Page 19 of Resurrecting the Witch
Gioia would probably be a member soon, if only so she could lust after Dom some more.
“He probably doesn’t even know wha—”
“Home Alone.”
“Hah! You suck!” I said because obviously Patrick’s favorite movie was notHome Alone. I turned toward Patrick for a victory high five and saw his jaw hanging open in obvious shock.
“HA! Fools. Looks like I win again,” Dominic exclaimed loudly for no one in particular, even though it sent Gioia into convulsive laughter. “I’m going to find a tragic romantic comedy from the 90s just to stick it to you, Cliona.”
“How in the world did you guess that?” I asked but then realized what I actually wanted to know and turned toward Patrick. “Wait—why isHome Aloneyour favorite movie?” I couldn’t hide the intrigue in my tone and Patrick looked truly uncomfortable at the knowledge we knew his dirty little secret.
“It’s the bandits,” Dominic answered for him, and I saw Patrick’s eyes widen in the truth of it.
“Ugh, the smug bastard’s right, witchling,” Patrick admitted. “When the iron falls on that tall man’s face and leaves a mark.” He had to stop talking because of the laughter that came up when he started describing the iconic scenes. “And the nail in the foot. Oh goddess, young Kevin McCallister was a true master spy, and he could set a trap better than even my own brothers back in—” He stopped as if getting lost in a thought he didn’t want to think about. I could appreciate that more than most and didn’t press him.
“Well played,” I said to Dominic and realized I’d have to suffer through a Meg Ryan travesty yet again. I felt Patrick’s arm wrap around me again in a firm hold. “Oh no, don’t cozy up with me, you Kevin McCallister fanboy. This is your fault,” I told him and pointed a finger on the center of his chest; the simple contact had his lip curling back as if he wanted to eat me. “You egged him on.”
“I didn’t make the terms of the bet,mo peata,” he whispered in my ear. “But I will gladly kill him for you if you wish.”
“I heard that, dick,” Dom muttered, shaking his head.
“I meant every word, flaccid penis,” Patrick replied as if it were the best insult. I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped.
“Your smack talk game needs work, babe,” I said and patted his shoulder. Did I just call him babe?Ugh.
“My smack talk game is fine. I wineverygame I play.”
He winked, and I knew meant something more suggestive than our conversation indicated. I let another laugh escape, which made his own grin grow wider until his elongated canines gleamed. They were beautiful.Hewas beautiful, especially when he smiled. I felt my thighs clench as my gaze remained a bit too long on the sharp points and what else they might be used for.
“Ugh, you smell like sex, Cliona,” Gioia said, reminding me very abruptly that we were not alone.
I coughed and tried to step away from Patrick. He, of course, was having none of it and held me close to his chest instead.
“She does, doesn’t she? And it’s so bloody perfect I could take her out of here right now and eat her perfect little p—”
“Time to go, Gioia,” Dom barked. He’d come from behind the counter without me realizing with Gioia slung over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. She was probably in heaven at the contact with him and sure enough I saw a grin stretch across her face as they turned toward the exit. He tossed the keys to Patrick before walking her out. “Lock up when you’re done, brother.”
“Of course,” Patrick said and released me again.
The two alphas clasped forearms as Patrick followed Dom and Gioia out front. He waved goodbye and turned the lock on the door before turning and pinning me to the spot with a predatory stare that definitely made my panties wet a bit.
“Let’s find our seats,” he said without acknowledging that he just locked us in here and got permission to do so from my so-called friend.
“You’re not going to tell me what we are wa—”
“No. Not yet,” he interrupted. “Close those pretty green eyes for me, lass.”
“But then I won’t be able to see where I—” I yelped at the sudden feel of my feet leaving the carpeted lobby floor.
Patrick lifted me into a bridal carry in an effortless way that would take me a while to get used to if he planned on doing this often. I wasn’t built like the kind of girl dudes went around literally whisking off their feet, but I could get used to it if Patrick were the one doing the whisking.
Even though the outside of the theater hadn’t been kept up over the decades, the inside was every bit as modern as you could get. The one-room screen had stadium seating with larger reclining chairs and love seats taking up the space. We had magick to clean up the auditoriums after each use, so it didn’t feel sticky or gross in here like in some of the human theaters I’d been in. This was more like going to your rich distant relative’s house that put in a ridiculously large “movie room” simply because they could.
Patrick walked right toward a middle love seat and set me on my feet. I took in the bottle of champagne on ice next to two glasses and a platter of what looked like everything you needed to make s’mores, along with a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries. The wooden board was covered in every size and shape of marshmallow, several different kinds of chocolate bars, and the graham crackers were arranged in a pattern that looked like something off an influencer’s Instagram feed. As I took in all of the tasty treats before me, I felt my blush deepen because I wasn’t sure what to think. No one had done anything like this for me before. I stood a few feet away from my surprise, completely frozen, looking at the setup that must have taken him hours to prepare with my mouth open in shock.
“I was told you liked chocolate-covered berries, and I assumed everyone liked s’mores,” Patrick said, speaking faster than I had heard him before as his eyes darted between my frozen body and the tray of goodies. “I will throw them out in the trash if I was wrong or they aren’t what you—”
I stepped toward him and stood on my tiptoes to silence him by crushing my lips to his in a move that required more height than I had. He leaned forward to meet me the rest of the way and pressed his soft, full lips to mine in answer. His hands didn’t need any prompting and quickly wrapped around my waist and grabbed at my hips and squeezed.
