Once Upon Stilettos (Enchanted Inc #2) (37 page)

“No, it was okay. I didn’t get the slightest idea that he had any ulterior motives, and usually I can tell when he’s pouring on the sleaze. But once we got to his place, it was like something came over us, and then it got out of hand, and then I realized where it was going and tried to stop, and then it got scary—and that’s when I ran out of there and forgot my coat.”

This time he didn’t turn red. He went stark white and a muscle jumped in his jaw.

“I don’t think he meant it,” I hurried to add. “It wasn’t him. It was probably the shoes—that spell, maybe even something worse. I know he can be a—” I groped for words that didn’t sound too insulting to his best friend.

Apparently I didn’t have to worry about being insulting. “—lech, satyr, sleazeball, lothario,” he completed my sentence.

“Yeah, that. I know he can be like that, but he’s never been like that with me. And he seemed pretty horrified when he realized what was happening. I got out of there to protect both of us.”

He drained his cup, then got up from the table and went to put it in the sink. “You said you were both affected?” he asked, his back to me.

I mentally kicked myself. Either I could leave him with the impression that I wouldn’t have minded a certain level of activity with Rod or I had to tell him about losing my immunity. But I’d kissed him back, too. Surely he had to have noticed that. And it’s not like he cared all that much, anyway. “I don’t know what was happening with me, to be honest,” I said with a sad sigh. “I think I was all messed up about the Ethan thing and all these men throwing themselves at me.”

He came back to the table and took my empty mug, then went back to the sink and proceeded to wash the dishes. “I’m curious about those shoes,” he said as he worked. “They shouldn’t have affected you, so why were you drawn to buy them?”

“My roommate suggested it. She said I had to have them.” That was true, in a way, although Gemma’s suggestion had nothing to do with my impulsive purchase. I had to stifle a groan when I realized that even if Ethan hadn’t dumped me, the shoes would have done me no good with him. He was immune to their power. How ironic.

“But your roommate wasn’t compelled to buy them for herself?”

I shook my head. “No. She loved them, but she said I had to have them.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm, what?”

“It’s possible that the spell was specifically targeted at you.”

“You haven’t met Gemma. She would have gone ape over those shoes even without magic.”

“With the recent attacks on you and the activity within the company, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that you were being targeted.”

“So, what, someone was trying to undermine me by making me incredibly attractive? Please, torture me some more.”

“It made for a distraction, and as you saw with both Rod and me, it could have served to totally undermine your trust in us.”

“Oh,” I breathed, as the realization hit me. It was going to be difficult enough to face Rod after this, even knowing what I knew. If I hadn’t learned the secret of the shoes, if things had gone further with either Owen or Rod, how effectively could I have worked with either of them in the future? I was incredibly lucky that Owen was an even better wizard than he was a kisser.

I needed to get away from there. I needed to get back home where sanity prevailed, where I didn’t have to look at him and wonder why he couldn’t have waited a little while longer to figure out that my shoes were enchanted. “Thanks for the cocoa, and the rescue, and all,” I said, “but I probably ought to head home.”

“Have you looked outside? It’s nasty out there.”

“It’s only a few blocks.”

“And you’re going to make it in what shoes?” He looked mildly amused, which was an improvement on the borderline anger he’d shown earlier.

“Oh, right.”

“I have a guest room, so it won’t be a bother. You’ll probably be more comfortable than you would be at home. And then after we’ve both had some rest, we can tackle the problem of your enchanted shoes and see if we can get to the bottom of what’s going on.”

“I don’t know,” I hedged. Part of me was dying to accept his offer, while the saner side knew it might be a bad idea.

He headed toward the hallway. “Come on,” he said, gesturing for me to follow. Loony and I trailed him down the hallway to the living room. “Look out the window,” he said. I leaned on the desk to look and saw that snow was already drifting on the ground, and it was falling so hard I couldn’t see the buildings across the very narrow street. “That’s on top of a layer of ice and sleet,” he pointed out.

“You don’t mind?”

“You’d be making my life easier. If you decide to go home, I’d have to walk you, and then I’d have to walk back home in that. So please do me a favor and let us both stay inside, warm and dry tonight.”

How could I resist that? He was too cute for words. “Okay, if you insist.”

“The guest room has its own bathroom, and I keep some extra toothbrushes in there, along with a few other things. I’ve had enough occasions where people had to stay here unexpectedly when they couldn’t get off the island, so I like to be prepared.”

I nodded. “That’s good.”

“Not that I’m sending you off to bed if you’re not ready. But the guest room is upstairs and to the right when you are ready. You can lock the door from inside, if that makes you feel better. I should warn you that you’d better shut the door if you don’t want someone joining you in the middle of the night.” He suddenly flushed bright pink and hurried to add, “I mean, the cat. She seems to like you.”

I looked down to where Loony was wrapping herself around my ankles. “Better than clawing my eyes out.”

He grinned. “That’s how she greets Rod.” Then he winced. “Sorry, didn’t mean to bring that up.”

“It’s okay. I’m not going to faint when you mention his name.” I looked around the warm, cozy room. It was so inviting, with its fire and Christmas tree. I’d be happy to curl up for hours in a room like that, but I wasn’t sure I could stand being around Owen much longer. I might feel compelled to try that kiss again to see if it was as wonderful as I remembered. “If you don’t mind, I think I will go to bed now. Everything’s catching up with me at once.”

“Go ahead. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thanks again for the hospitality.”

He shrugged. “What are friends for?”

Loony followed me as I left the room. She paused at the doorway, as if asking Owen for permission. He gave her the slightest of nods, and she ran ahead to sit on the bottom step of the staircase. I stopped by the bathroom to collect my purse and my still-damp clothes, then followed Loony up the stairs.

The house was truly spectacular, the kind of New York showplace you see in movies and magazines. It might be only a few blocks from my apartment, but it might as well have been on another planet. When I reached the guest room, I realized Owen hadn’t been kidding about being more comfortable there than at home. The guest bed was a big four-poster with a pile of pillows and a fluffy down comforter—a far cry from my narrow, hard twin bed at home.

Loony jumped up onto the bed and sat grooming herself. I went into the bathroom and draped my clothes over the shower curtain rod. I found a drawer full of toothbrushes and unwrapped one, then found another drawer filled with sample-size toiletries, from which I selected a tube of toothpaste. It looked like he more or less ran a bed-and-breakfast. I imagined that with a house like that and a spare room, he was very popular with friends and family from out of town.

I returned to the bedroom, leaving the door to the hallway open just slightly so Loony could leave if she wanted to, and to send a subtle signal to Owen that I did trust him. Then I pulled back the covers and crawled into bed. It was like lying on a cloud. Owen might have had to persuade me to stay, but after a night in that bed, he might have to force me to leave. When I got myself settled, Loony came to the head of the bed to join me, curling up against me. I wasn’t much of a cat person, but I was glad for the company. It was like she knew I didn’t want to be alone. I would have preferred her owner, but that would have been a very bad idea.

I slammed a fist into the pillow next to me. How stupid could I possibly be? I should have known that there was far more going on than my magical immunity being gone. Men never fell all over me like that, and I’d never had two men in one night kiss me. It had to have been supernatural, and I should have clued into that a long time ago. I consoled myself with the thought that the artificial confidence from the shoes must have kept me from seeing the truth. I wondered if the shoes were also the source of the libido surges, but I was not going to ask Owen that question.

I rolled onto my side and buried my fingers in Loony’s soft fur. She purred in response. The big question was whether the shoes had been targeted directly at me and if they had anything to do with me losing my immunity. Was Ari behind it all? She had been at Bloomingdale’s the day I first saw the shoes. That might not have been a coincidence, after all. Gemma had even shown her the shoes, and then I’d told everyone my holiday shopping plans.

The only conclusion I managed to reach was that I couldn’t do this alone. If I kept trying to puzzle out the spy, my immunity problems, and now the mystery of the shoes all by myself, disaster was inevitable. I was going to have to tell someone everything that had happened. Owen was probably my best candidate. He was smart, powerful, and a truly good guy. He took in orphaned kittens, for crying out loud. Surely I could trust him with my problems.

I heard footsteps outside my bedroom door and held my breath as I listened to a nearby door open and close. I doubted I’d get much sleep so close to Owen. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself the luxury of reliving that kiss, from the first thrilling moment when I realized he was going to kiss me, to the initial contact, to the ever so gently increasing pressure and feather-soft touches between more serious kisses. It had been sheer heaven, right up to the point he recoiled in horror.

With a stifled groan, I rolled to my other side. He was the one who needed to lock his door for safety. I didn’t know if I was still under the effects of any spell, but I wanted just one more kiss like that, only preferably without the horror at the end of it.

Loony climbed over me to get back into a position where I could stroke her properly. “What are we going to do about that guy of yours?” I whispered to her.

Sleep didn’t come easily, and when it did come, it brought with it nightmares and disturbingly erotic dreams, some of which got tangled together so that I woke both terrified and turned on. I must have tossed and turned too much, for at some point in the night, Loony left me. When I woke the next morning, cold, dim light came through the curtains. The clock said it was nine. I hoped Owen wasn’t sitting around wondering if I’d ever get up.

I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and tried to do something with my hair before I headed downstairs. I found Owen in the kitchen, standing at the stove. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt even more faded than the one he’d loaned me, and his hair was rumpled, as though he hadn’t done much more than run a hand through it upon waking.

Loony was nibbling at her breakfast from a bowl near the refrigerator. She noticed me and greeted me with a happy “meow,” which caused Owen to turn around and see me. There was a day’s worth of dark stubble on his jaw, and he wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. I had to grab the back of the chair near me to steady myself at the sight. How was it that the more disheveled he got, the cuter he became?

“Good morning,” he said, apparently oblivious to my total meltdown. “Did you sleep well?”

“It took me a while to get to sleep, but then I must have really conked out. Sorry I was such a slugabed.”

“Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t up much earlier than you were. Do you like scrambled eggs?”

“Yeah. I can make them if you want me to.”

He gave me a knee-weakening grin. “I can manage breakfast. There’s fresh coffee in the pot if you want to get yourself some. Cups are in the cabinet above. There’s milk in the refrigerator. No cream, sorry.”

I followed his directions and poured myself a cup of coffee, then added milk and sugar. I leaned against the counter by the stove as I drank it and watched him cook. “Is there no end to your talents?” I teased, hoping it sounded like teasing instead of gushing. “Wizard, scholar, sleight-of-hand artist, spy, benefactor of orphaned animals, and now cook.” I decided it would be best to leave out the part about him being an expert kisser.

“I was a decent fencer in college, but I haven’t picked up a sword in years. But you’re pretty multitalented yourself.”

“What? Let’s see, I can cook, shop, and come up with crazy schemes to save the world.”

“All very valuable and important life skills.” He dished eggs and bacon onto plates, then took toast from the nearby toaster as it popped up. “Breakfast is served.”

We ate at the kitchen table, with Owen dropping the occasional bite of food to Loony, who sat patiently at his feet, ready to catch each morsel. “I have a few ideas about what to do with your shoes,” he said. “I did some research last night, and it looks like this is a variant on the more common Cinderella spell, one that very likely could have been targeted at you, though I don’t know how they could have been sure you’d buy those shoes, given your magical immunity.”

I wasn’t going to get a better opening than that. If I was going to tell him, it was now or never. “Um, actually, that’s something I kind of need to talk to you about.”

“What, your immunity?” He fed a bite of toast to Loony.

“Yeah. It’s gone.”

His attention snapped back to me. “It’s what? Gone? Really?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Once I started the ball rolling, the story came pouring out of me. “I see illusions now—Rod looks totally different, and when we’re away from work, Ari and Trix look like ordinary humans. The other night I didn’t see you talking to that gargoyle. I didn’t see any of the people who attacked me last weekend, and I only felt like magic was being used near me last night. The shoes did affect me. They did all the things you said they would, and I’m pretty sure I was as much under a spell last night as Rod was.”