A Touch of Magick by N. J. Walters Page A

theory is that I don’t trust myself to control my magick, which is why it closed off years ago and I have trouble handling what I do have.”
    “But you can’t be a virgin? Can you?” Maggie asked.
    Rhiannon shook her head. “That’s what I told her. I’ve been in two serious relationships. Gwen informed me that I chose weak men and I needed a strong one.”
    “Ryland is certainly that.” Esther looked thoughtful. “Do you think this has anything to do with the candle ritual we did in your garden?”
    “I don’t know.” Rhiannon propped her elbows on the table. Her bracelets jangled, their usually happy sound barely even registering. “I think maybe it does.” She bit her bottom lip as she thought. “It feels like Ryland was drawn to me.”
    “Wasn’t that the point of the thing?” Maggie countered. “We did the whole candle-burning ritual to bring us all lovers.” She pointed at Rhiannon. “You said we couldn’t think of someone specific, that we’d draw someone who wanted to be with us.”
    Rhiannon nodded.
    “Then why does this bother you so much? If it’s not wrong, then what’s the problem?”
    Esther was quiet, but Rhiannon knew she was as interested in the answer to that question as Maggie was. How to explain it?
    “It’s not that I mind attracting a lover. It’s just that this thing with Ryland is so much more intense. The car alarm wasn’t the only incident.” She went on and told them all about the dessert fiasco. Both women were giggling by the time she finished.
    “Oh lord.” Maggie laughed. “I can just imagine the poor waiter standing there with chocolate flying everywhere.”
    “What a waste of good chocolate,” Esther agreed.
    Rhiannon’s lips twitched. It was funny, just not as it had been happening. “They did give us two brownies in a box to take home. I think they just wanted us out of there before anything else was destroyed.”
    “And you think you’re responsible for what happened?” Esther asked.
    “I know I am. I felt the surge of power, sensed when it slipped out of my control.”
    “But why then?” Maggie sat forward, her gaze pinning Rhiannon. “What happened?”
    She couldn’t explain how just being near Ryland was a sexual turn-on. How having him casually touch her leg had spiked her libido, sending her sexual tension skyrocketing almost out of control. “Sexual tension,” she offered. It was the best way she could encapsulate it for them.
    “Really?” Maggie shoved a lock of curly red hair over her shoulder.
    “Yes.” Even hours later, her body was still thrumming with energy, ready to shoot out into the world if she didn’t control it.
    “That’s why you’re worried.” Esther pointed her finger at Rhiannon. “It’s not so much Ryland, but what he does to you. You’re afraid your sister is right and Ryland will unleash the magick inside you.”
    “It’s not fair to him,” she blurted out. “It’s one thing to have hot sex with a man. Quite another to use him to solve my magickal problems.”
    “Why?” Maggie’s tone was slightly bitter. “Men don’t mind using us whenever they want. As long as he gets a night of hot sex with no strings, Ryland probably won’t care. I just wouldn’t tell him about the whole magick thing. I doubt that would go over well with him. He’s the type that sees the world in black and white.”
    Rhiannon wasn’t sure what to think of Maggie’s outburst. Both she and Esther knew Maggie’s fiancé had cheated on her and left her with a less-than-positive attitude about the male half of the species. Still, it hurt her to see her friend so unhappy.
    “It’s all a moot point yet. You haven’t had sex with him, have you?” When Rhiannon hesitated, Esther prompted her. “Right? Not on a first date.”
    She crossed and uncrossed her legs, swearing inwardly on the fact that her panties were damp. Just thinking about sex and Ryland in the same sentence raised her internal temperature to boiling.