Gone With the Witch (6 page)
Read Gone With the Witch Online
Authors: Annette Blair
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #General
and
wait for me, and we'll have wild wicked wildebeest sex
all night long."
"No! I mean, we can't," she said. "It doesn't fit in with
my—Vickie's plans. She and Rory are using the castle as a getaway for the two weeks Harmony and King are on their
honeymoon. They won't want us around"
"Don't worry. We'll sneak out quietly later and take my boat to the mainland. The master suite is in another wing. They'll never know we were here."
Why would she look crestfallen to be getting her way,
Aiden wondered, if she didn't have something up her
sleeve? Good thing he was getting out of town early,
though he guessed he had succeeded in turning the tables, because she looked confused and scared enough to stay away from him for the rest of the night.
He only wished he felt good about that. Why did he feel
as if he'd screwed himself as well as her? Well ... not
screwed screwed.
That,
he'd remember.
He kissed her, unexpectedly needing the connection.
The thought of distancing himself from her didn't sit well
all of a sudden. Damn, but he had to stick to his plans. Too
much rested on keeping himself from hurting her worse
than leaving would. Besides, life would be better for both of them if he made sure they kept their lives separate.
Heck, he could check a few foundation locations during
his two week hiatus. Headquarters was past due a couple of
surprise visits, his least favo
ri
te sport.
“Aiden," Morgan called from outside the door. "It's
time for you to be the best man again."
"I'm coming."
"That's what I'm worried about," Morgan said, and this time, Storm heard him and squeaked in embarrassment.
"You leave first," Aiden told her. "Morgan will escort you downstairs, so you don't fall."
"Escort me? I can't face him, never mind lean on
him.”
“
Morgan, go on down," Aiden called, and they listened to his receding footsteps.
"I'll be down in a minute," Aiden told Storm, kissing
her brow. He stood her up and pointed her toward the door, and with a hand on her fine bottom, he nudged her from the
room. Fortunately, albeit like a sleepwalker, she made her way to the stairs.
Aiden needed to get decent before he got to the great
hall. Thank God, the castle was about to turn back into a
pumpkin. Despite the fact that he now wanted the rebel
lious
goth
in his bed more than ever, he was standing firm.
Well, his dick was, anyway.
When he got downstairs, Aiden saw that Storm was still
so shaken by his unexpected turnabout, she seemed to be
standing firm herself, quite the safe distance away from
him. His plan had worked. Why didn't he feel victorious?
The orchestra began playing “By the Light of the Silvery
Moon" as they got back to the great hall, which meant that
Harmony and King were about to leave on their honeymoon.
Thanks to Morgan, he and Storm had returned downstairs just in time.
With the b
ri
de on the stairs and mostly unattached females
at the bottom, three-year-old Jake caught the bridal bouquet.
At the castle door, Harmony and her sisters embraced, their tears overflowing, while King teased them about seeing each other in two weeks, citing the miracles of cell phones and e-mail.
Aiden read Storm's longing as the castle doors shut
behind her sister and her new brother-in-law.
After King and Harmony's honeymoon, he would make
sure Storm would be in
She looked
so
forlorn as she stood there watching the closed door that he went to her, despite himself ... one last time.
"They looked happy, didn't they?" she asked.
"The groom is always happiest between the wedding
and the honeymoon," Aiden said.
Storm looked mad enough to knee him. Okay, so he'd
pissed her off, but he'd also stopped her from
crying ..
.
and
seducing.
"I might be a rebel," she snapped, "but you're one cynical stud muffin, McCloud."
Aiden stepped dangerously close to temptation, close enough to smell sunshine and roses, lazy days of shared laughter, and long nights of hot sex. No other woman had
ever had this effect on him. "Cynical?" he repeated. "Yes."
Hot? Hell yes.
"But damn it, I'm jumping-out-of-my-skin prickly with anything that reminds me of a cage without wheels—like wedding dresses and tuxedoes with tails."
"That's why you're the independent wanderer with a no-falling-in-love rule," she quipped, giving his earlobe a hard flick, though he hadn't seen her hand move.
"Ouch. I prefer the term
nomad.
I take my house with
me wherever I go. And I go it alone."
"Like a turtle that pulls its head in and hides from life.”
“
No. Like a sultan. My motor coach is about luxury.”
“
Take me to never-never land," Storm said facetiously.
"Take me with you, Peter."
Aiden frowned. "I do not have a Peter Pan complex. I'm
a responsible and sought-after antiques
and architectural restoration artist,
not,
as you imply, a slacker who won't grow up."
"Oh, you grew up all right, you just never stopped running."
He turned to put space between them. "I
tr
avel
. '
I don't run"
"I scare you," she said with a grin, noting his retreat
with a raised brow.
"Get real:' he said as Destiny approached her and
claimed her attention, an opportunity Aiden grabbed to slip
out the castle door.
She aroused him, bothered, bewildered, and definitely bewitched him, he thought, hailing a water taxi. And sure,
if he wasn't vigilant, she might have the ability to take him
down. But scared?
Oh yeah.
Like a penis in the teeth of a zipper.
Chapter
Eight
"WE'RE the last of the wedding guests:' Storm said
. "
Mor
gan, will you go and hold one of the big water taxis, and
tell the other boats they can go, while 'I find Aiden?"
"Aiden left:' Morgan said.
Storm felt light-headed.
She couldn't have heard correctly. "What did you say?”
“Aiden already went back to the mainland."
I'll kill him.
"Hurry up, everybody. We have to
ru
n.”
“What are you gonna do?" Destiny asked her.
"Follow him. Stop him. 'I don't know. He couldn't have gotten a big head start. We were just talking."
"What's with the cats?" Morgan asked as he followed them out the door.
"We each have our own:' Destiny said
. "
Tigerstar is
staying here with Vickie, and Gingertigger is on Har
mony's honeymoon.
Any questions?"
"Cat family history later!"
Storm shouted running toward the water taxis.
"I don't know why we're not sleeping here tonight:' Morgan grumbled behind them.
"Because Vickie and Rory are," Destiny explained.
"They'll drool over each other at breakfast and make the
rest of us lose our oatmeal."
"I've had enough of
that,"
Morgan said. "Let's blow this
clambake."
"So get in, already!" Storm snapped.
As the water taxi approached
before they docked. "Take Jake to the house. The jig is up. I'm on my own. Thanks for covering for me in the shop for
the next two weeks."
Reggie picked up Jake.
"Happy to help."
Morgan got out first to help everyone from the boat.
Sto
rm
snatched the cat carrier from his hand—her bag of clothes stashed inside—and raced for Aiden's motor home, cursing her long gown and spindly spikes. Aiden's driving lights went on, and the engine turned over.
"What do you want me and Morgan to do?" Destiny called after her.
"Wait awhile," Storm said as she watched Reggie disap
pear down the street.
Storm set Warlock down on the tarmac. "Go to Des
tiny," she said. "I don't want you to get hit by the big bad motor home, and, Warlock, throw some magick into this spell with me, will you?"
Her black cat yowled and ran toward Destiny.
Storm had only two choices. She had to put
herself,
or Aiden's crying baby, in harm's way.
A no-brainer.
"I win," she said as she watched her kitten get far enough away.
Storm planted herself in the motor home's path and chanted like she'd never spelled before.
"Full moon, blue and bright,
Guide me through this task with might.
Hold me, protect me, now, I pray
Turn Aiden's thoughts rescue's way."
Joining her fury at Aiden for running, with her dogged
determination to save that baby, Storm harnessed the
forces roiling inside her and thrust them against the vehicle's forward surge.
Telekinesis had never felt so good.
"Earth, fire, water, air,
Stand before me and take care.
Stop the gatekeeper,
His
steed beware
."
Storm cast a circle of white light around herself, encompassing the unknown baby, whose suddenly faint cry spoke of hopelessness.
"Pure of mind and deed
Insight, not ire, let Aiden heed.
The babe is his;
It's him she needs."
She turned the circle of white light into a sphere, closing it in on itself, a protective web of magick light surrounding her and the child fate chose her to protect.
"The child lost is meant to be
Her father's for eternity.
To find her is my destiny.
If I die trying, so mote it be."
Storm raised the pet
camer
like a beacon.
"Engine,
stop!"
Chapter Nine
•
AIDEN drove forward ... and saw Storm standing in the middle of the road.
Panic shot through him.
He hit the brakes.
Canned goods rolled from a cupboard and hit the floor.
Aiden checked the dock. Fenced in, dead end. Water locked.
Low power lines; high motor coach.
People everywhere.
Nowhere to go.
No choice but to skid forward.
"Damn it Storm, move!"
The engine died,
an
d
the coach rolled to a stop.
His heart beating in his ears, Aiden stood and looked for
her.
