They set about eating their main course with little conversation, except the occasional comment on the quality of the food or the environment. They were discussing the weather forecast by the time they’d finished their meals, and Kiki seemed a lot more sober. She had sipped the lemon-water with her gnocchi and had only eaten a third or so of her plate before signaling to the waitress that she’d like to take the rest home. Nothing was left of the seafood feast Jack had ordered, and he’d enjoyed every last bite of the deliciously prepared meal.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you were hungry,” Kiki observed with a grin. “I have three brothers, but I’ve never seen a man eat that much in one sitting.”
Jack rubbed his stomach and grinned back at her. “Then, you have obviously never seen the Bishop boys at the dinner table. I think me and my brothers can out-eat anybody on the planet. There were often fork fights over the last roll in the basket. See?” He held up his hand and pointed to a non-existent scar. “This is where King stuck me with a fork when I was twelve.”
Kiki giggled as he’d hoped she would. “I don’t believe you.” She leaned forward to inspect his hand. “You don’t have a scar.”
“It healed,” he shrugged. What he’d said was the honest truth, but his shifter metabolism and innate magic had made short work of the small wound.
The waitress came over with Kiki’s doggie bag and the check, which Jack paid for with the spiffy new company credit card Beth and Trevor had given him for this job. He was officially an employee of SeaLife Enterprises for the duration of this mission, and Trevor had even talked about future work for the company after this task was done. Jack was seriously considering the idea. If he could work from Grizzly Cove, he could at least see his brothers and their new mates between missions. It would never be like it was, with the three of them working together all the time, but it could still be good.
His brothers were intensely happy now, and he didn’t begrudge them that at all. No, Jack was truly happy for his brothers. In fact, he hoped to find a mate of his own and settle down like they had—at some point in the future—but lightning had already struck twice in the Bishop family. It would be too much to think that Jack could find his mate so soon.
Although… If he was going to find a mate, he would be hard-pressed to find a woman nicer and sweeter than Kiki. She was pretty, smart, and not much of a drinker. A fact that he was reminded of when she stood a little unsteadily after he’d paid the bill. Jack immediately took her arm to steady her, and she looked up to meet his gaze.
Time stood still as their eyes met and held. The busy restaurant and the noise all around them faded into insignificance.
“Sorry. I guess I’m still feeling the effects of that delicious wine,” she said, a little breathless.
“Let me walk you home. It’s late, and I’d like to make sure you get there safely.” He tried hard to keep the possessive growl of his inner bear out of his voice.
She agreed, and they left the restaurant together. She was carrying the little doggie bag containing the uneaten portion of her meal. She had even put what little of the bread left in the basket that had been served with their meal into the bag, which made him realize that she was a thrifty soul. She didn’t let anything go to waste. She’d talked about having to keep her job, even when she knew things were wrong there, to pay her bills. He supposed he’d have to look into her financial situation to verify, but he suspected she was living frugally because she had to watch every penny.
No shame in that. He’d been there a time or two, himself. Not all shifters were independently wealthy. He and his brothers had lived from hand-to-mouth most of their lives, and he respected Kiki’s steadfast strength in going back to the factory in spite of what she’d claimed to have witnessed.
He’d have to look further into everything she’d told him, just to be sure, but his gut was telling him she was on the level. If she wasn’t, she was some kind of master of deception, and he just didn’t think that was the case. Still, he had to be cautious and dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. He was on SeaLife’s payroll now, and he had to answer to his immediate boss, Ezra Tate, and ultimately to Trevor, and his mate, Beth, who owned the company.
Jack wouldn’t skimp when it came to his job. He had an obligation to do the best possible work for his friends and employers. The stakes were high. SeaLife had become a thing of horror due to Beth’s stepfather dealing in illegal and disgusting activities, including acts of human trafficking, money laundering, drug smuggling, and even murder-for-hire. Beth and Trevor were trying to set things right, and Jack was part of that. He wanted to help them get things back on the straight and narrow.
But he also found himself falling for the babe in the woods—the pretty paper pusher who had no head for alcohol. He liked Kiki. There was no equivocating. He really liked her. A lot. He wasn’t altogether sure he trusted her yet, but that would come, he hoped, as soon as he had a chance to double-check her story.
He walked her home, his senses on alert for anything out of the ordinary. He caught the scent of evil not far from her door, and a frisson of dark magic made him want to shake out his fur, but it was an older trace. Whoever had been casting spells—or whatever it was they had been doing—was long gone now. The energies left behind by such workings were hours—maybe even days—old.
The feeling got stronger as Kiki slowed her steps and reached into her pocket to retrieve her keys. Whatever had been done, it was Kiki’s home that was at the center of the magical working. Of that, Jack was sure.
“Well, this is my place,” she said needlessly as they stopped in front of the garden gate.
A short walkway led to a quaint cottage set only a few yards off the street. They weren’t too far from the center of town here, but it was a small town, and the area around Kiki’s cottage was all very similar. Row houses and small cottages were side by side, each with a small front garden, the houses separated by narrow driveways that led to garages in the rear of the houses. It was quaint. And vulnerable.
“Cute place,” he commented, nodding toward the house.
“I liked it the moment I saw it, and the rent was very reasonable,” she replied. “I liked the garden most of all. Lots of herbs and flowers.”
The garden was wild looking to his eyes. He could see a lot better than regular humans in the dark, thanks to his bear half, and he didn’t see anything sinister in the front yard as she unlatched the gate and walked through. He followed, though she hadn’t exactly invited him into the garden. Still, he had this sense that he needed to see her right up to her door and safely tucked inside.
He entered the garden and immediately felt the peace of the place. Looking down, he noticed a faint line of white on the ground. It could easily have been mistaken for sand, but he knew without asking that it was a fine line of salt. Kitchen witchery, some might call it, but it was effective, nonetheless.
Whatever malevolent magic he’d sensed outside the boundaries of this garden, it did not penetrate here. The salt, or maybe the garden itself, kept the evil at bay. Dark magic had tried and failed to enter here. It had been gently, but powerfully, repulsed.
Somehow, Kiki—or possibly one of her neighbors, or even the landlord who owned her cottage—had known enough to run a line of salt across the threshold. Then again, Kiki had probably done this herself, since she’d mentioned breaking out the salt after what she’d seen in the warehouse.
Words of magic invocation had probably been spoken as well. Jack couldn’t be sure exactly what had been done, but it had definitely been protective magic. The salt line had formed a barrier that nothing intent on doing harm could pass.
The feeling and scent of dark magic had dissipated the moment he’d stepped over the line, even though it had been almost oppressively strong on the other side of that faint, salty line. If he had to piece together what might have transpired, he’d say someone intent on either spying on or causing harm to Kiki had come right up to her garden gate, but the rudimentary protection had stopped them in their tracks.
As they walked slowly toward the front door, Jack noticed the plants, growing wild and free in an unorganized chaos that soothed his senses. This was no rigid garden pruned to within an inch of its life. No, this was more a collection of plants placed in various spots and allowed to grow where they willed.
It was natural. Welcoming. It had an innocent, wild magic, all its own. He could see why she liked this garden. It was like walking out of the human world on the street just beyond the gate into an enchanted forest.
He was getting fanciful. Maybe he’d also had too much of the Chianti? Or, maybe, it was the woman who affected him so greatly. She went up the two little steps that led onto a small covered porch. He noted the weathered rocking chair off to one side where a person could sit and look out at the garden, maybe sipping a cup of tea. Though, where that image came from, he had no idea. Jack wasn’t altogether certain he’d ever had a cup of tea in his life.
Still, the image persisted. He could just see Kiki sitting there in the early evening breeze, watching the last rays of the setting sun, sipping a steaming cup of herbal tea. Was he seeing an echo of something she’d done? Or, more likely, was he just letting his imagination run away with the fairies?
Fairies? Now, what made him think of those immensely powerful creatures? Jack wanted to shake his head. He was getting confused between the magical vision he was seeing—the porch tableau overlaid with a glow of fairy lights.
There was something weird about this place.
Yet another thing he would have to investigate. But not right now. No, as he followed Kiki up onto the small porch and watched her fumble with her key, he wanted only one thing more in this magical evening.
She opened the door and turned to him, a triumphant smile on her face for having managed to get the door open after more than a few tries. He couldn’t help himself. Maybe it was the magic of the place reaching out to him. Maybe it was the woman before him, her face framed in starlight and the magical glow of the garden that seemed to intensify the longer he was in it. Maybe it was just natural that he give in to the smoldering attraction he’d felt for Kiki since almost the first moment they’d met.
Whatever it was, it compelled him to dip his head closer. Inhaling her delectable scent, he brushed her smiling lips with his and captured her little gasp against his mouth.
Testing to see if she’d freeze up or push him away, he waited, patient, his mouth caressing hers lightly, until… Yes. She moved into his embrace as his arms came up around her. She wasn’t pushing him away. Far from it.
She moved closer, and he took it as implicit permission to kiss her a little more intimately.
Kiki could scarcely believe it. She was in Jack’s arms, his mouth on hers, and he was kissing the very breath from her body.
She liked it. She really liked it. Perhaps too much, but she wouldn’t ruin the moment by thinking about that now. No, now, all she wanted to do was kiss him back.
She opened herself to the experience and drank in the sensations. His lips were demanding, coaxing, seductive and strong. Nothing about Jack was tentative, and she found she liked that very much. This was a man who knew what he wanted and reached out to take it. Not by force, but with gentle seduction that was both mesmerizing and rewarding.
His kiss coaxed her to give in to whatever he might ask for—physically, mentally, and emotionally. She knew that path was dangerous. She didn’t want him to leave her with a broken heart. She barely knew the man, and her standards were high. That didn’t prevent her from enjoying the first kiss she’d shared with a man in way too long.
She leaned into him and loved the way his strength enveloped her. He was a big man. A strongly muscled man, as she came to feel firsthand. He might eat like a bear, but there wasn’t an ounce of flab on him. His muscles rippled under her stroking fingers as she reached up to his shoulders. Good heavens. He was built like an athlete.
She hadn’t expected that. While farm work had made the men she’d known in her youth strong and muscular, Jack was ripped in a way that spoke of discipline and rigorous exercise. She hadn’t been able to discern it under his clothing in the office, but touching him was like touching a marble statue of one of the Greek gods. The only difference being that he was warm and vibrant, and his muscles moved, flexing and releasing, under her questing touch.
Heat filled her body at the realization, just as he broke the kiss. She realized, to her embarrassment, that her lips followed his until he moved out of reach. She’d wanted more. She hadn’t wanted the moment to end.
“I should let you go,” he said, her heart dropping into her shoes at his retreat. Had she done something wrong? Had he realized she wasn’t very experienced with men? She felt her cheeks flush with heat and dropped her gaze.
When she didn’t say anything, he placed one finger under her chin and tilted her head up. She complied, reluctantly. What she found, when she met his gaze, was a banked fire in the depths of his eyes that matched the fire coursing through her own blood. Seeing that set her more at ease. He wasn’t leaving because she’d done something wrong or turned him off. He was leaving because… Because he was a gentleman, she supposed. Hm. That was surprising, as well.
She’d long been told that most men pushed as far as a woman would go and then some, not handling rejection well. But Jack was ending this even before it really got going, of his own volition. What did that mean? She could see the desire in his eyes. She was confident enough to believe he wanted more but was deliberately backing off. So, why?
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” he said, a faint smile playing about his lips. Lips that she’d discovered the feel and taste of now, she thought dreamily.
But his words gave her a clue. Work. He had to work tomorrow and so did she. At the same company, though not, technically, in the same chain of command. Maybe that’s why he was controlling himself and not asking for more. That had to be it.
Jack sighed at her continued silence. “I really enjoyed our time together. Dinner would have been very lonely without your company,” he said.
She nodded, still unable to speak, really. He’d scrambled her senses with that amazing kiss.
“Um. Me, too.” Hm. That didn’t make much sense. She tried again. “I mean, I would’ve just taken my order to go and come back here if I hadn’t met up with you in the restaurant. Thank you again, for picking up the tab.”
“Thank SeaLife. They’re paying for it,” he quipped, smiling down at her. “Think of it as a perk of the job.”
She frowned, remembering what she’d told him about looking for a new job. “I’m sorry if I said anything I shouldn’t have,” she said. “I did like the factory until I saw… Whatever it was that I saw.”
“Try not to think about it,” he counselled, “but keep your eyes open. I was sent here because the management at SeaLife knew something was wrong here. Corporate sent in another troubleshooter a few months ago, but he couldn’t penetrate what was going on. I think you might have given me a new avenue to investigate.” He touched the frown line between her eyes with his thumb as his hand went to her temple. “Just don’t draw attention, and if you do find another job, you should probably take it, if it gets you out of here. I do plan to clean this place up. It may not be pretty, though. It might even be a bit dangerous.” He lowered his hand, and she missed the gentle stroking of his thumb on her forehead.
“I’m just glad somebody is going to do something. It’s creepy working there now, after…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. It seemed so weird to talk about what she’d seen. It was even weirder that Jack wasn’t running the other way, calling the men in the white coats to come get her. The fact that he hadn’t even blinked when she’d described what she’d seen alarmed her a bit. Then, a thought occurred to her. “Have you run across that sort of thing before?”
Jack backed up a step, breaking all contact between them. She immediately missed his closeness. His warmth. He was looking at her oddly when she met his gaze.
“Tell me, what do you see when you look at this garden?” He gestured toward the haphazard collection of plants in the front yard. “What do you feel?”
“It’s messy,” she said. “But I like it. It feels peaceful. Natural.”
“Anything else?” he prompted gently.
“It feels good. Pure,” she went on. “Like nothing bad could ever happen here.”
He just looked at her for a moment before he spoke again. “Did you put the salt line across the garden gate?”