Must Be Magic (8 page)

When she’d left the house, it had
been her intention to go to the police and have Myghal carted away. But the
more she thought about it, she knew she couldn’t do it. She found herself going
to the strip mall and buying jeans, shirts, and a jacket for him, paying out
money she couldn’t really afford.

She’d been pinching pennies until
Lincoln squealed as the saying went, for so long that it felt strange to walk
into a shop and buy something new that didn’t have to do with the nursery.

The guy just needed a chance to
get back on his feet. As to why he thought he should dress like a Pixie instead
of a Leprechaun for St. Patrick’s Day, she didn’t have a clue. He had that
slight English accent, so maybe it was a tradition wherever he was from. A place
where they had healers instead of doctors and guardsmen instead of police.

Calling things by different names
and dressing like a Pixie wasn’t enough to get him committed.

He’d
certainly been a boon for business! Cars all but screeched to a halt and quickly
turned into her driveway. Myghal had spent the morning working with the flower
plants, rearranging them, watering them, repotting those that needed it. After
lunch, he’d taken off his jacket and worked in his shirtsleeves in the
unseasonably warm afternoon. With few exceptions, the drivers of the cars were
female. Most held two or three.

The
women would begin by strolling through the plants, but they invariably
gravitated toward Myghal. As far as Kerry could tell, the women would strike up
the conversations, but she couldn’t help but notice that Myghal was almost as
attentive to them as he was to her. Almost.

Many of them wandered away again,
with smiles on their faces and plants in their arms. Myghal made sure each one
left with a shamrock and an Irish rose. But one woman had been there longer
than any of them. She was pretty in a dark, sultry way with a mane of black
hair and long, lithe legs. She stayed close to Myghal even when others
approached, as if staking out her property.

Several times, Kerry started to
go out there but stopped herself. She’d never been the jealous type, and she
didn’t understand where this overwhelming need to claim him came from. Maybe
the same place her feelings for him originated. Some place deep inside that no
man had ever tapped before.

She told herself over and over
there was no reason to be jealous. She hadn’t seen him touch any of them
intimately or lean close to whisper suggestively—not even the sultry brunette.
Perhaps he was just being polite. Perhaps…

Kerry
threw down the shears and yanked off her gloves.

Perhaps
he was just being
more
polite to her. Free room and board and sex. What
more could an itinerant alien ask for?

Kerry crossed the greenhouse to
her desk in the corner. She had paperwork to do. Piles and piles of paperwork.
And as grateful as she was for this day’s little spurt in sales, it was too
little, too late. She barely had enough to cover next month’s expenses. What
about the month after that? If Myghal could keep pulling them in in droves for
the next six months, she
might
make it, but she had the feeling the
novelty would wear off soon enough—especially if he didn’t respond to their
obvious advances.

What if
he did?

Her
suspicions provoked, she couldn’t put
that
genie back in the bottle.

Both situations—financial
and emotional—were hopeless. With one last bitter glance at Myghal and the
black-haired woman standing almost close enough to touch, she dove into her
paperwork.

*
* * * *

For a long time Kerry was aware
of nothing except columns of numbers that were never big enough for incoming
and too big for outgoing. Suddenly, she looked up to find Myghal staring at her
from the edge of her office space. He smiled, and she almost melted. Then she
remembered the brunette and looked out the tiny area of window not obscured by
plants. The leggy woman was still out there, standing among the rose bushes,
her arms crossed. She seemed impatient.

Kerry
turned her gaze back to Myghal. “Your customer is waiting for you.”

He
shrugged. Was the movement too casual, as if he were only pretending not to
care? Kerry shook herself mentally. It really wasn’t in her nature to be overly
suspicious. But a woman like
that
didn’t hang around unless she was sure
of a payoff.

“She
won’t buy anything, but she won’t go away.” He held up an empty bottle. “Do you
have more?”

Kerry nodded and opened the
mini-fridge. She handed him a full bottle of water from the six-pack she’d
bought that morning. He uncapped it and took a long drink. Kerry couldn’t help
the thought that flitted through her mind—that she wished his lips were sucking
on her clit instead of the water bottle. Her body grew warm, watching him,
thinking about what he could do with those talented lips. It was all she could
do not to sweep her desk clean, sprawl on her back, and spread her legs for
him.

He
wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Thank you. Here, water in bottles
tastes much better than what pours from your…uh, spigots.”

Kerry
pushed aside the ledger she’d been working on. “You don’t have bottled or running
water where you come from?”

He
slowly screwed the cap back on the bottle. He looked cornered, as if he
searched for a way to answer her.

“No bottled water,” he said at
last.

But that didn’t answer the second
part of her question about running water. She didn’t ask again. She wasn’t sure
she wanted to know. After all, a stream could be called running water.

Kerry jumped to her feet. She had
to move, to get away from her corner. The transparent walls of the greenhouse
were beginning to close in on her, and that wasn’t good at all. She marched
around the desk and headed for the door.

“I’m going to see if your friend
wants anything.”

Myghal
caught up to her and stopped her before she’d gone another yard.

“She’s
not my friend. You’re the only friend I have here.”

She
pulled loose from his hold on her arm. “Why is that? I don’t understand where
you’re from, what you’re doing here, or why I—”

Kerry
broke off and bit her lip. She wasn’t about to spill her guts to him about her
feelings when she knew so little about him.

“You
sound angry, Kerry O’Neill.” Gently, he took her into his arms. “Have I done
something wrong?”

She almost blurted out that
everything was all wrong, but she went into his embrace instead. And that made
everything all right. It felt right to be close to him, to hold him and be held
by him, to make love with him until it seemed like they floated off the bed.

“I’m
not angry. I’m—” But she was at a loss for words, unable to express all the
emotions boiling over inside of her.

“You’re
what, Kerry? Fighting the urge to make love?”

She
nodded. It wasn’t all she was fighting, but sex with Myghal seemed to have
taken over and become the most important. What was balancing the books and
trying to find a way to save her business compared to fucking Myghal?

He kissed her, taking her breath
and her tongue, sucking hard. The mock fucking set her clit afire and desire
burning through her veins. He backed her up all the way to her office space,
past the row of potted pampas grass, until the backs of her thighs hit the edge
of her desk. Was he a mind reader?

His
fingers fumbled with the snap and zipper of her jeans as his mouth continued to
devour her. When he grunted in frustration, Kerry helped to unfasten her pants,
then undid his as well. She reached in and pulled his cock free, the silky skin
hot and hard. She stroked it repeatedly as Myghal’s hand dove inside her
panties, two fingers curling up inside her, the knuckle of his thumb pressed to
her clit.

“I
don’t understand…” Kerry whispered, massaging his cock and leaning into his
hand as his fingers fucked her. “I don’t understand why I want you all the
time.”

His
fingers delved even deeper. “We were meant for each other.”

Chapter Twelve

Kerry believed in lust at first
sight, but not love at first sight. He hadn’t said anything about love, had he?
But didn’t “meant for each other” mean love, too?

His other hand slid inside her
panties, leaving a hot trail across her cheeks as he peeled her underwear and
jeans below her hips. She started to help him push them lower but he stayed her
hand. Instead, he turned her around so that her backside was to him and bent
her over the desk.

Questing fingers found her wet
lips again, and his cock nudged her there. Arms resting on the desktop, she
arched her spine, pushing her pelvis back and up to make his entrance easier.
His hands slid beneath her blouse, over her stomach and ribs and under her bra
until her breasts were in his palms, thumbs pinching her nipples against his
forefingers.

Myghal rocked against her and his
cock drove into her pussy. She increased the arch of her hips until his balls
struck her clit with each thrust. He glided in and out in a smooth, fast
rhythm, squeezing her nipples with each forward thrust. Kerry closed her eyes
and enjoyed the building tension coiling in her womb. As her orgasm neared, her
hips joined his pace, striving to make contact with his balls.

When the explosion came, surging
warmly through her entire body, Kerry moaned with the intense pleasure. She
rubbed her clit against his tight sac to prolong the sensation. Myghal’s long
thrusts turned into short, quick jabs until he ground his hips into her with a
guttural groan. His hands tightened on her breasts, and she felt him spurt
within her.

He collapsed across her, and all
Kerry could hear was the sound of their breath coming in gasps. His deflated
cock was still inside her. Kerry flexed her inner muscles around it. She wanted
him to fuck her again and again, but she knew he needed time to recover and—

They were draped across her desk,
once again where anyone could walk in and find them. The pampas grass plants
afforded some privacy, but her corner didn’t have a door. Why did all common
sense take flight where Myghal was concerned?

“Myghal…” Kerry moved, and Myghal
gave her nipples one last squeeze before he stood up. Kerry rose, too,
straightening her bra and blouse and pulling up her jeans. She turned to face
him. “We’ve got to stop doing this here. If someone walked in—”

Myghal
swung her around. “Don’t be ashamed of pleasure.”

She
shook her head. “I’m not. But it’s something that should be private. For some
reason, I can’t keep my hands off of you.”

“I’m glad,” he said with a
sensual grin that made her heart flip-flop in her chest. He kissed her. “I
can’t keep my hands off of you or my cock out of you.” He took her hand and
placed it on his crotch. “Already I want to fuck you again.”

She squeezed his growing bulge.
“Me, too. But we can’t do this anymore.”

He frowned when she took her hand
away and peeked through the plants. The brunette was still there, impatiently
pacing through the hardy evergreen shrubs. Several other customers wandered
around.

“I’ll give them each a shamrock
and an Irish rose and send them on their way.” His hand slid between her legs
and rubbed her swollen, aching pussy. “Then I’ll come back and lock the door so
I can fuck you until you scream.”

Kerry
moaned, his promise and his touch stirring her desires again. She didn’t know
why she was constantly horny around this man. Perhaps it was an overreaction to
the fact that she hadn’t been laid in six months before Myghal walked into her
life. Had it only been yesterday? It felt as if she’d known him forever. Even
if she didn’t know much about him.

“Oh,
Myghal.” Reluctantly, she pulled away from him. He was disappointed but didn’t
persist. “They’re potential customers. They might buy something.”

He nodded, touched her cheek,
kissed her, and turned to leave. She almost called him back, the tingling in
her clit insisting that she do so, but she bit her lip to keep from saying his
name. She watched him cross the greenhouse and walk out the door…with the
oddest premonition that she might never see him again.

*
* * * *

Kerry looked out the window one
more time. The brunette smiled seductively when she saw Myghal emerge from the
greenhouse. Kerry wondered what the brunette would think if she knew what
Myghal had been doing in here. Several other women flocked to him, and he had a
smile and a word for each of them.

All these women today…and
yesterday, too, she suddenly realized. What she thought had been in response to
her drastic sale prices might have actually been Myghal’s magnetic presence.
They seemed drawn to him even from as far away as the road. As if there were
something…magical about him.

She shook her head. She needed to
get her head out of the clouds and back into her books. Looking at the disarray
on her desk, she shook her head again and ran a hand through her hair. How was
she ever going to concentrate on bookkeeping when all she could think of was
bending over the desk while Myghal fucked her from behind.