Seduced and Enchanted (8 page)

Spotting a small Toyota at the back of the overgrown garden, Rio headed for it. On the way, he tried to think of something to say, something witty or smart to get her talking. But she beat him to it.

“So I guess you’re not a big fan of Tolkien.”

He laughed, a flat-out belly laugh that felt great. “Tolkien had a god complex and the man took forever to make a point. Enjoyed the
Lord of the Rings
movies though.

Never could stand that damn Tom Bombadil, so I’m glad Peter Jackson got rid of that character.”

“I loved what the director did with the romance between Aragorn and Arwen. I always wished Tolkien had spent more time with them.” Her smile turned soft and sweet and Rio felt himself fall head over heels in love.

He was in love! The truth hit him like a ton of bricks. Fuck that he knew Rosie only twenty-four hours. Fuck what his family would say. Cam and Nino would think he was crazy. Then again, maybe not, considering how they’d found their mates.

And this was definitely the woman for him. He’d never been surer of anything in his life.

Now if they could just figure out what was going on, they could live happily ever after.

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Seduced and Enchanted

Rio worked some kind of magic—literally or just practically, she wasn’t sure—with her car and had them on the road in less than fifteen minutes.

They seemed to have run out of topics because the ride wherever they were going was silent. It was probably her fault because she couldn’t get her mind to stop thinking about sex with Rio.

Sure, she’d developed some new scary ability. Sure, her worldview had just tumbled ass over teakettle with the talk of
Fata
,
linchetti
and everything else Rio had thrown her way. And all she could think about was sex. It’d been earth-shaking. Mind-blowing. And it’d changed her life forever.

But now what? Was he going to dump her on someone else’s doorstep and run the other way? She couldn’t blame him if he did. But he certainly wasn’t acting as if he was going to abandon her. Sitting on her hands on the front seat next to him, she caught him checking on her every few seconds. He was constantly touching her. His hand on her knee or her shoulder, just a little squeeze every now and then, but enough to reassure her.

The man, or
linchetto
, was definitely too good to be true.

It didn’t take them long to get where they were going because they never left the city. The south-of-Penn neighborhood Rio took her to was a bit rundown but not seedy, the houses a little worse for wear but not in a total state of disrepair.

When he parked, the sudden weight on her chest made her slow to get out of the car. She couldn’t catch her breath.

Rio had her door open and his hand out before she could move. He suddenly filled her vision as he knelt beside the car right in front of her. “Rosie.” He took her hands in his warm, strong ones. “It’s going to be okay.”

59

Stephanie Julian

God, she wanted to believe that. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re not afraid of anything.”

Her laugh was short and bitter as she dropped her gaze. “Obviously you don’t know me. I’m afraid of everything.”

“No way, Rosie.” He sounded so sure she glanced back up into his steady, warm gaze. “You’re smart, you’re confident and you’re handling this situation without freaking out.” When he looked at her like that, she almost believed him.

Taking a deep breath, she got out of the car and let him lead her up the sidewalk to one of the brick row houses. There was nothing special about the house, nothing out of the ordinary, except for the beautiful carved decoration around the door.

“I need to warn you, Rosie.” Rio paused as he looked down at her. “You’ve never met anyone like Sal before. Just…don’t freak. He’s a great guy and he’s going to have answers.”

Okay, that sounded completely ominous. But she didn’t have time to worry because Rio slid an antique silver key from his pocket and used it to open the front door.

Stepping inside, he pulled her along before closing the door tightly behind them.

“Hey, Sal, you home? It’s Rio de Feo.”

Rosie took a look around the small entry hall though she couldn’t see much.

Directly in front of her was a stairway to the second floor. To the left was a doorway that led into a sitting room and dividing the two was a hall that led to another—

All the air left the room as she caught sight of the…the…whatever it was coming down the hall.

It had the upper body of a man and the lower body of an animal, complete with hooves. They made strange little clicking sounds on the wood-plank floor as he walked toward them. He had a handsome face, dark curly hair and small black horns peeking out near the front of his head. Horns!

And legs covered in a brown hide.

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Seduced and Enchanted

And hooves.

He had hooves!

“Hey, Rio,” the little goatman said. “What’s up? Who’s the babe?”

“Rosie, honey, breathe,” Rio whispered in her ear. Then he turned to the…whatever. “Sal, this is Rosie Bianchi. She’s got a problem I’m hoping you can help her with.”

Rosie took a deep breath then another, trying to calm down. But…there was a satyr standing in front of her. A living, breathing, walking, talking creature of myth staring up at her with his hands on his furred hips and an assessing look on his face.

They stared at each other, Rosie afraid to say anything at all for fear she offended…
him
? Definitely a him from the voice but no way was she looking any lower than his chest, because he didn’t have pants on and she didn’t want to—

“So, Rosie Bianchi,” Sal finally broke the silence, his heavy New York accent just adding to the weirdness factor, “what can I do for ya?”

She had her hands out of her pockets before she knew she’d done it. She talked with her hands, couldn’t help it. So she didn’t even have to open her mouth to show Sal what her problem was.

The poor guy landed on his butt five feet away from where he’d started, a comical look of surprise on his face. Well, at least it would have been comical if this had been a sitcom. Or a cartoon.

But right now it just made her want to cry. Carefully, she put her hands back in her pockets as Sal shook his head before pushing back up to his feet…ah, hooves.

She had no idea what to expect. Would he run away screaming? It wasn’t impossible but considering how he looked, he must have seen a lot of weird stuff in his life. Her ability to move things by waving her hands was probably no biggie in his world.

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Stephanie Julian

Still, she dropped her gaze to the floor, shaking her head. “Sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—”

Clop, clop, clop.
Then Sal stood in front of her. He put his hand under her chin, forcing her to look down to him. “Sweetheart, I’m a lot stronger than I look and I’ve been knocked on my ass a few times.” He grinned. “Never by a more beautiful woman though. Come on back.” At that, he turned and clopped down the hallway. “You look like you could use a cup of coffee.”

While Sal made coffee, Rio watched the four-foot
salbinelli
glance back and forth between Rosie and the coffeemaker.

It was starting to freak him out because Rio had never seen Sal look so…confused.

As if he had no idea what was going on. And that was
so
not what Rio had wanted to find. He’d wanted Sal to say, “So here’s how we fix this.” Not, “Hell, kids, I don’t have any answers for you.” And that was clearly what his expression meant.

Finally, after Sal puttered around in the kitchen, getting mugs and waiting for the coffee to drip, he brought three cups to the table by the window and took a seat.

Then he looked at Rosie. “So, hon, tell me what brought you here.”

Rosie looked straight at Sal, walked over and sat down. “Rio and I had sex last night and I woke up this morning able to wave my hands and move things without touching them. I’d like to know why.”

Sal’s lips slowly tilted up in a grin. “Yeah, that would be a real head-scratcher, now wouldn’t it? Never had this problem before, huh?”

“No, and I’m no, ah, virgin.” She grimaced as if embarrassed and Rio’s chest tightened a little more. Damn it, this was his fault. What the hell had he done to her?

“Rio,” Sal turned to him, “anything you want to add?”

He shook his head. “I don’t have a clue.”

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Seduced and Enchanted

Sal leaned back in his chair, gazing deep into Rosie’s eyes. His earlier confusion had cleared from his expression and now he looked as if he was staring into her soul and dissecting it. Rosie either didn’t mind or wasn’t aware that he was reading her like an open book.

Finally Sal sighed. “I’ve been trying to figure out why your name sounded so familiar. And it finally came to me. How are your godmothers, Rosalia?”

Rosie’s eyes popped open as if Sal had reached out and goosed her. “
You
know my godmothers?”

“Yeah, I do. For many years. They must be out of town, right? Is that how you ended up with boy wonder here last night?”

Rosie’s mouth hung open for several seconds. “But… When… How do you know my godmothers?”

Sal snorted and shook his head, his expression pained. “That’s a story they’re going to have to tell you. And since their, uh, spell’s been broken, they’re probably on their way home as we speak.”

Rosie went completely rigid. “Spell? What spell? What are you talking about?”

Sal gave her a rueful smile and a pat on the knee. “You really need to talk to your godmothers about that, sweetheart. It’s not my story to tell. But I can patch the binding,” Sal shot Rio a look, “to make sure you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else until they get here to fix this.”

Rio had been listening intently to everything Sal had said, and he was catching most of what Sal wasn’t saying. It was blowing his mind.

But Rosie had reached the end of her rope. Her eyes narrowed as her detail-oriented brain worked through the few facts she knew. “So what you’re telling me is that I have magical powers my godmothers somehow hid all these years and never told me about?”

63

Stephanie Julian

Sal’s expression twisted as if he’d swallowed shards of glass. “Rosie, there’s not much in this world that scares me anymore and I’ve seen my share of horrors. But your godmothers…they scare the crap out of me.”

The hair on Rio’s neck stood straight up and his balls tried to crawl back into his body. He hadn’t thought Sal could be afraid of anything. Who the hell were Rosie’s godmothers?

Not that he would skip out—no way would he leave Rosie—but shit, if Sal was worried about pissing off Rosie’s godmothers by spilling the beans, what would those women do to him when they found out what part he’d played in this whole fiasco?

The thought was not something he wanted to dwell on.

Rosie wasn’t letting Sal off the hook that easily. Even though her hands were stuck tightly inside her pockets, she looked like she was shaking a finger at him. “That’s not going to cut it. You are going to tell me what’s going on. Right now. You can’t drop hints like that then expect me to say, ‘Sure, I’ll just twiddle my thumbs until my godmothers come home.’”

Even as worried as he was, Rio grinned. He knew that look on her face. He’d seen her use it on an unruly preschooler in story time yesterday. Two seconds of that look and the kid had settled down like someone had flicked a switch.

Turned out Sal wasn’t immune either.

“Now, Rosie,” Sal held out his hands in front of him, palms up, “there’s no need to get testy.”

“Then I suggest you start explaining.” Rosie lifted her delicate chin in the air and raised her brows. “Now.”

Damn, if he hadn’t been in love with the woman already, that look would have sealed the deal. He didn’t know many people who would take on Sal, much less a woman who’d only just met him, who’d only just discovered that the fairy stories she read to her preschoolers happened to be real.

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Seduced and Enchanted

Sal’s deer-in-the-headlights expression made Rio laugh. In fact, he laughed so hard his stomach hurt. Doubled over on the chair, he caught the sharp-eyed look Rosie was now giving him and laughed even harder.

“Oh babe,” he said between gasps, “I’m not laughing at you. I’ve just never seen anyone take on Sal and win. This is classic.”

“Yeah, well, you won’t be laughing when her godmothers get hold of you, Rio.” Sal just shook his head. “You’re not going to be able to charm your way around those women.”

“My godmothers are the sweetest women in the world.” Rosie shook her head, glancing back and forth between the two of them. “I don’t know where you got the idea they’re these evil creatures who are going to lop off your head.”

When Rio’s laughing jag finally abated, he got up, walked around the table and kneeled in front of her. With his hands on her knees, he looked straight into her eyes and said, “There’s no way they can be bad if they raised you to be this sweet.”

Her smile should be considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Rio decided. It was sweet and playful and a little sad and so hot all at the same time. When she leaned forward to kiss him, still smiling, he swore he felt sparks crackle between them.

“Ah Christ, Rio,” Sal groused, shaking his head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Just spit it out, Sal.” Rio stood, pulling over an empty chair so he could sit next to Rosie. “Tell us what’s going on. If her godmothers want to blame someone, I’ll make sure it’s not you.”

Sal eyed him through slitted lids. “All right, son. You asked for it.” Then he turned to Rosie and his expression softened as he sighed. “Honey, do you have any memories of your parents? Any at all?”

Carefully pulling her hands out of her pockets, Rosie slid them down her thighs until they connected with Rio’s. Lacing their fingers together, she held on. “No. I was only a baby when they died.”

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Stephanie Julian

“You were five,” Sal said. “You only looked like you were six or seven months old.”