Love in Fantasy (Skeleton Key) Read Online Free

morning, no matter how much I tried not to, and I keep coming up with the same conclusion: what have I got to lose? As long as I keep this whole magic and fantasy stuff to myself, of course. I jog back up to my room and take the key from the case, receiving a little zap as I pick it up. Something tells me it’s protesting almost being left behind. Oh, right. Wilhelm has an attitude. I drop the key into the breast pocket of my suit coat, then dash back downstairs and out to my car. I arrive just in time for a meeting, which leads to another and another, until the day is almost done. As my employees clock out, I take the opportunity to work uninterrupted for a while.
    A knock on my door startles me and I look up to see . . . James? Wilhelm hums in my pocket. Interesting. “James,” I greet. “Come on in.” I gesture for him to take a seat.
    “Thanks. I apologize for interrupting.” He settles in the frame in a leather, high-backed chair, facing me and stretching his long legs out in front of him. He is about my height, but I notice he seems much leaner, almost as though he is smaller boned than he used to be. He runs his hands through his dark-blond hair, another change, his hair was several shades lighter when we were teenagers.
    “It’s been a while,” I remark, leaning back into my plush leather. “What can I do for you?”
    “Yes, it has.” James frowns as he leans forward, elbows on knees, and steeples his fingers. “But, it was time I came home. I probably should have applied and sent you a resume, like all of the other stiffs applying for a job, but here I am anyway.” His mouth quirks up in a crooked smile that doesn’t reach his brown eyes, and he reaches into a folder I didn’t realize he was carrying, then slides a piece of paper across the desk.
    I pick it up and scan it. His resume is certainly impressive. However, on my second glance, I stop at a gap of time where he has no listed employment. I look closely and realize I missed it the first time because it isn’t blank. The time is filled with what looks like an internship working with a trial program in. . . “Cancer research?” I ask curiously. I’d thought his specialty was anesthesiology.
    James nods, his steady gaze never leaving mine. I don’t know what it is about his look, his countenance, but a thought enters my mind and won’t go away. “Were you a participant?” I ask.
    “Yes. It was an experimental treatment for cancer patients who were given a terminal diagnosis.”
    “Well, fuck, James,” I breathe, “I had no idea.”
    He shakes his head, a rueful frown on his face. “Nobody did. You know I don’t have any family left, and I preferred not to have my friends and . . . other people, watch me waste away as their last memory of me.”
    My head cocks to the side and I study him thoughtfully. I can see his point, but he’d taken the choice away from everyone. People who probably would have preferred to be by his side until the end. And, knowing exactly who this “other people” is, I wouldn’t want to be him when he has this conversation with her.
    “Well, I’m glad you made it,” I tell him honestly. “You know you’ve got a job here, if you want it. Go and talk to the head of HR and we’ll find something that fits both our needs.”
    “Thanks,” he says, then his face clouds with some dark emotion. “I don’t want to disrupt her life, so I’ll stay out of her way,” he informs me. “I’m sure she moved on a long time ago.”
    I don’t respond, particularly because the last comment seemed to be introspective. We both stand and shake hands. “Let’s catch up some time,” he suggests, his voice genuine, and his smile reaching his eyes for the first time since he stepped into my office.
    “Absolutely,” I agree, returning his smile. “The next twelve days will be . . . busy, but catch me after and we’ll go for a beer.”
    With a nod and a wave, he departs from my office and I sit down to get