CHAPTER ONE
A brisk walk usually solved things, especially if fast steps and long strides were involved. That way a mind could wrap itself around a problem, while the body handled excess emotion as it tired itself out. It usually worked. Just not tonight. Against a coven.
Rori ground her teeth together and watched the street before her for any sign of recognition. Nothing looked familiar. She’d reached an old section of this little town. Nothing about the closed shops and clapboard houses behind their big wood fences looked familiar. She was lost, it was past midnight, and she had little against the night chill except a black shawl. It wasn’t even a warm one, since the requirement was color, not purpose. She’d been so stupid! She’d known it at the time, but wanted to fit in so badly…and for once she’d felt like she had.
The mist looked odd at the corner she was rapidly approaching; thick…and a little darker, despite its location beneath a street light. Rori slowed her steps, and that got her view fogged with exhalations of her own breath. It hadn’t felt this cold earlier. Not even in the little clearing of forest they’d used for their stupid ceremony. The vapor at the corner wasn’t dissipating. It was undulating, and thick enough now to hide a body. And that was the dumbest idea she’d yet had.
“Well…hello there.”
Rori jumped and whirled to face the speaker, then had to contend with a knot of reaction right in her throat. That’s why she opened her mouth and her jaw dropped. At least, that’s what she told herself. It had nothing to do with the vision of man standing at her side, looking down at her. Nothing.
The lump in her throat got more troublesome as it thumped along with her increasing heart rate. That was ridiculous. She’d seen handsome men before. The campus was littered with them, and every avenue of entertainment bombarded you with them. Not to mention nearly every ad for men’s cologne and underwear. Gorgeous men were everywhere. She’d just never met one in the flesh…and yet here he was. Solid. Real. Looking like he came out of a fantasy. He was tall. Neck-craning tall. Dark too. Lengthy black hair topped what looked like a black trench coat atop black slacks. And he was way over-the-top handsome, as if saving that for dessert.
“You shouldn’t be out.”
Rori didn’t answer. She wasn’t certain she could. Her mouth hadn’t closed and she didn’t think her voice functioned. She wasn’t even sure she could swallow, but tried, and the effort choked. That made him step closer, taking him to touching distance. The proximity jumbled her thoughts into mush. She wondered if he knew.
This was beyond stupid. And it was stopping. Right now. Rori stepped back a corresponding distance. He didn’t move from watching her. Expecting what? Conversation? If that’s what he wanted, it might be easier if she didn’t look at him while attempting it. And that was more absurdity. She didn’t make banal conversation. She wasn’t the talkative type. It was better to keep to one word answers. Her upbringing had taught the benefits of that. But if she didn’t think of something witty and interesting to reply - and soon – she’d forever regret it. She had a gorgeous male standing right in front of her waiting a reply, while a stray lock of shiny black hair moved slightly with every flick of the extremely long, black lash-line it was caught on, and she was tongue-tied. Great.
“Not tonight. And not alone.”
“Why?”
Her voice worked. It was a croak of sound. She cleared her throat instantly and suffered what might actually be a blush. She hadn’t had that reaction since…she couldn’t remember. Long enough in her past it was buried, and well before the parade of foster homes she’d endured.
He smiled, showing just a glimpse of white teeth and putting a dimple into place on one cheek. That was too much. Mother Nature had been too heavy-handed with this guy’s
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