My Dangerous Pleasure by Carolyn Jewel

year. That’s so funny.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know.” Could she be any cuter? He wondered why she didn’t have a boyfriend. What idiot would ever cut her loose? She put her arms on top of the couch, and sitting kind of sideways so she could see him, she rested her chin on them. “You meet someone and you think they’ve always lived where they do or always had the same job. I thought you must have lived here forever.”
    “Nope.”
    “Where did you live before?”
    He’d already figured out that she was nervous and that she talked when she was nervous. He was the opposite. When he first got severed, he used to almost never talk. Different ways of coping with a fucked-up life.
    “Are you from around here?” she asked.
    He didn’t take his eyes off the TV. He saw her just fine in his peripheral vision. “I moved here from Sonoma County.”
    “I’m from Georgia. I came here for college. Straight from home.”
    “Yeah?” He put down the remote and looked at her. He smiled. He could do this. He passed for human all the time. “I lived at Harsh’s place up north. Way out in the boonies. I think most of my stuff is still at the farmhouse.”
    “Goodness. Why don’t you just rent a truck and go get your things? Ten friends and free beer and pizza would take care of it.”
    “Because.” He stared into the distance and tried not to think about the reasons why. He never really talked with the women he took up with, other than to give a few details about the normal job he didn’t really have, sports, or maybe current events. Mostly, he got right down to business with them, and they were all fine with that. Paisley was easy to talk to, though. “Sometimes it’s better to start over.” He clicked off the TV and stood up. “She’s here.”
    Paisley looked confused. Oops. She couldn’t feel the magekind or free kin the way he did. “Who’s here?”
    “Gray. My friend Gray. With stuff for you to wear.”
    Paisley shot to her feet when he went to the door. He looked at her from over his shoulder. Her eyes were wide and staring.
    “What’s the matter?” he asked.
    “How do you know it’s her?”
    Good question. He needed a plausible lie to answer her, and he couldn’t think of one. His phone rang, and he reached for it. Caller ID said it was Gray. He lifted the phone. “Because she’s calling to let me know it’s her.” Iskander took the call. “Hey.”
    “I’m right outside. I have this thing I have to do, and I’m late.” Meaning, Iskander knew, she needed to take care of someone for Nikodemus. “Can you come out to the car?”
    “No problem.” He closed the phone and glanced at Paisley. “Be right back.”
    Outside, Gray tapped her horn.
    As soon as Gray saw him come out, she opened her door and set everything on the street. She was driving off by the time he got to the bags. He trotted back to the house with three big shopping bags with twine handles. Paisley was standing by the window with her phone in her hand, ready to call the cavalry for him.
    “Here you go.” He put down the bags and made a big deal of locking the door and throwing the dead bolts. He watched her walk back to her purse and drop her phone inside. The two bulkier bags were full of bottles, boxes and cartons. He recognized sugar and chocolate and that was about it. He held out the last bag. “Enough clothing to get by, I think.”
    She peeked into the bag he handed her. She looked touched and grateful and, well, like she might break his rule about crying. “Honestly. I don’t know how I’m going to repay you.”
    “You don’t need to.”
    “Just bless you for all this.” She swiped a hand underneath her eyes. “Please tell your friend I said thank you.”
    Iskander smiled. “Will do.”
    She headed for the bathroom to change, and while she was gone, Iskander checked the closet again. The body had vanished, as it should have. He returned to the living room when she came out in a pair of dark jeans that