Dane chuckled. “No. Pick up stray scientists you’ve found bumbling about fire pits on frozen winter nights.”
“Ah. All the time! Though I’d never assign the word bumbling to you.” She laughed, and a slip of dark hair fell out from under her wig. “No, this is a new one for me.” She clicked on the turn signal and slowed for a right. “But how could I resist a scientist looking so out of his element and in need of a little tender-loving summer?”
“Out of my element? Yes. I prefer carbon.”
“Ha! A science joke. My element is earth, in case you’re wondering.”
“Earth isn’t exactly an element. I’ll assign you silica, since that is abundant in sand, which is earth. Of course, you could also be nitrogen, because when that freezes—well, it’s icy and fun to play with.”
“I’m not an ice queen, I just play one at the annual winter festival. And if you’re not nice to me, I’ll turn around and you’ll never see summer.”
“Sorry. But I will reserve judgment on your summer-invoking abilities until I can feel the grass beneath my feet.”
“It will happen. Promise. Just ahead. So where are you staying?”
“I found a hotel next to an Applebee’s. Classy place, the hotel. They even offer all-you-can-eat pastries glopped with thick pink frosting in the mornings. I could not contain my enthusiasm when I learned that.”
“Really?” She flashed him a genuinely doubtful look.
“I’m kidding. I have a tendency to find sarcasm in all the wrong places. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You’re a breath of fresh air, Dane. I don’t run into men like you around town all that often.”
“So you’ve snatched me up and now you’re going to do what with me, exactly?”
She waggled her eyebrows and pulled the car into a garage set beside a Victorian-style house. “Just wait and find out. Come in, if you dare.” She turned off the car and opened the door.
And Dane followed with the eagerness of a scientist discovering a new element. This could be interesting. Or at the very least, a distraction from the local television reruns and stale sheets he had been headed for back at the hotel.
Inside the house, the lights were low and the kitchen vast, four times the size of a normal kitchen. Dane was drawn to the center, where a butcher-block table stretched ten feet and was paralleled by random unmatched bar stools in a range of heights. Above the table hung various dried herbs and flowers among copper pans and lightbulbs caged by chicken wire.
He drew in a breath, infusing his senses with lavender and rose, sage and thyme, and he detected cinnamon, as well. Summer, indeed. But it wasn’t grass, as she’d promised. Still. He took in the rest of the kitchen, the pale gray clapboard walls harmonized with the stainless steel appliances. Country chic with a dash of bohemian, from the bright red and violet dish towels to the deep garnet glass dishes stacked neatly in the doorless cupboards.
“This is like something from a movie set,” he said. “You live here alone?”
She nodded and then tugged off the tinsel wig to reveal a spill of chestnut hair that tumbled down her shoulders. Straight as a ruler and thick. She blew a few strands from her bright blue eyes. And how those lush lashes fluttered as she waited for him to speak. He could not ignore or dismiss what those enchanting eyes did to his heartbeats—thudding toward some cliff was how it felt.
“Dane?” She nudged forward, inspecting his gaze. “Is something wrong?”
“Uh, no.” Had his mouth been open in wonder over her simple yet utterly gorgeous appearance? He needed to check himself. This was a little unsettling, standing here with a woman he’d met an hour earlier. Sure, he’d romanced her a bit at the party. But then he’d been the prince swishing around the dance floor with a queen. Now he felt slightly unsure. Playing the science nerd was his game. And he hadn’t much of a game to claim in the first place.
“So where’s summer?” he asked.
“Let me pour you a lemonade first, and then we’ll head into summer. You like mint?”
“Yes, please.”
He sat on a stool and shrugged off his wool jacket. He’d need to buy something warmer if he intended to go out and about for a week in this frigid weather. And he could hardly imagine sitting in a hotel room that whole time. He had some weapons reports to work on for the Agency, but he always got antsy if he sat before the laptop too long. Best way to counterattack a work slump? Hit a few waves or punch the bag for a while. He wondered if there might be a gym in the hotel. He’d ask at reception when he returned later...but how would he get to the hotel? He had no vehicle.
Eryss pulled a glass pitcher from the fridge and then crushed a few fresh mint leaves she picked off a plant near a window over the sink.
“I want to change out of this silly dress,” she said as she handed him a glass of cloudy yellow brew sprinkled with emerald leaves. “I’m going to send you into summer on your own, and then take a few minutes to myself. Deal?”
He sipped the lemonade. Tart! And followed by a tendril of sweetness laced with a minty gush that tickled his nose.
“Oh yeah. That hit the spot. Uh, and yes, go do whatever you wish. I can sit here until you return.”
“No. You are in desperate need of a summer infusion. Follow me.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. Dane followed Eryss’s swaying blue skirt into the living room, which was as large as the kitchen and decorated with velvet and silk furniture coverings and plants. Bohemian yet fresh, he thought. A far cry from the white walls and steel and leather furniture that filled his small Santa Cruz apartment. Down a hallway they neared a glass-block wall, and then he saw the doors and realized a two-story conservatory was attached to the house.
Eryss opened the door and gestured for him to enter as one low inner light flickered on. He strolled inside and the humidity hit him softly. He swallowed the heavy air and smiled. The warmth was incredible and the green smell of plants transported him to...
“Summer,” he said in a hushed voice.
“Told you. Here.” She handed him a lighter, then turned and flicked a switch. A stirring of gears began to lower what he saw was a massive crystal chandelier in the center of the glass hothouse, and it stopped just beside a curvy emerald velvet sofa. “Light the candles and I’ll be back quick as I can.”
“Uh, sure,” he said, as he absently flicked the lighter on and off. He couldn’t get over the incredible place in which he stood.
Eryss disappeared out the door and into the house. And Dane stood there, a lemonade wafting mint in one hand and a lighter in the other as he noticed the emerald-crystal candelabra was fitted with real beeswax candles. And was that—did a dragonfly flit about the massive chandelier?
What kind of Wonderland had he stumbled into? And was Eryss more Alice than Snow Queen?
“Does it matter?” A grin teased at him and he relaxed into the intriguing madness of it all. “Here’s to Wonderland.”
* * *
Confident she’d left the man in a wondrous state, Eryss tugged off the satin gown and tossed it across the bed as she beelined into her closet. It was a walk-in, but was only half filled with clothes and shoes. The other half was stacked with boxes of crystals, herbs, tinctures and other magical accoutrements she didn’t have room for in her spell room—which was the conservatory.
Geneva, one of her brewery partners, had scoffed at this tiny closet. That woman owned an entire store of clothing, and a high-end one at that. She hadn’t been at the party tonight because she was still in Greece, ending a two-month-long affair with a millionaire. Or maybe he was a billionaire. Eryss couldn’t keep