Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers (95 page)

Who formed a town for any purpose other than a place to live? Miki glanced over as he trailed off, but the frown on his face didn’t encourage questions.

“He must have been a very busy man,” she said instead.

“Yeah, he always seemed to have something needing his time, his attention. But as many demands as he had, he still made sure his family came first.” He set another tile, then poked the little plastic thingie between it and the one before to keep them neatly aligned. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, we ate dinner at home as a family, always on Sundays. He didn’t miss a single one of my baseball games, never skipped out on a school event.”

The love, the loss, in Gideon’s voice squeezed Miki’s heart. “He sounds great.”

“Yeah.” Then he laughed and, obviously trying to lighten the mood, said, “Of course, you’ve met my mother. Between the two of them, they pretty much balanced out.”

Miki’s opinion of Lucas Ross jumped a few more notches as she imagined having to be married to Fish-Face. Gideon obviously took after his daddy in the looks and the personality department.

“How about you?” he asked as the cat, who’d been watching from the hallway, came in and jumped up on the sink to get a better view. “What are your parents like?”

Miki pursed her lips. How the hell did she describe her parents? They were hard enough to comprehend as it was, at least she didn’t have to detail their magical eccentricities and oddities.

“My parents, huh?” She glanced up as the cat suddenly butted her shoulder with its head. Buying time, Miki reached over to pick her up. “I don’t see much of my father. He and mom divorced when I was about five. He’s...” What? The Indiana Jones of the witch world? A witch with a taste for adventure and one of the greatest minds of his generation? “An archaeologist who spends most of his time traveling. He’s been everywhere in the world, but prefers remote locations.”

“That must make keeping in touch difficult,” Gideon sympathized. Finished with the last row of straight tiles, he pointed with his metal spatula-thing to the box of curve-topped border tiles.

Shifting the cat to her shoulder, Miki lifted one out and slathered it with mud, then handed it to Gideon. Their fingers brushed and she grinned as the tingle zinged through her. Lovers for three days and all it took was the touch of his fingers to get her excited.

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Except it wasn’t her father’s travels that kept them apart. It was his disappointment in her. He barely tolerated the mortal world as it was, his disgust at his ex-wife and his children’s choice to live among mortals always apparent. Miki’s abdication of power when she’d married Perry had been the last straw.

“I haven’t seen him in eight years,” she murmured softly. The cat, as if it sensed her sorrow, burrowed deeper in Miki’s arms and purred. Miki buried her face in the silky fur, took a deep breath, then sighed. “But, it’s not like he was up for any father-of-the-year awards before he took off, you know? Unlike your father, mine didn’t have a lot of time for me or my brother and sister.”

Gideon leaned back on his heels with a frown. The sight of him, all sexy and work-mussed, staring back at her with such concern while he perched in her bathtub, sent Miki’s heart stuttering.

“What about your mom? I guess you grew up with her, huh?”

“My mother,” Miki contemplated. “My mother is like a goddess. Perfect in almost every way. She’s beautiful, talented, and strong.”

The cat’s purr grew louder. It nudged at her until Miki rubbed behind its ears.

“She’s also vain, self-focused, and impossible to live up to,” Miki continued with a sigh. The cat, obviously not liking the way she was being petted, hissed and jumped out of her arms. “Mother’s been divorced, like, a million times. She’s an expert on getting her way, and always knows what’s best for anyone. Most especially her children.”

Gideon snickered. “Sounds familiar.”

“Yes, but unlike your mother, mine doesn’t think I can do no wrong. To Alexis, I’m pretty much a failure. I think it’s proof of how much she loves me that she hasn’t disowned me for being such a disappointment.”

Glass crashed to the floor in a loud explosion. Miki and Gideon both jumped. As one, they shot out of the bathroom.

Miki was closest, so she got to the small spare bedroom they’d decided to use for construction storage first. She pressed her hand to her pounding heart to try and slow her racing pulse. One of the windows Gideon had replaced the day before lay in pieces on the floor, its warped wooden frame splintered among the glass. The cat perched high on a rickety shelving unit that had come with the house. From the heat of her glare at Miki, she obviously hadn’t liked the noise either.

“Did she do that?” Miki asked.

“No. There’s no way she could push over something that heavy. Besides, it was too well balanced on the sawhorses for a tiny cat to knock off balance. It just fell. She’s lucky she didn’t get hurt.”

Miki shot the cat a narrow-eyed look, but its glare and air of indignant anger seemed to be gone. Instead, it sat on the gouged shelf, cleaning its tail and making a show of ignoring them. Miki crossed the room and ran her hands over her fur, carefully checking for splinters of glass.

“She seems okay.”

“I can’t believe she’s still here,” Gideon mused. He wiped his hands on his jeans, then reached over to pet the cat. “What do you do, chain it up?”

“No,” Miki shrugged, “she pretty much comes and goes as she pleases. Sometimes days go by that I don’t see her, but then she shows up again.”

“Huh.” He frowned, his look an odd combination of contemplation and what almost looked like trepidation. Miki peered at him, but he just shrugged. “Like I told you before, it’s been a long time since cats came around. I’m wondering what’s changed.”

“Probably nothing except time. I mean, maybe there were wild animals around or something that was scaring off all the pets.”

He nodded, but it was more a humor-the-clueless type nod than real agreement.

She waited for the defensive anger to settle in. But instead of feeling like she needed to defend herself as she’d always done with Perry, she just felt amusement. How odd. Even though she knew Gideon’s opinion currently mattered to her more than Perry’s ever had, his disagreeing with her just wasn’t an issue. Maybe because he never made her feel like he was disagreeing with
her
, just her opinion. An oddly empowering distinction.

Instead, she grinned and joked, “Maybe it’s magic.”

Not that she believed it was. If nothing else, she’d like to think she’d have sensed it. But she’d obviously said the wrong thing from the way Gideon turned pale and how quickly he shook his head.

“Oh, no. Nope, no magic in Rossdale. This is about the most non-magical town it’s possible to be.”

“Ooo-kay,” she said slowly. She kept her face smooth and her voice light, even as her stomach took a nasty nosedive. “You say that like you’re on trial and magic is behind all things evil, from world hunger to disco.”

"Well, not disco. I blame Saturday Night Fever for that.”

Miki laughed, but the sick feeling in her stomach didn’t abate. Was Gideon anti-magic? Most people fell into one of two categories. Non-believers or Harry Potter groupies. Then there were the few who did believe but longed for the good ol’ days when witches were burned at the stake or drowned.

“So Rossdale is all about being a normal, run-of-the-mill town, huh,” she commented as she followed him back to the bathroom. “Other than those scary potato dolls, of course.”

Gideon grinned and grabbed her by the waist. With a quick tug, he pulled her close.

“I’m going to get you a doll of your own; you’ll love it.”

Before Miki could properly form a horrified enough response, Gideon’s mouth took hers on a swift, wild climb. Thoughts of dolls, towns, and magic all fled as Miki gave herself over to the delicious sensations racing through her body.

She sighed in pleasure as his hand closed over her breast. Something nagged at her subconscious though, keeping her from giving over to the now familiar passion.

“Cat,” she gasped.

“Is that an endearment?” he murmured as he shifted his attention to nibbling down her throat.

“No.” She pulled back, still in his arms but putting distance between their bodies. “The cat is right there. We can’t do this in front of her.”

From Gideon’s laugh and his hand sliding beneath her tee shirt, he must’ve thought she was kidding. Miki glanced over his shoulder at the cat, who watched unabashedly.

Nope, couldn’t do it in front of the staring feline. Talk about intimidation. But Miki wasn’t willing to
not
do what he so obviously wanted to do. So she gave Gideon a wink and grabbed his hand.

Pulling him out the door, she tugged him along to her bedroom. Gotta love a guy who willingly was led by the hand to sexual pleasures. She grinned and gave him a little push so he fell on her bed.

What a sight he was. His golden hair mussed and sexy as it fell into those whisky-rich eyes. Leaning back on his elbows, his biceps bunched in a way that made Miki want to bite into them. His grin made her giddy.

Not physically giddy, though. It was an emotional thing, like her heart was on a roller coaster ride. Scary, exhilarating, and thrilling. But with a nasty worry that the car could upend at any time and leave her in a million broken pieces.

Miki was ignoring that worry, since all it would do was interfere with her fun.

With a deep breath and a smile that only trembled a little, she pushed her bedroom door shut before the cat could join them, tugged the tee shirt over her head, and, turning her back and looking over her shoulder, shimmied out of her jeans.

His gaze latched onto her tattoo. Who knew something that had started as a simple act of defiance could end up being such a turn on, so empowering. Every time Gideon got that look in his eyes, and it was often, Miki felt empowered by her new life, her new choices.

Gideon’s grin turned to an intense look of desire as he took in her purple lace panties and bra. Inspired by that look, by the surge of emotions sparking through her system, she trailed her fingertips over the pink satin trim. His eyes blurred.

“You’re perfect,” he breathed. “Sexy, sweet, and so damned gorgeous.”

Giddy laughter gurgled in her throat. Was it any wonder she was crazy about the guy? He didn’t even see the five pounds she still carried on her hips. He didn’t care that she didn’t have makeup on or that she hadn’t cooked him a fancy meal. And he let her have free rein in bed, indulging all her take-charge fantasies.

Unexpected tears welled in her eyes, but Miki blinked them away with a shaky breath.
Enjoy it while it lasts
. That was her new motto. So she’d enjoy it to the max.

“Want a taste?” she offered as she unhooked the front clasp of her bra.

“Oh, yeah.” He nodded and reached for her, taking them both on that wild roller coaster ride together.

As Miki watched his face above her as he took his pleasure, she realized it didn’t matter if the car upturned or not. She wouldn’t trade this ride for anything in the world.

* * *

The next evening, Gideon stretched his legs out in front of him on the new couch in his mother’s living room and tried to get comfortable. But the cushion beneath his butt felt like it was made of cement. He resisted the urge to get up and punch the snowy white fabric a few times to try to soften it up.

Of course, to punch the couch, he’d have to be able to set down his glass of iced tea somewhere. Except since his mother’s recent purchase of the fancy coffee and side tables, she didn’t seem to even believe in coasters any longer. But being the perfect hostess, she’d had to serve refreshments.

He glanced around the room at the small crowd of people, all perched stiffly on the new furniture. Like him, most balanced a glass of iced tea in one hand, a small plate of cookies on one knee. Nobody looked brave enough to eat or drink, however.

“Would anyone like more tea?” Deloris trilled from the doorway to the kitchen. “No? More cookies, then?”

“Can we get on with it?” Gideon asked. He had a date at nine and didn’t want to be stuck at this impromptu meeting any longer than necessary. Lately, anything that kept him away from Miki tended to cause him impatience.

Years of practice let him ignore his mother’s glare of disapproval as Gideon got the meeting going.

“Did you get that city girl to agree to running a road through her property?” Gene asked when they’d finished the particulars of what was needed to make the lodge usable.

Gideon flashed back to the memory of Miki in his arms, the feel of her body still warm from their lovemaking, the scent of them in the air.

“I haven’t found the right time to ask her,” he sidestepped with a shrug. Since he’d heard her voice as she talked about her land, about the beauty of the mountains he loved so much, Gideon hadn’t been able to get a hope from his head. A hope that maybe, just maybe, Miki might find herself wanting to stay in Rossdale when her house was done. Damned if he was going to screw with her view just so a few people could avoid driving by the boogeyman.

“It doesn’t matter, we have a road we can use. Right now there are more important issues to deal with, anyway.”

“More important?” Fred exclaimed. “If we’re going to host these tournaments of yours, we need a way to get out to the lake. We can’t take the old road, it’s just too...” he trailed off. But it was easy to fill in the blanks.
Too close to the boogeyman
.

The only thing that kept Gideon from rolling his eyes was respect for the older man. He was tired of giving way to the town’s paranoia.

“Look, Tim Watson was out, toured the lake and all our amenities. He’s on board to bring his tournament here to Rossdale. We need to have our proposal in the next week.” Gideon let that fact settle in their heads, then raised a brow. “Even if Miki did offer her land, we don’t have the time it would take to cut a road through there.”