The Red Shoe Chronicles : A Fantasy Romance Anthology

by N. R. Larry

  “That was… magickal,” she whispered, voice hoarse and labored.

  “That was destiny.” He brushed hair off her shoulder and kissed the skin. “Kick the shoes off and—”

  The door burst open. His brother rushed inside and came to a sudden halt. Wylde’s eyes widened. Irritation surfaced inside Jed at his brother’s unexpected visit.

  Rose groaned, throwing her hands over her face and Jed sat up to block her from Wylde’s view. “Get the fuck out.”

  “We have a problem.” Wylde’s eyebrows went up, suggesting Jed’s fuck-fest with Rose was the start of another problem, but then Wylde said, “The dark objects have been stolen.”

  Chapter 7

  Shit Hits the Fan

  Jed Night

  Jed leapt off the bed, ready to go to fucking war.

  In the heat of the moment, he forgot was Rose reclined naked on the bed. The shuffling of the sheets alerted Jed to his mistake. He glanced over his shoulder to discover she’d pulled the comforter around her chest, hiding her nudity from his sibling’s gaze. Rose gave him a tight grin, and he turned back to Wylde.

  If Wylde spoke the truth, conflict was at hand. No different than the any other confrontation. With one pull of the trigger, forces were united, opponents died, innocent lives were expended, and few benefited from the battle.

  Jed hoped this was a lame attempt at a bad joke. “Tell me you’re shitting me, Wylde.”

  His brother shook his head. “I went to the vault to run some tests on the new objects and everything was gone.”

  “The house was locked.” Jed’s security iron-tight. “That should’ve been enough.”

  “Don’t know what to tell you, Jed.”

  “Fuck.” Jed ran his palm down his face. As much as he wanted to crawl back into bed with Rose, a resolution of this issue had to occur first. Power rested in unknown hands. The cost of the stolen items came with an inherent collateral damage, a price he wasn’t willing to pay if he could prevent it.

  “I’ll let you deal with your shit here.” Wylde’s glance shifted over Jed’s shoulder. “I’ll meet you in your office in a bit.”

  “His ‘shit here’ can deal with herself,” Rose’s strained voice warned Jed the needle of her temper moved from zero to life in prison.

  Wylde held an unobstructed view of Rose over Jed’s shoulder. Whatever Wylde saw on her expression made him elevate his hands in surrender. “Not intended as a slur, Rose.”

  “Fuck you, Wylde.” Jed cringed at her tone. He turned to find her eyes blazing with fury instead of passion. “Deal with the theft, Jed. I’ll call a cab.”

  “No. Wait.” At Jed’s outburst, she sat up. He dismissed Wylde with, “I’ll meet you in my office in a few.”

  She climbed out of bed before the door shut behind Wylde. Her bed-hair was as beautiful on her as Jed expected it would be. “Since when do you give a shit what Wylde thinks?”

  “I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks.” She dragged the comforter with her to the end of the bed. Rose knelt to pick up her dress from the floor and dropped the bedcover. “It’s not like I went into tonight thinking this was going anywhere. Except to a prison term, maybe.”

  That bullshit again. He’d fix that misnomer immediately. As she tugged her dress over her head, he approached her and shoved at her shoulders, knocking her onto the bed. She shrieked at the sudden, unexpected upending. He plucked the stilettos off her feet one at time. Tossing them over his shoulder in a haphazard manner, one thudded as it hit the hardwood floors with a loud thump. The other landed with a muted wack against the plush rug.

  Wiggling away from him, she shimmied up the bed as she pulled the dress into place, hiding her tits. She slapped her hair out of her face and glared at him.

  “The shoes are off,” he said. She peered blankly at her toes and wiggled them. “I still fucking want you.”

  “But… the shoes.” She frowned.

  “Never had a goddamn thing to do with me wanting you. I told you that. As usual, you’re too damn hardheaded to listen.” He leaned over the bed, bracing his hands on the mattress, his shoulder-length hair shifting forward into his periphery. He stared into her lovely eyes. “Please don’t leave. We should both talk to Wylde. You know more about those objects than anyone. And you know the security protocol as well as I do.”

  While contemplating, she pursed her lips for a moment and then nodded. “All right. I can do that. In the wrong hands…” She shuddered but didn’t finish her sentence.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Don’t I know it.” He strode across the room to his closet and pulled on a pair of lounge pants. Those cursed objects were bought and concealed in a vault to protect people. One of them wielded the strength of a nuclear bomb, capable of wiping out a society. All of them together, could eliminate all thirteen realms.

  Fucking nightmare. Good thing only four people in their world knew he possessed them… Rose, Wylde, his father, and himself. But someone found out or else they wouldn’t have been stolen.

  Fuck shit, fuck shit, fuck shit!

  Alerting the authorities to the theft would trigger an investigation that he couldn’t afford. Not in the legal sense, but if others knew of his acquisitions then the objects couldn’t remain safely withheld from the public and bureaucracy would get involved. Part of the whole point in buying them privately was to safeguard the realms without anyone’s knowledge.

  He stepped out of the closet to find Rose waiting for him, seated at the end of the bed, with her sexy red dress encasing her curves. She’d pulled her hair up using, by the looks of the silver peeking out of her hair, the pen off his bedside table. Loose strands framed her face. It wasn’t the same as the tight buns she wore, but he still preferred her hair down.

  “Ready?” she asked, reminding him of the more formal woman that served in the capacity of his acquisitions manager.

  Jed nodded and strode to the door. “As ready as I’ll ever be for this conversation.” She walked toward him, hips rolling as she moved on her bare feet. He opened the door and motioned for her to precede him. When she neared, he muttered, “Forgive me my highhandedness,” and tugged the pen from her hair.

  Pink cascaded down her shoulders and back. Rose gasped and reached up to catch her hair, spinning to glare at him.

  Using the tips of his finger, he flipped the pen up to show it to her, before chucking it over his shoulder. “It’s my night. I want your hair down. It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s our night and…” She lifted her arms and then dropped them. “Oh, what does it matter? It’s just hair. Point me in the direction of your office.”

  Smiling because she allowed him to win this skirmish, he clasped her hand with his and guided her to his home office. Later, he’d answer to Wylde, because questions lingered in his eyes. Jed had seen them when Wylde realized he was in bed with Rose.

  Jed opened the door to his office. Wylde sat in the chair behind the desk, feet propped on the oak furniture, right crossed over his left ankle. His elbows rested on the arms of the seat, with his fingers steepled together. His eyebrows elevated when Rose entered the room with Jed.

  “Rose.” His brother acknowledged her with a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat. “I took the liberty of pulling up your security feed while I waited for you.”

  Jed and Rose walked to stand beside Wylde. The moment they stepped in front of the computer screen, Wylde tapped a key and the video began to play. Several moments passed without anything but a view of the dark objects, and then an older woman stepped into the frame, as if emerging from the portal. But that was impossible. No one could access his dragon portals without permission, and the only person with consent outside of Jed’s family was Rose.

  Beside him, Rose inhaled sharply and her grip tightened on his hand. “Oh, shit. That’s Godmother.”

  Jed peered at her. “The Fairy Godmother that sold me the two Dybbuck boxes and gave you the shoes?”

  She nodded.

  “What shoes?” Wylde�
�s feet hit the floor, the chair creaking when he sat up.

  “The ones she showed us in the box yesterday.” Jed glanced at his brother. Wylde was usually faster than this to fit the puzzle pieces together.

  “So, this was a setup.” Wylde pushed to his feet, then turned and strode to the window to stare out.

  “Seems like,” Rose agreed, tugging her hand free of Jed’s grip. She crossed her arms below her breasts, pressing her nipples against the thin fabric, and the deep V plunging neckline exposed more cleavage. “But how did she access the portal? I still have my ring, so she didn’t steal that.”

  Jed glanced at her hand. Resting on her middle finger was the moonstone ring enchanted to open the portal between worlds.

  “She didn’t even touch me to pull a fast one on me.” Frowning, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jed. I feel like I’ve let you down even though I don’t know how.”

  “This isn’t your fault,” Wylde muttered.

  Surprised Wylde defended her so quickly when he usually judged without proof, Jed nodded. “He’s right. You’re not to blame. If anyone is, I am.”

  Chapter 8

  Fairy Godmother

  Rose Jeffcoat

  “How?” Rose stared at Jed. “I went to planet X to procure the Dybbuck boxes, not you. However, Godmother gained access, it was through me.”

  Jed shrugged. “You wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for me.”

  Wylde snorted. “You’re not any more guilty of this than Rose is and she doesn’t need either of us defending her, anyway.” He turned away from the window and shoved a hand in his pocket. “The one thing I’m certain of is there’s no blame to go around on either of your ends. Guilty of a boss fucking an employee nightmare, yes, but not theft.”

  “I can fuck whoever I want,” Rose said hotly, daring him to argue with that. She would set him straight if he tried.

  “Yeah, but you’re our employee.” Wylde peered straight into her eyes. “I own part of the company, so I’m a co-defendant if you decide to sue for sexual harassment.”

  She didn’t bat an eyelash as she said, “I swear to you I’m not suing either of you for sleeping with Jed. An elf’s word is my bond.” In their community, her word was as good as a contract signed in blood.

  “I’m having her arrested Monday anyway for roofie’ing me with the magick in the shoes.” At Jed’s comment, her gaze slammed to him. He winked at her and she would’ve normally known that meant he teased, but her guilt was too strong to perceive it as anything other than an accusation. One she couldn’t deny.

  “Wait. What?” Wylde glanced between them, confusion wrinkling his forehead.

  Ashamed of her lack of control for seducing him with the shoes, Rose couldn’t look Jed in the eyes, so she looked down at her red toenails. “You’re feeling their effects wear off, aren’t you?”

  “No.” Jed touched her cheek with his hand and she peered up at him through her lashes. “That was a joke in bad taste.”

  “I’m confused.” Wylde slashed his hand through the air, interrupting their moment. “Are these the same shoes mentioned earlier from yesterday? And how the fuck did you roofie Jed with them? An unconscious man can’t perform.”

  Rose explained that Godmother gave her the shoes as a birthday gift. She went on to explain how the shoes worked and that she wore them to Liaisons. She finished with an abbreviated version of her hook up with Jed.

  “You and Jed are a whole ‘nother topic that I don’t want to tackle yet.” Wylde blew out a breath. “I don’t know where to begin with that.”

  “Nothing to say about it.” Jed stared at her, while he spoke to Wylde. “I’ve been attracted to her for years, had wet dreams about her.” Rose felt her eyes widen at that admission. “We hooked up, she’s no longer wearing the shoes, and I still want to bustle her back off to my bed and lick her pus—”

  “Okay!” Wylde interrupted. “We get the picture. I don’t want to hear about your dick’s needs.”

  “Actually, I was referring to my tongue’s needs.”

  Rose bit her lip to keep the smile off her face. “Don’t tell me you’re a prude, Wylde.”

  Jed laughed.

  Wylde made a face. “I just don’t want to talk about my brother’s dick or… tongue.”

  “Fair enough.” She didn’t want to talk about her mother’s sex life either and she held a vast number of lovers. Elves were simple people connected to the land in a way dragons would never understand. That meant an elf’s desires were as animalistic as any other creatures, maybe more so since they were linked to wildlife. “So, I was thinking. The shoes do have magick. I can see it.”

  “You can see magick?” Jed asked.

  “Yeah.” She nodded. “The colors vary depending upon the type and strength of magick, and I could see it on the shoes, but they’re not ‘cursed’ the same way the Dybbuck boxes are. Nothing like the other items in your vault. What if the shoes had magick that allowed her to follow me?”

  “Hmm…” Jed scratched the groomed beard covering his jaw.

  Wylde blinked at her, as if this new information required a complicated math formula to understand. “The more I learn about elves, the more I’m thinking I need one.”

  “Most would be terrified of you, but they don’t know what they’re missing in the sack.” She winked at Jed and Wylde crossed his eyes and groaned.

  Jed blew her a kiss and her gut clenched. Or maybe that was her pussy clenching again in need.

  “How’d you find this Fairy Godmother?” Jed sat in his office chair and hooked his finger at her like he had earlier at Liaisons.

  This time, she didn’t hesitate but sat on his lap and looped her arms around his neck. Wylde perched on the edge of the desk, ankles crossed and arms folded over his chest.

  “The same research as always,” she said.

  “Do you think you could’ve been hacked?” Jed leaned his head against the back of the chair.

  “No.” Rose shook her head. “I use a malware that deletes all my keystrokes while I’m working. All important details go into my notebook, handwritten, so even if a hacker could break through my firewall, they wouldn’t find anything of substance. It looks as if my tablet has never been used.”

  “Godmother learned about Jed’s cursed purchases somehow.” From Wylde’s expression, she couldn’t glean his thoughts.

  “I guess she could’ve assumed he had more objects since she sold me two because there’s no online transactions. The purchases are always made under an alias. We never reveal real names.” It often felt like she engaged in illegal activities, like meth or heroin, instead of antiquities. The slow, meticulous way the Fairy Godmother removed the cursed objects from the vault bothered her, though. “Godmother took them out of the vault one-by-one, as if she knew no one would return anytime soon.”

  “She wore gloves, as well, which means she knew touching them would affect her because of the powers contained in them,” Jed mused.

  “You know, that reminds me, she was vague when I asked her how she knew it was my birthday. She told me she knows things. I could tell she was at least a halfling. Since haflings are humans with mixed magickal heritage, it’d make sense for her to have some gift ordinary mortals don’t.”

  Wylde nodded, his forehead wrinkled in thought. “The Dybbuck boxes you bought from her could be controlling her.”

  “I think you’re right.” Rose chewed on the inside of her cheek trying to remember something she’d missed during her meeting with Godmother. “I have to backtrack, return to planet X and locate the real identity of Fairy Godmother. Even if she doesn’t have the items, I bet she knows who does.”

  Jed pinched the bridge of his nose. “God help the humans if all those cursed objects were brought back to their realm.”

  A cold shiver of dread traveled up Rose’s spine.

  “That many cursed objects on a plane without protective magick will have unpredictable effects,” Wylde said. “Catastrophic consequences.”<
br />
  “Yeah.” Jed nodded. “Pandemics. Droughts. Famine. Natural Disasters. Wars that make World War II look like a skirmish, and the gods only know what else.”

  With her heart in her throat, Rose muttered, “It’ll be 2020 all over again.”

  Chapter 9

  Crazed and Broken

  Jed Night

  Rose dressed in a pair of ass-hugging jeans, basic pink t-shirt that read ‘Sparkle Like A Unicorn’—an interesting choice—and knee high black boots

  She’d taken one look at Jed and Wylde’s attire and shook her head. “Get rid of all the hardware.”

  “We need weapons,” Wylde argued.

  “You’ll be arrested in five minutes with that much visible artillery. Besides,” her hands hit her hips and she glared at them. “You’re dragons with claws and fiery breath on a planet without magick. Your punch alone is enough to kill a human. Act like fearless dragons and disarm yourselves.”

  Jed considered winding her up more, but it already felt like the fly of his jeans was imprinted against the skin of his dick. He couldn’t tolerate any further discomfort.

  As he removed all his artillery, creating a nice stack of weapons on his desk, her eyebrows lifted. “What’d you think we were walking into? An ogre attack?”

  “Hey,” Wylde muttered as he disarmed. “Never underestimate an army of ogres.”

  Rose rolled her eyes.

  Jed gripped her waist and tugged her against his chest, planting a long, wet kiss on her mouth. “I can’t wait to get you back in bed,” he muttered against her lips.

  “I can tell.” She cupped his family jewels in her hand, smiling up at him.

  “Ready, lovebirds?” Hands resting on his hips with his feet braced shoulder-width apart, Wylde stared at them.

  Roping an arm around her shoulder, Jed nodded.

  “Rose will be my future sister-in-law, huh?” Wylde grinned at Rose. “I can’t wait for our parents to meet you.”