Alix (The Coven's Grove Chronicles #1) (3 page)

Alix was tempted to kick her right in the backside, but instead she followed Sam to the curtains so that “her” client couldn’t witness the display.

Sam came to a halt just on the other side of Alix’s partition. “Be sure to let me know if you need anything,” she said loudly, tip-toeing to look over Alix’s shoulder. “I’ll be right out here.”

Alix gave the girl a sardonic smile, and then promptly pulled the curtains closed. “Sorry about that,” she said, as she turned back to Mr. Handsome.

He leaned against the table with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Cords of muscle rippled along his forearms, as he chuckled. “That’s okay. I’m Troy by the way.”

“Alix,” she replied a little too quickly.
Dammit, dammit, dammit. He’s just another client,
she scolded herself.
Just an average, deliciously hot client
. Not trusting herself to say anything other than her name, she went to her stool and sat.
Focus. On. The job
. She fumbled through the drawers of her desk, and found some paper, and her favorite pen. “So, have you done this before?”

“Nope.”

Alix rotated her stool around slowly, “
Really
?”

He nodded, “First time.”

She snickered. “Okay. Not what I expected.”

Amusement touched his voice, as he asked, “You’re not gonna hold that against me are you?”

“Nah, I’ll go easy on ya,” Alix smiled. The tension she had been harboring moments before eased. “Do you have a place in mind?” She looked him over, and blood rushed to her cheeks, as she eyed his hips.

“Yeah.” Troy pointed to the center of his chest, “Right here.”

That works too
. She’d have to practically climb on top of him to work. Well, not completely true, but that’s how she’d go about doing it. “Sounds great. How big?”

He put his hands together to form a circle roughly the size of a small cheeseburger. “About like that.”

Good. That size would take her a while to finish.

Now that she knew how much space she had to work with, she began sketching out a design. She started with a Celtic triskele embedded in a circle, and then added some ornamentation of her own. She found it hard to concentrate, as she sketched with her pen. The small confines of her work area, combined with Troy’s close proximity, caused his powerfully sexy scent to permeate her little world. Her fingers twitched every few seconds, but finally she finished enough of the graphic, and held up the piece of paper so he could see it. “I can add more detail while I’m working on you, if you want.”

He leaned forward to look at her work. “Wow. Yeah, I like that.”

“Cool,” she beamed.

He playfully arched a brow. “Is it ‘protective’?”

She laughed. “Yeah, it’s a Celtic symbol of protection. Should cover your needs.”

Troy nodded, satisfied. “What now?”

A little smirk touched Alix’s lips. “Now you take off your shirt.”

He flashed his pearly whites in an ear-to-ear grin. “Ah, time for the fun to begin.”

“Yes indeed,” she replied, as she rolled her stool over to the sink.

Troy stepped away from the table, untucking his shirt. He took hold of the bottom hem, and peeled the tight fitting garment off in one fluid motion. The pendant lights above cast deep shadows across his chiseled body. Delectably sculpted abs contracted as he moved. The sensual lines of definition found on his hips, delved into his low-cut jeans, teasing the eye with the promise of more wonders to be found below. Knots of muscle tightened across his back and shoulders, as he twisted to climb up onto the table.

A faint gasp echoed through the curtained room.

For a split second Alix thought that it had come from her. But then she realized she had been biting down on her lower lip while watching Troy undress, as if she’d never seen a man take his shirt off before. Such a sound couldn’t possibly have come from her. She looked around the room.

A spot in the curtains closest to the front swayed with strength far beyond what mere heating from the vent might have caused. A familiar, drawn-out whistle followed, leaving no doubts as to whom was responsible.

Alix narrowed her eyes. “Sam, could you take the cat outside? She’s makin’ a lot of noise. She might be in heat or something.”

A faint, dejected “fine” came through the curtain, and the sound of Sam’s hard-bottomed shoes sliding across the linoleum faded, as she shuffled away.

Troy laughed. “Have I become a problem?”

Alix shook her head. “Nah, you’re fine. We just get a little punchy this late at night.” She quickly washed her hands in the sink, pulled on some rubber gloves, and grabbed a new disposable razor out of its packaging. “All right, I need you to lay back. Time to shave.”

Troy stretched out on the table, his athletic body beckoning to every wanting part of her. Again, she was reminded of how long it had been since she’d felt the touch of a man—a man that she wanted to be touched by.

Alix cleared her throat, as she rolled up to him. “Ready?”

“Yep.”

She looked down at the two slabs of pectoral muscle that sloped downward in the center, creating a tight ravine filled with hair. Swallowing, Alix began to lather a dot of shaving gel into the light ginger field on his chest.

He flexed involuntarily from the initial coolness of the gel. The once smooth plains of his chest became mountains of taut muscle. He chuckled, “No easing into that part.”

“Sorry,” Alix replied dryly, continuing to rub his chest. Tiny beads of sweat started to form on the small of her back, as the constant contact and sensual motion of her hand drove her thoughts into places that weren’t appropriate for the workplace.
This is going to be the end of me,
she thought. “So what brought you into the shop?” she asked, desperate to find something to corral her mind back into focus.

“Heard this place was the best.” He paused and thought for a moment, then said, “I’m going out of town for a few days. For some reason I just felt…I don’t know. I just felt I needed a little extra something. To cover my bases, ya know.”

Given Alix’s past, she knew exactly what he meant. “Yeah, I get it.” Finished with the gel, she continued to shave the area, being careful not to damage the smooth skin. “So, where you’re going, is it dangerous?”

“A little. But I suppose there’s an element of danger every time I suit up for the job.”

“You a cop?” Alix didn’t peg him for a crime fighter, but who could tell these days.

“No, an EMT.” He shifted a bit when she lifted the razor, causing those beautiful muscles to roll all along his body. “Most of the time we get called to deal with a heart attack, or somebody chokin’ on a spoon or something. But every so often, there’s a domestic violence call—that’s when it gets a little hairy.”

“I bet.” She dropped the razor in the sink, and got a damp wash rag to wipe the excess shaving cream off of his chest. A bit of alcohol to place the stencil, and she was ready for the iron. “You expecting to see a lot of that where you’re going?”

“Yeah. You heard about the riots further south, right?”

Suddenly, it all came together for Alix. She had seen on the news about a boy getting killed in some kind of gunfight, and the neighborhood rising up in retaliation. “Oh yeah, you goin’ down there, huh?”

He nodded. “I figure there’s gonna be some bad stuff happening. But work asked for volunteers to give those guys a hand, I couldn’t say no.”

Great. A decent, hot guy
. Alix shook her head. Not the kind of guy she usually went for, which begged the question: Why was he affecting her so much?
Whatever, it doesn’t matter
. He was probably going to his death, and she’d never see him again. All on account of being a caring human being.
Well, I can do something about the danger part at least,
she thought ruefully. The other facet of her gift, the part she rarely used on people, was that she could infuse power into the images she imprinted. She need only think on a purpose the imprint was to perform, as she released it into the world. She wouldn’t normally empower a tat like this, but Troy was an exception in her book, and deserved the extra protection she could provide.

“Okay, time for the real deal.” Alix clicked on the machine, and rolled her stool up beside Troy. She’d have to use the iron for a little while, or it’d be kind of suspicious. The imprints she created appeared pretty much instantaneously.

“How long have you been doing this?” Troy asked, as Alix began the outline of a circle on his chest.

“A couple of years now,” she said. She was enjoying the fact that she could stare at his body without looking like some sort of deranged perv.

“You any good?”

Alix barked a laugh. “A little late for that question, cowboy.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

A smile made its way across her face. “Don’t sweat it. I haven’t had any complaints...so far.”

“Wonderful,” Troy replied, mirth still in his voice. “You like it, or is it just a job?”

“I love it,” Alix answered honestly. “The hours could be different though.”

“I hear that.”

Alix etched on him for some time, savoring the continued banter. Eventually it came time to do the finishing touches. She’d have to touch him for her gift to work, and it had to be an actual touch, not just pressure through a rubber glove.

She slid back and set the iron down. “I need to check a few details, and then we’re done.”

Troy frowned. “Too bad, I was enjoying our conversation.”

Alix had been enjoying it too, and the fact that he felt the same made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She pulled off her gloves, got up off the stool, and stepped back over to him. “You’re such a charmer,” she teased, while looking over her work.

He grinned, “I aim to please.”

Alix smirked back at him, “Yeah, I’m sure you do.”

“No, really.” Some of the sarcasm faded from his voice. “I’m havin’ a good time.” The light reflected off of his crystal blue eyes, and uncovered the sincerity hidden just behind their protective facade. “Maybe we could go to dinner sometime.”

Holy shit, he just asked me out
. Her spirits soared. She couldn’t believe he’d just asked her out. She raised her brows, stalling for some witty reply to manifest, and break through her raging emotions.

Nothing.

Afraid that the moment would pass before she could respond, Alix blurted, “Okay.” She closed her eyes in humiliation.
Okay?! Good God, no wonder you’re single,
she thought, feeling the fool.

Troy released a deep breath. “I thought you were going to tell me to get lost there for a second.”

Alix looked at him with hooded eyes. “I considered it, but I’m not ready to see you cry just yet,” she said, in an attempt to regain some of her dignity. She stepped over to her desk, and grabbed a business card. Taking her favorite pen, she jotted her number down on the back. She took the card over to the table, and slid it into one of Troy’s front pockets. “Now shut up so I can finish this.”

He closed his mouth and smiled with a smug expression on his face.

Alix pursed her lips, but made no further gibes. She focused instead on the unfinished tattoo, and what it was meant to be; a shield that would protect its bearer from harm. She placed her hands firmly on Troy’s chest.

Bolts of warmth suddenly shot through her palms, up into her body. Her skin tingled with pleasure, and she almost lost her footing as the sensual, prickling sensation reached her core.

Her eyes widened.
What the hell?!
She thought.
That’s never happened before
.

Sweat beaded along her exposed skin, as she fought off the urge to climb on top of Troy, and yield to the pent-up desires within her. She clenched her jaw, and forced the maddening titillation to the back of her consciousness. It was time to use her gift, while she still had a moment of clarity.

Alix focused on the image she was about to imprint. The swirling designs of the tattoo became crisp in her mind’s eye. She filled her thoughts with heavy shields, bulwarks, flame resistant suits, anything that would provide protection against bodily harm. Once her mind strained from the effort of containing so many ideas, she released her thoughts, and the corresponding image of protection. The Celtic triskele floated through Alix’s moistening eyes, down onto Troy’s heaving chest.

A sound akin to an exploding transformer, shook the room as the imprint erupted.

Alix was blown back into her desk, and tumbled to the ground. The table Troy laid on flipped through the air, taking out one of the curtain partitions, and crashed against the far wall. Sam’s trailing scream of surprise tapered off into a breathy gasp. The lights above Alix’s workstation sparked from their broken bulbs, creating the only sound in an otherwise eerie silence.

Alix struggled to her feet, ears still ringing.
Jesus Christ
. “Troy. Sam. Are you guys okay?”