Listeria sighed as she pushed on the warm, sexy male who was taking up too much space in her queen-sized bed. “Get off me, Cat. I have work to do.”

Jabari laughed as his second favorite Witch rolled him off her luscious body and out of her bed. His cat-like reflexes were all that kept him from splatting on the floor.

His most favorite Witch had recently freed him from service to her. In the process, he gained back his original physical size, his complete feline shifter range, and the ability to act as he chose. Now that he wasn’t Violet’s familiar, there was no reason to hide his relationship with Listeria. His loyalties would no longer be questioned.

Jabari smiled at the woman who delighted him in every way. “You didn’t complain when I got frisky with you yesterday morning. You moaned my name and told me how grateful you were that I existed.”

Sighing, Listeria rolled until her feet hit the floor. Moments later, she padded to her closet naked to look for something to wear. “That was yesterday, Jabari. Today, I have a client coming at nine. Thanks to you, I’m barely going to make it to the office before he arrives.”

Jabari climbed back into the bed to watch the most beautiful woman he knew put on her clothes. It was such a shame to cover that body up, but Listeria knew how to adorn it well.

“Call and get your guard dog to reschedule him,” he suggested.

“Stop believing everything Violet tells you. She’s not my guard dog. My receptionist is a delightful woman,” Listeria said.

“What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”

Listeria shrugged. “My job is my hobby. I think you should get one. Without a purpose, magical creatures get bored and cause trouble.”

“When I was human, I used to do manual work.” Jabari looked off as he remembered. “It was dreary and dull fanning the spoiled daughter of my boss.”

Listeria grunted as she slid into her shaping underwear. “Every Puritan I knew thought suffering with your work all day was character building. Even as a child, I wasn’t allowed to sit in a chair or lie down until the sun had set.”

“Try being a fan boy for the daughter of the Pharaoh.”

Listeria turned to him and blinked. “You look so young that I forget that you’re older than me. I’m sure Ancient Egypt was just as bad as Puritan America.”

Jabari shrugged. “Comparisons are unnecessary. We can agree that our lives are much better now. I thank Goddess Bastet daily for allowing me to serve her. I was never bored when I worked directly for her as a guardian. I stayed in cat form most of the time. I think I went for seven months once without changing into a human at all.”

Listeria shook her head. “I’ve never been a Crone for more than a month. I don’t think I could handle it. Katherine feels the same. Violet will wait until she’s ancient to transform back to normal.”

“I can handle your Crone state,” Jabari said with confidence, but then he laughed. “I accept we would be celibate until you were no longer physically fragile. For sure, I wouldn’t run away as Alastair did from Violet. Being a Crone is part of your agreement with Goddess Hecate. When it happens, I will respect it. And I will wait with great anticipation for your normal age to return.”

“When I go Crone, Jabari, I go Crone alone,” Listeria said.

“Only because you know how badly Violet got hurt when Alastair left her in that state.”

Frowning over Jabari’s theory, Listeria glamoured her legs to look tanned and stepped into her short dress. She manually exercised to keep her forty-ish human body in peak condition and it paid off in getting to keep her astounding wardrobe whenever she wasn’t a Crone.

Listeria saw nothing wrong with being happy to pass for a much younger woman. After the recent restoration, she was feeling her best and looking as young as she could remember ever looking. That wouldn’t last forever—it never did—but looking this young would last for a short while. She planned to enjoy it as much as she always did. It was a cycle that she thrived on repeating.

Maybe her youthfulness could be from other things too. Getting a daily dose of Jabari for an entire week didn’t hurt. She was sexually content for the first time in ages.

As if he knew she was thinking of her, Listeria turned and sighed over his lust-filled gaze checking her out. They’d had an unspoken thing for over a century. Several years ago, they’d given in to it.

Violet’s former familiar had been sneaking to see her for years now. Doing so had ruined her for other men and sometimes that worried her. She’d been afraid to ask if their mutual need for each other caused him any problems.

His status as Violet’s familiar kept the subject taboo for them. If they’d admitted to anything, his loyalty to Violet would have been questioned. Goddess Hecate might have replaced him. Violet would have hated her forever and she would have lost the loveliest lover she’d ever found. Fortunately, growing up in the Witch-burning town of Salem had taught Listeria the value of keeping certain things secret.

Jabari wanted to go public with their relationship now that he was a free agent.

But what did she want?

Today, Listeria wanted to go help her new client and not think about the dark-eyed male who pleased her so well in bed.

Or at least not think about him for a whole day. She might want to think of Jabari again tonight. All her youthful energy demanded some expression.

“Why don’t you look for something fun to do today?” she suggested, moving to the side of the bed to drop a kiss on his mouth.

Jabari’s talented lips followed her up as she tried to pull away. Soon he was standing up with his naked body pressed against her. He moaned a little as his lips traced a line from her cheek to her throat.

“Will you be returning at a reasonable hour tonight?” he asked against her throat.

Listeria shook her head. “I have no idea. When I make a plan, I’ll text you what I’m doing.”

“I think I will go visit Sean then. He wanted to talk to me about something. I didn’t want to spoil our together time by doing so.”

Giggling, she backed out of Jabari’s arms and patted his chest. “He probably wants to talk to you about women. I don’t think Alastair has been a good role model.”

Jabari smirked. “He saw my ripped clothes the night you got drunk and shredded them off me. Like his mother, he believed Tamela did it.”

“Did you ever want to sleep with her?”

Jabari grinned. “Tamela was an evil child. I kissed her for the ruse, but she did not interest me. Was jealousy the reason you put all those scratches on me? You should have seen Sean’s face when he saw them. I’ve never seen such raw envy in another man’s gaze.”

Listeria snorted and walked off to the bathroom to do her hair and makeup. Of course she’d been jealous, especially when Violet ordered him to shadow Tamela, but she wasn’t admitting that to Jabari.

Maybe she’d been considering tattooing her name on one of his firm, brown buttocks, but it’s not like she’d acted on that possessive urge.

And no, she would not admit to that either.