“That is so romantic,” Rory sighed, cupping her chin in one hand. “To think that Josh punched him to save you. I wish I could find a knight in shining armor like that.”
“Watch your mouth, Rory—you know better than to throw around the ‘w’ word like that,” Cass admonished.
“I don’t know what you’re so upset about.” Rory looked sulky. “After all, you’re the one whose birthday is coming up next. Have you even thought of a wish? Do you want to have a strategy session?”
“Not right now, Rory. I’ve been so busy trying to get this show together down at the ICU gallery that I haven’t had time to think about what to wear, let alone what to wish for.” Cass looked at Phil. “Speaking of dreams come true and wishes granted, where is Mister ‘Knight in Shining Armor’, anyway?”
“In the kitchen helping Nana. Everything has to be perfect for Arturo and she asked him to make his specialty—balsamic glazed chicken. ”
Cass frowned. “Who is this ‘Arturo’ and how did she meet him? Are we sure there’s no witchcraft involved here?”
“She said she found him on an online dating service.” Rory shrugged. “According to Nana, he’s hot.”
“Hot?” Cass snorted. “Are you serious? Between the boy scouts and the senior citizens Nana wouldn’t know hot if it bit her on the ass.”
Rory shrugged. “That’s what she said.”
“You know,” Phil said thoughtfully. “I kind of thought maybe she and Mister Clausen might get together after all that mess with the potion and the poodles. I mean they are about the same age.”
“Nothing doing.” Cass shook her head. “She told me he was a dirty old man and she didn’t want to have anything to do with him or his nasty dogs. I just didn’t know she was looking for a man online. Now I don’t know what to expect.”
Phil smiled. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much—Nana has pretty good taste in men. She loves Josh to death and he thinks she’s great. Even after she accidentally conjured his favorite pair of jeans full of fish.”
“She what?” Rory asked.
Phil smiled. “Well, he had broken the zipper and he was asking her if she knew how to fix it. But when he said zipper for some reason Nana thought he asked for a kipper—you know those weird smoked fish they eat for breakfast in England?” Cass and Rory nodded. “Only in typical Nana fashion, she didn’t just get one—she got like, I don’t know, a whole bathtub full. But all in Josh’s jeans. And they were still alive.” Phil laughed. “You should have seen the look on his face! Luckily he wasn’t wearing them at the time.”
“But wasn’t he mad?” Cass was so used to Phil’s dour ex-fiancé’s temper that it was hard to get used to her current flame’s easygoing ways.
“Nope.” Phil grinned. “He just laughed after he got over the shock. We were cleaning up fish for hours, though—those suckers are slippery!”
“Wow,” Rory murmured. “I can’t believe he didn’t even get a little bit upset. That’s wonderful, Phil.”
“Well it’s certainly an improvement over Mister ‘Stick up his Ass’ Christian,” Cass acknowledged. “Speaking of which, has he accepted that you two are broken up yet?”
Phil sighed. “I think so but it took a while. At first he kept calling me and demanding that I forget all this ‘breaking up foolishness’ and come back to him. But I think I made myself pretty clear when Josh and I went to pick up my things yesterday.”
“Ooo, what happened?” Rory asked excitedly.
“Well, I went during business hours hoping to find him out of the apartment so I could get my stuff in peace but he was there anyway—almost like he’d been waiting for me.” Phil frowned. “He started in right away with the same old song and dance, ‘Oh, Philly-babe, how can you want to leave after all we’ve been through together?’” Phil did a surprisingly good imitation of her ex that made them all snort with laughter.
“Did Josh punch him?” Rory wanted to know, still giggling.
“Of course not—did he?” Cass couldn’t imagine Phil’s even-tempered boyfriend punching anyone but he’d done once it before and if anyone deserved a knuckle sandwich, in her opinion, it was Christian.
“Well, he tried to stay out of it as much as he could. Besides, I can stand up for myself, you know.” Phil lifted her chin. “I told Christian that I deserved to be with someone who really loved and valued me, someone who believed in my abilities and cared enough to be faithful to me. And then I asked him if he knew what color my eyes were.”
“Oh, that’s good. What did he say?” Cass was getting as excited as Rory now. She couldn’t help it—she had never been able to stand Phil’s ex and it was great to hear that he had gotten what was coming to him.
Phil shrugged. “He stuttered and stumbled around and but in the end he really didn’t know. So then I asked Josh, ‘honey, what color are my eyes?’ and he said, ‘what color is the sky?’” She grinned. “Then Christian looked at us like we were both insane and said he was washing his hands of me and he hoped I’d be happy going to law school where I clearly didn’t belong. Then Josh punched him.”
“Oh my God! Did he bleed?” Rory was on the edge of her seat.
“Don’t be so bloodthirsty, Rory,” Cass scolded. She looked at Phil. “Well—did he?”
Phil smiled. “Let’s just say I don’t think I’ll hear anymore about how we have to get back together. I think Josh’s punch finally got it through his thick head that we’re finished.”
“I’m glad to hear that but damn—he had a lot of nerve.” Cass frowned. “You should have told him you and Josh are already making plans for the wedding—really rubbed it in.”
Phil blushed prettily. “Well, it’s not like we’re getting married tomorrow. We haven’t even set a date or gotten the ring yet.”
“Where are you going to live?” Rory asked. “You’re not leaving us, are you?”
Phil shrugged. “Even if I do, it won’t be for good. I’m looking into different law schools right now so wherever I get accepted, that’s where we’ll go, at least until I finish school. Josh can get a job anywhere and he said he’ll come with me wherever it is.”
“That is so—” Rory started.
“We know—romantic,” Cass finished for her, shaking her head. She was glad that Phil’s situation had worked out so well but she thought that Rory needed to take off her rose-colored glasses. “Honestly, Rory,” she told her younger sister. “You need to get your head out of the clouds and realize that life isn’t all peaches and cream and trouser trout.”
“Hey—it was kippers Nana put in Josh’s pants, not trout!” Phil protested. She winked. “Not to say that his trouser trout isn’t pretty spectacular because it definitely is.”
“Whatever.” Cass rolled her eyes. “The point is—we’re not living in a fairy tale here.”
Rory grinned at her. “That doesn’t mean we can’t live happily ever after. Look at Phil.”
“Phil is the exception and not the rule,” Cass grumped. “At least in this family.” She knew she sounded like a world class grouch but she couldn’t help it. Her own life was tied up in knots. Brandon still refused to pose for her and she was supposed to be getting a show together in one of the most prestigious galleries in town but she was in a real slump with her art. Not that she would make a wish about that—her art was about the only part of her life the fairy godmother hadn’t screwed up and she didn’t intend to let her start now. But then, what was she going to make a wish about? Her birthday was in less than a month and Cass just knew the FG was going to hold a grudge. How could she make a request the malicious fairy couldn’t screw up on purpose to get revenge? Just thinking about it made her head hurt.
“Well I just…” Phil began and then the front doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it.” Rory hopped up and ran to the door. She opened it to reveal a tall man who looked to be somewhere in his forties with blue-black hair and piercing gray eyes.
“Excuse me, ladies,” he said in delightfully acce
nted English. “But I am here for Minerva. Is she available?”
“Wow.” Rory stood back from the door, her jaw hanging open. “You’re Arturo?”
“I am he.” The tall man stepped inside and made an abbreviated bow. “And you must be her lovely granddaughters that she so often speaks of. But tell me, where is my silver-haired beauty?”
“Oh, Arturo, is that you?” Nana swept into the room, a smile on her plump face. She was wearing a mint green silk tea-length gown and her hair was up in an elaborate new style.
“Minerva, my darling, you are too kind to invite me to your lovely home for dinner.” Arturo made a sweeping bow and kissed her hand.
“Oh, my! You’re very welcome,” Nana fluttered. “Why don’t you go on ahead into the dining room and I’ll be there directly to fix us some drinks?” She pointed the way but before Arturo followed, Josh came into the room. He and Arturo shook hands briefly and then he said,
“Dinner is served. Better get it while it’s hot.”
“Mmm, sounds delicious.” Phil stood up and went to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“Not as delicious as you.” He nibbled her neck.
“Get a room,” Cass said, only half-joking.
“Well, why don’t we all go in to dinner?” Nana was smiling broadly but as she was about to lead the way into the dining room Cass pulled her back.
“Hang on a minute Nana,” she said and took a surreptitious sniff. But all she could smell was her grandmother’s perfume—there wasn’t even a whiff of potion.
“Yes, Cassandra, dear?” Nana raised an elegant silver eyebrow at her.
“What’s going on with Arturo there?” Cass asked. “He seems, uh, tall dark and handsome and all that, but don’t you think he’s a little young for you, Nana?”
“I beg your pardon.” Nana lifted her chin. “You are only as old as you feel, my dear. And at heart I’m still the sixteen-year-old waif with lavender hair who ran away with your grandfather.”
“But…but…” Cass shook her head, bemused. “But how did you do it?” she asked at last. “I don’t smell any potion.”
“I didn’t use any.” Nana gave her a secretive smile and patted her cheek. “It’s as I told your sister, my dear, sometimes you have to make your own magic. But I have a feeling that you’re going to find that out for yourself very soon. Isn’t your birthday coming up?”
About the Author
Evangeline Anderson is a registered MRI tech who would rather be writing. And yes, she is nerdy enough to have a bumper sticker that says “I’d rather be writing.” Honk if you see her! She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and sci-fi erotica steadily ever since. To learn more about Evangeline Anderson, please visit www.evangelineanderson.com. Send an email to Evangeline at [email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Evangeline! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evangelineandersonbookchat
No magic for two weeks? What’s a fairy to do? Go to Vegas, of course!
Survival of the Fairest
© 2008 Jody Wallace
Princess Talista of the fairy clan Serendipity has been sent, like all young fairies, to a remote forest in humanspace for mandatory survival training. But headstrong Tali’s got different ideas about where to spend two weeks without magic. What better place than Las Vegas to learn to live like humans, a true test of survival?
Tali might not blend, but she’d like to be shaken and stirred with stage magician Jake Story. Their attraction is instant and electric…and Tali senses there’s more to Jake’s show than flashy tricks.
Jake always knew he was different, even before he developed an unusual flair for hypnotism. He has no trouble mesmerizing the luscious Tali during act three, but the lights that appear around them when they kiss weren’t part of the program.
When the authorities from Tali’s homeland track the missing princess to Vegas, Jake and Tali end up on the run. In between magic experiments, evil gnomes and astonishing sex, Tali learns what it really means to be human—by falling in lust, followed closely by love.
But Tali’s not human. And Jake doesn’t believe in fairies. The truth will either bind them together—or tear the fairy realm apart.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Survival of the Fairest:
“The hotel with the red and blue spires.” Tali bounced in her seat, forgetting that she was belted to it, and the heavy strap bit into her shoulders. “Oof!”
“What?” Jake snapped his cellular teley-phone closed.
Tali had listened avidly as he’d called his sibling, that copper fellow, and cancelled their appointment for the evening. The cellular teley-phone seemed almost as efficient as communication spells. She squirmed until she was more comfortable in the restraints. “The hotel that looks like a palace. Take us there.”
“The Excalibur?” Jake deftly maneuvered his automobile into the stream of traffic on the main road. The black car had darkened windows and room for five people. The soft seats were upholstered in leather, a rare material in the Realm now that civilized fairies were vegetarian hippies. A pleasant herbal odor emanated from a gaudy cloth bag that hung around the mirror on the front window, and the motor purred like a giant cat. Vast buildings towered behind the flashing lights and signs, inns Jake said were often full to capacity. People in showy outfits thronged the sides of the street.
There was no sign of Elder Embor and his menacing team anywhere among them. How in the world had they found her? Probably her obnoxious survival teammates back in the Bitterroot, though that didn’t answer how the Elder had known to transport to Las Vegas. Maybe a tracer spell of some sort. She wouldn’t put it past the Court to have bugged her or something.
Dang. Well, they couldn’t track her now that she wasn’t using magic.
A flume of brilliantly lit water caught Tali’s eye. “Look!” She pointed at a lake in front of the huge beige hotel glowing with yellow lights. “Waterspouts!”
“That’s the Bellagio.” Jake made a decent guide, if she ignored the sidelong glances he kept shooting her. He’d better not be thinking of kissing her again. She was having enough trouble putting it out of her head. “It’s one of the most expensive hotels ever built. There are about twelve hundred fountains in the lake.”
His tight black shirt outlined a taut abdomen and broad shoulders. When he shifted the right way, she could even see his nipples. Maybe she should quit trying to forget their embrace. What was wrong with a little kiss, anyway? So he sort of convinced her she wanted it with that hypnosis business. She’d kissed men before, lots of them.
No harm done. The spectators hadn’t found it odd or suspicious, which meant it was a normal human activity. Pleased with her deduction, she settled back, ready to relax and enjoy the scenery.
Tali rapped on the thin glass window. “Do I hear music?”
Jake clicked a button on the shelf between the seats, and the window sank into the door with a whir. Strains of instrumental music accompanied by a man’s rich vibrato drifted through the opening. The fountains soared higher into the air, mirroring the music, and crested above the lake. The humans standing on the sidewalk applauded.
The air breezing in smelled of metal and smoke and grease. She inhaled, exhaled. The music sounded like the symphony at home, but larger. Not many fairies were musically talented, but the ones who were received much acclaim. “That’s a fine tune. I can see why they like it.”
She leaned her chin on her hands and stared at the water arcing over the heads of the crowd. Perfectly lovely! She wished she could admire it more closely, but dawdling wasn’t a good idea at the present time.
She knew her punishment would be intense, but she had no intention of returning until her time wa
s up. Her jig was jagged, so she might as well enjoy it. This would be her only chance to explore humanspace and advance her knowledge of blending firsthand. The game of cat-and-mouse with the Elder might even make things more exciting.
Speaking of exciting, she peeked at Jake under her lashes and thought about the kiss. The electric exchange of tongues and heat. The silken feel of his hair under her fingers. She was here to learn new things, right? To blend? A conversation with her sister about the sexual prowess of human males echoed in her mind.
It wasn’t as if Tali never planned to have sex, but it was difficult to relax when one’s partners all had political ambitions. Wedding a twosie guaranteed a higher position in Realm society. Even wooing a twin could boost status. Desire for advancement drove her suitors, not desire for her. Ani enjoyed the attention, enjoyed working through The Thousand Kisses, a series of mating rituals designed to enhance one’s chances of bonding, but the posturing, and the lack of actual affection, bored Tali to tears.
Fairies never knew whom they’d bond with, or if they’d bond with anyone. It was so…arbitrary. What if she ended up with a fellow she didn’t even like? Casual sex that could result in permanent bonding wasn’t something Tali had been inclined to try.
Jake, on the other hand, didn’t care about the status involved in courting a twosie. Didn’t hope they’d join forever and ever. Had no idea she was anything besides a tourist and a woman.
She was fairly certain he was aware of her as a woman.
“How much further is it, Jake?” Maybe she’d ask him to stay in her hotel room tonight.
Jake glanced at her. His hair gleamed in the low lights of the car’s interior. Their car idled behind others in front of the waterworks. His dark clothes blended with the seat that cupped him, and the half-smile at the corner of his mouth fascinated her. No men she knew had that twinkle in their eyes or those perfect laugh lines. Drakhmore clan members were dark like him, a little scary, but Jake Story didn’t scare her. Exactly.
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