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

by Mychal Daniels

  Mandy put a well-manicured hand against her chest. If there were pearls, Celia was sure she’d be clutching them.

  “Owe me? Well, of course nothing. You dear, sweet thing, that is such a lovely offer, but I just want to make sure you’re safe. Here…” the woman said, looking down into her expensive purse for something. Celia watched as she took out a monogramed pad and wrote down a quick note. Tearing it off, she passed it through the window to Celia. “Here, take this and… this.” Another quick rummage through her wallet and she pulled out some crisp twenty dollar bills.

  Celia was too stunned to come back with anything quick. She continued to stoop over into the passenger side window of the woman’s car, trying hard to gather her emotions and offer the money back. The woman would have none of it. The heavy stock of the notepaper in her hand coupled with at least a hundred dollars was too much. She might cry, for all the kindness she’d been shown in this little town. And here she was starting to get an attitude with the woman. All she’d been trying to do was help her.

  Celia didn’t like how hard and untrusting she’d become over the last few months of being on the road. This was an example of how much her discernment must be off. She hadn’t liked this woman for anything more than Mandy’s need to help. A right bitch she’d been. She felt shame for her paranoia. Tears grew plump, hovering on her waterline, as she opened the note to read.

  Celia looked down through moist eyes to see Mandy’s dainty, feminine handwriting. Maybe it was the tears that threatened to spill, but the words stood out more than usual as she began to read what it said. They almost looked like they moved and swirled on the page. Celia had to blink a few times to clear the crazy vision from her mind. Yes, as soon as she could put some distance between herself and here, she’d find a place to crash and rest for a day or two. Now her eyes were playing tricks on her.

  The note read: You will call me if you need ANYTHING. This is my number, use it.

  Mandy continued to smile at her as she pointed a slim fingernail in the direction of the note. Read that back to me… please. I mean what I say on there.”

  Celia hesitated. She was too choked up with emotion to do anything but, nod.

  Finally, when she got some composure back, she managed to squeak out, “I read it. Thank you again. I mean it. You are too kind.” She pushed back from the car and turned toward her own.

  Mandy looked a little disappointed, but managed to hide it quickly. She shouted through the still open passenger seat window of her own car after Celia, with what sounded like a hint of disappointment that Celia was leaving. “I meant every word on there. You call me if you need anything or get into any trouble. I’m here for you.” Mandy wiggled a finger toward Celia’s car and added, “I don’t know about that car. I hope it’s as reliable as you say. Please at least send me a text message to let me know when you get there. And don’t hesitate to let me know if you should have any car troubles along the way.”

  Awe, Mandy was so sweet.

  She actually cared about what happened to her. This had been so rare of late, Celia didn’t know how to handle the intensity of emotions swirling within. Instead of showing her clumsiness in receiving kindness, she chose to remain silent and offer up the warmest smile she could muster.

  Celia could only manage a wave goodbye; as the weight of the good fortune she’d run into weighed on her. She watched Mandy drive off, still waving a hand so she could see her. When the other woman was gone, she rummaged through her belongings on the back seat to find the burner phone she’d gotten right before coming here. She’d use a fake account to look up directions for a town just south of here where it was rumored she could hide out.

  Celia needed anonymity more than ever. Between the wolf-shifter giving up his bed and making breakfast for her and now this lady giving her a ride, money and even offering to let her stay with her; Celia wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep off the radar if she stayed here. Her presence might bring more harm than good to this town. From what she could tell, in another lifetime, this would be a great place to settle down in and raise a family.

  The idea of having a family of her own tried once again to take root and implant itself in her heart, before she had the good sense to brush it aside. What she couldn’t brush aside was the lingering thought of what might have been with that gorgeous wolf, if she’d stayed.

  Chapter 6

  “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  Her palms, aggravated by extreme frustration and weariness, slammed against the padded middle of the steering wheel. She wasn’t a good mile outside of Blue Creek. She’d made it onto the highway leaving town when her precious, until now, very reliable car started coughing up smoke, sputtering and wobbling. When she’d finally wrestled it to the shoulder of the road, Celia got out to discover that not only was there a profoundly flat back tire, but she also had what must be an overheated engine.

  “Holly, Holly… I just gassed you up and this is how you repay me?” she said to the car. “You never give me a moment’s trouble. Where you saving up, to give me a heart attack with all the shit you’ve got going on here?”

  Celia was beside herself. She was fussing at her car—her Holly. The only saving grace she had was that it was in between seasons and the weather was mild. Else, she’d be sitting here, roasting in a hot car. It just didn’t make any sense. She’d had everything checked and serviced before she’d left. Holly had new belts, radiator and all the other gobbly-wompas parts a car needed to drive. One of her uncles had seen to it, before she hit the road. Thinking of her uncle, she allowed a rare break to think about her parents and relatives, she’d left back in Chicago.

  Hot tears welled up, spilling down her cheeks as she remembered how loved and cherished she’d been. Content to live at home forever, Celia never thought her mouth would ever write a check her ass couldn’t cash. That was until her run in with Deidra Amos and her “coven” as the crazy bitch liked to call her personal pack of psychotic, ass wipe, bitches. There was no way she could ever allow them to come around talking trash about her family—especially her mom and aunts. That right there, was justified in her mind, to do what she’d done.

  Refusing to replay the already traumatic course of events that had brought her to this very spot, Celia allowed herself this one opportunity to cry like she wanted to, so many times before. She was alone for the first time, away from her loving family—and it was all her fault. Her mind told her it was the right thing to do, to save them from the craziness of her actions. So, she had to buck up and be a woman.

  The wail of pain that oozed out of her said it all. She wanted a redo. If she could take it all back, she would. Pain and regret now drove her. If she could, Celia would go back to the way things had been before she’d publicly humiliated one of the most powerful business women in the Midwest. She sat here in a broke down car wondering if Deidra had anything to do with it.

  “Some might call this poetic justice, I just call it karma,” said the deep, achingly familiar male voice.

  “Oh God no, please don’t let it be,” she prayed, refusing to lift her head in the direction of the voice coming through the passenger side window of Holly. “Not you again. Why can’t you take a hint? I want to be left alone.”

  “Looks like you just missed your goal by this much.”

  Celia looked up in time to see his forefinger and thumb measuring a little space between them. Instinct wanted to match his gesture with an obscener one, but she did have her home training to consider. Instead she decided to remain silent.

  She saw the softening of his expression upon seeing her most likely puffy face from all the crying she’d done. It didn’t matter. He kept on, “I’d say being left alone should involve leaving the city limits before your car conks out, wouldn’t you? And let’s not mention how rude it was for you to leave my home the way you did this morning.”

  She couldn’t take it. He was working on that last dried up nerve she’d preserved for use in emergencies. “Why are you here?”<
br />
  “I’m here because I would stop if anyone with car trouble was on the side of the road.”

  “Who says I need your help?”

  “Darling, that would be your car. She’s smoking like a grease fire and that flat tire is shredded. I’d say either you’re waiting on Triple A, or you need help.”

  Oh yeah, she could use the Triple A excuse. Hadn’t remembered that one. She couldn’t think straight when he was around and she needed a clear head. Something didn’t feel right about the way her car had broken down.

  “You guessed it. I’m waiting on Triple A.”

  “Good, I’m here then.”

  “What? But you’re not the Triple A guy.”

  “Who says I’m not?”

  She stole a quick glance backward to see a white work truck, that was clearly NOT from Triple A.

  “Your truck says you’re not from Triple A, that’s who.” Two could play the “your car” card.

  “Here you go, darling,” he said pulling out an official-looking plastic card that said he was a representative contractor for Triple A. “Town is too small to warrant a fancy company car full time.”

  “Great. This is fantastic. You’re the Triple A Guy too.”

  “That I am. So how about we get you fixed up here,” he said, starting to walk to the back of her trunk. “Pop the trunk so I can get the spare tire out.”

  “Please and thank you.”

  “Huh?”

  “I said, you need to say please and thank you,” Celia said, noticing how he’d managed to capture her gaze with his through the back window.

  With a slow deliberateness that spoke of pure, primal power, he said, “I’m going to remember that when it’s your turn. I’m going to make you beg for it.”

  Shivers of uncomfortable attraction to him, raced through her. He spoke promises that bypassed her mind and went straight to deeper layers of her, layers she didn’t quite know how to access herself.

  Using all her mental capacity to break this spell he held over her, she turned her head back around to look directly in front of her. Celia would remain quiet and get this over with as fast as possible.

  “Celia, Celia darling… could you come back here for a minute?”

  “What now?” she said, complaining under her breath.

  When she’d reached the trunk where he stood, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The new tire from the junk yard, her uncle had put in as a spare was… shredded too.

  “That, that can’t be.” She couldn’t believe it. “I saw him put in an almost new tire he got from the junk yard before I left.”

  “Who did? Think for me darling. Has anyone had access to your car? Did you leave it out somewhere, unattended?”

  Before he could finish the question, her mind locked on the fact that she’d left her baby out in the open overnight for the last few days at that grocery store. The car was old and anyone with knowledge and a crowbar might be able to pop the lock and change tires.

  Feeling stupid in clear hindsight, she had to fess up. “Yes, I left the car in the parking lot of the grocery store in town.”

  “And that’s the only place you’ve left the car recently?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Because that’s usually the safest place you could leave your car. All the seniors leave their cars there when they go on those gambling trips on the bus. It’s also used for car washes and to showcase and sell cars by the towns folk. We’ve never had a problem with car theft there.”

  “Well it looks like there’s a first for everything.”

  “I guess,” he said, scratching the start of a five o’clock shadow. It was just below the skin, but as dark as the jet black hair on his head.

  Beautiful.

  Shaking her head to come back to earth from her personal planet Deliria, Celia had to figure out what to do next.

  “What about the engine? Is there anything you can do to see if it will get me to a garage?”

  “Yep, I’m waiting for it to cool down before I tackle that one.” He looked at her with those damn seductive eyes again and said, “I’m still not done with what happened to this tire. This isn’t normal. How did your tire end up shredded like this—hell, both of them? That makes no sense.”

  Celia fought back the instinct to think magic might be involved. She didn’t believe it was real, but how could she explain what had happened to poor Holly’s tires?

  Chapter 7

  Holly’s poor engine was toast.

  “I don’t understand why I have to come back to your place. I can get a hotel room in town.”

  “And like I keep saying to you, the one place we do have in town is overflowing with out of town shifters, due to the Scenting Ceremony. Many of the shifters are staying on more days to do some courting and spending time with their new mates. Your car just happened to pick the busiest season for our town, to die on you.”

  “She’s not dead.”

  “But she isn’t running right now, now is she?”

  “Look who’s being mean now,” she said, attempting to send him a stare of daggers.

  It didn’t work because he kept on talking.

  “I apologize for that. It seems you have a fondness for your car. I can tell she has a lot of… character.”

  “Damn right she does. I learned to drive on her and she’s been in the family forever.”

  “It looks like it.”

  “Watch it wolf.”

  “Watch what? I was the one who found you stranded alongside the highway, not the other way around. Your precious Holly seems to have met her end.”

  “Don’t say that. She’ll be fine. She has to. That’s my only transportation… and I have to keep moving.” The last part was said under her breath. If the wolf’s keen hearing picked up on it, he didn’t let on.

  They drove in silence for a little while, pulling up to the house, she’d fled earlier in the day.

  “It’s like Groundhog day, only this time, you’re conscious,” he said.

  “Not funny. Both times I didn’t come under good circumstances.”

  The smile he’d been wearing slipped, to be replaced with a more serious expression. “Celia, if this is going to be uncomfortable for you, I can check with my aunt to see if anyone else is able to spare a bed for the evening.”

  No sooner than he said that, then the lady’s offer from earlier popped into her mind.

  “Oh that reminds me, I can contact this lady I got a ride from earlier today. She offered me her spare room.”

  “Just like that? Do you know her?” He cocked a thick eyebrow at her, as if questioning her ability to attract the niceness of others, or worse, her judgment.

  “Do I know you?” It came out with more attitude than she wanted, but he’d pissed her off. She decided to play nicer. “The only difference is she’s a female and I don’t think she’s into me in any sort of romantic way.” She had to clean that one up fast, “Oh, not saying that you are, but she was kind to offer. It was like she knew something might go wrong.”

  “Who’s to say I’m not.”

  “Not what?”

  “Come on, Celia, keep up with your own conversation. You said I wasn’t into you in a romantic way and I said, who’s to say I’m not.” His deep voice was rich like coffee and comforted her like one of those super plush and soft throws.

  “Oh.” That embarrassing heat of arousal was back, tickling her sex and making her want to squirm in her seat. He must be doing this on purpose. “I didn’t want to put you out of your bed again.”

  Before she could form anything else coherent, he asked, “Who’s the lady that offered up her spare bedroom? And don’t worry about that bed. I’m fine. Your comfort and safety is the top most importance to me right now. Come on Celia, what’s her name?”

  Thankful he changed an uncomfortable subject for her, Celia kicked herself internally for being absolutely rude, nervous and awkward. She didn’t want or mean to be so weird about it. Celia had never encountered someone as sexual
ly attuned to her before. Hell, everything he did, made her mind and body want to react, probably even rejoice. Without a doubt, she knew he made her relax more than anyone else had in a long time. Not to mention, sex between them would be the best she’d ever had. Everything about him said so. He was the stuff of all her fantasies, plus more. He had a personality, wit, charm, and if she had to be honest, character.

  “Celia, where’d you go just then?”

  “Huh?”

  “I asked the name of the person who offered you a room and you blanked out on me. Are you all right? Your face looks a little flushed. I can see if we can stop by the Urgent Care office on the service road, if you aren’t feeling well.”

  “No, I’m fine, promise. Was just trying to think about her name is all.” She lied.

  Then remembering the note and money the lady had given her, she opened her backpack to retrieve it. Before she could open the note completely, he saw it and snatched all of the contents out of her hands and held it outside of the truck’s window.

  “Where’d you get this?”

  “I don’t like your tone and now who’s being rude. You snatched my belongings out of my hand.”

  He took a few breaths, still not returning the note or money as he said, “I apologize. It’s just those initials… please Celia, tell me who gave you this?” He motioned to the note without bringing it back into the cab of the truck.

  “That’s why I need to see the note. I can’t remember her name. I’m sort of bad with them. Come to think of it, I can’t remember yours either.”

  He stared at her in disbelief and then finally offered. “For the second time, my name is Owain Colfer.” He looked at her in amazement. “I guess you weren’t lying when you said you’d already forgotten my name last night.”

  “Yes,” she said, admitting it and staving off a bit of embarrassment, at the confession. She jumped back into her normal defense mechanism, deflection. “Look—I promise to remember your name for here on. And yes, I’m feeling fine.” She eyed the money more than the note, watching precious bits of hope dangle out that door. She’d need every piece of money should could scrape up to repair Holly. A settling breath flooded her with enough composure to try to persuade him to give back the money. She turned to him in the cab of the truck and said as nicely as she could, “Owain, would you please give me back that note and money or least the money? I’m starting to think this is more of a robbery or shakedown, than an offer to have a sleep over.”