Must Be Magic (Spellbound) (11 page)

“There you are.” Alex hobbled up on his crutches.

Bryce searched his friend’s face. “How’s your head?” With Alex’s system already compromised due to his broken leg, Darby’s distress would have triggered an even stronger physical backlash.

“Fine.” Alex gestured to Darby’s flowers before digging into his pocket and pulling out Bree’s garter. “Looks like you and I are up soon.”

“
You
caught it?” Bryce glanced doubtfully at his crutches.

“You’d be surprised at how easy it is to turn around and accidentally trip someone with one of these things.”

Laughing, Darby stood. “You and Riley should tag-team weddings.”

“Who do you think prepped me for the event?” Alex led the way back inside, nodding sincerely when Darby made him promise not to use his teeth, no matter who might goad him into it.

Alex hobbled back into the middle of the crowd, but before Darby could slip away too, Bryce caught her hand. “I’m sorry for whatever my father said.”

“Don’t be.” She said something under her breath, something that sounded a lot like “I’m the one who’s sorry” before she slipped through a handful of guests and joined Alex at the edge of the dance floor.

Confused, he stared after her, not noticing his sister’s approach until she stood opposite him.

“Here.” Angel thrust her drink into his hand. “You look like you need this more than I do.”

He held the glass up. “What is it?” He took a drink, his gaze still on Darby.

“Sex on the Beach.”

The liquid seemed to catch at the back of his throat, and he coughed. “Seriously?”

“Some of us have to improvise since we weren’t hooking up last night.”

Well, that took care of any doubts about his sister hearing about him escorting Darby back to her bungalow. He was starting to think everyone at the reception had heard by now. At least the rumors hadn’t ended up with him caught with his pants around his ankles. Or had they? Jesus, he was almost afraid to ask.

“Darby and I did not hook up. Nothing happened.”

“If you really believed that, you wouldn’t be staring at her like no matter what you do she’ll always be just out of your reach.”

He set his drink down and shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’ve been spending too much time with Bree.”

Angel opened her mouth, but stopped when Darby was waved over to a seat in the middle of the dance floor. She laughed at something Finn said, then waited for Alex. His friend said something, then limped off the dance floor, heading in their direction.

“What’s he doing?”

When Alex reached them, he tossed the garter to Bryce. “You’re my stand-in.” He motioned to his cast. “Can’t be getting down on my knees like this.”

“How convenient.”

“Very,” Alex agreed, not even trying to hide his smile.

Angel pushed Bryce forward. “He’ll do it.”

Left with little choice, he clutched the lacy material in his palm and made his way to Darby.

Someone, the DJ maybe—or Finn—turned on the music and the theme song from
Mission Impossible
played over the speakers.

Darby stood a little straighter when she noticed the garter in his hand. “You drew the proverbial short straw, huh?”

“Didn’t feel right to leave you over here alone with everyone watching.”

“I wouldn’t want you to put yourself out.”

He shrugged. “If you’d prefer someone else, I can see if my cousin is available.” He turned around.

“It’s fine.” She caught his hand, then immediately let go of him when his gaze fell to the fingers wrapped around his wrist.

“You sure? Considering the existing Calder/Lancaster dynamic, I doubt anyone would mind if you don’t want to do this.”

She cocked her head. “Sounds like you’re the one who wants to get out of it.”

He nodded over his shoulder to the table where Dante sat glowering at him. “Can’t say I’m not worried about being ordered outside once this is over.”

“Worried?” A teasing glimmer brightened her eyes. “Or looking forward to it?”

He laughed, then dropped his head to be sure no one would overhear him. “You do realize that this might contradict our claim that nothing happened last night.”

She leaned forward just a little. “Nothing did happen.”

“Liar,” he murmured, more than a little distracted by how good she smelled.

Her hair brushed his jaw as she tipped her head back to meet his gaze. “If you don’t think you can handle this—”

“Sit.” He took a step forward, giving her the choice to drop into the seat or find him firmly in her personal space.

She went with the former. Then, catching the bottom of her dress, she tugged it higher and lifted her leg. Grinning, he cupped her ankle, wondering if he imagined the shiver that went through her.

Darby arched a brow, waiting.

He slipped his finger beneath the strap at the back of her sandal and pushed it off her foot. His thumb brushed the small hollow above her heel, and he suddenly remembered kissing her there. Remembered the soft sound she’d made in her throat when he opened his mouth on her skin and teased a path up to her inner thigh.

This time there was no mistaking the tremor that moved through her, and their eyes locked. The temperature in the room seemed to jump a few dozen degrees.

“Sometime tonight would be good,” someone hollered out. Bryce would put his money on Riley.

Lowering to one knee, he hooked the garter over her toes and slowly pushed it up past her ankle. His fingers trailed over her calf, slowly tugging the lacy cuff higher. Darby squirmed in her seat before curling her fingers around the sides of the chair.

To anyone watching it might have looked like she needed them for balance, given how she was perched on the very edge of her chair. But the way she bit her bottom lip, close to the corner, and then let it slide through her teeth said more about a threat to her internal equilibrium than being close to falling off the seat.

“If you don’t think you can handle this…” He trailed off.

She grinned, resting her foot on his thigh as he worked the garter up to her knee. “I think I’ve got it covered.” Her foot slid to the inside of his leg, a move he countered by deliberately raking his thumb up her inner thigh as he fit the garter in place.

Bryce’s fingers lingered on her skin for a few seconds after the music ended, and Darby struggled not to betray how much their little performance had ignited every inch of her body, the heat licking along her skin from the inside out.

Last night she’d been drinking, but unfortunately this time she couldn’t blame the alcohol.

In the space of ten minutes she’d gone from shock to anger to a numbness she’d been counting on to get her through the rest of the evening. If she was numb she didn’t have to think about what Thomas Lancaster had admitted and whether things would have turned out differently if she’d known the truth years ago.

If she was numb she wouldn’t have to convince herself that it was all in the past and didn’t change anything. Knowing the truth didn’t undo how she and Bryce had treated each other since then. Didn’t erase the cold shoulders and scathing comments they’d lived and breathed in each other’s presence until this weekend.

She reached blindly for the woman who had routinely cut him down and walked away without a second thought,
needing
to be that woman, but somehow couldn’t make herself fit back into that mold.

Feeling Bryce watching her, she forced a smile. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

He didn’t smile back. He stared at the ground, his jaw clenched as he let his hands drop back to his sides.

“Say something…something disturbing.”

“What’s wrong?”

He raised his head. “If I stand up right now, everyone in the room is going to know what touching you did to me.”

“What it did to you…? Oh.
Oh.
” An unexpected smile widened at the knowledge he’d been just as affected. “So you’d like the verbal equivalent of a cold shower.”

A muscle in his jaw ticced. “Something along those lines, yeah.”

She dropped her leg and leaned forward as though she were keeping him from standing.

His gaze fell to her chest. “The view really isn’t helping.”

“Sorry.” She bit her lip to keep from laughing.

His lips curved. “No you’re not.”

Keeping a straight face, she went with the first disturbing thing to pop into her head. Disturbing for her, anyway. “Dante—”

“Not cold enough.”

She laughed. “When Dante and I were fourteen, I walked in on him masturbating while listening to Abba and looking at my mother’s fashion magazine.”

Bryce made a choking sound.

“Or taking another approach, I can tell you about the time he dislocated his shoulder falling out of Suzanne Winchester’s bedroom window after her father walked in on them fooling around.”

Bryce managed a laugh this time.

“And it gets better. The only thing he had on at the time was his socks.”

“And he told you all that?”

“Suzanne did, not realizing there are some things sisters just don’t need to know about their brothers.” She cocked her head, studying him. “Did that help?”

“Enough.” The word sounded strained and he looked at the garter peeking out from beneath the edge of her dress long enough to make her think he’d like nothing better than to slide his hand back up the inside of her thigh.

Darby made a move to tug her dress down, but he beat her to it, then rose to his feet.

Alex limped over with half the effort he’d used earlier. “Nicely done.”

“Thanks.” Bryce didn’t take his eyes off her when he answered.

Feeling like she was still the center of attention, she finally stood, and Bryce instantly retreated a step.

“I’ll talk to you two later.” With a nod, Bryce walked away.

She turned in the same direction, half wondering if she should follow him.

Alex shook his head. “He could use a few minutes alone.”

“Does he know you’re tapping into what he’s feeling?”

“Tapping in? It’s more like trying to avoid being sucked into the vortex with the crazy vibes you two are throwing off tonight. Believe me, I’d hit the Mute button if I could.” He knocked on his cast.

She knew his broken leg affected his magic, but she hadn’t thought about how it might interfere with his usual telepathic gifts that were part of the Tribunal package.

“It comes and goes. One minute I can barely pick up on anyone’s thoughts if I’m trying and the next it’s like someone duct-taped a pair of headphones to my head and cranked the stereo volume to max.”

“Did I… Did you…” Exactly what images had she unknowingly projected?

“You were upset, but that’s all I got. Even when I’m plugged in, I don’t go digging around trying to find stuff.”

She arched a brow.

“Okay, so a time or two I’ve wondered if any of you Calder girls ever had a wild college moment with another chick, but I’ve never actually peeked.”

“If that’s all you want to know, you should just ask.” Riley grinned as she joined them, holding up her phone. “I’m going to need your help later uploading the video to YouTube.”

“Video?” Darby cringed. “You did not.”

Riley blinked. “Would it make you feel better if I lied?”

It took Darby nearly half an hour to work her way across the room, laughing along with anyone who stopped her to comment on the garter show. By the time she reached the ballroom’s back door, Finn and Bree were slow dancing in the middle of the dance floor and the size of the crowd had shrunk to at least half its original number.

Having caught sight of Thomas Lancaster saying good night to Bree a short time ago, Darby knew she didn’t have to worry about running into him for what was left of the night.

Leaving the patio, she dropped her sandals and flowers near the stairs and wandered down to the edge of the beach, well away from the party. The cool water washed over her toes and the gorgeous sight of the moon hanging over the water gave her the first peaceful moment she’d felt since arriving in St. Lucia.

Peaceful, if she didn’t count the fact that everything she believed about Bryce was all wrong. Wasn’t it? He hadn’t known about the baby. Hadn’t knowingly left her to deal with the unexpected pregnancy on her own.

She’d told herself it was all in the past whenever they had to be civil or even work together, but beneath the forced pleasantries she hadn’t let go of the hurt and the anger—especially the anger.

And now she wasn’t sure he’d deserved it.

She waded past her ankles and closed her eyes. Music and laughter carried from the party, mixing with the sound of the ocean rolling up to shore.

“I’ve been advised to stay out of the water.”

She whirled at the sound of Bryce’s voice, but didn’t immediately spot him in a deep plunge of shadows until he raised up on his elbows from where he lay on the beach.