Once Upon Stilettos

by Shanna Swendson

  He kept his attention on the cat as his face turned redder than I’d ever seen it. With him, the man who had an entire repertoire of blushes, that was saying something. “I’m human, with maybe a slight genetic variance. And I have plenty of flaws. For one thing, I’m lousy at talking to people. My house is a mess, too.”

  “I like it. It’s cozy.”

  He didn’t say anything for a while, and I joined him in petting Loony, who reveled in the attention. She might have adored her owner, but she didn’t seem to see me as the other woman or a threat to her position in the household. I was simply someone else to fuss over her.

  Then, just as I was getting comfortable with the silence, he asked again, “What happened tonight? It had to have been pretty bad to have you running out in this weather without a coat.”

  I scratched a purring Loony under her chin as I thought about how to respond. There wasn’t an easy way to tell a guy you were in serious danger of falling in love with that you’d just run screaming away from his best friend. I finally said, “Can we table that discussion for later? I’m not ready to talk about it, and I think I need to process it a little more before I’d even know what to say.”

  He nodded. “Okay. Take all the time you need. Just know that you’re safe here. You can relax.”

  “Thank you. And thank you for coming to my rescue. What were you doing there, anyway? Did you know something was wrong, or did you just happen to be in the neighborhood at the right time?”

  “I had a feeling.”

  “Your ESP must have a twenty-four-hour Katie channel.”

  “Something like that. Maybe I’m attuned to you because we spend so much time together. I’ve never done much study on it. My precognition always seemed too erratic to analyze before.” He looked up at me then, and his eyes softened. “Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’re so utterly irresistible,” he added, his voice not much more than a whisper.

  My heart skipped a beat as he leaned forward and touched his lips to mine. This wasn’t the hungry, possessive, all-out kiss that had happened between Rod and me, and I didn’t sense any of the tension that had built up between us before that happened. This just felt right, like it was meant to happen.

  It was the perfect first kiss, firm enough to be real, but still gentle and sweet. I felt surrounded by a warm, safe glow. At the same time, I wanted to shout for joy. All that time I’d had a crush on him, and it turned out that he’d felt the same way about me. This amazing, wonderful man—who also turned out to be a fantastically talented kisser—liked me in return. It was almost too good to be true.

  Then, just as I was really getting into it, he pulled away from me with a gasp, and an expression of utter horror came across his face. “Oh, God,” he breathed. I wanted to grab him and pull him back to me, but he was shaking his head, like he was trying to snap out of something.

  “What is it?” I managed to choke.

  He frowned as if in deep concentration, then looked down at my feet. Leaning over, he waved a hand over my feet, then turned back to me and said, “It’s your shoes.”

  “My-my shoes?” I stammered, my brain still fuzzy from the kiss.

  He moved off the sofa to kneel at my feet. “May I?” he asked.

  I knew he wasn’t entirely normal, but I’d never figured Owen for a shoe fetishist. Then again, he seemed a lot more worried than turned on, which didn’t say much for my kissing ability. “Sure,” I said, even though I had no idea what he was talking about.

  He slid my shoes off my feet, then held one and frowned some more. He looked up at me and said, “Hmm, it seems to be a Cinderella spell.”

  “A what?”

  He went into business mode, all calm and articulate and like he hadn’t just been kissing me. “You don’t see it often, but it’s a classic. It’s a spell cast on footwear that renders the wearer irresistible and utterly attractive to others. It may also have an effect on the wearer—the spell can be what compels the wearer to purchase the shoes in the first place and can give the wearer a sense of artificial confidence. Of course, that wouldn’t work on you, but it would definitely have an impact on those around you.”

  “That explains a lot,” I said with a nod. In fact, it explained more than he realized. No wonder I’d been so quick to whip out my credit card and buy them. My immunity must have already been fading by then.

  “Explains what?” he asked. The question seemed innocent enough, and obvious, if he was trying to get to the root of the situation, but a crease had formed between his eyes. Was he jealous? But no, he’d only been kissing me because he was affected by the shoes. Just my luck—the best kiss I’d ever had in my entire life, and it was meaningless.

  “Some stupid stuff that’s been happening to me lately. Like last weekend when we went out, I was a lot more popular than I’ve ever been. I had men buying me drinks and asking me to dance all night.” I gave a bitter laugh. “I should have known it couldn’t possibly have been real.”

  That should have been his cue to correct me and tell me I didn’t need magical shoes to be irresistible. I wasn’t fishing for compliments, but I would have welcomed one. He was apparently telling the truth about not being good at talking to people, though, for he didn’t even try to say anything to make me feel better. I could feel my hopes deflating. The kiss hadn’t meant anything to him, then.

  “I think I can break this spell, but not tonight. I’m still too drained from the teleportation. In the meantime, I’d better put these in a safe place. I mean, a place where we’ll both be safe. Well, they won’t affect you, but, yeah, a place where we’ll both be safe.” Apparently, he’d fallen out of business mode and was back to his usual bashful self. He stood up, holding the shoes out at arm’s length, like he was afraid they’d bite. “And we need to get you out of those wet clothes.” He turned crimson as he realized what he’d said, then hurried to correct himself. “I mean, you need something warmer and drier to wear. Stay there. I’ll be back.”

  As rattled as I was, I couldn’t help but smile as he all but ran from the room. He was so adorable when he was flustered. So adorable, and he didn’t like me as anything more than a friend, after all. I wished he’d never kissed me, for now I knew what I was missing. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel the touch of his lips on mine, still taste him. I doubted I’d forget it anytime soon.

  I heard footsteps on stairs and soon he returned, holding a bundle of clothing. “These are probably too big for you, but they should work,” he said, handing the clothes to me. “The sweatpants have a drawstring waist, and there’s elastic at the ankles, so they may be baggy, but you won’t trip over the hem. There’s a bathroom under the stairs if you want to change and, um, freshen up. While you do that, I’ll make some cocoa.”

  I got up from the sofa and followed him into the hallway, where he pointed out the bathroom before heading to the end of the hall, Loony following faithfully at his heels.

  Safely locked inside the small half bathroom, I finally let myself break down and cry. This night had been one disaster after another, from the surprisingly fun date with Rod that had disintegrated into a nightmare to the miraculous kiss with Owen that turned out to have been nothing more than the result of a spell.

  When I got myself under control, I washed my face, then got out of my wet clothes and put on the sweat suit he’d brought me. He was right about the pants being baggy, but they didn’t fit much worse than any I might have worn at home, and I only had to push up the sleeves of the sweatshirt a little bit. It was an old, faded blue sweatshirt that said YALE on the front in cracked lettering that looked like it had been washed hundreds of times over the years. He’d also given me a pair of thick socks to warm my feet. I found a ponytail holder in my purse and pulled my hair back, then put on a little lip balm and almost felt human again when I left the bathroom.

  The first doorway off the hall led to the living room, where we’d been. The next one opened into a formal dining room that didn’t appear to be
used often for its intended purpose, given the piles of books and papers on the dining table. The last door turned out to be the kitchen, where Owen stood at the stove, stirring something in a pot, Loony sitting at his feet and staring up at him in all-out worship. I couldn’t much blame her. He really was remarkable.

  It was a typically small New York kitchen, but compared with mine it could have been a catering kitchen designed to feed thousands. He had actual counter space, as well as a nook for a small table for two. “I think I have kitchen envy,” I said.

  He turned around from the stove and gave me a shaky smile. “How did the sweats work out for you?” he asked.

  “Fine. Thank you.” I gestured toward the stove. “You’re making real cocoa? I’m impressed.”

  I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling as the expected faint pink stain spread over his cheekbones. The poor guy had the bad luck to be so bashful and yet so fair-skinned. He kept his attention on the pot he was stirring as he said, “Gloria does not believe in shortcuts of any kind. Besides, I didn’t have any mix handy.”

  He poured the cocoa into two mugs, then opened a cabinet over the stove and took out a bottle, from which he splashed a little liquid into each mug, then gave a stir. “I thought we could probably both use a dram of something extra,” he explained, as he brought the mugs over to the table, his cat following him.

  “Good idea,” I said as I took a mug from him. We both sat at the table, and I suddenly felt self-conscious around him. Sleet rattling against the window punctuated the silence between us. I hoped the memory of that kiss faded quickly, for it would be hard to stay just friends with him when all I could think of when I looked at him was that kiss. On the other hand, though, I never wanted to forget such a perfect kiss.

  “Sorry about, um, earlier,” he said.

  “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.” I pondered whether or not I should tell him I’d actually kind of enjoyed it, but decided that would probably send him over the edge. “And, uh, you weren’t the only one affected tonight.”

  “Is that what you were running from?”

  I nodded and took a sip of cocoa. Whatever he’d added to it was pretty strong. It seemed to start a fire in my stomach that spread throughout my body, dispelling the last traces of cold and fear. Taking another sip of cocoa to steel myself, I said, “I went out to dinner with Rod tonight.”

  His eyes widened. “You did?”

  “It wasn’t a romantic date. He made that clear up front. I think he mostly felt sorry for me about the thing with Ethan, and I’ll admit that was the main reason I accepted. He asked Trix out.”

  “Rod?”

  “No, Ethan. Sorry. But anyway, Rod said he wanted to talk about some of those morale-building programs we’ve been working on, and that was what we did talk about at dinner. It was nice. And then he suggested we go to his place for dessert.”

  He shook his head with a smile that managed to be fond and disgusted at the same time. “Bad idea when you’re with Rod.”

  “No, it was okay. I didn’t get the slightest idea that he had any ulterior motives, and usually I can tell when he’s pouring on the sleaze. But once we got to his place, it was like something came over us, and then it got out of hand, and then I realized where it was going and tried to stop, and then it got scary—and that’s when I ran out of there and forgot my coat.”

  This time he didn’t turn red. He went stark white and a muscle jumped in his jaw.

  “I don’t think he meant it,” I hurried to add. “It wasn’t him. It was probably the shoes—that spell, maybe even something worse. I know he can be a—” I groped for words that didn’t sound too insulting to his best friend.

  Apparently I didn’t have to worry about being insulting. “—lech, satyr, sleazeball, lothario,” he completed my sentence.

  “Yeah, that. I know he can be like that, but he’s never been like that with me. And he seemed pretty horrified when he realized what was happening. I got out of there to protect both of us.”

  He drained his cup, then got up from the table and went to put it in the sink. “You said you were both affected?” he asked, his back to me.

  I mentally kicked myself. Either I could leave him with the impression that I wouldn’t have minded a certain level of activity with Rod or I had to tell him about losing my immunity. But I’d kissed him back, too. Surely he had to have noticed that. And it’s not like he cared all that much, anyway. “I don’t know what was happening with me, to be honest,” I said with a sad sigh. “I think I was all messed up about the Ethan thing and all these men throwing themselves at me.”

  He came back to the table and took my empty mug, then went back to the sink and proceeded to wash the dishes. “I’m curious about those shoes,” he said as he worked. “They shouldn’t have affected you, so why were you drawn to buy them?”

  “My roommate suggested it. She said I had to have them.” That was true, in a way, although Gemma’s suggestion had nothing to do with my impulsive purchase. I had to stifle a groan when I realized that even if Ethan hadn’t dumped me, the shoes would have done me no good with him. He was immune to their power. How ironic.

  “But your roommate wasn’t compelled to buy them for herself?”

  I shook my head. “No. She loved them, but she said I had to have them.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Hmm, what?”

  “It’s possible that the spell was specifically targeted at you.”

  “You haven’t met Gemma. She would have gone ape over those shoes even without magic.”

  “With the recent attacks on you and the activity within the company, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that you were being targeted.”

  “So, what, someone was trying to undermine me by making me incredibly attractive? Please, torture me some more.”

  “It made for a distraction, and as you saw with both Rod and me, it could have served to totally undermine your trust in us.”

  “Oh,” I breathed, as the realization hit me. It was going to be difficult enough to face Rod after this, even knowing what I knew. If I hadn’t learned the secret of the shoes, if things had gone further with either Owen or Rod, how effectively could I have worked with either of them in the future? I was incredibly lucky that Owen was an even better wizard than he was a kisser.

  I needed to get away from there. I needed to get back home where sanity prevailed, where I didn’t have to look at him and wonder why he couldn’t have waited a little while longer to figure out that my shoes were enchanted. “Thanks for the cocoa, and the rescue, and all,” I said, “but I probably ought to head home.”

  “Have you looked outside? It’s nasty out there.”

  “It’s only a few blocks.”

  “And you’re going to make it in what shoes?” He looked mildly amused, which was an improvement on the borderline anger he’d shown earlier.

  “Oh, right.”

  “I have a guest room, so it won’t be a bother. You’ll probably be more comfortable than you would be at home. And then after we’ve both had some rest, we can tackle the problem of your enchanted shoes and see if we can get to the bottom of what’s going on.”

  “I don’t know,” I hedged. Part of me was dying to accept his offer, while the saner side knew it might be a bad idea.

  He headed toward the hallway. “Come on,” he said, gesturing for me to follow. Loony and I trailed him down the hallway to the living room. “Look out the window,” he said. I leaned on the desk to look and saw that snow was already drifting on the ground, and it was falling so hard I couldn’t see the buildings across the very narrow street. “That’s on top of a layer of ice and sleet,” he pointed out.

  “You don’t mind?”

  “You’d be making my life easier. If you decide to go home, I’d have to walk you, and then I’d have to walk back home in that. So please do me a favor and let us both stay inside, warm and dry tonight.”

  How could I resist that? He was too cute for words. “Okay,
if you insist.”

  “The guest room has its own bathroom, and I keep some extra toothbrushes in there, along with a few other things. I’ve had enough occasions where people had to stay here unexpectedly when they couldn’t get off the island, so I like to be prepared.”

  I nodded. “That’s good.”

  “Not that I’m sending you off to bed if you’re not ready. But the guest room is upstairs and to the right when you are ready. You can lock the door from inside, if that makes you feel better. I should warn you that you’d better shut the door if you don’t want someone joining you in the middle of the night.” He suddenly flushed bright pink and hurried to add, “I mean, the cat. She seems to like you.”

  I looked down to where Loony was wrapping herself around my ankles. “Better than clawing my eyes out.”

  He grinned. “That’s how she greets Rod.” Then he winced. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring that up.”

  “It’s okay. I’m not going to faint when you mention his name.” I looked around the warm, cozy room. It was so inviting, with its fire and Christmas tree. I’d be happy to curl up for hours in a room like that, but I wasn’t sure I could stand being around Owen much longer. I might feel compelled to try that kiss again to see if it was as wonderful as I remembered. “If you don’t mind, I think I will go to bed now. Everything’s catching up with me at once.”

  “Go ahead. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Thanks again for the hospitality.”

  He shrugged. “What are friends for?”

  Loony followed me as I left the room. She paused at the doorway, as if asking Owen for permission. He gave her the slightest of nods, and she ran ahead to sit on the bottom step of the staircase. I stopped by the bathroom to collect my purse and my still-damp clothes, then followed Loony up the stairs.

  The house was truly spectacular, the kind of New York showplace you see in movies and magazines. It might be only a few blocks from my apartment, but it might as well have been on another planet. When I reached the guest room, I realized Owen hadn’t been kidding about being more comfortable there than at home. The guest bed was a big four-poster with a pile of pillows and a fluffy down comforter—a far cry from my narrow, hard twin bed at home.