” Althea shrugged. “I can’t necessarily blame him. Not after the treasure hunt situation.”

  Trace blew out a breath and nodded once. “I’ll give him that one. That was bad.”

  “How many times does he have to hear about his girlfriend almost dying before he walks away from all that stress? He has enough stress with running security on all his clubs and whatever the hell else he’s invested in.” Althea caught herself as anger began to build in her voice.

  “Might I remind you who has been at your side through most of the sticky situations you’ve found yourself in?” Trace asked, bumping her shoulder lightly as they turned to walk down the floating dock towards Trace’s dive boat.

  It was weird – Althea felt like she was having an out of body experience. They were all but floating towards Trace’s dive boat, knowing exactly where they were going and what they were about to get into.

  And Althea was doing nothing to stop it.

  She wondered if she was drunk, or just angry that another Valentine’s Day had come around and there was no one at her door with flowers. She turned to look at Trace in the soft light of the moon. Screw it all, Althea thought.

  And maybe even Trace.

  Chapter Seven

  “Thea?” Trace breathed, her name on his lips much more than a question. Althea felt a delicious little shiver go through her at the thought of wrapping herself around Trace.

  It was almost inevitable really. They’d danced around each other for months now, though Trace had been keeping his distance since Cash had come into the picture. But with weekly scuba dives together, they were constantly in contact – half-clothed contact, at that. It wasn’t like their chemistry had had any time to cool off. If anything, the “look and don’t touch” policy had escalated their needs.

  And boy, was Althea needy right now.

  She slipped off her sandals and stepped onto the bow of Trace’s dive boat. Keeping her eyes trained on his, she reached for the zipper of her dress and pulled it down, removing the dress and tossing it on the bow of the boat.

  Althea stood in just a thong and no bra, her skin feeling like it was on fire with need. She desperately wanted Trace to touch her. Anywhere. Everywhere.

  “Sweet baby Jesus, I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Trace breathed, stepping onto the boat to stand in front of Althea.

  “I want you to touch me,” Althea said evenly, her chin up, daring Trace to refuse her.

  Trace’s hands wrapped around her waist immediately, pulling her closer until she brushed against his chest, his touch making her shiver in desire. The boat rocked gently in the water, and they could just barely make out the music from the tiki bar. But the dock was quiet – which left her and Trace, with only the moon above as witness.

  “I can’t stop thinking about you,” Trace said, his eyes but a glint in the darkness as he looked down at her.

  “I really need you to touch me. Like yesterday,” Althea breathed. It was true, too. Her usually strong self-control seemed to have slipped away with the two drinks she’d had, and now she wanted Trace more badly than she’d wanted the glazed donut she had hunted down this morning in a funk.

  Her funk was long gone – and as Trace’s fingers dug into her somewhat ample waistline, Althea could have kicked herself for eating that donut.

  “I know I’m not a skinny girl like blondie,” Althea began, and Trace’s lips cut her off.

  Oh, but they tasted good. Like honey-drenched sin – and his kiss promised so much more. Lazily, he explored her mouth, while his hands stroked her back, her sides, and just trailed lightly over the sides of her breasts. In typical Trace fashion, he took things at his own pace. It was like being consumed by fire an inch at a time.

  Althea gasped into his mouth, wanting more, all the nerve endings in her body tingling, as Trace pulled her tight and lowered them to the flat front of the boat. The cool fiberglass of the boat made her shiver for a moment but Trace’s hands were on her skin, immediately warming where she touched the boat, rolling until she lay on top of him.

  “I’ve dreamed of this – of you – countless nights. In the water. Watching you shimmy into a wetsuit. Anywhere. Everywhere.” Trace breathed, running his hands over her waist to cup her breasts. Althea gasped at his touch, so enamored, so taken over by emotion that she couldn’t even speak.

  Instead she kissed him, pouring everything she had into it.


  Losing herself in his touch, the boat rocking gently beneath them, Althea drowned herself in the pull that was Trace.

  Chapter Eight

  “Rafe!” Miss Elva screeched as she surveyed the bar.

  It was a madhouse.

  People were wrapped around each other in various stages of undress, while some had given up and just lowered themselves to the floor. Beau moved around the room, pulling people apart, admonishing them about their public behavior. But for every couple he separated, another turned to each other.

  He looked over his shoulder helplessly at Miss Elva.

  “Do something!”

  She caught a glimpse of the ghost peeking through the door to the patio.

  “Rafe, get in here this instant!” Miss Elva demanded and the ghost fluttered over to her, his chin up defiantly.

  “Oh? Now you want to talk to me?”

  “Rafe – you have something to tell me, don’t you?” Miss Elva asked, her hands on her hips.

  “Maybe I do,” Rafe conceded.

  “Did you pour the love potion in the punch?”

  “Maybe I did,” Rafe said again.

  “And what in all that is holy made you think that would be a smart thing to do?” Miss Elva’s voice had gone deadly calm.

  “I don’t know why you want to fall in love with someone else,” Rafe said stiffly, his eyes averted from Miss Elva’s face.

  “Fall in love with someone…” Miss Elva’s voice trailed off as she realized what had happened. “Rafe, the love potion wasn’t for me. It was for one of my clients. I was supposed to drop it off for them after the party.”

  Rafe’s gaze met hers.

  “You were?” His voice sounded melancholy and yet hopeful, and Miss Elva’s heart broke a little.

  “Yes, sweetcakes. You know I love my Rafe,” Miss Elva said sternly. “Though we’ve discussed that there may be a time where a suitor enters my world, and you’ll have to learn to share. There’s too much Miss Elva for just one man, you know.”

  “But, my lovemountain, I thought I was your man,” Rafe said.

  “You’re my main ghost. None better than you and I absolutely adore you. But, now, cast your mind back to when you were flesh and bone. You know I have needs, just like you did. Sometimes I’ll be with another man. But I promise to warn you far in advance so you can go visit Althea or Luna. Is that a deal?”

  Rafe considered her words and – though an angry look flashed across his face when Miss Elva mentioned being with another man – finally nodded his agreement.

  “Now, enough of that, Rafe honey. We’ve got to fix all these people,” Miss Elva said, surveying the mess around them.

  “What does the potion do?”

  “Increases your lust – basically amps up any feelings that were already there.” Miss Elva pursed her lips as she studied the room. She’d need to work some major magick here tonight. And damn if this wasn’t the one night that Luna, a very powerful white witch, was off with her boyfriend.

  “Oh boy,” Rafe breathed.

  “Yes. Understatement of the year. You’ve certainly created chaos here. I need to write down a spell,” Miss Elva murmured, grabbing her purse and pulling out various jars and tubes. Miss Elva’s purse was legendary around town, and it wasn’t often that she was caught without what she needed. Her head shot up.

  “Rafe!”

  “Yes, my lovemountain?”

  “You have to go find Althea and Trace. They disappeared and I’m not sure they are ready for what this potion is going to bring out in them.”

  Rafe considered her words as he hovered over the bar, the song ‘Love Hurts’ wailing in the background.

  “Wouldn’t that be a good thing, though? Since the potion only heightens what’s already there?”

  “Rafe, please. You can’t go around acting on every instinct you have. Otherwise society would be like this,” Miss Elva said as she swept her arm out, indicating the couples grappling with each other across the bar. “There’s a reason we have restraint and self-control.”

  “Well, in my day, we just did what we wanted. Took what we wanted…” Rafe smiled as he began to reminisce.

  “And that’s why being a pirate is outlawed. Now go,” Miss Elva all but shouted and Rafe snapped to attention.

  “I’m off to serve your command, my love.”

  “And I’ve got to come up with a damn remedy before the Chief of Police walks in here and thinks we’re about to shoot a porn,” Miss Elva exclaimed as she lined her jars up on the bar.

  “Beau! Get a bowl or pan. Copper preferably.”

  Chapter Nine

  Althea

  “Oh god, Trace, that feels so good,” Althea moaned as Trace nuzzled her neck, his stubble scratching lightly against a sensitive spot. She trembled in his arms, overwhelmed with the need that pulsed through her for him.

  And wanting to urge him to move faster.

  Trace was achingly slow in his seduction – every move calculated, no inch of skin untouched. He’d already brought Althea to the brink and over, and he’d yet to even go near her ladybits. If his foreplay was any indication of what he was going to be like as a lover, Althea was a goner.

  Everything was centered in this moment – in his touch – in the way the boat rocked subtly, seeming to encourage them on.

  “Stop it this instant!”

  Althea jerked away at the screech and looked around in confusion.

  “What’s wrong?” Trace asked, reaching up to run his hand down her back, trailing heat in its wake.

  “Um,” Althea said, her eyes trained on Rafe where he hovered over the helm of the boat, an ethereal glow outlining his shape. She knew Trace couldn’t see or hear the ghost.

  “Stop it. You’ve been poisoned. Stop this fornicating,” Rafe demanded, buzzing around her head angrily.

  “We aren’t fornicating. Yet,” Althea said immediately and Trace shifted beneath her.

  “Uh, Thea, who are you talking to? And I thought we were doing a good job of moving our way towards the fornicating part,” Trace said, burying his face in her neck again. Althea sighed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him close for just a moment before pushing him back from her. Though she still sat in his lap, distance was necessary.

  “Rafe, Miss Elva’s pirate ghost.”

  “Naturally,” Trace grumbled, used to Miss Elva and her peculiarities. Score one point for Trace, Althea thought. Magickal stuff didn’t faze him in the slightest. Though, to be fair, she had to admit Cash took much of her magick stuff in stride. As she considered that point, she realized she’d skipped past what Rafe had just said.

  “Wait, did you say we’ve been poisoned?”

  “Well, potioned, more like it. A love potion, to be precise. It, uh, may have gotten dumped into the sangria,” Rafe pursed his lips and looked around – not a care in the world on that one.

  “And I don’t suppose you know how it got into the sangria?” Althea asked.

  Rafe whistled and looked over his shoulder.

  “What got into the sangria?” Trace asked from beneath her, which was when Althea remembered she was naked from the waist up. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she reached over and grabbed her dress and glared at Rafe. He had a particular knack for showing up when Althea was naked.

  “Turn around while I dress. And tell me more about this potion.”

  “Potion?” Trace asked, running a hand through hair that had come loose from the tie at his neck.

  “Rafe poured a love potion in the sangria. Obviously this is the result,” Althea snapped, dragging the dress over her head and missing the disappointment that flashed across Trace’s face.

  “Well, I say let’s ride it out,” Trace argued.

  “It’s not like we’re tripping on mushrooms or something, Trace. You don’t ride out a potion. You need an elixir to fix it,” Althea said pointedly.

  “What does this potion do exactly?”

  “Yeah, Rafe? What does this potion
do?” Althea asked as she tugged the dress down to cover her butt. Pulling it to her thighs would require standing up, away from Trace, and she was finding that particular feat to be a little difficult at the moment. Even knowing she’d been drugged, her body still craved his touch.

  “It amplifies your feelings – what’s already there. It doesn’t force anyone to fall in love with you or anything.” There was a defensive note to Rafe’s voice.

  Althea froze.

  If what Rafe was saying was true – that meant she and Trace really had wanted to get down and dirty on the boat tonight. If she told Trace what the potion did, there was no way he was letting her off the boat.

  Her thoughts drifted to Cash. Though he’d hurt her very recently, they hadn’t exactly called things off either. It was sort of at an impasse at the moment. And if they hadn’t really called things off – would she be angry at Cash if he was wrapped around some girl on a boat up in Miami?

  “Damn it. Sometimes I really hate having a conscience,” Althea muttered and stood up from where she straddled Trace’s lap. Padding across the bow, she jumped onto the floating dock and slipped her sandals on.

  “Althea. Ignore the ghost. This is me,” Trace said, realizing he was losing her. Althea closed her eyes for a second, then turned back to look at Trace – one of her best friends – and shook her head at him.

  “This isn’t right. You’re still with your girl. Things are… murky with me and Cash. It’s just… this isn’t right. We both know it. That’s probably why it felt so good, too,” Althea said with a shrug, smiling at him to soften her words.

  Trace scrambled up and jumped onto the dock to stand in front of her.

  “Althea, I’ve known being with you would feel good for a long time now. It’s you who’s been ignoring it,” Trace said softly, running one finger down her cheek and over her bottom lip.

  Althea felt her stomach flip at his touch and she closed her eyes, willing herself to take a step back from him – from the promise that was in his touch.