Midlife Strife: A Paranormal Women's fiction Novel (Bells and Spells - Book 1)

by M. L. Briers

  She pushed a glass down the bar to Claudia, and her friend leaned in. “It’s a shame you babysat the bartender when you were in high school, otherwise…”

  “Off the table,” Marilyn assured her. “I’m not a cougar, or whatever they’re calling it these days.”

  “Well, I’d call it lucky,” Claudia shot back, and Marilyn grunted. “But that’s just me.”

  “Uh-ha!” Marilyn agreed, and Claudia turned her attention back to the crowd to see who her next pick would be.

  Marilyn leaned in and came face to face with Neal. She pulled back so fast that she almost fell off the stool, but his arm shot out, and he caught her.

  Marilyn thought that it probably would have been worth landing on her back with her legs up in the air, just so she didn’t have to feel his arm around her, and see that victory smirk on his face. She’d like to magic that look away with a zap or two.

  Marilyn wiggled on the stool and tried to shake him off. “Next time let me fall,” she grumbled, and of course, his vampire hearing allowed him to hear her loud and clear over the noise.

  “Sorry, I’m too much of a gentleman for that,” he replied and snapped on a bright smile.

  To Marilyn, that smile was just as annoying as his smirk. What she wouldn’t give to be alone with him for five minutes, and not in one of Claudia’s hot-date ways.

  “Well, look who popped up like a bad smell in an elevator,” Claudia said above the noise of the crowd. “Oh, that’s me ringing,” she said, snatching her mobile from her bag.

  “The screen isn’t alight,” Marilyn said, but Claudia cupped her ear and shook her head.

  “Can’t hear a thing, I’m going to take this outside,” she said and hopped from the barstool.

  Marilyn panicked at the sight of her friend leaving her alone with Neal. “Wait, I’ll come…”

  “Something I said?” Neal asked, stepping in the way just as she started to slide down from the stool.

  Marilyn tried to climb back up, but he was too close, and she couldn’t manage it. To add insult to injury, she had to tip her head back to look up at his face. “It’s your personality; I don’t like being this close to you.”

  “Now we both know that’s not true,” Neal said, and she opened her mouth to speak, but he sidestepped to allow her to pass. “But, if you’re not ready to have an adult conversation…” He left it hanging in the air and watched her narrow her eyes as annoyance rose inside her.

  Marilyn wanted to say so much, but as it would be peppered with curse words, the bar wasn’t the place to do it. Never wash your dirty linen in public; it was a saying she liked to live by. Screaming out the word vampire in a crowded bar would surely bring them more attention than either of them needed, but that word was bound to come up.

  “Says the Fred Flintstone of the underworld,” she muttered, forgetting that he could hear her just fine over the noise.

  “Resorting to insults, you made my point for me,” he said and motioned for her to leave.

  It took Marilyn a couple of seconds to get her brain to make her legs work. While she had the urge to stay and tell him exactly what she thought of him – emboldened by alcohol – she decided her first instinct was right and she should run for the hills. Of course, that turned into a slow walk on six-inch heels, but the intention was there.

  If she was going to pick a verbal fight with the vampire, she wanted to be on her game, and she could already feel the alcohol taking its toll on her mind. She headed for the nearest exit, and she’d be having words with Claudia over bailing on her – and none of those words needed to be restrained.

  ~

  Claudia tossed her mobile back into her bag and breathed in the night air. There hadn’t been a phone call, but what were friends for?

  Marilyn was sure to try to kill her later, but she was determined to give Marilyn’s life a jumpstart. Coasting through the next twenty years on what might have been wasn’t in her friend’s best interests, and someone had to shake some life back into her, didn’t they?

  The half-light of an almost full moon was being smothered by clouds and felt strangely eerie in the back alleyway of the bar, and she felt a sense of unease about her that only typically came when something was about to go wrong in her life.

  Perhaps a double dose of tempting fate hadn’t been a good idea, but that was in her past, and she wasn’t going to waste good energy turning back time to repeat the last few hours.

  With the growing feeling of nervousness inside her, she turned back to the exit and found it blocked.

  He was tall, wide, and covered in the shadows of night. Claudia could just make out one thing about him – the gun he pointed at her in his outstretched hand.

  CHAPTER FORTY SIX

  ~

  Amber turned back to Josh. She’d been reassured by Lottie’s text that he couldn’t read her mind and she was free to think away. That was a good thing considering how many times she’d pictured him naked – awkward.

  Josh raised a curious eyebrow and was wearing a drop-dead gorgeous smile that sent the butterflies fluttering inside her once more. It was getting ridiculous now; every time she looked at the man, she had the urge to jump his bones, and that wasn’t like her. The biggest urge she’d had lately was for ice cream, and he certainly wasn’t ice cream – although, she might like a taste of what he had to offer.

  “Did your crystal ball give you the answers you seek?” he asked, and there was a teasing light of amusement in his eyes.

  “I had some sage advice,” Amber said. She wasn’t giving anything away, let him wonder and guess. It might keep his mind off trying to woo her.

  “I hope it included the instruction to go with what your gut is telling you…”

  “My gut is telling me to dig a hole and bury you in it, are you sure I should go with that?” Amber was lying, and they both knew it, but she figured that buying time never hurt anyone.

  Josh took a step that brought him toe to toe with her, and Amber’s gut told her to take a couple of steps back, but that would be backing down – and she hated to do that.

  “What are you doing?” Amber asked. Her nerves were jumping like a fish on a hook.

  “Getting to know you,” he said.

  The wolfish smile that he offered her was like hot fudge sauce over a moist chocolate cake, and usually, she’d be diving on it on that one. But, this was her mate, and she knew that there wasn’t any room for error in the mating game. It was all or nothing, and only one of those options sounded right.

  Timing was everything, was she ready for all in?

  “You can get to know me just fine from over there,” she said, and absently waved a hand.

  “The closer the better…”

  “Is that like; all the better to eat you with?” she asked, frowning at how that could be misinterpreted.

  She hoped Josh wasn’t on the ball and that would just slide on out there, never to be thought about again. Even if in her mind’s eye, she was thinking pretty wild things.

  “If you want to play at being Red, I can be the big, bad wolf…”

  “Nope, I’m good,” Amber said and went to turn away. She thought turning away was less beating a retreat than backing off. But she never got to take that first step as one large arm came up to block her path.

  “I don’t see you as a woman who runs…”

  “From her problems?” Amber asked with a tone that was as sweet as that ice cream she craved with a little bit of condescension mixed in, and a cherry on top.

  Josh’s grin widened, and she got the full effect of what a damn sexy smile could do to her already weakened knees. Wowzy!

  “From fate…”

  “To clarify,” she said and held up her finger. “I’m not running, I’m going to the kitchen, and fate doesn’t control me.”

  “Two lies, both missing their target audience by a country mile,” Josh said, and she blinked twice. Maybe she hadn’t expected him to call her on it, but he could smell BS from a few miles away
.

  Amber knew he was right, and she hated him for it. Did she double-down and lie again – or did she admit that argument was a lost cause? “Y-ou-rrre…” She was trying to come up with something, but her stupid brain was doing the computer spinning wheel of death.

  Was she going to hold on as long as she usually waited for her computer to connect to a site, or was she going to be smart and cash in her chips while she wasn’t wholly bankrupt?

  “Annoying?” Josh offered.

  “Yes!” she said, jumping in the life raft.

  “Infuriating?”

  “Yes!”

  “Exasperating?”

  “Yes!”

  “Sexy?”

  “Yes!” It took a moment, but the spinning wheel of death vanished in a puff of awkward realisation of what he’d done – dang it! Amber placed her hands on her hips and cocked her left eyebrow. “You tricked me.”

  “Well, I am the big bad wolf,” he said grinning.

  Amber had to give it to him; he certainly wasn’t how she’d imagined him to be. She guessed sexy was a given, but he had a playful side, and she liked that. “More Scooby-Doo,” she muttered, giving him a little side-eye.

  “Well, does Scooby get a snack?” Josh asked.

  He accepted there would be dog jokes; it was far more important that he wooed her, especially with his beast clawing with frustration. His wolf had never been the patient type.

  Amber did a double-take. He had a wolfish grin and his eyes were sparkling with humour, but that question was like a double-edged sword, and she wasn’t walking into another one of his traps.

  She motioned to the kitchen. “Junk foods in the cupboard,” she said.

  “And what if I’m hungry for something – more,” he asked, but it wasn’t his words so much as the way he’d said them that led her down a chain of thought that saw him naked again.

  Amber felt the heat rush through her body and riding on the back of it was excitement and curiosity. “Well,” she squeaked, grimaced, and tried again. “Try the refrigerator …”

  “I was thinking hot…”

  “Me too,” she grumbled.

  Josh decided to double down. “Hot like those kisses in the lake…”

  Oh boy, he had to go there, and so did her mind and body. She could practically taste those kisses, and feel his naked body against hers.

  Amber’s stomach flip-flopped, and there was another rush of excitement that didn’t help with the little devil sitting on her shoulder, screaming at her to go with it, for it, and jump on it. The angel, on her other shoulder, had chosen to be silent – how convenient for fate.

  “I was…” Amber couldn’t find the word – curious sounded wrong.

  “Swept up in the magic?” Josh offered.

  Amber opened her mouth to deny it, but stopped as she realised it was futile. Josh wasn’t a guy she’d met at a bar and was considering dating – she’d never date again – and she couldn’t say that was something she’d miss. He was her guy, her man, the man, the one, and she couldn’t say fate had been sloppy in its choice.

  When was she going to witch up and accept that fate had a one hundred per cent success rate – or so the legend goes – who was she to mess with that?

  There were times in life when you could just stand there and headbutt a brick wall, and times when you had to trust that a higher power was working its magic and it was smarter than you.

  This was one of those times.

  It didn’t take much for Amber to launch herself into his arms. He was right there in front of her, and she hooked her hand around the back of his neck, pushed up on tip-toes, and went in for the kill.

  Her lips met his and magic happened.

  ~

  Claudia couldn’t breathe. The moment her brain finally farted to life and she realised that she was facing danger and possibly death, her magic kicked in, but her brain farted again, and she just stood there.

  “I told you that you’d regret it,” he said, and that voice was so damn irritatingly familiar that she groaned inwardly.

  Marsh Weathers, the man with the stupid name, and mediocre golf swing. So, now she knew who had cut her brakes. He might have been human, but the gun pointing at her was a great leveller for her magic.

  Now she was miffed. “I promise you’ll regret this,” she tossed back, but she wasn’t as confident as she would typically have been – guns weren’t her thing – magic was.

  Claudia had a plan, and she was ready to initiate it when the back door opened like the gates of hell was welcoming a new soul. The door hit Marsh in the back and he stumbled forward.

  Claudia saw Marilyn spill out of the back door just before she was hit by what felt like a brick wall and knocked sideways into the trash sacks that had spilled out from the dumpster.

  CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

  ~

  The force of the blow took Claudia’s breath away. She snapped a look to Marilyn, but Marsh was blocking her view, and then she noticed that Neal was standing behind him.

  The vampire slapped his hands on either side of Marsh’s head, and with a quick twist – snap; Marsh dropped to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.

  Thud. Claudia couldn’t say she was going to mourn the loss.

  “What the hell…?” Marilyn screech, just as the back door slammed shut, and she jumped at the sound. Her eyes were locked and loaded on the vampire, and she raised her hands – magic ready to blast him.

  “Did you have to dump me in the garbage?” Claudia hissed out, pushing up to her feet and dusting herself down with a look of disgust on her face.

  “Did you not see what he just did?” Marilyn demanded, wondering if everyone had lost their minds.

  “No,” Neal admitted to Claudia a smirk. “But it felt right.”

  “Hello!” Marilyn snapped. “Is my volume turned down?”

  Claudia and Neal turned to her. “Meet Marsh Weathers,” Claudia said and motioned to the dead guy.

  “Well, I’d say hello, but he killed him!” she snapped, pointing to Neal.

  “Justified,” Neal said.

  “Wait,” Marilyn tilted her head to the side and scowled at Claudia. “The golfer guy?”

  “One and the same,” Claudia said.

  “Dead golfer guy now,” Neal injected and got a frosty glare from Marilyn.

  “Because nobody is going to miss him,” Marilyn said.

  “I won’t,” Claudia said, continuing to dust herself off.

  Marilyn turned an expectant look on Neal. “In my defence, he had a gun,” he whispered, and she snorted with disbelief.

  “And what would a golfer guy be doing with a gun…?” Then it sunk in. “Was he the brake cutter?” she asked Claudia.

  “Yep,” she said.

  Neal folded his arms, and a small smug smile played on his lips. “I bet you’re glad I’m in town now,” he said.

  Marilyn snatched her head back and scowled at him. “Nope,” she snapped back. “And you need to get rid of that body,” she informed him.

  “Why me?” Neal asked.

  “You did the deed,” Claudia said and shrugged.

  “And I’m sure you’ve had a lot of practice,” Marilyn muttered. She reached out and snagged Claudia’s arm, and then she yanked her to her side. “We’re leaving.”

  “I could use a drink,” Claudia said.

  “That news doesn’t shock me,” Marilyn hissed. “Home!”

  “Fine,” Claudia grumbled like a teenager, she even sighed. “Neal?”

  “I’d love a drink, but I have a body to dispose of,” he said and grinned at Marilyn who groaned in return.

  “Let’s go,” Marilyn said, nudging Claudia to the steps. “We need a cab.”

  “I can drive you if you wait for me to get him in the trunk,” Neal offered.

  “I’m not riding with a dead guy – either dead guy,” Marilyn snapped.

  Claudia chuckled. “Ouch, she got you there.”

  “Hey, I saved your lif
e, don’t make me regret it,” Neal tossed back.

  Marilyn stopped in her tracks and turned back to him. For one long moment, they just stared at each other. “I’m grateful, thank you,” she said.

  “Was that so hard?” he asked.

  “Yes, excruciatingly so,” she said as if he should have known that. Then she grabbed hold of Claudia’s arm again and dragged her up the stairs and out onto the street. “I had to thank the vampire, so you owe me one.”

  “Seems like the night for it,” Claudia muttered.

  ~

  Amber had taken a leap of faith – well, not really; he did come with fate’s platinum guarantee. Still, rushing headfirst into a relationship that was going to last forever did feel a little strange, but she guessed if someone offered her the Lotto numbers before the draw, she wasn’t going to say no.

  Josh was a sure thing, in more ways than one. Apart from the whole ‘claws, fangs, and fur thing’ he was everything she wanted in a guy, and while his wolf hadn’t been on her must-have list; it wasn’t a deal-breaker.

  The more she kissed him, the more she wanted to kiss him. The more his hands roamed her body, the more she wanted to be naked. The more her brain retreated, and her body took over, the more confident she was that she’d found The One.

  With a little help from his hand on her backside; Amber climbed up his body and wrapped her legs around his hips. If that didn’t tell him everything he needed to know, then she was going to have to spell it out with pictures and crayons.

  The deep rumble of a heartfelt growl that bubbled in his chest and got lodged in his throat told her that she’d painted him a picture he could understand. When he whirled around and made for the stairs; she revelled in the feel of his manhood pressing and releasing against her sensitive little nub with every step.

  Lord have mercy! If they didn’t make it to the bedroom soon; she might just pop her cork on the way up the stairs. That would be – awkward.