Diamonds and Toads: A Modern Fairy Tale Read Online Free PDF Page A

had
left his dick at half-mast for the past forty-five minutes. Now
this. The clammy wetness of perspiration under his arms seeped into
his consciousness.
    He leapt to his feet and made a dash to the
door.
    He swung it open. “I just realized I left an
important document on my desk—I’ll call you later!” he yelled to
her.
    He ran out and didn’t look back.
    God, he’d nearly ruined everything. He would
not be that much of a cad to her. It was bad enough that he’d asked
her to marry him under false pretenses—even given her his ex’s
ring. But he did have some standards of behavior he wouldn’t break.
And taking sexual advantage of a woman was one of them. Especially
one he liked as well as he liked Delilah.
    Better to set a time to talk to her tomorrow,
in the daylight, in neutral territory, about how they would proceed
together after his discovery this evening.
    * * *

 
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
     
    Delilah stumbled into her kitchen the next
morning and switched the light on over the sink. With a wide yawn
and a stretch of an arm over her head, she used the other to fill
the coffee carafe with water and pour it into the maker.
    Chas had called her last night, as he’d
promised, and they were to meet for lunch to discuss plans for an
engagement party later in the week and, she was sure, how she was
to conduct herself now that she was his fiancée. Image was
everything. She knew that—hadn’t her whole family been both the
servants to and the victims of their social image for as long as
she could remember? Wasn’t it her stepmother’s driving reason for
getting up in the morning?
    And now it was all just within Delilah’s
grasp to gain it back. As long as she didn’t blow it. And she
supposed, she almost had last night, if Chas hadn’t discovered her
secret.
    She twisted her lower lip between her thumb
and forefinger. It hadn’t been a lie—there really was little danger
of anyone discovering who she was. But still. With the engagement,
and the newly earned fortune, she shouldn’t have taken a
chance.
    So. She supposed it had been a boon that Chas
had discovered her.
    Biting down on her thumbnail, she leaned
against the kitchen counter. How had he found her, anyway? The coffee made its final burbling noises and she took a mug from
the shelf above it.
    A crash sounded in the living room.
    Delilah dropped the mug and whirled around.
It clattered to the tile floor and broke.
    While her heart rocketed about in her chest,
she grabbed her cell phone from the counter, slid the chef’s knife
out of the wood block, and tiptoed on shaky legs across the
kitchen. Her thumb firmly over the panic button on her cell, she
peeked into the living room.
    “We-e-e-lll, hello, Lila, dear.”
    It was Endora. Endora from Bewitched. Bright red hair, purple high-necked gown with  lime-green cape
and all. A tipped-over antique wire hat stand lay on the wood floor
next to where she sat. In hopes the hallucination would fade,
Delilah opened and closed her eyes several times.
    It didn’t work.
    “Wh-what’s going on?” She looked around, but
everything was fuzzy. “Where—? How—?”
    “Falderal and fiddle-de-dee. No need to get
into such a dither. It’s only me, dear. Your  friendly family
fairy flitting in to fix your folly.”
    Endora—or whatever her name was—unfurled the
leg she’d tucked under her on Delilah’s mauve and blue pinstriped
sofa and swept her long silver-nailed finger in the direction of
the chair next to her. “Have a seat, dear. You look a bit piqued.
And do put that knife away before you slice off a finger, will
you?”
    This is not really happening. It can’t
be. Delilah moved forward on numb limbs and placed the knife on
the end table next to the chair before collapsing into the seat.
The phone, she tucked safely into her lap. She couldn’t take her
eyes off the spectre in front of her. “I know what this is,” she
mumbled to herself, “I ate chocolate cake with wine