"Hey," she said brightly, popping into my office. "Is this another check-in or are you back for good?"

"For good, I think. Not that it matters. It looks like everything's been fine without me."

She grinned and shut the door behind her. "Oh, we've missed you, believe me. No one's been here to referee my fights with Doug."

I laughed and watched her sit down. "Well then, I guess I got back just in time. Nice shoes."

Maddie extended her legs and admired her candy apple red pumps. "Thanks. Nordstrom's having a sale."

The brown leather Mia heels I currently wore were among my favorites, but after a week now with no shape-shifting, my wardrobe was starting to make me stir-crazy. It was kind of like my hair, I realized. I hadn't realized how dependent I was on shape-shifting to enhance my appearance. I'd lauded myself for living like a human when in truth, I'd been cheating the whole time.

Seeing my wistful look, Maddie asked, "You want to go downtown for lunch and check it out?"

I shook my head with regret. Looking at shoes sounded a lot better than looking at rocks. "Can't. I've got to meet someone."

"Ah, well, let me know when you get some time. You know I'm game." Silence fell, and Maddie shifted uncomfortably. She bit her lip, like she wanted to say something. I started to prompt her, but she spoke first. "So, what did you think of the condo listings?"

"Oh, they were…" Fuck. I'd never even read through them. Roman and Dante had spent more time looking at them than I had. Which one had Dante mentioned? "They were great. I really liked that new one-the one where you can still get in on the choices and stuff."

Her eyes lit up. "Ooh, yeah. I loved that one too. I actually looked them up on the builder's website. It doesn't look like there are many left, but there has to be at least one, or they wouldn't be listed. We should go down there and talk to them in person."

I smiled, feeling horrible about the lie. "Sure…but it may be awhile before I can get a break. We'll have to do it and the shoe trip at the same time."

Maddie nodded, face kind and sympathetic. "No problem. I understand."

More silence fell, and I realized it wasn't the condos that she wanted to talk to me about. That had been a distraction to build up her own courage.

"Maddie, what's going on?"

Her cheery look disintegrated into something much more glum. It was startling. I was so used to her always being in a good mood that the thought of something upsetting her was on par with the laws of physics breaking down.

She met my eyes and immediately looked away. "Oh God. I can't believe I'm about to bring this up."

I was seriously worried now. "You can tell me. It's okay. What's up?"

She sighed. "It's Seth."

Oh, fuck.

CHAPTER 22

"What about Seth?" I asked stiffly. I waited then for the shouts, for the accusations. Any of them would have been understandable. What I didn't expect were tears building up in her eyes.

"I think…I think something's wrong. I think he's trying to let me down easy or something."

"Why would you think that?" I channeled Grace and Mei, keeping my face as still and expressionless as theirs.

"He's just…I don't know. He's been so distracted lately."

"Seth's always distracted. You know how he is with his books."

"Yeah, I know. And it drives me crazy sometimes." I remembered her disappointment at Casey's party. "But this is something different, I can feel it. Only, I don't know what it is. He's not around much, and when he is, it's like he's with me but not with me. He always says nothing's wrong, but it doesn't feel right. And we haven't…"

"Haven't what?" I asked, guessing the answer.

A deep pink blush blossomed on her cheeks. "We haven't been having sex. Each time I even kind of suggest it, he's just not…well, he doesn't really seem into it."

Talking about their sex life was one of the most painful conversation topics I could imagine, short of her realizing I was to blame for its problems. So, I kept up with my pokerfaced therapist mode.

"How long has it been going on?"

"About a week."

Yup, that made sense. That was right around the time my stasis had begun. Here I'd been expecting Maddie to come after me, to pick up on one of the covert looks Seth and I had shared. But she hadn't. It had never even crossed her mind to suspect me of anything duplicitous. In fact, she'd come to me for help because I was one of the few people she trusted with something like this.

And that made it all the worse when I had to lie to her. In any other situation, I would have advised a friend to take control of her relationship, to corner her man and not be used. And maybe…maybe I should have. If I advised her to break up with Seth, that would clear the way for us. Did I want that again? I didn't know. I still wasn't thinking past the day I would turn into a succubus again. I was living irresponsibly, focusing on the now, and continued that here with Maddie.

My next words were spoken so winningly, so convincingly that there was no way she could ever think I didn't have her best interests at heart. I might have been relying on my succubus abilities to smooth my hair all this time, but charming and persuading people was a core part of my personality. She never stood a chance.

"A week?" I gave her a gentle smile. "That's not very long. You can't really base a major crisis on that yet-especially when you consider who you're dealing with. I mean, like you said, you've seen him get so busy with work that he cancels or even forgets things, right?"

"Yeah," she said, sniffling in a continued attempt to keep back her tears. "It's just never been like this. I don't know. I've never had a serious relationship. I don't know how it's supposed to work."

"You guys have only been going out for, like, four months. It takes longer than that to really get to know someone's patterns." With a pang, I realized she and Seth had dated longer than he and I had. "This may be one you've got to get used to. He's probably stressed, and sex is the last thing on his mind-as hard as that is to believe. Give him some time. If it keeps happening, then it might be time to worry. But it's too soon now."

I could tell by her face that my words had given her hope. "Yeah…you're probably right. But…do you think…do you think I'm doing something wrong? Should I do something different? Act differently? Dress sexier?"

Oh God. I so did not want to be advising Maddie on how to seduce Seth. "Well…I wouldn't worry about any of that quite yet. Overthinking it'll just stress you out more. Just wait a little bit. If something's on his mind, it may take him some time to work through it."

She'd defeated her tears and now adopted a resolute look. "Sometimes I don't know if I'm fooling myself, like that I'm just caught up in my first big romance. But, seriously, some days, I feel like I've found the one. Like if he wanted to run off right now, I'd do it." The love on her face was like a bullet through my heart. "If something's wrong, I want to help him through it."

"I know, I know, but you still don't know what 'it' is. If it's a writing thing, he's got to work it out. If it's something else…well, I'm sure he'll come talk about it when he's ready."

Her dark eyes were contemplative, looking at me without seeing me while she processed all of this. "You're probably right," she said at last. She gave me a small, rueful smile and shook her head. "God, I feel kind of stupid. Look at me. Some kind of champion for strong women, huh? Did I mess up my makeup? And oh God, did I really just ask that?"

"No, it's fine. And you're not stupid. Your feelings are normal." I stood up, needing to get out of here. The room was making me claustrophobic. I had to get away from her, away from her trust. "I'm going to go do a sweep. They should be opening any minute."