by E. M. Moore
“Follow your heart, Girl. As ever.”
Hands shook me. “Hey. Hey, Norah. You okay?”
I blinked my eyes open and then shot up, nearly knocking my head on something. No, not something, someone. “The fuck?”
A male voice chuckled. “I’m happy to see you again, too.”
I waited until the room stopped spinning. Slowly but surely a face came into view. He wore a green polo shirt and a nice smile. His blond hair flopped over his head, making him look like the All-American, except he wasn’t. It was Gabe, and his accent was still panty-melting British. I groaned at the pain behind my eyes. “What’s going on?”
With two hands under my arms, he helped me sit. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to tell me that, Love. Liam and I have been calling your cell phone, but nothing. He told me where you were staying and you didn’t answer the door so I came in.”
“You just came in?” I asked, disbelieving. For verification, I looked up at the unassuming closed door and then back to Gabe. “Why would you just come into some girl’s hotel room?”
His smile turned sheepish. “I hardly think you’re just some girl. Besides, I was worried.”
I searched his gentle, handsome features for a lie in there somewhere, but saw nothing. Oddly enough, I believed he was genuinely worried. I tried to pick myself up off the floor, but the room spun in front of my eyes again.
“Hey there,” he said, standing up and reaching down for me. “Let me help.”
I took his offered hand and closed my eyes as he hoisted me up. Since I had no sense of what direction I headed, I landed right into his arms, pressed up against his chest. My breath caught as a fresh scent enveloped me. Not like I’d gotten a whiff of the guys’ laundry detergent, more like I’d taken a deep breath of eau de Gabe and loved it.
He reached up to catch me, his chest rumbling against mine. “Are you smelling me?”
I pulled away. “No. ‘Course not.” Yeah, I totally was, and he knew it, too.
I took a tentative step toward the bed and Gabe was right there, his hand at the small of my back. His touch brimmed with heat, spilling over into my sore muscles. All of a sudden, I felt as if I’d been hit by a ton of bricks.
My toe hit something hard, and I cursed. As the room came into view more clearly, I saw shit all over the floor. The cheap ass alarm that sat on the bedside table was what I’d just stepped on. The lamp that was next to the bed was on end and what very few clothes I’d brought with me from New Orleans were all over the bed. “What the hell?”
“Yeah…” Gabe said, drawing out the word. “About that. Any idea what happened here?”
He helped me into the bed in a sitting down position, my back against the wall. “No. The last thing I remember, I—” I stopped short. For some reason, I didn’t want to tell him I’d planned on skipping town. Not when his concerned eyes were boring into me. “I just… I don’t know. I guess I don’t remember anything at all after I got back from the cafe.”
He pushed a piece of hair behind my ear and then leaned on the bed. In the next instant, he straightened, bringing one of my red lacey bras off the bed with him pinched between two fingers. His eyebrows rose and a definite fire sparked in his eyes.
I tore it away from him and threw it in the small space between the bed and the wall.
Without skipping a beat, he said, “I’m sorry you had to go through that earlier. We all feel terrible.”
“Travis?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. He didn’t feel terrible.
“Well, actually, no. Not him.” He chuckled a little, and I wondered why any of them put up with their friend. “Liam’s worried.”
“I can take care of myself.”
This brought a smile to his face. “Of course you can.” His blue eyes latched onto mine, and my heart rate kicked up speed. He leaned in closer and the more he did so, the more my body relaxed as if it was trying to work out the kinks itself.
“Did you, um, get any information out of the two guys who attacked Liam and me?”
He sighed. “Not a thing. They were just decoys. Non-magical, like you guys thought, but worse than that, they’d been spelled to attack you and Liam and had no idea who spelled them.”
“Shit.” I took in a deep breath. Who spelled them would’ve been good information to have considering something else had just happened to me. The two events had to have been related. It’s not like my place in New Orleans ever got torn up. “That sucks.”
“You’re telling me.” He lifted an eyebrow. “The guys will want to know what happened here, too.”
His hand came to rest on my thigh. After feeling the pressure, I looked down. Normally, I wouldn’t let guys I just met touch me, but there was something different with this set. Well, at least with Randy and Gabe.
What was wrong with me? Sensing my discomfort, he tried to move his hand, but I quickly put mine on top of his. “Don’t,” I told him.
Thankfully, he didn’t react to my telling him not to stop touching me. I didn’t want to have to explain myself. What could I say? I feel better when your hands are on me? Pathetic, and cheesy, all rolled into one. Instead, he switched positions on the bed so his back was against the wall. He then put an arm around me and moved my head to his chest. My arms wound around him like they had a mind of their own. Once we were situated on the bed like that, I was instantly at ease. My headache had subsided. The room around us was in complete shambles, but I really didn’t care at the moment. My body was happy. My magic was happy.
Gabe bent over and kissed the top of my head. He pulled back right away. “Oh, ow.”
I lifted my head and watched as Gabe pulled his finger away from his lips. A trace of red stained his fingertips. Blood. “What the matter?”
He bent my head back down and searched my hair. “Something sharp,” he said. He continued his perusal until he picked out something and moved it to my line of sight. “You want to tell me why there’s glass in your hair?”
My hands immediately went up to my head, but he batted them away. “Oh, right,” I mumbled, feeling stupid for going for my hair when Gabe had just gotten cut. “A big picture window exploded over Liam and I earlier. I should probably get in the shower.”
I went to move, but Gabe put a hand on my shoulder. “You sure you’re up for it? I’d hate to have to run into the shower to save you from fainting.”
His lips curled around his words and I just shook my head at him. “I should be fine. But you might want to stay just in case.”
I was half flirting, half needing him to stay. What if whoever came in here earlier and knocked me out came back? Plus, like Granny said, it just felt right being next to him.
Gawd, girl problems.
I hurried into the small, crowded bathroom and shut the door behind me. After taking a lot of time to shower, half getting the glass out of my hair and half trying to talk myself into getting back out there with Gabe, I finally stepped out. The steam had fogged up the bathroom mirror, so I wiped at it with one of the extra washcloths. I dried off as best as I could and wrapped a towel around me. Right about the time I started looking for something to put on was when I realized I hadn’t brought any clothes in with me. Well, this was going to be awkward.
“Um, Gabe?”
“Yeah?”
“Just checking that you were still here.”
“Why would I be anywhere else, Love?”
I placed my forehead on the door and giggled before sealing my lips shut again. “Well, we have a slight problem.”
I heard a thump, and then several more before the door to the bathroom whisked open. Cold air pricked my arms as Gabe stood in front of me like a Gladiator. His gaze searched the surrounding room, his shoulders relaxing only minutely before his stare returned to me. Then, his chest stilled. His eyes worked their way from my face down to my neck, bare shoulders, and then lower. My skin burned everywhere his eyes touched.
I shifted where I stood under his intense scrutiny. “I meant that I
didn’t have any clothes to put on in here.”
“Oh. Right.” His face flamed as he tried to look away.
“Thank you for taking the awkwardness out of the situation though,” I offered, biting down on a smile.
“Yup, that’s me,” Gabe said, his tone amused. “Taking the awkwardness out of everything is kind of my thing.”
Why did I feel like that was probably the truth? Besides Liam, he seemed the most chill out of all the guys I was drawn to. He even had a leg up on Liam because Liam was awkwardness in and of himself. Gabe had a sexy confidence, pretty much the epitome of the jock type. “You must be a good soccer player,” I said, pulling my towel around me tighter.
He trained his eyes on me. “Why do you say that?”
I lifted a shoulder. “You just seem the type.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”
I brushed past him, my right shoulder blazing with heat as it touched him. “I don’t know either,” I told him honestly. Trying to ignore him, I searched my room for something to put on. Everything was strewn all over.
Gabe cleared his throat. When I looked back, he had the same bra I took away from him earlier hanging off a finger. Padding toward him, I took it gingerly off his finger while still trying to keep some of my dignity intact. “Thank you.”
I bent down to pick up a pair of underwear sticking out from underneath the bed when the top of my towel spread apart. I just barely caught it before the whole thing unraveled. I took a quick peek down, my body otherwise frozen in place at the near close call. Just a little more cleavage, nothing terrible.
A hard groan came from Gabe. “You’re fucking killing me. Please stand up.”
At the same time he said that, a wave of cool air brushed against my skin. I peered down further and noticed the gaping hole that showed off the bottom cup of my breasts. “Oh God.”
“You’re telling me.” I stood, and he took my shoulders, maneuvering me back into the bathroom. “Stay here. I’ll get your clothes and then you can get dressed in peace before I decide I like you better in just the towel.” He winked. “Which obviously I prefer you in just the towel. So what I guess I’m trying to say here, Love, is that I’m being a gentleman.”
I nodded up at him dumbly. He turned away and scoured the floor for my clothes. Within a minute, every single piece of clothing I’d brought with me was on top of the small table just inside the hotel room door. He chose every article of clothing I’d need and brought them to me. Pushing past me, he left them on top of the sink before turning and shutting the door behind him, leaving me in the bathroom by myself. I threw my head back to look at the ceiling. “My Lord,” I whispered. “Give me strength.” Like with Randy, my nerve-endings were on haywire whenever I was near the sexy Brit.
Maybe I was lonelier than I thought back in New Orleans. Or maybe it really was just these guys, this mysterious pull to them.
All I knew was, if I still planned to leave, I needed to get my shit together.
10
When I came out of the bathroom, Gabe was just righting the lamp on the bedside table. While I’d dried my hair and basically tried to pull myself together in there, he’d spent the time putting everything in the small hotel room back the way it was. When he heard the floor creak, he peeked behind him. A stunning smile graced his face. “Can’t say that I didn’t prefer the towel look, but you’re still beautiful no matter what.”
Yep. Typical jock confidence. “You are good at soccer, aren’t you?”
“Football,” he corrected. “We Brits call it football, and yes, I am good at it.” He grimaced. “Well, when Order business doesn’t get in the way.”
“The call? You got it earlier, didn’t you?” Travis had said the same thing, that’s how he’d known where to find Liam and me. Well, Liam anyway. They had the whole coven connection thing going on.
He laughed softly. “Faked a foot injury again. My whole team thinks my joints are made out of glass.”
Though he laughed, I could tell it bothered him. “Must be hard having a life when you’re also supposed to be saving the world.”
He looked up at me, his head cocking to the side a little. “Yes, and no. Not really. I just know I have a greater purpose, I guess. Most of the time it doesn’t bother me at all. It’s easier when there’s a fifth, too.”
There’s the talk about the fifth again. I was going to steer well clear of that topic. I’d be gone tomorrow.
Tomorrow? What happened to today? A little voice in my head said.
I told it to shut up because obviously something had just happened to me and I shouldn’t be running away now. I had no one to rely on in New Orleans, but at least I was semi-connected o this group of guys.
Gabe scooted over on the bed and patted the spot he’d just occupied. I quirked an eyebrow at him, but took the spot anyway. Once again, he put his arm around me and I settled on his chest. Just in his arms, my heart started a more steady, slow rhythm, and I jokingly wondered if the world was going to shit around us, if I’d care as long as I was in his arms. He was sweet, and although I was attracted to him, it wasn’t that scary intense attraction I’d felt with Randy yesterday. Just thinking about him, my blood started to boil. “So, do all of you know where I’m staying now?” I asked.
“Afraid so. It’ll be hard to get rid of us now.”
“Wonderful,” I deadpanned, pretending to be annoyed.
He laughed and the scent of freshness filled my nostrils again. “Yeah, I have a feeling you’ll get along with us just fine.”
I’d been smiling right along with him, but this comment made me gnash my teeth together. I wasn’t staying. I wasn’t staying, I repeated over and over to myself.
Gabe’s fingertips brushed against my skin, trailing a line from my elbow to my shoulder. Like a kitten, I wanted to purr at the contact. My natural reaction was to pull away. This was too much, too soon, but like with Randy, it just felt right, too. So, instead, I went against everything my brain told me to do and cuddled up closer to him. “Who do you think tried to hurt us?” I asked, involuntarily shivering. Even though I kept telling myself I was just asking out of curiosity, and that it didn’t really matter because I’d be gone soon anyway, part of me felt like I was a little too invested in his answer for that to be true.
“Unfortunately, we have no idea,” Gabe said. “Since we’re one guy short, our power is on the fringe.”
“But you all felt the pull earlier, didn’t you?”
“Oh absolutely,” he said. “We all felt it, that’s not usually the problem. The problem comes from what we can do after we feel it. I’m glad Liam was able to keep you guys safe. He’s a good witch.”
“Yeah,” I said, remembering how he’d taken charge of the situation, so different from what I imagined his reaction might be. He went from awkward college kid, to don’t-mess-with-us within a few moments. Hot as fuck, actually.
Jesus, body. Get a damn grip. You can’t be interested in all three of these guys. Your next stop will be the Jerry Springer Show for fuck’s sake.
“Did you win your game today?” I asked, trying to keep my focus.
His lips pressed to the top of my head. This time, there was no exclamation of pain afterward. “Yep, two to nothing. Maybe you can come watch me play sometime.”
“Maybe,” I offered noncommittally even though my body was screaming at me to say yes. I didn’t want to lie to him.
“Hey.” After lifting my chin to make me look him in the eyes, he said, “I know things are really weird right now, but it’s kind of nice to talk to someone you have things in common with, isn’t it? It’s cool that I can just be myself with you instead of having to always cover up who I really am. I mean, I can be myself around the guys, but that’s not really the same thing, is it? I’m not asking for you to make any decisions about the coven right now, Norah.”
My breath caught as he spoke. He was absolutely right. I didn’t know a lot of real witches in New Orleans. Granny a
nd I kept to ourselves, and then when I branched out and opened the voodoo shop, I’d immersed myself in a fake world of palm readers and psychics. None of them were legit. “You’re right. This is actually really nice,” I told him. “It can be exhausting trying to cover up who you really are.”
“Exactly.”
His gaze searched my face. The link that was always around us ratcheted tighter and tighter until we were inches away from one another. His hot breath caressed my lips. Fuck it, I told myself. What could go wrong?
I bridged the gap between us, pressing my lips to his. He sucked in a breath as if he wasn’t expecting me to do that. I smiled to myself, loving that I’d surprised him. His lips swept over mine, and I relaxed into his touch. My body hummed in approval. I reached out to cup his cheek. Breathless, we both pulled away and just stared at one another. He ran a hand through my hair and steered my head back toward his chest. When he spoke, his voice came out tight. “What do you do in New Orleans?”
Content, I closed my eyes. “I own a voodoo shop.”
“Really?” he asked, doubt in his voice. “I didn’t see that coming.”
I shrugged. “It’s a way to pay the bills. I don’t sell them any real spells. Not usually, anyway. The tourists just like the idea of magic. They want to live out the fantasy without really having it.”
He hugged me tighter to him. “I’d hate to be non-magical.”
I couldn’t agree with him so I kept quiet, listening to Gabe’s heartbeat as he ran his fingers up and down my arm with steady pressure.
After a few minutes of silence, he asked, “Are you feeling better?”
I nodded into him. “Why do I feel like that has a lot to do with you?”
He held a breath in his chest. I looked up at him, then leaned over to capture another kiss. This time, it wasn’t as sweet as the first. My fingers moved down his chest and snaked under the hem of his polo. Oh, heaven. He was ripped. I tugged his shirt up and broke the kiss to stare down at him. “Holy hell.”
“Is that a good thing?”
I met his eyes to find him smirking at me. Yeah, he knew he was hot. I pulled his shirt the rest of the way off and took my time playing my fingertips over the dips and planes of his chest and abs.