Page 13 of Witches and Wine
“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 tofuckyou?”
It was more about the worry of me climbing him like a damn redwood at this point. Could I trustmyselfwith 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 youwantto?” 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 solightly 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 aferret?” 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 wouldnevermanage 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 foundme.”
Dion didn’t answer right away. “Huh. Thatisfunny. 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.
