by Nicole Hall
Keely glared at him, and Seth stepped between them. “That would be great, Jeff. Thanks.” He went back through the glass doors, and Seth raised a brow at Keely.
“Just because you’re fancy now doesn’t mean you should be rude to the staff.”
Her glare instantly fell away, but fear filled her eyes. “I can’t stay here. This is too much. How do you even have this place if you were a llama for the last year?”
“I bought into the building when it was fairly new. As far as the co-op is concerned, it’s been in my family for generations. They don’t care how often I stay here as long as I pay my dues and keep up appearances.”
“You should have told me.” She kept sending panicked glances at the limestone façade.
Seth gave in to temptation and cupped her cheek so she was looking at him, and only him. “The location of the apartment changes nothing. I’ve made smart financial decisions in the time that I’ve been here, and I’m glad those decisions can help you now. No amount of money will get me back into my homeland. You will. I need you.”
She took a shaky breath and nodded against his hand. “Okay. Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. You’re right. I should have warned you.” He couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face. “But it was so fun seeing your shock when you turned your head.”
“And you say I’m a trouble-maker.”
The teasing in her soft voice made him wish they weren’t on a busy city sidewalk. Sass had always been his downfall. Her scent surrounded him, even out in the open, and he breathed her in. His kind had the unique ability to discern information about people through the air, so images unique to Keely filled his mind. The influx left him with a burning question.
Would she taste as good as she smelled?
His thumb trailed lazily across her bottom lip and fire exploded in her eyes. They played a dangerous game, but Seth wasn’t yet ready to quit. Her yes the night before had filled his dreams with visions of peeling off her wet clothes as she smirked at him. He trailed his fingers down her neck to the collar of her shirt, and Keely swayed closer.
Before he could do something stupid, Jeff returned with the promised trolley, and Seth reluctantly dropped his hand. Keely huffed and turned to pull her bag out of the truck.
The three of them moved her in with only four trips. On the last elevator ride up, Jeff reminded Seth to move his vehicle now that they’d finished unloading.
The door opened to his living room with wall to wall windows overlooking New York City. Seth liked the view on a cloudless April day, but it really shined at night when the city came awake. He preferred simple furniture, a comfortable grey couch and a state-of-the-art entertainment center. Or at least it had been before he’d been forced to spend nearly a year as a damn llama.
Keely’s bedroom was across from his down the hall. Both rooms had their own attached bathrooms, but Seth hadn’t seen her peek inside yet. As a matter of fact, she hadn’t looked around at all. Her eyes locked firmly on her feet every time she’d walked through carrying boxes, and this time was no different.
Seth followed her into the spare room, added his box to the stack, and surveyed the space. He’d had it furnished as a guest room with a bed, dresser, and single night stand, but most of the spacious room remained empty. They’d only filled about half of it with her boxes, dresser, and disassembled bed.
Keely picked at a strip of peeling tape on the box closest to her, and Seth tensed up with the irrational fear that she was going to change her mind.
“I’m not comfortable with you paying me.”
His shoulders relaxed. An argument, he could handle. If she decided to back out, his plan was ruined. “I don’t need the money. You do.”
Her spine straightened, and she met his eyes. “I don’t. Taking money from you makes the whole situation weird.”
“You’re not paying rent. How is it any different?” Seth crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, prepared to enjoy the debate.
“The living arrangement is temporary, and it’s more than enough to cover my time.”
He shook his head. “It’s not temporary. You can stay as long as you like.”
“If I stay past my usefulness as your accomplice, then I’m paying rent.”
“No.”
Her hands met her hips. “Yes. I pay my own way.”
Seth let his arms drop and crossed the space toward her. Her defiance was sexy as hell, but he wasn’t going to let her win this one. “Until we’re done, you won’t have time to look for another job, let alone another place to live. Part of the deal is that I get your undivided attention. It’s a huge request, so I want to make sure this is worthwhile for you. We have just under three weeks until we need to leave for Aecantha. I’m guessing it will take all of that time to prepare. Mates have history together. They know details of each other’s lives.”
Challenge flared in her eyes. “I’m a fast learner.”
“That may be, but there’s a physical component to consider.” He crowded her, but she didn’t back down. “They crave each other’s touch, and they don’t give a shit if they’re putting on a show.” Seth ran his fingertips up her bare arm and across her collarbone. “Are you ready for that?”
His hand continued up her neck, and her uneven pulse beat under his fingers. “I know you feel this too.” He traced her jaw, and Keely’s lips parted. Heat rushed through him at that small movement. Seth held himself rigid so he didn’t take what she unknowingly offered.
Keely took a shuddering breath. “Of course, I feel it, I’m not dead. But I’m not stupid either. This thing between us will help sell the lie, but it’s also the reason I won’t take your money. We have an arrangement. But this?”
She took a step forward and ran her hand up his chest, fire trailing in its wake. It was almost close enough. Seth slid his arm around her waist, but stopped short of pulling her against him. He’d started this demonstration, but she’d proved she wasn’t afraid of a little touching.
Keely’s hand stopped at his shoulder. “This isn’t part of it. I can handle the physical aspect when we’re acting, but if I decide to take a risk with you beyond that, it’ll be because I wanted it, not because I was compensated for it.” With a sassy eyebrow raise, she backed out of his hold and ripped open one of the boxes.
Seth almost followed her. Almost pulled her against him. Almost took her mouth and anywhere else she’d let him venture. Instead, he accepted defeat. He’d intended to keep his hands to himself, putting a clear line between the fake mate relationship and the real burgeoning friendship, but she’d given him a tempting way to blur the line. Because I wanted it.
“Okay. We’ll do it your way. An apartment in exchange for a fake mate with no money involved. But, Keely?” A flush stained her cheeks, and she met his gaze. “I never said I’d be acting.”
Keely held his eyes for a second, then nodded her head toward the door, seemingly unfazed. “Don’t you have a truck to return?”
He smiled at her defiant response. Keely’s mix of extremes enticed him. One moment, she scorched him with her heat, the next she dismissed him. Seth wasn’t fooled. He’d seen her breath catch, but for all her bravado, she didn’t entirely trust him. While he’d had weeks to watch her, she’d only known him for a day. Still, things were going better than he’d expected. She was here, after all.
Seth headed for the door, calling out over his shoulder. “This might take a while. Don’t wait up.”
Returning the truck took longer than he anticipated. Seth cursed the snarled traffic that had caused him to take almost three hours to drive across a tiny island, but the drive gave him time to deal with some investment issues that had come up. Not being in his human form had put a bit of a kink in his ability to answer emails. As useful as voice-to-text was in the car, the technology didn’t pick up telepathy.
The cell service went out when Seth entered the parking garage, so he took it as a sign to stop work for the day. He lef
t the key in the console as instructed and walked toward the closest subway entrance.
The train was late, as usual, so Seth leaned against a pillar and watched the people scurrying by. Most stared at their cell phones, completely ignoring everything around them. Humans were fascinating creatures. They had access to so much technology, but so little magic. The disparity seemed vastly uneven, but even without magic, they had considerably less limitations.
Magic always came with a price. Keely had figured out the binding properties of his promises almost immediately. The knowledge should have made him wary, but he trusted her not to take advantage.
More travelers came through the turnstile, and the platform started to fill with people jostling for the closest spot to the edge. Seth shook his head at the pointless effort. They’d all be able to board the train; they simply wanted to get on first.
Out of the corner of his eye, a tiny blonde form slipped behind a round man in a misbuttoned suit. Seth turned to look, but she’d disappeared. The way she’d moved and a subtle familiar scent made him think of Lexi. He searched the shadows where he’d seen her, but there was no sign of his cousin’s treacherous ex-wife.
With a screech of brakes, the train pulled into the station, and people pushed past each other trying to either crowd into the car or escape it. Seth glanced around one more time and waited until most of the humans had claimed their spots before joining them. He wasn’t picky about where he stood.
The train lurched forward, and Seth grabbed the hanging strap next to him. His neck prickled with the feeling of someone watching him. Unease made him frown. As a general rule, he paid attention to his instincts, so Seth opened his senses to the area around him. His magic spread from mind to mind in the train, but he didn’t get the feeling that anyone paid him any undue consideration.
Touching that many minds always made him feel faintly dirty, so he pulled the power back after a cursory search. If Lexi had been on the train, he’d have felt her. As it was, he hadn’t felt any magic on the train. It still amazed him that there were so few magical humans in New York City.
Instead, they tended to form pockets in small towns near strong nexuses. Magic called to magic. The closest nexus to the city was in upstate New York. He knew because he’d had to use it to travel there from the backwoods of east Texas as a llama. The train curved around a bend, and a wrinkled old woman wearing a kerchief on her head swayed into him.
She should have been sitting in one of the seats along the walls. Seth glared at a teenager with earbuds in until the kid noticed him with wide eyes. He nodded his head at the woman and raised a brow. The kid picked it up right away. He motioned the lady forward and offered her his seat in a low voice. She thanked him and sighed as she sat down.
Seth nodded, and the kid flashed him a smile before he pushed his way to the front of the car. Despite what he’d learned in his youth, most of the humans he’d met showed compassion. They just needed a reminder every once in a while.
A lock of dark hair slipped out from under the old woman’s headscarf, and it reminded him of Keely. Not that he’d forgotten her for a second, but he’d been actively trying to think about anything but her since he’d left.
The first time he’d seen her, walking home from her office building in a wrap dress and sneakers, she’d sprinted into the street to save a kid’s rubber ball from being flattened by an oncoming car. He’d been too far away to do anything, and his heart had nearly burst from his chest. The whole journey to New York would have been wasted if the woman he was looking for got herself killed before she could help him.
But she’d retrieved the ball with plenty of time to spare and a huge grin on her face. The kids had thanked her profusely, and she’d laughed and high-fived them before continuing on her way. That spark of fearlessness had ignited something in him. He’d decided then that she was the one he wanted; he just hadn’t anticipated how much.
A little harmless flirting had seemed like a good idea to get her to warm up to him, but the strategy had backfired hard. She didn’t succumb. She stood her ground against him even when it meant admitting to her attraction. Turned out Seth liked a woman who refused to give in to her fear.
He liked Keely.
Her mind intrigued him, and her body made him burn. Seth understood better now why mates called the need to touch a craving. The intensity of the impulse sobered him, but the knowledge that he wasn’t alone in his torture made him feel a thousand times better. The urge affected Keely as much as him, but he needed to keep the end goal in mind.
If he got involved then scared her off, he’d be screwed. He’d waited long enough to find his answers, and he couldn’t afford to throw his chance away by rushing things now. Better to take his time with her.
The kid from earlier jostled him as he headed for the open doors, pulling Seth from his thoughts. Another few seconds and he’d have missed his stop. As he exited the train, another flash of blonde hair and that familiar scent had him staring back into the car. It couldn’t be Lexi. He’d hand-delivered her to Keris last year, and Keris didn’t take betrayal lightly.
The sun at the top of the steps beckoned him, so he bounded out of the tunnel, but slowed to a stop when he reached the sidewalk. It wouldn’t hurt to confirm Lexi’s whereabouts with Aiden. He pulled his phone out and hit the number that would connect him with his cousin.
“So you finally figured out Maddie’s spell?” Aiden wasn’t one for etiquette.
“Yes, and you can tell your mate that it wasn’t very nice of her to lie to me.”
Aiden laughed and a female voice joined him in the background. “She says she didn’t lie. You misunderstood her.”
Seth grunted. “She’s devious. You two are perfect for each other.”
“I won’t argue with that. Either part of it.” Another yell from the background, then a thump.
“What’s going on over there?”
“Maddie and I may have made a second bet about how long it would take you to de-llama yourself. She thinks she won. I disagree. Where’d you end up?”
The old lady from the train shuffled past him, and Seth caught another whiff that could have been Lexi. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the street around him.
“Manhattan.”
Aiden whistled low. “And you found a magic-user who could see you there?”
“Yeah.” Seth didn’t elaborate. He wasn’t ready to share Keely with his cousin just yet. “Have you talked to Keris lately?”
Aiden took the abrupt subject change in stride. “Last week. She keeps trying to convince us to move back to the clan. Says it’s her right as my mother.”
“Is it working?”
He snorted. “Hell, no. Maddie is more than a match for her, and I go where Maddie goes. Why the sudden interest?”
“Did she mention Lexi?”
“No. The last I heard, Lexi was still shut away with the elders. Where are you going with all this?”
Seth checked the busy street around him, with his eyes and his magic one last time, and again found nothing of interest. The uneasy feeling began to fade. “Nothing important. Are you and Maddie going to the mate ritual this year?”
“And give my mother more chances to manipulate us? No.” Maddie said something, closer than before. “Maddie says she misses your face, and you should come stay for a while now that you’re human again. She promises not to make any bets.”
Seth laughed. She’d tricked him into llama-hood, but he’d deserved it. Aiden and Maddie were the only people Seth counted as family. “I miss her too. And you. I’ll come down when I finish up with my current project.”
“Making more money to add to your obscene retirement fund?”
“Something like that.”
“Good luck. Come by any time. You know how to get through the wards.”
Damn straight, he knew how to get through the wards. He’d created most of them. Aiden hung up without a goodbye, as usual. Seth shoved the phone back in his pocket and tried to assuage
his irrational concerns. Lexi wasn’t stalking him across Manhattan. She was confined in Aecantha where her crazy ass belonged.
He didn’t take long to travel the few blocks between the subway stop and his building. As the shadows lengthened into evening, Seth’s pace picked up the closer he got to his apartment. Keely waited inside, and he wanted to see if he could fluster her again. She didn’t seem to realize she’d been stuck in a rut, and it so happened that his specialty was de-rutting people.
Seth winced. He probably shouldn’t use those words specifically. They sounded like a great way to get punched, not the kind of hands-on experience he hoped for.
Jeff sat behind the desk when Seth came through the lobby. The man had a phone to his ear as he scribbled furiously on a notepad in front of him, so Seth waved and headed straight for the elevators. The ride up to the thirty-fourth floor seemed to take three times as long as usual. He wasn’t sure what to expect from Keely when he got there. She’d been throwing up walls as he’d left, but finding ways inside places he wasn’t supposed to be was one of his favorite hobbies.
5
KEELY
Seth had called her fancy. Keely surveyed her new bathroom and concluded that he must be insane. He’d been kidding, but the massive upgrade in living conditions made her feel out of place, like when a kiss went awkward and she didn’t know where to put her hands.
A few minutes before, one of her boxes had leaked when she’d picked it up. Keely’s first thought had been to carry it to the bathroom where it wouldn’t stain the floor. She hadn’t looked around much when they’d been carrying in stuff, but Seth had pointed out the en suite bathroom on the first trip. The prospect of her own bathroom had thrilled her, but she’d assumed it included the standard toilet, sink, shower stall deal. She’d assumed wrong.
Keely stood at the bathroom door, box forgotten, and stared at the opulence in front of her.
There was a tub. An actual tub. With feet. She almost moaned. It had been so long since she’d been able to soak in a bath.
