CHAPTER TWO

 

 

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A pair of big, strong, muscled arms wrapped around her body and yanked her against a brick wall of a chest. Sandy squealed as she was spun through the air, but her brain said; safe and her body said – not so tight.

“Look both ways!” The screech of a female voice yelled out the car window and berated her as the vehicle kept going, and her heart slowly started to slide back down from where it had gotten lodged in her throat as she felt those arms start to loosen around her.

“What were you thinking?” The deep, oh-so-male voice breathed against her ear, and she was sure, almost certain in fact, that just before he let her go, she felt a rumble of a growl against her back and the underlying rumble in his words.

Sandy grimaced. Not only had she almost gone splat, but had she really been rescued by the supernatural?

Every inch of her body was throbbing with the excitement, shock and adrenaline of almost getting killed, but as that hyper state started to calm itself; her shields said yes as they started to warn her of what he was with tingles. Her mind said; what are the odds, but from where she was standing they seemed pretty good to her.

“Call yourself a witch, how could you not see that coming?” Joel grumbled.

His heart had leapt into his throat at the sight of the car heading right for her. There he was, just walking along and minding his own business as he enjoyed the view of the curvy woman that he knew for a fact was new in town, and then she stepped out in front of a damn car – talk about a death wish. If he’d been a cat shifter, he was sure he’d just lost one of his damn lives.

“I’m a witch, not a psychic, you numpty,” Sandy hissed out in annoyance.

Only she could pick a town with trouble, and as she turned to face the man, and found a solid wall of muscled chest in view until she tipped her head back on her neck and glared up at his face. She felt the kick of her heart against her ribs once more as her dark stare met his.

Sandy pulled her gaze away and busied herself brushing her hand down over her clothes to sooth the little devil that sat on her shoulder and had jumped up and down with excitement at the sight of those puppy dog eyes staring back at her with a little bit of concern, a dash of anger, and a whole lot of sex appeal.

Wolf shifter! No doubt about it – the whole package of the man screamed of it.

“Well, next time you’re thinking about crossing the road, engage brain, eyes and ears,” Joel sneered, but his wolf was practically clawing within him for another reason – sniff! The stupid beast wanted to sniff everything female that walked across their path ever since Bree’s spell.

Well, he wasn’t playing that game anymore. Sniffing had gotten a much worse spell from that wicked witch, Bree, and his wolf had a coat of many colours to prove it.

“I do not need to be told how to cross a road by a … by a …” She bit down on her annoyance. There were so many choices that sprung up in her mind that she couldn’t quite nail one down to toss at him.

“A what?” Joel leaned his upper body in towards her, and his eyes were little black slits in his head, but still oddly potent to her feminine side.

Sandy wasn’t about to be bullied by some jumped up wolfman who might have saved her life, but didn’t need to be so rude about it. “A furball,” Sandy sneered back.

She generally thought herself a happy go lucky type of person. If nobody messed with her than she liked to live and let live, but him – ho-ho-ho! The man was just so … so … well, she didn’t rightly know how to describe him, but he was jumping up and down on her last nerve, and she didn’t have a lot of patience left after being all shook up like that.

“Oh – uh-huh.” He gave a slow nod of his head. “Typical witch…”

“Oh, am I?” She bit down on her annoyance once more. “And you know many witches – do you?”

“More than I care to at this stage, yes. This town has become infested with devious little troublemakers.” He saw the way her jaw dropped and her eyes widened, and he guessed he should have left it there, but he was pumped up and mad as hell after her little stunt. “Like cockroaches…”

Sandy’s bottom jaw snapped back up, and he actually heard her teeth click together. Then her chin went down and her gaze darkened from under her long lashes, and he could tell from the way that her breasts were rising up for his viewing pleasure that she was sucking in enough oxygen for the both of them.

Yep, she was winding herself up for something. If he’d been a betting man, then he would have laid odds on getting fried.

“Cockroaches.”

 That was all she said – that was it. Joel had to wonder why she hadn’t launched into the mega-meltdown that he’d been expecting, but her top lip was twitching with annoyance. Perhaps she was biding her time.

His beast clawed to be set free – not only so it could scent her, but because he’d been keeping the wolf caged because of that other spell that the dastardly, evil, and downright devious with, Bree, had unleashed on it. Rainbow coloured fur – he might as well have been bald.

“Which way are you going?” Sandy demanded with her dark eyebrows raised towards her hairline as a barely concealed look of daggers hit him right between the eyeballs.

“Huh?” Joel hadn’t been expecting that either.

“I know directions are not something that a male can handle very well, but just a general sense of the area, not a detailed map or anything. North – north east – south to the bakery?” She pressed, and he frowned.

Joel lifted one large hand and pointed a finger toward his intended destination. She looked impressed.

“Not totally bereft of a sense of direction then,” she bit out. “Due East, good to know, now jog on before I get my witch on.”

Joel opened his mouth to speak as he questioned her with a look, but she twisted her head on her neck slightly and raised those eyebrows even further, daring him not to walk away, and he scowled back at her.

“You’re … strange.” Joel wasn’t sure if that was the right word for it, but she hadn’t zapped him, she hadn’t really played verbal football with his brain, and she seemed – weirdly calm – for a witch.  

“And you’re the semblance of normalcy, are you?” She choked off a chuckle, turned on her heels, and started back towards the bakery. Of course, she looked both ways at the curb, because she didn’t want to repeat her prior misdemeanour.