Authors: Mia Watts
Neither was the opportunity to actually
see
her. Sage hadn’t been kidding when he said she flipped between visible and invisible at random intervals. How did she maintain a regular job without mortals noticing?
There was her guardedness with anything involving faeries, too. Not with her siblings whom she seemed to come alive around, but Bruce. What kind of reception would Cooper get if Fauna didn’t like faeries? Would she give him half a chance, or chalk up his kind as another thing worthy of disdain?
It was the only hitch he could see in getting to know her. He’d have to work on her aberration toward the other realms. Cooper was proud to be an elemental. It wasn’t faery, but it was definitely magical. Would she object?
He sat in one of the large chairs opposite Dill and Sage. Sage studied him intently, a curious look in his eyes.
The mind reader
, Cooper remembered. He cocked a brow at Sage in question. Sage smiled, curiosity becoming amusement.
“It’ll be good for her,” Sage said quietly.
So he’d read his mind.
Fauna’s light step clacked on the wooden floors. She wove between the chairs and sat down in the only other empty one, next to Cooper.
“Sorry. I got stuck on a call,” she explained.
“That’s okay. I was just getting to know a little more about Cooper and his talents,” Sage told her.
Cooper eyed Sage warily.
Fauna glanced at Cooper.
“Good morning, Fauna.” Cooper winked.
Her eyes widened and suddenly she was gone. He couldn’t help but smile. Her disappearing act was going to make things a little tricky, but Cooper liked a challenge and he definitely wanted to get to know Fauna Harper.
What she didn’t realize was that as an elemental, particularly a fiery elemental, he could detect body heat without thinking about it. Where undoubtedly Fauna was invisible to everyone else around her, Cooper saw a shimmery golden representation of her. The cooler temperature of her clothing made them fade slightly, which gave Cooper a deliciously enchanting view suggesting curves and swells. Right now those tantalizing breast swells had distinctly distended tips, swollen with hot blood.
She’s turned on
.
Fauna’s golden form shifted nervously in her seat. Her hand fluttered up to her cheeks, pressing presumably cooler fingers to it. She stared openly at him, her bottom lip clamped by a row of golden upper teeth.
Cooper made a point of looking away so she wouldn’t guess that he could see her. If staring at him and getting turned on accurately reflected what she’d want to do in private, he’d eagerly play along.
Sage choked on a laugh.
“There’s a whole lot of subtext going on here. How about we cut to the chase and discuss the job,” Dill recommended. “Or you can share with the class.” He looked pointedly at Sage who shook his head, still trying to hide his mirth.
“What job?” Fauna asked, tearing her invisible gaze from Cooper’s profile.
“The one you and Cooper are being sent on,” Sage told her. “Pack your suitcase again, sis. I need you and Cooper to fly to Posada, Texas tomorrow morning. You’ll be setting up security protocol to head off some vandals.”
“Texas? In summer? It’s like a furnace down there,” Fauna complained.
“You and Cooper can handle it, and I need to put him on a solo tech run. It’s a straight forward security job protecting the biology department of a small town college,” Dill explained.
“I love summer,” Cooper said. Even if added heat did have a tendency to overwhelm his libido circuits, he thought he was up for the challenge. He eyed the golden-girl. In fact, he thought he was up for a failed challenge, too. Either way, a couple of weeks in Fauna’s presence promised to be unforgettable.
* * * *
Fauna had made a point of flying separately. She didn’t know what it was about Cooper—okay, she knew—but whenever he was around her invisibility problem went into overdrive. Normally, she knew it was coming on. It didn’t happen as often as it had been. She’d rarely been caught unprepared, even if it happened inconveniently.
Cooper changed the rules. He hiked her pulse, kicked up her sex drive, made her skin crawl with need, and pooled fear into every pore of her being. His control over her autonomic body functions seemed unending. Then, to top it off, he looked at her and
zap
, she disappeared.
He’d protested, but she’d switched her seat out with another passenger then insisted he not come anywhere near her on the flight, nor at any time during their stint in the airport.
She’d had to have known it would be too easy. Never in her existence as a half-faery did things ever go according to plan. It didn’t stop her from grinding her teeth in frustration at the current problem, though.
“You don’t understand,” Fauna insisted. She looked around to make sure Cooper hadn’t left his spot in the attached café. The last thing she needed was to disappear in front of the little lady who owned the Bed and Breakfast. “I’m traveling with a coworker. A
male
coworker. We can’t share a room.”
“Miss Harper, we’re booked solid. The whole town is,” Mrs. Linthrop said sympathetically. “The biggest events of the year are the beginning of the fall quarter and Homecoming. I only have this room available because my husband finished the plumbing ahead of schedule.” She leaned across the oak counter confidentially. “It’s not in the best condition, sweetie. It still needs fixin’, and doesn’t have cable, but it’s yours if you want it.”
“There isn’t another motel open for fifty miles,” Fauna said. It didn’t change the facts, but saying it out loud somehow made her feel like she’d explained her entire dilemma. Suddenly, Fauna brightened. “Could I maybe rent one of
your
rooms? I’m tidy.”
Mrs. Linthrop laughed enthusiastically. “Oh, honey, we live in the B&B. You
are
renting one of our rooms.”
The phone rang. Mrs. Linthrop answered it. “A room for two?” She covered the mouthpiece and looked at Fauna. “Do you want the room, Ms. Harper?”
Numbly, she nodded and slid her business credit card across the counter.
Mrs. Linthrop smiled, then uncovered the phone. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Baxter. Our rooms are all leased. No sir, it’s packed for the next month this time of year. Have you tried Amarillo? It’s the closest town.”
Fauna tuned her out, watching her run the credit card and process the papers Fauna had signed agreeing to take the room for the next two weeks. With any luck that’s all they’d need. If the job went longer, she and Cooper would be out of luck.
She called him on her cell phone. “There’s a room. It’s on the second floor at the very end of the hall. Give me a five minute head start and I’ll leave the door open for you.”
Fauna grabbed her suitcase and hanging bag, then trudged up the steps, down the corridor, and into the small space beyond.
Across from the door the ceiling slanted down to accommodate the inn dormers. It would have been quaint tidied up. As it was now, there was dry wall to her left and a fine layer of drywall dust on the floor. The owner had tried to sweep it up, but it had settled into the wood grain and they’d placed an area rug over it instead.
The double bed jutted into the room as the only perfectly made feature. To her right the doorless bathroom—if it could be called a bathroom—was little more than a poorly lit closet with plumbing. Fauna groaned.
“I’m buying him blinders,” she muttered, dropping her purse and computer bag on the only chair. The tiny dresser would have to suit them both. She doubted the four hooks on the wall would hold little more than a few hung items. But it was a room, and she could hardly turn that down considering the job before them.
The university had received quite a coup. Unbeknownst to the town folk, it had been approved as
the
testing place for the governmental cloning program. There’d already been a break-in at the lab and security was paramount. The fewer incidents like that, the less likely word would get out. The last thing the university needed now was publicity. That meant security, and
that
was why Harper Security had been called in.
Fauna puffed out a tired breath. Already five in the afternoon, she and Cooper wouldn’t begin work in the lab until the next morning. That didn’t mean they couldn’t review the video footage of the break-in they’d been provided, or the blueprints, or begin to formulate a plan on how to protect the small lab and its newly acquired, and very expensive, equipment.
The only problem with that, was finding a way to work with Cooper without disappearing. Sometimes she just felt like a sputtering neon light: Blink. Blink. Gone.
“Is it safe to come in now?” Cooper asked from behind her.
“Debatable.” Fauna reviewed the room a second time. “The bed’s mine. You can have the area rug all to yourself.”
“Gee, thanks. Your generosity is astounding,” he returned.
Cooper moved around her to the bed where he put his computer bag. He unzipped it and removed the high-tech equipment Frankensteined by the Harper tech group into a sleek, hard-drive wizard’s wet dream.
“Where do you want to set up, boss?”
Fauna pointed at the dresser top, the only solid surface in the room. “Looks like it’ll be here, or nowhere. Hardly secure for a top priority job. We’re gonna have to find better digs than this one.”
“After tonight, we can set up a secure space at the university science department near the lab. I’d even recommend securing that room first.”
“Right,” Fauna agreed. “Can’t secure a site if the security isn’t secure…or something like that.”
Cooper laughed. “Well, when you say it like that…”
Awkward silence descended on them. Normally, Fauna would kick off her heels and curl up on the bed with her laptop and begin scouting through the blueprints for points of weakness and a place to make central control for their temporary purposes. Cooper stifled her creative processes. Made her self-conscious and had her second-guessing her plans. The man was way too confident for his own good.
Still, the bed provided the only other working surface for her. Reluctantly, Fauna picked up her purse and computer bag, took them to the bed, and slipped out of her heels. “There’s a chair over there. If you pull it over, we can review the layout of the lab.”
Cooper shot her a smug grin, like he knew what she was thinking—that the palpable attraction they shared could be offset by distance. That keeping him in a chair, off the bed, and away from her, would be the easiest way to avoid the obvious chemistry.
She watched him from the corner of her eye while she set up. Cooper noisily dragged the wicker chair to the bedside. It’s much smaller size brought his chin level with the edge of the elevated bed. Fauna carefully tucked her legs under her and booted up her system. The sooner she got to thinking about work, the less she’d think about him.
But there he was, looking up at her. His burnished eyes glittered merrily. What was he so smug about?
“You have cute knees, boss.”
Her skin tingled seconds before she disappeared. Fauna sighed. “Stop that.”
“What?”
“Going off topic. I don’t do well with personal situations and this is already uncomfortable,” she answered.
“Sure thing.” His smile widened as his gaze never wavered from her face.
How does he know where to look?
Cooper’s expression turned markedly serious. “The USB ports joining your upper ambulators with your lower actionary component are visually appealing, from a professionally observational standpoint.” He flipped open the university blueprints.
Cooper pressed his palms on the paper, smoothing it to the surface of the mattress. Fauna squinted at him, coming back into substance as she tried to figure him out.