Butting In (3 page)

“Is it a family concern?”

“It is. All members of the family are involved, even my new in-laws.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“Six sisters. The youngest is getting married in a few weeks, and that is probably what prompted my dad to send me here.”

“So, you are the last unmarried daughter?”

“I am. My dad is cool with it, but he knows that my differences aren’t the easiest thing for me to accept.”

“The lack of your beast’s interest in the opposite sex.”

She grimaced. “In any sex. I could accept anything, but the limbo I am stuck in is frustrating.”

“I wish I could imagine, but I can’t. My tendencies run in the opposite direction, and by that, I mean that companionship is a constant in my life.” His tone became low and husky.

Gera nodded. “It must be tiring.”

Surprise crossed his features. “You don’t seem to be seduced by my voice.”

She was sipping through her straw and laughed so hard she blew a bubble that blasted milkshake out of the glass.

As she leaned backward, a wave of magic crossed between her and the splashing chocolate tsunami. His gesture gathered the liquid up, and he poured it back into one of the empty glasses on the table.

“There. What was the laugh for?”

“I just told you that my inclinations for romance were dormant. Why would your voice seduce me? Don’t get me wrong, it is pretty enough but hardly enough to put me in thrall.”

“Well, in fey terms, I am a love talker. Seduction is an instinct. I must say, it is odd to run into a woman that doesn’t swoon when I use my voice in that way.”

“It is just a red-letter day all around.” She sipped what was left of her milkshake and glanced at his. It was already gone.

He gave her a slow smile. “Do you feel better?”

“I do. Milkshakes for lunch always have that effect.”

“Would you care to go for a walk?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I probably should unless I want to let the milkshakes take revenge.”

“May I show you around?”

Gera thought about it for a moment. “Are you going to try anything?”

“I might.”

“Will you take offense if I don’t reciprocate?”

He grinned. “It will just inspire me to try a new tactic.”

“So, I will be helping you become a better seducer?”

“That is the dream.”

He reached out and paid for her milkshakes before she could.

She frowned. “I didn’t ask you to pay for that.”

“I know. It made it more fun.”

They left the café, and he paused, picking up her hand and putting it down on his forearm. “There. This is the official position for walking politely with a man you have just met.”

“If you say so.” She had felt a sort of static when he touched her skin, but as her hand rested on his shirt, it slowly dissipated.

He grinned. “Well, let’s go. I will introduce you around. Let’s begin at the end of the street and work our way around.”

They walked slowly toward the salon and spa. It was as good a place as any to start her tour.

By the time they finished walking through the small town that was the Crossroads, she had a question. “Why are you here, Riox?”

He grinned. “Drak asked me to help him with the power he needed to shape the magic here. I took leave from my daily activities, and here I am.”

“So, you are visiting your brother?”

“I am. Once he gets a few more guests, I will be able to leave.”

“Why do you have to wait?”

“Drak does not do well on his own. I don’t want to abandon him here without him having something to do.”

“What do you do in the human world?”

He chuckled. “I run a tech company. It is all very boring.”

“It sounds interesting to me, but I am just a farm girl.” She smirked.

They walked toward the shifter meadow. She lifted her head, and the sweet scent of clover came to her again.

“What are you smelling?” Riox was smiling at her.

“Sweet clover. There is nothing that makes my beast happier.” Her inner goat was bounding around in the grasses once again. It made Gera grin.

“Is it actually another mind inside your own?”

Gera looked up at him. “You don’t know?”

“No. Drak was tapped by the fey council and sent here to become a hotelier. We didn’t know anything other than he was going to be meeting with a lot of shifters.”

“Well, that explains the first stupid move.”

“What?” He tugged her into the shadow of the trees and sat next to her on a fallen log.

“His glamour or his enchantment. Our beasts know we are supposed to feel a fey contact when we meet him, and when there is nothing, we get frustrated and distrustful.”

Riox stared at her. “You are kidding.”

“We are humans who access the souls and instincts of the animal kingdom. When something doesn’t feel like we know it should, it freaks us out and we avoid it.”

He got to his feet. “I have to tell Drak.”

She waved at him. “Go ahead. I can give him the full lecture when I get back.”

Riox lifted her hand to his lips, and he kissed it. A moment later, he was gone and she was left staring at the spot where his lips had had contact with her. Her skin was tingling in a pulse that slowly spread across her entire hand and started to work up her arm.

She flexed her hand and stared at it. With what she was feeling, she should have been able to see something. The creeping warm prickle of power moved to her elbow, and thankfully, it faded. Gera exhaled in relief. She had no idea what that was or what would have happened if it would have reached her torso. Frankly, she was terrified to find out.

Gera brushed at her skirt and got to her feet, walking out of the shadows and back toward the Axion. Sunset would be here soon, and she needed to get into one of her evening looks to head for the Crossed Star. She also might put on some makeup if she could steel her nerves. Lip gloss was fine, but it was the eyeliner that needed a steady hand.

When she stepped into the lobby, Drak and Riox were yelling at each other. She had to admire the soundproofing. She hadn’t heard anything from outside.

Riox looked at Gera and pointed at his brother. “Tell him.”

“What? That the spell that keeps the fey magic from interacting with shifter magic creeps out all the shifters? It makes us think you are deceptive before we even speak to you.”

Drak’s shocked features were still lovely, but when he took a deep breath and a halo of light moved from his head down to his feet, he went from pretty to stunning. This was what fey were supposed to look like.

Gera grinned. “Much better.”

She headed up the stairs to her room and closed the door. The building itself rippled around her, and fey magic asserted itself. This was going to be interesting.

Gera brushed her hair and twisted it up, leaving a cascade of strands teasing her neck. The purple dress showed the rhinestones of her bra to advantage.

She slipped on the heels and watched her posture and demeanour change. The slight flick of mascara and eyeliner made her eyes look huge. Her lips gleamed under the tiniest bit of lip gloss.

The sun was down, she was nervous, and it was time to go and get some liquid courage or, at least, fake it.

She smoothed her hands down her short skirt for the fiftieth time and straightened her shoulders. Now or never.

The moment that she left her room, she could see the difference in the Axion. Instead of being bland and generic, the building had taken on a fairy-tale theme. Gera stepped down a curved, twisted, crystal-banistered stairway. It was the kind of stairway that should star in every movie where someone was waiting for their true love to find them.

Gera smiled at Drak, and he inclined his gleaming head toward her.

“You look lovely, Gera.”

“You look much better, Drak. Have Teal and Tony been in to see the changes?”

“How did you know?”

She tapped the side of her nose. “Shifter magic smells different.”

He sighed. “Yes. I have three bookings for this week. They have begun to recommend me. Riox was right to tell me about the glamour. No one thought it through.”

“Will you get in trouble for dropping it?”

“I doubt it. The council just wanted to avoid dazzling the shifters without any thought to how their own magic would react to the blanking of mine.”

“Or how arrogant it is to think that our magic is any less powerful than yours. We may burn fast, but we pack quite the punch.”

He winced. “Yes, or that. Are you heading to the Crossed Star?”

“I am.”

“Excellent. Have a lovely evening.”

He bowed low, and she bobbed a quick curtsey before she left to meet her fate.

The path to the bar was more intimidating at night and alone.

She entered the bar, and immediately, her instinct was to blend in with her surroundings. The problem was that her clothing was not conducive to blending.

With no other option, she straightened her shoulders and walked over to the bar.

“Hello again, Chuck.”

“Hello, Gera, was it?”

She nodded. His serpentine eyes were surprisingly warm as he smiled.

“What can I get for you?”

“Something that looks very alcoholic but isn’t... very?” She rocked on her shoes and rolled her weight to the outside of her feet.

He laughed. “I will work something out.”

Gera smiled, and she waited as he got different types of juice, some liquor bottles and some ice and began to shake them all together.

When the mixture was frothy, he poured it into a tall glass and put a wedge of pineapple as well as a teeny umbrella in it.

“There you go. I am calling it the Tropical Pirate. Let me know if you like it.”

He slipped a straw into the drink and slid it over to her.

With Chuck watching her, she sipped at it and smiled. It tasted like a tipsy summer afternoon in the tropics.

“I like it. Where is the pirate part?”

“If you drink too much, it will steal your legs.” He winked and headed off to the other side of the bar to attend to some incoming guests.

She sipped slowly at the drink and looked around. Freshly minted couples took most of the booths.

Gera found one and tucked herself in. It was next to the dance floor, so she had an excellent view of the dancers.

She watched the grace with which the fey moved around the dance floor with their partners and tried to guess which of them were with their mate and which were trying each other on for size.

She was halfway through her drink when a man came up to her.

“Would you care to join me for a spin around the floor?”

Gera sucked down the last half of her cocktail, and she scooted out of the booth without flashing too much thigh. She could tell she had succeeded, because her soon-to-be dance partner made eye contact again.

He offered her his hand, and she stepped in close as the music started. His hand pressed her lower back, and they started to shift around the dance floor.

To Gera’s surprise, she was a better dancer than he was. His footwork was heavy and deliberate. She was managing to move lightly as his hand shifted lower on her back, and she grabbed his fingers and pulled them back to above her hips.

When the music was over, the reason to stand next to him was over, and she turned to go back to find a seat.

Another man asked her for a dance, and there was no logic to refusing him. Grimly, she turned back to the dance floor and prepared to guard her butt and her toes.

It was the beginning of a very long night.

Gera finally managed to slink away from the crowd on the dance floor, and she crept up to the bar.

Spike saw her coming and pulled out a bottle of water. “You look like you need this.”

Gera edged herself onto a bar stool and drank the water in one long, thirsty session.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“Another bottle of water and Chuck made me something he called a Tropical Pirate. Could you make one of those?”

Spike looked around and found a recipe box with index cards in it. She flicked around and finally fished out what she was looking for. “Got it!”

Chuck was busy on the other side of the bar, so Spike got to work.

Gera didn’t know what was in the drink, but the recipe had been right on the money. It tasted the same as the first one.

She nursed the drink and kept her back to the men who were milling around in search of their mates. She had already gone through eight of them, four had asked her for another couple of dances, but there was no spark on her side of the embrace.

Spike finished her round and lifted the empty water bottle. With a smile, she tapped the bottle with her fingertip and water swirled into it.

Spike handed it over. “Here you go. A little fey magic can do wonders to glassware.”

“This is water?”

“Yes. Drawn from the air. We had an elemental in a few months ago, and she enchanted a few dozen bottles for us. We wash them when empty and make sure that they don’t collide in the dishwasher. They have been working out very well.”

Gera enjoyed the moment of normal discussion of a new kitchen gadget. She and her sisters often discussed that exact kind of thing.

She continued to hide at the bar as she drank her cocktail.

Andy appeared next to her and asked, “Would you like to dance?”

Gera slipped off her perch, wavered a little and smiled. “That sounds nice.”

He extended his arm, and she wrapped her hands around it, leaning on him a little as they walked the few metres to the dance floor.

She was laughing as they started to dance and collided a little.

Andy grinned at her. “Have you had something to drink?”

She nodded vigorously. “Spike makes stronger drinks than Chuck does.”

They were swaying gently to the music.

“Are you having a good time meeting new people?”

She smiled and sighed happily. “I am. I don’t normally get out much.”

“It only shows a little.” Andy twirled her.

She shrieked and clapped a hand over her mouth when she slammed against him. “That was fun.”