Page 9 of My Blind Date is a Warlock

“Get out of here! You’re kidding me, right?” I exclaimed, gaping at him as if he’d grown a second head. When he did not take back his claims, I made a very unladylike snort deep in my throat. One thing to know about me, I was a huge fan of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft growing up. I even had a phase where my parents struggled to pry my phone from my hands because I was so obsessed with the game Temple Run. And here this dish of a man was telling me he used to hunt artifacts for a living.

“That is so freaking cool. You must have a ton of crazy stories to tell during family dinners and social gatherings, huh? What was the most awesome artifact you ever discovered?” I was pretty sure there were sparkles in my eyes as Jacob recounted some of the expeditions he’d been on. As far as ice breakers go, this was the most legendary in my book. Any wariness I felt toward him dissipated, and I began to relax in his company, both of us trading anecdotes about our jobs, even though mine were not as cool and outlandish as his. Sometime during our dinner, his phone began to ping with a slew of text messages. He read the first one and his face darkened in displeasure. He tried to ignore the rest, but each time a notification sounded, his eyes hardened just a little bit more. I wanted to ask him if everything was alright, but we were still pretty much strangers. We hadn’t really talked about anything too personal yet, and I liked it that way for now.

His phone rang after we ordered another round of drinks. He stared at the screen with an inscrutable expression before excusing himself. “Sorry, I need to take this or he won’t stop bugging me.”

“Go right ahead,” I told him and watched him walk toward the bathroom. “You don’t waste time, do you? What happened to being short staffed?” I asked when Rachel claimed the seat he’d just vacated.

“You guys look like you're having fun. Another one in the bag for Beverly, I assume?” she teased, her grin making her look like Harley Quinn’s deranged sister.

“What, is she paying you to keep tabs on us or something?” I scoffed, my question meant as a joke until Rachel’s smile wavered and she avoided looking me in the eye.

“Oh, for the love of— She totally did, didn’t she? That conniving old biddy! I’m going to wring her wrinkly neck the next time I see her!” My fingers curled around the steak knife, mortification and fury curdling my blood at this latest stunt.

“Relax, Soph, it’s not that big of a deal. She just wanted to know if you two were hitting it off and I may or may not have sneaked a pic of the two of you laughing like idiots. It looked like you were into each other from where I was standing.” She shrugged. Her nostrils flared and she glanced back in time to see Jacob walking toward the table. “By the way, your man smells divine. Don’t waste time being mad at your gran and get yourself some of that, girl. Even if he’s not your mate, I bet he’s amazing in the sack.” She leaned across the table to sniff at me and smirked. “And judging by the pheromones you’re broadcasting all over the place, you are not as unaffected as you’re pretending to be.” And with that, she was gone, leaving me as red as a tomato. That’s what I get for having a werewolf as a friend.

The easy atmosphere we had going just a minute before seemed to have vanished in the time between Jacob’s phone call and his return. He was still charming and smiling, but there was a strained edge to his demeanor and a restless energy about him.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what Rachel had said either. Jacob would be on his way out of town tomorrow morning and our paths would likely never cross again. There was no better candidate for a one-night stand. Even if he was a warlock. Should I invite him back to my place?

Before I could come to a decision, Jacob unwittingly made one for me. He raised his hand and signaled for a check. “Thank you so much for the interesting night, Sophia, but I’m afraid I need to get this somewhere safe and secure.” He motioned toward the paper bag on the table.

“Is someone else after it?” I asked as he handed Rachel his card.

“Something like that. I apologize for cutting our night short, but it appears I’ll be in town for longer than I thought. Maybe I’ll stop by your boutique and get something for my sisters. And maybe I’ll even convince you to grab a cup of coffee.” He winked, his hand coming to rest on the small of my back as he led us out of the bistro.

“So, you’re not leaving? How come? And how long are you staying?” I stuttered, watching my nascent plans for a no-strings night of hot, sweaty sex go up in smoke. I didn’t have it in me to sleep with a warlock and then keep seeing his face for however long he decided to stay in town.

“A troublesome relative is visiting our family estate, so depending on how long he plans to stay there, I will be staying as far away from him as possible. Can’t have dear cousin Daniel get his hands on… Well, I can’t let him have what he wants.” He changed what he wanted to say at the last minute, as if I didn’t have enough brain cells to rub together and figure out what he was referring to.

“Is the Book of Shadows that important, then? I mean, obviously it’s important, it is quite literally a testament to your great-great-grandfather’s work as a warlock. But why would you want to keep it away from your cousin?” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear as we came to a stop behind my Renegade.

It wasn’t that dark outside. The sun had only just disappeared over the horizon. Faint rays still spread across the sky like fingers desperately grasping at the day, unwilling for their time to come to an end. With the dying sunlight backlighting Jacob’s inky black hair, it almost looked like he had a blue-black halo around his head.

“I don’t mean to pry. But in our family, something like a Book of Shadows is considered a family heirloom. And even though they usually go to the heir of the familial coven, everyone else is still allowed to have a gander every once in a while.”

“Did you just say gander?” The sides of his eyes crinkled, his chest heaving with a silent laughter as he looked down at me, shifting so that my back was pressed against the driver’s door and my view of everything around us was blocked. “My family situation is a little complicated. Tiberius—the owner of this journal—was a brilliant warlock with an extraordinary mind, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. From what I’m told, he was a complicated man, but because he saw things a bit differently, his moral compass did not always point in the right direction. My grandmother, who also happens to be Tiberius’s granddaughter-in-law, often says that my cousin and I are both quite like him. But whereas I inherited his zest for life and adventure, Daniel inherited his ideals. I can’t let him get his hands on this book, so Mystic Cove is where I’ll be for now. Try not to look so put out, sweetheart, you’re wrecking my ego here.” He tapped my chin and forced me to look up into his eyes.

Shoving his hand away and pressing my hand on his chest to push him back from crowding my personal space, I clicked my tongue at him. “Is your ego so fragile that one lowly witch not wanting you around is enough to shatter it?”

“Oh, trust me, Sophia Barnes, you are the farthest thing from lowly, and I can only give thanks to the gods that I’ve been given this opportunity to unravel the layers you’ve wrapped around yourself and are trying so hard to cling to.” He twirled a lock of my hair around his finger, his eyes boring into mine, as if trying to figure something out.

We’ll see how long that intrigue lasts when you find that I don’t have a lick of power flowing through my veins, I thought bitterly. What I said aloud, though, was something different. “You have no concept of personal space, do you?”

“Law of attraction, baby. I can’t help but want to be close to you.” But he did back away, and I sucked in a desperately needed breath. I hadn’t even been aware that I was hardly breathing when he was so close.

“Anyway.” I switched topics quickly, rolling my eyes at his corny reply. “How sure are you that your cousin won’t find you here, even with an anti-tracking spell? Nowadays, there are things that are beyond magic’s reach. Technology being one of them. All Daniel has to do is track your phone.”

“I’d like to see him try. I’m not a one-trick pony, Sophia. Didn’t I tell you that I always tell my students not to rely on their magic too much? I’ve been up against far scarier criminals in my former job, some of them normal humans who didn’t have the advantage of using locator spells to find me. I know how to protect myself.”

“As long as you don’t bring trouble to my front yard, Buchanan.” I unlocked the driver’s door, got inside, and opened the window when he gestured for me to do so.

“Does that mean it’s a yes to that coffee?” he asked, leaning into the cab, one hand braced on the top of my car. He bit down on his lip, a hopeful glint in his eyes. For a crazy moment, I thought about leaning over and prying his bottom lip from between his teeth and replacing them with my mouth. For just a crazy moment. But the warlock-hating Sophia was still on high alert and knocked me upside the head, reminding me why we didn’t want to go there.

“Goodnight, Jacob,” I whispered as I started my car. As I drove away, I caught sight of him staring after my car in the rearview mirror, a mystified expression on his face that followed me all the way into my dreams.

CHAPTER 9

“Dang it!” I roared in frustration when I dropped a second candle jar in as many minutes. The shards of glass scattered around the floor of the boutique, the ylang-ylang candle broken in half. Dawn and the two customers looking at mood rings she was assisting at the counter looked up at me with mild curiosity. Though, in Dawn’s case, there was some mild irritation. I stifled a sigh, knowing that I would have to cough up the damages even though I was the one who made the candles today.

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