A Rebel Without Claws (Southern Charm #1)

2. ~Celine~

Chapter 2

~Celine~

Who was this guy?

He had a bruised face and a cut lip, but it was his subtle Texan drawl in a deep baritone that had caught my attention the most. And there was no way I could’ve missed his wolf growling when we shook hands.

That was a bit daring and aggressive. I’d met plenty of Diego’s werewolf friends, and none would even think about growling around me in that flirty purring sort of way. It was a possessive move for a wolf. Of course, Diego would’ve beaten the hell out of any of his friends who pulled that sort of crap around me.

I hugged my tablet to my chest, checking out his aura, unable to keep from smiling.

“What’s that smile for?” he asked, his piercing blue eyes intent on mine. His voice had a raspy edge that swept goose bumps over my skin .

“Your aura is quite pretty.”

“Come again?” His grin widened. “You’re saying I’m pretty?”

“No.” I laughed. “Your aura is, though. It’s kind of a pinkish purple.”

His eyebrows—a darker shade than his sandy blond hair—shot up. “Pink?”

“No one ever told you?”

“You’re the first Aura witch I’ve ever met.”

“Stop. That can’t be true.” My magical ability as an empath read his energy quickly, loving the super-confident vibes emanating from him.

“Scout’s honor.” He put his hand over his heart. I laughed again.

“You were not a Cub Scout.”

“Why would you say that?” His sultry gaze and smirking expression was undeniably flirty. “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

He dipped his head and lowered his voice, inching a little closer into my space, his gaze never leaving mine. His attention was intense and electrifying and I couldn’t look away if my life depended on it.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t,” I admitted, a little ashamed of myself. Plus, that twinge of old unease crept in for a second. “Just because you’re a bit”—my gaze flicked to the bruises and cuts on his face, lingering at the one on his wide mouth—“rough around the edges, doesn’t mean you’re . . .”

His brows rose again, his expression open, urging me to continue, but I couldn’t find the right words. For someone who never lacked them, I suddenly felt tilted, off-center, ever since this werewolf had engulfed my hand with his own .

“I’d love to hear the rest of that sentence,” he teased.

“Sorry,” I apologized quickly, “I lost my train of thought.”

He chuckled, the husky sound warming me inside out. “I know the feeling, Celine. I’m a little lost here myself.”

“Celine!” Rhett called from the open office door in the garage. He glared at Ronan with annoyance before saying, “I’ve got it pulled up on the desktop. Come see.”

“Coming,” I called back, not quite ready to walk away. “So who are you exactly?”

His confident smile hadn’t left his face since he’d first walked up, and I found that extraordinarily attractive. I was born and raised among the most capable, confident, and intelligent men. From my father to my brothers to my many uncles and cousins, they all seemed to have that internal masculine factor that told the world they didn’t need to prove that they were clever and cool; it was a simple fact. Even my introverted, shy brother Joaquin could make a weaker man wither beneath his superior air.

This was also probably why my dating life had always been so abysmal. Some of that was my fault, and the rest had been borne of the extremely overprotective men in my life.

“Ronan Reed,” he said, giving me his full name this time. “Shane Reed is my uncle.”

“Uncle Shane is your uncle?”

He flinched, his smile slipping for once, his expression pal- ing. “You’re not his niece.” He swallowed hard, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbing. “Are you?”

I belted out a laugh at his obvious disappointment that we could somehow be related. “No. He’s such a close family friend I call him Uncle Shane. ”

He spread his palm over his chest. “Thank fuck. I almost had a heart attack.”

I laughed harder, which softened his features again. “That would be a bad thing if I was blood-related to him?” I teased.

“It would be a travesty.”

His sincerity made me quiet and contemplative, my gaze drawn back to his eyes, so deep blue I felt caught in a drowning pool. And for some reason, I was okay with that.

“So”—I cleared my throat—“what made you move here to New Orleans?”

“A lot of things,” he said vaguely.

“Do any of those things happen to be related to the state of your face?”

“Yeah,” he answered coolly, still intently watching me. “But it’s fine. I plan to make a new start here.”

I nodded, liking the sound of that. “That’s good.” Though I still didn’t know exactly why he needed a new start.

“Celine!” Rhett called again.

“I’d better go.”

“Wait.” He stepped forward as I was about to turn away. “Can I get your number?”

“Um, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Even if my impulse was to give it to him, I wasn’t a fool—not anymore anyway. I truly didn’t know him well enough to hand over my number just yet.

“Why not?” His smile had returned, which was strange since

I was in the middle of turning him down. Or rather, delaying the inevitable.

“I don’t know you.”

“Of course you do. We just met. ”

“Meeting and knowing someone are two totally different things.”

He dipped his chin like he agreed. “That’s fine. I don’t mind a chase, Celine. But I sure hope you let me catch you.”

My heart sped at that imagery. I remained still as he gently pried one of my arms free from where I’d crossed them over my tablet against my chest and took my hand in both of his.

“Very nice meeting you,” he crooned softly, intimately.

He held my hand in a semblance of shaking it in departure, but what he was actually doing was cradling it gently and brushing one thumb across the back of my hand, his other thumb caressing the middle of my palm. It was a strangely sensual sensation.

“Till we meet again,” he said, finally dropping my hand, which I tucked back to my chest like he’d injured it somehow.

Of course, he hadn’t. Not at all, but I was a little dumbstruck over the entire encounter.

“How are you so sure we’ll meet again?” I asked.

Ronan simply laughed as he backed away. He winked before he turned and strode back to Ty, working on a car in bay one.

Finally, I was able to move my legs, forcing them to walk away from him and into the office where Rhett was waiting.

“Here’s how your design will look on the cover plate and panel,” said Rhett. “I just need to know if you have a smaller design for the ribs and frame before I present it to the customer.”

Over Rhett’s shoulder, I stared at my latest design on the monitor. This kind of work was far from what I did as my day job, but it was also fun as well as being good supplemental income .

“Sure, I can have that to you by Friday.”

Rhett was one of the Blood Moon pack who worked and operated the Body Shop. He also treated me the same as all the other men in my life—with profound overprotective instincts. So I wasn’t surprised when he said, “Best not get too close to Ronan.”

“Why’s that?”

“He’s been in a lot of trouble. It always tends to find him.”

I already knew that. My magic had told me so the second I laid eyes on him. Unfortunately, I’ve always been drawn to the broken, wanting to fix things if I could. Not that I saw him as someone to fix, only that I couldn’t keep my empathic heart from reaching out to him, wanting to know him, help him.

“He mentioned wanting a new start.”

Rhett nodded his head, running a grease-smudged hand through his auburn hair. “True, true. I just wouldn’t want to—I mean, I don’t know that your dad would be happy about you two keeping company.”

That made me laugh. “Oh, you’re one hundred percent right about that.” But there was no one good enough for me in my dad’s eyes. I couldn’t choose men to date based on what my father would want.

If it were up to him, I’d only date future preachers who said “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and believed in sex only after marriage and maybe not even then.

“Good,” said Rhett on a sigh of obvious relief, assuming I had agreed to not talk to Ronan. “I’ll hear from you on Friday then. You can just send the new designs through our Google folder. ”

In other words, no need to come into the shop and bump into Shane’s naughty nephew.

“Sure thing. Thanks, Rhett.”

I wasn’t sure if I was on the right track with this design, which is why I’d stopped by today. Interestingly, I rarely came to the shop, but for some reason I had decided I should pop in and go over this one with Rhett in person.

Smiling at the thought that the Goddess who guided our witch magic might be playing matchmaker, I swished back out of his office and through the garage. And if I swayed my hips a little more than usual, I couldn’t be blamed. The wolf lean- ing over the hood, his hands braced on the frame of the car, his hypnotic blue eyes solely on me, already had me under his spell.

I sure hoped he planned to chase me soon.