The Sure Thing

by Samantha Westlake

  And although I wanted to keep on hating him for this, for having power greater than what I could imagine, for not fixing the world and making things better, for just being goddamn better than me – I couldn't do it, not any longer. He looked too sad, too dejected.

  "Okay, okay, I promise that I'll keep it a secret," I said.

  He glanced up, still suspicious. "Promise?"

  "Cross my heart and hope to die." The childish words somehow didn't sound out of place. "Have you really never told anyone else?"

  "My best friend, Tommy – but it's not the same," he answered.

  "Why not?"

  He looked into my eyes again, that intensity suddenly back and crackling in the air between us. "Because he's not immune. If I want him to forget about everything I've told him – hell, if I want him to forget that he ever knew me – I could make him do it, without even saying a word. Everyone I've ever met, I've always known that I could get them to do what I want."

  "Except me," I said after another minute, realization dawning.

  He nodded. "Yes. Everyone except you. I can't do anything to stop you."

  We both sat in silence after that. My ice cream cone had dripped down onto my fingers, and I finally licked them clean, eschewing Alex's offer of napkins. He watched me, not even the hint of a smile dancing around the corners of his downturned lips.

  "So what else can you do?" I asked, more to distract him from his gloom than any other reason.

  He shrugged one shoulder. "You name it, and I can probably do it."

  "Okay." I cast my mind about, looking for inspiration. "Magically refilling box of chocolate."

  He reached under the table, and his hand came up holding a small, gold-colored cardboard box. He lifted the lid to reveal a plastic insert with four indentations, each holding a chocolate truffle. Without breaking eye contact from me, he turned the box upside down – and chocolates poured down from it in a stream, quickly piling up on the table and dropping down to land on the concrete sidewalk beneath.

  "Alright, alright!" I quickly grabbed the box and turned it back upright before someone noticed the impossible feat. "What about a bottle of wine?"

  His eyebrows twitched slightly, as if he was holding back a smile. He reached again beneath the table and brought up a tiny little bottle of wine, one of the travel sizes given out to first-class passengers on airlines. He unscrewed the twist-off cap and poured a never-ending stream of red wine out onto the tree beside us.

  "Stop showing off! A yes would have been enough." Still, I couldn't help smiling as I snatched the bottle from him as well.

  "And what are you planning with those?" he asked, looking at the box and bottle now in my hands.

  "I'm keeping them," I answered, trying to sound confident. "Think of them as your payment to me for holding your secret close to my chest."

  He started to object, but then – suddenly – laughed instead. "How pragmatic of you. Anything else I can conjure up? A vibrator that never runs out of batteries?"

  I couldn't keep back a shocked laugh as twin spots of heat bloomed on my cheeks. "Alex, shut up!"

  He didn't say anything more, but the smile remained on his face. I didn't mind it – it looked more normal, more natural, than that expressionless frown he'd worn earlier. "You've given me a lot to think about," I said. "Maybe you should take me home."

  "Sure. Car's right here." He waved a hand at the parking spot beside us, and – even though I knew for an absolute fact that he'd handed the car off to the valet at the restaurant – it was here. Parked beside us, as solid and immobile as if it had been here the whole time.

  My mouth must have fallen open, because he laughed again. "Magic powers, remember?"

  "Still freaky as hell," I muttered as I headed around to get into the car. "Why not teleport us back to my apartment?"

  "Want me to?"

  "No!" I slammed my car door, waited for him to get in. I had no idea what I'd tell Anna-Claire about this date. It was, without a doubt, my strangest one ever.

  And technically, I considered with a sudden surge of heat, it wasn't over just yet...

  Chapter Thirteen

  PAXTON

  *

  Alex drove me home in silence, which wasn't such a bad thing. He'd dropped a metaphorical atom bomb of knowledge on me, and I sat next to him in silence, Binky on my lap, as I tried to wrap my head around the enormity of what he'd revealed.

  He had magical powers, could make anything he wanted come true, instantly – except when it came to me. But aside from directly affecting me, it seemed like he could do anything in the world he wanted.

  What would I do, if I had his powers? I tried to think of the possibilities.

  "Go on, say them out loud," Alex said, making me jump in my seat.

  I glanced over at him, my eyes wide. "Were you reading my mind?"

  He laughed as he shook his head. "Didn't need to. Come on, I can guess what you'd think of first. You're trying to imagine what you would do, if you had my powers and could make anything you wanted come true."

  Was I really so predictable? "Not what I was thinking about," I countered. "I was thinking about how ugly you must have looked before you got these powers."

  He laughed. "I wasn't that bad looking. Go on, tell me what you'd do if you had my powers."

  I thought for a second. "Billion dollars in my bank account, so I'd never need to worry about money."

  "Yup, done. Plus a credit card that simply has no limit and is automatically paid off at the end of every month." He grinned. "IRS wasn't thrilled with it, and tried to audit me a couple times before I told them that they'd be better off not bothering. What else?"

  "World famous," I guessed next.

  He looked over at me for a second. "You'd want that?"

  "No, but I'm guessing that you would. As a guy, don't you want to be a rockstar and have thousands of young women throwing themselves at you?"

  That made him laugh again. "I tried it, but it gets really tiring. Sometimes, I just want to go out and get a bite to eat without being mobbed by fans."

  "You tried it? How?"

  "Remember Spellbeat?"

  The name was familiar, and I frowned in recollection. "Wasn't that the DJ that played all those electronic dance hits and wore a reflective helmet?" I froze, turning to stare at Alex. "Wait, that was you??"

  He nodded. "Still occasionally get a call to do a reunion club tour, but I'm tired of it. It was fun, but exhausting."

  "How did you make sure that no one leaked what you really looked like?" I asked.

  "A couple times, they tried. I just made sure that the pictures magically became too blurry to ever be printed." He smirked. "See? Smart."

  "Uh huh." I tried not to make my voice sound too doubtful, but he still cast a sideways glance at me. I tried to think of what else I – or he – would want. "I suppose you've slept with a disturbing number of women, right?"

  That made him wince. "Yeah, you could probably say that." He looked again over at me. "Is that something you'd do, too?"

  "Nope." Time to rub his nose in it a little. "Unlike you, I'd like to actually get to know a guy before giving everything up to him."

  I saw him open his mouth, but he apparently thought better of his reply. "Got it," he said instead, his hands tightening slightly on the wheel.

  What was that about? "What?" I asked. "Were you hoping to get lucky tonight, hoping that I'd put out on the first date?"

  "So this is a date?" he immediately countered, turning to look at me. "And here I thought that you wanted nothing to do with me, just wanted to find out what my angle was."

  Okay, so he was pretty perceptive, even if he couldn't read minds. I felt the urge to back down at his valid point, but rallied my strength. "Well, you did admit that there was an angle. So I wasn't wrong."

  "No, you weren't," he agreed, and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

  I looked up in surprise, and realized that we were back at Davies Books. How had we made
it back so quickly? It felt like we'd only been driving for a minute or two. Without speaking, Alex climbed out of the car, walked around to my side and held my door open for me.

  I got out, making sure that both the bottle of wine and the box of chocolates were tucked away in my purse, Binky in my hands. I wasn't kidding when I'd told him that I was keeping them both, as payment for the lie he originally told. I walked up the steps towards the bookstore – and heard the tread of his feet as he followed me.

  "So, you never did confirm that this is a date," he murmured, and I felt my heart accelerate in my chest, thumping away so loudly that I feared he could hear it.

  "Maybe I still haven't decided yet." I turned to look at him. Oh man, I'd forgotten how tall he was, how cute he looked, even in the relative darkness outside the closed bookstore. I cast my mind around for something appropriate to say, even as my emotions and my logic warred back and forth over whether I ought to kiss him. "What do you think?"

  It wasn't dark enough to hide the little quirk upward of his lips. I couldn't seem to pull my eyes off those lips, surprisingly full for a man. "I think you're a bit inexperienced and trying to bluff."

  "Am not. I'm very experienced."

  "Liar." He'd taken another step closer, and suddenly, his hands were on me, resting just above my waist! His touch seemed to practically burn through my outfit, as if this stupid polka dot blouse didn't even exist.

  "You don't know that." Oh god, he was really going to kiss me. What did I need to do? My tongue suddenly felt too big for my mouth, like I'd just been stung by a bee.

  Stung by a bee? I couldn't even think straight right now!

  I opened my mouth to say something else, anything at all. I was basically babbling by this point. But before I could get the words out, Alex leaned in and kissed me.

  Oh wow. He must have used some sort of magic to make his kisses amazing, that much was for certain.

  He started light, his lips soft against mine. It wasn't until I made a soft little noise in the back of my throat, instinctive and totally uncontrolled, that his hands tightened around my waist to draw me in closer. He pulled me up against him, close so that I felt as the hardness of his body pressed against the yielding softness of my own. I felt my stupidly exposed chest squish against him, had to tilt my head back so that I could keep my lips locked on his. His tongue pushed out, gently parting my lips so that he could taste me, and I met it eagerly with my own.

  The kiss probably just lasted for a few seconds, although it felt like much longer. By the time we separated, I was breathing heavily, even though I was well aware of how the deep breaths made my chest rise and fall in what was probably quite the distracting manner.

  "Wow," I panted out, not having any other words. "That's some magic."

  He looked down at me and smiled. "I didn't use any magic."

  "Shut up." I reached up to loop my arms around his neck, pull him down again. Suddenly, I felt voracious; I needed more.

  He kissed me again, yielding to my demand, and this time he was the one who made a little sound of hunger. His noise was deeper, stronger, a manly growl compared to my girly little sigh.

  It might have been the sexiest, most arousing sound I'd ever heard in my life.

  Dimly, from some far recess of my mind, I heard repeated my promise that I wasn't going to sleep with him on the first date, wasn't going to give him what he'd wanted. Hell, I wouldn't even give him the satisfaction of showing him my tits, what he'd been after when he first bumped into me in the club!

  But oh, how I suddenly wanted to do it! Inside my head, wild and alien images swarmed over me. I saw Alex drawing me down onto my rickety, wobbly little bed, his kisses running over my hot and flushed skin as he stripped me out of these stupid clothes, removed his own so that we were able to touch each other without anything getting in the way. I imagined him on display in the light of my bedroom lamp, all hard muscles and taut muscle and firmness for me. I pictured him rising up on his elbows, on top of me, parting my legs and claiming me over and over until I had to scream in orgasmic pleasure, better than any vibrator I'd ever owned, permanently making that bit of silicone obsolete...

  The images swarmed over me, and I struggled to fight them off. "I'll do some research," I blurted out.

  Alex blinked, looking about as confused as I myself felt. "What?"

  I hastily untangled my arms from around him, took a step to put some space between us. Without his body pressing against mine, I suddenly felt the chill of the night air. "On your powers," I stammered. "There's got to be someone else who's had something like this. There must be an account somewhere. We've got a lot of old books here. Maybe I can find something on it, that can tell you why they don't work on me."

  "That's really not necessary." Was he smiling? Was he laughing at me, at how flustered I'd gotten over just a damn kiss?

  I was pretty sure that he was. Well, screw you, Alex Hamilton! Not all of us have magical powers that turn us into literal gods of sex and amorous prowess. I dipped my hand into my purse, dragging out my keys as if I planned to stab him with the little pieces of metal.

  "I'll call you," I said, taking another deep breath, feeling slightly less overwhelmed by the rush of desire now.

  As I spoke these words, I was suddenly aware that I didn't have his phone number. But even that little detail didn't escape him. He pointed at my phone, and I saw him murmur something under his breath, too softly for me to hear.

  "You've got my number," he said, and I knew that, when I opened my phone, it would be there, as surely as if he'd typed it in himself.

  And then, still smiling and casting glances back at me, Alex Hamilton left me, still standing on the stoop of my building. He headed down the couple of steps, climbed back into his stupidly expensive looking sports car, and drove away, all the while pretending that my eyes weren't hungrily following after him.

  It wasn't until he disappeared around the corner that I finally sagged a little on my feet, letting out the breath that I hadn't realized until now that I'd been keeping in. Oh my god. I'd survived a date with a guy who had literal magic powers.

  And he'd kissed me.

  I could still feel him on my lips, could still taste a little hint of him. He'd tasted sweet, maybe from traces of the ice cream we'd had before he drove me home. Or maybe that was some sort of toxin he secreted that made him irresistible to women. That was probably more likely, given how much I wished suddenly that he was back here, that he was leading me into my own apartment.

  I unlocked my door and headed inside – alone – through the darkened bookshop. I had meant what I'd told him; I'd get up tomorrow and, while watching the store, I'd dig up every book I could find that might contain some sort of account of a person in history having magical powers. If Alex was telling the truth, and we weren't having some sort of shared hallucination, there had to be an account of it happening another time in history.

  Was he crazy? I couldn't quite bring myself to believe it, since it would mean that I was going crazy as well. I'd seen him make things happen that ought to be impossible.

  Upstairs in my apartment, I put Binky sitting at the head of the bed, looking down on the mussed sheets. From my purse, I pulled out the little bottle of wine, the box of chocolates. Experimentally, I grabbed a wine glass and filled it up. The bottle didn't seem any lighter, any emptier.

  I opened the box of chocolates, looked down at the four truffles nestled into the plastic support piece. I ate six of them, and then closed the box.

  He had magic powers. He'd turned my world upside down with that revelation.

  And then, ten minutes later, he turned it upside down a second time – or was that right side up again? – by kissing me.

  I sat there, thinking. I ought to go to bed, ought to turn in and think about this tomorrow morning with a clearer head. But I couldn't quite move to head into the bedroom just yet.

  And a second later, I rushed to the window at the sound of explosions outside, my face splittin
g into a smile of delight at what I saw.

  It had to be Alex.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ALEX

  *

  I drove away from Paxton's apartment building with that used bookstore down on the main floor, and marveled at how hard my heart was beating.

  The whole date, it had felt strangely exciting, new and different from anything I'd done before. Sure, I'd been on plenty of dates – but at the back of my head, I'd always known that, if something really went wrong, I could always fix it with just a thought. Nothing was ever totally out of my control.

  But not with Paxton. My powers didn't work on her, and I didn't get any second chances. Her continuing distrust of me, ever since my first words to her, certainly proved that point to be true.

  But then, when something went right...

  I reached up and touched my lips, still remembering how she felt when she pressed back against me. I'd walked her up to her doorstep more to tease her than because I expected to get lucky. She'd been so flustered, I nearly burst out laughing at her innocence. She acted like it was the first time a guy ever brought her home!

  Hell, that couldn't be true. My brain remembered that enticingly low swoop of her shirt, the way her figure seemed built out of nothing but yielding, tempting curves that drew the eye as if by invisible magnets. I knew that she'd had a great body hiding under those shapeless clothes! I remembered how she pressed against me when she kissed me, how my hands sunk slightly into her softness, how I'd had to hold back from ripping those clothes off her right there.

  She had to have been on plenty of other dates with guys that saw those curves, that insane rack, and wanted some of it. One of them probably hurt her, made her put up shields. That was probably why she'd been so suspicious of me.

  But then, at the end when she reached out to grab me for another kiss, throwing herself at me with raw need that hit me like a speeding truck...

  I hit the brakes, pulled over to the side of the road before I crashed from the distracting images swimming in my head. I had to grin, had to laugh at how good I felt.