Sia (Naughty Witches Book 3) Read online

  “Fair enough.” He cleared his throat. “I would prefer to bring the computer to you so I’m close enough to ask questions as I need it.”

  I glanced at him, not getting a good read on him as he was a ball of everything when I checked his aura.

  I nodded. “Sure, it’s not like it’s far. No peeking at what I’m doing though.”

  He snorted. “I’m a half-blood male. I’m of no use.”

  I clicked my tongue as I set the mop to dry.

  I went over to him and tapped his nose. “Now that’s just not true. I’ve already found a few ways you’re useful. And witch blood doesn’t dilute, so whoever talks to you like that can stuff their shit.”

  I kept walking to handle my mess on the island next. He didn’t say anything as he watched.

  “What time tomorrow?”

  “Saturday is difficult because there’s a lot of coming and going, especially with the extra help I hired to try and make up what I lost. You should check everything out for the next few days if you’re going to be the one in charge of protecting it all.”

  I bit back a chuckle when he nodded, not hiding his confusion. I would bet Meave hadn’t told him everything he was getting into.

  Fun times.

  I showed him out and had just enough time to catch a shower before my “date” showed up.

  I opened the door in a tiny robe, leaning against the frame with a smile. “Here’s my Friday night guy.”

  Travis chuckled, leaning in and giving me a soft kiss. “I love you call me that. I brought a friend.”

  I frowned but let them in. “Will this one behave better than the last one?”

  “Yes, I promise, and I brought extra trays,” he told me, holding up the catering trays.

  “Travis, that makes it sound like you get sex for food,” I drawled, closing the door behind him. “We have sex for fun and—”

  “I know, of course. I brought extra dessert because I like being your Friday night guy and I’m sweet on you.”

  “That’s a good line,” I admitted, following them to the kitchen. “So why the extra trays?”

  “I got an extra catering job they’re going to pick up if I can swing it but I need more ingredients. Can you handle that?”

  “Yes,” I immediately answered.

  The deal I had with Travis was not only profitable but kept me fed, so he could have whatever he needed. He owned a ridiculously popular Italian restaurant in Omaha and had the best food.

  “I’ve got a lot on my plate though, so make sure they behave.”

  “I will. You’re such a doll,” he sighed as he set down the trays, opening the fridge for his friend, who loaded them up.

  I looked at the friend suspiciously. “So you know the deal?”

  “I wanted to surprise him but I promise, he’s a nice guy,” Travis explained when I sighed. “He’s just visiting through Christmas. I talked him into it because he got divorced this year.”

  “Your fault?” I checked, glad when he shook his head. “No cheating?”

  He frowned. “No, I’m not sure why she left me really. She just announced life was boring one day and handed me divorce papers. My attorney said it sounded like a midlife crisis.”

  “But now he’s having one too,” Travis added; he smiled when I shivered. “That’s Sia’s specialty.”

  “More like a kink and fetish,” I purred, going over to his friend, who still looked confused. “I have a thing for men coming off a divorce who need help getting back in the game. Have you noticed Travis’s confidence and overall mood is better since his divorce last year?”

  “Yeah, he said he found an angel to help him through it. I thought he meant a therapist.”

  “I’ve been called that a few times, but it’s more sexual therapy,” I said against his lips. “Want to see if you’re ready to get back in the game and ride me hard?”

  “Fuck yes, you are gorgeous,” he muttered, moving his arms around me. “I never thought I’d have a chance with someone as young as you.”

  “Age is just a number,” I purred, knowing I was over double his fifty years but looked only thirty. “I have rules that Travis’s last friend broke. I don’t give head, and a threesome does not mean porn, so respect me or I beat your ass.

  “Know this is play and don’t get ideas on keeping me. And you do not run your mouth about what happens here as it’s private and so am I. I keep all my play to one room and I use my condoms so I know no one’s fucked with them. Do you agree to my rules and play with me?”

  “Yes, of course, yes, whatever you want.”

  “Then let the games begin,” I giggled, giving him a soft kiss before leading them to my guest room.

  I only played in that room because I didn’t want anything magical in my bedroom. I had the whole room marked with circles and wards that were hidden or blended so no one noted.

  The condoms were spelled as well, so every ounce of life, juices, and seed went to the greenhouses and totems for use later.

  Plus a little something extra if they jacked off thinking of me once they wore them. That added to my magic too as an offering to Gaia, as they agreed to my rules and play even if they didn’t understand the full thing.

  It didn’t hurt them. It didn’t even take energy. It was an offering of life, love, and light, not blood magic.

  Besides, it was the least I deserved if they were using me for their spank bank and I did so much for them. It wasn’t just raising their esteem after life ran them over, but Travis had needed a lot of help in the bedroom.

  Like a lot. The man hadn’t been able to find my orgasm with two hands and flashlight when we’d met and now he could please any woman anytime, anywhere.

  And liked practicing on me.

  After a lesson in oral sex, Travis showed him how my lessons paid off like an apt student, and then I rocked their worlds until they were completely spent.

  “It was nice meeting you,” I said as they were leaving, not even having caught the friend’s name.

  “I wish I was staying longer,” he grumbled, giving me another kiss. “This was everything.”

  “You’re a good student. Keep learning and I promise you’ll have someone in your bed much better than your wife, as you deserve more than the way she treated you.”

  “Thanks, Sia,” he whispered, wiping his eyes as he turned away and headed for Travis’s truck.

  “I knew you would help him,” Travis praised, giving me a deeper kiss. “Just like you helped me. I think next year I might try dating for real.”

  I beamed at him. “Good for you! I want that for you.” I gave him a wink. “Though I’m not sure anyone could take your place as my Friday night guy.”

  “You don’t want real.”

  “I don’t, I’m sorry. We all have our own issues and for now, that’s mine.”

  “I get it. Be safe, doll. We’re all worried about the store again.”

  “A friend sent me her security specialist guy and he’s going to keep me safe, I guess.”

  “Good, you’re too important to too many of us to risk.”

  I said goodbye and went inside to eat dinner, smiling at what he told me. He really believed that and it meant a lot to me.

  Too many acted like witches were parasites who fed off life, but we were supposed to help life flourish with our magic. I felt like I was doing a good job if people cared about me and what I did.

  And I thought that deserved a second piece of the awesome tiramisu Travis had brought. Especially since I had hours of work ahead of me still.

  2

  Deon

  The woman was a ditz. I hated flippant people who didn’t take things seriously and blew off how scary the world was… And yet she had made me feel things I never had before.

  Her body was—fuck, I would never forget how she felt wrapped around me. It was like she knew I always had a fantasy to have a porn-type tryst during a job and gave it to me with that comedy of errors.

  She was hauntingly breathta
king with that thick blonde hair of all kinds of shades that almost reached her ass in the braid she’d worn. Her eyes were an unforgettable mint green that shined brightly with whatever she was feeling.

  She was small, which always made me nervous. Maybe five-four and just short compared to me.

  And yet she had huge tits and a booty my hands itched to hold again. I hadn’t even seen her breasts and somehow I just knew they were perfect. Her whole body had to be perfect given how she’d felt.

  I hadn’t even kissed her and all I could think about was her. Women didn’t affect me like that, and certainly not ones I wanted to smack some sense into.

  Not that I’d ever strike a woman… Well, maybe spank them but for fun, not to hurt them.

  The point was she wasn’t my type, and yet I was up and ready for anything she threw at me next if I got to see her. I was in work clothes like she said—not that I understood it but I was—and at her house at half past six in the fucking morning on a Saturday.

  Was she fucking with me?

  She wouldn’t have been the first witch and I didn’t even include my family in that.

  No, if she was friends with Meave, she had to be good people, or at least worth helping. Meave had made it clear she was worried and scared for Sia and that her friend was in over her head.

  It stirred up protective feelings in me somehow and normally I didn’t feel anything about work.

  Or most people really.

  But here I was in Omaha of all places, using someone’s condo Meave knew while they spent the winter in Florida, taking a job to keep a ditz safe, and probably from herself.

  The front door to her mansion opened before I even reached the porch.

  “I figured you’d be an on time kind of guy with the vibe you’ve got going on.”

  She wasn’t wrong, and I wasn’t sure what to say to that so I kept quiet, noting she looked exhausted. I opened my mouth to ask if she was okay or slept and chastised myself for getting personal no matter what had happened yesterday.

  It was best to forget it had happened and just focus on the job.

  I could handle that, sure.

  She walked towards an electric ATV with a utility bed that I hadn’t seen yesterday and handed me her thermos of what I assumed to be coffee as she got behind the wheel. I didn’t ask as I got on, curious as to why she needed an ATV to go to the shed or whatever she had as her “brew house.”

  I frowned as we drove around the house and I didn’t see anything but the farm behind her place. She followed a snow-covered path that had lots of tracks on it and we drove onto the farm.

  What the heck?

  No way this was all hers, right? She had a little local bath shop or something.

  She let out a huge yawn as she stopped by another gate.

  “That’s the back gate for employees, volunteers, and deliveries. Same thing, no one can get in if they have ill intent. It won’t work and this one notifies my phone if anyone tries to come in. The security company who set it all up and monitors it also locks it down overnight. It’s accessible only from seven to six unless I change it.”

  “How do you change it?” I asked, realizing there was a lot more going on than I first guessed and that was why Meave said it was a detailed and long job.

  “I have no fucking clue,” she admitted with a shrug and hit the gas. She gestured to the large commercial warehouse on her left as we drove by it. “That’s the brew house. Today we’re starting at the greenhouses.”

  “That’s your brew house?” I asked, craning my neck to get a better view as we moved away from it.

  It was at least ten thousand square feet and I would guess a lot more.

  “Yup,” she chirped, popping the P in a cute way that let me know she was amused, probably having guessed I didn’t know the full deal. “I own just over three hundred acres.

  “Well, here. I also own a wind farm a bit north of here to make up for all the energy I consume. There are about ten acres of solar panels here too, and even if it’s freezing and snow, there’s normally sun.”

  “They get energy even if it’s overcast as long as it’s not completely dark,” I muttered.

  “They do,” she agreed. “Do you know Briony?”

  “No, Meave’s mentioned her but we’ve not met.”

  She nodded as she took her foot off the gas to coast to a stop. “It was a guy she knew that set up the solar panels. She helped me buy and handle the wind farm. I get a bit lost in my head with potions and that type of magic, so I’m not the best with details and I already have a lot of them. The guy who manages it is like you.”

  “Oh, that’s an open statement.”

  She chuckled as she set the brake and turned it off. “I haven’t had my coffee yet. I didn’t mean it that way. He’s got a human mother and his father was born of witch bloodlines and so his family doesn’t count him as useful or worth anything. Family betrayal sucks, but count yourself lucky you don’t have value to assholes. It’s so much worse if you do.”

  “You speak from experience?” I guessed.

  “Yeah, I do,” she answered, her tone making it clear to let it go so I did. She took her coffee from me and unlocked the door, which I opened for her. “Over a hundred acres are greenhouses. The extra tall ones are for trees, mostly dwarf trees, but some don’t get all that tall anyways with the way we trim them.”

  I glanced at where she pointed when she turned, noting there was a shimmer on the doorframe. I might not have any magic but I could see and sense magic as one born from a magical bloodline.

  “The doors are all spelled with a potion of mine, just to warn you if you see someone who suddenly glows purple. It’s a protection spell from stealing. The deal I have with several restaurants and businesses is simple—one to five. They can have access to my greenhouses and super fresh and awesome everything if they have people who know what they’re doing and pick it themselves.

  “But they also have to pay those people to pick for me. So say the Italian restaurant I have a deal with needs a pound of tomatoes. Fine, they also have to pick five for me. If I don’t need tomatoes, they pick something comparable in weight, because if they pick a pound of tomatoes it’s not fair for them to harvest five pounds of basil.

  “I also allow for their private use but same deal. I’m always on site to watch the madness but if someone tries to sneak out extras or doesn’t do what they should they flare up like Barney-size purple. It helps keep a limit and it’s not hard to bust them. There are cameras all around but they’re not recording anywhere. It just gives an answer to how I bust people.”

  “That sounds like a lot to manage,” I muttered, thinking she was making her life way more difficult than it needed to be.

  Maybe what she needed was help managing and streamlining her life and business?

  “Yup, it is,” she agreed as we walked back to the ATV. Next, she drove us to several large warehouses that she unlocked before letting us into one. “These are the vertical farms with LED lights. The system is mostly automated other than laying out more seeds and harvesting. I let the university have access for some research, but they don’t have the full everything.

  “That would be a disaster and I worked with the company instead of the system checking everything always and keeping those records. They check four times a day and adjust nutrients accordingly. My reasoning was energy efficiency, but it worked with them. What they don’t get is my proprietary blend of nutrients that make my output so crazy, but believe me, lots have tried.

  “So that’s a security thing too, but the people on the project come twice a week and sometimes I let them hold agricultural lectures here. Engineering too as this is a multimillion-dollar system. I don’t need as much lettuce as I grow but it helps my deal with the restaurants and helps get other part-time people in. I have only part-timers work for me and they’re mostly cross-trained.”

  “You realize that makes things infinitely more confusing and difficult for you, right?” I asked, flo
ored she’d turned her business into a circus. “Just hire a team like real greenhouses and companies.”

  She slowly turned and blinked at me before studying me. “Meave said you tested like a genius or something, right?” She waited until I nodded, not getting the change in topic. She handed me her thermos again. “Do you need coffee?”

  “Yes, but what does that matter?” I asked.

  She smirked at me. “So in your mind I’m an idiot who makes her life difficult and does this complicated dance because she sucks at business?” She didn’t seem surprised I didn’t answer but she threw back her head and laughed. “Okay, well, wait for it. Hopefully you’re not the idiot and figure it out.”

  She kept walking and showing me more, like she really wasn’t going to explain.

  We got back on the ATV and went to other greenhouses. This time the vertical farming wasn’t huge racks and shelves full of trays and lights, but vine plants that were growing up for efficiency and trellises with strings and clips.

  “I don’t allow just anyone to prune, as bad pruning can limit the growth or kill it fast,” she explained as we walked down the main aisle that broke off to rows on either side. “I also have deals with a few high schools that they get produce from me for their lunches and salad bars, but I get volunteers who get some educational and volunteer credit which is good for college.”

  I got frustrated when she shot me another amused glance when I didn’t answer, assuming I was still missing something. And clearly I was.

  I understood she was trying to help a lot of people as she helped herself, but there were other, more efficient ways. She had so much going on and all those greenhouses full of everything ready to be harvested, so clearly she didn’t even have all the help she needed.

  She sighed and stopped. “Look, as much fun as it is teasing you, my managers are going to be here soon. And if you’re really going to help me, you need to stop looking at me like I’m an idiot. You do know how LLL witches work, right? Or that I am a witch and have magic?”