“Yes, he did.”
“Who is Glitter?” Andres looked confused and Kayla laughed.
“You’ll see. Wait until you see the garden now. You won’t believe it.”
Andres smiled back at her and she amended her opinion as Xander’s warm hand slid from her shoulders to the small of her back. Andres was handsome as hell, but Xander was impossible to resist, so sexy he made her heart pound and her core ache. She wanted him, again. She wanted to stay, to belong to him. She wanted her cake and eat it too, and that just wasn’t going to happen.
Andres looked from her to the house and his eyes lingered on the entrance. “So, our mother finally took pity on you?”
Xander nodded as he pulled Kayla with him, headed back around the house. “Yes.”
“When?”
“A week.”
Andres whistled and Kayla looked over her shoulder as Xander’s brother followed them around the corner of the house. His gaze was on her, and on Xander’s hand where it remained on her curves. “That was fast.”
“It’s magic, Andres. It’s supposed to be fast.”
Andres grinned and Kayla grinned back. “Welcome to the family, little sister.”
Kayla frowned. Wait. What? “What? I’m not…I mean. I think you misunderstood.”
Andres shrugged and picked up the pace, walking around them to discover Drake still lying on his side under a protective canopy of leaves. Glitter, Spring and Daffodil had woven the protection over him to keep him out of the sun as they waited for Andres to arrive.
“Holy shit. I’ve never seen one of these guys before.”
Drake cracked one eyelid opened and answered him. “Shut it, earth boy. I’m not in the mood.”
Now that Andres was here, Xander explained his idea to him as Drake and Kayla listened. “We need to keep a constant pressure on the grenade. We can’t pull it out of Drake’s back without risking an explosion. But if you called the rock and built a pressure cage around it while it’s still inside Drake’s body, we should be able to remove it safely, take it out into the desert somewhere and blow it up where no one will get hurt.”
Andres nodded, walked to the edge of the yard and picked up three large stones that he carried back and set on the ground next to the dragon. “I’m going to need a few more of these, just in case.”
Kayla held Drake’s head in her lap as Xander and Andres gathered stones into a small pile at the base of the dragon’s back. When they were ready, Xander looked at her. “Kayla, you should wait inside, just in case this doesn’t work.”
He was worried, and it was cute. Reluctantly, she stood, and walked about fifty paces away from the trio. She wasn’t going inside. And if one of them got hurt, she wanted to be on hand to help. Xander’s eyes followed her and the heat in his gaze nearly melted her on the spot.
Andres picked up the first rock and settled it on the dragon’s scales, just above the protruding weapon. “Are you ready, Drake? This is going to hurt like a bitch. I’ve got to make the wound bigger as I go.”
The dragon huffed, the hot breath from its nostrils wilting a stand of flowering cactus a few feet from the top of his nose. “Just do it.”
Andres nodded and turned to Xander. “Keep handing me stones. I can’t take my hands off him once I start.”
Xander nodded and Kayla clasped her hands beneath her chin, anxiously waiting for them to get this thing over with. She wanted to know that Xander was all right, that the dragon was going to make it, that the grenade wasn’t going to blow up in their faces. The thought of her fireman getting hurt made her dizzy with panic. She could not deal with that.
Kayla watched in awe as the three brothers, one earth, one air, one fire worked together. She watched, fascinated, as the large rock in Andres’s hands rolled into fine grains of sand and dug down into the dragon’s flesh to reform in a solid barrier around the grenade.
Drake closed his eyes, his large dragon face lined and cringing as the rock wall grew in size, tearing his side wider around the weapon. Xander continued to place new rocks in Andres’s hands as the last of the previous rock crumbled away. This went on for several minutes, Andres’s skin glowing a dark gold as he worked, until finally, the top of the rock became visible protruding from Drake’s back.
Andres’s nodded to Xander over his shoulder and both men wrapped their hands around the rocket’s tail and pulled. Hard.
The grenade came free and she leaped into action as a fresh wave of blood poured from Drake’s back. She ran for the stack of towels she had put in the exam room earlier her mind racing. How the hell was she going to stitch up a dragon? How thick was his skin? What if he needed blood? Did this crazy town have a blood bank for magical creatures? She was about to shove the towels into the bleeding hole in Drake’s back when Andres waved her off. Xander wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back as his brother placed his palms on Drake’s side and began to glow again, this time a dark, vibrant green.
As she watched, Drake’s side began to close on its own, Andres’s healing power of earth making quick work of the wound.
“That would come in handy.” Xander agreed and Kayla was in awe of Andres’s power as he finished healing his brother. Sweat ran from his temples and dark pools of fatigue now ringed his eyes. He looked like hell.
With a deep sigh, Andres stepped back and the dragon on the ground thanked him, then shifted into the shape of a drop-dead gorgeous man with black hair, amber eyes, and dimples. “Thanks, brother.”
“You’re welcome.” Andres stumbled a bit and Drake stepped forward, catching his brother as he passed out.
“Oh, no!” Kayla tugged at Xander’s arms, trying to reach Andres, but a swift silver light flashed by her.
Glitter stopped before Drake and pointed back into the house. “Quick! Bring him to the garden. He needs the earth. He needs the trees. He needs the garden.”
Drake raised an eyebrow but didn’t protest when Xander released his hold on Kayla to help carry his brother into the house and back to the fairy garden where they laid Andres on the grass next to the small pond. The three young fairies surrounded him as Glitter buzzed over his head, watching him.
Kayla knelt by Andres’s shoulder and looked at Glitter. “Will he be all right?”
Glitter’s magic fell from her body to land on Andres’s chest. “Oh, yes. The magic here will heal him. He’ll be fine now.”
Sighing in relief, Kayla got to her feet to find Xander and Drake shaking hands. Drake looked at her and gave a dimpled smile as he left them alone.
“Where is he going?”
Xander shrugged. “Alien hunting.”
Kayla shook her head. “He’s unreal. Ten minutes ago he was on the verge of bleeding to death.”
Xander inspected her slowly, a frown on his face. “Come on, Kayla. You’re covered in blood. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Glancing down at herself, Kayla realized she looked like she’d been on the losing end of a blood duel. Her dress was soaked with dragon’s blood, her hands and forearms covered in the stuff, and her brand new white sandals were ruined. “This is so gross. I need a shower.”
“Come on.”
Xander led her down the hallway to his bedroom, but when he would have followed her into the room, she shook her head gently and closed the door. Her suitcase was packed and ready next to his bed, so she made her way into the bathroom and stripped of the bloodstained items, dropping them in the trash.
She cleaned the blood from her skin and ignored the tears that fell like rain. The tears she cried were tears of relief that Drake was going to be all right. They were tears shed for the stress of the day, the near-death encounter, the shock of seeing a dragon.
They were not tears for her breaking heart, for leaving Xander, for wanting him so badly she couldn’t breathe. They were not tears of defeat at being caught in an impossible situation and being forced to make an impossible choice.
Her father had taken off when she was seven. Her mother, a high school graduate with no jo
b skills and no college, had worked three jobs to get Kayla through high school. She’d preached to her daughter a million times the importance of taking care of herself, of self-sufficiency, of not depending on a man. Any man. No matter how hot the sex.
Kayla had listened. She’d ignored boys until college, and even then, her first relationships had been more about curiosity than dedication or longing. Kayla had never understood her mother’s warnings, or how strong the pull of falling in love could be until this moment.
She could keep Xander, but she’d have to give up everything to do it. Her career. Her independence. Her life.
It didn’t make sense. And Kayla was all about making responsible choices in life. She was not going to end up like her mother—abandoned, broke and uneducated. Dependent. Helpless.
No. She had to leave. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how much she loved him. She refused to give up a lifetime of hard work to be dependent on a man. There was no work for her here, not enough animals to support a successful veterinary practice, let alone a research facility.
She cleaned up, got out a change of clothes and grabbed her suitcase.
Stopping to check on Andres, she waved goodbye to the fairies and turned to find Xander blocking the arched entryway that led back to the main part of the house. His eyes were dark and drowning in despair as she put a bright smile on her face and gave him a quick hug. “Thank you, Xander. For everything.”
When she tried to pull away, he held on tight, his arms around her waist and his forehead pressed to hers. “Stay.”
“I can’t. I have to go to work on Monday.”
“Do your work here. I’ll buy you a lab. You can work on the magical creatures here.”
She shook her head and fought the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. “I have to go.”
“I can’t make you stay, Kayla. But know this, I love you. I want to marry you. I want forever. That’s not going to change.”
Kayla reached for words, but his declarations emptied her mind of coherent thought. He loved her? Marriage? Forever?
His strong body was like a tractor beam and she melted into his embrace, unable to resist the pain she knew would accompany the final touch of his lips on hers. Because she had to go. She had a life waiting for her hundreds of miles away. An amazing job. A kickass career. A life filled with clothes and books and friends. She would be working on a multi-million dollar cancer research protocol when she returned. Her life was filled with important work. World-changing work.
Xander’s goodbye kiss nearly broke her, but she pulled out of his arms and left him standing in the garden. Hands shaking, she started her car and drove away. She didn’t say goodbye to the fairies. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t.
She knew if she did, she wouldn’t be strong enough to leave.
*.*.*
A week later, Xander paced the garden, Flame on his shoulder and Glitter zipping around him like a nervous bumblebee. Kayla was gone, and the aching chasm in his chest grew wider and deeper with each passing moment.
“Go get her, Xander. Make her come back.” Flame’s little girl voice was filled with conviction and fire, the black-and-white naiveté of the young.
“I can’t. The magic doesn’t work that way.”
Glitter paused a few inches from his nose and crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. “Then make it work. She belongs here, with us.”
“I know. But she has to choose.”
Glitter waggled her eyebrows at him and wiggled her hips. “Then go convince her, big boy.”
Xander laughed at the fairy’s suggestive tone of voice, but he also considered her words. He could leave for a few weeks at a time without too much ill effect on his magic. Perhaps Glitter was right. If he wanted Kayla, he was going to have to convince her to come back with him. No more playing nice. He would make love to her until she couldn’t breathe, until her body ached for him, craved him as badly as he craved her. He’d make her laugh, protect her and cuddle her until she couldn’t imagine a day without his strength and love by her side.
He would win her over. He had to. Living without her was a pain he was not willing to bear.
Chapter Twelve
Kayla tucked the blanket around her bare feet on the couch and picked up the remote. It was Sunday, which meant she didn’t have to work. But that also meant she didn’t have anything to distract her from missing Xander.
Thoughts of him constantly invaded her mind, driving her to the brink of insanity this week as she tried to listen and orient herself to her new environment. She had five direct reports and two projects to oversee. She answered to the head of the research center now, and had spent nearly the entire week creating budgets and interviewing staff for her projects. She’d imagined herself neck deep in DNA analysis, tearing apart tissue samples and making ground-breaking discoveries. She realized now that the name at the top of the research paper was usually the poor bastard who got stuck with all the administrative oversight and organizational bullshit. And she hated it.
But grunts didn’t get paid what she was making. The vet students assigned to her were working for free, and the assistants she was paying were from other fields, microbiology and biochemistry experts.
Hell, she was a general on a battlefield who never got to charge to the front of the line and do any fighting.
A week into her new dream life and she was miserable, questioning everything. The fact that she missed Xander’s voice, his touch, the gentle way he had with the fairies and the intensity of his touch when he made love to her? Well, that was just adding to her current foul mood.
She clicked through the streaming movie list, looking for something totally un-romantic. Maybe a kick-ass sci-fi. But no, because that just made her think of Magic, New Mexico, and wonder whatever had happened to the alien that crash landed there. Which made her think of the fairies, and wonder how big little Spring was now. She wondered if the extra attention Glitter had showered on Andres had turned into a fairy crush and if Drake had ever tracked down the alien ship.
But mostly, she wondered if Xander missed her. She hadn’t bothered to get his cell phone number when she left, so she didn’t have any way to contact him.
On the plus side, whatever translation spell Topper had placed on her, it was still fully functional. She understood Mandarin while standing in line at a gas station. Three Spanish-speaking children had been at the grocery store this morning, and she understood them perfectly. She still couldn’t speak their language, but she understood every word, which would come in handy the next time she treated a sick animal and the owner didn’t speak English.
Could Topper put that spell on everyone? That would really be something. If everyone in the world could communicate with one another, perhaps there would be less chaos and fighting. Perhaps everyone could accept each other’s differences and actually get along.
Like the magical creatures in Magic. Like Xander with his brothers and the fairies. No questions, just acceptance. Like he had accepted her.
“And here we go again.” She face-palmed and shook her head. Always, her thoughts circled back to New Mexico. To him. To his kiss. His heat. His hands on her body.
“Damn it. Stop it!” Shaking it off, she started a vampire horror movie and reached for her soda as the doorbell rang. Normally, she would have let her roommate answer the door, but since her friends were still in Florida on an extended yacht trip with some rich hunk they’d met without her, she was home, pouting and grumpy, and all alone.
With a sigh, she walked to the door and gave herself a quick once over. Hair up in a ponytail, shorts and a tank. Bare feet and bare face. She wasn’t dressed for work, but she’d managed to brush her teeth and comb her hair, so that was a win in her book.
She opened the door and her heart skipped a beat. “Xander.”
His grin was a bit unsure and she couldn’t control herself. She threw herself into his arms, grateful when he caught her. She buried her face in the side of his neck and breat
hed in the warm and familiar scent of him as he lifted her off the floor. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
“Why?”
His silence made her nervous and he slid her slowly down his front. His happiness to see her clearly evident where it pressed against her abdomen. She looked up and the directness of his gaze, the laser focus trapped her like a deer in the headlights. “I missed you, Kayla.”
“I missed you, too.”
They stared at each other for a few seconds, and when she blinked, the spell was broken. He lowered his mouth to hers, and before she knew it, she’d tugged him into her living room. He kicked the door closed behind him and she leaped up, wrapping her legs around his hips, their lips still fused, she drowned herself in him, in his rock-hard body and demanding mouth, in the hands on her ass and the sexy groan he made as he shoved back against the wall and ground his hips into her.
She lowered her legs long enough to shove her shorts and panties to her ankles so she could kick them off. She reached for his pants, but he was faster.
Their lips never broke contact as he took her hard and fast against the wall, his hard length filled her and left her wanting, faster and faster, over and over until she shattered and cried out his name.
He followed her over the edge, his tongue deep in her mouth as he lost himself in her body. Only then did their kisses slow and become something soft and gentle. He lifted her, still kissing her like a starving man set before a feast, and walked to the couch, settling them both with her facing him, straddling his lap as he grew hard and thick inside her.
With a soft moan she rode him this time, taking her time. She nibbled and kissed his jaw and neck, buried her fingers in his hair, and breathed him in as she lost herself in his arms.
When it was over, she stared down at him and tried to wrap her oh so logical excuses around what was happening here. Right now, she didn’t care about her career or her new employees. She’d been empty and lonely all week, aching for him. Missing him.
“What have you done to me, Xander?” The question was real. What the hell happened to her? Two weeks ago she’d been fine. Content. Now the thought of him leaving hurt like a dagger striking her in the chest.
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