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Audrey
ForaslongasI could remember, I collected secrets. Pieces of myself that I kept tucked away and didn’t share with anyone. Not even those closest to me. Some claimed it made me a moody and withdrawn child. The school psychologist claimed this was a coping mechanism I used to deal with the death of my parents, who I barely remembered. My grandma disagreed though. She said, as a Scorpio, it was in my nature to be selective with my trust.
I liked her explanation better.
The weight and significance of my secrets changed as I aged, of course. Refusing to tell anyone my favorite color or cartoon character gave way to never gushing over my crushes or divulging my dreams for the future. As an adult, I became better at sharing my joys, but still kept my deepest fears, sorrows, and hopes to myself. And ever since I discovered the hot spring just beyond my property line in the woods, I’d kept one more secret.
At night, I’d come out here alone and get naked under a starlit sky.
While the hot spring was technically on Latham land—and could be made public to tourists if they wanted to use it to turn yet another profit—I very much considered it mine. Hemlock, boneset, and indigo formed a small circle around the clearing where the moon drenched the woods in a silvery light. I liked to think magic kept it concealed from outsiders, even though there hadn’t been magic on the island since the original twelve descendants of the zodiac used everything they had to keep Ophiuchus’s curse locked away.
Steam rose from the bubbling water, giving off enough heat to soothe my tired muscles without cooking me alive. I lifted my Powered by Pancakes T-shirt over my head and dropped it on the grass at the edge of the clearing. It was the only thing I’d worn on the short walk from my condo. Wisps of my pale blonde hair tickled the small of my back as I raised my arms over my head. Fireflies danced around my fingertips. I held my hands in a cup formation, inviting the clouds to come play with me. There weren’t many residents left who genuinely believed in magic, even though it was a big part of what drove our tourism. I still believed, though. I’d been raised to accept the legend of Zodiac Cove as fact and never doubted that magic kept an ancient curse contained within the cave at the center of the island.
Legend aside, I’d always felt there was supposed to be something incredible inside of me. Something dormant and waiting to be released. Occasionally, I’d try to coax it to join me.
My pulse beat out a steady rhythm at the pressure point on my wrist before a slight flutter, softer than a kitten’s breath, threaded upward toward my fingers. I held still, encouraging whatever it was to reveal itself. A minute passed. Two. Nothing happened. Not that I’d been expecting a different result, but it was still worth a try. It was always worth a try.
I dropped my arms and approached the edge of the hot spring. As I stepped into the water, mud squished between my toes, cool and inviting. I let out a low moan at the hot bursts of water that danced around my calves and clung to my skin. This was what I needed. I’d just closed my eyes and tipped my head back when the leaves rustled on a nearby bush. I hugged myself, sloshing water as I sank low enough for the bubbles to tickle my neck.
A moment later, Wes Latham stumbled into the clearing with his brows drawn in confusion, like he’d taken a wrong turn and gotten lost. He stopped short at the sight of me. There was no way he could see anything, but that didn’t stop the predatory gleam that flashed in his eyes. With his athletic build, thick brown hair that always looked sun-kissed and windblown, dark eyes, and pouty bottom lip, he was way too sexy for his own good. And he knew it too.
Fortunately, that package had no effect on me whatsoever. Not only was he a Taurus, my complete opposite in every way possible, but I’d already seen the black heart beating beneath the attractive packaging.
Unfortunately, he took pleasure in getting a rise out of me, for some reason, and I could never stop myself from taking the bait.
“Audrey.” He had this way of saying my name as if he knew what I tasted like. I shivered, then mentally kicked myself for showing any kind of reaction to Wes. A slow grin spread across his face as he circled the spring like a vulture. A hot, annoying, refused-to-take-a-hint vulture. “I thought you stopped skinny-dipping years ago.”
If he expected me to be ashamed, he didn’t know a thing about Scorpios. I spread my arms to rest on the edge of the spring and smirked as his gaze dipped to my cleavage, hovering at the surface of the bubbling water. “Obviously, I wasn’t expecting company, but if I’d known you’d be hanging around my property like a creep, I would’ve set a few bear traps. Maybe strung up an electrical fence for good measure.”
He rubbed a hand over his jaw, peppered with enough stubble to give him that spent-all-weekend-in-bed look. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a survey done, but I’m pretty certain your property ends back there.” He nodded toward a grassy hill thirty feet behind me. “Hate to break it to you, Baby Teeth, but it looks like you’re running around naked on Latham land.”
I scowled at the nickname he’d given me in high school. A reminder of our long history, dating back to daycare, when I was four, and he was seven, and we had to be put in separate rooms because we wouldn’t stop fighting. I was a biter. Even twenty-three years ago, I knew Wes Latham was no good.
“What are you doing out here anyway? While it’s no surprise you couldn’t find a girl who’d let you give her a handful of sorry pokes on a Saturday night, I figured you’d be asleep by now. You must be exhausted after a long week of putting puppies and orphans on the street.”
“As much as I love these fantasies you’ve cooked up, we both know what I actually do for a living. And the only sorry part of fucking me would be the apologies you’d have to give your neighbors after you kept them awake all night screaming my name.”
A wave of heat flooded my core, and I clenched my thighs together. Damn it. Wes raised an eyebrow, openly challenging me as amusement danced in his eyes.
I sank lower in the water. “I doubt I’d be screaming anything other than ‘help’ if I were stuck with you for an entire night, and you still haven’t answered my question. Why are you out here? This isn’t even close to your house.”
He took in his surroundings, running the pad of his thumb over the soft petals of a night-blooming jasmine. “I’m not sure.”
“Are you drunk?”
“No.” He frowned. “I can’t explain it. I was at home going over some paperwork for the upcoming town hall meeting when I got an urge to come out here.”
I sat up straighter. My grandma had taught me to look for signs of magic my entire life. I never discounted anything, especially what other people would blow off as a coincidence or a feeling. “What do you mean by urge? Can you describe it?”
“I don’t know. It was just an urge. I’d forgotten this spring was even here until I hiked in this direction.” He gave me that slow grin again. “Although you won’t find me complaining about the view.”
I rolled my eyes. “And you don’t find that at all odd? That you got this feeling to go hiking near midnight and obeyed it?”
He shrugged as though this was perfectly normal and rational behavior, and he just wandered around in the woods after dark all the time. “I’ve got good instincts. I tend to trust them.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I hadn’t expected him to believe magic was involved—he was a Taurus, practical and stubborn down to his core—but the simple way he blew it off annoyed me. His family went as far back as mine. “Feelings like that aren’t for nothing. Why haven’t you considered the legend?”
He huffed out a laugh. “Because the legend is bullshit.”
