Page 5 of Enchant the Dawn

“I just wanted to stop by to make sure you were all right.” He heard the sound of a dead bolt sliding back, and then the door opened just enough for her to peer out.

Brow furrowed, she looked him up and down. He saw the uncertainty in her eyes as she decided whether or not to let him in.

“I don’t blame you for being cautious,” he said. “I won’t bother you again. Good day.”

“Wait!” She unfastened the chain and opened the door. “Please, come in.”

Dominic felt a familiar shimmer of power as he crossed the threshold. Some mortals were sensitive to supernatural power. She was one of them, whether she recognized it for what it was or not.

He followed her into a spacious living room decorated in shades of blue and white with yellow accents.

“Please, sit down.”

He sat on the love seat she indicated.

“Can I get you anything? A glass of tea, perhaps?” she asked as she perched on the edge of the sofa across from him, keeping the glass-topped coffee table between them.

“No, thank you.” She was leery of him, he thought. Not that he could blame her after what she’d been through the night before. Listening to the rapid beat of her heart, sensing the uncertainty she was trying to hide, he was surprised she had let him in.

“I don’t want to keep you,” he said quietly. “I just wanted to see for myself that you were okay.”

“To tell you the truth, I’m not okay.” She laughed self-consciously. “Last night I slept with all the lights on.”

“It’s understandable.”

“You don’t think it’s cowardly?”

“Not at all. If it will make you feel better, I’ll come by later tonight and keep an eye on the place.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t.” He paused as a little white lie formed in the back of his mind. “I’m a bodyguard. It’s what I do.” It was true, in a way. He protected mortals from Transylvanian vampires.

“I’m not sure I can afford to pay you. I’m between jobs at the moment.”

“No charge.”

“But . . .”

He held up his hand to still her objections. “After last night, I feel sort of responsible for you.”

When his gaze met hers, something indefinable passed between them, a connection unlike anything she had ever experienced before. It sent a shiver of awareness skittering down her spine. With his gaze holding hers, she knew in some way she couldn’t explain or understand that he would never hurt her.

Dominic felt it, too, like an invisible thread connecting the two of them. It penetrated his very soul. “I never got your name.”

“It’s Madison. But everybody calls me Maddy.”

“It suits you.”

“I was about to make dinner,” she said, somewhat shyly. “Would you like to stay?”

“I’d be glad to take you out. Anywhere you’d like to go.” She bit down on her lower lip. “I don’t know.”

“We could meet somewhere if you’d rather.”

Why was she so reluctant to go out with him? Maddy wondered. If she trusted him to be in her home, why not in a car? “That won’t be necessary.” A strange warmth spread through her, and she was again struck by the feeling that he would never hurt her, that she could trust him with her life.

“Great. I hope you don’t mind driving. I don’t have a car.”

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