The Curse Keepers (Curse Keepers series) (30 page)

“You feel a call from the land.”

“Yes.”

“So is it hard for you when you’re on the water? Does part of you ache for the land?”

“I’m sure it’s no different from how you feel when you’re on the ocean.”

“I’ve never been.”

His body tensed, ever so slightly. “Never been what?”

“On the ocean.”

“How is that possible? You live less than a hundred feet from the sound.”

I shrugged. “Momma was deathly afraid of water, and my obsession with it didn’t help. So she purposely made sure I never went on a boat.”

“And later? After she died? Was that some desire to please her since you felt responsible for her death?”

Collin was dangerous. He was much too intuitive to suit me. “Partly. The other part was the few times a friend had a boat and offered to take me out on the sea. But they weren’t the most trustworthy of people, and I decided it wasn’t worth risking my life.”

“Good call, but you need the water, Ellie. It feeds your own Manitou.”

I stiffened at the thought of dead sea animals. I could never steal life so callously.

Collin sensed my horror and ran a hand down my arm. “Not like that. This is different.”

It was a lovely thought, but I didn’t have access to a boat. But perhaps that explained why Collin seemed so much stronger than me.

We stayed like that for several minutes, me watching the ocean and resting against the balcony railing, Collin pressed against my back, his arms on either side of me. I knew I should be thankful for this moment with him, but I was greedy. I wanted more of him, not just this.

Collin’s arms dropped and he turned around and went into the room. When he left, it was as though a piece of me went missing. Just as I was about to chide myself for being overdramatic, I realized the truth of it: Collin and I were equal halves of a whole. Perhaps we could have simply done our job, combining our power when needed in the ceremony, but last night had bound us in a way that I was sure Collin didn’t anticipate. Did he feel it too? If he did, why did he fight it so?

I not only needed Collin Dailey, I
wanted
him. I could try to ignore it for the rest of the time I had left with him and regret until my dying breath that I never seized this opportunity. Or I could go through it and have my heart
broken when he left, because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would.

My heart would be broken no matter what choice I made.

The door to the room was still open, but I wasn’t ready to face him yet. Besides, I wanted to see if he had a point about the water. I headed down the stairs and kicked off my shoes, carrying them in my hand as I trekked across the fifty-foot beach toward the water. The closer I got to the water’s edge, the stronger the pull. When my feet hit the wet sand, I curled my toes and waited for a wave to wash over me. My knees almost buckled at the rush of power and I gasped out loud.

My eyes sank closed as I absorbed both the power and what it meant. As well as the potential disadvantage it gave me. Collin was a fisherman, but he spent a lot of time on the land. The ceremony would most likely take place on the land, possibly miles from water. There was nothing I could do about that. Would I be strong enough to be useful?

I decided to ignore what I couldn’t control—Collin, my power or lack thereof—and enjoy this moment. The realization that I
did
have a purpose: Elinor Dare Lancaster, Curse Keeper. I walked deeper into the waves, the water crashing into my legs as I tilted my head back, my face absorbing the sunlight. My skirt flapped, the hem soaking up saltwater, and my hair blew around my face. I could almost feel the Manitou of creatures around me, just a tickle of their presence. I had been right the day before in the warehouse. This wasn’t just a curse. It was a blessing.

I wasn’t sure how long I stayed there, straddling both worlds, but it was long enough to become cold from the water and the wind. My long hair had become hopelessly tangled, and I reached up to brush it out of my face as I turned around to go back to the room. I stopped mid-turn, surprised to see Collin standing ten feet behind me. The raw desire in his eyes stole my breath. Collin Dailey wanted me as much as I wanted him. The knowledge knotted my stomach and caused an ache inside, an ache that I needed him to touch. To fill. I took a step toward him and stopped as he backed up several paces, then turned around and returned to the room without me.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-O
NE

Collin didn’t say a word when I returned. He sat in a chair by the window and watched a game show on the television.

On the walk back to the room, I decided I could go about this one of two ways: I could sulk the rest of our time together or I could figure out a way to break Collin Dailey. The second option held much more appeal. On so many levels.

I flopped on the bed next to him. “What are we doing tonight?”

He kept his attention on the television, an obvious ploy to get me to leave him alone. There was no way Collin was that interested in a tampon commercial.

“I don’t know. I guess eat dinner.”

“I want to go to the street fair.”

His eyebrows slowly rose as his mouth parted. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.”

He shook his head. “No. No way.”

We’d see about that. I stood up and walked toward the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”

That got his attention. “That’s not a good idea. You might screw up your mark.”

I gave him a saucy look. “Then I guess you’ll just have to redo it.”

“
Ellie
.”

I set my bag on the bed and unzipped it enough to pull out my cosmetics bag. “I haven’t had a shower in days, Collin. I’m sure the mark has set by now.
Have mercy on me.” But I didn’t want him to show me mercy. I wanted—I stopped the thought before I attacked him. I had no doubt he would eventually cave, but there was also no doubt that Collin was stubborn. Too bad for him he’d met his match. But I didn’t want to smell like sweat and lemons when I seduced him and that meant I needed a shower.

He slumped in the chair, rolling his eyes in disgust. “Do whatever you want. You do anyway.”

The sooner he accepted that, the better off he’d be.

I was in the bathroom long enough to steam up the mirror. I had to make sure I was ready for shenanigans with Collin Dailey and that included shaving. Plus I hoped he was out there thinking about me. Naked.

When I opened the door, he jerked upright, purposely trying to ignore me and shifting in his seat. He cast a glance my way, which turned into a double take when he realized I’d come out wrapped in the flimsy terry-cloth robe. His eyes stayed on me. Collin Dailey looked like a starving man, and he wasn’t hungry for food.

“Do you want to check my back? To make sure I didn’t screw up my mark?” I partially turned my back toward him, dropping my robe off my shoulder.

He looked away. “No,” he responded more gruffly than necessary.

I almost chuckled and went back into the bathroom. I towel dried my hair and found a blow-dryer to help with the rest. When I was done, it was a frizzy mess. I sighed.

Since Claire had packed my bag, I wasn’t sure what she’d included. Thankfully, she’d had more foresight than I had. I pulled out a black lacy shirt and a gauzy skirt, along with a lacy black bra and panties buried underneath.

I dressed and put on a little makeup. It was too hot to wear much more than blush, eye shadow and mascara, and lip stain. Next I plaited my hair into a soft, messy braid over my shoulder that reminded me a bit of Rosalina’s. That gave me pause. I didn’t want to remind Collin of Rosalina. I stared at myself in the mirror to get the full effect. I’d never be the beauty that Rosalina was, but I could manage pretty. Tonight I wore slightly more eye makeup than usual. I still passed for pretty, but with a bit of maturity.

When I emerged from the bathroom, Collin was pacing the floor. He turned toward me, and froze.

“Do you need to get ready?” I asked.

He nodded, then swallowed.

I smiled. Imagine that. A speechless Collin Dailey. Someone needed to mark that down for posterity.

He pulled a set of clothes out of his bag and moved past me. I purposely made it difficult. He looked like he was in pain when he closed the bathroom door. The sound of the shower soon followed. Collin didn’t linger under the water long. He was in and out of the bathroom in less than ten minutes.

He picked up his wallet and truck keys off the dresser. “No street fair,” he growled, stuffing the wallet into his back pocket.
Lucky wallet. I’d love to be that close to Collin’s ass
. Good Lord. When had I become this person?

He glanced up and saw where I was staring and got flustered. What was Collin afraid of? Was he as worried that I’d break his heart as I was that he would break mine? What a joke. It was more likely he worried I’d pull some hysterical woman freak-out when he left.

Collin opened the door and held it for me. “You look very handsome,” I said in a slow, sexy voice as I walked by him. He was more than handsome. I couldn’t imagine how
People
magazine hadn’t put his picture on their cover as the sexiest man alive.

Even though Collin had tried to keep his distance in our room, outside he fell in step beside me, his hand on the small of my back. I hid my smile. I didn’t want to spook him. When we got to the truck, he opened the door for me. Unlike that morning, I didn’t comment. I realized this wasn’t something Collin did—open car doors for women. What exactly did it mean that he did it for me?

It took us less than ten minutes to get downtown. The streets were crowded and several were blocked off. Collin parked on a side road and was over on my side of the truck as I got out. I loved that Collin had told me no street fair, but then drove us there anyway. The boy was breaking.

“What are you hungry for?” I asked in a husky voice.

It took him several seconds to answer. “I don’t care.”

“Do you want to walk around and see what’s here?”

“Sure.”

I almost felt badly for him. Almost. I still hadn’t figured out why he was resisting me so hard, but at least I wasn’t making a fool of myself. He wanted me. Bad.

We stopped at a bar and grill and sat in the patio area on the sidewalk, watching the people pass by. Collin leaned back in his seat, uncharacteristically quiet. It occurred to me that if he had a reason for not acting on his feelings toward me, maybe I should respect that. He was clearly uncomfortable.

“Collin,” I said, putting my hand on the table surface in front of him.

His eyes darted to mine.

“I didn’t sleep with Drew last night. He’s Claire’s fiancé.”

“I know.”

That caught me by surprise. “You didn’t look like you knew when you showed up this morning.”

“Not at first I didn’t, but the minute Claire arrived, I saw the way they looked at each other.” He still scowled.

I thought clearing our misunderstanding would make things better. “We can go. If you want to get something to go, we can just take it back to the room.”

He watched me for several seconds, then shook his head. “No. I want to be here.”

I released my breath.

“I need a beer.” He motioned for the waitress to come over and ordered a pale ale.

“I’ll take one too.”

He smirked.

“What?” I asked when the waitress left.

“I thought you preferred men who were stout.”

I smiled. My Collin was back and had accepted my challenge. “No, I said I took you for a stout man.” My eyebrows rose. “Was I wrong?”

A slow sexy grin spread across his face. “I’ll let you figure that out for yourself.”

My body flushed.

He leaned forward and waited for my response. Score one for Collin. He slid his hand across the table and reached for my hand, slowly turning it over. His fingertip traced the lines in my palm and I shivered. He grinned at the small victory. “Did you know I can read palms?”

I shook my head.

His finger traced a long line from my thumb to my wrist. “This is your life line.” He bent over it. “Yours is quite long and bold. You’ll live a very long and very large life.” He found a line that ran down the middle of my hand. “This is your fate line.” He studied it and grinned up at me. “You are destined for the best night of your life, Ellie Lancaster.”