Dark Tide (A Mated by Magic Novel) (6 page)

Shit.

“And as for Alex, I agree. She’s hiding something. That’s the extent of my interest in her.”

Was he telling the truth? She was too tipsy to know. And he was still touching her, which meant her brain cells were temporarily fried.

“Unless you want to be doused again, I suggest you release me.”

He let go and took a step back.

“Goodbye.” With as much dignity as she could muster, she turned and started back to the house. Behind her she could hear Josh muttering under his breath.

How the hell was she going to survive another week of him?

With a raging headache that two Tylenol hadn’t touched, Maya darted across the sapphire ocean, hoping to set things straight with the Yank. Dark sunglasses protected her bloodshot eyes from the bright sunlight that played upon the crests of gentle waves. Seagulls squawked overhead, no doubt mocking her predicament, and followed.

If she remembered last night correctly, he said he was staying another week and she’d all but told him to bugger off. She supposed she might possibly owe him an explanation. He’d been a guest at her house and a friend of her father’s. If the bloke fancied the sexy doctor over her, it was none of her business.

When the dot of a speedboat raced by, she picked up her binoculars and put them to her eyes.

Sexy Josh, dressed in a crisp white shirt with a loose bow tie hanging around his neck, sped off in the opposite direction.

The breath she didn’t even know she was holding let go. Thank God. Her apology was put on hold.

After checking her watch, she turned her boat about, and headed in the direction of the speedboat. She had at least another hour before she had to start her shift at the front desk.

Willy barked excitedly, and hung out his tongue as the increasing speed blew back his ears.

Laughing, she ruffled the fur on his back. “Silly dog. He’ll hear you. Think I’m a bloomin’ stalker.”

With that thought, she slowed and followed at a safe distance. Where the hell was he headed dressed like that?

She idled at a distance in the ocean, while he slid into the dock in front of a hotel.

Bloody hell.
Binoculars held tight to her face, she fumed. Dr. Alex Williams sauntered across the dock, her blonde hair swept back in an elegant up-do. She wore a black, lacey dress that dipped low in the front exposing her ample cleavage.

Josh kissed her on the cheek and helped her into the boat. All chummy, Alex put her claws around his neck, tied a perfect knot in his bow tie, and then helped him into his tux jacket.

So much for him not having anything to do with her. As anger simmered in her chest, the water around the boat became choppy.

Willy whined, jumped up, and licked her face.

“Shush.” She patted his head, and forced the ocean back to normal.

As if sensing her, Josh looked over his shoulder from where he helped the she-devil sit. Then he backed out of the shallow waters and sped northeast, creating a wake that rocked her small craft.

Following at a distance, she cursed Josh and the professor under her breath. She knew he was up to something, and she was going to find out what.

She picked up the boat’s satellite phone and called her sister, Cecilia. “I might be a little late.”

“How late?”

“Can you cover, please? I’ll owe you.”

“Are you apologizing to the sexy Yank?”

“Uh. Yeah. Just finishing up.”

Her sister giggled. “I got this. Take your time.”

The sun had just dropped below the horizon when Maya picked up her binoculars again. In front, hundreds of tiny sparkling lights lit up the perimeter of a strange yacht. On the side, it read, ‘THE EUCALYPTA.’

At least fifty people mingled on the main deck and their laughter floated over the ocean. Glasses clinked at the outside bar.

Josh threw a line into the hands of a deckhand at the stern. They helped them out, then, like water-world parking attendants, drove the boats to places unknown. Maya glanced at her boat’s gauges. Her anchor rope was just long enough.

But if she could see the yacht, they would spot her soon, if they hadn’t already.

Best to be safe. She reached into the ocean and focused. A familiar thrill ran up and down her spine when she channeled her energy. Wet swirls of dampness curled into the air until thick fog blanketed the whole area.

To mask the noise of her engine, she followed another boat in closer, then dropped the anchor.

“Stay.” She pointed a finger at Willy, who gave a small whine, then lay down on the steel floor with paws over his nose.

“I’ll be back soon.” A pat had him wagging his tail again.

Quickly, she stripped to her bathing suit. Her clothes and a rope with a grappling hook went into a plastic bag. Then she swam the few yards to the yacht. One side of the boat was darker, and with the right timing, she was up and over the edge.

From there, she snuck into tiny rooms with bunk beds, no doubt the help’s sleeping quarters. Locking herself in, she rummaged under the bed until she found a dark polo shirt with a logo and a stretchy black spandex skirt. She tied her hair back and covered it with a cap having the same logo.

At a party this big, certainly all the caterers wouldn’t know each other. She prayed she was right as she stashed her bathing suit into a small dresser drawer, and exited into the narrow hallway.

Her heart raced, and for a moment her more logical mind took over. She was no sleuth. Crikey, as a kid, she was always the first one found at hide and seek.

This was a terrible idea.

Before she could undo her stupidity and jump back into the ocean, a man shouted, “Hey you.”

Shit.

He was about fifty, with the same logo on his shirt and dress black slacks. “I’m not paying you to lounge around down here. What’s your name?”

“Ah. Mary.”

“Well, Ah-Mary. Get your ass on deck. There’s a shitload of glasses that need refilling and the hors d’oeuvre are piling up in the kitchen. Jesus. Never seen a lazier staff in my life.”

Given no other choice, she nodded, and headed down the dark hall in the direction of the noise and lights. Behind, the man waited, to make sure she did.

Once out of the staff’s living quarters, she found the galley.

The harried chef didn’t even glance up as he shoved a tray of caviar and crackers into her arms. “Go. Go. Now.”

She increased the fog around the boat as she made her way above deck, and kept her eyes downcast. That would have to do. But already her energy was waning.

Soft music began from a guitarist. The crowd oohed at the swirling light show upon the clouds. An alto voice crooned out ‘Girl from Ipanema’ in Portuguese.

With everyone so engaged, Maya’s heart stopped racing and she took a deep breath. As a teen, she catered many times for extra cash. She could do this. Pulling her cap low over her face, she circled the crowd and listened.

“Can I get you gentlemen anything?” She raised her tray at three men who were speaking Russian.

The largest brushed her away with a wave of the hand. Then his eyes shot up and narrowed, as if he sensed her paranormal presence.

Witches.

Hurriedly, she backed away into the crowd, memorizing his face. The air all but buzzed with power.
Fuck
. She’d been so preoccupied she hadn’t noticed.

Before she could recover from the shock, a familiar voice spoke to her left side from out of the fog. She inched forward, then cursed bitterly under her breath.

It was him. Her ex, dressed in an Armani suit with yet another boob-alicious blonde on his arm. Ken and Barbie on a Barbie-Yacht. Like always, everywhere she turned, Chris was there, looking handsome, put together, and like a million bucks. Wonder where his wife was?

He wore his women like a Rolex, or the latest iPhone. With cleavage busting out of a ‘V’ almost to the navel, the woman must’ve duct taped the dress to her skin.

Maya cringed. Chris had offered to pay for a boob job. Always complaining that her breasts were too small.

Asshole.

Despite the danger, she backed up to listen in on their conversation, while offering the tray to another set of couples.

“I want to go now,” the woman whined.

“We just got here, luv-dove.” Chris’ term of endearment made Maya fume. How many times had he called her by the very same name?

Apparently the bimbo didn’t buy it either. “But it’s foggy and damp. This isn’t what you promised.”

“Just a couple more hours, then we can go.”

“But why?”

“I got some people to meet with. C’mon, now, I’ll get you another drink.”

Ducking her chin into her neck, and tucking her cap over her forehead, Maya headed back into the kitchen for another tray. She nodded at the chef and grabbed some scallops wrapped in bacon.

On the way out, a warm hand clasped around her upper arm and another covered her mouth. Energy zapped through her, a heavy dose of pain and pleasure.

Josh.

Shit, shit, shit.

She worked to hold onto the tray of food, as everything slid to one side.

“It’s me. We good?” His warm voice whispered in her ear.

She nodded.

Josh let go, took her tray and thrust it at another waiter. Then, he shoved her into a bathroom and locked the door.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Chest to chest, adrenaline raced, and hormones coursed. She could barely breathe, let alone give him an explanation.

They stared eye to eye.

“Shit, Maya.” He tugged her into his chest and his lips covered hers. One hand went to the back of her head and the other clamped onto her ass, and pushed her tight against his hard cock.

When his tongue played at her teeth, she opened her mouth, and he kissed her deeper.

Her ears pounded with how he affected her. She’d been kissed, but never like this. Her body screamed for more. Begged. Her brain, somewhere in the background, sounded alarms, but she couldn’t react, couldn’t do a damn thing but kiss him back.

Without warning, Josh thrust her back at arm’s length.

A deep scowl marred his handsome features.

“What’re you doing here?” he hissed.

She touched her swollen lips and blinked.

“Answer me.”

Regaining what was left of her composure, she straightened her shoulders and glared. How dare he kiss her when he was doing God knows what with his professor. The man was unbelievable.

And a really good kisser.

Shit. Focus Maya.

She shook her head. “I followed you and your girlfriend. Nothing’s going on, huh? Could’ve fooled me.”

“
Nothing
is going on. I’m here to get information.” He combed his fingers through his hair, causing it to stand on end. “Do you have any clue how much danger you put yourself in coming here?”

Damnit, but she believed him. Still, it didn’t give him the right to go all alpha male on her. And what was with the kiss?

“I can take care of myself.”

“This boat belongs to Gregor Uragan.”

He paused, letting the name sink in. It took her brain less than a second to register who he was talking about. The man had been brought up on multiple charges by the Council just last year. Something to do with human, or more precisely,
witch
trafficking.

She swallowed hard. “The Russian wind clan leader?”

Josh gave a hard nod, his jaw clenching. “The Eucalypta is registered under one of his many aliases. I don’t know if he’s here or not, but his men are just as dangerous.”

“Wasn’t your family involved in bringing charges against him?”

“Yeah.”

“If he knows you’re here, then it’s you who’s in danger.”

Josh’s expression confirmed her fears.

“Alex brought you here, right? She knows who you are. What if it’s a set up and–”

“I need to get back to the party and you need to get off this boat. If Gregor knows I’m here, I don’t think he’ll risk touching me. But if he catches you sneaking about on his boat...”

“I’m not leaving. Not until I find out what they’re up to.”

“Don’t be stupid, Maya. Go home, or I’ll tell your father what you’ve been up to.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would,” he growled, unlocking the door. “Now go.”

She blew out an exasperated breath, then exited the tiny room, ignoring the raised eyebrows from the staff. She knew what they were thinking she’d been doing in there with Josh.

If only.

Josh disappeared down the narrow hallway. He was right. She needed to get off the boat. But not before she did one more thing.