Must Be Magic (Spellbound) (12 page)

“So you decided to take a nap instead?” She ventured a little closer, but kept to the water’s edge. She didn’t have a clue what to say to him after he’d left the reception so abruptly.

“Seemed like the safer alternative.”

“Compared to what?”

He sat up, dusting the sand off his arms. “Being chopped up into little bits.”

“Have you been arguing with Dante again?”

The sound of his laugh drew her toward him. “Not yet, but the night isn’t over.”

Not until she sank down next to him on the sand did she realize she’d made the decision to sit with him. Though the breeze felt nice on her skin, she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.

“This may sound like a strange question, but was your father ever involved in a car accident?” Focusing on that kept her from wondering if they would have treated each other so horribly if they’d known the truth years ago.

“Not that I know of. Is that what you two were talking about?”

She kept her gaze trained on the moon’s simmering reflection. “No. That was something else.”

“Was it something you want to talk about?”

Even if she knew whether it was worth talking about, if it even mattered after all this time, she wouldn’t know where to start. She was still reeling from the discovery, but the one thing she did know was that she didn’t want to fight with him. Not tonight.

She settled on, “Not right now.”

“So what’s with the question about the car accident?”

“Curiosity.”

He snorted and plucked a small stone from the sand, tossing it into the water. “The only car accident I know anything about is the one that killed my grandmother.”

“Your dad’s mother? And you’re sure your father wasn’t in the car at the time?”

“Yeah. You want to tell me what this is really about?”

“Just something my dad said.” She shrugged.

“So was this you asking, or your dad?”

She frowned at the irritation in his voice. “It’s not like that.”

He didn’t appear convinced. “If your father has questions, maybe he should ask them and not send you.”

“Wow. Do you have to work at assuming the worst where my family is concerned, or does it just come naturally?”

She thought about leaving, then changed her mind. There had been enough misunderstandings between them without adding another to the pile. How many times had they lashed out at each other because they’d both been too angry and stubborn to just talk about what happened?

If they had…

Not ready to let her thoughts go down that road just yet, she concentrated on their conversation. “They used to be friends. Our fathers,” she clarified. “My dad said everything changed after the car accident, but wouldn’t say more than that.”

“I didn’t know that. My father’s never had anything good—”

“To say about us?” she finished, guessing where he was headed. She watched him from the corner of her eye. “What were you and your dad arguing about tonight?”

“If I tell you, will you tell me?”

“Probably not.”

He laughed. “At least it’s an honest answer.” He tossed another rock. “I quit my job and he’s not happy about it.”

She frowned, wondering why she hadn’t heard about that. Dante would have considered that cause to celebrate. “When?”

“A couple of days ago.”

“Did you have another job offer?” She couldn’t imagine straightlaced Bryce Lancaster quitting on the fly.

“Nope.”

“Did you blow an important case?” That possibility seemed almost as crazy as him quitting. And she was damn sure Dante would have broadcasted that little detail over a megaphone.

Bryce shook his head.

She rubbed her chin on her knee, trying not to think too hard about what would make him walk away from something he’d worked so hard for. “So what are you going to do now?”

“I have no fucking idea.” He tipped his face up toward the stars as though he might find the answer there. He threw the last rock and lay back on the sand, one arm folded beneath his head.

She lay back too, taking in the impressive number of stars that filled the night sky. “You’ll figure it out.” There wasn’t a doubt in her mind about that.

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

She nodded, smiling at the surprise in his voice. The old Bryce had refused to take no for an answer when she’d passed on his dinner offer, pursuing her until she finally agreed. He wasn’t any different in the courtroom, pressing witnesses until he got the information he was looking for. As soon as he figured out what he wanted to do now that he’d left the DA’s office, he’d make it happen.

He turned his head toward her, his gaze penetrating. A moon-kissed shiver rolled up her spine, but she somehow kept her attention trained on the sky.

“I should get back. Riley is probably wondering where I disappeared to.” She barely made it to her knees before Bryce snagged her wrist and pulled her back down.

She landed half in his lap, his arm locked around her lower back. His free hand framed her jaw a heartbeat before he opened his mouth over hers.

Kissing him hadn’t been part of the plan when she sat down. And neither was sighing against his lips—a low, needy sound that made his grip tighten—but here she was, doing both, and so help her, she didn’t want to be anywhere else.

She wanted the possessive weight of his arms holding her to him, wanted the hot slide of his mouth like he’d spent the last decade starved for a taste of her.

Another moan pushed into her throat, and he responded by running his tongue along her bottom lip and deepening the kiss. Emotions she was sure had faded long ago—every bit of that head-over-heels attraction, anticipation and sheer happiness—were unleashed inside her.

And desire. So much desire she was drowning in it. All the way in his lap now, she looped one arm around his neck and raked her fingers through his hair.

He groaned and pulled back enough that they could catch their breaths for a second, and then he slanted his mouth across hers all over again. The intensity was too much for her to process, but not enough to satisfy the part of her that ached to know him again in the most raw, uncomplicated ways she could imagine.

Hot, hard tangled-up-in-each-other-for-hours sex.

“Darby—”

“Not yet.” She nipped his bottom lip. “I don’t want to talk or think or talk…”

He smiled against her mouth. “You said that one already.”

“Stop—” her breath hitched as he ran the backs of his fingers down her throat and between her breasts, “—talking.” They’d talked enough, hated enough. They did so much better when they forgot their jobs, their families, their past and just…

“What about touching?” He tugged at the strap on her dress, sliding it down her shoulder. His lips followed the same scorching path.

“Touching definitely works.”

The grin that curved his lips was undeniably wicked, and she tried to figure out what exactly she’d said to make him look at her with such dirty intent. Then she remembered she didn’t care. She only wanted to feel and take and surrender until there was nothing between them but hot, slick skin.

Bryce lowered her to the ground. The sand felt cool against her skin, a sharp contrast to the heat of his body. With another hungry kiss that had her arching against him, he left her mouth. She fought the urge to drag him back, torn between losing herself in another fierce kiss and anticipating what he had planned for her next.

And, damn, he knew what he was doing. Every teasing brush of his fingers and openmouthed kiss from her jaw to the plunging neckline of her dress felt like a precise assault. One meant to set her on fire, and everything inside her was burning up.

She fisted his shirt in her hands, tugging it up enough that she could slip beneath to splay her fingers across his back. How could she have forgotten how good he made her feel, so sexy and wild and…wanted.

He hadn’t let up since his mouth touched hers, his pace fast and hot, as if he could devour every inch of her and it still wouldn’t be enough.

It had been that way when she was twenty-one but she’d somehow managed to convince herself their spring break fling hadn’t really been as incredible as it felt in the moment. With so little sexual experience under her belt, how could she have known the difference between good sex and the off-the-charts, phenomenal kind?

Two minutes in Bryce’s arms and she knew she hadn’t been wrong then.
Incredible
was a damn good fit for what he was doing, and when he worked a hand beneath her dress and tugged at her panties, she bit her lip to silence the needy
yes
that rose to her lips.

He pushed her dress up and the warm air rushed across her exposed skin. She shivered at both the breeze and the press of his mouth, hot and seeking, and sliding down between her legs.

The restrictive feel of her panties was gone suddenly, and she half laughed, half moaned as he teased the inside of her thigh.

“Did you just vanish my underwear?”

“They were in the way.” There was no apology, no offer to return or replace them.

Just the unspoken promise in his voice that the loss would be worth it.

He bent his head and ran his tongue, soft and slow, along her folds. Pleasure spiked her bloodstream, intensifying with every decadent lick that swirled across her clit.

She sank her fingers into his hair, lifting her hips just a fraction and catching all the slick heat exactly where she needed it. He made a rough sound of masculine appreciation, and sealed his mouth over her, pulling her into his mouth with a lazy suction that dragged her closer to release.

Voices carried on the air, reminding her they weren’t that far from the party, and at the same time making it even wilder, hotter, that he was going down on her now.

She dug her hand in the sand, raking deep as he teased and flicked his tongue up and down. “Bryce,” she murmured.

He lifted his head long enough to watch her, his dark eyes widening in mock innocence as they met hers. “Should I stop?” Continuing to hold her gaze, he dipped down to run his tongue across her wet and aching clit.

Trembling under the slow slide of his mouth, she let her head drop back to the ground. “Only if you want me to hurt you,” she warned, her voice a heated whisper.

He slid his palm across her stomach, his fingers dragging across muscles that contracted beneath the possessive caress. “Now I’m intrigued.”

A laugh bubbled up from inside her, the sound quickly giving way to a moan she barely recognized as Bryce sealed his mouth over her again. Long, teasing licks that brought her hips off the ground, and she sank her hands into his hair, holding him to her.

The growl of approval against her sensitive flesh heightened the already rocketing pleasure humming along every nerve ending. Tugging gently, she bit her lip, moving with the mouth devouring her.

Sweet tension coiled inside her, snapping outward as she came too soon, crying out his name. Wave after wave of pleasure washed over her, and she sagged against the sand, only vaguely aware of him tugging her dress back down.

She’d barely managed to pry her eyes open when she sensed him rising. He pulled her to her feet, and still weak in the knees, she leaned into him, needing the strength that lay beneath the hard layers of muscle still rigid with tension.

Bryce tipped her face up, ravaging her mouth with the same wicked thoroughness that triggered the orgasm that hadn’t quite faded. He slid his hands beneath her dress, cupping her ass and bringing her tight against him. His arousal pressed into her abdomen, and deep between her thighs clenched hard at the thought of him inside her.

With a pained groan, he released her and turned away, striding toward the water.

“What are you doing?”

He didn’t answer, but waded past his knees and dove in.

Chapter Six

The water wasn’t nearly cold enough, Bryce decided, but it helped.

A little.

When he resurfaced he could at least draw a breath without the need to bury himself inside her overriding his every thought.

The small benefit of his spontaneous swim wouldn’t last long, probably not even long enough to drag himself out of the water, but right this moment it took the edge off.

Christ, he wanted her, and for more than a quick screw in the sand. And if he’d been able to make it happen, it would have been over much too soon to begin with. Darby flipped every switch in his body, from the balls of his feet up to the hair she had tugged on when he’d teased and tasted her until she came.

Darby waded in past her ankles. “Bryce?”

“Here.”

She moved toward him, laughing. “Are you out of your mind?”

He waited, letting her get just a little deeper, then lunged for her.

She squealed in surprise, but the water slowed her down as she scrambled out of his reach. Her amulet glowed in the darkness, and he heard her mutter something—right before a wave came out of nowhere and knocked him over.

He managed to snag a fistful of her dress before he went under, though, and they both collapsed in the shallow water.