Chapter 10

Maddy flipped through one of her herb books as she stood at the counter, waiting for the stew to heat up. She wasn’t a fabulous cook, but the things she made usually tasted okay.

She knew when Colin was in the kitchen when that freshly showered smell suddenly surrounded her. She didn’t dare turn to see if he was fully dressed this time because she was still trying to get the other image of him out of her head. “I think we should start testing the plants on your list, it’s going to be the only way to find the right ones as quickly as possible.”

“I agree.”

She lifted her head slowly, trying not to tense when his voice came from behind her. She didn’t move when she felt his hand touch her hair, his fingers gently moved through it as he pulled it far enough over to expose her neck. “Colin, I—”

“Shh,” Colin whispered into her hair. “I know all the reasons not to, but I can’t only think of withering and how to prevent it.” He lowered his mouth against her neck and kissed it softly. “I spend more time conflicted between doing the research and keeping my eyes off of you that I’m being very counterproductive most of the time.” He slid his arms around her waist.

Maddy leaned back into him. She would never get enough of the sensations it created when her body pressed against his hard-muscled one. Her mind wanted nothing to do with logic or words as she tried to think of a reply. His warm breath was moving over her neck and sending erotic signals all through her body. She moved her head to the side and allowed him complete access. He wasted no time and began trailing hot kisses from behind her ear to her shoulder. Forgotten were any reasons she shouldn’t be doing this as she turned in his arms and discovered his upper body was bare—just waiting for her to touch and taste.

Maddy ran her hands up over his ribs and chest slowly, loving the way his muscles flexed under her touch. Looking into his eyes, she noted they were almost black again, and she was sure anger wasn’t the reason this time. She lowered her eyes again and then licked across his collarbone. One strong hand jerked her by the hips tight against his, and she felt how hard he was through both of their jeans.

When her tongue moved down his chest and flicked over a hard sensitive nipple, Colin caught his breath and grasped a handful of her satiny hair. He pulled gently until she lifted her face towards his. Her eyes were the light shade of aqua familiar to him as they watched him closely. Cupping the back of her head, he lowered his mouth to hers teasingly. Her eyes flew open when he lifted away from her. He did it again but wasn’t allowed to lift his head a second time when her fingers grasped his hair and kept his mouth from moving away again. Colin liked demanding and was more than ready to demand a few things from her in return.

When he didn’t kiss her again, she not so gently bit his lower lip. The response she received for that was to be lifted and seated on the edge of the counter in one quick movement. She heard the books dropping to the floor but didn’t care at that moment. When his mouth finally crushed down on hers, she wrapped her long legs around him and pulled him closer to her. He was roughly jerking her t-shirt out of the waist of her jeans, she would have helped him, but her hands were too consumed with the feeling every inch of the bare muscular back under them.

Colin pulled the shirt up her body and over her head in one movement; she had no choice but to lift her arms to aid him.

He grasped the shirt in one hand behind her head, trapping her hands in it, exposing her body before his eyes. He leaned back a little and looked at her—she looked like an erotic poster. Her eyes were heavy with the same need gnawing at him; her dark red hair lay across one shoulder and hung down to her waist. Slowly he moved his eyes over her, taking in the pale flawless skin with the light sprinkling of freckles scattered over it. As her chest rose with each heavy breath, her hard pink nipples pushed against the sheer white lace bra.

As he lowered his head slowly, it felt like an hour. When his hot wet tongue licked along her collarbone, Maddy gasped softly. She arched back when his thumb rubbed over one aching nipple. He moved his mouth lower to take advantage of what she offered and bit gently through the material.

Maddy moaned and squeezed him tighter between her thighs. She wanted to touch him, but her hands were still held behind her head. She tried to pull one hand free only to have his hand clamp tight around both her wrists. He straightened and looked at her, the look in his eyes stilled her breath. She’d never had a man look at her with raw desire before.

Colin moved his other hand to grasp one wrist, then pulled her arms slowly to her sides and held them there as he moved his mouth to hers. “Try to stay with me, Maddy, it’s you I want, not some half spirit.” He licked along her lower lip, and then when her mouth opened, he crushed it against his and plunged his tongue inside. She pulled against his hands, wanting him to free hers, he was afraid to. If he moved too quickly or changed too much, the female spirit would return and take Maddy again.

Her head was spinning with every sensation he sent flooding into her. She moaned when his mouth left hers to travel down her throat again.

Colin let go of her hands and grasped her hips, pulling her tight into his throbbing body. He lifted his head quickly and gripped her thighs. “Hang on.” He said hoarsely and lifted her up off the counter as her arms wrapped around his neck. He turned and made it as far as the doorway when her mouth began to devour his. He couldn’t walk with her doing that. He leaned her back against the doorframe and returned her kiss, letting her know how desperate for her he was. When her hot mouth burned a trail down his jaw to his ear, he vaguely realized he didn’t want to take her against a doorframe and lifted her into his chest again, and turned towards the hallway to her room.

Colin made it to the bedroom doorway before she moved back to his mouth. He kissed her hard and pulled back, so he could get to her bed before he completely lost the tiny thread he had on his control.

As his knees hit the edge of the bed, he slid one hand up her back to cradle her head and lowered them to the bed. Feeling her under him with her legs locked around him, pushing herself against him, drove him to a heat he’d never felt before. Rolling to his side, he kissed her again, slowly, this time wanting to slow things to regain some of his control. Maddy stiffened under him and moved her mouth away from his. He grasped her thigh before she could move her leg from around him completely and looked at her.

Slowly, he turned his head to follow where she was looking. He heard it then, the low menacing growl from her large feline. He turned his head quickly to see Sarabi in the doorway with her ears flattened against the top of her head and staring above them, growling. “What?” he panted to Maddy, not wanting to look away from the creature.

“What do you see?” Maddy whispered to her familiar.

-Above you! What is that above you? I don’t like it. It makes all the hair on my body stand up.

Maddy turned her head slowly and looked above Colin and her. She could make out the outline of a man. “I think our spirit friends are here, Colin.” She swallowed and tried to steady her breathing. “And something’s different this time.”

Colin looked away from the cat to her owner. Maddy’s eyes were no longer clouded with lust and passion but very warily looking at the ceiling. Cradling her to cover as much of her as he could, he turned and looked up. He tried not to react but wasn’t sure he succeeded when he saw the vague likeness of a large man hovering in the air above them. The man was reaching towards Maddy, which he didn’t like at all. “What do we do?”

Maddy jerked her head. “I don’t know.” She moved only her eyes around the ceiling and the rest of the room. “She’s not here.” She clung to Colin when his arm moved from around her.

He quickly pulled the edge of the cover over her and tucked it between them. Wrapping his arm around her again, he looked at the crouching cat. “Up on the bed, Sarabi,” he said in a hushed voice. The animal immediately jumped up on the bed and lay down beside Maddy, her tail twitching back and forth.

Maddy was afraid to move, she lie there watching the aura of the man. He was no longer reaching toward her. “I think he’s fading.”

Colin glanced from her toward the ceiling again. He couldn’t see the image now. He looked quickly at Sarabi. The cat was looking all around the room, her tail was still. “Is it gone?”

-I don’t sense it now.

“She thinks so,” Maddy said, her voice shaking.

Colin turned and looked down at her, he moved some of his weight from her but wasn’t about to let her go. “What happened?”

Maddy closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “I don’t know. I don’t think he was happy that she didn’t appear with him.”

“Why didn’t she?”

Maddy opened her eyes and looked at him. “I’m not sure.” She wriggled until her other arm was free and wrapped it around her animal’s thick neck. “I’m just really glad W—Sarabi arrived when she did.”

Colin dropped onto his back on the bed and sighed. “Yeah, me too, timing was off in many ways, but otherwise...”

Maddy turned her head and looked at him. “I’d like to ask my parents about it, but I don’t think I could even begin to explain this without turning ten shades of red and dying of embarrassment.”

Colin had never wanted to growl and throw something as much as he did at this moment, but he held in the frustration flooding his body. “I don’t think I can do any research just yet.”

Maddy shook her head. “Me either.”

“Can’t we just get an exorcist to come and get rid of the spirits?” His voice was strained.

“I don’t think so, or someone would have already suggested it.” She wanted to sit up, but suddenly felt very aware that she had no top on. “Can you grab me a shirt?”

Colin sighed and nodded. “I’ll go get yours from the kitchen.” And stick my head in some ice water, he thought venomously as he started to sit up. Stopping, he looked back down at her. He really wanted the last part with the growling cat and hovering spirit to vanish for both of them so he could lie back down with her, but he knew it wasn’t going to. Leaning down, he kissed her, straightened up off the bed, and headed to the kitchen in what would have sounded like a stomp if he’d been wearing any shoes.

~

Maddy took her time before she went into the office. She’d had a shower and taken twice as long as she normally would to brush out her hair. She’d mentally chastised herself, forgave herself, and was working on chalking it up to her normal cursed life by the time she got there. She stopped at the door to see Colin standing with his hands on his hips, glaring down at the Quaich. He’d put a shirt on, but his hair looked like he’d run his hand through it at least fifty times before deciding to attempt working again. “If you had laser vision, you could just fry it and be done with it.”

He dropped his head and grinned, “I’d like to take a large hammer to it right now.”

Maddy went over and stood beside him and looked down at it as well. “That’s crossed my mind several times too, but something might very well happen to us and our health, or well-being in general if we kill it.”

Grin gone, he looked at her. “I’ve drawn the same conclusion.” He shook his head and turned back to look at it again. “So, you think we should start testing the list of plants I came up with?”

Maddy nodded and went over to his laptop. “I don’t have the entire list here, but I have a dozen or more of each type of thorn and needle we could start there and tomorrow go out to get the rest that we need.”

Anything to get his mind back on track was fine with him. “Let’s start.” He picked up the Quaich and carried it over to her desk. “We just drop them into it one at a time?”

Maddy nodded and went over to her herb cupboard. “Yes, if it was used as part of the curse that was cast with it, then there should be some sort of reaction.”

“What do we look for?”

Maddy began going through the jars and containers and setting out the ones she’d seen on his list. “I don’t know, but there will be a reaction one way or another.”

“Okay.” He went over and grabbed his laptop. Carrying it over, he plugged it into her printer to print a copy of the list.

Maddy opened the first jar and held a small piece of the dried plant over the Quaich. When she dropped the plant into the Quaich, they leaned over it to watch it. A few seconds passed, and nothing happened. “I guess we can take...” She stopped when the plant started to smoke, then quickly ignited and turned to a small piece of ash in the bottom.

“Is that what we were looking for? We’ve found one on the first try?” Even though he said it, he still had a hard time believing that was possible.

Maddy waved the awful odor of the charred herb away from her face. “Let’s try another one from the thorn grouping and see.” She grinned at him. “I’ll dance if we did find it right off the start.” She picked up a second jar and opened it. Breaking off a tiny piece, she held it over the bowl of the Quaich. Letting it go, she silently counted one, two, and three—it started to smoke the same as the last one. “Uh, the smoking is a no.”

Colin snorted. “Why am I not surprised?” He picked up the first jar she’d opened and noted the name on the label. Crossing it off the list, he did the same with the second. “If you need to feel something positive right now like I do, we’ve eliminated two.”

“Oh, yay for us,” she mumbled drily.

He watched her pick up the next jar and set it down again. She moved over, and if he had seen it no more than a foot away, he’d never believed it. The huge old textbook on the corner of her desk was shaking. Maddy flipped it open, and his eyebrows shot up to see Veronica on the page.

“Hey Ronnie, what’s up?” Maddy leaned over the book a bit so her friend could see her as well.

“I don’t want to know why you sound like you’ve lost your will to live, Maddy. I called to give you a short update on the genealogy research.”

Maddy glanced at Colin and then back to the book. “Just tell some sort of good news.”

Ronnie frowned but made no comment. “My eyes are ready to fall out with the amount of reading I’ve done today.” She waved a hand around. “Anyways, we’ve followed Colin’s family crest back, it was so much easier that way. His clan, or family were actually part of the clan that was outlawed in the 1600s, it was apparently a capital offense to bare their name—something about rivaling the Campbell’s clan.”

Colin leaned over the book too. “My family name was outlawed?”

Ronnie stopped and looked back into the book. “Oh, hi. Yes, it was, but you can dive into that as deep as you like later.” She picked up the notebook again. “Okay ,so, if we’ve followed this correctly, and believe me, Mother made me check it at least ten times, we believe Colin’s line came down from Mary Queen of Scots in the 1500s.” She looked up.

Maddy looked at Colin to see he was as startled as she did by this information. “That’s all cool, Ronnie, but what does this have to do with the spirits—that are getting pretty scary?”

Ronnie frowned at her. “Oh, I don’t know yet. We’re trying to get back to the cup’s origin and then follow the branches back to see who placed the curse—”

“So you don’t know yet?” Colin asked quietly.

Ronnie shook her head. “No, I just thought you would like to know how deep we’re digging and that you’re possibly from a royal bloodline.”

“Don’t forget the outlaws,” he said in a monotone voice.

She smirked. “Yeah. Ok, fine, I’ll get back to work. Geez’ I was only trying to distract you both from the curse part of it momentarily.”

Colin ran his hand through his hair. “We are quite good at creating our own distractions.”

Ronnie scowled at him and then looked at Maddy. “You two are way grumpier than you were this morning.”

Maddy’s mouth dropped open, and she turned quickly to look at the clock. It was almost dinnertime. “That might be because we haven’t even eaten since breakfast.” She remembered the lunch she’d been heating up when Colin came into the kitchen earlier. “Call it a night, Ronnie, and thanks for getting that far.”

Veronica frowned at Maddy. “We’ll find it, Mad, just hang in there.”

Maddy nodded. “I know, thanks.” Maddy closed the book and leaned down on it. “I feel like I’m losing myself in all of this.” She turned to look at Colin. He looked as frustrated and lost as she felt. “I need a few hours of doing nothing so I can get my head together.”

He studied her for a moment and nodded. “I could use a break too.” He stuffed his hands into his pocket. “Let’s go stir up some food and then flake in front of the TV or something.”

Sealing the two jars, she quickly went over and put them back on the shelf. “You do know we’ll see Alice again tomorrow, don’t you?”

“Highlight of my day,” he growled as he placed his arm around her shoulder and walked towards the door. “We could let the kitty take a bite out of her.” She glared at him. “Or not.”