She made him breakfast the next morning.

“Y’know, you’re dating a Genie,” Ryder said to her with a sketchy look at the eggs she served him. “I could have Italian pastries here within minutes. Or I could take you there.” A smoldering look passed from him to her. “You loved Rome, remember?”

“Eat the eggs.” She sat opposite him, head balanced on her hands.

“Aren’t you having any?”

“I’m not hungry.”

He eyed the plate before turning his attention to her. “I must not have done my job properly if you didn’t work up an appetite.” He reached for her, but Hailey batted him off.

It was hard to keep the giggles from rising in her throat as she mock sternly pointed at the breakfast. “I made it specially for you.”

Poor guy, she thought as he sat again with the air of a prisoner facing a last meal. Her cooking really did stink.

Resolutely, Ryder forked up some eggs and shoveled them in his mouth. He looked as if he’d swallowed rat droppings. “Yum,” he said with a queer smile.

Hailey couldn’t stand it any longer. Laughter spilled out of her as he swallowed the mouthful. “I can’t believe you ate that.”

He evil-eyed her. “Excuse me?”

“I wanted to see how far you were going to take this boyfriend thing. Turns out, pretty far.” Hailey fluttered her lashes and squealed as Ryder jumped up and grabbed her. Her belly hurt from laughing as he turned her over his shoulder and carried her back to the bedroom.

“That’s it,” he declared, dropping her on the bed and pinning her with his delectable body. He went eye-to-eye with her. “I think we need a little more demonstration about who’s in charge around here.”

An hour later, it was a tie.

* * *

Breakfast segued into brunch. Ryder, not listening to Hailey, had flashed to a bakery he knew in Rome that did the best pastries. While he was away, she slid one of his tees on and wandered around the inner sanctum.

It was a welcoming space for all its lack of color. All it needed was a few cushions, splashes of warmth here and there, more photos and knickknacks. Books. She hadn’t seen one, though the stack of car magazines she recognized as being those Ryder was always reading.

She’d decided it was time to ask him the favor. Now that the lines were no longer blurred between them, everything neatly labeled and in its place, she had no more excuses. To keep everything she’d worked for, she had to ask. Even if it made a headache pound on her temples to escape.

She paused in the midst of pants hunting in his bedroom as a frame on the bedside table caught her eye. She debated about privacy and figured she’d already had a look around the place. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d gone through his drawers.

Well. Not those drawers.

She leapt onto the important photo he kept by him with eager curiosity. What she saw arrested her. A smaller photo was tucked in the frame, old-fashioned compared to the tech of today.

A family stood in front of a white house, the mom and dad with their arms around the kids. Hailey recognized Ryder’s dad instantly. From the dark hair to the height to the cocky grin, he was the model for what came after. Except for the warm brown eyes Hailey spotted gazing from his red-haired mom.

Hailey smiled faintly at the impatience in the young twins’ faces at having to pose and placed the photo aside with careful fingers. Behind it was a photo of Ryder and Leo as young adults with an older man she presumed was their adoptive dad. They were all in baseball jerseys, popcorn and beer nestled on their laps, and they were all waving their arms and beaming. Presumably their team had won.

It must have been before they’d been made Genies, not only because of their age, but because Ryder and Leo’s eyes were pure brown. There was such light in the picture, happiness caught in that second. Whoever had taken the photo was as much in the unit as the three men, all of them staring with adoration at—her, Hailey realized. It must have been the mom who had taken it.

Her heart trembled with feeling as she placed the frame back on the bedside table. He’d gone through so much and he’d still made so much of himself.

And she was about to exploit his connections for her job.

Well, didn’t that make her feel like the biggest shit ever?

She was brewing coffee—a skill she felt very capable in—when Ryder flashed back in, accompanied by the most divine scent this side of . . . well, Ryder.

“I bring fat and sugar,” Ryder announced. “And still warm.” He dropped the bakery bag on the counter and retrieved plates. “You want two?”

Hailey backed up. “Uh-uh. None.”

Ryder’s eyebrows lifted in question.

Hailey made a cross with her hands as if that would ward off the luscious butter-sugar-chocolate combination her stomach was wailing for. “None.”

“Hales.” Ryder shook his head in a slow, side-to-side shake. He unrolled the white bag with the grease mark at the bottom and lifted out a perfectly golden, flaky coil of pastry. White icing drizzled over the swirls. “I ate your breakfast.”

“You ate one bite,” she corrected, still backed up against his counter.

His grin was designed to tempt. “So,” he said, strolling forward with that long, lazy gait. “One bite.”

He was so close she had to tip her head back to meet his glittering gaze. “I shouldn’t,” she said, weakening as the smell hit with the force of a waterfall.

“It’s one bite.” His croon purred into her ears as he lifted the treat to her mouth.

A flake of pastry melted onto her lips. “Aw, damn it,” she whispered and took her bite.

She moaned at the warmth, the sweet stickiness. The heavy feeling in her stomach as she swallowed. The thrill of being naughty.

Mental note: one bite is never enough when a Genie’s around.

Her eyes opened—no idea when they’d closed. Ryder’s eyes were sparkling with burning amber.

“That was so hot,” he said.

She parted her lips for another taste.

“No, I think I’ll have this one.”

Her teeth snapped.

He grinned and gave up the bun.

It wasn’t until she was licking icing off her lips that the guilt hit.

“You suck,” she grumbled from her seat at the table where she’d moved to devour the bun. “I shouldn’t have eaten that.”

“Shouldn’t?” Ryder cocked an eyebrow. “I thought you were a daredevil now? Skydiver, horse rider, Genie tamer. One pastry isn’t anything.”

“Like you’re tame.”

He winked. “I come when you command.”

“Oh, look. Wave good-bye to romance, everyone.”

“Hey, that was heartfelt.” He placed his hands with pure innocence on his chest. “Not my fault your mind’s in the gutter.”

She considered. “All right. Points added back on. I’ll have to see how you do in the swimsuit competition before I give you your final score.”

He grinned. He finished off his pastry with a warning look as her eyes dipped to it. “So, what do you have on today? Saturday, so a wedding, right?”

She grimaced and licked a flake of pastry off her finger. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. I promised—”

“Hales, of course you have to go. It’s your job.” He made a duh gesture. “I was going to say, can I help? Or is it one of those female men-have-no-eye-for-table-settings things?”

She could only sit there, staring.

Of course you have to go. It’s your job.

No disappointment, no passive aggressiveness that poked potholes of guilt in Hailey’s gut.

She barely knew what to do with such honest acceptance from a boyfriend, even one as low maintenance as Ryder.

“Erica wants me to ask you to ask Jax for a meeting,” she blurted out, incapable of holding back the secret any longer.

He blinked, coffee mug halfway to his mouth. “Erica wants to—what?”

“I know.” Hailey shoved up from the seat and gripped the counter. “I’m a shit for even saying it aloud. How can I ask you to exploit a friendship for me?”

“I don’t know. How can you?”

“She said I might not get my promotion if I can’t get the meeting,” Hailey explained, fisting her hair and yanking. The pastry threatened to make a comeback as her stomach rolled. “My promotion to full-fledged wedding planner, Ryder. As in the thing I’ve been working on for years. I’ve sacrificed so much for it, and here it is within reach and I have to do something I despise to get it.”

“You should stand up to her. Demand to be promoted on your own merits. Or, better yet, open your own company.”

“You sound like my dad.”

“Lieutenant Commander Wood.” He considered. “Cool.”

“Ryder.” She stared at him, tapped the counter with the flat of her hand. “Focus on this awful thing I’ve got to do.”

“You have to do?”

“Weren’t you listening? Promotion on the line, Duchess giving me warnings. And here you are being so sweet and understanding and . . . I’m a bitch for even thinking of asking you, to make you the go-between. I’m a traitor. I’m . . .” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I’m the worst girlfriend ever.”

She didn’t hear his footsteps so it made her leap like she’d been electrocuted when his hands came down on her tense shoulders.

He rubbed them. “Open your eyes.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“I’m glad we’re being mature.” His voice was rich with intimate amusement. “Hales, open your eyes.”

Hesitantly she peeked up.

His eyes were warm amber-ridden brown. “Your boss is a bitch,” he said.

She nodded.

“You’re talented enough to have your own place, but you want to work for her.”

Again, she nodded.

“And you’ll lose your shot at a promotion if you don’t put me in the middle—your words?”

This nod was a barest dip of her chin.

He ducked a little to keep her gaze, one finger lifting her chin. “Do you want me to ask Jax for a meeting?”

Hailey stared into those eyes, eyes that saw her, challenged her, understood her in a way no man before had. Everything she wanted was in them. Including her answer.

She shook her head.

Ryder grazed her lips with his. “What about your promotion?”

Hailey inhaled one long breath. The butterflies had evolved into bats when she thought about tackling Erica. “Maybe you and Dad are right. Maybe it’s time I find my nerve and stand up to her.”

“If it’d make you feel better, I could always glamour her a sagging jawline for a day.”

Hailey clapped her hands together. “My hero.”

* * *

Ryder froze into his smile as he and Leo posed in front of the new public school in Brooklyn that WFY-donated funds had built.

The three schoolchildren who’d been chosen for a myriad of reasons involving race, sex, age, and looks all grinned in front of them.

The press gathered to witness the opening all called out questions, notebooks ready, flashbulbs popping to capture the moment.

“You would not believe,” Leo said through his smile, “how itchy my nose is.”

“So scratch it,” Ryder replied, teeth still on show. “Use magic.”

“Abuse of power. Look it up.” Leo sighed, relief flashing. “Finally.”

The bear of a mayor approached them and held out one paw for Leo to shake. Always Leo, despite Ryder being the eldest.

Course that might have something to do with Leo being suited and booted and Ryder looking like he’d wandered off the build crew.

“Such a pleasure to meet you,” the mayor gushed, stars in his eyes. “And we’re so grateful for this school. Aren’t we . . . ah, Matthew?” he directed to the little boy to his right.

“Matthew” shrugged. “Whatever. My agent said it’d only be an hour. Can I go now?”

“Nice brat,” Ryder said in an aside to Leo. “I thought these were real school kids?”

“Yeah.” Leo chortled. “Like they use ordinary folk in the newspaper.”

They cut the ribbon after a few shots with the mayor and headed off the stage.

As they always did, Ryder and Leo stopped to sign a few autographs.

Ryder reached for a little girl’s notebook when two men shoved to the front, knocking the girl aside.

“Sign them,” the men said in unison. “You Genies are cool as shit.”

Ryder and Leo shared a look. No doubt these autographs were about to end up on eBay. Ryder smiled.

“Sure,” he said as he and Leo accepted the pads.

Live, laugh, love, Leo wrote in a messy scrawl.

Dance like no one’s watching, Ryder slashed.

The men scowled. “What the fuck?”

“We really mean it.” Ryder beamed as Leo fist-pumped his heart.

They nodded to security before it got ugly.

“You okay?” Leo asked the little girl as the two men were marched off.

She nodded and held out her notebook again in mute appeal.

Both twins signed their real autographs, writing that came to life when touched like wiggling snakes.

It made the girl squeal and laugh in delight. Her mother almost swooned into their arms.

Leo didn’t look as if he’d be that sad about the prospect.

Ryder however moved on until he was back on the street, away from press.

Leo caught up with him easily, loping along. He hardly ever flashed short distances. “Luka tell you about the double wish we were assigned in Long Island tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” He’d got the memo after quickly hitting his office, the assistant he shared with another Genie tripping over himself to give Ryder the message. “Should be a quick sweep. Sisters, right? Bought the ticket together?”

“Ergo, both get a wish. But really, I think Luc’s just being soft.”

Ryder grinned. “I dare you to say that to him.”

They crossed the road, Ryder slowing the cabs with a gesture.

“How’re the party plans going?” Leo said with the greatest show of reluctance.

“Done.” Ryder was amazed with the amount of work Hailey had gotten done in the last few days. The party was in a week and not only had she tweaked the menu, flowers, and “musical arrangements” for her dick poet ex’s wedding, she’d been in constant contact with companies down in Malibu, organizing what should be the best party Leo’s beach house had ever seen.

Okay, so it was the only party it had ever seen, but it should still be one hell of a shindig.

Leo wrinkled his nose. “I have to come?”

“Well, no, I suppose I can pretend to be you, score with all the hot women I’ve invited.”

Leo snorted. “Yeah, right. And I’ll get with Hailey.”

Without turning, Ryder mentally pushed Leo into the street.

A taxicab swerved as Leo flashed out, the driver yelling violent and not anatomically possible insults as he leaned on his horn.

Leo flashed back on the street. “You’re such a dick sometimes.” He ignored Ryder’s evil laugh and focused back. “Dad’s not coming, by the way.”

“What? He has to come. Both of you do.” Ryder stared at the sky in annoyance. “What is it with this family and going into the world?”

“Ask him later. He still wants to meet Hailey,” Leo added as he and Ryder pushed through WFY’s double glass doors. “He said to bring her by the bar tonight.”

Nerves stretched their arms from where he’d stashed them.

Okay, so he and Hailey were dating now, but wasn’t meeting the parents, like, what you did before proposing? They were meant to be tiptoeing forward, not racing.

“Maybe some other time,” he hedged as he strode across the foyer, ignoring the tourists who gawked and pointed their iPhones. “A year sound good?”

“Tonight.” Leo clapped a hand on his back. “I double dog dare you.”