Unless he could find some way around the old man’s magic.
Yeah. Everyone had an Achilles’ heel, even demigods. So what was Titus’s weakness—other than loving his daughter so damn much that he was determined to see her happily producing heirs for some power-hungry bastard?
Alec blew sand off his lips with a stifled snort. Christ, it would appear Jane really had come up with the easiest way to trump her father. Well, except for the poor schmuck she eventually conned into devaluing her, when the guy found himself standing at the altar with a shotgun at his back and then had to spend every night of the rest of his sorry life in Jane’s bed.
Dammit; he didn’t want an ordinary schmuck to get Jane, especially not some idiot who couldn’t stop ogling her long enough to realize there was a sharp, inquisitive mind hiding behind those sexy bedroom eyes. Jane needed a man who saw her haughtiness for the defense it was, who liked that she dared to lie right to his face, and who didn’t mind that she came with a whole bunch of baggage. At the very least she deserved someone who wanted her despite who her father was, and who would willingly step in front of a goddamn bus if that’s what it took to prove her value.
Basically, someone like…him.
Except she couldn’t have him; partly because he couldn’t give her a house overlooking the ocean and filled with babies, but mostly because he simply wasn’t that cruel. Messing with Jane for a couple of weeks was one thing, but giving any woman happily-ever-after had ceased being an option nine years ago. Hence the vasectomy, for in case he ever forgot what a cold-blooded, murdering bastard he was.
Alec sighed when he felt Jane suddenly stiffen, guessing that not only was she trying to figure out how she’d ended up on top of him, but also how she was going to extricate herself from the decidedly provocative position. So of course, being the bastard he was, he brushed his thumbs along the sides of her breasts—only to jackknife upright with a grunt when she scrambled off him. He managed to keep from being emasculated, but wasn’t quite quick enough to catch Jane before she landed on her lovely backside with a yelp of surprise.
Kit, however, was more than fast enough to jump between them with his hackles raised and his lips rolled back—which the scowling princess didn’t seem in any hurry to squelch. Half-tempted to finally establish his position in this ragtag little wolf pack once and for all, Alec instead rubbed his face in his hands. He then rolled to his knees and stood up, walked over to Jane, and lifted her chin. “Morning, sweetheart,” he murmured, giving her a kiss before turning away to hide his grin when she started spitting sand off her lips. “It’s a good thing you woke up when ye did. The tide’s coming in, and I really wasn’t looking forward to carrying you through two feet of ice-cold seawater.”
His grin widened when Jane stood up and silently marched toward the end of the crescent-shaped cliff, Kit dutifully trotting behind her. Alec picked up his jacket and followed. “I’ve been thinking,” he said to her ramrod-stiff back, “that since ye seem to be pretty well recovered from your kidnapping, it might be time I put you to work.”
That turned her around. “Women’s work?” she said ever so softly. “Like cooking your meals and washing your clothes and polishing your boots?”
Alec continued past her, deciding it was too early in the day to be walking behind that lovely backside. “No, I was thinking more like having you hike the trail I’ve already marked out and deciding where to place the next shelter.” He glanced over his shoulder to see she’d stopped and was gaping at him, then continued along the point of land toward the boat he’d beached several hundred yards up the shore. “Assuming ye have a good sense of distance, as I’ve been trying to keep them spaced between four and five miles apart.”
He heard her running to catch up and let her pull him to a stop and turn him around. “You want me to choose the next campsite location?”
He nodded. “If you’re feeling up to it. But if you’re still too sore to be hiking that far, then I guess you’ll just have to spend another day hiding from the helicopter.”
“But I don’t know any— What?” she said when he suddenly narrowed his eyes.
Alec pulled her into his arms and kissed her quite soundly before heading for the boat again. “I warned you what would happen if I caught you acting clueless.”
He heard her footsteps in the gravel rushing up behind him, only this time she poked him in the back. “That wasn’t cluelessness, it was surprise.” She pulled him to a stop again and Alec turned to see Jane’s eyes had narrowed. “You can’t just kiss me or do that…other stuff whenever you merely think I’m acting a certain way,” she ended in a whisper, her gaze dropping to his mouth and her entire face turning a dull red.
Well, it appeared she wasn’t saying he couldn’t follow through on his threats, only that there needed to be some ground rules. “Okay then,” he said just as softly. “What’s your definition of acting clueless?”
Apparently hearing the amusement in his voice, her gaze snapped to his and her eyes narrowed again, even as the beginning of a sinister little smile tugged at her mouth. “Well, I suppose I will have to catch you acting clueless or embarrassed to give you an example,” she said, pivoting away—and taking the lead again, he couldn’t help but notice. “Why do you set the shelters only four or five miles apart?” she asked, a decided spring in her step, which sent several of his foolish blood cells heading south. “Surely hikers would travel two or three times that far in a day.”
“I’m assuming there’s going to be more than one party of guests using the trail at any given time, so there need to be plenty of campsites. But bunching them together sort of defeats the wilderness experience, wouldn’t ye say?”
She glanced over her shoulder with a frown, only to catch him lifting his gaze to her face. She marched back and palmed his cheeks, and being so tall was able to kiss him full on the mouth—rather robustly—before heading down the beach again. “I’ve decided that when I catch you ogling me, I’m going to kiss you,” she declared with an imperial wave over her shoulder. “Now, about where the next shelter should be placed; do you swear you’re not just humoring me, and that you’ll simply change the location if you don’t agree with where I think it should go?” She stopped and marched back to him again. “Because if I suspect that’s the case, my pants are staying on and yours are coming off next time,” she growled, poking him in the chest for emphasis—which she completely ruined by blushing.
“Ye certainly have my permission to try,” he said cheerily, taking the lead again.
* * *
Alec MacKeage was a scoundrel, Jane decided later that morning as she and Kitty ambled down the trail looking for the next perfect campsite. Oh, the man might be fast and strong and brave, which was nice if she happened to need rescuing, but that certainly didn’t make him condom-worthy.
Not for the first time, Jane wondered why Sam had been so adamant that she run to Alec if she ever got into trouble. Because honestly, the guy didn’t seem all that bright. Well, he might be smart about anything to do with the outdoors, but he hadn’t even found it strange that she had suddenly shown up in his woods with no reasonable explanation as to how she’d gotten here.
He didn’t appear very motivated, either. According to his driver’s license, Alec was thirty-two years old, and yet he was a self-admitted ski bum at his family’s resort—he certainly hadn’t gone far looking for work—and took any old odd job he could find during the summers. And she really couldn’t understand why Sam had repeatedly warned her against making Alec angry, considering the rake seemed more interested in kissing her than taking her own warnings about her father seriously.
So what made Sam think an underachieving, oversexed scoundrel could be her champion? Well, besides his being a MacKeage, which meant he understood the magic. And Alec was big and strong and apparently good in a fight. But the man was much too handsome—in a grizzly bear sort of way—and far sexier than any of the full-of-themselves buffoons she’d dated over the last two years
. Heck, one of the self-important jerks had actually taken her out into the Mediterranean on his yacht for their very first date, popped the cork on an expensive bottle of champagne at dinner, and boldly stated that he expected her to “put out or get out.”
She’d given the jerk a toe-curling kiss for dessert, sent him to his mirror-clad stateroom with instructions to get ready to experience a night in heaven, then jumped overboard and swum back to Monte Carlo—making his night and ensuing days sheer hell as he tried to explain to the authorities why he’d called in a distress signal when Jane Smith was seen all over town shopping with friends the very next day.
Yes, she’d kissed her share of frogs without finding one who even came close to deserving her. So what if she was being too fussy—although she preferred to see it as discerning; shedding her virginity didn’t have to be at the expense of her dignity.
But after she’d awakened in Alec MacKeage’s sleeping bag wearing only his T-shirt, and considering how he’d gallantly come to her rescue and fixed her hair and given her his bed, Jane had thought she’d finally found a man she could trust not only with her body but also with her tender feelings. Only he’d turned out to be nothing more than a scoundrel; first for making her want him with every fiber of her being, then for giving her a taste of unbelievable pleasure—only to then tell her he was keeping his pants on until she wanted him for all the right reasons.
Sweet Athena, this was the twenty-first century; what more reason did a woman need than simply being attracted to a man? If she’d wanted a noble atavist, she would have spent the last two years searching previous centuries.
Jane stopped at the brook cutting across the trail, slid off her backpack, and knelt down to cup her hands in the crystal water. She splashed some on her face but stopped short of taking a sip, remembering Alec’s warning to drink only from a bubbling spring if she didn’t want to find herself spending the night making several trips to the privy.
“Kitty, no,” she said, pulling him away when he started lapping the water. “There might be tiny bugs in there that could make you sick.” She sat down right in the middle of the trail and hugged the wolf, rubbing her cheek on his fur. “You are such a good friend, Kitalanta, for leaving your watery world to come keep me safe in mine. But just think of all the wonderful tales you’ll have to tell your pod-mates when you return,” she murmured, giving him a squeeze. “And I will make sure your heroics are known far and wide throughout all the oceans.” She gave him a kiss and straightened away with a laugh. “And all the lady orcas will be vying for your attention, and you’ll turn into a vainglorious old lug just like Leviathan.”
Jane rested back on her hands, closing her eyes and lifting her face to the noontime sun with a heavy sigh. “I still don’t know what to do, Kitalanta, as I’m beginning to think that hiding out here is only postponing the inevitable.” She pulled over her backpack to use as a pillow and lay down, running her hand over Kitty’s fur when he flopped down beside her and rested his chin on her stomach. “Alec seems to think he can help me get free of Father.” She snorted. “Without using my condom. But if you ask me, he’s the one who is clueless. Oh, he knows who Titus Oceanus is, since he’s familiar with the magic, but I would bet my emerald necklace that he’d be singing a different tune if he knew my real name.” Jane lifted her head so Kitty could see her scowl. “Sam made a mistake sending me to him. Alec won’t take my virginity, and he’s going to get himself killed if he tries to stand up to Father.” She flopped back with another snort. “So I guess it’s up to me to protect him. By the gods, men are—”
Jane stilled at the sound of heavy thumping. “Oh no, the helicopter! Come, Kitty,” she cried, grabbing her backpack and jumping to her feet. “We were supposed to be well past this brook by the time they got here,” she said, splashing through the knee-deep water and running farther down the trail.
Certain that she’d gone far enough, Jane pulled Kitty behind a large tree and looked up at the sky, only to gasp at the sight of Alec sitting on the bridge dangling beneath the helicopter. “You idiot!” she half shouted, half growled over the loud pounding of the blades. “You were supposed to run here, not fly!” She crawled over to a moss-covered boulder closer to the brook. “I swear I will kill him myself for pulling such a stupid stunt,” she muttered, hauling Kitty behind the rock with her. “The lazy bum wasn’t being thoughtful letting me locate the next shelter; he only wanted me out of the way so he wouldn’t have to run four miles.”
She flattened against the rock and had to raise a hand to protect her face when the rotating blades created a windstorm of dust and blowing leaves, then she had to grab Kitty when he tried to run off. Jane’s heart rose into her throat when she saw Alec was now hanging off one end of the bridge as it slowly descended through the trees, and she stopped breathing altogether when he suddenly reached out and snagged a wildly blowing branch to maneuver the bridge past a bent tree—only to then grab another branch and use it to swing himself to the ground!
Jane decided killing the idiot was too kind, and vowed to find a way to scare twenty years off his miserable life for scaring ten off hers.
Ignoring the rope dangling beside him, Alec grabbed hold of the bridge itself with one hand while signaling with the other; she assumed first to the crane operator when the structure stopped descending, then to the pilot when she saw the bridge moving upstream through the wind-battered trees. He signaled again and the bridge stopped, hovered momentarily, then slowly descended toward two large, flat rocks positioned on either side of the brook a dozen paces up from the trail. Alec then started pushing and tugging on the bridge, his muscles straining against his shirt as he wrestled the swaying structure into place.
Jane hugged Kitty to her, undecided which warring emotion was making her tremble: abject horror at the risk Alec was taking, sheer awe at how effortlessly he made it appear, or blatant envy of his obvious joy. She turned to lean her back against the boulder and buried her face in Kitty’s fur, no longer able to watch. Sweet Athena, what she wouldn’t give to experience that kind of passion, where time stopped and the world receded to nothing but the excitement of the moment.
Was that what Alec was doing out here in the wilderness, experiencing the joy of simply being alive, with no obligations to anyone but himself? No rules to follow but those of Mother Nature, no clocks saying it was time to get up or eat or go to bed, no reason to shave or even bathe if he didn’t wish to?
With no one constantly reminding him who he was and how he should act?
Was Alec MacKeage really not very bright, or was he wise beyond his years?
Jane pulled in a shuddering breath as she looked toward the brook—only to gasp again when she saw Duncan MacKeage descending through the trees on the cable. “Ohmigod,” she said, crouching lower and pulling Kitty down with her. Why was he here? And more importantly, how long was he staying? Could the cable pull him back into the helicopter, or did he intend to spend the night? Because she was fairly certain that had been a pillow dangling from his belt.
She had to get out of here, as Duncan would immediately recognize her even from a distance. And then he’d ask his nephew what he was doing with Maximilian’s sister, and she really would discover what Sam meant about not making Alec angry when he realized the full scope of her lies to him.
Jane’s heart sank when the helicopter lifted away and she heard the men talking above the fading thump of the rotor blades. She glanced over the rock again when Duncan gave a deep laugh and saw him clap Alec on the shoulder hard enough that Alec stumbled toward the stream. Only instead of retaliating, Alec jogged up to the bridge and gave it a shake before stepping onto it and jumping up and down.
“Have ye noticed any other odd happenings in the woods since finding those two dead men?” Duncan asked, tossing the pillow on the ground and following. “Because I’ve been feeling a strange energy around here lately.”
Alec walked off the bridge and knelt down to look underneath it. “It’s probably just Levi
athan. Now that the kids are back in school, that love-struck old whale is depressed because he isn’t getting his daily dose of gummy worms.”
“No,” Duncan said, stopping beside Alec and crossing his arms. He shook his head. “This energy feels…aggressive.”
Alec stood up. “Where have ye been feeling it, and for how long?”
“Out on the fiord, mostly. The first time was the day after that freak thunderstorm killed those two men.” Duncan shrugged. “Since then it’s been coming and going in pulses, like a wave that’s moving closer.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know what in hell it is, just that it doesn’t feel…right.”
“What does Mac say about it?”
“Only Olivia and the kids and Ezra came back from Midnight Bay yesterday, because Mac and Trace Huntsman headed out in Trace’s lobster boat to go visit Titus when he suddenly called them. I did manage to get through to Mac on his cell phone before he and Trace left, and when I told him I’ve been feeling a strange energy around here, he said I’m probably just overly sensitive to the magic—which isn’t uncommon, apparently, as he claims it takes years to master the kind of power he gave me. Then he got a bit aggressive-sounding himself,” Duncan said with a grin, “saying it was probably leftover energy from his parents’ last visit, which they’ve grown too fond of doing lately. But when I told him it was getting stronger, not weaker, he decided it must be some of the more distant guests trying to get here for Nova Mare’s grand opening ball.” He shook his head. “Apparently some of them haven’t quite mastered the art of breaching time.”
Jane sucked in a breath, hugging Kitty so tightly, he gave a soft whine. Father and Mother kept visiting Nova Mare? Sweet Athena, did they keep coming here hoping she’d cave in and finally come see Mac? She pulled in another shuddering breath, realizing that for as hard as her exile had been on her, it likely had been even more heartbreaking for her dear mama. And precious baby Ella; she hadn’t even held her new niece, having only seen pictures of Mac and Olivia’s sweet baby girl that Sam had texted her—pictures that had been in the cell phone the bastard who’d cut her hair had tossed on the floor and ground under his boot.
Courting Carolina Page 10
