Naughty Karma kc-7 Page 11

  He felt a little twinge that might have been guilt, but shoved it aside and reached for the charm. To make her trust him, want to help him, sacrifice for him…and let her hair down.

  But how to get it past her? She’d never let loose intentionally. Maybe two charms. One to help her focus her gift and another to get him into her good graces. Prometheus smiled and began to work his magic. You could learn a lot from con artists and stage magicians—it was all about misdirection. He was going to misdirect Karma until her head spun.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Second String Hero

  “There’s a guy in reception. He doesn’t have an appointment. And he has flowers.”

  Karma looked up to find Brittany standing inside her office, frowning. The frown was her first hint that her unexpected visitor wasn’t Prometheus. Brittany seemed to adore the bastard, for reasons Karma didn’t try to comprehend.

  “Does this guy have a name?”

  “Carlton something. I don’t trust him.”

  Brittany generally had good instincts, so Karma sat forward and inquired, “Why don’t you trust him?”

  “Calla lilies. He’s trying too hard to be unique. And he looks like a movie star.”

  “Which one?”

  “All of them. Like he’s only convincing when he’s playing someone else. That sort of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum look. I don’t think he’s a real person. He doesn’t exfoliate, he polishes. Much too shiny.”

  “Okay then. Well, real boy or not, you’d better show him in.” Karma closed her laptop and slid it back into its drawer, tidying her desk for the meeting. Not that she was anal about being tidy. She just liked things to be orderly. It didn’t mean anything. “Brittany?” She stopped the secretary before she could open the door. “Do you think I have a stick up my ass?” If anyone would be honest with her, Brittany would.

  Brittany cocked her head to the side, thinking about it. And thinking. And thinking some more.

  Damn it. I’ve got a stick up my ass. A “no” would not have taken so much rumination. “Never mind. Please send my visitor in.”

  Brittany bobbed a nod and vanished through the door, leaving Karma to mope in private.

  Of all the things Prometheus had said to her last night that was the one that had stuck with her when she woke up this morning. Had she really forgotten how to unwind? When had she become so rigid? When was the last time she’d let herself have fun? She couldn’t remember. That couldn’t be a good sign.

  “Ms. Cox?”

  “Karma, please.” Karma rose, smiling professionally at the walking Ken doll who’d entered her office with a fistful of Calla lilies. She suddenly understood what Brittany had meant. If anyone was ever too perfect, with every hair too perfectly in place and every plane of his face too perfectly sculpted, it was this man. She almost expected his teeth to sparkle when he smiled. “What can I do for you, Mister…?”

  “Norris. Carlton Norris. You may remember my Aunt Regina.” He lifted the lilies. “These are from her. She’s very grateful for your help with her ghost problem. She’d been saying that house was haunted for years but I’m afraid none of my cousins took her very seriously.”

  “I remember Regina. She was very passionate.” Karma came around her desk to accept the proffered flowers. “I suppose you were her one supporter?”

  “Actually I was as bad as any of them.” He gave a self-deprecating shrug. “Until I saw a ghost for myself. Suffice it to say, it opened my eyes to a number of things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as life is too short to spend in a boardroom and if my aunt is right about her house being haunted, what else might she be right about? Like the fact that I should ask out the pretty proprietress of the company that saved her house.”

  Karma gave him her most professional smile. It wasn’t the first time a former client had come by to say thank you, though it was the first time she’d had one try to pimp out her nephew in the process. “Mr. Norris, I’m flattered—”

  “Before you blow me off, give me a chance to plead my case.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she didn’t date and usher him out the door when she drew up short. What kind of person had a unilateral policy against dating? A person with a stick up her ass. Damn it. She looked at the flowers in her hands. She couldn’t get back to work until she put them in water anyway. “You have five minutes to convince me.”

  “I would have settled for three.” Carlton Norris smiled, all matinee idol teeth, exactly like she’d imagined. Then, as she found a vase and ducked into her washroom to fill it with water, he began itemizing all the ways he was the perfect catch—financially solvent, always opened doors for ladies and sent his mother flowers on Mother’s Day, and preferred classical music though he’d taken his little sister to her first boy band concert—which he argued should have qualified him for imminent sainthood, but all he was asking for was a date. He was charming, singing his own praises with a wry self-deprecation that struck precisely the right balance of pride and humility, and he even came bearing a letter of reference from his Aunt Regina, should she doubt his sincerity.

  There was no good reason for her to say anything but yes—and still Karma wanted to say no. She could come up with excuses all day long—he was too perfect, too slick, too smooth—but the truth was, she simply didn’t want to go out with him. She felt nothing when she looked at him. But was that his fault? Or something defective in her? Had she buried her own libido under so many layers of inhibition that she didn’t even feel it anymore? Her reactions to Prometheus called bullshit on that last supposition. She just wasn’t attracted to Carlton Norris—though he was exactly the kind of man she should be dating. Stable. Steady. Reliable. Good.

  “Come on, Karma. My aunt’s psychic says I’m exactly what you need.”

  Since his aunt’s psychic was on her payroll, Karma couldn’t fault the information, but… “What about what you need?” And why did Mr. Perfect here need his aunt’s psychic to get him a date? There had to be a catch. But what if there wasn’t? What if he really was her perfect and psychically ordained match and Prometheus had her so primed to question every motive that she ruined her best chance at happiness?

  “All I need is a chance. So what do you say? Give a guy a shot? It’s only dinner.” Carlton smiled winningly.

  And Karma felt nothing. But she forced herself to smile back—even though she had no particular desire to spend an evening with him. “I’d love to,” she lied, to drown out the sound of Prometheus’s voice telling her to let her hair down. “How’s tomorrow evening?”

  Carlton Norris left her office with plans to pick her up at seven and Karma tried to feel a giddy swoop of anticipation, but all she felt was a fierce determination to prove there were no sticks anywhere in the vicinity of her ass. She was going to let her hair down, damn it. If it was the last thing she did.

  “I have presents for you.”

  Prometheus burst into her office, five minutes early this time, and Karma frowned. She knew better than to trust a warlock bearing gifts, especially a punctual one. When he reached her desk, he pulled one hand from behind his back with a magician’s flourish. An odd silver charm that couldn’t seem to decide if it was a Celtic knot or a yin-yang sign dangled from the leather thong in his fist.

  “This is to give you a focal point, something external to center your magic through so you don’t have to break down your fortress of solitude to work your magic, and this is to help you relax.” The other hand appeared, holding a giant, economy-sized bottle of Stolichnaya.

  Karma glowered. “That’s your master plan to train me? Vodka?”

  “It’s a time honored technique for helping people relax. Why fight history?”

  “History has taught us that people are idiotic when drunk.”

  “And? You could use some idiocy in your life.”

  “I’m getting tired of you telling me what I need in my life.”

  “Do you want my help?”
<
br />   She ground out, “I do.”

  “Then you need me in your life. And tonight, vodka.” He smiled, a curve of the lips that was almost feral, in no way resembling the perfectly civil curve of Carlton Norris’s perfectly civil lips. Karma felt something low in her belly stir. “Aren’t you going to look at your present?” He swung the charm, rocking it like a hypnosis aid from his long fingers.

  “Set it there.” She wouldn’t touch it until she’d had a chance to test it for traps. Not that she thought Prometheus would actually hurt her—they’d gone beyond that—but manipulate her? That he’d do without blinking.

  He spread it before her on the desk with a flourish and stepped back. Another man might have been insulted by her obvious mistrust, but Prometheus seemed to take it as a compliment. “Do you have ice?” he asked as he backed away.

  “The freezer in the break room. Down the hall to the left.”

  Then he was gone, taking his massive presence—and massive bottle of vodka—with him and leaving her alone with the charm.

  It was an elegant piece of work, both physically and magically, layers of pressed metal and subtle tendrils of spells. Confidence and strength folded over focus and something else she couldn’t quite describe, though if she’d had to put it into words, she would have called it one-with-the-universeness, a sort of cosmic acceptance. She looked for booby traps, probing into the soft layers of spell, but found nothing suspect. Just clean, white magic. Not the slightest oily slick of dark. Even the leather thong was harmless. She brushed a finger over it tentatively, alert for any spells that activated at her touch, but nothing changed, no spell trap snapped closed around her. Had he really given her a gift to help her with no strings attached?

  “Did I pass?”

  She looked up to see him cupping a tumbler filled with ice in one palm while the other hand gripped the neck of the massive bottle.

  “Shockingly, yes. Thank you for the charm.”

  “You should wear it constantly. The more you use it, the better it will be. It tunes to you.” He set the tumbler on the desk and unscrewed the cap on the vodka with a twist of his wrist. The seals crackled as they broke and clear liquid draped itself across the ice like a lover as he poured. He set the bottle on the desk and grabbed a chair. She knew that chair, knew it was heavy, but he spun it around to the side of her desk without even a grimace of effort and sprawled his long, lean body into it.

  He waved for her to proceed and Karma arched a brow at the single glass. “If you think I’m getting trashed while you stay sober, you’re crazier than I thought.” If she hadn’t been watching him, she wouldn’t have noticed the minute hesitation, the way his eyes flicked to the side. He didn’t want to drink it. Of course. “I should’ve known. What’s in it? What did you spike it with?”

  His hand shot out like a snake striking, snatching up the glass. He’d thrown back the contents and slammed the glass back onto her desk with a clink before she could do more than blink. “There? See? Harmless. But you’re right. It’s bad form to drink alone.” He flicked his fingers and a second glass appeared beside her right hand where it rested on the desk.

  He filled her glass, then refilled his own, but she was getting better at seeing beneath his bluster and Prometheus looked uneasy. He lifted his refilled glass, arching a brow when she didn’t raise hers to meet his toast. “Watching for signs of cyanide poisoning?”

  “I’d pegged you as more of an arsenic guy.”

  He snorted. “My God, did Karma just make a joke?”

  “Why are you so nervous, Prometheus? What’s in the vodka?”

  “Distilled grains, if you believe the Russians.” When she made no move to lift her own glass, he lowered his own. “I don’t generally imbibe, okay? Alcohol tends to affect me rather strongly. The last time I drank, I accidentally summoned a demon because at the time it seemed like a good way of getting your attention.” He raised his glass again. “But I’m willing to take one for the team. To prove my good intentions.”

  She looked at the bottle, still dubious, but starting to feel like a fool and prude for resisting. “How does this work?”

  “You drink it.”

  “Cute.”

  “That’s all there is to this plan, Karma. You drink, you relax, and I help you figure out how to go with the flow rather than fighting the tide of your own power all the time. Simple. Which is good because if I’m gonna be hammered too, we probably should avoid plans with a lot of moving parts. Just think of me as the tour guide for your powers. I’ll drive the bus. You sit back and take in the sights.”

  Simple. Simple sounded good. So did letting someone else be responsible for keeping her afloat for a while.

  Karma lifted the vodka, pressing down the shiver of misgiving that seemed to tingle through her fingers and up her arm. The first mouthful of vodka kissed her tongue and then punched her in the back of the throat. She shook her head sharply, fighting down a cough as her eyes started to water.

  Prometheus chuckled. “You get used to it.”

  She glared at him and defiantly took another swallow. This one went down easier, just a twitch of her chin betraying the way it kicked as it slid down her throat. Prometheus silently toasted her and took a sip from his own glass.

  “Why does alcohol affect you so much? Is it because of your heart?” She frowned, studying him. He looked normal. You would never know it was only magic keeping him alive. Like a vampire. How alive was he? “Do you eat? I mean, I know your heart doesn’t pump your blood, but is everything else about your physiology normal?”

  “I can get it up, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Her face flamed. “That is not what I asked.”

  He gave a low, dark laugh and took a long drink. “I eat. I drink. I even sleep on occasion. My hair grows and when I try to grow a beard, it itches like a bitch, same as any other guy. The difference is the more magic I use, the more it sort of speeds up my body. I need to eat more often, shave two or three times a day, and I might as well be narcoleptic if I’m really burning hot, cuz I’ll pass out and wake up fifteen minutes later ready to do it all over again. So while I get drunk fast—one more of these and I’m gonna be singing show tunes—I also sober up fast.”

  “What happens when you don’t use magic?”

  He smiled. “I always use magic.” Their glasses refilled with a wave of his hand, the level in the bottle dropping in concert.

  “I bet you couldn’t go one day without casting a spell.”

  “And you would win that bet.” He shrugged, unapologetic.

  She’d expected him to puff up at the challenge, but he tipped back in his chair, rocking it onto the hind legs as he swirled the vodka in his glass, calm and utterly unoffended. She really didn’t know this man. He’d been her greatest frustration for months, but what did she really know about him?

  “What kind of name is Prometheus?” The vodka made her tongue feel loose and easy, words spilling right off it.

  “Titanic.”

  “But why call yourself that?”

  “The man who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the masses, then was doomed to lose internal organs as a punishment? Somehow it seemed fitting.”

  “But Prometheus. Don’t you ever wish your name was Steve or something?”

  “You probably fantasize about being called Beth, don’t you?”

  “Katharine, actually.” She blinked and frowned at her glass—she’d never told anyone that.

  He laughed. “Sweetheart, you’re no Kate. People like us need names that could never belong to anyone else.”

  “People like us. What does that even mean?”

  “Demigods.”

  “You’re saying one of your parents was a god?”

  “Fine, I’m not a demigod by the strictest definition. Maybe just a minor deity. But demigod has such a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

  “You aren’t a god, Prometheus,” she said dryly. “Demi or otherwise.”

  “I guess that
depends on your definition. What is a god anyway? I have the power to bend the world to my whim. Isn’t that godlike?”

  She ignored the question, realizing he was trying to pivot the conversation away from his past. There was so much more she wanted to know. “You changed your name after you traded your heart?”

  “About that time, yeah.”

  “What was your name before that?”

  “That’s a useless question.”

  “Why?” She noticed she was holding the charm he’d made for her and dropped it over her neck. It settled against her breastbone, warm and right, expanding her sense of calm.

  “I’ve been Prometheus for longer now than I was ever known as anything else, and it’s more who I am than any other identity ever was. You won’t know me by looking back there. In all ways that matter, I was born a little over nineteen years ago.”

  He rocked his chair and drained his glass. Karma sipped her drink. The vodka wasn’t kicking anymore. It slid down smooth and easy, warm and welcome. The glasses kept refilling on their own and now that she thought about it, the glass felt different in her hand, bigger. Or maybe it was her hand that felt different. Tingly and sort of swollen—like there was a delay between her skin and the nerves, a padding that filtered everything she touched.

  And her lips, they tingled too. She ran her tongue over them, fascinated by the feel. She might be drunk. Was Prometheus drunk too? She looked at him, wondering if his lips felt tingly and flushed like hers. He looked relaxed, tipped back in his chair, his lead lolling back loosely as he rested his drink against his stomach. He nagged at her about relaxing, but he didn’t let his guard down around anyone else either. It was ingrained, that distance he kept between himself and the rest of the world.