Earth Enchanted (16 page)

In that world, Liv turned to him and pillowed her head on his bare chest. Her sigh set his blood racing and sent his heart soaring. “I love you, Jack. I always will.” When he tried to shake her away she clung tighter. “You belong to me now.”

“Don’t love me, Liv. I’ll only hurt you in the end.” Jack pushed her aside and walked from the room. Only to see Sissy standing in front of the room they had once shared.

“She’s wrong. She’s only a passing fling. You belong to me, Jack. I’m dead, but you will love me forever. She can’t have you. No one but me ever will, no matter how many others there are. I’m the only one who can hold your heart.”

Panicked completely, he ran back to the stairs only to find Liv coming up them, arms outstretched and welcoming.

“I’ll take care of you. I’m all you’ll ever need.” She hugged him close.

Sissy caught his shoulders. “No. I’ll always be in the back of your mind. There will be no one but me.” The ensuing tug-of-war woke him with a start. It was like being a rope. He felt tied to the past and drug along by the future. He’d be better off to let one go, but how could he choose? Now what? Liv had said she loved him, and he was sure she wouldn’t remember having said it. He decided to keep his inner war to himself. It was his problem and Liv had enough on her plate. They were going to have to deal with it sooner or later.

The next thing he realized was that he was alone. The bed felt cold and empty beside him. Gone? Where was she? He sat up and looked around. His mood immediately foul, he would have liked to have waked beside her, snuggled into her, maybe even have talked her into more, now that the morning had come. Two things fizzled out the frown. She had pulled her quilt over him, tucking the edges around him, and he smelled coffee. Not sludge, either, which is what he usually made, but heavenly coffee. The smell of it lured him out of bed and into the shower. He let his thoughts bounce around inside his head while the hot water streamed. Maybe things would settle on their own.

Chapter 13

Liv had woken up early and found Jack curled on the bed beside her, his arm around her waist and his head snuggled into the curve of her neck. She’d watched him sleep for what seemed like an eternity, but he hadn’t stirred. Not even when she brushed a dark curl of tousled hair from his forehead. She hadn’t been as asleep as he had thought. She remembered what she had said, and desperately wished she had kept her mouth shut for once in her life.

It would get in the way now. When only she had known, it was still for her to deal with. Things would change between them. She wasn’t ready for change. They’d have to stumble around it to find each other again. She’d wanted so badly to curl into him until he woke, but because of it, she had left him sleeping.

When she heard the shower turn on, she cringed. Jack was awake and she knew he was wondering, trying to work it out in that puzzle-solving mind of his. What would be the best way to tell Liv I don’t love her? Ugh! He would be nice and polite. Liv gripped the spatula in her hand until her knuckles were white and it threatened to bend. She was afraid she’d have to kill him if he was. She stayed where she was, there in the kitchen cooking, props to give her something to do with her hands. Oh, he would be kind to her. She was sure, and that would be worse. Some things one can’t politely discuss and dismiss. Love is one of them. Then the man she’d come to love more than her own breath would walk out of her life. Jack would not risk the hurt his wife’s death had caused him twice. Maybe he’d just forget? Okay, she knew it was a desperate thought. Maybe he would ignore it because it would be uncomfortable. Why was she even worrying about it? She couldn’t take it back and she couldn’t change how she felt. Liv spooned up eggs out of the skillet. The air changed, became heavy with tension and she knew Jack had walked into the room. She didn’t have to turn around to know it. Her entire being instantly went on full alert. Please God, not yet. She wasn’t ready to face him.

He didn’t speak, just walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. Pretend to concentrate on what you’re doing, she schooled herself. She’d break in a minute, down into sobs if he didn’t step away. She smelled the soap from his shower and felt her knees weaken.

She painted her voice cheery and said, “Good morning to you, Jack. Did you sleep well?”

It was a stab at what had become normalcy for them. Normal, except for waking together after sleeping the night in each other’s arms. Normal except that he knew she loved him. God. She wished she’d never come here. She suddenly wanted to erase the past weeks from her mind. Her heart was breaking and the pain of it outweighed the joy that came with new love.
The love. Help!

Jack held on. “No, I didn’t. I was disappointed. I woke and you were gone. I wanted to watch you wake up. Why did you run from me, Liv?”

“Please just forget I said anything. I can’t talk about this right now! Let me go, Jack.”

He just turned her, held her close, and let her cry.

“We’re going to have to talk about this, Liv. I don’t want to forget it and I’m not letting you go. I just don’t know what I can give you in return. I want to try and that’s a big step up for me.”

“Have I asked you for anything? No. They’re my feelings. It’s me who has to deal with them.” She tried to storm off, but he held her fast.

“Tell me now, while you know what you are saying. I want to hear it.”

She thought about slapping him. “If you think I’m going to feed your ego, you’re sorely mistaken. Back off and let me be. You’ve had your fun.”

His eyes went dark and hot. She hadn’t known they could be so black. She could see so much swirling under their surface no longer restrained with niceties like control. For some perverse reason, it steadied her.

“Please. I need to hear you say it.”

She was caught in those eyes, as she had been when they’d met, and would have given or taken anything he wanted her to. She sighed and caught his face in her hands. “I love you. God help me. I can’t seem to find the good sense not to. Sure and I knew you were going to be trouble from the first of it.” What she had been going to say next was lost as her breath was stolen when his mouth came down and turned her own to flame. Liv breathed him in and everything else blissfully fell out of existence.

“The best kind, Liv. I don’t know what I have inside me for you. I know that I care and that I need you, more than is safe for either of us right now. Be patient with me.”

“We need some time to sort this out. I wasn’t expecting any of this. So much has happened.”

“We will finish this later, Liv, but right now I want those eggs, even if you are burning them.”

Laughter bubbled out before she could stop it. He gave her another cocky smile and turned her loose to see to them. Just like that, he’d shifted gears.

* * * *

Devin paced in his hotel room and glared at the phone, weighing his options. He could call Gueraldi and tell him just where he could go and what he could do with his bloody diamonds, or he could accept this new job. For anyone else it would have been dangerous, even deadly, to do the first. That wasn’t what worried him. His gut told him to accept would be a mistake. He could enjoy the money and the thrill, but deep down he didn’t want to do it. Maybe he was suddenly having a very belated attack of conscience, a thousand years too late.

Devin lived his miserable existence as he pleased once he realized he was stuck until the spell worked itself out. Some would say his lifestyle was morally and legally wrong. They were right. What did he care? Magic, not mortal laws, ruled his fate. At least that’s how he looked at it. Some would have said it was exciting. That much was true. Still others would say heartbreaking. That was the truest of all. He was to be forever alone, or be damned to live with that woman. He was avoiding thoughts of her now merely on principle. He wasn’t a man who liked to be shoved into things.

In frustration he dragged his hands through his hair, sending the curl of it every which way. His power kept him in tune to things others might miss, and right now it was making him edgy. Something somewhere was happening. ‘Christophe’ was going to need an escape hatch if he took this job. Then he was going to make certain Gueraldi couldn’t find him. He huffed out one breath, then two, and picked up the phone and slipped on his French persona. “
Bonjour
, Gueraldi. How are you?”

“You may dispense with the pleasantries, LeFleur. Have you given careful consideration to my offer?”

Devin rubbed at the worry nagging his gut.

“
Oui
, I have and I accept.”

“A wise decision, don’t make any mistakes. You have a week. A man of your skill shouldn’t have any problem with that.”

Devin floundered. A week? Even for him it was going to be near impossible. He swallowed against the nerves he’d never had and said, “A blind man could do it in a week.” He hung up before he could talk himself out of it or say any more. The next call he made was to Nicolette.

He needed to gather his team quickly. Tomorrow morning he was going on a little tourist trip to the Smithsonian. He had to study the necklace, if he was going to make the copy convincing. Seven days and counting.

* * * *

Work couldn’t keep Liv off Jack’s mind for long. If he hadn’t walked away earlier, he was sure he wouldn’t have been able to. She had reached out with that odd way of hers and snared control over his mind and body. Jack still wondered if she had claim on his heart as well. He had shut himself in his office and left her to whatever pursuits she could find. When he finally buried his thoughts in the screen, he realized his characters were taking dimension, though the heroine was slowly becoming a cohesion of Liv and Sissy. What did that say about him? When he finally unhitched himself from his computer, dark had fallen. He’d been writing since after breakfast. That hadn’t happened since he’d finished his first book, attacking the task like a warrior off to battle. When the end had come in sight, he couldn’t let go of it until it had been finished, then he had slept like the dead for the next fourteen hours. He checked the desk clock, six, and stretched his fingers. They were singing like an old man’s with arthritis. His belly grumbled, reminding him he’d missed lunch and almost dinner. He shut down the computer and closed the office door on his way out, and narrowly avoided stepping in the tray Liv had left there for him.

Rain poured from the sky and beat violently on the windows. Despite the wildness of the storm, it set a sleepy tone to the house. The long night and day were catching up to him. Maybe he’d just throw a sandwich together and nap in the den for a while if he could. The house was really quiet. He wondered where she was. Probably up in her own room working. His feet carried the rest of him to the kitchen, while his mind wandered off in Liv’s direction.

There she was, curled up on the window-seat like a cat with a book in her hands. When she heard him come into the room, she looked up from her book and smiled at him. Her expression was so melancholy Jack started to walk back out of the kitchen. What had she been thinking of while she stared out into the lonely rain?

“I thought you’d surface, soon. I was going to come get you if you didn’t come down in a minute.”

He noticed she had the table set. “Been cooking?”

“Just soup and cheese sandwiches as the weather called for it. Nothing like a rainy summer night, is there?” As usual she was reading his mind. Jack couldn’t make up his mind if it annoyed him or not. “Did you get any work done today?” he asked, but she looked like she’d been sitting there in the cozy nook dreaming for hours.

“Some, I couldn’t concentrate. There’s too much floating around in my head already to come up with anything new yet. It will be there when I’m ready for it.”

The phone rang. Jack started to answer it, but she waved him back.

“Don’t get up, Jack. Go ahead and eat. I’ll get it.” She picked up the kitchen phone. “Hello, this is the Roarke residence.”

* * * *

“How are you finding America, sister?”

She squealed before she could stop herself, and spun in a circle much as Ryan had done to her in the airport.

“Skye! Oh, I’m so glad to hear from you!” She stepped into the hall and went upstairs to her room. “How’s Ma?” She shut her door and sat down at the little vanity.

“She’s fine but she’s worried for you, afraid you’ve decided to become a yank after delaying your homecoming so long.”

“I’ve not and you can tell her so, but there are things I need to finish before I can come home. I’m hoping Ryan will come back with me. It’s not good for him to be so far from his family.” She didn’t add she’d be leaving a piece of herself behind as well. She wasn’t ready for that. Would she ever be?