by Vivien Dean
He stopped as soon as he opened his door.
In the middle of the living room, Maddy sat cross-legged on the floor, packages of every shape and size surrounding her. Most of them were the gifts brought home the previous night, but he spotted a few shopping bags along the periphery that looked new. A purse lay forgotten on the couch.
“You went shopping?” he asked, taking a step further into the room. “I didn’t oversleep that much.”
Surprisingly, his arrival didn’t diminish the unabashed delight on her face. “I’ve been up forever,” Maddy said. “So, since it’s an absolutely gorgeous day outside, I decided to do a little exploring. Did you know there’s this fabulous string of shops around the corner? And look.” She stretched to grab the purse, reaching inside it to extract a checkbook. “You have no idea how much money we have. This person trying to kill you? Doing it in style, I have to say.”
Her good mood was infectious, and Cash grinned along with her as he came up to the edge of her bounty. “I’ll remember to thank him if I ever run into him then.” Crouching, he peered into the nearest bag, reaching in to finger the feather-soft cashmere on top. “Do I get a fashion show, or are you going to force me to use my imagination?” He deliberately let his gaze slide slowly over the form-fitting sweater she wore. “I should warn you, it’s a highly active one.”
Flushing, Maddy turned away from his inspection. “I picked up some lunch for you while I was out,” she said, changing the subject. “It’s in the refrigerator when you want it.”
“Maddy…” He was annoyed with himself. Thirty seconds in the same room and he’d already driven her away. “We have to talk sooner or later.”
“Then I opt for later.” She picked up a bag to start emptying it, but Cash caught her glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, her cheeks going pinker. “Preferably after you’re dressed.”
The slight breeze around his legs meant his crouching position revealed more than he’d intended. Cash stood up, not bothered by his nudity, but not wishing to afford Maddy any more discomfort than he already had. “I’ll go take a shower,” he said, retreating toward the other bedroom.
He was disappointed by her simple, “Okay,” and walked out, wondering what he could do to get the effervescent Maddy back again. She was a breath of fresh air. He didn’t see her nearly enough.
The distant sound of the shower echoing throughout the apartment did nothing to quell Maddy’s racing nerves. She’d slept poorly, dreams scattered with sensations of Cash’s kiss, his strong hands skimming along her body, his voice murmuring decadent promises she had to bite her tongue not to beg him to fulfill. Waking to the dawn’s sunlight streaming through her window had spurred her to divert her mind in other ways, and the shopping had helped more than she had anticipated. For a few precious hours, she’d lost herself in the fantasy of living the glamorous life, ignoring costs and focusing more on want than necessity. It was so far removed from her real life that it had been a joy.
Then Cash had woken up. The world as she’d known it had come crashing back. And she was left with the image of his long, slim body draped in a silk robe that did absolutely nothing to hide his muscled attributes.
He wanted to talk, but really, Maddy had no idea what to tell him. Who are you, and what did you do with the real Cash Vinci? Except then, she’d probably get another story about magic. There was always the good old standby, Let’s just go back to being friends, but that kind of relied on them being friends in the first place, which she was pretty sure they would both agree was laughable.
The only thing she wanted to say was the one thing she was sure she would never have the nerve to. You’re not actually saying all these nice things about me because you mean them, right? Because if she got anything but a joke as an answer to that, she was fairly sure her perception of the world was going to implode.
She was lost in thought when the door to the bedroom opened, and only half-aware of his footsteps across the plush carpeting. When Cash suddenly appeared in front of her, she jumped, dropping the small box she’d been playing with.
“I didn’t realize unwrapping gifts was such thought-provoking work,” he commented, leaning down to pick it up again.
Her muscles tensed when he pushed aside some of the presents to clear a space next to her. “I was waiting for you to come back.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
His legs looked impossibly long stretched out alongside hers, and she risked a glance sideways to see his strong profile, the damp waves curling at his nape. The fresh scent radiating from his skin made her mouth unexpectedly water, and she snatched up the nearest gift to hide the tremor in her hands.
“Yes, I did,” she argued. “They’re addressed to both of us. Well, except for one, which says it’s just for you.” She peered around at the packages. “Now, where’d I put that one?”
“We’ll find it soon enough.” Cash tapped the box she held. “Let’s start with this. The other will show up eventually.”
Maddy ran a fingernail under the edge of the wrapping paper, carefully ripping the tape. “You’re not hungry? The sandwiches from the deli I found were pretty good.”
“I can eat later. I was hoping we could have that talk now.”
Her hand jerked at his words, tearing the paper she’d been trying to preserve. “Damn it.”
“Let me.” Ripping the rest of the paper away, Cash took the lid off the box to expose an old-fashioned blender inside.
“Well, that’s appropriate,” Maddy said, pushing it to the side.
“This isn’t really that hard, you know.” He picked up another gift and placed it in her lap. “In fact, I think it’s actually incredibly simple.”
“Nothing about you is simple.”
“Somehow, I don’t think you mean that as a compliment.”
He didn’t say a word as she unwrapped a book of poetry, her slim fingers tracing over the spine before setting it with the blender. The silence of the room was broken only by the slow tear of paper as she continued with the gifts, until it grew so heavy that she finally turned to him in frustration.
“How is this so simple?” she demanded. “Because I’ve been up since six this morning trying to figure out why it is you affect me like you do, and I still haven’t come up with an answer. By every right, I should hate you right now, and I don’t. I want to—God, do I want to—but you’ve had these flashes where you’re actually nice to me, and then I remember what Ava said, and it all just gets even more confusing.” He started smiling almost as soon as she began speaking, which only drove Maddy’s scowl to deepen. “Stop laughing at me!”
“I’m not.” But the light in his eyes contradicted that. When she tried to stand and escape, his arm shot out to pin her hips against the floor. “I’m not laughing,” Cash repeated. “You just have no idea how much I love seeing you like this.”
She could only think of one response.
“Huh?”
His hand crept beneath her thigh, cupping around her bottom to pull her closer. “The reason I think this is simple is because the facts are simple. Fact one. We’re attracted to each other.” He held up a warning finger when she opened her mouth to protest. “If you try to deny that you didn’t enjoy our kiss last night, I’ll just use the next three hours proving you wrong. Which I might do anyway, if you continue to make that adorable face every time I say something you disagree with.”
Maddy clamped her lips shut. He was right, and they both knew it. She was just accustomed to her first instinct being to counter anything he might say.
Cash waited until it was obvious she had abandoned her argument. “Fact two,” he continued, a bright gleam in his pale eyes. “I didn’t say a word yesterday I didn’t mean. It might not have been the circumstances I would’ve chosen, but it doesn’t change the fact that the only person who’s made my life even remotely interesting since I left England is you.”
“Because I rise to your bait,” she said before she could stop he
rself.
“Well, yes.” His smile was sheepish. “But you don’t just rise, Maddy. You surpass. You have more fight in you than anyone I’ve ever met before, and, trust me, you have no idea how rare that really is.”
She was too aware of his long fingers pressing into the curve of her bottom, the tips dangerously close to the cleft between her thighs. It made it more difficult to think clearly, and when she added in the indisputable sincerity of his voice, Maddy could only look at Cash and shake her head.
“What does that mean?” she asked. “Because simple facts don’t necessarily lead to simple conclusions.”
“It means I think it’s time we were on the same side. Didn’t we prove last night we could do that?”
“The party wasn’t real.”
“Maybe the party wasn’t, but…I wasn’t pretending, Maddy.”
It was different having him say it so blatantly. Surprise was quickly replaced by fear, which was almost immediately superimposed with a flutter of excitement deep within her stomach. Without thinking, she shifted to look at him more closely, an innocent motion that pressed her leg against his hip, and brought the contact of his semi-hard cock directly to her tense muscles.
Cash groaned at the touch. Using his hand beneath her as leverage, he pulled her the rest of the way onto his lap, his other hand diving beneath her hair to cup the back of her neck. His mouth was hot when it found hers, sweeping past her nonexistent defenses to devour her with the same hunger he’d expressed the previous night. She arched against him on instinct, moaning when her sensitive nipples crushed against his broad chest. There was no time to consider the import of what he’d confessed. She could only tumble along the swell of their rising desire and pray she wasn’t dashed onto rocks on its other side.
She was trembling when they finally broke apart, but the steel of his arm around her back made it easier to draw herself up. “So…” Maddy said, meeting his eyes. The pale green was almost completely gone, swallowed in the ebony of his dilated pupils. Seeing her reflection in them made her hesitate, questioning who the flushed woman in his embrace really was. “…was that supposed to be the kiss to seal the deal?”
“That depends.”
The sight of his tongue running along the edge of his teeth made her squirm against his hip. “On what?”
“On—”
A sudden scratching sound off to her right distracted him for a moment, and she followed his line of sight to a small gift set slightly apart from the others. It had been knocked to its side when Cash pulled her onto his lap, but Maddy recognized it as the gift that had been addressed only to him.
“What is it?” she asked.
As if in answer, the wrapped package moved almost infinitesimally along the carpet.
Cash moved so quickly, she almost didn’t see it happen.
Pushing her off his lap and away from the present, he grabbed the blender she’d opened and swung it in a swift arc toward the gift, flattening the box with an audible crunch. A mess of cardboard, wrapping paper, and skinny, insect-like legs was left behind.
“Gifts are not supposed to crawl around on their own,” she said. It had happened too fast for her to be frightened. If anything, seeing the speed and accuracy of his reaction was more alarming.
Their kiss was forgotten, all his attention now focused on the destroyed gift. “It doesn’t matter,” Cash said. “It’s dead now.”
“Considering you smashed the hell out of it, I hope so. What was it?”
Everything about him was tense as he lifted his head to look at her. “You really want to know?”
Maddy paused. “Something tells me you’re not about to tell me it was a pet spider some sicko at the club thought you might enjoy.”
Picking at the box’s remains, Cash pulled out something long and curled, ending with a needle-like point. “That,” he said, “is a scorpion tail.”
Chapter Nine
Cash cleared the dead scorpion with the same efficiency he demonstrated killing it, delivering one last blow to the crushed box before scooping up the debris for the trash. Maddy wasn’t surprised. She had the distinct feeling she should have been, but after two days living in a world that shouldn’t even exist, she was having trouble being surprised by anything.
“You weren’t kidding,” she commented when he returned from dropping the mess down the garbage chute in the hall. As exhilarating as the kiss with Cash had been, Maddy was grateful for the chance to avoid talking about it. She needed time to process what he had said to her, and this new development with the gifts was the perfect opportunity. “Someone really is after you.”
His gaze was dark, but that was trivial compared to the tension in his arms as he grasped her shoulders and forced her to look at him. “Don’t open the rest of the gifts,” he warned. “I can’t be sure there’s not something else in there that could hurt you.”
She bristled. “I think the fact that the present of pain was addressed specifically to you means the rest of them should be relatively safe.” Wrenching herself free, she whirled on her heel to march back to the couch. “I’m not the one with the enemy here, remember?”
Cash grabbed her elbow before she could reach the pile of packages, yanking her to a halt again. “You’re not risking it.”
Though she tried to pull away, this time, his grip was too strong, his fingers unyielding where they curled around her arm. “And tell me again why I should bother listening to you?” she said, pulling herself up straighter. Damned if she was going to let him try to intimidate her. “You won’t even tell me why it is someone sent you the painting in the first place. All I’ve got is some ambiguous story that—frankly...” she deliberately put as much taunt into her voice as she could manage, “…kind of makes you look like a coward.”
She didn’t really think of him like that, but the gibe did exactly as Maddy had hoped. Anger flared in his eyes, and his lips thinned as he glared at her. “I thought we decided we were on the same side now.”
“Did I miss the memo where same side means treating your partner like she’s too stupid to handle hearing the whole story then?”
He let her go with a snort of frustration, raking slim fingers through his hair as he stared past her at the gifts. It took a long time for him to speak again, so long that Maddy began to wonder if she’d pushed him too far. All she wanted was for him to stop treating her with kid gloves, to see that she could handle whatever it is this place wanted to throw at them. Well, a few answers would be nice too, but on those, she wasn’t holding her breath.
“I just don’t want you to get hurt.” His voice was so low, she had to strain to make out the words. “If you’d opened that gift…”
“But I didn’t.” Lifting her hand, she placed it softly on his chest, trying to show him that in spite of her outburst, she still wanted the truce he’d called earlier. “You know those simple facts you’re so fond of? Here’s another one. I’d do us both a lot more good if I knew exactly what I’m involved in. I’m not interested in being the damsel in your fantasy world here, Cash. And if what you were saying about me is really true, I don’t think you’re interested in that, either.”
In spite of his obvious discomfort with the situation, a bemused twinkle slowly returned to his eyes. “I suppose I should have expected you to throw my own words back in my face.” With a rueful smile, he took her hand and lifted it to his mouth, pressing a chaste kiss into her palm. “But just remember. You asked for this.”
He was having problems looking at her curled up at the end of the couch. The dream aside, Cash knew that he would have reached this point sooner or later, that Maddy’s personality would have made it impossible to lie to her without repercussion, but he’d honestly hoped he could escape talking about his past. It was over. Done with. He was moving on.
Well, except for the fact that they were both now stuck in the middle of a deadly forties’ milieu, surrounded by magic that made his powers look like child’s play. The scorpion had shaken him more than
he wanted to admit. For a brief, glorious moment, he had forgotten where they were, why they were there. Maddy had listened to what he had to say and, with minimal fuss, accepted it. To have her respond to him so thoroughly was more arousing than he’d imagined, and Cash had been lost in the heat of the tiny blonde long enough for the lethal gift to take him by surprise. She could have been seriously hurt, and it would have been entirely his fault. That was unacceptable.
Maddy’s bright voice stopped him in his pacing. “Really, you can start with the explanations any day now.”
He risked a glance in her direction. She still glowed from their kiss, but any hint of condemnation he might have expected to find in her heart-shaped face was absent. She was merely waiting, unwilling to allow him to continue to keep her in the dark. It could have been much worse, Cash realized. He hadn’t lost her over this as he had feared. Of course, he hadn’t actually said anything to her yet, so the jury was still out as to whether or not she would hate him when she knew the truth.
“Magic isn’t as rare as you might think,” he began. “People practice all over the world. But that doesn’t mean it’s regulated in any way. In fact, quite the opposite is true. People with that kind of power tend to be…resistant to being told what to do.”
Her mouth twitched as she tried to hold back her smile. “Gee, you’re involved with a line of people who have delusions of self-importance? I didn’t see that one coming at all.”
Cash ignored her teasing. He couldn’t afford getting drawn into it at this point, not if he wanted to get this over with. “Without any sort of regulation,” he continued, “responsibility falls upon the individual to treat their power with respect. My family was actually very strict about how my sister and I used it—”
“You have a sister?” Her expression was a mix of curiosity and disappointment. “Why did I never know that?”
“Because I was very careful to keep any contact with my old life separate. The only person who knows about Kate is Aaron, and that’s only because it was necessary if I wanted to work at the museum. Kate insisted on having a third party she could trust in case something went wrong.” He met Maddy’s gaze. “Kate’s the one who’s going to end up helping us. She’s called me every day for seven years, just to make sure I’m still alive and kicking. It’s impossible for her not to know that something’s wrong now.”