Sassy Ever After: A Witchingly Sassy Seduction (Kindle Worlds Novella) (2 page)

Chapter 2

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the deep voice with a sexy lilt, said behind her.

“What?” Celia turned back, almost falling. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard anyone approach… and that voice should be classified as vocal seduction.

She’d been caught red handed—again. First the Scenting Ceremony and now this great idea gone oh so wrong. It was official—she sucked at hiding—and her life was on a trajectory course for disaster. She was currently perched up on the roof of the second story portion in back of an old building. To top that off, said current position was in the most unflattering way she could have contorted her body.  There was no other way to explain it. This guy had just caught her trying to pry her way into this window.

What was it with this town? She couldn’t catch a break.

The other night at the private Scenting Ceremony, she’d barely escaped that silent, sexy wolf. No, that was a flat out lie. She’d been about to spread eagle and beg him to fuck her senseless, when he up and left her high and not-so-dry. Now she was about to go to jail for breaking and entering—although she hadn’t gotten the chance to enter yet.

“I was just—”

His massive hand shot up to stop her.

“Save it. I can see what you were just about to do.” She didn’t miss the hint of laughter in the man’s deep voice, but, what could she say? She’d been the one peering into that window, trying to size up if her body would fit through it.

“I wasn’t trying to break in or anything.” Even to her, this sounded more like a plea than a statement.

She was never good when caught off guard. This would qualify as one of those times. At this moment, yeah, her lying skills around this man were on par with a toddler caught with cupcake on her face. The major difference was she wasn’t a little cute, adorable kid. Naw, this was simply pitiful and sad.

Celia couldn’t make out much of his face with that worn blue baseball cap pulled low over his features, but the rest of him was lethal in how good he looked, standing there. He was very tall with a lean build and broad shoulders. Maybe he was an athlete or something, from the look of his confident stance and overall physical condition. His body was doing most of the talking at the moment and it knew how to strike up a sexy conversation. 

Focus Celia! Jail is never a good option—no matter how fine the guy is who could take you there. Get your head back into the game.

A tilt of his head up, and she saw a little more of his face.

Damn-it-to-hell.

Brilliant gray-blue eyes, probing and mysterious like moonlight, locked with hers once again.

“How about you come down from there before you get hurt or something worse happens?” The ease with which his deep voice lulled her was too dangerous for her to trust herself to pull off any clever action, let alone produce any intelligent response.

Those eyes. They were the same ones from the other night. Yep, she was certainly fucked, and not in a good way.

Shit!

Celia trembled with equal parts embarrassment, incoordination of her limbs and arousal. She didn’t want to allow him to see how much he rattled her or how hard she’d struggled to get up there in the first place. It hadn’t been pretty, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Plus, he’d left her aching and confused the other night. She didn’t know if she was more angry, embarrassed or shamefully turned on right now.

Double damn him.

When she took a little too long to make her procession back down, he took a long stride closer, climbed up a few feet and reached for her. His reach was long enough to grab her dangling ankle.

“Let me help you down.”

His touch electrified and almost scared the shit out of her.

“No, I got it,” she said, involuntarily snatching her ankle out of his grasp. “Why don’t you go on about your business?” Celia looked around to see if anyone else was nearby, as she said, “Go on now. There’s nothing to see here. I’m getting down.”

She continued to jab her foot at his hand, waving him off. This must have done something for her balance, since she made another successful step down. Gaining courage and confidence that she could do this on her own, Celia made it closer to the ledge separating the two stories of the building. She felt his penetrating gaze watch everything she did.

Chancing another look backward at him, she tried to assure him she was fine by explaining, “I was just trying to see if anyone was in there.” She didn’t know why she felt the need to give him an explanation, but it tumbled out anyway. “I tried the door and got no answer. So, I decided to see if there was anyone inside in the back.”

“Uh-huh.” Pointing to her now precarious position on the shallow ledge, he gave the sexiest crooked grin. “And, you thought climbing up sixteen feet and trying to get inside a window that clearly looked like it’d been painted shut for at least a decade was the best way to enter the place?”

Celia put on her best poker face. She had to hide how unnerving his presence was on her. Plus, this height was starting to make her shaky. This was the wolf from the other night. Did he recognize her? She wanted to shrink into the bricks she currently clung to for dear life. If she told him the truth, maybe he might let her go. Naw, she didn’t want his or anyone else’s pity. She could do this—alone.

Deciding on a tougher demeanor, she mustered up gumption she didn’t have. Closing her eyes to get it out, like her mother had taught her as a child when she needed to say something difficult, she blurted out, “Don’t you have something else better to do? I’m fine and don’t need your help getting down.” With that she gave a final kick away from his hand and decided to scoot down using her belly to absorb the abuse from the old siding of the building.

That little show of independence hurt. Shake it off and act like you’ve got this. Got to make him go away.

“Fine, I’ll let you get down on your own,” he said putting both hands up and backing away. “But, I’m not leaving until I know you’re safely back on the ground. You seem to have a bit of a struggle going on there.”

Heat reached her cheeks driving the insatiable urge to spit and curse—at him. Her “bit of a struggle” was the way her body teetered off the ledge of the roof. The ledge was snugly fitted into the space just below the muffin top of her stomach. She knew he could see it, since her top was also caught in the indention of her stomach. This was beyond, really beyond awkward.

Celia continued to struggle with the ledge. Her feet dangled higher up than was safe for her to make it down to the next sure footing. And… he continued to watch—quiet and patient. A scream of frustration tried to escape her, only to be caught in time as she found a way to place her foot on a decorative piece of brick of the building’s exterior.

Not to be totally undone, she decided to take her frustration out on him.

“How’s the show from down there? Try not to keep looking at my ass.” The slight didn’t have the sting she wanted—not with her wheezing between each word as she finally freed her belly from the roof ledge.

“Yes, the view is quite entertaining. I especially like watching your ass—it’s riveting.”

She could sense the smug satisfaction before she looked to confirm it on his chiseled features. 

“Don’t you have something else better to do?”

“Nope. It’s not like some she-wolf is pacing, waiting for me in the distance over there,” he said with a lazy assurance that made her tingle.

So he
did
remember her and understood everything she said the other night. That asshole! For a split second, Celia entertained the thought of falling on him, squashing his gorgeous ass like a bug.

Naw, not going to add attempted murder to the B&E charge waiting for me when I hit the ground.

Making it to the lowest part of the building before getting her footing back on the ground, Celia shot him the dirtiest look she could muster.

His answering smile was too dazzling for words.

“Here I was thinking I’d lost track of you forever, when low and behold, I find you trying to break into one of the fiercest members of the Wolfe family’s property. Nathan doesn’t take too kindly to folks trying to sneak into The Thirsty Wolfe.” He took his time appraising how she hung to the side of the building. Then, as if in afterthought, he said, “Darling, that could get you killed around here.”

“I wasn’t trying to break in—not for anything bad. I just needed…” She stopped. The less she told him, the harder it would be for them to find her.

Like her grandma always said, “Your business gets told because you tell it.” She wasn’t going to sink her chances for survival by trusting anyone.

Instead, she decided to stay on the offensive. “You left me. What was I supposed to do? Stick around and wait for another wolf to come along? It’s not like I was invited or anything to that ceremony.”

“True, I wasn’t participating either.” He watched her, as she straightened her clothes and tried to regain some composure. Then he asked, “What are you doing in
this
town—Blue Creek? You don’t seem like a local and I know you’re not a shifter. You’re human, but your scent is different somehow.” After he leaned in to look her over with those dazzlers he used for eyes and took in a big sniff, he said, “Come on and tell me. What are you, lovey?”

What she was, was tired, frustrated and annoyed. Celia didn’t have time for this. It was late afternoon and she needed to find a place to settle down for the night. Something deep inside kept her uneasy. Maybe she could find another place to hide out for the night, once she ditched him.

Instead of telling him that, she opted for diplomacy.

“I’m a woman of course.”

“I can see that.” He leaned in, continuing to sniff and look at her as if she was some intriguing spectacle and said, “You know what I mean. You’re more than human. So, what gives? What are you?”

Deciding to have a little fun and finally turn the tables, she jested, “Some might say I’m Chocolate Wonder Woman.”

She’d never given into the stigma most wanted her to bear for her ancestry or ethnicity. Sure, she came from a long line of powerful magic workers and seers. Some might even dare to call them witches and psychics. The fact that they came from Africa, over to the Caribbean, up through Louisiana, onto the Mississippi River, and Delta to populate the Americas, was none of his never mind.

What she most definitely wouldn’t disclose to him or anyone else was that the “gift” seemed to have skipped her—entirely. She was simply a woman of color on the move. Celia relied on her gift of gab more than any type of paranormal tendencies her family may have commanded. That wasn’t something she could use. Thus, this handsome shifter needed to take his discerning nose and go far away from her—now. 

“Chocolate Wonder Woman—eh? I like it… a lot.”

Hell’s farts, that wasn’t supposed to be a conversation starter. She had to get this man off her scent and onto another shiny object. He was like a dog in search of his favorite bone. And she wasn’t that bone!

“Look, I’m back on the ground and going on my way. Thanks for stopping and offering to help, but I’ve got this.”

She turned and walked away, not wanting to give him another way into a conversation when she felt him walking behind her. Celia wanted to seize the opportunity to make a clean getaway before he remembered he’d caught her committing a crime. Plus, she still had to retrieve her belongings and raggedy car before someone discovered them. And, the last person she wanted tagging along was
this
man.

“So you’re going to stalk me now?” she asked, not liking how easy it was to feel comfortable around him.

“Uh-huh.”

“What if I don’t want you following me around? What if I have some private things to attend to?”

“I’ll wait on you. You seem like you need a little watching over, as I can see it.”

What was she, a confused puppy or a charity case to him?

“But I didn’t ask for your help. What we have here is a failure to communicate. I don’t need your help. Therefore, you need to leave me alone. Otherwise, it’s called stalking.” She turned around to face him to punctuate her words, in time to crash into his rock hard chest. “Damn it! Stop doing that!”

“Doing what?”

“Getting in my way!”

“But you’re the one who stopped abruptly.”

“I know, but you shouldn’t have been following me so closely.” She pushed against the firm wall of muscle he used as a stomach, inching him back some. “Shoo. I really don’t need your protection. I’m fine,” she said with another dismissive wave.

“Shoo? I’m not some puppy dog.”

She cocked an eyebrow, questioning his assertion.

“Okay—but I’m not a dog—I’m a wolf.”

“Uh-huh and I’m gone.”

Afternoon waned. It would be evening soon and she still needed a place to crash. She pushed against him again, determined to get the unnervingly handsome pest to go in the other direction. Any other situation and she’d be pulling him in her direction. Instead, she was in the back alley of some buildings, trying to push what had to be the sexiest man she’d ever encountered, in a direction opposite hers.

He didn’t budge. Instead, he stood there, rooted to the spot, with a beautiful, thick male eyebrow cocked up, examining her—again.