Beauty and the Beastmaster (Mystic Springs Book 3)

by Linda Winstead Jones, Lisa Childs

Chapter 6

  Gabi found herself walking a bit too fast, after she and Silas left the restaurant. Her pace was almost frantic.

  The man she’d seen through Eve’s window had come and gone so fast. Her imagination was running away from her. It couldn’t possibly have been Blake. But for a moment, a fleeting, terrifying moment, that’s what she’d seen. Her ex-husband’s face. That awful smile. The hate he had for her evident on a face she’d once thought handsome. The vision had come and gone so fast if she’d blinked at the right moment she would’ve missed it.

  No, the man at the café window couldn’t have been Blake. She was imagining things because the man who’d taken her out to dinner stirred up too much. It was Silas’s fault. It was eating with a man, on a date, and having him look at her as if he could see everything she was and had ever been.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he drew up beside her.

  “I’m fine, I just…” She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to face him. She wanted to tell Silas everything, but she didn’t dare.

  First Marnie, now him. If she felt so comfortable in Mystic Springs that she was actually thinking of telling all, she’d have to leave town. No one could keep her secret well enough, long enough. They’d get curious, do a search online, and somehow, some way, Blake would know. He’d find her. He’d kill her and take Mia.

  And if she was right about him, if he was as crazy and evil as she believed him to be, he’d have no qualms about killing anyone who got in his way. It pissed her off that her ex-husband still had the power to take away her feeling of safety, her occasional flashes of contentment.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said in a low voice. Another couple was leaving Eve’s and heading this way; soon they might be close enough to hear. Silas was a big guy, and he had those great dark eyes, and having him beside her made her feel safe. It was illogical, she knew that, but still, she wanted to enjoy that feeling for a while. “Mind if we walk a bit before I go home?”

  He hesitated but then agreed, and they started walking. The downtown businesses had closed for the day. Eve’s would be open a little while longer, but unless there was activity at the police station, which there rarely was, everything else would remain quiet, deserted. Even the small grocery store, which had started closing at six in the evening, was dark. It made sense. They didn’t do much business after that time, from all she’d seen.

  Not that she’d seen much of downtown after dark. She was always indoors, locked in, hiding from anything, anyone, who might be in the shadows. During the day she worked, she shopped, she went to the library to check out and return books. She had friends she visited with. On her days off she and Mia often walked up and down the sidewalks, shopping, eating, visiting. Sometimes she wondered what kinds of businesses had been in the empty spaces, and if anything new and exciting would ever fill them.

  Every night she was inside her little house with the doors and windows securely locked. The curtains were always drawn. After dark, her home was a secure haven. Or had she made it a prison?

  There was plenty of light to see by as they walked, sticking to the sidewalk, glancing both ways when they crossed one of the residential streets right off Main Street even though there was nothing coming, as usual. Habit, she supposed. For a while they didn’t talk at all. Neither of them could be called chatterboxes, and the silence was comfortable, for a while.

  About the time a touch of tension started to fill the air Silas asked, “How did you end up in Mystic Springs?”

  The question caused Gabi’s heart to leap, a little. She’d been asked that question before, but not in a while. She hadn’t expected it now, though she should have. It was always best to keep her answers simple.

  “I was looking for a place to land for a while, and really just stumbled across this town.”

  “We’re hard to stumble across,” Silas said, a hint of good humor in his voice.

  “I pulled off the main road late at night. Mia needed a diaper, I was exhausted, I needed gas…” All true. “It was a desperate time. We had nowhere to go.”

  “Did you not have any family to turn to?” The question was blunt, but not unkind or unreasonable.

  “No. My mother passed away five years ago. I never knew my father. He died in an accident before I was born. I…” She hesitated.

  “Mia’s father?”

  Gabi stopped on the sidewalk. They’d walked farther than she’d intended, and were almost to The Egg. She visited the retirement home once a week, where she shampooed, trimmed, and curled gray, and sometimes purple, hair. She looked up at Silas. There were so many possible answers to that question, but she settled on the simplest. “He’s not in the picture.”

  He nodded, and together they turned around. Their conversation had been too personal, too upsetting. That hadn’t been his intention, she was sure, but Gabi was positive she wouldn’t sleep tonight. It wouldn’t be her first sleepless night, or her last.

  “What about you?” She asked, turning the tables. “Have you ever been married?”

  “No.”

  “You’re, what, mid-thirties? Why no wife?”

  “I’m thirty-three, and I don’t have a wife because I don’t want one.”

  “Okay. That’s fair.” Though she was certain she’d caught a touch of anger in his answer. Maybe there had been someone once, and it hadn’t worked out. “Do you have family in town, or nearby?”

  “Both my parents are dead, and I never had any siblings. There might be an uncle out there somewhere, maybe a cousin or two. I’m not sure.”

  “Out there, somewhere,” she repeated. “You make it sound like we’re on a desert island, separated from the rest of the world.”

  “Aren’t we?”

  They walked in silence for a few more minutes, before taking the turn onto her street. She’d enjoyed spending time with Silas, flashbacks and overly active imagination aside, but she was ready to be in her own house, with the doors and windows locked and her baby in her arms.

  She stopped beside his truck. It was a little dinged up, but was clean. It was a working man’s truck, without any bells or whistles. “Thanks for dinner. I enjoyed it.”

  Silas looked a little surprised. Had he expected more? Did he think she’d ask him in? She wanted to, and maybe one day she would, but it was too soon. The talk of how she’d come to be here, the questions about Mia’s father, it all had her feeling a little raw.

  “Mind if I come in and check on Judge?”

  Marnie was there, so they wouldn’t be alone. Silas didn’t strike her as the dangerous type, anyway, so there would be no harm in letting him come inside. Besides, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been in her house before. “Sure. I guess you’re already missing the big guy.”

  “A little,” Silas admitted as they walked to the front door.

  Marnie hadn’t even locked it. They opened the door, surprising their babysitter. Marnie jumped up, leaving the sofa as if she had springs. There was a book in her hand. “Quiet,” she whispered. “The baby and the dog both just went to sleep.”

  “Oh,” she and Silas both said, at the same time. Their disappointment was evident. She’d wanted her baby; he’d wanted to see Judge. Would he want to wait around in case the dog woke up and wandered in to see him? Did she want him to wait?

  Marnie grabbed her purse from the table by the couch, and walked straight to Silas. “Would you give me a ride home? I could call Clint, but he’s hoping to finish that last chapter tonight. It’s a little late for me to walk that far.” Her eyes widened. “I am pregnant, after all.”

  Silas sighed and agreed. What choice did he have? Marnie was nothing if not persistent.

  Just as well. Gabi told him he could stop by and see Judge any day. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t.

  Marnie was at the door when she stopped, spun around, and said, “I’m such an idiot. This is a date, and I’ve interrupted your goodnight kiss.” She turned her back to them. “Proceed.”

  “
We don’t have to…” Gabi began.

  Silas stopped her with gentle fingers on her chin and a smile she couldn’t resist. He kissed her lightly. It was a friendly kiss with a hint of something well beyond friendly in it. A promise, maybe. A suggestion that there could be more. He took his lips from hers for a split second, and then they were back. This time the kiss was deeper, and much too short.

  Marnie called, “Time!” Then added, “That’s long enough for a first kiss.”

  Silas backed away. “How do you know it’s the first?”

  “I am not an amateur,” Marnie said as she opened the door.

  Silas turned. “I’ll check on Judge tomorrow.”

  Gabi nodded, watched the two leave, and then locked the door behind them. She felt Silas on her lips for a long while after she heard his truck pull away.

  His reason for asking Gabi out in the first place had been to get close to Mia again and figure out what was going on with the kid. Springer or not? He had to know. He hadn’t gotten anywhere near the kid tonight, but still, the evening had not been a complete failure.

  He liked Gabi. His feelings were unexpected. Unwanted, even. He couldn’t afford to like her so much.

  “Sorry if I ruined your plans for the evening,” Marnie said as they turned onto the dirt road that would lead to the cabin where Maxwells had lived for years.

  “You didn’t ruin anything,” Silas said calmly. “Gabi and I are just friends.”

  “Ha! That was not a friendly kiss.”

  He glanced at his passenger. “You turned your back to us.”

  “I peeked. Duh. Did you really think I wouldn’t? I knew you two would be well-suited. It’s just so obvious.” Marnie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “However, now that it seems you two are on the right path, I have a word of warning.”

  “Warning?” he snapped. “You’re the one who…”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” she said. “Just don’t get seriously involved with Gabi unless you plan to keep it up. I don’t want you to scare her out of town. If y’all get involved and there’s a blowup, she might just get up and leave. I don’t want her to leave. I like her, and she knows how to cut my hair, and it doesn’t take a mind-reader to know she’s skittish as all get-out. It wouldn’t take much to scare her off, I’m afraid.”

  “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Gabi’s not looking for a relationship, she made that much clear,” he said.

  She snorted, a little. “You know nothing about women.”

  “Even if that’s true…”

  “Even if? Trust me, it’s true. Maybe I don’t have super powers like the rest of you, but I know how women think. A bad relationship on top of whatever scared her to this place would be devastating.”

  “What makes you think she was scared?”

  Marnie gave him a long-suffering sigh that spoke volumes. What it said, for the most part, was You’re an idiot. “All you have to do is look at her for two minutes to know. I was invited in, offered the librarian job, and still, if not for Clint I wouldn’t have stayed very long. Gabi has been here more than a year. She hasn’t asked questions or poked around because she’s always got her head down. If she sees anything she shouldn’t she explains it away, or dismisses it as her imagination, or forces it from her mind. Why? Because leaving scares her more than accepting the unacceptable. Of course she was scared here.”

  Marnie talked too much. Silas was glad to see the lights of the Maxwell cabin ahead. He still hadn’t decided how to go from here. Did Mia have Springer blood? Would that make enough of a difference or should he plan on sending Gabi packing, no matter what?

  It would be too simple, to get involved with her and then end the relationship in an ugly way. Would skittish Gabi load up her car and run? There were no guarantees, but it was likely. The plan was almost too simple, and so many things could go wrong.

  What did he have to lose? With a mere fifteen days until the equinox the breakup would have to be fast, ugly, and preferably public. That might be enough to make her run.

  It wasn’t a terrible plan, but he couldn’t make himself do it. Getting her out of town before the spell was cast was one thing, but purposely hurting a perfectly nice woman hoping she’d flee was downright mean.

  Amnesia punch. A “free vacation” offer. What the hell was he supposed to do?

  As he pulled up next to Clint’s truck, Marnie turned to him. “I do have a question, and I’m not sure how to ask it.”

  “Whatever it is, fire away.”

  Marnie hesitated, then blurted, “Clint warned me that being pregnant with, you know, there would be odd side-effects. I’ve handled them all ok until now, but this latest one…” She shook her head. “Normally I’d ask my hairdresser, but since Gabi is a Non-Springer, I can’t.”

  “Spit it out.”

  She did. “I have hair growing on my back,” she said quickly. “Clint says it won’t last, that it’ll fall out on its own in a couple of months, but… ewww. No woman wants a hairy back!”

  It would not be smart to laugh. “You can shave it, but the hair will just grow back thicker. Leave it alone. This particular symptom will resolve itself eventually.”

  Marnie wasn’t pleased with his answer. “I guess this is the price I pay for falling in love with a Bigfoot shifter.”

  “I guess it is.”

  She left his truck with a distracted wave. Clint had come to the front door and was waiting for her. She ran to him, a big smile on her face.

  He should’ve told Marnie to have Clint call him when he finished the book. Almost there, she said. Maybe tonight. Clint needed to know what was going on. Silas needed someone to talk this out with. Someone besides Jenna or a Milhouse.

  He tried not to be jealous as he drove away. Not that Marnie was his type. She most definitely was not. But what she and Clint had found was special. He didn’t expect anyone would ever love him that much, or that he could love that much in return. It cost too much, to love that way.

  When he reached the end of the dirt road, he had a choice to make. It didn’t take him long to make it. Within a couple of minutes he was pulling into Gabi’s driveway again. The living room lights were still on, and so was the porch light. The house looked welcoming enough, but would it be?

  Would he give into temptation if he didn’t already want Gabi so much it was painful?

  He left his truck, walked to her front door, and knocked. Gabi looked through the peephole in her door before opening it. “Is everything okay?”

  No more playing games. “We’re not done.”

  Chapter 7

  Gabi’s mouth went dry. Silas Hollister, standing in her doorway, that sexy look in his eyes and a simple, “We’re not done” on his lips, could turn any woman inside out and upside down.

  He wasn’t the kind of man who’d push. If she said, “Yes we are,” he’d go away.

  She didn’t want him to go away.

  Blake had robbed her of so much. Her ability to trust. Her home. A new career and a few good friends. He’d taken them all away. Could she allow him to take everything? Pleasure? Fun? Maybe even love, one day? In order for her to know if that was even possible, she had to take a chance. She had to take that first, difficult step. Difficult or impossible? There was only one way to find out.

  She took that step, moving back and away from the door so Silas could come into her house.

  Her heart beat too hard. Her stomach clenched. Between her legs it was as if she already felt him touching her. She tried to dismiss her response as being caused by simple biology, the fact that it had been such a long time. But she didn’t have this reaction to other men, just him.

  Silas closed the door behind him. When he didn’t immediately lock that door, Gabi reached around him and turned the lock herself. She didn’t rest well behind an unlocked door, not anymore.

  “Expecting someone to stop by and walk in on us?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

  “No, I just…” She didn’t want to
explain, so she went up on her toes and kissed him. They didn’t need to talk. That wasn’t why he was here.

  Mia and Judge were sleeping. Marnie was long gone. No one was going to interrupt them. Just as well. Any interruption would give her too much time to think. She’d become an expert at overthinking. What-ifs, maybes, one days… those thoughts were crippling her.

  They moved to the couch, sat so that their bodies touched from shoulder to hip, and kissed some more. It was as if the world collapsed in on itself until there was nothing else but this. She could drown in Silas’s arms, give in completely so that the kiss would never stop.

  Gabi tried to give in to the overwhelming sensations, she tried not to think, but without warning unwanted images of her ex-husband intruded. Blake pushing himself at her, demanding. Saying he loved her, then proving he did not. The face she’d imagined at the café window tonight popped into her head, as Silas moved one of his warm hands to the back of her neck. She instinctively stiffened as she remembered Blake’s hands at her neck, her throat. Would she never be rid of him?

  She jerked a bit and moved away, turning her torso so they were no longer pressed together. Silas eased his hold on her, he backed away but didn’t release her completely.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  There was no anger in his voice, none of the frustration she’d come to expect from a man when things didn’t go his way.

  “I’m not ready for this,” she said, without revealing that she might never be ready.

  “That’s understandable. It’s happening pretty fast.”

  She nodded. “I’m not fast.”

  He relaxed. She felt it, in the arms that were still loosely wrapped around her. She saw it, in the set of his jaw. “Neither am I, usually. You got under my skin in a way I didn’t expect. I guess I wanted to see if I got under yours.”

  Gabi held her breath for a minute. “You did,” she confessed. “You are. I just…”

  “It’s okay,” he kissed her again, gently this time, without demand. When he pulled his lips away he said, “I wish you’d tell me who scared you so much.”