by Strong, Jory
Her mother’s mantra. Her mother’s life.
No longer applicable.
It would take hours to return all the calls from people who’d heard about the drive-by in front of the shelter. The concern humbled her. It firmed her resolve to stay part of this human world in a way that mattered.
Slipping the phone into her pocket she turned just as Derrick breezed in. “Yummy! You’ve got Mr. Edible with you along with that luscious, tasty morsel you call a boyfriend.”
“A permanent mate,” Eamon murmured, his amusement making her smile.
“You don’t know the half of it,” she told Derrick.
He grinned, hugging her and whispering, “I can hardly wait for a blow-by-blow description.”
With emphasis on blow. “Not happening.”
His mouth formed a pout against her cheek. “Spoilsport.”
She felt carefree despite the slide of fire down her arms and with it the sharp awareness of the connection between her and the Dragon. “The details would make you green with envy.”
“Maybe in the past, but not now. I do have Quinn.”
She couldn’t stop herself from asking, “He’s okay?”
“Better than okay.” The purr said it all, but as the moment stretched, her easy happiness fled when there was no sibilant offering of sssafe, my gift.
Worry tightened her chest, and though she suspected Eamon would consider her foolish for attempting it, she reached out mentally, seeking the Dragon, seeking reassurance and gaining nothing except a penetrating dread, a dark foreboding that Derrick might be used against her, or worse, that she might cause him harm.
She eased out of the hug, feeling both haunted and hunted, not daring to risk more touch of skin to skin.
* * *
Eamon watched the play of emotions over Etaín’s face, from happiness and joy to something that tugged at his heart, opening a crack in his resolve to separate her completely from the human world. For the first time since standing on the other side of the window and being horrified by the reality of how she used her gift, he considered that there might be room for compromise, that if he cut her off from this place and these people, ripping her away from what she loved, bitterness would find its way into their relationship.
Eventually they would all have to leave San Francisco, including those humans made part of their world because of ties to Cathal and Etaín. Glamour only went so far when it came to hiding the lack of aging. Nor was it easy for those who no longer measured their lives in decades to remain in a place where the people they had interacted with for years grew old and died while they didn’t.
The door to the shop opened and a well-dressed man of Hispanic descent rushed toward Etaín and was immediately blocked by Myk.
The human laughed, leaning to the side to see Etaín. “Bodyguards or cops in plainclothes?”
“Bodyguards.” She gave a small sigh. “Francisco is a client, Myk. Please let him pass.”
Eamon didn’t counter the command.
Francisco hugged her as all of them had. “I caught a glimpse of you from my office. Do you have time to add the name to my tat?”
“Kiss of death to the relationship,” Jamaal called from the work area. “Unless you’re putting family on your skin.”
Derrick sniffed. “Ridiculous superstition. Don’t listen to him.”
Jamaal shook his head. “You so sure about that? Last I counted, Bryce has covered three names since he hired you, and I’m betting any day now you’re going to be begging either me or Etaín to hide that last loser’s name.”
“Those where bad choices. I’m a different man now.”
“Uh-huh.” Jamaal leaned forward to concentrate on detail work along his client’s shoulder.
“You have time?” Francisco asked Etaín again.
“Okay if Derrick does it instead? His lettering is better than mine.”
“Sure. That’s okay if he’s willing.”
Derrick motioned toward one of the workstations. “Come on back. Let me see what you’ve already got on you and hear what you’re thinking.”
Pleasure flooded Eamon at the choice she’d made. He pulled her into his arms, the sense of completeness he felt when he held her growing stronger.
He claimed her lips in tenderness, his tongue a slow glide and thrust, a sensuous taking reminiscent of lovemaking rather than the carnal pounding of heated sex. When she moaned softly, pelvis grinding to his, their surroundings forgotten, he left her mouth in favor of her ear, marking his effect on her by the race of her heartbeat against his chest.
Her hands burned through his shirt where they played at the base of his spine, her touch and nearness enough to keep him hard and anxious to be inside her.
“You restrained yourself,” she murmured, acknowledging his lack of interference with the flick of her tongue against his earlobe.
She might as well have captured his cock in a welcoming fist.
“I’m restraining myself now.”
She laughed, the heat of it across his ear sending a shiver of pleasure through him.
“When you’re like this, instead of doing your lord-of-all-you-see thing, it makes me believe this will work.”
He cupped her cheek, tenderness welling up inside him. “Tattoo me as you have Cathal.”
Without needing to glance at them, he sensed Liam and Myk’s immediate resistance to the idea, though it was Liam who voiced it. “Is that wise, Lord?”
Was it wise? The question could only be answered honestly in retrospect.
Taking her ink was a calculated risk, but he believed he could keep himself safe. She didn’t yet know how to push magic into the ink, to forge the bond as he’d done in her stead when it came to Cathal. And his protections had held. There’d been no sense of threat since that first violent plundering and pull of magic.
“Tattoo me as you have Cathal,” he repeated, ducking his head to nuzzle along the length of her neck.
The design was there in Etaín’s mind, identical to Cathal’s except in color and location, and she shivered, unsure whether the emotion surging through her was anticipation or trepidation. “Are you asking me? Or calling in the promise Cathal made on my behalf?”
His lips returned to hers in a slow trail of kisses that had her head tilting backward in order to give him greater, deeper access. “I’m asking.” Though the thrust of his tongue and hard press of his lips were hungry and demanding, pouring liquid fire into her belly to sink lower and become the slick evidence of desire.
“Somebody open the damn door, it’s getting to be a sauna in here,” Jamaal yelled, making Etaín laugh and end the kiss.
“Oh no, no, no,” Derrick said, and she could see him fanning himself at his workstation. “I for one am enjoying myself.”
Bryce made a motion toward the privacy screens. “The shop isn’t licensed for porn. You want to take this out of sight?”
Jamaal snorted. “Better crank up the music so we won’t be hearing what’s going on back there. Imagining it is bad enough.”
“Shall I send Myk for your kit? Or do you have what you need here?” Eamon asked, smiling at the banter around them.
“You’re serious about doing this?”
“Absolutely. I thought you might prefer to do it here, but if I’m mistaken…”
She wavered, torn, fear nearly getting the upper hand. Her surety about the design and it’s placement, the same confidence she’d always felt and what had turned out to be foresight when it came to Cathal, slammed hard and fast against the possibility she was somehow being influenced by the Dragon.
This is what it feels like to be mind-fucked. And with sudden insight she understood it would never end if she didn’t take control. Didn’t decide and move on, learning through trial and error and consequence rather than being paralyzed by doubt.
Doubt had never been a problem for her before. She wouldn’t let it continue to plague her.
“No. Send Myk for my kit.”
She guided Eamon to the area se
t aside for tattoos and piercings done on breasts, buttocks, and genitals, or that risked flashing those body parts.
Seconds later Adele blasted through the room speakers a couple of decibels louder than usual, Jamaal’s laughter saying he was making good on his comment to block out sounds coming from behind the screen.
She laughed too. It worked for her. It meant they could talk more freely.
With a grim expression, Liam took up a position leaning against the screen while she had Eamon sit on the massage table rather than the client chair. “I didn’t hear you offer him any assurances,” she said, reintroducing the assassin’s unanswered question.
Eamon shrugged, producing a ripple of muscles beneath his very expensive shirt. “I am lord here.”
“Careful,” she said, touching a fingertip to his lips, a flutter going through her belly when he pulled the finger into his mouth for a quick suck as his gaze dipped to nipples that ached to have him do the same to them.
Two could play this game.
Her hands went to the front of his shirt. “This needs to come off.”
He made no move to help or hurry her as button by button she exposed smooth golden skin. He trembled when she circled pebbled nipples, inhaled sharply when she covered them with the eyes at the center of her palms though she didn’t need them to see what they had between them. Like to like, the call of it was an ever-increasing compulsion she had no will to resist.
He spread his legs and she stepped into the space he’d created. Her hands moved upward, sliding across his collarbones and then down to his biceps, closing around them to the extent she could. “This is where the tattoos will go, like something a Viking would wear, except instead of fashioned gold it’ll be my ink.”
“A fitting analogy. Truth has been distorted over the centuries and with the merging of one culture into another. The Vikings once called those of us they glimpsed gods. The Aesir. Though the name was a broad label encompassing a number of the supernatural.”
Aesirs. She didn’t want to delve into the reasons he’d named his place what he did. But she couldn’t resist saying, “A god, huh? Don’t expect me to worship you except like this.”
She kissed him, teasing him with lips and tongue and hands that had already learned how and where he liked to be touched, his desire rebounding, ratcheting up her own until they were both breathing hard, the craving for more heightened by the impossibility of having it, given the Elven guard.
Eamon’s smile was pure masculine satisfaction. “As humans are fond of saying, this works for me.”
It took a moment for the haze of need to clear. She laughed. “You mean as worship goes?”
“Yes.” His eyes darkened as he fisted her hair with enough strength to be both threat and turn-on. “Though I also enjoy having you on your knees in front of me.”
Taking his cock in her mouth. Pleasuring him.
Her cunt clenched at the imagery. At the remembered feel and scent and taste of him. With the knowledge that he gave as good as he got, and then some. Always.
We could forget about the tattoo and go home. But the words remained unspoken, held back by premonition or instinct or something other than the Dragon, and then Myk arrived with her kit, locking the future in place.
She shook the weird thoughts and sensations off, the routine of setting up tools and ink reducing the burn of desire until it simmered in the background even when her hand circled Eamon’s arm. She held it steady as she used an antiseptic wipe then picked up the disposable razor and stroked it over skin that looked as though it didn’t need it.
“Last chance,” she said after a second hit with the wipe and the application of a small amount of Vaseline.
“Proceed, Etaín.”
The corners of her mouth kicked up at the lordly answer. “Go ahead and lie down then.”
If she were using her machine, she’d put him in a different position, but the handheld needles required intense concentration and strength of will, along with physical stamina and control to push them through skin and put the ink in at a consistent depth.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as a final step. The design was there in her mind with crystal clarity, the muscle memory of it already in her hand from putting it on Cathal.
A second deep breath and she picked up a thin needle, dipping it in black ink. “If you need a break from the pain, tell me.”
Lord Eamon didn’t deem the instruction worthy of comment, and she felt his utter confidence as she placed her left hand on his right biceps and stretched the skin.
Outline first. The change in position required by it allowing him relief from the sting of the needle even if he didn’t ask for it.
Then shading, though unlike the all-black art she’d put on Cathal, she threaded red and blue and gold into Eamon’s tattoo, the same shades found in the vines and band she wore. The electric hum of connection and awareness snapped into place, stronger than what she’d experienced hugging Jamaal and Derrick, and not yet what she had with Cathal.
Eamon took her hands as she rested after finishing the work on his right biceps. He brushed his thumbs over the eyes on her palms, and immediately Liam was there, stepping into her consciousness like the dark promise of death. “You tempt fate, Lord.”
Because of the magic. Because of the Dragon he believed was only an avatar.
“Come with me to Aesirs,” Eamon said, thighs widening as he pulled her forward until she stood close enough to feel the heat always radiating from him. “Meet more of those who will call you Lady. Spend time in the world that’s your birthright.”
She couldn’t deny him. “I’ll need to detour to my apartment for a change of clothes.”
“The dress of the other night wasn’t the only clothing I purchased with you in mind. An entire wardrobe of outfits suitable for Aesirs is in our suite there.”
She balked at hearing suitable, the word still capable, after all these years, of scraping off the thin scab covering old wounds of rejection. She couldn’t prevent the instant stiffening, but she did manage to keep from pulling away and taking the first steps toward escape.
He touched his forehead to hers. “If you like none of the outfits then wear what you have on. I bought them for your pleasure and my own, though personally I prefer you with nothing on at all.”
“I bet you do,” she said on a laugh, kissing him before stepping back, her gaze going to the broad, bold band announcing her claim on him. “I’ll go with you to Aesirs after we’re done here.”
Twenty
Pass it,” Sleepy Ruiz ordered, mood shifting from generous to pissed as Puppy kept sucking on the pipe.
That’s how Puppy had gotten tagged with the street name. Beer, meth, didn’t matter what was being offered, he was like a cachorro on its madre’s tit.
Puppy gave up the pipe. Sleepy took a long draw. “Motherfuck, this is good stuff,” he said, getting the flash that made his dick go instantly hard.
He took a second hit before passing the dope to Puppy then picking up the cellphone and looking at the picture Drooler sent from the shop. It was making him crazy not knowing who this guy was and why he was asking around about him.
The only thing he could think of was that it had something to do with Lucky. Fucking Cathal Dunne must have made Lucky talk. Using drugs maybe. Or torture. Lucky would never have given up a homie otherwise.
Lucky wasn’t a coward. An order came down and he’d take care of business. The only way he wouldn’t, especially when Jacko did the asking, was if something bad happened.
Sleepy speed-dialed Drooler. “Come on, man, answer your fucking phone.”
But he knew Drooler wouldn’t if his uncle was out in the shop. Drooler wouldn’t even text; he wouldn’t risk his tio’s temper. The man wouldn’t use his fists there, but he’d sure as fuck use the heel of his boot on any phone he caught being used while someone was on the clock.
He got voicemail. “I’m dying here, ese. Call me!”
He put the pho
ne on the couch and held out his hand for the pipe.
Puppy made a little whimpering sound, like they were littermates and he was getting knocked off the teat. Motherfucker might already have been blooded a couple of times, but he wasn’t going to lose the nickname anytime soon.
Sleepy sucked the last of the meth into his lungs, feeling energized, ready to hunt down the guy asking around about him and beat out some answers.
The cell chimed. Drooler.
“Yo, homie,” Sleepy said.
“Emilio didn’t want to give anything up. He said he wanted to stay uninvolved.”
Sleepy lunged to his feet. “He’s going to change his mind when I get there.”
“Chill. Chill. I worked it. You’re going to love this. Might even get some money out of it. Guy was just doing a favor for some tattoo artist friend of his. Supposedly got a book deal going down and needs pictures of the guys she’s put art on.”
“She?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I think Emilio said she. I’m outside on break. I go in to ask, I won’t get back to you for a while.”
“Don’t bother man.” She. There was only one she who’d ever put ink on him, and he felt the burn of those places like they’d suddenly come alive and were trying to drag him down and make him feel like a loser.
Bitch. But his eyes skittered to the crystal pipe on the table.
He’d shaken the habit off once. Even come up to San Francisco to stay with an older sister to get clear of the gang scene. Homies down in LA didn’t appreciate him covering those tats. Fuck him for letting Justine talk him around to it. But hanging with Lucky who was in tight with Jacko and on his way to being made had smoothed that shit over and now he was sporting new art showing the tie to his boys.
Etaín. That was who covered up his old gang tats. “Emilio give you the guy’s name?”
“No. But somebody else said Derrick something. Said he was a tattoo artist, too, worked at a place called Stylin’ Ink.”
Stylin’ Ink. Yeah, seems that was the place Etaín worked too.
“Thanks, homie.” He took off his shirt and made the muscles ripple, picturing himself in a book.
