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Zoë shoved her hands in her pockets until he was ready for her. Occasionally, a shiver ran down her spine when she registered what they were trying to do. She glanced back over her shoulder, toward the Tide Inn. Lights were off in the main part of the building, but there was an arc of light above it, which had to be coming from Cain’s apartment. When she looked back at Gray, he smiled reassuringly. She took his outstretched hand and climbed in. The boat shifted underfoot, and she had to duck down quickly to grab the side of the boat and steady herself. When she was settled on the seat opposite him, Gray lifted the oars and began to row.
Nervous as she was, he made an awesome sight for her to look at in the moonlight. His chiseled features and unusual hair and eyes picked up the light when he turned to check their direction. Her emotions were hopelessly entangled here. What did that say about her judgment? Was she wrong to trust him? Doubts leapt on her back like hungry ghouls, reminding her how little she knew. What she did know didn’t soothe her. There were three parties in this, Grayson, Cain’s crowd, and Annabel. If Annabel came through in her, Grayson might be the only person who would want that situation to change. It was just as well she wasn’t a gambling person because those odds weren’t great.
Gray kept rowing until they were well away from the harbor, before firing up the engine. They puttered their way across the rest of the bay to the island. The smell of the fuel sharpened her senses, and she peered at the abandoned lighthouse as they closed on it.
Gray caught her attention and nodded inland. “Abernathy,” he whispered.
They were yards away from the island, and when she followed his gesture she saw what he was drawing her attention to. The lighthouse was at a perfect midway point between the villages of Carbrey and Abernathy. Was that why he had chosen this place? Both villages nestled like gems in the cliffs, the lights from the houses twinkling.
The lighthouse loomed up ahead, somber and lonely, a stone tower some thirty feet high that belonged to a different age. “It’s a lonely looking place.”
“Don’t think of it that way.” He pointed along the shore. “This place is a sanctuary for puffins. Earlier in the summer the island was filled with new life and noise.”
When he smiled over at her, she saw it. He was a guardian, in more ways than one. So many ways. His knowledge was sensitive and it ran deep—partly instinct, partly learned. There was no one else in the whole world that she’d rather trust. The fact that she was falling in love with him might be a mistake, but she didn’t want to face up to that right now. Mr. Loner here probably had way too much to do in his life to take on a real relationship with her, even if he wanted to.
Moments later he moored the boat up at the stone jetty, tying it to the large metal ring embedded in the stone. When he stood and helped her onto the jetty, he lifted his backpack and a rope from the floor of the boat and took it with him. When he saw her stare at the rope, he said nothing, and she didn’t want to ask. He made some sort of spell before they went any further, and then led her over to the entrance.
The door to the lighthouse finally creaked open after Gray put his shoulder to it several times. He fished a flashlight out of the backpack, switching it on once the door was closed behind them. Zoë looked at the old stone steps as the light fell over them. Dust and dirt and the remnants of time shadowed the place. Gray took her hand and led the way. Halfway up the tower there was a small living area. It was bare now, but for an iron-framed bed and an old table.
As they mounted the second set of stairs that wound around the interior of the tower it grew lighter, and he switched off his light when the moon from above increasingly lit the way.
“Quite a climb,” Zoë said, catching her breath, when they emerged into the top of the tower. In the center of the space a huge rusty metal-and-glass beacon took up a large amount of the floor space. A metal table stood on the shore side and she rested her hands on it when she stepped over, looking at the lights twinkling along the bay in Carbrey. “It looks so pretty, so unassuming, from here.”
Gray stepped behind her, holding her. “It does. Are you still sure about this?”
It felt so good, being held by him. She closed her eyes and rested her head back against his chest. As soon as she did, she felt that mischievous nudge inside her. Her naughty friend was with them. Was she ever far away? Had she been with them every time? Yes, her instinct told her. All this sexmagic business, she’d likely been tapping into that, too. She felt jittery, and a sense of urgency over her. She wanted this sorted, now.
“Yes, it’s time. Annabel needs to talk.” She turned to face him, looping her arms around his neck. “Just promise me you won’t get too distracted by her and forget me.”
“Zoë, it’s taken me this long to find you, I don’t intend to lose you now.” His voice was hoarse and his words made her heart brim. It was what she wanted to hear most in the world, but it only made what they had to do that much harder.
“I want you to kiss me and hold me, to make love to me, Gray, now.”
Want to, in case I never come back.
He stared at her silently and she could see he was wrestling with all of this. Should she be worried that he was far from convinced by this procedure?
“You know that Annabel will respond to you, to your magic and your sex appeal.” She poked him in the chest with one finger, teasingly, to take the edge off her fear. “Just so long as you are making love to me.”
It took a long while before he answered. “The energy source would be helpful, but are you sure you would really want me to?”
The combination of fear and arousal was doing very strange things to her. “I do and I don’t. I want you, I always want you.” She paused and stroked his jaw. “But you would be making love to her if this works, wouldn’t you? Maybe that’s what she wants.” It was a joke, but she wished she hadn’t said it. “It’ll help,” she added, and she knew then that this was down to her. She had to put her life in his hands, and trust him, before he would take action.
Resting back on the old metal table, she sat back onto it, and lay down its length, her feet dangling to the floor.
“I’ll compromise,” he responded, his mouth set, and opened up the skein of rope that he had with him. “I’m going to tether you, because I’m not having her walk out of here in your body.”
She swallowed, and gave him an uneasy smile. “Okay.”
He drew her arms above her head and kissed both her palms tenderly before tying them together with the rope, securing it by tying it around a metal strut on the inside of the window frame. He shook his head as he looked down at her, his eyelids
lowering. A wry laugh escaped him. “Having you tied up is a big distraction.”
Arousal mounted alongside the mixed emotions she felt, and soon surpassed it, because of the way he was looking at her. When he put his hand under the loose sweater he had given her to wear and pushed it up and over her breasts, her arms lifted within their restraints and heat rose in her face. Being tied up was hellishly infuriating when she wanted to put her hands on him, but it was intoxicating, too, and it heightened the desire she felt.
Gray bent to kiss her throat. As he did, he began to chant softly. Butterflies wisped over her skin, one kiss setting them loose all over her body. Pleasure bubbled through her, frothy and all-consuming. The strange, foreign words sounded so much more seductive breathed close against her skin in between the kisses he rested on her skin.
With her hands bound and his hungry kisses on her throat, and then lower, between her breasts, she was set adrift on a wave of delirium. He pulled down her bra cups, exposing her breasts, pulling on the hard nipples. It was so blissfully painful and addictive that she arched on the table, offering her breasts to him again. He accepted her invitation, licking and sucking one nipple, then the other, before kissing his way down her belly.
