A Witchy Inheritance

Chapter 3

I have the door to my trusty car open when I heard a voice hiss from the front door and something about it gave me pause.

"Erin, get back here I'm not going to hurt you. Please do not make me run outside naked."

Against my better judgment and with my inner conscience screaming at me to jump into the car I shut the door and walked around the backside of the car, still holding my pepper spray. I was far enough away from the front door that I could dive back into my car and leave if I needed to but this way I can at least see if the stage whisper I was hearing was coming from my house. When I could see my front door the porch light was on and I could see of full head of black wavy hair long enough to cover the tops of the n***d man's ears. He then moved his head so I could see his face and neck but everything else was hidden behind the door.

When he realized he had my attention he gave me a curious look but continued speaking, faster this time as if you wanted to get all the words out before I left. "Erin, this is not really the way I wanted to do this. But the boxes were delivered a few minutes ago and I was hoping to at least be clothed when we officially met."

Something about that, or maybe the entire irrationality of this conversation set off warning bells in my head. Why was I listening to what this crazy man had to say? Had I lost my mind?

"Your aunt told me to tell you something in the hopes that it would make you trust me. She told me to remind you of all the times you watched the Dark Crystal as a child. She told me to remind you that she bought all of Jim Henson's movies just for when you came to visit. I know this sounds crazy but if you would just come back inside I have several things I need to explain to you."

What he said about my aunt was correct, she bought every Jim Henson film so we could watch them together after my mother died. I wasn't sure if this man's association with my aunt was enough for me to go on to trust him, while he stood n***d in my home.

“Yeah, I'm not necessarily going to let myself be alone with a n***d guy who broke into my house simply because he knew my aunt. My aunt wasn't known for making the best decisions any way so I'm not entirely sure if that really helps your case." I was surprised to hear that my voice sounded relatively flat and didn’t come out at all like a shriek.

He gave a heavy put upon sigh, "hold on," then his head disappeared behind the door. I could hear rummaging around and part of me wanted to yell at him because I knew he was going through my front closet with all the jackets that I had. Something about him going through them made me feel slightly violated even though I knew that was ridiculous as he was already n***d and in my house but it wasn't until he was going through my things that it really hit home for me.

When he reappeared he pulled the door open wider so I could see his entire body. He was wearing my old tattered college trenchcoat tied tightly around him. Truthfully, it was probably the only jacket I had he could wear and be fully covered, since from the looks of him he was almost a foot taller than me. A voice in my head commented on just how attractive he was, with chiseled features and clearly defined muscles under that jacket. Then another voice overrode it screaming about how he had been n***d in my house and the panic and adrenaline kicked back in. He stepped forward onto the porch hands out in front of him in a stopping motion moving incredibly slowly as if trying to hold off my panic. He stopped when he was standing next to one of the two boxes.

He began to bend down and rip one of them open. "My stuff is in these boxes I'm just going to open one and pull out some clothes."

Then he turned away from me and began rooting around in the newly opened box. My brain blinked for a second before pumping into hyperdrive. The boxes belonged to the cat. The executor had been very clear that she was sending two boxes from FedEx with the cat's belongings. What did this n***d man have to do with the cat?

"Those boxes are supposed to belong to Cicero. The cat." I said like an i***t.

The man turned his neck so that he could look at me and raised one eyebrow. "I am Cicero. The cat. It's a bit of a long story, one I will happily tell you once I have my own close on." Then he turned back towards the box and went back to searching through it.