He ripped the check off and handed it over. ‘Who said I was going to be here a short time, Ms. O’Brien?’

She tried to stare him down. ‘I did. I’m afraid there’s simply nothing here for you.’

‘You don’t know what I need, though.’

This time she glared. ‘Whatever it is, I don’t have it.’

Oh, crap. Had she really said that? She flushed again, a mottled red that was sincerely unattractive on a redhead, while he made a slow perusal of her, tucked away beneath her boring gray suit and bobby pins.

‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Miss O’Brien. Are you sure I can’t talk you into dinner?’

She did her best to reclaim her dignity. I’m sure, Mr James.’

‘What about a drink? Surely a drink won’t overset the delicate balance of of the universe.’

A drink. With Danny James. Who was he kidding?

‘Mr James,’ she said, ready to deal him the setdown of his life, when something tickled her nose and she shivered hard, once. ‘I’d love to have a drink.’

Dee wasn’t sure who was more surprised. She did know who was more appalled.

This day was going from bad to worse, Lizzie thought unhappily, staring up at the now visible Elric. Charles’s appearance had been even less welcome than the stranger’s – she’d already been rethinking her precipitous decision to marry him, and seeing him with Elric’s dark, unreadable eyes made her choice seem even more absurd.

‘That’s my fiance,’ she said, unnecessarily.

‘Not for long,’ Elric said, turning and heading back into the kitchen, obviously expecting her to follow. She glanced at the door longingly for a moment, and as if on cue the lock clicked. ‘He’s not your type.’

‘I’m not going to discuss my love life with you,’ she said stiffly. She began scooping up the silverware from the table, including the yellow spoon, and dumped it all in the sink.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Washing dishes,’ she said without turning around. Maybe if she just ignored him he’d go away. ‘We have a deal, my sisters and I. I take care of the household, they bring in the money.’

‘You don’t strike me as the Susie Homemaker type.’

‘I’m not. I like to cook – that way I can mix things together and make something without it exploding or catching fire. Traditional jobs are a bit of a… challenge for me. Things change form when I don’t expect it, and I have a hard time explaining.’

He came up behind her – she didn’t have to turn to feel him, she didn’t have to have any special gifts. He was everywhere. ‘The dishes can wait. I want you to tell me why you’re marrying that weak-minded bully.’

‘He’s not-’

‘You’ve got him wrapped around your finger. I was impressed – that kind of mind magic is very advanced, and doesn’t usually go along with transmutationary gifts. Though maybe that’s why you can control him when everything else in your life is out of your control.’

She turned at that one, glaring at him. Or tried to, but every time she looked at him he seemed to shift a little, those streams of color distracting her. ‘You’re a psychiatrist as well as a charlatan?’ she demanded. ‘Go analyze someone else.’

He was unfazed by her insult. ‘Did I touch a nerve, Elizabeth Alicia? You don’t need a man telling you you’re a useless idiot.’

‘That’s what you’ve been doing ever since you materialized in my kitchen,’ she snapped, turning back to the dishes.

There was silence for a moment, and she wondered if she’d finally managed to puncture that calm certainty.

‘You have a point,’ he conceded finally. ‘But in my case I think you’re too smart and too gifted to be making stupid mistakes and endangering yourself and those around you. Your boyfriend seems to think you’re useless. What in the world made you think you should marry him?’

‘I told you, I want a normal life, one without magic’

‘I think I can safely assure you that a life with your future husband will be completely devoid of any sort of magic.’ His voice was dry.

She dumped the silver and yellow flatware into the drainer and turned to look at him. Again, that odd little pinging feeling inside – as if her hormones had shortcircuited.

Her hormones had nothing to do with the stranger who’d shown up in her kitchen, she reminded herself sternly. In fact, her hormones were barely operating at a normal level, despite the strange, erotic dreams that had been tormenting her the last few nights. All those had managed to do was ensure she had a lousy night’s sleep, and right now she’d had about as much of the mysterious Elric as she could handle.

‘You want to leave,’ she said, her voice soothing. ‘You want to forget you ever found us.’

His hoot of laughter might have been insulting if she’d had even the faintest hope it would work. ‘I told you, that only works on the weak-minded, and those whose minds are clouded by lust. Haven’t you ever wondered why it didn’t work when you tried it with your sisters? And don’t tell me you haven’t tried – I won’t believe you.’

‘I’ve tried. You’re right, it only works with men. And clearly not all men,’ she added. ‘Lucky for you your mind isn’t clouded by lust for me.’

‘Lucky for me,’ he said, his still dark eyes watching her. ‘Why did you choose Charles? The weak-minded part, I imagine. You wouldn’t have any trouble finding men whose minds are clouded by lust, but you must have wanted someone who was easily controllable. And you seem like such a sweet girl.’

‘Charles is none of your business,’ she said. ‘Who I choose to marry and what I do with my life is none of your business.’

‘You’re a fool. You deserve better, and instead you choose a backwater town and an idiot boyfriend and sooner or later you’re going to end up blowing up this house and your sisters with it until someone puts a stop to it.’

She turned her back on him, shaking. More anger, and she hated it. Though the odd thing was, she was getting angry in return, when she usually just hid in her room. ‘Leave me alone.’ She picked up the dishpan to dump the soapy water out. ‘Get the hell out of here and leave me alone.’

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he said.

Lizzie gave up and began to the tip the dishpan, and then something tickled her nose, and she shivered hard twice.

‘Then I am,’ she said and whirled around, flinging the soapy water directly at him.

And then she ran.

The Greasy Fork was crowded by the time Mare got her lunch break at noon, but Crash had snagged them a booth, as always. She threaded her way through the crowd, keeping her heart-shaped sunglasses on to hide her eyes so they wouldn’t give anything away, like maybe that she was glad to see him and might still be hopelessly in love with him except that she wasn’t that much of a loser, hell, she was Queen of the Universe, he could kiss her foot. Or something else.

He saw her and stood up, looking tall and broad and solid as ever, and really, really good, and she remembered how it had felt to have his arms around her. Doesn’t matter. She was going to be cool, she didn’t care-

‘Thanks for meeting me,’ he said, and his voice sounded so deep and good, just hearing him felt so good, she closed her eyes to savor it.

‘I had to.’ Mare slid into the booth. ‘I couldn’t talk to you at the store. We have a vice president there.’

‘Yeah, I saw him.’ Crash sat down across from her and that felt right, being back in a booth at the Fork with him, and Mare thought, No, this is how you got hurt before, he won’t stay…

‘So it’s been a while,’ she said.

‘Right.’ Crash picked up his empty coffee cup and tilted it, and Mare thought, Coffee, that’s new, he didn’t drink coffee five years ago.

‘Well, welcome back.’ She picked up the menu and flipped it open, holding it in front of her so she couldn’t see him, especially because she thought there might be tears in her eyes, tears of rage, damn it, but he wouldn’t get that; if they slipped down her cheeks from under her sunglasses he’d think she was crying for him.