JAKrentz - Witchcraft (13 page)

He bent his head to drop a small, possessive kiss on her warm shoulder.

"Are there?" she asked, looking up at him with unreadable mysteries in her eyes. "Definitely." He let his palm glide luxuriously upward until it covered her breast, and the morning hunger in him escalated. "Most definitely," he repeated, aware that his voice had roughened. "What's more, I don't intend to share them with that other man." She blinked in sleepy astonishment. "What other man?"

"Valerian."

"Josh Valerian."

"Umm." He pushed his knee between her silky thighs and tasted the dark grape that tipped her breast. "I've been thinking about him."

"Come to any earthshaking conclusions?" she asked uncertainly. "Only the obvious. I think the fastest, most effective way of getting one man out of your head is to keep reminding you that another, namely me, now possesses your body." He pushed himself forward until his manhood was at the soft gate of her femininity. "
Cavenaugh
, are you joking?" He smiled a little grimly as he met her questioning gaze. "What do you think?" The tip of her tongue touched the corner of her mouth as she tried to assess just how serious he was.
Cavenaugh
didn't mind this evidence of female wariness. It meant she was focusing on him, not some illusion of a perfect man. "I don't think you are joking." Slowly he thrust into her, taking his time so that he could experience every centimeter of her clinging, velvety core. She grew hot and damp around him and the soft little gasp at the back of her throat sent ripples of satisfaction through him. "You're right," he growled as she instinctively lifted herself against his loins. "I'm not joking. You see how well we're communicating these days?"

"
Cavenaugh
, you can be an arrogant beast at times," she managed as her body warmed and tightened beneath him. Her fingers were splayed on his shoulder and her legs twisted around his
i
n growing demand. "But I'm real. And you need a real man, not some fictional wimp who will never be able to hold you like this or make you come alive in his arms."

"Josh is not a wimp!"

"He's no good to you right now, is he? Right now you need me. Admit it,"
Cavenaugh
rasped as the delicious tension built between them.

"Tell me you need me!"

"I need you,
Cavenaugh
. Please. Now. All of you. Ah,
Cavenaugh
!" A long time later Kimberly lay in bed and watched
Cavenaugh
pull on his jeans and thrust his arms into his shirt. He didn't bother to do up the buttons. As he had explained, he was only going to duck back across the hall to his bedroom. "Not that there's any hope the entire household won't know where I spent the night," he growled humorously as he came to stand beside the bed. "But it might be easier for you to go down to breakfast if you can pretend that we observed the proprieties."

"That's very, uh, considerate of you," she said demurely, thankful for his understanding of just how awkward this sort of situation could be for a woman. His emerald eyes gleamed with buried fire. "Lady, if I was only considering myself, I'd move you into my room today and say the hell with the proprieties. But I'm not totally insensitive. I also realize that I'm supposed to be protecting you, not taking advantage of you." He bent over the bed, planting a hand on either side of her body. "So I'm going to try very hard to behave myself until we get things sorted out between us. If that's the way you want me to behave, I suggest you don't tempt me too far."

"If you come to my room again in the middle of the night I'll have no one but myself to blame?" she taunted wryly. "Right." He kissed her forehead and then straightened. "See you at breakfast." With a proprietary slap on her hip,
Cavenaugh
turned and strode out the door.

Kimberly watched him go, half amused, half enthralled by the self-assured, unabashedly male arrogance in him. He was feeling very good this morning, she decided. Men were probably at their most dangerous when they felt that good. On the other hand, it gave her an undeniable pleasure to know she was the cause of his wholly masculine satisfaction. Ariel's card reading that morning was far from being a private affair. She arrived complete with a new burgundy turban for the occasion and a wonderfully dashing flowered dress in pea green. By the time she was ready to deal the deck of ordinary playing cards into a series of numbered squares, Julia, Mrs. Lawson and Aunt
Milly
were gathered around. Good-naturedly Kimberly sat in front of the inlaid table Ariel was using and waited to have her fortune told. "She's really quite good," Julia confided cheerfully. "A few months ago she predicted Mark and I would become engaged and that's exactly what happened." Aunt
Milly
nodded enthusiastically. "And she predicted I'd get sick at the little restaurant in Mexico last summer. She was right."

"Lots of people get ill eating unfamiliar food in foreign countries," Kimberly felt obliged to point out. "And after seeing Mark and Julia together, I think I could have predicted an engagement, too." Julia laughed. "Don't ruin it all by being too analytical."

"Julia's absolutely right," Ariel declared roundly as she shuffled the cards. "You'll spoil all the fun if you start analyzing the whole thing."

"Okay, okay. I promise not to intellectualize about it."

"Have you ever had your fortune told?" Ariel asked. "Nope."

"Well, once the cards are dealt they all have a relationship to one another in addition to their own independent meanings. It can get very complex. Each of these squares stands for a certain aspect of life. This square concerns prosperity. That one deals with projects you might be thinking of undertaking and that one is your love life."

"I can't wait to see what card turns up on that square," Julia said with a chuckle. "As if we don't know," Mrs. Lawson put in with bland emphasis. "Ready?" Ariel asked lightly as she began to deal the cards into the squares. "Ready," Kimberly agreed in resignation.

Ariel became unexpectedly serious as she dealt the cards. When she began to turn them over and study them she seemed to become completely involved with the task. "Excellent," Ariel murmured as she turned over a heart on the square representing prosperity. "You will enjoy success in your work. Money is no problem for you. This next square represents changes in your life. Here you have a spade. Hmmm. That's not so good.

A spade indicates a change for the worse. Perhaps actual danger.

However, it appears to be mitigated by the King of Hearts next to it in the square for happiness." The card reading continued, largely a vague and ambivalent process as far as Kimberly could determine. Whenever a card representing misfortune turned up, Ariel seemed to find one next to it that lessened or canceled out the first. There were good cards for such things as health, ambition, money and travel. "A recent trip may lead to major changes in your life," Ariel noted as she turned over the card on the travel square. Kimberly resisted the impulse to say "no kidding." But she caught Julia's eye and found the other woman grinning at her. "And now we come to your love life," Ariel finally declared grandly. Her listeners leaned forward expectantly. Kimberly felt a wave of embarrassment and wondered if all the others were aware of how she had spent the night. She watched as Ariel turned over a King of Clubs. "Hmm," the older woman said, eyeing the card. "He'll be faithful, at least."

"Well?" Kimberly pressured. "Is that all it indicates?"

"Not quite. It implies that although you can trust him implicitly, he will not be without faults."

"What man isn't?" Julia asked rhetorically. "In fact," Ariel went on as she turned up another club, "he might prove quite infuriating at times." "As Julia said," Mrs. Lawson interrupted, "what man isn't?" Ariel bent over the cards, turning up others in the vicinity of the "lover" square. "There is more than that here," she said slowly. "There is danger again. You will know fear, Kim."

"Fear? Of what?" Ariel ignored the question and turned up a diamond. "There is much pain from fraud and deceit."

"Probably refers to some of the royalty statements I've had from various and assorted publishers. Forget that one. Tell me what I'm supposed to be afraid of." Ariel shook her head slowly. "It is difficult to say, Kim. I see darkness. Darkness and silver." Kimberly froze as an image of the dark,
cowled
figure holding the silver dagger leaped into her head. "A man?"

Her mouth suddenly felt quite dry. "Perhaps, perhaps not." Ariel frowned and then turned over the next card. She gave a few more vague analyses and then sat back, collecting all the cards into a neat pile.

"Is that the end of it?" Aunt
Milly
asked cheerfully. "That's it," Ariel said. "Well, Kim, it sounds as though you'd better be wary of a dark, dangerous lover with silver in his hair," Julia commented, laughing. "But who can be trusted," Aunt
Milly
put in firmly. "Sounds to me like someone we all know very well," Mrs. Lawson declared happily.

"Yes, well, it's been fun, Ariel," Kimberly said, getting decisively to her feet. "Now, if you'll all excuse me, I really must get back to work. That dark,
danerous
man sounds like the villain in my latest novel. I'd better go see how he's getting along." The card reading party broke up as Julia and Mrs. Lawson went back to their own projects.

Kimberly was halfway out the door of the sitting room they had all been using when Ariel stopped her with a small, fluttery hand on her arm.

Kimberly was astonished by the intent look in the older woman's eyes.

"The cards should not be dismissed lightly, Kim. They are not always simply a parlor trick." Kimberly smiled gently. "I'll remember that, Ariel. Thanks. Oh, by the way, how is the party planning going?"

"Wonderfully," Aunt
Milly
enthused. "The invitations go out today. The party is scheduled for this coming Saturday night."

"Rather short notice for everyone, isn't it?"