Spellbound Falls Read online

  “Chapman is unmatched and unforgettable.”*

  Praise for the novels of Janet Chapman

  “A romantic, funny, quietly intense story of wounded survivors reluctantly finding love.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Janet Chapman’s Dragon Warrior is head and shoulders above any shape-shifting or paranormal romance I have ever read . . . A spectacular and brilliant novel for those who love the juxtaposition of the paranormal and the real world. A Perfect 10 is a fitting rating for . . . a novel which is both tender and joyful, but also has beasts looking for peace and a new way of life after centuries of struggle.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Delightful romantic series with a paranormal twist . . . Chapman brings plenty of warmth and fun to the story by enlivening it with a rich cast of characters. You can’t go wrong with a Chapman story!”

  —*RT Book Reviews (4 stars)

  “If anyone can make me fall in love with a ninth-century warrior who also spent several centuries as a dragon, it’s Janet Chapman. I always love her secondary characters . . . I love the humor that she injects [in Dragon Warrior].”

  —Fallen Angels Review (Five Angel Review)

  “The idea of a time-traveling warrior, who was once a dragon, courting a modern woman is steamy fun . . . As funny and steamy as can be expected from Chapman . . . Well executed!”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “From exceptionally moving scenes to delightfully amusing moments, the originality of Dragon Warrior keeps your total attention . . . Creatively innovative with inventive plots and particularly appealing characters.”

  —Single Titles

  “Readers will be enchanted with Chapman’s love of Maine in her latest romance, a story filled with wit and tenderness.”

  —Booklist

  “Lovable characters, a sweet romance, and the grouchy troublemaker dragon combine for a delightful read.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  Jove titles by Janet Chapman

  HIGHLANDER FOR THE HOLIDAYS

  SPELLBOUND FALLS

  Spellbound Falls

  Janet Chapman

  JOVE BOOKS, NEW YORK

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada

  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

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  South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have control over and does not have any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  SPELLBOUND FALLS

  A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Jove mass-market edition / March 2012

  Copyright © 2012 by Janet Chapman.

  Excerpt from Charmed by His Love copyright © 2012 by Janet Chapman.

  Cover design by George Long.

  Cover handlettering by Ron Zinn.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  EISBN: 9781101560457

  JOVE®

  Jove Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  JOVE® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “J” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  To Nick Chapman.

  I swear I don’t know whether to be proud

  of the scary-awesome man you’ve become, or very afraid.

  So go on now, son; go move some mountains!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fiveteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eightteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Realizing the guy was utterly serious, Olivia bolted from the truck before she burst out laughing. Pretending not to hear Mark calling to her, she ran into the trading post—only to dart down the side aisle when she spotted Ezra waiting on Missy Maher at the counter in the back of the store. Finally stopping when she reached the alcove crowded with fishing gear, Olivia pressed her hands to her cheeks. For crying out loud, Mark was what… twenty? Twenty-one? She couldn’t remember what his application had said, but she’d swear he couldn’t be a day over twenty-two.

  Good Lord, did she look like a cougar? Or even worse, did she come across as some lonely widow so desperate for sex that she’d hop into bed with a… a man-child? She was thirty-three, dammit; not old enough to be the audacious twit’s mother but certainly too old to be his summer entertainment.

  Olivia sucked in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Now what was she supposed to do? Not only was her new employee—the sole applicant who’d had any camp counselor experience—about as proficient with a paintbrush as a two-year-old, the guy thought dawn cracked at ten A.M.

  But it had been during this afternoon’s hair-raising ride to town that Olivia had decided she’d have to dig out her small pile of applications and begin searching for a new handyman/counselor/activities assistant. Not five minutes after telling Mark there wouldn’t be a small army of young women working at Inglenook this summer, the horny toad had boldly stated that he found her really sexy, and asked if she’d be interested
in sneaking over to the bunkhouse tonight after she put her daughter to bed.

  What in hell was it with young people today that made them blurt out whatever they were thinking? Had good manners and discretion gone the way of the passenger pigeon? Was nothing taboo anymore?

  Olivia gasped. Oh God, she sounded just like her mother-in-law!

  “Olivia? Where’d you run off to?” Ezra called out, his voice moving toward her from the back of the store.

  “Boss?” Mark called from the opposite direction.

  “You can come out now, girl,” Ezra said with a chuckle. “Missy’s gone next door to plague everyone at the Drunken Moose.”

  “Hey, boss,” Mark said as he came to a stop beside the alcove, his youthful face screwed into a frown. “You jumped out of the truck before I could ask if I should drive around to the side of the store.”

  No, she’d jumped out before she got sued for smacking an employee. “I’m sorry, I just assumed you would. Hi, Ezra. Is my water heater out back on the loading dock?”

  “Well, it ain’t hiding back here behind the ice fishing traps.” Ezra took the trap she’d distractedly picked up and slid it on the peg as he shot her a conspirator’s grin. “You’re safe for the next couple of days. Missy told me her brother’s gone back to Chicago to close the sale on his house.”

  “Damn,” Olivia muttered. “If Simon sold his house, that means he really is moving to Spellbound Falls.” What was it about her that caught the attention of twenty- and fifty-year-old lechers, yet not one man around here her age gave her a second glance? “I need to order a case of bobbers and another dozen fishing poles,” she continued, stepping out of the alcove. “And you might as well add a pack of size eight fish hooks, two reels of ten-pound-test line, and several top-water lures.”

  Ezra headed toward the rear of the store. “Maybe you should order twenty-pound line, so you won’t have to keep buying so many lures and hooks every year.”

  Olivia fell into step behind him, walking along the front of the counter as he shuffled behind it, aware of Mark following her—probably ogling her backside. “Why in hell doesn’t someone make indestructible bobbers? I swear the parents break more of them than the kids do.”

  “It would probably be cheaper to buy cork ones,” Ezra said, his eyebrows lifting at her tone as his gaze darted from her to Mark. He looked down and tapped a few keys on his ancient computer. “Cork bobbers might cost more up front, but at least they still float after being bounced off the rocks all day.”

  “I tried some a couple of years ago, remember, but the toddlers kept eating them. Mark, why don’t you go see about loading that water heater.”

  “By myself?”

  “It’s on a hand truck, young fella,” Ezra said, glancing over his glasses.

  “Just make sure you tie it down tightly,” Olivia added, remembering that the twit drove as recklessly as he asked for sex. “I don’t want it landing in the ditch the first time we hit a yes ma’am.”

  Mark had started to turn away, but turned back. “When we hit a what?”

  Ezra looked up from his computer again. “Where you from, young fella?”

  “Georgia.”

  “You don’t have large dips in the roads down there in Georgia that bangs you up against the roof when you hit them too fast, making you say ‘yes ma’am’ every time your backside lifts off the seat?”

  “We have potholes. And the name’s Mark, not young fella. I’m twenty-three,” he said, puffing out his chest as he shot Olivia a lecherous grin.

  Which meant he was still ten years too young. She gave him a motherly smile. “Ezra calls anyone under seventy young fella. Go load the water tank so we can get back in time to meet Sophie at the turnoff. I just had my road graded, and I don’t want the school bus driving all the way in to Inglenook if I can help it.”

  But when Ezra silently nodded toward the small white box hidden behind a display of key chains, Olivia glanced at her watch and decided she had plenty of time. “Oh, Mark,” she called out as the boy headed through the back door. “After you’ve loaded the tank, could you please go to the post office and pick up the mail?” She shot him a brilliant smile. “If you gave Inglenook’s address like I suggested, maybe there’s a letter for you from your girlfriend.”

  That seemed to brighten his mood as he disappeared out back, her not-so-subtle reminder that he was already spoken for apparently going right over his head.

  Ezra slid the box onto the counter between them. “I ran next door to the Drunken Moose right after you called. Vanetta was just pulling this batch out of the oven, so they should still be warm.”

  Olivia immediately opened the box. “Ohmigod, I love it when you spoil me. And your timing’s perfect; I really, really need this right now,” she said, grabbing one of the huge, warm, and gooey cinnamon buns. She took a bite and closed her eyes as she pressed the thick icing against the roof of her mouth, then chewed slowly before finally swallowing so she could take another bite. But she stopped with the bun halfway to her mouth when she saw Ezra gaping at her. “Don’t you look at me like that, you old poop. These buns are better than taking up drinking.”

  “What’s the matter? Did Eileen make you sit through another reading of her dissertation last night?”

  “I don’t know why that woman asks my opinion if she doesn’t want my input on anything.” Olivia licked icing off her finger, then shot him a grin. “At least she’s given up discussing her latest theory on the role of grandparents with me, since I suggested she interview an expert living right here in Spellbound Falls, seeing how Bunkie Watts has sixteen and a half grandbabies.” She sighed, nodding toward the back room. “No, Mark’s the one making me want to take up drinking. That boy sleeps more hours than he’s awake, and he eats like there’s no tomorrow.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “And I swear the inside of his truck smells like pot. I’m going to have to replace him before Inglenook starts up again, as I can’t risk having a pothead around my campers.” She straightened with a glare. “I think they should make it legal for an employer to ask right on the application if someone is a recreational drug user.”

  Ezra choked on his bite of bun and took a quick sip of coffee. “Doreen gave me hell when I told her she had to fill out a W-2 form in order to work here two days a week. She said her social security number wasn’t any of my business, even after I spent half an hour explaining that’s precisely why she was given the number. Speaking of Sophie,” Ezra said, wiping his fingers on his pants, “you do know that ducking down aisles and running out the back door of the Drunken Moose ain’t gonna serve you in the long run, don’t you? One of these days Simon Maher’s gonna wise up and be sitting in your van the next time you jump in it. Need I remind you that postponing the inevitable won’t make it any easier?”

  Olivia swallowed with a frown, wondering how they’d gone from employees to Sophie to Simon. “And you know the minute I tell her precious brother to get lost, Missy Maher will turn my life into a living hell again. She wasn’t all that keen when Simon became interested in me in the first place, but once she got hold of the notion that Inglenook and I might be a package deal, she all but started throwing him at me. If I flat-out tell Simon to go jump in the lake, she’ll start up her campaign to shut us down again.”

  Ezra waved that away. “You already fixed every infraction the inspectors found. The state can’t close down a complying business just because some neighbor doesn’t like the sounds of a camp full of families having fun.”

  “They can close down a business that causes the game wardens to initiate a massive search when I lose one of those families.”

  “That was several years ago, Olivia, and every damn last family member said it was the best three days they’d ever spent together. Hell, the Minks have been coming to one of your weeklong sessions every year since.” Ezra leaned on the counter toward her again, his cloudy blue eyes filled with concern. “You got to set Simon straight the moment he gets back from Chicago; if not
for yourself, then for Sophie. What are you teaching that girl about grown-up relations when her mama drags her out the back door of the Drunken Moose right in the middle of breakfast to avoid talking to a man? Hell, last Saturday when I tried to get her to come see the new kites I got in, Sophie told me she couldn’t because she was keeping a lookout for Simon.”

  Olivia blew out a sigh. “I am such a phony. How do I have the nerve to run a camp that teaches parents how to connect with their kids when I stoop to bribing my own kid into spying for me?”

  Ezra reached out and patted her hand. “Now Olivia, everyone knows it ain’t easy being a single parent. Since way before Keith died you’ve been raising Sophie all by yourself and looking out for Eileen and John like a daughter. Hell, you’ve been single-handedly running Inglenook for them for years.” He shook his head. “Why Keith couldn’t be content to stay here and run it himself is beyond anyone’s guess. Ain’t no one in town gonna talk bad about our only war hero, but the man had no business getting himself killed in some desert half a world away.”

  “Keith loved being a soldier,” Olivia defended, though only halfheartedly.

  Ezra answered with a snort. “So, you asked Eileen about buying Inglenook yet? She should have her doctorate in what… another couple of months?”