Linda and Jory are the children of best friends Rachel and Mary, born as the result of a beach party fling when they were eighteen. Now in their twenties, Jory and Linda have reason believe their exchange-student fathers weren’t exactly human. At a school reunion, a mysterious woman offers them some answers. The truth changes their lives in ways they could never have imagined, shocking Linda so much she invites Jory into her bed as a distraction. Falling in lust with someone she’s known since the cradle is complicated enough, but there’s a good deal more to come.
More From A Fairy in the Bed
2004
Linda checked the pickup listed on her screen for a second time and frowned. She couldn’t remember accepting that booking. Maybe one of the other drivers was running late and had passed it on.
So much for her shift ending at eleven. The trouble with being a shareholder in Vouch-Safe was that she couldn’t complain about her hours or her conditions. Effectively, she was employing herself.
Linda committed the pickup address to memory and put the van into gear. At least it was a short hop job. She’d be home before one, and Laura would be asleep in any case.
She drove through the dark streets to a glittering townhouse lit up like a fireworks display. Music streamed out, and the lights pulsed in time with a funky beat. Linda pulled up and averted her gaze. Fast music and flickering lights at this time of night! Didn’t these people ever go to bed? She worked to keep a cool—even cold—air about her on duty, but it wasn’t always easy. She closed her eyes.
The sound of the passenger door being wrenched open brought her to alertness. “Hey! Those are my hinges, you berk!”
Dammit. Not the thing to say to a client. So much for keeping it cool and understated.
“Just drive!” The voice sounded tense, as her passenger bundled in with a flurry of pink tutu and fishnets, slammed the door, and buckled up.
Linda got the van in motion just as the chap in the tutu went off into a gale of laughter. He was clearly a chap, not a chick. Okay, so she had a chap in a tutu in her passenger seat at fifteen minutes to midnight. That figured.
She drove in silence until he subsided into chortles and pulled off his curly gold wig and tiara to reveal shaggy fair hair, sparkling hazel eyes and slightly pointed ears, the left one sporting an intricate silver earring.
“Fairy Doll, Jory? Seriously? Isn’t that low, even for you?”
“Not seriously.” He unclipped a pair of glittering wings. “How the hell are you tonight, Lindyhop?”
“About the way you’d expect. It’s Friday night. My shift finished at eleven.”
“Why are you working then?” He kicked off sparkly pink stilettos in a size 12.
“I don’t know. Maybe because some thoughtless fairy wearing bimbo makeup and a tiara hacked into my bookings.”
“Don’t be like that.” The studs on the tutu popped as he ripped it adrift. He peeled it off, hitching up to do so, and started on the tight-laced corset.
She pulled into the nearest parking spot. “Out.”
“Aw, come on.”
“Out.”
He gathered tutu, wig, shoes, wings and tiara. “You wouldn’t throw me out on the street dressed in nothing but knickers and a corset, would you?”
“You’ve still got the fishnets. Oh, and just watch me.”
Downcast, he opened the door and swivelled to put one foot on the wet tarmac. “Lindyhop…please? You know you love me really.”
“Get out, Jory. Do I have to grab you by the ears?”
“Yes, please! I dare you.”
“Out.”
“Fine.” He got out.
Linda pulled away from the kerb, the breeze of her passing ruffling her erstwhile passenger’s tutu, and drove off. In the rear-view mirror, she saw the abandoned figure heave up his bundle of costume and start plodding along the road.
“Three, two, one.”
