by A. C. James
Felicity had been sceptical about her current infatuation with Tomas. From the look on her friend’s face, she knew she was right…she’d won the bet. But she wasn’t about to rub it in when Cyn seemed so miserable. She flopped onto the bed next to Felicity.
“Okay, spill,” Felicity said.
“He’s gay. That’s all there is to it. He has to be gay. There’s no other explanation.”
Felicity coughed to cover a laugh. “Okay, what happened?”
“We went to the beach. Things were going swimmingly. He hung on every word and had more questions about my family, what I do for work, and even asked about boyfriends. Granted that was a little weird because men never want to hear about other men.”
“So what’s the problem? It sounds like you had a grand time.”
“When I leaned in to kiss him, he stuck his hand out for me to shake it like this was some bloody business arrangement! For fuck’s sake, shag me already.”
This time, Felicity couldn’t hold back her laughter.
Cyn glared at her.
She put up her hands. “I’m sorry, all right. I couldn’t help it.”
But it was the funniest thing Felicity had ever heard. After all, Cyn was a drop-dead gorgeous plus size model. Most men fell at her feet.
“I don’t understand. One minute he’s attentive and it seems like he wants me, but when I try to get close he pulls away. The man is maddening!”
“I’m sorry, Cyn. It does seem strange that he won’t kiss you, and he’s a damn fool for it. Maybe you should forget about him.”
Cyn grinned. “Oh, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you off that easily. A bet is a bet, and I’m banging him before we go home. I’m going to see him again tonight.”
Crap. She’d dragged Cyn along on this crazy adventure and promised she’d have a good time. She didn’t want to ruin it for her. But if this bloke was giving her the cold shoulder, then maybe she should come clean and tell her about Niall. She was dying to share that with her best friend anyway.
Felicity bit back a smile. “You’re right. A bet is a bet. And…”
“And what?”
“I won the bet with Niall this afternoon.”
Cyn arched an eyebrow. “Shut up. You bloody little liar.”
Felicity laughed. “I’m not lying.”
“Well then, come on, don’t hold back the details. What’s he like?”
“Exactly what I needed. You were right…”
“Go on,” Cyn said, encouragingly.
“I didn’t realize how much I’d been holding back, and Niall was what I needed to get over my ex.” Felicity paused. “But I need it to be a one-night stand. I really don’t want it to mean anything. He was gentle, kind…” Heat rose to her face. “…and he really knew what he was doing. I’m a bloody mess.”
“It can be anything you want it to be. Don’t label it. Just enjoy it while you can.” Cyn always knew what to say. “But remember one thing…what you think you need isn’t always what you really want.”
Felicity nodded, since she wasn’t ready to go there.
Cyn seemed to sense that and changed the subject. “So how did it go with tall, dark, and devastating?”
Felicity’s face reddened as she thought about his head between her legs, his tongue lapping at her sex. “He was very…considerate. The perfect gentleman.”
“Not too much of a gentleman I hope. Come on, I want to hear about the sexy parts.”
“He’s a very good kisser.”
“Is there anything else he was good at?”
“Uhmm, we walked to his family’s cottage.”
Cyn grinned wickedly. “I thought you’d be too much of a chicken-shit to win our little bet. I’m much more interested in what happened in the cottage.”
“Well, when he kissed me I could feel it in my toes.”
“Did you feel it anywhere else? That’s what I want to know,” Cyn said with a wink.
“You’re terrible.”
“Are you sure you really banged him? Just as I suspected. You’d never do it. Chicken.”
“Go ahead and bait me all you want, but it was nice. He talked about his family—he has two sisters—and when we didn’t talk, it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. And the sex was…” Amazing. “…more than I expected.”
“More? You mean he was well-hung.”
“Cyn!”
“So are you going to see him again?”
Felicity smiled. “Actually, yes. I’m meeting him tonight at Tí Joe Watty’s for dinner.”
“Good,” she said firmly. “Then clearly he wants you. Dinner could mean he’s interested in more than a one-night stand.”
“Perhaps…”
“What do you want?” Cyn asked, suddenly serious. “Not what you need, but what you want.”
It might sound a little crazy if she told Cyn she had this strange notion she was connected to Niall. That maybe fate or destiny had pulled them together. It sounded ridiculous, and she didn’t believe in soul mates, but nonetheless, she had this feeling like she knew him on a soul-deep level, regardless of the fact they’d only just met.
“I haven’t really thought about it.”
“You’re the biggest bloody liar. I’ve never heard you talk about feeling anyone’s kiss in your toes. EVER. Not even when you were with William. You really like this guy. Admit it!”
Felicity laughed. “Since I met him…” She searched for the right word. “I feel vital. I feel beautiful. I’m not like you, and I can’t wither men with knee-weakening good looks. I’m all right with that…” William had always brought her down. “Niall lifts me up, and I feel truly alive when I’m with him. Does that make any sense? Or do I sound like a nutter?”
“You know me and relationships. Not my thing. But if it works for you, then I’m happy. You deserve it…especially after what that maggot put you through.”
“You certainly don’t mince words. This is why I bloody well love you.”
“I know.”
Felicity wrapped Cyn in a gigantic hug.
“Okay, let’s not get carried away here,” Cyn said as she pulled away. “Just know that if he treats you like a dog with two dicks, I’ll kick his ass.”
Felicity laughed. “I’d expect nothing less.”
“And take a bath. You reek of sex.”
“So does this mean you’re going to give up on Tomas?” Felicity asked as she hopped off the bed and bounded toward the bathroom to take a piss.
Cyn scowled. “It’s still my birthday. Forget the bloody bet—I refuse to be snubbed. I’m going to bang him. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Oh, boy. Things were about to get interesting for Tomas.
Chapter 12
Niall walked along the sandy shoreline searching for Tomas before heading back to the stone cottage. His friend was already long gone by the time he’d reached the beach. Staring across the water was the way he always did his best thinking. He felt bad for Tomas. The mate bond was strong, and Tomas was far from his mate, babysitting Niall until he found his own. Then he’d had to entertain a lass who clearly wanted to have sex with him when Tomas was already taken. Niall owed him for providing a diversion that let him spend the afternoon with Felicity.
Felicity…
He picked a pebble off the beach and threw it across the water. She’d given him passion and shown him what it meant to be with someone on a deeper level. He’d wanted to please her, protect her, and know her. Felicity was smart and sensitive, and he hated seeing the unhappy look on her face when he questioned her about past relationships. He wanted to crush anyone who’d hurt her, and even though his fierce protectiveness wasn’t rational, try telling his stallion to simmer down.
Niall had never experienced that with anyone. He’d never let himself care. Shut down his stallion’s natural impulse to form a mate bond every time. Niall had known he’d have to do his duty and take a mate eventually, but he’d promised himself when that day came he wouldn’t get attache
d or let her in. Not if he could lose her.
But she couldn’t be right about her fertility. Could she? His stallion had scented her. She was able to ride him. Clearly, she was a suitable mate his sire would approve of for the sacred ceremony. His sire only cared if she could breed, not whether she was the one for him. It was possible he’d simply scented her desire. His father would never suspect she was infertile if he rode her across the veil to greet him. His stallion pranced in circles at the change of events. It’d been a long time since he’d been this lucky…
Niall walked back up the beach and headed toward the cottage. He knew who he was, and he wasn’t perfect. The life he could give her seemed possible now that he knew she wasn’t fertile. It was a relief, and for the first time in his life it gave him hope. If it were any other way, he wouldn’t want to risk it even though his people depended on mating to continue their clan, to continue their very existence. But Niall had seen firsthand what that had meant for his mother. Granted, she’d never been strong. It was a wonder she’d survived bearing him and Maelíosa. Niall would have taken a mate to protect his sister from a fate she didn’t deserve, but putting Felicity in harm’s way would have crushed him.
Niall reached the end of the dirt road and continued along the stony path that led to the cottage. When he opened its door, Tomas was in the foyer where the driftwood intercommunication portal hung. To the human eye it looked like an ordinary mirror, but that was the cloaking spell one of the elders had placed on it. His father Fallon stood on the other side. They’d stopped talking as Niall entered, and Tomas turned toward him with a curt nod.
“Have you found a mate?”
Really? Was that really the first thing his sire would be concerned about? Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“I believe so, but we’re still trying to discover why the veil has lifted. We believe it’s tied to a local priest,” Niall said. “There’s a lot of rumors circulating about us and perhaps it’s stirred enough superstition and belief to lift the veil.”
“Tomas already updated me on your quest. The clock is ticking. It’s imperative that you find the cause and end it. A man in the village nearly wandered over the threshold and into our Realm. The guard at the tower warned him away as we did before.”
“When the photograph was taken,” Tomas muttered.
Niall paused. “Would it be so bad if the veil between our worlds remained as it is? What if we go back to the Old Ways? I’m as protective of our clan as you are, Sire, but there was a time when our worlds were united.”
Fallon laughed, but the harsh sound carried no humour. “The island is still a close-knit community, but the world has changed. They would not accept our kind as they once did.”
“Sire, with all due respect, you can’t know that with certainty,” Niall said.
“They would not sacrifice their daughters even if it granted them immortality. They don’t need us anymore. Their lands don’t need our protection or our blessing. The Old Ways have long been abandoned,” Fallon said, his scowl deepening.
Niall admitted he had a point. He remembered a farmer who had chased one of his cousins who’d fallen in love with a local lass. Her father was none too pleased his daughter had been chosen, and the elders strengthened the veil between their worlds after the attack. But there was nothing they could do when harvest came. Under the Samhain moon, the veil lifted and still allowed them contact with the outside world. Those who practiced the Old Ways would celebrate their return. Those traditions had been almost completely forgotten, and his clan struggled to survive. That was, until now, when rumors and superstitions had awakened them and lifted the veil once more.
“Even if we need them, the risk is too great. The few who are superstitious enough to accept us as their ancestors once did don’t outweigh the many that would...” Niall trailed off.
He didn’t want to voice the conclusion he realized they’d all reached as they regarded one another warily.
“They would hunt us down and kill us,” Tomas said.
“Aye, people fear what they can’t understand,” Niall agreed.
An uncomfortable silence settled as the surface of the portal rippled with Fallon’s somber reflection.
“And the woman sent here to write about us must be stopped at all costs. We can’t risk her stirring further rumors about us,” Fallon said.
Niall and Tomas exchanged glances. He was grateful it appeared Tomas had left out the detail that the reporter and the woman he’d been pursuing as a mate were one and the same.
“I’ll do my best to make sure she doesn’t write anything incriminating. You have my word on it,” Niall said with a bow.
“Aye, I’ll leave you to it.”
Then Fallon spoke the ancient words to close the portal—Dea-fhortún agus tairiscint mé tú slán—and the surface once again appeared as an ordinary mirror.
Niall and Tomas headed into the great room, where a fire took the chill off the evening air. Niall stood by its warmth, gazing into its flickering flames as he reflected on his father’s words. Tomas took a seat in a rocking chair across from him. He knew what he had to do. He wanted Felicity to be his mate, but she needed to know who and what he was…the only way he could make her trust him and get her to write something else meant telling her the truth. He didn’t know whether she was ready to hear it, but he was running out of time. He’d have to trust her first if she was going to accept him. Niall cursed under his breath.
“Problem, mate?”
“Aye. I’m going to have to tell her.”
And hope she takes it better than the first time, when she stomped off and left me naked in a field.
“Bound to happen sooner or later, mate, and it’s better to get it out of the way.”
“Says the stallion who took his mate when the humans on the island still believed in us.”
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but she needs to know if you intend on claiming her as your mate.”
“Aye, but I was hoping I’d have more time to find a way to break it to her gently.”
“There’s nothing gentle about telling her you can turn into a horse.”
Niall grabbed the whiskey from the stone mantle above the fireplace and took a swig straight from the bottle. Tomas was a pain in the arse, but he also happened to be right. That only made it more irritating.
“I don’t suppose you have any pointers.”
Tomas chuckled and threw his hands in the air. “That’s on you, mate.”
“Aye, well, I could tell her after our date tonight.”
“Date?”
“Aye.”
“A human date?”
Niall scowled at him. “Is there any other sort of date?”
Tomas coughed to cover a laugh. “The lass must be really bonny.”
“You arsehole. You didn’t have to go through these ridiculous customs with your mate because she was sacrificed to you.”
Tomas grinned at him. “She made a bonny sacrifice too.”
“It’s hardly even fair when all you had to do was speak the ancient words, complete the sacred ceremony, and carry her off to your bed.”
Tomas raised his hands in defense. “Sorry, mate.”
“All I need to do is eat some food with her, for fuck’s sake. It can’t be that bad.” Bloody hell, he was asking Tomas for dating advice. His stallion huffed at him. You have no idea what you’re in for. He ignored his stallion’s snide remark and paced to the opposite side of the room, seating himself across from Tomas.
“Can it?”
“I can’t help you here. I’ve never done a date. I can tell you this…” Tomas paused. “You need to mind your manners.”
He’d been nothing but charming, gentle, and protective toward Felicity. That he could do, but what made Tomas such an expert if he’d never done a date before?
“Says who?”
“I saw it online.”
Damn. Is everyone online these days? He really had some catching up to do. Of course, To
mas visited the island every year when the veil lifted to keep his father informed about the human world.
Niall slugged back another drink of whiskey and then smirked. “Right. Online.”
“And some women like flowers.”
“Flowers?”
“Aye.”
“Did you see that online too?”
Tomas nodded. “And apparently they wear these big, puffy white gowns and carry them down an aisle…” He scissored his fingers to demonstrate walking. “…for their mating ceremony.”
“Puffy gown? It sounds terrible.”
“Aye.”
Niall grimaced at the bottle of whiskey. Dating sounded highly complex and ritualized. He couldn’t imagine what humans saw in it. Manners and flowers didn’t mean anything or cover the irrefutable truth of what they wanted to do to each other. There was nothing civilized about it, and mating made much more sense in his opinion. His stallion nodded in agreement.
“At least they have drinking and dancing afterward. They call it a reception,” Tomas continued.
“I guess it’s not so bad then.” Niall could tolerate anything as long as there was whiskey. “But she’d better not have any grand ideas about puffy gowns.”
Tomas laughed.
It’d make him the laughingstock of the Realm. “I need you to do me another solid favor. Can you keep her friend occupied for the evening?”
“I’m already on it.”
Niall nodded and headed off to take a shower before his date with Felicity. He’d never been so nervous in his entire life, but he had no idea what she was going to do. The woman was as unpredictable as she was beautiful. Last thing he wanted was for her to freak out or mistrust him. After the afternoon they’d spent together, he didn’t want her to fear or reject him, but it was a chance he had to take.
Chapter 13
Felicity flung another outfit aside as she rummaged through her suitcase trying to decide what to wear for her date with Niall. Cyn had already left to meet up with Tomas. She really hoped Cyn was having a good time despite his hot and cold routine. Felicity grinned into the mirror. Maybe that’s why he held her interest. Although, she really wished her friend was there to help her, because she was the glamorous, put-together one.
