Witch Aria Prescott has never forgotten the one man who accepted her just as she is: Declan Steele. Nor has she completely forgiven the vampire for ending things between them without explanation. But when Declan turns up back in town, Aria can’t deny she lusts after him—and his new lover, sexy werewolf shifter Adam Patel.

When the two alphas invite her to join them for the night, Aria gives in to the temptation of a no-strings erotic adventure. After all, she wouldn’t be foolish enough to fall for Declan all over again, not when he belongs to another...

Some Like It Wicked

Lauren Hawkeye

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Copyright

Prologue

Aria’s irritation was a tangible thing as she entered Belladonna, the apothecary that she owned and ran with her twin sister Lorelai. The heat of the paper cups in her hands scalded her skin as the bell hanging above the door jingled merrily.

“What’s wrong?” Her sister’s voice was immediately colored with concern.

Though Aria was certain that not all twins were like Lorelai and herself, the fact remained that they had always been acutely attuned to one another’s moods and thoughts. And no matter how much Aria wasn’t in the mood to talk about it, today was no different.

She tried to school her face into nonchalance as she set the cup of Lorelai’s orange blossom tea and her own triple-shot latte on the counter. From the expression on her sister’s face, she suspected that the effect wasn’t quite what she’d hoped for.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Denying that she was upset was useless around the woman with whom she’d shared a womb. Lorelai might have been sweeter and softer than Aria, but she could be ruthless when she wanted something. “It’s nothing new, anyway.”

Hoping to change the subject, Aria nodded to the dried chamomile and lavender, the fresh sprigs of rosemary and spearmint. “Are you making more salve?” Wandering to the back room where they prepared their concoctions, Aria inhaled the aroma into her lungs, hoping the familiar scents would relax her a bit.

With the herbal smell, she caught an edge of something else—that burnt sugar smell of magic.

Turning, she raised an eyebrow at her sister. Though Belladonna did indeed provide magical services to those who knew to ask, they never added anything extra to the stock on their shelves.

“Mr. Garrison was in. His arthritis has been bothering him with all of the rain we’ve been having. He asked if there was anything else I could add to the salve to help.”

Aria watched as, flushed, Lorelai spooned the warm salve from the pot into a small tin. Though humans wouldn’t have been able to see it, Aria saw the faint blue glow emanating from her sister’s fingers as she added one final charge of magic to the salve.

“There.” Nodding, Lorelai set the tin aside to cool, then turned back to Aria. “Now. What’s going on?”

“I already told you, I don’t want to talk about it. Don’t be nosy.” Crossing her arms defensively over her chest, Aria tried to glower at her sister. Lorelai simply tapped her foot on the floor with impatience.

“I’m waiting.”

“Fine.” Scowling, Aria raked a hand through the sleek strands of her glossy chestnut hair. It swung back around her chin as if she’d never touched it.

Wondering how to phrase it, she opened her mouth, then closed it again. Wetting her mouth with another sip of coffee, she finally blurted it out.

“I haven’t had sex in almost a year.”

Lorelai’s expression didn’t change as Aria spoke, but Aria thought she caught the faintest flicker in her sister’s eyes.

“I see,” Lorelai spoke slowly, as if she didn’t really see at all. “Uh... I’m sorry?”

Aria couldn’t help but quirk the corners of her lips up in a smirk. “I’m just setting the stage here. Anyway, you know I have a hard time with the men in town.” Her smirk faded as she thought further.

Surely there was one man out there—just one—who wouldn’t be scared of her. It wasn’t as if she was a gorgon, or anything. And any idiot with half a brain knew that a witch was probably a safer bet than a human, bound by the threefold rule—any harm done would be revisited upon herself times three.

And there had been one man—one vampire, to be exact. But Declan Steele, her vampire lover, was long gone, and it was her own damn fault.

She shook her head to clear it of the thought. The past was the past. She just needed a man with enough balls to get her naked, scratch this itch and let her go back to normal life.

“Continue.” Aria was pleased to hear the frost that had entered her sister’s tone, irritation on her behalf. Still, she knew that Lorelai didn’t understand, not fully. They were twins, they made no secret of their magical heritage and they were co-owners of Belladonna, but Lorelai didn’t have quite the same troubles with the locals as Aria did.

Her sister was sweet of nature where Aria was fiery. Lorelai liked to please people, and Aria could not have cared less. Her sister even had the golden good looks of an angel, while Aria frequently changed her hair color and style. She also preferred torn denim, red lipstick and her ancient leather jacket to her twin’s floaty skirts and cardigans.

In other words, she scared the hell out of most people and Lorelai didn’t. And Aria didn’t care, except when it came to sex and men.

“There was a new guy working the espresso machine. Super tall, blond, just a bit of scruff. You know who I’m talking about?”

Lorelai nodded enthusiastically, hitching herself up to sit beside her sister on the counter. “I do. Oh, I do.”

“Yeah. So.” Aria drained her coffee and hesitated. This part stung. “He was into me. I know he was into me. He asked me what I was doing later. Then he asked my name.”

“Uh-oh.” Lorelai bumped her shoulder against her sister’s, and Aria felt the warmth from the touch streak down her arm. It helped...a bit.

“Yeah. I can see the wheels turning. Ding ding ding, he’s flirting with the scary Prescott twin. The witch.” Aria crunched the paper cup in her palm, wishing she was doing it on the idiot’s head. “And this is the worst part. He ran away.”

“He what?” Lorelai turned and looked directly at Aria, disbelief painted over her face.

“You heard me. He ran away. Scurried into the back without another word.” Normally Aria tried to laugh these situations off, but this one had been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

She was hurt. Not because she wanted that guy, specifically, but because she wanted some damn companionship. If it came in the form of some hot, sweaty sex, then so much the better.

She was lonely, damn it. And that was something that she wasn’t going to admit, even to Lorelai.

She saw the sympathy registering on her sister’s face. She really didn’t want to hear it. Lorelai knew better than to give platitudes about how it would all get better, but she still tried to soothe her sister’s hurt.

Aria wanted to hold on to her irritation, illogical as it was.

“Anyway, I just came to bring you your tea, not to cry on your shoulder.” Swinging her legs, Aria lowered herself down off the counter. “If you leave the tins out to cool, I’ll set them out on the shelf in the morning.”

“Aria...” Aria held a hand up, her emerald-green eyes sparking at her sister as Lorelai spoke.

“Please, Lori. Not now.” Her sister knew her well enough not to take offense at her curt tone. “I’m going to head to Harry’s for a few drinks, I think, then head home. Alone, most likely, but at least I’ll have had some beer to soothe the pain.”

Before Lorelai could protest any further, Aria waved her goodbyes and pushed out of the glass door of Belladonna. Yes, she’d head to Harry’s Bar and Grill, have a burger and some beer. And if she headed home alone afterward, she figured she’d rather keep her own company than be stuck with someone as spineless as the idiot from the coffee shop.

* * *

Lorelai watched Aria leave with a pang in her heart. She knew that Aria thought she didn’t understand, but she knew what her sister was feeling better than she’d like to admit.

Lorelai had wanted to be a teacher—specifically, a kindergarten or elementary school teacher. But the way in which parents held their children tight when either she or Aria was around had told her early on that, unless she wanted to move somewhere else and hide her magic, she’d better settle for another career choice.

And while she tended to scare men off less than her outgoing sister, it didn’t mean that any of them stayed around. When push came to shove, no one wanted to marry a witch, no one wanted to have children with one.

Her desire for true love couldn’t be solved with a spell. But, she reflected as she locked the front door of Belladonna and turned the sign around, her independent sister’s desire for some temporary companionship could be.

“A lust spell.” Cocking her head to one side, Lorelai thought for a moment, letting her intentions come to her. After the picture was clear in her head, she began to gather her supplies—a fat red candle, jasmine oil, dried strawberries and vervain.

She wouldn’t try to draw love to her sister, because that would be attempting the impossible. Nor could she create lust where there was none. But men—lots of them—had a healthy amount of that emotion when it came to Aria. It was simply a matter of removing barriers—both Aria’s and the man’s.

This spell would make the attraction burn hot and bright between Aria and the next man that she saw and was attracted to.

Mixing the herbs and the oil together in a small wooden bowl, Lorelai furrowed her brow and, after a brief surge of energy crackled through the air, lit the red candle with her magic. She paused for a moment as she thought of how angry Aria would be if she found out, but she shook it off.

Her sister deserved to get what she wanted, just once. And maybe it would give her enough confidence that next time, she wouldn’t need a spell.

Nodding, Lorelai cast her circle and began to chant the words that came flowing to the front of her mind.

“Do what ye will, and it harm none.”

Chapter One

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Declan Steele shook his head, forcing himself out of the near trance he’d been in as he stared across the parking lot of Harry’s Bar and Grill. It had been years since he’d been back to Salem’s Hollow, and he wasn’t entirely sure why he was back now.

He didn’t speak as his lover handed him the ebony cane that he now had to use to walk. But he did study Adam’s face, the golden skin, the expressive eyes, wondering how he’d been lucky enough to wind up with someone so patient.

“I can’t explain it.” Declan frowned as he felt something prickle his cold skin—the merest whisper of something that didn’t belong on the breeze. His first taste of blood had come from a human with the ability to see things she shouldn’t have. Since then he’d often had premonitions that couldn’t be explained.

One of those had been dogging his heels for the last week, telling him to come back to the town he’d never thought he’d visit again.

“I suppose the question should be, are you okay with this?” Declan narrowed his eyes, watching his lover carefully. He had been with the werewolf for nearly two years, knew him as well as he knew anyone.

Adam knew—had always known—that a piece of Declan’s heart still belonged to someone else. To a woman.

To a witch.

Adam smiled, and Declan saw the strength that had attracted him in the first place. He’d always been drawn to those with cores of steel, those like Adam.

Like Aria.

“I’m not threatened by the little witch.” Adam raked fingers through his coal dark hair, smiling the sexy grin that made heat tighten in Declan’s gut. “You know me better than that.”

This was true, Declan realized, as he weighed the options for the final time. The supernatural creatures in the world had much more open ideas about sex and love than humans did. In the years since he’d turned, he’d been with men, with women, with other vampires, with werewolves. Adam felt the same, as had the woman who had once held his heart in her hands. But Declan had spent enough time among humans in the last few years, doing research for his report for the Council, that some of their uniquely human thoughts and feelings still clung to his skin like a mist.

“I don’t think I’ve been drawn back here just because of Aria,” Declan began, and as he spoke, he felt a tug in the direction of the bar. She was in there, he would have bet his long life on it. “Regardless, you have to know I still have feelings for her.”

Lots of feelings, ranging from throttling her pretty neck to thrusting between her creamy thighs.

Adam grinned at Declan, and Declan saw the whiteness of the wolf’s teeth flash in the artificial light of the parking lot.

“I’m looking forward to exploring those feelings. All of them.” Reaching out, Adam squeezed the fingers that Declan had clenched on his cane. There was more than just heat between them—there was caring, love.

Just as there had been with Aria, once.

Urgency worked its way into Declan’s gut as he searched the outside of the building, his eyesight keen as a hawk’s.

There was something else at play here, something besides Aria. Something that had drawn him here, and that the universe hadn’t seen fit to give him any clarity on yet.

But in the meantime, he might as well confront the little witch who had thrown him out of her life. The very air of the town seemed to pulse with her scent, and until he at least saw her, spoke with her, he wouldn’t be able to focus on much else.

Decision made, he jerked his chin in the direction of the bar. Adam’s eyes followed the movement.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

A pint glass of beer later, Aria was feeling a bit mellower. Who needed men, anyway? She had a credit card. She could buy a vibrator.

It would just be easier that way.

Lifting her glass to her lips, she drained the dregs of her drink and slid from her bar stool. She liked Harry’s, with its rickety tables, no nonsense menu and ancient jukebox that sat on the edge of a tiny dance floor underlain with horsehair. Harry never gave her any of the nonsense that so many people in the town did, but neither did he hit her up for magic.

“Thanks.” Nodding at the man in question, she slid a twenty-dollar bill across the bar. Her burger and beer wouldn’t come to more than ten, but she liked to leave a good tip when it was due.

She was shrugging back into her leather jacket when she felt tingles begin to dance across her skin. Casually—warily—she raised her head to look around the room.

She only felt that sensation when another supernatural being was around, and in the small town of Salem’s Hollow, Pennsylvania, she didn’t often come across one.

Her gaze was drawn across the room, to the tall, intimidating-looking man who stood just inside the door of the bar. There was no surprise on his face as the blaze of his bright blue eyes burned into her.

“Oh, hell no.” Aria prided herself on being tough and in control at all times. But as she looked into the eyes of Declan Steele, the man—the vampire—who had broken her heart, as she registered the heat that immediately crackled through her veins beneath his stare, she fought the urge to flee.

“Breathe, you idiot.” Shaking like a wet puppy, Aria noted the smirk that played around the corners of Declan’s eyes as she spoke and cursed herself internally. Damn vampires and their enhanced hearing, anyway.

Once she’d anticipated that he would hear things, see things about her that others wouldn’t. She’d fallen out of practice.

“Aria.”

Her breath caught in her throat as Declan began to move across the bar toward her. The music of the jukebox, the chatter of the other people around her all faded as, for one long, heart-throbbing moment the world around her ceased to exist. The air between them pulsed with a heat so tangible that it very nearly hurt her to look away.

She forced herself. Heat had never been a problem for them. It had been everything else.

“Declan. When did you get back to town?” Somewhat calmer, Aria took a deep breath and looked back at her former lover. He was as tall, dark and dangerous as ever, his licorice-black hair looking as though he’d just run his fingers through it, his eyes deep and blue. He was pale, as were all of his kind, but she noted the rosy flush on his cheeks that told her he had recently fed.

Jealousy was a blade in her belly as her hand lifted to the curve of her neck, the skin where he had once sipped from her.

Following the motion with his eyes, Declan cocked his head, taking her in.

“It’s good to see you, Aria.”

Instantly defensive, she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled.

“That’s...nice.” Her words were harsh, but truthfully, she didn’t know what else to say. Seeing him—a man who knew her better than she knew herself—was like a balm to her lonely soul.

Yes, he got to know you and then left. Even the snarky inner voice in her head couldn’t erase what Aria hated admitting even to herself.

You told him to go.

It was water under the bridge.

“Well, I was just leaving.” It wasn’t until she stepped back that Aria noticed that Declan was leaning on a cane. Her lips parted with surprise, and her eyes darted rapidly back up to his face.

“What the hell happened to you?” The cane didn’t diminish from the danger that Declan had always exuded. If anything, he made the polished stick of black wood look like a weapon capable of doing great harm, just by being in his hand.

But there wasn’t much that could permanently cripple a vampire.

“Silver. Nerve damage.” Something dark flitted across Declan’s face, but was gone just as quickly.

Aria hissed in a breath. She knew that silver was like kryptonite for vampires. When they’d been together, she’d made a point never to wear it.

She wanted to ask where he’d come into such brutal contact with it, and saw that he was expecting her to.

She swallowed the question. Five minutes in the man’s company and she wanted to pick up where they’d left off. Another five minutes and she’d be rubbing against him like an animal in heat.

“After I left, I worked for the Capitol for a while.” Declan’s words were flat, yet Aria saw a flash of anger in his eyes. The Capitol was the governing body for the supernatural creatures of the world. They left the creatures alone for the most part.

Unless they wanted something. Knowing about Declan’s precognition, it wasn’t hard to guess what they’d decided he’d be useful for.

“Let’s just say it was an occupational hazard.” His voice was wry, and took Aria straight into the past. He’d always been self-deprecating, and on his big, bad self she’d found it sexy as hell.

She still did. She’d had lovers since he’d left—human and supernatural, male and female. But none had ever made her passion burn as bright as the vampire had.

Declan made no attempt to hide his own blatant interest as his eyes slowly traveled up her body and then down. Her nipples puckered under his stare, and she felt heat gathering low in her belly.

“That’s a shame.” Damn it, her voice was breathless. What was wrong with her? She’d been feeling sexually deprived lately, sure, but this man had broken her heart.

Her traitorous hormones didn’t seem to care. They were flooding into her veins, reminding her of every reason she’d always found Declan so sexy.

Her lips were dry, and she licked her tongue over them for moisture.

Declan’s eyes followed the gesture, and she saw his expression darken.

“I wondered.” His voice was everything she remembered—dark, rich like chocolate. It sent shivers skating over her skin. “I wondered if it had all been a dream, what we felt for each other.”

Aria shuddered out a breath. She wanted him—no matter that he’d once left her, she still wanted him with an intensity that was frightening.

“The key word is felt.” Her voice was raw, and it physically hurt to step back, away from him. “Past tense. We were no good.”

“We were young.” Declan followed her, the thud of his cane sounding before his footfall. “But I never forgot you. Part of the reason I came back was you.”

“No.” Panic warred with delight in Aria’s gut.

“Let’s not overthink it.” With the hand not holding the cane, Declan reached out to touch Aria’s cheek, trailing his knuckles over her skin. A blaze of sensation followed in the wake of his touch. “Maybe this is what we both need.”

Aria closed her eyes, savoring his touch. Her body wanted nothing more than to shove Declan down on the top of Harry’s bar and have her wicked way with him.

What would it hurt, after all? She could scratch this itch with someone who knew her well enough to please her.

Only the palpitations of her heart reminded her that she might not survive him leaving a second time.

“No, Declan.”

The vampire’s eyes narrowed as, drawing her strength about her like a cloak, she pulled away from his touch. No matter what she felt in that moment, she couldn’t. “I value my sanity more than that.”

“Don’t you feel it, too?” His voice was as rich and delicious as she remembered it.

Aria still knew him well enough to see that Declan was warring with the same overwhelming need that was swamping her.

“I do.” She couldn’t lie—he would see right through it. “That was never the problem.”

“Goodbye, Declan.” These were words she’d never had a chance to say before. She couldn’t tell if she was relieved or devastated when she finally managed to turn away from him.

Despite all that had happened, she knew him. He was too stubborn, too proud to come back to Salem’s Hollow just for her. So why was he here?

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