What was going on with her heart? It was beating a mile a minute. She would have to go to one of the healers in the coven to see if she was ill. No one had ever done this to her, no matter how fond she was of them. “Yes…yes, of course. It’s not really my bench. I’m just sitting on it.” She dropped her eyes to the ground and felt herself flush in embarrassment. What was that? Where had her brain gone?
He narrowed his eyes at her, as if wondering if she was making fun of him, but nevertheless came and sat down near her. Much too near her. She could feel the heat coming off him in the morning chill. Did he have a fever or something? Or did she? She was feeling warm, too.
They sat in silence for a time, the roar of the falls unbroken by speech. Ahead of them, the sky was beginning to lighten, casting strange twilight shadows around them.
“This is one of my favorite places to watch the sunrise,” he said, jerking her out of the spell she had been in. “It’s so peaceful here without all the people.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“I’ve always had a special fondness for water,” he continued. “It’s amazing, when you think of it.”
“Really?” Abbie said, wondering about his reasoning. He was from a fire family, after all. “How so?”
The light spreading across the sky was enough that he turned off his headlamp, and she followed suit. They could still see each other dimly, more than a silhouette but less than distinct. He turned on the bench to face her more squarely. There was a light in his eyes, no doubt just a glimmer of a reflection of the lightening sky. It almost looked like he was excited to talk about it, but that would be ridiculous. Why would he be excited about water?
“Well, besides all that stuff about being the cornerstone of life and in addition to all the very cool things that make it almost unique chemically—I won’t even go into detail about that—it’s kind of an anomaly. I mean, it’s soft, but can pack a wallop as a wave or if you fall into it from too high. It flows into any shape, making its way through even the tiniest of crevices but is still solid in its natural form for part of the year in many locations. It is soothing to listen to or to watch but can be dangerous and deadly. I just think it sums up nature perfectly.”
He stopped, as if suddenly realizing he was getting caught up in his own voice. He dropped his eyes, and Abbie could have sworn she saw his cheeks redden in the dim light. “Anyway, I’ve just always liked water. Lakes, streams, falls, the ocean, all of it. I’ve always felt a connection. You probably think it’s silly.” He chuckled and raised his eyes to hers. “Maybe it is.”
“No,” Abbie said, looking deeply into his eyes and marveling again at their color. They were the color of a deep lake in the bright afternoon sun. “It’s not silly. I understand exactly what you’re talking about.”
“Oh,” he said. “That reminds me. I got you something when I was in Europe. It’s just a silly little trinket, but I was at this magnificent fountain and it made me think of you and…” he fished around in his pocket for something. “Anyway, I thought how much you would probably like the fountain, but it was there and I couldn’t very well bring it back for you, so here.” He handed her a small plastic model of a fountain.
“You have been carrying that around since you went to Europe?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah. I was hoping to give it to you, but you know, I haven’t really seen you around.”
She took it from him, turning it in her hands. A slow smile spread over her face. “It’s beautiful. You’re right, I would love to see a full-size version of this.”
He looked into her eyes and started to say something again but cut himself short. Eyes darting toward the source of the brightening sky, downriver from the water fall, he said, “Sunrises. I love them, too. Much more than sunsets. I mean, sunsets are beautiful and everything, but sunrises to me hold the promise of a new day and all its possibilities. A sunset is the end of a day, sort of like the death of the light.” He fidgeted with his hands and chuckled. “You came here to enjoy the quiet and the sunrise, and I’m talking your ear off. I’ll just be quiet and let you enjoy it now.”
They looked into each other’s eyes for what seemed like hours, neither one speaking. Her heart was beating overtime, but she didn’t feel nervous. She just felt…comfortable. After putting the little fountain in her pocket, she fidgeted on the bench so she had an excuse to break their eye contact. She almost didn’t have the strength to do so.
As she moved, she felt a sharp pain in the index finger of her right hand. “Ouch!” she said.
He shook his head as if coming out of a trance. His eyes, which had gone soft and dreamy, snapped into focus. “What’s wrong?”
“Splinter,” she said. “I rubbed my hand along the bench and it bit me.”
“Let me see.” Before she could react, he lifted her hand in his. A tingle went up her arm and settled at the back of her neck as goose bumps.
He squinted at her finger in the dim light. “I can’t see it.” He ran his own finger lightly—like the faintest of fairy kisses—over hers and she felt the sliver snag and pull. “There it is.”
He turned his headlamp back on to inspect the finger he was still holding. “Hm. I don’t have any tools here for the job, so I’ll need to improvise.” She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but as long as he kept holding her hand, she was more than willing to find out.
Ben shot one quick look to her and slowly brought her hand to his mouth. She watched in surprise as he gently took her finger in between his lips. Her body went wild. The tingle from before became fire racing up her arm, though her chest, and into her heart, which started pounding at twice the speed as before. She almost pulled her hand free but couldn’t quite force herself to do it. Fine. If she was going to die from an exploding heart, then she could think of no better way to go. She peeked at him to make sure he wasn’t looking at her, and then she closed her eyes and sank into the feeling.
Ben used his teeth to pinpoint the splinter. After a few false starts, he finally snagged it, all the while causing the most delicious suction on her finger. When he finally yanked the sliver free, the pain was nothing compared to the loss of his mouth on her. He unceremoniously spat the tiny piece of wood onto the ground.
“I think I got all of it,” he said.
She opened her eyes to find him staring into them. How long has he been looking at me?
“I…uh…thank you.” She jerked her hand away, missing the contact with his almost immediately. Why did her hand suddenly feel cold, incomplete? “I think you got it. It feels much better.”
He smiled at her in a way she had never seen him smile before. His eyes were liquid, half-glazed. “Well, I better check,” he said, taking up her hand again. His soft skin caressed where the splinter had been and nothing snagged this time. “Yeah, I think I got it.” He kissed the back of her hand but did not release it. Instead, dragging his eyes away from hers, as if it was the hardest thing he had ever done, he looked toward where the sun was about to break the horizon.
Abbie didn’t try to pull her hand away, but sat there, afraid to move in case it would break the spell, too afraid he might let her hand go. She turned her head to see the sunrise with him. While she looked, the reds and oranges lit up the morning sky and the wispy clouds it contained. The light shone down on the canyon, making the Yellowstone River below the falls glitter like a snake covered in diamonds. The canyon walls were afire with the reflected light, the sharp rocks splitting it and causing a dazzling display for the audience of two. Abbie’s breath caught in her throat.
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” she said.
“It is,” he agreed. The odd tone in his voice made her look over at him. He was staring at her. His hand had started to absently caress her hand and palm. The fire shot up her arm again.
Her blue eyes looked into his as he leaned closer, ever closer. When she thought they might bump heads, he angled his slightly and then their lips met, soft as butterfly wings.
Abbie couldn’t form
a complete thought, but what echoed in her mind was that she didn’t want this to end. Ever. She wrapped her arms around him and drew him closer, even as he did the same. The brush of his lips over hers made the heat she had felt before burn even hotter, and she met his kiss hungrily. She lost the sense of time when their tongues touched, lightly at first, and then more insistently. She felt like they were one person, separated in all but that tiny spot, their lips and their mouths. They kissed, desperately and passionately for a long time, and then they parted. When they did, it was like the newly risen sun had gone out.
Abigail took in a deep breath, trying to slow her heart and trying to minimize the light-headed feeling. She looked at Ben, his eyes glittering in the new day, and wanted nothing more than to continue kissing him forever.
“Wow,” he said, breathing heavily himself.
And then it all came crashing down.
She couldn’t do this. She had a mission to perform. He was merely a human, or worse, a fire warlock. She couldn’t get involved with him like this.
“I…I…have to go.” She got up abruptly and turned from him.
“Abbie,” he said, a pleading in his voice. “Please, don’t go. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. Please, don’t go.”
She started walking up the trail. “Please leave me alone, Ben. Just stay here for a little while. I can’t…I won’t…I just need to go.” She all but ran up the trail and away from him.
What was I thinking? Abbie thought as she fled Ben. Master Mason. She brushed her lips with her finger, still feeling the heat of his lips on her. I can’t do this. I can’t. Oh, Papa, I understand what you were trying to tell me, but this can’t possibly work.
Her car sped along the roads in the national park, going well above the limit displayed on the traffic signs. She paid it no attention, navigating the winding roads by instinct, using all her thought process for the current dilemma.
Benjamin, Ben, was an only. Only human. At best. She was more than human. How could she think of being with him?
But she did think of him. Often. And she thought of being with him. That was the reason she came out to the park in the first place, to seek the solitude and beauty of nature, to watch the sunrise near the water, to try to forget about her feelings for him for a short time. Why did he have to show up?
She knew he didn’t do it on purpose. He was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. Still, that time they had spent, the feel of his lips on hers, the strength of her body’s reaction to him…it was all too much. She was confused. She needed to be alone to think things through.
Abigail wondered if she should abandon the mission, leave the estate, and never come back. Her feelings were already affecting her performance. She had caught herself more than once daydreaming about chancing upon Ben while she should have been listening or watching to get information for her coven. What if she was distracted at a crucial moment? She could not only ruin the mission, she could be killed. Margaret Huntsman had killed before. There was a rumor about the woman last year, Ben’s friend. Master Mason’s friend. This was not a game she was playing.
Abbie pulled up to the servants’ garage and parked. She sat in her car for a long time, running through everything in her head yet again. The question remained. What would she do? She had thought she had things fairly well under control, but that kiss shattered all her reasoning and fuddled her brain. What would her mother do?
Letting out a heavy sigh, she got out of her car and went to her room. Maybe she could take a nap. Things always seemed clearer after a nap. She hoped she didn’t dream; she knew who the dreams would be about.
Chapter 22
Ben stared as Abbie hurried away from him. She had asked him to wait before he got up and left, so he sat there looking after her until she made another turn on the trail switchback and he lost sight of her. What had just happened?
He played back through the scene in his mind. Was he too aggressive? Did he scare her, make her afraid he would attack her? He hoped not. He would never want that. He wished she would let him talk to her, but forcing the issue wouldn’t help. When she was ready to talk, maybe she would. Maybe.
As many times as he went over what had happened in his mind, he couldn’t see what he did that would make her run away like that. He scratched his head. “Women,” his father had told him when he was fifteen, “are the last great mystery in the universe for men. I’m pretty sure we’ll figure out time travel before we figure them out.” Ben would have to agree.
He checked his watch. It had been twenty minutes since Abbie ran off. He got to his feet and started slowly up the trail. It only took about ten minutes to reach the parking lot at a normal pace, so she would be miles away. Other people were starting to come down the trail to see the waterfall. He put on a polite smile and said good morning to each as they passed him. His heart wasn’t in it, though.
Why did he feel so guilty, like he’d done something wrong? He hoped she would talk to him about this. He couldn’t handle it if he was never able to talk to her again.
When Ben reached the parking lot, he looked around in vain for Abbie’s red hair. She wasn’t there, of course, and neither was her car, the only other car that had been in the parking lot when he arrived. With a sigh, he climbed into his own vehicle and started back home.
Lucas was sitting on the couch in the rec room when Ben walked in. He waved to Ben. “You know,” he said, picking up the remote and turning off the television, “you ought to go and have quiet time to yourself more often. When you drive yourself, it’s like a mini vacation for me. I sat around and—” He noticed the look on Ben’s face and stopped talking. Tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes as if inspecting Ben, he said, “What’s up? You look like your favorite puppy just died.”
Ben raked his fingers through his hair and blew out a breath. “You know, this engagement thing has really got me down. I have to do something about it.”
“Yeah,” Lucas said, “I hear ya. But what are you going to do? What can you do?”
“I don’t know, I just don’t know. Mother has me over a barrel here. I’m an adult, but to her I might as well still be three years old. She has all the power.” Ben looked at the floor, thinking. “Maybe I’ll just run away.”
Lucas’s scoff brought Ben’s head up again. “Dude, that’s something a five-year-old would say. What do you mean, ‘run away’? Where can you hide? You’re Ben Mason. Everyone in the state knows what you look like and who you are.”
“That’s an exaggeration, and you know it,” Ben said, but the point was valid. “She would probably just have her goons drag me back here, stuff me in a tux, and drag me to the altar to marry Penelope. Ack, Penelope.”
“True, true,” Lucas said. “It’s too bad you’re not already married. Then all this would be moot.”
Ben’s eyes lit up. “Lucas, you’re a genius! That’s it, that’s what I need to do. I need to get married before they can set up this farce of a wedding with Penelope.” He broke into a grin.
“Whoa there, partner. What do you mean, get married? Susan is still missing, and unless I’ve missed it completely, you haven’t been dating anyone else. Who are you going to marry?”
Ben deflated. This going back and forth from hope to despair was exhausting. Then, an idea came to him. “Abigail.”
Lucas’s brows drew down, and he tilted his head to the side. “Abigail? That new maid? What about her?”
“I’ll marry her,” Ben said, triumphant.
“Now Ben, I know things seem desperate and that this would be an easy way out, but think, man. She’s a maid. You’re rich. I mean super-rich. You can’t just go and marry a maid.”
“Sure I can. It would be perfect. It would get Mother off my back. I’m sure Abigail would love to have people serving her instead of her serving others. She’d do it.”
“Ben,” Lucas said, “you don’t really think this will work, do you? It sounds like trouble to me.”
Ben
was out of his chair, pacing as he spoke. “No, it’s perfect. Sure, she’s only a maid, but this is the kind of chance not everyone has. I’ll ask her, and I bet she’ll say yes. We’ll get married and keep it secret from everyone at first. I’ll tell my mother when the plans for the wedding to Penelope are coming close to fruition. We’ll have to figure out what to do with Abigail’s job here, though. She can probably just keep working until we reveal our marriage to everyone. She’ll understand. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. It’s perfect.”
“Ben, my man,” Lucas said. “Do you remember our conversation about how you see people who are not rich as being lesser than yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you just can’t use people like this. You can’t try to lure the poor girl into marrying you to solve your problem. You can’t buy her. It’s not cool, man.”
Ben looked askance at his friend, but then he understood. “Oh, right, I never told you. Lucas, I’m crazy about that girl. I want to marry her. I mean, seriously want to marry her. It’s not just solving a problem, it’s what I would do even if there was no engagement. The timing just fits in perfectly now.”
He told Lucas about the sunrise and their kiss and the little chance meetings he’d been arranging for the last few months. “I think I knew the first time I met her, but now I’m really sure. This is the girl I want, and if the timing helps with other problems, then what’s the harm?”
“You’re crazy about her?” Lucas asked. “You really felt like this even before you came up with your lunatic idea?”
“Yep.”
“You do know that once your mother finds out, she’ll cut you off, right? Even if you weren’t doing it to spite her, she’d close the wallet on you because you went and did it without her permission. And with someone as ‘lowly’ as a maid.”
Water & Flame (Witches of the Elements Series Book 1) Page 13
