by Kelly Moran
“Sounds like you need to cleanse the house.” Fiona, wearing a tight royal blue dress, sauntered over to a shelf, her hips swaying seductively. Everything she did was sensual. Blinking could be considered foreplay. She passed Diane an item. “Sage. Burn that and walk through each room. It’ll get rid of spirits.” Her gaze scanned another shelf. “And here, take this tea to help you relax before bed. Soak in a nice hot bath with these salts, and you’ll be right as rain in no time.”
Diane gushing, Fiona rang her up and sent her on the way with a “Blessed be,” while Kaida just shook her head.
“And...and he said it just wasn’t working out.” Sally, a waitress at the pub, blew her nose loudly into a tissue Ceara passed her and slumped on the settee. “Things were going so well. I thought maybe he was the one, you know?”
Ceara squeezed the woman’s shoulder, cooing in her calming juju voice. “He’s not worth the effort to cry over.” Rising, she gathered items from various shelves and arranged them in a basket, her gauzy white dress flowing like air with her graceful movement. “This is my personal heartbreak kit. Lock yourself up good and tight tonight and use these. Tomorrow, get back on the horse.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you.” Sally walked to the counter. “I don’t know how I’d get through a breakup without you.”
“Good thing you’ll never have to find out.” Ceara smiled, and even Kaida got hypnotized by her soothing assurance. “We’re here anytime you need us. And remember, that other fish in the sea adage is true. Blessed be.”
Once the door closed behind the morning rush, Kaida laughed. “Wow. I bow down.”
A smirk, and Fiona sat on a stool behind the register, buffing her nails. “All in a day’s work. When are you meeting Brady?”
Kaida glanced at her watch. “Shoot. Three minutes ago.” She’d been so caught up in the antics, she’d lost track of time. Snatching her purse from a hook, she rushed up front. “Be back in an hour.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Fiona called.
Since Kaida didn’t think there was anything Fiona hadn’t tried or done, she kept mum, strode the few feet next door, and shoved through the cafe’s entrance.
She scanned the space and found Brady leaning against the far wall by a condiment rack, arms crossed, watching the exit. He wore faded jeans, worn in all the right areas, and a gray tee that emphasized his lean muscular build and defined biceps. Strangely, he also had on his thin, black-framed glasses.
He met her halfway in the middle of the shop with a wide grin. “Hey.”
“Hi. Sorry I’m late.” She tucked a strand of wayward hair behind her ear, taking in his slightly disheveled bedhead look and dark five o’clock shadow. Uhn. Attractive as hell. “I was watching the floor show at my sisters’ shop.”
He offered a rough laugh. “They are something of an enigma. Though, knowing what I do now, they probably have the town under a spell.”
“Hmm, maybe, but that would go against the no-person-gain rule. That’s why they don’t play the lottery.” One of the many guidelines her sisters had been teaching her about the craft. Any magick used for such purposes always came back twofold. And not pleasantly. She glanced around at the small iron tables, artistic pictures of steaming cups on the mocha-painted walls, and the display case filled with sweets. The scent of roasted coffee beans and chocolate surrounded her. “It smells orgasmic in here.”
“Ha.” He rubbed the back of his neck as if nervous. “They, uh, have great cappuccinos. And brownies. Salads and sandwiches, too. Shall we?” He gestured toward the counter.
“Sure. You’re wearing glasses today.” Geeky hot.
He eased in line five people deep and nodded. “Yeah, didn’t sleep last night. My eyes couldn’t take contacts this morning.”
That would explain why he hadn’t shown up in her dreams. Or perhaps it was because they’d met in person and the appearances would stop? “You had a lot of info to absorb. That’s understandable.”
“True story.” He hesitated, then sighed. “Actually, my insomnia had more to do with you. I was worried. And the second we were separated, I had this barbaric urgency to get back to you. I don’t know what’s going on or what to believe, but I spent the rest of the night on my balcony staring at the ocean, counting down the hours until sunrise. To say I had an unproductive morning would be an understatement. Are you feeling it, too, or do I need a padded cell?”
She studied the frustrated lines bracketing his mouth and his bloodshot mossy eyes. The oddest sensation crept up her spine and tugged her heart. A blinding insight, of sorts. She was right where she was supposed to be. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t outside looking in, searching for a place to belong, or trying to fill a void with anything she could find. On an island off the eastern coast, beside a man who shouldn’t exist, and with unknown variables at play, she breathed. Just...breathed.
“You’re not alone.” For once, neither was she. “I crashed hardcore last night. When I woke up, the pull to find you was intense.” She’d gone through countless wardrobe changes in anticipation for their lunch. Eventually, she’d settled on beige knit pants and a white blouse, but not before she’d emptied her closet onto the bed. “The shop kept me distracted, but I thought about you every other minute.”
Affectionate understanding warmed his eyes, and he ducked his head.
They ordered and claimed a corner booth by the window, her with a chicken Caesar salad and him with a turkey club. A few bites in, he cleared his throat.
“Ceara said something about you not having control of your powers. Weren’t you taught that sort of thing when you got them? Not that I have a clue about the...lifestyle or anything, but I’m curious.”
“By the way Mara relays the details, when I was sent to live with distant family, they were given instructions. I was supposed to learn but, for whatever reason, my parents didn’t bother.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “In fact, I didn’t know anything about any of this, including my sisters.”
He paused with the sandwich halfway to his mouth. “So you’re just as shocked as me and my brothers. That must’ve been a blow, huh?”
“To say the least.” She stared at her partially eaten salad. “I thought I was crazy. The moment I turned sixteen, weird stuff started happening and...” She breathed a laugh. “Add the dreams into account, and let’s just say I spent a lot of time alone. There was always a feeling, though. A sixth sense that something bigger was in motion, yet I couldn’t put my finger on it.” She dropped her chin in her hand. “I suppose that’s what drew me to ancient religions and, ultimately, Wicca.”
“You’re a professor? That’s what you said, right?”
“Yes, at a college in Iowa. I’m on sabbatical. I teach two courses in the normal curriculum at the moment.”
He nodded. “Always wondered where you were from. Wondered a lot of things, actually. Did you know you were adopted? Have any other brothers or sisters?”
“No siblings, and yes, I knew. They didn’t hide the adoption.” Everything else had been kept a secret but, apparently, not making a point to cover up the fact she wasn’t theirs was okay. Bitterness coated her tongue. “They died about a year ago, and their attorney gave me a letter from my birth mother. Thus, here I am.”
“Here you are,” he repeated solemnly. “I can’t even fathom what it must’ve been like for you. My mother split when we were born and Dad died in a boating accident when we were eight, but I’ve always had my brothers. And it’s not as if we had...powers to learn. With no one there to guide the way, you had to be scared out of your mind.”
Tightness banded her chest and her eyes welled. Dreams aside, he’d known her all of two days, yet he understood. Like he’d rooted around inside her head or heart, he got her on a level no one ever had before.
She sucked an uneven breath, blinked back tears, and glanced away from the sympathy in his eyes. “It was terrifying. I dealt.” She shrugged like it didn’t matter. “I have the answe
rs now.”
“Doesn’t erase all those years, though.” His low, familiar tone held a fragile kindness she couldn’t begin to translate. “If it were me, I’d be pissed off that my birth family tossed me away. Greater good or noble intentions aside, that leaves a person with an abandonment complex in the wake. Then, to have supernatural abilities thrust on you, followed by a contrived destiny dropped on your shoulders to boot? Hell, Kaida. You must be a saint to take it all in stride.”
Her breath hitched, and she closed her eyes. Tears escaped anyway despite her efforts otherwise. Unable to breathe past the ball of emotion in her throat, she made a sound of duress. God, it was as if he’d read the pages of her soul and highlighted the passages of inner turmoil.
Two warm palms cupped her cheeks, and she opened her eyes to find his steady gaze on hers. A mesmerizing mossy green with yellow flecks. He brushed the tears from her cheeks with callused thumbs and leaned across the table to get closer. The scent of rain she always associated with him swirled around her and calmed the chaos.
The gentle caress of his gaze swept her face, and he sighed. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Nothing I wasn’t already thinking.”
“Still, I overstepped.” He curled one finger under her chin and tentatively smoothed the strands at her temple with the other hand. His eyes followed the movement and then slid back to hers. “Never seen you cry before. Kinda feels like you put my gut in a meat grinder.”
She breathed a watery laugh and sniffed. “Sorry. I’ll stop.” His touch on her skin, however minute, had every nerve in her body hyperaware. It wasn’t like when they’d come together in dreams. The potency was almost too much. Warmth flooded her as molecules awakened. Demanded more. Exploded. “Nothing happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“Today,” she clarified. “You’re touching me and nothing happened like the first time.”
“I disagree.” His lids lowered to half-mast with a seductive flutter of his thick, dark lashes. “Something most definitely is happening.”
Well, dang. How did his glasses not fog at that statement?
“I wasn’t expecting the connection to carry over. You’re as easy to talk to and be around as you were while asleep.” And the magnetism was fiercer. As in, she might crawl across the table and do something that would get them both arrested. She’d never been attracted to a man like she was to Brady. Almost as if by no control of her own.
“Ditto.” He offered a tight, reluctant smile and eased back into his seat. “Any theories on curse-breaking, professor? By the way, that’s sexy as hell. I’m imagining you with a short little skirt and ruler.”
Slapping a hand over her face, she laughed. “I have a few ideas. A better plan might be to get all the parties together to hash out our thoughts.”
He strummed his fingers on the formica. “Your sisters don’t trust my brothers and vice versa. Kidnapping might have to be involved.”
“I suspect we won’t succeed if we don’t tear down some barriers.” She hummed in her throat. “Baby steps.” Something he’d said before flittered to mind. “Who raised you after your father died?”
“Our uncle, who’s a total creep. He left when we were nineteen. The ink was barely dry on claiming our inheritance. He’s in the UK somewhere being the CEO of our other hotels. Tristan runs the one here.”
She tilted her head. “What does Riley do?”
“When he’s not charming everything with breasts into bed, he heads the island’s tourism board.”
Laughing at his dry tone, she took a sip of her cappuccino. “And Six Fates Island’s historian? What’s his job entail? By the way,” she joked, repeating his sentiment, “that’s sexy as hell.”
He grinned, all adorable amusement. “History is sexy. I mostly oversee remodeling projects to ensure preservation of original design elements, make sure the past isn’t totally lost. I also authenticate documents, help the school with social studies’ curriculums, keep tabs on the museum, that kind of thing.”
“That is the coolest job ever.” She leaned forward. “To walk amid the past and know who stepped there first. It’s one thing to read about history, but you get to have your hands in the details.”
“Riley was right. We are too similar.” He chuckled. “It is a cool job, but you and I might be the only ones who think so. You know, I’ve got a meeting tomorrow with contractors to begin repairs on Galloway Lighthouse. Once plans are drawn up, I need to chat with your sisters for approval. You should come. I have access to the non-public areas.” He wiggled his brows.
“Be still my heart. You’re on. What time?”
“Meet me at the library at ten. My office is there. Do you know how to find it?”
She set her empty cup off to the side and nodded. “I passed the library a couple days ago when the ferry docked.”
“I know.” His voice dipped to a low rumble. “I saw you through the window and about fell out of my chair. Well, I was standing, but you get the gist. I thought I was hallucinating and actually chased you outside, except you were gone.”
“Really?” That explained why he’d seemed less shocked to see her than the other way around in the clearing. “I might’ve died if I’d spotted you on the street.”
“Nearly did.” He glanced at his watch. “I have to go. Tomorrow, then?”
“Tomorrow. In the mean time, I’ll try to talk Ceara and Fiona into having another meeting with your brothers. Perhaps we can thaw some of the ice between our families.” She stood and smoothed her slacks.
Rising, too, he shoved his hands in his pockets. “That would require an ice pick the size of Delaware, but I’ll do the same with Tristan and Riley.”
He led the way outside and held the door for her. Once they were on the sidewalk out of foot traffic, he offered a forced smile. “Dream of me?”
“Not so sure about that. Now that we’ve met, we might not anymore.”
“Pity.” He turned to go, but whirled back around. He stared at her a few beats, his jaw ticking. “There it is again, that feeling like I can’t walk away from you.”
At least she wasn’t the only one with a sliver of panic weaving through her bloodstream. “We should exchange numbers.”
“Good plan.” He extracted a cell from his pocket, passing it to her.
She dug in her purse and did the same. Entering her number and email into his contacts, she hit Save and returned his phone.
They stood there, staring at one another, and she swore the air crackled between them. Wind chimes tinkled from a nearby storefront and the lull of conversations from passersby receded to white noise.
Chewing her lip, she waved. “Bye.”
“Yeah, okay.” He pivoted on his heel and took two steps away, only to abruptly stop and face her once more. “Screw this. Come here.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her halfway up his body in an embrace so tight her lungs collapsed. Resting his cheek to hers, he held the back of her head like he was frightened she’d disappear into the ether.
Heaven. Arms around his neck, she fisted his tee, bunching the material at his shoulders. Being pressed against his solid, corded muscles awakened the desire she’d forever had for him and sent it careening into the stratosphere. Amped, she trembled, breathing in his scent of warm male and rain. Her world tilted and righted and crashed anew in the course of a blink.
“Been dying to do that for three days,” he grated, his hot breath shifting her hair. The rasp of his whiskers was deliciously rough against her skin. “Hell, I’ve been wanting to hold you more than half my life.”
She slammed her eyes shut, her heart on the brink of breaking. “Me, too.”
His arms clenched. “I really have to get back to work or the construction crew on the courthouse is going replace the porticos with columns and give me an aneurism. Here’s the plan. In three seconds, I’m going to release you, and you’re going to hightail it to your sisters’ shop so I have no choice but
to leave. Understand?”
Rolling her lips over her teeth, she nodded. “Got it.”
“Good. Three, two, one...” He set her on her feet and smoothed her hair from her face. “Go, Kaida. Now.”
A laugh, and she turned. Walking the short distance, she giddily opened the door to Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Once inside, she leaned against the frame, grinning so hard her cheeks hurt.
“Ruh roh.” Fiona, perched on the settee like a queen, popped a gummy bear in her mouth. “Looks like someone’s under a spell.”
Ceara set her elbows on the counter, chin in her hands. “I didn’t cast one.”
No, Kaida figured Brady had some magick of his own. She opened her mouth to say something, but her phone dinged an incoming text. Digging in her purse, she found the cell and did a double-take at the screen.
Instead of programming his name into her contacts, Brady had typed “Man of My Dreams.” And his message?
Is it tomorrow yet?
Cradling her forehead in her hand, she swooned. “I’m in so much trouble.”
Chapter Nine
Forehead resting on a stack of papers on his desk and phone to his ear, Brady listened to the foreman on the courthouse project prattle on. And on.
When the guy finally paused—probably for air—Brady didn’t bother lifting his head to speak into the receiver. “White. The crown molding is supposed to be white. Not ecru, not eggshell, not beige. White. That’s what the plans say. All right?” He needed ten aspirin and another gallon of coffee. Stat. Though he’d gotten sporadic sleep last night, it wasn’t the restful kind, and he was beginning to wonder if this wasn’t National Piss Brady Off Day. It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. “I’ll stop by after lunch if I can.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Meath. I’ll have...”
Brady sensed rather than heard another presence in his office and lost track of the conversation. The fine hairs on his neck stood erect and a slow burn churned in his gut.