I considered whether I should allow myself to play along and get lost in the likes of Kale. But that would bring a world of trouble later since I doubted I could forget our rendezvous. I did need to look Kale in the eye again.
Instead, I smacked the side of my face. “Wake up, Libby.”
“There are many wicked things I want to do to you,” he growled.
“Wake up, Libby,” I shouted.
He approached in long strides; all those muscles flexed and his eyes sizzled with erotic promises. The sight of him made me burn as I gazed over him in a full appreciative sweep, especially on his most aroused part.
I hit my face harder. “Wake up, Libby.”
Chapter Seven
“Wake up, Libby.” The haze of sleep faded, and Kale’s voice became clear and urgent. “Libby, wake up.” My eyes snapped open to find Kale leaning over me, concern tightening his features. “All good?”
I blinked for good measure to make sure this wasn’t a dream. My room didn’t shift colors or appear faded, so I assumed this had to be real. “I’m fine.”
Kale removed the hand that had been gripping my arm, and I almost shuddered. It didn’t help that his woodsy scent engulfed me with all types of desires. I reached for the glass of moon potion, needing it more for my dry throat than to help me remember the dream. My hand shook as I downed it, and sweat dripped along my spine. After a long sip, which did nothing to cool the jets, I placed the glass back on the nightstand and exhaled a long, ragged breath.
Goddess, what in the hell was that?
“You moaned my name so I thought that meant trouble.” Kale stared at me with a serious look. “Was I right to wake you?”
“Err…” I gulped, pushed the blankets off, and sat up, partly because my skin burned. “Yes, perfectly right. Thank you.”
“Good.” His eyes searched mine and it brought me back to the intensity of dream Kale, hot-and-horny Kale, the Kale determined to get me naked—the warlock who set me on fire. “Did you speak to the ghost?”
“Mm-hmm.” I wanted to grab the blanket and pull it over my head to shield myself. Nothing really happened between us, but the butterflies in my stomach, and the ache between my thighs, disagreed.
My pause must’ve been long, because Kale arched an eyebrow. “Do you plan on telling me what happened?”
“Give me a sec.” I raised my finger, glanced away from him to the duvet, and attempted to collect myself. If I continued to look into his seductive face, which appeared to be a natural trait instead of intentional, then I might attack him and demand he finish what the dream version of him started.
When that didn’t help, I dropped my head into my hands, groaning.
“I can’t tell if you’re frightened.” His voice had lowered, stern and questioning. “Or if something else is wrong.”
“It’s…” I peeked at him through my fingers and it didn’t help my resolve. He was sexy before, and damn I had noticed him, but my little fantasy doubled his appeal. Almost as if I had tested out the waters and wanted to dive back in. Instead of continuing with the awkward pause, I blew out a long breath, dropped my hands, and forced myself to sound confident. “I’m not afraid.”
“What’s wrong, then?”
“It’s fine. Really, I’m fine.” His reaction was enough to snap me out of my episode. “The ghost came to me.”
“Did he?”
I nodded, hating what I had to admit because it had been a road I didn’t want to venture down. “He heard a name.”
Kale’s head tilted. “Who?”
While his sinful looks continued to test me, the current subject matter helped settle some of the heat. “Bryon Holt.”
Kale rubbed his jaw and regarded me, curiosity flashing over his features, either at the case, my dream, or the realization that loomed over both of us.
No part of my emotions could rule me in circumstances like this, and that had always been a well-learned lesson while on the job. I finally said what I suspected from Kale’s silence he didn’t want to. “We need to find Bryon.”
Kale agreed with a quick nod. “I believe that’s for the best.” His penetrating eyes seared mine, searching and also softening. “Are you all right taking this on?”
Perhaps with my weak state toward him now, matched with the acknowledgment that I’d have to face Bryon again, my defenses jumped. “Why wouldn’t I be? What, you think I’m not capable?”
Kale shook his head slowly. “Libby, I’m not saying this to insult you, but you do care for this warlock.”
“Cared, past tense, not present,” I countered. “If he is involved in this, then I hunt him.” I gave him a look. “That’s my job, Kale. Let’s go.” Even as I said it, I didn’t believe it. I hoped for Bryon’s sake, and mine, that his involvement was over so I didn’t have to watch Kale slit his throat. I might hate the warlock, but my heart wasn’t ice, and with his death, the little piece of my soul that still belonged to the stupid warlock would go with him.
As I stood from the bed, I straightened my clothes and continued to force my thoughts off Kale and Bryon.
“Did the ghost say anything more?” Kale asked.
“Nothing significant.” Once I settled my corset and righted my hair from its bedhead state, I realized Kale remained silent, so I looked at him.
Damn, he scrutinized me. “Did anything else happen I should be aware of?”
“No.” I batted my lashes and almost said, “Whatever do you mean,” but held back from going overboard. I wanted to forget about that little event in my dream, and the conversation about Bryon had washed it away. Now, with all that intensity of Kale’s attention back on me and thoughts of ex-boyfriends gone from my mind, the lingering heat in my body reminded me it hadn’t been altogether extinguished.
“You’re keeping something from me.” His features tightened, posture stiffened, and he folded his arms over his thick chest. “You need to lay out all the facts. I have to understand what’s going on.”
I snorted. “You’re one to talk, Mr. Secretive.” At his fixated stare, my cheeks warmed. “It’s nothing.” His eyebrow arched. I had no exit and he wouldn’t relent, so I added, “It might have been a tad on the sexy side.”
The seriousness in his expression was so quickly replaced by huge eyes it was almost funny. Almost. “Your dream?”
“Yes,” I snapped. “Don’t look at me like that. I know how wrong it is since I was talking to the dead, but I can’t control my dreams. They happen as they will, and that’s what happened.”
He fought his smile, but not well, I might add. “You were aroused by a ghost?”
I gasped. First, because aroused sounded discouragingly incredible from his mouth, and second, because what he said disgusted me. “Ew. No.”
His head cocked. “Who, then?”
I had no answer that would get me out of this and I didn’t doubt that if I lied, he’d know. Besides, there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d say it aloud, so I pressed my lips into a firm line and kept quiet. If Kale was smart he’d figure it out.
He was smart.
A slow, devilish smile spread across his face. “Was it good?”
“I…” The smolder in his eyes appeared again—the eyes that right now I wished I could rip out of his head so I didn’t have to look at them. “I’m so not talking about this.” I brushed past him, heading straight for my living room. “We need to locate Bryon.”
Kale entered the living room a moment later. No trace of the smile was on his face, but his eyes twinkled. “Will that be a challenge for you?”
He sat down on my couch and looked way too good there. Comfortable. I liked it, or I allowed myself to think so for a total of two seconds before I shut those thoughts down.
“Not hard necessarily,” I replied, proud my voice held strength and didn’t go all take me right here and now. “But I suspect if Bryon wants to stay hidden he would’ve done his best to cover his tracks.”
Kale crossed his ankle over his knee and rest
ed his arm on the back of the couch. “Do you have a spell to locate him?”
“Something close to it.”
“Off you go then.” He jerked his chin toward the kitchen. “The longer we take to figure out who is behind this, the more lives may be lost. Bryon sounds like our best lead, and if we wait him out he might get farther away.”
I didn’t move an inch as I scanned the length of him. He filled an entire cushion on my couch. His muscular biceps in full view, black T-shirt stretched across his wide shoulders, and tight chest that my fingers itched to feel. Lower down were indents of his six-pack, and before I could even help it, I licked my lips.
Goddess, I am so screwed!
Giving my head a good hard shake, I snapped out of my ogle of Kale and back into my hazardous reality. While I wanted to impress Kale with new spells, I didn’t know any that would locate Bryon, but one spell I had used before might work. I hated taking a risk that I wouldn’t wow him with the spell, yet we needed to find Bryon, and that drove my motivation now. “It’s nothing I can do here. We need to go and get a dog.”
“A dog?” He stood from the couch and approached me with his long purposeful steps, and my breath caught in my throat.
As he stopped in front of me, my head angled back and I became lost in his shadowy eyes. His stare reached into the depths of me, almost as if he presented an offer to let me rub myself all over him, that I only needed to give him permission and he’d grant my wish.
Not like I would.
I hated warlocks, especially ones who were out to get me.
Or did I?
“A dog. Yes, a dog.” I sucked in a deep breath, putting my mind back together again. “We need a dog for the spell.” I turned on my heels and made a beeline to my front door.
“Why a dog?” he called.
“A dog can be used as a guide from the Goddess,” I answered without a look back at him.
As I reached the front door and turned the handle, Kale chuckled, low and deep. “You’re in a bit of a rush, huh?”
“More than you know,” I whispered under my breath.
He had me so affected with the low undertones of his voice, it made me want to turn around and run into his arms. My urgency increased to close both cases—prove myself to my coven and get him out of my life—so I could go back to bed and spend some time with dream-Kale.
…
The headlights beamed across a street glistening with light rain, and the wipers on my SUV were set to low, creating a hum throughout the car, rhythmic and soothing. Right now I needed the quiet, and was even happier we had a job to do to keep me attentive. Though, frustrating me to no end, as much as I tried to keep all of this impersonal, fate wouldn’t let me. Not with Bryon, and certainly not with Kale, but somehow I needed to get control back and keep my guard firmly in place.
Inhaling a long breath, I focused on the road as I drove down the quiet street to the Auto Parts and Scrap Metal yard. When my headlights lit up the steel sign with fading paint, I pulled up next to the front entrance and turned off the ignition. Kale studied the more-or-less junkyard with the metal bar across the entrance and tall, white-painted steel fence on either side.
“The dog is in there?” he asked.
I smiled, though he didn’t see it. I had no interest in going into the junkyard, especially since it was raining, but a plan simmered in my mind. One to stop Kale’s unwanted attention in its tracks and get him to leave me the hell alone. Besides, how many times had warlocks put me in bad situations that I had crawled my way out of, and how many times had I returned the favor? Too many to count on two hands. Maybe the time had arrived to let the bitch inside come out to play. “You got it. Go get us a pooch.”
Kale jerked his head to me, frowning. “Leaving it up to me, are you?”
“You’re the muscle.” Thick drool-worthy muscles, all of which I ignored, or at least pretended to. “I’ve got rope in the back to make a leash for him.”
Kale glanced out toward the junkyard before he returned his attention to me. “Have you met this dog?”
“Twice.” Not entirely true—seen him twice would be accurate, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d go in there. Besides, Kale had the tough warlock thing going on, and part of me wanted to weaken him to make myself feel better. Yes, I could resort to such measures in desperate times, and this was a desperate time. I’d become more than tired of looking like the little witch while he dominated every second around me, and this was my chance to flip things around; a smart witch used any advantage she could.
He studied me for a very long time, and I hoped my plan didn’t show on my expression, but it seemed it had slightly since he asked, “Is he friendly?”
I gasped with fake horror. “You think I would send you in there if he wasn’t?”
At his grunt and narrowing eyes, I grinned and shoved at his arm, which didn’t make him budge. “He’s the perfect dog because he’s not a barker, and that’s needed for the spell.” His lips parted so I added, “There’s an abandoned house a few blocks away that has a gated yard we can use.”
His eyebrow arched. “For?”
“You’ll see. Go get him.”
Kale huffed, a sound close to annoyance, and then exited my SUV. Perhaps I hoped to turn the tables a little and make him dislike me, more than he appeared to want to seduce me.
The dream of him had put me in a mood where I needed to give some payback to ensure that what happened in the dream didn’t happen in real life. More than anything else, I needed to get back on top of things, and not turn into a ridiculous wanton witch around him. For that, I hoped this event would show Kale I actually shouldn’t appeal to him at all.
His door slammed shut and he opened my hatchback to grab the rope, and then he trotted toward the junkyard and hopped over the gate. I leaned against my headrest, watching him, and within a few steps he disappeared into the dark night. I held my breath and waited for the inevitable.
Only a second later, Kale bolted out of the junkyard and leaped over the gate, wide-eyed and fixated on my SUV with the German shepherd right on his heels. Old Henry had been a fierce dog when I’d been there last to drop off some old computer parts, and even tied up he growled and bared his teeth, but he never barked.
As the owner had told me, he was trained to stay quiet to allow thieves to get in close before he attacked. Not that I was worried; this was Kale, after all. Besides, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the tough guy in such a precarious position. For once, it wasn’t me being bulldozed, even if my attack had been cruel instead of sexually focused.
A foot away from my SUV, Kale pounced and landed on the hood, and it was pretty impressive to see those muscles put to good use. He focused on the dog trying to claw his way up the hood to get a bite of him, but then that steely gaze of his was sent my way. To play up my enjoyment and to make me look like the evil bitch I hoped he’d see, I laughed, giving him a thumbs-up.
Kale’s eyes narrowed on me before he turned to the dog and let the rope he held in his hand fall, keeping hold of the end. To my complete shock, he swan-dived at the dog, and a second later, a yelp sounded. I peeked out the window, but couldn’t see him or the dog.
A few seconds passed before Kale jumped to his feet with the dog in his arms and the rope bound over the dog’s mouth like a muzzle. He strode toward the back and placed the dog inside, the icky scent of wet dog overwhelming me. Then he slammed the hatch closed with a loud bang.
He plopped down in his seat before he shut the door with equal force. His hair was damp and a few strands hung off his forehead as water dripped down onto his nose.
Sexy as sin.
I forced myself to look past his image and reminded myself his appeal had the power to undo my plan. I needed to be stronger and not forget my intent to knock him off his game. With a snap to my voice and a sassy smile, I said, “Good job.”
“Nice try, Libby.” His eyes blazed with power. “Drive.”
Dammit! My smile faded in an instant as
I realized that my plan didn’t work—instead of my gaining the upper hand, he had just given me an order. More than that, though, what bothered me was the unexpected guilt presently tightening my throat.
Didn’t I like making a warlock look foolish? I’d taken pleasure in that before, but now I felt horrible. He hadn’t lashed out at me or done the normal things like hate me, except glare at me to show his disapproval. He, as always, stayed perfectly calm, and didn’t allow me to dig into him.
Instead of wearing my guilt, I intended to get rid of it because I had enough emotional crap to carry. “All right, I’m sorry. I should have told you about the dog, so you were prepared.”
“No need to apologize. I handled the dog without your assistance.” Kale didn’t look at me and kept staring out the window. “Just know, whatever worked for you before, is not going to work for you now.”
What the hell did that mean?
He turned in his seat to face me dead-on then, and a slow, deadly grin spread across his face. “One piece of advice—best not try anything like that again. Once, I can manage to forgive. But twice, you’ll force me to retaliate.” He leaned in close to my seat, and his eyes burned with wicked, lustful intentions. “My vengeance won’t come in the form of a dog attack. Take this as the warning it is, do not test me.”
Dammit…again! How did he do that?
For a witch who wanted control, I seemed to let him steal it back effortlessly. I heaved a sigh, staring into his hard features, and hated—really loathed—that no matter what I did, he overpowered me. “You are annoying.”
He chuckled and then looked away.
I turned on the ignition and focused on the damn road. Trying to get him to back off only seemed to make him come at me harder, and in ways that would arouse me enough to make my head pop off. I officially gave up. Well, with that idea anyway.
Irritating me further was the stupid grin on his face that I should’ve worn for the entire drive.
Within minutes I arrived at the abandoned yellow brick bungalow with the white picket fence out front. When I parked the car at the curb and got out, the rain had stopped. Kale followed me out and made a quick trip to the back to grab the dog.
The Cat's Meow Page 9
