With a sweeping gesture, he motioned for Astra to climb up the staircase ahead of him. The twenty steps led to a small entryway where Blaze had put a small table with a mirror above it. He dropped his keys, phone, and wallet onto the table and kicked off his shoes while Astra stepped into his space.
It was weird having her there.
Blaze hadn’t ever had a woman in his apartment before. He could already tell that Astra’s lovely smell would linger long after she left.
If she ever left.
Mate, his wolf howled, she doesn’t get to leave.
That wasn’t exactly very modern of him. He couldn’t just keep her around because he wanted her there. Blaze wanted Astra to want to stay with him. There was no way he was telling her about the mate sense just yet. Not after the day she’d just had.
He would find a way to get to know her, and he’d open up to her. He had waited too long to find his mate to fuck it up because he was too eager.
“This is nice,” Astra said, taking in the apartment.
It wasn’t much, but it was his. He took pride in his space.
“It’s not at all what I was expecting for a bachelor pad above a bar. I was thinking maybe a futon, an air hockey table, a big-screen television.”
Blaze looked around his home, trying to see it from her eyes. The kitchen was small, but he’d remodeled it so he had all new stainless-steel appliances. The counter was overly long, which hadn’t given him the space to build an island like he wanted.
Astra sat down on the soft brown leather sofa and turned to face him.
“Now that we’re up here, are we going to finish our discussion about my new job?”
Blaze wanted to ask her if she wanted to take that negotiation to his bedroom, but he thought better of it. It must have been the wolf inside him begging him to ask that.
They’d totally made out in his bar, but that didn’t mean Astra was falling into bed with him.
“It’s not a good idea,” he managed to say through the cloud of lust.
“Yes, it is. Imagine this, you’re down at the bar, working hard. The music is loud, the patrons are spending all of their money. The Order of Salem shows up and they go directly for the back door. They could have me in the trunk of a car and long gone before you even knew anything happened. If I’m in the bar, you can keep an eye on me, oh great wolf protector.”
She was playing him. He knew she was.
He was done for. He already knew he was going to let her win. There was no way the witch hunters could get into his apartment without him knowing about it, but now that she had put that thought in his head, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
“If,” he began.
Blaze didn’t even have time to finish his thought. Astra was bouncing on his couch excitedly.
“I said, if I were to let you tend bar with me, you’d have to promise me that if something goes wrong, you will do exactly as I say.”
She pulled a face. “I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t like taking orders.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” He sat beside her. “You’ll be behind the bar. I don’t want you anywhere near the tables. If a member of the Order of Salem walks in, or if there is any trouble at all, there are going to be a lot of pissed off shifters. Do you understand? They’ll want to take over that fight. If you stand there and try to fight, you’ll get hurt in the crosshairs.”
“But I have magic. I can defend myself.”
He shook his head. “I’d rather you keep your magic powers strong in case something goes wrong. Not as a first resort.”
“Well, that sort of makes sense.” Astra sighed, clearly reluctant to admit that he was right. “But it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.”
“I haven’t known you for very long, but I could tell you wouldn’t like that one bit. It’s the terms of the agreement, though. So take it or leave it.”
“Fine.” She stood from the sofa to stand in front of him. She held out her hand to him, and Blaze was quick to take it.
Instead of giving it a good shake, he brushed his lips along her knuckles before kissing the back of her hand.
“We have a deal,” his voice rumbled.
Astra took her seat beside him, looking overly triumphant. It was then that it struck him. He had forgotten to ask one very important question.
“Have you even tended bar before?” he asked.
Astra laughed. “That should have been your very first question.”
Shit, she was right.
Chapter Eight
Astra
The look of pure shock on Blaze’s face was absolutely priceless. Astra couldn’t quite believe her luck. How she had been able to get the man to agree to put her behind bar without checking to see if she had any sort of credentials was beyond her.
Maybe she had fried his brain with sexy magic when they’d kissed.
She knew her noodle had definitely been impacted. Other parts of her as well.
“You’re trouble,” Blaze said from beside her.
The humor in his tone made Astra feel happy and light.
That really should have been confusing for her. Her day had actually been one big suckfest. Between being attacked at her place of business and not knowing if her sister and cousins were actually okay, things were pretty shitty. She could only be thankful that her parents and aunt and uncle, the only other Bishop witches to live in Salem, had moved away recently. And they were on an extended cruise to see the world.
“You already agreed,” she said with a shrug. “You can’t go back on it now.”
Astra gave him a devilish smile, and Blaze just shook in his head in response. He was smirking, a clear sign that he wasn’t overtly upset with her for tricking him.
Blaze opened his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the sound of a ringing phone. He dug through his back pocket and groaned when he looked at the screen.
“This is going to take me a minute or two. Why don’t you raid my closet and see if there’s anything you would like to wear?”
Astra looked down to her black scrubs. They looked grayer now and there was a rip on the left side, from when he dove for her outside her shop, taking her down. She made her way into the bedroom, and she was surprised by how clean the space was. Blaze was the kind of man who made up his bed in the morning, and for some reason, Astra found that endearing.
She never did hers. She’d even gone a full week without any sheets on her mattress because the fitted sheet had a snapped elastic. It wasn’t laziness. It was just more of a convenience thing. If it took too long to get ready for bed, well then fuck it. No sheets. It drove Selene nuts. Her twin always yelled at her that she should make up the bed as soon as the sheets were dry, and not wait for bedtime.
Astra ran her hand along the soft black comforter with a sudden pang in her chest. She missed her twin. Sure, she’d seen her annoyingly loving sibling that morning, but she hoped she was okay. Blaze had assured her that all the Bishops were safe, but no one could fault Astra for being worried.
The closet was small, but organized, and it took about three seconds for Astra to take one of Blaze’s shirts off a hanger. She sniffed the pale blue material before slipping it on over her head. As she had expected, it was way too big for her, but it was something. There was no way in hell that his jeans were going to fit her, but she was fine with her scrubs. She slid them off and shook them vigorously, trying to smooth out the creases. They didn't look a bit better, but they’d have to do.