F.M.P. Society

F.M.P. SOCIETY An Ellora’s Cave Publication, February 2004

Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc. PO Box 787 Hudson, OH 44236-0787

ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-808-1 Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned): Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML

F.M.P. SOCIETY © 2004 DAKOTA CASSIDY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Edited by Briana St. James. Cover art by Syneca.

F.M.P. SOCIETY

Dakota Cassidy

Dakota Cassidy

Prologue Katia Martin was busily waxing her bikini line when the damn Fairy Godmother bell chimed. She looked up with disdain. Jeez. Like, didn’t anyone care that she was in the middle of something important? Sighing loudly, she watched as Mia’s (capital m, little i, little a) long legs ran to the mailbox that appeared out of nowhere, with little warning and much ado about nothing. It hovered politely in the air as Mia dug through it, pulled out the official Fairy Godmother scroll and rolled it out onto the floor. A fine mist of puffy white clouds parted and just as quickly, the mailbox literally disappeared into thin air. Simone lurked behind Mia’s shoulders to get a glimpse of their assignment, her caramel skin a stark contrast to Mia’s pale pallor that said, “this flesh has never seen a UV ray in its life”. “Oooh,” Mia cooed. “Look girls, another assignment!” Her high-pitched little-girl giggle made Katia cringe. Simone didn’t smile at all, she just shrugged her shoulders in a nonchalant manner, as if to say, so? Her sharp angular features remained a mask of perfection as she blew on her wet nails. Simone chimed in with her usual sarcasm. “Oh, goody! Another loser in need of a Fairy Godmother. I don’t know about you girls, but this whole Fairy Godmother thing is so droll.” Mia wiggled her perfectly manicured finger at Simone. “You know you don’t mean that, Simone.” Mia winked. “I mean the least we can do is help those who are less fortunate than us. We’re like way beautiful, not everyone is as lucky as we are.” Mia gave them her best one-hundred-watt smile, flashing teeth that were so perfect and so white it hurt everyone’s eyes to look at them. Her big blue eyes sparkled. 4

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“I am telling you right now, I will NOT do another lip wax. The last one was perfectly horrifyyyying,” Simone said as she emphasized her words with a shake of her finger. “These women have no idea the sacrifices we made as supermodels. What’s a little pain in the interest of a moustache-free upper lip I ask you? So she got a rash. Like we all haven’t been there.” Simone cat-walked over to the couch, with a practiced sway of her hips. She resumed painting her nails, dismissing them. Katia groaned inwardly. Simone thought any wide open space was an invitation to sashay. “We don’t make sacrifices anymore Simone,” Katia reminded her. “We’re dead, remember?” Simone’s perfect face twitched, her black almond-shaped eyes narrowed to a deadly point. “Well whose fault is that, Katia? If you hadn’t held us up with your bitching and moaning over that stupid new designer’s bathing suit, we would have cleared the runway long before it collapsed. Now look,” Simone said dryly. “Ya know what, Simone?” Katia asked, crossing the room with a hobble, congealed wax glued to her thighs, and shook her fist at Simone. “If you say that one more time I’m going to—” “Girls!” Mia cried, clapping her slender hands sharply to get their attention. “Stop it right now! There’s no use crying over spilled milk. We’re all together and that’s all that matters.” Mia smiled sheepishly at them, “We’re dead… But we’re together.” “Shut up!” Simone and Katia yelled in unison. Mia waved them off absently and said, “We have a subject who needs our help and from the looks of it, this subject needs like a lot of help.” “Don’t they all?” Simone snorted.

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Katia gave a good yank to the now cooled wax on her bikini line and yelped. “Ahhhhhh! Damn, that hurts,” she swore, as she hopped around from foot to foot. But her thin cellulite-free thighs were now restored to their perfection. “Let me see that damn thing, Mia,” Katia grabbed the scroll from Mia and skimmed the intended subject’s stats. Oh my. Well, it did indeed look like Cara Anthony needed some rescuing. “Aw, would you look at the poor thing. She is just pitiful.” Mia nodded her head. “There is soooo much work to be done. But look at her potential, Katia, I mean her hair is fabulous. Don’t you agree?” Katia nodded her head thoughtfully. “It’s gonna be a full makeover this time, girls. Well, we’d better bust a move if we’re gonna get to her in time. Mia, grab the makeup kit. Simone, get the wax.” Katia ordered. Simone let out an exasperated sigh, her pretty, full lips pursed into a pout. “Why do I always have to do the wax?” “Because you’re an expert at it Simone. I mean, look at all the hair removal you’ve done from your body alone.” Simone shot Katia the look of death. Mia jumped in cutting them both off. “Look girls, this is an emergency, like 911 okay? Could we puuuleease stop fooling around and find the shoes?” Mia planted her hands on her nearly non-existent hips and tapped her foot. “I’ll find them,” Katia offered with a huff as she headed for the hall closet, opening it to a tumble of shoes and coats. “You know, Simone, if you would clean up after yourself we wouldn’t always be losing them.” “I cannot live like this,” Simone whined, stomping her foot. “I miss Geoffrey. He was the best butler a supermodel could ask for. I don’t clean anything. Ever. End of story.”

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“Well that’s pretty damn obvious. Would you look at this closet?” Katia accused while she threw more shoes than any three women could ever hope to own in two lifetimes out onto the slick tiled floor. “Hah!” she yelled triumphantly, “I’ve got them.” Katia let the red, high-heeled pumps dangle from her slender fingers. They glittered in the light. “God, they’re fabulous, aren’t they?” She said on a sigh. “C’mon ladies,” she summoned them, “there’s work to be done…”

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Chapter 1 Cara Anthony dropped a heavy tray of scrambled eggs into its slot beside the bacon as she blew at the steam that wafted upward. She hoped steam really was good for her pores. She’d certainly had enough of it. She should have the skin of a supermodel by now. The long line of hungry executives who frequented her cafeteria seemed never ending. Tucking the stray tendrils of hair that had escaped her cap, Cara set about serving the impatient movers and shakers of the world who inhabited the building by day. “Morning, Mr. Andrews. Hungry?” Cara knew without question exactly what Henry Andrews wanted, or rather what his wife had so carefully instructed her to give him. She began to fill his plate with fruit and cottage cheese just as she knew Mrs. Andrews would want it. Mr. Andrews, her favorite ad-exec, rubbed his round belly with beefy hands. “Well, seems to me you already know the answer to that, beautiful.” He smiled at her warmly and accepted his plate with a harrumph. “Sure wish the missus hadn’t decided it was time to get healthy. Who can live on fruit and curdled milk, I ask you?” Cara chuckled and winked at him. “It’s for your own good, and you know it,” she soothed him, watching his broad back as he made his way down the line. As she gave the eggs a stir she called, “Next.” “I’ll take the scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns, please.” Cara fought the mad parade of butterflies that assaulted her belly, the thrill of pleasure that shot up her spine. It was him. lexander Mackenzie. 8

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She groaned inwardly. Smoothing her uniform over her thighs, she looked up into the most fantastic brown eyes from Earth to Venus. Taking a gulp of air, she plastered a smile on her face and picked up the spoon to begin scooping eggs with trembling hands. Ruby bustled around her, filling the trays with juice and milk cartons. She nudged Cara with her broad hip. “Look, honey buns, it’s Mr. Booty-licious,” she teased, cackling quietly in Cara’s ear. Cara’s face turned all the colors of the spectrum. “Ruby!” “What?” Ruby smiled innocently, as she pinched Cara’s cheeks with her thick fingers. “He is booty-licious, right? Mmmm, girl, I ain’t never seen a finer piece of ass than that! Whew, would I love to sink my teeth into him,” Ruby whispered in Cara’s ear. Cara swallowed the lump in her throat. As she handed Alexander his plate, her gloved hand brushed his and she immediately stiffened. He smiled at her, showing his perfect white teeth. “Thank you.” His deep tenor sent another heat wave of color across her cheeks. Cara smiled shyly back. “You’re welcome.” Did she detect a squeak in her voice when she said that? Oh, damn, squeaking was not good. No squeaking allowed. He was hot. So what? Big deal! She only wished her nipples would agree it wasn’t a big deal. Alexander Mackenzie would never pay attention to a mouse like her who worked in the employee cafeteria. He was world traveled and the owner of a major corporation. He could have his pick of any bodacious babe on the block. Babe being the operative word here, Cara Anthony was decidedly not a babe. She was so not a babe. Nor was she bodacious. Well, maybe her ass was. One night was all she asked with him. Her shoulders sagged. Like that would ever happen.

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Sighing, she finished feeding the hungry breakfast crowd, peeking now and again at the table across the room where Alexander sat with the employees who worked for him. The sun shining in from the large, street-side window glinted off his wide shoulders. He was so incredibly hunky she had a lump in her throat. He was tall and hard bodied with a trim waist and thickly muscled thighs like trees. The muscles bulged through the fabric of his pants and she wondered if there was a fine sprinkling of hair on them. Hair she’d gladly run her fingers through. He took a sip of his coffee and her heart stopped, just watching his big hand curl around the Styrofoam cup. What would it be like to have those hands on her? What would it be like to run her fingers through his thick, coffee-colored hair? Cara’s ears pricked at the deep rumble of his laughter. She would never have the confidence to attract a man like that. She would never look good enough to attract a man like that. Well, life sucks and then you die, right?

***** Cara unlocked her apartment door with a relieved sigh. She was exhausted and worse, she smelled like tuna. She wrinkled her nose and threw her purse on the couch, looking forward to some dinner and a shower. The BEAST, as she fondly called him, was armed and ready to utilize his best sucking up skills. He knew tuna on whole-wheat day at the cafeteria like Imelda Marcos knew shoes. His midnight-black tail twirled around her calves, tickling her as she knelt to pet him. “Hey, fat boy. Miss me?” He allowed her a small scratch of his ears and then he beat feet to the kitchen, circling impatiently for dinner. His soft purr echoed in the tiny room as Cara dug around for a can of cat food. She plopped the bowl down in front of The BEAST and grabbed the cheese in a can with some crackers for her dinner.

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Kicking off her shoes, she sat down at the small table to eat. She ripped open the crackers and sprayed each liberally with the processed cheese. Popping one in her mouth, she leaned back in her chair and sighed with pleasure, letting her eyes close. “Daaaahling, you really shouldn’t indulge like that. Cheese is sooo not good for a girl’s thighs.” A voice, smooth as silk, crooned from out of nowhere. Cara’s chair tipped backward and fell on the floor, the legs scraping the linoleum as she went. Her head hit the hard surface with a thud, and the crackers slid across the floor, flying everywhere. “What the hell?” She was hearing things. She scrunched her eyes shut as she massaged the newly formed lump at the back of her head. “Simone! Look what you’ve done,” Cara heard a little girl’s voice chastise. Alrighty, then. What the hell was in that can of cheese? Potent stuff. Good for a hallucination or two. She felt a small hand brush her hair back from her eyes. “Damn, Simone, haven’t you learned anything about re-entry into the human realm? We’re not supposed to scare the living crap out of the subject. So sorry, love,” a throaty voice apologized, “we didn’t mean to frighten you.” Cara peeked up at the voices in her head. Holy cow. Omigod. Voices in your head did not have legs up to their eyeballs. A voice in your head didn’t have three sets of legs either. Cara scrambled backwards, grabbing the can of cheese from the table to use as a weapon. Good gravy, like cheese in a can could help me now. “Who the hell are you?” Cara pointed the can at them defensively, daring them to come any closer. All those long luscious locks were destined for a very sticky hell if they came anywhere near her.

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“Darling, give Simone the can of cholesterol. C’mon now, precious. Give it to me and we’ll all sit down and talk. Okay?” The tall drink of water with the most spectacular caramel colored skin put her slender hand out to Cara. Cara shook her head no furiously. The redhead made a move toward her but Cara was ready for her, shaking the can under her pretty upturned nose. “Back off, Glamazon, or I’ll clobber you.” With my bad ass can of processed cheese, mind you. Oh, hell. The redhead cringed visibly. “Now Cara, be reasonable. Come sit with us and we’ll explain everything. Okay girls, it’s time for introductions.” Cara watched with wild eyes as each woman, one more fabulously fantastic than the next, nodded her head. “I’m Katia,” the redhead with the almond green eyes offered. “And I’m Mia. Capital M, little i, little a,” The squeaky-clean blonde smiled brightly at her. “Last, but most certainly not least, I’m Simone,” the beautiful brunette drawled lazily, as if Cara should instinctively know who she was. “And we’re your fairy godmothers,” they said in unison with proud smiles on each of their fabulous faces. Cara dropped the can of cheese and hit the floor for the second time that day, with a thunk.

***** The three girls carried Cara to her couch and as gently as possible laid her down. “Go get a cool cloth,” Mia ordered to Simone. “Well now look, the poor thing is out like a light.” Katia rubbed Cara’s arms to get the blood flowing again. “You know we really have to give some thought to re-entry

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into this realm. I mean, remember the last girl we scared the life out of? It took like forever to get her to believe us. We can’t spend that kind of time raising the dead. We have work to do..” Mia nodded solemnly as she took the cloth from Simone and pressed it to Cara’s cheeks. Cara stirred slowly, pushing the intrusive cloth away. Opening her eyes, she sat up with a start. Her head throbbed. “Okay, who the hell are you?” Cara asked between clenched teeth. Mia patted her leg reassuringly. “We told you, we’re your fairy godmothers.” Cara reached out to touch the Amazon blonde’s arm, then snatched her hand back. Holy guacamole, she felt real! “What’s your name again?” “Mia sweetie, Capital M, little—” Cara held up her hand and cut her off. “Never mind, I know, ‘little i, little a’.” Mia beamed her approval. The tall brunette sat down next to her. “And I’m Simone, honey. This,” she waved her hand absently at the redhead, “is Katia.” “And you’re my fairy godmothers, right?” The three most beautiful women she’d ever seen all nodded. “We’re The F.M.P. Society,” Mia confirmed. “Right,” Cara scoffed at them, “and I’m the King of Siam.” “Who’s that? Oh, oh wait! I know he’s that rapper, right?” Mia giggled at Cara’s frown. Hellloooo in there. Okay, so Mia, capital whatever, wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. She didn’t have to be, she was gorgeous. Mia put a soothing hand on Cara’s arm as Katia and Simone plopped their round, perfectly proportioned butts on the coffee table in front of her.

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Well, they seemed harmless enough. Stunning. Lacking a brain cell or two, but harmless. There were no such things as fairy godmothers. They were escapees from the school for the flawless or something. “What’s the F.M.P. Society?” “You’ll know soon enough,” Katia said on a giggle. “For now, just consider us your fairy godmothers.” Humor the pretty girls, Cara. “Okay, so you’re my fairy godmothers,” Cara said between snorts, “and this means what, in my universe?” It means, you have now entered the Twilight Zone… Simone’s wide smile lit up the room. “This means that we are about to rock your world, darling, and then some.” “And what if I don’t want my world rocked?” Cara smiled back until her lips stuck to her teeth. “Sweetie, trust us when we tell you your world needs rocking,” Katia crooned huskily. Mia smiled complacently at her and took a handful of Cara’s hair. “Would you look at these ends, girls? Split twelve ways to Sunday. But it’s gorgeous. Fabu texture and so thick—” Mia trailed off, as she ran her fingers through the bulk of coppery highlighted tresses. Cara yanked her head away. “Does part of rocking my world consist of a haircut? Cause I just want to tell you right now. Nobody cuts my hair.” “Well, that’s obvious darling,” Simone pointed out. “Just a trim to start maybe. It looks like your upper lip is in pretty good shape. Thank goodness. I can’t tell you the hell I go through—” “Simone,” Katia groaned. “Give the girl a break, okay?” Turning to Cara she smiled. “Yes, we are your fairy godmothers. We’re here to help you realize your

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potential. In time, you’ll thank us,” Katia stated plainly, with a wink of one gorgeous eye. “My potential? What kind of potential are we talking about? If we’re talking about your particular brand of potential, you can forget it. There’s no way I can reach that kind of potential in this millennium.” Cara shook her head. “So thanks for the offer, I’m sure some other lucky girl with potential needs you more than I do. You can go now. I’m good.” The three women smiled at each other knowingly. “Well, darling, you can’t be that good if you lust for a man who doesn’t even know you’re alive, now can you?” Amazon woman number one drawled. Cara’s face turned red. How the hell could they know about Alexander? “We know everything, pumpkin…And that’s why we’re here. This Alexander won’t know what hit him when we’re done.” Oh hell, they did know. Could she have Alexander with the help of these women? Omigod.

***** Cara stood before her full-length mirror and shivered. She’d been showered, plucked, and plucked again for good measure and she still wasn’t sure how it all happened. It hadn’t taken much to convince her that these women could help her snare Alex. How pitiful was that? She’d gone right along with this because she was damn desperate to have Alex. If this was all her mind working overtime, then so be it. Let your imagination soar was her theory, or let the nice men with white coats come and take you away with the butterfly net. Either way she was willing to take the risk. She was tired of being alone and even more tired of wanting someone she couldn’t have. Maybe, with the help of these three women, she wouldn’t be alone for long. 15

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Now, with only a towel draped around her body, she waited for the next round of primping. This was insane. She was insane to believe these women could help her. The mere mention of Alexander’s name and she was all ears, ready to believe just about anything. Pitiful. Pathetic. Fairy godmothers. No such things. Then how did they appear right before your very eyes, without warning? Where did they come from? Why couldn’t they just wave their magic wands, make her beautiful and call it a day? Simone came up behind her and put her slender hands on Cara’s shoulders. “I know what you’re thinking. Why don’t we wave our magic wands and poof you’re fabulous?” Cara smiled hesitantly at her from the reflection in the mirror and nodded her head. “Well, darling, it’s all about magic and levels of magic. Or some such nonsense. We haven’t attained those levels yet, so the magic wand works for some things and not for others. We have to work at it just like everyone else. We each have our specialties so no worries. Mine is waxing.” Cara winced at that. Oh yes, waxing was Simone’s specialty all right. Her legs, now a tingling mass of nerves, could attest to that. “You have a magic wand? Like seriously?” Simone smiled that lazy, sensuous smile, just a slight tilt upward of her luscious lips. “Oh, yeah, sweetie, we all do. They just don’t have full power yet. It takes time to become a full-fledged fairy godmother.” Simone gave her shoulders a squeeze and went off to the bathroom, probably to gather more devices to torture her with. Cara assessed herself in the mirror. Okay, so for sure she wasn’t a tall lanky supermodel. She felt a pang of envy over all those long limbs and that L’Oreal hair. She bit her lip. If one were brutally honest, she was short and fuller figured. But still firm in

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almost all of the right places. Cara squared her shoulders and sucked in her belly. She let out a whoosh of air. This was ridiculous. There was no way Alexander Mackenzie was going to be interested in her. No matter how much waxing, poking, highlighting, and makeup these crazy women conjured up. Magic wand or not. What she needed was a magic light saber so she’d have The Force with her or something. “That’s just not true.” Mia sat at the edge of Cara’s bed, folding her long legs beneath her. “Can fairy godmothers read minds too?” Cara heard the edge of sarcasm in her tone, but she couldn’t help herself. “No, honeybunch, I can’t read your mind, but every new subject has the same doubts, the same worries. It’s normal, we expect it. Look at yourself, Cara. You’re a pretty girl, you just have to let yourself be pretty. Think, of like, all the people in the cafeteria who know you and look forward to seeing you everyday. It isn’t just what you look like on the outside, but what you are on the inside.” Oh, jeez, this fabulously perfect woman sounded like one of those shrinks on a talk show. “Realize your inner beauty” and all that jazz. Only the pretty girls said that. She realized a long time ago that inner beauty counted for nada. When a guy checked her out he wasn’t checking out her heart, that was for sure. He was checking out her cup size. Whether her ass had gone south or if it was still perky. She took a good, long look at her cup size. She was average at best, and her ass had gone south, or at least covered a good portion of the tri-state area. She sighed. “Now look,” Mia said with a smile, “Didn’t I say you have fabulous hair? Well I wasn’t kidding. All we need is a bit of a trim, maybe an added highlight or two and you are like, so there.” Mia took Cara by the hand and led her off to the bathroom again, sitting her on the toilet seat. She grabbed a bag and pulled out a cape and some smelly stuff in a bottle.

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“Okay, so why don’t you girls tell me exactly how you became fairy godmothers.” Cara heard one of them suck in a gulp of air. Mia tugged on a long lock of her hair. “Ouch! That hurts,” Cara yelped. “Sorry, punkin’,” Leaning in close to Cara’s ear she whispered. “Could we wait on the explanation for that? It gets like soooo intense between Katia and Simone.” “Sure,” she agreed. “Well, then what about this name of yours the F…XYZ club, was it?” “No, darling, it’s the F.M.P. Society. Say it out loud. It rhymes, ya know.” Mia giggled. “We sorta made it up when we became fairy godmothers.” Um, okay, “And what does it mean, Mia?” Cara watched with unease, as chunks of her hair fell to the bathroom floor. Oh, crap, she would be bald at this rate. “It stands for fuck me pumps. F.M.P., see?” This she said as the snip-snip of those very scary scissors followed. Speak slowly to the fabulous one. “Fuck me pumps?” Inquiring minds want to know. “Yeah, you know. The shoes that you wear when you wanna get laid? They’re called fuck me pumps. It’s sounds so—crass. Believe me, I know, but there it is.” Mia seemed to have the impression she made sense. “And how does this figure into my situation?” Cara was beginning to think that maybe these gorgeous broads really had escaped the looney bin. Mia tilted her head back, still tugging at stray tendrils of hair. Katia stood in the doorway. Tall and slender, her miniskirt hugged her smooth thighs. She held something in her hand. Cara brushed the hair from her eyes. “These are why we’re called the F.M.P. Society.” A pair of bright red shoes dangled from Katia’s perfectly manicured nail by thin straps. Ah hah, these must be the fuck me pumps…Well, Hell’s bells.

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Chapter 2 Um, alrighty then. Fuck me pumps. Hookay, this was all going to go away once she woke up. Cara scrunched her eyes shut then opened them again. Nah, they weren’t going away. And this wasn’t a dream. She cringed at the tug of her hair as Mia snipped and highlighted. Katia still stood in the doorway, with those shoes dangling from her fingers and The BEAST had now found a new set of legs to wind himself around. A very perfect set of legs. Stupid, traitorous, cat. Katia sat on her haunches and scratched The BEAST’S ears. His purr of satisfaction made Cara that much more aware of this ridiculous scenario. The BEAST rubbed his chin on the pretty red shoes. Maybe if she just went along with the theory of this being a dream, when she woke up tomorrow she could have a good laugh and forget it ever happened. Play nice with the Barbie knockoffs, Cara, they’re harmless. “Okay, Katia, tell me about the shoes.” Katia grinned and launched into an explanation. “Well, it’s like this. When you put on these shoes, they transform. So like, say you’re on a trip, right? And you pack a fabulous Calvin Klein outfit for the evening and then want to wear like jeans during the day. All you have to do is bring these shoes and presto! They instantly transform to match whatever you’re wearing. Isn’t that just to die for?” Katia squealed with excitement. “So I can wear these shoes with anything, and they match whatever I put on? But what’s the big deal about that?” Cara’s bullshit radar kicked into overdrive. “Yup,” Mia chimed in to agree with Katia. “That’s why they’re so fabulous, silly. The big deal is they’re going to help you snag your man. Now hold still while I blow

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dry.” Mia took out a big round brush and began wrapping Cara’s thick hair around it in sections. The hum of the blow dryer gave Cara a minute to gather her thoughts. So, the shoes changed to match what she wore. And this would help get Alexander’s attention how? She was beginning to get the distinct impression she’d been gypped in the fairy godmother department. I want a refund. Where did one go for a refund on their fairy godmother? Point me in the direction of the courtesy counter in magic-ville, please. “Okay, sweetums, all done.” Cara began to rise from her porcelain seat but Mia plunked her firmly back in place. “No, honey, we’re not done just yet. Kaaaattttiiiiaaaa,” Mia screeched. “Get in here, it’s your turn.” One last fluff of Cara’s hair and Mia was sliding past Katia, out of the bathroom. Cara watched her leave as Katia plopped a big, gold bag down on the edge of the sink. The bag of tricks no doubt. Better be some damn fine tricks in there. “Oh, darling, you have the most beautiful skin. All peachy and your eyes are the most fabu shade of blue-green. Now with all of this glorious hair we’ll want to highlight those features. I’m going to teach you a technique or two and with a couple of extra minutes in the morning you’ll be so incredible, this Alexander won’t know what hit him.” Katia obviously got off on this makeup thing. Cara wanted to confide in her that she’d tried every brand of makeup known to the free world and it still looked like someone had soundly slapped her across the cheeks and glued her eyes shut. Cara exhaled slowly as Katia dusted something over her nose. “You, my pretty, are an autumn,” Katia shared, as if imparting some great wisdom. Now I’m a season. What if I want to be summer? Ooooh, maybe spring? Autumn was nice. Pretty leaves, crisp cool air. Pumpkins, Halloween. “What the hell does an autumn mean?” Katia giggled. Damn, these women giggled a lot. “It means those are the shades best suited for your coloring. So think browns and gold, maybe a bit of green thrown in.” 20

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Oh, okay. Cool. Autumn. I am an Autumn…I am insane. “So let me get this straight. These shoes will help me get Alexander’s attention how?” Cara’s eyes widened as Katia gripped a pair of tweezers. “When you put those shoes on there won’t be a man around who can resist you, honey. I’ve seen it happen time and again. Believe me, by this time tomorrow Alexander will be putty.” Putty was good. In lust was better. “Make an O for me with your lips, Cara.” Cara dutifully formed the letter O with her mouth. “Oh, I knew this would be the perfect shade for you. Now I want you to repeat after me. Line, color, blend, blot. First, we line your lips and then we add the color, blend together and blot. K?” “Line, color, blend, blot,” Cara repeated around the tube of lipstick. “Good, all done.” Katia began to put away the brushes and liners. “That’s it?” “Sweetie pie, I told you, you only need a little bit to make an impact. Less is more, darling. Now come see.” Katia led Cara out into her bedroom where Glamazons one and two sat on her bed, each perfect body curled in a corner. Mia reached over and squeezed Simone’s hand. “Oh, Cara! Look at you! Like, would you just look at how beautiful you are?” Oh, yeah, compared to the fabulous triplets Cara was sure she fell into the beautiful category. For crap’s sake, there was just no way she could top these three not even if Vidal Sasoon himself…Cara’s thoughts trailed off as she caught the first glimpse of the “new” Cara in the full length mirror. She felt her legs wobble. Holy makeover! “I…I can’t believe…” Katia rearranged Cara’s hair, letting it fall to her shoulders in thick clouds of highlighted gold. The deep amber, now softened with color in all the right places,

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framed her face gently. Cara’s hand trembled as she ran her fingers through it. It was so smooth and glossy. She touched her lips with a finger. They looked slick and full, and her eyes… Oh my God, they jumped out at her. The blue-green was a startling contrast to her peach-blushed skin. Her lashes weren’t clumps of goop, but swept upward in a graceful arc. Cara grabbed at the towel she still had wrapped around her body to stop her hands from shaking. “I don’t know what to…” Cara fumbled over her words. “The look on your face is all the thanks we need, lamb chop. Right, girls?” Mia and Simone smiled fondly at her. “But what if I can’t do this tomorrow? I mean, I’ve never been very good at this stuff and I have to wear a uniform at work. Plus the hair net…so he won’t even see my hair.” Cara began to pace the length of the bedroom holding the towel at her breasts. “I’ll look just like I do every single day and he’ll ignore me just like he does every single day.” Her voice rose as panic began to gnaw at her gut. “He’ll never notice me and this will all have been for nothing. Don’t you see? I’m not the kind of girl Alexander Mackenzie is interested in. What was I thinking? He owns a company, for crap’s sake. I work in a cafeteria.” Oh, shit she was whining now. Like a big baby. Damn, she’d been so close to believing she might actually stand a chance. Cara plopped down on the bed between Simone and Mia in defeat. “Stop this right now, Cara.” Katia ordered sharply. “Now listen to me. Do you really want a man who loves you only for the way you look?” Um, yeah. Cara frowned at her. “Listen, Miss America, that’s easy for you to say. You’re beautiful. Pretty girls don’t need to work in cafeterias.” Katia wrinkled her nose at Cara. “Maybe not, and I’ll thank you not to call me names. But I still wouldn’t want a man who only wanted me for the way I looked.” Katia folded her arms over her chest in defiance. 22

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If only she could see the irony in that statement. Of course men wanted her for the way she looked. It was what made them want her in the first place. Just the head start she needed to be noticed. Jeez. It wasn’t for the brain cell they shared amongst them that was for sure. That was uncalled for, Cara Anthony. Good hell, they were like every average woman’s assumption. Vain, vapid, shallow and really trying to help her the best way they knew how. So shut up, Cara, and stop being so damn catty. “So why don’t you explain to me how I’m supposed to get him to notice me if I don’t look any different than I did yesterday?” Mia reached behind her and held up the shoes. Oh, those shoes. “With these, cookie, you’ll see. When you put them on everything will change…”

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Chapter 3 And change they did, Cara mused as she patted a bit more of the powder over her nose, just like Katia had so painstakingly taught her. Tucking her newly highlighted tresses under her hair net, she took one last glimpse at her image in the mirror. Well, she would admit she had a glow about her today that didn’t exist before meeting the Amazon tribe of triplets. And people were noticing her. She’d caught Mr. Andrews gazing longingly at her boobs. When she’d asked the girls how long she could keep the shoes, they had been evasive. For as long as you need them, was the answer she’d gotten. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, honey. Cara glanced down at her perky boobs. Yup, those push up bras really did work. Harvey from the dot-com company on the sixth floor had to be told to put his tongue back in his head. Cara giggled to herself. The real test was yet to come. Alexander hadn’t come in for breakfast. So bring on the next meal, she thought with shaky confidence. Bring it on.

***** Ruby whistled loudly at her as Cara made her way back from the bathroom. “Girl, I dunno what you did last night but you sure look fine. You go and get one of those makeovers?” Cara smiled at her. “Sorta, I guess, it’s a little hard to explain. You like?” Cara twirled in front of Ruby. Seeing her co-workers’ reaction this morning had been worth all the poking and prodding of last night.

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“Well, honey, it don’t matter if I like, but I’ll tell ya about a few men round this joint who most definitely do like. Mmm, girl, they’re gonna be fightin’ to get at ya. I always knew you were a pretty girl, but to look at ya now. You just glow.” Cara winked at Ruby. “Thanks Ruby, I feel pretty good too.” “You know that Gordon from the eighth floor was sniffin’ around here earlier. Lookin’ to see if he could get your number. I told him you were busy.” Ruby snorted. “Gordon? Really? Holy cow, Rube. He’s way out of my league.” “There aint nobody out of your league, honey, but Ruby knows you’re savin’ yourself for Mr. Booty-licious.” Cara felt the warmth creep across her cheeks and it wasn’t because of the tray full of chipped beef on toast she was lugging around. Ruby nudged her with her broad hip. “Speaking of the man himself, look out, cuz here he comes, sugar.” Cara’s stomach churned with fear, anticipation, and those damn butterflies doing a jig. Taking a deep, relaxing breath, she looked down at her shoes. They really did match whatever she wore. Her feet tingled, sending warm shafts of heat right down to her toenails. To anyone else they might look like the kind of shoes a nurse would wear, boring, white, institutional shoes. But Cara knew differently, and that power lent her the confidence she needed to jump on in. Just one night. She ran a trembling hand over her uniform and looked up with a smile on her face. Her gaze met the most incredible pair of chocolate brown eyes on the face of the earth and they crinkled at the corners. Please do not let me make an ass of myself. Be charming and seductive. “Hi, what can I get for you?” There ya go, Cara, entice him with your wit.

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“Hi, yourself. I think I’ll pass on the chipped beef, how about an egg salad on whole wheat?” He grinned at her. How about I bear your firstborn? “Egg salad, huh? Sure, but I’ll have to go in the back to get it. Egg salad is pretty popular on chipped beef day.” His laughter rumbled from deep within his chest. Her legs felt like Jell-O. “Sure, I can wait.” “Why don’t you go sit down, honey,” Ruby cut in, shooing him away. “She’ll bring it to you. Go ahead, sugar,” she said to Cara. “I’ll take care of the line. It’s pretty quiet today, anyway.” Cara scurried to the big refrigerator and grabbed another tray of egg salad on whole wheat. She raced back to the dining room just in time to see Alexander sit down with a group of people. Damn. She squared her shoulders as she crossed the room. “Here you go, egg salad on whole wheat.” Cara dropped the sandwich in front of him, turning to leave, but someone grabbed her wrist. She gazed down at the slug sitting next to Alexander. His slicked back hair had flakes of dandruff, she noted, as she peered at his scalp. “Hey, are you new here?” Turning, she tugged her wrist back from Mr. Confident. “No, I’m not new.” Asshole. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before and I know I wouldn’t have missed you.” He wiggled his unibrow at her. Ick. “Well, then, you must not have been paying very close attention.” Slimeball. “Oh, I always pay attention. But somehow you slipped through the cracks. So let’s make up for lost time. Why don’t you have a seat with me and we’ll get to know each other.” He ogled her newly pert, miracle-bra encased breasts.

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Mighty generous of you, Rico Suave. “Of course you know me and if you don’t, I know you.” Cara smiled at him enjoying her first attempt at playing mysterious. She watched Alexander smother a smile, from the corner of her eye. “Well, how do you know me?” He chuckled smugly. “Gee, it’s so funny you don’t remember. I remember it clearly. We met over lasagna.” Dipshit. “Lasagna?” His unibrow shot upward as he cocked his head in thought. “Yeah. We didn’t have anymore and that got you pretty upset. Don’t you remember screaming at me? Let me see,” pulling her hand away, she tapped her finger to her chin, “something about average customer stats and food quantities based on that average was what you ranted about.” Unibrow boy squirmed in his seat. “Oh. Well, maybe I can make it up to you. Whaddya say you give me your number and I’ll give you a ring-a-ling. Maybe we could get together for a drink?” Not before you tarred and feathered my cellulite-riddled ass and dragged me, buck naked down the street in broad daylight. “Um, I don’t think so, but thanks anyway.” “Well, why not?” He sat back, crossed his arms over his chest and waited for an answer. Cause you’re a stupid head? “Because I’m busy.” He ran a hand over her arm. “How can you be too busy for me?” Whew, he’d been sniffing too much of his own personal stash of “I am fabulous cologne”. I will always be too busy for you, loser. “I have work to do—” “Wait,” he stood to stop her from leaving. Cara peered at the front of his button down shirt, cringing at the thick hair sprouting from the top of the opening at his neck. Eeeeuuuwww. Alexander rose from his chair and pressed between them, intercepting Unibrow, his broad back almost touching Cara’s nose.

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She inhaled the heady scent of man, letting it linger in her nostrils. She closed her eyes and simply savored it. Alexander placed a large hand on unibrow’s shoulder, towering over him. “The lady said she was busy. Know why she’s busy, Carlton?” Carlton, huh? So that was his name, Cara rather favored unibrow. Wait, why was she busy? She was glad Alexander couldn’t see the perplexed look on her face. Peeking around his broad back she watched as Carlton cringed from the grip Alexander had on his shoulder. Carlton took one last stab at saving his manhood. He narrowed his eyes at Alexander. “Why’s she busy, Mackenzie?” “‘Cause she’s going out with me, so lay off, Casanova,” he ground out, giving Carlton a firm shove. Carlton scurried out of the cafeteria without a backward glance. The rest of the table joined him. Cara’s knees buckled and her stomach did a backflip. She was not, either. He was being honorable, gallant. Jesus Christ in a miniskirt. Just the possibility of a date with him made her tingle everywhere. Speak, Cara, say, “Thank you very much you, stud muffin. Now can we have wild sex with your pistol of passion? My place or yours?” Cara shook off the afterglow of a man taking up for her and scooted around Alexander’s big body. She stuck her hand out. “Um…thank you very much Mr. Mackenzie.” She smothered a groan. Mr. Mackenzie? Was that any way to address the man you planned to boink the life out of? His thick hand enveloped hers. “You’re very welcome, Cara, is it? Call me Alex. I think we should at least go by first names seeing as we’re a couple now, don’t you?” His warm smile gave Mary Lou Retton a reason to do a set of cartwheels in her belly. His brown eyes were like swirling pools of dark chocolate. Warm and inviting they peered down at her while he held her hand in a firm grip.

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“Yes, I’m Cara. You didn’t have to do that, Mr.—I mean, Alex. But thanks for rescuing me.” She turned to get back to work, but he wouldn’t let go of her hand. Her heart sped up and her throat went dry. “Wait, I meant it when I said we’ll be busy. Why don’t we have dinner together tonight?” Oh, that tenor that rumbled through her insides and set her nipples to scraping against the fabric of her uniform. Tonight? Oh, hell. Didn’t she have to watch a Law and Order rerun? Polish the stovetop? Clean the wax out of her ears? What kind of crack are you smoking? You’ve been waiting for what seems like a lifetime for this guy to ask you out and you want to clean ear wax? Good gravy, the voice in her head was right. Damn straight I’m right. Now quit being a coward and say yes to the nice man. Be confident, mysterious, and maybe even sexy. Cara straightened her shoulders, allowing her breasts to thrust forward just a smidge. She felt like an idiot. No, No, you look great. “Well, what did you have in mind, Alex?” She conjured up the image of Glamazon number one in her head and did the provocative smile she’d been taught. “I had dinner in mind.” He chuckled, letting go of her hand. Arghhhh. God, she sucked at this coy cute thing. “I meant—where?” “Wherever you’d like, I’ll let you choose, okay? I’ll pick you up after work.” “Here?” She didn’t have anything she could change into for dinner here! “Here, at your place, wherever. I don’t care, I just want to spend the evening with you.” He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, his hair tickling her face. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now.” Whoa. Her libido shifted into full throttle. Cara swallowed hard and leaned further into his solid frame. She let her breasts brush lightly across his thickly muscled chest

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while she rested a hand on his shoulder. Hah! How’s that for flirting? Supermodels, take cover, Cara Anthony has been unleashed! “How about I meet you back here around seven?” He squeezed her arm lightly and grazed her cheek with his lips. “Seven is great. I’ll see you then.” Holy date from heaven. Cara stood rooted to the floor, immobile and dumbfounded. The lunch crowd had disappeared somewhere between her encounter with unibrow and dinner with Alex at seven. The cafeteria was empty, but for Ruby, who sidled up to Cara with a foolish grin on her round face. “Now, look at you, would ya? Mr. Booty-licious is yours for the takin’. Girl, you move fast.” “Fast, Ruby?” Cara snickered, “I’m like molasses uphill in the winter time. I’ve been here almost a year and now he discovers me?” Ruby shrugged her shoulders. “Could be you didn’t want to be discovered ‘til now. But you’ve been discovered all right.” She cackled and pinched Cara’s cheeks. “Now you go finish up. I won’t have you late for your night out with the hunk. The only thing I want from you is details, miss.” She hugged Ruby for all she was worth. “Before I do that, wanna tell me where the hell I should suggest we eat. It’s not like I get out much, ya know, Rube? I mean, I eat cheese in a can for dinner.” Cheese in a can made her think of the fabulous triplets. She smiled. She couldn’t wait to tell them what happened! “C’mon, sugar lips,” She swatted Cara on the butt. “I’ll give ya some of Ruby’s suggestions for fine dining experiences, and how to avoid the places that serve cheese in a can.” Cara giggled at Ruby’s shudder. No processed cheese in a jar tonight.

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***** Alex gnawed on a pencil while his thoughts drifted to Cara Anthony. It had taken a while but he’d finally done it. He’d asked her out and she’d said yes. His groin tightened with anticipation over spending the evening with her. He looked down at his crotch, mentally scolding his overactive cock. She said yes to a date, friend, not wild, uninhibited sex. Well, his gear didn’t seem to care what she said. It wanted her. Hard and fast, long and slow, anyway she’d have him. Slow and steady wins the race, he reminded himself. He’d never experienced an attraction as intense as this. It rocked him to the core. Left him with a cold trail of sweat dripping down his back. He couldn’t remember when he hadn’t wanted Cara Anthony, but today she’d knocked him for a loop. He’d realized from the start that she was more than just a pretty face. Her warm sincerity and genuine love of people showed in every damn ham sandwich she served. But today…Well, today she was a walking wet dream. He couldn’t put his finger on why she seemed different. She just was. It was the catalyst that sent him into overdrive and made him ask her out. That, and that freak of nature, Carlton. Carlton’s slimy hands on her sent his temper soaring. But he almost couldn’t blame Carlton for taking notice. Something about Cara today was more open, freer. Hell yes, you can blame him, his ego scolded. Cara was going to be his, not Carlton’s, or anybody else’s. Alex had spent the better part of a year dating other women while he silently lusted for Cara. Women who loved his money, women who thought marrying him would buy them the things they needed to make them happy, women who wouldn’t stick around very long if his money wasn’t a part of the deal. Cara must know he was wealthy, but it didn’t seem to make her fall all over him. She’d hardly said a word to him in almost a year, except for; “Would you like bacon or sausage?” It fascinated him. She fascinated him. 31

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Again, his cock twitched against his zipper. Leaning back in his chair he closed his eyes and visualized Cara Anthony, naked and willing beneath him.

***** “I’m home,” Cara yelled as she threw her purse on the coffee table, waiting for The BEAST to greet her. Where the hell were the fabulous triplets? Weren’t they supposed to stick around and help her get her man? For that matter, where was The BEAST? She paused for a moment in the fading light of her apartment. What the hell was she thinking? She was looking for fairy godmothers, who had at one time claimed to be supermodels. She’d rushed home to tell her fairy godmothers, she’d snared a date with Alex. Her fairy godmothers, being the key, “looney-toons” phrase here. Hellloooo, Cara. You really are desperate if you believe that these women exist. Then explain the shoes. She had no explanation. None, except maybe she was teetering on the brink of utter insanity. This shoe thing had all happened so quickly, that she couldn’t seem to make the math work in her head. One plus one was making three here. Loneliness was making a mockery of her nice, tidy world. She headed down the hallway to her bedroom where she found her fairy godmothers, all right. Curled up on the bed, eye masks firmly in place, snoring softly in the darkened bedroom. The BEAST heard her enter and lazily stretched his plump body between them. Even her cat wanted to sleep with a supermodel. She scrunched her eyes shut again, then, opened them. They were still there, pretty as a picture. She flipped on the light, “Hey, it’s five thirty—how can you be asleep at five thirty in the evening?” Groans came from beneath a pillow. She shook a long, tanned leg. “Besides, I have some news,” she taunted, pulling the comforter off the trio of still forms.

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Simone sat straight up, her beautiful face flushed with sleep and nary a hair out of place. “News? Do tell us, darling, everything, all the details.” Cara squeezed in between them on her belly. “I think we did it.” Katia yanked off her eyemask. “You’re going out with him, aren’t you?” Mia squealed, scaring The BEAST, sending him flying out of the room. Cara beamed, “Yup.” “Spit it out now. Tell all, all the details, I mean the works.” She relayed the afternoon’s events to them, while they grinned as if they were at a weight watchers meeting held at McDonalds. “Well, sugarplum, I hate to tell you I told you so—but I told you so.” Katia tweaked Cara’s cheeks for emphasis. “Now the big question is what do I wear?” Mia hugged Cara. “I have the perfect dress. Go take a shower, I’ll get it ready.” As everyone scattered off to begin preparation for the “big event”, Cara had to smile over the irony of this being just that…an “event”. It was rather pitiful Cara decided, as she soaped her body that a date had become an “event” in her life. It wasn’t like she’d never had a date, per se. More like there had been some pretty long, dry spells in between. Okay, so she hadn’t had a date in a couple of years. Usually they were so informal you couldn’t really even call them dates. Just a body to share a meal or a movie with. Definitely no one who excited her the way Alex did. Her nipples tightened as she soaped them, visualizing Alex’s hands on her. Just one night was all she was asking. She could die happy…really, really happy. Men like Alex didn’t want someone as uncultured as she was for the long haul. They wanted women who could dine in fine restaurants, not a woman who worked in a cafeteria, putting together egg salad sandwiches all day. She could live with that. She would just remove herself from the game of love, and stick to her strictly sex theory.

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One night only. Thank you, fairy godmothers in heaven, for those shoes. They were her ticket to a fantasy she might never have fulfilled otherwise and she wasn’t taking them off, no matter what. She wasn’t giving them back ‘til they pried them from her cold, dead feet either. As she climbed out of the shower and began to towel her hair dry, she wondered how comfortable she’d be when the shoes changed to heels. Cara couldn’t remember the last time she’d worn a pair of heels. F.M.P. pumps to be precise, she reminded herself. Well, here went nothin’.

***** Primped, fluffed and ready to rumble, it was now six-thirty, and Cara was beginning to think maybe this hadn’t been such a brilliant idea. How did you have sex with a guy you fed breakfast to everyday and worked in the same building with and act like you didn’t know him in the carnal sense? You keep it under your hat and enjoy the moment while it lasts. Cara wiggled her feet. Feet that now donned her fabulously red pumps. They sparkled occasionally, if the light hit them just right. They really were pretty comfortable. She stood, testing them out with nary a wobble. It was like walking on air. She gave herself a critical once over as she smoothed the crimson dress over her hips. The clingy material fell to the middle of her thighs, swishing around her legs and showing off her bare skin. Who would have thought red would be her color? The girls all assured her she looked great. Of course, that was easy for them to say, they could throw compliments around like they changed their underwear. They were beautiful. “Enough of the analyzing. Just go with the moment and enjoy it, huh?” Simone hugged her tightly. 34

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“Easy for you to say. Hot men must have approached you all the time. No male who was even lukewarm wanted to go out with me.” “This ‘pretty’ thing has you too wound up.” Simone held up her slender hand to quiet Cara. “I know you think it’s easy, but like, did you ever consider that the confidence you show on the outside is what’s important? It’s not about your waist size. It’s about the size of your heart.” God, the Dr. Phil speech again. Spoken like a true beauty queen. “Sure, Simone, my waist size has nothing to do with it. It’s all about my heart. If it was all about my heart, how is it that he didn’t notice me until today? He’s had a year to see my heart, but I’ll be damned if I can remember him mentioning it.” Cara cocked her eyebrow at Simone. Take that, Barbie! “Look, I won’t argue with you about it anymore. But today, for the first time, you felt really good about Y-O-U.” Simone spelled it out while poking Cara with her finger. “That’s more important than how any man feels about you. It’s like this aura that you give off, and now Alex has noticed it. As well as a few others, I should think.” Yes, her aura was in overdrive. Or was that her lust factor? She did feel really good. Better than she had in a long while, but most of it could be attributed to her makeover and those shoes. “For now, I will ‘just go with it’, Simone. But when it’s all over and you go back to fairy godmother land, I’ll just be grateful I took the ride.” Simone smiled indulgently at her and snorted. “Yeah, fairy godmother land. Where I live with two other women just like me and we get assignments from a floating mailbox. Nothin’ like fairy godmother land.”

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Chapter 4 The girls shipped her off with hugs and a go get ‘em attitude. Taking her time, she strolled down the street, feeling like she had a pair of tennis shoes on. This shoe gig was all right. The evening air was warmer than usual for this time of year, or was it that she was feeling warm? Giggling to herself, she inhaled the smells of the city. They brought her comfort as she tread into unfamiliar territory. The red shoes clicked sharply along the paved sidewalk, reminding her of why she was treading into unfamiliar territory. Stopping briefly, she admired them in a store window, turning her legs this way and that. She made a face at her reflection and mused about this newfound vanity she’d acquired. A whistle, loud and sharp caught her attention. “Yo, good lookin’,” someone yelled. Her eyebrows shot up. Me? Looking around she found she was the only one within whistling distance. He means me? Me, me, me! Cara turned to see that Frank from the newspaper stand was eyeballing her. “Hey, Frank…How are you?” “Cara? Is that really you?” His astonished gaze settled on her with appraising eyes. She twirled for him with a giggle of delight, “Yeah, Frank, it’s really me. Whaddya think?” He whistled again, “You look maaaarvelous. I’d a never recognized ya.” “Which reminds me, Frank, how do you think Doris might feel if she knew you were out here whistling at strange women?” “There ain’t nothin’ strange about you. Liked you the moment I laid eyes on you.” He grinned at her in the fading light. “Besides it does a man’s heart good to see a pretty girl. Keeps the old ticker pumping. And where are you off to lookin’ so fancy?”

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“I have a date, and I’d better hurry before I’m late.” “A date, huh? Good for you,” he cheered. “It’s about time you got out and found yourself a nice husband.” Or a night of much needed sex. “It’s just a date, Frank, my first date with him. Gotta run.” She wiggled her fingers at him. “Say hi to Doris for me.” Amid catcalls and whistles, with a few honks of car horns thrown in, Cara hurried off to meet Alex. She flew in the building’s doors just as Jerry was doing his last round for the night. He did a double take when he caught sight of her. “Miss Anthony?” She sighed loudly. Was it so impossible to believe that she might actually be semiattractive? She was beginning to feel just a smidge insulted. “Yes, Jerry, it’s me. I know, don’t say it, I look marvelous and you can’t begin to fathom it’s really poor Cara who works in the cafeteria.” She was being bitchy. Crap. He shrugged his uniformed shoulders. “Nah, I was just thinkin’ you have really pretty hair. I don’t get to see it much when you’re serving me turkey on whole wheat.” She gave him a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry, Jerry. I guess I’m feeling a little out of my depth here. I’m not used to so much attention.” “A pretty girl like you should get loads of attention. Mr. Mackenzie said to go on up, if you don’t mind. He’s got a little extra work he had to finish up.” “Thanks, Jerry, and thanks for the nice compliment.” “Have a good night, Miss Anthony.” While she waited for the elevator, her brain told her to turn tail and run. It was her nether region giving her all the trouble and pulling her in the direction of the elevators. Sex. They were just going to have sex and then she could move on. Hot monkey sex if she had anything to say about it. Her heart thumped in time with the mechanical rising of the elevator. Ding. She’d arrived.

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Her stomach sank as the elevator let her off. Anxiety crept upward, lodging in her throat and squelching every breath she took. Okay, this was a mistake. Like a big brain fart. She’d completely overlooked the fact that this was something she just didn’t do and rushed headlong into, woo boy, Cara’s going to get laid by the man of her dreams. That’s it. She was leaving. Going right back home and telling those high-class, Barbie knock-offs, that they should go back to magic wand-ville or wherever they came from and take the shoes with them! She quickly turned around to slink back off to the rock she’d crawled out from under. “Cara?” That old familiar heat his voice evoked swept up her spine, as Alex called to her from across the office. Heart failure. She was going to die of heart failure right here on the office floor in front of the guy who made her panties scream every damn time he walked into a room. “Hey, I was getting worried.” Hah! Worried? He didn’t know the meaning of the word. Worried was when your heart raced faster than a car in the Indy-friggin’ five-hundred and your feet were no longer vessels with which to carry you the hell outta this mess you’d gotten yourself into, but instead were glued to the floor, utterly and totally immobile. When he crossed the room to greet her, it was all over. If she hadn’t wet her drawers thusfar, she was well on her way. He was simply fabulous, and smiling right at her as if he was actually glad to see her. He’d changed into jeans and a T-shirt, she was fascinated by the ripple of flesh beneath his shirt as he waved to her. “Alex, hi.” Okay, who is the broad with the breathy tones and batting eyelashes? He stopped in front of her, his lips curving into a welcoming smile. “You look beautiful.” “You do, too…I mean…er, thanks.” Gawd, she mentally slapped her forehead over her sparkling wit.

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He held out his hand to her and she took it. “C’mon, I thought if you didn’t mind maybe we could go grab a drink and something to eat at the bar. I know you like a good burger. I asked Ruby. Bacon cheeseburgers, medium rare, right? George’s has great burgers.” His dimpled smile deepened. Did I mention I like my burgers with my sex over easy? Stop it. Stop it right now. The glow of the dimly lit office made his chocolate brown eyes glow. Shit, he was beautiful. Confidence is the key here. Be aloof. Be mysterious. Never let the man know you want to do him like a wild boar in heat. “A drink sounds great, Alex, and I do like bacon cheeseburgers. Ready when you are.” Was that her, that just spoke those words like she’d been out on a date this century? He pressed the elevator button, keeping his hand at her waist. The warm press of his hand sent her head spinning. He really had asked Ruby. Did men go to all of this trouble when they had a pity date? Confidence, Cara…try exuding it. She squared her shoulders, confidently. Alex stayed near her in the elevator, her pulse raced with his close proximity. Her nose twitched too. Jeez, he smelled so damn good. Fresh and so male. As they entered the lobby again, Jerry winked at her, “Have a nice evening, you two.” “Thanks, Jerry, I’m sure we will.” Alex’s confident reply sent a tingle straight down to her toes. “Night, Jerry.” She wiggled her fingers at him and blushed when he gave her the thumbs up sign.

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While they walked hand-in-hand toward the bar, she let all of her anxieties go. She was going to get laid if it killed her. Yippee skippee! As they passed a group of teenagers hovering under the canopy of a deli, she heard one of them mutter something under his breath. Alex stopped mid-stride right in front of them and said, “What did you say?” Or maybe he growled. She couldn’t quite tell through his clenched teeth. Alex balled his hands at his sides into tight fists. “Nuthin,’ man. We were just talking about how hot your chick is,” the sullen, darkhaired kid answered. He nudged his buddy, who laughed and puffed his chest up. “I’m sorry, were you speaking to this lady here?” Alex pointed at Cara, letting go of her hand. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away from them. “Just ignore them, Alex. Let’s go.” She stood between him and the crowd of boys, but he towered over her shoulders and glared at them. “Yeah, just ignore us, while we watch you walk away and stare at your girlfriend’s ass,” he snickered. Oh, shit. This was not going to be pretty. Alex pushed past her and grabbed the biggest mouth by his jacket, taking him by surprise and shoving him firmly up against the brick exterior of the deli. The boy’s face became a whiter shade of pale as he squirmed against the tight hold Alex had on him. The other boys scattered in all directions. “You wanna watch her ass? How ‘bout you watch yours, and watch your mouth too. Cuz the next time you might not get so lucky and I’ll shove my fist down your throat.” Alex gave him another hard shake and grinned, “Now apologize to the lady. Say it nice or I can’t promise what will happen next.” He cast his eyes downward, “Sorry, lady.” Cara put her hand on Alex’s shoulder and allowed herself the luxury of smoothing her fingers over his bicep. “Alex, it’s okay. Put him down.”

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Alex let the kid slide to his feet. She could see him tremble as he righted himself and attempted to regain some dignity by straightening his jacket. Alex leaned in close to him and this time he really was growling. “Get the hell outta here.” As she watched him run off into the fading light, she crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s just a kid. You scared the hell out of him. Was that necessary?” “Yeah, you know why? Cause kids like that grow up to be men who are pigs.” Omigod. She’d just been sexually harassed by a kid who would someday grow up to be a pig! Cara bit her lip, knowing she should be upset by the boy’s potential pig status as he grew into manhood. But then, there was the unmitigated joy that washed over her. She’d been sexually harassed by not one, but two men in the same day! Okay, one was a boy, but he still counted. These shoes meant business.

***** When they entered the bar, there was a hushed silence as Alex ushered her to a table. As he pulled out her chair, his eyes narrowed when he caught the guy at the other table looking directly at her breasts. He seated himself in the chair right in front of the other guy’s line of vision and placed a possessive arm around her shoulders. “So, let’s get to know each other. I’ve seen you nearly every day for the past year, but I know next to nothing about you.” That’s because you never asked. Cut-it-out, Cara. Stop holding a grudge. “I’m pretty uninteresting. I work nine to five serving food to executives all day.” “There’s more to you than that, Cara Anthony. You forgot to mention you own the cafeteria. Kind of explains why the food got a whole lot better after you took over.” He popped a peanut in his mouth and waited for her response.

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She was beaming and she knew it. Surprised by the fact that he knew she was the cafeteria’s owner. So what? He asked a question or two about you, he hadn’t solved world peace yet. Cara shrugged her shoulders, “I just switched wholesalers. It cost a bit more in the beginning, but paid off in the end. The numbers went up in small increments at a time, but it’s definitely been worth my initial investment. And they have better chipped beef on toast.” “So you’re smart when it comes to numbers, eh?” He licked his fingers after finishing a handful of peanuts. The candle on the table made his dark-chocolate eyes pools she would gladly drown in. There was a hint of mischief in them too. He was making fun of her, mocking her, because she was brainy. “Yeah, I like numbers. There’s a comfort in always being able to make sense of them. Especially if nothing else around you makes sense.” Like this date. Her defensive tone rang in her ears. The waiter brought them their menus and smiled at her, she smiled back. Alex shifted in his chair and dismissed him, “Give us a minute to decide what we want.” He chuckled, that deep, wicked rumble of a laugh. “Smart and sexy, I like that in a woman. Wanna balance my checkbook?” She giggled. Giggled? Oh, hell. Soon she’d be no better than the Glamazons. “I get the impression you don’t need any help at all in the accounting department. You’ve made quite a success out of yourself, judging by all of your happy employees. By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever heard just what you do up there. I see the name listed as Mackenzie’s, but that doesn’t help much. What exactly do you do?” She toyed with the edge of her napkin. “Well, I don’t broadcast it, tends to scare people off. Not that I hide it either,” he paused and glanced at her obviously waiting to see her reaction. Her mind raced to make conclusions. Drugs. He was a drug lord. Well wasn’t that just the way? Only she could be hot for a drug dealer of all things. This was some setup 42

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he had going, selling drugs to people from a perfectly respectable office building. That explained all the packages delivered in and out of there. Pig! Did he have any idea what he was doing to the children of America—? “Toys, I manufacture and sell toys.” Her chest heaved in an obvious sigh of relief as his words sunk in. Toys, of course! Basketballs and baseballs and light up things that played music and… ”Oh…Oh! Toys— like baseballs, right?” Holy panic attack. He didn’t sell drugs. He liked kids. He was an angel. Her heart slowed to its normal pace. How could she have doubted that? “No. Toys for adults.” “You mean like chess sets and bocce balls—shuffleboard?” Didn’t Mattel have the market on that? Maybe that’s why everyone was always smiling when they came into the cafeteria… “Not exactly…” Her brow furrowed, she was confused here. How many adult toys could there be? He reached across the table and covered her hand with his, running his thumb over her fingers. “Sex toys.” Ah, those adult toys… Mary Lou Retton was back at it in her stomach again. She felt the prickly heat as her cheeks flooded with color. Sex toys. Well of course. “Does that make you uncomfortable?” She rearranged her silverware beside her plate and toyed with the corners of her napkin. Uncomfortable? Now how would a worldly supermodel answer that? “Er…No, why would that make me uncomfortable? I mean everyone needs a good sex toy. Don’t you think?” Hell’s bells, she sounded like a babbling idiot. Sex toys…like dildos and those ring thingies you put on a guy…Oh God.

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***** Alex watched Cara’s face express a hundred different emotions, shock, horror, and then amusement. But mostly confusion. Most women he dated hid their surprise over his company’s origins pretty well. A cocked eyebrow, sometimes as much as a quick gaping of the mouth, but they recovered quickly. It never mattered much because the bottom line was he was rich. Somehow, they found their way past the dildos and edible panties if it meant they could get a credit card that read Mrs. Alexander Mackenzie. Cara was different. Her mouth was hanging wide open and she was squirming in her

seat.

She’d

obviously

had

no

clue

that

he

was

the

single

major

manufacturer/distributor of adult toys in the country. He was feeling pretty smug about that, except she was looking just a bit green around the gills over it. Acceptance was an important factor to Alex. The woman he eventually married would have to be able to hold her head up proudly when she was with him. He wasn’t ashamed of what he did and he didn’t want any woman of his to be either. But, Cara, well Cara intrigued him. She was kind and generous and the only woman in the building who hadn’t schemed to get a date with him. He liked that in a girl. She made her own living and didn’t seem to mind getting down in the trenches to do it. He’d had to do some digging to find out she was actually the sole owner of the cafeteria. Ruby helped out, offering him lots of insight into this woman he’d been fascinated with for so long. Now to convince her that she was going to be his. And she would be his. “That it makes you uncomfortable is refreshing, Cara, and incredibly sexy,” he tried to reassure her. “Is it the mouth hanging wide open thing, or the drool forming at the corner of my mouth that you find so incredibly sexy?” He chuckled, a laugh that came from deep in his belly. “I find all of you sexy. But particularly the fact that you had no idea how I’ve made my money.” “So you sell like vib…well, um…you know…” 44

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“Yes, I manufacture and sell vibrators and plenty of other gadgets by the hundreds of thousands.” She thought about all those brown packages being delivered by the truckload to the office, and visibly gulped. “I’ve never seen…a vib…vibrator,” she spit the word out like it hurt to say it. She’d never seen one? Christ, she was sexy. She was a virgin to toys, it made his mouth dry and his cock throb. “And you don’t have to if you don’t want to either.” He noted the deep gulp of cleansing air she took, her body relaxing in her chair as she sank back into the hard wood. She’d regained her composure and concluded that he wasn’t going to force legions of multi-colored dildos, in assorted shapes and sizes on her, he assumed. Sex toys didn’t have to be a part of their relationship if she chose not to indulge. It wasn’t mandatory, but it was a helluva lot of fun. “Well, it’s not like I don’t want to see one. I guess I just never have and you caught me off guard. I’m sure there are millions of people in the world who use them and are the better for it. Sexually enlightement is a good thing.” The curtain of her coppery hair fell forward, covering her face and hiding her reddened cheeks. “Wanna talk about something else, until you have some time to digest this?” “No…I think it’s great that you’re solving the world’s sexual problems one purple vibrator at a time. They do come in purple don’t they?” She began to laugh in earnest. Her shoulders shook and the soft swell of the tops of her breasts heaved. She leaned forward gasping for breath and laid her hand on his arm. When her small hand curved over his bicep, he fought to clear the image of that very hand on his cock. Heat shot to his shaft like lightning. “I’m sorry…I just couldn’t help it. I…” her eyes were tearing, “I…” she fisted her hand over her mouth and snickered. “I’ve never met anyone quite like you, Alex, you’re very interesting.” “I’ve never met anyone quite like you either, Cara, and I promise someday I’ll show you all of the colors they come in.” Her warm smile sent his cock to twitching again. 45

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They didn’t get any sexier than Cara. Apparently, the rest of the male population thought so too. He frowned at the jerk sitting at the bar who was watching her breasts jiggle with laughter. Assholes aplenty. As the waiter took her order, Alex watched his beady eyes follow the curve of Cara’s leg right up to the top of her head. She paid no attention to him, almost as if she didn’t notice his very obvious stare. Cara cocked her head and smiled at him. “Can I have the lettuce and tomato on the side of my burger please?” The waiter wrote furiously on his little pad, “You can have whatever you want. Whatever makes you happy, will make me happy.” “Know what would make me happy, stud?” Alex interjected. The waiter gave him a perplexed look. “What’s that, sir?” Alex thrust the menu at him. “If you’d take my order too.” He blanched, “Yes, sir.” He wrote down what Alex wanted quickly, giving one last, longing look at Cara, and went to fill their orders.

***** Glancing at her watch, she realized this would all be over soon. They’d chatted so easily most of the night, about her family and his work, that the time had flown by and their meal was over. Which meant the date from heaven was too. Or the date she was having in her mind. She was still having trouble believing this cool, confident woman was Cara Anthony, sitting here with Alex Mackenzie. Well, it was almost over. She was not leaving this date un-boinked. She had a mission and she fully intended to complete it. She hadn’t exactly figured out how that would happen, but she’d better think fast cause he was standing up and offering to walk her home. 46

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Hmm, coy. Did she even know how to be coy? Was it better to tell him not to walk her home, so maybe he might insist? Or should she make her move and damn the consequences? What would a Glamazon do in a case like this? And where were the fab triplets when you needed them most? Did the fab triplets only exist in her mind? “Thanks, Alex. I’d like it if you walked me home. I don’t live far, just a couple of blocks.” A couple of blocks to plan her move and make some whoopee. Her nipples tightened with anticipation. By, God she would do this. And when tomorrow came she’d smile, get off the train of unbridled passion and be glad she took the ride. She marveled at how light her step was as they strolled up her front walk. Her feet didn’t hurt one tiny bit. The rest of her felt pretty good too. Cara backed up against the building, and fisted her hands behind her waist. The girls stood proud in her new bra, thrusting forward and with any luck, working him into a frenzied state of desire. Alex reached out and cupped her neck drawing her flush to him. His hard body pressed provocatively against hers. She could feel his muscled flesh through her thin dress and it sent waves of heat smack between her thighs. She willed her breath to slow as her mind raced for something to say. God willing, it would be something profound. Or even just inviting would be good. How did one invite a man to their apartment to do the wild thing? “Dinner was great, Alex. Thanks.” Yes, indeed that’ll get ya laid, Cara. “You’re welcome,” his reply sounded husky and thick. His lips hovered but inches from hers. “Wanna do it again?” I wanna “do it” now. “Sure.” His thumb caressed the soft flesh of her earlobe, “Tomorrow?” No, now. “Okay.” His other hand brushed the outside curve of her breast, “Same time?” Same bat channel. “Seven?”

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His hips circled hers, “Yup.” Yup. “George’s?” His tongue swept over her bottom lip, “My place.” His place? “Deal.” “I’m going to kiss you.” Like when? “Okay.” His breath fanned her face, “You sure?” Was she sure? Hellloooo. “Yeah, I’m sure.” All at once, they were a mesh of teeth and tongues as his lips crashed down on hers and her body melted into his. Her arms went around his neck and she buried her fingers in his thick hair. She sighed into his mouth, throwing a thigh up around his hip for good measure. Could one orgasm simply from being kissed? She heard the low groan he made echo in the dark of night, as he devoured her lips and she devoured his right back. His tongue was hot and silky, sliding over her teeth touching every recess of her mouth. Hands ran wildly over every inch of her exposed flesh, heating her skin. She pressed further into him, reveling in the rigid line of his jean-clad cock. Tearing his lips from hers, he skimmed the flesh of her neck as he moved lower to linger at the top of her dress. Electricity seared her from the inside out when he hiked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Her clit scraped the fabric of his jeans through her thin panties with delicious friction, as his hands dipped into the front of her dress. Multi-colored lights flashed behind her closed eyes when his fingers scraped her nipple. It tightened almost painfully, as a rush of moisture settled in her pussy. She clung to his neck clutching his shirt, when he exposed her breast and pressed his lips to it. His moan was low in his throat when he took her nipple between his lips and swirled his tongue over it.

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Her chest heaved and her heart slammed against her ribs. She felt herself urge her flesh to his lips, filling his mouth, as if she could climb inside him. The cool siding against her back scraped at her dress, reminding her they were still outside. In public. Hell’s bells. She pulled his face to hers, running her tongue over his bottom lip, “Maybe you might want to come in?” He chuckled, burying his face in her neck. “You mean before I have you here, in front of God and man?” She hid her face in the curve of his neck, “Something like that. My apartment’s right around the corner,” she pointed over his shoulder to the left. He nipped her finger. “Lead the way. Unless you’re having second thoughts. In that case, I could just go home and watch my potential children swirl at my feet in the shower.” Not a second thought on this horizon, honey. He let her slide down the length of his body, kissing the tip of her nose. Her legs shook as she took him by the hand answering his question, as she led him to her door. She dug for her key under the mat and slid it into the doorknob. Then she froze. Where were the fab three? Oh, God she couldn’t bring him inside with the beauty queens lying around. He’d forget all about her once he got a good look at them. He’d think she was nuts. “Alex…we,” his lips grazed hers again. Her nerve endings squeaked. Well the hell with it. Her body was saying yes, telling her brain to shut the hell up. She’d have him right in front of the Barbies and not give a rat’s ass. The BEAST, purred at her feet as she tugged Alex inside pulling him toward her bedroom. God, please don’t let the flawless girls be in here. Nothing. It was as if they’d never been there. The cool exterior of her bedroom soothed her flushed cheeks. Her bed was neatly made with the thick, white comforter

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and the flowered pillows. The bedside lamp was on, and just beneath the glow, she saw a small package laying on the nightstand. A small square package that hadn’t been there when she’d left. A condom. Presumptuous broads, weren’t they? Thank God. Alex wrapped his arms around her from behind and nuzzled the nape of her neck. Cara let her head fall back on his shoulder as he cupped her breasts thumbing her nipples. Her hands encircled his wrists, groaning with the pleasure his fingers were bringing. Her nipples ached, burning for relief. She was bold and wanton when she turned to face him. This rush of sexual power was turning out to be all right by her. An incredible sense of freedom and the heady charge of being all woman hit her like a sledgehammer between her eyes. It was only one night. He’d forget he’d asked her out again after tonight and they could move on to saying polite hellos in the cafeteria. So go for it…what are you waiting for? Take control here. Live for the moment and all that Dr. Phil crap. Cara leaned into him carefully watching his eyes. They flashed heat and a hint of something almost dangerous as he dragged her body to him. His muscled chest pressed tightly to her breasts, the hardened tips rubbed against the rough fabric of his T-shirt. Her head fell back, as his lips grazed a heated path of moisture over her neck. She responded by wrapping her thighs around his waist. Reaching upward with her hips, she thrust at the hard bulge in his pants. Her desire soaked panties clung to the swollen outline of her pussy. Scooping her up, her dress rode up over her thighs as he carried her to the bed, setting her carefully on the edge. “I want you, Alexander Mackenzie,” she whispered into his neck, “so are you going to do me or what?” Whoa. Was that her? Damn straight it was. If this shoe thing was all she had, then she was going to get the schtupping of a lifetime. 50

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She trailed a nail along the length of his hard thigh. Her nipples beaded into tight points as he grabbed her hand and ran it over the thick bulge pressing against his zipper. She heard his groan as he shifted his hips toward her hand. “Do you want to be done?” He whispered in her ear licking the outer rim. Cara’s heart began to thud rapidly as he pressed her closer. She rubbed her breasts against his wide chest. Oh hell, yes. Do me she mentally screamed! Let’s get it on! She felt the flush of heat as he wrapped those big hands around her waist. Her hips met his as he ground his hard cock against her. Cara tried to keep calm thoughts. No screaming “take me now, studmuffin,” she chastised. It just wasn’t very lady like. Remember, mysterious and aloof. “Depends on what you’re doing, I guess,” she smiled as her lips hovered over his. A subtle swipe of her tongue over his lower lip brought a shudder from him. Wow, this whole taking control thing was A-okay. Wanton hussy. Yeah, and what of it? There was nothing wrong with going out and getting what you wanted. She felt his hand cup her breast, warm and confident. Heat shot to her cunt. Nope there was nothing wrong with it at all. “Oh, you wouldn’t believe what I can do…” he let the sentence trail off as he took her lips. Cara’s knees trembled when his tongue swept along hers, Silky and hot. “Make me a believer,” she said between kisses. Well, aren’t we self-assured? She felt the cool comforter on her ass as he stepped between her thighs, pressing her flat on the bed. He traced a pattern over the silk of her dress. Cara’s chest rose and fell rapidly when his thumb ran over her tightly beaded nipple. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she slid herself toward him. Her dress scrunched upward revealing her red panties. Alex’s hands swiftly shoved her dress up to reveal her new lace push up bra.

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Beneath hooded lashes, she watched him take in the scanty material, heard his groan of pleasure. He flicked the clasp open with one finger and leaned over her pressing his lips to hers. As his tongue ran over her mouth, he gently rolled a nipple between his fingers. Cara’s body exploded with sensation, every nerve ending centered on his fingers lazily rubbing her tight nipple. She thrust her tongue into his mouth as her hand reached down to cup his cock. Holy cock! It was thick and rigid, straining against his jeans. She inhaled his groan as she pressed the heel of her hand over his thick length. He trailed kisses along her jaw, feather light as his tongue lashed out to sweep along the column of her neck moving toward her breast. He hovered over her nipple, his hot breath fanning it as he laid his open mouth over the swollen nub. Cara gripped his cock when his tongue lapped at her with a swift stroke. The waves of heat he aroused coursed through her like white lightning, as moisture pooled between her legs. His large hands gathered the two creamy swells, licking each nipple, then suckling them into tight points. Cara arched upward seeking the moist cavern of his lips as she left his cock to clutch wildly at his hair. She ran her nails over his scalp, letting her legs fall to the floor. Her clit scraped the rough fabric of his jeans, chafing the swollen nub. With one last swipe of his tongue, he left her breasts while his hands slid her skirt upward, massaging her thighs. His lips alternately kissed and licked their way over her belly. Oh good gravy, he was going to…Cara held her breath and willed her body to lay still. She tightened her hands into fists at her sides. Oh, crap, she’d never… His tongue found its way to the crease in her thigh with a long heated stroke, while he tugged her panties down, smoothing them over her legs to keep her bound at her ankles. Her clit began to throb in rhythm with her heart. Her thighs clenched in a death grip around his waist as his breath whispered over her sensitive clit. Oh hell’s bells, she felt her hips inch toward his mouth, jutting forward

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encouraging him. He parted the soaked flesh with callused fingers as she began to protest, kissing the smooth lips of her cunt. “I don’t think, ah…” His tongue slipped through the swollen flesh with a single deft stroke. Her hips bucked, pinpricks of electricity rippling through her pussy as she arched her back, letting his hands slide under her ass. He massaged the flesh as he stroked her, keeping a perfect rhythm of hands and tongue. Bracing herself on the heels of her hands, she kicked her panties off and found herself wrapping her ankles around his neck. The red shoes gleamed in the bedside lamp’s glow, an almost painful reminder of how she’d gotten here. Letting her eyes slide closed she ignored the niggle of doubt and concentrated on the exquisite slide of his lips over her flesh. His soft hair brushed her inner thighs and heightened her senses. Alexander Mackenzie was between her thighs…and it was glorious. His tongue laved her outer lips, slick with the cream of her body, occasionally dipping his lips over her now aching clit. Her breath came in quick gasps as he moved to suckle her. He swirled his tongue over the sensitive nub with a swift series of caresses. Silky hot, his tongue slid through her flesh, he drew a finger lightly over the outer lips of her pussy as he licked her. Cara felt the first wave of orgasm assault her as the muscles in her thighs tightened and clenched. At least she thought it was an orgasm. She’d never experienced something so sharp and intense, and… “Oh,” she cried out, stuffing a fist in her mouth to stifle the scream threatening to rip from her throat. Instinctively, he urged her body forward, shoving her over the edge when he pressed her flush to his face and buried his tongue deep in her folds of aching pussy. She convulsed as a wave of heat erupted, and she came with her fist firmly planted in her mouth and her legs clenched tightly around his neck. He smoothed his hands over her exposed skin, easing the descent she made back to reality. When he ran a hand over her calf and grazed her shoe, she tensed. “We never took your shoes off,” he said on a chuckle. 53

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Cara quickly unwound her legs from around his neck, “No, I guess we didn’t get that far, did we?” Her voice sounded foreign to her ears, low and husky. She was mortified. He’d slapped her down on the bed, driven her insane and she’d let him. Alex slid her forward and pulled her upward, placing her arms on his broad shoulders. Her fingers curled into his hair, reveling in the soft, thick texture. Alex kissed the top of her head, tilting her chin up so she was forced to look at him. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, there’s just something about you…I can’t quite explain it.” She heard the concern in his voice. Was he kidding? She was better than okay, she was euphoric, blissful, elated, and embarrassed and…and well, a whole lot of unidentifiable emotions. And yes, there was something about her. It was called a pair of mac-daddy shoes that had just given her the sexual experience of a lifetime. Her smile was tentative. “I’m fine.” Classy response, Cara, very polite. He kissed her again, slowly, exploring the recesses of her mouth with his tongue and stealing her breath away. She tasted herself on his tongue and her nipples tightened at the intimacy. Again, the torrent of warmth began at the tips of her toes and fired a path straight to her pussy. Her hands dug into his muscled back as she clung to him. She wanted to scream, “Screw me! Do me now!” He trailed kisses to her ear and whispered, “Unzip my jeans. Now.” His husky command drove her to distraction. She’d waited plenty long enough, she didn’t know how long these shoes were going to be making their magic. Let’s ride this baby home. Her hands fumbled with the zipper, shaking as she reached inside and found his rigid cock. Cara tugged his jeans over his hips as he lifted her dress over her head and slipped her bra off her shoulders. His cock sprang free, thick and long. Cara reached out to glide her fingers over the hot silk of rigid flesh. “This happened kind of suddenly. I’d planned to wait, but you’re irresistible. I don’t think I can wait anymore,” he said as he ran his tongue along the sensitive skin of 54

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her neck. “I don’t want you running off on me because I scared you. I loved every inch of your body tonight, and I want it all. Believe me, Cara, there’s nothing I’d like more than to make love to you.” His moan rang in her ear and she felt the urgent press of his hard cock as he moved his hips in the circle of her thighs. “But there’s plenty of time if you don’t want to. We can wait.” “Um…does this mean we’re…You don’t want to…To…” Well of course it does, you tart. Definitely not a mission accomplished. He’d been doing just fine as far as she was concerned. Jesus, she’d let this man give her the orgasm of her life and he wanted nothing in return? Well as far as she was concerned, this was not over. Not by a long shot, stud muffin. He kept talking like this might go further than tonight. She knew better and she was going to utilize every weapon in her sexual arsenal to pull it off. “It means that I’ve wanted to make love with you since the first moment I laid eyes on you and if you want to wait, I can do that. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it.” Did all men say stuff like this? He hadn’t known she’d existed prior to today. He’d just laid eyes on her today. This was not going as planned. What happened to the one night stand theory? Damn, she had missed her opportunity and now there was no going back. Maybe he didn’t think she’d be good in bed? Hey, wait a minute! She was as good a one night stand as any! Pathetic. She was decidedly pathetic. She couldn’t even get laid with a pair of magic shoes to help her. Her cheeks flushed with heat. He knelt before her and laved her rigid nipple as her back arched into his lips. Oh crap, she couldn’t let this opportunity pass her by. Time to take charge. She wiggled her ass to the end of the bed and let his cock graze her pussy. “Get the condom, Alex. I want to fuck and I want to do it now.” His head popped up while his brown eyes sought hers. Cara looked him dead in the eye, daring him to do otherwise. She reached around him and grabbed the little foil 55

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packet from her nightstand, tearing it open roughly. She pushed at his broad chest still wearing a T-shirt, and circled his cock with her hand, sliding the condom over his shaft. Then she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and pulled him over top of her. His delicious weight pressed her into the bed and she allowed herself to revel in the luxury of skin-on-skin contact. Running her hands over his back, she lifted her hips, wrapping her thighs around his waist and reveling in the slippery slide his cock made in her wet folds. Moving between them, he guided his shaft to her entrance. She burned with the need to have him impale her. Shoving his shirt out of the way, she let her nipples rub against his chest as he slid into her. “Oh!” Oh, my God. It was everything she’d dreamed it might be and more. Hard, thick, solid, and hot all at once. A sensory overload of one sensation after the next, each better than the last. She stifled the scream that threatened to rip from her throat. He groaned upon entry, stilling her for a moment. “Christ, you feel so good,” he whispered as his hips began to grind into hers. Her tight walls gripped him, as he stroked her gently at first, allowing her time to adjust to his thrusts. Gliding in and out of the wet warmth of her cunt, he filled her with his heat. Cara’s hands clutched at his ass, forcing him to drive deeper as she clung to him. Alex pulled away from her, leaning back to watch himself as he drove into her. She watched his cock glide between her legs as the crisp hair above it rasped against her clit. Cara reached between them to run her nails through the thick thatch of hair, Alex groaned and leaned back over her. Cara buried her face in his shoulder, inhaling his distinct male scent. The muscles in his neck tightened and flexed against her cheek. His lips found hers and slid his tongue in her mouth, while reaching between them and fondling her aching clit. They rocked together, finding a rhythm that seemed to match her heartbeat. It began as a slow spiral of heat, winding its way upward and spreading throughout her body. Pulsing through every vein, and licking at her pussy until she 56

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exploded with a scream she muffled in his neck. She felt his muscles tighten too and she gripped his shoulders tightly as he threw his head back and gasped for breath. His cock pulsed within her, throbbing as he came. Alex collapsed on top of her, letting his full weight relax and stealing her breath away with his weight. Nothing had ever made her feel like that. No one had ever…well, okay she’d had an orgasm or two in her life, but not the explosion of unbearable heat she’d just experienced. Tears burned at the back of her eyelids. Damn him for being as fabulous as she’d always dreamed he’d be. And now it was over. Fabulous shithead. He lifted his head to look at her, smiling down, “Wow.” Indeed. Cara couldn’t help it, that boyish grin turned her insides to mush and set her heart to pitter-pattering out of control, she blushed. “Yeah, wow.” She struggled to pull herself out from under him wanting to hide away somewhere, so she could lick her wounds. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” He held onto her tightly, refusing to let her leave the bed. “Don’t you want to, er um, clean up?” “In a minute, for now I want you to stop squirming and lay here next to me quietly.” Ah, the afterglow. So now what? She couldn’t recall what happened next. He tucked her under his arm and she relented, letting her head rest on his shoulder. God, he was so fabulous. Every sinewy, hardened, bronzed inch of him. Her heart constricted tightly in her chest and her throat threatened to close up. His breathing became shallow and the hold he had on her slackened.

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He’d fallen asleep? Good gravy, this certainly didn’t say much for her “afterglow” skills. Carefully, she slipped from his arms and sat up. His cock was still covered in the condom. It lay against his thigh, impressive even in its flaccid state. Jeez, now he was snoring. He flung his arm up over his head. She was going to have to remove that thing. Ick. With quick, gentle fingers, she gave it a tug and went off to the bathroom to throw it out. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she crossed the room, buck naked with nuthin’ but her shoes on and a method of birth control dangling from her fingers.

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Chapter 5 Cara was a morning person under normal circumstances, but this particular morning left her feeling like she’d been run over by a Mack-truck. Every last muscle in her body ached and her mouth was pasty. Then she remembered Alex, and her heart jerked. Last night was now the morning after. Her hand grazed the opposite side of the bed to find it empty. She pulled the blankets over her head and burrowed further into the mattress. If she didn’t open her eyes, it would be all right. She would just stay here in bed and lick her wounds, breaking only for the obligatory venture into a pity party with a gallon of Haagen Dazs. “Morning, good lookin’” She felt the bed sag beside her as the blanket was peeled back from her face. Nooooooooooo. It couldn’t be, and then she remembered, she’d cleaned them both up, thrown on an old shirt and climbed into the bed. By then Alex had moved and his body was lying at an angle, he was fast asleep, so she’d covered him. Fully expecting him to wake up and leave. She was a sound sleeper, so she’d hoped he’d just go after she fell asleep. No awkward goodbyes, no promises of phone calls, no begging him to stay. He tweaked her feet, “Cute slippers. I like ‘em. Do your feet get that cold at night that you need to sleep with them?” Slippers? She moved her feet, rubbing them against her calves. They were fuzzy. She raised her leg and looked down the length of her body, trying to focus on her foot. Big floppy ears like airplane wings hung down over the sides of some very pink, fuzzy slippers. Plastic eyes, glued to the front wobbled and made a soft rattling noise.

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Bunny slippers. Cute, very cute. Wait ‘till she got a hold of the flawless triplets! Her fabulous red shoes had mated and made cute, pink bunnies, with googlie eyes. Alex leaned forward nuzzling her neck and nibbling at her ear, “Sorry I fell asleep last night. Bet I can make it up to you.” He kissed her jaw, moving closer to her lips and her morning breath. She put her hand over her mouth and he nipped her fingers. “No,” she shook her head, “you don’t want to do that. I haven’t brushed my teeth yet.” His tongue inched between her fingers to slide over her lips. Cara’s hands went immediately to his head as the now familiar ache he created, began to simmer in the pit of her belly. “Gimme a good morning kiss, woman.” She moaned giving into his demand by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back. She wrinkled her nose in approval, he smelled like her soap and his breath was minty fresh. Alex trailed a finger over her nipple and it responded in kind. She arched her back. He was so good at this. He deftly unbuttoned her nightshirt, one painstaking button at a time, while his tongue dueled with hers. He left her lips to press soft kisses along her jaw and on the tender flesh of her neck. Wetting his finger, he circled it around her nipple and she gasped with delight as it stiffened tightly. Then his mouth was on it and his tongue was laving the swollen bud in slow circles. Her pussy clenched and she found her legs spreading, ready and inviting. He cupped her cunt, his callused thumb tracing the outline of her swollen lips. “Smooth, and soft,” he commented around her nipple. She groaned at his words, squirming beneath him when he dragged his finger between the wet folds. Her clit throbbed almost painfully, begging to be caressed. His finger slipped inside her and she reared up against him as he entered. With long licks, he swiped at her nipple. The combination of cool air, and his heated tongue sent her head spinning. Her hips thrust upward, riding his hand as he drove his finger

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into her wet passage and thumbed her clit. Her inner walls gripped his finger, savoring the easy slide. She came on a sigh, gripping his shoulders and bucking beneath his hand. Good hell, she was blushing. She was a tart. “Now that was a good morning kiss. And I didn’t think your breath smelled too bad at all,” he chuckled into her neck. She giggled, “Get off of me so I can brush my teeth.” “I made coffee.” “Did you? Making yourself right at home, aren’t you?” “Well, I figure you’d better get used to having me here.” “Really, why’s that?” “Cause I can’t resist a girl with a good case of morning breath. Besides your cat really likes me.” Her hand flew to her mouth covering it, but her eyes smiled at his lazy grin. He swatted at her ass. “C’mon, grab a shower. I’ll have your coffee ready and waiting. I’ll even feed the cat.” Her gut clenched at the warm fuzzy her heart was having. The man of her dreams was attending to her every need. Treating her like he was going to hang around for a while. And her bunny slippers were winking at her reminding her exactly why he continued to hang around. Well then, she’d just wear the bunny slippers until hell froze over.

***** “Somebody got laid.” Cara nearly jumped out of her skin, falling out of the shower with a thunk as the tinkling of Katia’s seductive tones filled the small bathroom. She

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hated when they did that! If they were an illusion, she had the mind of a mad woman to conjure up something this real. “Could I get a little warning next time you decide to pop in? What the hell are you doing here? And where have you three been, all night long?” Simone, appeared out of nowhere from behind her. Her husky drawl made Cara’s ears burn, “Had a good time last night, didn’t you?” “Wanna tell me what’s up with the bunny slippers? Is this your idea of a joke?” Mia laughed, “We did tell you they changed with whatever you wear didn’t we? So when you put that, like really ugly, fashion faux pas of a nightshirt on, they did their thing.” “If I were you I wouldn’t complain, sweet cheeks. Those shoes didn’t seem to upset you when you were riding the old stallion of love,” Katia snickered then pinched her cheeks. She picked up one of Cara’s slippers. Cara grabbed it back from her, “Give those to me, they’re my bunny slippers, and I like them. Oh, and thanks for the condom, nice touch.” Back away from the bunny slippers slowly. “Silly, nobody wants to take them from you. I just didn’t know slippers could be so utterly dreadful, and you’re welcome, we aim to please.” Katia flashed Cara a brilliant smile, while she blew on her freshly painted nails. “I think they’re cute. They remind me of home…and the farm.” Mia’s eyes misted over as she choked out the words. Cara moved to give her a consoling hug. “You lived on a farm?” Fabulous girls really were Iowa corn fed. “Pluuueaase,” Simone warned, “could we not get started on that again? Miss E. I. E. I. O. here will bawl a river.” “I will not! Isn’t it okay for me to miss my family? Don’t be such a bitch, Simone,” Mia huffed at her wiping a tear away.

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Simone glared at Mia, “It’s fine darling, as long as you don’t let your eyes get puffy and red over it.” “Like we have to worry about that now, Simone,” Katia reminded her, waving ten crimson nails up and down to dry them. Simone’s almond eyes narrowed, “Don’t start with the dead thing again, Katia or I’ll…” “You’ll what?” Cara pushed her way between them, hiking her towel up. “Hey! Cut it out, you guys. There isn’t time for you to argue in here. I have to get to work.” “And get back to Alex,” Simone snorted. Cara smiled, “Yes, him too. So quit fighting and tell me what’s next.” “What’s next is up to you, lamb chop. We’re only here ‘til we’re gone.” Cara made a face, “Oooh, very cryptic, Mia. What the hell does that mean?” Mia shrugged her slender shoulders, “It means that when our job is done, we go away.” Wait one fairy godmother second, did this mean they would be gone forever? “Won’t I ever see you again?” “How about we worry about that when the time comes, muffin?” Katia brushed Cara’s hair away from her face. Cara brushed Katia’s hand away, “Don’t muffin me, Katia. What is it with all of the food references anyway? I want to know what happens to you! Where do you go, why can’t I see you all again?” Simone sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest, “Right now, you have a man waiting outside in your kitchen who’s making you coffee. A fabulous man, mind you. Who thinks you’re a raving lunatic because you’re in the damn bathroom talking to yourself. So I’d suggest you lower your voice and get dressed.” She looked at Simone. “He can’t hear you three?” Oh, shit. 63

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“Now, marshmallow, if he could hear us, we wouldn’t really be fairy godmothers with special magic powers, now would we? There’d be no magic in that. We’d be just like you and if we were, I can assure you we wouldn’t be in this bathroom talking about bunny freakin’ slippers!” Well, there was that. “We’d be on a runway in Milan…” Simone said, with longing and a faraway look in her eyes. “Don’t even go there, Simone,” Mia warned. “Now listen up, Cara. Go take care of that hottie in the kitchen. Simone and Katia, let’s go,” she paused a moment to think.”Let’s go shopping! That always makes you two feel better.” Cara began digging around in the makeup bag so she could slap some goop on her face. She felt positively teary over this turn of events. She was becoming attached to these Barbie knock-offs. Damn them, for showing up and turning her life upside down. Then threatening to leave her high and dry. “Don’t get upset, Cara. We won’t go until it’s time, when you’re ready.” The girls gathered behind her, their flawless faces hovering above hers in the bathroom mirror. “What if I’m not ready? What if I’m never ready?” “Oh, honeybunch, the time will come. Right now, let’s get pretty for Alex.” Alex. Her heart did a somersault. No one bothered to explain when these shoes were coming off, and when he would be gone too. She wouldn’t think of it, not now. Apparently, the train ride of unbridled passion hadn’t pulled into the station just yet.

***** He rapped sharply on the door with his knuckles. “Hey, who are you talking to in there?” The muffled sounds coming from the bathroom were peculiar. Was she talking to herself? Well, okay, so she had a quirk or two. 64

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He didn’t care, she was sexy as hell and smart too. Waiting to go out with her was the smartest thing he could have done. Perfect timing in his mind, cause the wolves were beating down the door. He glanced back over his shoulder at the bouquet of flowers that had just arrived. He wanted to tear the small, square envelope open and see who they were from. He’d tried holding it up to the light, but all he could see was the scribbled ink. Maybe it was her birthday? Wouldn’t that suck if he’d missed it? He’d give his own woman flowers, he didn’t need some other guy doing it. Again, the muffled muttering came from behind the bathroom door. “Cara? Are you okay in there? Need a little help? Cause I could do that you know…” His little nether friend agreed, as it swelled beneath his jeans. “No, I’m fine. Gimme just a minute and I’ll be out.” He padded back to the living room and sat down by the flowers. He plucked a petal off one of the perfect daisies out of spite, crushing it between his fingers. Whoever the asshole was who’d sent these better just back the fuck off. “Flowers!” Cara rushed forward, smiling as she lifted the vase to smell them. Yup, flowers. Big friggn’ deal. She tore open the envelope and frowned, “Who’s Ralph?” His jaw twitched, “An old boyfriend?” “Don’t be silly, Alex. I don’t have an old boyfriend. I don’t even have an old-old boyfriend.” Then who the fuck was Ralph? “Here, can you read the last name on the card?” She handed him the flowery square. “Anderson. Ralph Anderson. He wants to have dinner.” Wait a minute, Ralph Anderson from accounting? Ralph Anderson from his accounting department?

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Her eyes scanned the card, “I can’t remember a Ralph…Oh!” She snapped her fingers, “Wait, now I remember! Ralph is so sweet. I managed to save him the last chicken salad sandwich, because he’s allergic to peanut butter. So if I know he’s due for lunch I try to set one aside because he comes in later, after the rush. He’s a sweetheart!” Sweetheart, schmeetheart…he’s a dweeb. An interloper. A girlfriend stealer. And who said she was your girlfriend? All right, he conceded, she wasn’t officially his girlfriend yet, but she would be soon enough if he had anything to say about it. “Oh, look he wants to have dinner? That’s odd…” Alex snatched the offensive card out of her hand and slapped it down on the coffee table. Pulling her to him, he kissed her soundly. “You can’t have dinner with Ralph, who, by the way, works for me. Because you’re having dinner with me, remember?” Her perfect curves fit snugly between his thighs. “Yes, of course I remember. Dinner tonight at your place, are you cooking? Or are we having hot dogs?” Alex groaned when she wiggled against him. “I’ll have you know, I’ve been single for a long time, and I know how to cook. How much do you like Hamburger Helper?” he said against her ear. “Depends on what kind of Hamburger Helper we’re talking about. If it’s the one with the noodles and peas, then I’ll have to protest.” He cupped her ass and wedged her tightly against his throbbing cock. “I’ll be sure to avoid anything with noodles and peas.” “We’d better go. It’s getting late and I’ve already left Ruby alone for too long.” He let her go with reluctance. “Just remember who you’re having dinner with tonight.” She laughed at him and teased, “What was your name again. Ralph, right?” He growled at her and planted a kiss on her forehead. “You’d better watch what you say there or you’ll be eating peanut butter and jelly for dinner tonight.”

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She cocked her eyebrow at him. “Oh, no I couldn’t have that. Ralph is allergic to peanut butter, remember?” Alex frowned at her. “Get your purse and I’ll walk you to work.” Cara chuckled as she headed for the door, swinging it open. He admired the sway of her hips as she walked out the door, just as he grabbed the offensive bouquet of flowers and stuffed them in the kitchen trash can.

***** “Look at Ms. Thang. Get a groove on, did ya?” Cara’s cheeks burned, but she was grinning from ear to ear. A big, dumb, goofy grin, but she didn’t care. She’d had the most wonderful night of her life. All because of a pair of shoes and three women who couldn’t manage to produce a single brain cell if they squeezed really hard. Meow. They might be pretty, but maybe it wasn’t as easy as everyone thought it was. And she was growing fonder of them by the millisecond. She hugged Ruby tightly and kissed her round cheek. “Thanks, Ruby. You’ve always been a good friend. Now what do we need to prepare for the breakfast crowd?” “It’s all done kiddo. The only thing left to do is wait for the morning rush.” “I’m sorry, Ruby. I should have gotten here earlier, but—” “But you were all tied up. Don’t worry about it, sugar. If you hadn’t given me this job, where would I be?” Ruby harrumphed, “Sittin’ in some rocking chair and livin’ with a litter of cats.” “That’s not true, Ruby and you know it. You’d be having conjugal visits in the game room at the local nursing home.” Cara winked at her. Ruby cackled back. “Gotta do something to keep the old ticker pumping.”

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“Well Rube, the feeling is mutual. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to keep this place going.” Cara smiled at her over her shoulder as she headed back toward the freezer to get some backup trays of milk and orange juice. Ruby had been a blessing in disguise, she might not look capable of much physically, but her insight and knowledge of the food industry was what made this venture a success for Cara. In the beginning, they’d worked long hours, but it was starting to pay off and she’d given Ruby a substantial raise because of it. “Got another date with, Mr. Booty-licious tonight?” Cara’s toes tingled. “Yeah, I do. Tonight we’re having dinner. He’s cooking.” “Well, well, Miss Hot-pants, got him trained already, do ya?” “You taught me well, master.” She bowed to Ruby as she hoisted another tray of toast. Ruby chuckled, “Did I tell you that another guy was down here asking about you?” “Another guy?” This grew more puzzling by the day. “No, but did I tell you what Alex does for a living up there?” “He manufactures adult toys,” Ruby stated plainly, as if everyone on the planet knew. Cara gasped she was shocked. “How did you know that?” “Ruby knows everything. It’s not a secret, you know. Smart man that Alex, to tap into the needs of women. Women who are lonely and horny,” she laughed. “Stop right there, Ruby! I can’t hear you. I don’t even want to know how you know these things.” It was like talking to your mother about your sex life. Not gonna happen. “But don’t you want to know about the Galactic Invader?” “Ruby, I’m warning you!” Ruby followed close behind Cara as she went to open the doors for breakfast. “Oooh, what about The Camouflage, I hear it’s really pretty. It has five settings and—” “Ruby!” 68

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***** Cara’s day was busier than usual. Out of the blue, droves of employees in the building decided the cafeteria was the place to eat lunch. She rubbed the back of her neck wearily. God, she was tired. Glancing at the clock on the wall she realized she’d better hurry up if she was going to meet Alex for dinner. She couldn’t wait to see him. She’d spent the better part of the day replaying the events of last night in her head. Ruby patted her on the back. “It was a busy day, huh? The men are crawling outta the woodwork trying to get to you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a long line of men since we started. All wantin’ a good look at you, miss.” “Oh, they are not. None of those men looked at me twice before, Rube. That hasn’t changed.” “If you say so, but the way I see it,” Ruby dug around in the pocket of her uniform pulling out a bunch of slips of paper, “these all have your name on them.” Cara took the stack of paper from Ruby and shoved them in her pocket. “It’s probably the suggestion forms I put out last week. Everyone’s in an uproar because I want to change Tuesday’s breakfast menu.” “Right,” Ruby gave her an appeasing smile. “If you say so. You better hurry and meet the man of your dreams, it’s getting late.” “Will you lock up?” “No problem.” “It’s getting dark, take a cab for me will ya, Ruby?” “No need, George is coming to get me.” “Who’s George, Rube?” “He’s who I use the Galactic Invader vibe with.” “I can’t hear yoooouuuu!” Cara yelled over her shoulder as she left the cafeteria to the sound of Ruby’s fits of laughter.

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Chapter 6 Alex heard the ding of the elevator and peeked around the corner. His walking wet dream come true came around the corner, wending her way through the rows of cubicles, looking rather unsure of where she was going. His cock waved hello to her. Damn he was like a rabid teenager whenever she was near. “Hey, beautiful,” he called from his office. She was indeed just that, beautiful, and then some. She looked a bit confused as she located him, but gave him a tired smile. “Hey, how was your day?” “Good, yours? You look pretty tired.” He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her, letting his tongue lazily explore the hot cavern of her mouth. She leaned into him with a sigh, that breathy sigh that turned his insides to jelly and made his cock throb. She tasted new and familiar at the same time. Cara pulled away for a moment to comment on the boxes that lined the wall. “Wow, big delivery?” “Yup.” He didn’t want to talk about work, he wanted to throw her on his desk and fuck her senseless. But that might freak her out. “Whatcha get?” “Vibrators. Lots and lots of vibrators,” his hand trailed to the zipper of her uniform. Her cheeks flushed with color. “Oh.” “It’s going to hold me up a little. I wasn’t expecting this shipment ‘til Monday. I just have to do a quick inventory.”

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She frowned at him playfully kissing his jaw, “Does this mean I don’t get my Hamburger Helper?” “Depends on if you think I’m worth the wait.” “Depends on how good your Hamburger Helper is.” “Nobody can make Hamburger Helper the way I do, good looking, and don’t you forget it.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her as she straddled his lap. “Well, in that case I’ll wait with bated breath…” she offered, as she circled her hips above him. He moved her long, coppery hair out of the way and massaged her neck. Cara gripped the arms of the chair and arched her back, rolling her head. “You’re all in knots. If you want, you can go grab a shower.” Her pretty lips pouted. “But then I’d have to walk all the way home and I’m too tired.” He ran his hands over the soft swell of her breasts, relishing the way her nipples beaded through the thin cotton of her uniform at his touch. His tongue itched to taste them. “No, I have a shower here in the office. It’s got a massaging shower head,” he whispered suggestively. What he really wanted was for her to massage his head. She circled his wrists as he kneaded her breasts, “Ooooh…a massaging shower head, huh? If you don’t mind… a shower sounds good.” He teased her nipple by nibbling on it. “I don’t mind at all. There are clean towels and a fresh bar of soap in the small closet to the left of the bathroom.” She swung her legs off him and gave him a quick kiss. “You’re a prince among men, Alex Mackenzie.” A horny prince among men, he mused. He admired her rounded ass as she sauntered off to the bathroom. When he heard the water running, he started ripping open boxes and counting vibrators.

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“Alex?” His head popped up, he was knee deep in vibrators in every shape and size, scattered on the desk. She had a towel wrapped around her, holding her uniform in her hand and still wearing her shoes. Her long hair was slicked back and her face freshly scrubbed. “Well, look at you, very sexy those shoes. You make quite a fashion statement.” He chuckled and winked. “My…feet…They get cold…a lot. I told you that, so I always wear shoes.” She sounded almost defensive. Wear the shoes, don’t wear the shoes, it was all the same to him. He wanted her to wear him. “I could warm those feet you know,” She shook her head no and held out her uniform to him. “What’s wrong?” “My zipper is stuck on my uniform and I can’t get it to budge.” “Lemme see,” he held his hand out to her and tugged her toward him. “Sit with me and I’ll see if I can fix it.” She tightened the towel around her and sat in the chair beside him. “So these are the infamous vibrators, can I see?” His cock yelled a resounding, yes! Lord, chill out down there. “Go right ahead, I put batteries in this one, we’ve been having some trouble with this particular model.” “This blue one, is this the ever popular Galactic Invader?” “And how do you know about the Galactic Invader? Been surfing the web checking up on me?” She held the blue vibrator in the palm of her hand and curled her fingers around it grinning, “A friend told me about it. She seems to like it.” Okay, if she didn’t put the nice blue vibrator down he was going to embarrass himself.

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“It’s smooth, too,” she ran her fingers over the blue surface. Clicking the small button to the “on” position, she jumped. “Wow, that packs a punch.” He pulled her chair toward him, the squeak of the wheels tangible evidence that she was here in his office. Naked under a towel and touching a vibrator. He fought the impulse to fuck her senseless. Women like Cara should be treated with respect, she wasn’t like all the others who cared about nothing but his money. For the first time, in a long time, he wanted to spend time with a woman. This woman. She’d caught his interest and she wasn’t letting go. “If you don’t stop that, I can’t be held responsible for what might happen. “Like I might rip that towel from your body and ram my overheated, behaving like a foolish teenager, cock into you. Her breathing was quick and shallow. So was his. She laughed and circled the fake cock with her hand, running it slowly up and down its length. “You mean this?” her eyes glittered with mischief. “I mean that.” He warned, his voice sounded husky and thick to his ears. “What will happen if I don’t stop?” she taunted him by licking the vibrating shaft. Her pink tongue slid over the blue surface, running its length then back up again in a slow glide. She let her lips graze the head of it, lingering over it like an ice cream cone. He groaned, “I’ll show you what’s going to happen.” She stopped laughing as suddenly as she’d begun. Their lips were mere inches apart, as a moan escaped him. He imagined the silk of her mouth on the fake cock, on his cock. When she ran her tongue over her bottom lip, it was his undoing. He cupped the back of her neck and tugged her toward him, capturing it between his lips. When his tongue touched hers, his head exploded with the taste of her. He was going to scare the shit out of her if he wasn’t careful, but he couldn’t control the urge to devour her. Now.

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She clung to the vibrator as he pulled her up off the chair and held her tightly. His lips grazed hers, gently at first then deepening the pressure as he crushed her mouth to his own. She groaned softly when he tugged at the towel, letting it fall to the floor in a damp heap. The cool air tightened her nipples beneath his hands. He rolled them lazily between his fingers, before he claimed them with his mouth. The pebbly surface slipped easily beneath his tongue. He groaned at the sweet taste of her. Her free hand tangled in his hair, fingernails scraping his scalp. Alex wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to the floor. His gaze swept over the supple curves and hollows of her naked length. Her hair had begun to dry and splayed out over the floor, a stark contrast of copper against the beige carpet. His cock pounded against his jeans when his eyes settled on her smooth cunt. “How come I’m the only one naked here?” That soft, breathy tone that knifed through his gut and lodged in his heart inquired. He tore at his jeans and yanked at his shoes all at once, pulling off his shirt for good measure. “You’re not completely naked. You still have your shoes on.” He watched as her eyes flew to her white shoes that matched her uniform. “I told you my feet get cold…really cold, brrr. So come over here and warm me up and forget about my shoes, huh?” Consider her shoes forgotten. If she wanted to wear shoes while they made love, he was fine with that. She could wear a pair of gloves and a scarf too. He lay down beside her and cradled her against the length of his body. Her smooth skin was hot to the touch and silky soft. She straddled his leg, the smoothness of her pussy rubbing against his thigh. She was still clinging to the vibrator. “Want me to take that for you?” He felt her head shake against his neck, “No, I want you to use it.” Her words were stilted and husky. Electricity shot to his cock, leaving him throbbing painfully against the flat plane of her belly. “Cara, you don’t have to if it makes you uncomfortable. I told you that.” 74

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She lifted her head, her blue-green eyes smiled. “I know what you told me, and I know what I just told you. Are you going to use this,” she held up the blue vibrator under his nose, “or not, Mr. Mackenzie?” Alex placed his hand over hers, guiding her with the vibrator to the smooth cleft at her thighs. She rolled over laying flat on her back, leaving her arm draped around his neck. Their eyes met for a brief moment, he searched hers for any sign of fear. Cara lifted her head and pressed a kiss to his lips in silent reassurance. He laved the sweet skin of her neck as he dragged the vibrating cock between her folds of slick flesh. Settling firmly on a nipple, he nibbled around it, letting his breath graze it, fascinated by the tight pucker his lips brought it to. Cara arched her back, pressing the heels of her feet into the carpeted floor when he rubbed the vibrator against her swollen clit. Her head rolled back and forth, as her chest heaved when he lay his tongue flat against her nipple and wrapped his mouth securely around it. Alex tugged at it as he slid the vibrator closer to her entrance. He left her breast reluctantly and swept over her belly until his mouth found the object of his desire. He rolled Cara to her side, sliding down her body until his head rested on her thigh. She gripped his legs, running her hands wildly over his skin, kneading the muscles. Keeping the vibrator pressed firmly at her passage, Alex spread the sweet lips of her pussy and licked. Her hips thrashed against his face on impact and she moaned his name. The vibrator’s soft hum became muffled as he slid it into the moist warmth of her. He felt her inner walls contract and accept the blue shaft, her hands groping wildly at his thighs while her hips drove toward his mouth. Alex let the taste of her roll over his tongue as he lapped at the musky flavor of her cunt. She was wet and sweet and he could spend an eternity between her thighs, just tasting her. When she reached for his pulsing cock, gripping it lightly, he moaned against her flesh. She brought him to her lips and the heat of her breath made his blood roar.

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Her soft tongue tentatively swiped the skin just below the head of his cock. He jerked in response rolling his hips toward the warmth of her mouth. With renewed vigor, he lapped at her, driving the vibrator into her, and suckling her clit until he felt her spasm and cry out. Her muscles tensed and then relaxed as she quivered beneath him. He gently slid the vibrator out and clicked the “off” button, laying it aside. As he moved away from her thighs to sit up, she quickly sat up on her knees. Cara’s small hands pushed at his chest, pressing him to the floor again. She moved over him until she bracketed his head with the palms of her hand, her hair curtained his face. Soft and smelling like wildflowers. Her eyes glowed in the fading light as she took his lips, wedging her tongue into his mouth. Alex let her explore him, arching upward when she suckled his tongue. Her hair caressed his chest, feather light as she moved down his body and kneeled between his thighs. Two small hands gripped his cock, tunneling it as she caressed him. Her head lowered, as did her lips onto his hard throbbing shaft. He wanted to shout at the pleasure it brought him when her tongue finally made contact, but he bit it back. Cupping his balls, she kneaded them gently as she impaled his cock with her mouth. Alex’s world tilted when she took him fully. Keeping her lips at the base of his cock and flattening her tongue against his rock hard flesh. He was going to explode with the soft, suckling sounds she made. He tangled his hands in her hair and jammed his hips upward fighting the urge to come. Cara’s nails ran through the thick pubic hair at the root of his shaft and he gritted his teeth as she made another pass along his cock. “Cara, honey…I…I…” he tugged her head, pulling himself from her mouth with a pop. He dragged her up over him, and held her tightly, squeezing his eyes shut. He couldn’t breathe from the smell of her and the pleasure she had given him simply by allowing herself to try something new with him as her guide. “We need a condom, Alex. I can’t wait,” she whispered, then groaned when he cupped her breast.

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Shit. “I hope to hell there are some in the box these vibrators came in. Cause I don’t make a habit of doing this in my office.” “Really, I’m your first in-office schtupp? I’m flattered indeed,” she teased. He dug around in the box, keeping her close. “Aha! They usually send them along as promotional items.” He tore open the packet with his teeth. Cara took it from his hands and rolled it down over his stiffened length. He moaned loudly, his ever throbbing cock wasn’t going to last longer than a New York minute at this rate. Cara swung her thighs over his hips and guided him to her. She let him enter her in slow, agonizing increments. His hands gripped her hips to keep from slamming into the tight warmth. His neck arched and the tendons in it flexed when she settled on him with a sigh of pleasure. Cara’s fingers toyed with his nipples as she rode him in slow circles. As she leaned back, she brought her hands up to cup her breasts, tugging at her nipples. He watched as his cock entered her over and over. The base of his shaft glistened with her slickness. He brought his thumb to her clit softly caressing the swollen nub. The rhythm of their rocking increased in tempo as his balls tightened, pulling upward. Their breath came in quick gasps. Each struggling to make it last, yet pulling them toward the vortex of release. She milked his shaft with her slick warmth, clenching and tightening her muscles with each thrust he made. Alex couldn’t take anymore and when Cara dug her hands into his chest and her hair fell over his chest, dancing across his skin, he drove into her one last time. An explosion of sensation burst out of his cock, as thick, hot spurts of his come filled the condom. His shaft throbbed and pulsed with relief. Cara flopped forward on his chest, clinging to him as he gathered her close and held her tightly. He couldn’t risk speaking in sentences. He’d never felt this strongly about anyone before.

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“Jesus…” She chuckled against his neck. “Now He had nothing to do with this. Hey,” she poked his shoulder and smiled up at him. “Are you gonna feed me? I’m starving, and now that you’ve had your way with me, I think it’s only fair that you make me dinner.” He pulled out of her reluctantly, sitting up and pulling her to her feet. “All right, woman, quit moaning. Let me get cleaned up and I’ll take you back to my place.” He headed off toward the bathroom to dispose of the condom and wash up. When he came back she was holding her uniform in her hand, the towel securely wrapped around her again. “First you have to fix my zipper. It would be indecent of me to go out in public flaunting my wares, don’t you think? The zipper stops here,” she pointed to just below her breasts and giggled at him. He threw on his jeans and shirt and took the uniform from her. As he jerked the zipper, turning the uniform over to get at it from a better angle, little pieces of yellow paper flew to the floor. He bent to scoop them up. Catching a glimpse of names scrawled across them…and phone numbers. Men’s names, and their phone numbers. His pissed off factor went from zero to a hundred in no time flat. He held up the papers, “What the hell are these?” Cara turned to look at him, appearing quite cool and completely unaffected by his obvious anger. She shrugged, “Oh, just some suggestion forms for improving the cafeteria’s menu.” He crumpled them in his tight fist, “And how do you plan to improve the cafeteria with a bunch of men’s phone numbers?” “What? What phone numbers, Alex? Don’t be ridiculous.” He began unfolding the crinkled slips of paper, “Oh, let’s see. Well there’s Tom, from the second floor. He wants to meet for a drink sometime and Donnie, oh, look he puts little hearts over the ‘i’ in his name. Cute-very manly. Very high school,” he

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ground out. “Donnie says he’d love to buy you lunch sometime. And here’s one from Phillip, He says that he’d really love to get to know you better—” “Alex!” she cut him off by yelling sharply. “Stop it. I didn’t even look at those stupid things. Ruby gave them to me and I just stuffed them in my pocket. Take a look at what the header on those say, Suggestion Form. Not Cara’s personal ‘let’s hook up service.’ Jeez, do you really think I’d fish for dates like that? I’m not as hard up as you might think.” She crossed the room yanking the uniform from him and pulling it over her head angrily. Suggestion form or not, these men wanted in his woman’s drawers and he wasn’t having it. How could she be so unaware of her own attractiveness to the opposite sex? How could he have missed seeing this after all this time and why the hell didn’t she call everyone of those assholes up and tell them to go the fuck away? Better yet, he’d do it for her. Alex ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Judging by the way she was glaring at him he was not going to be making dinner, or anything for that matter if he didn’t shut his big mouth and keep his jealous tendencies to himself. He’d known her for two whole days and already he was behaving like a total ass. As impressions went, he was really making one. Fuck. Shut up, Alex and make nice. She’s telling you she didn’t know anything about all those slugs. Take her word for it ‘till you know differently. “Okay, look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—” Her face flushed with anger, her pretty eyes were narrowed and sending the daggers of death at him. “Oh, yes you did, Alex Mackenzie! I had no idea those men would use a suggestion form as an outlet to get laid. I mean who would have thought that a simple little form—” “We’re men, honey. We’ll use whatever form of persuasion we have to.” She wrinkled her nose at him and laughed. “Don’t try to makeup with me now by giving me the ‘men can be so dumb’ speech. I already knew that,” she said smugly. Alex pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head. “Wanna be friends again?” 79

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Cara tweaked his chest, “Well, I don’t know. You boink me within an inch of my life, accuse me of having hoards of men lined up just waiting to go out with me and you still haven’t fed me. That’s unforgivable in my book. And I don’t think Hamburger Helper is going to give me the warm fuzzies.” Alex chuckled, “How about macaroni and cheese? I hear it has healing make-up powers.” Cara laughed into his chest, “Oh, well if we’re talking macaroni and cheese that’s a whole different ball of wax. How can any girl resist macaroni and cheese, especially if it’s “make up” macaroni and cheese?” Her stomach growled in agreement. He pulled her by the hand toward the elevator, “C’mon. I’ll take you back to my place and make you some ‘suck-up’ macaroni and cheese.” “It better not be the cheap powdered kind,” she warned him. “Is there any other kind?”

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Chapter 7 Cara woke to the fab trio on either side of her looking picture perfect and very pleased with themselves. Each flawless face was grinning, not a hair out of place. Sunlight poured in from the far window. Shit! She was late! She popped upright and smacked right into Mia. “Mia, please move. I’m late. I have to get to work!” “Relax, silly. It’s Saturday.” Cara groaned, flopping back down and pulling the comforter over her head, “Then go away so I can go back to sleep.” “Daaarling,” Simone drawled, turning back the comforter and peeking in at her. “It’s time to get up and tell us all about your little romp with Alex.” Why did these women have to be so perfect? Even at, she looked at her bedside clock, eight in the morning. Simone’s creamy skin literally glowed. Could they have just one bad moment between them when they looked like shit? Cara wanted to mess up their hair or smear their lipstick. “How do you know I romped anywhere? And how come you guys are up so early? Daybreak doesn’t usually happen for you before noon, I thought all supermodels partied into the wee hours of the morning.” Could they actually see what she’d been up to? Maybe this fairy godmother thing had some sort of crystal ball that let them keep tabs on their shoes. Katia cocked her head, “We haven’t gone to bed yet. Let’s see. Your bed was unmade until the wee hours of this morning. You never came home for dinner. I fed The BEAST by the way. Aaannndd, you have that ‘I’ve just been boffed’ look about you.” The just been boffed look? Can you see that? “Your cheeks are flushed and you positively glow. So, give it up,” Katia cajoled. 81

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Simone sighed, stretching her arms upward. “God, I sooo miss the glow of good sex. There’s just nothing like it for your skin.” “You’re in love.” Mia stated simply with a smug smile on her face. Cara squirmed under the blankets. “Just because I had sex doesn’t mean I’m in love,” she said defensively. She could have sex without being in love. People did it everyday. She was not going to fall in love. She was not. She couldn’t. “This wasn’t just any sex, Cara. This was mind-blowing fabulously, orgasmic sex. Sooooo, how are you feeling about this?” How did they know anyway? So what if it was fabulous? Did that constitute love? No. It meant that she’d had a mind -blowing sexual experience of the millennium, and she could have one with someone else, too. Her heart leapt in her chest, but the truth of the matter was, she didn’t want to have sex with anyone else. Ever. “How do you know I had sex last night, anyway? Skip the ‘just been boffed’ look. Are you like hovering in that other realm place watching me?” “Euuwwww, how utterly distasteful,” Simone huffed, “we most certainly do not hover in another realm or otherwise. I resent that you’d even ask such a thing. I’m no voy…” Simone bit her lip and frowned, “Voy—” “Voyeur,” Katia finished helpfully. Oooooh, big word. Cara stifled a giggle. “Yes, Katia, voyeur, I mean no! I am not a voyeur, thank you very much. That look in your eyes and the smile on your lips while you sleep says it all, Cara.” “You watch me when I sleep? Cut that out! You’re giving me the friggin’ creeps.” “Well, like who could help it? I mean you’re in here all moaning and tossing and turning. The state of Montana heard you, for gravy’s sake! We came to see if you were all right and what all the noise was about.” Mia grinned at her knowingly.

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Cara’s hand flew to her mouth, “I was groaning?” Jesus Christ in a miniskirt. “Okay, yes, I had sex. Earth shattering, mind-boggling sex. But I’m not in love or in anything else for that matter. We had a great time. He made me dinner and then I came home. That’s it.” “Yes, and?” Katia inquired cocking her perfectly waxed eyebrow at Cara. “And what?” “Ya know, there’s something about saying no too much…” Mia reminded Cara. “That’s ‘Methinks you protest too much.’ It’s Shakespeare, Mia, and I am not being defensive. We’ve had two dates and some sex, that ain’t love.” “Haven’t you heard of love at first sight? You’ve been ga-ga over him for a year now. This was meant to be.” Each fab triplet nodded their head in agreement with Katia’s declaration. Cara’s stomach turned. Wasn’t it sort of malicious of them to consider love if they knew Alex only wanted her because of the shoes? When she took those bad boys off, the ride would be over and she’d be left at the train station. “He only wants me because of those shoes and you know it. He didn’t know I existed before I put those things on.” Was her time with the shoes running out? Like sands in the hourglass… Crap, she wasn’t asking if they weren’t telling. She didn’t want to know. When it was over, it was over and she’d walk away. Shoeless, but still walking. “It would seem that lots of other people are interested in you too, Cara. What about them?” Cara sighed of course they were interested, because of the shoes! Not because she was suddenly spewing pheromones left and right. “Yeah, that’s kind of weird, ya know?” Cara shook her head. “Never mind how could you three know? This kind of stuff happens to you all the time.”

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“Be careful what you wish for, they say.” Yet another startling observation of brilliance, from Simone the rocket scientist. Well whoever said that, hadn’t walked a mile in Plain Jane’s shoes. “Look, guys, can’t I just enjoy this? Can’t I just have a great time and not think about the love thing right now?” They all looked at each other. Mia patted her arm, “Sure, honey buns. You can do that. We can wait.” Wait? Wait for what? For her to give back the shoes and be alone again. The BEAST hopped up on the bed. Well, not totally alone. She had The BEAST. She refused to think about it or acknowledge it out loud. “Okay, you wait. I have a date. A date that I’ll be late for, if I don’t get moving right now.” Cara left them on the bed to go shower and get ready to meet Alex. At the beach, for God’s sake. She loved the beach, but you couldn’t swim with shoes on. Well she didn’t have to swim. She could just sit on the sand right? As she applied her makeup, she replayed their lovemaking in his office. He must think she was some slut. They’d known each other a grand total of two days and they’d been intimate as many times. So? Yes, so? Cara didn’t care, she’d finally realized her dream and all of the longing and need had come full circle. She was going to take this opportunity and run with it. With a vibrator to boot! A vibrator! Hell’s bells, who would have thought a vibrator could be so exciting. So liberating? Who would have thought that Cara Anthony would use a vibrator, let alone let a man use it on her? A rush of forbidden pleasure swept over her.

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It was wicked, decadent, and exciting. She wondered what other toys she’d missed out on all this time. She wondered what she might be able to purchase discreetly so that when the time came, she’d have an outlet for all of this newfound sexuality. No, no, no! She wouldn’t think about the end ‘til it came. Cara eyed her face critically in the bathroom mirror. She stuck her tongue out at her reflection. She did not have that ‘just been boffed look’.. She did have that heart thing going on, where it sped up every time she thought about Alex. He was so easy to be with and even easier to talk to. They had so many things in common. Better enjoy it while you can, it ain’t often you sport that just boffed look. Cara sat on the edge of the bathtub. Damn. She would not fall in love. This was not good. Not good at all. Boff this.

***** “Oh, lamb chop,” Mia jumped up from the kitchen table walking on her heels while her toes dried. “I love those shorts, very cute. But I don’t know about the top. What do you think girls?” Simone peeked at Cara over the top of a fashion magazine from the corner of the room. “I think we ought to let Cara pick her own clothes. She’ll have to do that on her own eventually, darling.” “I think I agree with Simone.” Katia sat up on the couch and pulled the cucumber slices from her eyes, she smiled in Cara’s direction, “but I do like the top and the matching sandals.” Cara wiggled her toes. They were cute and so comfortable. There were definitely benefits to not worrying about what shoes to wear with an outfit, especially when they appeared out of nowhere sitting very nicely alongside of your clothing. 85

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Cara happened to catch a quick glimpse of the magazine Simone was reading as she was gathering her purse. Omigod. She snatched the magazine out of Simone’s hands. “Hey, what are you doing? Don’t get so grabby, I would have let you have it,” Simone huffed at her. Cara’s eyes scanned the front cover frantically. It was them…all three of the fab triplets, on the cover of an outdated issue of Vogue. Their arms linked together, eyeing the camera with that come-hither stare. All long limbs and cheekbones. Shaky fingers flipped the pages to the inside story. The article was titled “The End of an Era.” She ran her fingertips over the words as she reached behind her to find something to sit down on. She couldn’t breathe. They had really existed. They were really supermodels when they were alive. According to the article, they’d been at the top of their game when this accident happened. A runway accident… “This,” she pointed to the cover, “This is you,” she accused in a tight whisper. “All three of you, you’re telling the truth!” Katia removed the cucumbers from her eyelids and slapped them down on the table beside the couch. “Of course it’s us, lamb chop. Did you think we made this up?” She snorted to emphasize the believability factor. Cara’s head was spinning. “I…I don’t know what I thought. I thought I was nuts, crazy, insane! Desperate enough to believe in your existence because I wanted to go out with Alex!” Her voice rose four octaves with shock. Simone held her finger to her lips, “Shh, don’t yell, darling we hear you. So now you know you’re not crazy. What’s the big deal? We told you we were fairy godmothers.” Simone said that as though this crazy notion was plausible. Like if you just pop into someone’s life and announce you’re their fairy godmother, hand them a pair of magic shoes that will help you get the man of your wet dreams, it was all completely acceptable. 86

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“You didn’t seem to mind. You’ve been perfectly happy to take our advice and wear the shoes. Once we were past the initial shock we thought you were fine with it.” Cara shook her head and whispered, “You all died in a runway accident. You really did die.” “Oh, please don’t bring that up, Cara,” Mia pleaded with a whine. “These two fight like chickens in a henhouse over that dreadful day. Like we could do anything to change what happened.” Mia hobbled over to Cara taking the magazine from her hands. “We most certainly did,” Simone said, narrowing her pretty almond shaped eyes in Katia’s direction. “Simone!” Mia shouted. “I mean it, don’t even get started. Please. We’re not here to fight. We’re here to help Cara. So shut up the both of you and go back to what you were doing.” Mia threw the magazine on the kitchen table with a toss of her hand. “Okay, Mia. I know this brings up some serious issues for Katia and Simone, but this just happened. The article dates back two years ago. You haven’t been at this fairy godmother thing for very long.” Cara felt a bit uneasy over that. Katia sat up, tucking her long legs beneath her. “Well no, we’ve only been doing this part of it for an even shorter time. There’s training and classes and all that good stuff before you ever get to this part, helping people and all. You’re like subject number four,” Katia frowned, “or five. I’m not sure which. You kinda lose track after awhile.” Holy fairy godmother in training. It was just her luck to get the new kids on the block. “So why didn’t you just die, and go to heaven or whatever happens after death?” Simone sighed, “Well we did die, darling. But as we’re told, we sort of went to a branch of heaven. A place where we’d be most useful, utilizing our skills and all.” “You sit there and talk about this like it’s no big deal. Tell me something, Simone, when you were alive would you have believed this were possible? Fairy godmothers showing up out of thin air and handing you a pair of magic shoes, then telling you, you can have the man of your fantasies?” 87

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“You’ve got a point.” Simone sat on the floor Indian style and stretched upward with her arms. “I guess we are kind of hard to swallow, but we’re here and that’s all there is to it. You’re not crazy. This isn’t a dream and Alex will be coming for you any minute. So you’d better get yourself ready.” Cara sagged back into the couch and ran a hand over her aching temples. “Do you miss your life?” She heard Mia groan from behind her. Katia swung her legs over the side of the chair and slouched down beside Cara. Her glossy auburn hair shadowing her face. “Yeah, sometimes. I miss my family more though.” “I miss the parties and Geoffrey,” Simone chimed in. Cara gave Simone a puzzled look. “Geoffrey was my butler,” she explained. “Not me, I miss the farm.” Mia brushed at a stray tear, falling in a salty bubble down her cheek. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe you. Well, I guess I didn’t. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It all happened so fast. But I do now, believe you that is. I was just so wrapped up in this shoe thing, well…you know.” Cara smiled sheepishly at them. “Of course we know, darling. It’s all very overwhelming and exciting. No one can blame you for getting carried away.” Cara toyed with the edge of her shorts, “Are you happy? I mean being fairy godmothers?” “It beats hell,” Simone said dryly, grunting as she let her body fall forward on the floor in front of her crossed legs. The muscles in her back rippling beneath her caramel skin. Cara laughed. It would definitely beat hell.

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Alex loved the beach. There wasn’t a place on earth he felt more free or alive. The hard crash of the waves against the sand and the clean salty air invigorated him. Puffy, white clouds drifted lazily over the horizon. It was fairly deserted for this time of year, but he loved it. The water was decidedly colder than he’d expected. Cara sat on the blanket by the picnic tables staunchly refusing to swim with him. She said she didn’t like the feel of sand on her feet. She claimed she was cold, or her feet were cold. She told him to go swim. She was perfectly content to sit on the blanket and watch. Her small frame was busying itself with arranging the basket he’d brought so it would hold down the blanket against the wind. She stood to flatten the blanket back out, fighting the wind, bending over and giving him a full view of her ass. His cock rose and stiffened against his bathing suit in response to the visual. He couldn’t get enough of her and they were only on date three. Now he was counting dates on his fingers and toes. Jesus. Alex figured this was the falling fast part that he’d heard of, but never experienced until now. Women came and went, he took them out, sometimes he even slept with them, but no one held his attention quite the way Cara did. It might only be date three, but he felt like he’d known her a lifetime. She felt right and good in every way and he was having a hard time thinking of anything else. Now if he could just get rid of some of the other assholes who felt the same way. She was pretty good at pretending they didn’t exist, too. She shrugged off the stares, dismissing them lightly and smiling at him absently. A girl as beautiful as Cara was used to men ogling her. He should be used to men ogling a beautiful woman. He’d dated plenty of women who were ogled. None of them mattered now, they weren’t Cara. Those phone numbers that fell out of her uniform were still pissing him off, too. He wanted to have a T-shirt printed up that said “mine” and make her wear it everyday. He grunted at that. He was going to scare her off if he started making claims on her before like date four. 89

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Alex paddled his way back toward the shore and found her lying on the blanket, stretched out and dozing, her arm thrown back over her head as her chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm. Alex’s gut tightened as he watched her sleep. He felt a need for her that was so overwhelming it threatened to bring him to his knees. “Hey, toy man, you’re dripping on me.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him, blocking her eyes from the sun. He grinned at her, “Sorry, but you’re lying on the towel.” Cara pulled the towel out from behind her head and sat up, handing it to him. “You could dry my back, you know,” he said as he plopped down in front of her. Cara gave him a shove and laughed, “My dad used to do this to my mother. She’d sit all nice and polite on the beach while he swam, then he’d come out of the water all wet, demanding she dry him off. Pushy lot, you men.” He handed the towel to her over his shoulder. “I think I like your dad. Where is your family?” “My dad passed away about eighteen months ago and my mother lives with my aunt now. My mother and aunt live upstate.” “I’m sorry, I bet he was a great guy. Do you miss them, your mother and your aunt?” “Very much, but when dad passed away they decided to move in together to save on expenses and there just wasn’t room for me to grow there. It was getting a bit crowded living at home. I’d toyed with a lot of different college courses while I waited tables, but never pursued anything seriously. When dad died, it was time to get serious. I really needed to make a break anyway, spread my wings or whatever you want to call it. I needed something of my own. So I decided to buy the cafeteria with the money dad left me and move here to the city. I see them every holiday and for a week or so here and there. They’re too busy for much more than that, but we never miss a Sunday night phone call.”

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He felt the warmth in a smile he couldn’t see, but lodged in his soul. “How long were your parents married?” “Forever…almost forty-five years. They were happy and it showed. Mom had a tough time adjusting to dad’s death and that’s where Aunt Flora came in. She got Mom involved in all sorts of senior citizen activities and kept her getting up in the morning. She’s great now. She even has a boyfriend.” “A boyfriend, huh? Well I’m not surprised if she’s as pretty as you.” She finished drying his back with a pat. “What did ya pack in that basket? I’m starving.” “I made chicken salad sandwiches. I hope they live up to your expectations. I don’t think I can beat the ones you make at the cafeteria.” “Well, toy man, why don’t you let me be the judge of that.” She crossed her legs watching as he took the food from the basket. Dragging the heavy basket over beside them, he began laying out the sandwiches, along with some fruit and cheese. He handed her a sandwich and she nibbled happily, while he popped the cork on a bottle of wine and poured two glasses, passing one to her. “So what about your family? Do you have any?” “I have a brother. He runs the manufacturing plant for Mackenzie’s, out in California.” “What about your parents?” Alex leaned forward and wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin. “They were killed in a car accident ten years ago.” “Oh, Alex, I’m sorry.” He saw the concern on her face and knew that they shared a bond over losing a parent.

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“Don’t be, they had good lives, and they were good parents. I’m close to my brother, Adam, even though we’re so far apart. Right now it makes sense for him to be in California handling things out there, while I do the paperwork here.” She sipped her wine and eyed him over the rim of her glass. “So what’s the toy thing about? I mean what made you think here’s something I could make a fortune at, selling adult toys. It’s not exactly something you major in, in college.” He threw his head back and laughed. “No, that’s true. I majored in marketing. It just sort of happened. I was surfing the Internet one night and found a whole world I didn’t know existed. So I did some research and here I am five years later.” Cara plucked a grape from the vine and popped it in her mouth. “You make it sound so simple. There has to be more to it than that.” Alex’s mouth watered as he watched her eat the grapes, sliding the glistening purple fruit into her mouth slowly. If she went for the banana, he would surely make a mess of himself. “There was a lot of hard work involved, but we struck gold with the ‘Buzz My Gear’ vibrator. From there on, it was downhill. They sold like wildfire and we made our first million. It gave us the cash we needed to invest in future endeavors.” Cara’s shoulders shook as she howled. “Buzz my gear? Buzz my gear?” He grinned at her, “Yeah, ya know…To orgasm and beyond.” She was still laughing as she lay back down on the blanket and stretched. The sun had changed position, glinting off the copper strands of her hair. “So how do you research all this stuff? I mean, how did you know the ‘Buzz My Gear’ vibrator was going to be such a success?” Alex lay down beside her and raised himself up on his elbow. He brushed the hair from her face, wrapping the soft tendrils around his fingers. “We didn’t really know. There are lots of things that have to happen before you find out if it will really give the promised pleasure.”

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Her soft lips parted in an ‘O’ and her pink tongue ran across her lips. She rolled toward him and placed her hands on his chest. “I guess it must have given the promised pleasure then…” He slid his tongue into her mouth, savoring the scent of her skin, a mixture of her scented soap and the salty air. “It’s not quite the same as the real thing, you know…” “Really?” She groaned into his mouth when he rubbed a finger over nipple. “I don’t know, toy man. I kind of liked the blue thingy. It was quite an experience. I’m not sure if I could get over the ‘Buzz my Gear’ vibrator.” He chuckled at the memory as she reached between them and ran the heel of her hand over his cock. “This is going to be quite an experience if we don’t stop right now.” Cara giggled into his mouth, suckling his tongue, “All right we can stop, no public sex. Wanna come back to my house and watch a movie?” He pulled her on top of him and shifted his hips to rub enticingly against hers. “Can we have private sex? Wait, are you gonna make me watch a chick flick?” “Maybe, don’t you like chick flicks?” “Depends on the chick I’m watching with.” “That chick would be me…” “Well, in that case.” He kissed her again, sipping at her lips and enjoying the texture of their silkiness. Cara pulled out of his arms and rolled away. Her lips looked swollen from his kisses and her nose had sunburn. Again, his heart did that funny jumping in his chest. Damn, she was straight out of a high school boy’s wet dream. “Are you going to help me clean up or just lay there?” “I kind of like the domestic side of you.” He smiled lazily at her. She grabbed the towel and snapped it at him. “Help me, or they’ll be no chick flick for you, mister.”

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As he was helping her fold the blanket up, he spotted a couple of guys walking along the beach. When they passed Cara, they stared, twisting their necks to check out her legs. His temperature soared and his fuse became an instant bonfire. He threw down the blanket and yelled after them, “Hey, you wanna take a picture of her?” They quickly looked away and hurried down the long stretch of sand. Cara had that perpetual look of confusion on her face again. The one that was starting to really get his goat. “Alex, relax, would you?” She put a soothing hand on his arm. He shrugged it off, angry and even angrier that she didn’t seem very affected by these men that were everywhere. “I’m getting a little tired of every man in creation eyeballing you like you’re the last piece of candy in a candy store.” “Alex, we’ve known each other for three days. How can you even say that?” He blew out a puff of air, “Don’t you see the way men look at you?” What the hell was the matter with her? Surely, she knew she held some measure of allure. And he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one God damn bit. She put her hands on her hips and bit her lower lip. “I wasn’t paying attention to them, Alex. I’m here with you.” She poked his chest with a red-tipped finger. Oh, sure go and make it like he was some raving, jealous lunatic. You are, you knuckle dragger. So, he was jealous, big friggin’ deal. It was normal and healthy…and making him nuts. He wanted to rush her off to his car and hide her from the world. He ran a hand through his hair, shaking out the sand. Fuck. She stood, waiting patiently while he smiled at her sheepishly. “I guess it’s makeup macaroni and cheese again, huh?

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She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, “Oh no, toy man, you have to rent the movie, too.” With that, she gathered her things and headed off to the car. Shaking her luscious hips and stomping up the hill. He was in for a chick flick for sure.

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Chapter 8 The ride back to her apartment was deafening. The silence was anyway. She was furious that he would imply she’d even paid attention to those men. She still couldn’t believe men paid anything to her, let alone attention. If she could explain the shoes, he’d understand, of course then the shoes spell would be broken and it would be over. Or he’d have her committed. Shit, shit, shit! How did the pretty girls do it? Pretty girls always had boyfriends and they never seemed to suffer for them. She peeked down at her shoes. Damn fuck me pumps. What kind of name was that for them anyway? Alex turned into the video store parking lot and shut off the ignition. He turned to look at her, his brown eyes with those damn thick eyelashes, gave her a wink. “If I get two chick flicks, can we make up?” “You know what, toy man? I don’t even favor chick flicks, but I ought to make you watch them anyway.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t like chick flicks?” “I’m more of an action/adventure kind of girl, but I can sit through a chick flick…” her tone warned. “You like Aaaarnold?” He puffed his chest out and did a poor Arnold imitation. She began to laugh as she opened the car door, “Yes, I love Arnold. Now come on and rent me a movie.”

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He followed her into the store, attempting to avoid looking at anyone from the heterosexual, male persuasion. It only served to bring him trouble and make him say something he might regret. Cara was perusing the action/adventure section while he perused the asshole in the drama aisle, giving her the eye. He gave the fool the look of death. The jerk quickly slanted his eyes back to the video selections. Breathing. He sucked in a gulp of air. “You okay?” He smiled through clenched teeth. “Fine, did you find something you like?” “I think so. We’d better go, it’s getting late and The BEAST needs to be fed.” The kid at the desk took the video from Cara and didn’t bother looking up until she leaned forward to look at the candy behind the counter. All of a sudden, high school boy was a man. Like he just saw Jesus. His face turned a fine shade of crimson, but his eyes remained glued to Cara’s breasts. Asshole. He felt the tick in his jaw work overtime. Alex leaned past Cara and fought to maintain his civility. “What do we owe you, buddy?” The kid coughed and sputtered out, “Four-ninety nine, sir.” Alex gave him a ten and told him to keep the change, ushering Cara out of the video store and back to the safety of his car before he shoved his fist down teen boy’s throat. “I can’t wait to see this,” she said excitedly. He couldn’t wait to get her the hell out of public.

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***** The BEAST greeted them at the door with a hungry meow. Low and mournful, he swished his way between Cara and Alex’s legs. Cara knelt to scratch his ears. “Are you hungry? I’ll bet, poor thing. C’mon, let’s go to the kitchen and see what I can rustle up.” Alex followed her close behind, “Got the phone book? I’ll order that pizza.” She grinned at him, “Just press one on the speed dial.” “Ah, a girl who likes pizza.” “With pepperoni if you like it too. Oh, and extra cheese.” Cara dug around the cabinets for some cat food while he called the pizza in and pinched her ass playfully. She kissed The BEAST on his raven tipped head. “You missed me today, didn’t you?” The BEAST rubbed up against her, arching his back upward into her hand. He noticed Alex and went to sniff him out. Alex hung up the phone and scooped The BEAST up in his big arms. The BEAST nuzzled his chin and purred. “Well, I see you’ve made quite an impression on my cat.” Her heart turned over in her chest. He liked animals, too…did he get anymore fabulous? “How long before the pizza arrives?” “Twenty minutes.” “Would you mind if I grabbed a shower?” “Can I grab it with you?” His tone sent a shiver of desire right up her spine and back down to her nipples. She couldn’t get naked with him in the shower. Oh, damn, damn, damn. Thinking…” Er…um…” it hit her like a bolt of lightening. “Someone has to wait for the pizza.” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly. “You wouldn’t

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want me to starve cause we missed the delivery, would you? There’s a six pack of beer in the fridge too, to keep you company.” He seemed to think about that for a minute, then squeezed her ass. “I couldn’t go on living if you starved,” he teased with a devilish grin. Cara rushed off to the bathroom, shutting the door and locking it behind her. She leaned against the bathroom door and took a deep breath. This was getting harder all the time. She couldn’t go on forever, keeping him from finding out she wasn’t all she was cracked up to be. “Daaaarling?” Cara’s head snapped around to the left to find Simone, sitting on the edge of the sink. “What—” Cara slapped her hand over her mouth, and lowered her voice. “What are you doing here,” she hissed. Simone held up her bottle of blood-red, nail polish, waving it under Cara’s nose. “This, darling.” “Well, could you give me some kind of warning? Like a big gust of wind, or bells clanging. Don’t they give you big puffs of swirling smoke, or something?” “No, darling, not until we advance to another level of magic. For now, you’ll have to deal with us popping in and out.” Cara grimaced at her, “I’m sorry, Simone, I’m just edgy.” Simone leaned back against the wall. “Noooo, really? I’d have never guessed. What’s the matter, honey buns? “ Cara sagged against the wall. “It’s the shoes.” Simone’s brow furrowed in obvious concern. “Do they hurt? What’s wrong with them?” “No, Simone, they don’t hurt. It’s just getting harder and harder to keep from taking them off” 99

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Simone gave her a wicked smile. “I see.” “You see? You see? Is that all you have to say? That’s veeery helpful.” Simone cupped Cara’s cheek and smiled that smile that oozed sensuality. “Do what your heart tells you to do, Cara, and that’s all I’ll say for now.” Cara latched onto her arm, “But—” “I have to go, darling, the girls are waiting. It seems they’ve managed to rustle up some fairy godfathers and well, time is wasting.” She cocked her eyebrow at Cara jauntily and winked. “T-T-F-N, love,” and with an air kiss she was gone.

***** The pizza was waiting for her on the table when she finished showering. Alex had some candles lit and he’d put out some paper plates and napkins. Her heart did that zing thing again. God, he was just too perfect and for the moment, he was hers. Hers. He gathered her up and gave her a long kiss, peeking down the front of her old nightshirt. “You smell so good.” He buried his face in her neck. “I see you have the bunny slippers, are your feet warm enough?” Cara wiggled her slipper-clad feet at him. The eyes on the slippers shook maniacally, “My feet are fine. My stomach is another story. I’m starving.” Alex pulled out a chair for her then sat down beside her at the table. He scooped up gooey slices of pizza dripping with cheese. Cara dug in with zeal. A day in all that sun and being forced to spend it on a blanket wore a girl out. She could tell how much he loved the water. So did she, she only wished she could tell him that. Cara sighed with pleasure, she loved pizza and she loved watching Alex’s mouth chew even more. “I had a great time today, Alex.”

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“Even though you didn’t want to swim, and I behaved like a Neanderthal?” She nodded, “I love the beach even without swimming and we’ll work on the Neanderthal thing.” “C’mon, why don’t we eat this on the couch and watch the movie?” They grabbed their beers and settled down on the couch with paper plates in their laps. Alex clicked on the TV. “Ooooh, look, it’s Arnold. He’s cute,” Cara gushed. “You like all those muscles?” “Well, not as much as yours…” “Finish that pizza, woman,” he said as he licked at the sauce on the side of her mouth. “I thought we were going to watch a movie?” He took the plate from her sliding it on the coffee table. “Arnold can wait. I can’t.” “You, toy man, are a randy fellow.” Cara caught her breath as his lips hovered nearer hers. He clicked the remote, turning the sound down on the TV and throwing it to the floor. He pressed her backward and laid his body over hers. Cara sighed as the hard bulge between those yummy thighs pressed urgently against the juncture between hers. He sat up, kneeling between her legs and took off his shirt and jeans, then unbuttoned her nightshirt. The light from the TV caught his eyes, darker, she noticed, in passion. She reached up to run her hands over his chest. His muscles flexed and relaxed in response, his skin was hot to the touch and so damn soft for a man. Her fingers toyed with the flat disc of his nipples, watching them pucker beneath her touch. Hovering over her, he nuzzled her neck, making her nipples tighten with anticipation. His tongue took a long swipe from her lips to her breast and she rose to meet the heat of his mouth. She raised her arms above her head and offered herself to him.

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He groaned at her breast as they thrust upward between his lips. He laved a tight circle around the puckered flesh until she pulled his mouth to meet hers. She slid her tongue into his lips, closing her eyes and savoring the taste of him. Moisture gathered between her thighs when she thought of what that tongue did to her. He played havoc with every nerve in her body when he slid down over her breasts and tugged at her panties. She lifted her hips and let him slide them down over her ankles to fall carelessly on the floor. Cara ran her fingers over the ridges and planes of his hard belly. Alex’s fingers drew small circles over the lips of her pussy, tracing the outline that was already wet with desire. His index finger whispered over her clit, running over it softly. She ached for his tongue to do the same. His kisses trailed over her belly as he lifted her legs to circle his neck. Cara bit her lip when his tongue parted the moist folds and he let it rest alongside her throbbing clit. Her hands reached down to find his tongue. She slipped a finger alongside of it and fingered the small nub. He nipped at her, licking around her intrusion. His thumbs parted her and she felt the cool air graze her sensitive flesh. Cara’s hips bucked upward when he finally wrapped his lips around her clit and suckled. She gasped for air, letting the slide of his tongue take over everything else as she writhed beneath his mouth. Hooking her ankles around his neck, she lifted herself higher when he pushed his hands beneath her and cupped her ass. The slow pinpricks of heat began in her breasts and worked with lightning speed toward her cunt. Slick with moisture he lapped at the exposed flesh, tasting and suckling as he kneaded her ass. Cara threaded her hands through his hair as she pressed his tongue to her one last time before she arched upward and came with a flash of light and heat to her pussy. She strained to feel every last lick, each caress, so that she had it to store away for another time. Alex gently unhooked her legs and ran his lips lightly over her calves before he set them back on the couch, tweaking her bunny slippers with a smile. She brought her hands to his waist and nudged him in the direction of her lips. His cock was thick and

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hard in the dim light of the TV. The smooth skin stretched to the point of protest as the blue-veined surface literally pulsed. Cara pushed herself upward a bit to rest against the pillows and brought him to her lips, pressing his thick shaft upward to rest flush to his belly. Cupping his balls, she tilted her head sideways and ran her tongue along his long length. Alex shuddered above her when her tongue made contact, cradling her head to his body, and moaning her name. She opened her lips and began slowly impaling the hot flesh, savoring the salty texture of his skin, letting her tongue explore every ridge. Reaching around him, she pulled him closer by clutching the muscled globes of his ass as she slid further beneath him. He dipped his cock into her mouth as she met his thrusts with her tongue. Her neck arched upward straining to take all of him, laving the sensitive flesh just below the head of his shaft. His hips circled above her in short jabs until she heard his sharp intake of breath and he pulled away from the heat of her mouth. Alex reached toward the coffee table, producing a condom and swiftly rolled it over his rock hard flesh. “Aren’t you presumptuous?” She teased him as he lowered himself to lie over her trembling body. “I thought I might be able to persuade you. Are you persuaded?” he whispered to her, sending a thrill of pure joy straight to her heart. “I think I’m persuaded, toy man. So are you going to just lay there or do something about this pistol of passion?” She squeezed her hand between their tightly pressed bodies and tugged on his cock. He groaned as he took her mouth and shifted his hips to find the slick, passage of her pussy. “I think my ‘pistol of passion’ is more than ready…” Cara wrapped her thighs around his hips as he drove into her with a quick thrust. She gasped as he filled her, stretching her to completion. Her nipples scraped his chest

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as he rocked inside of her. Cupping her head with his hands, he devoured her lips, taking long licks at her mouth. Alex pulled out, nearly leaving her body, only to thrust back into her in slow fluid thrusts. He slid into her with ease, gliding along her slick walls. She clenched her inner muscles, milking his shaft and thrilling to the sound of his loud groan. “God, you’re tight…so damn wet and hot. I could stay in you forever and never have enough.” His words sent Cara toppling over the edge and into an abyss of heat that spiraled outward. She lunged at him with her hips as she felt the tension build and she snapped, dragging his body close and arching into him as though she could climb inside of his muscled body. Alex reared up, the tight muscles in his neck flexing with the strain of his climax. He shuddered long and lengthy with his release, calling her name and thrusting a final time. Gathering her closer he hugged her to him tightly. She felt the press of his ribs against hers and the heave of their bodies as they struggled to slow their breathing. She sagged beneath him, worn and sated. Cara cradled his head against her breast, running her fingers through his hair. She would never forget these moments with him. When he was gone, she would keep this close to her heart and be thankful. Tears stung her eyelids. Blinking them back she squeezed her eyes tightly. No crying, she knew this had to end sometime. It was part of the deal. When it did, she would not look back. If only knowing him hadn’t been this wonderful. If only a one night stand hadn’t turned into…she mentally clamped down on that thought. No. No and double no. “Hey, good lookin’, what’cha thinkin’?” he said against her breast. His low timbre cut in on her thoughts.

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Cara ruffled his hair. “I was thinking that you really know how to use that ‘pistol of passion’.” “Did you doubt me?” He said smugly, taking a last lick at her breast and withdrawing from her. She ran her hand through her tangled hair, and began to button her shirt. “Well, if I had any doubts before, I sure don’t now.” Alex reached over for his paper plate, “Hey, my pizza’s cold now. Look what you made me do.” “Well I wasn’t hearing any complaints while you were schtupping my brains out, toy man, and you started it,” she accused with a grin. “I did, didn’t I?” He laughed as he went off to the bathroom to clean up. She watched his yummy ass wiggle out of the room and sighed. He was too perfect to be believed. The eyes on her bunny slippers wiggled crazily at her as she swung her legs over the side of the couch. As though they were mocking her.

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Chapter 9 They’d been dating for a month now. The big red circle on his calendar said so. Alex was as ready to make this happen as he’d ever been. It was a love thing, no two ways about it in his mind. He hadn’t vocalized it yet, but he planned to tonight. Reaching into his pocket, he fingered the diamond engagement ring and grinned like an idiot. He wanted Cara to be his wife and he was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof about asking her. But ask he would, because there wasn’t a doubt in his mind or heart. He was sickly in love and wildly in lust with this petite woman, who had coppery hair he loved to wrap his hands in when they made love and blue-green eyes that sparkled when she called him toy man. If imagining her all this time had been good, then reality was even better. Better than he ever expected, she was all of the things he wanted in a wife and more. He thought of her downstairs right now, and his cock swelled with hungry lust. He’d have to tell her, of course. Tell her about his fascination with her, since long before the opportunity presented itself to ask her out. He ought to shake Carlton’s hand. He’d opened the door for Alex and Alex had come crashing through. He’d called his brother Adam, last night to share what he hoped would be good news. Adam thought he was crazy, being a devout bachelor himself, but he wished Alex well anyway. Said he couldn’t wait to meet the woman who’d snared his brother’s interest for more than a New York minute. Snared indeed. Tangled, tied into knots, and disrupted his every waking thought. Cara loved him, he was sure of that. Maybe she was just waiting for him to say it first.

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He had no shame in being the first one to say the “L” word. He had no shame in telling her he thought everything about her was perfect, even her feet that were eternally cold. He definitely had no shame in telling her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life boinking her. He grinned again. He was sure it looked all big and stupid, but he didn’t give a damn. Yup, he was in love. Shifting in his chair, he picked up the phone on his desk and called downstairs to the cafeteria. Cara picked up on the second ring. “Hey beautiful, wanna have dinner?” Her husky voice chuckled in his ear. “It’s only eleven o’ clock.” “Is there a rule that says we can’t have dinner at eleven?” “Funny, toy man. You just want to rush dinner so you can get in my pants.” She chided him. Well, yeah. He mocked a long, heavy sigh, “Foiled again. How about seven? I’ll pick you up at home if you want to change after work.” “Does macaroni and cheese require putting on my best dress?” “Nah, tonight we’re doing something really special. No, don’t try and stop me, I’m going

all

out

for

this

date.

We’re

having

hot

dogs

on

real

buns!”

His heart clenched at her giggle as it crackled over the phone line. “Well then, toy man, I’ll find my best dress for just such an occasion.” “You do that, beautiful, and I’ll see you at your place at seven.” He hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair resting his head on his hands. Cara Anthony was going to be Mrs. Alexander Mackenzie, if it killed him.

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“Darling, that red dress is soooo perfect on you.” Cara curtsied for Simone, “Thank you.” “Another hot date?” Mia called from the bathroom. “Yeah, Alex is picking me up. We’re going to his place for dinner.” “Very intimate.” Katia cooed and patted Cara’s cheek. Cara blushed. She and Alex had been seeing each other for a solid month now. There hadn’t been a day when they were not together. She eyed the girls as they polished their nails and leafed through fashion magazines, biting her lip. An ominous vibe she couldn’t shake had haunted her all day, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask them. No, she wouldn’t ask. It would be saying the words out loud and they might lead to confirmation of her worst fears. No, she wouldn’t ask. “What’s up, lamb chop?” Katia cocked her pretty head in Cara’s direction. “Nothing…” she cleared her throat, “I was just thinking how nice that shade of red is on your nails.” “You like? It’s tres fantastique, no?” Cara nodded her approval and smiled at Katia. Her legs wobbled a bit as she slipped into the red shoes. Damn, something felt very wrong. She shook off the chill that ran up her spine, reminding herself that when this was over, it was over. That was officially that. It sucked the breath from her lungs as she made her way to the bathroom to check her makeup. Clutching the sink, her heart threatened to pump right out of her chest. Oh, God. I don’t want to know when this will all end. Why don’t you want it to end, Cara? Why don’t you just ask, you chicken? Because she loved him. She loved Alex Mackenzie. Jesus Christ in a miniskirt. She loved Alex Mackenzie.

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Gripping the smooth porcelain of the sink, she sank down to sit on the edge of the bathtub, letting the cool surface rest against her forehead. C’mon, Cara, you idiot, of course you love him. Yes, yes, yes. She loved him and no matter how hard she’d tried to keep her one night stand theory, it had turned into a one night month. A month filled with long episodes of lovemaking and talking into the early hours of the morning. Talking about everything and nothing, sharing meals and walks at lunch. Damn. Okay, so she loved him. Cara looked down at her feet. She still had the shoes. For the moment anyway. Make the best of what’s left and move on when it was over. “Caaaara, lover boy’s here.” Mia called from the bedroom with a giggle. “Okay…” she whispered, clearing her throat, “Okay Mia, gimme a sec and I’ll be right there.” She attempted to disguise the fear she heard in her voice. She took one last look at herself in the mirror and swung open the bathroom door. “Have a wonderful evening, darling. Kiss, kiss.” Simone called after her. Cara’s waggled her fingers at them keeping her head down. Her stomach heaved as she made her way to the front door to greet Alex. When she opened the door, her heart skipped a beat and her legs threatened to fall out from under her. He was so incredibly handsome that she couldn’t speak. Yup, she was in love.

***** Cara sat on the edge of the kitchen counter as she watched Alex slug back his third beer in less than two hours. She nibbled on a cracker that had some sort of goose liver

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on it. Alex had called it foie gras, or something like that. It landed like lead in her stomach. Alex took another gulp of his beer and caught her wrinkling her nose. “You don’t like it?” She could hear the disappointment in his tone. “I do like it,” she lied through her pearly whites. “You’d better slow down on that beer, toy man, or you won’t be able to drive me home.” He rubbed his palms against his thighs and opened the oven to check the rack of lamb he was basting, every fifteen minutes just like the recipe said. “Are you all right, Alex?” she asked nervously. That bad vibe kept filling the air and smothering her. He came to stand between her legs. She popped the cracker with the foie gras into his mouth. He made a face and grabbed his beer from the counter to wash it down. “Yuk, that sucks.” She laughed at him, “Yeah, it kinda does. Sorry, I didn’t want to hurt your feelings after you’d gone to all of this trouble.” Alex kissed her hard. “I think I went overboard in the ‘let’s impress the girl department’, wouldn’t you say?” “The lamb smells delicious. You can make it up to me.” He pressed against her, scooting her bottom down to wrap her legs around him and thrust his linen clad hips suggestively against her. Cara put her arms around his neck and rested her cheek in the hollow of his neck. Alex nipped her shoulder, “I love the way you smell.” She raised her eyes to meet his. Those dark chocolate pools, fringed with lashes no man should be allowed to have. “Smells better than foie gras, I’ll bet.” Running his tongue over her shoulder, he found her mouth again. Cara melted against him, letting her hands roam over his thick back.

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“Isn’t it time to baste that lamb, mister?” she whispered against his mouth. “I’d rather baste you.” “Ooooh I love when you baste me,” she purred at him seductively, “but you can baste me after we eat, cause I’m starving and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to indulge in something other than macaroni and cheese.” “All right you cheeky wench. But I’m basting you as soon as you do the dishes.” “As soon as I do the dishes?” she mocked indignation. “You didn’t think I was going to go to all of this trouble and you weren’t going to help, did you?” Cara slid off the counter and slipped past him, pinching his ass on the way. She wandered off to his living room and called over her shoulder, “Maybe you can convince me to do the dishes, but it might involve the ‘Buzz my Gear’ vibrator.” She listened to the sound of his deep, rumbling laughter as she picked up a photo off the mantle. A couple, in their forties she’d venture to guess, were seated between Alex and she assumed his brother Adam. They had their arms wrapped around one another, with wide smiles on their faces. Tall mountains in the backdrop were iced with snow. “That picture was taken in Colorado. We’d just gone hiking in those mountains.” Cara turned to find Alex lying on the couch, his arm behind his head. She looked back at the mantle and scanned the family pictures that lined it. “Did you go on family trips often?” “Yeah…we did…” his voice sounded a bit slurred and slow. “We used to, too. I used to hate getting in that station wagon and waiting to get where we were going. But looking back on it now, they were some of the best memories I have of my parents.” She ran her finger along the picture of Alex at the Grand Canyon. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen, but already a hunk in his own right.

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“I love these shorts you have on in this picture Alex, very cute…” Cara turned to tease him and found he was fast asleep. Snoring drifted to her ears from the couch. Her heart swelled with love as she watched him sleep. She put the picture back and went to turn the oven off in the kitchen. A nap might be just the thing she needed to shake the bad feelings she couldn’t seem to escape. She grabbed the blanket from the end of the couch, climbing over his sleeping form and draping the blanket over both of them. Cuddling against his thick chest, his arm went instinctively around her shoulders and as her eyes slid closed, she thought she heard him say on a sigh, “I love you, Cara.”

***** Cara woke with a start, her teeth were chattering and she was cramped from lying in the same position for so long. Alex was still snoring beside her. She stretched her legs and wiggled her feet. Her feet. Holy shit! They were bare. She tried to sneak a peek under the blanket but Alex had it wrapped tightly around him. She wiggled her way out from under him and quietly slipped off the couch. She only had one shoe. Omigod! Where was the other shoe? She’d had them both on when she fell asleep, but only one dazzling red pump remained. Cara’s heart pounded and her head spun as she hobbled around on one foot. It was still dark, but the moonlight streaming from the window shone a path to the kitchen. She pulled off the other shoe and went in search of a flashlight. No luck. Shoes just didn’t disappear. Cara tiptoed back to the living room and crouched down in front of the sofa. She slid her hand underneath the couch and felt around. Alex stirred and moaned something unidentifiable in his sleep. She laid her body flat to the floor and held her 112

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breath. He mumbled something and rolled over. She did one more sweep under the couch and came up with nothing, but a hand full of dust bunnies. Now it was time to panic. Her hands felt clammy as she ran them through her hair. Where the fuck was her other shoe? She lifted the crocheted afghan at Alex’s feet and glanced underneath, squinting her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Nothing. Shit, shit, shit! She wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged herself tightly. The clock on the microwave said five thirty. The sun would rise, and Alex would wake up. He’d find her without the shoes and that damn word “over” would have a whole new meaning. She held the lone shoe in her hand. She wanted to fling it at the wall in frustration. Her time was officially up. Like Cinderella at the ball, midnight had struck. She had to get out of here before he woke up, leave, and never look back. Why couldn’t she stay and just see what might happen if he saw her without the shoes? Because she couldn’t bear it if he didn’t want her. She couldn’t take the truth because she was a coward of the worst order. Tears stung her eyes as they fell in big drops to the hardwood floor beneath her feet. Her hand trembled as she softly touched Alex’s lips with her finger. His handsome face was peaceful as he slept. A small smile curved his lips at the touch of her finger. She turned away and clenched her hands into fists, stuffing one in her mouth to keep from crying out. Before she could change her mind, she grabbed her purse and stumbled to the front door. With one last glance at Alex and she opened the door, closing it softly behind her.

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***** Cara sat on the couch, one shoe on and one obviously not. Numb was probably the word she would attribute to the heavy weight in the pit of her stomach and the even heavier feeling in her limbs. She’d called a cab from the end of Alex’s road, with her cell phone. When it came to pick her up, if the driver noticed she was missing a shoe, he didn’t say anything. She didn’t remember much but paying him after he deposited her at her door. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting on the couch, nor did she know how many times the phone rang. The answering machine picked up and Alex left message after message, but she covered her ears. The BEAST came to sit with her, snuggling against her side and requiring nothing more than a warm body. At the moment it was all she had left to give. The pounding at the door startled her. She flew to the door, wobbling as she stumbled to it on her one remaining shoe. The peephole revealed Alex, his face a mask of fury. She turned away and leaned her back against the door. “Cara, what the hell is going on?” Alex pounded on her door with a heavy thud, the vibration knocking against her back and tearing at her heart. “Cara, what the hell is going on?” he repeated, “Let me in so we can talk about whatever is wrong. Dammit woman, I love you, do you hear me?” Cara sucked in a gulp of air, “You don’t understand, Alex. Go away, you don’t really know me,” she babbled to the empty room. “If you’re the same Cara Anthony I’ve been dating for a month, then I think I’m pretty familiar with you, and I know love you,” he yelled through the steel of the door. Now what? He loved the girl in the shoes, not the real Cara Anthony. The girl who’d served eggs to him every morning a full year before he’d even noticed her.

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“No, Alex this isn’t love. This is lust and lust fades. So it’s over. Go away, Alex!” She could never tell him how she really felt. He’d laugh in her face once he saw her without the shoes, he wouldn’t even remember why he went out with her. She could feel his anger simmering hot through the cool of the door. “So what you’re saying is this past month has been great sex, but thanks, Alex I think I’ll skip the commitment part? I didn’t take you for that kind of girl, Cara.” The disappointment she heard in his voice tore at her heart and tied her stomach into a knot. She wanted to scream “I’m not that kind of girl”. Cara shook her head, she knew this all would come to a screeching halt, but she wasn’t ready to get off the train yet. “So you don’t love me. Is that what you’re telling me?” He said it, because she couldn’t. She couldn’t bear to answer him. She couldn’t have spoken if she tried. She couldn’t say the words and make them sound truthful. He slammed his hand against the door one last time before she heard his heavy footsteps move away and grow dim. Cara cast her eyes to the floor as tears fell, marring the pretty dress she still wore. She glimpsed her fabulous red pump. One damn pump. Damn these shoes or at least the one she had left. Damn it all. She slid down to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest tightly, kicking off the one remaining shoe. It skid across the floor and hit the far wall. The fabulous red hue seemed dull now. And then, she cried.

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Chapter 10 The shrill ringing of the phone woke her from a sound sleep on the couch. She wouldn’t answer it, so whoever it was could fuck off and die. The click of the answering machine sent out the sound of her voice. She cringed as it reverberated around the room. “Please leave a message after the tone…” “Cara! Cara Anthony, you pick up this phone right now!” She groaned, it was Ruby. Damn. She dragged herself off the couch and fumbled for the phone on the end table. “Ruby? I’m sorry, I was asleep.” Ruby snorted on the other end. “No kidding.” Sarcasm dripped from her tone. Cara rubbed the heel of her hand over her eyes. “I’m sorry, Ruby.” “Don’t be sorry, just come back to work. We miss you. Mr. Booty-licious, misses you too. He’s wandering around here all confused and moping. He’s been trying to call you, sugar.” Cara felt her chest tighten and the tears begin to well in her eyes. Crap, she would not cry again. She would not. Her eyes were small, slit-like, burning coals of fire in her head from crying. “I need a couple of days, Ruby. I’m not feeling well. Just a couple of days to get things together and then I promise I’ll be back.” She couldn’t ever face Alex again, maybe she could just give Ruby the cafeteria lock, stock and barrel. She had money tucked away. She could move and never look back. She’d done a lot of not looking back lately. She could adjust. She pressed her fist to her mouth to keep from crying as she listened to Ruby.

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“Well, honey, if you say so. I can handle things here, but you have to come back sometime.” “I know, Rube. I know.” “I’m not gonna pressure you to talk to me, but old Ruby is here if you need her.” She sniffed, “Okay, Ruby. Thanks, I’ll see you in a couple of days.” She clicked the end button on the phone and lay back down. Her eyes scanned the room, landing on the half-finished carton of Haagen Dasz. She groaned. “Didn’t I tell you she was feeling sorry for herself?” the high-pitched little girl voice accused. Cara sat straight up. “Darling, why is it so dark in here?” Simone pulled the blinds open with a tug. The light hurt her eyes, making them tear, as she squinted at the foggy form. “Go away, please just go away.” She flopped back down and pulled the old blanket over her head. She felt the couch sag beneath someone’s weight. “Lamb chop, have you been eating this?” Cara could hear the condemnation in Katia’s question. She tugged the blanket from Cara’s hands and held up the carton of double fudge chocolate chip. “Well, have you?” “Yes, and I don’t give a crap what it does to my thighs, okay? Now, go away.” “Cranky, cranky,” Mia sing-songed. Hell’s bells, couldn’t they just let her wallow in her misery? Who gave a shit about their thighs when they felt this miserable? “Get up, darling. Enough is enough.” Says who? “I said get up, Cara, and stop behaving like a child. Don’t make me raise my voice. It’s not good for the vocal chords. It strains them,” Simone reminded her. 117

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Screw you. Mia’s farm-fresh face was inches from hers. “And stop with the dirty thoughts. Those aren’t nice, either.” She grinned at her, her pearly white teeth sparkling in the midday sun. Cara sat up with great reluctance, pushing her untidy hair out of her eyes. The tangled mess hung limply around her face. “Oh, Cara! Look at you. You look… you look…well, I can tell you it isn’t pretty.” Katia gave her the once over with her critical, supermodel eye. “Thank you.” Fuck you. Mia shook her finger at Cara, “Don’t be snide, Cara, it’s unattractive and mean.” “Listen Mia, capital M, little i, little a, go the hell away!” she roared at them. Dragging her blanket out from under Katia, she took it and her misery to her bedroom and slammed the door. Not bothering to flip on the light she felt her way to the bed. The curtains flew open suddenly and bright shafts of sunlight hit her square in the eye. The girls sat on the bed, all three in a row smiling. Cara was ready to beg. She didn’t want to talk fashion, or how big her thighs were or those damn shoes. She wanted to crawl in a hole and leave the world behind. “Please go away,” she heard the whine in her voice. She knew she sounded like a big, honkin’ girl, but she didn’t care. Pride was nothing compared to some solitude and respite from the fab three. “Now, you must know we can’t do that. Look, lamb chop, it’s time to get yourself together and listen to us.” Cara snorted derisively. “And would ya look at where listening to you wannabe fairy godmothers got me? I knew the ride was over when the shoes were gone. I just didn’t know it would be so damn painful. I’m sorry I lost the shoe, I don’t know how it happened. I spent the night at Alex’s house and when I woke up I only had one shoe. I

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don’t know where it went. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s what happened. Is there a way I can reimburse you? Do they cash checks in magic-ville or do you take credit cards?” Katia reached behind her and pulled out the shoes, two shoes. She held them in the palm of her hand. The sunlight bounced off the thick red heels. Cara snatched them away from Katia and shoved them on her feet, “Is this some kind of joke? Tease the ugly girl? Let’s see how far we can go before the Plain Jane slips over the edge?” “Don’t be ridiculous, darling, we would never do such a thing!” Simone scoffed at her. “We took the shoe.” “What? Was my time up? Is it someone else’s turn to wear them?” Cara couldn’t believe this. They took the shoe? This was mean, and cruel and such a pretty girl thing to do. “It’s always someone else’s turn, sweet cheeks, but we didn’t take them because of that. We took them because it was time for you to give them up and develop wings of your own so to speak.” Cara was speechless. She sunk to the bed in defeat. “I know this is going to sound all corny, and I hate to burst your bubble of denial, but the shoes were never important, Cara.” Katia waited as just a smidge of realization dawned on Cara’s face before she continued. “I know, I know. It sounds all fairytale like, right? It’s really pretty corny. We even have trouble believing it.” Katia paused and took a deep breath. “Okay, it goes like this. We were sent here to help you find your self-esteem. Sort of like the self-esteem police.” God knew they had an over abundance of that particular trait, Cara thought snidely.

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“You know the whole makeover thing. So that you could see that you are worthy of anything you want out of life. It isn’t really about how you look, lamb chop. I mean we’re beautiful, but we’re also dead. Get the picture? We couldn’t tell you because you had to make those choices on your own. Like totally on your own. But you were just too damned afraid to take a chance. It was you who had to take the chance, Cara. We couldn’t do it for you. So we stole the shoe. We thought that might force you to let Alex see you for who you really are.” Katia sighed deeply and looked at her Barbie partners in crime. “Unfortunately, you woke up before him and we were essentially screwed.” Cara jumped up and paced before them in the shoes. “So all this crap up ‘til now was for what? Is this some kind of fairy godmother torture? Like, do you get your kicks out of freaking people out? I mean, wasn’t I supposed to feel all omnipotent and oozing sexuality? It sure would have helped if you had let me know I could take the stupid shoes off to experience that particular high. Crap, I wandered around in those things like they were my lifeline to sexuality. Like I could keep Alex as long as I had them on. I wouldn’t take them off when we went to the beach, he must have thought I was nuts. I told him I didn’t like sand, for crap’s sake!” God, she felt like a complete idiot. She was a complete idiot. “The only magic those shoes have, Cara is that they change to match your outfit. Those other men would have chased you anyway, because you felt good about you. That’s it. The rest came from right here.” Mia poked at her chest somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. “It’s no big secret. The attention you’ve been getting has been all about what’s been waiting to get out of you. It isn’t just that you’re pretty, it’s that you’re a good human being. Yes, those other men care about what’s on the outside, but try to remember, Alex liked you long before we slapped that goop on your face and dressed you up. He tried to tell you that.” Cara was feeling less confused by the minute and less angry with the Barbies. “So, if I take the shoes off, it won’t matter because all of these men, who find me irresistible with them on, will continue to hound me and make Alex crazy?”

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“Daaaaaarling, not if you tell them to go away they won’t. Let them know you’re not interested. Didn’t we try to tell you that being pretty wasn’t easy?” Simone tilted her head and shot her that ‘told you so’ look. Cara waggled her finger right up under Simone’s pert nose. “Don’t you give me that ‘I told you so’ nonsense. I’m not pretty, not really. It’s all about the goop I’ve been putting on my face and the clothes I’ve been wearing.” “Duh!” The triplets yelled back at her in unison. Well, hell. This was the part where they gave her the moral of the story right? The big bang. The part where she rode off into the sunset with Alex. Married the prince, got the booty from her wicked stepmother. And so would the fab three. Ride off into the sunset, that is. Her heart hurt as she drew a painful conclusion. “If I take them off, you’ll be gone too won’t you?” Mia nodded her head and looked away. Simone bit her bottom lip and Katia remained silent. “Why can’t you stay here? I…I don’t understand why you can’t just stay here and do the fairy godmother thing. Aren’t you global? Why does fairy godmother land have to be the place you dispatch from?” Cara’s voice broke. Mia brushed a stray tendril of hair away from Cara’s face. “Because you won’t remember us when we’re gone…” “What?” she yelped in frustration. “Why the hell not?” Cara flopped down on the bed in defeat, her shoulders slumping, waiting for an explanation. Katia sat down next to Cara, her green eyes shimmered. “We’ve done our job, muffin. Our job is to help you find what’s inside of you, and for you to make use of it.” Simone snorted. “Don’t forget the rules, Katia. All that stupid nonsense about her not remembering is just fiddle faddle! You know, at the next fairy godmother coalition

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meeting we have to bring that up. I’ll never understand why all this hard work can’t have some kind of staying power.” Cara swallowed hard. “You mean I won’t even remember you were here? What kind of rule is that? If it weren’t for you guys, I wouldn’t even have had Alex for the time I did. I would still be Cara Anthony, cafeteria owner extraordinaire. No life to speak of and going home to her cat alone every night.” Katia took Cara’s hand in hers and examined her nails, pushing her cuticles back. “Aw, lamb chop, we’re glad we could help, but those are the rules. You’ll remember us for a time, while you go make up with Alex, but soon we’ll fade from your memory, it won’t be long before we’ll be a twinkle in your eye.” Tears fell from Cara’s eyes, splashing onto her frumpy pajamas. “Somehow this just doesn’t seem fair. I mean you’re responsible for all of this and I won’t even remember it.” Simone produced a tissue out of thin air and dabbed at Cara’s cheeks. “Now stop this, darling, please. Your eyes will be puffy in no time flat. You know how unattractive that is. The fashion gods know you don’t need that right now,” Simone joked. “In a way, you will remember us. Because you’ll know that you’ve changed inside. That you made new discoveries about yourself and you’re not just Cara Anthony, cafeteria owner. You’re Cara Anthony, a woman who knows what she wants and then goes out and gets it.” She was different and if the shoes weren’t responsible for that, then she really was tougher than she thought. “So the shoes are just a gimmick…” Mia giggled, “Yeah, but they work and that’s all that matters.” Cara leaned down and pulled them off. Her fingers trembled with the effort. “So what happens now? Like the second I hand them to you, poof…you disappear?”

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Each perfect face was solemn as they nodded the affirmative. These Barbie knockoffs were going to vanish from her life and never return. She wouldn’t even know they’d been there. Okay, chin up, shoulders back be brave. “Then give me a hug and get the hell outta here. I’ve got a man to snare.” Cara swallowed hard and smiled at them. Shoes in hand she threw herself at them as they huddled around her. “Mia, get a pair of bunny slippers, okay? To remind you of the farm. And Katia, try not to hurt Simone. It was an accident and there was nothing you could do to prevent it, Simone knows that in her heart. Simone? Well, you have to let go of this grudge, so quit being such a mean bitch. I know I won’t remember, but right now I hate to think of the two of you tearing up magic-ville fighting over something neither of you can change. Okay?” Cara hugged each one of them. “Thank you. Thank you for helping me to find Alex. Thank you for helping me with all of the girlie stuff, but most of all, thanks for being my friends even if you are all too perfect to be believed.” She took one last look at the red pumps in her hand, trailing a finger over the heel. She held them out to Katia with shaky hands. “Good luck, Cara. I just know you’ll be happy with Alex. I know you won’t remember us for much longer, but we love you.” Katia took the shoes from Cara, and gave her hand one last squeeze. The sunlight glinted on the brilliant red shoes in a bright swirl of light. As quickly as they’d arrived, they were gone. No fanfare, no trumpets blaring, no flashing lights of color, no magic-fairy godmother dust. Just gone. Cara’s heart sank in her chest. Her legs shook as she found her way to the back to the bed. Grabbing a pillow, she cuddled it close to her cheek and lay down. She drew her knees up tightly to her chest and sobbed pitifully.

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Exhaustion crept slowly over her body, her eyelids felt heavy as they slid closed. Her last mental image of the F.M.P. Society was fleeting, but crystal clear. Mia, Katia and Simone strutting one after the other down a catwalk. Their slim hips swaying to the beat of music she couldn’t hear. Three perfect faces, all with cheekbones you could strike a match on, smiled and blew her a kiss.

***** Cara rubbed her hands together nervously as she contemplated this wacky plan she’d cooked up. She’d called Alex and asked him to meet her here, at the beach, in the same secluded area he’d brought her to on their last date. As the sun began to set, she wiggled her toes in the sand and looked at her very bare feet. She was now officially shoeless. Her gut clenched into a tighter knot. She was adrift, alone, not to mention barefoot. The Glamazons were gone. Her heart ached over never seeing them again. What would she do without Simone, to remind her to wax her upper lip? Or Mia helping her choose just the right outfit? Katia telling her to line, blot, blend. Or was that line, blend, blot? She couldn’t remember. She wished that she wouldn’t forget. When she woke up on the couch her head felt stuffed full of cotton, but she knew she had to somehow explain to Alex, that he was who she wanted for the rest of her life, and no one else. The girls told her the shoes weren’t important and if that was true, then all she had to do was tell Alex she loved him. Really loved him. Loved him more than anything in the world. She also had to find the words to do that. She had to believe he loved her too… without the shoes. The tide rolled in with slow lazy laps at the sand as she laid out the food she’d brought on the picnic table. Glancing at her wristwatch, she wondered if he would even show up. She couldn’t blame him if he didn’t.

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Her last words to him rang in her ears. You don’t really know me, Alex. There had to be a way to make that up to him. She buried her head in her hands trying to block out that night. If she had only known the shoes didn’t make a difference. She could smack herself for not realizing that earlier. For not even taking the chance. All fairy godmothers had a lesson to teach, didn’t they? How Cinderella ever snagged her Prince was beyond Cara. Her head popped up at the roar of a car engine. The sleek outline of Alex’s car was visible from her seat at the picnic table. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Well, here goes nothin’. She wiped her clammy palms on her thighs and took a deep breath. He made a slow descent down over the hilly path to the picnic table. The lump in her throat was growing in leaps and bounds as he drew closer. She heard the words in her head. Shoulders back, chin up, be confident. Says you. Says us. Plastering a smile on her face, she tucked her shaky hands under her legs. He stood in front of her, his big body blocking the last rays of sun. Cara forced herself to look up at him. She smiled at his rigid form. “Hi, Alex, sit down with me.” Cara scooted over on the bench and gave him a place to sit. He remained silent but sat down next to her. Cara grabbed his big hand and wound her fingers through his. “Look, I know you’re mad at me. But let me explain and then if you’re still mad you can leave,” she gulped. “You can leave and never speak to me again.” “Shoot,” he said as he looked out over the ocean. His profile was hard and unforgiving, the tick in his jaw twitching.

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She cleared her throat, “I’ve worked in the same office building as you for over a year and you never once noticed me. When I put a little makeup on, all of a sudden it was like you saw me for the first time. No one ever noticed me until I did that.” Cara sighed, struggling to find the words to explain to him without revealing the shoes and the fab trio. Who, in their right mind would believe that anyway? “Then, all of a sudden, you were asking me out and so was every man within spitting distance. Nobody wanted to go out with ‘the before she had a complete makeover’.” She watched the muscles in his jaw clench. His voice was hoarse and husky to her ears. “So because I didn’t ask you out before this magic makeover means I didn’t want to go out with you? You have no idea what I know about you. I know that you help Mrs. Andrews watch Mr. Andrews diet. I know that you hired Ruby despite her age and in favor of her experience with people. I know lots of things about you, things that I’ve observed since I moved into the building. I didn’t ask you out right away, no. I’ve had plenty of experience with a gold digger or two and I wanted to be sure you were as genuine on the inside as you appeared on the outside.” He cleared his throat. “As you appeared to me. Thinking I only wanted to go out with you because you’re beautiful makes me seem pretty shallow, Cara. I don’t think I particularly care for that kind of assessment of me. It also doesn’t make you look very good either. Why would you want to go out with a guy who only liked you after you put on some tight clothes and makeup?” Well, there was that, she mused sheepishly. Jesus, she was an idiot. “I don’t know, Alex. I only know that my priorities were all screwed up. I’d like to think that I knew somewhere deep down that you weren’t only attracted to me because of what I looked like, but I was so glad you finally asked me out that I honestly didn’t care. The genuine girls don’t always get the dates you know.” “Finally asked you out?”

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Okay this would be the whole honest gig that she could do without. She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I had the makeover so that you would ask me out.” There, she was as naked as she could get. Ick. “So you thought I was cute all this time, too?” She saw from the corner of her eye that he was smirking at her. Now if she could just wedge her way into that tiny crack in his armor. “Yeah, sorta.” She tried to make her tone sound indifferent. He turned to look at her, his brown eyes softening a bit. The corners crinkled. “Only sorta?” “A lot, okay? That’s not the point.” “Well according to you, that is the point. You liked me because of the way I looked, but you’re mad at me for liking you for some of the same reasons. You didn’t know a single thing about me. You didn’t even know that I owned an adult toy manufacturing business. So, what does that say about you?” He waited for her answer. “I don’t know? I’m vain, vapid and shallow? Just because I thought you were cute didn’t mean I didn’t like the person beyond the cute.” Jeez, he was thick. And then it hit her. She was as thick as he was, thicker in fact. “Well, that’s my point. I thought you were cute before this makeover, a makeover I can’t even remember you getting.” She gave him a perplexed look. “I had the makeover the day before that jerk, Carlton asked me out. You don’t remember?” He shrugged his big shoulders. “I didn’t see you any differently on that day than I did the day before. Carlton was just the perfect excuse for me to ask you out. Finally make my move.” Cara flung herself at him, landing in his lap and kissing him soundly. She threw her head back and laughed at the irony of this. She kissed him again for good measure. “I

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love you, Alex Mackenzie. I’m sorry for thinking you only loved me for what I looked like.” God, as if she ever thought she’d be saying those words. His arms began to wrap themselves around her waist, but he stopped short. “How much do you love me?” he whispered teasingly. “Well, I dunno. Depends on how much you love me.” “Do you love me enough to live with my toy business?” She smiled coyly at him. “Do you love me enough to live without me wearing any makeup and tight clothes?” He mocked a shudder, “Wow, that’s asking a lot. You’re one demanding wench.” She rubbed his arm. “Okay, I give. Yes, I love you enough to live with your toy business. As a matter of fact, I’d like the opportunity to try a few more of those toys.” She snuggled closer to him, settling on the bulge that was pressing insistently against her panties. His arms tightened around her now, secure and snug. “Oh all right. Then I guess I can live with seeing you without your makeup.” Cara unzipped his jeans and let her fingers slide under the band of his underwear, finding the opening in the front of them. She reached inside and freed his cock, letting her fingers glide over the silken heat of him. “You guess?” He groaned as he sought her lips. “I can live with it,” he decided, chuckling as his hand slid under the band of her panties, running his fingers over her clit. Cara gasped, rotating her hips against him. Her nipples pressed painfully against her thin, cotton dress. She reached down to find the hem of her dress and pulled it up over her head, then stood and removed her panties. The warm breeze caressed her overheated skin, sending shivers along her arms. She settled back on Alex’s lap as he cupped her breasts, pressing them together to lick at her nipples. She leaned back, letting the palms of her hands rest on his thighs, as she felt the rise of heat lick at her cunt.

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Cara tilted her hips as she ground against his cock, the smooth heat brushing against her clit, creating a delicious friction. She needed him in her now. Stretching her and filling her to completion. The slide of his cock along her clit and his tongue on her nipples, circling them slowly brought her to climax. She grabbed at his shoulders, digging her fingers into his flesh as she hoarsely called out her release. She vaguely heard the tide in her ears, a rhythmic crash of water that matched her rapid heartbeat. She was having trouble catching her breath. “I don’t have a condom, Alex.” He gripped her arms tightly and licked her lips again. “I guess if you agree to marry me, a condom isn’t necessary.” She lifted herself a bit, circling his cock with her hand and hovering over it. “Hmm, a marriage proposal in the heat of the moment? I don’t know if that’s a wise choice, Mr. Mackenzie.” Cara let the head of his cock linger at the wet opening of her entrance. Alex’s hands held her arms tightly, as he sucked in a breath, his big chest expanding with the effort. “I already had the romantic proposal planned. You know the foie gras wasn’t just for anybody, but you turned me down flat before I got to it. Don’t tease me woman, say yes, or I can’t be held responsible for my actions.” Cara allowed him an inch of entry. “I remember hearing you say that before, but I still haven’t heard the magic words…” She slid the head of his cock an inch deeper. “Magic words?” he said through his clenched jaw. Cara pulled back an inch and nipped his bottom lip. “Alex…” she warned. “Oh, those magic words. I love you, Cara Anthony. I have from almost the moment I met you. So fuck my brains out now, or I’m rescinding all previous offers.” Cara impaled him swiftly, tightening her muscles around him as he threw his head back and moaned her name. She tunneled her hands through his hair “I love you too, Alex,” she whispered as she rode his slick cock, milking the thick shaft with her needy cunt, letting his hard length drive her to madness.

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Alex drove into her a final time as she climaxed and he followed soon after. Thick, spurts of hot semen washed her inner walls. Cara clung to Alex feeling the burn of tears behind her eyelids as she orgasmed. One slid down her cheek and splashed onto his neck. He cupped her face with his hands, kissing the tip of her nose. “Hey, what’s this? You’re not supposed to cry when a guy asks you to marry him.” Cara laughed, “That’s not why I’m crying. I’m just happy. Girls do that ya know, cry over stupid stuff.” He lifted her off his lap and offered her a cloth napkin from the table to clean up. It was dark now, but she could still see the gleam in his eyes. “If you ask me, I’m the one who should be crying.” Cara cleaned herself up and shook out her dress, shrugging it back on. “Why’s that?” He scooped her up and settled her back on his lap, “Because I’m the one who agreed to marry you even if you don’t wear any makeup.” He kissed her. “You’re funny, toy man, very funny.” He rubbed her legs briskly, “Hey, where are your shoes?” “My shoes…” Now, how to explain that. “Yeah, you said you always wore your shoes because you were cold.” “Right now, my feet are plenty warm but I’ll tell you about that someday. How ‘bout we pack up all this stuff and go back to your place so we can play with your toys.” He gave her a lecherous look, as he helped her pack away the food, “I just got a new shipment of toys, and guess what I found?” “What?” He pinched her ass as she bent over to pick up her jacket, “The Galactic Invader.”

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Cara began to giggle, “Oh, the Galactic Invader? In that case, toy man, I’ll race ya to the car!”

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Epilogue “Hey, girls! It’s the fairy godmother mailbox. I’ll get it.” Mia yelled when she heard the familiar chime. Since their return home to magic-ville as Cara had so aptly dubbed it, they’d lobbied long and hard for some changes with the elders in the community. It was slow going but the Council couldn’t ignore them for long. They wanted updates and some sense of satisfaction in knowing they’d helped someone, even if it was only helping them to be pretty. “Now who needs us?” Simone groaned. “Is there a woman alive who doesn’t need a lip wax?” “But you’re the best in the business, Simone…” Katia grinned at her. At Cara’s request, and in her honor, Simone and Katia, had come to an understanding of sorts. Like, Simone wouldn’t go on for eternity blaming Katia for their deaths. And Katia wouldn’t hold a grudge over Simone being chosen as Sports Illustrated’s model of the year just before she died. “Thank you, daaaarling! No one creates the illusion of cheekbones quite like you.” Simone cooed back in her familiar drawl. Mia slid across the floor in her fuzzy, pink bunny slippers, rolling her eyes. “Would you two quit with the love fest already? It gets like, just a tad gross after awhile, ya know? Now pay attention, this is an update on Cara.” Mia concentrated on reading the scroll. “Oh, wow, girls we’re going to be aunties! Cara and Alex are going to have a baby! Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. It says here that Cara Anthony and Alexander Mackenzie were married in a quiet ceremony. The adult toy mogul and successful cafeteria franchise owner exchanged vows on a sun-kissed afternoon, Saturday, May

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twenty-third, two-thousand and three. The bride was glowing in her Vera Wang dress—” “What?” Katia jammed her fingers in her ears and shook her head. “I’m not hearing this! She wore Vera Wang?” Katia squawked, “I can’t bear it! Didn’t I teach her anything about fashion? Vera Wang? She may just as well have gone and bought bargain basement.” Simone pulled Katia’s fingers from her ears. “Well, darling, look at it this way at least she didn’t go to Filenes’s basement. I mean, think of the cheesy rip-offs she might have picked up. Stop holding a grudge because Vera didn’t use you on the cover of Vogue’s bridal pick of the year. It’s like, so last millennium,” Simone reminded her. Katia narrowed her eyes at Simone, “Don’t even go there, Simone, or I’ll have to remind you—” “Ladies! Do you like even care what happened to Cara and Alex?” Katia and Simone gave her a contrite look. “Of course we do…” “Then shut up already! Okay, it says here that they honeymooned in the Cayman Islands. Oh, that must have been fabu! God, I miss the islands. And upon return, rumors circulated that there was talk of them opening up an X-rated restaurant as a joint Mackenzie venture.” Mia began to giggle. “An X-rated restaurant, like what are they gonna serve? Maybe penis on a bun? Oh, Oh! What about dick-on-a-stick?” Mia’s shoulders were shaking with laughter. Katia and Simone wrinkled their noses in distaste. The eyes on Mia’s slippers wiggled maniacally as she laughed. “Wait! I have an even better one. What about fur—” Katia and Simone cut her off, barking in unison, “Shut up, Mia!”

The End

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About the author: Always creative and a lifelong reader, Dakota Cassidy recently discovered the joys of writing Romantica and has never looked back. She’s still not sure how she went from writing a weekly grocery list to writing real live books! With her combination of humor and realism, she spins tales of everyday people in unlikely situations, and brings a laugh along with it. Thrilled to be part of the Ellora’s Cave family of authors, Dakota looks forward to making her readers smile across a variety of genres, but confesses to being most comfortable when her characters can display a contemporary edge— something Dakota herself enjoys. She welcomes input from her readers and can be reached via her website: www.dakotacassidy.com

Dakota Cassidy welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.

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