Sassy Ever After: A Witchingly Sassy Seduction (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Mychal Daniels

He looked back down to her, and with a short kiss, smiled and said in the deepest of voices, “Now don’t be going too far, I’ll find you soon enough, love.”

  Then he was gone.

  “Shit, dammit to hell and fuckity fuck, fuck.”

  The stream of curses wasn’t enough to replace the ache and yearning she was left with. Celia throbbed in the depths of her core for this mystery of a man.

  She was fucked, and not in a good way.

  Before she could move to make it out of the woods, she knew he was already her obsession.

  Chapter 2

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the deep voice with a sexy lilt, said behind her.

  “What?” Celia turned back, almost falling. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard anyone approach… and that voice should be classified as vocal seduction.

  She’d been caught red handed—again. First the Scenting Ceremony and now this great idea gone oh so wrong. It was official—she sucked at hiding—and her life was on a trajectory course for disaster. She was currently perched up on the roof of the second story portion in back of an old building. To top that off, said current position was in the most unflattering way she could have contorted her body. There was no other way to explain it. This guy had just caught her trying to pry her way into this window.

  What was it with this town? She couldn’t catch a break.

  The other night at the private Scenting Ceremony, she’d barely escaped that silent, sexy wolf. No, that was a flat out lie. She’d been about to spread eagle and beg him to fuck her senseless, when he up and left her high and not-so-dry. Now she was about to go to jail for breaking and entering—although she hadn’t gotten the chance to enter yet.

  “I was just—”

  His massive hand shot up to stop her.

  “Save it. I can see what you were just about to do.” She didn’t miss the hint of laughter in the man’s deep voice, but, what could she say? She’d been the one peering into that window, trying to size up if her body would fit through it.

  “I wasn’t trying to break in or anything.” Even to her, this sounded more like a plea than a statement.

  She was never good when caught off guard. This would qualify as one of those times. At this moment, yeah, her lying skills around this man were on par with a toddler caught with cupcake on her face. The major difference was she wasn’t a little cute, adorable kid. Naw, this was simply pitiful and sad.

  Celia couldn’t make out much of his face with that worn blue baseball cap pulled low over his features, but the rest of him was lethal in how good he looked, standing there. He was very tall with a lean build and broad shoulders. Maybe he was an athlete or something, from the look of his confident stance and overall physical condition. His body was doing most of the talking at the moment and it knew how to strike up a sexy conversation.

  Focus Celia! Jail is never a good option—no matter how fine the guy is who could take you there. Get your head back into the game.

  A tilt of his head up, and she saw a little more of his face.

  Damn-it-to-hell.

  Brilliant gray-blue eyes, probing and mysterious like moonlight, locked with hers once again.

  “How about you come down from there before you get hurt or something worse happens?” The ease with which his deep voice lulled her was too dangerous for her to trust herself to pull off any clever action, let alone produce any intelligent response.

  Those eyes. They were the same ones from the other night. Yep, she was certainly fucked, and not in a good way.

  Shit!

  Celia trembled with equal parts embarrassment, incoordination of her limbs and arousal. She didn’t want to allow him to see how much he rattled her or how hard she’d struggled to get up there in the first place. It hadn’t been pretty, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Plus, he’d left her aching and confused the other night. She didn’t know if she was more angry, embarrassed or shamefully turned on right now.

  Double damn him.

  When she took a little too long to make her procession back down, he took a long stride closer, climbed up a few feet and reached for her. His reach was long enough to grab her dangling ankle.

  “Let me help you down.”

  His touch electrified and almost scared the shit out of her.

  “No, I got it,” she said, involuntarily snatching her ankle out of his grasp. “Why don’t you go on about your business?” Celia looked around to see if anyone else was nearby, as she said, “Go on now. There’s nothing to see here. I’m getting down.”

  She continued to jab her foot at his hand, waving him off. This must have done something for her balance, since she made another successful step down. Gaining courage and confidence that she could do this on her own, Celia made it closer to the ledge separating the two stories of the building. She felt his penetrating gaze watch everything she did.

  Chancing another look backward at him, she tried to assure him she was fine by explaining, “I was just trying to see if anyone was in there.” She didn’t know why she felt the need to give him an explanation, but it tumbled out anyway. “I tried the door and got no answer. So, I decided to see if there was anyone inside in the back.”

  “Uh-huh.” Pointing to her now precarious position on the shallow ledge, he gave the sexiest crooked grin. “And, you thought climbing up sixteen feet and trying to get inside a window that clearly looked like it’d been painted shut for at least a decade was the best way to enter the place?”

  Celia put on her best poker face. She had to hide how unnerving his presence was on her. Plus, this height was starting to make her shaky. This was the wolf from the other night. Did he recognize her? She wanted to shrink into the bricks she currently clung to for dear life. If she told him the truth, maybe he might let her go. Naw, she didn’t want his or anyone else’s pity. She could do this—alone.

  Deciding on a tougher demeanor, she mustered up gumption she didn’t have. Closing her eyes to get it out, like her mother had taught her as a child when she needed to say something difficult, she blurted out, “Don’t you have something else better to do? I’m fine and don’t need your help getting down.” With that she gave a final kick away from his hand and decided to scoot down using her belly to absorb the abuse from the old siding of the building.

  That little show of independence hurt. Shake it off and act like you’ve got this. Got to make him go away.

  “Fine, I’ll let you get down on your own,” he said putting both hands up and backing away. “But, I’m not leaving until I know you’re safely back on the ground. You seem to have a bit of a struggle going on there.”

  Heat reached her cheeks driving the insatiable urge to spit and curse—at him. Her “bit of a struggle” was the way her body teetered off the ledge of the roof. The ledge was snugly fitted into the space just below the muffin top of her stomach. She knew he could see it, since her top was also caught in the indention of her stomach. This was beyond, really beyond awkward.

  Celia continued to struggle with the ledge. Her feet dangled higher up than was safe for her to make it down to the next sure footing. And… he continued to watch—quiet and patient. A scream of frustration tried to escape her, only to be caught in time as she found a way to place her foot on a decorative piece of brick of the building’s exterior.

  Not to be totally undone, she decided to take her frustration out on him.

  “How’s the show from down there? Try not to keep looking at my ass.” The slight didn’t have the sting she wanted—not with her wheezing between each word as she finally freed her belly from the roof ledge.

  “Yes, the view is quite entertaining. I especially like watching your ass—it’s riveting.”

  She could sense the smug satisfaction before she looked to confirm it on his chiseled features.

  “Don’t you have something else better to do?”

  “Nope. It’s not like some she-wolf is pacing, waiting for me in the distance over there,” he said with a la
zy assurance that made her tingle.

  So he did remember her and understood everything she said the other night. That asshole! For a split second, Celia entertained the thought of falling on him, squashing his gorgeous ass like a bug.

  Naw, not going to add attempted murder to the B&E charge waiting for me when I hit the ground.

  Making it to the lowest part of the building before getting her footing back on the ground, Celia shot him the dirtiest look she could muster.

  His answering smile was too dazzling for words.

  “Here I was thinking I’d lost track of you forever, when low and behold, I find you trying to break into one of the fiercest members of the Wolfe family’s property. Nathan doesn’t take too kindly to folks trying to sneak into The Thirsty Wolfe.” He took his time appraising how she hung to the side of the building. Then, as if in afterthought, he said, “Darling, that could get you killed around here.”

  “I wasn’t trying to break in—not for anything bad. I just needed…” She stopped. The less she told him, the harder it would be for them to find her.

  Like her grandma always said, “Your business gets told because you tell it.” She wasn’t going to sink her chances for survival by trusting anyone.

  Instead, she decided to stay on the offensive. “You left me. What was I supposed to do? Stick around and wait for another wolf to come along? It’s not like I was invited or anything to that ceremony.”

  “True, I wasn’t participating either.” He watched her, as she straightened her clothes and tried to regain some composure. Then he asked, “What are you doing in this town—Blue Creek? You don’t seem like a local and I know you’re not a shifter. You’re human, but your scent is different somehow.” After he leaned in to look her over with those dazzlers he used for eyes and took in a big sniff, he said, “Come on and tell me. What are you, lovey?”

  What she was, was tired, frustrated and annoyed. Celia didn’t have time for this. It was late afternoon and she needed to find a place to settle down for the night. Something deep inside kept her uneasy. Maybe she could find another place to hide out for the night, once she ditched him.

  Instead of telling him that, she opted for diplomacy.

  “I’m a woman of course.”

  “I can see that.” He leaned in, continuing to sniff and look at her as if she was some intriguing spectacle and said, “You know what I mean. You’re more than human. So, what gives? What are you?”

  Deciding to have a little fun and finally turn the tables, she jested, “Some might say I’m Chocolate Wonder Woman.”

  She’d never given into the stigma most wanted her to bear for her ancestry or ethnicity. Sure, she came from a long line of powerful magic workers and seers. Some might even dare to call them witches and psychics. The fact that they came from Africa, over to the Caribbean, up through Louisiana, onto the Mississippi River, and Delta to populate the Americas, was none of his never mind.

  What she most definitely wouldn’t disclose to him or anyone else was that the “gift” seemed to have skipped her—entirely. She was simply a woman of color on the move. Celia relied on her gift of gab more than any type of paranormal tendencies her family may have commanded. That wasn’t something she could use. Thus, this handsome shifter needed to take his discerning nose and go far away from her—now.

  “Chocolate Wonder Woman—eh? I like it… a lot.”

  Hell’s farts, that wasn’t supposed to be a conversation starter. She had to get this man off her scent and onto another shiny object. He was like a dog in search of his favorite bone. And she wasn’t that bone!

  “Look, I’m back on the ground and going on my way. Thanks for stopping and offering to help, but I’ve got this.”

  She turned and walked away, not wanting to give him another way into a conversation when she felt him walking behind her. Celia wanted to seize the opportunity to make a clean getaway before he remembered he’d caught her committing a crime. Plus, she still had to retrieve her belongings and raggedy car before someone discovered them. And, the last person she wanted tagging along was this man.

  “So you’re going to stalk me now?” she asked, not liking how easy it was to feel comfortable around him.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What if I don’t want you following me around? What if I have some private things to attend to?”

  “I’ll wait on you. You seem like you need a little watching over, as I can see it.”

  What was she, a confused puppy or a charity case to him?

  “But I didn’t ask for your help. What we have here is a failure to communicate. I don’t need your help. Therefore, you need to leave me alone. Otherwise, it’s called stalking.” She turned around to face him to punctuate her words, in time to crash into his rock hard chest. “Damn it! Stop doing that!”

  “Doing what?”

  “Getting in my way!”

  “But you’re the one who stopped abruptly.”

  “I know, but you shouldn’t have been following me so closely.” She pushed against the firm wall of muscle he used as a stomach, inching him back some. “Shoo. I really don’t need your protection. I’m fine,” she said with another dismissive wave.

  “Shoo? I’m not some puppy dog.”

  She cocked an eyebrow, questioning his assertion.

  “Okay—but I’m not a dog—I’m a wolf.”

  “Uh-huh and I’m gone.”

  Afternoon waned. It would be evening soon and she still needed a place to crash. She pushed against him again, determined to get the unnervingly handsome pest to go in the other direction. Any other situation and she’d be pulling him in her direction. Instead, she was in the back alley of some buildings, trying to push what had to be the sexiest man she’d ever encountered, in a direction opposite hers.

  He didn’t budge. Instead, he stood there, rooted to the spot, with a beautiful, thick male eyebrow cocked up, examining her—again.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Huh?” Celia didn’t know why he insisted on ignoring her.

  “You heard me,” he said, pointing to himself. “I’m Owain Colfer, originally from Scotland. But my family moved here to be with relatives from our American pack when I was a child… and you are?”

  So that’s where the slightest hint of an accent came from?

  “Celia.”

  “Celia what?”

  “Uh-uh, you don’t need to know my full government name.”

  “What? But I told you mine.”

  She wasn’t about to give him her last name, childhood background, or anything else he might use to find her in the future. If this was another place and time, maybe, but now—uh-uh.

  Instead she said, “And that was fine. I’ve already forgotten it anyway. Just because you offer up information doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same.”

  “Why are you being like this?”

  “Like what?” she said, speeding up to get more space between them.

  “You know… mean. I’m trying to get to know you.”

  She could hear him keeping up with her, closer than ever.

  “And I’m trying to get you going… away from me.”

  The slightest look of hurt flittered across his handsome features, but she couldn’t let that deter her. They’d made it to the open street and she didn’t have time for a knock-down, dragged-out argument with him.

  Celia knew she was being a bit much, but the more he kept her out here in the open, the more chances those bitches had to locate her. Waving her hands before those intense eyes that had a gray-blue tint to them, close up, she knew she had to do whatever it took to completely piss him off. Then Celia would high-tail it out of here. This guy was stubborn and stuck on her like glue.

  She placed a hand on his broad shoulder again, intending to turn him in the other direction when a searing pain shot through her. The force of it was so powerful, she fought to keep from vomiting.

  It was too late. Somehow they must have locked onto her location. She’d b
een so very careful. How had they managed to find her again so fast?

  Strong hands caught her before she crumpled to the ground.

  “Don’t worry I’ve got you,” was the last thing she heard before darkness over took her.

  Chapter 3

  Celia stretched—languid and long—in the big, comfy, warm bed. Whiffs of something deliriously exciting enticed and thrilled her enough to roll onto her side for more investigation. With eyes still shut to keep what must be a beautiful dream going, Celia sniffed the pillow she had in a stranglehold. Essence of sandalwood and… spicy maleness seized her senses.

  Hot damn! Where was she? This must be a bit of sexy heaven.

  Even in the drowsiness of sleep, she smiled at her corniness. Scents of male presence continued to lull and soothe her, but the desire to investigate the source was too overwhelming to try to drift back into deep sleep. She had to get up and get going. In the meantime, she’d check to see if the dream was real.

  With half a plea, and a dash of a long shot of hope, Celia stretched out hands to roam the space next to her for signs of male warmth and muscles. She was alone. What she wasn’t ready for, was the pang of hurt that sucker punched her gut, when she discovered there was no one here with her.

  Alone isn’t lonely! She thought, giving herself one of her many pep talks to make it through this crazy odyssey that was her current life. It had been so long since she’d had sex of any kind that she ached for male contact—the kind that was infused with affection or even simple lust. This was probably some kindness of strangers, giving her the chance to get a good night’s sleep.

  Celia chanced opening her eyes to see warm tones of a modest bedroom, with a huge-ass bed smack dab in the middle of it. Said bed, had given her the best night of sleep she’d had in like… forever. Yes, as she thought, probably some boring couple who gave her their bed for the night.

  But how did I get into this bed?

  The thought still nagged and tugged at her consciousness. Concentrating on gathering her thoughts, Celia had to admit, the constant background tension of survival that normally plagued her was missing. She felt… safe.