But seriously, who had arms like that and never lifted a weight? And his face somehow always had that perfect amount of stubble, as if it had stopped at the precise length to accent his manliness and never grew a millimeter longer. He’d hit the manly-man jackpot.
“You can get polish for the guards tomorrow.” He was getting impatient and I didn’t like the bossy tone of his voice. We didn’t work together anymore. Everyone else here might think he walked on water, but in my world he looked like a huge iceberg about to sink my ship. I’d struggled enough to get my bearings and I was finally starting to tread water. I had no plans to let him sink me in the middle of the ocean with his perfect stubble and biceps.
“No, I can’t. I told them I’d get it today. If we don’t get out of here soon, I’m barely going to make it to the shore—I mean the store, before my job.” Did he even own a razor?
His hand rubbed over his jaw, drawing my eyes again. I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to know. “Do you shave?”
“No.”
I knew it!
I slipped then and made eye contact. His eyes were strange. Sometimes they seemed darker for being so deep set, and sometimes, like right now, they appeared ridiculously pale, with specks of light green in them. One thing stayed constant though, they looked at me as if they knew me on the most basic level. In truth, he did.
No matter how much I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t. It was as if time stood still when it came to him. It was a month ago, and I was lying next to him after a short but intense bout of sex when he dumped a cold bucket of water on my orgasm afterglow, asking when I planned to leave.
Even still, when we locked stares there was still something between us that made my breathing labored and my heart kick up a beat. I knew it and so did he. Of all the men in the world, why did I have to have this connection to him? Maybe we weren’t special though. What if he had this connection with every female he came into contact with? It was more likely the case.
I remembered what he’d said to me. I don’t do doe eyes. He was probably used to girls acting like fools. And this was the problem; I couldn’t look at him and not remember what had happened. When I’d slept with him, besides Cupid’s spell urging me on, I’d thought I wouldn’t remember any of it in a week. I was going to be out of this office and this crazy life. There weren’t supposed to be awkward moments, or hurt feelings, because I wasn’t supposed to still be here. If I’d only known.
“You keep trying to dodge me and it’s not going to work,” he said. His fingers pulled me closer to him but I wasn’t sure he knew he was doing it.
“Oh, but I think it has.” My voice had a snarky edge that I knew would aggravate him. See? I’m not one of your little doe eyed girls.
“When did you start running from things?” His tone dropped slightly, and there was a taunting edge in it that hadn’t been there a minute ago.
Even now, his hand on me heightened my awareness of him. I knew what he wanted, for me to join his crew of men. Couldn’t happen. Too much exposure and I might be doe eyed.
“When the person nagging me wouldn’t stop beating a dead cat.” My voice rose enough that Kitty, who was a couple of bodies over, turned her head in our direction.
“Hey!” Kitty said, clearly alarmed and only hearing the tail end of the sentence when I’d raised my voice.
“Sorry, Kitty. I didn’t mean that literally. No one is beating a cat.”
With Kitty seemingly appeased, I turned back to Fate and concentrated on keeping my voice lower. “You want me to be up front with you? I don’t want to have this conversation because we’ve already had it. Weeks ago. What I said then still stands.”
I’d told him I wasn’t going to work with him and I didn’t see why it would be a good plan now. I didn’t care if there were more bad guys out there like Suit, the thug I had killed. Unless forced, I wanted nothing to do with the situation. Back in another life, I used to tell my clients that if they wanted to live a clean life, they needed to stop walking around in mud piles. It was time to follow my own advice.
I tried to infuse my voice with a confidence that left no room for argument. “Nothing has changed.”
His head bent until his forehead was almost touching mine. “Exactly my point as well. Nothing has changed,” he hissed.
Our whispered conversation was disturbed by Cupid yelling outside the door. “Hey! Can you let me in? I’ll be good. I promise!”
We all froze as eyes shifted from one to another, trying to determine who would be our spokesperson. The least likely candidate took the bait.
“No!” Bernie yelled back. The small statured leprechaun had a disproportionately deep voice but a bluntness and lack of tact that was exactly what you’d expect when you saw his permanent grimace.
“But I just want to visit.” Cupid’s voice sounded childlike.
Eyebrows rose across the room like a Mexican wave going around a baseball stadium; we all were at a loss for what to do. His entreaty tugged at my emotions, as well as everyone else’s, but I had to remind myself that he played dirty.
“He won’t leave. Someone is going to have to go out there,” Crow said. “Someone is going to have to sacrifice themselves and take one for the team.”
“Literally,” Luck said, as she buffed her red nails against her low cut blouse.
“I say we send you out.” Bernie was looking directly at Luck. “You’ll sleep with anyone. No harm done.”
“I will not!” Her hand shot to smooth down bed head hair.
“Even now you stink of cologne, and you’ve got a hicky on your neck.”
Luck threw some of her dark hair in front of her shoulder. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do!” Bernie, quite a bit shorter than Luck—even standing on the table—started to wave his arms at her, trying to shove her hair out of the way. She pushed him away and that set off another round of shoving throughout the room.
Harold tried to jump over Death, who was between him and his desk. “My papers! You’re scrunching my papers!”
This shoved Kitty toward the Tooth Fairy. One of her cats, which had been sitting on her shoulders, screeched and lunged toward the Tooth Fairy, who started shrieking.
“People!” Murphy held up his hands and shouted over everyone, interrupting the squabble. “I will do this. I will go out there.”
All movement ceased and every pair of eyes in the room swung to Murphy.
“No, Murphy, you can’t!” Luck started into action and clung to his arm as if he were about to throw himself into Mount Vesuvius.
“Don’t fret, my dear Luck. I’ll be okay.” His chin held high, he was playing the stoic hero to perfection.
“Murphy,” she cried.
It was very hard not to mock this overly dramatic demonstration, but I held back. It wasn’t from kindness, though. If Murphy was willing to fall on his sword—quite literally—I certainly didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I was still recouping from the damage the last curse had created.
Maybe if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be so acutely aware of Fate on every fundamental level.
Banging started on the other side of the door, and then we heard Bobby, one of the three Jinxes, yell, “What’s going on in there? Let us in!”
“Who’s with you?” Crow asked.
“It’s just us, you dirty bird man. We told Cupid to take a hike. Now let us in before we pluck all the feathers off your crows!” This was followed by a youthful chorus of laughter from the other side of the door. If anyone could scare off Cupid, it would be them.
Another small fist hit the door.
The Jinxes; it warmed my public defender heart a bit to hear their foul little voices kick in to a rant of curses.
Bernie hopped off the desk and wrestled his way in between legs. He opened the door a sliver and Billy and Buddy yanked it the rest of the way open, causing Bernie to sprawl out into the larger room. He got to his feet and the small and stout leprechaun waved a fist in their direction.
“Whatever, greenie, take your best shot,” Bobby said.
Bernie made a grunting noise and waved his fist again but stomped off.