Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files #2) (2 page)

“Okay,” I said, the words leaving my lips without my full consent. Once they were out, though, I didn’t want to take them back. Maybe a part of me wanted to find out if what I’d believed all my life, that I was incapable of romantic commitment, was true or not. Or maybe I was just tired of seeing everyone else in my life finding love while I remained alone. All I knew for sure was that in that moment, I wanted Harvey and all the reasons I’d had to avoid him no longer seemed to matter.

His eyes widened, a small smile curving his lips. “Can you say that again, just so there’s no confusion?”

“Yes,” I said, hardly believing it myself. “I want to go out with you. But we should wait until this whole thing with the mayor blows over. I don’t want you to lose your job for taking me out.”

He leaned in, his heat warming my body, his grip on my waist tightening. “I’ve waited two years to take you out, Chloe. Let me worry about my job.”

“But—” He stopped my words and my worries with a kiss. I might have expected a kiss from a man like Harvey to be rough and aggressive, but he pressed his lips to mine with a tenderness that made my chest ache. I leaned in to him, opening to him, but he stepped away and broke the kiss.

He smiled wide, his eyes twinkling. “You made me wait two years, Chloe. I think you should have to wait, too. I’ll pick you up at noon tomorrow for lunch?”

I’m not a swooner, have never been a fan of romantic movies or books, and have spent my entire adult life believing romantic love is a delusion, but the fact that Harvey knew my schedule and understood that a dinner date wasn’t an option for me, made my knees a little weak. “That would be perfect.”

Running, unless it’s for exercise, never gets you any closer to your goals
. – Chloe Frangipani

You don’t stand and fight until you can be sure you’re going to win
. – Althea Frangipani

Dale gave a quick knock at my office door and sat down where Harvey had been sitting just ten minutes earlier. “What’s up, boss?” he asked, his smile open and kind, just like he was.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” I said. “Want to explain why you’re sleeping with the mayor’s wife for money?”

His smile dropped, but his expression didn’t shutter. If he played poker, he’d lose every time, because he was incapable of hiding his thoughts. “I’ve never taken a cent from her, Chloe. I’m in love.”

I bit down hard on my lower lip to keep from rolling my eyes. “You met her at Ephemeral, Dale. You know the rule about dating patrons.”

He gave me a wide-eyed look I would have believed was insincere from anyone else. “I know it’s the rule but…It’s never really made sense to me. It was love at first sight between us, how could I deny that?”

It was a lost cause, but I couldn’t resist trying to set him straight. “She’s a married woman, Dale. You’re a young, good-looking man. Are you sure it’s love on her end?”

The hurt in his eyes made me regret the harshness of my reality check. “She’s divorcing her husband for me. She filed the papers today.”

Huh, I hadn’t seen that coming. “That’s great, Dale, I’m really happy for both of you, but I’m going to have to fire you. You broke one of the cardinal rules here, and now the mayor is accusing me of being a pimp.”

The horrified look on his face made me want to strangle some sense into him. I’d explained more than once to my staff why they couldn’t date the patrons, but he seemed shocked by the fall out. “Shit, boss, I’m sorry. Is there anyone you need me to talk to? Anything I can do?”

“No, nothing beyond telling the police the truth if they come to talk to you. I’m sorry to let you go, you’ve been a good worker, but this could close down the club.”

He nodded. “I understand, boss. I’ll miss working here, but I can’t be sorry for the love I have.”

I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood. Was I as bad as Dale, lust-struck and agreeing to an ill-advised date with Harvey because I had fallen prey to a delusion? “I wish you all the best, Dale.”

My phone rang as I showed him out. When Frost’s name showed up on the caller ID, I considered not answering. I hadn’t spoken to him in three weeks, and it had been a good three weeks. Still, he’d never called me without a good reason. “Autonomy,” I whispered and clicked the answer button.

“Go dancing with me tonight,” Frost said, without any preamble or explanation.

“What?” I asked, while I tried to arrange my thoughts. Frost was my favorite person to dance with, but he had a mystery mate, and I had a date with Harvey that I didn’t want to blow by getting caught up in some dance-fueled lust with Frost.

“I haven’t seen you in three weeks. I miss you.”

“You miss me? You don’t even like me.”

He huffed out a sigh. “Just go dancing with me.”

“I’m seeing someone,” I said. Moments before I’d been considering cancelling my date with Harvey, but just the sound of Frost’s voice shored up my resolve to give Harvey a chance. “Call your mate.”

“I…Who are you seeing? I thought you and Mercury were matched.”

Oops. Mercury and I had told Sapphire and Knuffington that we weren’t really matched, but I hadn’t spoken to Frost and hadn’t thought to tell him. “Um…Mercury and I were never matched.”

Frost was silent for several long moments. “Why did you lie?”

“At first, we lied to keep Sapphire and Knuffington from questioning us living together.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

Because I liked you believing I was capable of committing to someone.
I couldn’t tell Frost that, though, because it would be admitting that I cared what he thought of me and I wouldn’t give him that power over me. Because of the club I owned and the way we’d met, on a dance floor, Frost believed I was promiscuous, undiscriminating, and morally corrupt. I’d liked having a pretend match with Mercury to prove otherwise. “It just never came up.”

He grunted and it sounded like disbelief. “And who are you seeing now?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m dating Harvey.”

“The cop?” He sighed again and let out a low growl.

“Look, I’ve just lost another staff member and I need to get downstairs and fill in for him, so if all you’re going to do is growl at me, I’m hanging up.”

“Fuck.” His words were barely audible above the growl. “I need your help, Chloe. Can you come by my office tomorrow morning?”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be there at ten.”

“What’s up, Merc?” I asked, patting Mercury on the back. He was sitting at my bar, and I was waiting for Pierson to fill an order for one of my tables. Most of my staff were men, but I always liked to keep one or two women on the floor every night for those tables of women who wanted a true man-free girls’ night out, and for the rare tables of straight men we got.

Mercury frowned at my nickname for him. I noticed more than one woman admiring his fit body and chiseled features, his scruffy beard and scars did little to hinder his good looks, but he didn’t notice or care. “The usual. Galena is angry because I never pick up my dirty clothes and put them in the laundry hamper, which somehow means I don’t respect her or appreciate everything she does to keep our home clean. I know a lot of her anger comes from her hatred of being stuck indoors, but it doesn’t make her any easier to live with.” Galena was Mercury’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his daughter. She’d come to the Non to escape the killing wrath of my fairy grandfather, King Regalia, who’d been set on teaching me a lesson by killing my friends and everyone they loved. I’d expected her to return to Rubalia as soon as my mother killed my grandfather, but she’d stayed. Mercury wanted more time with his daughter and Galena had agreed. Mercury had stayed to pose as a drug dealer and find out who was behind the fae drug being peddled to humans in the Non. So far, he’d come up with no answers.

“Too bad you and Vin can’t live together,” I said, trying to be sympathetic.

His face paled and his blue eyes widened. “We’re not ready for that.”

A loud crash interrupted our conversation. I held up one finger and rushed to the kitchen area. Neil was crouched down, picking up bits of broken glasses and putting them on his tray.

“He came in the exit door,” said Conner, one of my fantasy providers. “Ran right into me.” Conner still held a tray with neatly arranged tapas at shoulder-level. He was a pro and had managed to save the food in the collision.

I nodded and moved out of the way so he could pass. Neil looked up as Conner left. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m not used to this fast pace, I guess.”

“It’s okay. Glasses can be replaced.” I headed back out to the floor to pick up the drinks for my table and decided to call for Neil’s references during my break. If he couldn’t handle the pace of Ephemeral, which was slow compared to a lot of other clubs, I don’t know how he’d managed driving cab.

I smiled warmly at the ladies at my table, especially the one in the center seat, Martha, who’d just gotten out of a bad, I suspected abusive, marriage, and delivered their drinks. They looked a bit glum, and I figured they’d been discussing Martha’s divorce, so I sat down with them and let them tell me the story, offering what encouragement and advice I could. I had the contact information of wonderful lawyers and therapists who specialized in domestic abuse, since we saw women who’d been in those sorts of situations more often than I would have ever imagined possible, and I gave Martha business cards for a couple of them.

We closed early and all I wanted was to go home and collapse into bed. Even after a slow night, all the drama with Dale and Neil’s six accidents, proving that klutziness was going to be a problem for him, had exhausted me. I hadn’t been able to get ahold of any of Neil’s references and I had a bad feeling I’d get no good news when I did reach them.

I started toward the bus stop, scanning the street for trouble as I walked. Ephemeral was in a safe, decent neighborhood, still bustling with people leaving the other clubs on the street. Even on a Monday night, people stayed out until dawn. For some people, Tuesday and Wednesday was their weekend. I was contemplating my bed and a cup of hot chocolate, when fingers gripped my bicep and yanked me into a dark alley. Cold steel pinched my neck and a hard body pinned mine against the brick wall.

“What do you want?” I asked, my heart pounding with fear. “My purse is on my shoulder, just take it and go.”

“You don’t make small talk when someone puts a knife to your throat,” said a familiar, gruff voice. “You fight.”

My heart rate slowed and I sagged just a bit. “It’s always best to avoid a fight, Hi, especially if the attacker is human and will be tweaked out by the way I move.”

Hieronymus twitched, the only sign of displeasure he showed at my use of the nickname he detested. Of all the trainers my mother could have stuck me with, Hieronymus wasn’t anywhere near the nightmare I’d expected. I still liked to have fun at his expense, though. “Pretend I am a rogue fairy attacking you, and fight me.”

I sighed. “I’m tired. I just want to go home to bed, can’t we fight tomorrow?”

He pushed the knife a bit harder into my flesh and slid a knee between my thighs. “Fight.”

So, I turned my head to the side and shifted my body in the same way I would to get small enough to fly. I made my neck as thin as a strand of spaghetti and slipped away from the knife blade. He still had me pinned with his body, so I slammed the side of my hand into his Adam’s apple, while I squeezed his thigh between my own.

He dodged my blow to his neck, but in so doing, he gave me enough leeway to slide away from him along the wall. I leapt back several steps and leaped, kicking high and connecting with his head. I didn’t kick hard enough to really hurt him, but he staggered back and glared at me. “Didn’t see that coming, did you, Hi?”

He bounced back on his toes. “I have a deal for you, princess. If I win this fight, you call me by my proper name only.”

I shrugged. “And what do I get if I win?”

“A cookie.”

I laughed. “Look at you, Hi, making a human joke. That’s precious.”

He growled and ducked, running at me full-speed. The first time he’d tried that move, his bulk moving toward me at top speed had scared the shit out of me, but I was used to his tricks now. I would love to say that I shifted smoothly out of his way, maybe leaping with a single bound onto a dumpster, like in some kick-ass action movie, but I was still in training. I dodged to the side, tripped over my own feet, and landed hard on my hip. Hieronymus flew by me, and I swept out hard with both my legs. He tripped and took a header into the brick wall of the alley.

He hit so hard that I heard the thunk and couldn’t help smiling to myself. Of course I was worried that he might be hurt, but it was the first time I’d gotten him to the ground, and I couldn’t help being a little proud of myself. I scrambled to my feet and rushed over to the groaning fairy. A dark knot was already forming on his forehead, and I laid my hand over the bruise so that I could heal him.

He grabbed my wrist and twisted, snapping the delicate bones and making me shriek with pain. I crab-walked away from him with my good hand and glared at him once my back was against the wall on the other side of the alley. “What the hell?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Compassion gets you killed,” he said, rising to his feet with a bit of a wobble. “Come on. I have something to show you.”

“How about you fix my wrist up first?” I asked, not ashamed of the tears of pain on my cheeks.

Hieronymus had the healing ability like most fairies did, like I did. “In a bit. Pain is the best lesson, and I don’t want you to forget this one.”

“Or you just enjoy my pain,” I said. “At least let me heal you, so you don’t keel over before you fix my wrist.”

He nodded his acquiescence, which meant he was hurt pretty badly. He’d never allowed me to heal him before. I stood, cradling my wrist, and walked over to him. I placed a hand to his forehead and fixed the contusion and the concussion. Hieronymus straightened and looked at me, a new interest in his eyes. “Your magic is strong. It is not diluted by your faun blood.”