He’d probably noticed that she wasn’t doing it right, but he hadn’t said a word. She gave him points for that. Not every guy would have been able to resist instructing her in the proper way to wield a shovel.
When he was about half finished, she asked for the shovel back. This time she did it his way, and it went faster, but her muscles ached, anyway. She tried not to show it, but eventually he tapped her on the shoulder.
“I think you need another break,” he said.
“Maybe.” She gave up the shovel and dragged in air. She was turning into quite the sissy. She shouldn’t care, but something about this place made her want to show that she had the right stuff, that she could do her share.
Something about this place also made her want to grab Sean and shove him up against the nearest tree so she could have her way with him. He was breathing heavily from the shoveling, which made her remember how it had felt the last time she’d heard him panting like that.
He had a wonderful natural rhythm for that activity. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to relive the feel of that delicious friction as he’d thrust deep, sending the kitchen table rocking. Maybe outdoor sex right here and now wasn’t such a bad idea, especially if the skunks were still sleepy-bye.
Maybe they should make use of the tarp before setting it up for the skunks. Oh, yeah, the tarp would work fine. It would be smooth under her bare bottom, allowing her to slide a little, rise to meet him as he entered her.
The scene felt so real that she could hear him whispering in her ear…Hey, hot mama, whatcha doin’ out here in the forest? Wait a minute. That didn’t sound like something Sean would say.
“Maggie, are you okay?”
She opened her eyes immediately, embarrassed that he’d caught her fantasizing. “Sure! Fine! Why do you ask?”
“Your eyes were closed and you were moaning and rocking a little bit. You looked sort of—sort of possessed.”
“Uh, I was—” She cast around for an explanation that wouldn’t sound ridiculous and couldn’t find one. “Wow, look at that! The hole’s finished!”
“If you can give me a hand with the tarp…”
“Sure thing.” Fantasizing about making out on the tarp was one thing. Having the nerve to suggest it to him was a whole new level, and she wasn’t there yet. Then she thought about the words whispered in her ear, the words that hadn’t sounded like ones Sean would use. Had it been the ghost of Whispering Forest?
No, definitely not. If she didn’t watch out, she’d spook herself and end up looking like a fraidy-cat in front of Sean. She vowed to concentrate on helping him with the tarp and forget about whispers and disembodied eyes.
They positioned the tarp so it was lining the hole, but they left a section free that they could wrap over the top of the cage. These skunks would be cozy.
“I’ll get the skunks if you’ll bring the branches.”
“Let’s do it.” On the way back to the truck she smelled smoke again. “I have to wonder who’d be camping in the woods on a cold night like this.”
“It’s not so bad if you have a thick sleeping bag and a good tent.”
Instantly she imagined them inside a thick sleeping bag, naked and sweating. When they reached the dirt road, she realized that she could glance up through the opening in the trees and see the bulk of Big Knob rising into the night sky like some ancient fertility god.
Tomorrow she’d have to refocus on her goal of buying the property for SaveALot. But tonight, her job was the last thing on her mind. With that hunk of granite rising from the forest floor, who wouldn’t think of sex?
Sean lowered the tailgate slowly, with as little noise as possible. Then he peered in at the skunks. “They might sleep until morning. That would be just as well. If they start roaming around in a strange place at night, they could get separated.”
Maggie thought about what Jeremy had told her—that Sean’s dad had left when he was only seven and his mother had died when he was eighteen. Apparently Jeremy was right about Sean’s protective feeling about the skunks. He wanted to keep the little furry, stinky family together. She was touched by that.
He lifted the pine branches one at a time, checking to make sure the skunks still slept. They hadn’t moved.
“They’re alive, right?” Maggie asked as she took the last branch.
“Oh, yeah. I can see them breathing.” Sliding the cage slowly toward the edge of the tailgate, he lifted it. “Let’s go.”
Maggie led the way, cautioning him about tree roots or dead branches in his path. He settled the skunks into their new home without incident. Maggie helped him pull the tarp over the cage and lay the branches on top of that. At last Sean leaned down and unlatched the door and secured it with a piece of wire.
Then he reached into his jacket pocket and took out some chunks of carrot, which he scattered just inside the cage. “That should do it. I’ll probably come out tomorrow and leave a little more food, to tide them over until they find their own source.”
“It’s a great setup.”
“It’s the best solution I could come up with. That’s it, then.” He picked up the shovel in one hand and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. “Time to go back.”
“Sounds good.” It sounded more than good. It sounded fantastic.
He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Thanks for your help.”
“It was fun. I—”
A roar ripped apart the peaceful silence.
Maggie leaped at least a foot and then grabbed hold of Sean. “Wh-what was that?”
“Easy.” Holding her close with one arm, he changed his grip on the shovel. “I’m sure there’s an explanation.”
“Yeah, but do we want to know what it is?” She tried to stop shaking, but it was no use. City girls weren’t used to hearing roaring noises in a dark forest. Personally, she preferred whispers.
“We have to find out what it is. The skunks are still in a helpless state. I can’t leave them out here if there’s a predator around.”
“R-right.” She peered into the darkness beyond the truck’s headlights. “I told you I saw red eyes. Do bears have red eyes?”
“There hasn’t been a bear in these woods for at least fifty years, maybe longer. Or a mountain lion, either. The biggest thing we have is bobcats, and that wasn’t a bobcat.”
“Maybe a lion escaped from the zoo. Or the circus.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Someone in town would have heard about it on the news, and everyone would have been on the alert. Nothing sneaks up on us in Big Knob.”
“Then what made that noise?”
“I don’t know. Maybe just teenagers having fun on a Friday night.”
“Yeah, this is a real blast.”
“You’re shaking like a leaf.” He started forward, his arm still around her. “Let’s get you into the truck. Then I’ll go investigate.”
“Hold on.” She dug in her heels. “I have a better idea. Let’s load the skunks back into the truck and then we can all skedaddle.”
He turned to her. “That’s a lot of work.”
“I know, but then we’d be sure nothing would happen to them.” Or him. But she figured he wasn’t as worried as she was that he’d get mauled and eaten by some wild animal.
“Okay, if I can’t figure out what made that noise, we’ll get the skunks. But I hate to disturb them again, now that they’re all tucked in, especially if it’s only a couple of teenage boys playing a prank.”
“Sean, I really don’t want you running around in the woods armed only with a shovel. Let’s get the skunks and go home.”
“Not yet. We—yikes!”
Dorcas and Ambrose stepped into the beam from the truck’s headlights.
“Don’t worry,” Dorcas said. “The skunks will be fine.”
Chapter Nineteen
The jury was in, Sean decided. Dorcas and Ambrose were weird. He could understand teenagers running through Whispering Forest on a Friday night trying to scare t
hemselves and anybody who happened to be around. He couldn’t think of a single reason why Dorcas and Ambrose should be wandering through the woods tonight.
Besides that, he hadn’t heard another car. Then again, he wasn’t sure that Dorcas and Ambrose owned a car. Come to think of it, he’d never seen them driving one.
“Didn’t mean to startle you,” Ambrose said.
Sean remembered that he still had his arm firmly around Maggie. He let her go. No point in creating gossip. “It’s just that I didn’t hear a car.”
“We walked,” Dorcas said. “Great night for it.”
“All the way from your house?” Sean noticed they were both wearing velour warm-up suits—purple for her and black for him—and high-end running shoes, but still. They had to be a good five miles from home, ten if you counted the return trip.
“Sure,” Ambrose said. “We can always use the exercise. But I’ll bet you wonder why we chose this place as a destination.”
“It’s crossed my mind,” Sean said.
“And there’s something out here,” Maggie added. “I’m sure you heard that loud noise.”
Ambrose laughed merrily. “Yes, yes, and we thought we needed to come by and explain.”
“It was Ambrose,” Dorcas said.
Sean stared at them as he tried to connect that roar with mild-mannered Ambrose. “I’m sorry, but that wasn’t Ambrose.”
“It was.” Ambrose looked slightly embarrassed. “I was goofing around. You know there’s a new movement where guys go out in the woods and beat their chests and declare how manly they are. I was trying that out.”
“That didn’t sound like a person,” Maggie said.
Ambrose glanced at her. “Then I’m flattered. I was trying out my lion imitation, so I must have succeeded. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you open up your chest and bring the sound up from your diaphragm.”
“So you came out here to roar like a lion?” Sean had decided he didn’t really want to know the details, which could very well involve sex. It was one thing to consider having outdoor fun and games with Maggie. It was a whole other thing to imagine Dorcas and Ambrose out here doing it. They were both old enough to be his parents.
“The roaring was an afterthought,” Dorcas said. “We came out looking for mushrooms,” she added, as if she’d peeked into Sean’s mind. “There’s a particular kind that needs to be harvested at night.”
“Right,” Ambrose said. “Mushroom harvesting. It’s a delicate job.”
Sean didn’t believe them for a minute. He didn’t think two people qualified as an orgy, but Dorcas and Ambrose had been up to some sort of hanky panky out here. “Any luck with the mushrooms?”
“Unfortunately not,” Dorcas said. “The soil must not be quite right in this area.”
Maggie cleared her throat. “As long as we’re talking about mushroom gathering and stuff like that, I have a question about that Mystic Hills wine.”
Here we go. Sean had wanted to ask them about the wine privately, but Maggie obviously wanted an answer now. He didn’t blame her. He just wasn’t sure whether Dorcas and Ambrose would start blabbing all about the nerd herbs.
“If you want another bottle,” Dorcas said. “You’re welcome to it. We have quite a bit in the basement.”
“Did you make it?” Maggie asked.
Ambrose’s chest lifted in obvious pride. “We did. And it’s at its peak right now, so we need to drink it up. I would hate for that wine to turn to vinegar.”
“It’s great wine,” Maggie said. “Is there anything special in it?”
“Oh, the usual,” Ambrose said. “Grapes, yeast.”
Dorcas gave Maggie an assessing look. “What makes you ask?”
“I told her you gave me the bait for the skunks,” Sean said. “That had such an amazing effect on them that she wondered…we both wondered…if there was something unusual in the wine.”
“After all, you have that business that looks a lot like a matchmaking setup,” Maggie said.
“So you are attracted to each other.” Dorcas looked pleased.
Maggie stepped a little farther away from Sean. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that we’re—”
“I would.” Ambrose looked from Sean to Maggie. “There’s definitely some sparks between you two.”
“Which could be because of the wine,” Sean said.
“Ah.” Dorcas smiled at them. “You think the wine might be drugged in some way, like in that Sandra Bullock movie. What was it called, Ambrose?”
“Love Potion Number Nine. What an off-the-wall concept. That’s Hollywood for you.”
“But you haven’t exactly answered the question,” Maggie said.
And she wasn’t giving up, Sean noticed. If he thought he could distract her from buying the property out from under him with a little bit of sex, he was wrong.
“If you two are feeling attracted to each other, it’s not because of the wine,” Dorcas said.
“I didn’t think so,” Maggie said. “That would be a little too hocus pocus.”
“Exactly.” Dorcas pulled the zipper tight on her warm-up jacket. “Anyway, the skunks will be fine. I’ll bet if you check them you’ll discover they’re waking up.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” Sean said. “Put my mind at ease.”
“You did well to relocate them, and Whispering Forest is a nice safe place. Well, Ambrose, my love, it’s getting late. We’d better start for home.”
“I can give you a ride,” Sean said. “But somebody will have to sit in the back.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Ambrose took Dorcas’s hand. “We love to walk. You two have a good evening.”
Sean watched them start off down the dirt road until they disappeared in the blackness. “Do you suppose they even brought a flashlight?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” Maggie gazed after them. “Oh, wait. There’s some kind of light. That green spot flickering through the trees must be them.”
Sean saw it, too, a greenish circle of light that kept appearing and disappearing in the shadows. “They must have one of those Glo-Sticks. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t use a plain old flashlight, though, especially if they’re taking a ten-mile hike.”
“Do you believe what they said about the wine?”
Sean turned to her. “Not particularly. Do you believe Ambrose made that roaring noise?”
“Nope. They know what did, though, and for whatever reason, they don’t want us to find out about it.”
* * *
Dorcas held a faintly glowing orb in her free hand as she and Ambrose walked quickly down the dirt road. “This fairy light is losing power, Ambrose. You should have brought your staff along so we could recharge it.”
“Yeah, right. Walk down Fifth Street with my wizard’s staff. Are you nuts?”
“You could say it’s a walking stick.”
“I could say it, but anybody who’s seen Lord of the Rings would know it’s a wizard’s staff. It looks exactly like the one Gandalf uses. It was so much easier to maintain secrecy before those movies came out. Thank you, Peter Jackson, for blowing our cover.”
“So get yourself a staff that looks like a walking stick,” Dorcas said. “They were on sale last month in the W&W catalog. I even showed them to you.”
“I know, and they look dorky. I like my staff. It’s just too blasted obvious these days.”
“Then I hope you enjoy walking in the dark, because this light is fading fast.”
Ambrose picked up the pace. “Walk faster.”
“If I walk faster, I’m more likely to trip on something.” Dorcas jiggled the green fairy light to see if she could coax a little more power from it. “If I had my broom we’d be home in no time.”
“If you had your broom, Officer Bob would slap us in the pokey. My staff is a hundred times less conspicuous than your broom. Talk about gaudy.”
“Gaudy?” She leaped to the defense of her beloved broom. “That handle was painstakingly hand ca
rved and hand painted.”
“With Kama Sutra positions! I begged you to the buy the plain one, but noooo. It had to be the Kama Sutra broom or nothing.”
“You’re just intimidated because you can’t do all those positions.”
He blew out a breath. “Like you can.”
Dorcas started to throw back another barbed comment, but stopped herself. “You know why we’re snarling at each other, don’t you?”
“Yes. Because ten miles is too far to walk and our fairy light is going out. Maybe we should buy a scooter for tootling around town.”
Dorcas sighed. That was so Ambrose, to try and solve a problem by buying a gadget. “We don’t need a scooter. We won’t be here long enough to justify the expense.”
“I’ve always wanted a scooter.”
“Focus, Ambrose. Our problem is George. He didn’t sound too worried about SaveALot. In fact, I think he likes the idea of it going in next door.”
“Yeah, he does. I guess you decided against giving him the iPod.”
“I couldn’t justify it in light of his attitude. He’s still not taking his guardianship seriously if he’s willing to have a huge department store next to the forest he’s supposed to be protecting.”
“No kidding,” Ambrose said. “The impact on the wildlife in Whispering Forest would be significant.”
“I know.” Dorcas shook her head in frustration. “On top of that, when I dared suggest that he should be worried about the store moving in, he roared at me. Not good.”
“Not good for many reasons. I don’t think Sean and Maggie bought our story about the mushrooms and me trying out my lion imitation.”
“It was sort of lame.” Dorcas jiggled the fairy light again. “But what else could we say? If the good people of Big Knob find out there’s a dragon living in their woods, they’ll call out the National Guard.”
“So what now?”
She thought about that for a few minutes. “We need some uninterrupted time with him, when we’re sure nobody else will be around. We’ll come back later, like two in the morning.”
Over Hexed: The Hex Series Page 19
