Free James, Stephanie by Fabulous Beast Page A

attention.
    Dev, on the other hand, discovered he’d developed a whole new set of instincts where Tabitha Graham
    was concerned. Sitting across from her in the cocktail lounge later he saw disaster approaching long
    before it walked over to the table. He did some quick evaluation of the situation even as Tabby began a
    detailed discussion of basilisks.
    “That’s the creature that supposedly kills with only a glance,” she was saying chattily as Dev watched a
    rugged, athletic-looking, blond man start toward the table. “It could be a completely fabulous creature
    with no basis in reality, but some people have pointed out that it could simply have been confused with
    some reptiles which can spit their venom. Those poor monks sitting around their tables dutifully writing
    out bestiaries had no way of verifying many of the reports they got about animals in far-off places,
    remember. At any rate, although any creature who looked straight at it reportedly keeled over, the thing
    was apparently vulnerable to weasels. That was the theory at the time.”
    Dev tried to produce a basilisk-style stare which he directed at the blond man who was now directly
    behind Tabitha. It had no effect, probably because the other male had eyes only for Tabby. He’d taken
    one glance at Dev’s cane earlier in the evening and had undoubtedly concluded, quite accurately, that it
    limited the older man’s social activities. And the band was a very good one that night. Dev knew Tabitha
    was about to be asked to dance.
    “Excuse me,” the man said with a smile that came straight off a California beach. “Would you care to
    dance?” Tabitha looked up in surprised confusion. Before she could respond, the stranger turned to Dev
    and went on coolly, “I’m sure you won’t mind if I borrow her for a while, will you?” Left unspoken was
    the rest of the sentence but Dev heard it, anyway. After all you can’t ask her out on the floor. Why
    shouldn’t I take her away from you?
    The casual challenge had an unexpectedly savage effect on Dev. He was not normally the possessive
    type, and even if he had been, he knew Tabitha well enough by now to know she was hardly the kind of
    woman who would play two men off against each other even if she got the chance. Hell, Tabitha
    wouldn’t know how to play that kind of game. But the knowledge didn’t lessen his purely masculine
    reaction to the blond beach boy.
    “I beg your pardon?” Tabitha was saying, glancing up at the stranger with a puzzled expression in her
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    huge, sherry eyes.
    “I asked if you’d like to dance. The name’s Steve, by the way. Steve Waverly.” The man gave her
    another of his sunny grins, confidence radiating from every pore. He had assessed Tabitha’s companion
    and decided there was no threat from that quarter.
    “Oh,” Tabitha murmured, sounding rather flustered, but nonetheless pleased, “that’s very kind of you,
    but I’m really not much of a dancer, I’m afraid. Not much practice, you see. And I was right in the
    middle of telling Dev, here, about basilisks. And weasels.”
    “Weasels?” The stranger’s smile slipped a bit as he attempted to follow the conversation.
    “You use weasels to get rid of basilisks,” Tabitha explained kindly. “They might not actually have been
    weasels, of course. There is some speculation that they were mistaken for mongooses which do tackle
    snakes. And since basilisks may have been a type of snake, it makes sense that mongooses might…”
    She was interrupted by a muffled groan from the other side of the table. Instantly her head came around
    in frowning concern. Dev gave her his bravest smile. “Sorry, honey. My ribs are acting up again. You
    know the doctor said they would be sore for a few days.” He gingerly put a hand inside his jacket, testing
    the bruised ribs. “And I’m afraid all that exercise today might not have been the