I tried to hold back a laugh but didn’t succeed.
Allie’s bare foot connected with my shin under the table.
I winced and grabbed the tender spot.
“Enjoy,” Nelvi said.
Allie thanked her as I made a show of rubbing my leg.
Nelvi let out a chuckle and pushed her noisy cart out of the room. That thing had been with the family since we’d owned the island.
“Hey, I didn’t make the joke. It was Nelvi. Let her have her fun. She’s old. She and Ricardo probably forgot what a bedroom looks like.” I grinned as I picked up the dessert fork.
“So when we’re old, the extent of our romance will be wearing out rocking chairs on the front porch?” Allie narrowed her eyes as she cut a bite size piece of cake off with her fork.
“Or fighting over pudding flavors.” I poked at the cake.
“Oh, no. We will have old people sex. I know plenty of people well into their seventies who have a very exciting sex life.” Allie took a bite of cake.
“Yeah, because they’re too old to remember who they’re sex partner is.” I dissected the cake, but couldn’t stomach its sweetness. “I need real food.”
“This is amazing. Aren’t you going to eat yours?” She eyed my dessert with longing.
I shoved the little chunks of cake over into her plate.
It wouldn’t be long before I would have to excuse myself and leave Allie for an hour or so for a much needed fishing excursion.
With Allie’s third bite, her eyes closed and her breath released slowly, but after that one, she nibbled thoughtfully.
“What? I know you have more questions. I won’t bite your head off. I’m not that hungry. Yet.” I leaned back in my chair.
Putting down her fork, she turned to me, full-bodied. “You’re extra tense. The way you were when we met. Something is wrong.”
That was left field.
“I’m still worried about all the same things.” It wasn’t a total lie.
An ever so tiny bit of icing on the side of her lip enticed the hell out of me. Using my forefinger, I reached over and brushed it away. I slowly licked my finger.
Allie’s eyes darkened with a resolve that was dangerous for me and her both.
It was crazy how she could alter my mood in a matter of seconds.
I was angry at the world for what it had dealt me, apprehensive about what she’d ask next, and hungry for food the kitchen didn’t offer. All those emotions instantly altered to an insatiable craving for Allie.
Shuddering under the first layer of my skin ripped at my insides.
“If you want to be considered innocent until you’re a married woman, you’ll save looks like that for the night we consummate our marriage.” I tried to find a sculpture in the room that could hold my attention longer than her olive skin and brown eyes.
“You say that like it might not be tomorrow night.” Allie placed her hands flat on the table. “You’re not going to hold out on me.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to try, but this isn’t something we can rush into. It’s going to be a process.” I slid my chair back and walked away from the table. I needed space between us. After eating enough to gorge a normal human, my stomach grumbled neglect. I stood at the window. The water was black and it was just dark enough under the trees to have a good cover if I couldn’t make it to the water soon enough. It was time to give the animal what he required before I turned in front of Allie, Nelvi, and Ricardo.
They were eating in the room beside us.
Allie’s small arms slipped around me and her warmth pressed against my back. “Okay, I’ll stop talking about it. I feel you shivering.”
“I’m glad you’re learning to notice”—I shuddered one more hard time—“when it’s time to back down a little.”
Allie clenched my shirt with small fists and kissed my shoulder. “You should go eat. I’ll look around here while you’re gone.”
She acted as if I were the most normal thing she’d ever encountered in her terribly strange life. On this island, I’d been an anomaly where humankind was concerned. But she accepted me without batting an eyelash or a fleeting look of hesitation.
All in the same movement, I turned and brought her in for a kiss that expressed all the things I could never have put to words. Allie became heavier as little whimpers of desire escaped her mouth and reverberated through me.
I smiled and pulled back.
She whimpered her disappointment.
“I’m glad I have the same effect on you as you do me.” I kissed her nose.
“You are infuriatingly sexy.” She put her forehead on my chest.
“Infuriating, huh?” I ran a finger across the curve of her throat.
“Yes. Don’t patronize me. Go eat. I know it’s what your mind is really on.”
“Food is the furthest thing from my mind right now. But you’re right. I should eat. It helps keep me under control.” I kissed her head and pulled from her reluctant grasp.
I left Allie in the house and went to the edge of the beach in the dark.
Entering the water fully clothed would make my clothes wet when I came out. I wasn’t sure how they stayed on me when I changed, but they did. There was no one on the beach and no passing boats, so I stripped down to nothing and slipped under the clear water.
The shift wasn’t as hard when gravity had less effect on me. Under fluid, it seemed less painful. My bones shrank down, my arms and legs retracted, and in seconds I was one of the water’s most dangerous predators.
In an hour, I’d filled my stomach with the Northern Atlantic’s best catch. With a full stomach, I ambled back up the beach and found an amber glow in the room Nelvi and Ricardo never used.
I leaned against a tree outside and felt through the thoughts that drifted within the house until I found Allie’s. Their texture was much like silk where everyone else’s were slightly abrasive like a fine grit sand paper. Closing my eyes, I sank into them.
Allie hummed as ribbons of thoughts floated through her head. She pictured orchestra music, white flowers, and the silhouettes of a man and a woman kissing in the gazebo.
The urge to see her before I slept tugged at me. Back at the house, every night before she’d fallen asleep, she’d had no idea that I looked in on her. I couldn’t allow her to be alone on the nights when Grace had been particularly active, so I’d changed to some sort of animal small enough to be in the same room with her or at least in close proximity.
I softened at the memory. All those times had proven challenging.
I had initiated the meeting the night before our first wedding.
Allie started out of the house, but Nelvi was on her shirttail.
“Oh, no you don’t. The bridegroom is not to spend the night with his betrothed. It’s a superstition I’ve only ever seen sorrow come from breaking.” Nelvi stood between us. “You two kiss good night, and I’ll be in the Christmas cottage waiting for you. We’ll do your nails and test hairdos.”
Once Nelvi was inside, Allie turned to me. “You know she has a point. As much as I’d like you to hold me while I sleep, I would also like to uphold tradition. And a girl’s night sounds fun.”
Hesitant to mention that it might be one of our last seven nights, I rested my forehead on hers. “Whatever you think is right.”
“Did you get your fill?” Allie gripped handfuls of my shirt and held me tight.
“No.” I teased the small of her back. “I most certainly did not.”
She wriggled when I found her ticklish spot. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It’s all I can think about.” My voice was low so no one could hear us.
Allie’s smile fell away as she slipped her hands up my shirt and played over my muscles. Soft skin on taut flesh. She looked into my eyes.
Dear God. How could I wait?
I pulled Allie close for only an embrace. If I kissed her, I wasn’t sure I could
control the male in me, much less the animal. There were times, when she was close, it was hard to make a distinction between which was which.
She pressed closer to me. Allie reacted to my every move as if she knew me, knew how I worked, what I liked, what would drive me to insanity. Maybe she did remember things from her past lives.
“I want to be with you so bad. I don’t think the urge has ever been this strong.” I whispered into her hair as her lips found my earlobe. With a little swirl of her tongue, I was undone.
“Allie. I have the nail polish out and the curlers ready,” Nelvi said from the front porch of her cottage.
Damn, damn, damn. I pulled away from her. That time, I’d had no trouble holding back shudders, other than the ones she caused me to have when she touched me in just the right spot.
“I’m going to think about this non-kiss all night now. Great.” I held my head and tried to shake off the effect of her touch on my libido.
“Then I’ve done my job.” Allie wagged her fingers at me and slipped around the house.
It was beyond taxing to walk back to the cottage with my knees the consistency of a soggy noodle. I swayed as if I were drunk.
In the lonely cottage on the highest point of the island, I tossed and turned on white silk sheets. As I lay on my stomach, I grabbed the pillow, clenched it on both sides of my head, and almost smothered myself. It was a weak attempt to stamp out the thoughts of how Allie’s skin would feel under my touch.
Maybe if I focused on how devastated she would be when she learned of my betrayal, it would help.
I sat up.
Would Allie forgive me for allowing Sage to play her twisted way into my bed at the motel room? I would have told her, but in a week would it matter? If the girls weren’t able to beat Grace at her twisted games, maybe Allie could use the revelation and the pain it would cause as a way to get over me and move on in this life.
I’d tell her at the last minute, then find the quickest, painless way to die.
Allie would either consider me killing myself for her the noblest thing I’d ever done or the stupidest. Right now, it didn’t matter. She had gone through all these lives without knowing why she couldn’t love. She needed to experience it for once.
I slapped the pillow onto the floor and jerked the blanket over my head.
One more night.
I could do this. I was pretty sure I had found a way to harness the animalistic urges and use them to my benefit. And I’d be damned if Grace was going to mess it up.
Actually, I had agreed to let myself be damned just so I could experience a taste of heaven in Allie’s arms.
I stared at the pattern of random design on the ceiling. I squinted. I wasn’t a big fan of the skip trowel technique. The contractor should have used a scoring comb or even a stiff brush and made swirls that focused the eye on the decorative lighting, especially in such a big room.
The idea of swirls reminded me of the first night I’d found the crescent moon on Allie’s leg. Dear God.
I couldn’t even think of ceiling drywall design and not come up with some sort of image of Allie’s body. I draped my arm over my face and groaned.
Exhaustion finally settled over me.
Chapter 7
The new wood and fresh coat of varnish on the gazebo, decorated with white floral arrangements with purple accents, mixed with the Northern Atlantic breeze. The sun shone bright through the trees, and the sky was blue without a speck of clouds in sight. Nelvi, Ricardo, and the other groundskeepers who frequented the island were our only witnesses.
I stood without a best man beside Nelvi’s pastor as I waited. I’d slipped Ricardo the ring Allie would give me during the ceremony. I had Allie’s ring safely in my pocket. Nothing had exploded on the island up till that point. So far, everything had seemed to go off without a hitch.
If we’d been at the Rollins Manor, I was sure that wouldn’t have been the case.
At the last minute, Nelvi had contracted a small orchestra. Their music floated with the breeze across the island, denoting the cue for Allie to step from the rear exit of the second smallest house on the pond named Pym Pond.
The neck of my suit suddenly grew smaller, and it had to have grown twenty degrees hotter in the last few seconds. This was the moment I’d lost Annabeth over a hundred years ago. I hadn’t seen her in the wedding gown before she’d been thrown to her death from the fourth floor window.
I closed my eyes and inhaled.
Nelvi let out a soft whimper of joy. “How beautiful.”
I opened my eyes but still couldn’t breathe.
Ricardo escorted Allie from an opening in the trees to the walk leading to the opening of the gazebo. The restored gown she wore over a hundred years ago fit every curve and swell of her body just as it had then. Her hair was gathered loosely on the top of her head, and the hollow of her neck invited me so much I could barely wait to touch her. I feared I would lay her out in the middle of the gazebo if we didn’t get the ceremony over fast enough.
Had I breathed yet?
Had I ever breathed until I saw her?
Though I had already written and memorized vows years earlier, this moment changed everything I ever thought I wanted to say.
When she stopped in front of me, we were frozen in time. This era or another. I wasn’t sure.
Her smile and the sparkle in her eyes reminded me so much of the first version of Allie I’d fallen in love with that I almost couldn’t speak.
Oh, yeah. Breathe. I had to breathe.
Allie gripped her dress and took the last step up. Nelvi’s oldest daughter arranged Allie’s train so Allie could face me.
Ricardo placed Allie’s hand in mine.
“I love you more than I ever thought I could. We’re ever bound. I just remembered the moment I said that to you so many years ago. It’s weird how that happens. Memories come back to me at the oddest times.” Her thoughts were louder than the music playing nearby. She squeezed my hand. Her fingers trembled.
For her sake, so she wouldn’t freeze up, I planted my thoughts in her mind. “Don’t be nervous. It’s just me.”
She bit her full bottom lip. “All the more reason to be nervous. I wish you could see how handsome you are from my eyes.”
I dipped my head a little closer. “Just breathe through it. You can show me later.”
The pastor read verses from the Old King James version of the Bible and then regarded me. “I understand you have prepared your vows.”
I nodded. My eyes held a smile and tears simultaneously. I didn’t expect that I’d get emotional, but I couldn’t help it. I blinked the moisture away and pulled a folded piece of paper out of my jacket pocket.
My vision finally cleared enough to see the words, the old naïve parts of my heart I’d poured out onto the page.
I shook my head.
No.
These words were definitely not right anymore.
I put the paper back in my pocket. “Those words just aren’t enough. I don’t know if the right words for us exist, but these are as close as I can come. I may have taken my first breath when I came from my mother’s womb, but my soul came to life when I found you. Now that I have you, I will love, honor, and cherish you until the day I die. And beyond.” My voice broke, knowing we might lose forever.
Allie’s eyes glistened with the threat of tears, and her cheeks blushed with joy.
“I would do anything to protect you, and in preservation of our love, I would give my life.” I took a ring I’d been waiting to give Allie for over a hundred years from my other coat pocket. I placed it at the tip of her ring finger and paused. “I give this ring as a token of our union.”
Allie let out a little gasp. She stared at the ring, and without hearing her thoughts, the look on her face told me she remembered it.
I slid the ring the rest of the way till it covered the little artery that traced back to her heart.
She
gazed at me, took a trembling breath, and thought, “I don’t think I can speak.”
“You’ve never been at a loss for words.” I placed my thoughts in her head.
Allie took a calming breath as the music started over.
“All my life, I have floated around like a small particle in the universe, looking for some place I belonged, some purpose. The first day I saw you, I found…” She paused, emotion thick in her voice. “I found my reason for existing. I can’t wait to be a permanent part of your life.”
My chest swelled with so much adoration.
Allie smiled up at me as she placed my hundred-year-old ring on the tip of my finger.
“This ring is a token of my undying love. A love that even death can’t touch.” She slid the ring the rest of the way onto my finger, her eyes never leaving mine.
When the ring brushed against the vein on my finger, an arc of electricity ran the length of it and sparked a new beat in my heart. It would only ever beat for her. And it would only ever stop beating for her.
Without direction from the minister, I gathered the other half of me closer. I paused and gave the minister a nervous glance. “Can I please kiss her now?”
The minister chuckled.
“I present you with Mr. and Mrs. Cole Kinsley.” He gave us a nod. “Mr. Kinsley, you may now kiss your—”
In the kiss, I slammed into her, our bodies fixated to each other, our souls finally connected forever. I inhaled as Allie exhaled, and breathed her in.
Her arms draped across my shoulders and when her fingertips grazed my neck, the creature shuddered.
Under the power of her touch, I almost lost control of the man much less the animal inside me. Just as I pulled her brusquely against me, I ended the kiss before it became too out of control.
Ricardo, Nelvi, and their small family of witnesses stood to their feet in joyous applause.
The music’s tempo and volume increased in celebration of our union as we stood facing them. With my hand as support, Allie stepped down first and was received into Nelvi’s bosom for a motherly, tearful hug.
Ever Tempted Page 9
