JAKrentz - Witchcraft (8 page)

"What happened when you were born?"

"Absolutely nothing. There was no contact from the
Marlands
."

"You don't even bear your father's name?"

"I refuse. I took my mother's." "Scott said your mother died a few years ago,"
Cavenaugh
said gently. "She was killed in a car accident on an L.A. freeway," Kimberly explained bleakly.
Cavenaugh
was silent for a while as he thoughtfully munched toast. Kimberly decided he had abandoned the topic but a moment later he asked, "Why do the
Marlands
want to contact you now after all these years?" Kimberly allowed herself a savage little smile. "Because the noble son and heir, my father, never had any more children. He married well, mind you, but his wife proved unable to have children. My father was killed in a sailing accident a year after my mother died, according to those lawyers."

Fleetingly she remembered the odd sensation of loss she'd had when she'd learned that the father she'd never known had died. "So now the
Marlands
have no one except you. "They don't have me," Kimberly said with cool finality. "As far as I'm concerned they made their bed twenty-eight years ago. Now they can sleep in it. They chose to wield all that family power and pressure then and they can damn well live with the results. I'll never forgive them for what they did to my mother."

"That letter from their lawyers implies there would be a large settlement for you if you'll agree to a meeting with the
Marlands
."

"I don't need or want their money."

"How about the sense of having family ties?"

Cavenaugh
pointed out. "You're
ju
st
as alone now as your grandparents are."

"I'm not a big fan of strong family ties," Kimberly told him wryly. "Not after what family ties did to my mother."

"Is that why you're so intent on finding a man who's as free as you are?" Kimberly blinked. "Full marks for analysis. You've got it in one. If I ever decide to marry it will be to a man whose loyalty is one hundred percent with me. I won't share him with several generations of responsibility and clout and money."

"And of course he must share this deep sense of nonverbal communication with you, too."

"You find it humorous?" she asked coldly. "I think you're living in a fantasy world. You want a man who will materialize out of nowhere with no ties to anyone but you, and who will think the same way you do."

"It's a pleasant enough fantasy," she returned negligently. "You might like the real world just as well," he suggested. "Not a chance."

"Are you sure there won't come a time when you'll need a real flesh-and-blood man?"

"Not on a permanent basis," she tossed back caustically. "Would you please pass the jam?"

"Is that a way of telling me you want to change the topic?" He handed her the jar of strawberry jam. "I am continually amazed at your perceptive abilities," She gave him a brilliant smile. "I have a few other abilities, too, but you have so many built-in prejudices against men in my position that you're not going to give yourself a chance to test them, are you?"

"If you're talking about the way you seemed to read my mind yesterday." He shook his head impatiently. "There was no telepathy involved yesterday. I just put a few facts together and realized it must be you calling the house. Since I had intended to drive over to the coast to see you soon, anyway, I decided to arrive sooner rather than later. No, Kim, I'm not referring to any supernatural abilities. I'm talking about more concrete ones. I'd like a chance to prove my ability to satisfy you in bed, for example." Kimberly drained her coffee in a single, hot swallow and set the cup down with a sharp clatter. "Don't hold your breath. If you think that I'll sleep with you in exchange for your offer of protection, you might as well leave now. I'll take care of myself."
Cavenaugh's
emerald eyes glittered with sudden proud fury. "When I decide to sleep with you, witch, it will be on my terms, not yours. And you can bet my terms won't include exchanging sex for protection. You're not the only one who has a few ironclad rules in a relationship but I definitely will not resort to buying a woman, with either money or protection or anything else. Do we understand each other?" Kimberly caught her lower lip briefly between her teeth as she considered the arrogant anger in him. "I didn't mean to insult you,
Cavenaugh
," she apologized aloofly. And it was the truth, She hadn't meant to antagonize him. It was just that he had pushed her a little too far. "Terrific," he growled sardonically as he reached for the coffeepot. "Maybe we do share some mystic al channel of communication. At least you understand me well enough to know when to back down."

CHAPTER FOUR.

The
Cavenaugh
Vineyards and winery could have served as a picture postcard of a Napa Valley wine estate. Gently rolling hills of neatly trimmed vines surrounded the chateau-style buildings in the center. A tree-lined drive led from the highway through the vineyards to the winery. Kimberly sat in the passenger seat of Darius
Cavenaugh's
well-bred Jaguar as he turned off the highway and headed toward the main house. She was feeling very wary as she approached his home--more so than she had expected to feel. "It looks as though it's all been here a couple of hundred years," she finally remarked, studying the vaguely French country house architecture of the two main buildings. "Not quite,"
Cavenaugh
said. "My father had the winery building constructed in the 1960s. It's open to the public three days a week. I had the main house built two years ago. So much for family history."

"But your family has been in the wine business here in California for several generations, hasn't it?" "Off and on,"
Cavenaugh
said cryptically.

Kimberly's brows came together in a small line. "Well, right now it looks like it's definitely on." The grounds appeared sleek and prosperous, well cared for and undoubtedly quite profitable.
Cavenaugh
allowed himself a remote expression of satisfaction. "Yes. Right now, it's on." The
Cavenaugh
home was set on a hill above the winery building, protected from tourists by a gated drive and a deceptively casual-looking low rock wall. "I've had electronic equipment installed along the entire perimeter of the wall,"
Cavenaugh
explained as he used a small gadget to open the gate automatically. "No one can get past without Starke knowing."

"Who's Starke?"

"A friend of mine. He's in charge of security around here. With all the tourists we get on weekends we've always had to exercise some controls. After what happened to Scott, we've really tightened things up." He threw her a grimly compelling glance as he halted the Jaguar in front of the house.

"As long as you stay on the house grounds you'll be safe, Kim. I don't want you going beyond that wall without someone accompanying you. Is that very clear?" Kimberly glanced uneasily around at the perimeter of her new jail and wondered what she'd gotten herself into. A trapped sensation began to nibble at her awareness. She wasn't certain how she should respond to
Cavenaugh's
orders and was therefore grateful for the distraction that came banging through the main door of the house. "Uncle Dare, Uncle Dare, you brought her!
i
knew you would!" Scott Emery's delighted face appeared at the window of the car on
Cavenaugh's
side.

He looked past his uncle to examine Kimberly. "Hi, Miss. Sawyer," he said, his voice lowering under a sudden attack of shyness. "Do you remember me?" Kimberly grinned. "Believe me, Scott, I will never forget you!"

"Kim's going to be staying with us for a while,"
Cavenaugh
began, opening his car door and pushing a hand affectionately through the youngster's shaggy black hair. "Oh boy, I can show her my new train setup!"

"Miss. Sawyer, we're so glad to have you. I told Dare he wasn't to return without you!" Kimberly was sliding out of the Jaguar, not waiting for
Cavenaugh
to open the door for her when the new voice interrupted Scott's excited chatter. she looked up to see an attractive, black-haired woman with
Cavenaugh's
green eyes coming down the front steps. There was no doubt about who she was. Julia."

Kimberly held out her hand politely to Darius
Cavenaugh's
sister. "I've been wanting to meet you since the night Dare brought Scott home and told us what happened. I'm sure he told you how very, very grateful we all are for what you did. I'm delighted he was able to talk you into visiting us!"

"Thank you," Kim began awkwardly, wondering how long she would be welcome when
Cavenaugh's
household discovered that she was there for an unspecified duration. Before she could think of anything else to say to the pretty woman who was Scott's mother, Kimberly became aware of yet another person standing at the top of the steps. ', Starke,"
Cavenaugh
said calmly as he nodded at the newcomer. "I'd like you to meet Kimberly Sawyer. We'll be looking after her for a while."

Kimberly managed a polite smile as the man came slowly down the steps.

It wasn't the easiest task she had ever set herself. The man they called Starke suited his name. A forbidding face that Kimberly guessed rarely knew the tug of a smile was outlined in awesomely blunt planes and angles. There was a sense of restrained menace about the man, as if the layer of civilization was rather thin. Kimberly could see a raw, potentially violent intelligence deep in the dark pools of the brooding gaze under which he pinned her. She hid a shudder and wondered where on earth
Cavenaugh
had found him. "It's about time you got here, Miss. Sawyer," Starke said in a graveled riverbed voice as he inclined his iron-gray head austerely. "
Cavenaugh
needs you." Before Kim could find a response to the outrageous remark, Starke had already turned and stalked back into the house. "Don't mind Starke," Julia Emery exclaimed cheerfully as she urged Kimberly up the steps. "He's a little weird but he's nice."

"And no one will ever get past him to get at Scott again,"
Cavenaugh
observed softly as he carried Kimberly's suitcase inside the house. "You can say that again," Julia whispered confidentially to Kimberly. "Poor Starke took it very hard when Scott got kidnapped. I think he felt it was his fault, which of course it wasn't. Whoever took Scott got him on the way home from school. We used to let him ride his bike, you see. Not any more, naturally. Starke drives him back and forth now."

"I see," Kimberly said, glad that everyone was going to let Starke's nutty remark about
Cavenaugh
needing her slide by without comment. To make certain nothing more was said on the subject she hurried to exclaim over the beautiful interior of the house. "What a lovely home, Julia. It looks like an elegant old chateau."

"But fortunately has all the modern conveniences," Julia said, chuckling.

"Including plenty of room. I'll take you upstairs to the bedroom you'll be using. We had it prepared just in case Dare succeeded in getting you to agree to stay with us for a while." Another figure bustled forward as Julia guided Kimberly through the wide hall toward a large, curving staircase. "This is Mrs. Lawson. She takes care of us. Don't know what we'd do without her. The house would probably fall apart. Mrs. Lawson, this is Kimberly Sawyer." The plump housekeeper held out her hand with a cheerful smile and a crinkle of genuine humor in her gray eyes. She was probably in her late
fifti
es
, Kimberly estimated, as she greeted the woman. Privately she wondered how many other people there were in the household. The sense of being surrounded grew. She and Julia had reached the second floor of the house and were halfway down the hall toward the bedroom Kimberly was to use when two other figures popped out of a sunny sitting room with loud exclamations of pleasure. "Ah, this must be Kim," the first declared. "So glad you could come, dear! I'm Dare's aunt,
Milly
Cavenaugh
." Kimberly smiled at the charmingly stately woman in her mid-sixties who swept up to her.
Milly
Cavenaugh
had the now-familiar green eyes of the family but her once black hair had silvered quite elegantly. She wore it in a regal bun at the back of her head. The queenly style suited the woman.
Milly
was tall and proudly built. Her eyes sparkled with animation and an unquenchable curiosity.

Cavenaugh
had mentioned his aunt had lost her husband years ago and now divided her time between whatever projects happened to take her fancy.

Kimberly knew she was going to like the older woman, but she also knew she was going to thoroughly enjoy the creature in the purple turban and lime green dress who stood behind her. For an instant she just stared at the brightly dressed woman. The robust, vividly attired lady was about the same age as
Milly
, but where
Cavenaugh's
aunt had an air of elegance about her, her companion appeared wonderfully eccentric and not a little scatterbrained. A good character for a book, Kimberly found herself thinking. "Kim, this is my aunt's friend, Ariel Llewellyn," Julia said, making the introductions quickly. "Ariel and my aunt are inseparable."

"Rubbish," Ariel announced grandly, shaking Kimberly's hand with brisk enthusiasm. "
Milly
and I amuse each other and spend a good many afternoons together but we certainly aren't inseparable, are we,
Milly
?"