It was the same feeling that had erupted when she’d touched me before.
Yanking her attention from me, she looked around. She huffed out a sarcastic sound as she flung out both arms. “Awesome.”
My eyebrow quirked. “Yeah?”
Because it didn’t sound like she was impressed.
Once again, her arms were crossed over her chest, and I was doing my damned best not to notice the way it pushed up her perfect tits.
“Do you think I can afford this? I mean, what is this place?” Her accusation jerked my focus back to her eyes.
“Told you…it’s my shop.”
“Um, yeah, and it looks like you should be on one of those TV shows where you have wars to see which shop can make the showiest bike, and I’m pretty sure I can’t afford that.”
“We can talk about that tomorrow.”
Her head shook. “No, we can’t. When I say I can’t afford it, I mean it.”
She dug into her purse and pulled out her phone. She dialed a number and pressed it to her ear before she began to frantically pace in a five-foot radius. “Come on, come on, come on.”
She curdled a frustrated scream in her throat and held her phone out in front of her, eyeing it like it was single-handedly responsible for her predicament. “Why the hell isn’t it going through?” she grumbled.
I climbed from my bike. “Storms always throw the service.”
“Shit,” she hissed, glaring at her phone like it’d grown horns. She swung her attention back to me. “I need to get home.”
I tossed a glance at the open garage door where the skies continued to dump. “Don’t think that’s going to happen right now, darlin’。”
Her mouth pinched in worry, and something that looked like dread twisted through her being.
My head angled as I took her in, trying to keep from spitting the words. “You have a man waitin’ on you?”
She choked a pained sound. “No.”
She looked like she wanted to kick herself for admitting it, while relief flooded through me, as deep as the rain.
Idiot.
Couldn’t stop it, though.
“You’re safe here. Promise you.”
She stilled, and our gazes tangled.
Thunderbolt eyes sparked in the light.
Deep and dark.
Ghosts welled from their depths.
Felt them tugging at my heart.
Compelling me to look closer.
Drawn.
Like I should recognize something in this girl that just wasn’t there.
Magic.
I blinked to break me out of the stupor.
“We’re just going to have to wait it out,” I added.
In exasperation, she glanced down at her soaked clothes.
“Let’s go upstairs. I’ll find you something dry to change into.”
Her brows shot for the ceiling. “Excuse me?”
A rough chuckle tumbled from my chest, and I took two steps her direction. “I live upstairs.”
Disbelieving laughter rolled from her throat. “You’re serious?”
“Yup.”
“And you want me just to follow you up there?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
She waved an erratic hand. “For my car to actually work. That would be a great idea.”
A smile tweaked at the corner of my mouth. “That’s called a dream, baby, not an idea.”
Her eyes narrowed.
A tease of a laugh left my lips before everything softened when I saw a shiver race across her body. “Come on, let’s get you dried off. You’re freezing, and the only thing I want right now is a shower and a beer, and I’m guessing you’re feeling about the same.”
“This is insane.”
“Insane is standing here freezing our asses off when we could be getting warm.”
I didn’t think it prudent to mention all the ways I could conjure warming her up.
Maybe she saw them play out in my mind, anyway, because she glowered at me as she gave. “Touch me and I stab you.”
Could feel the grin split my face. “You’ve made that much clear, darlin’。” Unable to stop myself, I edged closer, voice soft when I murmured close to her ear, “And who said I wanted to touch you?”
Oh, I did, but I kinda wanted to mess with the little wildcat, too.
Trembles rocked her.
Energy lashed.
Attraction so fierce I was itching on my feet.
“Just so we’re clear,” she gritted.
My grin turned into a full-fledged smirk. “Crystal.”
Her spine straightened in all that rigid defiance, her hair smelling like toasted coconut, sex radiating from her skin.
Intoxicating.
“Good.” The word was hard as she hissed it between her lips.
“Good,” I rumbled back, hitting the button to close the garage door and striding for the metal stairway that ran the far back wall and led to my loft above.
I could hear her heels clacking along behind me.
Her presence was potent.
Overpowering as I bounded upstairs.
Girl followed me step for step.
At the landing at the top, I punched in the code at the door and swiveled around to face her. The breath hitched in my lungs all over again at the look on her face.
The dread and the relief.
My heart fisted while my head spun.
Enchantress.
“What’s your name, darlin’？”
She hesitated a beat before she whispered, “Salem.”
A disbelieving chuckle got loose without my permission.
Yeah.
Black-fuckin’-magic.
TWO
SALEM
“Come on in, darlin’。 Don’t be shy. Make yourself at home.” The man’s voice was basically sandpaper, rough and raw, though it somehow carried an undertone of casualness.
My heart thudded. A wild stampede that beat out ahead of me as I inched toward the door Jud Lawson left open.
I had to have lost my mind.
Following this stranger into his apartment.
Giving him my name like it didn’t matter.
Hell, getting on his bike in the first place.
Like he could command any truth out of me, and I had no power to control it, even when I knew better than giving him anything.
But I’d called my brother about fifteen times while I’d been stranded out in the rain in the middle of nowhere. Each call had gone without an answer.
My spirit had sunk deeper into hopelessness with each attempt.
It’s funny how I’d prayed for help, then I’d wanted to turn around and refuse it when the single headlight had come spearing through the storm.
As if he were some kind of wicked savior, the man had emerged through the hazy darkness.
Bearded and muscled and covered in tattoos.
An imposing force.
A liberator or a conqueror, I couldn’t be sure.
The only thing I’d known was my knees had knocked and my stomach had flipped and every ounce of self-preservation I possessed had flared in warning at my recklessness.
But when you were desperate? You were left with few options, and the ones you were given you had little choice but to take.
Which was precisely the reason why I warily stepped through the door at the top of the stairwell and into his loft.
My eyes raced to take it in. It was just as massive and over-the-top as his shop downstairs. Everything was matte black, burnt metal, and expensive leather.
Rugged and rough and jaw-dropping.