Bedeviled by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online

listen to me, I’ll help you down.” He folded his hands atop his flat abdomen and looked comfortable enough to stay there all night.
    “Help me down first. How can I listen to you when I’m floating ?” She braced her hands on the ceiling and shoved. For a second it worked. Her body lowered a little, but then she bobbed back up to the ceiling again. Weird to know how those giant balloon animals in the Macy’s parade must feel.
    Now if only she could get someone to tether her ankle and pull her the hell down!
    “Come on, help .”
    Frowning, Culhane pushed himself to his feet and walked a few steps until he was standing directly beneath her. Which, of course, was when Maggie remembered that she was wearing her nightgown, and he was no doubt staring straight up at her personal space.
    “Close your eyes,” she ordered.
    He actually laughed, and the change in his features was breathtaking. The man went from gorgeous to flat-out amazing. Only the fact that he was laughing at her made it possible for Maggie to keep from drooling.
    While she bounced around on the ceiling like an escaped helium balloon, she tried to hold the hem of her short nightgown close to her legs, which wasn’t easy.
    “Are you sure you’re not doing this to me?”
    “No, the trapped Fae dust from the pendant is doing this to you.”
    “Fabulous,” she muttered, twisting her head this way and that, still looking for a way out. But there was nothing. No long, dangling chain holding up a chandelier. No handy floor-to-ceiling pole lamp. Just cobwebs. Lots and lots of cobwebs. She really had to do more housework.
    “Are you going to help me down or not?”
    “Will you listen?”
    “ Yes , all right? I’ll listen. If you want to sing some songs, I’ll listen. You want to read the phone book, I’m your audience. Just get me off the damn ceiling!”
    “Aunt Maggie?” Eileen’s voice came, calling from the hallway. “Who’s here?”
    “Go back to bed!” Maggie shouted. The last thing she needed was one more person seeing her rolling around on the ceiling.
    “Are you never alone?” Culhane asked.
    “Was wondering the same thing myself.” Her gaze shot to the hall as Eileen naturally ignored the order to go to bed and walked down the zigzag stairway Grandpa had built. Over thirty stairs to go up about two feet.
    The man had really had too much time on his hands.
    “Maggie, how come you’re on the ceiling?”
    “Her power grows,” Culhane said.
    “Cool,” Eileen added.
    “Go to bed !” Maggie shouted.
    “I knew you’d come back.” Eileen had transferred her attention from her floating aunt to the tall, dark warrior standing in the middle of the room. The girl was really taking all of this much better than Maggie was. But then, Eileen wasn’t bumping her head on wooden beams, was she? “I went on the Internet to do some checking after you left, and—”
    “Hello?” Maggie spoke up, her voice as filled with sarcasm as she could make it. “If you two don’t mind, maybe you could chat later . . . when I’m on the floor ?”
    “I was talking.” Eileen threw herself onto the couch with enough energy that Sheba woke at last. Looking up, the dog spotted Maggie, whined piteously, then dove under the coffee table, where she shivered so hard, Maggie’s forgotten wineglass trembled in response.
    “And I’m still floating.”
    “I have never experienced so much trouble dealing with one mortal woman,” Culhane grumbled, his voice deep and dark, rumbling through the small living room like a runaway freight train.
    “Two,” Eileen reminded him.
    “Yes, of course.” He merely glanced at the girl, then waved one hand and she was silent, her eyes still fixed on him but with an empty, vacant stare.
    “What was that?” Maggie slapped one hand to the ceiling, gave herself a shove and came really close to being within slapping distance of Culhane. Then she was bobbing back up again like a cork in water. If she weren’t so mad,