Looking up, she could see a mobile of dancing family pictures and red hearts cut from one of his folders, and her own heart fluttered wildly. Glancing to his dresser, she could see an old fish bowl filled with water and stuffed with branches of hot pink bracts from a bougainvillea. He must have cut them from the vine spilling over his deck outside the sliding doors. Not precisely flowers and still prickly, but he’d actually connected fresh flowers with romance and tried to get it right. She was about to melt into a hot puddle of butter.
“Satin sheets?” was all she could think to say.
“Valentine’s Day, right? Candy, hearts, and flowers. There are M&Ms on the stand.” He fell down beside her and swooped her into his arms and kissed her before she could laugh.
Chapter 34
Dorrie woke to a man’s heavy arm around her bare waist and her back pressed into his chest. She ought to feel confined, but she didn’t. Conan’s crazy chi settled down when he slept, wrapping her in cozy comfort. She probably wouldn’t need a blanket in winter.
He didn’t even have blinds on his glass doors. Fortunately, she couldn’t see the house above his or she’d have to get up and hang sheets for privacy. She hated to disturb him; he was sleeping so heavily. He’d probably been up all night again.
Thinking about her as she had been about him? She could easily convince herself. She’d been amazed when Supergeekman actually noticed her arrival and stirred himself from his cave to greet her. The sex had been so incredible that she had to believe he’d been waiting for her. She simply didn’t think she could find another man who rang all her chimes the way Conan did, so she was willing to believe almost anything if that meant she could keep him.
Even now, after the greatest sex she’d ever known, she was hoping he’d wake so they could make love again. He was incredibly inventive once she pushed him past his preconceived notions, no doubt learned from instruction manuals.
The man lived inside his head. She understood that. Could she live with it? She really wanted to try.
He stirred, and she wiggled closer, finding his arousal. They really needed to talk, but she wanted to put it off a while longer, hoping the sex would be enough to cement a relationship. She knew better, but he was so damned good….
His hand found her breast, and her hormones danced happily.
“Bad song warning,” he murmured, kissing her damaged shoulder. She’d removed the bulky bandage and covered the stitches with a smaller one. “I want you. I need you. How can we make this work?”
“I don’t recognize the lyrics. Want to hum a bar?” She turned over and arched up to kiss his jaw. He wasn’t smiling. His chi was incredibly focused. She placed a hand on his solid surfer’s chest and shoved him backward.
Conan dragged her on top but crushed her against him instead of letting her distract him. “I mean it, Dorrie. I want to know you’re part of my life. I can’t spend my days moping around, hoping you’ll stop by. I have work to do.”
She laughed and nibbled at the places she could reach. “You’re such a romantic, Oswin. I want to work, too. I don’t want to sit around waiting for you to come up for air. What do you suggest?”
She wriggled, pressing her breasts against him until he gripped her buttocks and worked his magic hands.
“Have laptop, will travel,” he said solemnly while stroking her, parting her legs, teasing her with his arousal. “But sometimes I’ll need my extra equipment here. I can’t duplicate everything.”
Dorrie moaned as he found a sweet spot. “You have all the right equipment for me. You’re the only man I know who actually talks in bed.”
“Multitasking.” He swung her back to the mattress and propped hands on either side of her. “Tell me we can share a bed, and I’ll promise to be wherever you are at night.”
Dorrie closed her eyes and inhaled the masculine scent of him, concentrating on the solidity of the muscles surrounding her, the intensity of his chocolate-smooth baritone, the way his chi shivered her bones. How could he expect her to think like this?
“You’ll let me decorate your cave?” she managed to ask.
“You can hang hearts in the bathroom and money trees on the ceiling if it makes you happy, I don’t care. I know how to prioritize, remember? Things don’t matter. You do. I don’t want to let you out of my life.” He kissed her cheek and nibbled his way down to her mouth. “I’ve never ever said that to a woman.”
“Or a dog,” she guessed, smiling and pulling his head down. “I do love you, you know. I still don’t know why. Maybe I should stick around and find out.”
“Yessssss!” He kissed her so thoroughly that talk wasn’t necessary.
They fit together like puzzle pieces, Dorrie responding to his energy with such enthusiasm that the bed shook and the covers ended up on the floor. She cried her release before they could tumble off with them, and Conan finally gave in, thrusting long and deep and growling when he finally climaxed.
“You’re so good, I could learn to be a beach bum,” he rumbled in her ear, rolling back to the mattress and pulling her on top of him. “I want to figure out what love is and tie it up in a box with pretty ribbons and give it to you. I think I’d better get up and have some coffee or I’ll write a poem.”
Dorrie shook with laughter on top of him. Conan relaxed and smoothed her curls down her slender back. He didn’t mind when she laughed at him. She helped him to understand how life outside of computers worked. He could live with that.
“Love can’t be tied up in ribbons,” she told him, kissing him instead of hitting him over the head. “For me, it’s this giddy, crazy, whirling sensation every time you walk in a room, but that’s probably your chi. But it’s also listening for your voice, longing for your touch, needing your opinion, so many things!”
Conan considered that, processed it through his multitudinous brain cells, before relying on the sensations she aroused just by breathing in his ear. “Wanting you in my bed every night, that’s part of it, right?” he asked dubiously.
She nodded, and her curls brushed his cheek. “But I’ve been told that part becomes mundane. I don’t believe it yet, but Bo and Amy lost it for a while. I think they can get it back. But there has to be a stronger bond than sex.”
“I moved my cactus out for you,” he reminded her, but he wasn’t serious. “I’m afraid love is being terrified every time you leave my sight. I almost died out there on the desert when you fell down that vent. I’m not certain I’m ready for those kinds of shocks to the system.”
She pinched the skin over his ribs. “Your hide is tough. You’ll figure it out. That’s another thing I love about you, you figure things out.”
Irrationally pleased that she understood this about him, Conan rolled both of them off the bed and carried her into the shower. “Then I’m pretty certain love is taking a shower with the smartest woman in the world and telling her she can rearrange my shelves anytime.”
She nodded knowingly. “Good start. Admiring the fact that I mean to be more aunt to Bo’s kids so my brother can patch up his marriage would be another good hint.”
“I’ll teach the brats to surf and match you one by adding Oz’s kid to the bunch. I’ll even walk the dog.” Conan tested the water showering from the overhead rainspout before setting her in the glass stall. Then he leaned her against the wall and proceeded to kiss her into senselessness. He’d always wanted to use this fancy shower in more inventive ways.
***
Stir-frying chicken slices for the enormous hunger they’d worked up, Dorrie reacted to Conan’s stunned silence from the front room first, before she registered the sharp spike in his energy. She thought maybe her ability to pick up his silent communication helped connect them in ways they couldn’t connect with others.
Setting aside her pan, she wandered in to see what was wrong. He was staring at his oversized monitor and waved her over to look.
Before she could read what was on the screen, Magnus chose that moment to tromp up the stairs. Seeing Do
rrie, he almost turned around, but she’d sensed him coming. She gestured for him to join them. Conan had told her he’d offered the basement to his brother, so she needed to learn to deal with two mighty Oswins. After years of coping with her father’s overbearing temperament, she thought she could manage.
“Holy crap,” Conan muttered, rolling his mouse and re-reading the message on his screen. “Dorrie, I think I love you. Add more garbage in any corner that makes you happy.”
Magnus raised his heavy eyebrows and strode across the room. The corner was too small for him to squeeze in beside his brother, but Conan swiveled the monitor so they could both read it.
“You’ve got a new contract, so?” Magnus shrugged after scanning the screen.
“Oh my.” Understanding better, Dorrie dropped into Conan’s lap and hugged him. “You got the contract after all! What happened?”
“You happened,” he said with a hint of amazement. “You messed with my chi and the Universe answered. Hell if I know. Someone higher up threw out the low bid and awarded it to me.”
Dorrie snickered and glanced up at Conan’s brother glowering at them. “Or your brothers pulled strings. We strengthened the family sector, too, remember?”
“I don’t pull strings,” Magnus objected. “Conan’s the best there is, and someone recognized it, that’s all. I just came up to tell you that the creep we took out yesterday is dead. Autopsy said he had a brain tumor. I knew the bastard was crazy.”
Dorrie froze. Conan hugged and rocked her. “Don’t go there, babe. The kid was crazy. He had a tumor. You simply knocked him down.”
Magnus shook his head in disbelief. “You two are nuts. I’ll just grab a beer and scram.”
Dorrie swallowed and tried to accept their theory. If she had a secret weapon, she’d just keep it secret. “I’m fixing enough chicken for everyone,” she said, opting for normality. “I think I want to learn to nest, if that’s okay with both of you. I actually enjoy cooking if there’s someone to cook for.”
“Hire her,” Magnus said solemnly, halting his strides toward the kitchen.
“She’ll turn your clothes into wallpaper and make you sit in the corner,” Conan warned, reaching for his buzzing phone.
“If I get fed in the bargain, I can live with that. I eat a lot,” Magnus warned.
“It’s a whole chicken, but you have to eat your veggies, too,” she countered, sliding out of Conan’s lap to head back to the kitchen.
The sudden spike of anxiety in his chi warned her, and she swung around as he held up his phone.
Magnus leaned over the desk to read the phone screen. HELP ME was all it said.
Conan glanced at Dorrie. “From the Librarian.”
She nodded agreement to the concern in his voice. “We owe her. I’ll call the family.”
She left the men trying to trace the call. If she was setting her feet down a new path to a real life, she’d certainly found one that wouldn’t be boring.
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Copyright & Credits
Trouble with Air and Magic
The California Malcolms, Book 2
Patricia Rice
Book View Café Edition February 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61138-205-1
Copyright © 2013 Patricia Rice
Cover design by Kim Killion, http://www.hotdamndesigns.com/
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About Patricia Rice
With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today’s bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one of romance’s hottest authors. Her emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won numerous awards, including the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA® finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories.
A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina, she currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, and now does accounting only for herself. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc.
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Praise for Lure of Song and Magic
“Patricia Rice writes stories with so much attention to detail the characters truly seem to come to life.” — Booklist starred review
“Rice brings you great characters, a dynamite plot and plenty of magic and she accomplishes the whole thing without a shoot-out. Don’t miss it.” –RT Reviews 4 ½ stars
“Best selling author Patricia Rice performs her own magic when telling the story of the contemporary descendants of her Magic series.” Single Titles
“If you are looking for something a bit different that still offers great contemporary romance, I recommend The Lure of Song and Magic.” — Just Janga
“… a fast-paced magnetic romantic suspense with intense and realistic characters. Patricia Rice compels readers, getting them hooked on her storylines, and that is why The Lure of Song and Magic is getting a five quill rating.” — Romantic Crush Junkies Reviews
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Copyright & Credits
About Patricia Rice
About Book View Café
Praise for Lure of Song and Magic
Malcolm and Ives 02 - Trouble With Air and Magic Page 27