Page 59 of Captured in Love
Raphaël suddenly straightens, cocking his head to the side. He presses his lips together, then blows out a sigh. “Your talk will have to wait.”
It takes me another thirty seconds before I distinguish the noise of a boat’s motor carried by the wind. A mixture of relief and frustration floods through me at the realization that I can have a couple more hours with Nora, a couple more hours to enjoy her easy trust and unconditional love.
I stand to wave at the rescue boat closing in on us. Raphaël joins me at the railing, his long fingers wrapped around the rusty metal.
“She won’t hate you, you know,” he says, his words barely audible above the rattle of the other boat’s engine.
That dream is the only thing keeping me going.
I glance sideways at him. “I hope you’re right.”
Twenty-Two
Nora
“How did this happen?”asks the captain of the coast guard vessel as he inspects our missing propeller and rudder.
I tighten my hold on my raincoat, trying to keep from getting soaked in the sudden downpour, and glance at Levi.
He puts on his serious face. “Ran into some rocks. Sorry for the trouble.”
The captain runs his palm over his blond beard, streaked through with silver, and narrows his eyes. “What rocks? There aren’t any reefs or underwater formations in a two-mile radius.”
Levi shoots me a desperate look, but I shrug. I won’t use my persuasion magic on this human, even though it would solve our problem and end his suspicion in an instant. When I blasted that witch in the tunnel earlier, we were in mortal danger. Right now, this is just an inconvenience.
“We drifted for a while before lowering the anchor,” Raphaël interjects smoothly, his voice taking on a mesmerizing timbre. “The sea currents must have taken us farther out than we thought.”
The sea captain’s eyes go dreamy for a second, and he nods thoughtfully. “Ah, yes. That happens sometimes.”
He turns his back on us and signals to the other two members of his crew who start preparing their boat to tug ours.
I face Raphaël, glaring at him. “You glamoured him!”
He raises one black eyebrow and lowers his voice. “I gave him a nudge so we don’t land in trouble. If you’d rather keep explaining how a mythical sea creature snapped off some essential boat parts, be my guest.”
His words make too much godsdamned sense. “You’re such a—avampire,” I sputter quietly.
Levi’s snort tells me my retort isn’t particularly clever. He sidles closer to us and murmurs, “Does that power of yours work on witches? Nora said you once tried to glamour her, but it didn’t work.”
After the intense confession-filled sex Raphaël and I shared earlier, I don’t want to rehash the worst moments of our relationship, namely when I’d discovered he was a vampire, and he tried to make me forget. But Iamcurious, enough that I let go of my indignation over the poor Icelandic sailor.
Raphaël glances from me to Levi and back. “First of all, I wouldnevertry to glamour the two of you. I don’t…” He shakes his head, swallows, and visibly forces himself to continue. “What I did that night, Nora, was out of a foolish hope that we could go back to a simple relationship where my nature didn’t play a part.”
In hindsight, I can’t really fault him for that, since I’d also been hiding the fact that I was a witch. I take his hand now and interlace our fingers, squeezing them in encouragement.
Raphaël gazes down at me for a moment, then adds, “But no, I don’t think it works on witches. Something about your nature is too different. Or maybe it’s because we were created by witches in the first place.”
“Try me.” Levi straightens his shoulders. “Let’s make sure.”
Raphaël’s lips curve in a wicked smile. “Are you sure you want to do this? Right here, on the open deck?”
Levi’s cheeks flush, and I’ll never get over how responsive he is to Raphaël and his teasing.
I bite my lower lip, then think of something. “Oh, are you still wearing your protection crystal? That might influence the outcome.”
Levi pulls the amethyst chunk from his pocket and sets it aside. “Done. Give me your worst.”
Raphaël touches his tongue to his lower lip. “Get on your knees.”
