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Her face lit up like the flame of a candle. “Why Mister Harland. You sure know how to woo a lady.”
He was about to respond by telling her that as a gentleman, he didn’t do things in halves (except staying dead, apparently), and if he’d gone that route, he’d have blabbed something truly regretful, like saying he’d only partake in carnal knowledge with a woman if joined in nuptial union. Willow was a woman of the twenty-first century. Surely, he thought, she’d dismiss his values as outdated and archaic. Still, that is where he stood.
But he had no such opportunity to embarrass himself in such a tender and lovely moment. The tender and lovely moment was soiled by the movement he caught in the corner of his eye.
Nadine was near the back of the shop, signaling to her coven sisters to follow her into the rear hallway. Now, if it were any other women, he would have assumed they were going to the bathroom, as women love to go together. But there were more than bathrooms in the back hallways of the shop. There was the kitchen, the dry food storage, the supply room, and Willow’s office. The office where they had all the evidence of their investigation of the mysterious deaths of all the owners of the building. Including his own.
In an effort to not raise suspicion he was looking their way, he clutched Willow to his chest and whispered in her ear. “Don’t look now, but the Twilight ladies are headed to your office.”
“There’s a light enchantment over the doorway,” Willow whispered back. “They can’t get in.”
“Do you want to risk it?” he warned. “Gladys said their ways are dark and powerful. Don’t you think they can get through your wall of sparkles and glitter?”
“I only added the glitter for fun,” she said. “The sparkles are part of the spell.”
As he held Willow against him, Montgomery looked over her shoulder just as the four Daughters of the Twilight Veil disappeared through the hallway entryway.
“We should stop them,” he said against her neck, and part of him wanted to stay on the dance floor and just forget about everything else. Wicked witches who? But he knew they had to do something even if their efforts were futile.
“And say what when we run into them?” Willow whispered.
“It’s your office,” he reminded her. “They’re the ones sneaking around.
“Oh. Yeah. Right.”
Montgomery led Willow by the hand off the dance floor and into the back hallways, but the coven was nowhere to be found. They looked in the office, the kitchen, the store room. All the places.
“Maybe they did just go to the bathroom,” he said, puzzled. “Do you think they left out the back door?”
“Well that would be completely rude not to say goodbye,” she replied.
They decided to go back into the office, and closing the door behind them, made sure all the documents and research notes were locked away somewhere no one would think to look. Inside a locked and enchanted titanium box, inside a locked and enchanted chromium box, inside an enchanted Costco-sized box of feminine napkins, sealed with packing tape.
“Everything’s in order,” said Willow. “No one’s tampered with the box or the many enchantments.”
Montgomery rather liked being in the office with Willow alone, dressed in their finery, with a little wine running through their veins. In fact, he would have loved to remain there with her until all the guests went home, meanwhile tasting those delectable lips again. Yes, he was one-minded. But could anyone blame the man after the longest dry spell in history?
Then again, he was very much a gentleman, and he felt it necessary to discuss his intentions, however bad the timing.
“Willow,” he began, “about the—”
Upon hearing footsteps, he fell silent. There seemed to be four sets of feet. He hoped it was all his imagination.
But it wasn’t.
A moment later, there came a jiggling of the doorknob, and although he and Willow had every right to be there, he panicked and swiftly pulled Willow with him into the smallest coat closet imaginable. He closed the closet door with a soft click right before the outer door opened forcefully, and women’s voices could be heard spilling inside.
At first, all he could hear were mumblings and little complaints in hushed tones. His back was pressed all the way to the back of the closet and the only light came from beneath the door jam. He could only make out Willow’s darkened silhouette, and from the close proximity to her, could smell nothing but her soft, floral perfume and the natural scent of her skin. It was now his favorite scent in the world.
Her body had nowhere to go but to lean against him. Her body a breath away from his, her lips excruciatingly close. He ached to have her, and even as his arms held her into his chest, he fought to exercise restraint.
Next, he heard one voice say, “Are we ready sisters?”
Then another voice replied, “It is close. Soon we will be complete.”
Complete? What did they mean by that? Was Willow joining the coven what would make them complete? Something about the number five? He could only guess.
“How do you find the charge, Astrid?” another witch said. She sounded like Nadine.
