Cupid's Light Read online

  In truth, they were perfect for one another. They seemed to have a fair number of interests in common: They could talk comfortably with one another; Shay’s build even appeared to compliment Matt’s large, muscular stature. Adora glanced down at her own dainty, tiny body. As much fun as she and Matt had when they were not in human form, the truth was, he was massive, while she was itty bitty, and as this was the form in which they would connect intimately, it just didn’t make sense. They weren’t compatible. Even if she discounted the fact that she was a Cupid and Cupids were not supposed to connect with their assignments.

  She gritted her teeth and watched while Matt wrapped his arm around Shay’s back and lifted her until she hopped on one foot. Trailing behind them as they slowly made their way across the lawn toward Josh’s house where Matt’s truck was parked, Adora mentally reviewed all the reasons she should not feel jealous of Shay, and should, instead, be happy that it was becoming more and more apparent Matt had found his future mate.

  The mental activity did not make her feel better. Especially when, once they reached Matt’s truck, he lifted Shay into the cab and threw a distracted “goodbye” over his shoulder before climbing into the driver’s seat and cranking the vehicle to life. Adora stood in the circle drive and watched until the bright red taillights disappeared beyond the first hill in the narrow drive leading away from the stone mansion.

  Arms hanging at her side, Adora wandered into the house and made her way to the library, where she found Rachel reviewing her emails on the computer. The human mistress of the house looked up when Adora flopped into the leather armchair on the other side of the desk.

  “Something wrong?”

  “Matt just took off with that shifter named Shay.”

  “Is that bad? I thought that was what you wanted to happen?”

  “I’m here to help him find his mate.” What she wanted was an entirely different story.

  Rachel tilted her head to the side. “And you don’t think Shay is the one?”

  Slumping further in her seat, Adora muttered, “I think she’s perfect for him.”

  Furrowing her brow, Rachel said, “If that’s the case, why do you sound so…bitter?”

  “I don’t know.” Yes, she did. Adora pushed out of the chair and paced to the window and back before dropping into her seat once again and thrusting out her lower lip. A childish, mulish act, but she couldn’t help it.

  Rachel sat back in her chair as a look of comprehension dawned on her face. “I see.”

  “What?”

  “Tell me, Adora, when do Cupids get to take a mate? I mean, I have to believe you procreate, unless you all are immortal?”

  Adora shook her head. “Not immortal. We do have to procreate, to keep the population up. Supply and demand and all that. Few creatures are adept at finding love without our help.”

  “So how does it work? When do you have time to meet your own potential mate?”

  Frowning, Adora explained, “When the Assigners determine it’s our time. I’ll get summoned one day, and then I’ll be sent to the Procreation Chamber.”

  “What’s a Procreation Chamber? That doesn’t sound particularly pleasant.”

  “I haven’t been yet, but those who have say it is actually incredibly pleasant. More than, even. As I understand it, it’s supposed to feel like having an extended stay in a resort. A hedonistic resort.”

  Rachel furrowed her brow, and Adora reminded herself that humans had a very different way of life from most magical people. Or perhaps all other creatures had a different way of life from Cupids. So she explained.

  “The Procreation Chamber is where we go when it is our time to produce offspring. It is said to be the most glorious, beautiful, perfect place you can possibly imagine. All your wants and desires are tended to. The pheromones we give off are so thick in the air, it’s impossible to resist…having sex.”

  Rachel laughed. “Doesn’t sound so bad.”

  Adora shrugged. “There is no emotion involved. You have sex with whomever is handy, or whomever you are attracted to. You do it over and over, until you are with child. And then the females are sent to another area of the chamber, or resort, as you will, and are set up in the lap of luxury while they incubate. When the babe is birthed, it is whisked away to the nursery. Most mothers don’t even get to see their child before it is taken away. I don’t believe any fathers have ever met their own younglings, at least not until they are old enough to socialize with others outside the chamber. And by then, there is no emotional connection. And, should you choose, you can do it all over again, as many times as you wish. We get as much leave from our jobs as Cupids as we want. Some love it, and stay almost perpetually in the chamber. Some do it once and never go back. It depends on your personality, I suppose. Me personally, I dread it.”

  “I don’t blame you. I couldn’t imagine getting pregnant by a faceless guy and then never even seeing your baby before it’s taken away to be raised by strangers. Does this mean you don’t even know your own parents?”

  “I know who they are, but I have no more than a passing acquaintance with my father, and basically a professional relationship with my mother.” Adora blinked back unexpected tears. “Do you think that makes me a terrible Cupid, because I don’t want to do something that is supposed to be natural for my kind?”

  Rachel shook her head so fiercely, tendrils of hair sprang loose from the clip holding it to the back of her head. “Absolutely not. That doesn’t sound natural at all, and certainly not for those who are supposed to bring love to everyone else. In fact, I think it makes you a better person. Someone with compassion, someone who cares. You are one of the most wonderful people I have ever met. You aren’t terrible at anything.”

  Adora smiled, sprang from her seat, and impulsively hugged her new friend. “Thank you.”

  “And by the way, it is horrendous that the very people who are supposed to help the rest of the world find love don’t get to experience it for themselves. I can’t believe you don’t get to choose your own mate—or any mate, for that matter. You aren’t supposed to fall in love? That just seems…wrong.”

  Memories of another time, another place hit her and Adora winced. She had thought she was in love once. The end result had been disastrous—and now she was a Cupid Level One, struggling to keep her wings and her livelihood.

  Clearing her throat, Adora said, “Cupids are not meant to fall in love. We derive our joy from watching others find love.”

  “Sounds like something you read in a textbook.”

  Adora whipped around at the sound of the masculine voice she already knew so well. Matt stood in the doorway, his shoulder propped against the wooden frame, his arms crossed over his chest. Adora had the ridiculous urge to start panting like a dog in heat.

  My job is to find him a mate, not satisfy some itch that has suddenly sprung up out of nowhere.

  But she knew that was not the case. It hadn’t sprung up out of nowhere. Her attraction was completely justified. The man was eye candy, and a good person to boot. Exactly the sort of person…she should help mate with someone else.

  Someone else.

  “So, is that true? What you two were talking about? Cupids aren’t allowed to fall in love?” he asked, watching her with dark eyes that saw far too much.

  “Usually, we just don’t. But yes, if, on the rare occasion it does happen…it is not acceptable.”

  There was something in his eyes—a shrewdness Adora hadn’t expected. She could tell he wanted to ask for more detail, but refrained, probably because Rachel was there. Adora had no doubt he would hammer her with questions the next time they were alone together. She gulped and averted her gaze. There were few things Adora disliked speaking of, and she’d touched on two such topics today. It was time to guide the spotlight away from her and focus on her attempts at helping Matt find his mate.

  “So you and Shay?” she asked, staring at his hiking boots.

  He rolled
his eyes. “Don’t get your hopes up yet, Cupid. We’re just talking. You’re still stuck with me for a while longer.”

  She did not think that was such a bad prospect. “Talking is good. Talking often leads to…other things.”

  “I know how this works.” He sounded irritable. No doubt his reluctance to admit she was right about his need for a mate. It wouldn’t be the first time. At some point, she knew he would express his appreciation for her efforts.

  “I think that’s ridiculous,” Rachel announced. Adora and Matt both arched their eyebrows. She shook her head. “You—not being allowed to find love. It isn’t fair. You deserve it as much as anybody else. Probably more. How many people have you found happiness for? It doesn’t make sense that you can’t enjoy it for yourself.”

  Adora kept a smile plastered on her face, while glancing at Matt out of the corner of her eye. He stared at her, a curious look on his face. Adora could no more change the ways of her people than she could keep her wings if she did not help Matt find his mate. There was no point in talking about it.

  “It is what it is,” she mumbled weakly.

  “I hate that phrase,” Josh said, coming up behind Matt and elbowing him out of the way. “I just met someone named Shay. She said you were supposed to grab her an ice pack and a couple pain killers?”

  “Shit. Yeah, I gotta go. Ladies.” Matt nodded and slipped away, and Josh stepped farther into the room, perching on the desk next to Rachel and murmuring something Adora did not hear. She watched Matt leave and was surprised at the force behind which she wished…

  But she couldn’t. That wasn’t how things were supposed to work. Besides, it was becoming clearer and clearer that Shay was the woman for him. And Adora should be happy about it.

  She was going to retain her wings, after all.

  Chapter 6

  WHAT the hell was wrong with him? He’d told Shay he would take her to her brother’s house, yet he’d only made it a few miles down the road before he came up with an excuse to turn around and head back to Josh’s.

  An ice pack and ibuprofen? That had been his lame-ass excuse? Because her brother wouldn’t have those items?

  Shay hadn’t questioned his decision, which made him feel both grateful and guilty. Because if he were honest with himself, he would admit that the only reason he’d wanted to go back to Josh’s house was to check on Adora. She had been upset when he left with Shay. He could tell. She would deny it, of course, but he didn’t care. He had to check on her, make sure she wasn’t going to…What? Leave? She’d told him a dozen times she couldn’t leave until he found a mate.

  Glancing sideways at Shay, he mulled over that idea for a moment. A mate. Given what happened when he was the ripe young age of fifteen, the idea of taking a mate was farfetched. At least, it had been, until Adora came into his life. Now, he was surprised that the idea wasn’t as unappealing as it had always been before.

  But he wasn’t sure if Shay was the one.

  “Here, let me help you,” he said after he parked his truck at the curb in front of a basic, unassuming ranch home surrounded by a lawn in dire need of mowing. With his arm around her waist and her hand clinging to his shoulder, they waded through ankle-deep grass until they reached the front porch and Shay fished a key out of her pocket.

  “They’re all out,” Shay said when they hobbled inside and Matt guided her to the couch.

  “You think your brother has an Ace bandage or something? I can wrap that ice pack around your ankle if he does.”

  “The bathroom’s the first door on the left,” she said, nodding at a hall extending off the living room to his right. “There’s probably one in the cupboard next to the sink.”

  A few minutes later, she was laid out on the couch, her ankle iced and clumsily wrapped in an elastic bandage. Matt found a couple beers in the fridge and after handing her one of them, he sat down on the couch near her feet.

  An hour later, he was ready to leave, but felt obligated to stay. She was trying her damnedest to make small talk, to engage him, but his mind was elsewhere. Actually, no it wasn’t.

  It was on Shay, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be thrilled, knowing he was critiquing her in his mind, while she chattered about inane things like swimming in Lake Michigan in the summertime.

  She seemed to like him, and he supposed he liked her, too. She was good-looking, had a nice disposition, and didn’t have issue with Lightbearers or humans, other than her fear of healers. But Matt could understand that. The first time he’d seen a healer at work, he’d been both fascinated and slightly repulsed by the idea that someone could, with just a touch, suck away another person’s pain and injury. Hell, there were humans who were afraid of their own doctors, so a fear of healers was easy to forgive.

  He wanted to ask Adora’s opinion. It was fascinating really, how quickly her opinion had come to matter to him. If she said she did not approve of Shay, he’d probably walk away from the idea…No, he would definitely walk away.

  He thought about the conversation he’d overheard between Adora and Rachel. Something about Cupids not deserving to fall in love.

  What the hell was that? The very people whose life mission it was to help everyone else fall in love—they didn’t get to experience it themselves? It made no sense. He would have told her so, too, if she hadn’t started asking questions about him and Shay. And then Josh walked in and told them Shay had hobbled into the house instead of staying in the truck like he’d asked, and he had bolted out of there.

  Blowing out a deep sigh, Matt leaned back against the couch and let his mind play the comparison game.

  Adora was an entirely different species. Mating with someone within his own species made sense, even if he was one of the few shifters who didn’t really care one way or the other that his pack master had taken a human to mate.

  Adora had violence issues. He smiled. Her tendency to throw up at the sight of blood or even the talk of violence was somehow oddly endearing. It helped, he supposed, that she could clean up her own mess with a wave of her hand. Magic sure did come in handy sometimes.

  If he didn’t mate with Shay—or someone—Adora would lose her wings, and thus her ability to return to her own homeland. That was the one that bothered him the most. Like Rachel, he didn’t really want Adora to go. But unlike Rachel, he knew Adora couldn’t stay. She didn’t belong here. She belonged with her own kind, where she could continue to do her job and live out her life as she was supposed to.

  Why was that thought so depressing? If she left, didn’t that mean he’d found his mate, a love match at that? Wasn’t that her entire purpose? And hadn’t he agreed to it? He’d warmed to the idea of a love match since meeting Adora. She was right—love was a beautiful thing, and everyone deserved that little bit of happiness in their lives.

  So again, why was the thought so damn depressing?

  Because Adora would leave, once he committed to taking a female to mate.

  He liked having Adora around. He liked that she challenged him, that she teased him, that she made him think. He liked that she liked to be chased, because he sure as hell liked to chase her. While Shay chattered away, Matt found himself creating fantasies about what could have happened had he actually caught the fast little Cupid when they’d been out flying this morning.

  None were fantasies that were appropriate given the fact that his potential mate was seated right next to him.

  “You aren’t even listening to me, are you?”

  “Huh?” Abruptly pulled from his fantasy, Matt focused on Shay, who watched him with a knowing look in her eye. Busted. Before he could work out a plausible response, a commotion at the front door drew their attention.

  Shay’s niece Courtney, dressed in a cheerleading uniform and toting a trophy that was nearly as tall as she was, burst through the front door with a wide grin on her face. Her parents and younger brother followed behind, along with Matt’s nephew Jonas, who was red faced and looked highly uncomf
ortable.

  “Uncle Matt,” he said, clearly relieved to have an ally in the crowd. Judging by the look on Courtney’s father’s face, Matt imagined poor Jonas had been given the third degree prior to arriving at the house.

  “That’s right—Courtney had a cheerleading competition this morning,” Matt said, and he wondered why Shay had chosen to wander around in the woods—wearing highly inappropriate-for-the-task shoes, as Adora had pointed out—instead of attending the competition. Hadn’t she specifically come to this side of the state for that occasion?

  Was she really so smitten with him that she’d forgo her niece’s event to practice hiking, so she wouldn’t make a fool of herself in front of him? As stupid as that seemed, he supposed he really should put a little more effort into getting to know her.

  Not that he wasn’t. He was putting in plenty of effort, actually. He just didn’t feel any…heat. And shifters were known for the heat they generated together. They had a reputation for having high libidos, both males and females. He should be chomping at the bit, sniffing around her skirts, trying to push her into sleeping with him.

  But he wasn’t. What did that mean? Was that what it meant to be in love? Were the two things mutually exclusive? What a depressing thought.

  “I’m so glad to be home,” a guy Matt assumed was Shay’s brother muttered as he stomped through the living room with barely a glance for Shay or Matt. He must have noticed them, though, because just before he disappeared into the kitchen, he called out, “What the hell happened to you, Shay?”

  “Steve—language,” a woman—his mate, Matt presumed—admonished as she herded Courtney to her bedroom to change out of her cheerleading uniform.

  Steve appeared a moment later and tossed a can of beer at Matt and another at Shay. He took a long pull on his own beer and then belched loudly, causing both his young son and Jonas to snicker.

  “Steve,” his mate snapped. “We have company. The pack master’s cousin.”

  Matt hated that status was so damn important to some of the members of his pack. Especially because he knew that being the pack master’s cousin really didn’t mean a whole lot, unless they wanted to listen to him talk about the importance of human-shifter relations.