Siren's Serenade (The Wiccan Haus) (5 page)

Trixie, who he privately thought of as flaky, had at least been smart enough not to push him too hard, and when he’d finally said he had enough, she’d nodded and moved on to the small black-haired woman who desperately needed to get some sun. Lying out by the beach, looking up at the clear night sky, had been relaxing if not a bit perplexing. It might be time for him to take another look at the sky charts, because Kaleb could have sworn that the stars seemed out of a place tonight. But he had learned his lesson and he certainly wasn’t about to tell anyone else his suspicions; if seeing a mermaid got him sent here, where the hell would telling someone that the stars weren’t in the right place land him?

A straitjacket that’s where.

Trixie signed his card stating he had fulfilled his class.
Yep, that’s nice, like being on probation
. No one else had to have their card signed. He looked to his left and saw Rekkus and Cyrus coming his way, standing to the side until he passed. They nodded at him before approaching Trixie. There was more secrecy here on the island than in the CIA.

Picking up his sweatshirt, Kaleb pulled it on over his head, lowered the hood, and moved toward the main haus. He hoped Serena would be waiting. She had said she would, but he couldn’t read her. She went from being a full out seductress to a giddy school girl at hyper speed. When speaking to Rekkus, Cyrus, or any of the other men on the island, she was flirty and almost standoffish, but when she spoke to him she seemed different; she flirted—he figured that was second nature to her—but there was an uncertainty. One that made him want to get to know the woman underneath.

Somehow he knew there was more to her than the sexy siren she portrayed.

Striding up the candle-lit gravel walkway, Kaleb stopped in his tracks to watch Serena through the open door. Seated behind the counter, she was on the computer—he couldn’t see her face, but her profile showed she was intent on whatever she was watching. She turned to the receptionist, who went over and looked at the screen, then typed something before going away again, leaving Serena to stare in rapture back at the computer. She reminded him of his four-year-old niece, who had the same look when watching her cartoons. As if sensing him staring at her, she turned her head and her face lit up with joy, as if she had been counting the minutes until they were together again, and somewhere in his gut he hoped that had been the case—that this woman truly had been waiting for him.

Never taking his eyes off Serena, he strode with methodical steps into the soft light of the building. Kaleb watched her every move as she stood and walked around the reception desk with the grace of a ballerina. Even her dress, which covered very little, seemed to move with her as if it were alive. Kaleb smiled as she greeted him. He so wanted to take his hands, cup her face, and bring his lips to hers, that the need to do so caught him off guard.

“Hi.” Her breathless voice washed over him like a warm breeze.

“Hi yourself.” He offered her his hand. “Shall we?”

“Okay.”

“Do you need to get some shoes?” he asked, looking at her bare feet.

She shook her head. “I hate shoes.”

“Stay away from the lake.”

“I heard you the first time, Myron.”

“Why are we staying away from the lake?” he asked as they walked on the path away from the building.

“I have no idea, but when Myron’s cards tell her something, you do it.”

“Her cards? You mean the solitaire game she keeps playing?”

“She isn’t playing a game. She’s reading people.”

“Like a fortune teller?”

Serena thought for a second, and then nodded. “Something like that. More of a
future
teller.”

“Right.” Okay, so Serena might be as crazy as he was. And that was both reassuring and a bit disconcerting. Maybe this place with its high-tech security was really a loony bin. And when he’d come ashore, he’d been admitted and was never leaving. Serena said she had been here five times—maybe she just never left. That would explain the tight security, and perhaps the woman he had saved had been a suicide attempt. All that made a hell of lot more sense than the rest of what he was thinking.

That was it. He was at some high-class nut house.

“What are you thinking?”

“Oh, just figuring it all out in my head.”

“What?”

He stopped walking and turned to face her, the moon, though not full, still illuminated her face. “Let me ask you—why are you here?”

“Oh, that would depend on whose side you were listening to.”

“Your side.”

“I’m here to try to figure out how to not be like my mother.”

“Is she that bad?”

“She’s a man-hating, murdering monster.”

The anger and spite that came from those supple lips shocked him. There was no doubt in his mind that Serena meant what she said. “You mother is a murderer?”

“You know what? I’ve never said that aloud but yes, and I hate her. I really, really hate her. I hate what she is, and what she does, and how she lures men into the deep with a seductive song and takes their final breath. I hate
her.”
Taking a deep breath, she threw her hands into the air, stretching. “Wow that felt good!”

“I can imagine.”

“I don’t know why I haven’t said that sooner. What about you? Why are you here? And don’t tell me because of your boss.”

“I’m here because they all think I’m crazy.”

“Are you?”

“No, or at least I didn’t think so, but being at this place makes me question what I thought I knew.”

“Why do they think you’re crazy?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me. I just told you my deepest harbored hatred of my mother. The least you can do is share your deep-seated crazy with me,” she teased.

They had come to the cliffs looking over the ocean. The moonlight lit a runway across the rippling waters below. He couldn’t look at her, didn’t want to see her laugh—or worse, decide he was crazy. “I was rescuing a friend from the waters off the coast of Alaska. That area isn’t kind on the best of days, and this was a rocky sea kind of day. A fishing vessel made a distress call. The ship was taking on water and they had abandoned ship as it sank. We had a man in the water so numb he couldn’t get into the ring, and my buddy Jim jumped in to help. We brought up the man, and I lowered the wire to bring Jim up. Just then a huge wave took the ’copter within feet of the water. Jim reached out to grab my hand, when a woman swam up beside him…and then he was gone under the water, staring up at me for a second before I lost him completely.”

Serena laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”

Kaleb gritted his teeth so hard he was sure he’d crack a tooth.

“Mermaids don’t live in Alaska. It’s too cold.”

“Excuse me?”

“Why would any mermaid want to live in those waters? It’s cold enough here.”

Kaleb shook his head to clear it, turned to look at her because no one in all the time he was going through this had reacted like she had. “Let me get this straight: you aren’t arguing with me that mermaids exist, just that they don’t live in the Bering Sea?”

“Well, I suppose they could live there, but I can’t imagine wanting to. I mean there…” She stopped, her mouth forming an “O.”

“You were saying?”

“Nothing. I just don’t think you’re any crazier than anyone else here on the island.”

Now it was his turn to laugh. “You’re not very reassuring.”

“Was I supposed to say something else? What did you want me to say?”

This time he did cup her cheeks, his thumbs running along the jawline, feeling the silky softness of her skin. “You said just the right thing.”

“I did? Because with you I feel like I’m always biting my tongue.”

“Tripping over your tongue.”

“See? Biting, tripping. I can’t form a complete sentence around you.”

“Talking is overrated.” Brushing his lips against hers, Kaleb closed his eyes as Serena’s breath rushed over him, warm and sweet. He deepened the kiss, taking advantage of the chance to taste this woman. He shuddered as soft, skilled hands ran up his arms, over his shoulders, until long fingers laced into his hair. And just as he thought he was in control of the kiss, she took over, stepping closer into him, pressing her body against his. Touching him just where he needed her to, pressing just when he needed it, and pulling away just when he felt like he had reached perfection.

She traced a line from his mouth to his to the erogenous zone just behind his ear. “Take me back to your room,” she whispered, nipping his earlobe ever so slightly. His cock jumped to life, hard and hot. Damn, she was going to make him come right in his pants, and she’d only touched the skin around his face and neck. If he didn’t do something, and quick, he’d embarrass himself. Why would this woman possibly come back for seconds if he didn’t have the control of a randy school boy getting his first hand job? Shit, she wasn’t even touching his cock.

Grabbing her hand, he stepped away. “Let’s take a swim.” Cold Maine waters would be perfect. But the thought of her swimming naked didn’t cool his ardor one bit. The sudden need to swim with her overwhelmed his senses. Images of the water splashing over her naked body as he made love to her while the ocean surrounded them flooded his mind, spurring his need.

“No.” Barely a whisper, but it was enough to stop him pulling her toward to path down to the beach. “No, I can’t.”

“Why not?” He smiled. He knew she’d been naked this afternoon, so that wasn’t it, and she’d just suggested in the sexiest voice he’d ever heard to go back to his room. “I’ll even be a gentleman and turn my back until you’re in the water.”

“Please don’t ask me why. I just can’t.” With that she ran, ran from him, ran in the opposite direction—leaving him harder and hornier than he had ever been.

Kicking a stone on the path back to the Haus, Kaleb wondered if the water would be cold enough to ease the ache in him. Because he wasn’t sure even a dip in the Bering Sea would be cold enough tonight. “Yep, this is a fucking Looney Tunes island.
Crazy Haus
makes more sense.”

Chapter Four

C
EMIL
P
USHED
T
HE
S
AND
around with his feet, but continued to stay silent. Serena bit her bottom lip, certain the siblings would say they’d had enough of her antics and it was time to leave. But this time, she really had tried to do the right thing. She had run as fast as she could, as long as she could, away from the temptation to take Kaleb up on his offer to swim.

Serena, having decided that Cemil’s silence was the nail in her locker, stood and started walking toward the ocean. She took one more look around, hoping to catch sight of Kaleb just once to see him and hold that image in her head for eternity. As her toes hit the water, the familiar buzz of the ocean beckoned her home and welcomed her.

“Serena, where are you going?” Cemil looked up from the patterns he had been drawing in the sand. “You always think the worst. Even when you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I seduced a man.”

“Was he willing?”

“Yes.”

“Who initiated the kiss?”

“He did.”

“Did you sing to him?”

Serena stepped back onto shore. “You know I can’t sing. Rekkus has made sure of that.”

“Did you hum?” Cemil looked at her knowingly.

“No.” She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised that the witches knew her tricks. “I didn’t try anything. It just happened, and then he was asking me to swim.”

“Swim? In these waters? Serena, there might be other reasons why a man chooses cold water over a warm bed.” He sighed. “You have always stayed away from human men. You told us that you never felt drawn to them. Perhaps you never felt you could trust yourself. You’ve only ever had sex with Paras. Men who were never in danger of losing their hearts, because so far no fate has mated a mermaid since the last merman disappeared.”

“I don’t think I understand.”

“With Rekkus, he knew what you were. You came to him for sex—no more, no less. There was never a chance for there to be more. With Kaleb, there
is
something more; we all see it. Hells, Myron’s cards feel it. It’s stronger than what any of us can understand. It’s called free will. Kaleb has it—every human does. It’s his choice to come to you, to be with you. Paras find their mates and the feeling come with that. Yes, that can be nice, but with Kaleb, he’ll either choose you or not. He can choose to stay or walk away. And nothing you do or say will change the growing feeling he has for you.”

“So I should leave.”

“Why would you leave?”

“I can’t give him children, can’t swim with him ever, and I can’t be his mate.”

“Wife. Humans don’t have mates. Besides, I doubt he’s thought that far ahead yet. I think his thoughts are more basic than that.”

“So I should stay?”