Page 14 of Taming the Beast (Fairy Tales of New York)

Zel frowned for a moment as she absorbed this, then her face cleared. “In all honesty, I doubt I’d have believed it,” she said. “I wasn’t exactly in a good place. But whatever you did or didn’t do, Mercy, you wouldn’t have lost me and I wouldn’t have felt betrayed.” She paused. Studied her drink for a moment then looked back up, a faint smile curving her lips. “In fact I think I’m kind of tickled.”

Mercy stared at her. “Tickled?”

Zelda nodded. “You rattled him, which proves he’s not entirely made of stone. He’s at least partly human. And you got through to him. He listened to you. Twice, now. And he must have cared about me a bit to come and see me in rehab.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “And perhaps it’s a good thing I didn’t know about your one night stand. If I’d known about the shabby way he treated you I might have given up on him once and for all and that would have been a shame.”

“Don’t let it come between you now,” said Mercy, meaning every word of it. “Please.”

“Really?” said Zel, a wicked gleam appearing in her eye. “I could beat him up for you if you’d like.”

“I’d rather you didn’t mention it to him at all, actually.”

Zel looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “OK, I won’t. But the offer still stands.”

“Thank you, but it’s fine,” said Mercy, aiming for dismissive with a small shrug and a quick smile. “It was a long time ago anyway. Water under the bridge. Entirely forgettable.”

“Oh,” said Faith, looking a bit deflated. “Was it? You used to have some pretty explicit dreams from what I remember. Did the sex not meet up to your expectations?”

“I’m not sure I need to hear this,” muttered Zelda with a wince.

“Aw, come on,” said Faith. “I have to live with the knowledge that you and Dawn are banging my brothers. What goes around comes around.” She turned to Mercy. “So spill.”

Abandoning her drink Zel clapped her hands over ears and started humming to herself.

“It more than met my expectations,” said Mercy in a low voice, going warm with the memory of it. “The whole night was incredible.” Until the morning, when it wasn’t.

Faith’s mouth dropped open. “The whole night?”

Mercy nodded. “Pretty much.”

Faith sighed dramatically. “So I’m the only one of the four of us who’s never had really great sex. How unfair is that?”

“Your time will come,” said Dawn, reaching over and pulling Zelda’s hands from her ears.

“And to be fair, I’ve only had sex like it the once,” said Mercy.

“No one else has matched up?” asked Faith.

“Something like that,” she hedged, although it was actually worse than that. There had been no one else, period. Seb had seen to that. Ever since him, every time she dated anyone she invariably found herself questioning their motives, and any mood that might be developing swiftly died. Frustrating didn’t come close.

“Maybe you should go for it again,” said Dawn.

Mercy started. Blinked. “Go for what again?”

“Sex with Seb.”

“Lalalala,” said Zelda, clamping her hands over her ears.

Mercy ignored her and stared at Dawn, who had for some reason clearly lost her ever-loving mind. “Why?”

“Why not?” said Dawn. “You’ve always wanted him and it sounds to me like he’s attracted to you.”

“No, he isn’t.” He really wasn’t. That night had been all about manipulation, nothing more.

“Do you honestly think he would have taken you to bed just to shut you up?” said Dawn. “Bit drastic if you ask me.”

“She has a point,” said Faith.

No. She didn’t. She hadn’t been there. Dawn had simply come down with a bad case of I-want-everyone-to-be-as-happy-as-me-itis. “He knew I had a crush on him,” said Mercy. “He can hardly have failed to. I mean, I wasn’t exactly subtle about it, was I? Firstly there was that Christmas I spent with you, Zel.” She cringed inwardly as the mortifying lengths she’d gone to to get Seb’s attention fluttered into her memory. “I batted my eyelashes at him so much I pulled a muscle in my right eyelid. And he couldn’t have been less interested. Every time I tried to engage him in conversation he simply walked away. So embarrassing… And then remember that morning we were all sitting outside the Mother Superior’s office? I sighed like a pathetic lovestruck fool and he looked at me like he could see right into my soul. If he hadn’t guessed before, he certainly knew how I felt about him then, and he stored it up and used it five years later to manipulate me.”

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