Free Gone With the Witch by Annette Blair Page B

can't see what we're facing."
    "I'll make sure to clear your way when it's time. Can you be ready to roll in half an hour? I'll bring a few friends to help."
    "Not if I don't find my cat. I can't go without Warlock.”
    “ Find me when you're ready to go then. I'm easy to spot"
    No foolin'. "Thank you," she said, rethinking her own blue hair.
    He tipped his striped blue top hat and honked his bicy cle horn several approving times. "No, I thank you," Winkie said. "I haven't started my day with this big a smile in years."
    Chapter sixteen
    STORM felt the newly familiar heat wash up her face once more as she shut the door.
    "Who was it?" Aiden asked when she went back to the bedroom.
    "Some clown says we have to leave." She unlocked his cuffs. "Let's get moving. Warlock escaped out the door when I opened it, and we have to go find him before we go"
    Showers were an absolute necessity, but they needed to be quick, so they took turns.
    After a futile search for Froot Loops, Storm showered and put on one of Aiden's cotton dress shirts, letting his shirttails hang over a pair of his navy boxers, hoping they looked more like her shorts than his underpants. Worse, she had no choice but to wear her wedding spikes with the outfit.
    Winkie would take one look and think Trixie all over again.
    When she emerged from the bedroom, she found Aiden waiting on the sofa with all the shades up, except for one. "Why didn't you open the windshield curtain?" she asked.
    "I keep it closed to keep the sun from fading the interior." He grinned. "There really was a clown at the door, wasn't there? You must have been some sort of tired last night to park in the middle of a carnival. You're lucky you didn't mow down a tent."
    "For your information, smart-ass, I parked in an empty lot. The carnival must have rolled in during the night and sprouted up around us. Guess we were both so tired from the wedding—"
    " And the abduction—"
    "That we slept through the whole thing."
    "The clown wants us to move the coach, I take it?"
    "No ... the reason he came to the door is ... well .. . we were screaming and shouting some pretty outrageous satisfaction, which ... um ... scared the children and pissed off their parents." She opened the door. "Let's go find my cat."
    Aiden looked pretty cocky as he let her precede him out the door. "I'll take whatever reprieve from the cuffs I can get."
    The breeze beneath his big shirt caressed and budded her bare breasts, so Storm crossed her arms. "That wasn't the only reason I let you out," she said, leaning close. "I didn't want the clown to think I was having all that good sex by myself."
    "I could go another round," Aiden said. "Yes?"
    "Of course, yes. But we have to find Warlock first. I don't want him getting hurt or adopted by a bunch of kids."
    "Judging by the trapeze act that cat pulled with the ceiling fan last night, I say we start with the Tilt-A-Whirl or the center ring. Both have Warlock written all over them."
    "How about a funnel cake or fried dough for breakfast to keep up our stamina while we search?" she suggested.
    "Name your poison. I prefer a co rn dog, myself."
    Storm called Warlock as they made their way to the concession stands, but as the crowd grew thicker, finding her kitten seemed more and more impossible.
    Storm's heart wasn't in her fried dough, so she dropped it in the trash after two sugary bites.
    Aiden inhaled his corn dog before she turned around. "Stop worrying," he said. "Where would one fearless cat go in a place like this?"
    "He might once have been fearless, but he met his match this morning." She told him about the tiger incident, which seemed to worry Aiden as much as it did her.
    "Winkie," she called when she saw her good-morning clown. "Winkie, this is Aiden."
    Winkie beeped his bicycle horn and tipped his hat. "Congratulations."
    Aiden's spine went ramrod straight. "I'm proud."
    Storm ignored their not-so-subtle form of male bonding. "We can't find my cat, " she said. "Is there