Page 7 of Witches and Wine (The Mythical Mates of Arcane Cove #1)

The next day, I awoke from the strangest dream.

One would think it’d have been of the scandalous variety with a specific wine god, but it was me staring out my apartment window from such an incredibly odd angle.

It was as if I was leaning my head on the armrest of the couch or something.

My head motions were also weird because I moved so suddenly and erratically.

When I opened my eyes, I stretched my limbs into a star beneath my comfy pale green comforter and yawned.

Riley was perched on the couch’s armrest staring out the—I sat up and stared at my pet ferret. He was staring out the same window I’d dreamt about. How was that possible? He suddenly turned circles, his nose twitching, and abruptly stopped pointing out the window with his elongated body.

“Chelsea,” Dion yelled from outside.

He’d said we would get started this morning, but why would he be here this early? Glancing at the digital clock on my nightstand did nothing for my cause. I’d slept in. Really slept in. It was almost ten thirty. I couldn’t recall a time I’d ever slept this late.

“Oh, Red,” Dion beckoned again, louder this time. “I’m going to keep embarrassing you until you acknowledge my presence.” He’d drawn out the first “e,” and by the tilt in his voice, I could tell he grinned through it all.

Biting back a smile, I scrambled from my bed and knelt on the couch, unlocking the window and pushing it open.

Dion stood on the sidewalk in front of my building, clad in his usual combat boots, military jacket, torn dark jeans, and tightly ribbed tank top.

I clenched my thighs together and leaned my forearms on the sill. “Didn’t think to knock on my door?”

“How could I?” Dion shielded his eyes with a hand from the sun. “I didn’t know which one was yours.”

Tapping my hands on the wood, I leaned out further, half my body through the window now. “I thought a man of your—” I paused, knowing most of the building and anyone passing by could hear us, and I didn’t want to blow his cover. “—caliber would have a way to tell?”

Dion scrunched his nose like he’d gotten a whiff of minotaur shit. “Like how?”

“I don’t know. X-ray vision? Like Superman?” It took everything in me not to sway my hips like a teeny bopper with a crush on a rock star with what this man did to me. And here I was again with zero make-up, and I couldn’t care less.

Dion laughed and shook his head. “Trust me. No one wants me with that kind of power. You comin’ down, or do I have to fireman carry you out of there?”

My stomach flipped over itself at that, and I tightly gripped the window’s molding. “Give me five minutes.”

Dion nodded as if he didn’t believe me. “So, in female code, does that mean an hour?”

“What?” I feigned shock, pressing a hand to my chest. His gaze zeroed in on the placement instantaneously. “Alright, thirty minutes tops. Do you want to wait inside?”

The words flew from my mouth before I had a chance to think about the implications of such a simple question rationally.

Dion’s hand dropped, and he arched a thickly sculpted brow. “In your apartment?”

I knew inviting him in was playing with fire, but it’d been so long since I took risks.

Nodding, I lifted my chin. “Yeah. As long as you can grab the door in time for me to buzz you in. Three, two—” Not giving him another part of the countdown, I dashed for the buzzer, all out giggling as I went and hit the button.

The lower-toned sound indicating the street door had been opened resonated, and I swooned over a freaking door.

My heart raced as I waited for him to reach my apartment, my hands clasped under my chin. The deep thuds of his booted, heavy steps echoed down the hallway until they stopped, and his knuckles knocking on my door replaced it. “It’s me, Red.”

Pressing my eye to the peephole, I yelped when his face, distorted by the fisheye effect, stared back at me. “You’ll have to specify who me is, I’m afraid.”

“You do know I can still get in there with the door locked?”

“Let me get this straight. You can’t see through walls, but you can penetrate them?” Of all the words I could’ve chosen. Penetrate? I rubbed my feet together like a cricket.

Dion pressed his hands on each side of the peephole and flashed me a wicked grin. “You want to see me break the door down, don’t you? That part of your hidden kink, Chelsea?”

My skin flushing, I immediately unlocked and opened the door, sending both our hair in winded plumes.

He was leaning on the doorframe. Leaning . It wasn’t even the least bit fair. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” I replied, peeling wood grains from my side of the door with a nail.

“You asked me up here, Red. You gonna invite me in?” Dion’s caramel eyes lifted behind me, trying to peer into my apartment.

Suddenly feeling exposed despite being fully clothed, I closed the door enough for him to only to see my face. “That depends. Are you going to try to have your way with me?”

Dion chuckled—deep, masculine, and a pure carnal hymn. “Have my way with you, Chels? You’re worried about me trying to fuck you?”

It was more about the worry of me climbing him like a damn redwood at this point. Could I trust myself with him in my personal space?

When I didn’t answer straight away, Dion hovered his face near mine. “Is it because you’re afraid you’d let me? Because you want to?” His gaze lowered to my lips at those last words.

His scent infiltrated my senses—wine, soap, and a little earthy. “That’s hardly fair, D. You know the essence you give off to mortal women. Why do you think I restricted us to texting this entire time?”

The smile on Dion’s face turned predatory. “Why not let go a little, Stewart? See where being impulsive takes you, hm?”

I’d sensed my growing attraction for him from the moment he’d waltzed into my life, and it only grew with each passing conversation via written word alone.

But now, seeing him again after all this time, after the flirting and the pining, there was a pull—a delicious tug on my bones and soul—and it terrified me.

“Letting go around you, Dionysus is like stepping into the path of a tornado with your arms spread.” I’d breathed out the words, my gaze unabashedly roaming his chiseled jawline and his taut, muscular torso hiding behind that tank top.

“That’s the thing about tornadoes, though—” Dion shifted some of the hair that fell into my eyes. His fingertip ever so lightly brushed my cheek, and the contact was like a lightning strike to my skin. “They’re unpredictable and just might surprise you.”

Leaning further into him because I could not help my damn self, I slowly closed my eyes, my lips parting?—

A tiny growl sounded from behind me.

“Is that a ferret ?” Dion asked, his mouth lingering near mine, but his gaze had shifted over my shoulder.

Riley stood on his hind legs, growling and hissing, his paws batting the air in front of him as if he intended to swat Dion with them.

Sighing, I pushed open the door, the mood officially squelched by my pet ferret. He’d undoubtedly done me a favor, so I couldn’t be that mad at him for it. “It is. You’re not allergic or anything, are you?”

Dion gave me a look that suggested I should have rethought my question.

“Right. Come on in,” I said, breezing him through the doorway with a flourish.

Dion went from a burly, macho man to a cooing animal lover within breath’s reach of Riley. He hunched forward, resting his palms on the tops of his thighs. “Hey there, little guy. I’m Dion. Not a threat to your mama, I promise.”

Riley gave a final hiss before he hesitantly sniffed Dion’s offered arm. After several circles, another sniff or two, and multiple gropes with his paws, my ferret deemed Dion trustworthy and spiraled up his arm, resting in the crook of it.

“Okay, he’s fucking adorable. What’s his name?” Dion chuckled and used a single finger to scratch Riley’s head.

“Riley.” I crossed my arms and watched as a Greek god won over my ferret’s heart within seconds. Most beings would never manage to win his affection.

“How’d you find him?”

Leaving those two to get further acquainted, I moved to the bathroom to primp. “Funny enough, he found me .”

Dion didn’t answer right away. “Huh. That is funny. What do you mean exactly?”

“It was the strangest thing because I went for a run on one of those wooded trails that used to be by me in Colorado. He scampered from the trees and stood on the path on his hind legs. It was like he demanded my attention.” Laughing, I put curlers in my hair and started on my make-up.

“You don’t say,” Dion responded—distant and thoughtful.

With only one eye done up, I leaned from the doorway with a narrowed gaze. “Why did you say it like that?”

Dion appeared in deep thought but snapped to attention and plastered a wide smile. “No reason. Just listening.”

Studying him for a minute longer, I acquiesced and dipped back into the bathroom. “Anyway, something compelled me to take him in, so I adopted him, and the rest is history. He’s been my best bud ever since. Well, besides my sister and Harm.”

Dion guffawed. “Preferring non-animals to be superior friends? How barbaric.”

“Shut up,” I replied through a smile, my voice distorted from applying mascara. “So, who are you introducing me to? I have to say, I’m pretty curious.”

“About that, Red,” Dion said, his voice louder and closer from standing in the bathroom doorway, my ferret still curled within his arm.

After sucking in a quick breath and dropping the make-up wand, I turned and held onto the sink behind me for dear life.

“I want to make you a deal.” Dion’s gaze focused on the curlers in my hair, a warm smile edging his lips.

My grip tightened on the marble from his proximity, but gods help me, I loved every moment of it. “A deal?”

“I’m going to introduce you to a single client to start, and if they agree to sign on, we go on that date early and continue tomorrow.” Dion’s eyes pinned mine, a sort of hopeful plea resonating there.

He was certainly up to something, and it only made me more curious.

“This must be a pretty prestigious client. What do they do?” My shoulders relaxed, and instead of pressing into the sink, I rested on it.

Dion’s jaw tightened, and his gaze turned to the ceiling before landing back on me. “He’s a rock star .”

A rock star? That could be huge for me—for my career.

“A mythical one,” he added, enticing a smile from me that could have put the sun’s brightness to shame.