Annette Blair (14 page)

When she put a pillow beneath his knee, and ice packs above and beneath the swelling, he thought he was gonna pass out from relief. As a matter of fact, he had to lay his head back and close his eyes for a minute as some kind of weakness flooded him. He knew that seeing something
that glorious was gonna kill him, and he didn’t care.

When he opened his eyes, Kira was watching him with . . . concern? Wow, that would be different, plus he didn’t deserve it, pervert that he was.

Had he passed out, though? Because she was tying the belt on a soft figure-hugging turquoise robe.

Jason raised a brow. “Turquoise?”

“You’re hallucinating,” she said, swabbing his throbbing temple with some kind of stinging antiseptic.

“Ouch?”

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think you would feel pain during a hallucination.”

“Right. So I’m
not
covered with a beautiful handmade quilt?” He fingered the perfect stitching. “And these are not jewel-toned butterfly pillows on a
red
sofa? And you were not just wearing the most amazing see-through—”

She straightened. “See through?”

“I didn’t see a thing.”

“Right,” she said. “Because you’ve fallen down a rabbit hole. Nothing will be the same when you wake. You’ll forget you had this dream.”

“I will
never
forget this dream.”

“Shh,” she said, lighting a white candle, releasing the scent of vanilla and something flowery into the room. “Take a deep breath, hold it, let the pain go, relax, breathe out, and heal.”

And damned if Jason didn’t feel enchanted enough to believe he was doing exactly that.

He watched her lift the quilt off his leg, felt her cup his knee, the heat of her hand going deep, bringing a measure of relief.

Move your hand a bit higher,
he thought, Harvey coming to life in anticipation of the wish being granted.

Kira shook her head and checked his ice packs. “I’ll be right back.” She returned to the kitchen. “I’m going for a couple of fresh ice packs. Anything else ache?”

“Everything else aches . . . especially Harvey.”

Kira’s answering chuckle was both enchanting and . . . promising.

“Don’t worry about a thing,” she said, returning. “Kira will make it all better.”

Jason sat straighter. “All of it?”

“Harvey, of course, will fall asleep.”

“He doesn’t
seem
sleepy—Wait! Where’s your wand?”

“Don’t worry. Harvey’s safe. But you need to rest and heal more than anything.”

He wanted to say he needed to get laid more than anything, but maybe that was too blunt, even for a rabbit hole. After all, this was only their first rabbit hole. Maybe in their second. If there ever was a second.

She cupped his knee through the quilt and he could almost feel a warm healing energy infusing him. “Are you some kind of healing witch?”

“I’m a solitary white witch just trying to ease your pain. Do you feel soothed?”

“Horny. I feel horny.”

Kira laughed.

“What does ‘solitary’ mean?”

“I don’t belong to a coven. I’m not Wicca.”

“In other words, you’re on your own.”

“Right. I do my own thing.”

“And ‘white’ means you’re a good witch?”

“Define
good
.” She wiggled her brows, intriguing the hell out of him.

She took the first ice pack away, slipped a new one behind his knee and another on his fat kneecap. “Are there any meds that you should take? I could get them for you.”

“You’re a goddess,” he said. “Nobody has ever taken such good care of me. I’m used to somebody tossing me an ice pack and walking away.”

“You’re kidding?”

Jason shrugged, refusing to be pitied. “On the whole, guys don’t show much sensitivity in a locker room. I don’t know why.”

She smiled the way he hoped she would.

“Can I get your meds?”

“I don’t take anything but aspirin.”

“You want me to get you some?”

“I’m okay for now. How come you’re still awake at this hour? I thought you were bushed.”

“I fell asleep at six and woke up starving.”

Jason nodded. “I did pretty much the same. I might still be sleeping except for the knee. I am hungry, though, but if chocolate sauce is all we’ve got, I’ll pass.”

“Oh, the chocolate sauce was just an appetizer to hold me over, until I could find real food.”

“As in?”

She tilted her head. “A grilled-cheese sandwich.”

“Trade you for the Hummer.”

“Deal,” she said, heading for the kitchen. He heard her knock some pans around, open and close the fridge, while he examined her living room as if he’d never seen it before.

His parents had furnished it with earth tones, but Kira brought it to life by picking up the honey gold, crimson, royal blue, and emerald green in the Gothic arched stained-glass window.

Then she’d turned the window into the focal point of the room by hanging a clear glass shelf beneath it, topped with bright candles and clear compartmentalized glass tubes layered with herbs, seeds, and spices. He saw that her wand rested there as well, atop its purple velvet pouch, beside a crystal salt cellar.

His living room’s matching stained-glass window looked lifeless compared to this one. His entire living room seemed without life compared to Kira’s. He liked it better here.

He read the spines on the books between the pineapple bookends on her coffee table.
Prince Smarmy; Boyfriends into Frogs and Other Fun Spells
. Jason chuckled.
How to Charm Your Way Out of a Bad Relationship. Mastering the Naughty Witch Inside. Never Cross a Witch with PMS. Sex and the Single Witch.

Jason bent to choose one, until he heard Kira’s bare feet padding his way.

She appeared in the doorway, a dishtowel over one soft turquoise shoulder, and he wondered if
mastering
her naughty witch meant making good use of it or keeping it at bay.

He grinned, suddenly up for finding out. Literally “up.”

“What?” she asked.

“You look . . . snuggable?”

“Then think of me as an electric fence. Do you like tomato juice?”

“Yes,” he said, watching her go, fantasizing about electric charges of another sort.

He shivered and pulled her quilt over his shoulders. With the ice packs lowering his body temp, a power surge this intense could put him into shock.

Jason sought a diversion and found it in the quilt she’d thrown over him, a work of art bearing every color of the rainbow.

He picked up a similar unfinished square from the coffee table. Judging by the needle and crimson thread, Kira must be the artist.

She returned with a tray of quartered grilled-cheese sandwiches and two glasses of tomato juice.

He held up the quilt square. “Pretty bright stuff for a woman in black. This
is
your handiwork, isn’t it?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she whispered, covering his mouth with a finger. “Shh. We’re in a rabbit hole. Nothing is as it seems and neither of us will remember any of it.”

“EAT,”
Kira said, shoving a wedge of cheese sandwich into his mouth. She switched his ice packs for fresh ones and returned the originals to the freezer. When she came back, she sat in the corner of the sofa beside him and raised her legs to tuck her bare feet beneath his thigh.

He looked down at her exposed ankles, her legs bare to the hem of her robe, then up at her, his temperature rising.

“My feet are cold,” she said with a grin. “And you’re toasty warm under there.” She grabbed a sandwich and took a bite while he got a picture of her toasting her feet on some of his warmer parts.

“You made enough,” he said, dragging a corner of the quilt over her ankles before taking another quarter sandwich.

“I worked up an appetite this afternoon, and I wasn’t even on the ice. I figured if I could eat two sandwiches, you could eat four.”

“Bless you.”

“How long has it been since your parents lived here?”

“I don’t think they ever really
lived
here,” he said. “Mostly, they just stayed here when they visited. Gram’s the one who raised me. My parents came more often when I was small, of course, but never for more than a few weeks at a time, and only to issue orders about my upbringing that Gram thankfully ignored after they left.”

“That’s . . . that’s—”

“The way it was. It did suck in a way, but at least I had Gram, unlike the boys we worked with today. Gram was the constant in my life, and I was the constant in hers. We’re the lucky ones.”

Jason wished he hadn’t revealed so much. On the other hand, Kira had invited him into her rabbit hole, tended and fed him. The least he could do was tell her the truth. Not that it felt comfortable, this sharing shit. “Nothing
leaves
the rabbit hole, right?” he confirmed.

She placed her hand on her heart. “Witch’s promise.”

He nodded, only half thrown by the sorcery in the promise, and grabbed another sandwich. “Tell me about
your
family,” he said. “Siblings?”

“Five.” She licked a piece of warm cheese from the corner of her mouth.

“Five? That’s a big family these days. Must have been fun growing up.”

“You’re being facetious, right? I have five siblings; we’re six children, plus grandpa, so that makes us a family of nine.”

“No shit? Small house, you said, right? How many bathrooms?”

“One and a half now. Used to be just the one.”

“You’re kidding?”

She grinned. “Strengthens the bladder.”

Jason nearly choked on his sandwich. “Girls? Boys? And where do you fall into the scheme? Not in the middle, I presume. Already you strike me as more like a first child, a bossy overachiever.”

“Hah. Good call. My brother Michael is the oldest in
the family, but I’m the oldest of the three girls. I’m the second child, so I try harder.”

“Three boys and three girls. Cool. Good odds. Always somebody to play with.”

“Hah. Or fight with, or lose your toys to, your friends, your dessert, your clothes—you name it. Hell, I even lost the Penis to one of my—”

She bit her lip. “Forget I said that.”

“Tell me you’re joking.”

Kira rubbed her arms. “A big family is not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Which sister?” Jason asked.

“Rabbit hole secret?”

He placed his sandwich to his heart. “Gimp jock’s oath.”

She chuckled, and he felt pretty good about making her smile, under the circumstances.

“My sister Regan.”

“How did you find out?”

“I got a visual,” Kira said. “Up close and personal.”

Jason winced. Shit. “No wonder you canceled the wedding.”

“To my parents’ horror.”

“They thought you should marry the jerk?”

“I could hardly tell them about my sister, now could I?”

“Sure you could.”

“And hurt my parents? There had already been enough hurt. It had to stop somewhere.”

Jason leaned over to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye with the tip of his finger. “They hurt you, didn’t they, your parents, because they didn’t trust you to make the right decision?”

Kira caught her breath, closed her eyes, and leaned into his hand at her cheek. He’d salted an open wound and her pain infused him.

She regained her composure before he did, shrugged, and took another piece of sandwich. Feeling like a robot,
Jason did the same, her pain too raw inside him to think of anything else. The vanilla scent of her candle surrounded them.

They became quiet, in harmony, munching grilled-cheese sandwiches while a life-scarred door leading to a deeper, more sacred rabbit hole—a cocoon where butterflies of new dreams warred with ghosts of slayed dreams—lay open and inviting between them.

Jason felt as if Kira stood on one side of the door, while he stood on the other, both of them afraid to cross, despite an attraction as unrelenting as the moon’s pull on the sea.

He wondered for a minute if Kira’s enchantment stirred these wild fantasies he was having, and he realized it probably did, but not the kind of enchantment she made with her wand.

Hers was a natural kinetic force that had hit him the first time he saw her. He’d denied it then; he’d deny it again tomorrow, but right now, in the rabbit hole, there was no mistaking it.

Kira shrugged again, as if to prove that her parents’ doubts, her sister’s betrayal, and the cheating Penis didn’t matter, which told him otherwise.

She offered him a napkin. “Didn’t your parents hurt you by leaving you for your grandmother to raise?”

“I didn’t care. I still don’t.”

“Like hell you don’t.”

“Look, just because you’ve got ghosts to face, don’t go making me dig any up.”

“Hah! You
have
to dig some up. Remember the ghost tour?”

“Hey,” he said. “I’m calling rabbit hole privilege here.” And shutting that other door as well, he thought.

“Rabbit hole privilege?” she asked.

“Reality has no place in the rabbit hole, especially job-related reality.”

Kira nodded. “And never the twain shall meet?”

“Deal,” Jason said, extending his hand.

“Deal,” she said placing hers in his, and on the strength of the faith in her look, and the need in her touch, Jason pulled her close. “I’m sorry you were hurt by the people you love,” he whispered in her ear.