“No. No, I’m afraid it just won’t do.” Calliope heaved an enormous sigh. “I was hoping I could find a degree of pathos that might inspire, but it’s just smothering instead.”

  I stuffed the watch into my pocket and turned around to face her, as I figured I’d look into the watch later to see if I could get it back to its rightful owner. But for right now, I had a job to do, and a client to see to. So, mystery watches that buzzed in my pocket seemingly with their own energy field would have to wait.

  I gave her my best, patient smile. “That’s a shame. But I still have a few properties that might fit your needs. Should we go check out the next one? I know you were looking for the entire building, but I have one sizable loft apartment that’s just over an artisanal furniture store. They specialize in using drift wood and reclaimed materials.”

  Calliope perked up at that, her dark eyes sparkling. “I would like to see it.”

  I made a mental note to have the warehouse aired out before the next showing.

  .Chapter Six

  To say that I was a little nervous when I pulled into Roy’s driveway on Thursday evening would have been an understatement of biblical proportions.

  I just didn’t know what to think, what to say, or how to act. All I knew was how off I felt. Everything had been going so well between us before ‘the conversation’ had taken place. I finally felt like I had a real partner in life—someone I had a future with. When Roy had told me he was serious about me, that he was in it for the long haul, I’d felt so happy, I could have burst.

  And now all that had burst was the dream of the two of us. And all because of Fate.

  The hard part was that I still cared about him so much. He was such a great guy. A little taciturn sometimes, but he was the most reliable person in Haven Hollow—if you had any sort of trouble, Roy was the first person to call. Yes, he was beyond a good man. The best sort of man, really. That part was never in question.

  But what was in question was whether or not Roy was with me because he was just playing his part in this preordained relationship. Had he been forced to care for me? Did he have a choice?

  I still smiled for him when he opened the door, and then a little more genuinely when he took my coat. It was sweet that he was making an effort. Roy was the kind of guy who put snow tires on your car without saying anything, rather than the guy who sent flowers and love letters, but that was okay. It was actually one of the things I loved about him. He was romantic in a utilitarian sort of way.

  Roy’s house was a bit off the beaten track, far from the main road and ensconced in a small forest. There weren’t that many trees, but somehow, once I was there, it felt like everyone else was a million miles away. Like it was just the two of us in the world.

  And that was deliberate. Sasquatches tended to be pretty insular. The rest of Roy’s family lived way, way out in the wilds in a hidden little village. I’d seen it once, when Roy and Poppy had dropped everything in order to help me when my jerk of a brother had doused me in a potion that amped up my Succubus powers to an uncontrollable degree. Roy’s family village had been strange, but nice. Peaceful, almost.

  The table in the kitchen was set nicely, with candles and everything—I was surprised, I had to admit. Roy’s plates tended towards sturdy clay over fine China, but he’d laid out his nicest pieces. There was wine, and a salad sitting in a big wooden bowl. Everything looked so nice and yet I couldn’t quiet that little nagging voice in the back of my head that kept saying none of it was real.

  I wished I could have blamed it on my inner Succubus, but she was firmly on Team Roy, and had spent the evening eyeing the broad sweep of his shoulders and the surprisingly narrow span of his hips with what amounted to hunger. In fact, her hunger had me wanting to lick my lips. How long had it been since I’d fed properly? Three weeks? More?

  Roy turned back to the table and set down a plate of pasta with a white wine sauce and shrimp, and I blinked in surprise.

  It wasn’t that Roy was a bad cook, far from it, really. He jumped on the line at the Half-Moon when it got busy and the kitchen needed help. It was just that, like the food at the bar, Roy tended towards red meat and big, hearty meals. After all, he was a really big guy. There might not be an ounce of fat anywhere on him, but he was almost seven feet tall, with all the muscled strength to go with it. And that was his human form. That meant he could pack the food away when it came to it, so I was surprised he’d made something so delicate.

  It smelled amazing, though.

  The first bite told me that the smell didn’t tell half the story. The pasta was cooked perfectly, the shrimp light and delicate, the sauce was creamy, and garlicky, with a wonderful tang left behind from the wine. I almost groaned out loud.

  “This is really good,” I said when I’d finally chewed and swallowed. ‘Good’ didn’t seem like the right word, but it was all I could think of that wasn’t embarrassingly flowery.

  Roy smiled, showing strong white teeth. “I’m glad you like it.”

  “I do. I really do.” The second forkful was as good as the first, and I had to keep myself from raking it all down my throat or I was going to embarrass myself. Breakfast had been a long, long time ago, and things had kept me busy enough that I hadn’t had a chance to grab anything for lunch. My inner Succubus muttered sulkily that she was waiting for dessert. I squished her back firmly.

  “How’s work going?” Roy’s big hands managed to gracefully twirl up some pasta on a fork. The bite looked ludicrously small compared to his mouth when he ate it.

  I took a sip of my wine. “Good.” Then I tilted my head to the side as I thought about my response. “Actually, that’s a lie.”

  Roy chuckled. “Okay. What’s going on?”

  “It’s been a little frustrating lately, if I’m being honest. I’ve got this client who seems very sure of what she wants, but she can’t articulate what that is to me.”

  “Hmm.”

  “She’s going for something with a particular type of energy.”

  “Energy?”

  I nodded. “It’s all about the vibe.”

  “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “Right and frankly, neither do I.”

  “Rough.” Roy gave me a sympathetic look.

  “A bit,” I admitted, spearing another shrimp. “But I’m going to find her something, come hell or high water.”

  Considering the way things had been going in Haven Hollow lately, it would probably be both.

  I shook off my worries. This wasn’t the place for them. I just wanted to have a nice evening with my boyfriend, and eat some truly delicious food. I definitely wasn’t going to acknowledge the way my heart gave a bruised little twinge at the word boyfriend.

  “How are things at the Half-Moon?”

  “Busy as usual, but that’s good, so I guess things are good.” Roy carefully chewed another bite of pasta. “One of Louisa Rutledge’s kids started a band. He wants to play at the bar one Saturday. Won’t take no for an answer. The kid’s persistent, I’ll give him that.”

  “Is he any good?” Sometimes Roy had live performances, even a show or two. But he tended to be pretty choosey about the talent he let in.

  “Nope,” he said with his usual bluntness, spearing a shrimp. “Like listening to a howling dog knocking over paint cans.”

  I had to put my wine glass down, or risk choking as it came back out my nose. Roy handed me a napkin, looking pleased at making me laugh, and a warm, happy bubble filled my chest.

  “I missed that,” Roy said quietly. “Seeing you smile. In fact, I’ve missed you, Fifi. It seems like over the last couple of weeks I haven’t seen much of you.”

  And just like that, the bubble popped.

  It had been such a nice evening. He’d really gone out of his way to make it romantic, to make me happy, and I was. But there was this part of me that couldn’t stop squinting suspiciously at everything. I mean, Succubi didn’t really believe in soul mates... how could we? We were created to seduce and monogamy didn’t really fit that model. Not to mention that in nine out of ten cases, monogamy would kill our partners.

  Speaking of Succubi, it really didn’t help that I was hungry for other things. I couldn’t keep my eyes off Roy: the corded strength in his forearms, revealed by the sleeves he’d rolled up. The broad chest that was barely contained by the buttons of his shirt. A very big part of me wanted to crawl across the table and into his lap, to demand my desert like a spoiled child.

  Why did things have to be so complicated?

  He must have seen something in my face, because Roy’s smile faded into something a lot more somber.

  “Talk to me.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to talk my way through this horrible tangled thicket of my own thoughts and fears and anxieties, how to make it make some kind of sense to him. Was it really just so much to hope that someone could like me for me without my Succubus getting in the way or failing that, some grand cosmic fated love? Could I just find a man to love me without some kind of magic or spell forcing him to?

  “It’s this whole soul mate thing.” The words finally came out in a rush, before I’d even finished thinking them through.

  Roy’s expression was grave. His jaw was tight enough that I could hear his teeth squeak from the pressure. “It scares you.”

  “Yes... well, not scares me necessarily.” I thought about it. “No, that’s not it.” I huffed out a frustrated breath. “It’s… I feel like I’ve trapped you... or not so much me but Fate has—that you’ve been forced into this relationship whether you like it or not—because Destiny has decreed as much.”

  Whatever he’d been expecting me to say, apparently it wasn’t that. Roy actually had to blink twice. “Trapped me?”

  “Or tricked you? Like you’ve been forced to like me because of this predetermined, fated mates thing.”

  “Fifi, what in the hell are you talking about?”

  I breathed out a frustrated breath. “My point is: you didn’t choose to be with me. It’s just a different kind of magic that’s ensnared you instead of my usual pheromones ensnaring you. All this comfort between us,” I flapped my hand back and forth between us. “It’s just a spell. A lie. I could be the most vile creature in the world and it wouldn’t matter because we’re bonded by Destiny or Fate or the Cosmos or whatever you want to call it.”

  Roy sat there for a long moment, his jaw working like he was rolling the words around in his mouth, trying to find the right ones.

  “Fifi,” he finally started, slowly. “Have you ever considered that you have it just a little bit totally and completely wrong?”

  “Um...” I didn’t see how I had it wrong at all, actually. I just sat there, staring down at my plate as I thought about how well the night had been going. Even though the food had been beyond good, my stomach was now twisting itself into more knots than a fishing net, and if I ate even one more bite, I was pretty sure I was going to puke.

  Roy scrubbed his face and leaned forward, forcing my attention back on him. He reached across the table and took one of my hands in his big, warm palm.

  “Fifi, listen to me.” His eyes were dark and intense. “I want you, period. Whether there’s magic involved or not, it makes no difference to me. Even if you were human, I would still want to be with you. You didn’t trick me into anything. I’ve known what an amazing woman you are for years—back when you were working for me and we were just friends. You’re sweet, and driven, and caring, and absolutely gorgeous; I would have to be an idiot to not to want to be with you.”

  He squeezed my hand as I stared at him. There was something in my throat, a lump I could barely swallow around. I didn’t think I could squeeze any words out around it.

  “Here’s the thing.” Roy’s smile was crooked, and it didn’t reach all the way to his eyes. “We don’t like each other because we’re soulmates. We aren’t compatible because of some magic spell, Fifi. That’s not how it works. We’re soulmates because we’re so compatible.”

  I was pretty sure I’d never heard Roy speak for so long all at once, and my heart was fluttering because they were all the words I wanted to hear. Some little wound in my heart seemed to close up, still tender and fragile, but healing. I stood up, fast enough that my chair scraped across the floor.

  Roy’s brow furrowed, like he was worried I was going to storm out or something. Instead, I walked over to him, leaned over and, throwing my arms around him, I kissed him. Even so, I couldn’t seem to stamp out that one lingering little kernel of doubt festering away, but now the Succubus was winning—the sexual desire between Roy and me was just too much to ignore any longer and even though the timing might not have been the best, I couldn’t help it.

  Whatever other problems we might have, physical attraction was never one of them. Roy’s mouth opened under mine, and he surged up, turning the kiss into something hotter, fiercer. A moan trickled from between my lips and he swallowed it down with a little rumbling growl that shook like thunder in his chest.

  I finally had to pull away, because I needed to suck in some air before I passed out. I didn’t go far, and I could feel the hot wash of Roy’s breath against my lips as we leaned into each other. His big hands were on my hips, fingers flexing as if he were reminding himself to be gentle.

  Roy looked up at me then, his dark eyes somber. “I get that all this soulmate business is a lot, Fifi. I understand if you need some time to digest all of it. But you still need to feed.”

  At his words, my inner Succubus surged forward, greedy and eager to get on with it. She wanted to climb right into Roy’s lap, to take her fill of him and his energy, to draw in that gorgeous, infinite amount of life that always simmered beneath his skin. I held her back, but it was a struggle. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, feeding from him when things were strange between us. I opened my mouth to protest, but Roy ran his thumb across my bottom lip.

  My words dried up under the sudden flare of heat in my belly. Roy leaned forward, nipping at my lip, and the little flash of pain caused my breath to come out in a shaky rush.

  “Let me take care of you,” he said in a voice so low, it was almost a growl.

  The chain on my inner demon snapped.

  I let myself do what I’d been longing to and threw my leg over Roy’s lap like I was mounting a horse. I heard the table scrape across the floor as Roy gave it a shove, making more room for me to do as I pleased to him.

  When I finally got my hands on those massive shoulders, my Succubus could have purred from sheer satisfaction. I ran my fingers over him, feeling the heavy muscle, and dug my nails in just enough that Roy’s head tilted back, a low groan on his lips.

  I leaned forward to kiss him, eager to lap the sounds he was making right out of his mouth, even as I ground my hips down, feeling him hot and hard in his pants. One of Roy’s big hands slid across my jaw and burrowed into the hair at the back of my skull. The other clamped down on my hip, as if he could pull me even closer, merge us together.

  I licked delicately into his mouth, felt the hot, wet glide of his tongue, and behind it the glowing, gleaming power of his life force. It felt like standing under the searing sun, the warmth of him soaking into my skin, sliding down my throat and into my belly.

  Roy’s hand curled into a fist in my hair. The other rocked my hips forward into him, and he thrust up to meet me, a low sound rumbling in his chest.

  I felt invincible. Powerful. His energy rushed to my head like wine, making me almost dizzy with desire. I wanted more and even more still. It was like I could never get enough.

  And then my phone rang.

  I wanted to ignore it. My inner Succubus wanted to pitch it through the window. But it was the ring tone I used for clients, which meant it was probably something I needed to take care of.

  It was almost physically painful to pull myself away from Roy. To even lean back away from his chest felt like clouds blocking the sun and leaving me cold, shivering in my bones.

  “Sorry,” I whispered as I eased off his lap.

  “It’s fine,” Roy grunted, and then winced and adjusted his pants.

  I managed to grab my phone just before the call went to voicemail, and I tried to make my voice a little less breathy when I answered.

  “Fifi?”

  It took me a moment to place Mrs. Petryka’s voice. I’d never heard her sound so weak before, and a wave of concern rolled through me. “Mrs. Petryka? Are you alright? What’s going on?”

  I hadn’t heard from her for a few days, though she’d been making noises about having another open house, even though I had more than a dozen offers for her home already. I figured she was having trouble letting go of the old Georgian, in spite of wanting to move. But she’d been happy, then. Almost chipper, like she was pleased that so many people wanted her home.

  She didn’t sound chipper now, though. She sounded scared.

  “Fifi, I keep seeing a shadow lurking around outside.” There was a muffled sound, like she was moving and her clothing was brushing the phone. “I think someone is trying to get into the house.”

  Ice spiked down my spine, my skin running with chills. I tried to keep my sudden fear out of my voice when I spoke, “Mrs. Petryka, did you call the police?”

  Roy perked up at that, his attention sharpening.

  “Police, bah.” She made a rude noise in the back of her throat. “What good would that do? No, you’re on the Council. So, I called you.”

  The Supernatural Council took care of the more magically inclined citizens of Haven Hollow, and yes, I was a member. So was Roy. We also helped to keep all the weirder things going on in town away from the mundane population, keeping the peace, as well as the secrets that allowed us all to live side by side in relative peace.

  Taliyah was actually on the Council now, too, but even though she’d been outed as one of the Fae, sometimes it took people a while to accept changes. I could see why Mrs. Petryka would have called me, instead.