Spellbound Falls (46 page)

Mac watched in satisfaction as the lake began to refill with frothing ocean water that lifted the shattered ice to float like miniature icebergs. He then turned his attention to Inglenook. Capturing some of the swirling energy, he directed it toward the end of the peninsula. Being careful of the cabins, not wanting to so much as crack a window,
he commanded the stream bed that separated the two lakes to lift, creating a waterfall that allowed the freshwater from Whisper to gently spill into Bottomless.

Satisfied that the small lake would remain fresh, he turned back to the inland sea he’d created. Once again calling forth the powers that be, Mac carefully pushed apart two of the nearest mountains to form a long, deep fiord, then directed the powerful river of seawater downward again. Guiding it northward deep below ground, he allowed the massive surge to resurface only one last time in a remote Canadian lake before finally letting it break into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Its journey complete, Mac focused on the ebb and flow of the great subterranean river, carefully adjusting the tides and currents to regularly replenish the various inland seas he’d created, ensuring a healthy environment for the ocean creatures that would soon inhabit them. He then stood quietly with his arms stretched upward again and began dispersing the remaining energy, commanding the gale-force wind to become a gentle breeze even as the rumbles of thunder grew to distant echoes. The late-afternoon sun suddenly broke through the parting clouds, revealing the placid waters of the newly created Bottomless Sea.

“Oh. My. God.”

Mac stiffened, not turning around, and closed his eyes at the realization that he was still trapped inside the beast. “Go away, Olivia. Go back down the path a few hundred yards and I will join you in twenty minutes.”

He heard her snort a few paces behind him.

“Now, wife!” he snarled. “Go away!”

“Oh, will you get over yourself!” she cried, throwing herself against him to wrap her arms around his beastly torso. “This hasn’t exactly been one of my better days,” she sobbed, her voice thick with tears.

“Olivia.” He pulled her hands away to step out of her desperate embrace. “Go back down the path.”

Only she threw herself right back at him the moment he turned, wrapping her arms around him again and burying
her face in his beastly chest. “It’s just been one thing after another today! From the moment dawn cracked with your parents’ arrival to Eileen bringing home Jessica Pilsner and her son—who is Keith’s son and Sophie’s half brother—to finding out that Sam’s my father and Ezra’s my
grandfather
. Oh God, Mac, they
sold
Inglenook to developers before I could buy it!”

He tried to gently break her hold. “Olivia.”

Her arms tightened. “You have some nerve ordering me to leave like a good little
wife
, when you should be down on your knees apologizing to me.”

Holding his hands out, he stood stiffly in shock. “Apologize for what?”

She leaned back to glare up at him, apparently too distraught to realize
what
she was hugging. “Really, Mac, did you once consider that a simple ‘I love you’ might be easier than destroying my beautiful state?”

“Olivia,” he hissed, trying to peel her off him so he could turn away. “Go down the path and wait for me.”

She stepped back, giving an angry gesture. “Why, so you can make yourself all perfectly handsome again?” She swiped at the tears rolling down her face, then bent at the waist to hug herself. “P-please don’t send me away. I
need
you right now. My whole world is falling apart and you’re the only solid thing I have to hold on to.”

Mac dropped to his knees and opened his arms. “Then come to me,” he whispered, folding her into his embrace when she hurled herself at him again. “Shhh, it’s okay. I’ve got you now.” He pressed his face to her hair. “Your world is only changing, not falling apart.”

“Ezra’s my grandfather!” she wailed. “And Doris was my grandmother, and… and all these years I didn’t even
know
.” She leaned away and swiped at her eyes. “And Sam’s not really Sam because he’s my
father
. And without thinking I asked your dad if he knew what
marita
meant, and he made dawn crack like a sonic boom to get here because he thought I was a gold digger. Only he’s not mean and scary like everyone makes him out to be, because he’s got
a big old sappy heart.” She waved at the ocean below them. “And now he’s all excited because he thinks you did this crazy thing to
impress
me.”

“I did,” he quietly rasped, holding her trembling body as tightly as he dared. “I did it all for you,
marita
.”

Her fingers dug into his neck. “Stop calling me that. We’re not even
married
.” She reared back with a glare, though he doubted she could see him because she was crying so hard. “You have to
ask
me to marry you, and I have to say
yes
, and we have to have an actual
wedding
.”

Mac pulled her back to his chest and adjusted his hold to prepare for the coming explosion. “Actually, I have the power to simply declare that we’re married.”

Only instead of exploding, Olivia went perfectly still in his arms.

“But you,” he rushed to assure her, “have the right to reject me.” He touched his lips to her hair. “One time,” he said quietly. “Once you accept me as your husband of your own free will, it will be forever.” His arms involuntarily tightened around her. “But your rejection frees only
you
to marry another, not me. My fate was sealed the moment I claimed you.”

She started trembling again. “Oh, Mac, what have you done?”

“I’ve handed you my heart, Olivia.”

“But I’m nobody!”

A chuckle escaped the tight fist squeezing his chest. “By the gods, there will be days you’ll
wish
you were nobody if you accept our marriage.” He smoothed down her hair, only to notice that his hand was shaking almost as much as she was. “Please be brave enough to love me, Olivia. Ask me to be your husband. I promise I’ll say yes.”

She leaned away to blink up at him. “Now? I have to decide right
now
?”

Not able to handle her looking at him, Mac sat on the ground and settled her in front of him facing Bottomless. “We walk down this mountain as husband and wife, or you
walk down alone,” he told her. “But if you do, we will never see each other again.”

She said nothing, though he felt her give a small shudder.

“I prefer that you have your conversations out loud, wife,” he whispered. “Tell me your thoughts.”

She started running her fingers over his nearly once-again-human arm. “I’m just wondering why you couldn’t have just asked.” She waved toward Bottomless again. “Why all the… drama?” Only before he could answer she turned with a gasp, her beautiful cinnamon eyes locking on his for several pounding heartbeats. And then she just as suddenly melted against him, but not quickly enough to hide her smile.

“Will you marry me, Mac?”

He took hold of her chin to make her to look at him again. “Do you understand what you’re agreeing to, Olivia? That it’s
forever
?”

The woman actually shrugged. “I’m game for forever if you are.”

“Why?” he blurted before he could stop himself. Mac closed his eyes to block the light shining from hers. “Why would you bind yourself to a man—no, to a
beast
of a man—who doesn’t even have the courage to ask you to be his wife?”

He snapped open his eyes when she pressed her hands to his ugly face. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to be around a perfectly handsome, confident, sexy-as-hell man?” She patted his ugly cheek. “Maximilian the beast is way easier to love, because… well, honestly? I find the real you far less intimidating.”

She snuggled back against him with a sigh. “And I probably shouldn’t tell you this because it will probably go straight to your already oversized head, but I really do have a thing for masculine strength.” She folded his arms under her breasts and glanced up with a brilliant smile. “And if you made my palms sweat and my heart race before, there’s a very good chance I really will faint the next time we get
naked together, now that I know the real you.” She turned to face forward again. “If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to hold it against me?”

“My word of honor,” he whispered. “You can always tell me anything.”

“I flat-out lied when I promised never to fall in love with you, because it was already too late.” Mac felt her take a shuddering breath. “I’m pretty sure I fell in love with you the moment you swept me off my feet the day you saved me from Mark, only it took my brain a while to realize what my heart knew instantly.” And then Mac felt a tear fall onto his arm. “I don’t need you to say the words,” she whispered thickly. “I’ll just look up at the mountains when I need a reminder. I only wish there were some grand and dramatic way for
me
to show
you
how passionately I love you.”

“Ah, Olivia,” he said on a sigh, pulling her more tightly to him. “You did that when you hugged the beast.” He kissed her cheek. “Which again leads me to ask why you decided so quickly not to reject me as your husband?”

She actually chuckled. “Because I suddenly realized how scared you are.”

Mac stiffened. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, come on,” she scoffed, waving toward Bottomless. “You weren’t trying to impress me by moving heaven and earth and a few little mountains; you were making sure I was so overwhelmed by your gesture that I wouldn’t notice how desperate you were.” She craned her head around to raise a brow at him. “And that,
husband
, is why I don’t need you to say the words. Only a deeply-in-love man who’s obviously afraid of being rejected would set such a diabolical trap,” she said, turning to face the lake again.

But not quickly enough to hide her smug smile.

“I am not afraid. I simply decided that if I have to live up here in the mountains, then I would bring the ocean to me.”

She scrambled off his lap so fast that Mac barely had time to protect his groin, and he hadn’t even made it to his feet before she gave him a sharp poke in the chest.

“If you
have
to live up here?” she repeated ever so softly. “Are you implying that I’m forcing you to stay here?”

He pulled her against him with a laugh. “Sheathe your claws, little tigress, and tell me again that you accept our marriage.”

She stared at his fully human chest. “If I do, will you put all the lakes and mountains back the way they were?”

Mac stiffened. “I can’t, Olivia. I just used up the last of my powers making all this happen. And Henry and I really do need to be near the ocean to survive.”

“Are you serious? Mac! You destroyed Bottomless!” She grabbed his hand and started leading him off the ledge. “By God, if you can’t fix this then your father sure as hell better be able to.”

“Olivia.”

“You can’t just go around moving mountains simply because you want to go swimming in salt water. People’s livelihoods depend on this lake.” She came to an abrupt halt when he refused to follow, and spun around with a glare fierce enough to stop a bear in its tracks.

Mac swept her off her feet and, ignoring her gasp of outrage, carried her back onto the precipice and sat down. She immediately stopped struggling and clung to him when he let his feet dangle over the edge, and then he had to pry her arms from around his neck in order to settle her facing forward on his lap.

“Look, Olivia. Does Bottomless appear destroyed to you?”

“It… it’s…” She blew out a heavy sigh. “Okay, it looks pretty much like it did before, except for that new channel carved between those two mountains,” she said, pointing to the north. She turned to look up at him. “But it’s
salt water
.”

He nudged her back around and tightened his embrace. “And what do you think will happen to Turtleback Station and Spellbound Falls,” he asked, “when word gets out that there’s a beautiful inland sea tucked up here in the mountains?”

Mac felt her breath catch. “We… we’ll become a tourist
destination. Ohmigod,” she whispered, leaning away to look at him. “We’ll be swarmed by tourists from all over the world. But that’s even worse! People from away are going to buy up all the land around Bottomless and start building fancy vacation houses all over the place. Property values are going to skyrocket and the locals are going to be taxed out of their homes!”

“No, they won’t, because I’m not going to let that happen.” He waved toward the mountains. “Right after I purchased Inglenook, I also bought most of the timberland surrounding Bottomless all the way to the Canadian border. Except for the resort you’re going to build over there,” he explained, pointing to one of the mountains, “all of the land will remain wilderness.”