Chapter 5 #3
His voice was the lowest silk velvet that scraped my nerves in the most delicious way.
“I’ll take the rabbit and put it in the cage.
” He turned his head, and I followed his gaze to the pretty cage beside the window in the pale blue room, more like a bird cage than a rabbit cage, with elaborate white twining bars that matched the elaborately carved moldings on the walls.
I held the rabbit tighter as I sank into the unbelievably soft down. This wasn’t the room above the shop.
My shop! I had to get back to it and finish the remodel, the roof, everything so I could start turning a profit.
I rolled off the bed, still holding the rabbit. “Where are we?”
He frowned slightly. “Wonderland. The shop isn’t ready for you to sleep in.”
I looked around again at the twilight forests outside the window and the cage, large, elaborate, but still a cage.
Then again, a cage would be better than the rabbit eating cursed macarons.
The room itself felt like a cage, and it made my skin itch.
The devil was perfectly comfortable with caging people, literally and metaphorically.
I swallowed hard. “This must be the room where she stayed. The one who took care of your rabbit before she died. It’s very pretty. Maybe I’ll use the same color scheme when I paint mine above the shop with…”
I looked down at the rabbit. He needed a name. I looked closer when I realized that the sores were much smaller, his eyes were brighter, staring at me in a way that would’ve been unnerving if I weren’t accustomed to the stares of goblins.
“What’s his name?” I asked, looking up at the devil. I caught him staring at me, a slight frown between his brows that quickly cleared.
“No name.”
“Do you mind if I name him?”
He hesitated. “As you like. I did place him in your care.” Again with that small frown. Was he having second thoughts?
I snuggled the rabbit under my chin. “What about Pavlova?”
“As in the psychologist dog trainer?”
“As in the dessert named after the famous ballerina. It’s white and fluffy, just like you,” I said, raising the rabbit and beaming at him. He blinked his droopy eyes at me.
Philius cleared his throat. “Perfect. Won’t you rest?
I’m thinking I should’ve simply covered you in a blanket and left you on the floor.
You’re not rested enough to continue your efforts with the shop.
Drawing a curse out of a building takes a good deal of magic and life force, both of which you must protect.
I assumed you would wait for me to take care of it.
And…” His brow furrowed so he looked like one of those broody romance characters. “Did he bite you?”
So handsome. Wait, what? I frowned down at Pavlova.
“Did he? Oh, that’s right, when I was putting on the ointment.
Don’t you think he looks a little better?
” I looked up at him hopefully. Maybe Pavlova wouldn’t be a good name for a male rabbit.
But Pavlov? That would be kind of hilarious.
You look at him and your mouth starts watering, like looking at the devil made my mouth water.
He stared at me, not the rabbit, like he was gauging my health and magic levels. “Indeed. He looks better than you do. Be careful that you don’t pour too much of your life force into him. What guards and precautions do you have to protect your life and soul?”
I blinked at him. “You mean magical? Fairies and goblins don’t need that kind of thing.”
“But you do. Happiness and beauty spill out of you without reserve. Perhaps I can find a charm to help you contain it.”
I beamed at him while my heart fluttered.
He thought happiness and beauty spilled out of me?
That was a compliment, right? Except that he didn’t like it.
But that didn’t make it less of a compliment.
Unless it did. I hadn’t dated much, not when I had to keep the fairy-goblin a secret, and I never knew what to say to men, but carrying someone to bed seemed closer to the realm of dating than business.
I struggled not to blush and raised my chin instead. “That won’t be necessary. I like the deal we have. I’m going to do my best, and that means getting back to work. Is there a door that leads back to the shop?”
“Not without my magic to open it.” He went to the closet and opened the door, and there was one of the two sad little rooms upstairs, much less charming and magical than Pavlov’s last mistress’s bedroom. She hadn’t been the devil’s mistress, had she?
Now I was really blushing. None of my business.
My business was my bakery, and I’d get right back there as soon as possible.
I had no intention of having any kind of romance with the devil.
That would be beyond stupid. No way could he actually be interested in a stumpy fairy who couldn’t control any magic other than baking.
The devil closed the door and turned, blocking my escape. I blinked up at him, almost close enough to brush against his chest.
He looked down at me, that brow furrow so terribly attractive.
“You will have dinner with me before you return to the shop. It’s in the contract.
Dress in something from the closet if you would be so kind.
I’ll be back shortly to escort you down to the restaurant where we will eat publicly in front of my most gossipy patrons. ”
He left out the other door, leaving me and the rabbit alone.