Celtic Love Knots, Volume 10 includes the stories "Sexual Magic" and "Tailtean Marriage"
Melisa at Simpy Romance Reviews said,
"it definitely had the spice... the plot was great..."
“Sexual Magick” Blurb“The nostalgic smell of old magic reached her as her hand gently passed over the bindings of the Books of Shadows. Each journal held within it a part of her heritage. Each was written by one of her ancestors of their lives, their spells, their beliefs and more.”
A cast circle of sexual magic, an ancestral Book of Shadows, and a sexual magic spell cast in desperation hundreds of years ago leaves Caitlyn angry that her destiny may have been tampered with.
Now, she needs to know if she is meant to be with Brent, a man who often doesn’t understand her ways but to whom she is undeniably pulled.
“Sexual Magick” Excerpt
“Wait until you see what I found!” Seana stood facing Caitlyn with the journal gripped to her chest. The mischievous light of her soul shown in her eyes. “Hey, what are you doing staring out into the night without a book?”
“I got distracted by the beauty of the place. Look at how…”
“Back to the books girl.” Seana forced a glare to prompt her friend into motion.
“Okay!” But, instead of quickly returning to the books, she watched Seana go greedily back to the page before her. A smile pulled at Seana’s face as her eyes raced over the words missing that Caitlyn was just standing there with that amused look of love and friendship on her face.
“Okay! We have to try this.” Seana spoke with the quickness of the persuasive.
“Do what?”
“Just say you will.”
“You are scaring me,” Caitlyn said with a childish laugh despite her attempt to remain solid in her stance to not agree until she knew what she was agreeing to.
“Just listen to this. It’s about crafting yourself as a true witch. She writes of ways to connect to the energy of all things.”
“Who writes? Whose Book of Shadows do you have?” Caitlyn interrupted.
“Uh, it is Neva. Isn’t that your grandmother’s sister?”
“Yes, and from the stories I have heard about her, I am becoming terrified.”
“It’s about Sex Magick! Now Shush! Listen!” She hurriedly put in before Caitlyn could object in any way. “She talks about how a sexual experience, from foreplay through orgasm, puts the mind into a heightened state of sensitivity. Because orgasm eliminates the ego, we become extrasensory. Sex is the best, the most natural means, of generating the energy we need for magic. She says a couple, a coven or a solitary witch can do it. She explains it as a means to an end. It does not matter if it is masturbation, heterosexual or homosexual in nature. It is just about sexual excitement and orgasm.”
“But do you think…”
“Shush! You begin with a meditation on what you want to achieve using the appropriate candles and herbs. With a partner within a circle you start by facing each other…uh, kneeling with the eyes closed stroking and caressing your partner’s body. It must be slow to bring about the most heightened state of arousal before orgasm. She even talks about mutual masturbation and oral sex!”
“And you would be comfortable taking our friendship to this level?“ Caitlyn joked with her friend just to see if she could trip her up in the mist of her enthusiasm, but she knew her words were useless once Seana, who was already up gathering supplies, got an idea.
“Funny!“ Seana continued on unphased. “It is actually perfect. Midsummer’s Eve is only a few days away and often used to figure out if a girl will fall in love or be married soon. You could try to see if Brent is the one. Wait…” Seana grabbed the red candles and began placing them on the alter. Caitlyn did wait. She could see Seana‘s wheels turning even though she was unsure if Seana’s idea would be better or worse than the one she was forming in her own head. “You have been wondering what it is that keeps you with Brent, if it is only strong sexual attraction that keeps you with him or love. I mean you guys disagree about everything under the sun then end up in bed by the end of the night anyway.”
“Speaking of Brent, I am sure he would love me performing sex magick with you in order to figure out if he and I were actually meant to be together. Come to think of it, would it be cheating on him?”
“Caitlyn, you uptight little witch.” Seana giggled at her friend’s attempt to pursue the joke to avoid the real issue. “As Neva wrote, it is only a means to an end. You are not in love with me. Can we be serious here a minute? You interrupted my thought. Shush! Listen! You could do the spell with Brent. He doesn‘t have to know the craft. You could just use his extra energy to get your answer. Our mothers are going into Washington DC for the Summer Solstice celebration.”
“Great. You explain it when they ask what we did for the celebration. Speaking of explanations, what exactly am I supposed to tell Brent that we are doing the spell for? Let’s see… Brent, by the way we are going to bring each other to orgasm in order to figure out if I should be with you or not.” She watched Seana get the St. Johns Wort often used on Midsummer’s Eve for divination of a future lover.
“No, all he has to know is it is for the future, it is for love. He won’t be able to see your meditation. It is perfect, Miss Negative. The slow foreplay is just as important as the orgasm.”
“You are forgetting one small detail. Brent and I usually fight about ‘The Craft.’ He never quite gets what I am talking about. We go round and round the explanations and his perceptions until one of us gets really defensive and hurt. I don’t think he would want to. I mean who knows how he will interpret it?”
“That is why it is so perfect. It is a simple spell that you will tell him is simply about enriching or strengthening your future. Plus, he will be enticed by the sex. What man turns down sex, magical or not? You will have him right there strengthening your meditation on him. You have to find out what is going on with you guys. I know each fight tears at you. We both know how much easier it would be to date a man who practices. Yet, there is this pull for you to him that even you can’t explain. Ask him, Caitlyn, ask him! You relationship is too stressful for me.” Seana gripped her friend’s shoulders. Caitlyn could see the seriousness of Seana’s concern for her beneath the playfulness.
“Fine.”
“Tailltean Marriage” Blurb
“Are we still going through with it?” A deep voice blew warm breath into her hair, and a muscular chest sent a delicious warmth through her back.
“Having second thoughts as the time draws near are we?” She laid her head back against him to comfort herself as she had so many times before.
“No way. As of tonight, Allena Collins, you will be my wife for one year and a day.”
Ten years ago at their first Lughnasadh, Allena and Devyn made a pact to go through a Tailltean Marriage, a trial marriage, if they were both still unattached on Lughnasadh the year they turned twenty-eight.
Even though Allena and Devyn have been best friends sharing everything for years, once their hand fasting ceremony is over they fear that sex will change their friendship.
“Tailltean Marriage” Excerpt
The same assortment of summer flowers that she had helped lay in a circle on the ground earlier bloomed up and over the altar. The abstract pattern of the white, pink and red against the typical yellow altar cloth blurred as the so-called butterflies in her stomach increased the beating of their wings. Allena had been helping with the preparations for Lughnasadh since eight o’clock this morning. The combination of nerves and manual labor had her on her third cup of coffee. To her right, the last of the wood was being piled up for the bonfire that would, in a few moments open the weekend celebrations. Down in the small clearing to her left, she could see the tents that had been set up by the campers who would stay the weekend.
“Are we still going through with it?” A deep voice blew warm breath into her hair, and a muscular chest sent a delicious warmth through her back.
“Having second thoughts as the time draws near are we?” She laid her head back against him to comfort herself as she had so many times before.
“No way. As of tonight, Allena Collins, you will be my wife for one year and a day. But, I don’t know. Leaving out that ‘till death do us part’ thing kind-of takes something away from it, don‘t you think?” The familiarity of Devyn’s laugh comforted her.
“It was exactly ten years ago tonight on this hill that we saw our first Lughnasadh celebration and made our pact.” Allena could see them both ten years innocent as she spoke.
“Oh, I remember.” He wrapped his arms around her and rested his cheek against hers.
She remembered it well too, and she had remembered it often as the end of July had drawn near this year. The summer they were both eighteen, they had attended their first Lughnasadh celebration finally being of age. They had stood on this very hill and watched the hand fasting ceremonies prevalent on Lughnasadh. The ceremonies commemorated the games that the Irish Sun God, Lugh, had hosted in honor of the death of his foster mother, Taillte. Therefore, the hand fasting rites on Lughnasadh were often called Tailltean marriages. Some were performed seriously for couples in love, but most were done symbolically merely in celebration, with the couples acting married only for the duration of the campout.
Having been best friends since second grade when her family moved to Washington, Allena and Devyn had ignored the frequent boyfriend-girlfriend teasing and forged a lasting friendship. They told each other practically everything. Their shared secrets were numerous. Yet, on that evening ten years ago, they had made a pact. Their agreement was that if neither of them was married or in love by the time they were twenty-eight years old they would go through a Tailltean marriage rite to try each other out. If at the end of the year and a day of marriage they found they absolutely could not be husband and wife, only friends, then they would still be able to walk away.
It had been Allena’s suggestion they do it when they were twenty-eight because she had wanted to have a baby before she was thirty. At the time, they had thought themselves open-minded enough to feel they could then raise the child as friends, if the marriage did not work. Of course, it did not seem that easy now. In the past months they had discussed it at length and decided to go through with the trial marriage promising to be honest with each other the whole way, making decisions together as the year progressed, like the baby thing.
“I’m ready. I do love you, Allena.” The flames burst skyward as the bonfire was set. A bell rang out three times summoning the beginning of the ceremonies. She knew what he meant when he said he loved her. They had been saying the words to each other for years, but in truth it was the love of friends they spoke of.
“I love you too, Devyn.” She kissed his cheek and swallowed down an overactive butterfly.
“Sky clad baby!” He took her hand and led her to the circle. A sly impish smile took his face. She had been avoiding all thoughts of being sky clad for the ceremony. Although, sky clad was something quite normal that she had been raised with, this would be the first time Devyn would see her completely naked. She could not explain it, even to herself, but it would be only his eyes that made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t as if over the years, being as close as they were, there hadn’t been quick changes of clothes in his car and stuff. But, tonight it seemed so different to her somehow.
“There are those in our midst who seek to bond.” The covener announced. Allena quickly stripped out of the sundress she had chosen just for that reason.
“Let them be named and brought forward.” The priestess commanded. Allena turned her back to Devyn and released her breasts. She looked down trying to look at them as if it was her first time. She didn’t have a problem with them. To her, they were not so small that she had to consciously dress to make them look bigger, and they weren’t so big as to give her trouble buying clothes.
“The man be Devyn and the woman be Allena.” The covener said, forcing Allena to practically jump out of her underwear, since she had to enter the circle skyclad.
The rest of the ‘Lord-and-Lady’s,’ the ‘repeat-after-me’s,’ and the ‘so-mote-it-be’s’ ran together for her. The ceremony was over, and she had looked at everything but his penis.
