That crooked smile she loved so much snuck up on her and mugged her heart. “I’m not talking about your Baba magic, although I admit, that’s pretty damned impressive. I’m talking about your own personal magic,” Marcus said, his tone softer than usual.
“You have this amazing ability to make the people around you blossom into their best possible selves; you make people want to be better, to do better, just so you’ll give them that smile full of sunshine that you get when someone has done something nice.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Beka said. She moved a little closer, as if drawn by a magnet that connected his soul to hers. “I don’t do that.”
“You do though,” Marcus said, suddenly right in front of her. He was so tall, so large, he should have felt intimidating. But she only felt sheltered by his nearness, a solid bulwark against the harsh realities of the storm that raged both inside and out.
“You don’t even see it, but everyone you touch is happier because of you. Poor Kenny was so shy; he couldn’t bring himself to say two words to a woman. But you were kind to him, you made him feel strong and confident, and he actually asked out this waitress he’s liked for years. They’re going on their second date tonight.
“And Chico, he’s been missing his family so much, but he always felt like he had to work here to send money back home, and because he’s illegal, he never dared to go back to visit. Talking to you all those times about his daughters, and the grandchildren he’s never met, he finally decided to go back to Mexico. I was able to get him a job down there with one of my Marine buddies who opened a hotel in Mazatlan after he got out.”
“That’s wonderful,” Beka said. “But they would have done those things eventually anyway, if they really wanted them.”
“I don’t think so, Beka,” Marcus said, putting one hand gently under her chin and tipping her face up so she couldn’t look away. “Because you made me a better person, too, and I would have said that was as impossible a task as cleaning radiation out of the ocean. When I left the Marines, I had been a killing machine for twelve years. It felt like I was some kind of monster, masquerading as a normal human being.”
She made an inarticulate sound of protest, but he shook his head.
“I went through the motions, but something inside me was broken, I thought forever. I’d loved being in the Marines, but the endless war and death and the constant need to look over my shoulder made it impossible for me to stay. But what it had done to my soul had rendered me unsuitable for any other kind of life.
“You changed all that. I’m not even sure how, but you showed me the way back to myself. I may not be a perfect human being, but at least now I feel like I have a chance of becoming someone I can face in the mirror every morning. So I had to come and say thank you, before we disappear out of each other’s lives forever.”
The thought of it made the room seem unbearably cold, and she moved forward without thinking, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest. The thump of his heartbeat steadied her whirling thoughts and focused them on one suddenly clear and undeniable aim—to make love to Marcus one more time, no matter what came after.
THIRTY
BEKA PUT HER head on his chest, and something inside Marcus turned to molten fire. It was crazy the way she affected him; he couldn’t even be in the same room with her without feeling the need to kiss her, touch her, hold her. Having her this close and not doing those things was just impossible. Suddenly his plan to go off and lead adventure tours seemed a lot less inviting.
A loud crash of thunder rocked the bus, and the lights flickered briefly, then went out.
“Shit,” Marcus said.
Beka giggled and snapped her fingers, and candles burst into flame all over the bus. Fat red candles on windowsills, slim silver candles on tables, honey-scented beeswax candles on what was probably an altar. Light glimmered from tiny tea lights and tall tapers, casting mysterious shadows and making the bus into a cozy refuge from the storm.
Huh. Maybe this witchcraft thing had something going for it after all.
Marcus grinned down at Beka, who looked deservedly pleased with herself. “Nice trick,” he said. “What else you got?”
She cocked her head to one side for a moment, thinking, and then reached up to kiss him softly, biting his bottom lip playfully when she was done. Marcus almost forgot to breathe, undone by the sheer glory that was Beka.
She seemed to be having a tough time breathing, too, blue eyes dilated and wide. “Your turn,” she said. “Surely you know a magic trick or two.”
He grinned and scooped her up, tossing her onto the futon and then pulling it out into a bed with her still riding along. She shrieked with surprise, giggling up at him in an irresistible combination of innocence and smoldering sexiness that went right to his head. He flopped down next to her, kissing her neck and wandering up to nibble on her earlobe.