Angel's Touch (33 page)

Her dad threw his shoulders back and seemed to grow taller. “Why wouldn’t there be a next hotel?” It was more an attack than a question. “Don’t tell me you’re going back to the restaurant business.”

“Of course not. I—”

“I know a great property in Philly you could snatch up. It’s the perfect location for another hotel/spa combo. You put Megan in charge of designing the spa. She provides the vision; you’re in charge of construction. You’ll make a great team. You
are
a great team. You’ve already proven that.”

Kira knew from the way Megan was staring at her that she looked as stunned as she felt. It was just like him to think he could tell Megan what to do—to barge in and delegate the job like he was the one in charge—but what was interesting was how much he seemed to instantly like her. He’d never been so openly supportive of the choices Kira had made in her personal life. Tolerant, yes, for the most part. But he’d hated Lizzy for talking her into opening a restaurant. When it came to business, he always said, she had to learn not to think with her dick. How equal opportunity of him. But even though he’d hated the spa idea, too, at first, somehow Megan had managed to win him over.

He couldn’t boss Megan around, though. Did he not understand?

Her eyes narrowed. “We are a good team, but it’s not
just
a work relationship.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I know, pumpkin. You don’t have to spell it out for me.”

“I thought I’d find you here.”

Megan turned at the sound of Kira’s voice just as the sea lifted her feet off the ground. Kira was grinning at the water’s edge with her Windbreaker unzipped and her hands in her pockets, and Megan found herself grinning back. It was so easy to forgive her, so easy to push aside her anxieties about their future.

“Come on in,” Megan yelled, wading through the surf toward her.

“In my jeans? No, thanks.”

“What you wear is totally up to you.”

“The water looks cold.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s really not.” Summer might be officially over, but the ocean hadn’t gotten the memo yet. It would be another month before the bracing cold returned. “The water’s warmer than it was in June.”

“The air’s not.”

Probably true, considering the overcast skies—which was all the more reason to be in the water. “Other people are swimming.”

“Other people are wading. You’re the only one in there up to your neck.”

Only to her waist, at this point. Megan reversed course and walked backward, hoping to lead Kira into the waves. “So…wade. Put your feet in the water.”

“I’d rather put my feet in one of my new hot tubs.” Kira pumped her fists in a victory dance. “We hooked up the ones in the woods today.”

After Kira had made the decision to build the spa inside the hotel instead of in a separate building, they had brainstormed what to do with the land next door and decided to hide a large gazebo and several small hot tubs among the trees, carefully positioned under Megan’s guidance to avoid interfering with the ley lines. Tall shrubs were planted around each tub for privacy.

“Want to test it out?” Kira asked. “The water will be nice and warm.”

“Wuss.”

“You won’t think so when you feel my hands all over you.”

Megan’s body tightened. A wave smacked into her, pushing her forward. “If that’s what you want, you’ll have to swim out here,” she taunted, swimming farther out, where it was safer. Kira should be in the water with her if she was going to say things like that. That way she could grab her perfectly shaped ass and remind her there were other people around who could hear.

“Not if I can convince you to try out the hot tub,” Kira shouted after her.

“And how are you going to do that?”

Kira rubbed her arms as if she were cold inside her jacket. “Nice warm water?”

“I don’t think so.”

“More private?”

Megan hesitated. The end-of-season sunbathers were starting to pack up and clear out for the day, but the beach was by no means as deserted as she would like it to be.

“It’s closer to the ley lines,” Kira said.

“Now you’re really reaching.”

“If that’s what I’ve got to do to tempt you…”

All Kira had to do was say she was going to be there. That was already quite tempting enough.

“Your workers are gone?” Megan said.

“Every last one.”

“What about dinner? I thought we were going out.”

“Not for another hour. Unless you want to go eat now.”

“No, that’s all right.” Megan waited for the next wave to roll out, timed her exit, and strode to shore. They had to talk, and it would be easier to do that in private. She ran the last few steps to shore and Kira reached for her hand.

“Wait. I need my clothes.”

Megan headed for the spot where she’d left her tote bag in the sand. She stepped into her flip-flops and slipped on a hooded cover-up she figured could pass for a dress, although the way Kira was checking out the hemline that skimmed high on her bare thighs, she might have to rethink that assumption.

“Do you have to put that on?” Kira said.

Megan slung her bag over her shoulder. “Why? Because you’re going to help me take it off soon anyway?”

Kira flipped Megan’s hood onto her head. She smoothed a wet strand of hair away from her face, tucking it under the hood. “You know me so well.”

Did she? Megan wasn’t so sure about that anymore.

***

In the woods next to the hotel, steam rose from a hot tub sunken into the ground to look like a natural spring. Megan took off her cover-up but kept her bathing suit on before she stepped in.

Kira was less modest.

Considerate of her. Megan smiled, taking in the view.

“You like our idea?” Kira asked.

“Genius.” A stack of folded white towels on a low wooden bench nearby made it clear that Kira had been confident she’d be able to talk Megan into coming here, which was a little galling, but Megan wasn’t going to complain. The hot tub was almost too small for two people, which meant every time she sank lower in the water she inevitably drifted into Kira, bumping into her in a welcome way that wouldn’t have happened in a giant communal tub. The evening air was cool, and made the hot water feel good. Middle-of-the-night air—for guests who were so inclined—would feel even better.

She wondered if she’d ever set foot in one of these again after Kira left. If she left. Shit. She really wanted her to stick around. If their souls had already decided that spending two—or more—previous lifetimes together wasn’t enough, you’d think this wouldn’t be an issue. Kira had always seemed so convinced they were meant to be together. But they’d never actually talked about the future.

“So.” Megan sat up so she wouldn’t keep brushing against Kira’s legs. She took one of Kira’s feet and massaged it with her thumbs. “Interesting talk with your dad.”

Kira pulled her foot out of Megan’s hands, her eyes evasive. “Yeah. About that…”

So Megan wasn’t imagining things. She gripped the edge of the underwater bench and swung her hips off the seat and sat farther back. “I put all that time into helping you design this spa just so you could make money off of it and
leave?
You never said anything to me about leaving.”

“I’m not leaving,” Kira said.

“Then why did your dad say you were?” She wanted Kira to have an explanation. She wanted her to have a really good, really convincing, really hallelujah-now-I-can-relax explanation. She wanted her to want to stay.

Kira’s jaw jutted forward and the faint lines around her mouth tightened. “Don’t pay attention to him. He means well, but what he said about my leaving Piper Beach…that wasn’t true.”

“But it used to be true, didn’t it? He wouldn’t have said something like that if there wasn’t some truth to it. You told me yourself about all the times you’ve moved. You rent apartments month-to-month and keep your stuff in storage because you know it’s only temporary.”

Kira didn’t deny it. “This time is different. This time I have a reason to stay.”

Megan narrowed her eyes at her. “What does that mean?”

Kira rubbed the hinge of her jaw as if she were trying to get the muscles to relax. “I don’t want to sell the hotel anymore. It was our first big project together, you and me. I seem to have developed a sentimental attachment to it.”

“To the hotel,” Megan said flatly.

“And to you.”

Kira slid her arches up the inside of Megan’s legs and tangled their legs together in a slippery, seductive dance. Her breasts glistened through the steam.

Megan softened. And not because Kira was naked. “You’re really going to stay?”

“Yes. Not because of the hotel. Because of you. I want to be with you.”

Megan felt hot and slightly dizzy. “Me, too,” she whispered.

Kira pulled her into her arms and pressed her lips to her tangled, wet hair. “I know I’ve already asked you, but if you ever want to move your massage room out of your condo, you’re more than welcome to set up shop inside the hotel.”

“I’ll think about it,” Megan said, mainly to stop her from launching into a discussion of potential business plans. This was not the time for it.

Kira touched Megan’s face, caressing her cheekbones. “I want us to live together.”

“That sounds way better than moving my office.”

Megan kissed her and Kira moaned. Megan thought she might be moaning, too. She wrapped her legs around Kira’s waist as her heart and her throat and her soul melted with desire. She needed to touch her, needed to open to her, needed to know that it was really true. She needed to get as close as she possibly could and never let her go.

***

Megan smelled smoke.

She shifted against Kira in the hot tub and trailed her fingers down the length of her wet arms. The smell was faint, she decided, and probably not from nearby. She always overreacted to the smell of smoke. She moved back up Kira’s arms, then down her back and down her delicious legs, but as she started back up she slowed, because she was having a hard time blocking that smell from her awareness. Damn it. She wanted to block it out.

“Do you smell something burning?” she asked, giving in to defeat.

“No,” Kira said. “Do you?”

“Maybe I’m imagining it.”

“Could be someone’s having a bonfire.”

“It doesn’t smell like a bonfire. It smells kind of like the time my mother left an oven mitt too close to the stove and it caught fire. It was one of those plastic polyester materials. Those fumes are toxic. I had to wash my hair a bazillion times before I could get the smell out.”

“My hotel’s carpeting is made out of polypropylene. The padding’s synthetic, too.” Kira sniffed the air, looking around worriedly. “Where is the smell coming from?”

“I don’t know.” Megan rubbed her wet hands over her face, hoping the smell of the hot tub’s chlorinated water would distract her from the smoke and help her act like a normal person in front of this woman she didn’t want to scare off. “Maybe it’s burnt barbeque.”

“Maybe it’s not.”

“You don’t have to humor me.”

“What makes you think I’m humoring you?”

“Because you’re being nice?”

Kira splashed her. “I’m not being nice!”

“You are. You think I’m slightly nuts but you’re trying to be nice about it.”

“Honey. Didn’t we go over this already? I like your take on reality.”

“You didn’t at first.”

“I was a slow learner.”

Kira looked so earnest and charming that Megan barely breathed.

“I’m not scaring you off?”

“I’ve never been scared off by you. You know I haven’t.”

It was true. The ley lines, the past lives… How many people could have watched her and Gwynne pull that hitchhiker out of Svetlana and not wonder if the two of them weren’t a little loose in their grip on reality? Kira had disagreed with her, but she had never made her feel as if she didn’t respect her and like her as a person. She had never stopped asking for her input on the spa, even when she didn’t like the advice Megan gave her.

“So no matter how crazy the woo-woo factor gets,” Megan said, “you accept me?”

Kira took Megan’s hands and rubbed her thumbs into her palms. “What are you going to spring on me if I say yes?”

Megan couldn’t tell if she was giving her a hard time or if she was honestly worried. “I think you’ve seen the worst of it.”

“That was a joke.” Kira shook her head, smiling. “I accept you. No matter what. I’ll do everything I can to make you feel like you don’t have to hide yourself from me.” The movement of her thumbs was both hypnotic and reassuring. “And I’m not the only one who accepts your woo-woo factor, you know. Your clients accept you.”

“They only know me in my role as their massage therapist. They have no idea who I am as a person. They don’t count.”

“Svetlana accepts you.”

“Uh…no. She thinks I make up all my stories about angels. As a marketing gimmick.”

“Really? Gwynne believes you, though. She accepts you.”

“Gwynne dumped me.”

Kira interlaced her fingers with hers. “Thank God for that.”     

“Maybe we’d better go make sure your hotel’s not on fire,” Megan suggested.

Kira gave her a swift kiss, hard and approving. “Good idea.”

***

Megan hustled after Kira through the hotel parking lot, wringing out her wet hair and trying not to stumble in her slippery flip-flops. However much she’d loved Kira before, she loved her more now, because wasting time tracking down harmless smoke was no one’s idea of a good time. Megan had done it often enough to know.

Kira stopped when they were close enough to see the front entrance of the hotel. “It looks fine from here. Which direction is the smell coming from?”

“I can’t tell,” Megan said anxiously. The smoke didn’t have to be coming from the hotel—it could be coming from anywhere.

“We’ll check inside, just to be sure.”

“Thank you for being so nice about this.”

“I’m not being nice. I’m worried something might be on fire.”