"Georgina—" she wailed, lower lip trembling.

"No, no," I interrupted. I grabbed her arm and dragged her toward my office. "Not here."

I managed to close the door just before she burst into tears. I groaned.

"Now what's happened?"

"I met a guy last night." She flounced into my chair, and it was a wonder her breasts didn't hit her in the face.

I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms over my own chest in a sort of protective gesture. "Okay…that's not a bad thing."

She swallowed a sob, and it was all I could do not to clean up the mascara smudges on her face. Honestly, how much did that woman wear? "We had a great time…had drinks and talked and all that."

"That's not a bad thing either."

She shook her head. "But at the end of the night, he told me he just wanted to be friends."

"He—wait. You got the friends line from someone you just met?"

Tawny nodded.

"What did you say to him? Like…did you proposition him?"

"Yeah…I asked him if he wanted to meet me in the bathroom and try out this edible mint chocolate warming gel I have."

"You—what?"

Tawny reached into her purse and started to pull out a tube of something. I waved her off.

"No, no. I don't need to see it."

"What went wrong?" she cried.

"Well…" I wasn't sure if I should laugh or weep. Tawny was never going to pull this off. Never. "You might have come on too strong. And honestly…that gel thing? That's just weird."

"I thought guys were into that kind of thing."

"Some are…but, I don't know. What kind of guy is he? What's he do for a living?"

"He's a cashier."

"Hmm. Okay. That's not too bad."

"Over at Blessed Images."

"Over at—you propositioned a guy who works at a religious supply store?" I exclaimed.

"I wanted a good one," she told me. "There's no better place."

"Oh my God. Tawny…" I didn't even know where to start. There were so many nuances to seduction, so many tactics and strategies. She didn't know any of them, and seriously, I didn't even know if she could learn. "I got you the strip club job…why are you trolling religious supply stores? Guys should just be coming up to you after your sets." Something troubling occurred to me. "You do still have the job, don't you?" I believed Simon would stick to his word, but one never knew for sure with his type.

"Yeah…" she mumbled. "But those guys aren't—"

"For the last time! Forget the good ones. You can't afford to be choosy." I studied her. She was clearly low on energy again. Frowning, I recalled my date with Liam. "So…Tawny…things really didn't work out with Nick the auctioneer?"

She took a tissue from the box on my desk and blew her nose loudly. "Nope. I told you. I called, and he said he wasn't interested."

I was good at reading people, very good. It was, well, what made me a star succubus. And looking into those teary blue eyes, I searched for some sign of deceit. Any sign. I found nothing. So who was lying? Tawny or Liam? And why would either one of them lie? Liam had no reason to—not about Tawny. Tawny, I supposed, could be in league with Niphon. Maybe he wanted to prolong things simply to annoy me. That was a dangerous game for both of them. His animosity couldn't be strong enough to risk pissing off Jerome. And I knew Jerome would be pissed off if he found out Tawny's orientation was being used for ulterior motives.

There was also the fact that Tawny's energy had shown no post-sex glamour the day after Liam saw her and Nick together. She hadn't gotten any. That was my only hard evidence in all of this.

All of these thoughts flitted through my mind in a heartbeat. If Tawny really was pulling a poker face on me, she'd soon learn that she wasn't the only one who could do it. Keeping my expression exasperated and unsuspecting, I said, "Tawny…I…I just don't get this. Any of this."

"That's it?" she asked. "You're my mentor, and that's all you've got for me?"

"I got you the job! I don't know what else to do. Maybe we can go out together and…God help me…do a three-some or something." I could imagine few things more horrible than that, but these were desperate times. The expression on Tawny's face showed similar sentiments.

"I don't know about that," she said. "I don't think I really do that."

I rolled my eyes. "In another century or so, you'll find you do everything."

She blew her nose again. "Well…I want to keep trying on my own before anything like that. Until then…do you think…do you think you could…"

"Could what?"

"You know."

"No, I really don't." From her, a request could be anything.

Tawny gulped. "The kissing thing again."

"No! I told you that was a one-time deal."

"But…but…I'm so low…"

She burst into tears again. And yeah, she was low on energy. Really low. By tomorrow morning, she could be in danger of losing her shape again. Fuck. This wasn't possible. I had to be getting played here, but why and how? Was all this hassle worth it to Niphon, just to keep irritating me? Fuck.

"This is the last time," I growled.

She stopped mid-sob. "Really?"

I sighed. "Come here."

With a sense of dread, I kissed her again. My discomfort had less to do with the act of kissing her than it did with me realizing I'd just pushed myself into dangerous energy limits. I was the one who'd need a fix before morning now. And if I got an energy fix, it was likely my dream stalker would return….

With the influx of life, Tawny was able to shape-shift away her disheveled appearance. "Thanks, Georgina! You're the best!" She started to hug me, and I jerked away.

"Just go out and get laid, okay?"

Doug stuck his head in just then, asking for my help. He didn't seem to have heard my charge to battle, thankfully. His eyes widened when he saw Tawny. I shooed her out, warning her not to forget what we'd talked about.

"Is she single?" he asked, watching her walk away. Her pleather pants were riding up.

"Yeah," I said. "Very. But she's high maintenance."

After I finished my survey of the bookstore, I went off to take care of assorted errands. When I finally made it to Seth's place, I found him lying lengthwise on his couch, laptop open as usual. He sat up and closed it when I stepped inside.

"Hey, Thetis," he said.

"Hey," I said.

I sat down beside him, and silence fell as we regarded each other. The air between us wasn't angry, but it wasn't bursting with love either. It was speculative. We were sizing each other up. He reached into the V-neck collar of my sweater, and I flinched. Then, I felt his fingers brush by the chain I'd been wearing his ring on. He pulled the ring out and ran his fingertips over the dolphin.

"Around your neck, huh? What is this, high school?"

"Might as well be," I said, "seeing as how we haven't even made it to second base yet."

He smiled and released the ring, moving his fingers up to my cheek. "Yes, we have." He sighed. "We sure do seem to be fighting a lot lately, huh?"

"Yeah." I settled back into the couch's softness. "It's not even about sex anymore."

"I noticed that. It's boring stuff, actually."

"Boring?"

He shrugged. "You know. Typical relationship stuff. Spending time with each other. Trust. Communication. Love isn't always about grand forces of the universe keeping us apart."

Unless, I thought, you considered the difference in length between a mortal life and an immortal one. I didn't know why Seth's lifespan was bothering me lately. I'd understood the complications on an intellectual level when we'd first started dating, but I hadn't really had such visceral reactions until recently. Him getting shot hadn't helped, I supposed. And speaking of which…

"I never thanked you," I told him.

"For what?"

"For risking your life for mine."

"But you can't di—"