Deception Cove

Chapter 21

DRAKE FELT ALICE SLIDE OUT FROM UNDER HIS ARM AND get to her feet. Energy shivered in the air. He knew that she had jacked up her senses a little.

“Hang on, I’ll light the lantern for you,” he said.

“It’s okay. I’ve got some paranormal night vision thanks to my talent.”

He put on his glasses and hit the lantern button, anyway. A soft glow illuminated the room.

“Thanks,” Alice said.

She disappeared into the bathroom. He heard water run in the sink. The toilet flushed. Alice reappeared wearing a towel wrapped around her body.

He folded one arm behind his head and admired the view of Alice lit with paranormal energy. The towel was not an oversized luxury spa bath sheet. It was a cheap little towel and it did not cover much. That was a good thing, he thought. He immediately got hard.

She scrambled back under the covers. In the process she lost her grip on the front of the towel. It slipped off altogether. When she finally got the sheet pulled up to her chin, she glared at him.

“Don’t you dare laugh at me,” she warned.

“I’m not laughing.”

“You’re smiling.”

“Okay, I may be smiling,” he conceded.

“Hah. I knew it.” She was quiet for a moment. “I hope Houdini is all right.”

“He’ll be fine.” Drake shoved aside the covers, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and got to his feet. “You’re pretty shy for someone who spent the past year on the stage.”

“I don’t go on stage naked.” She fluffed up her thin pillow. “And for your information, I’ve got a right to be shy at this particular moment. I barely know you and here I am in bed with you.”

He was surprised by the flash of irritation that zapped through him.

“Here you are married to me,” he corrected.

“That, too. Boy, this has turned into one strange road trip. My life is starting to remind me of that children’s story Alice in Amberland. You know, the one where the heroine falls down a dust bunny hole and winds up in a sort of alternate universe where everything is weird.”

“You think this situation, you and me here together, is weird? Looks pretty damn straightforward and normal to me. We’re married. We had excellent sex. At least it was excellent from my standpoint.”

To his surprise and further irritation, she gave that some close thought.

“Yes, it was,” she finally agreed, sounding somewhat astonished. “That’s the first time I’ve had an orgasm without the assistance of a small personal appliance.”

“Yeah?”

“You know, you’re right,” she said.

“I am?”

“I’m overreacting. A man and a woman are thrown together in stressful circumstances. They are attracted to each other and they wind up in bed together. It happens.”

“Right,” he growled. “It happens. But you left out the part about the man and the woman getting married.”

He stalked into the bathroom.

When he came back out, he settled down on his side of the bed, very aware of the distance between himself and Alice. He turned off the lantern and took off his glasses.

“Don’t,” he said.

She turned her head on the pillow to look at him. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t try to blame what happened between us on stress.”

There was a small silence.

“I would think that a facts-on-the-ground guy would want explanations for everything,” she said after a moment.

“Some things don’t need explaining.”

“Okay.”

“Some facts are just facts,” he said.

“Right.”

“You said it yourself, the sex was pretty fantastic. That’s a simple, straightforward fact. It doesn’t need any further analysis.”

She put her fingertip on his chest and drew an invisible line straight down to his serious erection. She encircled him with her fingers.

“No more analysis,” she promised.

She started to kiss him, her wet, warm mouth following the path that she had traced with her fingertip.

“Alice,” he whispered. He reached down and tangled his fingers through her hair. “Alice.”