Rampant

There was a determined look to her stride. She seemed rather tense and a little distant. What had Davot said to her? “Any trouble with Davot?”

“No. He has a very interesting portrait of your ghost pal that you should see.”

That surprised him. “A portrait of Annabel?”

“Yes, I thought that would have your research radar up and running.” Sarcasm rang in her tone.

He didn’t comment, but he made a mental note that he had to find out about Cain’s interest. “Why do you want to go to the house now? Was it something to do with what you saw?”

She took a deep breath. “I had a vision at the marina on the way up there. Ewan was there, the coven master, and another man that Annabel was interested in, a fisherman. He was married. She wanted him, although her lover was the coven master.” She delivered the details in a perfunctory manner and continued to shoot sidelong glances at him as they walked.

“It seems as if she really likes you. She’s keying in to you even more frequently.”

“I suppose I should feel like the lucky one?” She looked at him with one raised eyebrow, and then shook her head. “Everybody seems to want a piece of her and right now she’s all mine.”

“Zoë, is this bothering you?” Her attitude was beginning to worry him. Davot had unsettled her, for sure.

“I really want to go back to the house. Before I was a bit, you know—well, scared. But now I want to see her, it’s almost as if I want her to appear, to be sure it’s her in that painting. Although I do know it is her, I can tell it is her by the way she talks to me.”

Or it could be an enchantment, Grayson thought.

He didn’t want to say too much on that point until he understood it himself. The fact that Davot had a portrait of Annabel alerted him to outside intervention.

They walked in silence for a moment. It was a warm day and the seafront was fast filling with day-trippers. He noticed that Zoë glanced left and right when they passed the post office and the boatyard. She had the hotspots off pat. Instinct or not, she was good.

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked, as they approached Her Haven.

“Well, that’s what you want to do, isn’t it?” Her reply was sarcastic. Something was definitely amiss.

After the previous night he’d felt close to her, and that had been really good, but now there was a distance between them that he wanted rid of. The distance made him feel angry, an emotion he wasn’t accustomed to. It made him want to snatch her against him and keep her locked there.

He never was good at communicating with women, but it seemed as if he was doing a worse job than ever with Zoë. It annoyed him. Protection was at the forefront of his mind, but he was also experiencing emotions that were new to him. It was unnerving. He had barely kept himself in check that morning, when he wanted to act selfishly and forbid her to go anywhere without him. He reasoned that it wasn’t without cause. Cain had sent Elspeth to spy on them the night before. It had been a hard thing for him to let Zoë walk into the viper’s nest without him.

He stopped walking and grabbed her arm, pulling her against him. He was about to demand to know what had been said up there at the Tide Inn, when

her head dropped back and she looked up at him with her lips softly parted. All he wanted to do was kiss her, and that need surpassed all others.

There was resistance in her, at first. Her shoulders tensed but when he brushed his mouth over hers she gave a whimper and her lips parted for him, her hands rising against his chest. She nestled closer and when he tasted her mouth, her hips arched against his. His blood headed south and his cock grew hard inside a heartbeat.

She felt soft and eager in his arms. This is what he wanted, her desire. She clutched at him; she wanted him as much as he did her, and yet warning signals were sounding all around. He felt as if he wasn’t up to speed with what was really happening here, and that didn’t lie easily with him. Did he need to take a step back, or get even closer? His instincts were shot to hell, and the soft, luscious woman in his arms wasn’t making that any easier.

The sound of kids laughing in the background brought them both back to their surroundings.

“Come with me,” she whispered, smiling, when they drew apart, her eyes like melting chocolate as she looked up at him. “I need to take a shower, and I want you.”

The invitation was right there, and there wasn’t an ounce of him that could resist.

Zoë lathered his broad chest, and told herself to enjoy him and stop worrying. He was quiet, but the silence between them felt more comfortable than it had earlier. She noticed that he looked concerned, as if a small part of his mind was focused elsewhere. He did want her, though. The impressive erection that curved up to his belly proved that much.

You’re not interested in research, she said to his beautiful, solid cock, silently, as she sluiced the flowing water over his chest with her hands, then moved down toward her target. You just want to be inside me, getting your rocks off.

His cock jerked upwards into her grasp, as if nodding in agreement. She smiled.

Sometimes simple was good.

Sometimes simple was magic.

Her head jerked up and she studied him. The showerhead was only just above him, and the water bounced off his head, radiating all around, making him look surreal. All this talk of ghosts and magic had her thinking crazy thoughts. A shiver ran down her back.