Fairyville (20 page)

He pulled her hold from him, but not before she felt a fresh spurt of stiffness roll through his cock.

"Zoe," he said. "I can't do this with you now."

His cock seemed to think it could. He had leaned back from her onto his heels, and her view was clear. His erection wavered higher even as she watched, a miracle of human pneumatics.

She wriggled onto her elbows. "What do you mean, you can't?"

"I mean I'm not ready to have intercourse with you."

His expression was absolutely serious. Zoe felt her temper begin to rise. "You mean emotionally ready, right? Because the rest of you is looking like it's in the mood."

He closed his eyes for a long heartbeat. "There are things about myself I can't explain to you."

"And I guess that's because I'm so untrustworthy?"

"Zoe—"

"No, don't bother feeding me more lines." She sat up and hugged a pillow to her front, abruptly in need of the shield. "I know you haven't got vagina-phobia. As much as the local rumor mill blabbers about you, someone would have mentioned that."

"Zoe—"

"I'm your friend, Magnus, or I thought I had been for the last two years. Yes, I've been stupid enough to want more, but that doesn't mean I'll tolerate being treated like someone who can't be confided in. You know who I am. My character isn't a mystery. If your issues, whatever they are, are too intimate to share with me, you can just bundle them up and go."

His mouth opened again, but this time she interrupted him before her name could come out.

"I mean it. I think something special happened here tonight, but no amount of special is going to excuse you still holding back. I've had enough of men wanting to hide half of themselves from me. Come back when and if you're ready to get over that."

He swallowed, his Adam's apple jerking in his throat. She was glad to see she'd shaken him—though her satisfaction was premature.

"I need to think about this," he said, adding insult to an injury she'd thought was plenty deep enough.

"Fine," she said. "You go think."

She didn't call him back when he pulled on his clothes and climbed out her window, not even when he sent one last searching glance over his shoulder. Maybe he was sorry to be leaving, but that didn't fix what was wrong.

Growling with frustration, she threw her pillow across the room. What was wrong with her that she kept falling for these conflicted men? There seemed no point in guessing what Magnus's problem was. This whole mess only underscored how near to a stranger he really was. She'd never met his family or heard him mention their names. He'd never told her where he'd grown up, or gone to school, or what he'd done for work before he took up managing artists. Apart from knowing that he was cheerful, fabulous in bed, and possessed of occasionally odd taste in shoes, they might as well have met a week ago. Oh, she knew she held a higher place in his interest than his other protégés, but did having lunch a few times a week truly constitute friendship?

Right then, it didn't feel like it. Right then, it felt like she'd been deluded about everything.

The house was silent, lonelier somehow than if she'd been in it alone. Bryan and Alex were probably asleep, curled up together in sensual exhaustion, neither of them available to talk to her—even if confiding in them had been a good idea.

I want my cat
, she thought, pushing out of bed to get him.

The irony that her one present comfort had come to her from Magnus wasn't lost on her.

Zoe's morning didn't seem destined to lift her mood. Yes, it was sunny and, yes, the heat index was reasonable, but the fairies were sulking over her having welcomed their two least favorite people into her home. Aside from a shimmer of presence around Corky, they didn't appear at all. Without their assistance, Zoe's hair did scary things when she blew it dry.

Alex and Bryan were long gone by the time she shuffled into the kitchen. Whether they were embarrassed by the noises they'd made the previous night or the ones she had, she didn't know. Their absence wouldn't have been so annoying if they'd left her more than a drip of coffee that wouldn't keep a flea awake. Half a stale bagel languished in her bread box, but of course her toaster was still on the fritz from Florabel's linguistic experiments.

"Love you, too," Zoe muttered to her absent friends.

Corky stretched and mewled as she tucked him into her handbag with what supplies she could scrounge up for him. He seemed to find his new container fascinating, sniffing at the woven straw with great interest.

"At least you're no trouble," she said to the now wide-eyed cat. He had, to her relief, already figured out the purpose of his newspapers.

She'd almost gotten on her way when Samuel popped into visibility before the door. He was still dressed like Robin Hood and had clearly come to her in a snit. His hands were planted on the hips of his leaf-green tunic, and his wings beat so fast the tiny feather in his tiny cap threatened to blow off.

"What's wrong?" she asked in exasperation. "None of your compadres want to talk to me, and you drew the short straw?"

"I gave you my name," he huffed. "And now you do this!"

"This?" Zoe attempted to sound more patient. A fairy's name was a sacred trust. Theoretically, it could be used to summon them against their will—though she wasn't sure the old lore applied to fairies as willful as Rajel's flock.

True or not, Samuel was milking her supposed betrayal for all it was worth. "Kittens don't need to go to work!"

"Kittens need to be fed, Samuel. By someone who can actually lift a box of kibble. And kittens need to bond with their owners, not just their fairy guardians."

"Your workplace is a bad environment. All sorts of riffraff go there!"

"I doubt Magnus will show up today, if that's what you're getting at."

Samuel could fit an awful lot of disapproval into a face no bigger than her fingernail. He did not, however, disappear at the mere mention of Magnus's name.

"You could come to work with us," she suggested, sensing an opening. "I'm planning to shop for Corky on my lunch hour."

"Petsmart?" Samuel breathed, his reverent tone suggesting this was akin to visiting the Louvre.

"With my credit card. Corky will be needing toys."

Samuel trembled with his inner conflict, obviously bursting to come along. Shopping, toys, and kittens were practically the Holy Grail of fairy fun. If you added music and dancing, you could win their loyalty for life.

"I'll join you at noon," Samuel finally snapped. "Possibly with a friend."

Well, that's progress
, Zoe thought, and rubbed noses with Corky to celebrate.

As Zoe had predicted, Magnus wasn't at the gallery when she arrived, which left her both irritated and relieved. Since that snag in the fabric of her life was put off indefinitely, she settled Corky in her office with a pillow and a spool of thread she'd brought as a stopgap toy. The kitten seemed to think it was just as good as the store-bought kind, chasing it across her office like a small dervish. Seeing that he was happy, she composed herself for her first client.

Today that was Teresa Smallfoot. Blowing in with her usual brilliant smile, the cafe owner made herself even more welcome by plunking two tall mocha espressos on Zoe's reading table.

Since Teresa was a friend, Zoe allowed herself to moan with pleasure as she grabbed the closest container and took a slurping hit. The caffeine ran into her like liquid gold. "Teresa Smallfoot, you are a lifesaver."

"Not me." Teresa sat in the opposite armchair and smoothed her denim skirt down her knees. At her waist, a handmade turquoise and silver belt showed off how curvy her figure was. Her hair was perfect, as always, a straight and shining fall of black. Zoe suppressed a twinge of envy. She knew better than to think that if she'd looked more like Teresa and less like herself things would have ended any differently with Magnus.

"Well?" said Teresa. "Aren't you going to ask? Or is whatever happened to your hair this morning—which I only mention as a caring friend—affecting your usually sparkling wits?"

Zoe's hand flew to the ball of frizz she'd tried to minimize by braiding it. "My little friends went on strike this morning. This was the best I could do."

"The coffee," Teresa prodded patiently. "Aren't you going to ask about the coffee?"

"What about the coffee?"

Teresa laughed at her confusion. "The coffee comes to you courtesy of two secret admirers."

"
Two
secret admirers?"

Zoe hadn't known she had any admirers, but Teresa grinned in acknowledgment. "One blond, one dark, both tall and yummy. They came into my cafe this morning. Asked if I knew the woman who worked next door. When I admitted that I did, they said they owed you coffee."

"Oh,
them"
said Zoe, her cheeks going a little hot.

"You're blushing!" Teresa exclaimed. "This must be better than I thought. Just tell me you're not interested in the dark-haired one. You know I love bad boys."

"Actually, I think he goes for bad boys, too."

"Well, shoot," said Teresa with a full-lipped pout. "That wasn't showing on my radar. I was going to have Grandma Rose scope him out for me."

Zoe started to explain that Bryan might have no problem swinging Teresa's way, then shut her mouth. She told herself it was nothing to do with her niggling attraction to the man. Bryan was gone on Alex, and nobody—least of all her—needed to get in the middle of that.

"What?" said Teresa. "Not going to lecture me on asking dead people to run my life? I know they're not necessarily smarter than we are, but you gotta admit Grandma Rose's record is good."

"Your Grandma Rose probably gave good advice when she was alive. And she can see more from where she is. People who are nonphysical always have a broader view."

"So I
should
ask her for the inside track."

Zoe smiled at her friend's teasing. "She'll only tell you the same thing I'm going to. Right now, Bryan is too interested in Alex to play around."

"Alex," Teresa mused, leaning back in the comfy chair. "You mean
your
Alex? The one from high school who seduced the coach? Oh, my God.
That's
the devil's spawn Mrs. Fairfax was muttering about this morning! Thank heaven they didn't come in at the same time. That would have been a scene."

"We had the scene last night at the inn. When I went to banish Mrs. Fairfax's poltergeist."

"Do tell," said Teresa, now back on the edge of her seat.

"Don't you want your session?"

"Oh, no," Teresa said. "Your life is sounding way more interesting to me."

"It was interesting all right. I yelled at Mrs. Fairfax in front of a lobby full of her guests."

"You yelled at Mrs. Fairfax? That, um, fakely sweet old lady?"

"She's okay most of the time. She just hit a nerve for me last night. Alex didn't seduce that coach, not like people say. He's a decent person. The rest is none of their business."

Zoe knew how defensive she was acting when Teresa's expression turned sober. "You say that like you still have feelings for him."