had good waffles and lots of gilded decorations.”
“Smiley’s. That is a good place.” Emma nodded with approval.
“Well, clearly Poppy chose it,” Madison said with her usual disdain.
“How would I choose it? Not from here. From Hell. Remember?” Killian said, irritated with himself that he was even bothering to be defensive.
Madison rolled her eyes. Emma’s eyes grew wider, if that was possible. At least one of these girls was smart enough to be unnerved by an aggravated demon.
Small consolation, that.
“So did you find her a guy?”
Killian supposed he should be as pleased that they were as antsy as he was to get this mission done. But answering to sixteen-year-olds didn’t please him. At all.
He was quickly learning that teenage girls had one-track minds. And they said it was boys who were the ones prone to that affliction. Well, he was here to tell the world, “Not so.”
“There were guys, but do you really want me to pick just anyone?” he said.
Emma shook her head, while Madison spent more time considering the question.
“Shouldn’t you just get a feeling or something about who would be the right guy for her? I mean there has to be a reason the spell chose you to come do this. Right?”
He couldn’t agree with Madison more, but as of yet, he just didn’t see any signs of why he was the chosen one.
“It’s going to take a little time,” he said. And he wasn’t just referring to finding Poppy the right man. He’d have to somehow smooth over things too. But he wasn’t about to tell the teenage harpies he had to re-befriend Poppy. Yet again.
“I’m working on it,” he said instead.
“Not if you’re sleeping,” Madison pointed out.
Killian gritted his teeth.
“I’m working on it,” he repeated, this time his voice low, taking on a growling quality.
A little of his demon showing.
Madison stepped back, bumping into Emma. Both girls looked stunned, scared. And Killian would like to say he felt bad, but at this moment—nope, he didn’t.
Then Madison rallied, although he noted she didn’t step back to her original position in the doorway proper.
“You aren’t taking your time on this because you’ve got a thing for Poppy, are you?”
“Oh, hell no.” All bodily reactions and dreams to the contrary, but they didn’t need to know that.
“Okay. Just—just making sure.”
The two girls turned then and hurried through the apartment. He heard the door slam moments later.
Killian stared at the door, not totally sure what the girls had wanted from that conversation. Was it to see if he was doing his job? Or to see what his intentions were concerning Poppy? After that dream, he wasn’t sure about either one himself.
With a sigh, he swung his legs over the bed, only to snatch them back up just as a grayish paw shot out and curled toward his foot, sharp claws extended. The paw fished around a few seconds longer, then disappeared back under the bed.
“Damn beast,” he muttered. The girls must have let the evil cat in when they opened the bedroom door. With another sigh, he vaulted away from the bed. Then he grabbed the bags with his new clothes and toiletries and headed to the bathroom, making sure the door was tightly closed behind him.
But just as he began to rinse his sudsy hair, he heard the bathroom door rattle. He pulled back the shower curtain, blinking through soap bubbles.
The knob rattled again. Great. Now the teen queens were attempting to interrupt his shower. Was there no privacy?
“Go away!” he shouted. “You can grill me more once I’m done.”
He slammed the curtain closed and returned to the hot spray.
“I do rather like that one girl,” a distinctly male voice said from just outside the bathtub.
Killian whipped back the curtain to find the cat sitting on the closed toilet lid.
“You know, the one with all the attitude. The Kewpie-doll blonde I could do without, though.”
“Vepar,” Killian muttered. “I find it hard to believe you don’t have better things to do than possess a cat and pester me.”
“I’m just checking to see if you are on task. Satan is getting testier by the minute.”
Killian stepped out of the shower, unconcerned with his nakedness. “I’m working on it.” Not as expediently as he could, but he was working.
“In the way that girl said? By falling for this mortal yourself?”
“Hardly,” Killian said, reaching for a towel. “And do you mind—?” He gestured to his nakedness.
Vepar curled back the cat’s lip in disdain.
“Hmm, I hope for your sake that’s true. And I’m serious, you better speed this up. Or else,” his coworker hissed.
Vepar disappeared again, leaving him yet again with the psycho beast. Killian wasted little time escaping the bathroom. He had too many important parts bared to risk another attack.
As he dressed, he realized, as much as he hated it, Vepar had a point. Between his awareness of Poppy, the erotic dreams, the beleaguering teen girls, the fusty floral apartment and the sometimes possessed, always evil cat, it was really time to get down to business.
Mission
Whether he liked it or not.
Something terrible occurred to Poppy as she showered. What if Daisy had somehow set up Killian to ask her out? Her little sister had mentioned more than a few times over the past couple years that she thought Poppy should be dating. Daisy worried that when she went off to college in the next two years, Poppy would end up living alone.
“You’ll be a crazy cat lady,” she’d say.
“I’m allergic to cats,” Poppy had pointed out, but her little jokes never convinced Daisy that Poppy wouldn’t end up alone. Without even a cat.
That was it, Poppy realized, toweling off. Her little sister was playing matchmaker. And her chosen match was Killian, of all people.
Poppy pulled on her robe and headed to her bedroom. So her sister wanted to see her date Killian. Odd choice, but she supposed Daisy wasn’t immune to Killian’s amazing looks either. But that match wasn’t going to happen.
And Daisy had to get that crazy notion out of her head. She considered telling her little sister just that. No. She didn’t want to hurt or embarrass her sister. But she did need to nip this cockamamie idea in the bud.
Then the obvious solution came to her. Poppy would help Killian find a girlfriend.
If he was involved with someone else, Daisy would give up this silly plot. And Poppy would stop having dreams like she’d had today. After all, she was not going to be interested in an attached man.
So that was it. She’d play matchmaker herself.
Feeling better and more in control, she found a comfy T-shirt and jeans to put on and, as she dressed, she found herself smiling. Still she supposed it was rather flattering that Daisy thought Killian could be interested in her. But she ignored the warm tingle that idea sent through her.
“Well, we have one good thing here,” Madison reported to Daisy, when they had assembled in the basement laundry room, a place they often went if all the authority figures were home. “Killian is not in the least bit interested in your sister. I asked him outright, and he acted like it was the craziest thing he’d ever heard.”
Daisy lifted herself up onto one of the top-load washers, and nodded her head. “Yeah, Poppy isn’t at all into Killian either. She acts like she barely notices him. So that is one thing we don’t have to worry about.”
“But I don’t think we’re making any headway on this boyfriend thing either,” Madison said.
“No, Poppy sounded like the whole outing was pretty dull. Not that I think she’d tell me right away if she met someone. But I’m sure I would know.”
