The offer had lingered starkly in the air, as plain as she’d left it, allowing him to mull it over as she’d written her number on the card, though Ashlynn had still yet been keen to a reaction. Dark eyes were frighteningly vigilant, as if to see that the blood had blossomed in the water as she’d sensed it had. Was he as serious as the curdling flames behind his gaze, or was he a snapping mongrel, all bark? She had a feeling it was the former, though she had extended the proposition with either reality in mind. It was always her belief to lay her intentions clearly exposed, left bare for consumption. It was compounded by having little fear of rejection. It was not apt to injure her unbreakable, stalwart pride, making it easy as breathing to confess or propose. But admittedly, she sincerely hoped for his acceptance, his equal desire, as opposed to playfully tormenting her and leaving her hollow with an exit. This morsel was too full of intrigue, tantalizing with every sensation, with each veracious stroke of his aura. Besides, she was eager to know if his skin tasted as electrifying and sweet as he smelled.<br/><br/>There was a glimmer to his eyes, as if something had dawned upon him, and Ash had been unsure if that was to her benefit or not. There was a distinct flush to the color of his skin, a pounding heart, and the taste of adrenaline in the air had settled against her tongue. At once, she’d begun to wonder if she’d done something wrong or something sinister was buried in her words, but then, everything changed. It was sudden, the way that the air felt muffled, encircled and taught around them, as though they lingered in a glass orb, dangling quietly amidst a field of conversation. She wanted to glance to the other customers, to see how they fared, if time had paused or their lips were still moving, but her attention was harshly fastened. It was magic, she knew, every instinct flaring to life beneath her skin, leaving it raw and tingling. He was holding her rapt attention, without so much as a frayed fiber of it loose. The power that she had felt a fragment of was then lucid in his gaze, threaded with his smooth voice, unavoidable, manifest. Even as she did not feel any sort of threat, any ounce of warning that this man would harm her, she still yet felt her hackles raise, prickling errantly along her spine. Generations upon generations of wolfblood alighted her, inspiring a primal urge to defend, to stand and fight, as any alpha would do for her territory, but it was fast giving way to wonder, to riveted enchantment.<br/><br/>Each word of his spilled from his lips and washed over her like one enthralling wave after another, and it wrought the truth from him in every turn. Each moment painted the picture of him, birthing a canvas of beautiful secrets that were now in her care. A name that she cemented to memory, every syllable and consonant, as though she’d known that if she took him home, it would never be so simple as a single night’s passion and a next day’s moving on. What future that entailed instead, she was unsure, captivated by its implications, its complications, knowing that her life was changed by it nonetheless. He was one of the only things worse than a city slicker or an actor - he was a hunter, for fuck’s sake. Entwining herself with the Enclave was a fool pup thing to do, but damn it all. As long as she didn’t let Janis know until she had an idea of exactly the way things would be. The spell was over before Ashlynn could fully comprehend it, dissipating into the air as though it had never happened, and the swell of the world rushed back in to surround them. Her heart was beating faster now, a hard rhythm in her chest, and her skin was still sensitive in the light of his altered presence, however brief.<br/><br/>The encounter was ended with light words, devoid of any indication that what had happened, happened. An acceptance of her offer, an appearance of a payment, a simple question on what food the wine would pair well with. As Ash had worked to collect herself, she’d nearly blurted out something about steak, lost in a sort of auto-mode, until she’d remembered his scent profile and rescinded it. A second more to pick up her thoughts and she was smiling, dark, pleasureful. “Devon,” she repeated his name back to him and took the card from his hand, grazing her fingers briefly against his own, a licking of energy at her skin. “I look forward to getting into trouble with you,” she spoke mischievously, the duality of the words matching both the furtive conversation and the one that had been naked to mundane earshot. “By itself. Save the merlots and the cabs for dinner. This is something you don’t want augmented by food,” she answered him earnestly now, though she withheld any biting joke about classical music and pompous attire.<br/><br/>Reaching over, she grabbed one of their little tablets on a stand, set up with the Square ensemble, lined in white, and swiped his card to a steep tune. Ashlynn charged him for one bottle, then she set it up before him, handed back his card. “Sign for me, please,” she requested formally as its touch screen begged a signature, before she rifled through a box beneath the counter and extracted an airy bubble wrap meant for safe travel. It was the sort of thing that you carried, not tossed lazily into a bag, and she felt she didn’t need to tell him that. “You’ll get your second bottle when you return. I may even give you a discount,” she promised with a playful tease, though she wasn’t planning on charging him with anything more than his time. What had she said to Jaime? That the individuals hitting on her just wanted free wine? She supposed there was nothing wrong with indulging that at least once, not that he’d asked.<br/><br/>Handing the box over to the ensorcelling man across the counter, once Ashlynn was sure he had a grasp on it, she touched his hand, working to capture his attention. Her gaze had become serious, if questioning, attentive, searching. “Come back to me in one piece,” she stated, almost a demand. The shards of his story had come together, and she took his proposed danger seriously. It was the only way to say ‘be safe’ that wasn’t offensive, seeing as bounty hunters openly thrust themselves away from ‘safe’ for sake of money or otherwise, and she wasn’t done learning exactly who Devon Bartholomew Chase really was.