Page 65 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Get out!”

And Helena did. With the speed of lightning, she was out of the building, hailing a taxi, and didn’t stop until she was back in her house. As soon as the door closed behind her, she went straight for her kitchen. She cast aside the kitchen carpet she had bought to cover the summoning circle and dropped to her knees next to it, laying her hands on the still warm lines.

“Lares… I summon you,”she said.

Heat made her flinch back as the circle burst back into life. A figure appeared, kneeling in the center, his wings framing him. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked at her with his beautiful starburst eyes. He stood up to his full height, regarding her all the while.

“What do you command, mistress?” Rafferty said in a low, rumbling voice.

Tears filled up Helena’s eyes. “I need a hug,” she cried.

He held perfectly still for a moment as if trying to understand. Then he took one step forward and bent at the waist to wrap his arms about her.

“So do I,”he said.

She had brought Rafferty to her room, and they laid together on her bed. Curled side by side facing each other. He had shifted into his human form, except for his tail, which he used to stroke her leg up and down affectionately.

When he had reappeared, he had been wearing the leather apron just like the first time. She didn’t ask what happened to the underwear he left with. There were several more in the pack. Now he was dressed in some more clothes she had bought him, a pair of jeans and a gray sweatshirt, in the hope that he would need them when he returned one day. His other fancier clothes she had dry cleaned and waiting for him, hung up properly in her closet.

“How long can you stay?” Helena asked.

“You should send me back in the morning,” he said, his finger playing with the end of her hair, twirling around the tip like a ring before letting it fall so he could doit again.

She wanted to say she would send him back never, but they already knew the price for that. She had scrubbed her kitchen every day since he left, and it was only now starting to smell and feel right. And she had just undone all of that work, but she didn’t care. She snuggled into her prize’s chest, holding him close and breathing in his unique smell.

“I’m glad you’rehere now.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there earlier,” herumbled.

“So youcanhear me?” she said, relieved for the confirmation.

“Yes, it is both a pleasure and a torture,” he said and kissed the top ofher head.

“Oh, I’m sor—” she tried to say, but he pressed his fingers to her mouth.

“No sorries,” he said affectionately.

She nodded her muted head, and he let her mouth go to brush his fingers through her hair once more.

“Man, I wish I could scrub the image from my mind,” shemuttered.

“Of Chris?”he asked.

“No, of Yosef’s harvest moon!” she declared and rubbed her face against Rafferty’s chest, as if that could wipe it away. “I am suchan idiot.”

“To be fair, when I heard you hear the thump, I had the same thought,” he said. “I also had the passing thought that it was what it was, but also that she could have been in realtrouble.”

“Now I’m the one in real trouble,” Helena declared, needing to sit up so she could express properly with her hands. “You know we would make all kinds of jokes about that in the office, but it’s something else entirely to have it irrevocably confirmed! And she’s more than twice his age! Like four timeshis age!”

“So?” Rafferty asked, and Helena looked down at the hypocrisy for that statement lying next to her.

“I suppose you’re going to say that you and I are no different?” she said dryly.

His eyebrows popped up. “Oh. I guess I hadn’t thought of that. No, I was going to say… when I worked for the King, I’d see that kind of thing allthe time.”

“Really?”

“There wasn’t a lot of privacy for any social class, if you know what I mean.”

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