Never Been Witched (11 page)

Authors: ANNETTE BLAIR

BOOK: Never Been Witched

10.41Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

The last wreath went in the studio, then she went to Morgan, seated silently at his drawing table. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi.”

As he reached behind him, she placed her chin on his head, massaged his shoulders, and ran her hands down either side of his chest.

He leaned against her and caught her hands, kissing the palm of each. “Nice,” he said. “Did you have a good walk?”

“Did you have a good think?”

“I thought about Meggie.”

“Probably because she’s sitting here watching you.” Destiny winked at Meggie, who grew wide-eyed at being exposed, more or less, and she watched her brother for his reaction. Her angel, as always, remained expressionless.

“Whatever,” Morgan said, letting her go and getting back to his work.

Meggie wilted, and she and Buffy disappeared.

Destiny worked at her easel there in the studio so she could watch the play of muscles on Morgan’s wide-shouldered, slim-waisted torso. On him, subtlety was a waste. Vexing vetiver, blatant suggestions were totally lost on him. It made her wonder what he’d do if she painted Take Me, I’m Yours in scarlet on the bedsheets or across the walls of Jericho.

If his bedroom wall didn’t retain its beautifully hand-painted wallpaper of pale pink and sage dogwood branches, she’d paint an invitation in foot-high letters where he could see it from his side of the bed.

A buzzer rang, a rusty sound, and a rude interruption.

Morgan looked up. “Who the heck could that be?”

“Be?” She looked out the window toward the front porch. “Looks like a deliveryman, but I can’t read what it says on his jacket.” She followed Morgan down the stairs.

“Who delivers what to an island?” he asked, opening the door.

“We deliver kayaks to an island,” the stranger said, “or in this case one kayak. A two-seater.”

Frustration rushed Destiny. No! Not a way off the island. Not now. It was too soon. She was just beginning to make some headway. She bit her lip and folded her arms. “A means of escape for you, maybe, but
I’m
not going anywhere.”

Morgan rolled his eyes. “Then I take it you didn’t order the kayak?”

“Sure,” she said. “I cast a transportation spell so
you
could get off the island.”

The man from Show-Boats looked from one of them to the other. “What?”

Morgan looked down, shook his head, and maybe his shoulders shook a little, too. “I didn’t order it either,” he said.

The guy checked his paperwork. “Are you King Paxton?”

Morgan gave her an I-told-you-so look. “No. That’d be at the castle.”

“Nobody home at the castle, and I need a signature. Frankly, it’ll cost Mr. Paxton a hefty sum to get us out here a second time. We saw the windows open upstairs and thought you might be willing to take delivery.”

“I’ll take the kayak,” Morgan said.

“And I’ll take the hat,” Destiny added.

The man tipped his Red Sox World Series Champs hat her way before he went to help his crew unload the kayak. Morgan followed him outside, and Destiny watched out the kitchen window. The delivery crew left a huge bright red kayak right there on the beach beside the foundation wall.

She went outside. “Won’t that float away at high tide?”

Morgan regarded her with speculation. “I’ll pull it higher up on land later. I thought you might want to go for a ride around the island. Ever since King and Harmony fell down the rabbit hole into the hot-springs in the amethyst cave, I’ve wanted to look for a way to reach it from the beach.”

Damn, that sounded like fun,
if
that’s what he honestly planned. She crossed her arms. “I am
not
letting you take me back to the mainland.”

“Give it up already. I’m sorry for my moment of madness.”

“The one that ruined and lost my clothes?”

“Yeah, yeah. Go put on a hoodie, slacks, a jacket, and some sensible shoes, and bring spares. You can have your own paddle.” He raised one in the air for her to see. “Big sucker. If you don’t like the direction I’m heading, you can hit me with it. I’m making you the backseat driver.”

“I’ll use it if I have to.”

“I don’t doubt it for a minute.”

“Just so you know. They teach you kayaking in the seminary?”

“Kayaking 101. They teach it right after exorcism and before ordination.”

“So, you are a priest. Have you ever handled a kayak before?”

“No to the priest. Yes to the kayak. I’ve been out with King and Aiden, but we rented kayaks back then. King’s been planning to buy one for a while.”

“Do you think he’ll mind if we use it? I mean, it’s brand-new.”

“The money we saved him by accepting delivery can be our rental fee.”

“Works for me. I’ll be right back.” She did want to go. It looked like fun.

“I’ll pack the supplies,” he said as she was leaving.

Suspicion stopped her. “What kind of supplies? Wait. Don’t those things flip over?”

“I’m packing precautionary supplies. I was an Eagle Scout. Strong survival skills.” He tapped his temple. “Smart.”

“Dumb,” she said as she turned back to the house. “Too dumb to accept the sexual invitation I handed you on a nipple platter.”

“I heard that!”

“Okay, now try translating it into a language you
understand
.”

No easy solution to finding warm clothes for her. He came to get his own in a blink, but her thick, warm clothes were still damp. The base of the lighthouse stairs wasn’t exactly a warm, sunny spot. But after he left, she solved her problem by stealing some of his sweats.

“Took you long enough,” he said when she went to meet him.

“I wanted a padded bra so I’d float when we tip over.”

Morgan nodded, gave her an almost smile, handed her a personal flotation device, put her extra clothes in a waterproof bag, and stowed it. “Here,” he said, taking something from his pocket. He removed her soft-brimmed velvet hat from her head and replaced it with the Sox Champs cap.

“How did you get it?”

“The guy was bribable, and I know how much you like hats.”

“You noticed.”

“Hard to miss when you wear one to bed.”

“I do not.”

“Let’s put you in the life vest and get you in.” He helped her put the flotation device over her head and managed to cop a feel along the way. Wandering widdershins, he might figure out how to think straight yet. Hope reigned supreme. He fastened her into her vest, and she felt like a Barbie doll, like his toy, with him playing dress-up.

He winked and helped her into the boat. The thing that hugged her waist like elastic, he called a spray skirt, designed so the spray couldn’t get her too wet.

He backed the kayak into the water and climbed in at the last minute. “Oooh,” she squeaked. “This
is
tippy.”

“Only while I was getting in. Shush and enjoy the scenery.”

She held her paddle, in case he needed a good smack, and enjoyed the scenery. He looked back and did a double take. “Feel free to paddle at any time.”

“Oh, you need help getting us there?”

“Double the weight, double the paddling.”

“I beg your pardon, but we do not weigh the same.”

“Shut up and paddle.”

“I’m dipping in my oar,” she said. “In, out. In, out. The Eagle should consider doing the same.”

Chapter Fifteen

“THIS is scary,” Destiny said. “Maybe we should go back.”

“Nah, we should paddle away from the shore so we can arrive at our destination by crossing the waves rather than letting them roll us.”

“I think home.”

“I think the open sea.”

“Bad idea.” But he’d already turned them so they could take a circuitous sea-jaunt jug handle toward their appointed destination. It made a weird sort of sense, until the water began to swoosh and swirl and the kayak lifted out of the water.

Destiny screamed, and Morgan shouted.

The swirling water around them seemed to explode with a whoosh! and they were drenched and dripping.

A dolphin came up beside them and laughed. Whew. But another came up on the other side. Frolicking dolphins rocked them like paper dolls in a paper boat.

“Morrrrgannn.”

Four, maybe five dolphins, played beneath and around the kayak, raising it up and plopping it back down, splishing and splashing, whooshing and thrashing, while the pointy-nosed clowns came up to make fun of them.

Destiny pulled the paddle carefully from the water on the right so as not to hit one of the dolphins, but the other end got Morgan in the head.

That
was the crack she heard, right before he slumped forward.

“Dear Goddess, I’ve killed him!”

Destiny unfastened her splash skirt and stood to reach for him, but two dolphins jumped up beside them . . . and rolled them over. Destiny surfaced to find the kayak floating upside down and no Morgan in sight. She dove beneath it and found him opening his splash skirt to get out. They surfaced together. “Are you all right?” she asked.

“Grab the kayak,” he shouted. “Where are the paddles?”

She grabbed the kayak. “I’ve got a paddle. Where’s yours?”

Together they righted the boat. Morgan unsnapped a couple of watertight bags containing small sauce pots and handed her one.

“Time to cook?” she asked.

“Time to bail, so we can get back in.”

The air nipped at her wet face and frozen fingers. “You said this wouldn’t tip. Good grief, you’re bleeding.”

He felt the back of his head and came away with bloody fingers. “Did you hit me with your paddle?”

“I didn’t want to hit a dolphin.”

“So you knocked me out, instead?”

“Bail,” she said, and the dolphins laughed. “Good thing they don’t eat people. They don’t, right?”

“I don’t know. You look pretty tasty to me.”

“Cute.”

“Let me get in first,” he said. “Then I’ll help you in. I have experience.”

“You lie. You said it wouldn’t tip, but you have experience getting back in after it does? This water is freaking cold.”

“I know. I’ve tested it twice since you got here. Am I bleeding, again?”

“This was not my fault.
You
chose to move us away from shore and toward Dolphins R Us.”

He helped her climb back in while she felt like a beached whale, then she landed with a thud and only felt dizzy. She fastened her splash skirt but didn’t know why. She couldn’t get any wetter.

“If we roll again,” he said. “Just hold your breath and don’t get out. I know how to roll us back up.”

“If you had said that back at the lighthouse, I wouldn’t be here.”

“That’s why I didn’t say it.”

“I’m cold.”

“You’re whining.”

“The wind is blowing, and I’m freezing my ass off.”

“It’s a fine ass.”

“You should know. You slept with it in your hand for most of the night.”

“Ditto,” he said, though he didn’t turn around and from where she sat, she saw his ears get red.

Such cute ears. Progress in the sex department, anyway. “I wanna go home.”

“Look, there’s the waterfall. That’s our destination.”

“But I’m
wet
.”

“That’s why you brought dry clothes.”

“Boy am I stupid for thinking second layer.”

He pulled the kayak way up on the beach in a small lagoon that you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t this close.

“It’s not quite low tide,” he said. “We’ve got a few more hours of easy sailing.”

“That was easy sailing?”

He helped her out of the kayak and took out their dry clothes. “Do you want to change here on the beach, behind the rocks, or wait until after we swim in the hot springs?”

Her teeth chattered. “Are you sure there are hot springs?”

“No.” He pulled her closer to the cliff to break the wind. “That steaming waterfall, however, is coming from a hot spring about twenty feet above us. There
should
be a natural opening in the rocks somewhere along here, according to my personal geological theories. Are you game?”

“I’m wet and freezing,” she snapped. “You nearly drowned me.”

“You clocked me.”

“I did have your permission, in the event you were not going in the direction I wanted.”

He sighed. “Let’s find a cave where you can change.”

“Let’s.”

His theory seemed to be correct, at least in the cave aspect, because he found one that seemed to go upward and onward. Shivering and teeth chattering, they changed with their backs to each other. This was no time for sexual exploration.

“Let’s explore,” she said once she warmed up.

“Being warm and dry sure improved your disposition,” he said.

“Watch it Eagle Boy, you’re treading icy water.”

“Eagle
Scout
. By the way, cave exploring is called spelunking.”

She pulled up her hoodie and shoved her wet hair inside. “And I’ll bet caves don’t have bats like kayaks don’t tip.”

He tugged playfully on her hood, and a rush of lust ran through her. At the moment, she rather liked him. “Who knew I could have fun with Eagle Who Lies Through Teeth About Tipping Kayak.”

He took her hand and tugged. “Let’s go, Sea Witch.”

She stopped to catch her breath. “Are we climbing, or is it my imagination?”

“We’re climbing. Look behind us.”

“Wow,” she said. “Behind us is below us.”

“We may come to a rock wall any second but—do you hear water running?”

“I do. Oh, please let it be hot.”

“There’s an opening between the rocks, here, but it’s too small. Not sure I can get through.”

“Oh, let me try. I’ll just go for a quick hot swim and be right back.”

“You
want
to greet the cave bats by yourself?”

“You’re mean.” She shoved him playfully, but he didn’t expect it and let himself fall against a rock that turned out to be loose.