Once Upon a Hero: Be-Wished, #4

By Kate Willoughby

Ex-wish fairy Davina Traherne has until midnight to choose a groom at the birthday ball or her draconian grandmother Agatha will pick one for her. Panicking at the prospect of marrying a fussy, well-bred bore with no sense of adventure, she flees.

Laszlo can't believe it when Davina asks him to help her go off-grid. He's always had the hots for her but kept his feelings to himself. Eventually, close proximity and Davina's playful teasing get to be too much, especially when he finds out his lust is reciprocated.

But when Agatha zeroes in on their whereabouts, his resolve to keep his emotional distance dissolves and he discovers he'll do anything to protect Davina. Even marry her.

The Be-Wished Series 
Once Upon a Fling - Mariah and Tucker
Once Upon a Wolf - Paige and Adam
Once Upon a SEAL - Livvy and Jack
Once Upon a Hero - Davina and Laszlo

This novella was previously published in 2011 with Ellora's Cave under the title Just Winging It.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kiwi Press
• Release date: May 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781533745934

Book preview

1

Since you are no longer gainfully employed, Davina, I would like you to give me some great-grandchildren.

Davina wondered if her grandmother, Agatha, expected said great-grandchildren to be brought forth this minute. If so, she was out of luck. While fairies could do miraculous things with their magic, creating life wasn’t one of them. They had to go about it the natural way, just like humans. However, best to say yes to Agatha whenever possible, even if under the yes lurked a no.

Grandmama, I’m willing to give you great-grandchildren, but hey, news flash, I need a husband to do that.

Which is the reason for tonight’s festivities. Agatha gave her a subdued, imperious smile. She was dressed as Queen Elizabeth, as always. Her gown was a rich rust color with a shimmering underskirt of deep maroon and she’d swept her hair up into a gravity-defying coiffure dripping with diamonds. Milling about Agatha’s feet were her dogs, a dozen black-faced pugs, pigeon-toed and proud, all except Mat, the one who always sat apart. Davina didn’t like the name Mat because she knew it was short for doormat. Privately, she called him Elvis because Elvis was the King.

Davina frowned, hurt and confused. This isn’t a birthday ball? she asked.

Of course it’s a birthday ball, but I intend to be a great-grandmother before the year is out, so I see no reason why we shouldn’t kill two birds with one stone. She gestured to the clock on the mantle. It’s almost eight o’clock, so by midnight I expect you to have chosen three likely candidates from the guests downstairs. At that time I will speak to them one by one. You may be present if you like. Once we’ve settled on a groom, we’ll discuss your dowry—

Dowry? Davina asked, aghast. Dowries were relics of the past. Most fairies had come to realize that marriage should be based on the people, not the property. But her grandmother was nothing if not traditional. She clung to outdated precepts that even her own contemporaries had since rejected. Agatha still patrolled what she considered her fairy circles, tended her hawthorns to make sure no one had pruned them, and routinely tangled humans’ hair while they slept.

No one expects a dowry these days, Davina protested.

It is not a matter of expectation, but of necessity. You are a disappointment and a disgrace, Davina. You were fired from the Universal Wish Federation. Fired! Remind me again of your offenses. Agatha waved her hand imperiously.

Davina winced, aware her posture had deteriorated to a slouch, but not really caring. Elvis had slunk over to her and sat at her feet, leaning against her leg. Today in honor of the occasion no doubt, Agatha had made him look like a birthday cake.

Possession and use of illicit magic, conduct unbecoming, unauthorized temporal cessation, and two counts of endangering a human in the second degree.

Exactly. The truth is, ever since I took you in, you’ve been a handful and you always will be. Whoever marries you deserves some sort of compensation for having to deal with all your shenanigans.

Davina said nothing. She was busy trying to convince herself she didn’t hear the jangling of prison cell keys. Her future had already been written, and it didn’t include a fun birthday party full of male attention, games, chocolate, and a rollicking human prank-a-thon. Instead, all she had to look forward to was a forced marriage to someone who cared more about the magic and status he was going to receive than her. She wouldn’t have been surprised if Agatha intended to include immediate consummation as a condition of the marriage, and what an enjoyable event that was sure to be. She expected her grandmother to do everything in her power short of locking them in a bedroom to get her precious progeny.

Besides, judging from the relationships you’ve had recently, if I left the choice of groom up to you, you’d choose some good-for-nothing moocher whose only talent is using up magic as quickly as possible, Agatha said. Can’t have a no-account fathering my great-grandchildren. Now I’ve gone to a great deal of trouble to arrange this ball, all on your behalf, and your guests are waiting. So come along.

Agatha shook out her skirts, the diamonds in her hair sparkling like cold, distant stars. The pugs turned their heads to her, alert, all but Elvis, who whined. With a dismissive gesture, she swished toward the bedroom door, speaking over her shoulder. Finish getting ready and then come downstairs. She paused, her hand on the doorknob, her back still to Davina. Now, how many candidates do you have to choose?

Three.

And how long do you have to accomplish that?

’Til midnight.

Which, if you ask me, is more than enough time, considering that I did much of the preliminary culling before I made up the invitation list. With luck you’ll be married by daybreak.

The matter settled, she swept out of the room, her dogs trotting to keep up. One of them gave Davina a sharp bark as he left, punctuation to what his mistress had said. When they were gone, Davina did nothing for a moment. She felt like a child who had been told on Christmas morning that out of all the lovely presents under the tree she’d have to choose only one and would be expected to play with only that one forever and ever, even if it was something awful, like a jigsaw puzzle or socks.

Feeling an overwhelming urge to rebel in some way, Davina considered changing out of her party clothes and into something tacky and unappealing, like a tent dress or rainbow overalls. But she knew Agatha would never allow that. Quick as a wink her grandmother would wave a wand and encase Davina in a gown worthy of royalty.

A wet sensation on her bare calf startled her. It was Elvis giving her a doggie kiss. The sight of his little curled tail wagging, his little pug face turned up at her imploringly, broke her out of her trance. Crumpling to the floor and gathering him to her chest, she gave in to tears.

Oh, Elvis! she wailed. I can’t do it. I can’t just go down there and pick out a husband like I pick out a pair of shoes.

The little dog wagged his tail faster, as if that would help. He bounced off her lap and danced around with tiny mincing steps, looking so adorable that Davina had to laugh, even as tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

What am I going to do, sweetie?

Part of her hoped that the dog would mime a solution like they did on TV shows, but all Elvis did was roll over on his back.

If she couldn’t go downstairs, where could she go? Staying in her room was out of the question. At this moment, Agatha was probably wondering where she was and preparing to transport her right into the middle of a man herd, perhaps already in a wedding gown to save time.

Coming down with a serious case of the heebie-jeebies, Davina decided she would run away. And she’d take Elvis with her.

Hastily, she slapped together an enchantment that was mostly transport, but with a splash of protection and a hefty dose of stealth, and activated it with no particular destination in mind. When she ended up on Laszlo Urbanek’s porch, she thought she’d botched it, but then realized that maybe she hadn’t. Sure, they had a tendency to get on each other’s nerves, but he could be extremely levelheaded, a trait she admitted she sometimes lacked in times of stress. Not only that, but as a cross-agency arbitrator, he made his living defending the rights of his clients and although he usually maintained a snide, laconic attitude, she’d seen him angry on the behalf of a friend. She shivered as she recalled his cold fury. If it came down to facing down her grandmother, she had no doubt Laszlo could do it. The question was…would he?

2

After a long day negotiating a barter gone wrong between an elf and a mermaid, Laszlo settled down to a Hawaiian pizza and root beer in a frosty glass. Resting on the arm of the couch was his beloved TV remote. He was looking forward to a few hours of aimless channel surfing, pizza scarfing and root beer guzzling when a knock on his door interrupted him. He frowned. He wasn’t expecting anyone.

Laszlo, it’s Davina!

Davina? What the…?

He clicked the TV off and opened the door.

Wow. His jaw dropped open in shock. He’d never seen her in dressy clothes before. Most of their interactions had been work related and she’d always worn businesslike attire. Only once had he seen her wearing something informal. They’d been working after hours, solving a serious crisis, and she’d had on jeans and a tight little James Bond t-shirt. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he’d spent that night in a state of heightened arousal because it had been chilly and her erect nipples kept drawing his attention. After that, he’d had a hard time keeping her from slinking into his thoughts wearing other sexy vixen/innocent clothes. His vivid imagination enjoyed teasing him with x-rated fantasies at inopportune times—Davina wearing a button-down blouse that had been drenched with water and therefore rendered almost transparent… Davina undressing behind a sheer backlit curtain, completely unaware he was watching her… Davina in bed asleep, covered with a sheet, perhaps naked, perhaps wearing sexy lingerie that he would enjoy peeling off her.

Ever since then, he hadn’t been able to return to his former business-only state of mind. It was as if seeing her in casual clothes somehow meant he had crossed a line of intimacy that could not be un-crossed. He was terrified at what was going to happen now that he’d seen her in this lavender beaded number with the translucent panel in the front that pretended to add modesty to the plunging neckline, but only made her look more delectable. His eyes were drawn to her breasts and that long ago image of her erect nipples sent a wake-up call to his cock. Now what was his asshole of an imagination going to do? Cast her in unsolicited porn flicks to be screened nightly inside his head?

He gawked at her with a piece of pizza drooping in his hand as she walked past him, her pert little ass beckoning him to follow. She had an underlying grace to her movements, which he wondered if others noticed. He doubted it. She seemed to gravitate to the type of guy that didn’t appreciate subtlety like that. Her tastes ran toward flashy fairies, who liked to wield magic on a grand scale, always going for orchestral fireworks when a single lit candle would have sufficed.

Not that he was monitoring her love life.

Much.

Laszlo, I’m so sorry to barge in on you, but I’m in desperate need of help. Get my bag, will you?

Extremely confused, he shook himself out of his stupor and dragged in her suitcase, an enormous one that had to weigh a hundred pounds. A little pug dog in a cake costume trailed in. On second glance, Laszlo could see it wasn’t a costume. The animal’s fur had been cleverly dyed to make it appear as if he were