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Chapter 18
Jasmine timidly roused me from my getaway slumber to dress for dinner. Part of me wanted to send her away, but my mind wouldn’t release the last sentence that I’d heard Lilith speak. Just what family secrets was she talking about? I groaned as I pulled myself off the bed to freshen up before she assisted me with attire that was suitable for attending the evening meal. I’d never find out the truth about this family and what they were up to if I didn’t go down to dinner and mingle with them.
Since Jasmine was the only person who knew that I’d slipped downstairs and eavesdropped on Lilith and Lance’s conversation, I could carry out the ruse of being ignorant about it all while I sought out the information that I needed.
She’d supplied me with warm water in my wash bowl. Unfortunately, by the time I’d managed to get my reluctant body off the bed and functioning enough to walk to the w
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Wanting some private time with me, Edward escorted me back to my room after a long and exhausting dinner party. We’d barely entered it before he began to explain why some people who possessed magic glowed like they did. It had to do with the strength of the magic within them. If they did not use it often or to its capacity, their shine was stronger than if they did.“You and my father both glow, but it is close to your body,” I observed.“As we age, we have a better ability to control the magic within us. The younger ones- especially those close to the age of thirty- tend to have their magic cause their shine to extend further,” he explained.“Why do they have different colored shine?” I asked, using his terminology instead of saying that they glowed.“It has to do with the magic lineage,” he said with a smile. “The color identifies the clan.”&ldq
Esmerelda Sleuth: The Other Side of the Mirror (Book 1) Chapter 20
The guests were all abuzz with excitement and anticipation of an impromptu wedding ceremony. The only guest not in attendance was Lilith. Jason was missing amongst the crowd, but, then, I didn’t consider him a guest. He was family, after all. It was just as well that he wasn’t kept abreast of what was happening. I wouldn’t put it past him to challenge Lance right there in the middle of the ceremony.Even though I came from a time where pre-marital sex was accepted. Loose sexual behavior was still frowned upon. The fact that I’d been sleeping with one brother while bonded by a marriage contract to another being openly discussed by strangers was completely humiliating. I hated Jason Northrup for playing such a dirty trick on me. I hated him even more for going public with it. I hoped that my sudden wedding totally destroyed his plans and knocked him right on his ass.Lance was waiting at
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I was eager to be alone with Lance. Not only because it was our wedding night, but because I wanted to speak with him in private about what I suspected was going on between his mother and his uncle. I also wanted to run my theory about Lilith’s gift of poisonous bath salts past him.Since I had no desire to ruin the mood for the evening, I decided to wait until after we’d exhausted ourselves by making love before broaching my theory about his brother being sired by his uncle with him.“If what you are saying is true,” he mused, “it would answer a lot of questions.” He sat up and ran his hand through his thick hair. “I cannot believe that my father and I missed this. Now that you have shed light on the matter, it is obvious. There have been so many signs. The most prominent one is the way my uncle favors Jason over me for no apparent reason.”“Now, you know the r
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The sun was winking ‘good morning’ to the world as it pushed itself away from the horizon by the time Lance returned to our bed. I had the question of what he’d discovered about the bath salts on the tip of my tongue, but it quickly rolled to the back of my throat as he kissed me long and hard while his hand explored and teased my womanhood in a way that immediately made me forget everything except the pleasure that he was giving me. It was as if he knew my body better than I did. His hands kneaded my well-formed breasts and his lips suckled my hardened nipples in a way that made me wild with ecstasy without him having to do anything else. When he finally did move down between my thighs and his tongue found my sensitive nub, I was sure that I’d go insane before he took pity on me and entered me fully. I had to swallow the screams of ecstasy that were coming at such a rate as to almost sound like a song in the wind. At one point, I covered
Esmerelda Sleuth: The Other Side of the Mirror (Book 1) Chapter 23
I stared into the pitch of night as I lay, naked, beside my sleeping husband. Our sex was a bit more aggressive and experimental than on our honeymoon night, but it was fulfilling and pleasurable. He’d opened my eyes to ways to pleasure ones partner as well as positions to assume during the process that I would have never thought possible. I found it fascinating how the same sexual acts, when performed with Lance, could seem natural and lovely when it felt so distasteful and wrong with Jason; even though I thought that he was Lance. My subconscious must have recognized the difference even if I didn’t.I surprised Lance by initiating some of the acts that Jason and I did. It wasn’t that I was into wide sexual variety so much as they were things that Jason had done to me and I wanted the memory of doing them with Lance to wipe out the memories of doing anything with Jason. I found the things that Jason had disgusted an
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Feeling dejected and disillusioned with the Northrup family, I sat in the drawing room of my parent’s tobacco plantation home. It felt both good to be there as well as a bit odd and uncomfortable.I was admittedly stunned when my new husband opted to send me off in exile without him. He tried to explain that it would only be for a short time while he smoothed things over with his mother, but it didn’t sit well with me. Not one bit. I was of the opinion that he was cowering to her. Having assumed that I’d married a strong man, I found this fact disconcerting. The way that he and his father bent to her demands was outrageous. It was the type of behavior that I’d be hard pressed to encounter in modern times. Not from something as simple as upsetting the woman by pointing out her wrong doings.I was even more surprised to discover that Bart and Jason remained in the house while I was sent away.&n
Esmerelda Sleuth: The Other Side of the Mirror (Book 1) Chapter 25
I was starving. My father was a kind man, but he lacked the sense of proper etiquette when it came to entertaining. Even though I was his daughter, I was a stranger to the household. Therefore, it was up to him to offer me something to take the edge off my hunger. Fortunately, my mother was quick to make up for my father’s shortcomings and a spread that exceeded what I’d experienced at the Northrups each morning was set out. How they came up with such an array of food in such a short period of time was a mystery, but I didn’t bother to question it. I simply reveled in the abundance until my stomach could hold no more.I quickly learned that my mother was not one to mince words or waste time. We’d no sooner been served our food and drink when she demanded that the servants leave the room. She even went so far as to warn them that she would know if anyone was listening at the door and they would be se
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Magic and psychic are two different beasts, or so I’m told. Since I didn’t believe in either until I met Lance and he proved differently, I was like a child walking in a strange land. My father assured me that, although my magic was depleted, the lack of it would not impact my psychic abilities. They would be as strong as ever.“In fact, daughter,” he said with enthusiasm, “the more that you use your special skills, the stronger they will become.”The handicap for me was the fact that I had no idea how to use these so-called special skills that I’d only recently realized existed at all, let alone in me. The only exposure that I’d had to their use was when I’d sit down and get very quiet while trying to solve a case in hopes that the room or an object would speak to me either by way of words, ideas, or visions in my head. I never considered what I was doing to be anything special;
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