Maggie took a sip of coffee, her face getting more alert with each passing second. “A date?”
Rhiannon nodded. “I wasn’t going to call the authorities about the vandalism.” She toyed with the handle of her mug. “What was written was nasty. I figured if I got the police involved it would be all over town before the end of the day. And all I wanted to do was forget about it.”
“Oh, honey.” Esther reached out and wrapped one arm around Rhiannon, giving her a hug. “You should have called one of us.”
She nodded. “I probably should have, but I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.”
“What did it say?” Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “The writing on the wall.”
Rhiannon shrugged. “Witch. Devil. The usual stuff.” She could see the growing sympathy in their eyes and it made her uncomfortable. “Hey, it’s no big deal. You grow up in a family as strange as mine, and you get this kind of thing from time to time. It’s because of what I sell. Some folks figure if you sell candles and tarot cards you’re a devil worshipper.”
“Or a witch,” Maggie added softly.
Rhiannon squared her shoulders, meeting the problem head-on. “Or a witch.” She glanced at her friends. “That’s not something I’d want made public. Most folks wouldn’t understand.”
Maggie’s hand covered hers. “We won’t tell anyone.”
“I know.” Rhiannon trusted both women implicitly. “I’ve already got a painter lined up and in a few days this will all be forgotten about.”
“You said you weren’t going to call the police, but they were here.” Esther was a dispatcher for the Burnt Cove Fire and Sheriff’s Departments. As a result, she had her finger on the pulse of the town and the entire county.
Rhiannon nodded. She picked up her mug and took a fortifying mouthful of vanilla coffee before setting it back on the table. Her chocolate croissant stared up at her, but she couldn’t eat. Not yet. Her stomach was too unsettled. “I was about to start washing the paint off the front of the store when I was interrupted by Ryland Stone. Deputy Ryland Stone,” she added.
Esther sat back in her chair with a smile on her lips. “I know Ry. He’s not exactly hard to look at.”
Now that was an understatement if she’d ever heard one. “Hmm.” She made the noncommittal noise, but knew her friends could see right through it.
“You like him.” Maggie picked up her croissant and took a big bite off one end, chewing as she talked. “I know him from when I lived here as a kid. He’s a couple of years older, but he used to do chores for my grandmother during the summer months.”
Rhiannon couldn’t even imagine Ryland as a child. He was so large and steady. Strong. Plus, he had what Grammy would call an old soul. She pictured him as a serious child. “What was he like?” she asked before she could stop herself.
Maggie chewed thoughtfully for a moment before responding. “Intense. Serious.” She shrugged. “I didn’t know him that well, but it’s a well-known fact that his home life was less than tranquil. His mom was prone to what my grandmother called ‘spells’. She’d be fine for months, and then she’d start talking and acting crazy. It was hard on Ryland and his dad.
Her heart hurt for Ryland. It couldn’t have been easy dealing with a mother with a mental illness, especially in a small town where everyone knew your business.
Esther waved her hand in the air. “Let’s get back to the present day. I have to leave in a half hour to get ready for work.” She licked a dab of chocolate off the corner of her mouth and gave a hum of pleasure. “So Ry came along?”
“Yes.” Those first seconds had been electric, like the universe around her had shifted, sliding the next piece of her life into place. “Apparently, he’d seen the graffiti and stopped. He convinced me to report it.” The corners of her mouth turned up at the memory. “Actually, he didn’t give me much choice.”
“That sounds like Ry,” Esther agreed. “He’s a straight arrow.”
“How did you end up on a date with him? At least, I assume it was with him.” Maggie got up from the table and headed for the coffeepot.
How to explain it? Rhiannon thought for a moment. “There was something…” She sighed and threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know what it was, but it was electric.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “There were sparks when we touched.”
“Literally or figuratively?” Having filled her mug with more Irish cream coffee, Maggie ambled back to the table.
“Literally. I mean there were actual sparks. Probably just static electricity.” She didn’t know who she was trying to convince. Them or her.
“But you were attracted to him.” It wasn’t a question, but she responded to Esther’s assessment of what had happened.
“Yes.” She could feel heat creeping up her cheeks. “He kissed me.” Rhiannon could still taste him on her lips, feel his hands on her body, holding her close as he kissed her. Her nipples tightened and she wrapped her arms around her chest in a reflexive action.
“Uh oh.” Esther stared at her friend. “From the look on your face, I’d say it was one heck of a kiss.”
“It was.” Her voice was barely a whisper. Esther and Maggie exchanged knowing looks. Rhiannon gathered her composure and continued her story. “It might have gone further if we hadn’t been interrupted by a colleague who’d come to examine the scene.”
“Bad timing on Jed’s part.” It didn’t surprise Rhiannon that Esther knew who it was.
“Jed Bearson?” Maggie’s voice sounded strained, but her face was composed.
“Yes. He seemed very nice.” Rhiannon studied her friend. “You okay, Maggie?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. Tell us what happened with Ryland.”
“It’s simple. He asked me out for dinner and I said yes.” That was the short answer for such a complicated subject. Rhiannon didn’t tell them of the hours she’d spent arguing with herself, wondering if she’d done the right thing or not by accepting the dinner date.
“How did it go?” Curiosity was etched on Esther’s face.
“It was wonderful. It was awful.” She fought the urge to bury her face in her hands when both her friends looked concerned. “He took me to The Seaside.”
Maggie let out a low whistle. “Not cheap. Kudos to him.”
Rhiannon laughed, but quickly sobered. “He kissed me in the parking lot before we went in.” She hesitated for a second before plunging onward. “Every car alarm in the lot went off.”
Esther stared at her. “Surely you don’t think you had anything to do with it?”
Rhiannon rubbed her forehead and drank another mouthful of coffee. It was going to take more than a vat of coffee to drive away the headache lurking behind her eyes. “Do you remember me telling you I had problems with my magick?”
Both women nodded. She noted that Esther seemed relaxed, but that Maggie tensed the second she mentioned the word magick. There was nothing she could do about that. She needed to be honest with them.
“My sister called and she thinks my problem is that my magick is trapped inside me.” It sounded stupid to say it aloud, but she did it anyway. “According to Gwen, I need to have sex with the right man to release it.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped and Esther let out a bawdy laugh. “Was she serious?” Esther asked when she regained control. “It’s certainly justification to have a hot affair with a sexy guy.”
“This is serious.” Rhiannon jumped out of her chair and began to pace.
“I’m sorry. It just sounds so crazy.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Pacing wasn’t helping, so she threw herself back down onto her chair. “Her theory is that I don’t trust myself to control my magick, which is why it closed off years ago and I have trouble handling what I do have.”
“But you can’t be a virgin? Can you?” Maggie asked.
Rhiannon shook her head. “That’s what I told her. I’ve been in two serious relationships. Gwen informed me that I chose weak men and I needed a strong one.”
“Ryland is certainly that.” Esther looked thoughtful. “Do you think this has anything to do with the candle ritual we did in your garden?”
“I don’t know.” Rhiannon propped her elbows on the table. Her bracelets jangled, their usually happy sound barely even registering. “I think maybe it does.” She bit her bottom lip as she thought. “It feels like Ryland was drawn to me.”
“Wasn’t that the point of the thing?” Maggie countered. “We did the whole candle-burning ritual to bring us all lovers.” She pointed at Rhiannon. “You said we couldn’t think of someone specific, that we’d draw someone who wanted to be with us.”
Rhiannon nodded.
“Then why does this bother you so much? If it’s not wrong, then what’s the problem?”
Esther was quiet, but Rhiannon knew she was as interested in the answer to that question as Maggie was. How to explain it?
“It’s not that I mind attracting a lover. It’s just that this thing with Ryland is so much more intense. The car alarm wasn’t the only incident.” She went on and told them all about the dessert fiasco. Both women were giggling by the time she finished.
“Oh lord.” Maggie laughed. “I can just imagine the poor waiter standing there with chocolate flying everywhere.”
“What a waste of good chocolate,” Esther agreed.
Rhiannon’s lips twitched. It was funny, just not as it had been happening. “They did give us two brownies in a box to take home. I think they just wanted us out of there before anything else was destroyed.”
“And you think you’re responsible for what happened?” Esther asked.
“I know I am. I felt the surge of power, sensed when it slipped out of my control.”
“But why then?” Maggie sat forward, her gaze pinning Rhiannon. “What happened?”
She couldn’t explain how just being near Ryland was a sexual turn-on. How having him casually touch her leg had spiked her libido, sending her sexual tension skyrocketing almost out of control. “Sexual tension,” she offered. It was the best way she could encapsulate it for them.
“Really?” Maggie shoved a lock of curly red hair over her shoulder.
“Yes.” Even hours later, her body was still thrumming with energy, ready to shoot out into the world if she didn’t control it.
“That’s why you’re worried.” Esther pointed her finger at Rhiannon. “It’s not so much Ryland, but what he does to you. You’re afraid your sister is right and Ryland will unleash the magick inside you.”
“It’s not fair to him,” she blurted out. “It’s one thing to have hot sex with a man. Quite another to use him to solve my magickal problems.”
“Why?” Maggie’s tone was slightly bitter. “Men don’t mind using us whenever they want. As long as he gets a night of hot sex with no strings, Ryland probably won’t care. I just wouldn’t tell him about the whole magick thing. I doubt that would go over well with him. He’s the type that sees the world in black and white.”
Rhiannon wasn’t sure what to think of Maggie’s outburst. Both she and Esther knew Maggie’s fiancé had cheated on her and left her with a less-than-positive attitude about the male half of the species. Still, it hurt her to see her friend so unhappy.
“It’s all a moot point yet. You haven’t had sex with him, have you?” When Rhiannon hesitated, Esther prompted her. “Right? Not on a first date.”
She crossed and uncrossed her legs, swearing inwardly on the fact that her panties were damp. Just thinking about sex and Ryland in the same sentence raised her internal temperature to boiling. “Technically, no.”
“Okay, you definitely have to explain that one.” Maggie offered a small smile as if to apologize for her earlier outburst.
Rhiannon fiddled with her croissant, flaking pieces of the pastry away. Flecks of chocolate covered her fingers, a stark reminder of last night. It had been better than chocolate.
“Rhiannon,” Esther prompted.
“He called me after he got home to make sure I was okay after what from this day forth what will be known as the dessert incident. I’d just gotten out of the shower and was wearing a towel.” She swallowed hard, staring at her fingers, remembering how she’d touched her body at Ryland’s prompting.
“And?” Maggie asked.
“We talked,” she hedged.
“You had phone sex.” Esther’s voice was a combination of shock and envy. “That’s what you were talking about when you called me this morning. I was still half-asleep or I’d have put it together before now.”
“What was it like?” Maggie interrupted.
“It was…” It was difficult to put it into words. “It was amazing. Better than any other sex I’ve had in my life, even though it was only virtual sex. I didn’t really sleep with him.” It was important to her to point out the distinction.
Esther waved her hand. “Virtual or not, you had sex with the man.”
Maggie’s cheeks were flushed as she leaned closer. “What happened when it was over?”
“We talked a bit and then I asked him over for dinner.”
“You didn’t,” Esther exclaimed.
Rhiannon laid her forehead on the table and moaned. “I did. I couldn’t help myself.”
“Why should you?” When Rhiannon raised her head, Maggie was staring at her, a look of growing annoyance on her face. “This is what you wanted. What we all wanted. A night of hot sex. We all needed to get laid. Isn’t that what we agreed?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t seem right somehow.” Rhiannon couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt, that she’d somehow manipulated Ryland.
Maggie let out a huff of frustration. “I haven’t had anyone approach me since the candle ritual.” She turned to Esther. “Have you?”
“No. Not unless you count Ryan, which we can’t because he’s always trying to get me to go out with him.”
“Okay then.” Maggie nodded. “That settles it. It’s coincidence that you met and fell into lust with Ryland. Enjoy it. If it helps you get over your problem with your magick, you won’t need to form a therapy group or start a twelve-step program to get past the obstacle that has haunted you for most of your life. Right?”
Put like that, it made a lot of sense. Most men would kill for a night or two of hot, sheet-mangling sex with no strings attached. He’d get something and so would she—orgasms and possibly even her magick released. It was a win-win situation. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I don’t know, Rhiannon,” Esther began, only to be shushed by Maggie. Before any of them could speak, a heavy knock sounded on the front door. Rhiannon glanced toward it and Ada waved back. It was time for the workday to begin.