Page 112 of Ruled By Wizard

SHE COULD HAVE HER CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO

Yawning, Natalia glanced at her wall clock. One o’clock in the morning. He wasn’t coming.

Turning the television off, she rose from the couch. She had waited all evening for Wizard to show up at her door like he had done for the last month.

“You should have called him back and saved yourself the trouble,” she lamented to herself, heading for the stairs. Instead, she had filled the time waiting for him, refusing to answer his texts and calls as he had done hers earlier in the day.

He was probably snuggled in bed with Margarita, Chai, or one of the other women who called the club home. Usually, Wizard would show up at her doorstep by eleven or twelve, unless it was a Friday night when their partying went on all night.

Despite his promise that he hadn’t touched another woman since they had started seeing each other, doubts always plagued her when Wizard was at the club. Arden was working at Mama Spaghetti rather than The Last Riders’ club to help with the mass exodus of her workers, so she was no help in keeping an eye on Wizard for her.

She was turning off the downstairs lights when she heard a knock on the door. Going to the door, her hand went to the doorknob as she debated whether she should open it or go on to bed.

“Open the door, Natalia. I know you’re there. I saw you turn the lights off.” Wizard’s annoyed voice was loud enough to wake her neighbors.

Hastily, she unlocked the door and glared at him. “Are you crazy?” she asked crossly. “Do you know what time it is?”

“After one.” Walking past her, he shut and locked the door under her disbelieving gaze.

“Did I say you could come in? I was going to bed.”

“Good.” Unrepentant, he sat down on the bottom stair to remove his boots. “I’m beat.”

She crossed her arms over her chest when Wizard’s eyes didn’t rise above the neckline of the thin nightgown she was wearing. “I’m not in the mood for your company tonight.”

Remaining on the bottom stair, he rested his hands on his knees. “Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier today. I needed to make sure I could go before I said yes. I texted you that I can go, so there’s no need to be mad any longer. Can we go to bed now?”

She wasn’t ready to let him off the hook. “What did you need to make sure of before committing to me? Were The Last Riders having another party you didn’t want to miss out on?”

“No.” A mixture of emotions crossed Wizard’s face. “I needed to make sure I had something suitable to wear.”

“I told you the suit you wore at the restaurant was fine.”

“The dry cleaner can’t find it, and I didn’t know if I had time to get another one. I squeezed in the time this afternoon so I can go.”

She gave him a haughty sniff. “Wow. Thank you for managing to ‘squeeze in’ something important to me rather than spending every waking moment with The Last Riders.”

If she hadn’t been so angry and hurt about him blowing her off this morning, she wouldn’t have missed the gradual darkening of his gaze.

“If you had spared just a couple of your precious seconds and answered my texts, you would have seen I no longer need you to escort me. I found another date.”

“You asked another man to take you?” Wizard’s voice had gone silky smooth. The only thing more terrifying than Wizard being angry was when he was playing nice.

Goose bumps rose on her arms. Still, she pressed on despite the warning signal from her body. “Yes, I did.”

“Who?”

“A friend of mine who gave me an answer immediately when I asked.”

“How close a friend?”

It finally got through to her how Wizard was looking at her.

Taking a step back, she pressed her arms closer to her chest. “That is none of your business. We’re only friends now. He’ll escort me then bring me home. At least Cory answers my calls and asks if he can come in,” she snapped, losing what little common sense she had left.

“Cory? Hmm … would that be Cory Grey, your first boyfriend from high school?”

Gaping, she dropped her arms to her sides. “How do you know that?”