Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,51

outward. Oh god, what had I been doing when they walked in?

My face heated so fast it was like turning the broiler on in a toaster oven.

“You were…screaming a lot,” Jasper said, scratching his stubble. Or maybe it was a beard by now, when I thought about it. They were both looking scruffier than usual as we’d been working very hard. “We were concerned. Until we got here and realized that it was more of a…good dream.”

“Too good. I’ve had enough,” Jake said. “We’re going on that second date before Jasper and I lose our chance to win your heart altogether while you dream about incubi.”

“But—”

“And it’s going to be a proper date,” Jake said. “Once we finish the master suite, it’s break time. We take you out for a night on the town and you might want to pencil in the next day for sleeping in.” He leaned over me as I was scrambling to figure out how to respond when my brain was in a post-orgasmic, stuck-in-a-dream haze. “I do like the way you scream, Baroness. So I’m not giving up on you.”

“Get out of my bedroom!”

He laughed and I grabbed a pillow and hit him until he started moving out. Jasper shot me a twin grin that was just as wicked as his brother’s, right before he left.

Good lord. What was I going to do with all of these men?

Really. It was a serious question. I knew there was no going back on what had happened in the dream, which wasn’t really just a dream at all. So it seemed like either way, I was going down the same path as my brother. How embarrassing after I was sort of judgy with him about it.

I heard the guys working on the bathroom still, and I knew they weren’t the type to stop before something was done, so I didn’t even check on them. I went downstairs. Lanterns were on in the outdoor kitchen. Billie and Gaston were working out there together, I guess. Or maybe Gaston was just painting while she talked at him. If I listened closely I could hear Billie’s loud voice saying, “But that mule never went in that bar again after that.”

I sat down inside the telephone nook. I’m sure it originally held one of those phones where you put one piece to your ear and ask the operator to place your call like in a very old movie. The empty spot where this phone would have been was still there. It seemed like it had been updated in the 1950s or so with a pastel blue rotary phone. A piece of tattered, yellowed paper taped to the wall had phone numbers handwritten on it, including Fiore and Sam.

I wondered how long you’d even be able to get phone service here. Telephone lines still worked in magical hot spots, but cell phone signals started fading. If they ever got rid of the telephone infrastructure, that would be the end of phone calls. I hoped no future buyers considered this. Bad for resale value.

I dialed my brother’s cell phone.

“Hello, Harris speaking.”

“Gosh, you’re so polite with strangers. You pick up unknown numbers from Louisiana?” I teased him.

“I suppose my psychic powers are well honed. So what are you up to? Did you ever figure out what your magical object was?”

Wow. Mother really doesn’t talk to him anymore at all. He doesn’t even seem to know that Piers attacked us. That was a strange thought. He really and truly was cut out. Their only son.

I should probably tell him what we were planning, but then everyone at Merlin College would be involved and it wouldn’t be our quest anymore. I had also called him only to discuss my romantic life, but once he was on the phone I remembered how hard he was to talk to about emotional matters and I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Still working on it,” I said. “I’m flipping a house in Louisiana right now. Guess who I teamed up with? Billie Pruitt.”

“Didn’t you join in on the ‘Hill Billie’ thing in school?”

“I did,” I sighed. “But we worked it out. Anyway, the thing about this place is, it’s transforming into a magical hot spot. So it’s going to need some guardians. I wondered if you know any faeries who might like to buy the house once it’s done.”

“I’m sure I do.”

“We’ll probably list it for about eight hundred grand when it’s done.”

“I’m sure faery royals could manage that,” he said. Oh, damn,