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“In that case, I know just the place.” I drove us to a new location, happy that I didn’t need so much as a GPS system to find my way today. I was a whole new witch. “I’ve never been to this place before—at least, not inside. I’ve dropped plenty of people off outside and it seems totally glam. The coffees are, like, seven dollars a pop.”
“Then that’s where I want to go.”
I pulled up outside of Magic Beans, an airy and expensive coffee shop where people could afford to blow the equivalent of my entire paycheck on coffee and a croissant. When I parked out front, Dom glanced over at me.
“You coming in?” he asked gruffly.
“No,” I said. “I’ll find a spot to park, and you text me when you’re ready to be picked up. I’ll pull the car around.”
Dom made a disgruntled face, but he didn’t argue. But before I’d even been able to find a parking spot in this congested area of town, he’d texted me to pick him back up.
“That was quick,” I said, leaping out of the car to open the front door for him. “Picking up drinks for someone?”
Dom held two coffees in his hands. He delicately climbed back into the car and put both coffees in the cupholders while I got back in the driver’s seat.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” Dom grumbled, “so I got you something called a Matcha Magic which the woman informed me is tea, and then I got you an Espresso Patronum which is—”
“I know what an Espresso Patronum is,” I said, practically salivating. “Special blend of espresso, some fancy milk, house-made brown sugar syrup topped with real gold leaf. It’s like eleven dollars.”
“I thought you said you’d never been there before?”
“I haven’t. But I’ve perused the menu online a few times.”
“Well, now’s your chance to go to town. They’re both yours.”
“Dom, that’s like twenty dollars’ worth of drinks.”
“You can stop calculating how much I spent on caffeine. It’s not a big deal.”
“Where to now?” I shifted in my seat. This morning was not going the way it was supposed to go.
I was supposed to be separating myself from Dom. I was supposed to be putting distance between us for a multitude of reasons. For example, his brother might kill me. Also, Dom was now my boss. Not to mention, we’d soon be going our separate ways. Getting involved didn’t really make sense.
But every basic instinct in my body told me otherwise. The vampire looked absolutely delicious in that sweater and those jeans that formed around his sturdy body. His hair had dried now, but in a way I’d never seen it land before. A little tousled, and I fought back the urge to reach over and touch it, to run my hands through it for no reason at all except to be near him.
“We can head back home, I guess,” Dom said, sounding unsure for possibly the first time in our relationship. “That’ll be all.”
“But you didn’t get anything for yourself.”
“I don’t need anything.” Dom waited a beat. “I am a vampire, lest you forget. I don’t need food or caffeine, I just consume it occasionally...because.”
“Speaking of vampire oddities,” I said, “talk to me about your allure magic.”
I started driving without a destination in mind. It felt better to have the vehicle moving so I didn’t have to look at Dom as we spoke. That felt too intimate somehow.
“You sensed I used it on the paparazzo?”
I nodded. “Can’t most people sense when you’re using it?”
Dom studied me carefully. “No, it’s quite rare. I wonder if it’s because you have a history of seeing auras. Allure magic is in the same family as reading auras.”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe, I guess that would make sense.”
“Did it upset you to see me glamour him?”
“No. I’m just curious how it works. Is it like brainwashing?”
Dom gave a chuckle so soft I almost missed it. “Nothing like that. Allure magic is a real thing, but it’s much less magnified than most people imagine. It’s mostly a myth.”
