Love in Fantasy (Skeleton Key) (20 page)

The family starts to disperse, couples pairing off and heading home, but I remain seated, with Pippa snuggled up to my side, while I’m deep in discussion with Wilder. We barely hear the doorbell ring as we work out a problem with one of the expansions.

“Wilder.” We are interrupted by Wilder’s partner Phoenix calls his name as he strides into the room and over to where we are seated. “How are you, Oliver?” he asks before his eyes stray to Pippa.

I glare at him and drag Pippa into my lap. “Doing well. I’ll be even better in the next week when I’m married to
my
woman.” I manage to remain simply gruff instead of snarling. Pippa stiffens in my lap and I glance down to see her glaring at me. I roll my eyes and return to my conversation with Wilder, now including Phoenix, who’d stopped by to give us an update.

I ask Phoenix a question but he doesn’t answer, his eyes are trained across the room, a look I recognize coming over his face. Well, that happened fast. I can’t really judge considering my history with Pippa. Looks like Phoenix is going to get his fantasy girl tonight. Lucky bastard. Shelby catches his gaze and blushes profusely, pushing her glasses up her pert nose, while Wilhelm does a little jig in my pocket.
Yeah, yeah, brother Grimm, keep your panties on
. The snotty little shock doesn’t even faze me anymore. Wilhelm goes silent. Is he. . .?
Are you sulking, Wilhelm?

I hold in a sigh, not only am I talking to a key, I’m talking to a magical key with an attitude. Is this what crazy looks like? Pippa shifts on my lap, surreptitiously snuggling a little closer. Maybe crazy looks better than I thought.

Phoenix wanders over to where Shelby is chatting with her mother and Piper. He speaks to all three of them, but then he and Shelby pair off, quietly talking. I’m only half paying attention to Wilder and don’t even notice when he gets up and collects Piper and leaves.

“Goodnight, Wilder. Later, twinkles,” Pippa says as she scoots off my lap. Not wanting to be any ruder, I stand to say goodbye to the departing couple. After they leave, Pippa covertly peers back and forth between me and the door, clearly not sure whether she wants to stay or go. It’s late, and I need to get the key to Shelby before she takes off, so I make the decision for her. Wrapping her up in my arms, I kiss her with passion until the clearing of a throat reminds me where we are. I glance up at her mother guiltily, but she’s shaking her head at us, chuckling. I grin back at her and give Pippa one more squeeze before letting her loose.

“Goodnight, ladies.” I slowly amble towards the front entrance to the castle, prolonging my journey, hoping I won’t have to wait around like a creepy stalker. Wilhelm hums.
Over your snit, are you?

I’m at the door when I hear the sound of approaching voices and I remove Wilhelm from my pocket and linger, ostensibly waiting for Phoenix. Calling out to him when they come around the corner to cement the assumption.

“Going back the office, Phoenix?”

He glances at Shelby and shakes his head. “No, Shelby is going to show me some of her finds from her trip.” He gestures for her to precede him, “Shall we?”

I hold the door open and when Shelby walks by, I slip the key into her purse. She smiles up at me, then I shake Phoenix’s hand, and we all descend the steps together, get in our cars, and go our separate ways.

This time, when I go to bed, I dream about my beautiful Pippa rounded with a swollen belly, and a dark-haired, green-eyed little girl folding her hand as they advance towards me.

Meanwhile. . .

Shelby’s Fantasy

S
helby unlocks the door to her lab and flicks on the lights, leading the way in, very aware of the man following her. She takes a deep breath to fortify her hormones before facing him again.

“This was a Spanish excavation. Some of the items we found show the signs of being from an undiscovered people.” She smiles and gestures for him to take a seat on a stool at a long, illuminated lab table. Her mind races, trying to think of what the most interesting pieces and facts are for her to share. People often glaze over when she starts to talk about her work, unless it’s about buried pirate treasure. She didn’t have any of those stories—yet. Hopefully, someday.

She returns to the table with a tray of items she’d recently catalogued and assigned to a display at a museum in Madrid. Gauging his expression, to see if she’s boring him, she points to each piece and explains their origin. He listens raptly, making her feel like the most fascinating person he’s ever met. “Anyway, this is the project I’m working on right now.”

He nods, studying her thoughtfully. “When do you leave again?”

Shrugging as she puts everything away, she muses, “I’m not sure. This is a big job and with my degree, they wanted me to be in charge of the land project, too.” When she comes back to the table, he’s frowning at her and it makes her stomach dip. What had she said?

“Then you’ll leave again? For how long?” he asks, his expression becoming more along the lines of frustration. “You were gone for a little over sixteen months last time?”

“Well, yes, but that’s because I chose to stay with this crew for several projects,” she explains carefully, wishing he’d go back to smiling at her. “There really isn’t a way to know how long a project or hunt will take. With this load, though, the site had already been discovered and our time on the water was actually pretty limited. We were brought in to help excavate and finish up with the tedious archeological stuff.” She smiles ruefully and points at her chest with her thumb. “Enter, Shelby.”

Phoenix rubs a hand over his brown goatee, showing hints of red in the light. His brows are still furrowed, but he’s softened his features. “Thank you, suga—Shelby,” he says, stumbling over her name. “This is amazing, the work you do. I appreciate you sharing it with me.” He stands up and comes around the table. When he leans in, Shelby sucks in a breath and closes her eyes, sure he’s about to kiss her. She feels the whisper soft brush of his lips on her cheek and then the heat of his body in front of her is replaced by cool air as he steps back. Opening her eyes, she darts her gaze to the ground, horribly embarrassed at reading him so wrong.

He lifts her chin with a finger and smiles. “You’re incredible, Shelby. Smart, funny, so beautiful it almost hurts to look at you.” She sensed the but ahead and was disappointed to be right. “I have a business here, it’s my home. I can’t start a relationship with someone who is going to be leaving me for undeterminable amounts of time, multiple times a year. And, I would never want to hold you back, to be the reason you didn’t go after your dreams.” He falls quiet, looking as though he debating saying something else, but all he says is, “Goodnight, sugar.” Then he walks out, shutting the door behind him, the click of the lock echoing in the silence.

Shelby sighs and sits at the lab table, slumping over, and resting her chin on her folded arms. At least he didn’t leave her because he thought she was boring. She’d only ever been out on one date, most guys dismissing her before even giving her a chance. The one date had turned out to be a guy whose only goal was to get in her wetsuit. She’d given him a black eye when he’d attempted to cop a feel.

Getting to her feet, she turns the lights off and opens the door . . . Except, it doesn’t budge.
Stupid doors.
These doors don’t unlock, they are either kept open, or you have to use a key to get in and out of the room. Irritated at, everything and everyone, she digs through her purse for her keys. They don’t seem to be there and she glances around not seeing them lying around anywhere. Damn it. She takes her glasses off and rubs her eyes.
Shelby, the absentminded professor strikes again.

A dull noise in her purse draws her attention and she opens it, startled to see and odd, blue glass, skeleton key. Where did this come from? Had Phoenix put it in there? Some untold force draws her eyes to the door of the lab. She puts her glasses back on and notices a light shining through the keyhole. Which is weird since the window in the door shows an empty, unlit hallway.

It makes no sense whatsoever to try the skeleton key, but it’s almost as if it has a mind of its own, guiding her to the lock. It works.
Holy shit, it worked?
Turns out, that’s not the end of the peculiar events currently happening. She steps into a marvelous foyer and turns in a circle, soaking up the richness of the space. There are two large, gold-brushed doors and she decides she might as well jump head first into whatever universe she suddenly finds herself in. Taking the key from the door she’d entered through, she sticks it in a lock, bearing a carving of the very key in her hand.

She figures it must be her sense of adventure and discovery pushing her to keep going and has a fleeting thought of caution, but ignores it in favor of hope that there’s nothing on the other side of the door that would eat her.

Opening it, she’s hit by a wall of water. It sucks her into its depths, filling her mouth and nose, causing her to choke and swallow water into her lungs.
Maybe being eaten by a giant whale wouldn’t be such a bad thing, right now
. Her panic capriciously dissipates and she relaxes, now considering whether she ingested too many fumes in her lab and is hallucinating, because there is no way she’s breathing underwater. No way at all.

Looking around, she forgets about her weird predicament and gets lost in the maritime world, the place she feels most at home. She kicks her legs to propel her forward and goes hurtling much, much faster than she should have. When she slows, she takes the opportunity to scrutinize herself. If she’d been standing, she probably would have fainted. Then again, with these fins, she wouldn’t have been standing anyway. Yup, that’s right—fins. Turns out, she’s a fucking mermaid.

Shelby shakes her head and tries to dislocate whatever organism has crawled into her brain and laid crazy eggs. It doesn’t work. With a sigh, she decides to head for the surface, hoping fresh air will be the trick. She allows herself to revel in the swim, the rush of the cool water over her skin as she speeds to the surface, the sounds of the ocean filling her ears in a way it never could before.
Okay, so this mermaid thing isn’t so bad.

Forgetting to slow her speed as she gets closer to the top, she breaks through the water and goes hurtling into the sky. She freaks out for about thirty seconds until she remembers to go with the flow (pun intended) and does a graceful arc before diving back into the water. She smirks to herself, wondering if she should dye her hair red. “Ahhhh . . . ahhh . . . ahhhhhha . . . aahhh.” Not so much with the singing, though. She coughs and chokes a little, the salt making her throat scratchy, but at least she can still breathe.

Coming to the surface at a more sedate pace this time, she floats, with her fin moving lazily to keep her upright.
Definitely getting the hang of the fins for feet situation.
The wind picks up a little and she shivers as her nipples pebble and point. What??? Glancing down, she groans in exasperation.
Where the fuck are my seashells?
And, since life is like a rotten box of chocolates, this is the moment she notices the row boat coming upon her.

Mortified, she sinks down, trying to cover her bare breasts but strike number one for the fins; she’s floating like a buoy. There has to be a way to force herself to sink, right?
Too late.

“Hey! Are you crazy? What are you doing swimming out here alone in the middle of the fucking ocean?” A voice yells. It also sends tingles racing down to her . . . hmm. Exactly how does that work? Disney certainly never explained the Mer birds and bees. “Hello?”

Shelby crosses her arms over her naked chest and rotates in the water until she’s facing the owner of the tingle-inducing voice. She gasps and heat flushes through her body, the blush more than likely showing up all over her exposed skin. It’s Phoenix. In the boat. On the ocean. Phoenix. Staring at her, oh! Oops, in her shock, she’d let her arms go lax for a minute there. Covering up once again, it breaks his line of sight to her breasts, and he seems to realize he was ogling her. In the moonlight, she can see pink tinging his cheeks as he meets her gaze.

His eyes are a beautiful, deep green, and his thick, black lashes, brush the apples of his cheeks when he blinks at her. After a minute, she realizes he doesn’t recognize her and she can’t quite tamp down a stem of hurt. Sure, she’s a fish, but the upper body still looks the same, other than the lack of clothing.

The boat sidles up next to her, and he smiles, taking her breath away.
Wow.
He’s lethal with that weapon. “What’s your name, sugar?”

She opens her mouth to answer and starts coughing again, the salt had stuck to the inside of her throat and dried it out. A whisper of sound is all she can manage and it’s completely useless. He frowns with worry and reaches for her. “Let me help you into the boat. I can’t just leave you here and even if there were someone else to help you, you’ve lost your voice and can’t call for them.”

Shelby instinctively shimmies away then she sinks. Yup, right down into the suddenly frigid ocean water and her next inhale causes more choking, her lungs burning. The next thing she knows, she’s being dragged up from the water and tossed over the side of the dinghy. The boat dips as Phoenix hauls himself over the side.