I sniffed and cheered up a little. “That’s nice. What is it?”
He gave a funny laugh. “I had a feeling you’d like it. It’s called Happy Endings. It’s made by a company called Sister Witches.”
I chuckled. I did like it. I liked that he would have had to search for something like this. And I especially liked that though he didn’t actually think I was a real live witch, knowing I had some, er, witchy interests, he wanted to show me that he was keeping an open mind, not judging. Too much.
I shivered from my toes to the tips of my hair as he worked the lube between my ass cheeks. His finger delicately pierced me. I moaned at the now familiar invasion.
John hesitated. “You know, we don’t have to do this now. There’s no timetable.”
I raised my head, blinking at him. “Huh? Are you too tired?”
“What? No. Of course not. It’s…it’s not going to be like last night. I’ll try not to hurt you, but if you’ve never done it, you’re liable to be sore for a bit.”
I pushed back against his finger. “I’m not afraid. Don’t you be afraid.”
He moved his finger again, and I caught my breath. His oily thumb lightly stroked across the sensitive pucker of my hole.
“Keep breathing,” he said.
I gulped as his thumb pressed in. He massaged, pushed a little deeper, rubbed some more.
“That’s right. That’s the way.”
I tried. I concentrated on loosening my muscles. The tip of his other thumb slid in, and he used both to massage me, no secrets in sex. My breaths came in shallow pants as he prepared me. Not for the faint of heart, this.
“You’re silver in this light,” he murmured. “Your hair, your skin, your eyes… You okay?”
“Yep.” My voice sounded a little high and a little shaky.
“You didn’t turn into a moon man after all, did you?”
“Still human.”
My stomach muscles were quivering, and my legs felt like jelly by the time he withdrew. I rolled over onto my back.
He kissed me slowly, lingeringly. “Okay?”
I nodded.
“Tuck your legs,” he advised. “That’s the easiest way.”
I tucked my legs.
He leaned over me, and his mouth found one of my nipples. He tongued it, wet heat turning the tip to a hard point. Distantly, I felt the pressure from the blunt head of his shaft building at the entrance of my body, creating exquisite distress. I tried to focus on the tease of his lips as he moved to my other nipple. His teeth closed delicately on the bud, and I jerked, surprised—and then more surprised to find myself wanting more.
The pushing on my hole mounted to a distracting pain—then, staggeringly, I felt my body’s resistance give in, accept—and John’s cock slipped past the tight ring of muscle. I felt pleasure spread, expand in ever-widening spheres.
“Oh, John—”
“Cosmo?” He seemed to have trouble squeezing even that one word out.
I nodded. It was difficult. I felt demolished, and yet…and yet I was okay. It did feel good, disturbingly good. My shivering body was already adjusting to that thickness. To becoming part of someone else. Half of a whole. I pushed tentatively…
John’s thighs tightened in response, and he thrust against me, once. “Jesus. Don’t move.” His hands continued to stroke and smooth my belly, my ass.
Wonderingly, I reached down and touched where our bodies were joined as one.
Something entirely new. Something entirely our own.
“How’s that for possessing your body in sexual union?” John sounded breathless.
“It sure beats handfasting,” I whispered.
He laughed shakily at the wobble in my voice and cautiously began to rock his hips against me.
I looked into his face, his eyes as bright as a hawk’s. Our gazes locked on. He was thrusting into me, the quickening center of me, with smooth, long strokes. I moved to meet him, finding my own rhythm.
John murmured encouragement. His face bumped my face, his mouth closed over mine, hot and wet and urgent. When his body froze and he groaned my name, it was as though liquid moonlight poured into me, white-hot waves shivering through my bones and muscles and nerves.
I too began to come.
A million miles away on another planet, I felt John gathering me up against him, saying the things I had thought were the love spell and only the love spell. I kissed him back.
John whispered, “It really is different when you’re in love.”
When I woke a few hours later, Pyewacket was curled on my pillow, licking my hair, and someone was setting off fireworks in the cul-de-sac in front of the house.
“Pye,” I gasped. I reached to pick him up and cradle him against me. “I thought you were gone forever. John, he’s back!”
John, arms folded beneath his head, turned his face to observe us. “He thinks you can’t fend for yourself,” he remarked. His tone was dry. “He thinks he needs to protect you from me.”
Pye yawned, showing all his pointy teeth.
I smiled. “I didn’t know you spoke cat.”
John shook his head. He was smiling too.
Another small explosion sent yellow, purple, and silver chrysanthemum blossoms bursting into the sky outside our window. John sighed. “Your friends think they’ve got a get out of jail free card now.”
I bit my lip. “You don’t mind a few fireworks, do you? It’s our wedding night, after all.”
He shook his head, leaned over to scoop Pyewacket up and deposit him at the foot of the bed. “No.” He kissed me. “I don’t mind fireworks.”
“You’ll see. I’ll be a good husband to you. The best. A good host, a good—”
John grinned. “Sweetheart, I don’t care if you’re a good husband or not. I love you despite your friends, your family, your cat, and sometimes yourself.”
Remembering how it had all started, I couldn’t help a flicker of insecurity. “Do you? Are you sure? I can be pretty—”
“Yes, you can.” John’s mouth quirked. “But I am. And I do. I guess it’s…a married thing.”
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(All Hell Breaks Loose) Bedknobs and Broomsticks 2
Something old, something new, something borrowed…something blacker than the darkest night.
Cosmo Saville adores his new husband, but his little white lies—and some very black magic—are about to bring his fairy-tale romance to an end. Someone is killing San Francisco’s spell-casters—and the only person Cosmo can turn to—the man who so recently swore to love and cherish him—isn’t taking his phone calls.
The only magic Police Commissioner John Joseph Galbraith believes in is true love. Discovering he’s married to a witch—a witch with something alarmingly like magical powers—is nearly as bad as discovering the man he loved tricked and deceived him.
John shoulders the pain of betrayal and packs his bags. But when he learns Cosmo is in the crosshairs of a mysterious and murderous plot, he knows he must do everything in his mortal power to protect him.
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Author Notes
Thank you so much to Keren Reed for all the double, double toil and trouble of this one. And thank you to the SO, who has basically been left on his own for the last three months while I hammered (yes, that’s a witch joke) this out. Thank you in advance to Kale Williams for what I know will be a terrific audiobook. And thank you, thank you, thank you to all my patrons, past and present.
In this, my new Bedknobs and Broomsticks trilogy, I mix murder and magic, but for all intents and purposes set the books in our own recognizable contemporary world. Please note: this is the first book in a three-part trilogy. While the essential questions are answered—Will Cosmo find the grimoire? Will he go to jail for murder? Will he marry John?—by the end of the novel many more complex mysteries have been raised. In other words, th
is trilogy follows the structure of most fantasy series versus most mystery series—and that is because this trilogy is as much a fantasy series as a mystery series.
When you’ve been writing as long as I have, one of the challenges is to keep your longtime fans happy while still changing things up enough to intrigue new readers. Trying to find the right balance of don’t-mess-with-what-ain’t-broke and Try Something New! is always interesting, and I’ve come to the conclusion that all I can do is write what I like and hope enough people enjoy it to come along on the next adventure.
I wanted to write something perhaps a little lighter and more romantic than I typically do—a cozy, sexy mystery with, er, witches—sort of like Bewitched meets McMillan and Wife meets Josh Lanyon.
So, yes, the police procedure is largely based on a television show of the 1970s (yes, I KNOW that San Francisco police commissioners operate as a commission and are not omnipotent), and true, there is no actual Witchcraft tradition known as Abracadantès. Yes, there are all kinds of nods (Easter eggs, if you prefer) to Bewitched and McMillan and a few others, and yes, the relative of an old villain you may recall from another series does make an appearance.
If you’re a stickler for real life and gritty crime drama, this book is not for you. But if you enjoy the occasional romp into romantic and mysterious fantasy, I think—hope—you’ll have as much fun reading Mainly by Moonlight as I did writing it.
About the Author
Author of over sixty titles of classic Male/Male fiction featuring twisty mystery, kickass adventure, and unapologetic man-on-man romance, JOSH LANYON’S work has been translated into eleven languages. Her FBI thriller Fair Game was the first Male/Male title to be published by Harlequin Mondadori, then the largest romance publisher in Italy. Stranger on the Shore (Harper Collins Italia) was the first M/M title to be published in print. In 2016 Fatal Shadows placed #5 in Japan’s annual Boy Love novel list (the first and only title by a foreign author to place on the list). The Adrien English series was awarded the All Time Favorite Couple by the Goodreads M/M Romance Group. In 2019, Fatal Shadows became the first LGBTQ mobile game created by Moments: Choose Your Story.
She is an Eppie Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist (twice for Gay Mystery), An Edgar nominee, and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads All Time Favorite M/M Author award.
Josh is married and lives in Southern California.
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