Page 7 of The Mating Fire
Conjuring an image in his mind, he sent a tendril of magick floating over to the offending woman, who was shrieking into her phone loud enough to be heard over the normal conversations.
“These people they hire! Can’t they get anyone with half a brain who knows how to cook grouper? I mean, honestly, I want it fresh and almost raw, so rare that you could see it opening and closing its mouth…”
Suddenly the woman’s red-painted mouth turned into fish lips. Giant fish lips, like that of a grouper, pale and fleshy.
Dropping her phone, the woman screamed. Her male companion, who had been eyeballing a cute blonde at the bar, looked at her and yelled.
“My face, my lips!” she screamed.
He admired his handiwork. Definitely an improvement over that fire engine red lipstick.
Leave now. Jared sent the suggestion into her mind and the woman smacking her fish lips as if tasting something delish and her male friend hurried out of the restaurant, everyone staring after them.
As the intimidated server came over to the table with a fresh plate of fish, looking bewildered, Jared slid off his stool. He peeled a couple of hundreds off the wad in his wallet and handed it to her.
“For your trouble and their meal. She had to leave in a hurry. Said something about needing a facial.”
Offering a tremulous smile, she thanked him and proceeded to march the fish back to the kitchen. He looked thoughtfullyafter her. Nice figure, cute face, perhaps a tad young… but she might please him in bed…
You’re here for another woman, Jared. Stop it. Stop it now.
Jared smiled, even as Xavier yelled at him inside his mind for violating his promise to be good.
I can never be good, wizard. I’m a lost cause. Even if I find this so-called soulmate to break the curse.
Then a woman came into the bar, a woman who was neither beautiful nor ugly, but whose very countenance made his embittered heart beat faster.
A woman who called to him, who struck him with dozens of thunderbolts of desire and longing he’d never before felt.
A woman who might save his dark, tainted soul. Maybe he wasn’t lost after all.
“I’m so screwed,” he muttered.
Chapter 4
Some days it was tough being a young, single woman who had a brain and adored science.
Harper sucked in a breath as she entered the outside bar. Never before had she resorted to meeting a total stranger for a date.
You have to start somewhere. You can’t keep sitting home alone with your textbooks and your research journals.
Well, not quite true. She had maintained a friendly online relationship in her birding group for nearly two months. But lately Darkbird1790 had been silent.
It hurt to be ghosted, even by an online guy in Peru. The ghosting had pushed her into finding a real date on the internet, a guy she could meet in person.
The Oysterman Bar was a safe choice. Harper waved to Char, her best friend, at the hostess stand. Her bestie would keep an eye on things and if Harper got into trouble, would immediately step in.
Char led her to a table by the railing overlooking a garden, handed her a menu and wished her luck. A waitress rushed over to take her drink order.
“Water. Nothing alcoholic. I’m meeting a guy I’ve never met before,” she told the woman.
“Got it.” The waitress glanced at Char. “You’re Charlotte’s friend. No worries. If he’s a jerk, we’ll take care of him.”
Harper smiled her thanks.
As she waited, Harper scrolled through her phone and her thesis notes on the origin of magma relating to composition and texture of igneous rocks. Almost finished. Getting her PhD had been a lifelong dream, much as her studying volcanoes.
Volcanoes were safer than people these days. Volcanoes might be a bit unpredictable, but with seismometers and equipment measuring earthquakes, you could tell when an eruption was impending. Not so with people. Sometimes people, like her father, would erupt at the least likely warning.
