Playing with Fire: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count)(23)

When I materialized in front of him, Chief Quinn yelped. “He didn’t tell me you could do that!”

I bobbed my head and whinnied, careful to avoid stabbing or slicing anything with my horn. Why did a unicorn’s tongue make speaking English such a challenge? “Nice house. Tay-stee roses.”

In his preparations to invite me into his home, I suspected Chief Quinn had rearranged his furniture to make room for me. The entry opened to a sitting room with a pair of couches, an armchair, and a coffee table pushed out of the way. In front of a fireplace was a large, black furry rug. Flames crackled in the hearth, and I pricked my ears forward. “Fire!”

“All yours, Bailey. Have fun, just please don’t burn my house down, no matter how much I might deserve it.”

I angled my head so I could watch him with an eye. “Not your fall-tuh—fault—McGee use a bomb with dust. Nay-palm need-ed, Chee-fuh.” I struggled to force out his last name but mangled it.

“Just call me Sam. If you try to say my full name in front of the other cops, they might die of laughter. I wasn’t kidding about you being stuck with me, either. You’ll be coming to work with me. Professor Yale was very clear about that: you won’t be left unattended. If you get sick for any reason, we’re hauling you back to the hospital.”

Chief Quinn wanted me to call him Sam? I cocked an ear back, not sure what I thought about that. When I was honest with myself, I liked the way his last name rolled off my tongue. Come hell or high water, I’d get his name right. Maybe I’d drop the chief, but I’d reserve Sam for something truly important. “I like Quinn.”

His name came out closer to queen than Quinn, but it’d do until I found some private time to practice. The last thing I needed was someone catching me while muttering his name. They’d believe I had lowered myself to stalking the police chief.

“I see. Is there anything I can get for you?”

I shook my head.

“Okay. Just shout if there is. I’ll be in my office down the hall if you need me.” He flicked me a salute and walked away, and I admired the view.

Then I remembered manners were a good thing. “Thank you, Quinn.” There. Not Chief Quinn, just Quinn. That was the closest to intimacy I dared to get with a man far too sexy for his own good—or for mine.





Chapter Six





My first order of business involved stuffing my head into the fireplace so I could bask in the flames crackling around my nose and washing over my brow. It took a bit of work to jam my horn up the chimney without damaging anything, but after a few minutes, I was positioned to relax and enjoy the heat. My neck was just long enough I could lie down on the rug without having to rest much of my weight on the hearth’s stones.

“When Yale said you liked fire, I didn’t think you’d be sticking your head up my chimney. How in the hell did you even fit in there?” From somewhere behind me, Quinn laughed. “That’s incredible. When he warned me unicorns were high maintenance, this wasn’t what I had in mind.”

Could I fit my entire body up the flue? Making an escape through the chimney was beginning to seem like a viable option. In an effort to restore some of my dignity, I replied, “Your fire is nice. I like it.”

I never needed to come out of the fireplace, right? At least not until I reversed back to human.

Naked, in Chief Samuel Quinn’s house, on a rug, sprawled in front of his fireplace. Naked. The naked part was really important. Unless the magic gave me some warning, which it usually didn’t, I’d end up giving him quite the show. With my abysmal luck, not only would he get an eyeful, it would happen in the most embarrassing place possible, like on a busy street in downtown Manhattan. No matter what, I was screwed.

Or not.

Damn.

“So, there’s a small problem. The station just called, and they need me to come in. There’s a situation. While I’d love to leave you to your enjoyment of my fireplace, you need to come with me.”

But I had just gotten comfortable. The fire was perfect, roaring around my head and keeping me so nice and warm. I had found a slice of heaven, and I had to move already? “No,” I wailed. “My fire. Mine!”

“I’m really sorry. I’ll have to douse it.”

Quinn wanted to douse my fire? Fury at the thought of so much wasted wood and flame burst through me, but I squished it back so I wouldn’t do something stupid like yell at him. How dare he want to douse my fire? I’d show him the error of his ways. I snorted, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney, and reined in my temper. “Why sor-ree? Not your fault.”

Those words cost me, especially since he wanted to take my fire away from me. Still, he was a cop, and he had to go in when called. It really wasn’t his fault. “Must work.”

I understood work. I had to do too much of it to barely get by.

Quinn sighed. “And then there’s the other small problem. I have no idea how I’m getting you to the station. They’re supposed to send a truck for scheduled shifts, but I can’t wait that long.”

“Wait. Mo-ment.” I rolled my body so I could get my hooves under me, restrained the instinct to hook my claws into his floor for better balance, and wiggled my head and horn free of the comforting confines of the fireplace. To keep from setting his home on fire extracting myself from the flames, I devoured every last scrap of wood in the hearth, crushing the charred bits between my teeth and ripping the fire-hardened chunks apart with the help of a hoof. I choked and coughed several times in my hurry to swallow. Within minutes, I reduced the fire to nothing more than a few piles of ash and embers.