Page 14 of Witch You Weren't Here

‘And it’s right here. Makes life a lot easier. Where’s your place?’ Dean asked Harry, the challenge in his tone unmistakable.

Kay blinked, wondering where all the men eager for her company had been when she was debating whether to take a date to Joe’s wedding. Of course, what Dean was after was clearly not anything to do with being a potential wedding date, and as for Harry’s motivation, who knew? Maybe he was just extending the Ashworth protection for a Biddicote witch? Because it definitely wasn’t about genuinely wanting her company.

Harry put his pint down on the table and extended his hand across it. ‘I’m sorry, so rude of me, butting in and interrupting your conversation. I’m Harry Ashworth, an old friend of Kay’s.’

‘Dean.’ He shook Harry’s hand briefly.

‘Are you two …?’ His gaze flitted quickly between Kay and Dean and back again.

‘No, no. Oh God, no. Dean is an acquaintance from the work conference we’ve been on. We just bumped into each other. That’s all.’ She told herself that her eagerness to explain there was nothing going on between her and Dean was all so the salesman would finally realise his attentions weren’t welcome. Subtlety obviously wasn’t working. This man was thicker than Henry Cavill’s thighs.

‘I see.’ Harry continued looking at Dean for a long moment, his jaw set, and Kay had a strange moment of seeing something in him she’d never seen before. Something hard and reminiscent of his father. It wasn’t like she should be surprised. She’d known for a long time that his faux-humble, yet undeniably attractive, glory was the perfect sheep’s clothing to hide the wolf inside. ‘Kay? Would you like to stay with me?’

She didn’t really want to spend any longer with Harry, but if she said no, Dean might take it as an indication she still wanted him around. And, despite everything, maybe it was a case of better-the-devil-you-know.

‘Sounds like it would be perfect.’ To someone completely ignorant of our history – as Dean was. ‘I’ll catch up with you another time, Dean. Have a safe journey home.’

Dean barely waited to hear her finish speaking, giving her a wave as he was turning away in a gesture that could be interpreted either as a goodbye or dismissal, depending on the way you chose to look at it. She was perfectly happy with either, other than the fact it left her with …

‘He was persistent.’ When she looked back, Harry was watching her, the deep blue of his eyes almost black in the dingy lighting of the bar, but she could still see an annoying twinkle in them – like triumph.

She glanced out at the travellers clogging the terminal, so she wasn’t staring at him like his very presence had reawakened all her adolescent … yearnings. Ick. It made her cringe to think how desperate for every scrap of his attention she’d once been. Well, that wasn’t who she was now.

‘He’s a salesman. They’re like the influencers of the NM world, aren’t they?’ she commented coolly, keeping the reference to the non-magical world abbreviated in case they were overheard.

He raised his eyebrows and a quizzical smile touched his lips. ‘Aren’t … online influencers the influencers of the NM world?’

‘Hmm, I don’t think so. Online influencers gain a following by portraying an appealing lifestyle and then people listen to their opinion because they value it. Rightly or wrongly. Salespeople are about getting what they want from people and using their manipulative skills to achieve that end.’

‘But most influencers’ – he scanned the area around the table and leaned in closer, his voice lowering – ‘magical ones – can’t make anyone do what they don’t want to do. It’s suggestion. Closer to hypnosis.’

‘It’s way stronger than hypnosis. You can’t always make people do it for long, necessarily, but you can definitely shove people in a different direction to the one they wanted to travel in.’ She paused, her eyes narrowing, heart beating painfully against her ribs. ‘Or if, like you say, they’re predisposed to the feeling anyway, maybe they’ll never shake it off.’

Awkward silence reigned again. Strange how even though she knew it was a point to her, she didn’t feel like she’d won anything.

Harry’s tongue poked out the corner of his mouth before swiping across his bottom lip. She did not allow herself to stare at it. He started riffling in his ridiculous coat, bringing out an enormous bag of pick ‘n’ mix sweets. How had he even fit that in there without a bulge? He’d probably Mary Poppins’ed his whole wardrobe into there.

He offered her the bag once he opened it.

‘No thanks, I like my teeth with no fillings.’ Even magic dentistry involved having someone up close and personal, poking about in your mouth, and not in the pleasant way.

‘Comfort eating has numerous pitfalls,’ he admitted with a small laugh, dipping his hand in to grab a sweet shaped like a banana, while simultaneously showing off his annoyingly neat, white teeth. ‘Is there anyone else from your company you’re travelling with?’

Ah, so, he was fishing to get rid of her now she’d shown she wasn’t as enamoured with his presence as she’d first made out?

‘Nope.’ The two developers who’d flown out had left earlier in the week because they had a big project they were working on, and even though her boss had already planned to stay in Prague for the entire weekend, it wasn’t like he was a viable person to call upon for assistance. He probably would have told her it was against company policy to share with colleagues. She would prefer to sleep on the runway than in the same room as that man anyway. ‘Why?’

Harry swallowed the last mouthful of his sweet. ‘Just in case they needed somewhere to stay, too. Shall we make a move, then?’

Huh. Maybe he wasn’t trying to ditch her after all. It definitely had to be some Ashworth-code motivating him, then. It was bad enough she’d had to pretend to be happy to see him without knowing he was thinking of her as some kind of charity case.

‘That’s not necessary. I can find somewhere for myself.’

‘But you said—’

‘I was just trying to shake Dean off,’ she admitted. ‘I’ll survive.’

He frowned. ‘What if you can’t find anywhere else? You can’t sleep here, surrounded by all these strangers – and Dean.’ He took the head of a gummy worm between his teeth and yanked it off with surprising aggression. ‘It’s not safe.’

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