Felicity stilled. She could feel him twitching inside her and she was sure he could feel the same, but the serious look he gave her told her it was time to do what she’d come to do. Hoping her smile looked sincere, she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
“I have to go. But before I do, I have something for you…” If this ever got out, it would surely go down as the most awkward administration of a Forever Unified antidote in history, what with her sitting astride the man she’d just made love to throughout the night. But it had to be done. She only hoped she could remember the words.
Reciting the phrases after thinking for a few seconds, the Latin words filled the castle tower room with the angel swirling her hands in the air above her while her lover looked on with wide eyes. She brought her palms together in front of her, opening them slowly to reveal the wispy shape—a heart. He smiled.
“You asked for my heart,” she whispered, nearly choking on the words. “Here,” she told him, lifting her hands and gently blowing. The smoky particles came apart, much like her own heart was doing, and floated through the air toward him. He breathed in a deep, surprised breath, pulling them in. It was perfect.
Except that it wasn’t. Felicity had never felt so empty as she did at that moment, even with their bodies still connected in the most intimate way possible. When his brows drew down, his gaze growing confused, she reached into the air again, flinging another substance toward him.
“Somnus,” she commanded. “And when you awake, you will remember this time as nothing but a dream. Dream… Dream… Dream…” she chanted as his eyes closed and his breathing evened out.
Slowly, Felicity eased from him, allowing her eyes to travel down his body one last time. She memorized the planes and the ripples, imprinting every curve, every muscle in her mind. With a soft kiss to his cheek, she backed away, pulling the coverlet over him.
“Godspeed, my love,” the angel whispered, grabbing her garments and heading toward the door she’d come in, surprised she didn’t cross paths with the cat again.
She shrugged, pulling on her clothes and settling into her wings before grabbing her bag and taking flight. If she was lucky, she would get home just before the sun pushed away the last of the moonlight… just in time to begin the day of her beloved’s wedding. She sighed, wondering why she’d been delusional enough to think the memories of a single night in heaven with the dragon shifter would ever be enough.
Chapter Five
Felicity heard the purr of the expensive engine as it pulled up behind her in the castle driveway, but it was the string of expletives pouring from the mouth of the exiting driver that had her straightening and turning around.
Standing beside the sleekest, blackest, most luxuriously fancy car she'd ever seen, Dirk Herensuge glared at her. He looked so ferociously angry that it made her want to climb into the back of her catering van and hide until he left. This was a side of the shifter she’d never imagined in all the times he’d come into her shop.
Was it her fault the guys hauling in the chairs and tables had made it so she'd have to wedge her van in, blocking the drive? If she hadn’t, she would have had to hike a mile with a cart full of wedding cake. Okay, maybe she hadn't had to park there, but his little hissy fit about being unable to get to the family garage, and on his big day too... she snarled, lifting a corner of her upper lip. Good grief. Maybe the man deserved a happily-ever-after with Bridezilla after all. One thing was certain, the Forever Unified antidote had definitely worked because he sure wasn't the man she'd been with during the night.
"Better not to go there," she whispered to herself. She'd save those memories for lonely nights and cold days.
Dirk stormed past her, giving her little more than a cut-eyed glare and a ferocious growl. She waited until he’d marched up the stone walkway and was out of earshot before growling back. It made one of the table haulers chuckle, which in turn made her smile. She sighed and turned away, humming a tune that always made her happy. Life, even for those who lived practically forever, was way too short to spend it in a lovelorn doldrum.
Hefting the elaborate wedding cake with the dragon cascading up the side onto the cart, Felicity reached back into the van for the last of the supplies she’d need before hauling everything into Shaladorn’s great hall. She turned back around, her eyes going wide at the sight of the groom on the other side of the cart.
He blew out a loud breath and shook his head.
"Damn it. I'm sorry. I just… there's no excuse for my poor behavior." He looked off into the distance for a few seconds, grumbling and rolling his neck when he looked back. "Can we just pretend nothing happened and start over? I think that’s best for everyone."
"Uh.” Felicity cocked her head, forcing her eyes out of a squinty stare. “Sure." Her brows drawing back down, she carefully slipped her hand into the one he extended.
"Dirk Herensuge,” he announced. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Ms?"
Felicity stood there for a moment, unsure whether he was being serious or pulling her leg. When he tipped his head, waiting for her answer, she decided she may as well play along. "Love," she told him. “Felicity Love."
"Ah, yes. The renowned owner of La Boulangerie de L'amour .” He waved his free hand, pointing out her laden cart. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Heard? He’d done a lot more than that!
“Again, I apologize for my actions earlier. Someone will come to move the car once you’re finished. Just let the man at the door know so he can get it out of your way.” He smiled at her and patted the hand he still held in his. “Anyway, I'm late as it is thanks to my brother's cat. The damn thing went missing..."
"Cat?” she interrupted. “Your... brother's ca..."
He nodded, not waiting for her to finish. "Who steals a cat from a top floor of a castle tower? That just... How the hell does something like that even happen? And today of all days." He released her hand and turned away, calling back over his shoulder as he went. “Goodbye, Ms. Love. Please remember to tell the doorman to have the car moved when you’re finished.”
And with that, he disappeared, leaving Felicity staring at an empty doorway. At that moment, that’s exactly how her heart felt. Empty. Like someone had just opened it up and walked away. He had, hadn’t he? She wondered if he even remembered their night together as a dream, or if the antidote had worked so well it had also stripped that memory.
It didn’t matter, she tried to tell herself before grabbing hold of the sides of the cart and beginning her trek up the path. New mission, she told herself. Get in, set up, get out, and forget. In a couple of hours or less, she would be done, her job complete so she could go home where she could lick her wounds and move on. It was too bad her potions didn’t work on her because she would like to have wiped out the memory of their night forever. If she kept telling herself that, surely, she’d eventually begin to believe it.
"Hey! How long have you been here?”
Felicity whipped around, nearly dropping the marzipan leaves she was adding around the edge of the groom’s cake. There stood the man of the hour, looking exactly as he had before, but with a sudden one-eighty demeanor change. His grin was contagious, and she would have given him a full-on smile had he not behaved so poorly earlier, plus there was a hint of concern in his eyes. Was he really that good at masking his feelings?
“Did you find your brother’s cat?” she asked, not sure what else to say.
“My brother’s cat? You mean m…. Wait. How did you know…”
“Jordi? Son?”
The distinctly feminine voice interrupted from somewhere in the distance, causing him to look toward a door at the far end of the great hall. He looked back, shifting slightly from one foot to the other, a sheepish grin lifting the corners of his mouth.
“My mom.” He shrugged, a bit of a nervous laugh escaping him. “I’m sure she’s found at least a million other things for me to do before we get this shindig started.”
“Shindig. Ri
ght.” Felicity had heard weddings called a lot of things. Never that, especially by the groom.
They stood staring at each other, the silence between them growing more awkward by the second. When they both said well at the same time, she tittered and he chuckled.
“So, you’ll be around for a while, yes?”
Felicity shook her head. “No. I just have to finish this up and… then I need to get on my way.”
He frowned a bit, nodding slowly. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I could do to change your mind… like offering you a seat next to the best man or something…”
“Jordi! Oh, there you are.”
Mrs. Herensuge emerged through the door that Felicity presumed led into other parts of the ancient castle. Felicity still hadn't answered by the time she was halfway across the hall.
"You'd better get. She coming at you with a look of intent."
He glanced over his shoulder again, nodded and laughed. "She'll grab me by the ear like she did when I was a kid. You have no idea how much I wanted to turn into a dragon and bite her." They laughed again as he turned to go. After just a couple of steps, he turned back. "Maybe after this is all over..."
"Son!"
The exasperation in his mother's voice stopped him.
"She's coiled tighter than the bride." He rolled his eyes, motioned that he'd call, then wheeled around to go and greet his mother, slipping a comforting arm across her shoulders. Seconds later they were walking out of the hall, heads together, conferring without so much as a parting glance.
He wouldn't call. But if he did, Felicity wouldn't be home.
Chapter Six
"What the..." Felicity stopped just inside the doorway of her little cottage. She stared at the mess strewn about the large Turkish rug that laid claim to the majority of the tiny living room. Ripped up bits of cloth were everywhere.
"Bacio?" she called her cat, not surprised when the fluffy white feline failed to answer. She reached for a strip of the cloth, her mouth dropping open when she realized it was the shredded remains of the bag she'd carried with her to the castle the night before. "Bacio!" she yelled more forcefully.
With her lips pressed tightly together, Felicity marched up the stairs, knowing exactly where she'd find that purring devil. And when she did...
For the second time, her jaw dropped. There laying in the middle of her bed with Bacio stretched out beside him, was the cat from Shaladorn.
Oh, dear Lord."
She looked at the piece of material in her hand. Hadn't she vaguely thought that her bag was unusually heavy when she’d taken off from the castle balcony? The concern had been quickly dismissed, her mind more focused on her breaking heart. The only thing she could figure was that the cat had managed to catch a few particles of the sleeping potion and been out cold in her bag until after she'd left to go set up the cakes.
Oh dear. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad. There was no way they were ever going to believe she hadn't stolen the cat... because she had!
Felicity grabbed her head as she began to pace around the room. "No, no, no," she kept repeating. What was she going to do? How could she ever fix this? There was no way she wasn't going down for this. She may as well just get in her van and...
Wait a minute. That's what she'd do. She'd let them believe the cat must have gotten outside and into her van somehow and she'd found him when she got home. It wasn’t a total lie… more of a white one. That last part, at least, was true. She had found him when she got home.
She looked at the clock on her bedside table and calculated the timing of her next move. She'd gone by her shop to unload and clean up before coming home, which had put her late getting back. If she waited another hour and then called the main castle number, hopefully everyone would be at the reception and she'd get voicemail where she'd be able to tell them how she’d found the missing cat, sharing that she'd bring him home in the morning… after the newlyweds had departed for some three-month tropical island honeymoon.
She glared at the cats laying all cuddled up on her bed, envying their lack of concern for anything beyond the moment. Before she left the room, she glanced back at the big grey and white fluffball. “How did you end up in the groom’s tower anyway? You should have stayed where you belonged and then neither of us would be in this mess.”
He answered with a clipped mew before rubbing his head against Bacio’s and stretching out to where he could use her as a pillow. Felicity rolled her eyes and turned away. At least someone was happy.
An hour later , she’d had all the waiting she could stand. She pushed up from the couch where she’d sat staring at nothing at all while her mind wandered. Too many times, she’d had to steer her thoughts back from the night and the dragon shifter’s bed. Impressive was an understatement. Her body went into instant nerves-on-end mode at the thought of his mouth and hands…
“Stop!” She couldn’t keep doing this to herself. She wouldn’t. It was time to make the phone call and turn in for the night. The sooner she got the Herensuge family out of her life, the better.
One ring, two , three rings… Felicity jumped when the distinctly feminine voice answered. She was silent for a few seconds, her mind trying to place the familiarity of vocal patterns. She sucked in, her hand coming up to her mouth. What was Mrs. Herensuge doing answering her own phone? She didn’t think rich people ever did that.
“Hello?”
Felicity gritted her teeth when the word echoed through her phone again. She stammered for a few seconds, cleared her throat and then told the woman that the missing cat was in her possession, crossing her fingers as she told her partial lie about how she believed he may have stowed away inside her van while she was setting up the cakes.
The melodic laughter that greeted the end of her story surprised the angel and she smiled.
“If it’s all right, since it’s getting late, I’ll just keep him here overnight and return him in the morning.”
“Oh no, no dear. I wouldn’t hear of it. I'll send my son by to pick him up so you won't have to bother coming clear back out here. Though you’re correct. It is late and… well, boys being boys, I’m afraid they’ve had a bit much to drink. How about I send him by around 10 o'clock tomorrow morning? Will that work for you?”
Nodding her head, Felicity then verbalized her response, assuring the woman it would be perfect.
“Oh, his name is Kuching, in case you wanted to know,” the older woman told her just before she clicked the button to hang up.
“Kucing? As in… Malay for cat?”
Soft laughter sounded through the phone line. “More like the sound a cash register makes, because he continually gets into trouble and has ended up costing us so much.”
Felicity laughed as well. “He seems most content with my Bacio D’Angelo. Hopefully he will remain so throughout the night. I’ll be sure to have him ready when your son comes by in the morning.”
“Bacio D’Angelo… Angel Kiss. Apropos. How fitting, considering your cakes having the exquisite taste of a masterpiece that’s been kissed by an angel.”
Felicity froze, unsure of what to say. “Thank you,” she finally managed to eke out. “I’m honored that you think so.”
“Think so? I know so. You probably don’t know this… there’s really no reason you should, but I was an apprentice to Raguel.” She chuckled at the sharp breath Felicity drew in. “Ah, yes. It was a very, very, very long time ago. So many centuries…”
“What happened?” Felicity couldn’t keep herself from asking. “Did you get your wings?”
The woman on the line chuckled. “In a way, I guess you could say I did. Only they were in the form of those on a dragon shifter that I fell madly in love with.”
Felicity sucked in so hard she almost choked. Once she was certain the young angel was okay, Mrs. Herensuge sighed.
“They’re hard to resist, these dragon men, but once they have your heart, there’s really not much you can do, I’m afraid.” She chuckled again. “I think that g
oes for all men, perhaps, so be sure to guard yours until you’re ready to give it away, Ms. Love.”
Her cheeks heating up, Felicity thanked her for the advice, hanging up with her assurance the cat would be fine until the next morning. Laying down her phone, she plopped onto the sofa, pivoting so that her feet were up, her head on her favorite white, fluffy, faux fur pillow. She stared at the ceiling, wondering whether there was any hope that the cats would let her in her own bed, and a few minutes later, she started to doze off. Go figure. Dirk Herensuge’s mother was an angel who had fallen short of earning her wings.
As she drifted into a sea of sleep, her last thought was one of wondering. If her lover was, in fact, part angel, the Forever Unified dust shouldn’t have had any effect on him. The reality was, if his mother had been studying under the archangel Raguel, that meant she wasn’t just an angel , but an angel of love. And an angel was an angel, regardless of whether she had yet to receive her wings.
Chapter Seven
A loud thud , followed by the trembling of the ground had Felicity springing up from the sofa like a scared cat. She stood wide-eyed in the middle of her living room, turning in a circle as she tried to figure out what had happened.
Earthquake? Seismic activity wasn’t a common occurrence in the area, nothing she’d really felt before… except on the few occasions she’d been close by where a dragon had landed. She nodded, her heart slamming against the inside of her chest.
Gulping several times to try to settle her nerves, Felicity commanded reluctant legs to take her to the front door. She pulled it open just in time to see the most breathtaking dragon she’d ever seen, the golds highlighting his shimmering coral scales looking like celestial flames.
Seconds later, the massive beast morphed back into a man of equal beauty. He sauntered toward her, his lazy grin making him look even more handsome and desirable than ever before. His eyes washing down her may as well have been his hands from the way it made her body tingle. She could already feel a certain wetness beginning to cling to her panties and cursed herself for her weakness where he was concerned.
Sinfully Delicious: Six Scintillating Stories of Sweets, Treats, and Happily Ever Afters Page 4