“I’ll be there after I get your dry cleaning.”
She arrived at Emily’s apartment with just enough time to shower and throw on a clean pair of jeans and a decent shirt before helping Emily set the table. The catering service had come and gone. The delectable smell of the three-cheese lasagna and garlic bread made Dorothy’s stomach growl.
So much for the new diet she’d sworn she was starting this week.
Emily was pacing beside her, acting like she was ready to jump out of her skin. Could she actually be nervous? How serious were things with this mystery man?
“The table’s done. Need anything else?”
Emily looked over blankly, following Dorothy’s movements as she lit two white candles, setting them on either side of a bowl of floating roses. “You’ve already done so much. Don’t forget to fold those napkins that special way you do. I want everything to be perfect this first time.”
Dorothy froze, a napkin dangling from her fingers. “This first time he’s coming over?”
Emily hated staying overnight at someone else’s house. She complained about it all the time. If she didn’t have all her toiletries or her special pillow, she got snippy.
“Exactly how long have the two of you been dating?”
Emily’s gaze shifted guiltily. “Does this dinner count?”
Dorothy dropped the napkin and crossed her arms to hide the sparks erupting from her fingertips. Temper, temper.
“How can he be the one if this is your first date?”
“He will be.” Emily didn’t sound that sure. “He’s the one who called me and asked to come over for dinner after avoiding me for weeks, so that has to be a good sign, right?”
“You should have told me.” Dorothy shook her head, walking toward the guest bedroom where she planned to hide for the duration. Damn it. That food smelled amazing. “I’m not going to be a third wheel on a first date again. We both know that never turns out well.”
She still had nightmares about the last time. It was humiliating. When Emily was on the prowl she kept her claws out. When her date paid any attention to Dorothy—because he’d been polite and it seemed strange to ignore the only other person at the table—he stepsister had told him Dorothy ?
?believed” she was a witch, and wasn’t that weird and adorable?
“You should see what she does on the full moon. It’s precious.”
There was no way she was dealing with that again. She was too stressed and her powers had been too unpredictable as it was.
Emily grabbed her arm just as a knock sounded at the door. “Don’t you dare leave me alone with him. The table is already set, and it’s your fault that I saw him in the first place. Please, Dee. Please?”
Dorothy hesitated and blue eyes lit with triumph as she straightened her mini skirt and moved toward the door. “You’ll love him, I promise. In fact”—she looked over her shoulder as she turned the doorknob, a genuine smile of glee lighting her face and sending dread coursing through Dorothy’s body—“you already know him. Sort of.”
The door opened and shock held Dorothy statue-still behind her clueless stepsister.
The wizard had come to dinner.
Dinner with Emily. Not you.
If it didn’t feel like a knife stabbing her straight in the heart she might have laughed. She’d swallowed her pride to escape the temptation the mere sight of him presented, only to find him here, with no walls or windows separating them.
And no shield to protect her.
Shit.
“Z, I’m so glad I finally got you to come.” Emily giggled as if she’d just said something incredibly clever, gripping Z’s thick wrist to tug him inside.
He quirked his lips, but his amber gaze immediately gravitated toward Dorothy. “I didn’t realize your sister would be joining us.”
Liar.
You’re the one lying to yourself, sweet Dorothy. You knew I’d come for you as soon as you took away that last obstacle.