Maia's Magickal Mates [The Double R 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (21 page)

He turned his face just enough so that her lips met his.

Maia sucked in her breath at the contact and closed her eyes at the shock of electricity that infused her body from head to toe.

If he could set her on fire like this with just a kiss, when they were both fully clothed, what would it be like when they had sex?

She’d probably explode.

Maia smiled at the direction of her reflections, how she’d thought
when
they had sex and not
if
they had sex, as if the act was a foregone conclusion, at least in her mind.

“Want us to come up and tuck you in later when Thayne gets back?”

Maia burst out laughing and put a hand on Cade’s cheek, loving the way the stubble felt against her palm, such a contrast from Thayne’s relatively smooth, close-shaved jaw.

She loved his sense of humor. She loved so many things about Cade and his brother.

Maia knew it was just too soon to feel so close to these men, as if she knew their hearts and souls. She felt like she had known them all her life, as if they belonged to her.

It didn’t matter how much she argued with herself, however. She couldn’t deny all the confusing, tender, and wonderful sensations flowing through and suffusing her heart.

“I think I can manage.”

“We’re here if you need us.”

“I know.” She would be there when they needed her, too.

* * * *

Thayne returned a couple of hours later, thoroughly exhausted and ready for a shower before he crashed.

Cade sat on the sofa in the living room, still dressed and staring at the TV. Maia was nowhere in sight, and Thayne didn’t know whether that was a good or bad thing.

He took a seat next to Cade, who sat in front of the set like a statue and didn’t react to Thayne’s presence, not even when he picked up the remote and lowered the volume on some mindless reality show that his brother obviously wasn’t watching. “Where’s Maia?”

“She went up to bed a couple of hours ago.”

“You’ve been down here all that time?”

Cade turned to Thayne. “You thought I’d try to move in on her while you were out?”

“No, that’s not what I thought,” Thayne lied. “But since you brought it up, maybe we need to talk about what happened back in McCoy right before we came out here.”

“What’s there to talk about? I told you what Mom and Dad said.”

“There’s that.”

“You think I made it up, like some convenient celestial lie to get laid with you and your girlfriend?”

“You’re purposely being snide, Cade, and I don’t like it.”

Cade sighed and threw his head back against the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. “I never wanted this. This isn’t what I came here for, Thayne.”

“Oklahoma?”

“No, here as in home to live with you in McCoy. I would never have dreamed to move in on your territory, to cock block you.”

“I know.”

Cade lifted his head from the sofa to stare at Thayne. “I mean, I can get my own woman, but that’s not what this is about. It’s just not as simple as me getting a woman of my own or you having a woman of your own.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“Where it always has. Where Mom and Dad told us it does. We need to work together, to protect each other, to keep Maia safe.”

“Yes, about that.
What
exactly are we keeping her safe from?”

“Evil that will be knocking at our door.”

“That’s so nice and ambiguously not helpful.”

“Don’t shoot the messenger.”

Thayne chuckled, glad he had something to chuckle about though it wasn’t much. Anything was better than nothing, though, especially now.

“Why don’t we hold off on making moves until this is over and we’re all back home?”

“Agreed,” Cade said. “I won’t touch her and you won’t, except cursorily, until we all get back to McCoy.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Thayne nodded but knew it wouldn’t be that easy. When there had been no restraint on acting on his desires except his own willpower, it had been hard enough staying away from Maia physically. He’d managed it, though. Now, however, with the stipulated bargain struck between him and his brother, the pressure would really be on, the dog-in-the-manger syndrome in full effect.

He left his brother on the sofa and headed up the stairs, the quote
to the victor belong the spoils
unaccountably playing in his mind over and over. It was something his competitive brother would probably think more than him, but since Maia had entered his life, Thayne had not been himself in a while. He didn’t know if he would ever go back to that detached, impervious, staid workaholic Thayne ever again.

* * * *

Maia’s spirits should have been buoyed by the start of the day, a morning that dawned so bright and warm, with birds chirping and singing outside, she shouldn’t have been able to help but wake with a song in her heart.

Only dread filled Maia’s.

Her feelings didn’t lighten at breakfast either when the brothers did everything but don hazmat suits to avoid coming directly in contact with her.

Their efforts were so coordinated and concerted as they went about making, serving, and eating breakfast, Maia wondered if they had had a little talk about her last night after she had gone to bed.

The situation would have been funny if it wasn’t so tragic, but could she really blame them if they had talked? They were brothers, and she couldn’t fault them for closing ranks against her. Blood was thicker than water, and what brothers worth their salt would let a woman come between them?

Except that Maia clung to Cade’s words back in McCoy about her completing a circle. The vision brought about hope for her future with Thayne and Cade, hope she continued to hold onto by the thinnest of a thread, she realized.

Aura’s last-rites ceremony was a short and simple Wiccan affair, one that Maia found strangely comforting, as if Aura took care to ensure that her loved ones didn’t mourn her unnecessarily. Every word the High Priestess spoke, every act she performed, was one that put Aura’s gathered friends and family at ease and assured them that Aura was happy on her latest journey.

After Aura’s cremated remains were buried beneath a tree in the woods behind her house, Mr. Chandler had a car collect Thayne, Cade, and Maia and brought them all back to his law offices in town.

The reading of the will proved just a formality as Aura had expectedly left her house and The Lively Horse Ranch to Thayne and Cade. There were no other relatives to contest.

Mr. Chandler informed the two brothers that they could take some time to decide what to do with everything, whether or not they chose to stay and run the ranch or inevitably sell it. He said that he could help them with either undertaking once they made their decision.

After thanking Mr. Chandler for all that he had done for their aunt, Thayne and Cade left his offices and escorted Maia back to the ranch.

The feeling of unfinished business hovered over Maia the entire day, a feeling of impending danger that she just couldn’t shake as much as she tried, especially at the last rites.

Once back at the ranch they all changed out of their formal attire into simple jeans and shirts, ready to wind down and prepare for their return to McCoy tomorrow.

Thayne put something special on for dinner, leaving the covered pan on a low fire in the oven to slow cook before he headed for the basement with instructions to Cade and Maia to take the pan out of the oven in a couple of hours.

The delicious aromas that wafted through the house had Maia’s mouth watering and her regretting that she had missed Thayne’s famous whole-wheat vegetarian lasagna in McCoy. She was glad that he gave her and Cade a second chance now to sample it. She was starving since none of them had partaken in lunch at Mr. Chandler’s office or even wanted to.

Curious as they sat on the sofa in front of some inane TV show neither of them really watched, Maia asked Cade what Thayne was up to in the basement.

Cade shrugged. “He’s probably satisfying a bout of nostalgia, going through some of our old belongings, probably some pictures of Aunt Aura and Uncle Jeff.”

Maia nodded in understanding. She’d seen some of those belongings the previous day when Thayne and Cade had taken her on a tour of the house.

“He was really close to them, you know,” Cade added.

His aunt and uncle had been his only living relatives next to Cade. Maia imagined Thayne would be close to them. “What about you?”

“I loved them and all, but I was close to Thayne. After Mom and Dad died, he kind of became the center of my universe back then. I tagged along with him wherever he went whenever I got the chance. Probably put a real crimp in his romantic life.” Cade grinned. “Until I got one of my own, that is.”

Maia smiled but didn’t have a chance to say anything before they heard a door in the kitchen open and close.

Thinking Thayne had come out of the basement, she didn’t move, and neither did Cade. Thus she was surprised to see the man appear on the threshold between the living room and the kitchen.

Maia thought he might have been one of Aura’s many neighbors making a condolence call. There had been so many in the last day and a half, which was one of the chief reasons Thayne and Cade had decided to leave the door unlocked, that and the people out here just did things this way, same as their neighbors in McCoy.

The man, however, looked out of place, too sophisticated and citified to be one of Aura’s down-to-earth neighbors.

Cade clearly didn’t recognize the gentleman any more than Maia did and arched a brow. “Can I help you?”

Cade’s calm voice almost lulled her into a sense of safety and security before the man grinned and stepped closer.

He didn’t have any visible weapons in his possession, yet he had a sinister aura and projected as threatening a vibe as if he pointed a loaded gun at her and Cade.

Cade must have sensed the menace like her, but a moment too late, as he started to stand from the sofa before an invisible force stopped him in his tracks.

He collapsed back onto the sofa, clutching his head between both hands as if in unbearable pain.

“I thought you’d be more of a challenge, but it looks like you’re just like your parents, with weak and passive abilities at best.”

Maia looked from Cade writhing on the sofa to the stranger standing no more than a few feet away from them and knew exactly what had killed Aura. “Who are you?” she asked but already knew. This man with the cold, empty hazel eyes was Aura’s massive stroke. He was the evil to which Thayne and Cade’s parents had alluded in Cade’s dream.

“Where’s the pendant?”

Maia opened her mouth to respond—determined that he would not get what he wanted, that he would not get to Thayne—before she felt the specter in her mind, weaving in and out of her thoughts, probing. “No…” She gasped, more from shock at the alien presence than from pain. Even though she didn’t immediately recognize exactly what he did to her and Cade, Maia’s “passive” powers went on autopilot, reflexively putting up a wall to block him before he could do her real damage.

She vaguely wondered if Cade had anything to do with the upsurge of her abilities.

Did he feed her his powers, even while withstanding the stranger’s assault?

“Hmm, I’m really going to have to stop underestimating how effective those passive powers are, aren’t I?” He came closer, growling as he shot out a hand to grab Maia around the arm and jerked her to her feet. “I can make this quick and relatively painless or I can make it very slow and painful. It’s your choice.”

“What do you want?” Cade rasped.

Maia wanted to go to him so badly and soothe his agony, but the stranger stopped her short, rearing back with his free arm and backhanding her hard across the face.

“You son of a bitch!” Cade spat.

“Where. Is. The. Pendant?”

Stunned, Maia licked blood from the corner of her mouth where her teeth and the stranger’s knuckles had connected.

Don’t let him get to Thayne. Don’t let him get the pendant. If he does, we’re all dead, quick or slow. We’re just dead.
“I know where it is.”

“Maia, don’t—” Cade cried out and rolled from the sofa to the floor, squirming and still holding his head between his hands.

“I’ll take you to it! Just don’t hurt him.”

“Aren’t you sweet? Another self-sacrificing protector like Aura, I take it. The Malloy boys have to be the luckiest men alive to have so many women care about them so.”

Maia frowned, but before she could ask him what he meant the stranger asked, “Where is the other one, anyway? I know he’s in here somewhere. I didn’t see him leave.”

She wondered how long the brute had been watching them. “You want the pendant, right? Then come on, let’s go get it. It’s upstairs in my room.”

The stranger glanced back at Cade lying still on the floor.

Oh Goddess, let him not be dead! Not Cade. Please, no.