Kiss and Spell (11 Valentine's Day Paranormal Short Stories) Page 3

  Ugh. It took everything I had to stop pacing. I sized her up. She wore an aqua colored dress with a plunging neckline and an antique lace overlay. It was beautiful. She was beautiful and sultry and oh…so evil. Energy buzzed beneath my skin. I no longer cared about pacing, the hunger was struggling for control again.

  “I saw you downstairs,” he said. “Proximity and all that. I will only take a moment of your time.”

  She walked right past me and stuck her tongue down Phoenix’s throat. Obviously she knew him well. “I think we could do better than a moment.” Her hands were already heading toward his waist.

  I had to get out of this room before I drained her energy and created another enemy tonight. “I’ll just go work on this problem by myself.”

  Phoenix pulled back slightly, moving her away from him. “Maggie, this is Harmony. Harmony, Maggie.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, flipping on the customer service switch because it was the only defense I had left. “Have a good day.” I darted for the door, just wanting to leave. I had to figure out what to do about Psyche, a signature dessert soufflé to create, and I really needed to eat. I didn’t need whatever this was.

  “Don’t you want to shake her hand,” Phoenix said.

  My hand on the doorknob, I let my head fall back. Hadn’t he tortured me enough for one night? I turned back around and took a couple steps into the room holding out my trembling hand to the woman. She gave an indifferent shrug and took my hand. I couldn’t stop it. The moment her skin touched mine the floodgates opened. She staggered and I ripped my hand away, feeling much better and in control. I opened my mouth to apologize, but Phoenix shook his head, catching her arm.

  “I’m not feeling so well,” she said. “I’m really dizzy.”

  He walked her toward the door. “Anderson will take you home.” He opened the door and handed her to Anderson I presumed. The door closed softly behind him. “Feel better?”

  My mouth fell open. “You set up all of this? I could have…”

  “I need your whole mind in this, Maggie. Harmony will be fine and none the wiser. If you left like you are, there is no telling who you would have targeted or if you could have stopped.” His direct, unwavering gaze forced me to see the truth in his words. It also said “see I could help you more than you know,” but I ignored that part of the silent conversation.

  “Back to Psyche. Let’s say your arrow theory is right, then what do we do? How can we make her fall in love with Cupid?”

  “I have no idea.” I sat on the edge of his desk. I couldn’t manage my own love life, let alone hers. “It’s not like I’m an expert on love. Do you see people lined up at my door? For dates?”

  He gave me a bland look. “I think you okay. How is the carpenter?”

  Boone. He’d be the much better person to ask about something like this. “How much time do you think we have?”

  Phoenix came toward me with long graceful strides. “The sooner the better. We’re on a deadline. Now if you were going to plan the perfect seduction, what would happen?”

  Phoenix was worse than I was. “Seducing someone isn’t the same as love. He’s been doing that for centuries and she still doesn’t love him. He needs to win her heart. There’s a difference.”

  He shrugged. “Agree to disagree. How does he win her? How would I win you?”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Those are two different questions.”

  “I don’t think they are.”

  “Well, you winning my heart would be damn near impossible,” I lied between my teeth. Phoenix was so dangerous and frightening to me for the exact opposite reason. I could too easily fall for him and he would destroy my heart because he wasn’t the type to ever allow himself to feel the same way.

  “Exactly,” Phoenix said. “We need to operate on the assumption that Psyche feels the same way about Cupid. How do we get around that?”

  I chewed on my thumbnail. Phoenix stood in front of me with chunky boots, black leather pants that looked soft and supple, and a black sweater. Did he have any non-leather pants? I had doubts. It wasn’t as hard as it should have been to imagine us together. “Do you always wear leather?” I asked avoiding the question.

  “Pretty much. Does it bother you?”

  I shook my head. They looked good on him. “I guess the first step would be getting me to trust you.”

  His dark eyes searched mine. “It’s that easy?”

  “Says the compulsive liar and manipulator. Building trust, especially once it has been broken time and time again is possibly the hardest thing you can do.” I glanced at my watch. Holy crap. Time had really gotten away from me. I shot to my feet. “I have to go. We’ll talk later.”

  “You’re abandoning me. You piss off a god and leave. Really?”

  I waved over my shoulder. “I’ll call you if I think of anything.”

  The apartment above the bakery was dark, which meant Izzy was asleep, which was good. Not that baking was an illicit activity, but explaining why I never needed to sleep was hard. I unlocked the alley door and slipped inside breathing a sigh of relief. Being here was like coming home. Actually the bakery often felt more like my home than my house, but I did spend more time here. I replaced the apron on the hook by the door with my coat, then switched on the light.

  Phoenix sat on the stool waiting for me. “So predictable.”

  I tied the apron around my waist. “Why are you here? Do you have the address?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Great then I have time to do what I need to do.” Phoenix mentally exhausted me. “I promise I will think about this, but I can’t think about anything if you are here.”

  He crossed his arms, pleased creases around his eyes. “Oh, really? And why is that? Do you find me irresistible?”

  “Hardly.”

  “Alluring?”

  “That pretty much means the same thing.”

  “Tempting.”

  “Still a synonym.”

  He grinned at me.

  “I find you…” I pressed hand into his chest. “Distracting and you know that. In fact, you do it on purpose. You like to see me squirm.”

  His eyes darkened as they trailed down to my hand still against his chest. The room suddenly felt small. “I haven’t even begun to make you squirm.”

  I hadn’t been with anyone since my ex-boyfriend broke up with me, so it had been a while. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I had almost given into Phoenix a couple times. Even if I could have kept my emotions out of it, I wouldn’t have been able to give him what he wanted. I didn’t have a problem with a little casual sex between sometimes friends. But the half-vampire thing complicated more than I ever anticipated. I just wasn’t ready to accidentally murder him, or anyone, during sex. I needed to know I had complete control and if tonight proved anything it was that my abilities still held the reins.

  He broke the spell this time himself when he laughed. “That’s actually not why I’m here.”

  “Oh?”

  “You said you hadn’t made a soufflé before.” I narrowed my eyes. He gave me a slight bow. “At your service.”

  “You make soufflés?” This was certainly a new tactic to get into my pants.

  He moved around my kitchen with ease collecting everything he needed. He handed me the chocolate and instructed me to chop it melt it. I watched him butter the soufflé dish and sprinkle it with sugar for a moment before I started chopping. He worked so carefully and precisely. The cover definitely didn’t match the book when it came to Phoenix. He looked like a goth punk rock star (dangerous, sexy, and oh so deliciously wicked). And to a degree those things were true. He enjoyed reminding me of that on a regular basis. Then there was this other side who lived in a former church and painted and liked to cook and was in marching band in high school. They were like two totally different people.

  “Done,” I said.

  “Good. Add cream then melt it over boiling water and stop staring at me.”

  I smiled as
I followed his directions. I once the water was boiling I place the bowl of chocolate and cream over it, stirring gently until they had blended into a thick velvety sauce. I dabbed my finger in it, but I couldn’t bring myself to taste it and remind myself that I would never again taste if it was as good as it smelled. I held the chocolate covered finger out toward Phoenix. “Does this look right?”

  He came over, taking a hold of my wrist, gently moving me to a better position. His lips clamped down on my finger and his tongue circled it leisurely until every last drop of chocolate was gone. My eyes fluttered closed. His arm circled my waist as his hand grazed down my arm reminding me to keep stirring. I fought to keep breathing evenly as images of all the other ways we could enjoy this chocolate came to mind. But even worse than that was next thought. This was how it could be. This gentler, sweeter side of Phoenix. It could be mine if I just stopped pushing him away.

  His lips brushed the side of my neck then just above my collarbone as his hand still guided mine, stirring the chocolate his thumb softly caressing mine. “It’s done,” he said, taking a step back.

  It took me a moment to recover as he moved the bowl of melted chocolate back to the counter.

  “Add the yolks and salt.”

  I nodded stirring them into the mixture. “When did you become a jinni?”

  “1998,” he said. “May.”

  “What happened?” The question was a personal one, but no more than someone asking me why I tried to become a vampire, which he already knew.

  He concentrated harder on the egg whites. “My story’s not different than anyone else’s. I was recruited. I accepted and now I am the well-adjusted jinni who stands before you.”

  I shook my head. “I want your story, Phoenix. Your unique story that is just yours.”

  He handed me the egg whites that had been whipped with sugar until soft peaks formed. “Divide it and really gently fold it into the chocolate.”

  “I can listen while I do this.”

  He laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “I don’t want to talk about story. Not with you.”

  That hurt more than it probably should have. He knew a lot about my life, especially since becoming a half-vampire. In fact, he was on a very short list of people who actually knew that I was a half-vampire. In comparison, I knew next to nothing about him. I didn’t look at him as I worked and he didn’t try to talk to me further until it was time to fill the soufflé dish and put it in the oven.

  “How’d you learn to bake?” I asked.

  “I had an aunt I used to spend summers with and she taught me how to make all types of things. I’ve always enjoyed cooking. It’s…”

  “Relaxing,” we said at the same time.

  His eyes adverted to just over my shoulder. His strong square jaw locked. “No one is in a good place when they make a deal to become a jinni. My story isn’t like yours. You were afraid and instead of giving into the fear, you found a way to survive. What you did was gutsy. What I did was so far from that.”

  I touched his cheek. “You don’t have to tell me. I was being nosy. It’s not like we’re dating.”

  “I don’t date.”

  “I know. You’ve told me.” Baker didn’t tell me anything either. I wasn’t falling into that trap again. I let myself fall in love with Baker, but I fell much harder and deeper than he did, which left me in a hole with no hope for escape until I took charge of my life again. I had mostly made peace with what happened between us since then because now I understood, but then it was a soul crushing time in my life.

  “That’s it.” I thumped Phoenix on the shoulder. “Love at first sight is great and all, but it isn’t real love. Love it built on knowing the other person almost as well as you know yourself. Cupid in the story didn’t even let her see him. What if after all these years, she still doesn’t know how he really feels. She’s just he beautiful prize he managed to win.”

  “They need to talk?”

  I nodded. “If this is right, then yes. Desperately. He probably doesn’t know her either.”

  “What do we do?”

  I shrugged. How did you make two demigods talk to each other when they hadn’t managed to for thousands for years?

  “What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t have any plans, other than what I do every night. And you’re looking at it.”

  Chapter Four

  Phoenix’s soufflé turned out fantastic, or at least it looked great and he swore to me it tasted good. So I whipped up a hazelnut cream and a bourbon whipped cream to serve with it. When Izzy came down Phoenix had gone home and I was ready for her approval on our signature dessert.

  She tried a bite with a dab of both creams on it and her eyes closed as the spoon went in her mouth. “Ohmygod.” She took another larger bite. “So good. Where has this been all of my life?”

  “You really like it?” I asked.

  She nodded enthusiastically. “We should serve it all the time.” That wasn’t practical, of course, but it was exactly what I wanted to hear. “When did you have time to do this? Didn’t you say Phoenix asked you out?”

  That wasn’t at all what I had told her, but there was no point in arguing about it. I mentioned that I was supposed to go see him last night, but that was in no way a date. “I did meet him at Xaviers and then he showed me how to make a soufflé.”

  “Please tell me that is a euphemism.” I laughed. She sighed and shook her head. “Mags, I know you like Boone and he’s hot and handy and super nice, but he’s not available. Phoenix on the other hand has made himself very, very available to you. That has to count for something. And he got us a liquor license, right. Did he manage to do it?”

  I had forgotten all about asking him about that. What he was doing and spending time with him did count for something, but I wasn’t sure what. “Boone and I are just friends.”

  “You keep saying that, but I see the way you look when you talk about him. That’s not how you feel. He’s only going to hurt you,” Izzy said.

  Boone wasn’t the type to ever purposefully hurt someone, but then again neither was Baker. Phoenix wouldn’t give me what I wanted either, though. What I needed was a mix between the two of them. I needed someone who made me laugh and who wanted me, like Phoenix, but also someone who was nice and helped others and who I could trust, like Boone. Someone should extend that teddy bear place into other areas, Build a Boyfriend. “We should call it Psyche Souffle.”

  Izzy’s grinned as she moved to her cupcake decorating station. “I love it. With all the Cupid decorations

  “If you had one of Cupid’s arrows and you could have scratched Kyle with it to make him fall madly in love with you, would you have?”

  Izzy gave me a strange look. “I don’t know. I guess not? I mean that’s what I wanted. I wanted him to love me and want to marry me, but he didn’t feel the same way. It wouldn’t be fair to force him to. Plus, I deserve better than that. I want someone who I don’t have to force to love me.”

  I nodded. Me too.

  The rest of the morning melted away in a blur of business. The longer it went without hearing where Psyche was, the more nervous I got. The clock was ticking away on Cupid’s deadline. If he hadn’t given us the address by closing, I’d have to find her on my own.

  I was just finishing up my afternoon baking when Izzy poked her head in the kitchen. “Hey. I already have the box for the shelter made and boxed up, in case Boone comes by. If not can you drop it off. I think I am going to leave a little early today. I barely got any sleep last night.”

  “Because you were cooking.”

  I nodded. It wasn’t a lie. I couldn’t sleep, but that was beside the point. I was in fact baking.

  “Do you know what you need, Maggie?” I raised an eyebrow. “You need a big romantic gesture. You need someone to come in here and sweep you off your feet. Someone who can make you believe in love again.”

  I finished putting away the last of the newly cle
aned dishes. “Like a hole in the head. No thanks. I want honesty and loyalty and someone I enjoy spending time with.”

  “Sounds like you need a dog,” Phoenix said, opening the alley door and coming inside, brushing the snow off of his shoulders. I noticed immediately. He wasn’t wearing leather. In fact, he had on a suit. What in the holy hell was happening here? “Izzy, always good to see you.” He kissed her cheek.

  She beamed up at him. “If you have my liquor license, I will propose to you right now.”

  He reached inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope. “Everything you should need, no proposals necessary.”

  “Fantastic. Excellent doing business with you.” She looked back and forth between us. “Well, now you wanting to leave early makes sense. Go have fun you two. Take her far away and don’t let her think. That’s when she gets into trouble.”

  Phoenix smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

  She shoved me toward him as she left me to go back upfront.

  Phoenix may have been smiling, but there was something more off about him than his clothes. He seemed nervous. “You have the address?”

  “Sure do,” he said. “You have time.”

  It didn’t really matter if I did or not. I nodded. “Most of the baking is done and Izzy and Emery can handle what’s left.”

  He lead me to a black town car with darkly tinted windows and opened the backdoor. I climbed in. “I’m still wearing last night’s clothes. Should I go home and change? I feel underdressed all of a sudden.”

  “You look fine,” he said, not actually looking at me. Instead he pulled out his phone and started typing.

  I crossed my legs, bouncing my foot up and down as I brushed off splotches of flour off of my skirt. The driver pulled away from curb and we were off. “Where are we going?”

  He handed me an address that meant nothing to me. “Let me do the talking this time,” he said. “I will feel her out before you start feeling her head with ideas.”

  I laughed. Maybe he was nervous I’d piss off a second god in as many days. Fair enough. “You mean she might start thinking for herself. Oh the horror!”