“That is a beautiful pendant. May I ask where you bought it?” His tone was still polite and casual. She knew he was mining for information masked in mannerly conversation.
Sabrina’s heart pounded. A surge of adrenaline pulsed through her. The memory of the man in the shop took over. She squeezed her eyes tight. The tea cup in her hands cracked, drenching her lap in hot tea. It brought her back to the present.
“I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to break anything!” Sabrina was thoroughly embarrassed. Not only had she nearly lost control, but she had broken something else in Brandon’s home.
He moved so quickly, it was as if he appeared in front of her out of thin air. Tea towel in hand, he helped mop up the mess and dry her off.
“Don’t worry about the cup. I never use them anyway. Are you okay?” He continued to clear away the broken china without looking at her. She had the feeling this was on purpose.
“Yes, I am, thank you. I think the day has been too much for me.” She shook her head. There was no way she could play cat and mouse games. She was no Eleanor. The best thing to do was to come clean and not be coy. “The answer to your question is easy. I didn’t buy my necklace. I’ve worn it every day of my life. I don’t know where it came from, what it does, or even what the stone is. All I do know is that there is no clasp to remove it, and the chain grew as I did. I can lift it and move it like any other piece of jewelry. I just can’t take it off. Today, it nearly cost me my head.” Relief overtook her. Now, there was no reason to bother keeping up any pretenses. There was nothing she could tell him and no reason for him to try. A look of disappointment replaced the concern. He pressed his lips into a thin line.
“Eleanor told me about the attacks. It never occurred to me you weren’t the warrior Eleanor is. Here I’ve been trying to make small talk when you’ve had a really hard day. It’s nearly sunrise anyway. Why don’t you retire for the day? There’s another bedroom across the hall from mine. You can use it while you are here,” he offered.
Sabrina only nodded in acceptance and moved in the direction of his extended arm pointing the way. Each step felt as though extra weights were being added to her feet. At the door, she looked back over her shoulder and gave him a weary smile. “Thank you.”
“Not a problem. See you at sunset.” He shooed her off with a wave.
Inside the room was a king-sized bed. The décor matched the rest of the penthouse apartment, neutral colors highlighted with art and designer furniture. A panel by the bed housed several switches and a call button. She assumed it was connected but had no intentions of finding out to whom.
Several shopping bags were by the bed. On the bed, a nightgown and robe in black silk were laid out for her. She noticed they still had the tags and nearly choked when she saw what they had cost. It was a lot of money to have paid for a houseguest he knew nothing about. However, she was too tired to argue. She untied the ribbon holding on the tag. Dropping the robe, she shimmed into the gown as quickly as she could, tossed the matching robe over the footboard, and got into bed. Sleep came before her head could finish sinking into the fluffy pillow.
* * * *
Brandon listened for the slither of silk against skin. He imagined touching those bare shoulders, caressing her soft flesh. The thick robe had almost hid her nipples rising into hard peaks. He thought about how much he wanted to suck them. Brandon’s cock stiffened. Her fear and musky sweetness still scented the air. Something had aroused her. The confused look had told him she did not understand. Was it possible to be her age and a virgin?
Thinking back to how protective Eleanor had been and her insistence on having Hadrian’s word made him believe it was possible. Sabrina reacted to the fairy like a brother, not a lover. It was most likely the only reason Eleanor allowed the friendship. But why guard Sabrina so close? The stone. She said she could not take it off.
The way the dark stone reacted to Sabrina’s moods made Brandon think it was somehow tied directly to her. Perhaps it was made specifically for her. The meaning of such a thing could be highly significant.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Checking the caller ID showed Hadrian’s nameless number. Brandon touched the screen and held it to his ear without speaking.
“What have you found out?” a deep, husky voice asked. There was a great deal of impatience behind it.
“Sabrina doesn’t seem to know anything. Eleanor kept her in the dark. It appears she has outbursts of power that go along with her emotions. The stone changes with them. It grows brighter and then discharges dark, jewel-tone rainbows right before she loses control. Every light on my balcony exploded when she laughed too much, and a cup she held cracked just because she became upset,” Brandon reported. There was a moment of silence on the other end.
“Did you call a local witch?”
“No. I assumed Eleanor took them with her to draw the would-be assassins out into the open.”
“Call one. My sources tell me Eleanor didn’t take anyone but the fairy and the decoy. She is using them as bait and hunting down her prey one at a time. That will buy us some time. It will take her days to get all of them in the area. Remember, Brandon, Eleanor may have been living as a common witch, but she is a great deal more. Ask Sabrina what she knows about Midnight’s Jewel. Do whatever you must to find out more. Its destruction is the key to end this,” Hadrian commanded and hung up.
Brandon stood for a moment staring at his phone. Hadrian was not the sort of man to chase after trouble. There had not been a celestial being on Earth in thousands of years. Why would he want to get mixed up in politics long since forgotten?
There was no time to ponder the possibilities. He had a witch to call and the sun to beat to bed. Sunrise was in less than an hour.
The view was beautiful. Sabrina stood in front of a large window surrounded by thick stones looking out into the night sky. The stars were bright twinkling points. She could even make out some of the planets from her perch. A thin blue-white glow was just cresting the horizon. The gray mottled landscape was starting to catch the sun in places, but she knew its light would never fall where she stood.
“Sabrina, it’s time to wake up,” a kindly feminine voice said. A gentle nudge on her shoulder pushed away the breathtaking scenery.
She inhaled deep and stretched. Blinking hard a few times, she opened her eyes to find a smiling woman in her late fifties looking down at her. Her salt-and-pepper hair was piled up in a bun on the back of her head. Her pants suit was a gray pinstripe finished with a white round-collared shirt and sensible gray loafers. A tray was sitting by the bed with a single unopened peach rosebud, a symbol of youth, beauty, and immortality. She wondered who had selected it.
“I’m Carrie. Brandon called me. I am to be here until Eleanor returns,” the woman introduced herself. She continued to smile. It made Sabrina think of a cat that had just swallowed a canary and worked a bit too hard playing innocent. She had seen the look before on the faces of those witches at home that helped only to appease Eleanor but did not think much of her or her powers.
“Good morning,” Sabrina greeted with caution.
“More like evening. You slept through the day,” Carrie corrected.
Sabrina glanced at the window, but the heavy blinds were still down. Carrie moved to open them. Outside the window, an orange sky scattered with darkening purple clouds greeted her. Buildings filled the window’s view and traffic noises from below broke the silence. It was a far cry from the dream.
“Let’s get you dressed, my dear. Brandon will be up soon. We wouldn’t want to keep him waiting.” Carrie began bustling about the room, pulling clothes out of the bags Sabrina had not bothered to unpack.
Carrie laid a pair of jeans, a simple red T-shirt, socks, and a pair of sneakers out for her. The older woman then turned to the dresser on the far wall, crooked her finger, and made all the drawers open at once. She pointed at the bags in the floor. Another crook with an added flick of the wrist sent the clothes floating up in the air. They folded themselves and landed gently in the drawers. She gave a pushing motion with her palm facing the dresser. All the drawers shut.
“Now that you’ve been unpacked, I’ll leave you to your breakfast. You have time for a quick shower, if you would like.” The older woman did not wait for a response. She slipped from the room with the same canary-eating smile.
There were two doors, besides the one that led to the hall. A smaller set of bifold doors, matching the six-panel design of the interior doors, must have been the closet. There was a regular-sized door beside those nearer the back of the room. She assumed this was the bathroom. Not bothering with the robe, she got up and went in the mystery door.
A large marble-lined shower with clear, frameless glass doors took up most of one wall. A pair of sinks below a large mirror took most of the other. The far wall held another six-panel door, like the one she had entered. She assumed this to be the linen closet but did not open it to see. There were towels and toiletries already laid out for her use.
Sabrina decided a long, hot shower would both wake and soothe her. Yesterday’s heat had left a layer of sticky sweat on her skin. She was anxious to clean up and wash away the anxiety. Eleanor had always told her to rinse troubles from her hair and to shake unhappy soil from her feet. It seemed silly, but Eleanor had never been wrong. Everything always seemed better after a shower.
Leaving everything in her room, Sabrina turned on the water and let it come to a suitable temperature. She dropped the black silk gown and stepped in. The marble was cold on her feet, but the water felt perfect.
The body wash smelled heavenly and matched the shampoo and conditioner. By the time she rinsed her hair, the whole room was filled with rain-scented jasmine. She stood there and imagined a garden of white flowers against dark-green foliage at twilight. She turned her face up to the showerhead, thinking of falling rain in her dimly lit fantasy. She could hear a nightingale singing, as if it were really in the room.
“What the hell is this?” a male voice interrupted. “Why is there water all over the place?”
Sabrina gasped and opened her eyes. Dark jewel-tone rainbows were dancing on the walls around her. Her imaginary garden faded back into a very wet marble-lined bathroom. Water dripped from the ceiling. The bird song still echoed in the enclosed space.
Wearing nothing but a pair of cream silk sleeping pants, a furious Brandon stood in the doorway Sabrina had assumed was a linen closet. It must have led to his bedroom. The thought had not occurred to her that the bath may have been shared.
She could see his rippling abs and sculpted smooth chest. His dark bedhead hair hung around his face. His dark-brown eyes were tense. He looked at the wet floor standing in water. Then he looked up at her. The look changed from confused and angry to shock. It took only a moment for the astonishment to shift to lust. His mouth fell open a little to reveal the tips of his fangs as he gasped. His cock stiffened noticeably under the thin silk pants. He stood with one hand on the doorknob and the other frozen by his side. His look had shifted from incredulous to predatory.
A fluttering began in her stomach. Need began to boil from deep within her core. She could feel her nipples harden in response and a slippery fluid tickle down her inner thigh, mingling with the water. The shower warmed her skin, but a fire was building in her pussy. A warm flush rushed over her skin. There was an ache to be touched and to touch him back. She wanted him and knew he wanted her, too. The strange feelings were foreign and frightening, and yet they excited and intrigued her. She wanted more.
“Sabrina!” Carrie’s shrill voice rang out from her bedroom. The closed bathroom door muffled it somewhat, but the elder witch was obviously not happy. “What are you doing in there? The carpet in here is soaked!”
Sabrina’s head snapped to the bedroom door. The admonishment reminded her of Eleanor. The comparison drew Sabrina back to the reality of the situation. She was standing naked in front of a strange man. Her efforts to cover herself failed. There were not enough hands and arm length to do the job. She hung her head and hid her face in her hair. It was too late for modesty, but she tried, nonetheless.
Brandon cleared his throat. “I am very sorry to have…I’ll just leave.” The door quietly clicked behind him.
Sabrina should have been embarrassed, but she was not. Other than Clay, no man had seen her naked, and Clay did not count. They had not been skinny-dipping together since they were small children. It just was not the same thing. Brandon was a grown man with a very grown-up reaction.
For the first time in her life, Sabrina had a feeling to put with the word lust. Eleanor had had explained that love and lust were not one and the same. She had explained that one day there would be someone who brought an instant reaction, a deep resounding feeling in her soul, and she would know she had met the right man. Was this what Eleanor had meant? The lust was one thing, but was there more? How could there be? She had only just met Brandon last night.
A heavy knock on the door was followed by another shrill command. “Sabrina! Turn that water off! You’ve flooded the whole room!”
She turned off the water and stepped out onto the rug. Water squished between her toes. It was cold and unpleasant. The wet marble floor was like walking on a sheet of ice. She carefully made her way over to the sink, where she had left the towel. As she dried her hair, she dropped it into the standing water. The light gray fabric turned dark. This was her fault.