Page 49 of Of Magic and Murder

Thankfully, I’m also a witch with a rolling pin.

CHAPTER 14

SURPRISE

huh. so that is why the bakery always smells like wolf…

— gus

Lifting it high over my head, prepared to bash the wolf’s in if it even tries to maul me, I scream and the wolf’s muzzle snaps my way. His eyes—shining brightly against the shadows—are such a familiar shade of gold, I hesitate.

The wolf drops down into a seated position, staring up at me.

Stunned by his reaction, I stare right back at him.

I hear a whine that sounds just like noise I heard upstairs. Realizing it had to belong to him, I watch as the massive predator lowers his head almost apologetically.

And that’s when my terror runs headfirst into something else: recognition. Those eyes… the memory of me asking Riordan what color his fur is and his flat response of ‘black’... the easy way he moves around the bakery like he’s been here a hundred times…

I lower the rolling pin. “Riordan?”

His tail thumps once against the floor, a signal that I take as affirmation.

I goggle at him. “You have got to be kidding me.”

In answer, the wolf shifts. It happens in an instant. One second, I’m looking at a big, black wolf trying to make himself seem smaller and less threatening. The next? I have a big, beautiful, and naked Riordan Lobo standing a few feet away from me.

Oh? Did I mention he’s naked? Because he’s fucking naked!

I squeak. There’s no other way to describe the sound that erupts from my throat as I get my first look at Riordan without a stitch of clothes on. I’d like to say I didn’t look, but while I’m a witch, I’m also only human. I stare at his chest, his abs, the path of dark fur that covers his groin, all the way to a half-erect dick that’s one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen⁠—

Riordan frowns. “Pen?”

I squeak again, my eyes jumping back to his face, knowing that mine is on fire.

His gaze drops to the rolling pin, standing there bold as brass as if he isn’t naked. “Were you going to beat me with that?”

I forgot about the rolling pin. I hurriedly place it on top of one of the neat counters as I tell him, “You were a wolf!”

“I am a wolf.”

“You were a big wolf.”

“I’m an alpha,” he says patiently.

“A big, black wolf killed Faith and Olivia! I thought you were coming to get me next!”

His mouth falls open. For a second, he looks like he’s going to argue, but then I think he understands just how bad it looks that he’s somehow in the bakery, walking around in his shifted form, and he just scared the bejeezus out of me.

And he’s naked! I can’t forget he’s naked!

Since I can’t, and since my traitorous gaze keeps wanting to look lower than it should, I finally do what I should’ve in the first place once I realized it was Riordan and not a murderer: I turn around so that I don’t ogle the poor male.

From behind me, I hear muffled laughter, and then, “Are you turning your back because you don’t like what you see, Penelope, or because you do?”

I know exactly why he thinks this is funny. With his shifter nose, he knows exactly what sort of reaction his naked body has on me.

“Why are you naked?” I ask because there’s no getting around it.