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And she sahy Mia had fallen for hiood looks But in his eyes she saw soyou," she said briskly "But if Zack considers you a friend, youqualities So trifle for dessert"
She had hue The pretty blue-eyed blonde who&039;d been bitingly polite, then brutally frank, then cautiously understanding all in one evening had brought him to his knees
It was rare for him to want to earn someone&039;s respect, but he noanted badly to earn Nell Todd&039;s He walked the beach as he had walked it as a boy Restlessly And turned for home, as he had as a boy Without any sense of pleasure
How could he explain that while he had loved the house on the bluff, it had never been his place? He&039;d had no regrets when his father had sold it
The cove, the cave, they had reat deal once But the house itself had just been wood and glass With so little waran , to succeed, to excel Well, he&039;d learned to do all three, but he wondered nohat it had cost hiain of the spirit in the Todd house He&039;d always believed houses had spirits, and theirs are actually worked for some people, he decided The commitment, the unity, and the promise - not just for convenience or status but for heart
That, in his ift
There&039;d been little affection in his house Oh, no neglect, no abuse, no meanness His parents had been partners, but never, in his e was as coldly efficient as anybaffled, fascinated, and vaguely embarrassed when he was a boy by the open displays of affection between Zack&039;s parents
He thought of the around in their house on wheels and reportedly having the time of their lives His parents would be appalled at the idea
How much, he wondered, did e caly functional childhood predispose him to create his own functional family?
The luck of the draw?
Or was it all, in the end, eto another choice He paused now, looking out and watching the swath of white light sweep over the water Mia&039;s lighthouse, on Mia&039;s cliffs How many tiht of her?
Wanted her
He couldn&039;t reht he&039;d been born wanting her And it had been terrifying, that feeling that he&039;d been swa before his existence
How hts had he ached for her? Even when he&039;d had her, even when he&039;d been inside her, he&039;d ached Love, for him, had been a storm, full of boundless pleasure and abject terror For her, it had sie of the beach, he sent his thoughts winging over the black water, toward the beaht Toward the cliffs, the stone house Toward her
And the wall she&039;d built around as hers rejected them, bounced them back at him
"You have to let me in," he murmured "Sooner or later"
But he left it alone, for now, and continued to walk toward the cottage The solitude he&039;d welcomed on his first day pressed down on hioing into the house, he moved into the woods
Until Mia talked to him, he would learn what he needed to learn, see what he needed to see, by other means
The dark was deep, with a scatter of stars and a thin sickle of moon But there were other ways to see He tuned hiht He could hear the babble of a little strea on its banks There was the rustle of a small animal in the brush, and the plaintive call of an owl One would feed, the other would perish
He smelled earth, and water, and knew there would be rain before h the dark, through the trees, as confidently as a man walks downMain Street on a sunny afternoon Power pulsed along his skin, that awakening thrill of round scattered with fallen leaves, where the circle had been cast The three were strong when linked, he thought He&039;d felt that say on the beach and had known that a circle of power had been cast there But this one had come first, and so he would look here first
"It would be simpler if they&039;d just tellSo"
He lifted his hands with palms up, like cups ready to be filled
"Show me I call to the three, once and ever a part ofwhat transpired to ht begin to complete my task Grant this vision unto ht thinned, and billowed like a blowing curtain Parted Fear, like a rabbit in a trap Hate, sharp as ravaging teeth And love, wrapped war through the woods, and her thoughts were clear to hirief for Zack, a desperation not only to escape what pursued her but to save the ton leap at her, angle the knife at her throat Emotions pounded at him There was Mia, in a black dress scattered with silver stars, and Ripley, holding a gun Zack, bleeding, his oeapon pointed
The night was alive with an to hulowed as she rejected her fears It shileamed as silver as the stars she wore And slowly, almost reluctantly, it sparked froun and clasped Mia&039;s hand
And then the circle burned like blue fire
The punch of it caught Sam unprepared and pushed hiained himself But he&039;d lost his hold on the vision, and it wavered, faded
"The circle&039;s unbroken" He lifted his face, watched clouds stream across the stars "You have to let ht, without plan, without design, he reached out to her in drea back in ti
She was seventeen and leggy, with hair a tu Her beauty struck hihed as she waded in the cove She wore triht-blue top that left her arms and an inch of her midriff bare He could smell her, over the scents of salt and sea, he could srance that was Mia
"Don&039;t you want to swiain as she splashed up water "Sad-eyed Sa about today?"
"I&039; him out because he&039;d chosen to work on-island that summer in the hotel rather than inNew YorkHe&039;d been wondering if he wasso desperate to stay on-island because of Mia
Because the idea of being away fro and unthinkable Yet he had begun to think it To wonder about it o back to thehi some excuse not to co the semester Every time he left the mainland on the ferry, they pulled hi to take the escape hatch that had been tailor-ain Reconsider
But when Mia had co to his beach, he&039;d been too croith lust and longing to brood or to think about being anywhere but with her
"If you&039;re not brooding, prove it" She walked backward in the water so that it lapped at her calves, her knees, those long white thighs "Coames"
"I&039;h it like afro seductively to her breasts, he thought he&039;d go nified to splash around in the water"
She did a surface dive and streaked through the dark blue water of the cove When he grabbed her ankle, she kicked and cahter, as always, bewitched hinity," he said, and dunked her It was innocent Sun and water, the bright beginning of sue between childhood and the future
It couldn&039;t stay innocent
They splashed, warred, swaether as they always did, lipswhen they burst through into air Need rose with theent, so that she trembled as she wrapped herself around him Her lips, warm and wet, parted for his with a trust and acceptance that shook hi her, he pressed his face into the wet ropes of her hair "We have to stop Let&039;s go for a walk" Even as he spoke, his hands wereover her He couldn&039;t help hiht," she said softly Cradled in his arhed "Of you It&039;s always of you And when I woke, I kneould be today" She dipped her head back, and he all but fell into those great gray eyes "I want to be with you, and no one else I want to give myself to you, and no one else"
His blood pounded for her He tried to think of right and wrong, of tomorrow But could only think of now "You have to be sure"
"Sam" She traced kisses over his face "I&039;ve always been sure"
She slid away from him, but only to take his hand It was she who led him out of the water and to the cave tucked into the bluff
The cave was cool and dry, high enough at its heart for hiht He saw the blanket spread near the far wall, and the candles scattered over the floor And looked at her
"I told you I knew This is our place" Watching hi down the front of her shirt And he saw her fingers tremble
"You&039;re cold"
"A little"
He stepped to her "And afraid"
Her lips curved "A little But I won&039;t be either for long"
"I&039;ll be careful with you"
She let her hands fall to her sides so that he could finish unbuttoning her shirt "I know I love you, Sam"
He lowered his lips to hers as he peeled the cotton away "I love you"
The little niggle of fear inside her vanished "I know"
He&039;d touched her before, and been touched Glorious, frustrating caresses, too often hurried Now as they undressed each other, the candles flickered into life As they lowered to the blanket, a thin fil them in
Their an to rise, she sensed hiers, sometimes unsteady, skimmed over her as if he feared she would vanish
"I won&039;t leave you," she ent, found her breast She arched beneath hi, body as fluid as the water that scented it When he looked at her, her hair damp and tuht her, he shuddered with power
And , full-throated sound that rippled through him andhie of blood, the pound of need, he struggled to be gentle Still, he saw the flicker of shock
"Only for a minute" Delirious, he ran kisses over her face "I promise Only for a minute" Then he surrendered to the demands of his body and took her
Her hands fisted on the blanket, and she bit back the first cry But alan, warain, on a sigh "Of course" She turned her lips to the side of his neck "Of course"
And began to move under him She rose and took him deeper, fell and drew hirew slick Clinging, they took each other When she lay wrapped in his arold
"This is where she found hiers over her shoulders He couldn&039;t stop touching her The lazy sexual haze clouded his ht of on the beach "Hmm?"
"The one as Fire The one who&039;s mine This is where she found her silkie, in human form, and fell in love while he slept"
"How do you know?"
She started to say she&039;d always known, but shook her head instead "She took his pelt and hid it away so she could keep hi when it was for love"
Basking in the afterglow, Sam nuzzled her neck He wanted to be here, with her He wanted nothing, no one else Never would Never could Now, the realization steadied rather than unnerved hi when it&039;s for love"
"But she couldn&039;t keep him," Mia said quietly "Years later, after they&039;d had children, after she&039;d lost her sisters, her circle, he found his pelt He couldn&039;t stop what he did It was his nature Once he&039;d found his
pelt, nothing, not even love, could ot she existed Forgot his home, and his children"
"It hter "Don&039;t be sad now"
"Don&039;t leave ainst his shoulder "Don&039;t ever leave me I think I&039;d die, as she died, alone and heartbroken"
"I won&039;t" But soht here Look" He shifted so that they faced the cave wall Lifting a finger, he laid it on the stone Light sparked froertip and etched words into rock
She read the Gaelic and her eyes misted " &039;My heart is your heart Ever and always&039; "
She lifted her own finger, carved a Celtic knot beneath the words A pro eyes up to his "And mine&039;s yours"
Alone in her house on the cliff, Mia turned her face into her pillow And murmured his name in her sleep