Fairyville (41 page)

He was so perceptive he scared her. "I love you, Magnus," she said, wanting to be very clear. "You are my choice, completely. I know it's not my responsibility, or even my business, but I can't help wanting him to be content."

Magnus was silent for a moment, his gaze thoughtful. He ran one finger gently down Corky's tail. "Suppose we help them out?"

Zoe blinked at him. "How do you mean?" she asked care-folly.

"Well, you're right that Alex probably isn't ready to be monogamous. If he develops like the average fairy, he has a decade or so before his heart, and his body, can really settle on one person. We could, if you wanted, provide him the variety his fairy constitution needs without endangering his bond with Bryan. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I doubt Bryan or Alex would kick me out of bed any sooner than they'd kick you."

Zoe hadn't been this surprised when she found out he was a fairy. "You'd do that for them? For me?"

"I would do anything to bring you pleasure. But perhaps you'd find it easier not to see Alex with his new lover?"

Zoe took a couple swallows to find her voice. "I think… I have to admit, I liked seeming them together. I found it… exciting."

Magnus's smile was sly. "You aren't the first woman to like watching men."

"Did you, um, like being in Bryan's head when he took Alex?"

His laugh was low and wicked. "I'm fey, Zoe. We like almost everything."

"Oh, my." Zoe's hand pressed her breast. "Just hearing you say that makes me wet again."

He leaned over Corky to kiss her lips deep and soft. When he pulled away, despite how vigorously they'd attempted to sate themselves, an ember of carnal interest glowed in his eyes. She had to press her thighs together at the new flutter that inspired.

"I want you to know you'd be enough for me," he said.

"I feel the same," she responded shyly. "But if we
could have
more, now and then…"

"Now and then would be lovely—as long as the rest of the time you're mine."

He'd cupped her breast in his hand, a physical claiming to match his verbal one. His possessiveness pleased her in a deep and feminine way. She grinned to camouflage how much. "I like your idea of compromise."

"I won't compromise on your marrying me," he warned. "As soon as you're ready, I'm calling the priest."

He took her breath away and made her laugh at the same time. She hadn't been thinking of marriage, but—boy—did she discover she wanted it!

"Oh, what female tears will fall in Fairyville," she cried, "the day Magnus Monroe walks down the aisle with me!"

"And I hope you enjoy every one," he said, "for my pride's sake, if nothing else." He smiled at her, his eyes so radiant with love her own grew hot. "There's one last thing I should tell you. When fairies are particularly happy, good fortune has a way of… magnetizing itself to them. If you and I get married, I can't predict what stroke of luck might burst into our lives."

"Hm," said Zoe, giving in to temptation to cruise her hand slowly down his chest. "I guess we'll have to make the best of that."

Alex and Bryan drove back to Phoenix the next morning. Oscar and his mother were staying another day, because, as Mrs. Pruitt put it, "My son has a lot of stories to tell me before we go home."

Bryan and Alex could have stayed as well. They were both a bit bleary-eyed, having fucked like bunnies the whole night through. Despite their sensual exhaustion, both had wanted to get on the road early, as if what had developed between them wouldn't be official until they got home.

It was a beautiful—and predictably—sunny Arizona day, with a sky like a window straight into heaven. Bryan felt like a different person, or maybe like the same person, simply living in a different world. He couldn't stop looking at Alex while he drove, trying to measure how much his friend had changed in his year away.

Had he learned things from the fairies besides a touch of psychicness? Last night they'd just gone at it like they were starved, but might Alex have new bed tricks he'd want to try?

That titillating thought led him inexplicably to one of Magnus. Bryan didn't know why, but ever since Zoe had slept with him and Alex, he'd felt connected to the man, as if seducing Zoe had somehow been the same as seducing him. He could imagine Magnus sucking him off so clearly it seemed like it had happened, like Bryan knew how those gorgeous lips of his would feel around his cock. If Bryan tried, he could even picture a seedy men's room where it would take place.

He shifted on the seat at his rising hard-on, half hoping it would go away but suspecting not. It wasn't really wrong to lust after another man, as long as he didn't act on it. And Alex, of all people, would understand.

Alex, of all people, seemed not to have lost his radar for arousal. Bryan nearly jumped out of his skin when Alex reached across the seat to squeeze his thigh.

"Oh, boy," he said, chuckling. "That guilty start tells me you're not fantasizing about me."

"Shit," said Bryan, which made Alex laugh harder.

"Spill," said Alex, "or I'll winkle it out of you with my fairy charm."

"Oh, hell," Bryan said. "I know I'm probably the last person who should be suggesting this, but do you think Zoe and Magnus would ever want to…"

"Want to what?" Alex asked.

Bryan shook his head, amazed he'd even had the nerve to think of it. Alex had agreed to make their relationship a priority. Bryan shouldn't be trying to complicate his own dream-come-true.

"Ignore me," he said aloud. "Just a crazy idea."

"
Ohh
," said Alex, maybe calling on his new gifts. "
That
kind of crazy idea."

Bryan blushed harder, but Alex only looked back at the highway and grinned.

"You never know what might happen," he said, his hands sliding caressingly on the wheel. "Fairies and their partners do love adventuring."