The Highwayman

by Michele Hauf

  He still held Aby’s hand and now her fingers curled tighter.

  “A werewolf?” he asked.

  The witch cocked open an eyelid. “It’s someone close to her. Someone she trusts.”

  “Severo?” Aby spit out. “I trust him completely. He would never harm me.”

  “What is this Severo?” the witch asked. “Sounds like a bad case of influenza.”

  “He’s my friend. A werewolf.”

  “Perhaps. The forces are dark though. I’m sensing a witch. You’d best keep an eye over your shoulder.” The witch slumped in her chair, her body deflating as if she’d run a mile in a minute. “That is all. Two hundred dollars.”

  “That’s it?” Max stood. “You didn’t tell us anything.”

  “Just pay her, Max.” The trace of Aby’s hand along his arm annoyed him, and he jerked away from the touch.

  He tugged out a roll of bills and counted out ten twenties and dropped them on the table.

  The witch snatched the cash and chuckled. “Stay close, the two of you. One will protect the other.”

  Max waved her off with a gesture and marched toward the door. Aby beat him to the Mustang.

  “That was a waste of two hundred dollars.” He held the door open for her and closed it after she got in. Rapping his knuckles on the hood as he went around and slid inside, he then beat the steering wheel. “One will protect the other? What a bunch of mumbo-jumbo bullshit.”

  “I kind of liked her.”

  “Aby, please, she’s a huckster.”

  “She was a real witch.”

  “Decades ago. Now she’s just dealing out nonsense to pay her rent.”

  He fired up the Mustang and it rumbled to a lion’s purr. Max spun out, his anger peeling rubber on the asphalt.

  A dark influence? What if it was him? He was as dark as they came.

  Bleeding cowboys.

  Aby fastened the seat belt across her lap. “What do you think she meant about someone in my life being a danger?”

  “A guess. If it’s not the wolf, who could it be? It’s not like you have a lot of friends.”

  “How would you know?”

  “I—Sorry, Aby. I’m being an ass.”

  “You said it, not me. She said it could be a witch.”

  “Ian Grim,” Max decided. But probably not. It was him. He sensed it.

  “Yes. He’s been not so nice lately.”

  “Not so nice?” He flicked a glance at her. “How so?”

  “Just…flirtatious. I don’t like it coming from Grim. He’s not bad-looking, but I work with him, you know?”

  “If I had the sway over you that the werewolf does, I’d tell you to keep as far from that witch as possible.”

  “Severo has no sway over me.”

  “You just keep thinking that.”

  “I’m going with you, against Sev’s will. Come on, Highwayman, give me some credit. I’m a big girl. I do what I want, when I want.”

  She tugged down the visor and inspected the mirror, then pushed it up.

  “What did he say to you while I was upstairs on the computer?”

  “I don’t think that’s any of your business. We have a complicated relationship. He found me after I’d come to my fourth life. When I first shift to human form in my new life, everything is so confusing.”

  “I know a little about familiars, but I can never figure how they age. Do you shift to the same age as when you died?”

  “I don’t think so. I mean, I usually can’t recall how old I was when I did die. Severo guessed I was in my late teens when he found me.”

  “You don’t revert to an infant.”

  “No. We are a mysterious breed. Unless we die and remain with the same person for all our nine lives, I don’t know how anyone would be able to know for sure what goes on in our life spans.”

  “There’s got to be someone who knows.”

  “I’m sure there is.” Continuing her curiosity, Aby opened the glove compartment and strands of diamonds and pearls spilled out. “Hey, look here.”

  “What are you doing? That’s my—” Stash. A side of him he’d never wanted her to see.

  Max pulled the Mustang over abruptly and put it in Park. He leaned across, trying to gather the stash as Aby picked up a diamond necklace and dangled it before her.

  “You still steal?”

  “I have to.” He snagged some pearl strands from the floor and shoved them in the compartment.

  “You have to?”

  If he didn’t explain now, the curious kitten would never stop asking.

  “So you’re a kleptomaniac?”

  “No. It’s just…” He shoved the jewels into the slot. “I get distracted by sparkly things like a damned magpie. I think it’s part of the demon curse.”

  “That’s so cute.”

  “It’s not cute, Aby. I steal. I don’t want to, but I do.”

  Her flinch hurt in his chest. He shouldn’t yell at her. Yes, he was definitely the dark influence in her life. God, he couldn’t tell her about the dream walk. It would freak her out too much.

  “What do you do with all this?” she asked cautiously.

  “I save it, or sell some or give some away. Bleeding cowboys, do we have to talk about this?”

  “You shouldn’t be embarrassed if you’re compelled to do it because of something inside you. Max, it’s okay.”

  “It’ll be okay when this conversation is over.”

  “Fine.” She dangled the diamond strand over the glove compartment, seeming reluctant to return it to the dark cubby. It sparkled like her smile.

  Dark and light. The Highwayman and the familiar. It was so wrong. He was a fool to think they could have something beyond a business relationship. It had been a fluke, the dream walk. It had to be.

  The glint of diamond flashed in his eye.

  “You want that one?” he asked, nodding to the strand she still held.

  “I’ve never had jewels before. But it came from some other woman’s neck. It could have been an anniversary gift or—”

  “If you don’t want it, fine. I thought it would look pretty sitting around your neck. ’Course, it wouldn’t be as gorgeous as you.”

  She exhaled softly. “You think I’m gorgeous?” The diamonds trickled across her fingers as she studied the necklace.

  “Aby, you put those diamonds to shame.”

  The compliment, whispered in a deep tone, brought a smile to her lips. Apparently no man had ever told her she was pretty. The wolf had certainly fumbled the ball on that one.

  “Do you remember who you took this from?” she asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Hmm, it’s not like you have control over it…All right.” She handed him the necklace and moved across the seat on her knees. “Will you put it on me?”

  She smelled so good. Sweet, light and like things he could never have, yet desperately wanted. Max let the long diamond strand spill over her hair. It landed over her neck and twinkled down to rest atop her breasts.

  The kiss sparkled more brightly than any jewel. She bracketed his face with her small hands and kissed him deeply. She had learned to French kiss masterfully. His little kitty cat was as sensual and daring as she put herself out there to be.

  Max whispered against her mouth, “I like you, Aby.”

  She settled onto her side. “I could be your girl.”

  “You could.”

  Neither said another word as he pulled away the Mustang from the curb.

  When Aby mentioned she was hungry, Max detoured into a drive-thru to pick up a Chinese salad and pink lemonade. Now at home, she emptied the plastic food container onto a plate.

  Max paced her living room, checking corners and windows, making sure there was no means for a demon to slip in on a cloud of sulfur.

  It gave her confidence to know he was so concerned about protecting her. She’d always felt loved and protected. But the feeling, coming from a new man, was a wondrous high.

  She stroked t
he diamonds twinkling against her skin. These meant more to her than the condo Severo had given her, and the bank account he kept financed in her name. They were a token of Max’s like, and that rocked her world.

  “Now that we know it was Severo who sicced the demons on you, I don’t understand why you think I might still be in danger.”

  “The wolf call off his witch yet?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Then I want to be safe, not sorry.”

  Spearing a slice of cabbage glossy with oil and vinegar, she then spun off the stool and walked over to Max. She waggled the fork, displaying her prize. “Want a taste?”

  She slid the salad over her tongue and pulled out the clean fork. It was sweet and crunchy, with a bite of vinegar.

  When he bent to kiss her, a giddy thrill sparked in her breast. It beat the thrill of owning diamonds, hands down. When he parted her lips with a nudge of his tongue, she complied.

  The intrusion was not an intrusion at all. Rather, it stirred and surprised. The touch of his tongue against hers lifted her desire as if goose bumps were popping all over.

  Aby shivered and clutched at his shirt. He slipped an arm across her back, holding her to him. Her breasts snuggled his chest. The heat of him invaded her everywhere.

  He ended the kiss with a lick of her lower lip and a quick press of his mouth over hers. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve tasted something so amazing?”

  “I can guess. But it was only Chinese salad.”

  “I’m not talking about the food, Aby.”

  He lifted her and she instinctively wrapped her legs about his hips. Setting her on the stool at the kitchen counter, Max crushed her body against his and took the kiss deeper, lingering, lazing his tongue along hers, and then dashing it across her teeth in teasing flicks.

  Stoic, sensual, tormented Max. The Highwayman who had to taste food from her mouth and could never sleep.

  “So you don’t dream?” she asked when she could.

  “Nope.”

  She wanted to give him what he desired—as slowly, carefully and attentively as he kissed her.

  A rumbly moan accompanied his kisses. His hand slid down her back, easing along the base of her spine. He pulled her closer, as if trying to fit her to him with no spaces in between.

  “Want to tell me one of yours?” he asked against her mouth.

  “My dreams?” She tightened her legs about his hips. “Didn’t your shadow look into my dreams last night?”

  “Er…It did.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt me?”

  “Never. The shadow is darkness. Insubstantial. You couldn’t touch it if you tried.”

  Slanting his mouth over hers, he glided his tongue inside and tickled across her teeth. “You were dreaming about us.”

  If he had seen her dream of them making love…

  “I saw things,” he said. “We were intimate in your dream.”

  Aby pushed away from the kiss. Releasing her leg-hold on him, she leaned back. She wouldn’t look, but she had felt it—his erection—which meant he was ready to make love, to have sex. To have her.

  Like he’d taken her in her dream.

  He leaned in, kissing the corner of her mouth. “Did I do something wrong? I didn’t go into your dreams on purpose, Aby.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “I don’t want to offend you.”

  “Mmm…Your kisses are incredible.”

  “I want more,” he murmured. His warm fingers spread across her neck and slid lower. He stroked her hard nipple. “Aby, I can’t fight this anymore. I had every intention to remain detached, not become involved with you, just keep things business.”

  “I’m glad you’ve had a change of heart. But I think we’re going too fast,” she said breathlessly.

  “We weren’t moving too quickly in your dreams.”

  “Max, I’m embarrassed you saw that.”

  “Don’t be. If I could dream, I’d dream the same thing.”

  “You would?” It was all she’d hoped for. So why couldn’t she grab it now? “This is going to sound weird, but I feel sort of like a virgin with you.”

  After her words he stood straight, separating himself completely from her. She felt the sudden loss of his touch at her breasts and at her mouth. How could she explain how she felt without offending him?

  “I have sex all the time,” she tried. “And you know that’s just a job. So now, with us, I want it to be different. And it already is different. Just now, when we were closer than close, and I could feel your…” She sighed. “I want it to be right, Max. And not just another job.”

  “It’ll never be like that, Aby, I promise.”

  A kiss set her heart racing. The caress of his fingers along her jaw dazzled her shivering soul. “I can do slow,” he said.

  “Oh, Max.”

  Chapter 14

  M ax rapped on Aby’s front door and she called for him to enter. He walked inside and collided with a large suitcase. A pink suitcase, of all things.

  Aby rushed from the bed to the closet then the bathroom, where she shoved things into a small tote.

  “I figured I should only bring along one bag,” she said, “but can you imagine how hard it was to pack? I’ve never been to Paris before! It’s so cosmopolitan. It’s like a dream. Do you think I’ll look like a tourist?”

  She stopped briefly, her arms spread out to display her attire. A sleek black dress stopped below her thighs with a froth of white ruffles. It drew Max’s eye down her long legs to the black heels that said so many nasty things to him he wondered if she could hear his answering thoughts.

  “You look great, Aby.” The sparkle of diamonds at her neck pleased him. “The Parisians won’t be able to keep their eyes off you.”

  She made a giddy little jump, then scurried over to stuff the tote into the suitcase.

  The woman made Max recall what it was like to be innocent, to have so few cares. To take joy in discovery. It had been so long, probably since before he was six. Before his father had been murdered by a highwayman. That same day Max’s innocence had been stolen as well.

  God, he wanted to know that feeling again. Or just touch it.

  He had touched it. In Aby’s kiss. It was the strangest discovery to find from a woman who had sex as a business.

  Yet in her dreams he’d found salvation.

  He most definitely could not reveal that to her now. She was so trusting of him, so innocent. And he was fouling it all with his deception.

  But was it really deception if he didn’t know how to tell her what she had done for him?

  “I’ve never flown before so I researched on the Internet,” she said. “I have moisturizer to keep my skin from drying out. I’ve got change to buy lots of water. I didn’t wear nylons in case we crash and the fire burns the nylon to my legs—”

  “Aby, if we crash, I think burnt nylons will be the least of your worries.”

  She did another little excited jump. “This is going to be so cool. I’m stepping out of my boundaries. I’m going to fly!”

  This was not a vacation trip. It involved tracking a demon. It was dangerous. And he wasn’t sure if Aby was a friend or something more.

  Scratch that. He knew she was something more. A something more that demanded they take things so slowly he wasn’t sure his frustrations wouldn’t manifest in derelict behavior.

  He wanted this woman.

  He would have her.

  But only for business.

  And yet, she held the key to his pleasure.

  How the hell did that screw with his brain?

  “I don’t know if this is going to work.”

  Aby stopped what she was doing, which was apparently fluffing her hair to look just right. Her hands fell to her sides, her smile fell from her face. “What do you mean?”

  “This is not a pleasure trip, Aby.”

  “I know that. Am I too excited? I am. I’m sorry. I let myself get carried away. I’ve ne
ver been out from under Severo’s grasp like this before.”

  “So he’s had some kind of control over you all your life?”

  “It’s not like it sounds. And we were never lovers, because I know that’s where your dirty mind is going.”

  “My mind isn’t dirty.” Not at this second. And really, she was the one who’d been having the sex dreams. “It’s just concerned. Can you do this, Aby?”

  “Can you?” She stepped to him and her heels put her at his height. He loved the soft, natural pink of her lips. “This is something new for you, too. You don’t like to share yourself. Flying across the ocean and having me by your side—a woman you can’t make up your mind about, someone you want, but life tells you to stay away from…What does that do to you, Max?”

  “It freaks the hell out of me.”

  She was a threat. But not on the have-to-fight-for-your-life scale of threats. Aby resided on the smaller, but more intense, what-does-she-mean-to-you? scale.

  “Aby, truth is…I like you. I’ve told you that.”

  He liked the way her beaming smile glittered in her eyes. She bubbled. Max had never known someone so effervescent.

  “But I’m concerned about us together on this trip.”

  She fluttered her lashes. “You think we might fall in love?”

  He chuffed. “I don’t do love, Aby.”

  “Oh.” She gave a little pout, but smiled quickly enough. “I’m cool with that. Slow and easy. That’s what I’m about. Well, maybe not easy. Just cool and—”

  He kissed her to rescue her from a tangle of words. The lithe shape of her, the sinuous warmth of her stretching along his hard contours ratcheted up his lust.

  Slow and cool. Right.

  He stepped back and shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “Love isn’t in the cards. Never has been, never will.”

  He grimaced at the lie. He had loved Rebecca. Intensely.

  But he hadn’t been able to save her. He’d failed Rebecca.

  “What’s wrong with love?” she asked in all innocence. “I love Severo.”

  “Do you love him romantically? Do you think about kissing him, about having sex with him?”

  “No. But you? Yes. I dream about your kisses. Well, you know what I dream about.”