Chapter 5
Penny
I woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon. Which was weird because I hadn’t done groceries since I moved in, and last I checked, the fridge was empty.
Maybe I’d left a window open, and it was wafting in from the neighbors? I glanced over at the window. Closed.
I inhaled again. The smell was coming from downstairs. Someone was cooking breakfast in my kitchen.
I got up, threw on my shark robe (the one with the fabric teeth around the hood”s opening), and tiptoed downstairs.
Oh my!
Prax was standing in my kitchen in his natural form: red, dusky skin, black horns and barbed tail, wearing nothing but a white apron with a ruffled hem a la French maid. This meant the firm glutes I’d admired yesterday were on full display, and I wasn’t sure what was tastier, the eggs he was sliding onto a plate or his butt.
He’d dropped the human disguise he’d been wearing—which I’d totally seen through—when he showed up at the door with my parents. I couldn’t believe the sexy incubus had witnessed that embarrassing conversation. Ugh. And why had he been driving my parents to the airport in the first place?
He grinned at me as I gawked at him. “What?”
“You’re in a frilly apron,” I blurted out.
“So? You’re in a shark.”
“It’s…comfy,” I said defensively.
“And you’re adorable.”
He sent a smoky demon limb out over the kitchen island to pat my head. “Did you expect me in something more like this?” His ruffled apron morphed right before my eyes into a tool belt, the kind that screamed, “I’m a manly man, and I like to fix things.” There was even a hammer hanging off the loop at his hip.
It suited him very well, and I wished I had something in need of fixing. If only a broken heart, both from my asshole ex and from my uncaring parents, could be fixed with a hammer. I’d let him hammer me all night long.
Heh-heh. I tittered silently at my own thoughts.
The handyman get-up faded back to the white ruffled apron. “I figure this one is more appropriate since I’m cooking.”
There was nothing “appropriate” about Prax dressed in nothing but a French maid apron. Not even a French maid outfit! Just the apron! But I had to admit he wore it with excessive confidence. It was impossible for a body like that to be anything but manly.
I wasn’t going to pretend I wasn’t eyeing him like a piece of meat. Then again, he didn’t seem to mind.
“Besides,” he said, “this one shows off more of my ass-ets.” He did a little spin, flexing all the major muscles and some minor ones too.
“The two aprons are the same size, Prax.”
“How about now?” The garment shrank so that it more resembled a white frilly fig leaf than an apron.
Despite the ludicrously tiny micro apron, masculine sexuality still oozed from Prax. There was that incubus magic working again; I wanted to jump his bones and dry hump him like some sex-starved hussy right now. My mouth went dry at the expanse of rippled abs and happy trail on display.
He took a step toward me, sex and sin incarnate. “Coffee, tea, or me?”
The corny line pulled me out from under his spell. I tore my gaze away from the red-hot, inhuman Adonis commandeering my kitchen.
“Very cute. What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Making you breakfast. I was hoping it would be breakfast in bed, but you’re already up. I’ll start earlier tomorrow.”
He escorted me over to the table, and it almost felt like his hand phased right through my robe to caress my skin when it went to the small of my back. He placed a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me, the bacon extra crispy and the eggs over easy, just the way I liked them. There was even a side of toast with butter and fresh squeezed orange juice served in my wine glasses, which were the only cups I’d unpacked.
“I mean, what are you still doing here? You clearly came to snoop for my dad yesterday and blamed it on the spell.” I recalled the feeling of betrayal that had washed over me when I saw him behind my parents and let it fill me with rage. Good. I needed that rage to fight his incubus sex magic. “Was that little thing about me accidentally binding you fake too?” I spat. “I didn’t know Dad had demons in his employ, but okay. Fine. Your job is done here, Prax. If that’s even your real name. You’re not going to get anything else from me. Now leave.” I pointed to the front door.
He frowned. “I’m not snooping for the senator.”
“Okay, then explain how you got a call from your ‘employer’ after popping into my home—and by the way, it totally makes sense how you got past my wards now; the home technically belongs to him, so easy peasy—and then showed up as my parents’ bodyguard?”
“I told you: I answered the summons from your spell. I’m not employed by your parents. They were clients of Redrock Protective Services, and I was called in to be an emergency replacement.”
I’d heard of the gargoyle-owned security company. “You work for Redrock?”
“Sometimes, when they need someone. And yesterday, they did.”
I wasn’t sure what to believe.
“If it makes you feel any better, I took the long way to the airport and went extra slow, so they had to rush like crazy to make their flight. Serves them right for being such asses to you. I can’t believe they were berating you for making them look bad. Aren’t fathers supposed to be there for their little girls when things go wrong?”
I scoffed, even though his words made me feel a little better. “I was never his little girl. I was…I don’t know, a prop. I’ve been coached on what to say and what not to say when the cameras are rolling ever since I could speak.”
“Well, I’m not working for them.”
“Okay.”
I wasn’t going to argue, especially when the guy had just made me breakfast. He still wasn’t going to get any information from me, though. And I definitely wouldn’t be sleeping with him now.
Bummer. I was looking forward to a little fun to get my mind off my troubles. Oh well. Maybe I’d find someone else tonight when I went out with Griselda and Lily.
For the first time, I was glad I’d acquiesced to my dad’s demands that the wedding be on a Thursday so that he could get back to Boston by Saturday to cut the ribbon on some new shopping plaza or something.
I broke the yolk and dipped the extra crispy bacon into it as Prax sat down across from me with his own plate. Some people thought that demons didn’t eat, and although technically they didn’t need to, they did. They loved food. They loved anything physically pleasurable. Like crispy bacon dipped in runny egg yolk.
Mmm. Soo good.
“How did you get all this into my house?” I asked. “I thought you couldn’t phase with material items. These look and taste very real…unless you can make your soul stuff taste like bacon and eggs.” I made a face. “Okay, that’s a fucked-up thought.”
He chuckled, the sexy sound tickling my belly.
Argh! Why did he have to do everything sexily?
“That’s not how I want to be in you.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
That had me rolling my eyes. So corny! Just my luck to get the incubus class clown.
“But to answer your question, I drove over and dropped by the convenience store this morning. Only phased through to unlock the door and let myself in. Did you know grocery stores don’t open till 10 AM? Crazy. Back in my day, the markets opened at dawn.”
“Back in your day? How old are you?”
He waved the question away. “That’s of no consequence.” He gestured to the moving boxes. “I can help you unpack after breakfast if you like.”
“There’s no point,” I said gloomily. “I won’t be staying here. You heard them. This was supposed to be a wedding gift. Mom might try to bribe my ex to come back and marry me so it looks good on the family. But I won’t do it. I’m not a pushover.”
“Good! You can’t marry him anyway. I’m supposed to be your perfect man, remember?” His grin was contagious.
“I’ll be sure to tell him that. But yeah, when I refuse to smooth things over, they’re going to sell the place. Or rent it out.”
“Then where are you going to go?”
“No idea.” I wasn’t going to move back under their roof; I knew that much. When Griselda asked me yesterday if I was staying, I hadn’t been sure. But after their little visit, I’d made up my mind. “Well, Prax, thank you for breakfast, but since I can’t be one hundred and ten percent sure you’re not just here to keep tabs on me, I’m sorry, but any chance of you getting laid just went down to zero. I’m only telling you so you don’t waste your time. You can leave now.”
Ugh! That really hurt to say. I was really looking forward to some physical stress relief. But with my new resolve to make it on my own, I had a few things I needed to take care of.
“I can’t leave.”
“Sure you can. You left yesterday; you can leave now.”
“No. I’m not going to leave you after some ass left you on your wedding day and ended up being photographed in Vegas with a bunch of women, completely hammered.”
“Thanks for telling me. I was avoiding the tabloids and gossip sites for a reason.”
“Sorry. I thought you already knew. So what’s the plan for today?”
“Nothing. I was going to”— my eyes landed on the spell book I dug out yesterday— “stay home and read a book.” That should be suitably boring and scare him off.
“Nice. I’ll join you.”
“What?” No! I needed him to leave so I could check the sales from my online shop! My parents didn’t know I had a side hustle selling magic tutorials online. Peddling magic wasn’t a respectable job in their world.
Dad had wanted me to work for him after I graduated, maybe even get into politics myself one day. But I had no interest in that at all. I’d insisted on getting a different job. Enter his friend’s investment company.
I’d been working at the Boston office but was supposed to start at the new Darlington branch this Monday and work for a week before heading off on my honeymoon. Meanwhile, Travis had been transferred to Darlington three months ago for work and had been living in a condo downtown.
I’d always known my job could be pulled out from under me at any time so they could make me do what they wanted. Like the house and everything else in my life. Well, except for the car. The BMW was the only thing actually in my name, but I didn’t trust them not to bug it.
It wasn’t the first time my parents had threatened to make me move home so they could control me. It had happened in college too. Some idiot had been walking around with a camera, asking students on campus about political issues. I declined to comment since Dad was a senator. But some idiot right after me had run her mouth.
I stepped away before she started talking, but not fast enough. The editing made it look like we were together. They put the footage on the internet. The video didn’t go viral or anything, but somehow, my parents caught wind of it.
And I’d gotten punished for it. That was right after the whole your-friends-are-a-gang-and-we’re-putting-a-hold-on-your-cards incident, too.
I’d opened a separate bank account and got a secret stream of revenue going. Technically, I’d been secretly selling spell tutorials and magically enhanced goodies longer than I’d been working at my official job. And I did not plan on outing myself to Prax now.
Did I really think the sexy incubus was working with my parents? Probably not. But I couldn’t be too careful.
“I changed my mind. I’m going over to my friend’s place,” I announced.
Griselda and I were only supposed to meet to go out later, but she’d understand if I showed up at The Witch’s Brew early. It was the only way I could think of to get some privacy. My wards might not keep the incubus out, but hers would.
“Okay, let’s go.”
“You’re not invited.” I wiped up the last of the yolk with my buttered toast, then downed the rest of the orange juice. I turned to him. “Can you please show me the magic bonds again?”
He shrugged, and the air around him shimmered before the silvery gossamer appeared on his body. I reached across the table to touch the thin threads around his wrist.
They were most definitely connected to my body, and the magic felt like mine. I wasn’t as strong as Griselda or Lily, but I could recognize my own magic.
Just the minor act of touching him was enough to send shivers up my spine and wake up my libido. This was dangerous if I wanted to get any work done today. I released his arm hastily.
With his food done, Prax put his plate in the dishwasher and then grabbed the pot from the coffee maker. “I found this, but no coffee.”
“My friend owns a coffee shop. I’ll grab something there.”
“Ah, perfect. You still haven’t answered my question, though: coffee? Tea? Or me?”