Bewitching Fire Page 6

  When there was a lull in conversation, her mind wandered to the idea of him, shirtless and sweating as he pumped iron. Thrilling.

  “So,” he began, “what do you do when you’re not working your coffee shop and going out to dinner with cops? Do you just garden?”

  Krystal giggled. “Well, for starters, I don’t go out with cops. When I’m not at the coffee shop, I do garden some, but when I have the time, I love to cook.”

  Devin’s brows shot up. “Cook?”

  She nodded. “Yep. It’s kind of a side-passion, next to coffee. When I was little, I’d help my mom make dinner. Sometimes, when she was too tired, she’d just shoo me into the kitchen and tell me to make us something. My dad thought that was a little demanding, but I loved it. I just think it’s amazing how you can follow a recipe exactly to the letter, using the correct measurements every time, and come out with something that will taste amazing every time. Cooking is… it’s reliable, exact, balanced. It gives me a thrill.”

  “So, why didn’t you start your own restaurant instead?” he asked as he pushed around a bit of extra sauce on his plate with the flat end of his fork.

  “There are plenty of restaurants in Goldcrest Cove.”

  “And you didn’t see the demand for it.”

  She grinned at his wonderful memory. Few people got her the way that he did. “Exactly.”

  Devin stopped playing with his food and set his fork down. “So, what’s your specialty dish, then?”

  Krystal thought for a moment. “It’s hard to pick, but I think my garlic mashed potatoes are my best. They’re always requested at our gatherings.”

  “Gatherings?”

  She tried not to let her surprise show, but he certainly would have picked up on the few seconds of silence as she scrambled for an explanation. No, she couldn’t tell him about their witch gatherings held eight times a year on the wiccan calendar. Though she wasn’t as devout as Alexa, she couldn’t begin to go into describing all the intricate rituals and practices that the witches of their town shared. More often than not, it was just the six of them hanging out at someone’s house on those given days.

  “Our family reunions,” she explained. “Whenever our family comes into town, we usually meet at our house and hold a pot luck. It happens more often than you’d think.”

  He seemed to accept that and nodded. “Well, I hope I’ll get to try some of your famous mashed potatoes. They sound pretty good already.”

  Did that imply that he wanted to be invited to one of their gatherings? Did she just talk herself into a corner? What if, months down the road, he found out that her family was in town and became offended that he wasn’t invited? She tried not to panic. They would cross that bridge when they came to it.

  “And you?” she questioned as she folded up her napkin and placed it over her empty plate. “What do you do when you’re not chasing bad guys or going out with baristas?”

  It then occurred to her that they were nearly alone in the restaurant. How long had they been talking?

  Devin didn’t seem to notice the way she looked around at the empty booths and the busboys washing down the tables. “I’ll admit that you’re the first barista I’ve ever gone out with, but in my off hours, I like to go fishing.”

  Krystal smiled and scrunched up her nose at how silly that sounded. It sounded so Andy Griffith. “Fishing?”

  He laughed at the face she made. “Yeah, my uncle owned a big fishing pond outside of Boston and I took every chance I got to go out and cast the line with him. He was a great guy, but he died when I was in high school. When I got my driver’s license, I traveled all over to find the best fishing spots. I guess that’s partly why I chose Goldcrest Cove. The town’s right on the coast and I heard the fishing out here is great.”

  “You heard right. That and sailing are the big attractions for tourists.”

  “I guess that helps you and your shop stay in business too?”

  Krystal nodded and huffed. “For the most part, yes. We’re actually going to be getting really busy soon because of the holidays. Families will be in town and if they can’t get coffee with their relatives, they’re going to come to Perfect Books and Brews.”

  As if he had a startling thought, Devin sat back in his chair. “That’s right, you sell books too. No doubt, you saw the need for a bookstore, right?”

  Krystal grinned. “I’m very practical.”

  “I can tell. You know what you want, too. I can respect that.”

  She leaned forward on her arms, being careful not to let her long hair fall into the bits of leftover sauce on her plate. “I could say the same for you. It looks like we both know what we want, and we don’t mess around when it comes to getting it either.”

  A hungry look glinted in his eyes, and it racketed up the heat level across her skin.

  “Is that another personality quirk of someone who drinks black coffee?” Devin asked. His voice dropped so low that little sparks skittered through her core and straight between her legs.

  “Maybe,” she replied with a flirty smile that she hoped would drive him just as crazy.

  Suddenly, the soft Italian opera music that had been playing for the last hour or so was cut short. Krystal looked up toward the hostess desk and she saw Tammi flip the closed sign.

  “Oh, shit,” she muttered. “Is it really nine o’clock?”

  Devin pulled out his phone from his jeans pocket. “It’s actually ten.”

  Krystal groaned and looked around for Mark. “I don’t even remember him bringing the check.”

  “I have it,” he said, slipping the receipt for their meal out from under his napkin near the edge of the table.

  She laughed. “I didn’t even notice.”

  “He brought it when you were telling me about the time Alexa cleaned the espresso machine and forgot to put a part back in. You thought it was broken for days before you found the missing part.”

  Krystal covered her mouth to suppress her laugh, mostly out of embarrassment that the rest of the world really did fade away when she was talking with Devin. She always thought that was such a cheesy love thing that was the stuff of movie scripts, but it really happened.

  They stood from the table after she helped to stack their plates and trash, so the busboy’s job would be a little easier. She grabbed the beautiful single rose he had gifted her, and they moved toward the front desk where Tammi was ready to take their payment. Krystal saw Devin leave a hefty tip on the table for Mark and she couldn’t help but admire him a little more for it.

  The waiter and his family had certainly been through a lot this year with the cancer diagnosis. It took forever for Krystal and the girls to convince Mark to bring his wife in for a cup of coffee, so they could covertly help in what little way they could.

  They stepped out into the night air and Devin helped her shrug into her coat to block out some of the chill. Though, Krystal would have been glad for a little cold breeze to blow up her dress and cool her off. She would stand by what she told Alexa and Valerie. She would not invite any man to her home.

  Not even if he was a hot, devoted cop who loved to fish.

  “Can I drive you home? Or at least walk you there?”

  In any other circumstance, she would have turned him down. She loved her solo walks between her home and work every day, but she wanted to spend as much time with Devin as she possibly could. That, and part of her wanted to share the experience with him, to let him see another piece of her secret world. It was the least she could do, as long as she couldn’t tell him the whole truth.

  “Let’s walk,” she offered. “It’s such a short distance that it’d be a waste of gas for you.” Devin agreed, and they set off toward Kellie Drive at a slow, ambling pace.

  “I take it you don’t have any siblings?” Krystal said, thinking of her own sister that would be looking through the window curtain when she came walking up with her date. She told her not to wait up, but it was very likely that Sierra would, just so she could ask
how the date went. “You didn’t mention any during dinner.”

  Devin’s hands were safely tucked away in his coat pockets while she twirled the rose between her fingers. “I have a younger sister, actually.”

  Krystal waited for more. Nothing but crickets. Literally. Crickets and the tapping of their shoes on the cement sidewalk. “Okay? Is she still in Boston?”

  “Yep.”

  She blinked back her confusion. He hadn’t been monosyllabic up until now, so what changed?

  “You two don’t get along, I assume.”

  He let out a heavy sigh and she could see the mist stream out between his lips. “She’s made some bad life choices, that’s all. I assume you and your sister are close since you two live together?”

  Krystal stepped a little closer and she could smell his cologne even better than when they were across the table from one another. “It’s mostly out of necessity, but we get along really well. We always have. Contrary to anything I’ve said tonight, my family’s a pretty tight-knit bunch. We have our fights sometimes, but it’s nothing we can’t resolve.”

  It occurred to her how perfect her life sounded compared to his. Devin wasn’t damaged goods, but she couldn’t imagine going through the kind of trials that he did. Her family had always been supportive and loving. A lot of magical families were. Big fights never ended well, so they learned how to compromise. Devin, being non-magical, didn’t have such conveniences. The worst that could come out of his drama was a broken family or a broken heart. If Krystal and her sister really went at it, they could easily destroy this whole town.

  Somehow, she wished she could tell Devin that not everything was so rosy. She wanted to lie and tell him something that would tarnish the image that her life was so unblemished and uncomplicated. It would need to be something so mundane, but nothing about her world was ordinary. If only he knew how truly chaotic things could be at times, how close she came to being discovered as a witch while working at the coffee shop alone.

  Her secret rested just on the tip of her tongue, waiting to spill out and ruin everything, but Krystal couldn’t utter a word.

  “It definitely sounds like I won’t be making any domestic violence calls to your place, then.”

  Krystal had been stuck in her own thoughts that she almost forgot who she was walking beside.

  “Believe me, you can come make a house call anytime you want.”

  The way the words spilled out over her lips, it might have sounded like she really was inviting him in. Or at least giving him permission to come knock on her door whenever he felt like it. The very thought of him standing on her front porch at some late hour, dressed down in his civilian clothes and wanting nothing more than to be with her, did exciting things to her body.

  Despite her suggestive blunder, Krystal smiled at the sidewalk as they turned onto Pinkerton Avenue.

  “I might just take you up on that. Now, I’ll know where you live without having to look at your driver’s license or look you up in the department database.”

  “Yep, you’ll know exactly where I’m at any time of the day,” she said. “That’s not completely fair, though.”

  She noticed how he veered closer to her. “How’s that?”

  “I don’t even know where you live, and since you patrol all over town, I’ll have no way to track you down.”

  He seemed to have gotten an idea and pulled out his cellphone. “Here,” he said. “Add your phone into my contacts and I’ll add mine into yours.”

  It sounded so high school to exchange phone numbers like that, but Krystal heartily agreed. She handed him her phone and hoped he wouldn’t say anything about her lock screen wallpaper.

  “Is this your cat?”

  Yep, he noticed. “It is. His name’s Artemis.”

  “Cute,” was all he said before programing his number in. She wanted to be nosy with his phone, but saw it still had the manufacturer-set wallpaper and nothing clearly personalized. Maybe that was his style, or maybe it was a new phone and he hadn’t had a chance to customize it yet. He also had very few contacts, and none of them read “Dad” or “Sister” when she surreptitiously scrolled for a bit.

  Krystal handed his phone back to him and they continued walking.

  “There, now you can reach me whenever you need me.”

  “I could probably just call 911 for that, too,” she teased.

  Devin made a face. “Yeah, but then you’ll have to get through dispatch first. I want you to be able to get a hold of me without the whole department knowing about it.”

  Krystal shot him a smirk. “Oh, don’t want everyone knowing that you dated the girl from the coffee shop?”

  He shrugged. “Well, you know… I wouldn’t want them to think I was dating you just to get free coffee or something.”

  She giggled. “I said you could try a chai tea latte on the house way before you asked me out, so they can’t throw that in your face.”

  Devin shrugged his brows. “True. Do you have any problems with this small town knowing that you went out with a cop?”

  She shook her head confidently. “Not at all. What could I possibly gain or lose from dating you?”

  “Free rides in the squad car maybe?”

  Krystal bit her lip, imagining her and Devin getting hot and heavy in the back seat. Didn’t matter what car, as long as they were fogging up the windows. “Maybe robbers would think twice about targeting my shop.”

  Devin chuckled. “Something tells me there’s not that much crime here.”

  “And you’d be right. You’re going to be pretty bored. Goldcrest Cove is nothing like Boston.”

  Now, he was so close that their elbows were constantly brushing, each touch sending little shocks of pleasure that threatened to buckle her knees.

  “It’s definitely nothing like Boston, for quite a few reasons. One of the most important being that Boston doesn’t have you.”

  Krystal grinned and she could feel her cheeks ache. She hadn’t smiled this much in so long that her face wasn’t quite used to it. “You really are a flatterer.”

  “I’m totally serious,” he contested. “You’re pretty amazing, you know that?”

  She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. She didn’t think herself any more impressive than the next girl. No man had ever complimented her like that, anyway.

  There were a million things she could point out about herself that made her less than amazing. She slurped her coffee, she always put the toilet paper back on the roll the wrong way – sometimes not at all. She still felt like she was stumbling through this business thing with her coffee shop. And she still had a long way to go before she reached her true potential as a witch. She wasn’t even thirty yet and was still a child in her parent’s eyes.

  If anyone was amazing, it was Devin. He had a rough life and came out of it with a good career at least, even if his family was dysfunctional. He made something of himself and still turned into an upstanding citizen and a gentleman.

  “Historic landmark?” he questioned.

  Krystal looked up and realized they had almost passed her house. She turned and saw him reading the plaque next to the walkway that led up to her front porch. The low brick retaining wall between them and her lawn was just as old as the house itself, but made for an excellent place to sit if she wanted. Instead, she leaned against the square pillar next to the entrance to the walkway. Perched on top, sat an antique oil lamp that had been fashioned with solar lighting a couple of years ago.

  “Yeah, remember how I said my family helped found this town? This was one of the first homes built.”

  “And you live here?” he asked, sounding rather surprised as his gaze diverted to the old two-story house behind the sign.

  “Yep. Believe me, it’s not that glamorous.”

  “You’ve kept it up very well.”

  Krystal peered around the pillar, wondering which window Sierra was peeking through to spy on her. Only one light appeared on in one of the upstai
rs bedrooms. “Thanks. We try.”

  Devin stepped closer and Krystal realized she had her back to the pillar still, trapped and utterly vulnerable. She liked the feeling. Maybe Alexa was onto something when she talked about those handcuffs. Too bad he didn’t have any now.

  “I had a great time tonight,” she said, breaking the building silence between them.

  “I did too,” he replied, his voice dropping into a soft whisper. Even in the dim light of the lamp above her head, she could see his eyes dart between her mouth and eyes, as if he were debating whether to kiss her or not.

  She licked her lips, readying herself for what she had wanted since the moment they met in the coffee shop.

  “I think you’ve ruined me for any other dinner date I’ll ever have,” she teased.

  “What if we have another dinner date? Do you think I could top tonight’s?”

  “Depends what you follow it up with.”

  Damn that sounded so suggestive, but Krystal didn’t care. She’d suggest all she wanted as long as it would plant that idea into his head that she definitely wouldn’t mind another date. She wouldn’t mind a hundred dates after tonight. Being with him felt so right, so perfect.

  “Well, I guess I better set a precedent then,” he said before slipping his hand in her hair and pulling her up to meet his soft, silky lips.

  Krystal sighed against him and wrapped her arms around his neck, ignoring the way her heavy purse resisted against her shoulder. Devin’s free hand wrapped around her waist to steady her.

  Her whole body came alive with a fiery passion that she had never felt before. She didn’t just want to keep kissing Devin, she wanted to be consumed by him, heart and soul. Her muscles trembled as the pleasure mounted in her core.

  His lips parted, and his tongue slipped into her mouth, playing and toying with her own. She had kissed guys before, but never like this. Krystal wove her fingers through his hair, gripping to keep him there for as long as possible. She was drowning in his scent and kiss, and she didn’t want to come up for air.