Page 56 of Enchanted to Meet You

We ate our lasagna from cereal bowls in front of the fire instead of on the Limoges plates at the dining table.

It worked out great. Casual dining nearly always does—especially when you’ve already seen the other person naked and made them orgasm a bunch of times.

And honestly, my dining room chairs aren’t really that comfortable anyway.

I still couldn’t convince him to tell me who he actually worked for, though. I could barely even get him to tell me what he did for a living.

“So do you get paid to do this?” I asked him much later, as he climbed into my bed. Yes, I’d lured him into my bedroom. All it had taken was a nonchalant mention that I had ordered one ofthose mattresses that came out of a box, and that it was king-sized and supercomfortable, and that he should try it.

He did.

“Sleep with women?” He was sitting on the edge of my new mattress, giving it a few experimental bounces. Pye had, of course, followed him up the stairs, and now sat on the edge of the bed giving his paws a wash.

“No. Travel to small towns to help save them from demonic ruin.”

That actually earned a rare laugh from him. “Oh. Sort of.”

He evidently liked my bed, however, since he lifted his feet onto it, pulled my duvet up over his wide, bare shoulders, and sank his head into my pillows (in deference to the power of nine, there were exactly that many of them, each of varying degrees of fluff).

“I agree,” he said, stifling a yawn. “This is surprisingly comfortable.”

“I know, right?” I lay down beside him. I’d completely redone my room from when I’d been a girl, changing the pink to muted tones of seafoam and getting rid of all the Fiona Apple posters. It was a temple to serenity now. “So do yousort ofgo around saving small towns from demonic ruin full-time?”

My room was so serene now, it apparently put my sex partners immediately to sleep—at least this one, who’d been well-satiated by me—since his eyes had drifted closed. “Pretty much,” he murmured.

I rose up on one elbow to jab a finger at his naked chest. “Are you serious? What are you, some kind of paranormal handyman?”

“Exactly.” I couldn’t tell if he was kidding, or even if he was awake. His eyes were still closed. Then he rolled over onto his side—being careful, I noted, not to jostle Pye, who’d predictably curled up at his feet. “Lots to do tomorrow,” he muttered.

“Seriously?” I sat up. Unlike him, I was wide-awake. “Thisis what you do for a living? You travel around to different towns, helping them out of otherworldly jams?”

He murmured something. It was hard to tell what because his head was buried in so many pillows, and he was drifting off to dreamland. But it sounded to me like aYes.

I couldn’t believe it. “And you getpaidfor it?” When he didn’t respond, I nudged him in the shoulder. “Hey. I’m asking you a question. Do you seriously get paid for this? Because if so, can I get paid, too? I think it’s only fair, since I’m the Chosen One. Who do I talk to about that?”

But he was out like a light.

Which I guess I could understand, given that he’d spent the last few days sleeping in his car, showering at the gym, and attempting to protect me from malevolent attack. I was pretty tired myself and, knowing tomorrow I had to finish up the hems of all the dresses I still hadn’t delivered for the ball, plus train Esther to battle the forces of evil, I crept into the bathroom to brush my teeth, trying not to wake him.

Fortunately my phone was still on vibrate, so when Dina’s text came, he didn’t hear it.

LegalBeagle:Mark and I drove by your house to make sure you were all right and none of your lights were on. Are you okay? Did that guy give you a sleeping potion and steal all your stuff?

Thank God they’d driven by after Derrick and I had made love—or possibly during—or they’d have gotten quite an eyeful through the windows. I wrote back:

I’m fine! We just went to bed early.

This wasn’t a lie . . . except the bed part. I wondered if Derrick would wake up with rug burns from when I’d pinned him to the floor and straddled him.

LegalBeagle:TOGETHER?????

After sending me so many eggplant emojis, she was shocked I’d actually taken her advice? I texted her several devil face emojis in reply. She responded with flaming hearts.

Grinning down at my phone, I came out of my bathroom to a sight that stopped me in my tracks: a naked man sleeping in my bed, my duvet half on, half off him, my cat curled between his legs, purring like mad.

There really wasn’t anything hotter than a guy sleeping shirtless with a cute cat curled up next to him.

Except maybe a guy who made breakfast the next morning. Though I would have appreciated it if he’d waited a few hours later to do it.