Of the Woods

by J A S Bennet

  Ava walked right up to the mirror-backed bar and sat on a stool with Jenny following her lead. Sheridan, however, tripped over her own feet and nearly landed spread out over the floor. Somehow, the man working in the pub was able to zip across the room fast as shit and catch her, placing her back on her feet. His hands didn’t leave her arms until she was steady. She looked up to thank him and found she was looking into the most beautiful bright-shamrock colored eyes she had ever seen. They reminded her of the lush mountainsides in Kentucky during summer. He picked her up with no effort and his muscular arms explained that. He smiled at her and his perfectly chiseled face was like something she would sculpt with the world’s most expensive clay. Not marble, it was too cold. His face had an earthy, warm look to it despite the sexy five o’clock shadow gracing it. He was dressed in black pants and white button down with several buttons undone at the top and the sleeves rolled up. Everything about this man spewed model material. That was the kind of face that should be put in The Louvre and admired for centuries.

  The gratitude she meant to express died somewhere behind the massive boulder tongue that filled her mouth at the sight of this man. She had to remind herself to breathe. When she did, she made a ridiculous female sound that immediately caused her face to flame with embarrassing heat.

  “How the hell did you do that?” Ava was still looking at the man’s back. She had seen how much distance he would have needed to cover to catch Sheridan and her mental calculations were not adding up.

  Jenny had missed it. “Are you okay, Sheridan?”

  Sheridan’s eyes were still wide and her face was bright red. This was typical behavior for her, she was not known as a graceful woman; clumsiness was her trademark. In fact, she had a bumper sticker that explained, “Sorry, I’m awkward, sorry,” on her van. She knew this about herself, but that didn’t make it any easier to handle being embarrassed. She offered up a nod as she made her way to the bar.

  “What can I get ye lasses?” he asked as he followed her to the bar, helping her in her seat. The man leaned against the bar and looked completely at home there. He wore a simple white T-shirt and worn jeans. He made it look like he was walking a runway. All confident swagger and earthy masculinity. Sheridan wondered what he smelled like. She caught herself before she sighed out loud.

  Sheridan desperately needed a shot of Maker’s Mark. However, she hadn’t yet regained the ability to speak and Ava, of course, had decided to take charge of the situation. “I understand we are supposed to meet someone here to take us to some castle?”

  “You’re them? Right then, let’s make sure you are who we are looking for.” The man went behind the bar, giving Ava and Jenny their first good look at him. He was extremely easy to look at. Ava’s eyes went wide to take him all in. Jenny didn’t even realize she was holding her breath for fear of scaring the beautiful man away.

  “Okay,” Ava sighed. “I’m Ava Smith, born Aoife Mahoney.”

  “Eefa.” He corrected.

  “Excuse me?” Ava’s hands landed on her hips.

  “You said Ayfee.” His voice dropped deeper as he explained. “Your birth name is pronounced Eefa.”

  “Great. I come all this way to be corrected by the phonemic police, Irish version. Besides, what does it even matter?” She shooed his correction away, not caring if it hurt his feelings; or at least that’s the persona she wore like a coat. She had to remind herself that all men are evil. No matter how beautiful and deliciously hard to touch, they were all out to hurt her, and not in the sexy way she sometimes craved. And now, she couldn’t get the thought of getting pounded out of her head.

  “It’s a beautiful name, and it matters to me. Nice to meet ye.” He put his hand on his chest and slightly bowed. Weird.

  “Okay, fine. Whatever.” Ava gestured to Jenny, who was preoccupied by being enraptured with the way this man spoke. Almost like everything he said was a lyric to a familiar song. Ava nudged her.

  “Oh, sorry.” Jenny looked away from the hot man. “I’m Jenny Jaynes, born Jennyver Murtagh.”

  The man bowed at her, too. “Nice to meet ye.”

  Then he turned his whole body to face Sheridan straight on. The red in her face that had been receding came back full force. She stared at the bar top. It was her only hope of getting her voice to work with her. She took a deep breath in and breathed out, “Sheridan Byrne.”

  He reached out and collected her hand in his. It was warm and calloused, rough and soothing at the same time. She gasped. Like a scene from the most romantic book ever written, he kissed the back of it, then said, “I’m Deaglan, it’s so lovely to meet ye.”

  Sheridan’s face turned dark enough that it almost matched her dark red hair. She pulled her hand back and placed it firmly in her own lap. The marks on top of the bar in front of her stool had been committed to her memory, but she continued to stare at them. Her heart rate had to be the highest in recorded history of the human race. She bravely looked up to search out the bourbon bottles, any brand would do at this point.

  Deaglan cleared his throat. “Derek Nelson gave me specific instructions before I see you to the castle. As uncomfortable as it might make all of us, I need to test your blood to ensure the search was successful and that some McGrew DNA can be found in you.”

  “Oh shit! You want our blood? Are you a vampire? Is that how you can move so fast?” Ava was still trying to figure out how he’d saved Sheridan.

  Deaglan laughed; the sound was a perfect lesson in what a man laughing should be like. He shook his head. Reaching under the bar, he raised three pairs of rubber gloves, three alcohol wipes, three lancets, three testing strips, and three bandages. “No, I’m not a vampire. I am a licensed phlebotomist though. Who wants to go first?”

  “Are you serious? You think that test is going to be accurate if we do it here in a filthy bar?” Ava was all but laughing at Deaglan.

  Just then another man entered from the back room. He moved with such grace, it was like he floated. “Did some floozy just call this a filthy bar, boss? Sounds like a bloody American. Want me to see them out?”

  Ava’s laughter stopped in its tracks. She was mentally recasting all the roles she had pretend-given to Derek Nelson with this guy who was ten times hotter than he was. This guy had more muscles, a squarer jaw, and bluer eyes than Derek Nelson, but more than that, he had that je ne sais quoi the French talked about. That something extra special, an appeal of sorts that drew people in. Despite her diatribe about how much men suck, she would not object to a night with this man. Maybe even two. Despite his opinion of her homeland.

  How the hell was Ireland producing such incredibly attractive beings? Jenny was even rendered speechless at the sight of this man. That rarely happened.

  “At ease, Cian.” Deaglan held his arm out to stop the man’s progress around the bar.

  Cian’s eyebrow lifted as he pointed with a broad gesture to the three women.

  “Yes, these are them. Allow me to introduce Aoife who goes by Ava, Jennyver who goes by Jenny, and Sheridan who goes by Sheridan.” He pointed to each of them in turn. Cian put his hand on his chest and bowed to the three of them at once.

  “Which one needs the lesson in manners?” Cian crossed his arms and waited for a response.

  Okay, that was only the second thing he’d said, and it was also rude. He hadn’t been asked via a letter to leave his work and home to travel here on a one-way ticket. Surely, he didn’t arrive to find it was a group trip and there was no choice in travel companions. From what Ava could tell, he certainly wasn’t the one being asked to hand over his blood in order to be directed to a safe place to sleep tonight. The three of them had and this was the end of an extremely long day. His attitude simply would not do.

  “That’d be me, pumpkin butt.” Ava raised her hand as if she were in grade school, while the man turned to check his ass out in the mirror. Then she placed both hands on her hips, preparing for the fight she was sure to have just started. Game the fuck on. “Let me guess,
you’re the manners police partnered with the professor of phonics; you two make quite the pair. Is there any other annoying official I should meet before we go? Because this just keeps getting better and better. I thought Irish people were happy drunks who hang out and sing old Irish songs about girls from Nantucket or some shit.”

  The old man in the corner chuckled. Nobody paid any attention to him except Ava, who nodded in appreciation.

  Cian moved closer to Ava to see if she moved away when he invaded her space. He could always tell just how tough a person was by closing in on them. If they backed away, then they were all talk. He raised his eyebrow and nodded when Ava didn’t move a single muscle. Jenny couldn’t tell if he wanted to wrap Ava in his arms and kiss her into oblivion or if he wanted to wrap his fingers around her neck and squeeze until she passed out, but one thing was for sure. He was extremely passionate about whichever one it was.

  “Don’t nod at me as if I were some type of animal you’re toying with. If you have something to say then now is the time to let it out. Your first impression is not anything to be proud of, and that is despite the fact that I already thought you’d be an asshole simply because you have a penis like all my exes. So you might as well speak your mind. If you have one, that is.” She stood her ground and waited for his response, never taking her eyes off of his.

  “Let me guess where you’re from, New York?” He cocked his head to the side. “I’ve heard all of ye from New York are rude, just never thought they were also so bitchy. When’s the last time you had a good feck?” He wiggled his eyebrows and a smile formed on his face.

  Ava knew what he was talking about; she may not have known the slang, but all men got the same stupid expression on their faces when they talked about sex. Like some Neanderthal rite of passage. She was waiting for him to start grunting and scratching his balls.

  “I’m sure that you have better things to do than to sit here and talk to us vaginas on legs.” She gestured to the mostly empty bar. “All of these customers need you to screw in lightbulbs or whatever it is you do around here.” She threw her hands up and slapped them back down on the outside of her legs in an exaggerated gesture.

  Cian got right up in her face, his blue eyes shining, and smiled. “I am a bouncer here, I protect. I don’t run my mouth and boss everyone around. I have manners. Perhaps I should teach you some?”

  Ava felt something foreign boiling so deep within she was almost afraid to touch it. This was so far down and in a dark place of her soul that she stepped back. The spark that she felt went all the way down to her toes. This was not good. She wanted so far away from these feelings.

  “Manners. So overrated, kind of like being a bouncer in an empty, filthy bar. Besides, I’ve gotten much further in life with a smart mouth than with a pleasant one.” She wasn’t quite sure where she meant to be going with this, but she knew her mistake as soon as she said it. When she looked up, she braced herself for the impact of the words coming out of him.

  “Maybe you aren’t using the full potential of that mouth.” Cian’s gaze was definitely heated.

  “Funny, I’ve never had that complaint before. You’d be so lucky to see what I could do.” Wait, what was she saying?

  “T’would be grand.” There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone, but the fire in his eyes seemed to be suggesting she take her clothes off and have her way with him.

  Visions of batteries and silicone boyfriends left her brain. Ava turned to the rest of the group, who were all being perfect penguins, turning their heads from Ava to Cian, as if they were waiting for a retort. Ava was unable to give one; she stood with her mouth shut.

  She was not used to men talking to her like that. Most of the males she talked to as part of her job either wanted to sleep with her to get a role in her movies or wanted her money. It was quite a shock to her system that his words and general attitude had turned her on and made her want to give him both.

  Suddenly, Sheridan burst out with a giggle. She immediately covered her mouth with her hand. Her eyes had a shocked look at first, but then they quickly took on a defiant amused look and her hand went back down. Next, she looked downright mischievous. Ava and Jenny quickly glanced at each other as if to say, “Did she just have three personalities in the matter of three seconds?” They both quickly looked back at the shockingly good-looking men in front of them.

  “All right, Cian. That’ll do.” Deaglan pushed on Cian in a clear signal to vacate the area. Ava was not ashamed to admit she watched his fine ass walk away and she put that in the memory banks for dealing with her lady boner later.

  “Let’s get this over with, it’s not like you can clone me with a tiny drop of blood.” Ava said, sticking out her middle finger. “I don’t want to end up having to sleep here tonight because I was afraid to get poked.”

  Cian’s roar of laughter at her word choice could be heard from the back room he had disappeared into. Ava rolled her eyes. “Juvenile.”

  The old man chuckled again and said, “She’s got him figured out.”

  Cian opened the door and pointed at the man. “Ah, shut up, Eoghan, ye old bat!”

  Eoghan raised his middle finger at Cian while muttering to himself and Ava decided right then to go ahead and like Eoghan.

  Deaglan made quick work of putting on the gloves, cleansing her finger, collecting the specimen, and discarding the waste. Then he put a drop of solution into each vial and gently turned it over a few times. He repeated the process for all three women, though it seemed he took his sweet time when he had the opportunity to be in contact with Sheridan. She blushed profusely the whole time, but she seemed to have gained some amount of control of herself. She had somehow been able to stay seated on the stool even though she was clearly swooning.

  “Well, what’s the verdict? Are we having a baby or what?” Ava objected to the use of a bandage. She felt she should be able to control the clotting of her blood with nothing but her willpower. As soon as the bleeding stopped, she ripped it off.

  Deaglan picked up each vial and compared the green color to a spectral chart. Nodding as he stated, “These tests prove you are all descendants of Clan McGrew. Are you ready to see the castle?”

  Before he even finished speaking, he stuck his head in the back room and grabbed a hat. It was a shame he was about to cover his gorgeous thick head of hair. “Cian, you’re in charge until I return.”

  “What do you mean, until you return? Just give us the address and we will be out of your hair.” Ava wasn’t about to let anyone else drive her around unless it was in a limo while she was sipping on champagne.

  “Well, I’m afraid you’ll need my assistance to get to the castle. It’s about a mile from here, so you could walk, but I figured with your luggage you would prefer a lift.” He grinned. There was definitely something he wasn’t telling them.

  “But we have a car, and our luggage is already packed neatly in the trunk,” Jenny brightly chimed in.

  “There are no roads to the castle. Either you ride with me or we walk. Your choice.” Deaglan was still grinning like the cat who ate the canary. The women silently checked in and shrugged. It was obvious they were going to have to do it his way. Sheridan would have been perfectly happy walking through the woods. She could handle her luggage. However, looking down at Ava’s shoes, she shook her head.

  “Fine, what do you drive? There was nothing else in the parking lot when we pulled in.” They rose from their seats and headed toward the door. Deaglan found himself beside Sheridan as they went to collect their belongings from the rental car.

  “Of course not,” he chuckled as held the door open for Sheridan to go through. “My parking spot is on the roof.”

  Ava spun around so fast, it was shocking she didn’t fall in her heels. She began to back up and then her hand covered her mouth as her eyes opened wide at the sight of the helicopter on the roof. How she’d missed it when they pulled in she would never know, but she was ready for this now. “Shotgun!”

  For so
me reason, Ava got another of what was quickly becoming known as a “Sheridan look.” Ava didn’t notice because she was already walking away, but Jenny absolutely saw it.

  “You don’t have any control over your face, do you?”

  Now Jenny got a Sheridan look, a different one, but it was definitely a look. Jenny mumbled to herself, “Well, this is going to be an interesting vacation.”

  7

  Castle Mcgrew

  Unloading the trunk was more challenging than it should have been. Deaglan kept insisting he would carry all the big suitcases and Ava was having none of that macho bullshit. While they were arguing, Cian made his way out of the bar, pushed past everybody, and grabbed the biggest bag, Ava’s. He marched it right up the external staircase hidden around the side of the building. Ava grabbed her carry-on and marched right after him, reaching for the suitcase in his hands. If she were a Chihuahua, she could not have been more on his heels. In fact, it seemed like she was angling for a chance to bite his ankles.

  “What in the hell do you think you’re doing, you giant oaf? I’m no damsel in distress and you, sir - and I use that term very loosely here - are no fucking knight in shining armor.”

  “What am I doing? Saving my ears from any more of your screeching.” He opened a compartment on the chopper and placed her bag inside. Then he opened the door and pointed to a seat. “Now, are you going to get in on your own or do I have to lift you in as well?”

  Ava actually harrumphed and climbed in. Cian stepped up and handed her the safety belt for her to secure. She gave him a blank look and he proceeded to reach across her body for the opposite strap to secure it.

  She pushed his hands away. “Give me that, and get your hands off me.” He gave her a side smile that had her fumbling with the restraints. As Cian walked away she flipped him the bird. She wasn’t going to let Mr. Attitude ruin her first helicopter pilot lesson; that’s what she considered this part of the adventure to be anyway. Jenny climbed in the backseat with her own carry-on and set to work figuring out which seatbelt was hers.