The Dryad in Her Pool (3 page)

With her every inhale Reece was treated to the delightful rise and fall of her full, heavy breasts. His mouth watering at the mere thought of tasting her sweet flesh had him checking the side of his mouth for drool. Thank the fates his fingers came away dry.

“Unless you like the strong silent type, you’d better try talking to me rather than my boobs.”

He darted his gaze up and away from the magnificent flesh. Reece’s cheeks heated with something besides angered frustration. How long had it been since he’d blushed? For that matter, had he ever been embarrassed before in all his long life?

“Uh huh, keep going, big guy. If you try and try, I’m sure you can manage to force your eyes up.”

The stranger—for, no matter her beauty, the female really was strange—didn’t bother to hide her sarcastic tone and her rather undeserved scorn.

A bit peeved by her and her attitude, Reece made sure his gaze roamed over her from head to toe before finally meeting her pale green eyes. He forced one eyebrow up. If she wanted to play the snob game, he was more than up for it.

“Well, look who deserves a cookie?” The irritable female shot him a cheesy but empty smile before crossing her arms underneath the breasts she didn’t deserve. When she tilted her head to the side, he thought he saw beard markings. Had he made those? Or was there another man he needed to warn off his woman?

The thought stopped him short. When did he ever consider any woman his? They were pretty much all alike, in his experienced opinion.

Pushing himself up and off the bed, Reece stood looking down at his…captive? Tormenter? Or fellow inmate at the asylum? Sadly, the last just might prove to be closer to the truth than he liked.

His friends were creative in their revenge, and they owed him for the whole Area 51 thing…

“I’ll assume you know where we’re at?” He forced his attention away from the immature practical jokes and back to the rather irritated, but sexy matter at hand.

A casual shrug of one silky-looking shoulder. “Reece, honey, I think we’re beyond casual conversation. Besides, we
did
discuss all this last night. Well…we talked a little before you passed out the first time, but mostly it was the second conversation that answered my questions. I’m still waiting for the head spinning and the pea soup projection, because things like this just don’t happen to normal, boring people like me.”

Last night? Ha
. The only thing he remembered about the past evening was a large bottle of premium imported Canadian sap. After that, everything had pretty much ended in a swirling blur of pale green and soft browns. If Trenton hadn’t shown up with his favourite brand, Reece felt sure he would have been able to say no.

Instead he found himself at the debatable mercy of a mortal and a great big wall of nothing where his memories from last night should be.

“And…ah…what exactly did we discuss last night?” Nerves he’d never before known existed had him swallowing nervously and shying his gaze away from the only person with answers. “I’m sure you understand nothing I said should be taken seriously. A friend of mine came over and we…er…celebrated a little more than we should have.”

Speaking of last night, why in the name of Mount Vesuvius did his head still ache? Being immortal did have its perks and one of them should have been immunity from all sicknesses. What was a hangover, but the body’s attempt to regulate its internal water levels?

“Funny…” The irresistible—
no
, Reece corrected himself firmly,
irritating…
yes, the word he’d meant to use was irritating—female practically sang the words. “Yes, very funny considering how loquacious you were only hours ago. In fact”—she tapped a manicured finger against her full bottom lip before connecting their gazes—“you wouldn’t shut up even when I begged you to. The singing really was the worst of it. Show tunes I could handle, though, when you started in on commercial jingles, I resorted to pleas, heartfelt entreaties and an offer of oral sex, but you refused it all. You didn’t stop. Not even when my neighbours from two miles away called and asked you to put a sock in it did you close your mouth. You were that loud, Puff the Magic Dryad boy. The nice police officer tried several times to shut you up, but you only sang the donut song louder and even more off key, which none of us thought possible.”

Reece stood there, arms hanging limply at his sides, while he listened to the lies—
please, dear Creator, let this be nothing, but teasing lies
—set up thanks to his mischievous, but brilliant friends.

However, as much as he wanted them to be lies, the truth had a stronger ring to it, and he found himself believing every word the surprisingly verbose woman had to say. And why the hell did he think he could already taste her in his mouth, on his tongue?

“I really have no idea what to say.”
Or how the hell to go about apologising. Did she say something about neighbours and the human police
?
Great redwoods in the sky
.

Reece was wondering if he could possibly get more screwed without taking his clothes off when she spoke again.

“Oh, no—you
always
have something to say or sing. The speaking part was fine. However, when you sing… Let’s face it, I’m being way too kind calling that thing you do singing. So, you and the music that causes cats to howl, dogs to whimper, and I believe I saw a goat ramming itself into the side of a tree once you really got started…”

“Um…okay?” Really, what else did she want him to say? Begging forgiveness even when they’d never see each other again didn’t sit right with him. Then again, leaving the whole mess in her lap to deal with had started sounding better and better. A little magic to fog her memory of last night would go a long way in restoring his manhood and pride.

She cocked a hip, planting one fist there and the other on the doorjamb. Those amazing, annoying pale green orbs locked on him with no mercy. Something within him jerked and stretched like a flower unfurling to the sun.

“No, it’s really not okay.”

By her tone alone, Reece knew things were about to get worse. Why was he still there? Really, it wasn’t like he couldn’t disappear with a single thought, but something he wouldn’t define held him frozen.

“It’s really, really not okay.”

“Do I need a lawyer?” The question was supposed to be a joke, but the way she stopped to consider it had the palms of his hands sweating. He cringed at the all too human reaction his body was having. Something must be wrong with his tree, his colony, for his body and magic to react in such an unfamiliar way.

“Oh, I’d say you’re way past the whole one phone call idea, but, then again, I’ve never been arrested, so what do I know?” she asked with a casual shrug that belied the tension in her voice. The motion caused her loose sable curls to scatter and slide over her sleeveless arms. “You just might, but first let me get to the good part, then you can pick which issue to deal with first. ‘Cause I’m pretty much ready to dump this mess in your lap and haul ass.”

“There’s more than one issue?” Exactly what had he done last night and why the hell had his friends let him out alone? Even though he’d had similar thoughts earlier about leaving everything in this human’s seemingly capable hands, Reece resented the ease with which she claimed she would abandon him.

She slowly nodded, expression tight. Lifting the hand from her hip, she counted off each point as she spoke. “First, there’s the lovely oak tree in my living room. Second, the dogwood in the kitchen that wasn’t there when I bought the place, but it’s currently home to my cat and a nice new toilet for my dog. Third would have to be the enormous redwood that grew through the basement, past the downstairs and upstairs hallways then out through the roof.”

Damn—when she put it out there so plainly, it did seem like Reece had caused more than his share of trouble. “Okay, I get how weird it must be to have trees suddenly sprout up in your house…”

Emotion flared violently in her eyes as she dropped her bored pretence and crossed the distance between them. “I couldn’t give a flying fudge-cycle if there were a hundred trees growing out of my ass, genius.” She poked the tender area of his chest with the blunt tip of her unpainted nail. “What I care about is the fact that these trees
used to be people
!” The last part came out as a loud, ear-ringing screech that had Reece reaching up to protect his suddenly sensitive ears as his stomach dropped.

It took three swallows before he could form the words. “I…uh…people…? This isn’t good.” Dropping the protective grip he had on his head, Reece tried to step back but found his legs hitting the stubbornly solid mattress.

Little Miss Finger Poker matched him step for step, the lethal digit out and waving around with each of her small yet threatening steps. “Damn freakin’ Skippy it ain’t good, Captain Obvious. Those people are currently being used as a port-o-potty by my very ambitious Pyrenees Wolfhound mix. Trust me—that is one dog with a large bladder and no performance issues. Dante can go whenever and wherever the urge strikes him. Right now the urge has him lifting a leg over people who used to be my neighbours and one very nice officer of the law.”

“I did all that?” Because what were the chances some other random immortal popped in here at the same time and wreaked havoc all over this poor woman’s life? “Did I say anything before or after I transitioned them?” There had to be a reasonable explanation for such a wanton use of his powers. If not, members of his colony would be hard pressed not to punish him. However, if they chose to punish him, who would they pick to do so since he was one of the oldest and most powerful?

Biting her pouty bottom lip, she gave a small nod. Her change in demeanour flipped a switch, and the picture of her spread naked beneath him, lips swollen from his kisses, flashed through his addled mind. “You used the same phrase last night—transition. Then you yelled at them and accused them of not being good enough for your mate. In her honour, you were going to create a timeless monument in tribute to her. Then you ran into the wall, fell on your ass and hit your elbow on my poor coffee table. You managed to stumble to your feet, mumble a little more, before fainting and falling face first into my compost pile outside.”

The word ‘mate’ echoed through his rather empty mind as bits and pieces of last night drifted against the previous black wall of his brain. “Mate?” Could he have found her after all these years? Had he been so drunk he’d left the poor woman secured in the safety and heart of his guards? “Where is she? Who is she? What else did I tell you? Hurry, female, I must know everything.” This time Reece was the one to reach out and touch her, impatience firing his blood as he waited for her to speak.

“Hey, back off, Jolly Green, before I grab the weed killer in the garage and squirt you out of existence.” Anger deepened the colour of her eyes until Reece almost felt the familiar green of the forest surrounding him. He forced himself to blink and break the unusual connection between them.

Understanding her fear and hesitation in answering his questions, he made sure to step away from her and get his choppy breathing under control. “I apologise. A mate is something precious and very, very rare in my world. Something I’d never expected to be blessed with. To find that the one woman in this entire existence meant for me is out there somewhere without my protection is making me slightly unhinged.”

“Well, damn, Gumby, you make it hard for a girl to stay mad at you.” The woman sighed long and unhappily. “Ya talk so sweet an’ everythang.” The words were drawled out in a deeply disturbing fake Southern accent as she batted her long lashes at him with mock admiration.

Pinching the bridge of his nose to prevent any more random acts of vengeance he wouldn’t regret, Reece waited for the female… Why didn’t he know the woman’s name? “What is your name?”

She blinked suddenly wide, innocent green eyes up at him. Thick, black lashes batted lazily to emphasise the blameless mask she slipped on so easily.

“Oh, Reece, honey…” She reached out and put a soft palm over his heart. The simple touch had his body jerking, his lungs stuttering and his cock throbbing for attention. He prayed to whatever deity was listening to let his suspicions go unanswered. “Just last night you called me honey, your little birch of love, the crab apple of your eye and the hawthorn of your heart.”
Blink, blink, blink
went those deceptive lashes. “Are you telling me, after everything we shared, everything we said and did to and for each other, you don’t remember me? You don’t remember the woman you pledged your immortal life and Guardian’s honour to? You said dryad only formed heart unions once, but I guess you were lying to me all along. And here I thought I really was your mate and we’d go to your forest to live in your tree happily ever after.” She dropped her eyes and her next words came out hesitant and unsure. “You did say Mama, Maw-maw and Great Uncle Cletus and his camel were welcome to live with us permanently. I guess you are like every other man, immortal Guardian or not. Only after one thing, and when you get it, you’re out the door faster than you can say ‘shotgun wedding’.”

A few more sniffs followed while Reece tried to untwist the maze of his mind. He didn’t believe a word out of this con artist’s mouth, though he liked the flair of drama at the end. Then everything—
everything
—she’d said sank into his tree sap-soaked brain.

“Oh, great mother ocean, you’re my fucking mate?”

Most women might feel a twinge or two of guilt for the way Reece had lost most of the colour in his face. Quinn wasn’t like most women. Guilt didn’t bother her in the least, not in this situation and certainly not with this man. The quiet life she’d known had disappeared quicker than a puff of smoke—lost in the maelstrom of Reece, magical trees and his addictive orgasms.

Before last night and the handy dandy dryad magic, Quinn had been happy enough with her small existence on the planet. As the president, CEO and only employee of her own company, she had little to complain about. Life was all about what you made of it, and she liked to think she’d made the best out of the crappy start she’d had.