All Fired Up Read Online Free PDF Page A

rubbed her temples. “ Go away.”
    He shook his head. “I am the Phoenix you summoned.”
    “I can’t believe you’re real. I thought you were a dream.” She groaned softly. “My head hurts too much for this. I need a hot shower and something to eat. Don’t move. I mean it. We’ll discuss this later, okay? Because I have the sinking feeling that ‘later’ you’re still going to be here.”
    He smiled. “Aye. I will be here.”
    “Don’t smile at me. I’m not in the mood for that either.”
    “As you wish.” His smile disappeared.
    She stood and tugged her robe a little tighter. A wandering thought made her skin tingle. She narrowed her eyes. “How did I get into bed last night?”
    “I carried you.” His big hands massaged Snickers, who rolled over onto his back and kneaded air biscuits into space.
    The sight of his hands on her cat and the knowledge that those hands had been on her made her shiver. “Quit doing that to my cat. He doesn’t like men.”
    One dark brow arched up. “He likes me well enough. Perhaps he just does not like the men you have brought home thus far.”
    “I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but I am not discussing my love life with a…a naked stranger.” Calleigh snatched the Pepsi off the counter and stomped down the hall to the bathroom, slamming the door to the detriment of her aching head. She locked the door. The nerve of that, that…man thing.
    She cranked the shower knob toward hot then got the aspirin out of the medicine cabinet. Popping the top, she dumped three little white pills into her hand. She tossed them into her mouth and washed them down with the diet Pepsi. The fizzy liquid burned her throat.
    Closing the toilet lid, she sat and waited for the water to heat. What would her mother do if a strange man suddenly appeared out of a pillar of smoke and fire? Probably set out tea and cookies. Calleigh sighed. She’d always winked at her mother’s beliefs in the “little people”, Irish white witches and the Fae. Maybe her mother hadn’t been so far off.
    Steam poured over the top of the glass door. She hung her robe and stepped beneath the blissfully hot water. Tipping her face into the spray, she relaxed. No more thinking until after breakfast.
    She emerged from the shower feeling a little better. A few minutes later, she padded back into the living room, dressed in a grey sweatshirt and faded Levi’s, her damp curls pulled through a Yankees baseball cap.
    Alrik still sprawled on the couch, one brawny arm propping his head up. Snickers hadn’t moved either and now snored, upside down, feet in the air. Calleigh rolled her eyes as she tugged her sneakers on. Dumb cat.
    She didn’t really want to leave this guy alone in her apartment, but she was not taking a naked man to breakfast. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Don’t touch anything, don’t answer the phone, don’t answer the door, just stay right where you are. Understand?”
    Alrik jumped up, dumping Snickers onto the couch. “I am going with you.”
    “Oh no, you’re not.”
    “In this, you cannot stop me. A Phoenix must stay with his charge to protect them from those who might influence their decisions.”
    “No one knows about you and these three changes so no one is going to influence anything. And I don’t have to stop you. The police see you walking around in nothing but a sheet and they’ll do the stopping.”
    “Police?”
    “You know, the law?”
    “Aye, the law.” He rubbed his chin and stared at her curiously. “What year is this?”
    She frowned. “It’s 2009, why?”
    His brows shot up in surprise. “The war is over, then?”
    “What war?”
    “Between the northern and southern clans.”
    “You mean the Civil War? That’s been over for a long time.” She shook her head. Apparently they didn’t get CNN in Phoenixland.
    He ignored her response. “I am going with you.”
    “I think I covered that already. No shirt, no shoes, no service.” She crossed