"Maybe . . ." She stopped herself just before she said Maybe giving me a wonderful o.r.g.a.s.m is an act of kindness. Hera's hickeys! She'd almost blurted it out in bed, exactly as he'd been afraid she would!

"Maybe what?"

"Nothing."

His eyes narrowed. "You almost said it, didn't you?"

She couldn't lie to him, not after what they'd been through. "Yes, yes I almost did!" She sat up and put her face in her hands. "Dear Zeus, you were right. I was all relaxed and happy and I almost said something, and if I had . . ." She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes to hold back tears of frustration and despair. "We shouldn't have s.e.x anymore. I shouldn't spend any time with you at all!"

"I couldn't stand that." He sat up and started rubbing her back. "You're the person who keeps me going."

"I'm the person who put you in this state!"

"Well, there's that." He kept rubbing her back. "Don't blame yourself for almost messing up. The point is you didn't mess up. I have to figure out the secret."

"By yourself."

"Right. But you have a ton of magic books out there in the living room. a.s.suming I change back tomorrow night, then that's what I should be doing-studying those."

She had to admit it was a good idea, although she knew the answer wouldn't be in there. Still, he might get some ideas that would help him discover what he had to do. "All right. I'll make you coffee and . . . do you like brownies?"

"Love 'em."

"Then I'll bring home fresh brownies from work."

He put his arm around her and nuzzled behind her ear. "Just so you know, brownies and coffee won't even begin to subst.i.tute for s.e.x with you. But a guy has to do what a guy has to do."

"I know." She lifted her head and turned to gaze at him. "You're smart. You'll get it."

"I absolutely will get it. If I think I know and I ask you, can you confirm it?"

"Yes."

He let out a breath. "Good. That's good."

"But I don't think we can play twenty questions. You shouldn't ask until you're virtually sure. I don't know how many questions you get."

"Can you find out?"

"I'll find out."

"Okay, then." He glanced over her shoulder. "Stay here. I'm going to go look for something in the kitchen."

She didn't believe that for a minute. He'd seen the time and he didn't want to change in front of her. "It's okay, Jasper," she said softly. "You don't have to leave."

"Yeah, I do." He smiled as he climbed out of bed. "It can't be an appealing sight, and I want you to remember me as I am now. Underneath all this humility I'm kind of vain."

She felt honor-bound to play along with him and keep the mood light. "Humility? You're about as humble as The Donald."

"One of my heroes, except I'm better-looking. Feel free to check out my a.s.s when I leave the room."

She watched him go, but she had trouble seeing his most excellent a.s.s through a blur of tears. They rolled unchecked down her cheeks as she continued to stare at the door into the hallway.

As she waited she tried to comfort herself with alternate scenarios. Maybe it wouldn't happen at one thirty, after all. Maybe the spell didn't work the way they both thought it did, and he'd stay this way until morning. Maybe he'd walk back in the room with a gla.s.s of milk, a day-old doughnut from Wicked Brew, and a jaunty smile on his face.

When a sleek back cat appeared in the bedroom doorway, she broke down completely. "Oh, Jasper," she sobbed. "I don't know if I can stand this."

The cat walked quietly over to the bed and leaped up on the mattress. Making his way over to her, he crawled into her lap, put his paws on her shoulders, and began licking the tears away.

Anica was in a terrible mood the next morning, and Jasper hated that. She'd always been such an upbeat person. He especially hated the sad way she looked at him. So before she left for work he goofed around with Orion for a while, just to see if he could make her laugh.

He'd hide behind the curtains or around a corner or behind the sofa. Then he'd leap out at Orion when he strolled by. Orion's reaction was priceless. He'd squeak and jump straight into the air like a cartoon cat. Either Orion liked being startled or he wasn't very smart, because he fell for the joke every time.

It took about three times before Anica laughed, but she finally did, and Jasper was proud of himself.

"You're crazy, Jasper," she said, and leaned down to scratch behind his ears. "Thanks."

He purred, like he always did, but this time he didn't resent showing that kind of contentment. He had a feeling that when he purred, she liked it, as if she wanted rea.s.surance that he wasn't completely miserable even though he was still a cat.

She went off to work looking a little happier than she had when she'd first gotten out of bed. Now that she was gone, Jasper could concentrate on this spell that he had to figure out all by himself.

He considered pulling the books off the shelf and trying to read those, but he'd have a much easier time of it as a man than as a cat. Cruising the Internet wasn't quite as difficult as reading a heavy book, so he decided to research online.

Besides researching, he planned to spend part of the day thinking about why his time had been extended already. Anica had a.s.sured him it wasn't the foul potion he'd had to drink. So if the potion hadn't taken him from ten minutes the first night to an hour the second night and three hours the third night, what had?

He was obviously doing something that caused his time as a man to lengthen. But he had no freaking idea what that something was. What the h.e.l.l was the X factor here?

Calling up the sites where Anica and Lily had found the G.o.d-awful potion he'd forced down, he started reading about magic spells and how they could be reversed. A lot of the reversals involved the phases of the moon. Maybe the moon had something to do with it.

He checked what phase they were in now, which turned out to be a waning moon that was at the one-quarter mark. Nothing about that seemed significant. Anica hadn't put the spell on him during a full moon, so nothing pertaining to full-moon spells applied. Finally he decided that he was headed down a blind alley with moon phases.

Besides, the moon was an external thing he couldn't control. From what Anica had said, the cure would be entirely within his control if he could only pick the right suspect out of the magical lineup. d.a.m.n. He hated needle-in-a-haystack situations.

Anica's landline rang in the kitchen. She didn't use that phone much, he'd noticed, preferring her cell phone, which she carried with her. But she had an answering machine hooked up to the landline, and it clicked on.

He listened to her cheery little message and felt sad all over again. That was the woman he'd been attracted to, that optimistic person who'd built a business from scratch and seemed to know what she wanted from life. Until she'd found out about Sheila, she'd wanted him.

She wanted him again, at least in her bed, and he thought she might not be so focused on the Sheila issue anymore. Living with her, being able to see the world through her eyes, he realized she'd been right to hate that about his approach. He'd lied to her to get her interest.

His real shame was that she wasn't the only one. He'd done the same thing . . . a few times. He cringed to think how many.

Anica's caller left a message, and he recognized Julie's voice on the phone. "Hey, Anica, I didn't want to bother you at work, but I have to tell you these kittens are soooo adorable. I know having Jasper get loose was scary, but if he hadn't done that, I wouldn't have Persephone and her babies!"

From his short a.s.sociation with Julie, Jasper wasn't surprised that she'd choose a name like that. He vaguely remembered the name from one of his cla.s.ses in school.

"I'm gonna name the kittens, too," Julie continued, "but I want to let their personalities develop first. Anyway, just wanted you to know this has totally changed my life for the better!"

Jasper let that joy sink in for a while. Cool. Something good had come out of this disaster. He thought about the animal rescue site, the one he'd given so much money to. He didn't intend to give any more money, but he might just go over there and click the b.u.t.ton a few times so the pet food company had to give some more.

Once he was there and had cost the pet food company a few hundred bucks, he had the strangest urge. Giving that money yesterday had been horrifying . . . at first. Now, not so much. He wouldn't get carried away like last time, but his info was already in the system. He gave them another two hundred, being careful about the zeroes. Nice feeling. If he weren't a cat, he'd be smiling right now.

In an increasingly good mood, he continued with his research. As he was clicking back to the Google page listing sites about magic, he noticed a business card lying on the desk. He thought it might have been there before, but maybe the name registered this time because he'd been thinking about Sheila.

The card had her e-mail address on it. He probably would have remembered it regardless. In fact, he had a good memory for e-mail addresses. If he concentrated he could probably come up with an e-mail contact for the women he'd dated-and misled.

Slowly a plan developed, one that had nothing to do with reversing the spell, but everything to do with his peace of mind. Tonight, besides reading Anica's magic books, he'd write some e-mails.

Chapter 18.

Lily came by the coffee shop around two, and Anica was thrilled to see her. n.o.body besides Lily knew the h.e.l.l Anica was going through-well, some heaven mixed in with the h.e.l.l-and she was relieved to talk to someone who would understand.

Lily breezed in wearing her do-me boots, her red trench coat and a slinky black dress under it. She glanced around the coffee shop as she walked over to the counter to get in line. Anica was manning the counter because she'd given her two employees, who happened to be dating each other, a half-hour break. They'd missed getting those breaks during the days she hadn't been spending much time at the shop.

"The place looks a little ragged around the edges," Lily said when her turn came to order.

Anica sighed. "I know. I never realized how much I depended on my powers to keep the place tidy. What can I get for you? The usual?"

"You bet. I love those triple shots and they love me back."

Anica felt energy pouring into her just by being around Lily. Maybe it was because Lily still had her magic, but Anica thought it was mostly because Lily was so full of life. "Want a brownie? It's on the house."

"Sure, but can you come and sit with me? I don't see Frick and Frack around anywhere."

Anica laughed. "They're in the break room." She lowered her voice. "Probably making out. But they're due back on duty in five minutes. Take a seat. I should be freed up soon."

"Good. Interrupt them if you have to. I don't much care about their s.e.x life, but I'm dying to know how yours is coming along."

The customer behind Lily, a middle-aged secretary who arrived every afternoon about this time, widened her eyes.

Anica ducked her head to hide her blush. "Gee, Lily, could you say that a little louder, please?"

"I could, but I'd hate to embarra.s.s you in front of your customers."

Anica looked up and gave her sister a big fake smile. "Sure you would."

"I'll just go sit down right over there." Lily c.o.c.ked a hip and pointed dramatically to a table by the front window. "And wait breathlessly for a description of your latest orga-"

"Yes, I'll have that triple shot right up for you, Ms. Revere. Thanks for coming in." She turned immediately to the secretary. "Ellen! The usual? Decaf latte with skim?"

Ellen glanced over at Lily sashaying to a table. Then she turned back to Anica, her eyes sparkling behind her cat's-eye gla.s.ses. "Actually, I think I'll change my order, shake things up a bit."

"Really? What can I get you?"

"A triple shot. Just like the one you're making for her."

"Absolutely." Anica grabbed the smallest paper coffee cup, which was what Ellen usually ordered.

"The next-biggest size, please."

"You bet." She put down the first cup and picked up the medium.

"No, wait. I'll take the largest one."

"Coming up." Anica wasn't surprised. Lily had this effect on people. She gave off att.i.tude in a way that made others want to imitate her. Anica used to envy that about Lily, until she realized that underneath all that bravado her sister was confused and had no idea what she wanted out of life.

Lily returned to the counter using her runway model walk just as Ellen was paying for her coffee. "Can I have the brownie now?" Lily asked. "I need something to nibble on while I wait."

"Sure. Just let me finish this and I'll get it for you." Anica took Ellen's five-dollar bill and opened the cash register.

"No problemo. I'll wait right here." Lily twirled the end of the red belt hanging from her trench coat.

Ellen took her change from Anica and dropped some coins in the tip jar. Then she leaned forward. "Glad to hear you have a boyfriend, dear. I hope he's a sweetheart, like you."

"He's great," Lily piped up, uninvited. "In fact, he's a real p.u.s.s.ycat, isn't he, Anica?"

Anica took a brownie out of the case and congratulated herself on handing it to her sister instead of throwing it at her. "You could say that." As she turned to make the two drinks, she wondered why she'd been so happy to see Lily, who was such a total pain in the a.s.s. How could she make fun of such a serious thing?

But by the time Anica's besotted employees returned and she was free to join Lily, she realized what Lily had been doing when she'd deliberately joked about the situation with Jasper. She was daring Anica to maintain a sense of humor in the face of potential disaster. Anica needed to be reminded of that. A sense of humor would most likely save her sanity.

"Did he change again?" Lily asked the minute Anica sat down.

"Yes. For three hours this time."

"Ooh la la!"

Anica felt herself blush for the second time in ten minutes. How irritating. So what if they'd spent three hours in bed and she started to burn all over again when she thought about what she'd done to awaken her inner bad girl? Lily wouldn't let herself blush over a little thing like that.

"That good, huh?"

"Yeah."

Lily seemed to have forgotten all about her espresso as she leaned forward. "So what else?"

"We had a fight."

"My, you two were busy little bunnies, weren't you? Does he know that breaking the curse is up to him?"

"He does now."

Lily nodded and picked up her espresso. "Given three hours to work with, I would hope you'd get that settled and not spend the whole time boinking. But I'm proud of you for grabbing the opportunity when it was offered, sis." She lifted her cup in a toast.

"Thanks. Oh, and I called Dorcas to check out a technicality. She'd said I could confirm the cure if Jasper guessed it, but I didn't know if he had a limited number of tries."