The Touch of Magic Series, page 141
He still didn’t seem to care. His fists were perched on his hips. His voice was mocking. “And whatever did you find out?”
She couldn’t look at him. “That you said you loved me.” It was barely a whisper. She’d been so shocked to hear his voice saying those words as she relived that night in Chicago. In his hotel room, he’d told her he’d fallen like a rock the moment he saw her. He’d never said it again, but now... maybe she stood a chance. When he didn’t speak, she looked up at him.
It seemed what she’d said didn’t phase him in the slightest. He looked at her like she was the biggest fool on the planet to ever think she stood a chance with him.
“Of course, I love you! I’m an idiot.” He raised his palms out to her then at the room around him, “Did you think I did all this just to get a live-in maid? Or curtains? Or make my parents happy?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re an idiot, too, Sloan!” His voice was getting louder and hers was getting smaller.
“I’ve already admitted to that.” She wished for a hole to crawl into, to lick her wounds or just curl up and die. But still she held out some tiny flickering of hope.
Max didn’t. “Well that was a nice chat. I hope that hypnosis has made your life better.” The sarcasm dripped from him in thick clumps. “But really, what does it change? You don’t want to be here and you don’t want me.”
The hope flared inside her, giving power to her small voice. “But I do want to be here and I do want you.”
“Could’ve fooled me!” With the sizzle of a wet wick, it died.
“I thought you were looking for a mother for your kids, a convenient family. You never said you loved me.” Her voice and her heart cracked.
His shoulders slumped. “I said it until I was blue in the face, Sloan, what more do you want?”
“No.” She shook her head. “You said it in Chicago, but never afterwards.”
“Sloan, you thought I drugged you and maybe raped you. ‘Oh, Sloan I love you, let’s be a family’ seemed like the fastest route to a well-deserved jail sentence. You weren’t interested in me before Chicago, and I was already pushing the boundaries of stalking, since you didn’t love me back.” He looked so defeated. “It wouldn’t have changed anything.” He turned again to walk away.
“Yes, it would have.”
“Like what?”
“I would have said ‘yes’ when you asked me to marry you.” Her heart wasn’t beating anymore. It had been clear from the moment he had told her ‘no more’ and drove away that this reunion wasn’t going to be the happy moment she had hoped for.
He sighed. “Sloan, I asked you a thousand times in a thousand different ways, and you said ‘no’ every single time. I don’t know what you want from me.”
“I want whatever you’re willing to give.”
From somewhere in his chest came a sound that would have been laughter if it hadn’t teetered on a cliff of pain. It tore through her chest, that she had caused it, and his words told her she was right. “I would have given you everything. I tried to, again and again, and you kept pushing me away. I don’t have anything left.”
She nodded. Tears falling in earnest now. But Max just looked at her. Max who always leapt to take such good care of her, stood and watched her pain, and did nothing.
He was right. And so was she. He hadn’t said the words ‘I love you’ since that night in Chicago. But he’d showed her in every gesture and every word. He’d taken care of her, held her when she was upset, caressed her and made her feel beautiful, soothed her when she worried. Even just last night on the couch, his hurt and anger had been because he’d loved her. And even then, she’d still been too afraid to look, to see what it might be. She’d been so scared of losing him that she hadn’t seen that she already had him.
She wiped her own tears away and nodded. “If you ever decide that you do want to marry me, just ask. I’ll say ‘yes’. I promise.”
He only offered a shrug. “You don’t need me to ask you. You have the ring.” And he stalked away.
She did have the ring! Nestled in its tiny box, sitting useless at her bedside. She tore down the hallway, afraid that it was gone, that something had happened to it. And grateful when she saw the dark velvet box, still there, untouched. By the time she got to it and then raced back out into the hallway, Max had disappeared. But he had to be here somewhere.
Her heart still pounding in her throat, making her gasp for breath, she threw open doors, unable to call to him. Finally, she found him, slipped under the covers of the guest bed. Not the master bed where he belonged. He was almost asleep, but she grabbed his hand and pressed the small box to his palm.
Her voice came out on ragged, wet sounds torn from her throat. “If you ever get the urge to ask me again, I’ll say ‘yes’. I understand if you don’t want—”
“Marry me.”
She smiled. “Yes!”
His eyes popped wide open. Then frowned at her. “No, Sloan.”
Her breath sucked in, the pain ripping through her tearing apart every vital organ.
Pushing himself to sitting, he stared her down. “You were drugged that night. You’ve told me time and again that you weren’t yourself.” He sucked in a breath as if he needed fortification for what he was about to say.
Sloan tucked her hands together and tried to tame her wildly erratic heartbeat while she waited on him.
“When I kept asking you, I was convinced if you just said ‘yes’ you would come around and fall in love with me. The only time you ever said it was in Chicago. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone. I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you. But it’s not enough anymore just to be with you. I need to know if you could fall in love with me, too.” He held the ring box tight in his fist, knuckles white and angry around it.
She nodded.
“You think you could love me back?” He stayed his ground, sitting rigid in front of her, trying to give nothing away. His face was stoic, but his eyes showed what her answer meant to him.
“The first time you touched me, my heart broke.”
“What?” The sheltered expression slid off his face, replaced with the concern he always seemed to feel for her.
“When you shook my hand, I thought you were going to kiss my fingers instead, and I looked up at your face, startled. I think I fell in love with you right then.” Her fingers twisted in her lap, remembering the moment, and how shattered she had felt right then, and so much of the time since that day. “And there was this woman sitting on your blanket, and she looked at me in a way that said you clearly belonged to her. And all I could think was that my soulmate was already with someone else.”
“Really?”
She nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
He looked confused. “Then why did you keep saying ‘no’?”
“Max, I never picked the right guys. Why should I believe that I had done a better job this time? Especially when your girlfriend was sitting right there?”
He smiled at her. For the first time in what seemed like forever the grin overtook his whole face. His eyes locked on hers, and she felt it deep in every bone. “You love me?”
She nodded, truly crying now. “Yes, more than anything.”
Clearly, he still didn’t fully believe her, but he popped the blue box open and took her left hand. She gasped when she saw the ring. It was gorgeous.
“What? You never peeked?”
“No. I thought... well, I thought all kinds of things. But never that you really wanted me. That ring seemed like everything I couldn’t have. So I didn’t look.”
He slid it onto her fourth finger. “Sloan Jean Ellis, I have been in love with you from literally the first moment I saw you.” He kissed her, his mouth melting into hers, stealing all thoughts from her brain. His tongue robbed her of breath, and yet stilled the tornado of hurt feelings that had whirled inside her all these months. She clung to him, pressed against him, knowing he was the change that she felt.
Then pushed her away as he stood up out of bed, still dressed. “Now go pack.”
“Pack?”
“Yes, we’re going to Vegas. On the next flight.”
She inhaled. “Vegas?”
“Yes. So we can get married within the next twenty-four hours.”
She must have looked confused because he continued. “If you ever want me to sleep a peaceful night again, you’ll marry me A.S.A.P.”
She took it all in for a moment.
But Max kept talking. “You can have the big wedding any time you want, with as many friends as you want. I won’t breathe a word about Vegas. But I’m having a hard time believing this is real. You’ve run out on me too many times, and if it happens again I will burst into a million pieces. I need you.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
“Really?”
She had to laugh at him.
But he kept going. “You mean it? We’ll live here? We’ll be a real family? You’ll hang curtains? We’ll pick out paint?”
“Yes, to all of it. We’ll put a swing set in the back yard and argue over who has to do the dishes. We’ll gripe about socks on the floor, and wet towels, and empty toilet paper rolls. And I’ll love you every minute of every day.” She pulled his face down and kissed him, a new warmth settling deep inside her. This time she didn’t fight it. “Now I have to pack. I think we can all be ready to go in about thirty minutes.”
But he tugged her back for another kiss. This one deeper and longer. “Somehow we didn’t wake those babies.” His eyes danced with hot blue flames. “I’m certain that an hour or two will be soon enough.”
CHAPTER 54
In the end, they drove to Vegas in the minivan. It had taken all of five minutes to realize no one wanted to fly with two infants on the plane. With any luck, the car would rock the babies to sleep.
Sloan slept most of the way there too, since she hadn’t slept the whole night Max had been out. Luckily, the time hadn’t seemed to bother him or his stamina. They’d made love in the guest room so as not to wake the babies. The first time, they’d been successful. The second time, however, she was pretty sure they’d woken because she’d screamed Max’s name so loud.
They’d fed babies, called a chapel in Vegas, then called their friends.
Though they were the first on the road, the others should get in before the ceremony. Max even called his parents. While Sloan didn’t think they’d normally be ecstatic about a quickie Vegas wedding, they were more than thrilled to hop the next plane to Sin City and even begged them to hold the ceremony if the plane was late. Sloan had easily agreed. She also called Wil, but didn’t tell Max.
Rae and Sam were hot on their heels, showing up as soon as Sloan and Max checked into their room. In a short while, Rae was pushing the double stroller through the shops to help find a wedding dress. If she had to get married fast, Vegas was at least the place to do it. They found a gorgeous dress and it fit, though not the way Sloan wanted.
“I haven’t lost the baby weight yet,” she lamented as she stood in front of the mirror. “Maybe I can cast a glamour.”
“Don’t you dare!”
Rae’s outburst startled her, and Sloan looked at her sister, confused.
“That man loves you. He is your Chicago Dream Man. You don’t lie to him in any way.” Her sister’s eyes implored her. “If there’s anything I’ve learned with Sam it’s that we can’t let anything come between us. That starts each time I want to hide something. Even something as simple as I bought another pair of shoes and I know it will drive him crazy. I tell him. I let it drive him crazy.”
There was a heartbeat as Sloan took it all in. Rae’s next words weren’t what she expected though.
“Don’t make him see anything other than the real you. You don’t need glamours. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, and trust me, he’s not seeing any baby weight. He just sees you. Don’t mess with that!”
Sloan nodded at her sister’s reflection in the mirror, but Rae had already ducked down to push fallen binkies back into tiny mouths. She fussed over blankets and Sloan heard, “Tell your mommy she looks beautiful.”
Just then her phone buzzed with a text from Max that his parents had arrived and he was in his tux and ready. She called him, wanting—needing—to hear his voice. “Hi, Babe. Rae and the babies and I are on our way. Probably twenty minutes, maybe more if we hit traffic.”
Wearing the dress out of the store, they headed for the limo Rae had rented her as a wedding present. Inside, she found bouquets and looked up at her sister, already wearing what she’d picked out as a maid of honor dress. With practiced hands, they buckled car seats into the back of the limo and Sloan was struck at the oddity of it all. Tucking her dress into the car and clutching her bouquet, she began her last ride as an unmarried woman. Her last ride before Max was well and truly hers.
They pulled up in front of the small beautiful chapel. While Max could have gotten them any one of the neon churches, he’d managed to find a pretty one. Rae pulled the babies out of the car and handed one car seat to Wil, who’d just pulled up with a carload of men Sloan knew as Max’s friends. He hadn’t seen them in a while, and she thought it was a great present. She smiled to Wil and whispered “thank you” as she gathered her dress and headed to the back of the chapel.
Ensconced in the bridal suite, she sat in the chair and laid her head back. It had been so long since the first night Max had proposed to her in Chicago. He’d said…
He’d said…
Sloan frowned. It was gone.
Her heart raced. Where had her memory gone? She searched for anything from Chicago but couldn’t find it. Panicking now, she catalogued what she did remember. She’d been happy. So happy. She knew they’d made love, but she couldn’t remember doing it. She knew he’d proposed, but all the images and the sounds and the feelings were gone.
Just then, Rae stepped into the room and saw her. “What’s wrong?”
“I—” She started to explain, then said, “No. I need to tell Max.”
“I’ll get him.”
Just like that, her sister was out the door, leaving Sloan alone with a growing horror in the pit of her stomach. His parents were religious. She was a witch. She was wearing silk underwear, a wedding dress, and spells. She couldn’t marry him without telling him the truth. And she had to confess that she hadn’t seen a hypnotist.
Max appeared in the doorway, a huge smile on his face until he saw her. She must look as frightened as she was. He could turn away right now. It would be legitimate. After all this, he should leave her for lying to him.
She started with the simplest thing. “I can’t remember Chicago.”
“What? You didn’t ever remember it? You lied?” He still didn’t seem angry.
Well, she might be about to blow that out of the water. “I did remember, but it’s gone. And I did lie about something else.”
She waited a beat, but saw he was waiting her out, his own expression wary. Good God, she’d put him through this so many times. So she just came clean.
“I didn’t see a hypnotist. I called my friends and we cast a spell so I could remember. It must have worn off, though I didn’t know it could.” When he didn’t say anything, she added one last line. “I want to remember it, but it’s gone. I can’t now.”
He still didn’t seem angry, just concerned. “You and your friends shouldn’t play around with spells, Sloan. It can get very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
She shrugged. “We do know what we’re doing. We’re witches.”
“What?” He was clearly startled by her admission.
So she said it again. “I’m a witch.”
Max threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, my God.”
That was not the reaction she’d expected. Frowning hard, she looked at him more closely. Nope, that was honest to God laughter. “It’s not funny. It’s what I am. I cast a spell on myself to remember Chicago, and now it’s gone!”
He wiped real tears from the corners of his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sloan. I countered that spell so it wouldn’t work.”
“What? Why would you counter my recover? And how would you do it?” That took advanced witchcraft. Max…?
He grinned before she could think it through. “My Grandma Summerland was a witch. She taught me and left me all her stuff.”
“Summerland…” she let it trail off. Summerland was a common enough name, but a branch of the family was a well-known name in witchcraft on the new continent.
As soon as she said it, he whispered, “Ellis…” and nodded as he realized what they were doing. She was from a known witchcraft family, too.
“Why did you stop my spell?” she asked, still confused.
“In Chicago, Dylan Atterson gave you GHB but he also cast a spell on you. It was an evil double whammy.”
“He’s one, too?” She felt her hand go to her heart, this was getting bigger than she’d ever expected.
Max shook his head. “I finally believe him. He said he got it on the internet.” He looked into the corner. “The first night, I had you close your eyes and hold things. That may be all you remember, but that was me taking his spell off you. I thought you were fully sober after that, because who would cast a spell and give you roofies? It’s why I was so horrified the next morning. I thought I had taken care of everything.”
Max paused, when Sloan nodded at him, he continued, telling her how he’d found more spells later, that he removed and blocked.
“You’re the one who shut me down! I thought it was because I was pregnant!”
“I didn’t stop you from casting on other people.”
“I don’t cast on other people!” she protested, realizing that Max had found it okay to cast on her. She would have to set a firm rule—
“Hey,” He held his palms up to her. “I don’t either. I only did it to remove spells that I believed you didn’t know about. I did it because I thought someone had cast on you—”
“Yeah, me!” She protested.
He couldn’t stifle his grin. “I promise I will not get in your way again.”
