by Erica Ridley
The man gagged against his skinny little tie. “What?”
“Out,” Trevor roared and slammed the door in his face. He dragged Daisy to a wing-backed chair facing the desk and shoved her onto the seat cushion without letting go of her arms. “You may be surprised to learn,” he bit out, “that I have bigger fish to fry than dealing with my coworker and his accomplice. At the moment, I’m more concerned about Katrina than whatever plot you and Berrymellow cooked up to sabotage me.”
“Katrina?” The word squeaked from Daisy’s mouth and she winced.
Oh, crap. While she was over at Vivian’s asking about the ForgetMe orb, she should totally have come clean about Katrina the ice pumpkin. Vivian would’ve known what to do. She might’ve even turned her back into a human and whipped up another orb.
Trevor’s jaw fell open. He released Daisy’s arms and knelt at eye-level in front of her chair, face twisted in suspicion.
“I was wrong,” he said. “Either Berrymellow is more ruthless than I ever imagined, or you are far too devious to be a garden variety spy. I’m only going to ask this once.” His jaw clenched and then unclenched. “Did that schmuck send you to kidnap Katrina?”
Daisy gave her head another shake. Definitely not. She’d never met Sneering Man before in her life, and would never have kidnapped anyone. Unless, you know, they morphed into an ice pumpkin on a Central American runway.
Trevor was silent for a moment, as though weighing the likelihood of Daisy’s honesty. His dark eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea where Katrina is? Any idea at all?”
Daisy couldn’t stop herself. She blushed.
“I knew it!” He sprang to his feet and jabbed a finger in her face. “You did something to her. You talked her into going somewhere. You—you’re keeping her someplace. Somehow. For some reason.” He paused. “Okay, none of my theories are very well thought out. Regardless of interdepartmental rivalry, I can’t believe Berrymellow would go so far as to—never mind. None of that matters right now. Just tell me the truth. Where’s Katrina?”
Daisy chewed her lip. She hated lying, but she couldn’t tell him the truth because humans weren’t supposed to know about—wait. Sure she could. She was going to erase his memory in a few minutes anyway, wasn’t she?
“In Nether-Netherland.” She closed her eyes and waited for the backlash.
Nothing. The ticking of a distant clock was the only response.
She opened her eyes. Trevor wasn’t there. He was lounging against his closed door, one ankle atop the other, arms crossed, brows raised in disgust.
“Oh, really?” he asked, his tone harsh and sarcastic. “Are we back to that again?”
“It’s true.” She rose to her feet. “I’m not supposed to talk about Nether-Netherland with humans, but I don’t see the harm at this point. Here, I’ll prove it.” She opened her handbag and tilted it toward Trevor’s desk. “Come on out, Bubbles. I want you to meet Trevor.”
Bubbles tumbled from the bag and landed on a sheaf of papers. With a soft ribbit, he leapt from the desk to the windowpane and nestled against the glass.
“What is that?” he demanded. “A toad?”
“Frog,” she corrected. “Where-frog.”
“What’s that supposed to prove? That you’re friendly to animals?”
“That I’m a fairy! Er… but off-duty,” she added quickly. “Earlier, I got caught up in the moment.”
“You’re no more a fairy than I am. But don’t worry. I wouldn’t kiss you again if you paid me.”
“I—I wouldn’t pay you,” she snapped and then grimaced. I wouldn’t pay you? Was that the best comeback she had? Criminy. At least she hadn’t added, I’d kiss you for free. She leapt up from the metal chair and scowled at him. How come she could only think of incisive, clever retorts when it was far too late to use them?
“Fine.” He retrieved the cellphone at his side, sliding his finger across the screen to conjure a number pad. “If you’re not going to tell me where Katrina is, I’m calling the police. They’ll get it out of you.”
Police? She stumbled backward. Oh, no. She only had one ForgetMe orb in her handbag, not a whole squadron of them. But if she could use it on Trevor in time, one might be enough.
“Wait,” she choked out, scrambling for her bag. “I’ve—I’ve got something else to show you.”
His finger paused over the numbers. He glanced up, eyes hard and cold. “This better be good.”
She fished inside her bag until her hand closed around the soft velvet pouch. Her trembling fingers tugged at the scratchy ribbons until they loosened. She slipped one hand into the pouch and scooped up the ForgetMe orb. The hard round ball was big and heavy and cold against her damp skin.
With a deep breath, she thrust it in front of her chest with both palms, holding her hands flat so the charm rested halfway between them, directly within both their lines of sight.
“What is that?” He leaned forward and squinted. “A golden peach?”
Daisy frowned and looked closer. Weird. It really did look like a golden peach. The sight of which, for some reason, kind of turned her on. Nonetheless. She could analyze her fits of random horniness some other time.
“Forget,” she commanded, lifting the charm higher. “Forget. Forget. Forget.”
Like magic, Trevor’s eyes unfocused and glazed over. Wait. It was magic. God bless Vivian for helping her out of this jam.
“Forget what?” he asked, low and husky. The very timbre sent a warm shiver of impending wickedness skittering down her spine.
“F-forget… me,” she stammered. Her arms, oddly weak and languid, seemed unable to keep the charm aloft. “Forget you ever saw me.”
Trevor lifted his hands to his chest and slowly, painstakingly, unfastened the topmost button on his deep blue shirt. “Why would I want to do that?” he asked. Another button came free.
And another.
“Uhhh,” she faltered. She hobbled backward. Not to put distance between them, but because her leg muscles had gone inexplicably limp, trembling with the mere task of keeping her body upright. “Because I asked you to?”
Even as the words tumbled from her mouth in a strange, smoky whisper, she knew she didn’t mean them. She didn’t want him to forget. She wanted to give him something to remember. A part of herself. Or rather, all of herself.
Something was seriously wrong with the ForgetMe orb.
She brought the golden peach under her nose and gave a little sniff. Peach blossoms and sunshine. The subtle scent sent her blood rushing to the surface of her skin, flushing her cheeks and neck, and sending sharp pangs of need into her belly. Why was she getting turned on by metal fruit?
While coherent thought was still at least somewhat possible, she rubbed the golden peach against the side of her dress as though polishing an apple, and then peered again at its reflective surface.
An even stronger wave of white-hot desire coated her belly like lava bursting from a volcano. She clutched her trembling thighs together. The peach fell from her hands and rolled beneath the desk, taking the last of her self-control with it. She risked a glance at Trevor.
Mistake.
His button-down shirt lay at his feet in a forgotten heap. He yanked off the white cotton t-shirt in one quick movement, whipping the soft fabric over his tousled head and flinging it against the far wall.
Without taking his molten gaze from hers, he set to work ever so slowly removing his belt, sliding the strip of smooth brown leather from his khakis loop by loop. His attention was complete, the deep brown of his eyes intense and unwavering. If he’d forgotten anything, it was the bit about him wanting her to go away. In fact, she couldn’t quite recall any of the reasons she’d had for not acting on her own attraction to him.
“I can’t explain it,” he said now, his voice low and urgent, “but if you don’t touch me, right this second, I might die.”
Daisy gulped. Was it positive or negative that she felt the same way?
The ForgetMe orb s
eemed to be malfunctioning. Without its magic to rein in their runaway libidos, there was nothing to stop them from acting on their desire. Except Daisy’s professionalism, of course. No sleeping with humans. She could follow that simple rule, couldn’t she? Maybe?
But with naked desire blazing through her veins and Trevor kicking off the last of his stubborn pant legs on the other side of the office, it was really hard to work up any desire for chastity. And speaking of really hard…
Completely bare and fully aroused, and with every inch of his mind-melting body exposed to her starving eyes, a slow, sexy smile spread across Trevor’s chiseled features. Her limbs twitched in response, as though aching for her to toss herself into his waiting arms and beg him to slake the desire thrumming deep in her—
“Come.” He prowled closer, arms outstretched. “I want you.”
Daisy nodded weakly. She could certainly see that. And Venus above, she wanted him, too. She wanted his mouth on her shoulder and on the base of her throat. She wanted his tongue along the side of her neck and down the curve of her back. She wanted his hands grabbing her to him and forcing her close while he slid their bodies together.
As if reading the capitulation in her eyes, he was right in front of her, his breath on her cheek, his hands fisted in her hair, and his hard arousal against her belly.
She dug her fingers into his waist, sucking in a shaky, Trevor-scented breath.
Tilting up her face, she dragged her parted lips across the scratchy line of his jaw, reveling in the harsh, helpless sensation of stubble against sensitive skin. She could feel her lips reddening, swelling gloriously against his rough heat. She imagined the same reaction throughout the rest of her body, her skin flushing and heating in blatant arousal.
From the erratic beating of her heart and the throbbing dampness between her thighs, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could fight the effects of the spell—or if she even wanted to. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to give in, to submit, and to seize.
She coasted the tip of her tongue along the hard, masculine path from beneath his ear down along his jaw. He was coarse and salty and delicious. She licked him again, darting her tongue across the prickly surface. She couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t tasted him sooner.
The scratchy hair on his legs rubbed her thighs as she rotated her hips against him. He let out a ragged groan. Her muscles quivered and clenched in anticipation and she pressed herself tighter against his hard length.
His body shook in response, muscles trembling, as if only the force of his will kept him from turning the temptation into reality. She told herself that he was smart to hold back, to prolong the exploration time before acting on desire, but the tightening of her skin betrayed the truth. She wanted him badly. And she wanted him now.
“I’ve been thinking about you all day,” she breathed against his skin, her mouth traveling from his jaw line to his cheekbone.
“I’ve been thinking about you since I met you,” he purred, his voice a bass rumble as he nibbled along the circumference of her ear.
She sank against him in surrender. The answering pressure of his body flattened her spine against the wall. The scent of arousal clouded the air. If they didn’t make love soon, the flimsy material of her dress might spontaneously combust, forcing their naked limbs together at last.
If the almost painful hardening of her nipples was any indication, she couldn’t wait to feel the wiry hairs on his chest against their aching peaks, the scratchy stubble of his face between her breasts, every hot inch of him between her thighs.
Even so, she couldn’t make love to him as anyone except who she truly was.
“I—I really am a tooth fairy,” she confessed, as soon as she remembered to breathe. He continued to nip at her ear. “Well, apprentice tooth fairy. And not a very good one. Quite bad, actually.” His tongue licked against the corner of her mouth and she could feel her explanation fading into incoherency. “I’m competent at analyzing brain patterns and multiplying matrices and easy stuff like that, but I’m hopeless at magic,” she managed to add, despite the fact that his fingertips had just found her straining nipples. “I didn’t make this spell, I want you to know. I thought it was something completely different.”
“Mmm.” His murmur came from between steamy, open-mouth kisses, his breath caressing the side of her neck. “I do like good girls.” His mouth rubbed against her shoulder, nibbling and licking her exposed skin until she moaned with pleasure. “But I love bad girls.”
He reached behind her and tugged at her form-fitting dress. His hands skimmed her sides and back as if searching for buttons or zippers. Tiny lines creased between his eyebrows and his gaze turned beseeching.
“How does this come off?” He stole another searing kiss before she could reply. “Show me.”
“It’s magic,” she admitted. Suddenly desperate to be as naked and vulnerable as he, she stretched her arm toward the handbag on the desk and grappled for a pinch of sparkly clothes powder. She may not be able to work a proper wand, but she could at least get in and out of her uniform. “Watch,” she commanded, startled that the smoky, teasing voice she heard was her own.
With a slow, seductive smile, she sprinkled the magic glitter over her torso. The little green dress vanished in a shimmery poof. She stood before him, naked and wanting.
“Wow.” He closed the distance between them, his smooth, hard flesh unbearably hot against hers. “I need some of that.”
“I need some more of this.” She gripped his hair with her fingers and ran her tongue along the top edge of his lower teeth. He captured her mouth with a growl.
His hands framed her face, trapping her lips beneath his as their tongues touched and licked and mated. She sagged against the wall, her legs incapable of holding her weight. He caught her to him. Somehow he made her feel sexy and desirable and protected all at the same time. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Her nipples hardened even further as her breasts rubbed against the hairs on his chest. He nudged his knee between her thighs, entwining their legs.
She gripped his taut biceps, drowning in the illicit pleasure of his kiss. She had wanted him from the beginning. Wanted him more and more with every stolen glance. She had dreamt of this moment. The golden peach might have sparked their lust into action, but this feeling of contentedness and rightness was all him. All them. Together.
Without breaking the kiss, he lifted his knee, slightly, now a little more, until the edge of his leg rubbed the responsive wetness between her thighs. She rode against his leg and nearly doubled over from the intoxicating pleasure brought on by his touch.
His smile was infectious. She collapsed against his shoulder, then arched in pleasure as he dipped his head to suckle one of her nipples. One of his strong hands curved to cradle the back of her head, his thumb gently caressing her cheek. Still suckling her nipple, he lifted the other breast, bringing it flush with his cheek. As if her every secret desire was written on her face for him to see, Trevor rubbed the sensitive skin against the rough planes of his jaw, suckling one nipple while teasing the other.
“If you would’ve been a good boy and given me the tooth when I first asked for it,” she whispered against his tousled hair, “I might’ve done this sooner.” She slid her palms down the warm muscles of his back, then forward along his waist until her knuckles nudged against the throbbing erection burning between them. She closed her fingers around the shaft, squeezing and stroking, matching the rhythm of his mouth on her breast.
He shuddered, gasping against her flesh and grazing her nipple with his teeth.
“Oh, yeah?” He noticeably reined in his passion. “Well, if you would’ve stayed a few minutes longer in my bedroom, I would’ve done this.” He leaned sideways and swept an arm along the cluttered desktop, knocking everything to the carpeted floor in a jumble of colored pens and textbooks. His blinking telephone fragmented on impact.
He kicked the mess out of the way. With an expression alarmingly close
to mischievousness, he hoisted her up and sat her on the edge of the desk.
His eyes met hers. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I met you.”
Rough palms widened her quivering thighs. Still holding her legs, he leaned forward until her breasts flattened against the warm wall of his chest. His shaft rubbed against her curls, first lower, now higher, wetting them both.
He peppered a trail of kisses along the line of her brow, around the rim of her ear, down the curve of her neck, along the edge of her shoulder. Daisy’s body had no choice but to arch into his touch.
“Just in case you don’t forget this… this interlude after I go, remember that you took off your clothes first,” she managed, gasping as his hands closed around her breasts, his tongue laving between them. “This was all your idea.”
He grinned up at her from the direction of her nipple. “Believe me,” he said, coasting skilled fingers between her legs and along the slippery perimeter of her heat. “This is the only idea I’ve had since I met you.”
“Same here.” Her eyes fluttered with pleasure. At least she wasn’t the only one struggling to fight an impossible attraction.
At her words, he swelled against her, hardening even more.
She reached one hand down to stroke him and he responded in kind. Her muscles clenched around his slick finger, his thumb teasing exactly the right spot. Thanks to an unexpected Himalayan Lust Charm—and Trevor’s talented, wicked fingers—she was close to coming with or without him. She guided him closer, lifting him so their bodies aligned, the scent of sweat and arousal spicing the air.
“You’d better hurry up if you want to do this with me,” she said, her voice uneven and her tone pleading.
“Mmm,” he murmured again. “I was just waiting for you to ask.”
In the space of a breath, he buried himself inside of her. She gasped with the sudden, heady fullness of him and locked her legs around his rocking hips. His sweat mingled with hers as the wet sounds of lovemaking grew faster and more urgent.
He tilted her backward, propping her against his arms and supporting her head with his hands. His mouth moved from her forehead to her lips. He varied his long and short strokes with the rhythm of their kisses, as though willing himself to take it slow, and tilted his head back to watch her expression. When their gazes met, he smiled, knowledge of her reciprocated lust for him glittering in his eyes.
