Imperfect Magic (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 11)

by Patricia Watters

  "I suppose it depends on what nature's calling a guy to do, and if the easy access is for him, or for someone else." Dimitri's smile widened.

  "Okay, time to wash Tut," Maddy replied, feeling her face growing hot. She'd overheard just about everything guys talked about when she was growing up, and from it she'd learned early on that what her brothers kept tucked inside their pants was of extreme importance to them, even if she never quite understood why their minds seemed to stay focused there, but bantering with Dimitri about it was causing things to happen she wasn't prepared for.

  Deciding it was time to cool down, she went to get the hose, and returned with it trailing behind. After connecting it to a faucet, she said, "For starters, horses hate being washed so you have to look at it with a two-pronged approach. First, you need to develop your horse's trust in you long before horse-bath time, which means daily grooming and talking to him so he'll have confidence in you when you come at him with buckets and hoses and brushes and other cleaning paraphernalia, sort of a, trust me, trust my toys, dynamic. And second, you need to desensitize him to what bathing's all about."

  "Are we talking days, weeks, or months of this getting-to-know-you thing?" Dimitri asked.

  "It varies with the horse," Maddy replied, while trying to ignore the muscular male torso in her line of vision. "I suggest you buy an old settled gelding. Maybe he won't be afraid of hose baths, but if he is, it's up to you to prove the thing with the water spouting out of it won't kill him. I assume you've already looked into where you'll be stabling your horse."

  "I haven't thought that far ahead," Dimitri said. "I didn't know it was this complicated."

  "Then I take it you were prepared to contract with a horse-delivery service," Maddy said.

  Dimitri looked at her, puzzled.

  "Okay, forget that. My point is, a horse won't take care of itself, and even if you pay a handler to transport it to you before every show, it still needs to be familiar with you or it could get spooked and rear up, and I don't know, maybe take off through the audience before you can make it vanish." She offered Dimitri the hose.

  "I hadn't thought about spooking either," Dimitri said, as he took hold of the nozzle.

  "Then you'd better think about that now. You'll have lights coming on, and the audience clapping and yelling, and stage props being moved around, and unless you bring a horse on stage in a semi-coma, it's going to be panicky."

  "Got it," Dimitri said. "So, let's begin."

  Maddy looked at him, curious. "You seem pretty confident."

  "I just figured I'd buy an old rodeo bronc used to lots of clapping and yelling, and if I put blinders on him to block the stage lights, the props shouldn't be any scarier than all the commotion at a rodeo."

  "I'm not sure that will work," Maddy said, "Meanwhile, are you ready with the hose?"

  Dimitri pointed the nozzle at Tut. "As ready as I'll ever be."

  "Okay then, back off a ways and approach Tut slowly and spray towards him, then quickly back away again. So, turn the hose on slowly and start with Tut's legs."

  "Got it." Dimitri turned the nozzle.

  After he'd been hosing Tut's legs for a couple of minutes, Maddy said, "Horses are afraid of things that come at them, so the more you back off while spraying, the quicker he'll get the idea that you're not out to get him, so when you spray Tut's body, angle the hose so water glances off his side, and be careful never to spray him in the face."

  "Got it," Dimitri said again, which made Maddy wonder if he had an uncanny knack for learning things fast, or he had a habit of saying got it, then went about doing things his way.

  She'd barely had that thought when a blast of water hit her square in the chest, soaking her T-shirt and sending a spray against her face while dowsing her hair.

  "Sorry," Dimitri said. "I guess I angled the hose a little too much."

  When Maddy looked at him, he was smiling, like maybe he'd angled the hose exactly the way he'd wanted, which had her shirt clinging to her exactly the way Adam warned. "You have terrible aim," she grumbled. "Tut's a pretty big target to miss."

  "I didn't miss my target." Dimitri's smile grew wider.

  Maddy was finally beginning to get a handle on this man. He was a jokester. "So, you want to play games." She grabbed the hose from him and backed away. Aiming directly at him, she soaked his chest and doused his jeans, but before she could follow the same path upward, Dimitri rushed her, grabbed the hose and shut it off and dropped it, and pulled her into his arms.

  When Maddy felt a wet male body against the full-length of her, and a hand cupping the back of her head, and lips, amazingly gentle, on hers, she made no move to get free. Instead, she curved her arms around his neck and kissed him back. The hard muscles flattening her breasts, and the warmth of Dimitri's body penetrating her wet clothes as he pressed his body to hers, made her acutely aware of what was beneath his tight jeans. It could not be ignored.

  Her heartbeat quickened, her breathing became labored like she couldn't get enough air, and her mind focused on the intimate way their bodies connected.

  Realizing anyone, including her father, could enter the stable and find them in a hot, wet clinch, Maddy broke the kiss and pushed out of Dimitri's arms, then grabbing the hose, which was snaking around the floor with the nozzle shut off, she offered it to him, and said, "If you're through being a butthead, maybe you can finish washing Tut."

  "I'm not finished with you yet." Dimitri stole a quick kiss, then taking the hose, and turning the nozzle to a gentle spray, he started hosing Tut's side, while saying, "Incidentally, I'm introducing a new illusion and I'll be using you in it. We'll start rehearsing next week."

  "Wait a minute," Maddy said, excited. "Then you're trusting me with a secret?"

  "You signed a nondisclosure agreement," Dimitri replied.

  "Yes, but you still haven't trusted me with any secrets except the trick with the kids and coins and the rope escape. What made you change your mind?" It was a leading question, but Maddy wondered if their passionate kiss had something to do with it.

  "I'm convinced you consider breaking a promise a serious offense," Dimitri replied. "Besides, you're picking things up fast and I want to see what you're capable of learning."

  He's obviously grooming you to be his assistant in Las Vegas…

  Maybe her father was right, though Maddy had no intention of following Dimitri to Las Vegas, except after she'd learn the secret to Metamorphosis there would still be the secret to Dimitri materializing on stage… and making things levitate… and walking through walls… and escaping the water torture cell… and breaking out of a burning box hanging over a river.

  Itching to get started, her curiosity about how Dimitri performed his illusions and escapes mounting, Maddy said, "What kind of illusion will we be doing?"

  "One that has you floating in midair without cables or wires," Dimitri replied, while hosing his way around Tut to the opposite side. "I'll run a hoop around you to prove it to the audience."

  Maddy looked at Dimitri over Tut's back. "Okay, you made me feel like a complete dunce with your wedding-quicksand story, so what's your explanation for making me levitate? Are you going to pump me up with helium and release me from a ball and chain?"

  Dimitri laughed. "No, this is levitation 101. Levitation and gravity are universal forces that counteract each other with mathematical precision, each being the exact measure of the energy of the other. If this equilibrium isn't maintained, levitation would pull us away from earth just as gravitation pulls us back, so without levitation we'd be so heavy we wouldn't be able to move, which means, the pull of levitation upward and gravitation downward is counterbalanced."

  "If that's so, we should all be floating, so obviously gravitation has a greater force than levitation," Maddy said. "So what's the force that will disconnect me from the gravitational pull enough to allow me to float?"

  "Your mind," Dimitri replied. "Because it exerts a great influence over the body in maintaining this bala
nce between opposite forces, it follows that all mental processes involve the mechanical principle of levitation."

  "Okay, I'm not buying it," Maddy said, "but since you admit you trust me, you should be willing to tell me the secret to Metamorphosis."

  "Not yet. You have to prove yourself with Sleeping Beauty first. That's the name of the floating woman illusion. The name of the princess is Briar Rose, so you'll be Briar Rose and I'll be the sorcerer who casts the spell that makes you float in a dream state, after which I'll materialize into the prince who kisses you and breaks the spell."

  Maddy couldn't begin to imagine how Dimitri would have her floating without wires, but she was anxious to find out. "Why are we waiting until next week to rehearse? Why not today?"

  Dimitri peered at her over Tut's back. "I take that as a compliment."

  Maddy looked at him, perplexed. "How could you possibly construe things that way?"

  "It's simple. You like kissing me, so you want to get started with the illusion."

  "You really are full of yourself," Maddy said, though she couldn't help smiling because Dimitri had a little playful gleam in his eyes that she was becoming familiar with.

  "I'm also right." Dimitri shut off the hose and dropped it, then walked around Tut and pulled Maddy into his arms and kissed her again.

  Maddy kissed him back, letting out a soft moan as their wet bodies again connected in the intimate way they had earlier, but before things could escalate to what they had with his last hot, wet kiss, she turned out of his arms, and said, "Okay, maybe I like it some."

  Dimitri picked up the hose and continued spraying, while saying, "Then we'll have to keep a tight reins on things during the kiss in Sleeping Beauty or you might fall back too quickly. It happens when I break my concentration during a levitation."

  "Yeah right, and I'm the Easter Bunny," Maddy said.

  Dimitri gave her a wry grin. "I'm trying to be a cowboy, so I was hoping you'd be my hot pink buckle bunny since the benefits of a buckle bunny are better than those of an Easter Bunny, although there could be some advantages in a chocolate-covered bunny."

  "Getting off track here," Maddy said.

  Dimitri laughed. "Okay, to answer your original question, we won't start rehearsing Sleeping Beauty until next week, because when I'm finished washing Tut I'm heading for the coast to assist my dad for the next three days."

  Maddy couldn't help feeling disappointed because she'd hoped to spend Dimitri's off time with him, maybe take him on another horseback ride into the mountains. "When you get back, will we be rehearsing Sleeping Beauty on stage at the Coyote?" she asked.

  "No, we'll be in my dressing room," Dimitri replied.

  Maddy's heart quickened with the thought of being alone with Dimitri behind the closed door to his dressing room. "What should I wear? Briar Rose in a hot pink cowgirl outfit might not ring true, and the black gown will make the audience feel like they're at a wake."

  "Don't worry," Dimitri said. "I have a costume for you."

  "Is it revealing, like the costumes your assistant wore?" Maddy asked.

  "Not as revealing as what you're wearing right now." Again that sexy smile, and when Maddy looked down at her soaked yellow T-shirt, she understood. She also felt a shot of sexual awareness that both disturbed and excited her. Dimitri, catching her eye, said, "Hold that thought. We'll get back to it when I return from the coast."

  Maddy said nothing, but she knew the heavy pulse beating in her throat and the heat creeping up her face was a silent message to Dimitri. She would not be fighting him off.

  CHAPTER 8

  While Maddy stood at the front desk in the lodge, prepared to check in the guests for the upcoming week, she tried to stay focused on reviewing the names and family makeup of the guests, but found her attention divided. In a sense, she was glad Dimitri would be gone for the next three days. Things had been getting way too heated between them, or at least too hot for her.

  She had no idea how it was with Dimitri, but when he was around, far too many physiological changes took place, so many, she wondered if she had some kind of heart problem his nearness aggravated, because shortness of breath, and irregular heartbeats, seemed to accompany all the other reactions. Even as she thought about their passionate, dripping-wet kisses in the stable, and the intimate way their bodies connected, she found it difficult to breathe.

  "Honey, are you okay?" Maddy looked up to find her Aunt Jayne staring at her.

  Maddy also realized her hands were pressed together against her chest while she'd attempted to suck in air, all the while her heart was racing at an alarming rate. She actually wasn't sure if she was okay. Maybe there was something wrong with her heart. She'd never had these reactions before. "I was a little out of breath," she said.

  "Just from standing at the desk?" Jayne asked, concerned.

  "I, umm, ran here, since I was late," Maddy lied. Deciding she probably didn't have a heart problem, because all the disturbing symptoms occurred only when Dimitri was near, or when she was thinking about him, she resolved to give it no concern, even though she knew the thoughts would keep coming, something she couldn't seem to control, no matter how hard she tried.

  "I want to talk to you about this coming week," Jayne said. "A woman and her eight-year-old daughter will be staying here through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and I want to make sure everything's ready for them. Because of the little girl's medical circumstances, they will be coming mid-week and staying over the weekend and into the following week, and I'm putting them in Cabin 4. I've notified the kitchen staff that meals should be delivered there at any time, but the mother said she hopes her daughter can take part in as many activities as possible."

  "Where is the father?" Maddy asked.

  "He's in the military and out of the country, another reason why they're here. The little girl was missing the dad, and her mother thought this would help lift her spirits."

  "Isn't Make-A-Wish for terminally-ill kids?" Maddy asked.

  "Not necessarily terminally ill. They can be children with life-threatening illnesses," Jayne replied. "In the case of this little girl, she's on the waiting list for a heart transplant."

  "Will she be able to sit on a horse while I lead it around?" Maddy asked."

  Jayne nodded. "The mother said she can ride with help. Adam also plans to set things up for a hay ride, and Marc and Kit have some projects planned for her at the museum, but according to the mother, the little girl's more excited about riding a horse than anything else, which should be right up your alley, now that you have your therapeutic horsemanship certification."

  "True, but it will also be my first experience handling a child with disabilities on my own."

  "You'll do fine," Jayne said, "but now that you're licensed, I imagine you'll want to start on your arena as soon as you're finished working with Dimitri."

  At the sound of Dimitri's name, Maddy's heart accelerated, her face felt hot, and her mind focused on thoughts of his return when they'd be rehearsing Sleeping Beauty in his dressing room. What surprised her most was that she found it exhilarating being with him on stage and being a part of his show, even if she was little more than a live prop, just to watch the magic he brought to every performance. And after Sleeping Beauty, she'd be a part of Metamorphosis. She could even imagine one day being on stage with him in Las Vega. Her gown would be more glitzy there, and she'd do something with her hair, maybe have it styled so she could wear it down, the way Dimitri suggested...

  "You are still going ahead with plans for your arena, aren’t you?" Jayne asked, during the extended period of silence while Maddy was lost in thought.

  "Well, yes, of course," Maddy replied, though she knew from Jayne's expression that her response fell short.

  "Honey, we watched the show the other night and you looked very natural and professional as Dimitri's assistant, so I can understand if you're a little undecided right now because he's a very attractive and gifted young man, but he's from a completely different wor
ld than yours."

  Deciding to set things straight, even if things were on a zigzag course in her mind right now, Maddy said, "You're right about the different worlds, but like I told Mom, Dad, Adam, Marc and just about everyone else around here, I'm not interested in Dimitri and I won't be following him to Las Vegas, no matter what kind of offer he dangles in front of me."

  "Has he implied that he'd be offering you a job as his assistant?" Jayne asked. "Your dad's convinced he has, or at least, will."

  Again Maddy hesitated. Dimitri had made no offer per se, but the fact that he wanted to see what she was capable of learning implied he was grooming her to become his assistant. Nor could she deny the lure was there. But to prevent complete chaos in the family, she said, "To set everyone's minds at ease, you can pass the word around that at the end of the month I'm retiring as a magician's assistant and for them to be prepared to help me build my arena. Now, about this little girl who's coming, fill me in on her history."

  Jayne looked at her, dubiously, as if she knew exactly why Maddy was changing the subject, then proceeded to explain the preparations for the arrival of the sick child, but as Maddy listened, she found it almost impossible to focus on anything but Dimitri, the way he looked, the way he smiled, the way he teased her, the way he sent decks of cards flying in arcs between his hands, the magic he brought to his performances. But more recently, her focus was on the way he held her and kissed her in the stable, and again in the limo their last night together before he left for the coast. For the moment though, her mind was jumping ahead three days to when he'd return and she'd be alone with him in his private dressing room.

  ***

  With the first week of his run at the Coyote over, and less than three weeks to go, Dimitri decided he'd better get on with working out the disappearing donkey illusion, and although his mind had been absorbed with thoughts of Maddy over the past three days, he'd managed to spend time combing through the documents and notes.