Page 30 of Habibi: Always and Forever

With a tendril of magic, I peeked into her memories from earlier in the day. As I suspected, she'd said the same words to another couple looking for a kitten. Instead of following her to see the older cats, they'd turned around and walked out.

"Let's take a look."

Parker beamed at me, which was worth the scorn I expected from a room full of cats.

PARKER

The cats loved me, but, true to his word as always, they avoided Doyle, even when he sat on the floor with his legs crossed and offered them a handful of cat treats.

After fifteen minutes with no luck, our chaperone, Deb, was ready to give up.

She'd also gone from encouraging both of us to speaking only to me as the playful teenage cats batted each other's tails around my feet.

Finally, it happened. A brave feline approached Doyle. She had long white fur and the lightest blue eyes I had ever seen on a cat.

"She's part Siamese," Deb said.

"She probably can't even see me." Doyle pinched a cat treat between his thumb and index finger and held it out. The cat sniffed it and then scent-marked his thumb by rubbing her jaw along it.

"What … what's she doing?"

"I think she likes you," I said.

Deb confirmed with a nod, and her encouraging smile returned. "She doesn't usually take to people. She's not one of the youngsters, though. We've had her for ten years, and no way to know how old she was before then."

I contained my groan of disappointment. She had been playing with the other cats, batting their tails and biting at their feet, the same as the rest. Maybe she would be just as fun.

"The age isn't a problem, is it, Doyle?" He'd hinted at a spell that could make our cat live forever.

"Not at all." He dropped the treat on the floor at his feet, and the cat licked it into her mouth.

Still chewing, she placed her two front paws on Doyle's shin.

Then, she licked her chops and climbed into his lap, spinning once before curling into a ball.

Her purr rumbled as loud as a gas generator.

"Well," he said. "I think that settles it. We'll take her."

"What's her name?" I asked.

"Ghost." Deb shrugged. "She's white, and we found her around Halloween. You can change it if you'd like."

Doyle grinned down at the ball of fur on his lap, and she gazed up at him. "We'll think of something," he said.

DOYLE

Celeste. She told me her name was Celeste. She still spoke the old tongue through her loud purrs. She may have been with the kitten hospital for ten years, but she'd been born in the fae realm eons ago.

"Do not look so surprised, fae lord. I have been waiting for you to claim me."

My eyebrows shot up, and I pointed at my chest. "Me?"

"You are the anthousai prince wed to his fated human, are you not?"

I bent forward and offered her another treat. "Did my mother put you up to this?" I whispered in her ear.

"Your mother." She scowled at the treat in my hand. "I would never make a deal with her. Your grandmother almost trapped me once, but no. Neither was worthy of a feline."

"I am?" I couldn't keep the shock out of my voice. Even the humans heard me. Parker grinned, pleased the cat and I were getting along. Deb looked … concerned. I needed to speed this up before she decided I was mentally unfit to be a cat steward.

"To overthrow your mother the queen, you need my help.

" Celeste sized me up with her icy blue gaze.

"You're not ready, but you will be." She leaned down and licked up the cat treat I'd left by my ankle, devouring it in two bites.

Then she rolled onto her back in my lap, showing me her belly. "Meow."

I scratched her gently until she grabbed my hand with all four paws and bit down on my thumb. I pulled my hand back with a gasp, and she shot out of my lap.

"Hey!"

"I haven't met the prince consort yet." She swirled around Parker's legs, rubbing her sides against his shins until he bent down to pet her.

"Hello … Ghost."

"Celeste," I corrected.

"What a beautiful name," Deb said. "She likes you both!"

Parker crouched down to pet her sleek back. "Can we take her home with us today?"

"Absolutely. Let's fill out the paperwork."

Parker answered Deb's questions while I held Celeste in my arms. She hated it. I could tell from the way her entire body tensed up and stayed rigid, even when I tried to soothe her with scratches and pets.

Finally, paperwork signed, fee paid, we were ready to take Celeste home. There was only one minor problem.

"You can't leave here without a cat carrier." Celeste hissed at the steel door of the thing when Deb swung it open in her face.

"Dogs wear leashes," I said.

"I am not a dog!"

Deb frowned. "We can see how she takes to a harness and leash. She hates anyone touching her belly, so we haven't tried to put one on her before."

"You let me touch your belly."

"Never again," she said with a loud purr.

"The leash is only until we get home," I whispered. "Then you'll be free to go wherever you wish and do whatever you want."

She glared at me but said nothing. When Deb returned with the harness, Celeste let me buckle it behind her front legs. When I took a step toward the door, she sat and itched at the chest piece with her hind leg.

"Dearest Celeste," I called. "Let's get you home."

If cats could roll their eyes, she would have. Instead, she slowly rose on all fours and took a single step toward me.

"Maybe I should carry her." Parker bent down with his arms out.

A woman pulled the inner door open, and Celeste darted for the gap, pulling me behind her and leaving Parker to apologize to the woman maneuvering a huge plastic carrier filled with meows into the building.

When Celeste reached the outer glass door, she sat and washed her front paw with delicate licks. "I hate being carried."

"Noted."

"Sitting on laps is only for special occasions."

"Such as?"

"Enticing a fae lord so he'll rescue me from prison."

I chuckled at that. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Which direction to the fairy circle?" She watched my face intently as she continued to lick her sparkling white fur.

I pointed toward the giant stone and metal monstrosity Parker's dad had built over a portal to the fae realm. "Shall we?"

Parker joined us in the vestibule, and a grin split his face. "You two are adorable. Deb said you look like you're having a conversation."

I took Parker's hand. "We were."

His eyebrows shot up and then bunched into a frown. "Figures."

"She's probably older than I am. I doubt I'll need that anti-aging spell."

I pushed the door open, and Celeste walked into the afternoon sunlight. The chill wind ruffled her fur, but she didn't seem bothered by it.

"What else did she say?"

I filled him in as we walked. When we arrived at the revolving door into the building, I kneeled and gestured for her to jump into my lap. "Have you seen a door like this before?"

"I know how they work."

"Would you like to be carried?"

She scowled at me. I thought she would refuse, but with a single leap, she landed on my thighs. I scooped her into my arms and approached the carousel, shoving it along until the opening was large enough for us to squeeze through.

"Thank you," Celeste huffed when I put her down.

"You are very welcome."

Parker studied us with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What?"

"'Cats don't like anthousai,' you said. 'You'll be her favorite,' you said. You're such a—ooh." Celeste leaned heavily against his shins. A few strands of white fur stuck to his black corduroy pants.

"See? You are her favorite."

I took his hand again, and we both stumbled our way toward the elevators, somehow avoiding being tangled in the leash and tripping over the cat.

* * *

PARKER

"Kitchen, we need a dish of chopped salmon." I dropped the leash onto the table. "And scallops, if we have any."

Doyle scooped the leash up and walked back to the front door. With a touch, he magicked a hook from the log wall and looped the handle over it. "I doubt we'll need this again, but here it is."

Celeste had marched up the front steps, onto the porch, and into the cabin like she owned the place. She probably did, honestly. Now, she was sniffing every corner, rug, and piece of furniture.

Doyle returned and nudged me back against the kitchen table. I rested my ass against the dropped leaf, enjoying the scent of honey that lingered on his skin. He wedged my legs apart until I straddled his legs and grinned down at me.

"Can you talk to all cats?" I asked.

"Only the ones who remember the fae tongue." He leaned in for a kiss, and I met him halfway, a quick brush of lips before he gripped the back of my head and plundered my mouth. With effortless grace, he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around him, desperate to feel how his body responded to mine.

"We have a houseguest," Doyle whispered against my mouth when we paused for breath.

I heard a thump and loud purring behind me on the table.

Doyle laughed. "She says it's nothing she hasn't seen before. Carry on."

His lips found mine again. I lost myself in another slow, sensual kiss that set every nerve ending tingling.

Doyle broke the kiss with a groan. "Not on the table."

I turned to watch the wooden bowl filled with salmon levitate from the table to the mat in front of the pantry door. "She needs water."

Instead of a bowl, a little wooden fountain grew from the kitchen cabinet door beneath the sink, and the sound of running water filled the room. "Cats like running water, if I remember."

He was answered by another loud purr that sounded a lot like, "Thank you."

"I missed you," Doyle said against my lips before claiming them with another kiss.

I could leave my job in the human realm, but then I would abandon it to people like my father.

As it was, I couldn't stop every nefarious decision, but I could mitigate some of them.

Until my dad stepped down as the head of Moynahan Enterprises, I would do my best to prevent the worst of his ideas from becoming reality.

"You're doing it again." Doyle kissed the wrinkle between my eyebrows. "You can't control the human realm."

"I know." But I desperately wanted to fix it.

"We have an hour before dawn, and then we have breakfast with Qylion."

I groaned. That wasn't enough time for everything I wanted to do with Doyle. "We'll make it work." I shoved all thoughts of pixies and the human realm from my head and focused on kissing Doyle. It wasn't hard. He kissed like a god, or at least a fae prince.

Here in the fae realm, I had no worries. We lived the cozy fae cabin life, now complete with an adorable cat. Qylion would probably bring us a new set of problems, but that was for another day … er … hour.

THE END