It worked.
Barbara slumped unconscious, dropping the torch as Kira slammed her to the ground. Megan snatched up the torch. Kira readjusted her hold, and Megan just stood there, watching to see if Barbara would wake up. Now that blood was flowing to Barbara’s brain again, she might regain consciousness, although thanks to Kira’s added momentum when she fell, she’d also hit her head pretty hard.
“I think you can let go now,” Megan said cautiously.
“She could be faking.” Kira disengaged slowly, ready to pounce if Barbara moved. “What did you do to her? Is she really knocked out?” She stood and nudged Barbara’s limp form with her foot. Barbara didn’t react. Her stillness was almost a shock after all that struggle.
Sirens wailed in the distance. “The fire truck’s coming,” Kira said.
“Finally. We need the police here too.”
“I’ll call nine-one-one again to make sure they’re coming. They need to know where we are so they can arrest her.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“The air still smells like smoke,” Kira told Megan in the parking lot after the last of the firefighters and police had left. “How come you’re not freaking out?”
Good question. Megan could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins, but she wasn’t scared. “I’m okay.”
“You’re really not nervous?” Kira said.
“Nope. How come you’re not freaking out?”
“About the hotel, you mean? I have insurance.”
“But all your hard work! Your renovations were almost done.” Even in the dark, the back of the hotel did not look good. And the water damage inside had to be extensive.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. It would have been worse if you hadn’t caught it so early.” Kira positioned her hands appreciatively on Megan’s waist. “I owe you.”
“You really don’t. If it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened.” It was Barbara’s fixation on her that had led to this.
“Oh, come on. It’s not your fault. You saved our butts.” Kira moved her hands down Megan’s hips and over the part of her anatomy in question, drawing her closer with a gentle, insistent hold. “I have some ideas for how to thank you, and I can tell you Miss Manners would so not approve.”
Megan blushed in the darkness. “We should get home. It’s late.”
“I’m too wired to sleep.”
“Me too,” Megan admitted, melting into her. Kira had the best touch.
“Hungry?”
Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t thought of food in hours, but now that the fire was out and Barbara was under arrest and it was just the two of them, she realized she was starving.
“I have food in my car,” Kira said.
“Melted protein bars from the glove compartment?”
“O ye of little faith.” Kira started across the parking lot and Megan hurried after her. “I have real food.” She opened her trunk and pulled out a plastic serving platter loaded with baby carrots and triangles of pita bread arranged around a giant bowl of hummus. It looked fresh, too.
“Where did you get that?” Megan said.
“Eucalyptus. I had it delivered.”
“When?” Megan asked incredulously.
“While you were busy talking to the police.”
So while Kira’s property was burning thanks to one of Megan’s clients, Kira had had the presence of mind to order food. With all the commotion of the firefighters and the police, Megan hadn’t even noticed.
“I didn’t know they deliver,” Megan said weakly.
“And you call yourself a local.” Kira balanced the platter with one hand, found a flashlight in the recesses of the trunk, and handed her the flashlight so she could shut the car. “Let’s eat in the gazebo.”
***
Their oversized hotel-issue towels were still by the hot tub where they had left them hours earlier. Kira retrieved them and spread them on the floor of the nearby gazebo as a kind of picnic blanket. She loved this gazebo. She loved the trail through the woods that led here, and the layout of the hot tubs, and the design of the spa—all products of her and Megan’s combined vision.
Megan sat down on the towels and started in on the pita and hummus with huge, wolfing bites. “I can’t believe Barbara was so jealous of you she’d try to destroy your hotel,” she said between mouthfuls. “I mean, yes, she asked me out, but I honestly don’t think she’s even gay.”
“Maybe she’s repressed,” Kira said.
“I guess.”
“Being naked in a small room with you for an hour every week, knowing she wanted something from you—”
“And knowing she wasn’t going to get it—” Megan pointed a triangle of pita at her in warning.
“And not knowing what it was, because she was so repressed—that would have made me crazy.” Kira stole a bite of Megan’s pita from her outstretched hand. “Although in Barbara’s case, I think she was already crazy before she met you.”
“After the ethics accusation didn’t work out, she must have decided she’d have to get at me some other way. And we’d just had that fire alarm at the hearing. She must have seen my reaction when the alarm went off and known this would scare me.”
“Didn’t Tammi Baldini tell us a few weeks ago that Barbara’s porch caught fire? I doubt your reaction at the hearing had anything to do with this.”
“You think she set her own porch on fire?”
Hell, yes. Would Megan never stop giving people the benefit of the doubt? She ought to call her on it, but she knew she never would. The world could use more of Megan’s brand of forgiveness. “It’s possible.”
“I guess it’s a good thing we caught her.”
“You were awesome. And so was that angel of yours.” She wasn’t sure why the angel had wanted to help them, but she was grateful. Guess that meant she might have to start believing in their existence. Maybe. Kira leaned back on her elbows. “I’m glad Barbara didn’t get a chance to try setting your place on fire.”
Megan stopped with a carrot halfway to her mouth. “You don’t think…”
“No,” Kira said decisively before Megan could start worrying about whether Barbara had visited her house before vandalizing the hotel. “Tammi or one of the other cops would have told us. They would have known if there was another fire in town tonight.”
“You’re right.”
“They were impressed you were able to knock Barbara out. How did you do that?”
“I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
“You never took a self-defense class?”
Megan crunched down on her carrot and gave a little self-satisfied smile. “Turns out that knowing human anatomy has more uses than I realized.”
Kira loved that smile, loved seeing her happy. She had worried about Megan while they were talking to the cops, waiting for the firefighters to put out the fire—worried she was putting up a good front for the professionals while she panicked underneath about the smoke and the fire. But instead she seemed genuinely happy. Happy and relieved.
If anything had happened to her… It hurt too much to think about. Thank God Megan was safe, not burned or injured or dead.
“You saved my life, karma girl. You and that sensitive nose of yours. Thanks.”
“Happy to help.”
Kira really wanted to see more of those relaxed, life-is-good-now smiles. Like, every day for the next million years. She cleared her throat. “So about those thank-you ideas of mine…”
***
Oh, God—Kira was looking at her in that way that always made her melt. How had they gotten distracted by food and talking inside the gazebo when they could have been…
But that didn’t mean she didn’t get another chance. Kira had thank-you ideas, and Megan was feeling pretty darn grateful herself.
“I’m worried you might have gasoline on your jeans,” Megan said. “So whatever you’re thinking about, if it’ll get you out of those jeans, I’m all for it.”<
br />
“There was nothing in that gas container,” Kira said.
“There might have been a few drops.”
“If you insist.” Kira must have known Megan was honestly worried, because instead of giving her a hard time about her ulterior motives—not that she didn’t have a ton of ulterior motives—she lay back without saying another word and wriggled out of her jeans.
Great legs.
Great everything.
Megan folded Kira’s jeans and wrapped them in the towel Kira had been sitting on, then carefully tucked the whole bundle into a corner. She sat back down on her own towel, making room at one end. “You can share my towel if you want.”
“Thanks. Wouldn’t want to get a splinter.” Kira crawled over and straddled Megan’s lap, her bare legs brushing against her with a seductive heat. She pulled Megan’s beach dress over her head in one efficient movement and before she knew it, her bikini was off too.
Megan grabbed for her bikini top in Kira’s hands. “Some people think a potted plant makes a nice thank-you gift.”
“I don’t.” Tossing the bikini aside, Kira anchored one knee against Megan’s side and lowered her to the ground and lay on top of her.
The weight of her made Megan desperate. She clutched Kira’s backside and ground her hips into her. “Decorative soap?”
“That crap is usually scented. I’d never get you that.”
“Smart woman.”
They rolled together, touching everywhere, pulling off the rest of their clothes. Rain started to fall, pelting the roof of the gazebo and sheeting off its perimeter, turning it into their own private shelter. Then Kira was on top of her again, stroking into her wetness. It felt unbelievable. She found the place where Megan’s nerve endings were going to lose it and slowed, becoming more deliberate, more forceful, more inescapable, more sure.
“Maybe we should get out of the rain and go to your place,” Kira said, maintaining her rhythm. She slid down and sucked one of Megan’s nipples into her mouth. God, that felt good.
“Don’t you dare stop what you’re doing.” She didn’t care about the rain—she didn’t care about anything—as long as Kira kept touching her like that. She needed her in the worst way. “Don’t you like the rain? You’re the one who…wanted to…walk home in that storm, remember?”
Kira raised her head. “I didn’t want to walk home in that storm. What I wanted was you.”
“Oh.” The ache and the need and the tightness grew. She couldn’t really concentrate. At all. “This might be better than decorative soap.”
“Might be?”
Megan giggled helplessly, then screamed—laughing and screaming at the same time—as Kira nudged her into unbearable hardness.
Oh God oh God oh God.
Screeching need built, peaked, past the point of endurance. Megan shuddered and lost control of several crucial muscles. Kira thrust inside her, chasing her contractions, drawing them out. Then she pulled out and started up again, casually brushing her desperate, already reawakened nerve endings with a light, inescapable touch that Megan both yearned for and tightened against. Kira wasn’t going to stop—not until Megan had nothing left in her.
Each time she made contact was an exquisite new shock; each lull left her panting with anticipation. She wanted her. She wanted this. She wanted Kira to move against her again, faster, and Kira kept giving it to her, kept making it better, kept making the shocks come stronger and stronger and closer and closer together, until there was no way out but to climax.
Megan’s final release crashed through her and flung her through time. She was making love with Kira inside Hestia’s temple. In a prehistoric cave. On a pitching boat. In a moss-covered cottage with chickens running loose outside and a fire blazing in the hearth under an abandoned cooking pot. Dozens of realities played out simultaneously, and in each one Kira was everywhere, life after life, smiling at her with her soul in her eyes, making her come again and again and again.
***
“Don’t ever leave me.” Megan ran her fingers through Kira’s hair, her heart still pounding even though the rest of her body could barely move.
“I won’t.” Kira pushed herself up and smiled down at her as she straddled her hips. “So don’t die on me, okay? A few centuries here, a few millennia there—who has that kind of time to wait around?”
“I love you,” Megan said.
That summed it all up right there. A woman who was easy to love and who could joke about fate was the perfect combination.
Kira’s aura blinded her with joy. “I love you, too. Always.” She took her hands. “And we’ll find a way around this fire destiny problem.”
“You know what? I don’t think we need to.” Ever since Barbara had been taken into police custody, something had changed.
“Now that I believe you, you’re telling me not to?”
Megan let go of her hands and gripped Kira’s waist, then slid her palms down her hips to her thighs. “All these years I’ve been terrified of fire, terrified something like this would happen and it would kill me. But it didn’t kill me. There was a bad fire, and it didn’t kill me. And I realized that what scared me even more than dying was losing you. When I thought Barbara was going to throw gas on you and set you on fire, I was ready to jump on you to smother the flames. Even when she pulled out that torch, all I could think about was making sure she didn’t point it at you.”
“Yeah, that was surprising. Next time we wrestle a psycho with a butane torch I think you probably should run.”
“There won’t be a next time.” There was no need for a next time. The freedom of it was palpable. She could easily have been burned, but she wasn’t. She’d been spared because she’d learned what fate wanted her to learn.
Kira raised herself slightly on her knees, her quadriceps contracting under Megan’s hands. “You’re saying we broke the pattern? It’s over?”
Megan’s heart strained against her ribcage. “I’m going to miss hearing you tell me I’m deluded, but yeah.”
“I never thought you were deluded.”
Megan waggled her fingers at her like a demented witch casting a spell. “Yes, you did.”
It actually meant more to her that Kira hadn’t believed all of it, yet respected her anyway. And loved her. And didn’t try to change her. Because it was easy to love someone who agreed with you. Loving someone who didn’t, and not trying to change her—that took real love.
Kira leaned forward and nuzzled her neck until she made her laugh. “I thought you were charming.”
“And nuts.”
“Maybe a little.”
“Gee, thanks.” Megan rolled her eyes.
“Before you know it I’ll be talking angel talk and we can be nuts together.”
Epilogue
Megan smiled at how excited Kira was to be showing Gwynne around the new spa. Orbs of colored glass of all sizes glowed from the ceilings. In the lounge, a mural of a mermaid sunbathing on a rock managed to not actually show anything R-rated and yet still be risqué. Kira was truly happy with the way the whole project had turned out and seemed to have forgotten she’d ever wanted the spa to be in a separate building overtop the ley lines.
Gwynne turned to Megan as they paused inside one of the treatment rooms and admired the state-of-the-art adjustable massage table. “You’re in love with a woman who doesn’t believe in energy fields?”
Funny how it turned out that way. Megan warmed at the touch of Kira’s hand on the small of her back. “She understands me.” Besides, Kira believed her more than she let on.
“What’s an energy field?” Kira teased.
“If you keep that up I’m going to teach you how to use dowsing rods,” Megan said. She kissed her on the mouth, lingering until she was out of breath, not caring that Gwynne was making gagging noises over the sound of her retreating footsteps.
“Are you still here?” Kira asked Gwynne, drawing back from the kiss.
Gwynne stopped in the doorway. “You both
look radiant.”
“And when Gwynne uses the word radiant,” Megan told Kira, “she doesn’t mean our cheeks are rosy.”
“Goodbye, Gwynne. Thanks for stopping by,” Kira said.
Gwynne stayed put. “Seriously, your auras are beautiful—full of light. When you stand near each other they merge into each other and become even brighter.”
Gwynne was so sweet. Megan hopped onto the massage table and sat with her legs hanging off the edge and leaned on her hands. “Don’t tell me you actually approve?”
“Yup. I can tell you’re happy together.”
“That easy to tell, huh?” Kira said, not taking her eyes off Megan. She looked like she was about to kiss her again.
Megan put a restraining hand on her chest, keeping it there, dragging her fingertips down Kira’s cleavage in a promise that she wouldn’t make her wait long to be alone.
“You’ll be happy,” Gwynne said. “I’m always right about these things.”
“One of these days,” Megan told Gwynne, “you’re not going to be so sure of yourself, my cocky friend.” Preferably because of a woman. What would Gwynne’s already brilliant aura look like when she, too, found someone to love?
“This is the thanks I get for being supportive?” Gwynne spread her arms and leaned on the doorframe. “I should tell the angels not to bother swarming all around you. Showing that much approval can’t be healthy.”
There really were a lot of angels hanging around lately. Right now a whole flock was whizzing around them at high speed like kids who had been let out for recess. Gwynne raised her arms and shooed. The angels ignored her.
“Yeah, I tried that,” Megan said. “They don’t seem to want to leave. I think they might be moving in with us.”
“Just don’t let them sing you awake in the mornings,” Gwynne warned as she made her escape. “They can get really loud.” A few of the angels broke off from the group and followed her out.
“Give us some privacy, please, ladies.” Kira blindly made shooing motions above her head and the rest of the angels disappeared.
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