I stared at him, then exchanged puzzled glances with Cory.

  Facing them again, Cory asked, “What are you talking about?”

  Raziel’s smugness matched Andras’s now. “Matthew.” He tsked and shook his head. “You really don’t remember making this arrangement, do you?”

  Some warmth rose in my face, though I wasn’t sure why. “Um. I sort of do. Why?”

  “You don’t remember Bridget asking if there were any men in your life you could see yourself with?”

  The warmth became an inferno. I could feel Cory’s gaze on me, but I kept my own locked on Andras and Raziel.

  “Is…” Cory whispered. “Is that how she knew I was your neighbor?”

  And just like that, the memory snapped into place.

  “There’s one guy,” I told her. “A neighbor, actually. But we’re just friends.”

  “Oh?” She’d swirled her wineglass as she’d watched me intently. “Tell me about him.”

  I’d sighed, because there’d been nothing more frustrating than talking about my chronic solitude and my sweet, hot, gay neighbor. Drunk me had rambled on about him, too. “You ever have one of those people you can go to about anything? Crisis? Breakup? Bored on a Saturday night? That’s… I mean, I have no idea how he’s still single. The guys he dates are just…” I’d swung my glass around, nearly unloading its contents before taking a deep swallow. “God, he deserves so much better than those asshats.”

  “I’m sure he does,” she’d said blandly. “Maybe someone stable and smart?”

  “And just… not an asshole to him.” I’d paused to roll a sip of Jack Daniels around in my mouth. “He’ll give the shirt off his back to anyone, and he’ll bend over backwards to help anyone he cares about when they’re in a crisis.” Sighing, I’d brought the glass up to my lips. “Someone that good is way out of my league.”

  In the present, I turned to Cory, meeting his confused expression. “I… told her I had this amazing neighbor who was sweet and gorgeous and way out of my league.”

  Cory’s eyes widened. “What? Matt. I am so not out of—”

  “You are,” I whispered, smoothing his hair. “And I told her you’ll help anyone you care about out of a crisis.”

  “So she made you a crisis,” Raziel announced cheerfully. “And here you are!”

  Cory chuckled. “That’s her method, then? Send in her most incompetent pair to—”

  “Incompetent?” Andras squeaked. “I beg your pardon?”

  “I mean…” Cory shrugged. “We kinda did most of the work, didn’t we?”

  “Precisely.” Raziel grinned. “And now look at you.”

  Cory and I exchanged puzzled looks.

  Smugness radiated off Raziel as he said, “We’re actually very good at what we do. And our assignment was to give him”—he nodded toward Cory—“a reason to shine as the man who knows you and loves you as well as he does.”

  My lips parted. When I turned to Cory, his jaw had gone slack. To the angel and demon, I said, “So this was—you guys were deliberately fucking up so he’d step in and get it right?”

  They both looked exceptionally pleased with themselves as they nodded.

  Cory laughed and leaned against me. “Man, I’ve heard of weaponized incompetence, but this…”

  Rolling my eyes, I chuckled, wrapping an arm around him, and I kissed his temple. Yeah, it was devious as hell—such a shock with trickster magic involved—but I really couldn’t complain about the results.

  “We know what we’re doing,” Raziel insisted. “Just look at the two of you.”

  “Uh-huh,” Cory said.

  Raziel ruffled his wings and huffed, but then he said, “Well. We’ll be off, then. Good luck, you two.” I wondered if he noticed the startlingly fond way Andras looked at him right then, but before I could say anything, the demon just chuckled, shook his head, and looked away. And I thought we were idiots.

  “Right,” I said. “Uh, thanks for your help.” Because hey, credit where it was due.

  “You’re most welcome,” Raziel said.

  Andras just gave a little grunt and an acknowledgment. As he pushed himself to his feet and flexed his wings, he said, “Bridget’ll probably send you a survey about us and how we did.” He flashed a shit-eating grin. “I trust you’ll tell her the truth.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I laughed. “And then I probably get a coupon for ten percent off my next spell after completing the survey, right?” I rolled my eyes. “No, thanks.”

  He muttered something I didn’t catch and snapped his wings. I chuckled. As relieved as I was that this spell was broken, I had to admit I’d miss some of their little idiosyncrasies. Life wasn’t boring with them around, that was for sure.

  The angel and demon exchanged glances and nods, probably readying themselves to depart. A glow started around them, similar to what I saw just before some of my fae clients vanished from my office.

  “Oh, hey, Raziel?” I said. “One more thing.”

  They both turned. Raziel watched me curiously. Andras eyed me with a mix of annoyance and suspicion.

  I grinned and gestured at Andras. “He’s into you.”

  “What?” they both squawked. They turned to each other, shock registering across both their faces.

  And in a blink of light, they were gone.

  Cory laughed. “Did you just hook them up?”

  I shrugged, pulling him closer to me. “Maybe? Or I just pissed off a demon. One of the two.”

  Curling his hand behind my neck, Cory murmured, “Hmm, I don’t think you have to worry too much about that.” He brushed his lips across mine. “And if he does show up with a vengeance, we can still order that electric flyswatter.”

  I laughed and buried my face against his shoulder. “Oh, God. I can just imagine presenting that to a judge.” I kissed his collarbone. “Your Honor, my client didn’t actually tase the demon. It was actually—”

  Cory was shaking with laughter now, and I joined in. Holding him close, I let the humor wash over me along with the relief and the warmth of his body. Was I ever going to stop being stunned that we were here?

  I hoped not.

  I combed my fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe it took me this long to figure out…” I shook my head as I trailed off.

  Cory smiled, caressing my cheek. “To be fair, it took two to be this oblivious.”

  I snorted. “We’re a great pair, aren’t we?”

  “Right?” He lifted his chin and dusted a soft kiss across my lips. “But we got here. That’s all I care about.”

  Sobering, I nodded. “Me, too.” It would probably take me a while to shake off the oh shit feeling, though. The realization of just how close I’d come to losing my chance with this man had left me jittery with adrenaline as if I’d narrowly avoided being hit by a speeding care. I didn’t imagine I’d get over that any time soon.

  And maybe I didn’t want to. The lingering buzz of panic would make sure I never, ever took Cory for granted. I knew exactly how lucky I was to have him, and especially as long as my nerve endings still tingled with that hanging-by-my-fingernails fear, I wasn’t going to forget it. That moment when he’d been so closed off, when he’d assumed I’d come for his trickster favor to get out from under my curse—no one had ever been further away from me.

  Yet he’d still been willing to give me Galen’s favor.

  “You’re incredible, you know that?” I whispered.

  He peered curiously up at me. “Huh?”

  “After last night, you were still going to give me that favor.” I smoothed his hair as I swallowed hard. “Anyone else would’ve told me to pound sand.”

  Cory broke eye contact but didn’t pull away from me. “It hurt. I’m not gonna lie.”

  Closing my eyes, I drew him in closer and kissed the top of his head. “I’m sorry.”

  “I know. And I understand now.”

  “But you were still going to let me use it.”

  This time, he did pull back, but only enough to look up at me. “You’re still my friend.”

  “Even after—”

  “Yes,” he breathed. “I didn’t just stop loving you because I thought you weren’t into me.”

  “But you thought I used you.”

  He half-shrugged and didn’t gainsay me. “Didn’t mean I was going to turn my back on you.”

  I suspected he’d wanted to. The pain in his eyes when I’d come to his door—he’d probably wished he was the kind of person who could tell someone to get wrecked.

  I was just incredibly fortunate he’d been willing to hear me out, and that I’d managed to soothe the hurt I’d caused him. All I had to do now was spend the rest of my life making up for it.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again. “I’m just glad you answered the door.”

  “Me too.” He laughed halfheartedly. “I almost didn’t. But…” He sighed and met my gaze. “I don’t know. Something told me I should.”

  “Good thing it did,” I murmured, and claimed a kiss. There was nothing either of us could say that would soothe my conscience completely for hurting him like this, but the way he kissed me told me he really was moving forward. He was holding me tight, exploring my mouth in the most deliciously unhurried way, and like this, I could believe we were on solid ground.

  How did I miss that you loved me?

  Then again, he’d missed that I felt the same way, so maybe we really were oblivious idiots.

  After a while, I broke the kiss and gazed into those beautiful eyes. “Okay. Question.”

  Cory lifted his chin. “Hmm?”

  “How exactly did you wind up in possession of a favor from the Trickster King?”

  He laughed, lighting up the whole damn world. “Oh. That. It’s, um… The story isn’t quite as exciting as you might think.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Basically, we were getting shit-faced with a couple of my clients, and—”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” I put up a hand. “Back up. How did you end up getting shit-faced with him? Because that’s not exactly a minor thing, is it?”

  “No. And that story isn’t that impressive, either, honestly. He caught wind of me helping out several victims of a particular fae, and he was concerned about this being a trickster who’d gone rogue. Which… they had.” Tsking, he rolled his eyes. “God, that was a shitshow. I mean, any other day, I’d have been like, ‘whoa, wait, why the fuck is the Trickster King showing up in my office?’ But that day, it was more like, ‘Please tell me you’re here to unfuck this mess.’”

  “Which he was?”

  Cory nodded. “That’s a long, messy, and honestly boring story, because it was all red tape and bureaucracy and…” He waved his hand. Then he smirked. “Though, I’m pretty sure you get off on that kind of stuff?”

  I rolled my eyes and elbowed him. “Shut up.”

  He snickered. “Okay. Anyway. So we finally got it all resolved and he got this trickster on a leash. Which—when the king shows up, most people fall into line, you know? So it was mostly a matter of fixing everything for my clients. Once that was done, we all ended up at a bar.”

  “I can buy that,” I said. “I’ve gone out drinking with clients after a tough case.” I paused. “Though I don’t usually invite the judge along.”

  “Eh.” Cory half-shrugged. “When the Trickster King says he’s buying, and he promises in writing that there’s no trickery and no strings attached? It’d be rude not to, you know?”

  “Fair. So, you’re all out drinking…” I raised my eyebrows.

  “Right. And… I mean, we were all pretty lit. One of my clients could barely speak by this point, and I was slurring a little, but I could still speak coherently. So then the other client is all, ‘Bet you can’t say this when you’re drunk.’ And he has me read off some really complex city name in… I think it was Nepal? I don’t remember.”

  I laughed. “And since you were all drunk, it escalated into trying to outdo each other?”

  “More or less.”

  I could imagine that, especially since Cory was almost infuriatingly articulate when he was drunk. I’d forget how to pronounce my own single-syllable name, but he could sing karaoke drunk. Like, hard karaoke. Flawless-Gilbert-and-Sullivan-patter-song hard karaoke.

  He shifted a little beside me, grinning. “So, the client was all flustered because I was making him look like an ass, and he looked up—you know that one village in Wales with the really long name?”

  I grimaced. “God, I’d probably pull something trying to say that sober.”

  Cory chuckled. “Right, so he says he’ll give me a hundred bucks if I can say it drunk. But then Galen, who is, like, fourteen sheets to the wind by this point, says that if I can do one more tequila shot and then pronounce it, he’ll owe me a favor, to be cashed in at any time for anything.”

  I whistled. “Holy shit. And you must’ve nailed it, since you got the favor.”

  He beamed. “I’ve never been so happy to see a client so pissed off. Galen thought it was hilarious.”

  Shaking my head, I said, “So that’s all it took? Saying that while you were hammered?”

  “Hey, when the Trickster King gets drunk…” He offered up an innocent shrug.

  I just laughed. “All right. So since you’re sober, how do you say it?”

  Cory grinned. “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.”

  I blinked. “Holy shit.”

  He looked about as smug as Raziel had. “What? You can’t say it?”

  “I… Christ, I couldn’t even spell it.”

  Cory snorted. “Oh, don’t ask me to spell it. But I can say it.”

  “So I gather. Llanfair…” I furrowed my brow, then shook myself. “Say it again? Slower?”

  He grinned. Then, slower, he said, “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.”

  I considered it, but just chuckled. “Okay, that’s gonna be your party trick, not mine. Because… yeah, no.”

  No one in the world could be so simultaneously smug and endearing as Cory was in that moment, and I was pretty sure I fell for him all over again. As he slid closer to me, he said, “You don’t have to say it. You just get to enjoy the benefits of me having such a limber tongue.”

  “Ooh, now you’re speaking my language,” I purred. “Does this mean you’re good at tongue twisters, too?”

  He laughed, and just before our lips met, he murmured, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  I would, yes. But it could wait.

  Because right then, I was far more interested in his other oral talents.

  He didn’t seem to mind.

  Acknowledgments

  Hat tip to Cynthia Diamond for letting me borrow Galen the Trickster King for a sort-of-cameo.

  Visit Cynthia’s website.

  For more books by L.A. Witt, please visit

  http://www.gallagherwitt.com

  Romance * Suspense

  Contemporary * Historical * Sports * Military

  Titles Include

  * * *

  Rookie Mistake (written with Anna Zabo)

  Scoreless Game (written with Anna Zabo)

  The Hitman vs. Hitman Series (written with Cari Z)

  The Bad Behavior Series (written with Cari Z)

  The Gentlemen of the Emerald City Series

  The Anchor Point Series

  The Husband Gambit

  Name From a Hat Trick

  After December

  Brick Walls

  The Venetian and the Rum Runner

  If The Seas Catch Fire

  …and many, many more!

  About the Author

  L.A. Witt is a romance and suspense author who has at last given up the exciting nomadic lifestyle of the military spouse (read: her husband finally retired). She now resides in Pittsburgh, where the potholes are determined to eat her car and her cats are endlessly taunted by a disrespectful squirrel named Moose. In her spare time, she can be found painting in her art room or destroying her voice at a Pittsburgh Penguins game.

  * * *

  Website: www.gallagherwitt.com

  Email: gallagherwitt@gmail.com

  Twitter: @GallagherWitt

 

 

  L. A. Witt, A Single Soul

 

 

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