“What are you doing to me?” he asked, voice low and seductive. His cologne mingled with his male scent and made her skin tingle from head to toes. If she thought Gerard's effect spine-tingling, Leif blew Gerard right out of the sky.
“Stay the night with me,” she requested. He hadn’t taken the potion yet, and this would give her time to get him to drink it. Would it really hurt anything or anybody to sleep with him? Plans with Gerard had been abruptly canceled, and now she definitely didn’t regret it. Maybe the gods ran interference and inserted Leif in her life for more reasons than saving her from Club Wicca.
Leif cupped her face and kissed her again. His tenderness didn’t match his size and the power she knew resided inside of him. His fingertips skimmed over her neck and across her collarbone with the delicacy of petting a butterfly. A masculine sound rose out of his chest as he claimed another kiss, and apparently her soul.
“You don’t even know me,” he said.
“I think after that kiss, I know you better than you realize.”
“Hmmm…” he growled and tasted her again.
Yes, she wanted him to stay. And the yearning pull of desire in her abdomen was going to make it happen.
That is until she heard a familiar voice say, “Yo, Tori, are you in here? I saw your light on.”
She pulled back from Leif and gulped.
He spun around and put himself protectively in front of her.
Tori touched his back with a reassuring hand.
“Hi, Willow. I’ll be right there,” she called down the hallway.
“She's my best friend,” she explained, and slipped around Leif’s cute ass and his even cuter protective stance.
Tori composed herself as much as possible, wearing only a mid-thigh terrycloth robe, but it was her flushed face and pulse that needed adjustment. She worked on the face and smoothed her hair as she entered the open living room.
“Hey, I thought I’d pop in while I’m on a break and give you a head’s up about your—” Willow cut herself off when she saw Leif.
Her friend dropped her gaze to the couch, or the floor, or anywhere other than at the two of them. Tori didn’t think she looked that guilty. Her friend had seen her in her pajamas countless times… but the number of times she’d walked in on Tori with a man was definitely zero.
“Willow, this is Leif. Leif, this is Willow. She shares the second floor with me.”
Tori didn’t miss the blush creeping up Willow’s pale neck.
“I’m so sorry to interrupt.” Willow started retreating toward the door. “I had no idea you had company.”
Her bestie could be painfully introverted when thrown into a new situation or with strangers. Once you became acquainted, she wasn’t at all shy. Right now, the shock of walking in on her and Leif made her friend instantly clam up
“Don’t go. It’s okay,” Tori said hurriedly. The interruption was probably for the best. The lust running through her veins for the hunk standing in her living room needed to be quelled. Leif had been absolutely right when he pointed out that she didn’t know him. Sleeping with him on a whim could end up a bigger disaster than her humiliating experience with Gerard. Tori didn’t need to repeat the mistake. And she needed to repeat that to herself like a thousand and one times. Do not repeat the same mistakes. “Leif was just leaving, weren’t you?” she turned her question on him.
Confusion furrowed his brows for a brief second before he gave a man nod of acknowledgment. “I was just on my way out.” He appeared to mentally collect himself in the next blink. “Goodnight, Tori. Glad your knee is better.”
“Goodnight. Thanks for the ride home. I’ll talk to you later.”
Leif strolled across the loft and out her front door.
Chapter Six
“WHO WAS THAT?!” Willow whisper-yelled exactly three seconds after the door closed. She waited just long enough to let Leif make it to the elevator.
Tori turned to the kitchen and the mess of bottles and jars strewn across the kitchen island. She not only felt Willow snap out of her introverted state but could hear it in her voice. To her great relief, she noticed Leif’s empty juice glass. She smacked her forehead. Tori had been so turned on and distracted by the mysterious ex-cop that she spaced out about giving him the potion. Thank the Goddess he’d drank it anyway. She picked up the glass sitting by the kitchen sink and took a much needed deep breath. He must have finished it when she was in the bathroom mending her knee.
“His name is Leif. My knight in armor… not shining… regular plate armor.”
“Not shining! Did you see his ass? And those cheekbones!” Willow floated into the kitchen—her friend had the most unobtrusive way about her, soft and flowing with the universe at all times—and started cleaning up. “Those hands. Wowza! Where did you find him?”
“He found me actually. Fending off Gerard at Club Wicca,” Tori said dubiously.
Tori switched directions and limped over to the front windows to peer out at Leif’s black SUV pulling away from the curb. A muffled scratching noise came from her front door. She padded across the room and opened it. Igor, Willow’s cat, strutted in and said hello with his usual growling chirp.
“Good evening to you too,” she said graciously. Tori closed the door and followed behind the cat.
Igor flicked his gloriously long silver tail and looked over his shoulder at her to make sure she observed his grand entrance.
He let out an inquisitive yowl, and Willow said, “I’m right here you needy beastie.”
Igor trotted across the living room area and went straight to his keeper, talking the whole way.
“Igor is awfully chatty. What’s up with him?” Tori asked, joining Willow in the kitchen and helping put away the potion ingredients. They were as close as sisters and considered each other family in nearly every way that didn’t include bloodlines. Igor leaped onto the chair Tori had been using and scrutinized the two of them with keen interested gold eyes.
“Who knows? He’s probably missing Skyler and needs company. What the heck happened? I thought you were into Gerard.” She said his name with all the innuendo and cheesy accent she could muster and inflect into the name, Gerard. “Don’t leave anything out. I need to hear everything. My night has been a never ending torrent of customer service complaints. I need something to get me through,” She glanced at the clock on the stove. “Two and a half more hours.”
“How long is your break?”
“Not long enough. The pay is good, but my job really sucks sometimes.”
Tori shook her head and bit back a smile. Willow Stravens wavered between loving her online customer service job and hating it on a day-by-day basis. Sometimes hour by hour.
“Unfortunately, Gerard turned out to be a chauvinistic pig. He expected me to be at his beck and call in front of everyone at the club. His friends were there, and Gerard couldn’t take public rejection. I, unfortunately, didn’t handle matters well—”
“Meaning, you started a bar brawl, didn’t you?”
Willow knew her so well. “Kind of? I called him out.”
“You did not!”
“I did. I'm not sure how many people heard, but it didn’t help the situation. And he…” Tori sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she exposed Gerard’s true nature at the club. It wasn’t intentional, exactly, but giving away someone’s identity could have a negative backlash. Nothing could be done about it right now, though. “He got belligerent. I should have known we were incompatible.”
“Too much air in his astrological chart?” Willow guessed.
“Yeah. It feeds the fire. During the confusion, I sort of got hurt.”
“What! Where? Are you all right?”
“I wasn’t all right, but Leif stepped in.”
Willow’s eyebrows rose so high on her forehead, Tori thought she looked like a surprised owl with glasses. “He’s dreamy… like over the top. I’ve seen most of the men you’ve dated, but he’s…!” She couldn’t even finish with
an appropriate description that encompassed Leif’s sexiness.
“I’m not dating him. We just met. And, I understand what you mean. By the way, you stopped me from making a huge mistake. I already regret letting him come inside even if I couldn’t walk on my own.”
“You gave him the potion, didn’t you?”
“I think so.”
“What do you mean, you think so? If he drank it, he won’t remember where you live.”
“It’s just…well, his glass is empty, but I didn’t actually see him drink it.”
They shared a meaningful look of concern.
Willow shrugged and tilted her head. Her straight shoulder length coal black hair inclined forty-five degrees with her face. “Maybe you’re too worried about your privacy. He’s not a stalker or anything, is he?”
Tori scrunched up her face. “I don’t know anything about him except he’s an amazing kisser and a former cop. And I don’t think so, but I’m so unsure of myself tonight. This is totally unlike me. I misjudged Gerard, and it shook me to the core. Leif is… different.”
“You were totally making out with him when I walked in. Goddess, you should have seen yourself when you walked out here.”
“Shut up… and yes, but… that kiss was so worth it. Thanks for interrupting us.”
“Anytime,” Willow said and turned to the punch bowl sitting in the far corner on the countertop—only it wasn’t a punch bowl. “Let’s find out a little more about this Leif guy.”
“Oh, you’re a genius! I knew I liked you from the moment you moved into the building.”
“No, you didn’t. It was Skyler that made you lease the loft to us.”
“You’re right again. Your daughter is the cutest,” Tori agreed. “Is she asleep, or with her dad?”
“She’s at her father’s this weekend. It’s so hard when she’s gone, but don’t get me started on Skyler. Now let’s scry this dude and find out all his secrets,” Willow said as she filled the stone scrying bowl with purified water. Igor stepped out of the tall chair and strolled across the countertop where he promptly started drinking from the scrying bowl. Willow pulled the crystal orbs from a cabinet and turned to see her cat lapping up the fresh water. “Igor! Get off the counter.” He took three more disobedient drinks while keeping his gold gaze fastened on Willow. She waved her hand at him, the crystal sphere clenched in her palm. Igor backed away and then returned to the chair. Willow lowered the stone balls carefully into the bowl.
“Sorry about Igor. He loves water.”
“If I minded, I wouldn’t have opened the door for him.”
“He’s still a rude asshole when he wants to be.”
“Yeah, and you’d be lost without him. You might give up the cat and find a boyfriend.”
“Never. After Skyler’s father, Igor is the only male I need in my life,” Willow said with certainty. “Okay, what’s Leif’s last name?”
“Umm…” Tori bit her lip.
Willow rolled her eyes. “If you’re going to feel them up, you should probably get a name.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” she said with her signature crafty smile.
“It would have been helpful, but we’ll find him.”
Tori leaned over the bowl and let a drop of spit fall into the water. Willow passed a grimace of disgust her way.
“We swapped spit. His was still in my mouth.” Tori shrugged and didn’t look as apologetic as she sounded. “Be glad we didn’t swap other bodily fluids.”
Willow’s face went blank. Then she gagged. “I just puked in my mouth a little.”
Tori laughed at her own joke, and at Willow’s repulsion.
Willow visibly shook herself from head to toes. “I’d prefer one of his hairs or a last name, but if spit works…” She gave a reluctant one shoulder shrug.
“Look. It’s already working.” Tori stared into the scrying bowl as images began to form.
Willow waved a hand at the light switch on the wall and the overhead lights dimmed. Tori grabbed a candleholder and snapped her fingers, lighting the wick. She set the candle down next to the bowl, and the candlelight shimmered over the surface of the water. Igor crept onto the granite countertop and lay down. A soothing purr rumbled out of the over-sized Maine Coon cat as the magic began to build and gather inside the stone bowl.
“He’s the strangest cat. And that’s saying a lot considering I grew up with my cousin, Aspen, and her collection of weird pets.”
“He’s perfect,” Willow said, brushing a hand down the length of the over-sized silver tabby cat. “And irreplaceable,” she said with affection and then turned back to the bowl. “Lookie lookie. What have we got going on here?”
Scrying wasn’t always in real time. The images could be from the past, present, or future. There were many ways to manipulate the process to achieve the desired results of the magic user, but scrying on the spur of the moment, with the only aim being a basic peek at an individual, meant the universal realm of consciousness picked what it wanted to show Tori and Willow.
“That’s Mr. Cute Ass isn’t it?” Willow squinted at the picture forming in the water.
Tori tilted her head and peered closely at the image in the bowl. “Yeah. That’s him.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Looking at something.” Tori watched Leif studying a computer monitor.
An alerting frisson swept down her neck and over the back of her arms. She centered her attention on the screen in front of Leif. His head blocked half the monitor, but something about the architectural shape and the sky on his screen pulled her in closer. She stared hard and then knew what he saw. The scene on his computer was the underside of Harbor Bridge and Delana’s final resting place.
“What is it?” Willow asked.
Tori covered her mouth and kept watching. Leif clicked the computer mouse and switched to a new image. Same scene, but Leif zoomed in on the photo, and there she was. Tori stood in a beam of moonlight on the shore of South Bank. She was disguised, or she thought she had been. She believed she took precautions when she went to see for herself where Delana had died. She'd obviously not been careful enough. Someone took her picture.
“Is that what I think it is?” Willow said, watching Tori carefully.
“What do you think it is?”
“Where Delana died.”
Tori nodded.
“And is that you standing there?”
Tori nodded again. “But how can you tell? I’m covered from head to toe. Not only that, I changed my hair and skin color before I went. And I had dark glasses on.”
Willow gave her friend a skeptical look. “I recognize the coat,” she said like it should have been obvious. “And those look like your boots, and glasses.”
They’d been together when Tori bought the canvas army style jacket. Tori blinked and tried to shake off the funk that suddenly surrounded her like a wool shroud.
“Why were you hiding anyway? You didn't do anything illegal with Delana.”
“I was taking precautions. The public thinks she died in her house. I don’t want to be a suspect in any of this. I was one of the last people to see her alive. Our weekly appointments were held in confidence. I can’t break that now just because she’s moved on to the afterlife. It’s complicated.” Emotions rose quickly to the surface. It happened every time she thought of her friend. Tori’s thoughts would immediately jump to all the questions and speculations of how and why Delana ended up on the South Bank shore. She desperately wanted the facts about what happened after she left Delana’s house.
“So Mr. Cute Ass was following you tonight?”
“And I ended up bringing him home and kissing him. Oh, shit thistles! What have I done?”
“Calm down. Maybe…” Willow paused as she struggled to come up with reassuring words.
The image of Leif in the scrying bowl shifted as they stared at each other. He zoomed in on a new image and this time, someone else was in the picture. Tori and Willow held their breath as L
eif fiddled with the image on his computer screen. Tori was crouching, her fingers resting against the sandy bank, but Leif’s focus was on a man further in the background standing by some leafy bushes.
“Holy hell in a hand basket,” Tori said.
“Who is that?”
“Gerard was freaking following me!”
“Creeper,” Willow said with disgust. “Wait a second. That means—”
“It means, Leif was at Club Wicca tonight checking out Gerard. Not me. He couldn’t be able to recognize me from these photos.”
“I think you’re right. He was investigating Gerard.”
“I know I’m right. But Leif’s definitely involved in Delana’s case and that worries me.”
“As it should. What if Gerard wasn’t following you? What if Gerard was there for other reasons?” Willow speculated out loud.
Chills, real chills, froze the blood in her veins. “I can’t even begin to think about that right now,” she said slowly. “Gerard?” she asked herself more than Willow and tried to think if there were any way in the world Gerard knew about Delana. She never once mentioned Delana to him.
“What are you going to do?” Willow asked.
“Ask Leif out.”
One side of Willow’s mouth tilted up. She shook her head and said, “I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still am. You think you’ll be able to find out more about Delana if you date this guy?”
Tori tapped her chin and narrowed her eyes. “Possibly. I need to keep him in close range in case the police start looking at me as a suspect in all this.”
“Good call.” Willow glanced at the clock. “Shoot! I’m late. Gotta jump back on my shift. Want me to come back during my next break?”
“No. I’m tired. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
A Witch's Fate: Witches of Lane County Page 6