“You were dreaming too?” I repeated.

  He nodded. “Perhaps I walked in my sleep from my house, to the car, to your house, as I said. I have no idea. Of course I’ve thought of coming over here and kissing you senseless before, but it was only ever a fantasy and a fantasy it remained.”

  “Hmm.”

  “I give you my word.”

  A pang of guilt and ache burned my insides. He fantasized about me when he was alone? Not that I was really that surprised. I mean, he had given me his Kiss and that was a bond that, among other things, was definitely a sexual one.

  Now I was standing before him in my skimpy underwear and I had no desire to cover my body with a sheet. I wanted him to see me. I didn’t want to wake up from that dream… except for the biting part. That I could do without. And the part with Hellcat watching from the window and yacking up whatever horrible thing he just had.

  But, I wanted everything else—the kiss, the gnawing hunger, the need to pull Lorcan down between my legs, the delicious sensation of wrapping myself around him… Then came the part of the fantasy where he nibbled his lips down my neck and… well, that fantasy only ended one way.

  I turned away with an effort. I couldn’t let him look at me like this. If we let nature take its course, it would end in disaster and there would be nothing left of me. I’d become a fully blooded vampire.

  “I was so anticipating some fireworks to enliven what has proven to be a most banal evening,” Hellcat said as he made a face at the organism he’d birthed that was steaming on the window sill and then began cleaning his paws.

  I sat down on the bed and pulled on my jeans from earlier in the day, throwing on a t-shirt I yanked out from the hamper. Then I pulled on the biggest, floppiest, baggiest sweatshirt I could find to cover every trace of my body. “You have to go, Lorcan. You can’t be here.”

  He nodded and grabbed his shirt that lay on the floor. He let the sheet drop and whipped the shirt over his torso, but he made no motion to leave. Instead, he just stood there, looking at me.

  “I can’t leave until you give me your assurance that you believe me.”

  “I don’t know what to believe,” I said, not bothering to look up at him. I just… I couldn’t. I didn’t trust myself.

  “Wanda, I am as much a victim in this… unfortunate incident as you are. I swear to you… I don’t know how this happened.” He took a deep breath. “All I can tell you is that I felt you calling me, as if through a dream… it was as though… as though I was under your spell. I had to come.”

  I was surprised and couldn’t contain it. I could feel my eyebrows lifting of their own accord as I wondered if I really could have called him in my sleep? Could my dream and my arousal have acted as a beacon, pulling him to me? What if Astrid was right and his blood was taking over my magic? Goddess, I hoped not.

  I bowed under the weight of all these competing fears and desires. “I don’t know what happened, but things are definitely escalating, Lorcan,” I said as he nodded. “This has never happened before and it can only mean… it can only mean the process is happening faster than it did for Roscoe and Betanya.”

  He winced. “Do you have to keep bringing them up?”

  “They’re all we have to compare to!”

  He shook his head. “You are not Betanya and I absolutely am NOT Roscoe.”

  “Betanya’s journals are the only reference I have to make sense of what’s happening to me—to us.” I flinched just thinking about what was happening to us. “And you know what happens next, Lorcan. Roscoe gets violent and then he goes insane. We have to believe… to consider… the same thing could happen to you. Tonight proves that. Astrid thinks…”

  He burst out laughing. “You aren’t taking Astrid’s advice on this, are you? A twelve-year-old?”

  “She’s sixteen,” I answered, frowning. “Regardless, she mentioned something and she might have a point.”

  “Go on.”

  “She suggested that the blood you gave me is acting in reverse—that the madness infecting you is pulling me toward you with the same power.”

  “Interesting.”

  I nodded. “It isn’t completely out of the ballpark, and now… I don’t know. What if the magic we performed together in order to break the bond actually backfired? What if it opened us to each other even more and now we’re sharing dreams and… calling to each other?”

  He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. A burning spark gleamed in his eyes when he looked at me—a spark of unquenchable desire. The idea of sharing dreams, of opening to me even more than he already was—that thought drove him wild—I could see as much in his eyes.

  “Wanda….”

  “Sell me the duplex,” I blurted out, surprising us both. “Sell it to me for next to nothing so I can do a sanctum spell. You can afford it.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “If I’m able to claim this house, that means I can keep you out, just in case something like this happens again.” It was true—if I owned the property instead of Lorcan, he wouldn’t be able to enter as he pleased. I would have to invite him in.

  His jaw hit the floor. “It’s out of the question.”

  “Why?” I demanded. “Don’t you care about me at all?”

  He shut his mouth instantly. “I have to be near you! If you shut me out… that would only spur this insanity faster! As it is, it eats me up whenever I’m not within vicinity of you. If I wasn’t able to see you and be close to you, I would definitely lose my mind.”

  “Yeah, but….”

  “If you get a property and claim sanctum, you would never have anything more to do with me. What would I do then?”

  I stared at him. I just… I didn’t know what else to do. And furthermore… “That isn’t true.”

  He squared his shoulders and his features hardened. He collected himself into a statue of gleaming ivory. “Can you honestly assure me you wouldn’t force me out of your life? Would you continue to see me if you claimed sanctum?”

  “Yes,” I started, but he interrupted.

  “Would you really? Or would you leave me to my own defenses, knowing you were protected from me?”

  “It’s not like I’d be that protected from you,” I argued. “All you’d have to do is call Rupert in and…” I couldn’t continue the sentence. “There would be ways around me claiming sanctum. I’m just saying it would be one way to ensure my safety at least for the meantime. And… it would be a way to ensure that what just happened never happens again.”

  All the while, I wondered: would I really continue to associate with Lorcan if I could claim sanctum? Would I have anything to do with him if I didn’t have to? Was I really so shallow that I would play with his emotions for my own selfish purposes? I might not be as fuzzy and genial as Poppy, but could I really be that cruel? In the past, the answer would have been a resounding yes. Now though… now I was a different person, a different witch. Now, I knew I could never and would never do anything like that to Lorcan.

  No, I cared about him too…

  I couldn’t continue the thought and cut it off as quickly as it entered my head. I was still a witch, dammit, and witches didn’t care about vampires!

  Lorcan compressed his lips, clearly reading the muddied truth in my expression. Then, before I could stop him, he streaked through the open window, appearing as nothing more than a blur.

  Just like that, he vanished into the night. I didn’t even know what I should do—call him back? I wasn’t sure if I wanted to call him back. For the thousandth time, he’d left me torn between being glad he was gone and filled with longing that he might come back.

  Chapter Five

  With great trepidation and a palpitating heart, I unlocked the store and turned the sign to Open. Dev was supposed to come back sometime today, but I had no idea when. That meant, I could look forward to hours of tension while I waited for the inevitable.

  He would definitely come back. I knew that. What business he had with me and my store? I wasn’t sure. I had an inkling that said business had nothing to do with the denim jeans and linen jacket, though. It just seemed… too coincidental.

  So, you’re going to find out what business he has with you, I told myself. As long as you can keep your desire for him under control.

  And on that subject, I was firm with myself. This time, I wasn’t going to act like a love-sick schoolgirl. This time, I was going to control myself and I was going to get to the bottom of this mystery.

  Regardless, he would come back and I wasn’t looking forward to it at all… or was I? Thinking about him returning today inevitably made me realize I’d be in direct contact with his body again… that body. The same body I’d experienced in my dream last night.

  Maybe it wasn’t a dream? The thought appeared out of nowhere, and though I immediately wanted to reject it, it wouldn’t depart quite so easily.

  Maybe Dev really had been in my room, just like Lorcan had. Maybe some unknown enchantment had replaced him with Lorcan at the last minute? I mean, that would explain why Lorcan had been so flummoxed to find himself in my bed.

  I shook my head. There were any number of reasons as to why Lorcan had shown up in my room last night, and Dev most likely had nothing to do with any of them.

  So why couldn’t I shake the feeling that I was onto something?

  With no answers, I forced myself to go about my routine as normally as possible, but I kept casting backward glances over my shoulder. I scanned Main Street for any sign of the intoxicating stranger who intimidated me as much as he turned me on. When would he arrive? Would he come early or wait until the afternoon? Or would he arrive right at closing time again? I didn’t think I could stand the anticipation.

  I walked to my sewing table and took Lorcan’s suit from the lower shelf. I might as well do some work to take my mind off…

  The door opening startled me, but not as much as Dev did when he strode in. His broad smile gave me another disconcerting thrill.

  Strong, Wanda, be strong!

  “Hello again.” His smile was as sweet as syrup.

  I shoved Lorcan’s suit away to stop him from seeing it, even as I wondered why I was doing so. “Good… morning.” My nerves were back and fully accounted for. Dammit! “Are you… ready to, um, to get started?”

  “Ready when you are.” He stretched his arms out at both sides. “Just tell me what you want me to do.”

  I grabbed my measuring tape, but hesitated to approach him. “Just… just stand there… like you’re a statue.”

  That crazy energy of his was back and the rivulets of his power flew through the air, dancing with my own until I felt a buzz surrounding me. It still made no sense because I wasn’t sure what type of creature he was. And in the supernatural community, you didn’t just ask. Doing so wasn’t proper decorum. Furthermore, I couldn’t just ask him what he wanted from me because I knew he wouldn’t give me a truthful answer.

  He laughed but didn’t move when I started migrating around him, taking his measurements. I had to measure around the girth of his powerful chest and down the seam from his armpit to his waist. Then I had to measure across the expanse of his back and shoulders.

  My cheeks burned with each new measurement and even as I tried to get ahold of myself, my heart was pounding and my breath was coming fast. I wasn’t sure what it was about this man, but he definitely set my blood boiling.

  “You still haven’t told me when the order might be finished,” he began, giving me that boyish smirk again.

  “Oh.”

  “Now that you have my measurements, you should be able to give me some idea of your schedule?”

  “I can…” I gulped audibly. “I can… start tomorrow.”

  “So late?”

  “I have…” And then I promptly forgot what I was saying or even thinking. It was a good thing my body knew how to breathe because I was so out of sorts, I would have forgotten that too.

  “You have?”

  “Another order,” I answered too quickly. “I have another order… due… that I have to finish… first.” I had to kneel down at his feet and I choked while saying, “Spread your legs… please.”

  “Gladly,” he answered, giving me an upturned eyebrow that matched his smirk. Goddess, I felt like I was going to have an apoplexy.

  He shifted one foot to the right to make room for me to take his inseam measurement. And I suddenly wanted nothing more than to run outside and heave in breaths of fresh air. I had no idea what had come over me or why I was acting like this. Me, someone who was normally so reasonable and unexcitable. And yet this man… he just did something to me.

  “Would you prefer I strip down?” he asked with that smirk I couldn’t handle. “So the fabric doesn’t get in your way?”

  “NO,” I answered too quickly.

  He chuckled. “Very well.”

  As I continued with my measurements, I swore I could feel him touching me. It was as if his fingertips danced across my face, down my neck, across my breasts. My nipples even pebbled, but when I looked at his hands, they were hanging at his sides. It was just like it had been the first time he came in—when I felt him kissing me, yet he never had.

  “So…” he went on, “after you start tomorrow, how long will it take to finish?”

  I cleared my throat with difficulty. “It shouldn’t… shouldn’t take more than… three days.”

  He raised his eyes slightly. “Three days? Wow, that’s quick.”

  I nodded as I stood up and scribbled his measurements on my notepad, trying not to look delighted by the compliment.

  “Am I finished?”

  I looked up at him and nodded.

  He approached the sewing table, where I pretended to be busily working on scribbling more notes about his order. I wasn’t even sure what I was writing. It could have been hieroglyphics for all I knew.

  He started touching each item on the table—lifting up a bobble and turning it around in his hands before putting it down again. Then he did the same with the pincushion, working his way down the table until he reached me. When he reached for my hand, I didn’t pull it away.

  “I find you… quite beautiful, Wanda,” he whispered as I looked up into his eyes and wished I hadn’t.

  “Thank… thank you.”

  He leaned over the table, his scent arresting me. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open and not inhale as deeply as I could.

  “Can I admit something else?”

  “Okay.”

  He reached out and ran his index finger down my cheek as burning need overtook me. Every nerve in my body was alert and every molecule was screaming at me to undress and give myself to this man. Given the intensity of my desire, I was amazed I was even still standing.

  “I quite liked the feel of your fingers on my body as you ran the measuring tape over me.”

  I thought I might pass out right there. Trying to summon up whatever rationality I still possessed, I managed not to say anything.

  “If you aren’t busy later, perhaps you’d like to go out with me?” he continued, pulling his index finger back as soon as he reached my chin.

  I stiffened. “Go out… with you?”

  “Yes,” he nearly hissed. “What are you doing tonight?”

  I fought down my suddenly mounting panic. I couldn’t tell him I already had plans with Lorcan… Lorcan… Lorcan who?

  Ah, Lorcan Rowe, the vampire dentist. “Oh, um…”

  “Unless you don’t find me as attractive as I find you?”

  Ha! Now, I knew I was an attractive woman. I’ve always been a head-turner and I have no problems with myself. But Dev was completely out of my league—like model out of my league. “You’re… you’re very handsome,” I admitted.

  “Then?” he asked, his eyes searing into me.

  “I, uh, I have to work… tonight.”

  “Work?”

  I nodded. “If I… go out with you… I won’t be able to… to finish the other order in time.”

  “And?”

  “And that… that would mean I’d have to… to delay yours.”

  His grin broadened. “Ah, we wouldn’t want that.”

  “Right.”

  He beamed at me. “How about coffee instead?”

  “Coffee?”

  “When do you take a break?”

  “A break?”

  He chuckled. “My lovely Wanda, you sound as if you’ve become a parrot.”

  I felt my face flush, and I had to imagine it was coloring every hue of red. I didn’t say anything, so he continued.

  “You must take breaks?”

  I blushed. “Yes... I take breaks as I… need them.”

  He checked an expensive dive watch on his tanned wrist. “Let’s have coffee… say… now?”

  “Now?”

  “Don’t you feel it’s time for a break?”

  I put down the order I wasn’t working on. Yes, it was time for a break. The perfect hour for a break. “Um, all right. I can do that.” He was a customer, after all. I could justify having coffee with him as a business expense, couldn’t I?

  What about the fact that you’re acting like an idiot? I reminded myself. This guy has some sort of power over you.

  All the more reason to have coffee with him, I reasoned back. So I can figure out what he is. And what he wants.

  It’s fairly obvious what he wants—to get into your pants.

  Yes, that’s what I want too. Perhaps in the back storage room?

  I had to shake the thoughts right out of my head.

  Dev escorted me out of the store and my knees went weak when he rested his hand against my lower back on our way out the door. It was as if in touching me, all that power that echoed out of him was now pinpointed on me, into me.

  He kept his hand on the small of my back all the way to Stomper’s Creamery. There, he pulled my chair out for me and I took a seat. Then he walked around to the other chair, pulled it as close to mine as it was able to go, and sat down. The instant we faced each other across the table, he reached out and took my hand.

  I squirmed in my seat. Every touch, every look, every scent reminded me of the memory/dream from last night. His bare chest, his smooth, tanned body, his steaming passionate kiss…