by S. E. Smith
A shiver of awareness along with a strange sense of déjà vu—as if they had somehow met before—swept through her when his silver eyes followed her every movement. It was impossible to ignore the way he was staring at her. She had been checked out enough times to know when a guy was interested, and she hadn’t missed the gleam that flared in his eyes when he looked at her.
She pursed her lips to keep a curse from slipping out when she noticed the swelling on his cheekbone that he was tenderly pressing on. With a sigh of resignation, she stepped sideways, still keeping him in her peripheral vision, and opened the freezer. She groped for the bag of frozen peas that she had noticed earlier when she was writing up her grocery list. She pulled it out and tossed the bag to him.
“Put that against your cheek. It will help with the swelling,” she instructed.
He caught the bag and looked at it with a mild expression of distaste before he pressed the cold plastic against his cheek. He continued watching her as she thought about what to do. Biting her lip, she sighed. First things first—she needed to get some answers.
“Why are you here?” she bluntly asked.
He gave her an easy, open grin. “I honestly have no idea. One minute I am in my cabin about to return to the main deck, and the next, I am falling through a magic portal,” he stated with a regal wave of the hand that was holding the bag of peas.
She frowned. “Okay, but why here? Has this ever happened to you before?” she pressed, trying to make sense of why he was there, and more importantly, if it had anything to do with her, like her gut was warning her.
He returned the frozen peas to his cheekbone and shook his head. “No, this is a first and completely unexpected,” he responded, looking around the room with a curious expression. “You have a nice home.”
“It’s not mine,” she automatically replied.
He glanced at her in surprise before he looked away. The warning inside her gut flared to red alert. She had noticed that he tended to do that a lot—look at her without really looking at her, at least not in her eyes. His behavior made her think that one of two things was possible—either he had a psychological condition or he was lying.
“May I inquire who it belongs to?” he asked in a voice that sounded suspiciously like the answer to this question was very important to him.
“The house belongs to Mike Hallbrook. He…,” she answered before she pursed her lips together to prevent admitting that she was alone.
“I know Mike Hallbrook! He is a wonderful human. He turned out to be a very resourceful fighter, as well. He fought with us against Magna, the Sea Witch, when she was possessed by an alien creature. He also has a remarkable sister named Ruth. Rarely have I had such a difficult time bartering a deal than when I went head-to-head with her. Even when Ruth was the size of a child’s doll she was a formidable negotiator. She actually read through the contracts and picked them apart, no matter how boring I made them! Ah, but Koorgan is one lucky Giant. He’d still be in the bottom of the well if it wasn’t for her,” he mused.
He chuckled at the memory and smiled broadly at her, meeting her eyes for the first time for more than a brief second. Tonya sucked in a breath when she saw shadows moving in his silver irises. She felt a momentary pang of regret when he turned his eyes away from her inquisitive gaze. It was as if he was afraid he might scare her.
Whatever his issue was, there was something going on, and blast it all to hell if he hadn’t triggered that gene in her that made her determined to find out what it was. It took all her self-control not to capture his face between her hands and make him look at her. Of course, her rational side reminded her of all the times that Max and her former professors had cautioned her to be careful about what she wished for!
No, the best idea is to stay focused on more important things, she told her curious self.
“Okay, next question—how do you get back home?” she asked.
Ashure’s startled eyes briefly met hers again, he frowned. “But—I have just arrived. Why should I want to leave before I’ve even had a chance to see your world?” he protested.
“See my world…? Oh, no. No, no, no, no!” she vehemently replied. “You can’t stay here, much less be seen walking around, especially dressed like—like that!” she added in a horrified tone.
“What is wrong with my clothing? I can assure you it is made of the finest cloth and by the best tailors on the Isle of the Monsters. No one can beat a Cyclops tailor! They have an incredible eye for fashion,” he defended.
She snorted at his unintended pun and watched him place the bag of defrosting peas on the table. He brushed a few pieces of lint left from the mop from his dark brown coat with an expression of disdain. She knew he had no idea that he looked like a character from an old English film. His ignorance gave him an air of naivety that was rather endearing.
She groaned at her thoughts, knowing that between his pouty expression and her inherent curiosity, she was fighting a losing battle. She muttered a colorful curse under her breath that would have drawn Max’s ire and set the mop to the side. Opening the refrigerator, she pulled out two beers. She twisted the tops off, tossed them in the trash, and carried the bottles over to the table. She placed one in front of him with a slight thud and kept the other one for herself. She didn’t drink often, but tonight would be one of those rare occasions when she did. Pulling out the kitchen chair across from him, she plopped down and lifted the bottle in a mock toast.
“To all the weird shit that happens in my life that I can’t write a damn word about,” she said before she took a deep swig from the bottle.
He studied her with a speculative look before he lifted the bottle to his nose, sniffed, and then raised it to his lips. She stared at him in silence as they drank their beers. He was cute in a rugged, old-world kind of way. His eyes were strange. She would love to be able to study them. One of her professors told her that a person’s eyes were a window to their soul, and he had been right on more than one occasion.
Ashure lowered the bottle from his lips and rubbed his thumb along the condensation forming on the outside. Her gaze was drawn to the small, unconscious movement, and her thoughts began to wander down another undesirable path that was best avoided.
“You haven’t given me the privilege of knowing your name. I can hardly continue to call you ‘my Lady’,” he said, pulling her back to the present.
She shook her head a little and frowned. “My name? Oh, I’m Tonya… Maitland. Listen, I don’t know what time it was when you left, but it is almost two in the morning here, and I’m exhausted. Since it doesn’t look like you’re going home and I have no desire to start searching for a hotel room in the middle of the night, you can stay in the spare bedroom down the hall. Tomorrow, or rather later today, we can find you some clothes to wear until you go back to where you came from,” she offered, rising to her feet.
“It was late when I—traveled here as well. A good night’s sleep would be most welcome,” he agreed.
Tonya nodded, finished her beer, walked over to the sink, and rinsed the bottle before placing it in the recycling container. She turned to see if he had finished his when she caught him staring at her bare legs. She longed to wrap her fingers around the handle of the mop and use it on him again. He must have sensed the impending danger because he hastily drank the rest of his beer and held out the empty bottle along with the bag of defrosting peas.
“Come on, I’ll show you where the bathroom and bedroom are,” she said.
Tonya tossed the bag of peas back into the freezer and placed the empty bottle in the recycling bin before she walked out of the kitchen, through the living room, and down the hall. It had been a week since she had returned to Earth, and her life was just beginning to feel almost normal again.
So much for that lasting! she drolly thought.
The new police officer who had taken over Mike’s position had come out to ask her some questions. Thanks to her years of dealing with the police, it had been easy to make u
p a somewhat believable story, especially since the guy was young and relatively inexperienced—or at least he seemed like it. She wondered what Deputy Dan Bradley would have said if she had told him the truth. She laughed softly at the thought.
“Have I amused you in some way?” Ashure asked from behind her.
Tonya shook her head and looked over her shoulder at him. “No, I was thinking of a recent story I made up for the local Popo—I mean, police. Sorry, old habits die hard,” she absently explained.
“Police—this is what Mike was here in your world, wasn’t it?” Ashure asked.
“Yeah. A newbie took his place. Dan wanted to know what happened to me a few weeks ago, and I didn’t feel like telling him,” she replied with an amused smile.
“What did he do?” Ashure asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He hemmed and hawed,” she replied. “Here is the bathroom—I think you can figure it out. There are extra toiletries in the drawer; towels are in the cabinet. You can sleep in the bedroom across the hall. I’ll see you in the morning—unless you disappear. In that case, good luck, and I hope you have a safe trip home.”
She turned away from him, needing to put some distance between them so she could think. She had already spent the last week coming to terms with the fact that the universe was a lot more complicated than she had originally thought. Still, there was no way it was a coincidence that soon after she left the Seven Kingdoms, a resident of the Seven Kingdoms came to her.
She softly gasped when Ashure gently touched her arm, and she received an unexpected electrical shock. Their eyes connected again, and she got a better look at the unusual dark swirling shapes in his irises. He lowered his lashes and looked away.
“Thank you and goodnight,” he said.
“Goodnight, Ashure,” she murmured.
She walked to the door next to the bathroom. Stepping inside the master bedroom, she shut the door and leaned against it. She looked at the small nightstand. It was made of oak. Facing the door, she locked it and dragged the nightstand in front of it. She smiled in satisfaction and wiped her hands together.
“This probably won’t work if he can do magic, but at least it’s better than nothing,” she murmured.
She climbed back into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. Staring up at the ceiling, she thought about her unexpected visitor. She winced at her loud sigh and rolled onto her side, facing the door, and curled her hands under her cheek.
Okay, he’s cute, so what. You’ve met a lot of cute guys over the years. Don’t forget that he’s a pirate. Pirates are like bad-boys, fun to look at, but dangerous to touch. He is definitely not the kind of guy I would take home to meet Max, she thought.
She could just hear the lecture Max would give her. What were you thinking, Tonya? Haven’t you learned anything over the years? Damn, girl, what am I going to do with you? Yeah, those would be the questions in the first thirty seconds of her introductions.
“He’ll be gone when you wake up and everything will go back to normal—again,” she whispered in the dark.
Yet, deep down, she had known after her return that her life would never be normal—not like it was before. She knew about things that people only believed existed in books or in movies, and now she had a sexy Pirate in the bedroom next to her.
She rolled onto her back and pulled the pillow next to her over her face to smother her groan of frustration before she tossed it to the side and stared up at the ceiling.
“Max always warned me that one day my curiosity would get me in a whole heap of trouble that he wouldn’t be able to get me out of,” she whispered. “It looks like that day has come.”
Ashure silently walked back down the hall from the kitchen to the bedroom that Tonya had shown him. He smoothed the Thunderbird feather on his hat, enjoying the tingling electricity coming from the fine plumage. It wasn’t the same one that he had stolen all those years ago. This one was a gift. Nali had given him the feather to replace the one he lost while crossing the Field of Fire.
He placed the hat on top of the dresser and removed his coat. Opening a door, he discovered that it was a closet. He hung his coat up next to the clothes hanging inside. He suspected from the size and colors that they belonged to Mike. A clear bag covered a military uniform.
Stepping back, he closed the door and turned around to survey the room. It was small, about a quarter of the size of his cabin on the Sea Wasp. The furniture was simple but pleasant and made from a sturdy timber. There was a bed with a nightstand on each side, a chair in the corner, a tall dresser, and a small desk. A painting depicting the beach hung over the bed. The bed faced a set of wide windows that looked out over the dunes.
He walked over to the window and stared out as he unbuttoned his shirt. His mind was not on the scenery outside, however, it was on the woman in the other room. She was everything that he had dreamed of and completely different from what he was used to.
He touched his bruised cheek and whispered a healing spell given to him a long time ago in exchange for a trinket. The damaged skin tingled under his fingers as it healed. He dropped his hand to his groin, and with a grimace, repeated the spell—for good measure.
“It would appear my true love should have come with a warning label,” he murmured.
He wasn’t sure what had triggered the portal to open. He had been holding the mirror and sort of made a wish without really making one. If the mirror was responsible for bringing him here, it was definitely a first. The looking glass had never done more than show him an image. There had never been anything to make him believe the artifact had the power to create a portal. Still, the fact that he was here was a testament that some powerful magic had been activated.
“Tonya,” he murmured.
Her name rolled off his tongue. She had haunted his days and nights from the moment the mirror first revealed her face to him. Now he was standing just a few feet from her.
He stiffened when he realized another surprising fact—the voices inside him were quiet for the first time in centuries. He closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and focused on the souls that he restrained. They were still there, in the shadows, but calm—as if they had finally accepted their fate. He opened his eyes and stared at his reflection in the window.
“I don’t know what this adventure will bring, my beautiful Tonya, but one thing is for sure—you are destined to be mine,” he vowed.
4
The familiar ringtone of ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ woke Tonya the next morning. She groaned as she reached out, patting the nightstand for the irritatingly happy wake-up call that she wasn’t expecting. Lifting her head, she shot a blurry-eyed glare at the clock next to the bed and swiped her finger across the smooth surface of her phone.
“Six forty-five? Really, Max? Hasn’t Angela taught you that some people cannot function at this time of the morning?” she growled into the phone.
“I’m currently looking inside your ear, Tonya,” Max chuckled.
Tonya groaned and rolled over. She held the phone at arm's length. “Are you completely nuts? You FaceTime me this early in the morning again and you might get more than the inside of my ear,” she snapped.
Max laughed. “You never were much of a morning person. I notice that hasn’t changed,” he said.
“Is everything alright?” she mumbled.
“I was scrolling through the missing persons’ reports, and imagine my shock when your name popped up,” he said.
She bit back a curse, and drew in a deep breath instead, completely forgetting that he could see everything that she was doing until she looked up at the screen and noticed his raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, about that—I was going to tell you,” she began.
“But…” he added when she didn’t elaborate.
She opened her mouth to tell him a lie before she clamped her lips together. She couldn’t lie to Max—about anything. They had made a deal a long time ago. No matter how bad something might be, they would always be honest
with each other.
“This is something I have to tell you in person,” she softly confessed.
The amusement disappeared from Max’s face. “When can you come home?” he immediately demanded.
“Things are a little complicated at the moment, Max,” she replied.
“Don’t give me that, Tonya. You either come home, or I’ll be coming to wherever you are,” he warned.
She shook her head and groaned. “I’ll come see you this coming weekend,” she promised.
“You’d better. I love you. Oh, Angela says she loves you, too, Snoop,” he said.
“I know, Max. Hugs to you both—and MJ and Squealer. I forgot to ask how they’re doing,” she muttered around a muffled yawn.
“Angela is fine. She’s in San Francisco at a conference. She’ll be home later tonight. I spoke to her a few minutes before calling you. I know where you get your morning disposition, by the way, and it isn’t from me. MJ is doing well for a pre-teen. He’s in Jazz band and isn’t half bad if you ask me. The kid loves the drums. Angie is going to kill you if she hears you are still calling her Squealer,” Max replied.
“She’ll get over it,” she said with a laugh.
“I’ll plan a cookout—if the weather is nice—otherwise, it will be spaghetti,” he said with a grimace.
She laughed again. “I love either one, you know that. See you this coming weekend if not sooner,” she replied.
“‘OK, ‘til then, Snoop,” Max said before he disconnected.
Tonya lowered the phone to her chest and stared up at the ceiling. She turned her head toward the door when she heard the water running on the other side of the wall. So much for hoping her unexpected visitor had disappeared.
Today was going to suck big time. What was she going to do with a Pirate from another world? She sat up as a thought suddenly occurred to her.
“Magna! She can send him home,” she whispered in relief.
Pushing the covers aside, she quickly made the bed and grabbed some clothes as she headed for the bathroom attached to her room. She took a quick shower and dressed. Twenty minutes later, she moved the nightstand away from the door so she could open the door.
