Chapter Two
Yeah, I was hiding. From a man. In my defense, Darius was a breathtakingly gorgeous man who, despite everything I knew about him and a dose of magic, was getting to me. Couldn't have that. I wasn't about to become one of Darius's conquests. So, I was “working” on refilling a potion in my office.
Around me, the walls were covered in shelves and those shelves were stocked with ingredients for my potions. I could cast spells as well, but I preferred to do that at home. The only reason I made my potions at the bar was so that I didn't have to transport them across town. Can you imagine getting into an accident with a carload of magical potions? It would be an epic mess.
It was much easier to make them on-site and lock them away once they were empowered. And if I ran low of something, I could quickly restock. Which is what I needed to do with the bottle before me.
The sound of clicking bottles comforted me and slowed my racing heart. Perusing the labels and gathering the ingredients was like a signal to my brain that we were about to do some magic. And I loved magic. It was the best thing to take my mind off a sexy, no-good man. I took everything to my desk. I did normal work there as well, but all the papers were put away and my potion mat laid over the wood. Atop the waterproof mat were spoons, knives, a mortar and pestle, a funnel, and a pottery mixing bowl. I took a deep, cleansing breath and got to work.
I had just finished the incantation to empower the potion when I heard my office door open.
My employees rarely interrupted me when I was in my office and if they did, they knocked. No one entered unannounced. They all knew I mixed my “elixirs” back there, and no one wanted to interrupt the boss at work. So, I instantly knew that whoever was coming into the room wasn't supposed to be there. Then, before I could turn to see who it was, that person grabbed my shoulder. I reacted instinctively, flinging what was in my hand—the potion.
Darius cried out as he was drenched in liquid and let go of me.
“What the fuck?!” I screeched.
He swiped at his wet face. “What do you mean? I'm the one covered in . . . what the hell is this?” Then he blinked.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered as I looked down at the bottle in my hand even though I already knew what I'd see—a handwritten label that read, “Open Your Heart.”
It was a potion to help people focus more on love than lust. A lot of women ordered it for their dates. Not that it made people fall in love. It just opened them to the possibility of it. It allowed someone to see what love could be like. If, by the end of the evening, the target didn't seem more interested in getting to know their date rather than getting into their underpants, then the woman would know for certain that she had no future with the guy.
But the potion was meant to be used sparingly. A tablespoon at most. Darius was covered in the stuff. Granted, it worked best if ingested, but absorption through the skin was good too. Or not good, as the case may be.
“I knew it,” Darius whispered.
“Oh, fuck,” I said again. “I'm so sorry, Darius. But no one comes back here when I'm working. I thought—”
“I had this feeling,” he went on, still dripping potion from his chin. “When I spoke to you tonight, my chest tightened. I knew it was you.”
“Okay, buddy. Why don't you sit down?” I took his arm to lead him to a chair.
Darius grabbed my waist and spun us so that I was backed against the chair I'd been leading him to. He pushed me down into it, following me as he went to his knees before me. “Amélie, you're the one. The one I've been looking for.”
“Right.” I grimaced and rolled my eyes. I'd called it. He was one of those men searching for the one. Great. “I'm not your soul mate, Darius. Take a breath.”
His face twitched. “I'm going too fast.” He frowned. “I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm acting like this. I came back here to ask you out. That's all.”
“I'm a bit of a . . . an herbalist. I make potions. You just got drenched in Open Your Heart. It's meant to make people more inclined toward love than lust. But don't worry. It will pass in a few hours. Then you can go back to your man-whoring.”
Darius stared at me. Then he laughed, throwing his head back to expose the strong line of his throat.
I scowled at him. “I'm not joking. My potions work. You are evidence of that.” I waved at him.
“Oh, I know you're not joking.” He chuckled a bit more, then shook his head. “I should have known.”
“Known what?” I couldn't follow him. Maybe the potion was affecting him worse than I'd thought. “That I wasn't joking?”
“That you're a witch.”
“A . . . a what?” I stuttered while inside my head, I thought, How the fuck does he know that?!
Darius held up his hands as if in surrender and stood up. “I'm not making fun of you. I know about your kind.”
“You . . . what is it that you think you know?” I stood up.
“More than you, Amélie,” he said gently.
I snorted. “Right. Okay, Darius. I think maybe you should go home now. Sleep it off.”
“Do you know how you got your magic?” Instead of leaving, he closed the office door and leaned against it, crossing his arms.
“I'm not a witch. I don't have any magic. I just make herbal remedies.” I almost winced. Each lie had been almost painful to say.
“Herbal remedies that open hearts to love?” Darius lifted a dark brow. “What else do they do? Heal broken hearts? Make people brave?”
“Alcohol makes people brave without any help from me. They call it liquid courage for a reason.”
“Yeah, but it doesn't open hearts or heal them.” He smirked. “You help people, don't you? You can't help but help people. It drives you—the goodness inside your soul.” His smirk shifted into something softer. “Dear gods, that's why you shine. You just glow with it. You're so fucking beautiful. I don't know how I missed it. How did I ever walk past you without falling to my knees?”
“Okay, you need to go.” I shoved at his shoulder. “Move, please.”
“No.” He smirked again.
“Move!”
Oh, he moved all right. Darius yanked me into his arms and kissed me. As soon as his lips met mine, I became another woman. The man was pure sex, and I couldn't resist him when he was groaning like that, his tongue gently flicking at my lips, seeking entrance. I wrapped my arms around him and opened to him in so many ways. My lips parted, and I welcomed him in.
With a rumbling sound that came from deep in his chest, Darius grabbed my ass and lifted me off my feet. He carried me effortlessly across the room and lowered me into my desk chair. The leather creaked as he pressed forward, sliding down to his knees between my thighs. My long, full skirt bunched between us. Darius gathered the hem in one hand and yanked it up my thigh. Then, with his hands on my hips, he angled me forward. We both groaned when our cores met—his hard and mine soft. Is there a more perfect combination?
The undulation of Darius's hips, grinding that hardness against me, was hypnotic. Pulses of pleasure shot through me with every push. He was growling into my mouth, the vibration yet another form of seduction. I couldn't think straight. And inside my chest, a warmth started to spread.
I shoved him away with an, “Oh, fuck!”
Darius drew back, panting, and gaped at me. He was unbelievably gorgeous with his hair mussed, his lips wet, and that promising bulge in his pants. But I knew he never would have been so earnest and eager without my potion.
And neither would I.
“You got some of the potion on me, you asshole!” I growled and stood up. After cursing and swiping at my lips, I tried to slip around him.
Darius grabbed me and pulled me back to him, his expression desperate as he stared up at me, still on his knees. “Amélie, please. Just sit down and talk to me. We don't have to do anything more than that.”
I shoved his hands away. “Listen to yourself, Darius. Does that sound like something you'd say?”
“Not normally, but you're different. Special.”
“Stop it.” I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Focus! It's just the potion making you open your heart to me.”
“That's not true. But even if it is, so what? You're not affecting my free will. You wouldn't do that, would you? Not you.”
I frowned at him. “No. The potion normally doesn't affect a person's free will. That would be wrong. But you got a lot of it on you. And then you kissed me and got it on me. Now, I'm feeling shit that I don't want to feel for you.”
Darius staggered to his feet. “Why not me? What's so wrong with me?”
“You wouldn't stick around. And I'm not going to fall in love with some guy who's just going to leave me in a week. Get out, Darius.”
“I won't leave in a week.” He took my hand. “I'm not ever leaving, Amélie. You're it for me. You're the one I've been looking for.”
“No, I'm not. If you go out into the bar right now, you'd find twenty more women to feel this way about. Go give one of them a chance.”
“I don't want anyone else. It's only you.” Darius pulled me back into his arms. “I sensed it when we were talking, but now I'm certain.”
“Let me go.”
“Not happening.” He bent his head and nuzzled my neck.
Damn it! That was one of my happy places.
I tried to jerk away from him, but he wouldn't let go. The bastard was really strong. And suddenly, that frightened me. I was alone in a room with an enchanted man who was physically stronger than me. And I didn't have any defense potions close at hand.
“Let me go!” I shouted.
“Shh.” Darius kissed my cheek, then tried to move to my mouth. “It's all right. I'm not going to leave you. You're the one.”
“Stop saying that!”
“Boss?” Ralph knocked on the door. “You all right in there?”
“Help!” I shouted.
Wreck-It came bursting in, took one look at Darius and me, and went fucking ballistic.
“You son of a bitch!” Ralph grabbed Darius by the scruff of his neck and the back of his pants and yanked him away from me.
I don't think Darius had ever been handled like that before. His eyes went wide as he flew backward, out of the room, and hit the hallway wall. Ralph turned, hunching his broad shoulders like a bull, and barreled after him.
“Hey!” Darius held up his hands. “I wasn't hurting her!” He looked around Ralph at me. “Amélie, call off your brute before he gets hurt.”
Ralph snorted a laugh and went for Darius's throat.
Darius twisted under Ralph's arm, past him, and shoved him in the back so that Ralph ended up against the wall, exactly where Darius had been except that Ralph was facing the cement. It also brought Darius before me.
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you,” he said.
Ralph grunted and swung back around.
Darius dodged Ralph's fist while keeping his stare on me. “Call him off, Amélie. I'll go.” Another twist and a shove sent Ralph back into the hallway. “And when I come back, you'll know this has nothing to do with the potion.” A spin. Arm grab. Push. “I was into you before you doused me in that stuff. You know that. The magic just made things clearer.”
I gawked at the ease with which Darius handled Ralph. Wreck-It was six-foot-five, slabbed with muscle, and had once been an MMA fighter. No one outmaneuvered him.
Except for this potion-befuddled fool.
Not that the fool was a little man. Darius was only a couple of inches shorter than Ralph, and although he was leaner, he was still more muscular than your average male. A lot of it was hidden beneath his clothes, but I'd felt those muscles when we'd kissed and I got a glimpse of them while he fought Ralph. Darius had to be ex-military. He had some serious training.
“Stand down, Ralph,” I said, holding up my hand.
Ralph glared at Darius and took up a position beside me, arms crossed.
“I'm going,” Darius said to him. “But I'm coming back.” He looked back at me. “Please, tell him to let me in when I return.”
I grimaced.
“Tell him or I'm not leaving, Amélie.”
“Don't you threaten her!” Ralph growled.
“I'm not threatening her!” Darius snapped. “But I'm not leaving until I know I can come back.”
“Fine,” I said. “You can come back.”
Darius let out a breath and nodded. “Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow night for our date.” He turned and left.
“We are not going on a date!” I shouted after him.
“I'll just make sure he gets out safely,” Ralph said as he stormed after Darius.
“Thanks, Wreck-It.”
He shot me a wincing look over his thick shoulder. “I don't know how he got past me, Boss. I'm sorry. Won't happen again.” He shut the door.
I frowned at the closed door. “How did he get past you?” Then I rubbed my lips and cursed. “Damn it! There's nothing more pathetic than a witch getting played by her own magic.”