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“Indeed. He died when I was three.” Dane shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. And Eryss sighed inwardly as the glossy black strands swept over his ear. “Enough talk about what I do and why I’m here. I want to enjoy summer!”
Now he turned an absolutely delicious smile on her. He set the glass down in the grass and turned his body toward her. He set his shoulders back and spread his arms across the sofa back and arm. He was open to her, beckoning without words.
And if that wasn’t an invitation, Eryss was losing her wiles. She moved in for a kiss. His stubble brushed her cheek and the heat of him surrounded her, sending a shiver of delight across her skin. The tang of lemons sweetened her lips, and she inhaled mint as if it were his pheromones.
He’d rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and she glided her fingers up his arm, rough with dark hair and the map lines of thick veins. So masculine. She turned into him and he paused the kiss. His eyes held her, bewitched. “Is this all right?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I’m feeling a little out of my element. As if I’m stumbling here.”
“Really?” And here she’d thought the invitation overwhelming. “You’re doing fine.”
“Not with the kiss. I mean, this feels too good to be true, Eryss. We just met an hour ago and now here I am, kissing you beneath real candlelight on a sofa set amid an enchanted garden. It’s sort of blowing my mind.”
“I bet it takes a lot to blow your mind.”
“It does, actually. Your success is duly noted.”
“You like to think a lot.”
“I do.”
“Then that will be your challenge.” She swished away a curl from his brow. Yes, so soft. “You can’t think around me, you just have to be in the moment.”
“This is a good moment.”
“I agree. Now, stop thinking and kiss me.”
Her smile lured him to her like a night flower draws one to inhale its perfume. Dane kissed her and pushed his fingers up through her hair. His mouth fit hers in a way that was confident and yet so sweet. She knew him, and perhaps he knew her but didn’t realize it. It was a fantastical way of thinking, but there you go. She was a witch. It helped to have an active imagination.
“Come here,” he muttered, and pulled her onto his lap as he leaned back on the couch and looked up into her eyes. “Candlelight becomes you. It dances in your hair.” He stroked her hair and pulled it to his nose. “You smell like ice and sage.”
“I must still be working some of my ice queen mojo. You taste like mint and lemons.” She straddled his legs with hers and leaned in to kiss his jaw, licking the short stubble. A fern tendril had crept over the back of the couch and tickled her forehead. She giggled against his mouth. “The plants approve of this moment, as well.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were sentient beings intent on seducing the two of us together.”
“Plants are sentient. And we are together. Haven’t you ever been seduced, Dane?”
“I, uh, well, sure. Not in such a manner, though. It’s so...”
“Interesting?”
His eyes dropped to the rose quartz crystal dangling above her breasts. “Quick.”
He was having trouble with their sudden embrace? Yes, well, she had not followed his lead, as she’d told herself to do. Bad witch. Eryss sat back on Dane’s thighs and smoothed her palms over his tweed vest buttoned neatly over a crisp white shirt. “Do I intimidate you?”
“Honestly? A little.” He ran a hand back through his hair. “I can’t believe I confessed that. Normally I’m the one questioning if I’m the intimidating one. You’re a fascinating woman, Eryss, and I think it’s either that I can’t believe my luck or that maybe you really are some kind of snow queen and you’ve bespelled me.”
If he only knew.
“I think I should step back and slow down,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
She started to rise, but Dane took her hand and pulled her back to sit on his legs. “No, I’m sorry. This is what I want. You. Kissing me. Hugging me with those long legs and making my heart beat faster than a neutrino spray.”
“I don’t know what that means, but I can work with it.”
This time he kissed her deeply. And while Eryss was still wondering if she had done the right thing with the anacampserote, she had to remain true to her intuition. And her soul felt she was in the right place with the right person at this moment in her life. That’s all that mattered.
Dane’s hand glided up her hip and along the gray sweater. She wanted him to touch her everywhere, to learn her. To know her.
When his hand stopped just beside her breast, but not quite touching it, he broke their kiss. “I should leave before I don’t want to leave.”
He certainly did vacillate from one extreme to the other. “And you do want to leave?”
“I do. I don’t. Eryss.”
“I know.” She did know. They were moving quickly. Racing, even. Not that she minded, but she wanted the guy to be all in, too. No sense in forcing a man to be something he wasn’t ready to accept. How could he? He surely had no clue she suspected they were soul mates. “You can take my car back to your hotel.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “If you can be back here tomorrow around eleven to pick me up, I’ll show you around the brewery. Then I have some work to do for the afternoon.”
“I can do that. I have some reports to fill out that will keep me busy.”
“You really debunk vampires?” she asked, as he stood and stretched. “What about witches?”
Dane came out of the stretch with a chuckle. “Bunch of silly women who play with crystals and herbs and think their cats can talk to them.”
“Ah. Wow.”
The man had no idea how many points she would take off for that comment. On the other hand, the less he knew, the better. He’d be shocked to meet a cat-shifting familiar that could talk to humans. She bet he’d never debunked a creature like that before.
“You’re sure?” he asked. “About me taking your car? Do you trust me driving on these roads?”
“They’re clear of ice and snow. Mostly. I trust you.”
She kissed him again. All of him smelled so good, like a place she could cuddle up in to get away from the rain. Or like a long-lost sanctuary that she’d found again.
She patted his chest. “I know your soul.” He gave her a wonky look of disbelief, so she flounced toward the doors. “I’ll get the key!”
Telling him she knew his soul had probably been rushing things more than if they’d almost had sex. And she wasn’t positive she recognized his soul. The whole night had been a heated surrender to passion and lust. It was time to start thinking rationally.
“Like a scientist,” she murmured, as she picked up the car keys from a copper bowl on the kitchen counter.
A scientist who debunked paranormal beings and who thought witches were silly? If they were going to get to know one another any better, Eryss sensed Dane’s every belief would be duly challenged.
Challenge was necessary to a great life. So she’d bring it on, ready or not. The man had just stoked a silly witch’s passions.
Chapter 4 (#u66acf346-a78a-5d11-bf24-8b8957433691)
Eryss strolled into the brewery, leaving Dane outside on the sidewalk. With a shovel. The heavens had dropped a light dusting of snow overnight, which left the sidewalk coated, and Dane had commented that it could be dangerous. So she’d gotten out a shovel from the basement storage and handed it to him. He’d grinned at her and accepted the challenge.
Hey, if the guy wanted to comment on their upkeep, then he needed to put up or shut up. Trial by fire, baby. Or rather, by snow.
After shedding her coat and mittens at the end of the bar, she shook out her hair and glanced over the hardwood floor. It was in need of a mopping, which she’d get to soon enough. A clinking sound came from the dishwasher, which was being fed pint glasses by Mireio. Mireio was an early riser and was always first into the brewery. But then, she rarely closed. Such a schedule worked well for all of them and their half-dozen other employees (none of them witches, and none of them aware of their employers’ otherworldly abilities).
“So?”
Eryss met Mireio’s hopeful gaze and knew exactly what she was thinking. And she wasn’t even psychic. Eryss aligned a few pint glasses on the stainless steel counter and then tossed a dishcloth in the sink. “So what?”
“That looks like a fine specimen of man shoveling our sidewalk. Where did you find him? Dial-A-Manhunk?”
“At the party last night.”
Mireio’s eyes widened and she clutched her hands together hopefully before her chest. “And he’s still with you this morning! Ooh! Did you have sex last night?”
“Really? Of all the things you want to know about that amazing hunk of man with the biceps of steel and hair that glistens like black gold, all you can think to ask is did we have sex?”
Mireio nodded eagerly. “What else is there to know? You must have taken him home with you, since you two are together today.”
“I did take him home with me. We made out. But sex would have been pushing it a bit quickly.”
“Good call.” Mireio’s gaze was pinned to Dane. “Maybe? Oh, how could you have not? Look at him!”
Eryss had. And knew exactly what wild and delicious scenarios involving naked flesh and moans and sighs were running through her friend’s imagination. “He’s a scientist.”
“Ooh. A nerd. I love a sexy nerd.” Mireio toyed with her springy red curls. “Don’t find them wandering around Anoka very often. So when will you have sex? Because if you let that one slip out of your hands without tapping—”
“I’ll give it my best shot. The man’s kisses do not lend themselves to patience.”
“Did you tell him you’re a witch?”
“Mireio, he’s a scientist.”
“I got that. Oh, you don’t think he’d believe you?”
“It’s not that I need him to believe anything about me. Since when do we just toss it out there that we’re witches?”
“True. But can you imagine the conversations you’d have trying to convince him you can control the earth and its elements with nothing more than your little finger?”
“I blew his mind with the conservatory. I liked seeing his surprise. But here’s the kicker—he’s a scientist who debunks paranormal phenomena.”
Sudden worry fluttered Mireio’s lashes. “What do you mean?”
“Like he proves vampires don’t exist and thinks witches are crazy old ladies.”
“Oh.” Mireio shuddered. “Not cool. But he saw your conservatory. Who could actually believe something like that can exist without magic?”
“He’s convinced I have heat coils running under the soil.”
Mireio accepted that with a nod and a shrug. “Could happen.”
“Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to get into it with him until I’m sure.”
“Sure you want to have sex with him?” she asked eagerly.
“That. But also, sure that he’s...the one.”
“The one?”
“The one my soul pines for. I had a weird moment of recognition last night with him, Mireio. What if the anacampserote called him here? What if he is the man I fall in love with every time I’m reincarnated?”
“But he doesn’t even believe in witches. I don’t see that working too swell in the romance department.”
“Right. But this man from my former lives might not have always been in my life for very long. He could have been a one-night stand or brief affair on many occasions. How often do we really reveal ourselves to our lovers?”
“If they are quickies, never. Too risky for witches. But if you think he’s your soul mate, don’t you think you’ll have to tell him sooner or later?”
“I would love to have him know me as I know him. But that’s the kicker. I don’t know him. It was just a moment of knowing last night. So I could be wrong.”
“But you want to be right.”
“Goddess, yes. He’s so sexy.” They both turned to watch Dane push snow off the sidewalk outside.
Had she made a mistake by not encouraging him to have his way with her last night? “What am I going to do? He’s only in town for a week.”
“You can make him love you, then spill the beans about being a witch. Or you can tell him now and challenge his beliefs.”
“Sounds like a game. I don’t play games.”
“Oh yeah? What about the one where you think he’s your lost love and you want to keep him close to you without saying anything?”
“That’s not fair.”
“All is fair in love. War just sucks.”
They both laughed, and Eryss couldn’t find an argument against Mireio’s suggestion to challenge his beliefs. She’d invite Dane to dinner. Tonight she’d prepare a feast to seduce. And she would pay attention to every sign she saw or felt toward him. If her soul really did recognize him, she wanted to be sure. And do what she could to help him recognize hers.
* * *
She had prepared a meal to seduce, Dane thought as he rolled the rhubarb wine across his tongue and inhaled the savory scent of tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts from the plate before him. But he didn’t need to be seduced by food. The dress Eryss wore was more than amply urging his desires to the surface. She had on a soft, pink velvet dress that stopped at her thighs and was fringed with delicate lace about her décolletage, which kept drawing his eyes right there. And when she laughed her breasts jiggled, and then he couldn’t remember what he was doing.
Oh, right, eating. With a fork. That he’d almost dropped onto the plate.
Making the save, Dane cleared his throat and offered, “I liked shoveling this morning.”
“I noticed. You shoveled the whole block. The pet store next door appreciated that.”
