“W-what is going on?”
I clung to Early as the building shook around us, accompanied by a lot of special effects, lights and sounds that came out of nowhere.
“I thought you said you had no magic!” he shouted over the uproar.
“I don’t! This has to be you!” I yelled back. “Make it stop!” I was getting dizzy and picturing the guests arriving in the morning to find our naked bodies broken on the lawn. Deadly and humiliating both. “Early, what do we do?”
“I don’t know!”
It became harder and harder to remain on the bed, but I feared if we left it, we’d either be crushed by the antique furniture, or maybe the naked and broken on the lawn thing. “Help!” I had no idea who I thought would help us, but what else could I do? “Maybe it’s my mother!”
“Why would your mother do this?” He rolled to the side, tucking me under him, and wrapped an arm around one of the bedposts. “This house is quite a ride.”
The bed spun faster.
The light flashed on and off, swinging wildly.
The door crashed open to reveal a very angry half-fairy, half-ogre. “Can you two keep it down? I am trying to dream up a new recipe.” She turned to leave.
“No, come back!” I reached out to her or where she was at part of the bed’s rotation.
“Tinsley, wait!” Early called. “We don’t know how to stop this.”
She paused, glanced over her shoulder. “This is Karina’s magic. Just tell her to stop it. Now, let me get some rest. I’m thinking of boiling up some okra for pancakes in the morning.”
The door crashed closed behind her and my jaw dropped almost to the bed itself. I had no magic. What was she saying?
“She’s wrong,” I told him, shifting my grip. “I don’t have any magic.”
He lost his hold on me and was connected to the bed only by his single hand on the bedpost, feet flying free. “It is you, Karina. I’ve felt the magic coming off you ever since I got here. I just couldn’t figure out why you were saying you didn’t have any! Make. It. Stop. Please.”
“I can’t!” I sat in the middle of the swirling storm, not moving...at all. How could I be still when everything around me was in chaos? Even Early was barely holding on by his fingertips. If I didn’t at least try, he for sure was flying out the window or into a wall. Or something bad. “I don’t think I can.”
“Please!”
I’d never had magic before. I was sure of it. And I had no reason to think I had any now, but I squeezed my eyes closed and made up a quick incantation. No, I’d never done one before, but you didn’t grow up in my family without hearing them.
In darkness of night
With stars so bright
For calm we beg
Before Early breaks a leg.
As I will, so mote it be.
With my final word, the bed stopped spinning, the lights settled down, the sounds that had grown as loud as a freight train silenced. Tinsley hollered, “Thank you!” from down the hall.
And Early slid down the post to the floor and lay there, huddled in a ball, panting.
I had no idea what to make of any of this. But I had magic. What changed?
Early.
Chapter Eight
Early
After the chaos, I’d taken Karina’s hand and led her across the hall to the room she’d assigned me. Outside her chambers, there was no sign anything happened at all, so we were able to crawl into the fresh sheets in the room with forest-green and amber décor, where we both fell asleep and only woke twice during the night to make love. Each time, when she orgasmed, the noises and other effects started, but I spoke quietly to her and she was able to calm herself.
No magic...according to her, this was the first magic she’d experienced. We still weren’t sure if what happened to me on the porch was related, or if it was just a house quirk happening.
I woke alone, pulled on my undershorts and the robe she’d doffed, and headed downstairs to find Karina, but as I approached the kitchen, I heard voices and slowed my steps.
“Tinsley,” Karina said, “I think he’s the one in my aunt’s letter. I swear he feels like someone I’ve known before, but when I look at him, I don’t recognize him at all.”
Rattling of pot lids, then, “I think that can happen sometimes. I felt that way with your brother, at first. How do you think we got married so fast? Surely you didn’t think we were starting from scratch?”
“I don’t know. Yes, I did.”
“I guess for some people it can, but others are just reconnecting with souls they have history with, good or bad.”
It made sense to me.
“How about some coffee?” I said, striding into their midst.
“Well hello there, stud muffin.” Tinsley rose from a seat at the table. “Let me make you some breakfast.”
“Umm toast. Toast and coffee would be great.” I’d ignore the stud-muffin comment as well as the possibility of food poisoning.
Karina winked at me, but she looked a little sad. After the night we’d had, sad was the opposite of what I was feeling. But I hated seeing her upset so I sidled up and put my arm over her shoulders.
I bent close to her ear. “Good call, but you need more than coffee to be ready for your big grand opening in a few hours.”
She stood up and lifted her coffee cup. “Listen, grab a cup and meet me on the patio, okay?”
“Sure.” I moved to the pot and by the time I’d filled a mug and added sugar, she was already outside. Tinsley passed me a couple of sweatshirts from a hook by the back door, which I took gratefully and then moved out the door.
Karina waved me over to a wicker love seat and patted the seat beside her. I handed her the jacket and put mine on as well before settling into the cushioned seat. Our hips touched and down our thighs, and I absorbed the contentment to be found in the mountains on a day like today. The wind had eased off, and the sky was already a deep blue even with the last shreds of pink and gold clouds to the east.
“I think I know what happened, last night,” I murmured, reluctant to be any louder.
Karina bowed her head, staring into the steaming liquid. “You do?”
“Something triggered your magic. You’ve been unable to get to it until now.”
“Tinsley thinks it’s this and you’re him.” She thrust a folded piece of paper at me. “She thinks your arrival triggered me, like, well, she says you’ve been holding my magic since the last time we crossed paths.”
“But we’ve never met.” I opened the page and read it. “Oh.”
“She thinks we have. Lifetimes ago. And that for some reason I gave it to you for safekeeping.” Karina muttered the last into the cup of coffee. “And if so, I owe you gratitude for doing so, even if I don’t know why.”
“Me, either.” But I believed it. “I see a lot of strange things in my work.”
“Anyway, you’ll be taking off after the grand opening, so I wanted to thank you now before things get crazy. If they get crazy.”
“Last night was special.” How to say this without coming off crude? “I know it was your first time, and I suppose I should thank you for that.”
“Now this is just getting weird,” she said. “Then I should thank you for making my first time wonderful.”
“And my lion wants to say thank you for being his mate.”
“Uhhh...what does he think of your leaving?” I tried not to put anything more into her words than probably intended.
“He says I should hang around and take you out in the woods tonight so he can show off.”
Her smile broke like sunshine on her face. “He does?”
“Yeah, if you’re not too tired from the big party.”
“Oh, I won’t be,” she insisted. “It would be an honor to meet him.” She cocked her head. “So you’re staying until tomorrow?”
“I’m staying until we figure this out. Your aunt’s letter explains some things. I had a feeling of knowing you last night. I’
ve never kissed anyone where it felt like coming home before.”
“I feel like a cozy house?”
Her voice held such insult, I chuckled. “No, you feel like the other half of me. My job involves a lot of travel, but I can base anywhere and the airport isn’t that far away. If you have room for me, I’d like to stick around a few days and get to know one another.”
“Well, the place is booked. I had a room set aside for you for only one night.” Her protest would have held more weight had she not placed her hand on my thigh.
“Can’t you find somewhere for me? I’d be happy to share a room.”
“Well, we do have one, but it’s kind of a mess, if you don’t mind helping to put it to rights?”
I shifted closer to her, bumping hips. “That could work. Also, I thought, you know, between assignments, well, have you ever considered having an outdoor program here at the inn? Skiing in winter, guided hiking trips, maybe paragliding, in summer? Stuff with a kick for those who don’t just want to sip tea? It could be a big draw.” I laid an arm over her shoulders, leaning back with a sigh.
“We’d have to bring someone on staff at least part-time to do that, but you’re right, it’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, I think so, too.” We sat, sipping coffee until the sound of engines coming down the road made her jump up.
“I have to get ready. I hear the first guests.” She was vibrating again.
“I think we need to get you someone, a mentor, to help you control your magic.”
“But not today.” She looked at me, those flames back in her eyes.
“No. Not today.” As she dashed for the house, I had a thought. “Hey, Karina?”
“Yes?” She paused in the doorway.
“Is that a lunar garden out there?”
She flushed. “Yeah. That’s what it is. The most romantic gardens on the face of the earth.”
“Let’s take a little walk there tonight.”
She smiled and took a step toward me, pressed a quick kiss on my lips. “I love that idea.”
And the rest went unsaid. We had known one another because an ache I never knew I had was soothed as soon as she’d touched me. This afternoon, I’d poll her guests about what they might like to do, adventure-wise. Tonight we’d stroll and we’d go out and show her the lion. And then later, I’d take her to bed and show her how much I’d missed her.
Settling back again, I watched the parking area fill with cars and happy visitors pour out. In my mind, I started my article. Guests arrived bright and early for the most successful grand opening in the history of inns... My lion agreed.
To check out all the side splitting books in the Magic and Mayhem Universe, go to https://magicandmayhemuniverse.com/
Kate Richards
Kate Richards divides her time between Los Angeles and the High Sierras. She would gladly spend all her days in the mountains, but she’d miss the beach...and her very supportive husband’s commute would be three hundred miles. Wherever she is, she loves to explore all different kinds of relationships in her stories. She doesn’t believe one-size-fits-all, and whether her characters live BDSM, ménage, GLBT, spanking, or any other kind of lifestyle, it’s the love, the joy in one another, that counts.
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Also by Kate Richards
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Topaz’s Trials (Red Petticoat Series)
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An Evening in the Superstitions
Fire and Ice
Witch Way Out (Magic and Mayhem)
Witch Way Inn Page 5
