Wild & Hexy (13 page)

He sighed and nestled closer. But although he lay on top of her, she could tell he wasn’t giving her his full weight. He was obviously bracing himself, which couldn’t be comfortable if he felt as much like a rag doll as she did. He was a reasonably slender guy, so she figured he wouldn’t be too heavy.

She tugged on his back. ‘‘Come on. Relax against me. I can take it.’’

He dropped like a stone.

‘‘Oof! Hey!’’

Instantly he pushed himself up again. He grinned down at her. ‘‘Couldn’t resist.’’

‘‘Jeremy!’’ She smacked him lightly on the shoulder and he nipped at her nose. She tickled his ribs and he yelped and withdrew from the battle.

At least she thought he’d withdrawn as he walked off into the shadows.

‘‘Jeremy? You okay?’’

‘‘Yep.’’

Then she figured out he was taking care of the condom, because in seconds he was back, ready for a serious tickle fest. Soon they were shrieking and rolling around like five-year-olds. When they accidentally flipped off the blanket onto the sand, they were forced to stop before they ground sand into places that would be most unpleasant. They were both laughing so hard they had the hiccups.

As she held her breath in an effort to stop her hiccups, she gazed at him in the light from the dying fire. The kayak rescue had been thrilling, the sex had been fabulous, but Jeremy’s playful side might be the most irresistible of all.

Uh-oh. Once upon a time she’d found Zach irresistible, too. Everything had seemed rosy in the beginning, but it hadn’t turned out that way in the end. Now that she was finally putting her life back together, falling for some guy wouldn’t be very smart. She’d already proved her judgment could be easily clouded, her goals set aside.

She swallowed a hiccup and let out a breath. She seemed to be cured. ‘‘So,’’ she said. ‘‘Where do we go from here?’’

In the dim light, his expression was tough to read. ‘‘That’s up to you.’’

‘‘I’m only six months into being single again. Tonight’s been wonderful, but I’m not in the market for—’’

‘‘I know. That’s why I said what I did.’’

Right before you helped me find my G-spot.
Remembering how that had felt made her skin flush. ‘‘Would you rather quit while we’re ahead? Just so things don’t get messy?’’

‘‘No.’’ His smile was just barely visible in the darkness. ‘‘I’d rather have tons of hot monkey sex until you have to leave town.’’

Sound carried across the lake, especially at night. Knowing this, Dorcas had left Ambrose practicing some maneuvers with his wizard’s staff while she took a stroll down to the water. Sabrina had chosen to stay with Ambrose, which was just as well.

Ever since he’d converted his staff to a collapsible model, he’d had problems with it. Something about screwing and unscrewing the sections disturbed the internal vibrations. With Sabrina there, he’d have backup if one of his spells got out of hand.

The air was chilly and the nearly full moon cast a streak of silver over the calm, dark surface. But events were far from calm on the far side. If Dorcas understood the sounds of feminine sexual satisfaction, and she most certainly did, then Annie was having a
very
good time.

Dorcas was glad Jeremy had decided to take the wine along. The additive Dorcas had perfected worked only with couples who were soul mates. Anyone else drinking it and having sex would experience a normal, ho-hum encounter. But if two people who were meant for each other imbibed the wine, they’d have mind-blowing, world-changing sex, the kind that gave Dorcas shivers.

Judging from what Dorcas had heard, the wine had worked to perfection. Maybe it was time to open a bottle of it tonight and share it with Ambrose. Eventually Jeremy and Annie would leave the lake, and then Dorcas could lure her lover outside for some waxing-moon sex. She thought the waxing moon produced the best orgasms, and Ambrose seemed to agree. They deserved some fun after their labors with George.

As Dorcas listened to Annie and Jeremy, she slipped off her shoes and walked through the sand to the edge of the lake. The water was so still that it barely lapped at the sand. The dark lake sounded like a cat grooming herself.

Cold as the water was, Dorcas felt drawn to it. One thing Sedona lacked was water. She stepped slowly forward until it kissed her toes. Although she winced at the freezing temperature, she stood her ground until her feet gradually became used to it.

She thought about Dee-Dee, who was probably hiding in her cave and brooding about the events of the night. The lake monster could breathe underwater for short periods, but she also needed air. Dee-Dee had described her cave as beautiful but lonely, a place hidden far under the hills beyond the lake, accessible only through the lake itself. Dorcas had taken pity on her and given her some back issues of
Wizardry World
in a Ziploc bag so the lake monster would have something to read.

‘‘Hey, Dorcas. What’s happening?’’

Dorcas jumped and turned around. A woman walked toward her with long, purposeful strides. She was tall, with red hair cut very short. Beaded earrings hung almost to her shoulders. She wore thigh-high boots, a short leather skirt that displayed her belly button, and a fringed top that barely covered her breasts.

Strangers didn’t just suddenly appear in Big Knob. Dorcas and Ambrose had decided that in order to do their best with George, they needed to keep unauthorized people out of the Whispering Forest. They’d achieved that by bespelling the exit sign on Highway 64.

Dorcas had put Ambrose in charge of that. If anyone in town expected a visitor, the whole town knew it and Ambrose turned on the exit sign. The rest of the time it stayed off. He’d turned it on for Annie and must have forgotten to turn it off again, because this woman was not a Big Knobian.

As she drew closer, Dorcas noticed the silver pentagram nestled in the woman’s considerable cleavage. Her face looked familiar, too. Dorcas knew her from somewhere, maybe Sedona. What was her name? The face was so familiar . . .

The woman held out a hand generously decorated with rings. ‘‘Isadora Mather.’’

‘‘Isadora?’’ So this was the woman captured in bronze on the town square, the widow of the town’s founder.

No one in Big Knob had a clue that their beloved Isadora had been, and still was, a witch. But the magical community knew that Isadora had used her magical skills to stem a potentially catastrophic smallpox epidemic here. That was in the mid-1800s, and Dorcas didn’t think Isadora had been back since. She wondered what Isadora was doing here now.

She shook Isadora’s hand, but she couldn’t help staring. ‘‘Did you drive or fly?’’

‘‘Flew.’’

All righty, then. Dorcas didn’t have to blame Ambrose for goofing up his exit sign duties. A witch on a broom wouldn’t care about highway markers. ‘‘Aren’t you supposed to be wearing a calico skirt and a sunbonnet?’’

Isadora smiled, her teeth perfect and white. ‘‘I got rid of that fashion disaster the second Ebenezer croaked. Burned it with the rest of the house. Everyone in Big Knob thought Ebenezer and I died in the blaze, but the poor old guy had already gone to his reward by the time I lit that fire. I made sure it was hot enough to leave nothing but ashes.’’

‘‘Clever.’’

‘‘Believe me, I had plenty of long, boring evenings to come up with my plan.’’ Isadora tossed her head, and her earrings glittered in the moonlight. ‘‘I took off for the gold fields and never looked back. San Francisco rocked then and it still does.’’

‘‘So why show up now?’’ Dorcas was still trying to superimpose the image of the bronze statue on the town square onto this floozy straight out of a singles bar.

‘‘I heard there was a little problem with Dee-Dee. Have you seen her tonight?’’ Isadora peered out over the lake. ‘‘I have a soft spot in my heart for that girl.’’

‘‘So you had a previous relationship with her?’’

Isadora nodded. ‘‘I guess Cecil didn’t tell you. She appeared on my watch. Like it or not, I feel a certain amount of responsibility for her. I thought we could have some face time tonight so I could find out what’s up.’’

Dorcas thought it was interesting that Cecil hadn’t mentioned that Isadora was tied in with Dee-Dee. Knowing Cecil’s conservative mind-set, he probably hadn’t wanted to take the chance that Dorcas would summon this obviously flamboyant witch to Big Knob.

‘‘So is Dee-Dee around?’’ Isadora asked.

‘‘I’m afraid she’s hiding in her cave at the moment. Tonight she—um—accidentally flipped a kayak.’’

‘‘Yikes. What was she doing out with kayakers on the lake?’’

Dorcas wasn’t ready to admit that she’d kind of invited Dee-Dee to do what she’d done. ‘‘Well, she’s lonely.’’

‘‘So I heard.’’

‘‘So lonely she’s ready to chew the stalactites off the roof of her cave. If you ask me, she’s also sexually frustrated, although she’s too shy to admit something so personal.’’

Isadora fiddled with one of her earrings. ‘‘I can see how she would be. She’s been there—what? Almost two hundred years? That’s a long time with no nakey-nooky.’’

‘‘Did you have a contingency plan for that?’’

‘‘Well, no.’’ Isadora gazed out over the lake. ‘‘To be honest, I had my hands full when she showed up, a runaway teen lake monster. Giving her sanctuary in Deep Lake was dicey, but I decided to risk it because there was no way she was going back to her controlling parents.’’

Dorcas tried to keep her temper in check. ‘‘But didn’t you know that she’d grow too big to leave and be trapped there? Is that any better than having a curfew?’’

‘‘Look, don’t start. I did what I thought was best. That was also about the time the Wizard Council was saying they would transfer George to the Whispering Forest in some wizard version of tough love, and then there was the smallpox epidemic, which was not a lot of yucks, either. I was never cut out to be Florence freaking Nightingale.’’

‘‘They did send George to the Whispering Forest, and he’s—’’

‘‘Don’t tell me. A pain in the ass. His parents let him get away with murder. What’re you gonna do with a kid like that?’’

Dorcas sighed. ‘‘Goddess knows, but Ambrose and I are going to figure it out. In the meantime, though, we could sure use some help with Dee-Dee. And since you’re the one who set her up in Deep Lake—’’

‘‘With a contract, I might add.’’

‘‘So you drew up that contract?’’

‘‘Yes, and if she’s violating it, that’s not my fault. I came here to help, but I’m not taking the rap for this, so don’t think I am.’’

‘‘But you came.’’ Dorcas held on to that fact. ‘‘And I’m glad you’re willing to help.’’

‘‘Well, yeah.’’ Isadora blew out a breath. ‘‘Like I said, she’s a sweetie. I also thought I’d take a peek at that bronze statue they erected in my honor. What a shock that was. Did you ever see anything so hideous in your life?’’

‘‘I guess it’s not exactly Venus de Milo.’’

Isadora grimaced. ‘‘That outfit makes me look fat. Early this morning I tried a few flame spells to see if I could melt the blasted thing, but all I managed to do was make it glow. I’ll have to work on that.’’

‘‘Oh, Isadora, don’t melt it. The town put a lot of money into that project. They love the statue. It gives them a sense of history.’’

‘‘If only they knew the true history. The only fun I had was putting a bug in Ebenezer’s ear to lay out the town in the shape of a pentagram. Old coot thought it was a star. He didn’t even get it when I created the walking trail connecting the points of the star. And here he was, a descendant of Cotton Mather of Salem fame. Don’t you love the irony?’’

Dorcas was quickly concluding that Isadora was a troublemaker who might not be much help after all. But Isadora cared about Dee-Dee and might have some ideas and/or some special powers that would help them solve that problem. Dorcas shouldn’t look a gift witch in the mouth.

She also needed to remember her manners. ‘‘Do you have a place to stay while you’re here?’’ Dorcas wasn’t crazy about the thought of having a guest again so soon after bidding good-bye to the Grand High Wizard, but with Dee-Dee’s future on the line, she had to make the offer.

‘‘Thanks, but I found a room. I met Abe Danbury on the street peddling his petition against canned laughter. I happen to hate that stuff myself, so I told him I’d pass it around. One thing led to another, and he offered me their spare room. He’s the mayor, right?’’

‘‘Yes, and if you want to keep him happy, you won’t melt your commemorative statue.’’

Isadora pursed her lips. ‘‘We’ll see. No promises. Oh, and FYI, I’m traveling under an alias so nobody makes the connection. I’m Isabel Moore for the duration. Well, if Dee-Dee’s not coming out again tonight, I might as well go. There’s a mudslide at the Big Knobian Bar calling my name.’’

‘‘You’ll think about the Dee-Dee situation, though?’’

‘‘Absolutely. I do my best thinking with a mudslide in my hand. See you.’’ Turning, she tromped back up the dirt path toward the main road.

Dorcas hoped Isadora hadn’t parked her broom at the end of the road. She might think nothing of zooming around on it, hoping to give the locals a scare. She was definitely a loose cannon, but if she could help with Dee-Dee, then Dorcas would put up with her and do damage control as necessary.

Jeremy didn’t expect to see Annie again until the next afternoon when she came in to write her story about Abe and his petition. Because he felt the need for some advice, he left Tony in charge of the café during Tony’s school lunch break and met Sean at the Hob Knob.

Madeline Danbury came around the counter with a couple of menus. ‘‘Sean called and said he’d be a little late. He told me to find you two a table in the corner.’’