Sinfully Spellbound

by Cassandra Lawson

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dylan

  “Will you have lunch with me tomorrow?” I asked, feeling, of all things, nervous asking her out. “I mean, since you ran out on me when I wanted to take you to lunch, you kind of owe me.”

  “Yes,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.

  I finally relaxed some, and I figured since she was being so agreeable, I might as well try for more. “Maybe I could stick around until the end of your shift so we can have a late dinner. We both have to eat, right?”

  This time, she hesitated longer, and I decided to back off before she ran scared again. “I’m pushing my luck, right?” I asked.

  Her cheeks flushed, and damn if she wasn’t adorable when she was embarrassed. “If you hang around here, I’ll probably have trouble focusing. I’ll get your number from Trevor later and call you tomorrow to talk about lunch,” she promised.

  “I could just give you my number now,” I offered, suddenly worried that I’d read things wrong. Was she just saying whatever it took to get rid of me?

  She shook her head. “My phone is in the employee break room,” she explained before gesturing to her attire, and I knew firsthand she didn’t have a phone under there.

  I almost laughed at the image of her trying to stash her phone on her person. “Get my number from Trevor as soon as you leave and call when you get home,” I said. When she looked like she was going to argue, I decided to explain myself better. “I’m a little worried about you walking around alone at night. Please, just call me when you get home so I don’t spend the night worrying about you.”

  She nodded, and I gave her a quick kiss. “You know, I don’t have to go just yet. I’ve got this room for three hours.”

  “I think it might be nice if I could walk for the rest of my shift,” she said

  “We could just talk,” I suggested.

  “In this room?” she asked doubtfully.

  “Right,” I agreed. “Proximity to a bed seems to make it hard for us to talk.”

  “Yes, it does seem to make things hard for you,” she said with a playful smile. “I suppose that wouldn’t be such a problem if my brain didn’t turn to mush when you’re having a hard time.”

  I laughed at her ridiculous pun, relieved that she was joking around like this.

  “All right, we’ll talk later,” I reluctantly agreed.

  “You go out first. I’ll need to clean up the room,” she said, and I kissed her one last time.

  “I’ll talk to you later,” I said before forcing myself to leave. My mood was pretty damn good when I left Allie. While we hadn’t solved all our problems, she’d agreed to stop avoiding me, and we were having lunch tomorrow. That counted as a date. I waited for panic to hit, but it didn’t come. Huh. This was definitely new territory for me.

  “I take it by the smile on your face that my girl took good care of you.”

  That asshole, Marcos, turned my mood sour immediately with his sleazy smirk and his assumption that Allie was some kind of whore.

  “What exactly are you implying about Allie?” I asked in a deadly tone as my power grew, ready to strike out. The palms of my hands heated with my rage. My family was powerful for reasons other than money. Yes, we were wealthy, but we were also feared among the preternatural community for our control over certain elements—fire being the most powerful.

  Marcos either had no clue who I was, or he was too stupid to be afraid. “You paid me to have Allie all to yourself in a playroom, and you paid extra to have the security cameras turned off. Now, you want to get an attitude with me for thinking you bought her pussy for three hours? Funny thing is that you haven’t used your three hours. Just so you know, I don’t offer refunds.”

  That’s when I realized my biggest mistake of the evening. While I’d been able to convince Allie I didn’t think she was a whore, how was I going to do that with the others working at SpellBinders? I needed to make sure Marcos understood the danger of fucking with Allie. Allowing my power to surface just a little, I held the ball of fire in my palm, staring down at it before looking at Marcos.

  “Why don’t we have a little talk about my girl?” I said.

  “Your girl?” Marcos asked, obviously confused.

  “My girl,” I repeated. “Perhaps we should talk in your office.”

  Looking around, Marcos was obviously trying to decide how to handle the situation while still saving face in front of the people in the club. It was all about image with this asshole, something made obvious by his fancy silk shirt with the cufflinks that had intricate spells woven into them. That spell was designed to increase the lust of those around him, but the witch who’d made it had woven in protection for other witches. I had to wonder if Marcos knew about that, or if he’d been tricked.

  We walked into Marcos’ office, which was small and cluttered. I got the impression this wasn’t really his office, but I didn’t give a fuck. He could take me to the broom closet for all I cared. “So, what did you want to talk about?” Marcos asked. His eyes drifting briefly to the flame I was still holding. That was the only sign he gave of his unease at being alone with me.

  “I paid for that time with Allie to cement things between us. I want her, and I don’t want to share her with anyone.” Keeping a straight face was hard, as I suddenly found myself picturing how Allie would react if she were in the room. This macho posturing would not go over well with her.

  Leaning against the desk, Marcos crossed his arms in front of his chest. “That’s all very nice, but Al works for me. I have a business to run, and I’m not about to pay one of my employees to sit around twiddling her thumbs because some warlock doesn’t like to share. Since I didn’t hear Al resign, I’m assuming she’s still my girl while she’s at my club.”

  “She will never be your girl,” I ground out. “I’ve got no problem with Allie doing her job,” I said. “My issue is with you trying to pressure her into doing things that are outside of her job description.”

  “Let me get this straight. You come into my club and want to tell me how to run my business,” Marcos sneered with barely suppressed rage. “Is that what you’re trying to do, warlock?”

  The flame in my hand grew, reflecting my temper. “Perhaps I’m not making this clear enough,” I said, advancing on Marcos and enjoying the way he moved to put the desk between us. “I’m trying to be nice about all of this, but if you treat Allie like a whore again, I will destroy you.”

  I watched Marcos’ throat work as he swallowed hard, and I knew damn well he wanted to tell me to go fuck myself. Scratch that. What he really wanted to do was make Allie’s life hell because I’d threatened him. Marcos might be an asshole, but he seemed like a smart asshole, so he knew I’d follow through on my promise to destroy him.

  “You won’t have a fucking club if you treat Allie like a prostitute again,” I said. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t set you on fire and watch you burn.”

  That was an exaggeration, because having accidentally set a classmate on fire once, I knew how bad burning flesh smelled, and it was something I wanted to avoid. Marcos wouldn’t know that. He’d assume I was just as heartless as he was.

  “Fine,” Marcos snapped. “Get the fuck out of my office and my club. I don’t want to see you in here again.”

  “Unless I’m going to pay you for the time?” I asked.

  Marcos’ sleazy smirk reappeared, and I could see he was already back in slimy schemer mode. “What kind of businessman would I be if I turned down your money?”

  My hand closed around the flame, extinguishing it. I didn’t say another word, just walked out of his office and out of SpellBinders. As the cool night air hit my face, I had a moment of panic. I’d never done anything like this before. Not the threat—that I’d done, but never to protect a woman I was interested in.

  What the hell had I gotten myself into? One thing I knew for sure; it was too late to turn back now.