Chapter 20
Iremain under the table, trembling and muttering to myself until Wes returns from outside.
“It was a tree limb,” he says, crouching down to peer at me beneath the pretty, strawberry-print tablecloth. “A big one, but it slid off the roof onto the ground out back. Hopefully, it didn’t do any serious damage.” He sighs, scanning my face. “Do you want to go? I can carry you to the camper and come back for Freya.”
My lips twitch. “I don’t need to be carried. I could run. If I needed to.” I pull in a deeper breath, willing my racing heart to slow. “But if it was just a tree limb…”
“We can still go,” Wes says gently. “You won’t sleep well if you’re scared.”
And we might be murdered by blood-thirsty leprechauns before morning, I add silently.
Aloud, I insist, “No, it’s okay. It’s been a big day. I’m sure I’ll sleep just fine…once I drink all the Sleepytime tea in the cupboard.” I motion toward the play dungeon. “And Freya’s having so much fun. Or she was. Did the limb scare her, too?”
Wes shakes his head. “It doesn’t seem like it. She’s still playing with the blocks. I think she might have a future in architectural design.”
I force another weak smile. “Funny.”
His brow furrows. “I think I know what we need to do.”
“What’s that?” I glance around my hiding place. “Get out from under the table? I may actually sleep under here. It’s very clean. And if a leprechaun breaks in in the middle of the night, they’re not going to look under the tablecloth.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little strange?”
“Strange that there are leprechauns in Colorado? Yes, but I guess it’s not all that crazy when you think about it. Ireland has mountains. Colorado has mountains. It’s cold there, too. And green. They probably feel very at home here.”
Wes settles onto the floor cross-legged. “No, I mean… Last night, we drove right into the middle of the biggest gathering of clowns I’ve ever seen. Tonight, it’s cryptids that look like leprechauns. It’s like we’re both being confronted with our greatest irrational fears.”
“It isn’t irrational to be afraid of a creature who likes to drag humans underground and torture them for hundreds of years, just for fun,” I say, knowing I sound crazy, but unable to stop myself.
“But that’s only if you capture one and ask it for three wishes,” Wes says. “They can’t take you anywhere unless you strike a bargain with them or try to steal their treasure.”
I frown. “Where did you hear that?”
“My great aunt and uncle. My grandmother knew a lot about the fair folk, too. The McGuires are about as Irish as you can get without being born and raised in the old country.”
I wet my lips. “My family, too. I know I’m being ridiculous, but I can’t help it. I swear, I think I saw a leprechaun once, when I was playing by the spring with my cousin when we were little. I was by the rope swing, getting ready to jump. Nancy was already in the water, telling me to hurry. I looked down to tell her that I was working up to a big swing and right there, under the water, I saw this evil, bearded face rising beneath her. The spring was so clear, I could see every detail, from his terrible sharp teeth to the horrible grin on his little face.”
Wes curses.
I exhale a rush of breath. “It was terrifying. And then it pulled Nancy under. I’ll never forget how wide her eyes got or the way her hands clawed at the water as she sank.” I shiver. “I started screaming and ran back toward the house to get her dad. But by the time I got back, Nancy was sitting by the rope swing, wringing the water out of her hair and laughing. She said I was crazy. That there hadn’t been anything else in the water. It was just her playing a prank on me because I was a baby who was too chicken to jump.”
“Mean prank,” Wes says.
“It would have been, but…I don’t think it was. I know what I saw, Wes.” I glance up at him, grateful that he isn’t looking at me like I need antipsychotic medication. “And Nancy was never quite the same after that. She was meaner, more impulsive. She just didn’t seem to care about anyone the way she did before. Even her mom and dad.”
“You think the leprechaun kidnapped your cousin and replaced her with a fairy changeling?” Wes asks, proving his Irish elders taught him all the old stories.
Embarrassed, I nod. “I mean, not really, but…maybe? I mean, you’ve met Nancy. She’s awful. No way she’s fully human. She was going to give Freya away just because some dumb guy didn’t like her. Who does that?”
Freya appears beside Wes, dooking inquisitively as she climbs over his legs, clearly wondering what game we’re playing here. He strokes her back with a shake of his head, “I don’t know. Personally, I would assume the person I loved and the animal they loved were a package deal. And Freya’s not an unreasonable creature. Look how much she’s warmed up to me in a few days. I think if Nancy’s man had put in a little effort with her, they could have been friends.”
I scratch Freya’s scruff as she sniffs the floor around me. “No, they couldn’t have been. Freya isn’t friends with assholes. She only likes nice people.” I shoot him a wobbly smile. “Like you, Preston.”
He grins. “Exactly what I was thinking, Lady Gray. Lady Gray doesn’t strike me as the type of woman who’s afraid of leprechauns.”
I shake my head, my grin stretching wider. “No way. Lady Gray eats leprechauns for breakfast.” I raise my voice, calling out to the rest of the quiet room and the forest beyond, “I mean that. Literally. I fry up leprechaun patties to eat with my scrambled eggs and toast, so you’d better stay far away from bungalow nine.”
“Damn straight,” Wes booms, making Freya flinch and leap into my arms. We laugh and he apologizes, “Sorry, Freya. Just wanted them to know we mean business.” Shifting his focus my way, he asks, “Want me to go get your coat before we unload? Or I can get whatever you and Freya need from the camper if you don’t want to go outside. Just give me a list.”
I shake my head. “No. I can come. But I’m going to need my hat. Feeling like brave, adventurous Lady Gray is easier with my fedora.”
He smiles. “Understandable. I’ll wear mine, too.”
He starts to stand, but I reach out, taking his hand. “Thanks,” I whisper. “For not thinking I’m crazy.”
“Never,” he promises. “I’ve got your back, Lady Gray. For as long as you’ll let me.”
I release his hand and crawl out from under the table, feeling even more mixed up than I did before. Yes, I’m still spooked by going out into the dark with the evil leprechauns, but a part of me is more spooked by the look in Wes’s eyes, the look that assures me he wasn’t kidding. He’s here for me, for Tessa, every bit as much as my adventurous alter ego.
Even after the things I told him today, even after watching me freak out and hide under a table like a kid who watched too many scary movies at a sleepover. Even after the way I’ve pushed him away for the past year and a half…
Suddenly, it seems so clear.
This man isn’t here with me, on the run from his ex and her volatile sister because he feels obligated to clean up a mess he helped create. He’s here because he cares about me, because that night in the woods meant something to him, too. I mean something to him.
On impulse, I reach out, catching his hand before he gets to the door.
He turns back, the curiosity in his eyes quickly turning to something more intense when his gaze locks with mine.
“We should probably check the bedroom before we grab our things,” I say, my pulse throbbing in my throat. “Just to make sure it’s going to be okay for us to sleep up there.”
“Good idea,” he says, his voice a deep rumble that sends electricity prickling across my skin. “Lead the way.”
“I think it’s up here,” I say, holding onto his hand as I start up the stairs and Freya darts back into the dungeon to play with her blocks. Anticipation building with every step, I’m practically hyperventilating by the time we reach the small bedroom tucked beneath the sharply slanted roof.
Wes has to duck down until we’re in the center of the space, but he seems as charmed by the bedroom as I am.
“Very cute,” he says, gazing down at the large bed festooned with wispy cream-colored curtains hanging from the ceiling on both sides. The comforter showcases a single red rose, like the one in Beauty and the Beast, and the wall behind us is all bookcases, displaying hundreds of hardcover books in various colors.
“It’s more than cute,” I say, squeezing his fingers. “It’s perfect. I mean, Beauty and the Beast is all about leaving home. About finding out who you are and what really matters to you, while in exile from everything you’ve ever known, right? About realizing that things that look perfect on the outside aren’t always what’s best for you and…vice versa?”
Wes pulls me closer, looping one arm around my waist as he cups my cheek. “Lady Gray are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Call me Tessa,” I say, my pulse spiking as I add, “Or good girl. I really liked that, too.”
His arm tightens on my waist, making my breath rush out as he crushes me against him. The hand at my cheek dives into my hair, fisting there, holding me captive as he whispers, “I don’t want just a night, Tessa. I don’t want this to be a lapse in judgment or a vacation fling. I want to be yours. And I really want you to be mine. The thought of another man fucking you makes me crazy. Just seeing Nate’s hands on you on the dance floor was enough to make me lose it.”
“I know.” I loop my arms around his neck, my entire body humming as he backs me toward the bed. “It was sexy.”
“I thought it pissed you off.”
“It did,” I say, my pulse spiking again as the backs of my knees hit the mattress. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t sexy. Or that I didn’t want to drag you into the hayloft and do filthy things to your body.”
“Once I get you in that bed, I’m not letting you out,” he says, his hand shifting to squeeze my ass through my soft travel pants. “You’re going to have to stay there, naked and well-fucked, while I get our things, feed Freya, and take her out to pee.”
My lips curve in a wicked grin. “I think I can get on board with that. Will you deliver snacks to my naked and well-fucked self, if needed?”
“Snacks, gold, your phone charger, the heads of your enemies,” he says. “Your wish is my command, beautiful. Now lift your arms. I need your tits in my mouth ten minutes ago.”
Holding his gaze, I obey, my blood singing in my veins as he rips my light sweatshirt up and over my head and tackles me onto the mattress. And then I’m under him, this man who drives me wild, the one whose touch has haunted me every day that we’ve been apart.
And even though we might be surrounded by evil leprechauns closing in on our cabin as we roll across the covers, devouring each other, there’s nowhere else I want to be.
Just here.
With him.