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hell should I know? She’s not my goddess. Ask her the next time she pops in.”
    “Nah.” Dasha snatched up her pad and stood. “I’m going back to San Francisco. I wanted to come home really badly, but this is crazy. I much prefer predictable crazy over supernatural crazy.”
    Simone jogged around her and blocked the door, putting up her hands. “No. Stay . You’re here now, so why not go ahead and rip the Band-Aid off, huh? Try to get used to the chaos a little?”
    “You mean try to get used to Ethan , as I suspect he has something to do with this. I know that inevitably, you’ll get around to bringing him up, so I’ll go ahead and do it for you to spare you the breath.”
    “I’m not rushing you into that. Ideally, we’d try to get you two into the same room at once to clear the air, but I wouldn’t just abandon you to him. You know that, right?”
    “What?” Dasha crinkled her nose.
    “You’ve got to talk to him. Your partnership is inevitable, and to be perfectly honest, with the realm’s imminent collapse, I’ve got too much shit on my plate to be playing matchmaker for you two. Let’s just get the introduction over with.”
    “You’re not making that sound palatable in the slightest bit.”
    Simone threw up her hands. “Sorry. I’m fresh out of charm for the day and maybe my brain’s a wee bit toasted from all the goddess energy ping ponging around. Can you cut me a little bit of slack?”
    “You’re asking me to do something that’s far out of my comfort zone.”
    “He’s your mate.”
    “And you’ve been trying to keep us apart since December, so what does that mean?”
    “It means I care about you and I love you and I wanted to ease you into this, but Lord have mercy, Dash, I’m at my wit’s end here. He’s hardly a fate worse than death. Please just talk to him so we can file the edge off at least one sharp pokey thing around here.”
    Dasha drummed her fingertips against her thighs and tried to steady her breathing. She felt trapped. Set up, even. Betrayed a little. But her hostility ebbed upon realizing that Simone wasn’t in a great emotional place, either. She looked so damned tired, and though she balanced all the insanity in her life so well, she took on far too much for just one woman to bear. Even if that woman was a fairy.
    Dasha managed to pull in a deep breath then let it out, fisting her hands and relaxing them.
    “If I agree to talk to him,” she started, “can you make him promise to stay away from me…until I say otherwise?”
    Simone closed her eyes and rubbed them with the heels of her palms. “Dash, we’re talking about natural impulses, and his are to be near you. Asking him that…well, I’d feel cruel, lady.”
    “I—”
    “Hey.” Simone dropped her hands. “I’ll do what I can. No promises. Maybe we can find some happy medium for the time being. Let me see what I can arrange.”
    “I’m trusting that you know what you’re doing, Simone.”
    Simone turned her hands over and sighed. “If I don’t, hopefully Heath does. This fairy princess thing doesn’t exactly come with an instruction booklet.”
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    “Okay, pay attention, big guy.”
    A day after Dasha’s arrival at The Hearth, Princess Simone smoothed down the collar of Ethan’s wrinkled shirt to no avail and growled.
    He couldn’t help the shirt’s condition. He didn’t own many items of clothing that were suitable for a date, if that was what he could call sitting halfway across a room from his mate. His wardrobe was fifty-five percent T-shirts, thirty percent denim, ten percent leather, and the rest was socks and briefs. He couldn’t remember having bought the faded checkered shirt, but he must have. The garment fit him, and had been on the closet floor in the suite he shared with Sully. Sully rarely wore shirts unless the weather demanded that he do so. He said they chafed his nipples.
    The princess put her hands on her hips and took a step back from him.