Holiday Mates: Supernatural Enforcers Agency Short Stories (30 page)

Perhaps more concerning was the fact that on returning home last night he found a rattlesnake in his mailbox.  Course, his lion sensed the danger; he shifted and made short work of the snake, but a rattlesnake?  That was odd, wasn’t it?  Did other people find rattlesnakes in their mailboxes?  He alerted animal control and buried the offending beast – the remaining parts of it anyway.

He cocked his head as he heard Ariadne’s silken voice floating his way.  “Oh, I… well I know we broke up, but… there’s really no need for language like that!”

Rick growled and was beside her in an instant as she ended the call.  “Who was that?  I’ll kill him.”

Ariadne grimaced and instead of trying to fight him, just gave in and told him.  “An ex.  Called me a crazy bitch and told me never to call him again.”

He snarled in fury and Ariadne patted his arm in a familiar, pleasing way.

“I’ve no idea what I did to make him so mad.  We broke up because he stopped calling and hid every time I tried to visit him at work.  Guess he lost interest.”

“The fool,” he breathed a moment before he swept her into his arms for the most satisfying kiss of his life.

*

One moment she was being insulted by an ex, and the next, she was being kissed senseless by a god of a man. 
Life’s funny sometimes
.  She’d tried another number on her rapidly dwindling list of exes to take Calisto to the dance.  She hadn’t expected such a strong response, but she couldn’t deny she wasn’t enjoying the outcome.

Ariadne was a little on the small side, even in heels, and he had to be nearing six and a half feet tall, but thankfully he had the perfect solution.  His hands grasped her ample ass and dragged her up his body until she was at the perfect kissing height.  Her feet dangled, toes curling in her shoes, and she didn’t care.

She heard Marlene’s disgusted snort in the background, but she ignored it.  The only thing that mattered was the warmth of his mouth on hers, the pleasure flowing through her body, and the fact that she’d never been so thoroughly kissed.

When he finally released her, he gazed down at her with a look of triumph that she didn’t bother to wipe away. 
She figured he’d earned it.

“I will take Calisto to her dance,” he purred.

“Uh huh.”  She couldn’t form words.

“No more calling ex-boyfriends.”

“Nuh huh.”

He kissed the tip of her nose.  “Good.”

She was definitely going to hell.

*

Ariadne chewed on her lip as Bettina’s voice flowed over her.  While rushing to the SEA building, Ariadne had run into Neal – her second to last most recent ex.  Their relationship ended when he called her and told her he was moving to Columbia.  Clearly that was a lie, but more worrying was his reaction to her.  Was it normal for exes to see you and run away screaming in the other direction?  Particularly when they were screaming ‘I want to live’. 
Something wasn’t quite right
.  Yes, relationships with exes tended to be hard, or non-existent, but wasn’t this extreme?  She’d spoken to quite a few of her exes over the last few days, and nothing had seemed right with any of them.

Bettina approached her, flashing a wry smile.  “Hi, how’s Rick?”

Ariadne blushed.  “How would I know?”

“Isn’t he your mate?”

“You mean my victim.”

“Please, the compulsion spell wasn’t actually that bad.  I have a witch over in the corner who compelled a gas station attendant to take off all his clothes and do the chicken dance in the middle of a busy highway because he short-changed her.”  She nodded at a middle-aged woman sporting both a fluffy cat jumper and an air of menace.

Ariadne shook her head.  “But it made Rick drop everything to come to me.  It forced him to like me.”

Bettina cocked her head.  “How many people ate those cupcakes?”

“I don’t know; the batch made forty-eight.”

“And you sold all but three?”

“Most flavors sell out, but mojito isn’t to everyone’s taste.”  At least it didn’t bomb like the root beer flavor.

“And how many other males came knocking at your door?”

“Well, none.”  She would have noticed.

“And why do you think that is?”

She shrugged.  “Maybe everyone else who ate them was female.”

Bettina groaned impatiently.  “Nope, it only affected Rick.  You asked for the perfect guy for you, and you got him.  He’s your mate.”

“But… the spell…”

“Oh, yeah I cracked that and de-spelled him within an hour of breaking open those cupcakes.”

“But he never said…”  No, he just hung around, showering her with attention, praise and soft kisses that all conspired to make her fall in love with him.

“He told you he wasn’t spelled, right?”

“Yes, but I just assumed that was the spell talking.  You mean he’s actually been spending time with me because he wants to?”  Should she look out the window? 
Were pigs flying?

The younger witch gave her a dirty look.  “Jeez, are you sure you’re a witch?”

“It’s touch and go sometimes,” she muttered.

“Well congrats, you snagged the hottest guy in the SEA.  My advice, mate him quickly before he realizes you’re nuts.  Now if you’ll excuse me, there appears to be a fight over the last donut.”

Sparks were indeed flying.  It
was
the last sprinkled one after all.

Ariadne pondered what Bettina said. 
Huh
.  Good advice.

*

If it weren’t for meeting Ariadne, Rick might suspect he was jinxed.

The car, the rattlesnake, the kitchen fire, the falling air conditioner that missed his head by an inch, the runaway dump truck that nearly took off his leg…  He’d endured a lot of near misses in the last couple of days.

Perhaps this was fate evening up the score since he met his mate – a lot of good luck with a bit of bad.

Bah
.  Whatever fate had in store, he could handle it.

He opened his front door and breathed in the fresh morning air. 
Another perfect day
.  Then the fireball sailed toward him.

*

Ariadne smoothed her skirt as she approached Rick’s house, wishing she had dressed a little nicer that day.  Seriously, Dr. Gorgeous was her mate.  She could barely believe it.  Perhaps this was her reward for all the losers she’d dated.

In between lusty fantasies she’d been completely hung up worrying that she was taking advantage of a bespelled man but now… now he was
hers
.

What was that smell of burning?  She slowed as she found his door open and hanging off the hinges.  And were those scorch marks?

Oh hell, her poor little kitten!

A roar shook the entire house.  Okay, so he wasn’t exactly defenseless.

She ran inside.  “Rick?  What on earth…”

She found an enormous lion pacing up and down as Marlene kneeled on the kitchen island.  Marlene appeared to be clutching her arm; deep gouges bled profusely as she scowled at the beast.

“What’s happening?”

Fluidly, Rick morphed from majestic animal to a gloriously muscled naked male.  Ariadne’s breath caught – her fantasies didn’t do him justice.  Marlene better not be looking where Ariadne was – that was for her eyes only.  Some men were born gifted - Rick was born a tripod. 
She’d swoon later.

“Stay back,” he commanded, “she’s dangerous.  Attacked me with fireballs.”

Ariadne looked between the two of them in confusion.  “Marlene?”  Her fellow baker whose choux pastry was the envy of every baker in the city?

Okay, yes, the woman had always been a little highly strung and yes more than one of her exes had taken out restraining orders… not sure where
that
thought was going.

“It’s not me – it’s him!” shrieked Marlene.  “He just wouldn’t take a fucking hint!  You told him you weren’t interested and yet he still wouldn’t leave you the fuck alone.  Even spelling his brakes to fail didn’t work!  I never had to work this hard to get rid of any of your other boyfriends.”

“Wait, hold on a second…”

Marlene gave her a fierce look.  “You deserved better than all of them, so I got rid of them.  Made a few of them forget you, made some fall in love with other women, threatened a few others – I did it all for you.”

Rick snarled.

“You got rid of Jay, didn’t you?  Why?  We weren’t dating – I think he’s gay!”

“I couldn’t trust him.  He might have tried something!” wailed Marlene.  “And this one,” she sneered at Rick.  “He's so thick headed that the memory enchantments didn’t even penetrate him.”

“Oh, Marlene,” moaned Ariadne.

This definitely explained a lot.  In the years she’d known Marlene, her adventures in dating had been pretty awful.  How many men just stopped calling and pretended like she didn’t exist?  She’d put it down to the male population being just… awful.  But she now knew it was down to the misguided help of someone who pretended to be her friend.

Well, she wasn’t getting rid of her lion. 
No siree.

“Rick’s my mate, and I kind of maybe, perhaps, am sort of falling in love with him.”

“Finally realized that, huh?” smirked the incredibly hot, naked man.

“You’re insufferable,” she chided playfully.

“Insufferably yours,” he growled.

Rick, in spite of his nakedness, pulled her hard against him and covered her mouth with his.  The moment shouldn’t have been perfect or romantic – but it was.  She hitched a leg around his waist as he kneaded her ass.  Her hands ran through his luscious blonde mane as he sucked on her lower lip.  No, this was a kiss for the ages, and nothing would ruin it.

Not even Marlene’s screech as she launched herself at them could do that.  Before Rick could react, Ariadne felt a swell of wonky magic and blasted Marlene, sending her into the refrigerator and knocking her out cold.

“That’s my witch,” he purred.

“Yes, yours.”

*

Ariadne grinned as Calisto and Rick did the awkward dance of a grown man trying to maneuver a child with two left feet around a dance floor.  In spite of her protests that she didn’t care one way or another, Calisto was actually having a good time and smiling.  She’d deigned to put on a purple dress and was even wearing the corsage Rick bought her.

Yes, Ariadne still had mixed feelings about father-daughter dances, but she couldn’t deny that there was something quite sweet about the proud fathers all dancing with their little princesses.  There was a masculine swell of ‘my baby’s better than yours’ running through the decorated gym, but everyone was having a good time.

Marlene had been arrested, and Ariadne cursed herself for not seeing it sooner.  Marlene had been obsessed with Ariadne and had been ruining her love life for years.  She felt bad for both Marlene and all her victims, but honestly, on seeing Rick slipping into the role of father with Calisto, she couldn’t work up much anger.  If she had settled down and married one of her exes, she might have never met him, and he was who she was supposed to be with.  He was…
perfect and awesome
.

Several of the other dance chaperones agreed.  Their longing glances at her studly lion shifter were hard to miss.  She could be annoyed, but then, she couldn’t really blame them.  She’d have to be dead before she didn’t look at him that way.

Calisto was sleeping over at a friend’s house after the dance, and Rick was spending the night.  They were taking things slowly.  Well, not that slowly.  An enormous engagement ring already glittered on her finger, and the wedding date was set for a month away.  Against his wishes, they were going to mate bond on their wedding night, and would move in together after that.  He’d wanted everything ‘locked down’ before then, or more specifically before she met his mother, but she wanted to wait and make it special.  He had no objection to that.  Although he had tried to make his mother’s wedding invitation disappear.  She laughed as she remembered the innocent look on his face when she caught him.

Rick caught her eye and gave her a predatory smile - a promise of things for later.  She couldn’t wait
. 
A shiver rocketed through her frame.  Mine, she thought possessively.

The end

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