"Absolutely not over dinner," Beatrix said, giving him a hard stare. "I don't have dinner with even semi-evil men. I'm not looking to date anyone, and I'm not about to break that rule for you."
Jacob laughed but was a little hurt by her rebuttal. "Coffee, then? I mean, I've got my little machine, but there must be somewhere around here that makes a decent flat white."
Beatrix huffed out a breath. "There is," she said. "But I'm not telling you where. That's the last thing I need, you settling in like you own the place."
"Well, I kind of do—"
"I know!" she snapped. "You don't have to remind me." She bent over and pushed the still delighted Prada off Gumbo. "Come on, you daft dog," she said. "We need to get back. Busy day."
"Oh right, you've got some kind of skin cream business, don't you?" Jacob said, trying to remember what Onyx had told him.
"Highly effective, naturally-sourced skincare," Beatrix corrected him. "Sold in over twenty countries. And just featured in Glamorous magazine."
"You're quite the entrepreneur then!" Jacob was impressed.
"Something like that," she said, tugging on Gumbo's lead. But he was still looking at Prada with longing. Beatrix might not like him, but her dog seemed to be just a little in love with his.
Jacob bent down and scooped up Prada from where she was chasing at Gumbo's still wagging tail. "Well, I guess I'll see you around," he said, offering her his most charming smile.
But Beatrix only grimaced. "Unfortunately."
✽✽✽
"You're back!" Ant said. "I was beginning to think you were going to live on that damn site.
"It's not that nice," Jacob laughed, releasing Prada and letting her run over to greet Ant. Ant was possibly the only other human that Prada approved of. She certainly hadn't felt much love for her previous owner. "I see you've been busy." Jacob indicated the clothing mannequins currently arranged in a row in what was supposed to be his formal sitting room, their limbs haphazard and blank eyes staring in all directions.
"Aren't they horrible?" Ant said, sounding delighted. "I got them from that commercial recycler. As soon as I saw them, I knew they had to be mine. I'm thinking of covering them in studs, or maybe rhinestones. Or both."
"And how long will they be here?" Jacob asked carefully. The house - a family property, of course - that he shared with Ant was huge. Jacob was used to Ant's artistic creations taking pride of place in every room, but these things? They were flat out creepy.
"Until someone buys them or I get sick of them," Ant said, shrugging. "Do they bother you that much?"
"They're not as bad as the doll heads," Jacob conceded, shuddering slightly.
"Oh, come on, that was amazing!" Ant said, grinning broadly. "That was one hell of a chandelier. Everyone loved it!"
"I'm sure they did," Jacob said, deadpan, grimacing at the memory of the enormous chandelier that Ant had constructed from hundreds of porcelain doll heads. That had been a bloody nightmare; it had almost been too big to get out of the house.
Ant laughed and shook his head. "I am grateful, you know," he said after a moment. "That you put up with all my art. And, er, overnight guests."
"I like having you here," Jacob said quickly. "You're doing me a favour, not letting me get too weird living alone."
"Oh, is that what I'm meant to be doing?" Ant laughed. "Shit, I think I'm seriously behind on that then."
Jacob chuckled, following Ant through to the kitchen. He really hoped there was some cold beer in the fridge. It was true; Jacob did like having Ant live with him. They had been best friends since they were teenagers at the same prestigious private school. When Ant's parents had cut him off after he came out, Jacob hadn't hesitated for a second when he asked Ant to move in with him.
Cracking open an IPA, Jacob leaned against the marble counter and let out a sigh.
"Big week?" Ant said, selecting a beer for himself.
"You could say that," he said. "I saw Beatrix again."
"That chick next door who wants you gone? The hot one?"
"Yeah," Jacob agreed with a grin. "The hot one. She actually dropped by, and it was kind of funny because she's got this big dog and Prada—"
"Wait, hold up," Ant stopped him. "She dropped by your office? Maybe she doesn't hate you after all. Or maybe she, like, hates you in a sexy way. You might be on your way to a hate bang!"
Jacob laughed, even as a highly erotic image went through his brain like a bolt of electricity. "It's not like that," he said. "I think she just wanted to see what I'm doing. Wanted to check I haven't started bulldozing everything just yet."
"Sure," Ant said, rolling his eyes. "Only possible explanation."
"Well, she was walking her dog, like I said," Jacob went on. "She's got this massive scary-looking dog, and he just rolled onto his back for Prada. Let her absolutely dominate him. Prada loved it; they had a great time."
"Prada actually played with another dog?" Ant raised his neatly plucked eyebrows. "Like, without biting them?"
"Yep," Jacob confirmed. "So that was a freaking miracle for a start. If Prada can make a friend, maybe there's hope for me yet."
"Jacob, mate, you could make a whole team of lady friends any time you wanted. Maybe just don't go after women, who, you know, hate you," Ant said.
"She doesn't hate me," he said firmly. "She just hates what I represent. She doesn't even know me."
"And you don't know her," Ant said. "I gotta check this chick out, see why some random has got you all up in a spin. What was her name?"
"Beatrix," Jacob said. "Beatrix LaGrange. Kind of a weird name."
"Says the guy with a dog named Prada," Ant muttered, flicking around on his phone.
"Hey, I didn't name her!" Jacob objected. "It was Ava who thought that was a good idea. And you know what she was like."
"You didn't try to change it, though, did you?" Ant pointed out. Then he turned his phone to Jacob. "This your girl?"
"She's not my girl," Jacob said, looking at the picture of Beatrix - smiling for once - on the phone screen. "But yeah, that's her."
"She's the founder of Just Like Magic!" Ant said excitedly. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"What, have you heard of it?" Jacob raised his eyebrows.
"Uh, the entire beauty and skincare community is crazy over her stuff. It's pretty hard to get. It sells out so fast. But holy crap, it works. I got one tube of Blemish Banish the night before Mardi Gras last year. Paid like three times retail, but it was so worth it."
"I didn't know it was such a big deal," Jacob said, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, we can't all be as naturally gorgeous as you," Ant teased. "Some of us have to work for our looks. And, you know, buy a load of skincare. But yeah, this Beatrix chick? She's big news. What's her place like? Big factory?"
"No," Jacob said. "It's just her, a skinny goth guy, and another woman at the workshop. But the garden is pretty impressive. She's got this huge greenhouse and—"
"What, she really does grow all the ingredients herself?" Ant said. "I thought that was just marketing spin. Amazing."
"She doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd lie," Jacob rubbed his fingers over his chin. "Not even for marketing spin."
"Pretty crazy that she's right next door, dude," Ant said. "You'd better charm the hell out of this chick. I want some free product!"
Jacob laughed, shaking his head. "Trust me, if I can charm her enough to get a favour, it's going to be to get her to go out with me, not to get you anti-wrinkle cream."
"Rude," Ant said, sticking his tongue out at him. "But I can't blame you. If I was into chicks, a feisty business babe redhead would be pretty damn appealing."
"Yeah," Jacob agreed. "Yeah, she really kind of is."
6 Beatrix
"This Jacob has some nerve!" Beatrix complained as she came into the workshop. "Would you believe he asked me to dinner?"
"Good morning to you too," Shauna said drily. "How was your evening?"
Beatrix scrunch
ed up her face. "Sorry," she said, and she really meant it. "How was your evening, Shauna?"
"Probably not as eventful as your morning," Shauna said, smiling to show she wasn't really offended. "Took the boys to soccer practice. Little buggers got absolutely filthy, and I just had the car cleaned. Gatorade and stinky boots all over my upholstery. Don't know why I bother."
"You love it, though."
"Of course I do," Shauna grinned. "Someone's got to keep those little terrors in line."
As much as Shauna complained about her twin sons' antics, Beatrix knew that Shauna loved her boys fiercely and wouldn't have traded the chaos of motherhood - even single motherhood - for anything in the world. Sometimes it made her a little wistful for her own childhood. Shauna was such a nice mum, she thought. So keen to support her boys' interests, let them explore their own little personalities. Her own mother, famous in the magical community for her wisdom and power, had been primarily concerned with ensuring Beatrix turned into a miniature version of herself. That had been a dismal failure.
"And did they go to bed on time?" Beatrix pressed. "Give you your Thursday evening off?"
"It was close, but we got there in the end," Shauna nodded. "It was bliss. Just me, a large glass of wine, a tray of sushi, and my shows."
"Sounds pretty good," Beatrix admitted. "You're really good at that whole self-care thing."
"I have to be," Shauna said. "No one else to care for me, is there?"
And while that sounded harsh, it was true as well. Shauna was a single mother and one of the most capable people Beatrix had ever encountered. She was strictly no-nonsense, supremely practical, and endlessly diligent. It was exactly what Just Like Magic needed as a contrast to Onyx's more erratic work style.
"Guess so," Beatrix said. "Did we get all of those packages for Europe out yesterday?"
"We did," Shauna said. "So, what's this about Jacob asking you to dinner?"
"Jacob asked you to dinner?" Onyx repeated as he came through the double doors, a bucket of white rose petals in each hand. "When are you going?"
"I'm not going!" Beatrix said incredulously. "Do you honestly think I'd say yes?"
"It's not like he's actually evil, Bea," Onyx shrugged. "I thought you were past that. It's not like he changed the zoning on that site personally, did he?"
"That's not the point," Beatrix objected. "Anyone who wants to be a developer clearly isn't someone to be trusted."
"Rather a broad statement, isn't that?" Shauna said. "Are you sure you don't want to give him a chance? He seems like a very nice young man. Very...firm."
"Are you seriously thirsty for this guy?" Beatrix turned on Shauna. "He's going to bulldoze our bush! Who cares how firm he is?"
"But you've noticed," Onyx cut in, clearly delighted to have a chance to tease her. "The way his arms fill out those neat shirts of his."
"Sounds like you've noticed," Beatrix shot back.
"Merely an aesthetic appreciation," Onyx was unabashed.
"Well why don't you aesthetically appreciate dinner with him, then?" Beatrix rolled her eyes.
"That's enough," Shauna said, holding up her hands in a T like Beatrix and Onyx were her sons requiring a time out. "Don't we have a lot to get through today?"
"We do," Beatrix sighed. "I'll go and get my wand. I've got a whole lot of energies to invoke."
✽✽✽
"I wish I could banish him," Beatrix said, stepping back from the steaming cauldron. She wiped her forehead and stuck her wand in her back pocket. She'd have to remember not to sit on it again. It was painful to have something pointy and sterling silver attack your butt cheeks.
"Are you still thinking about Jacob?" Onyx asked, looking longingly at the wand. Beatrix knew he'd dearly love to borrow it and try a few invocations of his own. But she couldn't let that happen. He'd probably blow up the entire workshop if he tried something as simple as charming the essence out of a sunflower seed. "You should give him a chance to explain what he's got in mind, you know. He might not be planning to bulldoze everything. That's just something you've made up."
"It's what developers do," Beatrix insisted. "And I am not," she went on, "thinking about Jacob. I'm thinking about the fact that someone is about to destroy my home. I don't want to live next door to an industrial precinct!"
"I get that," Onyx said. "But you're imagining Chernobyl, and you don't even know what he wants to do. He told me he wanted to keep as much bushland as he could as part of the precinct. Something about environmental regulator credits."
"And you believed him? You can't trust these people!"
"You don't know him," Onyx said. "I thought he was perfectly pleasant."
"I bet you did," Beatrix said scornfully. "I just want him gone. If I didn't have that stupid rule..." she muttered.
"Even if you didn't, you still wouldn't banish him," Onyx said. "You'd never really do anything to an Ordinary, rule or no rule."
"Probably not," Beatrix admitted.
"I just think you should give him a chance," Onyx said as he stirred the steaming cauldron in precise clockwise strokes under Beatrix's watchful eye. There was no harm, she thought, in making him feel included in the ritual process, so long as she kept him away from the actual magic. "He's going to be next to us for a while, Bea."
"I don't want to talk about it," Beatrix said, knowing she was being petulant.
"You should probably stop thinking about him so much then."
"Oi!" Beatrix said, but she couldn't help laughing. "Try to remember I'm your boss. Shouldn't I get a bit more respect?"
"Sure," Onyx said mildly. "Just keep stirring and agree with everything you say, boss?"
"Sounds good to me."
✽✽✽
As Beatrix supervised the decanting of her bespoke serums, signed invoices, posed and smiled next to their lavender crop (as directed by Onyx for their official social media account), and heaped compost onto a newly turned patch of soil, she thought about her encounter with Jacob.
Was Jacob definitely, absolutely pure evil? She knew that technically speaking, he wasn't. She didn't have Wade's talent for seeing auras, but she'd be able to tell if someone was flat out horrible.
He was, she knew, probably just a normal guy. An average, everyday, regular guy who happened to be in charge of destroying the tranquil bushland surrounding her home. But surely someone who'd want to do a job like that had to be at least a little bit evil. It stood to reason, didn't it? But he had said he didn't want to destroy everything. Could she believe him? Should she hear him out over his plans for the site?
Definitely not over dinner, she thought firmly. Jacob was good-looking - she wasn't blind - but he clearly knew it. Just who the hell did he think he was, anyway? She wasn't looking for a relationship with anyone, and certainly not with someone like him, handsome or not.
But she couldn't get rid of him. Morals prevented her from any magical methods, and it seemed like even the most committed of community protests could only delay the development of Shepherd's Crossing. Her heart had sunk as she had looked through the shiny government website proclaiming that Shepherd's Crossing was about to become a hub of new commercial and industrial development in outer Sydney. And as much as she knew her neighbours loved that bushland, she also knew that they'd be very tempted by the increase in their property values. She couldn't even blame them for that.
"I guess he's here to stay," Beatrix muttered as she leafed through the pile of invoices Onyx had left on the desk for her to approve.
"What was that?" Onyx said, looking up from where he was bent over the computer, probably doing something to keep their database happy. Onyx might be the opposite of talented at magic, but he was brilliant when it came to business. Practically a savant in balancing spreadsheets, updating customer data, and running market segmentation analyses. Beatrix had told him, again and again, that he should finish his business degree and get paid mega bucks by some consulting firm. But he had always refused. After all, Onyx said, most companies
wouldn't allow him to express his aesthetic and fashion sensibilities in the workplace the way she did.
"I think I'm going to go and talk to Jacob," Beatrix said, more loudly. "If he's going to be here, I should at least find out what he thinks he's going to do."
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Onyx said nonchalantly, as though he hadn't been wheedling her to do just that all day.
"But I'm not going to dinner with him," Beatrix said severely. "Don't get any ideas, okay?"
"I am getting zero ideas," Onyx rolled his eyes. "No ideas, no initiatives, no independent thoughts. Just work, just following your orders. That about right, boss?"
"You know what I mean," Beatrix sighed. She set down her pen and was about to go through the double doors when she stopped. Making sure Onyx wasn't watching, Beatrix pulled out her compact mirror and examined her reflection critically. It wasn't like it mattered what Jacob thought of how she looked, she told herself severely. She was just making sure that she wasn't about to approach a potential enemy with smears of dirt all over her face.
Just the same, she combed out her hair and gave her long lashes an extra coat of waterproof mascara before she left.
✽✽✽
"Jacob?" she called, knocking on the side of the site office. "Are you in there?"
She could see his car parked outside and could hear the excited barking of that ridiculous small dog of his. He must be in there.
The door opened, and Jacob was there. Today he was wearing a green pinstriped shirt with his neat beige trousers, and Beatrix noticed he had finally had the good sense to switch from those delicate-looking leather lace-ups to a decent pair of work boots.
"Beatrix!" he said. "What a pleasant surprise. Or have you come to threaten me with the power of voodoo?"
"I don't do voodoo," Beatrix wrinkled her nose. "I've never even been to Haiti. That's ridiculous."
Jacob raised his eyebrows. "What can I do for you?" he said. "Have you come to accept my dinner invitation? My charms are very hard to resist, after all."
Witch Way Now: A Paranormal Romantic Comedy (Raising Hell Downunder Book 4) Page 5