Blaze raised an eyebrow like he didn’t believe her, but also like she was the most amusing person ever. He was so handsome with that small, crooked smile.
“I’ve done it before,” she added defensively.
“Oh yeah,” he tested, “what have you stolen?”
“This necklace I’m wearing, I’ll have you know. Stole right under the shop owner’s nose.”
Blaze laughed, and the sound stoked the fire deep inside of her. She really was way too aware of how good looking he was.
“Doesn’t your cousins own a store called Gemstones? Did you steal it from your cousins? Because that doesn’t count.”
“Sure it does,” she argued. “And just how in the hell do you know that my cousins own that store?”
“The other wolf pack and I talked, remember? When we were making up the plan to protect you all…”
“Oh, right.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. His curls bounced and Astra had to wring her hands together. She didn’t understand the urge to touch him, but she really wanted to.
Her brain was so gracious as to give her a clear image of Blaze with his strands wet with sweat as he… No. She shook her head. She couldn’t be having such dirty thoughts about a man she had just met.
“I still stole it,” she argued, pulling herself from the steamy bedroom in her mind. “And from family members. That means I’m sly and wily. Those are the perfect qualities for a bartender.”
Blaze shook his head at her again, and she nearly wrapped her arms around his neck to feel the locks through her fingers.
“You can’t tend bar. What if a member of the order walks in? What are you going to do?”
“Pour him a shot of something strong. Maybe something that will knock him straight on his ass so you can take him out back and kick his ass for trying to kill witches.”
“It’s too risky.” He disagreed with her.
“I can’t just sit in your apartment, doing nothing for days and days. Please. I need to do something to earn my keep. You’re protecting me from an order of psychos. The least you can do is let me help run your business for you.”
“No.” He took a step closer to her, but she retreated behind the bar.
“I’ll wear a wig. They’ll be looking for two blonds and two redheads. If I wear a black wig, no one will even know it’s me.”
“I’m sorry, does it look like I have a wig?” He couldn’t hide the smile from his face or his voice.
“Well, no, but I figured if I could get you to agree to the wig idea, I could get you to agree to let me tend bar without one. This is a negotiation.”
“No. It’s not even a discussion. I have to protect you, Astra.”
“You’re taking this role very seriously.”
“You have no idea, love.”
The look he gave her was a pure smolder.
It threw the door wide open on her imagination, and this time, Astra didn’t shut the door of the steamy bedroom in her mind.
She walked right in.
Chapter Seven
Blaze
Before he even knew what was going on, Blaze was all wrapped up in Astra.
The sexy witch had walked right up to him and laid her soft, warm, delicious lips against his as she folded her arms around his neck. Her fingers were tangled in the curls at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer to her.
For a few wild seconds, he kissed her back. He didn’t understand what was going on, or what had possessed Astra to kiss him. But he was definitely enjoying it. Inside his mind, his wolf was rejoicing very loudly.
When Astra moaned into the kiss, he pulled away. “What the hell was that?” he asked her, completely breathless.
“I was trying to shut you up,” she answered with a shrug.
Her hands were still around his neck, and his own were still gripping her curvaceous hips.
“Shut me up?”
“It worked.” Her voice was soft, but heavy all at once. She made no move to leave his arms, and so he took a chance.
“Did it?” He tightened his embrace.
Her blue eyes sparked at his question. “You stopped talking for a second. So yeah, it worked.”
“You aren’t tending bar, Astra.”
As he had suspected she would, she leaned into him again. This time, he was ready for her. He took complete control of the kiss, bringing their hips together. He was shamelessly pushing his erection into her. Her purr of appreciation went straight to his cock, making him impossibly harder.
A couple kisses shouldn’t make him hard enough to hammer metal, yet here he was. Painfully straining against the unforgiving material of his jeans.
His wolf was begging for him to take things further. Blaze wanted to claim her, even so soon after meeting her. The mate sense was powerful; he had always known that. He’d heard the elders talking about just how intense and irresistible it was. Blaze had always figured the other wolves exaggerated the pull.
If anything, they had downplayed it.
Astra nipped at his lower lips, and Blaze nearly went cross-eyed. He felt the sting of her teeth right down to his cock.
“Would you be amendable to a negotiation now?” she whispered against his lips. She was playing him like a fiddle, and he didn’t know if he cared. Not if it meant she kept kissing him.
“That depends,” he answered her. “Do you usually kiss strangers to get what you want?”
Astra’s laugh was made of happiness and hope. It made his heart beat faster, and he wanted to make her laugh again.
“Only when they’re sexy shifters who save me from murderous grandmas.”
“Happens to you a lot, does it?” he teased.
“Once or twice,” she shot back, blinking up at him through long lashes.
Her eyes were so blue, made bluer with lust. He could smell it on her. It scented the air around them, making it damn near impossible for Blaze to focus.
“Let me show you where you’ll be staying.”
He almost kissed her again, but instead, he disentangled himself from her. He also thought better of taking her hand in his.
“The apartment is upstairs,” he explained in order to distract himself. “The ceiling of the bar has the best noise-canceling insulation and soundproof paneling so the sounds of the bar shouldn’t bother you during the night. It also has no access from the bar. You can only get to the stairs through the side door.”
Blaze walked Astra to the back of the bar and led her out of a thick steel door. There was a row of dumpsters lining one wall. It was also where there was a huge rolling door for food and alcohol deliveries. They walked past it and rounded the corner to another heavy steel door. This one was painted dark green. There were a few scuffs on it because it was quite old, but Blaze knew that behind that door was home.
He keyed in the code into the security panel and with a soft buzz, the door was unlocked and the alarm disarmed. Blaze might be a shifter, but his place was still next to a bar. Having an alarm only made sense, plus it had definitely helped decrease his insurance premiums once he had gotten it installed.
You couldn’t exactly tell your insurance broker that you could defend your stuff because you had the useful skill of turning into a wolf. Now that Astra, his beautiful mate, was going to be staying in his place, he was even more grateful for the security measures.