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Indigo felt lighter than she had in days. It seemed purging her soul to Niko had lifted some sort of weight off her shoulders. She glanced at him as they walked the few blocks down to her building. When was the last time she’d felt safe with any man? Not physically safe, but mentally and emotionally.

Maybe she was being too hopeful. Or too trusting. But she wasn’t trusting by nature. Not these days. So the fact that he’d found a way to earn her trust was remarkable.

Niko slowed and then suddenly paused. “Is that Paul standing in front of your building?”

Indigo squinted through the darkness and made out the familiar shape. “Dammit,” she muttered. “I thought he’d go away after that confrontation.”

“It appears Mr. Eager is dying for a can of whoop-ass.” Niko took off, doubling his pace.

Indigo hurried to catch up with him.

Paul must have heard their footsteps, because he turned in their direction, and when he spotted Niko, he also cursed and then hurried to the black SUV that was parked across the street.

“Has he ever bothered you here before?” Niko asked.

She shook her head. “I haven’t spoken to him since the day I was told I was no longer a suspect in Tricia’s case.”

“I bet that didn’t go well.”

“Not at all.” Indigo crossed her arms over her chest as the memory came flooding back. “In fact, I would have called the police station to get him removed, but since he worked there, I knew his buddies would only cover for him.”

Niko’s eyes darkened and he nearly growled when he asked, “Did that asshole hurt you?”

“Physically? No.” She grimaced. “But he sure did try to dump a mountain of grief and guilt on me.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a side hug.

Indigo knew she should probably pull away. This man had already found ways around her barriers, and giving in to the physical comfort he was offering would only make it that much harder to stick to her resolve not to date law enforcement.

A small voice in the back of her mind wondered, if you trust him, why are you keeping him at arm’s length?

She steeled herself against the intruding thoughts. There was no question why she had to keep her distance. He was law enforcement. What if he suddenly decided he didn’t believe her? She’d be quite literally sleeping in the lion’s den.

And while the idea of having someone in a position of authority who was on her side was really appealing, she just didn’t think she could let her guard down enough to go there.

“I don’t want to leave until I’m sure that jerk isn’t coming back tonight,” Niko said. “How do you feel about dinner? We could head to The Salt Circle, or if you prefer, we could stay in and make some pasta.”

What was that about not stepping into the lion’s den? Indigo was already nodding before she could think anything through. “Let’s just stay in. I’m not really up for going out.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “But we might have to scrounge for ingredients. I’m not sure when I last went to the store.”

“A challenge!” he said, looking far too pleased. “I’m ready. Lead the way.”

Indigo did just that as she headed up the stairs to her apartment.

The first thing she did once they were inside was find a bottle of wine. “Is red okay?”

“Obviously,” he said, already opening her refrigerator to inspect the ingredients.

“Good, because I’m out of white.” She found a couple of wine glasses and got busy pouring. By the time she handed him a glass, he already had a pile of ingredients on the counter.

She inventoried his haul, surprised to see that he’d found a handful of vegetables and what looked to be a block of parmesan cheese.

“Do you have pasta and marinara sauce or olive oil?” he asked.

“No marinara, but I do have olive oil, and it would be a cold day in hell before you’d find this apartment without a stash of pasta.”

“Excellent. It looks like we have the makings for pasta primavera,” he said, opening her cabinets to look for the pasta.

Indigo went into the small pantry just off the kitchen and returned with some penne pasta and a bottle of olive oil. “Need anything else?”

“Nope. Not unless you’ve got some sourdough in that closet.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Sorry. Your luck has run out.”

“Damn. Oh well. We’ll just have to make do.” He gestured to her bar-top counter and said, “Have a seat. I’ve got this.”

“I can help,” she insisted, eyeing the vegetables. “Put me in the game, coach. I can chop with the best of them.”

He chuckled softly. “Okay. Sure.” He handed her a yellow squash and said, “Do your worst.”

Before grabbing her cutting board and a knife, Indigo synced her phone up with her Bluetooth speaker and then chose her favorite playlist.

When “Witchy Woman” by the Eagles came on, Niko eyed her and said, “Appropriate choice.”

She winked. “My grandmother might have had a bit of influence over my musical education.”

“Remind me to thank Bethany for her cool musical tastes.”

For the next thirty minutes, they worked together to get dinner ready, and by the time Niko put their plates on her table, Indigo was practically drooling.

“It smells fantastic,” Indigo said as she refilled their wine glasses. “Who knew I had anything of nutritional value in my kitchen?”

He took a seat and then lifted his glass for a toast. “To good old-fashioned home cooking with friends.”

Indigo was tingling with happiness as she touched her glass to his. “To home cooking and friends.”

Niko held her gaze while he took another sip of wine, and Indigo felt a spark of attraction that caused gooseflesh to pop out over her skin. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was so hungry, she might have been tempted to forgo dinner altogether and just haul him into her bedroom. Her cheeks heated at the image, and she vaguely wondered what had happened to her convictions.

Her eyes locked on the wine glass, making her chuckle. Oh, that’s what happened .

“Care to share the joke?” Niko asked her.

She quickly shook her head. “It’s nothing. I was just laughing at myself.”

He raised one eyebrow, waiting.

She waved a hand, indicating she wasn’t going to elaborate, and then changed the subject as she asked, “How did you end up working at the Magical Task Force? You must have been in mundane law enforcement before that, right?”

He didn’t say anything at first.

“I’m sorry, is that something you’re not allowed to talk about?” she asked, feeling foolish. Less than an hour ago, she just gotten done pouring out all of her secrets, and now he seemed to be clamming up over a seemingly simple question.

“No, no. Nothing like that,” he said and then took another long pause. “There’s a reason I’m here other than I just like your company.”

She glanced at the bedroom and then back at him with her eyebrows raised.

He laughed, his eyes twinkling with mirth. “I’m not going to deny that I definitely am interested in… that. After our night back in Florida, it would be disingenuous to say otherwise.” He let his gaze roam up and down her torso and then back up, where he met her eyes again. “But that’s not what I was talking about.” All the humor left his expression when he added, “I’ve had my own run-ins with the law. Run-ins that left me very distrustful of certain law officers.”

Indigo leaned forward, and with her elbow on the table, she rested her chin on her palm. “Do you have a file, too, Niko Morales? How did you ever get them to give you a badge?”

His soft chuckle was back, but he sobered quickly. “No. I was never accused of anything. But my best friend was. She was my next door neighbor, and we pretty much grew up together. Our moms helped each other out, and it seemed like Casey and I were at each other’s houses nearly every day.”

He rubbed at his brow, and she wondered if he was getting a headache.

But when he looked up at her again, there was a fire in his eyes that almost made her want to jerk back.

“Casey was accused of putting a death spell on the old man who lived across the street from us,” he said, his tone full of fury.

Indigo’s chest tightened as she forced out, “A death spell?”

“Yes. The man was an angry soul who tormented all the kids on the street by letting his German shepherd loose to chase them all over the place. He was one of those creepers who everyone stayed away from. No one trusted him. Casey wasn’t afraid of him and just never paid him any attention. She’d say he was a weak, lonely man who was only looking for attention.”

“She was probably right,” Indigo said. “He sure sounds like the type.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Anyway, he pissed off the wrong person, and someone cursed him. They found out when he went to the hospital with heart failure. It was quickly learned that a spell caused it. He accused Casey, said that he saw her working dark magic in her garage. The next thing I knew, she was arrested and taken by the Magical Task Force.”

“She didn’t do it, did she?” There was no doubt in Indigo’s mind that his friend had been innocent. His anger was too palpable.

“No. But circumstantial evidence was found in her garage that tied her to the spell.” He sighed heavily. “She was quickly convicted despite there being no actual proof, and she was incarcerated for nearly a year while I worked to find out who cursed him. By the time I figured it out, it was too late.”

“Too late?” Indigo pressed her hand to her heart, fearing the worst.

“Too late to preserve any of her innocence.” A muscle in his jaw pulsed. “When she came out, she was radicalized and went deep into forbidden magic.” He closed his eyes for a long moment. “Nothing I said or did could pull her out of it.”

“What happened?”

His expression was blank when he said, “She passed away three years after she was released. One of the dark spells backfired, and that was the end.”

Indigo was speechless. That could have been her if she hadn’t had an airtight alibi all those years ago. She liked to think that she wouldn’t have succumbed to the dark side, but how could she know what she’d be like if she was locked up in a paranormal prison for a year?

“I’m so sorry, Niko. So you entered law enforcement because of Casey?”

He nodded. “I wanted to clean up the agency from the inside. Be the agent that Casey deserved the first time she was accused. I’m not saying she didn’t bear responsibility for how she lived her life after she was freed, but there’s no doubt that her incarceration was the catalyst for that lifestyle. I want to bring down bad actors while also making sure that innocents aren’t accused just so some power-starved, ego-driven jackass can further his career.”

Indigo reached across the table and slipped her fingers through his. “That’s very noble.”

“It’s not noble. It’s just… decency.” He grimaced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get on my soapbox. Anyway, I wasn’t a police officer before I joined the MTF. After I helped exonerate Casey, I was sort of taken under the wing of the division chief and got my foot in the door that way.”

Indigo drained the last of her wine and said, “I’m glad you did. The world needs good people to serve.”

“Unlike Paul ,” he said. “That guy is exactly the kind of investigator who is not above bending the rules to get the outcome he needs. But don’t worry. He’ll have to go through me first.”

Indigo couldn’t help but smile at him. “Are you going to be my bodyguard or something?”

“Or something.” He stood and started to gather their empty plates.

“Oh no. The chef does not do dishes.” Indigo waved him toward the couch. “Let me. And then we’ll have gelato.”

“You have gelato?” he asked, looking hopeful.

“Yep. Any self-respecting Italian girl wouldn’t be caught dead without some in her freezer.” She took the plates from him, kissed his cheek, and then got to work.

Once the kitchen was sparkling clean, she grabbed the jar of gelato and two spoons before joining him on the couch.

He took his spoon and dipped out a bit of chocolate gelato, but instead of tasting it himself, he held it out to her.

Indigo kept her gaze locked with Niko’s as she closed her lips around the spoon.

His gaze heated, and suddenly everything that had happened that night hit Indigo like a ton of bricks. He’d stepped in and saved her from being arrested. He’d listened to everything she had to say about the circumstances around Tricia’s death, and not only had he not judged her, but he’d also been sympathetic. Then he’d made her dinner and shared a deeply personal story about his childhood friend.

She felt closer to him than she’d ever felt with anyone else outside her immediate family.

All of her reasons for staying away from him fled and just like that, she no longer cared about her self-imposed rules.

“Niko?”

His voice was husky when he said, “Yes?”

“Will you stay the night… with me?”

His lips twitched into the sexiest half smile as he gave her the tiniest of nods.

She stood, took the gelato back to the freezer, and then returned and held her hand out to him.

The warmth of his hand on hers sent tingles of anticipation over her skin, and when they were in her bedroom, she slowly unbuttoned her blouse. As she let it fall to the floor, Niko was there, wrapping her in his arms.

His warm breath tickled her skin as he asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely,” she said, her gaze fixated on his lips. “Now kiss me.”

“Gladly.” His lips claimed hers and the rest of the world faded away as she finally gave herself over to the man she’d been dreaming about ever since she’d walked away from him after that one perfect night down in Florida.