He stood suddenly, grabbing me around the hips, lifting me into the air and twirling around in the sand, laughing.
“Yes!” he shouted triumphantly, as my laughter joined his.
He let me slowly slide back down his body until my feet touched the sand again.
“I love you,” he said breathlessly, his blue eyes sparkling in the fading sunlight.
“I love you, too.” I reached up to place my hand against the side of his face.
Then he kissed me. It was a soft, sweet kiss, but it conveyed all his tender emotions to me. He pulled me closer to him in a strong embrace, and I could hear his heart beating in his chest at the same frantic pace of my own. I didn’t ever want this moment to end.
When it did, though, he stepped back from me and pulled the ring out of the box. He reached out and lifted my hand toward him, took the ring and slid it up my left ring finger. Then he leaned over and kissed the ring on my hand.
“Thank you, Portia,” he said, with a smile. “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me.”
I heard a squeal of delight, and then clapping filled the air. I turned to look over at the resort. Shelly and Brad were standing on the balcony watching us excitedly.
Vance laughed as he pulled me close and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“I told them what I was doing when I ran in to get the ring out of my suitcase,” he explained.
I laughed with him and waved up at them.
“I guess we should go up so you can show Shelly the ring, before she dies of a heart attack,” he added, dropping his arm and reaching for my hand.
“In a minute,” I said, pulling him back toward me.
I kissed him thoroughly this time, letting all my passionate feelings for him flow freely into his head. I kissed him until neither of us could breathe properly and his grip had tightened almost painfully around my waist pulling me tighter to him. I didn’t care who was watching or who could see us, I just wanted to really let him know how I felt about him. When we finally released each other, I could see the blue eyes were gone and the irises were lined with red again.
“Now we can go back,” I said. “It’ll give you some time to cool down.”
“You don’t play fair, do you?” he asked, reaching over to intertwine his fingers in mine before lifting the back of my hand to his mouth for a kiss.
“Never,” I said and smiled.
He slipped a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and placed them on his face, even though the light was too dim for him to justify needing them.
“Are you okay?” I asked, looking up at him.
“I’m fine.” He gave my hand a squeeze before leading me back up to the room.
We spent the rest of the evening in the condo, with Brad and Shelly, visiting on the comfy couch and watching television, which thankfully was mostly in English since none of us spoke a lick of Spanish except for Brad.
I would occasionally lift my hand to look at the ring on my finger and let it sparkle in the light. While it was extremely beautiful, it was the meaning behind it that made my heart leap with excitement every time I looked at it.
Vance sat next to me the entire night, holding my hand, often whispering sweet nothings into my ear, never leaving my side.
When we finally decided to retire to bed, he walked me to the doorway of my bedroom.
“See you in your dreams,” he whispered, lifting my hand to kiss it again.
“I could come lie by you in your room if you want,” I suggested, remembering how he used to spend every night in my room.
He shook his head, reading into my mind.
“It was too hard before; it’ll be way too hard for me now. I don’t want to push my luck where you’re concerned.”
“I understand,” I said with a sigh, as a wave of disappointment washed through me. “I have just missed lying next to you every night.”
“Me, too,” he said leaning in to give me a light peck on the lips. “Now get some rest … and lock your door!”
“Like that would keep you out!” I was still laughing when I walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind me.
Shelly was already changed for bed and brushing her teeth at the sink when I passed through the bathroom to go into the large walk-in closet. She was still there when I emerged dressed in my bunny pajamas.
“What are you wearing?” she asked in horror, spraying toothpaste out of her mouth, giving me the once over.
I laughed at the expression on her face.
“I’m wearing happy memories,” I replied with a smile.
“Whatever that means,” she said, rolling her eyes before turning to spit into the sink and rinse out her mouth. “Now let me have a better look at that ring.”
She grabbed my hand and held it up into the light.
“Mmm. Half carat, princess cut, set in fourteen-carat white gold. Good clarity it looks like. Nice choice. He paid a pretty penny for that.”
I laughed at her and her spoiled little rich girl qualities that were coming to the surface.
“What?” she asked. “I’m not joking. That ring was well over a thousand dollars.”
I stopped laughing and began choking.
“What?” I brought a hand up to my throat.
“It’s a really nice ring,” she said, nonchalantly.
I strode out of the bedroom and marched down the hall to Vance’s bedroom and knocked on the door.
He opened it, wearing only a pair of boxers.
I sucked in a breath as I tried not to let his body distract me, but I had to pause for a quick glance. I had never seen him this undressed before.
I shook my head, trying to clear my mind.
“A thousand dollars?” I questioned, holding up my hand so the ring was shoved in his face. “Where did you get that kind of cash?”
He paused for a moment with a look of subtle surprise before he answered.
“About that …,” he started, watching me carefully, “I may not have ever mentioned it to you before, but I happen to have quite a bit of money.”
“What? From where?” I demanded, none of this making any sense.
“You remember when I told you my mom cleaned out her bank account when she ran with me?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Well, she emptied my trust fund, too. All of it was signed over to Marsha. I received it on my eighteenth birthday.”
“So, you’re trying to tell me you have like a hundred thousand dollars or something stashed away in some bank account somewhere,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“No,” he replied, shaking his head, “it’s more like a million.”
Chapter 6
“A million dollars!” I shouted.
“A little over actually,” he replied, laughing at my reaction. “Give or take a couple hundred thousand.”
“What’s all the commotion about?” Shelly asked coming up into the hall next to me just as Brad opened his door.
“She just found out that I’m a millionaire,” Vance said with a smile, leaning against the door jam with his arms folded over his chest.
“That’s awesome!” Shelly said smiling, as if finding out one was a millionaire was an everyday occurrence in her world.
“Where did you get that kind of money?” Brad asked casually, slightly lifting an eyebrow.
Vance shrugged a shoulder, almost as if the subject was boring him.
“My dad opened the account for me before I was even born. I guess he used to deal in antiquities quite a bit. He made a bundle off it,” he explained.
Brad looked at Shelly in amazement.
“Told you,” she said, flipping her hair back behind her shoulder.
“Told you what?” Vance asked.
“It’s nothing,” I said, waving my hand in dismissal, as I recalled their conversation about a demon dealing in antiquities. “It was a comment she made at one of the warehouses one day, which is proving to be surprisingly accurate.”
; “Can I speak to you privately?” he asked, gesturing for me to come into his room with a nod of his head.
“Alright,” I said, entering the door, as he stepped backward into the room, and closing it softly behind me.
I stood with my back up against the door, and he leaned over me placing one hand on either side of my head.
“I want you to listen to me careful, Portia,” he began. “I need you to understand that none of this changes who I am,” he said, searching my eyes.
“It is just money. Money is helpful, but it doesn’t buy you happiness. It just buys you things. Do you get what I’m telling you?”
“Yes, I think so. It’s just I just had this image of you in my head,” I explained. “You know, the guy who couldn’t afford a motorcycle, so he fixed one up, that kind of thing.”
“I built the motorcycle because it’s something I enjoy doing. I like working with my hands. There are times I could do things with magic even and I don’t because I enjoy the work it gives me. I really am just a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy.”
“Well, you aren’t right now,” I said, letting my eyes trail away from his face and down his rock hard body, over the sculpted chest, the six-pack abs, the muscled legs, before traveling back up to his face.
His eyes were already glowing by the time my gaze returned to his. He dropped his arms to his sides, leaning back, away from me.
“You’d better leave this room right now if you intend on looking at me like that one more time,” he said, deadly serious.
I turned quickly, being careful not to touch him, and opened the door as he moved away from it. I stepped out and hurried down the hall, my face flaming at my brazen reaction to him.
“Hey,” he called after me, and I turned to look over my shoulder at him. “I love the pajamas.” He winked at me with one of his red eyes before closing the door.
I smiled to myself and went back to my room.
“So how does it feel to be rich?” Shelly asked, from her perch atop the huge bed, where she was watching television.
“I’m not rich,” I replied, climbing up into the bed next to her.
“You will be,” she said with a smile.
“I don’t care if I ever see a dime of that money. I just want him,” I said, meaning every word of it.
“Well, you’d better get used to seeing more than just a dime of it, ‘cause there’s a thousand dollars of it flashing around on that finger of yours,” she said flickering her gaze over to my hand.
I held my hand up and really looked at the ring, letting it sparkle in the dim lights.
“He wants to marry me,” I said, with a small smile before biting a little at my lip.
“I know!” Shelly giggled, grabbing me into a girlish bear hug with a little squeal.
“Are you excited?” she asked, when she pulled away.
“I can’t think of anything I’d love better in my life.” I replied as a grin spread wide across my face.
We moved at the same time, so we could curl up underneath the down comforter on the bed.
I sighed heavily, closing my eyes.
“Portia, it’ll be okay,” I heard Shelly say. “I believe we’ll find a way to help him out.”
“I hope so,” I said, as a slow heaviness began to creep back into my heart. “Just knowing he’s still in danger makes everything else seem unreal. It’s like none of this can really happen until we get him all squared away.”
“I know. Just keep the faith,” she replied with a yawn, and soon she was fast asleep.
For a long time afterward, I lay awake, just thinking things over. So many thoughts were racing through my mind.
“You’re doing it again.” Vance’s voice crept into my head.
“I know. Sorry,” I replied back, feeling badly that I was keeping him awake.
“Just get some sleep now, Baby. We’ll talk over everything in the morning,” he said.
“All right.”
I tried really hard to relax my mind, concentrate on breathing, and just let everything go. It wasn’t working. My thoughts of him continued to race through my head, worries and fears on his behalf.
“Portia, listen to me. I want you to repeat the words I tell you, okay?” he whispered into my head.
“Okay.”
I listened as he spoke.
“Let go thoughts and feelings,
“Let go now to dreaming.
“Let body relax into sleep,
“Let the rest be ever deep.
“Let me wake with morning light.
“Let me now enjoy this night.”
I realized as I repeated this that these were the words he had quietly mumbled to me on other occasions when I couldn’t rest. I had never really known what he was saying before.
As soon as I was finished reciting the spell, I was asleep almost instantly.
When I awoke in the morning, I was refreshed and ready for the new day. I was a little surprised I didn’t remember dreaming anything at all.
“Good morning,” I heard him say softly in my head.
“Back at you,” I said, smiling as I stretched in the bed.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked.
“You know I did,” I said, feeling apologetic. “Sorry I didn’t see you in my dreams.”
“It was my choice,” he replied casually. “We both needed the rest.”
I climbed out of the bed, padded down the hall to his room, and opened the door.
I gasped in surprised at what I saw.
He was sitting up on the edge of the bed, shaking violently. He lifted his head as I entered the room, and the flaming red eyes greeted me.
Instinctively I moved to go to his side, but he held up his hand to stop me.
“Stay there,” he said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want you to come any closer.”
“What can I do?” I asked helplessly, knowing he was trying to protect me, but desperately wishing I could just hold him.
“I’ll be okay. The withdrawal is always the worst in the morning when I wake up.”
A tear ran down my face as I watched him struggle.
“Don’t cry,” he said, clenching his jaw. “Just give me a minute, all right?”
I nodded my head slightly and stepped backward through the door, closing it after me. I turned my head and found that Brad was standing behind me.
“Is he tripping out again this morning?” he asked when he saw my face.
“Again?”
“He had a pretty bad episode of it at the hotel in Albuquerque,” he explained, glancing down the hall.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I almost wanted to strike out at him for not telling me something so important.
“He told me not to. He didn’t want you to be scared,” Brad said, with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
“Yeah. Well, I am,” I replied and moved away from him to walk across the room, going over to sit on the overstuffed sectional with a plop. “I’d hoped he was cured of all this.”
“You just stopped the demon conversion from progressing any further,” Brad said, following after me. “He explained it all to me. It sounds like all this residual stuff sucks, though.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and looked out the window at the peaceful morning outside, the ocean moving out with the tide.
“It’s just so unfair.” I sighed, turning back to look at Brad. “He’s such a good person. He deserves to have that kind of life, too. I just don’t know what to do to help him. I still don’t really understand any of this.”
“There may be nothing you can do, Portia,” Brad said, a sorrowful look on his face.
“So then what? Does he just exist like this for the rest of forever? Or will the cravings eventually subside like they do for someone going through rehab?”
“Time will tell, I guess,” Brad said giving me a sympathetic look.
Shelly walked into the room then, in her cute little tank top and shorts she had worn to bed.
“Hey,
” she said and wandered toward the kitchen. “I thought we could go to the little supermarket we passed last night on the way to dinner and pick up some groceries for the condo.” She gave a slight yawn before really looking at us. “What’s the matter?”
“Vance is having withdrawal this morning,” Brad said.
“Again?” she asked.
I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation.
“Does everybody know except for me?”
“Brad told me,” she said, with a matter-of-fact air about her. “We’re supposed to be helping to protect you. I needed to be informed.”
“Really?” I asked, getting a little upset now. “Well, I just pledged to spend the rest of my life with the guy, so it might be nice if I actually knew what was going on around here when it comes to him!”
I stood up brusquely and went out onto the patio, shutting the sliding door behind me. I walked over and grabbed the railing tightly, my knuckles turning white as I stared out over the grounds below and into the sea.
This was so irritating to me! I hated it when people treated me like I was too weak to handle anything of importance. Hadn’t I proven myself to anyone yet? I thought I had been doing a pretty good job at holding my own lately, especially under the circumstances. Sure, I didn’t always know what the heck I was doing, but at least I was trying to help out … to make things work for the better.
My thoughts continued to boil in my head for the next several minutes as I attempted to try and calm myself down. I took several deep breaths and listened to the soothing sounds of the ocean moving back and forth in its timeless rhythm.
“Hey. You aren’t going to jump are you?” Vance’s voice said from behind me.
I slowly turned around to face him. He appeared to be a little bit pale, but other than a slight bloodshot redness in his irises, he looked almost normal.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, my concern for him almost overwhelming me.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he said walking closer to me. He reached out to lift my left hand toward him. “You don’t want to bail on me now, do you?” he asked and ran his finger back and forth over my ring.
I shook my head.
“Nope,” I replied solemnly. “I’m in this for the long haul.”
Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss Page 6
