“That sounds like Troy refusing to follow his father’s orders,” Erica said as she stopped chopping carrots and cocked her head toward the bellowing.
“How can you tell?” Summer asked as she tried to make out what sounded like gibberish to her.
“She speaks Welsh,” Aileen said as she stirred the large stock pot of soup bubbling on the stove. “I’m still learning.” She paused to listen. “I can’t be sure, but that sounds like Abel throwing some shade at you, Summer. I don’t think he likes you sleeping with his son very much.”
“Aileen.” Erica gave her a look of reproach before she said to Summer, “We didn’t know the two of you were romantically involved.”
“We’re not. We just had sex.” Summer felt an odd fuzziness in her head and sat down on one of the stools by the counter. “It was terrific, but we’re not getting married or anything.”
Aileen giggled. “Wiccans don’t marry like humans. We mate, generally for life.”
“Well, then we’re definitely just having sex,” Summer said.
As the shouting grew louder Erica wiped her hands on a towel and took off her apron.
“I think I’d better step in as referee.” She hurried out.
“Would you go and clip a few chives from the garden, Summer?” Aileen asked as she peered into the soup pot. “They’re the long green shoots next to the dandelions.”
“Gotcha.” Summer stood and shook her head to try and clear it as she walked toward the door to the hothouse, and then went still as the world went away.
In the darkness, flashes appeared behind Summer’s eyes: Aileen, limp and dripping, being carried into Erica’s bedroom by Troy; Troy tearing open the sodden dress to reveal a huge, blistering burn over Aileen’s small breasts; Troy’s fingers touching the white handle of a knife that was sticking out of the side of her belly; bright red blood welling from around the knife, which bobbed as Aileen convulsed; a white-faced Erica rushing to the end of the bed where she stopped and stared at the younger woman; Troy turning his head to shout at the High Priestess. Erica, help me. The baby–
Summer turned around to see Aileen struggling to move the stock pot from the stove to the counter, a knife still in her hand. The knife had the same white handle as the one in her vision. The bottom edge of the heavy pot wedged against the side of the burner. Aileen frowned as she gave it a hard tug.
No.
Summer lunged forward as the pot tipped, and everything around her and Aileen froze, as if time itself came to a complete stop. The bizarre moment allowed her to knock the knife from the pregnant woman’s hand and drag her back out of the way. As she jerked Aileen around and shielded her with her body, time snapped back into play, and the pot tipped over. Boiling soup splashed against the back of Summer’s jeans as the pot and the knife fell to the floor with a crash.
Aileen stared at her in horror.
“Summer. Oh, Gods.”
Her wide eyes shifted over her shoulder to the huge steaming lake of soup on the floor.
“It would have scalded half your body,” Summer said, her voice hollow and cold. “You would have slipped in the soup, and fallen onto the knife, and miscarried the baby. Then you would have bled to death. Take me outside, please. Now.”
Aileen helped her into the garden, and closed the door behind them.
“You saw it before it happened, just now. You stopped it.” She swallowed hard. “Summer, you stopped everything. I felt it as you pulled me out of the way.”
“I don’t know what I did in there.” Summer felt herself beginning to tremble and swallowed hard. “Aileen, please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“You saved my life, and the life of my child.” Aileen took hold of her hands. “I would do anything for you, Summer.”
The other woman was shaking even harder than she was.
“Sit down,” Summer said. She guided her to one of the garden benches. “Stay here. I’ll clean up.”
Summer returned inside, where she found Erica standing in the doorway and staring at the mess on the floor.
“We had a little accident. It was my fault.”
“So I see.” The older woman frowned at her. “Where is Aileen?”
“She’s taking a rest break in the garden. I didn’t want her to slip and fall.” At least that much was true. Summer went to the utility closet and took out the mop and bucket Erica kept there. “I’m really sorry about screwing up the soup.”
“We can have a salad and sandwich for dinner tonight.” Erica gave her a sharp look. “I told Troy and his father to take it out to the barn, but they went in opposite directions. Are you all right, my dear? You look very pale.”
“I’m fine.” Summer produced what she hoped was a rueful grin. “A little shaken up, is all. No, please,” she added as Erica started to reach for a kitchen towel. “Let me do this. It’s my mess.”
“All right. I do need to speak to Abel about his temper anyway.”
Erica gave her a sympathetic smile before she retreated.
By the time Summer mopped up the soup from the stovetop and the floor she felt steadier, and quickly washed the offending pot and knife before she rejoined Aileen, who was sitting and cradling her belly with her thin hands.
“All clear in here. You okay?”
“Thanks to you, yes.” Aileen walked back inside with her and surveyed the mopped floor. “I wish I could still drink. I think I could polish off an entire bottle of wine by myself right now.”
Summer poured her a cup of tea from the pot Erica kept under a cozy and sat down with her at the work table.
“I might drink it for you.”
“Summer, what you did to save me…” Aileen shook her head. “I understand why you want me to keep it secret. No Wiccan has such power.”
“I don’t know how I did it,” she admitted, “but I think I better figure that out first before we let everyone know I can stop time.”
“You should talk to Troy about it.” Aileen took a sip of the tea and sighed. “He is a water elemental, and in all the centuries he’s lived he may have seen something like this.”
Summer frowned at her. “He’s lived for centuries?”
“I thought you knew.” She made a face. “Wiccans are immortal, like the Templars. Well, we’re not born that way, but once we are initiated we never again have to fear age or death.”
Summer couldn’t quite wrap her head around the idea that Troy had lived for centuries, so she tackled Aileen’s claim.
“But I saw you die in my vision.”
“It is difficult, but we can be killed. When we are in our first century of life we can also choose to die.” She touched her belly. “If I knew my child had passed on, I think I would want to go with the little one.”
Something occurred to Summer. “You said the Wiccans are immortal, like the Templars. Are all of them immortal, too?”
Aileen nodded. “That is why I think we became enemies. We are the only immortal races in the world, so only we can really oppose each other.” As more angry voices came from the front room she frowned. “That’s Wilson.”
Summer accompanied her out to where Troy and his brother were standing toe-to-toe and arguing in Welsh. Judging by how furious their expressions were neither one of them appeared interested in backing down.
At the sight of them Troy took a step toward Summer and then staggered away as Wilson’s fist connected with his jaw. A moment later the two men were pummeling each other, and then they went down together to wrestle back and forth on the floor.
“Really, Troy?” When he didn’t reply Summer propped her hands on her hips and simply watched them. “I hope I’m an only child.”
“I was, and it kind of sucks,” Aileen said, before she called out, “Wilson, come on. That’s enough now.”
The men ignored them until Abel Atwater came into the room carrying a bucket of water, which he tossed over the two of them. The water drenched Wilson, but at the very last second Troy stopped the wave over him and s
ent it flying through an open window into the yard, where it dropped as a pile of ice cubes. The dogs came running to happily attack the cubes, but then stopped short and filed silently into the house behind Lachlan, who glared down at Troy.
“Haven’t you done enough to him?”
He reached down to help Wilson up, but the younger man shook him off and after giving Aileen a sullen look stalked out of the house.
The dogs surrounded Troy and began to wag their tails even as they bared their teeth in unwilling snarls. He looked over at Lachlan as he wiped some blood from his chin.
“Call them off, now.”
The dogs returned to their normal happy selves as soon as Abel’s assistant waved a hand and hurried out after Wilson.
“Lachlan can control any warm-blooded animal,” Aileen said, her mouth flattening. “Except himself.” Without another word she retreated back to the kitchen.
That left Summer along with Troy, who now looked a little sheepish.
“I’m sorry about all this. My father isn’t too happy about us, and every time I glance at Aileen my brother thinks I’m trying to steal his wife and first born from him. What have you been doing?”
“Oh, you know. Hanging with the witches, cleaning up the kitchen, finding out you’re immortal.” She tucked her arm through his. “Let’s take a walk.”
• • • • •
Troy took Summer through the woods to the source of his creek, which spilled down over a cliff side into a deep spring-fed pool. Over the years he and his father and hauled the rocks they cleared from the pavilion’s yards and gardens to pile them at the water’s edge. Summer climbed up to one flat rock they often used for diving and sat down to take in the view.
“This place is so beautiful,” she said as Troy joined her. “I’d never want to leave it if it were mine. So why were you fighting with your dad over me?”
“I wasn’t, until he called you a Templar spy.” Troy picked up a pebble and tossed it into the pool. He hated that his father was so suspicious of outsiders, but it seemed even more ludicrous now that he had to explain it to Summer. “He believes it’s the only rational explanation for your amnesia. He thinks they deliberately mind-wiped you so you wouldn’t remember that you are spying for them.”
“That’s an interesting alternative theory.” She handed him another pebble. “And your brother thinks you’re going to steal his wife because…”
“Aileen and I were involved, a long time ago. We ended it, and we’re just friends, but Wilson is convinced that I still have feelings for her.” He uttered a bitter chuckle. “He accused me of bringing you here to confuse and distract him so I could seduce his wife. Who, if you haven’t noticed, is eight-and-a-half months pregnant.”
“Yeah, but she’s still pretty hot.” She gave his shoulder a friendly bump with hers. “Don’t look so depressed. I like you. Ewan likes you. Erica likes you. Lachlan…hey, did I mention Ewan likes you?”
“Ewan likes everyone.” Soothed by her good humor, he pulled her onto his lap. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the immortality factor. I was waiting for the right time.”
She rested her head against his shoulder. “Like when? Your birthday? How old are you going to be this year? Twenty-nine, for the five hundredth time?”
“We stop counting after five hundred.” He rubbed his thumb across her full lower lip, and smiled a little when she kissed it. “Why don’t we go back to my place? I’ve restocked my condom supply, and it’s much quieter and nicer there.”
“I would like that very much.” She pressed his hand to her cheek. “But you can’t keep using me to avoid dealing with your family problems.” He gave her a narrow look. “Your dad has every right to be suspicious of me. I’m suspicious of me. Plus you got me from a Templar, remember?”
He shook his head. “Michael is different.”
“For which I am very grateful, but it doesn’t change the facts. I don’t know who I am or how I got to Central Park. I could be anything.” Her expression tightened. “And we don’t know all of what I’m capable of doing yet.”
“You are not a Templar spy, because if you were, they would have already overrun the place,” Troy told her, and helped her up before he circled her waist with his arms. “As for your abilities as a witch, we just have to test you. There’s a very old test, in fact, that should prove what you are.”
She gave him a wry look. “Oh, yeah? What is it?”
“The dunking test.” He pulled her against him and jumped off the rock, laughing as she shrieked on the way down before they plunged into the ice-cold water.
Summer surfaced with him, gasping and squealing before she took her hand and shoved a handful of water at his face. He stopped it so that it hung between them, and she gave him a dirty look.
“Don’t you dare.”
Troy laughed and used the water to lift her up onto one of the long, sun-warmed rocks, where he climbed out and sat down beside her to dispel the water from her hair and clothes.
“Never mess with a water elemental in winter,” he advised her as she sat up.
“Come here.”
She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down on top of her, her lips meeting his in a ferocious kiss.
Troy’s residual anger over fighting with his father and brother shifted into something far more urgent, and he tore open her blouse to get at her breasts, sucking one and then the other as he unfastened her jeans and shoved them and her panties down to her knees. As she worked them off he pushed down his own trousers, pausing only long enough to sheath himself with one of the condoms from his pocket before he hoisted her legs up around his hips and guided his iron-hard shaft to her damp sex.
“You’re the one who really makes me crazy,” he told her as he rubbed his cockhead against her before pushing it between her slick folds. “Look in my eyes. I want to see yours as I take you.”
Sinking into her softness made him swell even bigger, for she was as wet and hot as a hungry mouth. The way her lashes fluttered as she caught her breath and tightened around him made him feel a fierce satisfaction. She could kid and pretend nothing mattered to her, until he got his cock inside her. Then things got very, very serious. He laid her down on their clothes.
“That’s it. Feel me filling that soft, sweet, little pussy,” he crooned as he stroked into her. He needed her too much to do anything but fuck her, deep and hard, his cock pumping like a piston for the engine of his lust. “Does that feel good, sweetheart? Are you going to come for me?”
“Troy, oh, yes.” She clung to him as she made a whimpering sound, her slim hips rolling under the power of his thrusts. “Please, please.”
He took hold of her legs and pushed her knees back almost to her shoulders so he could forge deeper into her fluttering softness, pounding her pussy now with his rigid shaft and prodding the edge of her cervix as he filled her completely. Summer writhed, her pretty breasts heaving as she took everything he gave her, and then she released a wild wail as her body shook uncontrollably.
Troy jerked his cock out of her, stripping off the condom and working his fist up and down his shaft. She reached up to help him, and the touch of her cool fingers made him instantly come, the pleasure exploded from him in long, silky white ribbons of cream. He watched them lace across her belly and breasts and felt the satisfaction of having marked her with his seed, for she was his woman now.
He fell beside her, his chest heaving as he closed his eyes and let the sunlight bathe his sweat-shined hide.
“Gods, that was amazing,” he breathed. “You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever touched.”
“I’ll let Wilson know that,” she said primly, and turned her head to press her lips to his shoulder. “Maybe he’ll stop imagining things. By the way, if you dunk me in that icy pool again, I’m going to be the last woman you ever touch.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WHEN THEY RETURNED to the pavilion Summer learned everyone except Ewan had gone into town on an impromptu shopp
ing trip that she suspected had more to do with cooling off and putting some distance between Troy and his family than any actually necessary errands.
“You’ll know when things will go back to what passes for normalcy around here,” Erica’s brother told her as they watched Troy head off to the chopping stump. “We’ll have too much fire wood, more game than we can eat, and very shiny cars and floors.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“Everyone deals with stress in different ways. Troy chops wood. Wilson goes hunting. And Abel?” He lifted his shoulders. “He waxes. Everything.”
Summer nodded slowly. “I wonder what I do.”
“Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones, like me.” He gave her a wink. “I’m never stressed. It’s because I never take sides. I just go hang out with the dogs in the barn until the yelling is over.”
“Great idea.” She reached down to scratch behind the ears of a grinning Irish setter. “Next time I think I’ll join you.”
Summer went back to their rooms to shower and change, and while she dressed she thought about what Aileen had said. She did need to talk to someone about what had happened in the kitchen, and Troy was the logical choice. If she could stop time without even thinking about it, then she might do it someday and be unable to restart it.
She also wanted to tell him about the condition she’d been in when she’d woken up in the park. If her blood-soaked clothes were proof that she had hurt someone, she needed to know now before she got any stronger.
After Summer dried and braided her hair she felt her shoulder itch, and pulled back her blouse to see if she’d gotten an insect bite. Her skin twitched, but there was nothing there. She rubbed some skin cream over the spot before she buttoned up and left the room.
Outside she found the axe and a huge mound of chopped wood by the stump, but no Troy. She walked across to the barn before she noticed the Jeep was missing from the yard.
“So he took off without me,” she told the dogs, who herded around her briefly before they bounded off to follow Ewan into the house. “Yes, abandon me, too. It’s the story of my life.”
Rescued (Book One of the Silver Wood Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel Page 10
