Dragon Warrior (Midnight Bay) (3 page)

“Or something,” he said with a chuckle.

Eve blinked up at him. “You actually
advertised
? Saying what: Need Help Lifting a Curse? Call 1–800-SOUL-WARRIOR? Kenzie, if we’re going to keep having all these desperate . . . creatures showing up here, we’re going to have to find a way to keep them contained.”

“We?” he asked, lifting a brow. “And just when did you join my team?”

Eve arched a brow right back at him. “I believe I was drafted the night I rescued you from that cliff.”

He hugged her to him again. “Aye, I remember that night quite well.” He gently pulled her rounded belly into his. “It was the night ye not only saved my life but conceived my son.”

“
Our
son,” she said with a sigh, melting against him. “And you only remember our lovemaking as an erotic dream.”

“A rather
vivid
erotic dream.” He also sighed. “I’m finding the problem isn’t breaking the curses of those who seek me out but what to do with the displaced souls once they become themselves again.”

Eve looked up at him. “But I thought the plan was for William to help you fight the evil forces that keep following them here?”

He nodded. “That is the plan. And being a skilled warrior who relishes a good fight, Killkenny will be invaluable to me—that is, if I don’t run him through with my sword first out of sheer frustration. I’m afraid he’s embracing his new life a little too eagerly.
Everything
about this century fascinates him, and he’s trying to experience it all at once. He’s insisting I take him to buy a truck today. And are you aware that he and Mabel have eaten in just about every restaurant within fifty miles?”

Eve giggled. “William is Mom’s new pet project, and she’s having the time of her life explaining how everything works.” She glanced up with a smile. “She’s a born teacher, and . . . and I think helping William is actually keeping
her
in the here and now. She rarely has bouts of confusion anymore.”

Kenzie kissed her forehead and stepped back with a grimace. “Aye, she’s even offered to teach him to drive. And she has been a great help with our newest lost soul.”

“Speaking of which, there are rumors going around town that someone saw a mermaid out in the Gulf—which means our harbor seal isn’t always fur and whiskers when she’s out of our sight. Can’t you at least lock her in the barn during the day, before one of the local fishermen catches a spoiled-rotten
mermaid
in his net?”

“I can’t, Eve,” he said, his eyes turning pained. “She stops eating whenever I do. According to Fiona, the pup is running from an abusive man, and that’s why she came looking for me. It’s a wonder she even lets me near her, considering how much she fears men.”

Eve snorted. “Personally, I think she’s playing you. And I think she’s playing your sister, too. She won’t tell Fiona her name or where she came from or what century, yet she was pretty quick to say some evil man is chasing her just as soon as she learned Fiona isn’t all that fond of men herself.”

“The pup’s not faking her desperation, and the energy searching for her sure as hell is real. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m thankful Killkenny will be living just across the cove. Which brings us back to him and Maddy. I want you to leave them to figure out their own courtship, like you and I did,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back.

Eve felt a lecture coming on. She clasped her own hands behind her back, taking immediate, evasive action. “How much longer are you going to pretend that you love sleeping in my bed,
in the house
?”

That certainly did the trick; he dropped his hands to his sides and frowned at her.

Eve stepped into his arms and focused on toying with a button on his shirt so he wouldn’t see her smile. “I bought a baby monitor today, so we can camp down by the ocean and still hear what’s going on in the house. I know you’re having a hard time adjusting to being a man again, and I don’t want you fighting your old nature,” she whispered, finally looking at him, her eyes shining with all her love. “And . . . well, I’ve discovered that I like sleeping under the stars with you.”

Instead of a lecture, her husband kissed her again, this time quite thoroughly.

Chapter Two

W
illiam reclined on the knoll overlooking Madeline’s home, watching the bonny lass hang out laundry as he munched on a loaf of bread. He wished he had some mead to go with his snack—and not some of that sissy ale the moderns called beer, either, that turned his stomach. Christ, but he yearned for a pint of the dark, sweet brew of his old homeland.

Maddy was working in almost complete darkness, the porch light not reaching the clothesline set near the woods. The interior of the house was black but for the soft light coming from the kitchen window, and she wouldn’t be able to see what she was doing if there hadn’t been a nearly full moon.

William washed down the bread with a swig of water pulled from the spring he’d found behind Maddy’s house, and wondered why in hell the woman was still doing her chores at midnight. Especially considering that he knew she had to be up early to get her child fed and dressed, then get to her job at the nursing home by eight.

He’d only caught one side of the phone conversation Eve had had with her earlier this evening, but it had been enough for him to realize that Maddy was backing out of yet another dinner invitation. So how in hell was he supposed to implement dear Mabel’s suggestion that he ask Maddy to go on a picnic if he couldn’t even get close enough to talk to her?

He admittedly may have come on a bit strong last Wednesday, but hell, he’d been lusting after the woman for nearly two months, since the first time she’d come to Kenzie’s farm to visit Eve. And he’d been so excited the old hag’s curse had finally been lifted, that when he saw Maddy standing there on the library lawn in the rain, he hadn’t been able to restrain himself. He’d grabbed her beautiful face between his very human hands, pressed his very human lips to hers, and feasted on her sweetness.

Madeline Kimble was a startlingly beautiful woman, with long, wavy brown hair that refused to stay confined, skin that glowed with the kiss of the sun, and large, expressive brown eyes a man could drown in. As for below the neck, her full hips just begged to fill a man’s palms, her lovely legs cried to wrap around a hard body, and her ample bosom all but screamed for a man’s attention.

And William had decided that once the curse was lifted,
he
would be that man.

Only the lass didn’t seem all that interested in him, which was vexing, considering the women of his old time had found him rather attractive. He tore off another bite of bread with a snort. More likely, they’d been attracted to his position of power. But he hadn’t earned and then held his lands by sheer brawn alone, and any woman, of any century, would be lucky to catch his eye. He was legendary not only for his skills on the battlefield but also in the bedroom—or the hayloft, or the kitchen, or wherever else he happened to catch a handsome woman.

A lass had to be willing, though, as that was his one sacred rule when it came to dealing with the fairer sex. He’d been shoveling dirt over the bodies of his ravaged mother and sister when he’d given his vow never to force himself on a woman—right after he had hunted down, castrated, and then killed the plundering bastards who had murdered them.

William suddenly rolled to the side and sprang to a crouch in one swift motion, his dagger drawn. But just as swiftly as he’d prepared to defend himself, he sat down with a curse, slipped his weapon back into his boot, and picked up his bread again.

“Christ, Gregor, ye know better than to sneak up on a man like a goddamn cat.”

Kenzie sat down beside him with a chuckle. “Old habits die hard, my friend.”

“What are ye doing here?” William snorted. “Don’t tell me your bride has had her fill of you already. Or did the pixie throw up on you again?”

“At least I
have
a woman willing to throw up on me; whereas you, Killkenny, have to sit up on a knoll in the dark to be near yours.”

“Why are ye here, Gregor?”

“To find out your intentions.”

“Toward Maddy?” he asked in surprise. “Why? What concern is she to you?”

“She’s Eve’s friend, which makes her my concern.” Kenzie watched Maddy in silence for several seconds, and then looked at William again. “She’s a good woman, Killkenny, and Eve told me Maddy is having a rough go of it right now, what with trying to rein in her strong-minded brother until he leaves for college in a few weeks. She doesn’t need you adding to her problems, if all you’re looking for is sport.”

“Ye expect me to live the rest of my life like a monk in this century?”

“I expect you not to hurt her,” Kenzie said softly. “Don’t force my hand, William. Either tell me that your intentions are honorable, or give me your word that you’ll leave her alone.”

“How in hell can I tell you what my intentions are if I can’t even get close to the woman? Christ, she could be a demanding bitch for all I know, or a tiresome nag or, even worse, a flaming shrew.”

“She’s a loving, sincere, compassionate, hardworking single parent and the sole support of her mother, daughter, and brother.” Kenzie looked over at him, the moonlight revealing how deadly serious he was. “If that’s more woman than you can handle, then ye need to walk away.”

“I can’t.”

Kenzie blew out a heavy sigh. “Then at least back off a bit. Eve told me you went to the nursing home the other day, and she explained that if ye pester Maddy at her place of work, you could get her in trouble with her boss.”

That surprised William. “Just by my talking to some old man who lives there?”

“Why do ye think they have a tall fence around the place? It’s as much to keep the residents safe as it is to keep them from wandering away.”

“But why are they locked away from everyone? They couldn’t have committed any disturbing crimes; hell, half of them can barely walk. Have ye been to that place, Gregor? Everyone living there is positively ancient,” he whispered in awe. “Some are ten, even twenty years older than Mabel.”

Kenzie chuckled. “Fifty years old was considered ancient in your time, whereas today it’s considered middle age. And we, my friend, are considered to be in the prime of our lives.”

“But where are their families? Why aren’t they living in their homes, watching their grandbabies grow up?”

“A good many of them have no families. And some are infirm, and some have the minds of children—like Mabel’s mind is getting.”

William reared back. “You’ll not be moving Mabel there, Gregor! As God is my witness, I’ll steal her away if I have to.”

“Nay, as long as I have breath in me, Mabel will remain with us. But Eve told me some of the residents choose to live there for the companionship.” He grinned. “And because of the attention the workers like Maddy give them. Can ye not imagine how pleasant she’s making their later years just by showing up to work every day?”

Only moderately mollified, William settled back on his elbow and watched Maddy carry her empty basket to the house. “I still don’t understand the point of such a place. All that wisdom is being wasted,” he muttered. When she disappeared inside, he looked over at Kenzie. “I spoke to an old man in the garden the day I went there, and he told me his name was Elbridge, and that he used to work in a mill that made paper. He was a warrior, too, and fought in what he called World War Two. He buried his wife ten years ago, and one of his sons came back in a pine box from a war in some country called Vietnam. He’s been living in the nursing home for five years, having moved there when his only remaining child, a daughter, died of something called cancer.” He shook his head. “And now he has practically no one.”

“He has Maddy.”

William grinned. “Aye. And when I happened to mention her name, Elbridge’s eyes lit up. And then he told me that if he were my age, he sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting his time talking to an old man in a garden.”

Kenzie stood up. “Then maybe you should heed his words of wisdom. Instead of jumping fences in town and lurking in the shadows up here, ye could walk in the front door of the nursing home like a respectable citizen and offer to take Maddy to lunch on her noon break.”

William laced his fingers behind his head and stared up at the night sky. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

“Oh, and William?”

“What else, Gregor?” he asked with a sigh.

“Shaving off your beard and getting a haircut might go a long way in convincing Maddy that you can at least
look
civilized.”

William sat up and smoothed down his beard. “But I haven’t shaved since my first whisker showed up when I was twelve.”

Kenzie shrugged. “It was just a thought; Eve said something about Maddy calling you a caveman.”

“The lass called me a caveman?”

“Among other things,” Kenzie said with a chuckle.

“Like what?”

“I’m not playing ‘he said, she said.’” Kenzie pointed at him. “And I was never here—you understand?”

William perked up. “The pixie
asked
you to follow me tonight? To what? To give me pointers on how to deal with Maddy?”