by E A Price
Christine pursed her lips, and her own mom came to the rescue.
“My friend, Martha’s son Aaron just turned four; I’m sure if you bribed him with sweeties, he would certainly do it. Most rhinos will do anything for something sweet.”
She cast a knowing smile over at her mate, and he returned it with a lusty rumble. Sydney was easily embarrassed, but she had long gotten over her parents’ lovey-dovey relationship. When you had parents who could barely keep their hands off each other while attending your school production of The Little Shop of Horrors, you quickly learned to live with it. Sydney wasn’t acting in the show – no, she was in charge of lighting. She rigged up the whole thing herself. Her mom couldn’t praise her use of green glows more – she said it made the whole show.
“That’s so boring,” said Christine dismissively. “Everyone has children doing it. We want something unique.”
“Would be unique if the swan ate the wedding rings,” grumbled Bill. “Spending the reception feeding a bird laxatives…”
“Don’t be disgusting,” sniped Christine. “You really are the most…”
Bill let out a snarl. Christine’s eyes flashed. They were working themselves up to another argument. Sydney and Kurt were considering taking cover when…
“Bill,” murmured Charlotte in her calmest, sweetest tone. She batted her eyelashes a few times, and the raging volcano that was Bill Weathers became dormant again.
Christine smirked, but even that couldn’t get a rise out of him. Christine loved Charlotte – everybody did. Her mom could always calm her dad down no matter what – she virtually had a magical switch.
Bill grunted and rolled his eyes. Everything was peaceful again – apart from Christine, that is.
The wedding planning was getting a little stressful and Sydney kind of wished she didn’t have to be a part of it. She couldn’t wait to be married to Kurt, but they barely spent any time together, and Sydney kind of wanted to enjoy being an engaged couple for a while. Not least because wearing her ring got her a free pretzel, free hotdog and some free batteries from the hardware store. People were just so nice to engaged women.
“Now, tomorrow night…”
“Mom,” said Kurt in a firm tone that made Sydney all gooey. “It’s Valentine’s tomorrow.”
“Yes, but…”
“Mom,” he said firming up his tone even more, “Syd and I have plans, and I’ll bet Bill and Charlotte do as well.”
Bill cast a lascivious gaze over his mate and she blushed in pleasure. It was news to Sydney that she and Kurt had plans – but maybe he just wanted a break from wedding central. Christine could be kind of pushy, and she was definitely ‘pushing’ Kurt the most. He was starting to develop an eye twitch. He was still sexy, but there was a definite twitch.
“Fine, grumbled Christine. “But I need you to talk to the caterer during the day – the night is yours I suppose.”
Kurt squeezed Sydney’s hand in relief. Yep, they could get through this – she hoped.
*
Crystal groaned as a couple of people gave her a wide berth. She sniffed herself again. After four showers, she was sure she had rid herself of the fertilizer smell. But then, she was a penguin shifter, and they weren’t known for having great scents of smell.
She pulled a bottle of perfume out her purse and liberally dosed it over herself. There was a loud sneeze behind her – really close behind her - and she turned to apologize but froze as she realized who it was.
“Director Howell!” she exclaimed. Her penguin fluttered excitedly.
He gave her a weak smile before pulling out a monogrammed handkerchief and blowing his nose. She liked that – the monogrammed handkerchief. She thought it was classy and was definitely an improvement on her last boyfriend who used her special embroidered hand towels to wipe his big old hooter.
“I’m sorry, I ah…” She looked at the bottle in her hand and quickly stowed it in her purse.
He grinned at her. “No problem, my nose is just a little sensitive. My bear can sometimes scent things for miles.” He tapped it. “And please, Crystal, call me Arik.”
She bit her lip, pretending a thrill didn’t course through her body when he said her name. She loved the way it sounded in his deep, sexy drawl.
Crystal muttered an unintelligible reply.
The line moved, and she shuffled forward, Arik close behind her. So close she could feel the warmth of his body seeping into hers.
“I heard this place does an amazing salted caramel hot chocolate,” he murmured lowly.
“Really?” she squeaked.
It wasn’t the first time she had run into him at a coffee shop. She used to see him all the time at her old coffee shop, which was why she had switched to this one. She had heard good things about it, and another benefit was that she thought she could order a drink and a cake without turning into a jabbering, horny loon. Apparently, he’d heard good things about it too. Why else would he have driven so far out of his way to get there? This place wasn’t far from where she lived but was twenty minutes out of his way.
She got to the front of the queue and forgot what on earth she was doing there. The heavily pierced barista gave her a bored look.
“Ummm…”
“The queue is very long,” grumbled the girl.
“I’ll take a salted caramel hot chocolate,” rumbled Arik from somewhere over her shoulder, “and a slice of apple pie bar.”
The barista, so sullen a moment ago, perked up and beamed at him.
He moved around Crystal, so his body was brushing against hers. “What about you, Crystal?”
“Same,” she squeaked. Her treacherous little bird flapped her wings in happiness.
Yes, he truly was perfect – that was exactly what she would have ordered. She wasn’t a fan of coffee or tea, and she wouldn’t dream of not getting a cake, and apparently, he felt the same way.
Crystal started fumbling in her bag for some money, groaning as the lid came off her perfume and spilled everywhere. Arik placed a hand on her arm, stilling her and absolutely delighting her inner bird.
“I’ll get this,” he said.
She was going to object, but by the time she managed to engage the few brain cells that weren’t occupied in worshiping him, he was already telling the barista to keep the change. The female simpered at him and then scowled as he offered to give Crystal a ride to work.
“Ummm…”
She tried to think of a reason to say no without admitting that she may just burst into flames if he stared at her too long. She didn’t have a car, and since he was going in that direction, it seemed silly to say no.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
His smile widened, and Crystal snatched up her chocolate and cake. It wasn’t far to work; she didn’t have to control herself for too long…
*
“Don’t stop me now. I’m having such a good time. I’m having a ball. Don’t stop me now…”
Lucie’s eyes fluttered open at the soft, melodic singing of her mate. A slow smile spread across her face as she found her huge, gruff wolf shifter mate, slowing moving around their bedroom, gently rocking their newborn while singing gently. Both Lucie and her inner hedgehog all but melted for their gorgeous mate.
Cutter could be difficult and grumpy – in fact, ninety-nine percent of the time he was – but in private, he could also be inordinately charming, and Lucie loved him with all her heart. When baby Rosie was born, she was sure she saw a tear in his eye, not that he would admit it, but given the way he was absolutely besotted with Rosie, she was sure it was there.
He took a moment away from singing to kiss Rosie’s fingers and oh, Lucie warmed even more for him. People were surprised to learn that Cutter in no way shied away from either dirty diapers or getting up in the middle of the night when Rosie woke them up. But no, Cutter didn’t even have to be asked.
Mmmm, if only other females could see this wonderful side to him – they wouldn’t wonder whether she’d
undergone a lobotomy whenever she told them he was the sweetest man on earth. No, maybe it was better they didn’t know. This way she had him all to herself, and she liked it that way. Her hedgehog purred in agreement.
She lay as still as possible, enjoying watching her baby and her honey, but it couldn’t last long.
“Stop pretending to be asleep,” grumbled Cutter. “Both of us want you to get your breasts out, just for different reasons.”
Rosie started fussing in agreement, and Lucie giggled. She pushed her way into a sitting position and pulled her nightshirt off. Cutter gave her an appreciative leer and handed her Rosie. Her sleepy little angel soon latched on, and Lucie beamed at her lovely mate.
“Morning.”
“Morning, sweetheart.”
He gave her a devilish grin that awakened all sorts of naughty impulses. Having Rosie hadn’t slowed down that part of their life at all.
“Happy Valentine’s, my Valentine.”
The expression on Cutter’s face froze. Lucie had to bite her lip to stop herself from throwing back her head and hooting with laughter – that might dislodge Rosie. They didn’t have a great track record with Valentine’s, and Cutter generally forgot.
“It’s okay, honey, I didn’t get you anything, and I haven’t made any plans. I thought we could order a pizza and watch a movie, and then, you know....” Her eyes flickered down to Rosie. “Sex,” she whispered.
Cutter chuckled and ran a thumb over her cheek. “Sounds good, sweetheart. Maybe The Proposal…” He cleared his throat. “Or Dirty Harry or something – whatever.”
Lucie smiled. “I’d prefer The Proposal.”
He looked relieved. Her honey was a closet Sandra Bullock rom-com fan, and she loved it.
“I’m gonna grab a shower,” he said.
“Actually, I thought I’d go to work with you today. I made cookies for the office.”
Something she did for every holiday. Just because she was on maternity leave, she didn’t think she should stop. They both worked for the Supernatural Enforcers Agency – Cutter as an agent and Lucie as a nurse.
Cutter groaned. “You spoil those idiots.”
“I kept back twenty for you.”
He still grumbled, but it was a slightly happier grumble.
“Since we’re both going to work, maybe we can shower together…”
Now, that was something that put a smile on his face.
*
Arik watched as Crystal flitted away. His bear let out an interested growl as she virtually ran away from him. Easy boy.
He waited until she had disappeared inside the building and then surveyed the damage to his car – both the dent in the side of it and the hot chocolate stain on the seat. Poor Crystal had been mortified, but it hardly mattered. It was nothing compared to what his nephews did to his back seat – cheeseburgers and overexcited young bears were a potent mix.
“Aww man,” chuckled Moose as he approached, staring at the dent, “what did you do to that fine piece of machinery?”
The male was a moose shifter and a member of the SEA tactical team, and had made it known he was impressed by Arik’s car and would very much like to take it for a drive. Ha, as if. Arik could abide the stains, but he wasn’t about to let someone else drive his expensive car.
Arik smiled. “Not sure. Perhaps kids.”
He knew it wasn’t kids. Nope, he knew who did it, he wasn’t entirely sure how, but he had scented them the previous night. He knew it couldn’t have been on purpose. He just knew they were adorably clumsy.
“Damn,” said Moose. “Maybe I should take it for a ride to see whether the dent makes a difference…”
Arik gave him a withering look before grabbing his ringing phone. The caller ID read ‘soul sucker.’ It was his wife’s clan chief. His inner polar bear sneered. Greedy bastard. He ignored the call. He didn’t have to deal with that guy anymore. The divorce was finally going through – the old bastard was not going to wring anything else out of him now. He was finally going to be able to get on with his life, and he knew where he wanted to start.
*
Meli peeked at the blueberry muffins. The instructions said to bake the mixture into something sweet, so she went with muffins. She was baking up a few batches for her cousin’s coffee shop anyway, so she baked up a dozen for herself. She just hadn’t had the nerve to try one yet. She probably didn’t need to make that many muffins, but she had overegged it on her Witchbay order.
All she had to do was eat a couple of these muffins, and her pain would go away. Every memory of Martin would be gone – kaput. Like the time he spent an hour trying to win her that stuffed panda at the fun fair. Or the time she was sick, and he drove three hours to find the imported candy bar she loved so much. Or the time he told her he was dumping her to move to Africa…
“Meli?”
She jumped and snapped the container shut as her cousin came into the coffee shop kitchen.
“Everything okay?” asked Ginger.
“Sure,” replied Meli, a little flustered.
She knew that Ginger would absolutely disapprove of her trying to use magic to forget her boyfriend.
“Look, about Martin…”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Meli hurriedly.
Her cousin looked like she wasn’t going to let that stop her and Meli told her she was going to the bathroom and scooted out of there.
Ginger sighed. Poor Meli. She didn’t honestly think Martin was worth getting upset over, but Meli loved him, and her cousin had always been a little high strung about men. Plus, it was Valentine’s – it wasn’t fun to see so many happy couples when your own heart was breaking.
Still, Ginger had a business to run. She went through the boxes of muffins Meli had brought, looking for the muffins the cute SEA agent ordered. She couldn’t find all the flavors he wanted.
“Meli, where are the banana pecan muffins?” she shouted.
There was muffled crying and knowing that Meli wouldn’t be much help for at least half an hour, Ginger continued searching. She found a dozen blueberry muffins and wondered if Meli had simply made the wrong flavor.
She chewed on her lip as she looked at the blueberry concoctions. They sure did look tasty…
Ah well, she was sure the SEA agent wouldn’t mind, he was pretty easygoing.
*
Crystal hovered outside of his door with the file he requested. Because running into him at the coffee shop that morning, and making a mess in his beautiful car wasn’t torture enough! Why did he always need a file, every single day! Every single day she had to go and see him and make small talk while pretending she wasn’t desperately in love with him.
Oh, why did she have to love him? They’d barely spoken about more than the weather, and yet she was head over heels. What had started as a little crush, quickly became something so much more and yet she was stymied as to why she felt this way. Well… he was gorgeous and funny, and charming and smart. Okay, so there were a few reasons there, but her penguin’s infatuation with him was just boggling.
Maybe he could be her… No. Her penguin wanted to hurl the word mate at her, but Crystal shot that down quickly. If she was his mate, he should have scented her, should have realized, but he hadn’t said a peep to her. Besides, she was not going to get involved with a married man. N-O-no! But that didn’t stop her longings. Oh, why did fate have to taunt her so much?
She cleared her throat and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” he rumbled.
On jelly-like legs she did. Oh, why was he so panty-dropping gorgeous?
“Ah, Crystal.” He smiled at her.
“Mmm hmmm.”
She never made the mistake of not looking where she was going in his office again. Nope, eyes wide open so she didn’t miss a single detail. He stood up to his unbelievably towering height, and her penguin let out an eep.
“That the file?”
“Mmm hmmm.”
She was so witty sometimes she
could just kick herself.
His smile widened, and she shook her head, trying to clear the lustful cobwebs, and passed it to him. He gave it a cursory glance and dropped it on his desk.
“Thank you; I’m sure you’ve got better things to be doing.”
“Oh yes. I mean no, not really. I mean – it’s my job, so it’s fine,” she yammered.
Jeez, it was hard enough not to come across like a deranged lunatic in the car – she wasn’t sure how much longer she could cope in his company.
“So, I just remembered it’s Valentine’s Day. Any plans?” he asked nonchalantly.
Crystal blinked. She had actually forgotten that too. Down in records, with the zombies and the vampires, they never really got very festive. Vampires didn’t care much for holidays, and zombies didn’t seem to care about anything.
“Umm, no. I mean I could have.” She couldn’t. “But no, not really. Do you?”
She cringed as soon as she asked. The last thing she needed to hear was that he was going to take his gorgeous wife out and then end the night with some very athletic sex.
He chuckled. “Not at all. My sister wants me out of her house though, as she does have plans.”
“Sister?” Crystal squeaked. “I mean, you live with your sister?”
Arik rolled his shoulders. “I’m at the end of a difficult divorce. It’s why I moved here.”
“Oh, really, that’s so…” She realized she was smiling and quickly stopped. “Terrible.”
How had she not heard that? Gossip usually sped around the building quicker than a courier on rocket roller skates.
“Arranged mating – it didn’t work out. Unfortunately, my ex’s clan leader was a pain in the ass about the terms of the divorce.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she murmured.
Really? Was he really getting divorced? And was that gorgeous woman only his sister? Her penguin was dancing in her head.
“What would you suggest someone do to pass the time on Valentine’s Day?”
His eyes seemed to twinkle. She could think of a handful of things she would like to do with him.
“Judging by my past two Valentine’s, either go to a miniatures museum or get drunk, go to the arcade and force your girlfriend to watch while you try to beat the high score on the dance machine game.”
