Lover Beware Read online

  Voices drifted from the house. One was soft and melodious. He couldn’t catch the words but the tone worked its way through his skin into his very bones. Into his vital organs. He moved closer, drawn by the sound, and immediately saw two dogs on the front porch. Both were watching him alertly, heads down, hair up, neither making a sound.

  Damon froze. The voices continued. One was weeping. He could hear the heartbreaking sound. A woman’s voice. The melodious voice soothed. Damon shifted his weight and took a two-handed grip on his cane. If he had to use it as a weapon, that would give him more leverage. Concerned though he was with the dogs, he was more centered on the voice. He strained to listen.

  “Please, Sarah, you have to be able to do something. I know you can. Please say you’ll help me. I can’t bear this,” the crying voice said.

  Her sorrow was so deep Damon ached for her. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt someone’s pain. He couldn’t remember how to feel anything but bored or frustrated. The dogs both sniffed the air and, as if recognizing him, wagged their tails in greeting and sat down, hair settling to make them appear much more friendly. Keeping one eye on the dogs, he strained to catch the words spoken in that soft lilting tone.

  “I know it’s difficult, Irene, but this isn’t something like putting a Band-Aid on a scraped knee. What do the doctors say?”

  There was more sobbing. It shook him, hurt him, tore up his insides so that his gut churned and a terrible weight pressed on his chest. Damon forgot all about the dogs and pressed his hand over his heart. Irene Madison. Now he recognized the voice, knew from Inez at the grocery store that her fifteen-year-old son, Drew, was terminally ill.

  “There’s no hope, Sarah. They said to take him home and make him comfortable. You know you can find a way. Please do this for us, for me.”

  Damon edged closer to the house, wondering what the hell she thought Sarah could do. Work a miracle? There was a small silence. The window was open, the wind setting the white lacy curtains dancing. He waited, holding his breath. Waited for Sarah’s answer. Waited for the sound of her voice.

  “Irene, you know I don’t do that sort of thing. I’ve only just come back. I haven’t even unpacked. You’re asking me…”

  “Sarah, I’m begging you. I’ll do anything, give you anything. I’m begging on my knees…” The sobs were choking Damon. The pain was so raw in the woman.

  “Irene, get up! What are you doing? Stop it.”

  “You have to say you’ll come to see him. Please, Sarah. Our mothers were best friends. If not for me, do it for my mother.”

  “I’ll come by, Irene. I’m not promising anything, but I’ll stop by.” There was resignation in that gentle voice. Weariness. “My sisters will be coming in a day or so and as soon as we’re all rested we’ll stop by and see what we can do.”

  “I know you think I’m asking for a miracle, but I’m not, I just want more time with him. Come when you’re rested, when the others have come and can help.” The relief Irene felt spilled over to Damon and he had no clue why. Only that the weight pressing on his chest lifted and his heart soared for a moment.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  The voices were traveling toward him. Damon waited, his heart pounding in anticipation. He had no idea what to expect or even what he wanted, but everything in him stilled.

  The door opened and two women emerged to stand in the shadow of the wide, columned porch. “Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much,” Irene said, clutching at Sarah’s hands gratefully. “I knew you would come.” She hurried down the stairs, straight past the dogs, who had rushed to their mistress. Irene managed a quick smile for Damon as she passed him, her tearstained face bright with hope.

  Damon leaned on his cane and stared up at Sarah.

  Chapter 2

  SARAH STOOD ON the porch, her body in the shadows. Damon had no idea of her age. Her face seemed timeless. Her eyes were old eyes, filled with intelligence and power. Her skin was smooth and flawless, giving her the appearance of extreme youth, very much at odds with the knowledge in her direct gaze. She simply stood there quietly, her incredible eyes fixed on him.

  “How did you get through the gate?”

  It wasn’t what he expected. Damon half turned to look back at the wrought-iron masterpiece of art. The gate was six feet high and an intricate piece of craftsmanship. He had studied it on more than one occasion, noting the symbols and depictions of various animals and stars and moons. A collage of creatures with raw power mixed with universal signs of the earth, water, fire, and wind. Always before when he had come to stare at the house and grounds the gate had been firmly locked.

  “It was open,” he replied simply.

  Her eyebrow shot up and she looked from him to the gate and back again. There was interest in her gaze. “And the dogs?” Her hand dropped to one massive head as she absently scratched the ears.

  “They gave me the once-over and decided I was friendly,” he answered.

  A faint frown touched her face, was gone in an instant. “Did they? You must get along well with animals.”

  “I don’t get along well with anything,” he blurted out before he could stop himself. He was so shocked and embarrassed at the admission he couldn’t find a way to laugh it off, so it remained there between them.

  Sarah simply studied his face for a long while. An eternity. She had a direct gaze that seemed to see past his physical body and delve straight to his soul. It made Damon uncomfortable and ashamed. “You’d better come in and sit down for a while,” she said. “There’s a blackness around your aura. I can tell you’re in pain, although I can’t see why you’ve come yet.” She turned and went into the house, clearly expecting him to follow her. Both dogs did, hurrying after her, pacing at her heels.

  Damon had been acting out of character ever since he heard that first whisper of gossip. He stood, leaning on his cane, wondering what had gotten into him. He’d seen the mighty Sarah. She was just a woman with incredible eyes. That was all. She couldn’t walk on water or move mountains. She couldn’t scale impossible cliffs or assassinate heads of terrorist organizations. She was just a woman. And probably as loony as hell. His aura was black? What the hell did that mean? She probably had voodoo dolls and dead chickens in her house.

  He stared at the open door. She didn’t come back or look to see if he was following. The house had swallowed her up. Mysterious Sarah. Damon lifted his eyes to the gathering darkness, to the first stars and the floating wisps of clouds. It irritated him but he knew he was going to follow her into that house. Just like her damn dogs.

  Damon consoled himself with the fact that he was extremely interested in the preservation of wood and paint. He had been interested in her house long before she arrived back in town. He couldn’t pass up a genuine opportunity to study it up close, even if it meant trying to make small talk with a crazy stranger. He raked his hand through his dark hair and glared at the empty doorway. Muttering curses beneath his breath, he stalked after her as best he could with his cane and his damaged hip and leg.

  The porch stairs were as solid as a rock. The verandah itself was wide and beautiful, wrapping around the house, an invitation to sit in the shade and enjoy the view of the pounding sea. Damon wanted to linger there and continue to feel the peace of Sarah’s home, but he stepped inside. The air seemed cool and scented, smelling of some fragrance that reminded him of the forests and flowers. The entryway was wide, tiled with a mosaic design, and it opened into a huge room.

  With a sense of awe, Damon stared down at the artwork on the floor. There was a feeling of falling into another world when he looked at it. The deep blue of the sea was really the ocean in the sky. Stars burst and flared into life. The moon was a shining ball of silver. He stood transfixed, wanting to get on his knees and examine every inch of the floor. “I like this floor. It’s a shame to walk on it,” he announced loudly.

  “I’m glad you like it. I think it’s beautiful,” she said. Her voice was velvet soft, but
it carried through the house back to him. “My grandmother and her sisters made that together. It took them a very long time to get it just right. Tell me what you see when you look into the midnight sky there.”

  He hesitated but the pull of the floor was too much to resist. He examined it carefully. “There are dark shadows in the clouds across the moon. And behind the clouds, a ring of red surrounds the moon. The stars connect and make a bizarre pattern. The body of a man is floating on the sea of clouds and something has pierced his heart.” He looked up at her, a challenge on his face.

  Sarah merely smiled. “I was about to have tea; would you care for a cup?” She walked away from him into the open kitchen.

  Damon could hear the sound of water as she filled the teakettle. “Yes, thank you, that sounds good.” And it did, which was crazy. He never drank tea. Not a single cup. He was losing his mind.

  “The pictures of my grandmother and her sisters are to your left, if you’d like to see them.”

  He had always considered looking at pictures of people he didn’t know utterly ridiculous, but he couldn’t resist looking at the photographs of the women who had managed to create such beauty on a floor. He wandered over to the wall of memories. There were many photographs of women, some black-and-white, others in color. Some of the pictures were obviously very old, but he could easily see the resemblance among the women. Damon cleared his throat. He frowned when he noticed a strange pattern running through every grouping. “Why are there seven women in each family picture?”

  “There seems to be a strange phenomenon in our family,” Sarah answered readily. “Every generation, someone produces seven daughters.”

  Startled, Damon leaned on his cane and studied each group of faces. “One out of the seven girls has always given birth to seven daughters? On purpose?”

  Sarah laughed and came around the corner to join him in front of the wall of photographs. “Every generation.”

  He looked from her to the faces of her sisters in a picture near the center of the wall. “Which one carries the strain of insanity?”

  “Good question. No one’s ever thought to ask it before. My sister Elle is the seventh daughter so she inherits the mantle of responsibility. Or insanity, if you prefer.” Sarah pointed to a girl with a young face, vivid green eyes, and a wealth of red hair pulled carelessly into a ponytail.

  “And where is poor Elle right now?” Damon asked.

  Sarah inhaled, then let her breath out slowly, her long lashes fluttering down. At once her face was in repose. She looked tranquil, radiant. Watching her did something funny to Damon’s heart, a curious melting sensation that was utterly terrifying. He couldn’t take his fascinated gaze off of her. Strangely, for just one moment, he felt as if Sarah was no longer in the room with him. As if her physical body had separated from her spirit, allowing her to travel across time and space. Damon shook himself, trying to get rid of the crazy impression. He wasn’t an imaginative person, yet he was certain Sarah had somehow touched her sister Elle.

  “Elle is in a cave of gems, deep under the ground where she can hear the heartbeat of the earth.” Sarah opened her eyes and looked at him. “I’m Sarah Drake.”

  “Damon Wilder.” He gestured toward his house. “Your new neighbor.” He was staring at her, drinking her in. It didn’t make sense. He was certain she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world but his heart and lungs were insisting she was. Sarah was average height, with a woman’s figure. She wore faded, worn blue jeans and a plaid flannel shirt. She certainly was not at all glamorous, yet his lungs burned for air and his heart accelerated. His body hardened painfully when she wasn’t even trying to be a sexy siren, simply standing there in her comfortable old clothes with her wealth of dark hair pulled back from her pale face. It was the most infuriating and humiliating thing it was his misfortune to endure.

  “You bought the old Hanover place. The view is fantastic. How did you come to find our little town?” Her cool blue gaze was direct and far too assessing. “You look like a man who would be far more comfortable in a big city.”

  Damon’s fist tightened around his cane. Sarah could see his knuckles were white. “I saw it on a map and just knew it was the place I wanted to live in when I retired.” She studied his face, the lines of suffering etched into his face, the too old eyes. He was surrounded with the mark of Death, and he read Death in the midnight sky, yet she was strangely drawn to him.

  Her eyebrow went up, a perfect arch. “You’re a little young to retire, I would have thought. There’s not a lot of excitement here.”

  “I’ll have to disagree with that. Have you hung out around the grocery store lately? Inez provides amazing entertainment.” There was a wealth of sarcasm mixed with contempt in his voice.

  Sarah turned away from him, her shoulders stiffening visibly. “What do you actually know about Inez to have managed to form an opinion in your month of living here?” She sounded sweet and interested but he had the feeling he had just stepped hard on her toes.

  Damon limped after her like a puppy dog, trying not to mutter foul curses under his breath. It never mattered to him what other people thought. Everyone had opinions and few actually had educated ones. Why the hell did Sarah’s opinion of him matter? And why did her hips have to sway with mesmerizing invitation?

  The kitchen was tiled with the same midnight blue that had formed the sky in the mosaic. A long bank of windows looked out over a garden of flowers and herbs. He could see a three-tiered fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Sarah waved him toward the long table while she fixed the tea. Damon couldn’t see a speck of dust or dirt anywhere in the house. “When did you arrive?”

  “Late last night. It feels wonderful to be home again. It’s been a couple of years since my last visit. My parents are in Europe at the moment. They own several homes and love Italy. My grandmother is with them, so the cliff house has been empty.”

  “So this is your parents’ home?” When she shook her head with her slight, mysterious smile he asked, “Do you own this house?”

  “With my sisters. It was given to us through our mother.” She brought a steaming mug of tea and placed it on the table beside his hand. “I think you’ll like this. It’s soothing and will help take away the pain.”

  “I didn’t say I was in pain.” Damon could have kicked himself. Even to his own ears he sounded ridiculous, a defiant child denying the truth. “Thank you,” he managed to mutter, trying to smell the tea without offending her.

  Sarah sat across from him, cradling a teacup between her palms. “How can I help you, Mr. Wilder?”

  “Call me Damon,” he said.

  “Damon then,” she acknowledged with a small smile. “I’m just Sarah.”

  Damon could feel her penetrating gaze. “I’ve been very interested in your house, Sarah. The paint hasn’t faded or peeled, not even in the salt air. I was hoping you would tell me what preservative you used.”

  Sarah leaned back in her chair, brought the teacup to her mouth. She had a beautiful mouth. Wide and full and curved as if she laughed all the time. Or invited kisses. The thought came unbidden as he stared at her mouth. Sheer temptation. Damon felt the weight of her gaze. Color began to creep up the back of his neck.

  “I see. You came out late in the evening even though you were hurting because you were anxious to know what kind of preservative I use on my house. That certainly makes perfect sense.”

  There was no amusement in her voice, not even a hint of sarcasm, but the dull red color spread to his face. Her eyes saw too much, saw into him where he didn’t want to be seen, where he couldn’t afford to be seen. He wanted to look away but he couldn’t seem to pull his gaze from hers.

  “Tell me why you’re really here.” Her voice was soft, inviting confidence.

  He raked both hands through his hair in frustration. “I honestly don’t know. I’m sorry for invading your privacy.” But he wasn’t. It was a lie and they both knew it.

  She took another sip of tea an
d gestured toward his mug. “Drink it. It’s a special blend I make myself. I think you’ll like it and I know it will make you feel better.” She grinned at him. “I can promise you there aren’t any toads or eye of newt in it.”

  Sarah’s smile robbed him of breath immediately. It was a strange thing to feel a punch in the gut so hard it drove the air out of one’s lungs just with a simple smile. He waited several heartbeats until he recovered enough to speak. “Why do you think I need to feel better?” he asked, striving for nonchalance.

  “I don’t have to be a seer for that, Damon. You’re limping. There are white lines around your mouth and your leg is trembling.”

  Damon raised the cup to his mouth, took a cautious sip of the brew. The taste was unique. “I was attacked awhile back.” The words emerged before he could stop them. Horrified, he stared into the tea mug, afraid her brew was a truth serum.

  Sarah put her teacup carefully on the table. “A person attacked you?”

  “Well, he wasn’t an alien.” He swallowed a gulp of tea. The heat warmed him, spreading through his body to reach sore, painful places.

  “Why would one man want to kill another?” Sarah mused aloud. “I’ve never understood that. Money is such a silly reason really.”

  “Most people don’t think so.” He rubbed his head as if it hurt, or maybe in memory. “People kill for all sorts of reasons, Sarah.”

  “How awful for you. I hope he was caught.”

  Before he could stop himself, Damon shook his head. Her vivid gaze settled on his face, looked inside of him again until he wanted to curse. “I was able to get away, but my assistant”—he stopped, corrected himself—“my friend wasn’t so lucky.”