Page 26 of Witch Upon a Star
Joe ran to my feet, immediately trying to climb up my pant leg to get to her boyfriend. I bent down and scooped her up. Walking both back over to the counter, I was very aware of Quinten’s eyes fixed to my back.
I placed Joe and Oolong on their cushion on the countertop, but kept my back to Quinten. “I’ll go into the back. I’ve got work back there I can do.” When he didn’t say anything, I continued around the counter, but hesitated when I got to the storage room door. It was still propped open by Joe’s litter box. “You’re wrong, you know. Youarea good man. The best man I know. And if you want to stay on my good side, you’ll stop saying you’re a bad or dishonorable man.”
“If you knew the things I want to do to your body right now, you would understand why I keep saying that.”
A shiver ran down my spine at his daring words. “I know your intentions, remember?” I reminded him. Shooting him a smile over my shoulder, I added, “And what makes you think my intentions withyourbody aren’t just as depraved?”
A low growl emanated from his chest. “Don’t test me, witch.”
I was not usually so naughty, and was a bit impressed with myself for teasing him so. My nipples were hard pebbles against the cotton of my bra. Turning back towards the storage room, I said, “Don’t worry. This door has a lock on it.”
I felt a breeze at the back of my neck. When he spoke, he was no longer across the room from me. My breath caught, realizing he wasdirectlybehind me.
“You say that as if a lock will keep me from you.” His voice was nothing more than a rumble. A slow, sensuous tenor of promise and desire. Wetness pooled between my legs as my knees shook, no longer wanting to hold up my weight. “Iama bad man, Winnie, and theonlyreason I am not already inside of you is because I know you are wavering. But this tug of war will only keep me from you for so long, witch. Iwillclaim you. It’s only a matter of when.”
I felt him reach next to me. A light shove on my back moved me forward enough for him to close the door behind me.
6
STARBUCKS
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I turned to glare at Ranger’s silhouette through the eye slit of my balaclava. “Nothing.”
“Then get your head in the game. I am not ending up in federal prison because you have a stick shoved so far up your ass you have splinters in your tongue.”
Despite myself, I snorted. We were on the roof of the building across from the forensics laboratory. “Unless you’re planning on making out with me tonight, what is or is not on my tongue is none of your business.”
It was dark in the shadows, but we were close enough that I felt him turn his head towards me. Neither of us wore anything that could identify us or our club. Our clothing was generic, our boots were common, and the only body part showing was our eyes.
Ranger was right, though. My head was elsewhere. It had been since I’d seen Calliope’s fucking happy dance at selling her first bulk order of honey. I’d barely been able to finish thatlast shelf in the timeframe of the charity deal. Not that that would have really mattered, but it gave me the excuse to leave and truly give us the space we both needed.
Fucking hell. I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place with a freight train barreling towards me. I’d never been so caught up by a woman before, and the speed in which it happened was giving me whiplash.
I felt like I was going against my nature, and yet there was something sonaturalabout being with Calliope. Like we were old friends seeing each other for the first time in years. Hell, even my cat and her dragon acted like they were meant to be.
And that was what twisted me up inside. Sheknew. I wasn’t angered by that fact. Confused, maybe. I’d always been a skeptical bastard when it came to superstitions and the supernatural. In my old unit, there’d been a guy who wouldn’t go into battle unless he had his lucky socks on, which heneverwashed. There was a reason we called him ‘Scholls’. I thought him ridiculous. How could a fucking pair of socks change the outcome of a battle? Especially ones that could put a skunk to shame.
So why was I so inclined to believe Calliope? Sure, I’d joked about her being a witch only that morning—which now felt like a lifetime ago. How had it only been this morning that Pumpkin had scolded me for referring to her as ‘the witch’ in a belittling way?
“He’s having girl problems,” came over our earpieces. Keys’ voice was clear, whereas ours were muffled by our masks. The kid was waiting a safe distance away in his souped-up van while Ranger and I risked our asses for our President.
Or soon-to-be former President. Ghost, our Enforcer, had been voted in as Steel’s replacement. To be honest, the guy had looked kind of pale when he’d been told. Then again, he was a ginger and was whiter than a wedding dress. It could have just been the lighting.
My hackles rose at Keys’ words. “What the fuck do you know about ‘girl problems’, kid?”
“I know that you spent the afternoon with Calliope Hutchins and then spent your evening watching porn loudly in your room.” I saw Ranger turn towards me again but couldn’t see his expression due to the darkness and his mask. Keys added, “Thin walls, remember?”
Yeah, that was a common issue in the clubhouse. We tended to know what—or who—each other was doing simply because we could hear it. It hadn’t been that big of an issue since the Honeys were no longer employed, and just as before, no one who wasn’t an ol’ lady could stay in the clubhouse overnight. Scar and Tally were the only couple who lived in the clubhouse at present. Their house was being built, and it was their hope that they’d be able to move in by Christmas. The exterior was built prior to the weather turning, which made Cage’s job easier, and his crew could continue working through the cold to get the interior done.
Most of us wore headphones, but there were still telltale sounds and signs that gave either ourselves or a neighbor away. For the most part, the rule was the same as it had been when we were in the military: ignore it.
“At least I know what to do with my dick,” I shot back at him. “Do you even know where yours is?”
Keys grumbled something before saying louder. “Yes. Justbecause I’m not a horndog like you doesn’t mean I don’t know where my dick is.”
“Just be grateful condoms work for you, kid,” Ranger added. I’d missed the announcement this afternoon, but when Pumpkin had introduced Dosia and his daughter JJ to the club, he’d also informed everyone that Dosia was already pregnant with his child. He claimed he had ‘super sperm’ since this was the third time a condom had failed him.
