Over Hexed

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  Maggie didn’t think he’d lost anything. Sure, his hair misbehaved sometimes and his glasses weren’t very attractive. But she had a vivid picture of how he’d looked last night, his biceps taut as he braced his arms on either side of her, his eyes bright as emeralds as he thrust deep. She’d never seen a sexier man in her life.

  ‘‘So you’re planning to love him and leave him?’’

  Denise’s question interrupted her brief fantasy. ‘‘That’s a little harsh, don’t you think? We’re both consenting adults. We can choose to have a little sex for its own sake.’’

  Denise’s gaze filled with envy. ‘‘You know, he’s never had a woman at his place. Never. Some have tried, but he wouldn’t invite them inside.’’

  ‘‘He probably feels safer with me because I’m from out of town. For all you know, he’s relieved I’ll be leaving soon.’’

  ‘‘He’s not the only one. Now that the women in town know he’s back in the game, they’re lining up to take advantage of that.’’

  Which irritated the hell out of Maggie. The thought of a parade of women cycling through Sean’s bedroom put her in a foul mood. She wondered if he’d allow that, now that she’d broken the ice by being the first girl in his bed. Would he have kitchen table sex with them, too? She could still feel the smooth surface of the table against her bare back, still hear the thump of the table legs keeping time with their heavy breathing.

  ‘‘So it was good.’’

  The best. ‘‘I don’t think you and I know each other well enough for me to answer that.’’

  ‘‘It was good. I can tell from the way your eyes glazed over a second ago. I suppose it doesn’t matter what he looks like if he still has the moves.’’

  ‘‘I really don’t want to talk about this anymore.’’ No, she wanted to do it, which was insane.

  ‘‘Okay, but are you thinking of spending any more time with him while you’re here?’’

  ‘‘No, not really.’’ She was meeting Harold Pierpont in the morning to close the deal, assuming the old guy arrived in one piece. Sean couldn’t change the course of events now.

  Because of that, he might not want to have anything to do with her. That was a depressing thought. She might as well stay away from him and avoid a potential rejection that would crush her ego.

  ‘‘I wouldn’t try to see him if I were you,’’ Denise said. ‘‘It could get dicey.’’

  ‘‘In what way?’’

  Denise gestured to her computer screen. ‘‘There’s an e-mail loop in town called Sean Watch. It’s been inactive for months because he wasn’t dating anyone. This morning I have ten e-mails with the subject line Sean’s back! I predict you’ll have to fight through the crowd to get to him.’’

  ‘‘No, thanks.’’ Battling other women to see Sean didn’t appeal to her. Besides, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t control her craving for him. She had twenty-four hours before she would see Harold. Surely she could stay away from Sean that long.

  ‘‘So what are you going to do with yourself until tomorrow at ten?’’

  ‘‘Go back to Madeline’s.’’

  ‘‘Not much to do there.’’

  ‘‘Sure there is. I can help Abe document his laugh tracks.’’

  But ten minutes later as she climbed into her car, she found herself driving back to the property. Her excuse was that she wanted to see it when the sun was shining. Her reason was that Sean might be there.

  Sean stopped by Denise’s office on his way to Clem’s. If he had the money to bid on the property, then she had to allow him to do that.

  She glanced up from the screen of a laptop, a laptop that was obviously working. If he’d had any hope that Jeremy hadn’t come to her aid, that was gone. Jeremy must have loaned her the laptop.

  Denise regarded him with narrowed eyes. ‘‘She’s not sticking around, you know.’’

  He didn’t have to ask whom she meant. ‘‘I know.’’ If he thought he could change that, he would try, but the herbs Dorcas had given him could sabotage that effort.

  ‘‘Why her? Why go all this time not dating, and then end up with her?’’

  ‘‘I didn’t come in here to talk about that.’’ He couldn’t answer the question without sounding like a dope, anyway. There was something about Maggie that stirred him up, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  ‘‘You want to know if I’ve found the owner.’’

  ‘‘That’s part of it, and I—’’

  ‘‘What’s it worth to you?’’ Denise gave him a once-over.

  That slow scan was enough to remind him of the horrors he’d faced before taking Dorcas’s ‘‘cure.’’ He didn’t want to resume that life. He only wanted to look good for Maggie.

  He cleared his throat. ‘‘I’m not going to play games. Clem Loudermilk just hired me to do a major addition to his house, and he’s paying me in advance. I want to bid on the property.’’

  Denise’s eyebrows rose. ‘‘I see. What kind of money are we talking about?’’

  Sean named his figure, which included all he’d saved, the money Calvin Gilmore owed him, and the advance from Clem. ‘‘And I can go higher. That’s what I’ll have in cash, but my credit’s good. I should be able to borrow more if necessary.’’

  ‘‘I’ll call Harold Pierpont and let him know we have another offer. Maggie needs to know, too.’’ Denise picked up the phone and punched in a number written on her memo pad. After a minute, she put the phone down again. ‘‘No answer from the seller.’’

  ‘‘This Pierpont guy doesn’t have a machine?’’

  ‘‘Not unless it’s a defibrillator. The guy sounded ancienton the phone. I’ll be surprised if he shows up at ten tomorrow, like he said.’’

  ‘‘He’s coming here?’’

  ‘‘Supposedly. Let me try Maggie.’’

  ‘‘Wait.’’

  Denise paused, her hand on the receiver. ‘‘You want to reconsider?’’

  ‘‘No, I want to tell her myself.’’

  ‘‘That’s not how it’s done. You don’t have the competing buyers notifying each other. It has to go through me.’’

  ‘‘Oh, for crying out loud, Denise. This is Big Knob, not Chicago. Let me call her. I need to be the one to break the news.’’

  She studied him for a moment. ‘‘I’m beginning to think you actually care about her.’’

  He shrugged, unwilling to comment one way or the other.

  ‘‘I never thought Sean Madigan would be in danger of having his heart broken.’’

  ‘‘It’s not like that. Telling her myself is the decent thing to do, considering . . .’’

  ‘‘Considering you’ve slept with her, you mean.’’ Denise scowled. ‘‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you. You could have most anyone in town—or you could before you started losing your looks. Maybe that’s it. You took stock and decided you’d better grab the first available woman.’’

  Sean pulled out his cell phone. ‘‘I don’t have to listen to this. I’m calling her.’’ He punched in the number he’d memorized yesterday.

  ‘‘I’m warning you, she’ll be outta here by Monday, with or without buying the property. If you want my opinion, you’ll settle for someone else, someone who doesn’t mind so much if you have weird hair.’’

  Sean ignored her and waited for Maggie to answer.

  When she did, she sounded out of breath . . . and wary. ‘‘Hello?’’

  ‘‘I got a sudden influx of money,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m in Denise’s office and I just told her I’m bidding on the property.’’

  Silence.

  ‘‘Maggie, are you there?’’

  ‘‘Yes, I’m here. Did MegaMart get to you? Is that who gave you the money? Please have the decency to tell me if it is.’’

  ‘‘It has nothing to do with MegaMart. It’s my money. Clem Loudermilk’s paying me in advance for a construction job.’’

  There was a sound as if she’d swallowed hard. ‘‘Sean, you�
��re making a huge mistake. This place will be a horrible drain on your time and money. It looks as if it could have a ton of hidden defects.’’

  ‘‘It sounds as if you’re out there right now.’’

  ‘‘I . . . I am. I decided to take another walk around the place.’’

  To hell with his lack of sex appeal. He needed to convince her that her future was here, with him, in that house. ‘‘Stay there. I’ll be right out.’’

  He snapped the phone closed and glanced at Denise. ‘‘Let me know if you get in touch with Pierpont.’’

  ‘‘If you don’t hear from me, just meet Maggie and me out at the house at ten. I guess we’ll be doing this the old-fashioned way, face-to-face.’’

  ‘‘Fine with me.’’ If he had any luck with Maggie, she’d withdraw her bid.

  As he drove toward the property, he remembered promising Clem he’d come up there and discuss the addition. Without Clem, he had no prayer of outbidding Maggie. Driving one-handed, he called Clem.

  ‘‘I’m running into a little situation,’’ he said. ‘‘Can I come up there in about an hour?’’

  ‘‘Better not make it any longer than that,’’ Clem said. ‘‘When Clara takes a notion, she wants action. I convinced her to use you instead of some big outfit from Indianapolis, but if you don’t jump right on it, she might change her mind.’’

  ‘‘I’ll be there in an hour.’’ Sean closed the phone and tucked it back in his pocket.

  On the way past his little cottage he glanced over and saw several vehicles parked there. About five women stood in the yard, talking. He recognized all of them. He should. He’d seen every single one naked.

  Apparently the news that he’d slept with Maggie had been like throwing chum in the water. The sharks were circling and eager to leap in the boat. The women all remembered what he used to look like, though. They might scatter once they saw the loser he’d turned into.

  Unfortunately one of them spotted his truck. Good Lord. They were piling in their cars and coming after him. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed Maggie. ‘‘Change of plans. I’ve picked up an escort. I need to lose them.’’

  ‘‘Who?’’

  ‘‘Some women.’’ He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the first vehicle, Angie Jankowsky’s silver SUV, was gaining on him.

  Maggie drew in a breath. ‘‘So Denise wasn’t kidding about that.’’

  ‘‘Guess not.’’ He stepped on the gas. ‘‘Listen, I really want to talk to you.’’

  ‘‘That doesn’t seem possible.’’

  ‘‘It is, but I need to handle this, and I really have to talk to Clem and Clara. How about if I meet you in two hours out in the Whispering Forest where we left the skunks? I wanted to check on them, anyway. You can drive there, but I’ll be on foot.’’

  ‘‘On foot?’’

  ‘‘Yeah. It’s the only way I won’t be spotted.’’ Closing the phone, he floored the gas pedal. As a guy who’d had countless make-out sessions in the woods, he knew the back roads better than anyone in Big Knob. He was as good as gone.

  Maggie spent most of the next two hours wandering around the old house and wondering if she dared meet Sean. On the one hand, she might be able to talk him out of throwing away his money on this rickety old place. On the other hand, he would have an opposing goal, to talk her out of buying it for SaveALot, and she didn’t want to take a chance on losing her focus.

  On the third hand—and she ignored the logic that there was no such thing as a third hand unless you were an alien—she might never have another chance to be alone with him. She wasn’t fooling herself, either. If they were alone, they’d have sex. Whichever way things went tomorrow, she doubted there would be sex after the deal was closed. One of them would not be feeling charitable enough toward the other to get sweaty and naked together.

  Before the deal was closed, however, was a whole different thing. There was wiggle room before the deal was closed. She would love to do some more wiggling with Sean before she had to give him up forever. But she couldn’t let it influence her decision.

  In the end, she let curiosity about the skunks tip the scales. The Whispering Forest didn’t seem scary in broad daylight, and she’d like to find out if the skunks were sleeping quietly in their den. She thought she’d be able to peek in without disturbing them.

  And because she didn’t know what kind of evasive action Sean had been forced to take, she drove back to the Hob Knob and picked up two orders of homemade vegetable soup and two coffees. The sun might be shining, but the air was still brisk. If Sean was on time, the soup would still be warm.

  She found the road leading into the forest without much trouble, but the trees and underbrush all looked different during the day. One wide spot in the road seemed like the right one, but after tramping around in the woods nearby she found no fallen log with a skunk family living under it.

  What she found was a stump with footprints around it. Maybe this was where Dorcas and Ambrose had been before they’d appeared so suddenly the night before. Maggie wandered around the clearing, curious whether she’d find any clues as to what Dorcas and Ambrose had been up to out here.

  Eventually she came to a print in the moist earth that made her pause and study it. It was the sort of impression that would be made if someone had a large claw-footed table out here. That was unlikely, unless Dorcas and Ambrose had set up a banquet. But if they had, where was this table? Where were the chairs, the plates, the knives, forks and spoons?

  Searching the ground nearby, she found more of the same impressions. Strange, very strange. She’d have to bring Sean here and see what he made of it. He knew the residents better than she did. He could probably come up with an explanation.

  She drove farther down the road and ended up at the base of Big Knob. She’d gone too far. Turning around wasn’t easy, but finally she managed to point herself in the right direction. Then she retraced her path past the area where she’d seen the large impressions and finally found another wide place in the road that she’d missed the first time through. This had to be it.

  A quick check of the surrounding woods proved that she was in the right spot. She found the fallen tree and the den she and Sean had created. Crouching down, she peered into the dark little cave.

  ‘‘I wouldn’t startle them if I were you.’’

  Gasping, she leaped to her feet and turned to find Sean standing there, a backpack slung over one shoulder. For some reason he’d ditched the glasses again.

  She didn’t notice whether his hair was messy or not. She was too busy looking into his eyes, which burned with the same lusty intent she felt racing through her body.

  ‘‘I’m here to talk you out of buying the property,’’ he said.

  ‘‘What a coincidence. I’m here for the same reason.’’

  He unhooked the backpack from his shoulder and set it on the ground. ‘‘Then let’s get to it.’’ He stepped toward her.

  Her heart hammered with anticipation. ‘‘Yes, let’s.’’ She tucked her glasses in the pocket of her trench coat.

  A split second, a blink of an eye, and they were on each other.

  Chapter 24

  Thank God I brought condoms. Sean hadn’t been sure what kind of a reception he’d get, hadn’t even known if Maggie would show up. She’d shown up all right. In spades.

  He’d wondered if he’d ever kiss her again, and here she was opening her mouth for him, using her tongue, moaning as if she couldn’t get enough. Metal rasped as she unzipped his leather jacket so she could get her hands under his shirt. He’d already untied her coat and unfastened the buttons.

  Lifting his head, he caught her face in both hands. ‘‘I’m ready to come right now.’’

  ‘‘Me, too.’’ Her breath was quick and shallow. ‘‘Right now.’’

  ‘‘But we have to move away—’’ He groaned as she fondled his crotch. ‘‘Away from the skunks.’’

  ‘‘How far?’’ She sounded as desperate
as he felt.

  ‘‘This way.’’ He caught her hand, grabbed up his backpack and pulled her farther into the woods. ‘‘Here.’’ Dropping the backpack, he unzipped it and pulled out a soft blanket.

  ‘‘I thought we’d do it up against a tree.’’ Her voice was low and rich, the voice of a woman who’d lost her inhibitions.

  The blanket fell from his shaking fingers as he envisionedbracing her against the nearest evergreen and pushing in deep. Glancing at her, he saw both need and boldness in her expression. Bold women had turned him off before, but on Maggie, boldness looked good.

  Taking her by the shoulders, he kissed her hard as he maneuvered her toward a sturdy pine. Then he released her long enough to take off his jacket and drape it around her shoulders. He needed padding for what he had in mind.

  Getting her out of her jeans seemed to take forever.

  ‘‘Hurry,’’ she murmured.

  Finally he had her free, and when he reached between her thighs, he understood why she was begging him to be fast. She was so wet, so hot, and seconds away from coming. Pushing her against the tree, he kissed her again and drove his fingers into her slick heat. She erupted, her cries muffled against his mouth.

  Somehow he held himself in check as he stroked her, drawing out the pleasure. His tongue mimicked the movement of his fingers, which made him long to finish this in the way nature intended it to be finished. The scent of her climax drifted up to him, driving him crazy with lust.

  When he felt her begin to relax, he let her sink back against the tree, eyes closed, while he unbuckled his belt, wrenched open his jeans and rolled on a condom. God, she looked sexy leaning against the tree, fully clothed from the waist up, completely naked from the waist down. He’d bundled her jeans at the foot of the tree so her bare feet wouldn’t touch the ground.

  But now it wouldn’t matter. ‘‘Take—’’ He had to stop and clear his throat, which felt thick from the urges pulsing in him. ‘‘Take hold of my shoulders.’’

  Her eyes opened, and lust burned there. ‘‘Yes.’’ She clutched his shoulders. ‘‘I still want you. You made me come, but it’s not enough.’’