She’d arrived at his apartment with hot coffee and fresh bagels. A very nice way to be woken up. She smelled good and felt right and he loved the way she looked, cool and professional in her feminine suit, her hair a soft tumble of curls held back by a pretty clip he’d given her a few days prior.

He’d lured her to bed and even now she looked sexy and sort of disheveled, though still lovely in jeans and a sweater. He’d asked, and she’d let her hair stay free. She had her boots off and he could see she wore his favorite socks.

Whimsy to balance the heavy task she would bear as she took over the clan. It made her perfect to him. Gorgeous. Intelligent. Talented and powerful witch. Uninhibited in bed, or out of it. The sex was mind-blowing. He couldn’t even make up a fantasy as good as what they managed to get up to pretty much as often as they could. Well, maybe if it was a threesome with her clone. That could work.

Mmmm, yes.

“Whatever are you thinking about?” his lovely woman at his side asked, amusement in her tone.

Of course she had files on her lap and had spent the last two hours tapping away on her laptop. He’d been amazed by her capacity to work at any and all times. In the beginning anyway. Now he just accepted it as another one of her incredible gifts.

“I was thinking about a three-way with you and your clone, as it happens.”

She started laughing. “Really?”

“Really.”

She leaned over to kiss the side of his neck. “You’re so delightfully single-minded about sex.”

“I seem to recall I’m not the only one.”

“Very true. And what can I say? I’m rather flattered that if you’re thinking about three-ways you’d make me both women instead of adding a supermodel or something.”

“None of them have a thing on you.” Which wasn’t a lie at all.

He wanted to show her off, he could admit it, at least in his head. He wanted to present her to Tom and have Tom see what an amazing woman he’d fallen for. Wanted Tom to approve of how he’d made his life better.

Dominic had resented the iron-fisted way he’d been raised, but now, on the other side of a really dark time in his life, it had been Tom’s upbringing and his steady way of being in Dominic’s life that had given him the biggest push to finally get his act together.

“It’s going to be fine,” she said before answering her ringing phone.

He liked that too. Her way of knowing what he needed to hear and giving it to him.

He drove as her voice soothed him in the background. And then he smiled as that tone changed.

In addition to a host of positive qualities, Meriel Owen was really, really bossy, which he admittedly had only recently come to find attractive in a woman. Watching her work was sexy and inspiring. She was effortlessly efficient. She dealt with her mother by simply letting Edwina wash uselessly around her. It puzzled Edwina, Dominic thought. She didn’t understand her daughter so she provoked her, constantly trying to figure her out.

Meriel, to her great credit, did seem to understand her mother. And as much as she could, without harming her own perspective, she let her mother organize and tidy, knowing it’s what Edwina did to express her affection.

With him too, Dominic supposed, Meriel understood his need to protect and lead. He loved that she could be so in charge in every aspect of her life. But with him she softened, let him be in charge. It soothed him. Not that she didn’t push back when he got too bossy. She let him know when he overstepped. Which meant there’d be really smoking-hot make-up sex in store.

The scenery changed as they drove. From the lusher forests of western Washington into the warmer and drier climate of central Oregon. There’d been snow several places along the way.

Meriel, like most other Seattleites he knew, was fascinated and slightly fearful of the snow. But he’d grown up with it — with lots of it — his whole life. For months on end.

But he’d stopped and let her take pictures of it. She brought that into his life too. The little experiences he’d forgotten about.

She gave orders in the background as he thought about this place and wondered why Tom had settled here. He’d grown up on the East Coast, but when he’d gotten the call that the baby of one of his friends needed a home, he’d come out west and had built a home and a life for both of them.

But every summer Dominic had worked to keep his body strong and his mind clear as he’d worked with Tom on his backcountry trips. They’d canoed and white-water rafted. Hiked. Biked. Camped.

In the winter it had been skiing and sledding on the trips they’d taken. Snow camping.

It had kept him out of trouble because he was too tired to get out of line. He’d respected his body and his mind. Until he’d left and binged on all the larger world had to offer.

And now he’d come full circle.

When she hung up he touched her hand, because he could and because he wanted to. She smiled and tipped her wrist up to capture his fingers with hers. “Hey there. I’m hungry. At the risk of sounding like a kid, are we there yet?”

“We’ve got another three hours or so. But Tom’s making a feast, he says. He’s a great cook so that’ll be true and believe me, you want to have plenty of space in your belly to eat. But let’s stop and stretch in the next town. I’ll get gas and look the other way when you drink yet another cup of coffee.”

“We all have our addictions, Mr. Bright.” She said it primly but the grin at the end sort of messed up that delivery.

“Damn it, I’m so glad you came into my club and gave me a stern talking-to.”

Her grin softened and she brought his fingers to her lips to kiss them. “Watch the road. And me too.”

Chapter 19

DOMINIC sent out silent thanks to Simon for suggesting they take his SUV for the drive. The road out to the house had been cleared, but it had started to snow and the curves would have been a lot worse had Tom not kept everything tidy and shipshape.

“Wow, is that it?” She leaned forward to get a better look through the windshield.

Tom had bought the small house on a big plot of land with a mountain view. The river was down a winding path that kept it out of harm’s way when the snowmelt hit and the water levels rose. Right now it felt like home as they approached. The window glowed golden and smoke rose lazily from the chimney.

He parked out of the way. Old habit he supposed. Sometimes Tom’s clients would meet him at the house and they started a trip from there so Dominic wanted to keep the drive clear just in case.

She squeezed his hand and he looked at her, just looking for long moments.

“We’re here.” She grinned but he saw the worry at the edges.

“We are. He’s going to love you. How could he not?”

Ha.

Meriel let him open her door and help her down. She pulled her zipper up, sealing out the cold. The place was absolutely gorgeous. The house was rough hewn, but beautifully constructed. She had no doubt that the views from just about every part of the house would be fabulous.

“Come on in then,” a man called from the front steps and when Meriel saw him, she looked back to Dominic and did it once more. It was when she went back for the third look that she noticed the warding.

Everywhere.

Meriel paused and turned in a slow circle. The place was a virtual impenetrable fortress. This warding was cast one on top of the next. It appeared to be crumbling and weak, but once you took a closer look any witch with a decent amount of talent would be able to see just how good they were. Tangled roots and thorny dead ends.

Tom Bright was no ordinary witch. And he sure as hell wasn’t just Dominic’s foster father. Now the fact that Dominic was full-council made sense. It was clear where the magick in his genes came from. Just what it was the man had been hiding wasn’t clear. But it was big and it made her wary.