Deep lines of tension bracketing his mouth, Sam continued staring at Marabella for a long spell. A brief flash of some unrecognizable yet intense emotion glimmered in his eyes. “Fine, I’ll stay.”
She wanted to argue. Panic even cattle-prodded the words along her throat, but before they found exit, Cass swiveled and headed toward the stairway. Cass stopped at the banister and beamed a megawatt smile. “This will work out. You’re a thousand times safer with Sam watching over you.”
Marabella veered her focus to Sam and met his hot, predatory gaze. She gulped. That’s debatable.
Chapter Fifteen
“I need to go back downstairs and open up my shop again.”
Sam gave a lazy swipe of his chiseled belly. “I’m gonna use the john and then I’ll be right down.”
She gaped at him. “You can’t hang out down there. What if one of my colleagues shows up?”
He arched one dark eyebrow. “What if Pricilla does?”
Damn, she hated to admit it, but he had a point. “Okay, but I expect you to disappear at the first sign of another witch.”
“No argument from me there, babe. Two witches in the same room is two too many for me.”
Ooh, he was so damn irritating. Which only made it all the more frustrating when she caught herself ogling his ass as he sauntered toward the bathroom. Her grumble leaking free, she turned and stormed down to the store.
She managed to distract herself from Sam’s presence for a whopping ten minutes while she finished unpacking and pricing the remaining suncatchers. Her composure slipped when he strode into the small room where their illicit rendezvous had occurred. His gaze immediately trekked to the brass daybed. “You changed the pillows.”
“And the sheets and comforter. I couldn’t exactly leave it after…”
His hot, smoldering scrutiny returned to her. “After we burned the sheets fantastic?”
She blushed. “I wasn’t going to phrase it that way, but yes.”
Sam’s focus dipped to her mouth and lingered there for an endless moment. “How were you going to phrase it, sweet Bella?” he asked in that silky-smooth tone that provoked tingles in inappropriate places. “The way I see it, you can’t get more accurate than that.”
“Oh no? How about after you tricked me into having sex with you, after which you snuck away into the night? Has a nice truthful ring to it, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t sneak away. You were sleeping, damn it.”
She shot him a disbelieving stare. “You might be the only person I’ve had sex with, but that doesn’t mean I’m so innocent I don’t realize just how lameass an excuse that is.” It was tempting to give him a further piece of her mind, but she tempered the urge. Why bother? It wasn’t like he possessed a damn conscience about such things. Instead, she picked up one of the suncatchers and polished it with the soft cloth she’d fetched from the kitchen. She could feel Sam watching her, but she refused to verify it with her own eyes. Maybe if she remained silent long enough, he’d get the point and take his aggravating self elsewhere.
“I figured I was doing us both a favor by leaving.”
His reluctant admission jerked her head up, and she met his gaze. He scratched the dark stubble on his jaw, the gesture oddly vulnerable. “You and I both know nothing could have come of that night beyond the amazing sex.”
Yes, she did know that. But the damnable part was her brain seemed to be fixated on the least important section of his admission. “You think the sex was amazing?”
His attention drifted to her lips again. “That’s an understatement.” He took a step toward her, and she unconsciously tilted her face toward his. His mouth descended, and her pulse accelerated with anticipation and excitement. When their lips were a hairsbreadth from touching, the chimes tolled. They both jerked away from each other like a thunderbolt just struck between them.
“I—I better go see who that is.” She pushed past Sam and dashed from the room. The phrase saved by the bell had never been more apropos.
The remainder of the work day passed with no further close calls. Still, that didn’t keep her from feeling paranoid and jumpy as she locked the doors and traipsed upstairs with Sam. She wished she could say her nervousness stemmed from the past several hours of dealing with fear over Sam being discovered or the mysterious Pricilla walking into the store. But the truth was a large portion of her jitters primarily revolved around the prospect of being alone with Sam. Yes, they’d mostly had the store to themselves, but that wasn’t the same as spending the night together in the close quarters of her cramped apartment.
They stepped onto the top landing, and a whoosh of air hit her seconds before Cass and another redhead appeared out of the ether. Marabella bit back a yelp.
A chagrined smile tipped Cass’s mouth. “Sorry, didn’t know you guys were on your way up here.”
Sam grunted. “So I take it you scrounged up a teleport bracelet?”
“Yeah, mine.” Cass grimaced. “Trust me, I had a tough time convincing Pops that this isn’t a sign of me wanting back in the business.”
“Fuck.” Sam’s eyebrows slashed low. “You didn’t tell Tobias your reason for wanting it, did you?”
“Of course not. Although he did ask if I knew you had a bounty on your head. Safe to say he’s suspicious about where Nik and I have been.”
While Sam muttered several more colorful swear words, the statuesque redhead next to Cass extended her hand. “Marabella? I’m Nikki.” She flashed a grin that displayed her pearly whites in all their glory. “Huh, during all of his delusional ramblings, numbnuts over there didn’t get around to mentioning how pretty you are.”
Delusional ramblings? Before she could inquire what Nikki meant, Sam clamped his hand on his cousin’s shoulder, effectively tugging her hand away from Marabella’s.
“My car better be in one piece.”
“It is. Mostly.” Nikki chuckled in response to Sam’s growl. “Relax, Cujo. It’s safe and sound in your garage.”
“Good. Make sure she stays that way.”
Nikki sent Marabella a commiserating look. “Does he constantly bite your head off too? Or am I the only lucky recipient when it comes to that charming aspect of his personality?”
“Hell, I was pleasant today,” Sam groused. “I even helped with moving some furniture and shit around.”
Nikki’s eyes widened. “Wow, that’s almost civil of you.”
Cass cleared her throat pointedly, breaking into Sam and Nikki’s private jab fest. “I take it there wasn’t any trouble from Pricilla?”
Sam shook his head and stepped past the sisters. “How about on your end?”
Cass followed him to the couch. “No, but as predicted, we spotted a pair of her goons parked in a black SUV down the street from your house.”
Sam sprawled onto a cushion and rubbed his chin. “Sooner or later, Pris is gonna get wise to the cuff switcheroo. Especially if they don’t spot me ever leaving the house.”
Marabella joined them at the couch and frowned. “Cuff switcheroo?”
Sam hiked up the leg of his jeans, revealing some kind of strange silver manacle banding his right ankle. “Courtesy of good ole Pris.”
“It’s a tracking device,” Cass explained. “We were able to exchange its chip with the one from Nik’s reaper cuffs.”
“Reaper cuffs?” Wow, she’d really had that cloak-and-sickle thing all wrong.
Nikki plopped onto the arm of the couch. “They lock into the electromagnetic field attached to spirits and keep them bound until the soul is transferred to its proper resting place.”