by Anny Cook
“We’ll expect y’all for dinner.”
Chapter Ten
By the time Sebastian walked up the steps at her cabin, Zipporah had settled several things in her mind. For one thing, she thought that Seb might be a bit intimidated at the idea of marrying an angel. Marrying someone who could shift into a real hairy bear when they had PMS was probably scary enough. And the prospect of wrangling a bunch of rowdy shifting angel rugrats wasn’t likely to be very attractive either.
While she showered, dressed and straightened up the cabin, she mulled over the different possibilities. Finally, she decided that she needed to romance her man. She’d been so busy running the other way so that he wouldn’t find out her secrets that it was just conceivable that he didn’t realize how much she loved him. She tried to remember if she’d ever actually said the words. Had she?
Well she had said she loved him yesterday morning at breakfast but they were joking around so he might not have believed that she loved him—the kind of forever, until-death-do-us-part kind of love. That was the real deal. That was the kind of love that you didn’t talk about when you were in bed because it was the kind of love that stayed around, even when you were angry with each other.
She munched on her toasted English muffin while she thought of ways she could show him how much she loved him. A glimmer of an idea came to her. She looked at it from several different angles and then nodded her head in decision. Perfect. It was exactly the right thing to do—if he would cooperate.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, she winced. Not much time to get ready! Bustling around, fitting in urgent phone calls while scrabbling through her clothing looking for the perfect outfit, she was barely ready when he opened the cabin door.
“Oh good, you’re home,” she declared breathlessly.
“What’s wrong?” Frowning, he noted her coat and purse lying on the bed. “Do you have to go somewhere?”
“Both of us are going out. Will you start the car while I put on my coat and lock up?”
“Sure.” On his walk home, he had planned exactly how he was going to ask her to marry him. He’d worked out the details, complete with candles and massage oils and the fuchsia pink bondage ropes. Why wasn’t she cooperating? He shook his head. His plans would be delayed a couple hours it seemed. He went out to the car and started it, still puzzling over Zip’s sudden urge to leave the cabin.
She dashed out on the porch, slamming the door behind her. A quick check to make sure it was locked and she was trotting down the steps to the car. When she was seated and belted in, she shot him a mischievous grin. “On Dancer! On Prancer!”
“Where are we going?”
“To town. I have a couple things to pick up and then we’re going to White Star Diner for breakfast. Mamie’s expecting us. Roll ’em. Time’s a-wasting.”
Reality shifted as Seb moved into an alternate universe. Who was this perky version of Zipporah? And what did she want? He drove slowly down the bumpy driveway until he reached the road. “Which way?”
“Left to the end of the road and then turn right.”
He slid a cautious glance her way. The woman in the seat next to him looked like Zipporah. But she was sitting perfectly composed with her gloves on. In the unlikely event that Zip was wearing gloves, she always stripped them off as soon as she got in the car. And she had on a tight skirt and stockings. Who was this woman? “Where are we going first?”
“Abbott’s Jewelry on the main square.” She smiled brightly, showing an inordinate number of white teeth.
Thoroughly confounded by such uncharacteristic behavior, he was suddenly seized with the conviction that he shared the car with a demon shapeshifter. What should he do? He’d neglected to ask any of the Jerichos how to fight a demon. Would a bullet hurt a demon? Or did he need a stake? He racked his brain as he tried to remember if there was anything in Zip’s car that he could use for a stake.
For her part, Zip was growing more nervous by the minute. Seb was acting very strangely, not at all like she expected. Instead of appearing to be anxious to spend time with her, he was flashing suspicious looks her way as though he expected her to shift into a Tasmanian devil any minute.
When he parked across the street from the store she turned to him in trepidation. “Do you mind waiting for me here?”
“Nope.” His curt reply was jarring.
“Thank you. I’ll be right back.” She slipped from the car and loped across the street, rushing into the store. Jeremy Abbott was waiting for her near the back. “Come on back, Zipporah! I believe I have exactly what you wanted!”
She pulled off her gloves and picked up the item Jeremy had picked out, turning it over so she could see all sides. Finally she smiled, sure that Seb would be pleased. “How long to engrave it?”
“I’ll do it right now. Five minutes. Just check and initial the order you dictated over the phone.” Jeremy shoved a neatly typed form across the counter.
After checking the wording and spelling, she nodded and scribbled her signature at the bottom. “Thank you for your help with this, Jeremy. It’s perfect.”
In the car, Sebastian waited, his belly roiling nervously. When his cell phone buzzed, it was almost a relief to have something else to think about. “Hello.”
“Hi, Seb, it’s Michael. We’re ready to head out. Just thought you should know. They’ve positively identified the body dumped in the woods yesterday morning. It was Georgie’s friend Jo-Jo.”
“Fuck. Do we have any more on the MacLeish woman?”
“Other than what Georgie told us? Nope. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there’s a connection though.”
“Okay. I’ll be checking in with Harry shortly. Zip has some crazy notion that we need to eat breakfast at a diner.”
“White Star Diner? Has to be…it’s the only diner in town. We’ll probably see you there.”
“Later. Here she comes.” Seb hooked his cell back on his belt as Zip slid back into her seat next to Seb, indicating a store two blocks down on the right.
“Okay. Next I need to stop at Sarah Jane’s Florist Shop.”
He started the car and backed up on the strangely empty street, wondering where all the people were, and drove down to the florist. As he pulled up in front of the shop his cell buzzed against his hip. Zip plucked it from his belt, flipped it open to see who was calling and handed it to Seb. “Harry. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
She hopped out, gave the door a shove and ran inside while Seb reluctantly punched the talk button and barked, “Hello, Harry.”
“Thought I would bring you up to date.”
“Is this where you give me some song and dance shit about mysterious secret agents? Or are we going to have a real conversation?” Seb asked impatiently.
“A real communication.”
“So you knew about the Jerichos, didn’t you?” Seb’s stomach tensed as time stretched unbearably in the tricky version of professional truth or dare.
Then Harry took an audible deep breath and replied, “Yes, I knew.”
“How long?”
“Pentecost and I go way back.”
“Well, crap.” Seb leaned his head back against the headrest and squeezed his eyes shut. He was pretty damn tired of all the circles within circles.
“Do you want the news?”
“Hell yes.”
“Georgie and your family are off the hook. We arrested Alexsey Yakovlev late last night for the murder of Mercedes MacLeish, among other things. In a move that was no surprise to anyone, he wants to make a deal. He offered to roll on Carmine Giannola. If the deal goes through, it’ll probably clear up a lot of questions.”
“That’ll be good news for a lot of people. I’m supposed to meet with the sheriff later on this morning. After that, I’ll probably head back home.”
“I’ll see you in the morning unless I hear otherwise.”
“All right.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. Your house has been de-bugged. And Zip’s apartment too. When are
you going to marry that girl, anyway?”
“Someday I’ll have a few minutes free and I might ask her,” Seb bitched. “Here she comes. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He put his phone away while she got in the backseat, maneuvering a huge bouquet of flowers and heart-shaped balloons. He turned in his seat and stared at the riot of colorful blooms. “What the hell is that?”
“A surprise.” He could hear the laughter and anticipation in her voice. “Please drive to the diner now. We’re running late.”
Providentially, there was an empty spot right by the door when he pulled into the parking lot at the White Star Diner. By the time he shut off the car and walked around to help her, she was backing out butt first with her arms full. He waited patiently for her to move past him and slammed the door. When they went inside, a roly-poly woman with bright Lucille Ball curls greeted them at the door with a huge smile. “I have your table all ready!”
“Seb, will you hang my coat on the hooks over there?” Zip asked as she fumbled with something she was trying to remove from her pocket.
“Sure.” He slipped her coat from her shoulder, absently noting the small box in her bare fingers. While he hung up her coat and then his, she went on ahead to the table and fussed over the flowers, arranging them just so. When he joined her, she pointed to the seat next to her.
A tiny box was sitting in the center of his paper placemat.
He stared down at the box for a moment. “It’s not my birthday and it’s too early for Christmas.”
“Just open it,” she replied softly.
He flipped the top back, inhaling sharply as realization crashed over him. It was a wedding ring.
When his eyes flashed to her face, she slipped from her chair and kneeled next to him. “Will you marry me, Sebastian Spade?” The diner was so quiet that her words were audible all the way in the kitchen—a kitchen that was silent as everyone waited for his answer.
His brain froze as relief poured through him. “You’re not a demon!” he blurted out.
Time stopped. The people around them gaped in astonishment. Zip leaped to her feet, grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
In that instant, Seb realized that he’d spoken his thoughts out loud. He shut the box, stuffed it in his pocket and went after her, catching her just outside the door. In full view of the better part of the town, he wrapped his hand around her wrist, snapped his handcuffs over it, then twirled her against the window and captured the other wrist, handcuffing it as well. Once she was secured, facing the avid customers of the White Star Diner as they watched the show, he pressed against her, holding her in place.
Her ass wriggled impatiently against his groin. “I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” he warned. “The way I feel right now, it wouldn’t take much for me to hike your tight skirt up over your hips and claim you in front of the whole town.”
“You’ve got to be kidding! Are you insane? You just called me a demon!”
His lips rested on her neck just below her ear. Nipping the soft skin sharply, he said, “Nope. I distinctly declared that you aren’t a demon. Though I admit that you had me going there for a while this morning, wearing your gloves and acting weird.”
As always when she was rubbing against him, his cock rose to the challenge. He nudged her with it and nipped her neck again. “You’re going to marry me. I’m going to marry you. Doesn’t really matter who does the asking or telling. I have all the rings in my pocket. The only thing you get to decide is how soon…providing it’s by New Year’s Day.”
Zip closed her eyes. “I wanted to give you a romantic breakfast and show you that I love you. It’s all ruined!”
“Oh I don’t think so. From my point of view, it turned out pretty good. Give me your answer so I don’t have to punish you in front of all these good people who are waiting for you to give in.”
She choked back a laugh. “You’re pretty confident, aren’t you? What if I turn into a lion and stomp your ass into the ground?”
“Nah. You love me. You’ll never hurt me. Just like I’ll never hurt you because I love you. So, what’s it to be?” he asked as he rocked a little closer.
“Yes!” she wailed. “Now take me home so you can stick your cock in me!”
He turned her around and hoisted her over his shoulder. Swatting her heartily on the bottom, he headed for the door. “Shame on you. Ruining my romantic breakfast. Mamie made it just for me, right? Well if you behave I might give you a bite or two.”
“You are so not going back in that diner!”
“Oh yes I am. There are some things a man just has to do.”
Mamie was waiting with the door wide open. When he walked inside, the customers were clapping and laughing. Zip blushed a fiery red when she saw that Tate and Rack were sitting with Seb’s team.
Seb settled her in her chair and sat down at his place.
“The handcuffs!” she whispered fiercely.
“I don’t think so. You just sit there nicely. I’ll feed you. When we’re finished, we’ll go home and play with those ropes from your toy box.”
Their breakfast was the talk of the town for months—how Zipporah Jericho finally met her match and fell in love. Seb, the devil, had taken his time feeding her pancakes and eggs at a snail’s pace. If she hadn’t been in a position to watch his cock pressing insistently against his zipper, she might have even believed the performance. As it was, only she noticed the fine tremors in his fingers as he held the fork to her lips. When their eyes met, she welcomed the heat smoldering in their depths.
Once their breakfast was finished, Seb removed the handcuffs and knelt down next to her on the restaurant floor. He fished a glittering ring from his shirt pocket and held it out. “Will you marry me, Zipporah Jericho?”
What was she supposed to do with the man? “Of course I’ll marry you! Now take me home!” The diamond sparkled on her finger, proclaiming to anyone she met that she belonged to him. And if there was some private speculation about their after-breakfast activities, well that was all right too.
About the Author
Anny Cook learned to read at five years old. Learning to write was a natural extension. Through her adult years—while a wife, mother, grandmother, fast-food cook, warehouse book packer, Girl Scout and Cub Scout Leader, perpetual college student, executive secretary and adult education teacher—writing served as the anchor that kept her sane.
Well, maybe not exactly sane, but close to it. Today, after thirty-five years with kids, cats, dogs, guinea pigs and hamsters, she and her husband are empty nesters. Sigh. Finally, there’s time—and quiet—to write in peace.
Anny welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and e-mail address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Anny Cook
Flowers of Camelot 1: Chrysanthemum
Flowers of Camelot 2: Honeysuckle
Flowers of Camelot 3: Daffodil
Flowers of Camelot 4: Magnolia
Kama Sutra Lovers
Mystic Valley: Everything Lovers Can Know
Mystic Valley: Traveller’s Refuge
Mystic Valley: Cherished Destinies
Mystic Valley: Love Never-Ending
Rescuing Clarice
Winter Hearts
Also see this author’s titles at Cerridwen Press (www.cerridwenpress.com):
Mystic Valley: Dancer’s Delight
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
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