Page 51 of Enchanted
“I’d like to meet more of your family.” She blurted it out before she could change her mind.
He blinked twice. “My family?”
“Yes. Well, I’ve met your father now, and Belinda—you said she was a relative, but I didn’t know she was … Is she?”
“Aye.” He said it absently, trying to realign his thoughts. “You’d rather that than diamonds?”
“What would I do with diamonds? I suppose you think it’s silly, but I’d just like to see how your family … lives.”
He considered, began to see the advantages and the path. “It would make it easier for you to understand the magic, the life.”
“Yes, at least it seems it might. And I’m curious,” she admitted. “But if you’d rather not—”
He waved off her words. “I’ve some cousins I haven’t seen in some time.”
“In Ireland?”
“No, in California.” He was too involved planning to note her quickly masked disappointment.
She had a craving to see Ireland.
“We’ll pay them a visit,” he decided, and, rising, held out a hand.
“Now?”
“Why not now?”
“Because I …” She’d never expected him to agree or to move so quickly, and could only look down helplessly at her robe and bare feet. “Well, I need to dress, for one thing.”
With a delighted laugh, he grabbed her hand. “Don’t be foolish,” he said, and vanished them both.
Chapter 10
The next thing Rowan was absolutely sure of was standing with her arms locked like iron around Liam and her face pressed into his shoulder. Her heart was sprinting, her stomach jumping, and there was the echo of rushing wind in her head.
“Beam me up, Scotty” was the best she could manage. And it made him roar with laughter.
“This is much simpler, and more enjoyable,” he decided as he nudged her face up and indulged himself in a long, mind-numbing kiss.
“It has its points.” Her voice had thickened, the way it did when she was stirred. It made Liam wonder if this impulsive trip might have been put off just a little while longer. As she loosened her grip, he kept his arms snug around her waist. “Where are we?”
“My cousin Morgana’s garden. She kept one of the old family homes, raises her family here.”
She jerked back, looked down and with a mixture of shock and relief noted her robe had been replaced by simple slacks and a shirt the color of ripening peaches.
She lifted a hand to her hair, found it still tousled. “I don’t suppose I could have a brush.”
“I like your hair this way” was his answer, as he drew her back so he could sniff it. “It’s easier to get my hands into it.”
“Hmm.” As her system began to level, she could smell the flowers. Wild roses, heliotrope, lilies. She shifted and scanned the beams of sunlight, the cool pockets of shade. Arbors buried under triumphant blooms, sweeps of color, spears of shape with little stone paths winding through, seemingly at will.
“It’s beautiful. Wonderful. Oh, I wish I knew how to make something as magical as this.” She drew away to turn, to take in the trees sculpted by wind into bent, eerie shapes. Then she beamed as a gray wolf walkedmajestically down the path toward them. “Oh, is that—”
“A wolf,” Liam said, anticipating her. “Not a relative. He’s Morgana’s.” A child with dark hair and eyes as blue as lapis darted over the stones, then stopped with a keen and curious look in those striking eyes. “And so is he. Blessed be, cousin.”
Liam felt the tug on his mind, stronger than he’d have expected from a boy of no more than five, and lifted a brow. “It’s rude to look so deep, or attempt to, without permission.”
“You’re in my garden,” the boy said simply, but his lips curved in a sweet smile. “You’re cousin Liam.”
