The younger agent turned to his partner and shrugged.
Before my eyes, Agent Smith’s stony expression softened. As if suddenly possessed by the Cheshire cat, he smiled. “Of course not. I think we’ve taken up enough of your time, Miss McKie. Agent Corrigan and I will be leaving now. Have a nice day.” He scooped up his color-coded file folders, and the two of them marched straight out the front door without a backward glance.
I turned to Liam, dumbfounded. “What just happened?” Apparently, I’d Jedi mind-tricked two FBI agents into determining I wasn’t the witch they were looking for. Amazing.
“You were brilliant!” Liam scooped me into his arms and spun me around. “You did so well.”
“I did magic. Wait!” I wiggled out of his grip. “Did you help me? I felt your energy shooting through my arm.”
He smiled. “I helped. But only a little. I let you draw from my power.”
“Eeek.” I spread my arms out at my sides and twirled until I got dizzy. “That felt so amazing. I’m still tingling.” All over, in fact. I recognized the expression on Liam’s face. He felt it too.
“Ivie.” Liam groaned as he took a step closer, skimming his finger over my cheek. “You’re so beautiful. I must kiss you.”
I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned in, letting him cup my face in his hands. He brought his lips down to mine, so close I could taste his minty-sweet breath. My eyes drifted shut as he closed the distance between us.
I froze. Well, on the outside. On the inside, my mind was a rocket sled, hurtling toward the edge of a steep embankment, with sharpened spikes waiting for me at the bottom.
What on earth am I doing? I love Jack!
“Stop!” With every ounce of strength I had, I pushed him away. “I can’t. I have to go.” I glanced at my mother. She fidgeted with a stack of magazines on the coffee table, pretending she hadn’t just witnessed her engaged daughter all but kissing a virtual stranger.
“Ivie, wait.” Liam took a step in my direction.
“No!” I threw my hands up in front of me like a wall. Taking one baby step at a time, I inched my way back toward the door, keeping Liam in my sights the whole way. “You stay right where you are. I can’t be around you. You… you’re dangerous.” As soon as my foot hit the doorframe, I spun around and fled without looking back.
Chapter 5
“Jack?” I slammed the front door and skittered into the deserted living room, kicking off my black patent leather pumps as I went. My heart pounded against the walls of my chest like an intruder at the door. Liam had worked his way under my skin like a splinter, and I needed to pry him out. “Are you here?” I flung my purse and keys onto the coffee table and proceeded to peel off my blouse and skirt. They smelled like Liam, and I needed to strip the scent of him from my body—and quick—before I said to hell with it all and went back to where I’d left him. The horrifying reality of what had almost happened in the middle of my mother’s living room haunted me, but somewhere in the back of my addled brain, I wanted to kick myself for walking away.
Leftover magic coursed through my veins like hot oil through a radiator, popping and sizzling as it made the circuit. The urge to conjure something—anything—fought against my need for self-preservation. If Jack walked in and saw me like this…
I didn’t even want to imagine what he’d think.
A door slammed, injecting me with a fresh burst of adrenaline.
“Ivie?” Jack called out as he tore frantically through the room. He stopped cold when he saw me, his eyes wild as he sucked in a ragged breath. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick. I tried to call you, but your phone’s dead and—” He paced in front of me, gawking at my state of undress and letting his eyes roam from my chest to my toes and back again in slow motion. “What are you doing?”
“Just changing clothes.” I went for casual, but my throat threatened to close on me. Yet somehow, I managed to choke out the words. “You know, rough day at the office and all that.” I shrugged with a precarious smile perched on my lips then continued to undress, all too aware of his scrutiny. My hands shook as I unhooked the clasps on my peacock-blue lace bra—one of Jack’s favorites—before dropping it where I stood, leaving me in nothing but the matching panties. “And I missed you.”
Jack’s puzzled expression softened, and the smile he reserved just for me lit his face. “I missed you too. So much.” He took a tentative step toward me then stopped and let out a heavy breath. The weight of the world seemed to melt from his shoulders. “I’m a jealous idiot.”
“Oh, Jack.” I flung myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. I wanted to tell him he had no reason to be jealous, but the truth sat on my tongue like a fever blister, ready to pop. “I’m so sorry.” Without giving him a chance to protest or ask questions, I peppered his face with kisses, my all-too-eager hips rocking against him in an attempt to quench the fire still burning inside me, thanks to my recent magical exploits.
Jack groaned, his fingers twitching as he gripped my hips in his large hands. The fragile hold on his control was slipping. I recognized the symptoms all too well. And maybe I encouraged it. Just a little. “What on earth has gotten into you today?”
I froze at the thought of what had almost gotten into me then shook my head to dispel it. Liam meant nothing to me. I barely even knew him. No. I wanted Jack. I loved Jack. I replayed the words in my head like a chant. I love Jack, I love Jack, I love Jack.
“It’s been too long, and I need you.” I exaggerated that last part and captured his face in my hands, locking my green eyes with his dark blue. “Take me. Right here.”
My out-of-control hunger finally managed to drag Jack to the dark side, and before I knew it, he’d propelled me backward, flattening my back against the wall. Without a single hesitation, he tore the scrap of lace from my body and replaced it with his hand. “Mmmm. Sweetheart, you’re so wet. Someone’s been a naughty girl.” He didn’t say the words, but we both knew what he meant by that. You’ve been doing magic again. But as luck would have it, his erection trumped his outrage, and he nipped my ear with his teeth as his fingers worked me further into a frenzy. “Tell me you want me to take you right here against the wall.”
A ripple of pleasure danced down my spine, setting every nerve ending in my body on fire. “Oh, God. I do. I want you. Please, Jack. Take me.” I bucked my hips into his hand, driving his fingers deeper.
The pop of a button slipping through its opening, the metallic hiss of a zipper skating down, and finally the whisper of denim gliding over skin were my only warnings before Jack plunged his full length into me with a growl.
“So good,” he murmured, dragging the words out before fastening his lips to my neck. He sucked hard enough to leave a mark—laying claim to me as he pulled all the way out only to thrust back in again.
On the verge of exploding all afternoon, my body thrummed at his touch. This was what I’d needed, what I’d been dying for all day. And while I was with Jack, I hadn’t entertained a single thought about Liam. Or had I? I licked my lips and tasted sweet mint.
Get out of my head!
I shoved my confusing feelings for my father’s apprentice into the dark recesses of my mind and concentrated on Jack’s touch: his warm skin wrapping me from top to bottom, his soft lips brushing against mine, and his hard length hitting places only he knew as he moved within me.
“I love you,” I breathed, pulling his clean scent into my lungs as he plundered my body over and over.
“Love you too.” He moaned as we found our perfect rhythm.
I used to laugh when people said they saw fireworks during sex, but brilliant flashes of light stole my vision. My circuits overloaded, every nerve in my body exposed, waiting for the spark to ignite. Jack cupped my bottom in his hands and shifted his weight, hitting me in a n
ew spot until I saw stars. My legs, still wrapped around him like a pair of hungry boa constrictors, shuddered as my body exploded into a million tiny pinpricks of light.
Jack followed right after, his hips jerking a few times before his fingers dug deeper into my hips, and his whole body stiffened. He burrowed his face into my hair, nuzzling my neck as he caught his breath. “Maybe we should fight more often.”
I shuddered at the thought. “I’d rather not. Today was the worst day of my life.”
“Speaking of your day, what happened?” He jostled my weight then unwrapped my rubbery legs from around his waist to ease them to the floor, never letting go of me. “You didn’t reply to my text messages, didn’t answer my calls. I drove by the school, but Helena said you skipped the meeting and left early.”
“What are you talking about?” My mouth dropped open, and my heart lurched to a stop before the adrenaline kicked in again, this time for a completely different reason. “I did text you. All day long. And I called and left at least a dozen messages. You never called me back!”
He shook his head then rested it against my collarbone. “I didn’t get any messages.”
“Well, I didn’t get any messages from you either.” I couldn’t help being angry. How had we managed to miss each other the whole day? It didn’t seem possible.
“Chloe called me too. She said she’s never gone that long without hearing from you. That’s when I knew something was wrong. I called your mom, and she said you were there, but you’d already left. So I came home, hoping you’d be here.” He pressed a quick kiss to my open lips. “And here you were. What made you go to your mom’s today?”
My pulse picked up when he mentioned going to my mom’s. I held my breath and hoped he wouldn’t see the shame written all over my face. Finally, I pulled in a breath and forced a smile. “I, uh, just hadn’t seen her in a while.”
“How about we don’t talk about your mom? Or Chloe. Or missed messages.” Jack laced his fingers with mine and led me through the living room and the bedroom to the bathroom. He reached his free hand into the shower and twisted on the faucet. “And I definitely don’t want to fight anymore.”
“Well, that doesn’t leave much.” I schooled my features into a serious expression. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Talking is highly overrated.” He grinned, then without missing a beat, Jack scooped me into his arms and stepped under the flow.
After several rounds of lovemaking, I should have passed out cold. But unlike Jack, I couldn’t sleep. My mind kept going back to Smith and Wesson and the insurance money. I couldn’t understand how my mother had managed to keep something like that a secret for so long.
As soon as Jack’s breathing had slowed and given way to snoring, I crept out of our bed and pulled on one of Jack’s T-shirts on my way to the kitchen to call Mom. She picked up on the third ring, and I didn’t wait for her to say hello before launching an inquisition. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what, dear?” If I’d taken her by surprise, her tone didn’t show it. In fact, she was almost too casual.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Mom. Why didn’t you tell me about the money?” I slid onto the counter and fidgeted with a loose thread on the hem of Jack’s shirt.
She sighed. “You were a child. It didn’t seem appropriate at the time.”
“But half a million dollars?” I had to fight to keep from raising my voice. All those years we’d barely gotten by, and she’d had money all along. “How could I have missed that? Even over the course of twelve years, surely I would have noticed. Your entire wardrobe couldn’t have cost more than a few hundred bucks. How did you manage to spend so much?”
“I only spent a little at a time. And I managed to set some aside.”
“Mom, your bank accounts are frozen. Having money set aside won’t really help you now. What are you going to do?”
She didn’t answer me, and I knew what that meant. “Mom, what are you keeping from me?”
I heard her moving around, but she didn’t speak for almost a minute. “It’s not important.”
“Not important?” I shrieked then glanced toward the bedroom as I lowered my voice to a whisper again. “Are you kidding me?”
“There are some things you’re better off not knowing.” I had to give her credit. She kept her cool as if she’d been preparing for this moment for years.
“Better off—are you serious?” I sputtered out the words before reining in my temper again. “Mom, the FBI has a file on me. Me! And let’s not forget I spent most of my life blissfully unaware I’m a witch.”
“Sorceress, dear.” She had the nerve to sound annoyed.
“Whatever. Sorceress.” I wanted to scream at her that, according to Thesaurus.com, they were one and the same. “Listen, you told me my father died in a freak science experiment when in reality, he slept curled up on the floor of my bedroom until I graduated high school. Now I find out my mother burned through half a million dollars and didn’t even bother to replace the same death trap she drove when she dropped me off for my first day of kindergarten?” How had I managed to make it to the quarter-century mark without realizing what a skilled liar my mother was?
“Fine.” She took a deep breath. “I didn’t actually spend the money. Of course, a few hundred dollars here and there for essentials, but I withdrew the bulk of it in small increments over time and locked it in the safe in the spell room.”
“The spell room?” My father had charmed a room in the basement to appear as a dusty old storage space to anyone who didn’t know the secret. “I didn’t see a safe in the spell room.”
“Well, that’s because you didn’t know it was there. Next time you’re here, you’ll see it.”
“Does Dad know about the money?”
“Heavens, no. And don’t you dare tell him, either. I have no idea what he might do with it. He’s changed, Ivie. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll always love him, but he’s not the same man he used to be. He’s acting strange. First, there was the odd feline behavior—like eating tuna straight from the can.”
I choked back a laugh. “Lots of people eat tuna from the can, Mom. Maybe he just likes fish.”
“If there’s one thing I know about Angus McKie, it’s that he hates fish. But there’s more to it.” The line went quiet for so long I thought I’d lost the call. Then I heard the click of a door closing, and her voice came back in a low whisper. “I’ve caught him licking himself when he doesn’t know I’m watching. I see him lapping at his hand then smoothing it through his hair. And every night, without fail, he sits on the side of the bed and scratches behind his ears. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he has fleas.”
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”
“He caught a mouse.”
“So?”
“With. His. Teeth.”
Ew! I choked out a laugh as the image of my father dropping a mouse at my mother’s feet flashed before my eyes. I’d seen him in action as a cat, and he was pretty good at catching ex-fiancés-slash-rats.
“But honestly, if it were only that, I could manage. His behavior has only gotten more bizarre since this apprentice of his arrived. The pair of them are always with their heads together. Your father has the notion the two of you would make a perfect match. He seems to have forgotten your engagement to Jack. And I see how Liam looks at you, as if you’re a prize to be won. It worries me, especially after what happened today.”
My insides twisted when she mentioned Liam. The odd happenings worried me too, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. “What will you do?”
“I don’t know. For now, I’ll act as if nothing’s out of the ordinary. But I’m telling you, don’t let your guard down, Ivie. Something’s going on, and I don’t like the smell of it.”
It took every bit o
f my self-control not to say it was fishy. “You be careful too, Mom.”
“And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t let Jack get wind of all this. That boy wouldn’t know what to do if he found out you were on an FBI watch list.”
“Speaking of Jack, I’d better go back to bed before he realizes I’m gone.”
“Okay. Goodnight, dear.”
“’Night, Mom.” I ended the call and tucked my phone back into my purse.
I heard Jack’s bare feet shuffling across the floor before he made it all the way into the room. He had one hand in his hair, and the other rested just under the waistband of his gray plaid boxers. “What are you doing in the kitchen?”
“I’m sorry if I woke you. I couldn’t sleep. I thought maybe I’d make some warm milk.”
“Forget the milk, and come back to bed.” A sexy smile lit up his face. “I know just the thing to make you sleep like a baby.”
Chapter 6
“Did you see Robby Patterson?” Helena sidled up to me on the edge of the playground where I stood, watching over my young charges. “I swear he’s trying to knock out the rest of his front teeth before break.”
I leaned in to whisper, “He almost knocked out two of Max Young’s teeth on the slide a few minutes ago.”
“He might single-handedly help the tooth fairy hit her quota for the year.” Helena bumped me with her shoulder and giggled. “We need to get in on that action. Tooth fairy gets the teeth, we get a ten percent cut of the cash.”
I bumped her back. “I guess it’s a good thing his parents are rich.”
As per usual on the Friday before spring break, the schoolyard resembled a Wild West outpost. The rambunctious five – and six-year-olds dashed from the swings to the monkey bars with barely contained energy, as if their internal clocks were set to detonate precisely at three p.m.
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