Dark and Stormy: Sacred Hearts Coven (12 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Chocolate Shoe

AFTER REGINA WASHED up in the bathroom, she d
ecided it was time to take off her shoes. Her legs were as flimsy as could be. Not being able to see where she was going, along with her condition, was asking for trouble.

She heard Reddick stomp up the stairs and quickly make his way back down. She didn’t hear him stop for a second. This time he carried both of their cell phones, turned on, and he used them for their light. Regina could see the glowing orbs bouncing up and down as he walked toward her. She stood in the bathroom doorway, waiting for him to retrieve her.

He came at her and grabbed her by the waist, twirling her into a hug. “You know what? I’m really excited about what just happened. I’m elated,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. “I need to get some light going in here so I can see your beautiful face.”

Reddick lifted the phone so he could gaze at her stunning beauty and admire her body that he couldn't wait to devour again. “Perfection.”

“Would you expect anything less than that from me?” Regina laughed at herself. “You’re not so bad yourself. I see you have your pants back on.”

“Yeah, they were dry and my shorts were a bit wet. I brought you my shirt in case your dress was still wet. You were outside longer than I was.”

Reddick draped the lavender shirt over her shoulders. She slid her arms into the long sleeves and buttoned it closed. “Thank you. That feels good.”

“I see you finally took off those shoes.” He admired how cute and little she seemed without the extra height her heels always provided.

“Yeah, I never want to take them off. They’re so fabulous, but my legs are like jelly.”

“You’re funny. Let’s go get that fire started.”

“You mean
another
fire started.” She winked at him.

“Exactly.”

They went to the kitchen and grabbed a few candles and a pack of matches. Reddick worked on building the fire, and he had it going in no time at all. He pushed Alita's desk out of the way so they could set up camp in front of the heat.

While Reddick was working on providing them with heat and light, Regina snuck into Serena’s office and grabbed a bottle of dark rum from the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet. She popped into the kitchen and grabbed two coffee mugs, a ginger ale she saw someone left on the counter, and the barrel of pretzel rods. She was famished but wanted to check with Reddick before she opened the refrigerator to grab their salads.

“Look what I got.” She waved the bottle in front of her as she walked over to where he was sitting on the floor.

    
Reddick stood gazing at her with a look of awe upon his face. She could see the light from the fire flickering in his eyes as he took in the sight of her.  She felt sexy wrapped in his shirt with her tanned legs bared for him to see.

    
“Nice. Well, look what I have.” He waved a little white bag in front of her. A quick breath of air hissed between his teeth. “You truly are stunning.”

Regina kneeled down beside him and took the bag in her hand. He took the booze and poured out two fingers in each mug and topped them off with the warm soda.

“If only we had a fresh lime, this would be the perfect time for a dark and stormy.”

She pulled a small white box out of the bag. “What’s this?” She wondered why and what the hell he possibly could have bought for her. Was it really something for her, or was it something he just had lying around for any girl he had a good time with? She got nervous and felt flutters in her stomach.

Regina untied the red ribbon and opened the top of the box. She looked inside and then looked back up to Reddick with a giant smile on her face. “What is this? I love it whatever it is.”

“It’s chocolate. I had the girl at Swanson's hand paint it for you this morning.”

Regina slapped him on the arm. “Get out of here. Why on earth would you do that?”

“I don't know. You were so excited about your shoes yesterday, and the young lady mentioned they do specia
lty orders, and the next thing I knew I had to have this for you.

“I was hesitant on giving it to you. I felt funny that I got it even though I knew you would love it. I couldn't let you know I’d gone all soft.”

“Well now, we both know you going soft is certainly not a problem. I love it! I don’t know if I can eat it.” She stared into the box.

“We can share it. The smooth chocolate will go great with our cocktails. Besides, I could order one for you every day if that would please you. Just indulge. I always tell you
, you need to let go a little.”

Reddick picked the red chocolate pump out of the box and held it to her lips for her to take a bite. She looked into his twinkling eyes and parted her lips to nibble off the heel. She felt silly that he was feeding her
, but also thought it was sexy as hell.

She took the piece of chocolate from him and took another bite. Instead of taking the bite into her mouth, she held it in her teeth and leaned over to offer it to him.

The corners of Reddick’s lips curled up. He leaned forward and wrapped his lips so far over the piece of chocolate that his lips pressed against hers. The candy was small enough to melt quickly. He slid his chocolate-covered tongue into her mouth and they shared the sweet, rich kiss together.

EPILOGUE

THE FULL MOON had not quite reached the highest point in the sky, but the sisters were starting to gather at their sacred space. The weather had started to shift and there was a chill in the air. Serena was one of the first to arrive. She was so excited to tell her sisters about ever
ything that had happened over the past month.

Esmeralda, Belinda, and Sabrina decided to bring the food for everyone to enjoy before they cast their spell for the lunar cycle. Esmeralda was the baker in the bunch. She owned a chain of local coffee shops. She would prob
ably prefer you called them cafés, since she worked so hard to make sure the food was as much of a focus as the coffee. On this evening, she brought a variety of fresh baked breads; some were sweet and some were savory. Belinda and Sabrina worked together to bring a tray of fresh fruits, vegetables, and some dried meats and cheese.

What would a gathering of ladies be without a beverage? Jasinda more often than not was the one to bring the witches ale, so to speak. She owned a bar so the possibil
ities were endless. Tonight she brought two jugs of mead. She wanted to test a new recipe she was working on, hibiscus blueberry ginger. Everyone hoped it would taste as good as it sounded.

Sabrina and Talia set out a blanket and a few chairs for some of the ladies that preferred not to sit on the ground or found it difficult to get up from that position. They all had their quirks, but they were not questioned, just respected.

“Serena, you know we’re all dying to hear what happened with your employees,” Lenora prompted Serena.

“I know. I wanted to make sure everyone was here before I started. We know sometimes our spells or our i
ntentions just aren’t meant to be. This wasn’t one of those times.” She smiled hard and nodded her head.

“Cut the nonsense and give us the good stuff. We’ve been waiting all month.” Claudia was the youngest sister and the most impatient.

“Take a chill pill, Claudia.” Sabrina wasn’t much older, and she too was a bit childlike from time to time.

Serena tucked her red hair behind her ear. She knew it was barely long enough to stay, but sometimes she liked to have it away from her face. She took another bite of bread and a swig of mead.

“It was all perfect. I couldn’t have planned things to go any better.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin and told them how things went down from handing over the moonstones to Regina’s broken shoe.

“Ezzie, this rosemary an
d black olive bread is the bomb,” Claudia interjected.

“Really, Claudia, do you th
ink people still say ‘the bomb’?” Sabrina teased her. Claudia just gave her a poop-face smile and went back to eating.

“It turns out the next day the storm we knew was coming turned out much worse than we could have e
xpected. Regina and Reddick got trapped all night in the office with no power.”

“Really, how cool is that?” Prunella probed. “I hope no one got hurt.”

“No worries there. There were no injuries incurred, except to one of my trees. They were actually stuck at the office together with no power for two days. Needless to say, they got to know each other a little better.” Serena had an impish grin smeared on her face.

“No way! How romantic!” Esmeralda chimed in.

“Once the power came back on, we got a tree guy over there and made sure it was safe for everyone to get back to work. We were lucky the storm hit on a Friday. We only lost one day of work and everyone was back in on Monday.”

Talia wanted more details. “So is that it?
”

“Regina called me Saturday night when she g
ot home and told me everything…every last detail. It was dark, stormy, hot, and steamy. After they took their relationship to the next level, Regina mixed them up some drinks from my secret stash in my office.

“Ironically eno
ugh, they made Dark and Stormys’. She thought they would snack on some pretzel sticks and just hang. Well, Reddick pulled out a small white bag with a little box in it for her. Earlier that morning, he had the girl over at Swanson’s make her a hand-painted chocolate red high-heel shoe.

“If she hadn’t been hooked or convinced there was something between them before that moment, his act sealed the deal. It sounded very romantic. She never knew how thoughtful he actually was. I’m not sure he even knew.” Serena laughed out loud.

“So back to the office thing. I asked that Regina and Reddick work on a power point presentation for Michelangelo and me with the best idea they could come up with from the staff suggestions for a marketing plan. Apparently they got together at his house on the Sunday after the storm and worked on it all night.

“They came into work Monday morning a bit disheveled, at least compared to what their usual stan
dard is. They are usually meticulous about their appearances. Reddick came in with no tie and a sweater with jeans and Regina wore a pair of denim slacks that were very nice, but not anything she would ever wear to work. It was obvious she had spent the night at his house.

“I didn’t make a stink about what they looked like. I figured they deserved a pass after what they went through over the weekend with the storm. Even with the dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep, they both were glowing. Regina came into my office just before the rest of the staff arrived to set up a time for them to give us their presentation.

“I thought, with the storm, they would have gotten around to it later in the week. We decided to order in lunch and the four of us gathered in the conference room at noon sharp.

“We had high hopes that they had something good for us, but never did we imagine how on point with our goals it would be. Their presentation was a little less than pr
ofessional, but we are a family-run business so it was okay for them to make it personal.

“They proposed to us that we team up and open a second location. Regina and Reddick knew my stance on o
ffice relationships and knew how important the bond between Michelangelo and myself was. They told us they realized how important it was to balance the energy they both brought to the table. That they knew their romantic connection was strong and would give strength behind the new venture.

“Michelangelo and I knew
this was what we wanted and know they are rock stars at what they do. We talked about it and met with our accountant and attorney that week. We put together a proposal to make them twenty-five percent owners of the new location and they will have to train new sales leaders for our current location before we open a new set of doors.

“This spell helped unlock the magic that was between Reddick and Regina. Destiny stepped in to help the four of us take our careers to the next level. We are very excited about the future.”

“Serena, that is so beautiful,” Seraphina commented as soon as Serena stopped to catch her breath. “This is truly why we gather on nights like this. I am so happy for all of you. Let us enjoy the rest of our feast and gather at our sacred circle. Tonight we will help Esmeralda bring the joy of love to someone she knows.”