She followed his gaze to the tray behind the counter and nodded. Turning from him again, she went to the tray and returned with a small plate holding the pastry. She placed it in front of him, the thick china slipping onto the counter with a clatter. He shot her an amused glance as he bit into the doughnut, and licked the chocolate icing off his lips. She spun on her heel and retrieved the coffee pot. He watched as she fill his coffee cup, thankful her nerves held long enough to keep from spilling it. Steam rose from the hot brew, and he didn’t relish wearing it.
She faced him then, a look of something other than subservience on her face.
“Will there be anything else?” she asked him.
“Aye, lass.” He sobered his expression and leaned toward her. “And you know full well what it is I want.”
That flash appeared again in her blue eyes, sending a spark through him. “You bloody—”
He smiled then, a grin he knew could charm the starch out of a potato. She blinked long lashes as she fell silent, her rosy mouth agape.
“Easy, lass,” he chuckled.
A string of colorful curses spilled from her rosebud mouth, too low to be heard clearly by anyone but himself. Shaking her head, she stomped to where the tall, dark-haired girl stood stacking coffee cups, untying the apron spanning her narrow waist as she went. “I need a bit of a break, Lori.”
The other girl nodded and Luke could only watch as the Pixie escaped through the doors that must lead to the kitchen. Luke bounded off the stool, not caring about the speculative glances from both the waitress and Jim. He shot out the door and raced around the back of the coffee shop to prevent the Pixie’s escape.
He found the girl in the alleyway behind the shop, her hands wrapped around her middle as she rocked against the brick wall at her back. She banged her fists against the wall then, all the while murmuring words he didn’t recognize. Luke felt a blast of heat strike him as the Pixie’s hair floated about her.
The next instant her eyes snapped open, focused intently on him. “Go away, Braunach!”
Caught in the thrall of her spell, he watched her skin glow, her eyes glimmer.
“You be havin’ what I want, Pixie.” Luke braced himself for another strike as he stepped closer, his heart racing as his breath grew short. “I shall have it.”
She stepped back, stilling her hands. The heat in the air ceased as quickly as it had come forth but she didn’t relax her rigid stance. She eyed him, her gaze sharp. “It’s mine.”
“You will give it to me, lass.” He crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at her. “You will not win.”
“I will, Braunach.” She raised her pointy little chin and glared back up at him. “I have more power than you!”
Luke grabbed her by the arms, and a spark of a different kind coursed through him. His body shook with sensual awareness, her bare skin scorching his palms. He stared into her eyes, grown round in surprise. She gasped, her mouth a pink, moist target he couldn’t deny. He sealed his lips to hers, tasting deeply of a sweetness more delicious than the chocolate doughnut. Sweeter than anything he’d ever tasted. She whimpered, then returned the kiss with an ardor that stunned him.
* * *
Brianna couldn’t think with the Braunach’s beguiling mouth weaving a magic
she’d never before encountered. Hot and demanding, then slow and teasing, his lips and tongue thrilled her. His smell filled her senses, fresh and spicy. Her head echoed with the sound of her heartbeat as he deepened the kiss, and she closed her eyes.
He grabbed her to him, cradling her with his hands as he pressed her against the bricks at her back. The strength of him, the sheer size of his fit body, should have frightened her. And it did, though she feared for her sanity, not her safety. She wanted nothing more than to rub against his hard flesh as she gave in to the feelings he sent through her.
He brought his mouth to her ear, licking and nibbling as she collapsed against the wall. Her hands measured the breadth of his shoulders, the ridges in his back she could feel through his soft flannel shirt.
“Ah, lass,” he purred, his mouth hot on her neck. “My God, you are sweet.”
After indulging in a few more moments of the Braunach’s heady passion, Brianna took in a ragged breath and pushed him away. When she opened her eyes, she found him staring down at her in a combination of ardor and confusion. He was confused? Then
what the bloody hell was she?
“Leave me,” she whispered.
Was that her voice, husky and low? He shook his head and brought his mouth to hers once more. She evaded the kiss with a turn of her head and pressed herself fully against the wall at her back. At least her legs would have some time to learn how to hold her up again. He seemed to recover himself at last and he eased away from her. She managed to keep from whimpering as she lost contact with his body.
“I…” He raked his fingers through his auburn locks and let out a breath. “That was not…”
She crossed her arms, hiding her trembling hands as she affected an expression she hoped he would take as indifference. “No matter,” she said. “You won’t have the treasure, Braunach. Or me.”
He blinked at her, his mouth dropping open. His brow furrowed. “I had not
thought to take you, lass,” he growled. “Not here, in this alleyway. Not now.”
But she hadn’t missed his arousal through his jeans, pressed against her in that moment when passion had ruled them both. Even now her belly clenched with a wanting she barely understood. “Leave me,” she said again.
“Aye.” He shook himself with a groan, at last giving a nod. “But know this, Pixie.
This is not the end of it.”
He stalked out of the alley, and she said a silent prayer of thanks. Oh, the Braunach was dangerous indeed. And to more than her hidden gold.
Chapter 7
“What’s up with you, Luke?” Jim asked.
Luke lifted his gaze from his mug of ale and regarded Jim for a moment. A
woman was draped over Jim, her eyes regarding Luke with open invitation despite that position. Luke just shook his head and drank deeply of the dark ale. Thankfully, Jim took little offense as he turned his attention to the girl with the too-bright blond hair. Another woman joined them, with inky black hair and eyes and a practiced pout on her full mouth.
Luke had little trouble ignoring her lure despite her surface attractiveness.
Luke had learned that several pubs downtown brewed their own ale, a fact each employee proudly declared every time he and Jim patronized one of the places. Luke thought the places weren’t much different than the taprooms back home, save for the pulsing music and odd modern clothes. He’d avoided the pubs since finding the Pixie’s location, but tonight he found he needed the diversion. This pub was loud and crowded and the perfect place for Luke to lose himself for an hour or two.
He signaled the waiter for another ale and folded his hands on the dark wood table. The dark-haired girl leaned close enough for him to smell her cloying perfume.
“How’s it hangin’, handsome?” she asked, placing her hand on his thigh.
Hanging? He smiled and took her hand from him, putting as much distance
between them as he could. She muttered something he couldn’t make out but he wouldn’t turn another smile on her. His charm was out of control tonight, and he had enough on his mind without having this forward woman on his hands.
He studied his hands then, recalling whom they’d held and touched and caressed just that afternoon.
He hadn’t meant to kiss the Pixie. That was certain. When he’d found her in the alley, a swirl of magic about her, he had only briefly feared for his safety. The hunted,
vulnerable look in her beautiful blue eyes had struck him, though he hadn’t missed her strength. She drew him to her as easily as if she’d asked him to take her instead of demanding he leave her alone. He doubted he would’ve stopped had they been anywhere besides that dirty alleyway.
Ah
God, she’d been sweet. And she’d fit him like no other. She’d given herself to him for those too-brief moments, and he hadn’t needed her Pixie magic to know she’d felt it.
She’d touched him too, arched against his arousal until he’d thought he’d burst.
Recalling her body, all supple and giving, made him harden now. She’d accused him of wanting to take her along with the treasure? Aye, he did want her. Wanted to peel the simple T-shirt and blue jeans from her body and know her like he suspected he’d never known another woman. He was honorable, damn his own hide, and there in Indianapolis for one reason: the gold needed to restore his uncle’s sanity. He wouldn’t let the saucy little Pixie sway him from that duty despite her assurances that he was the sole aggressor in that alley.
That dampened his lust. He downed his full mug of ale and stood. Leaning over, he moved the blond girl’s fingers from Jim’s shoulder and gave him a shake.
Jim disengaged himself from her and blinked up at Luke, a lazy smile curving one corner of his mouth. “W-what?” his eyes cleared. “Hey, Luke.”
“I’m going home,” Luke said. Jim began to rise but Luke shook his head. He glanced at the girl and ignored the hungry stare he got in return. “Don’t get up,” he said to Jim. “Good night.”
Jim nodded. “Good night.”
Ignoring the glances from the dark-haired girl and those he garnered from women during the short walk between their table and the door, Luke stepped out onto the
sidewalk and made his way toward his flat. The spring evening was cool, and he welcomed the chill. He wouldn’t think about the Pixie. The way she had felt in his arms, though. So soft and yielding… Muttering a curse, he continued on.
The next morning he awoke before daybreak, an odd tickling on his neck, his chest. He’d been dreaming about the Pixie, of their kiss in the alleyway. He’d done more than just kiss her in his dream too, and the erection pulsing against that small stroking hand told him his body remembered. A hand? He jerked awake, stunned to find a woman in his bed.
She grinned at him, flipping back a curtain of black hair. “Hey there, handsome,”
she purred.
Ah God, the woman from the pub, the friend of Jim’s partner. Luke sat up,
holding the sheets over his middle. “What are you doing here?”
“Jim and Tandy gave me a ride home.” She shrugged one shoulder, letting a shirt he now recognized as one of his flannels droop suggestively. “I didn’t want to spoil their good time so he let me into your place with your key.”
Luke thought for a moment, trying to make sense of her words as she flicked her tongue in his ear. His key? God, he’d given Jim a key when the man gave him his. Some sort of modern emergency plan, a “you watch my back, I’ll watch yours,” thing that Luke hadn’t really understood.
He leaned away from her. “See here, lass—”
“Ooh, that accent,” she said. She ran her hands over his chest, his belly. “And this body. Why don’t we have a little fun?”
Despite his denial his body was still hard from his dream. He didn’t want her, though. He couldn’t imagine taking his pleasure in this seasoned woman. She stroked him through the sheet anyway, arousing him with her hand until he felt desire separate
from her, from even himself. When she pulled the sheets from him, when she lowered her mouth to take him in it, he closed his eyes and leaned back on his elbows.
The amber was cold against his throat but the woman’s mouth was hot, slick.
Even the harlot in the dell hadn’t possessed the skill of this one. With her soft lips on his flesh, her nipping teeth and swirling tongue driving everything from his mind, he indulged himself for several wild moments.
“Aye,” he growled. His hips thrust upward as he clenched the sheets with both hands. “Aye…”
His blood rushed in his ears as he held on to his control. Before his climax took him, before he could spill his seed, she rose and held him tight with one hand.
“Do you want it?” she purred.
He stared into her eyes, his passion at its peak, his charm completely out of control. Aye he wanted it, wanted this. He wanted to throw his damnable honor out the thick-paned window and toss the wench on her back. Wanted to drive deep into her until she cried and begged for her own release. And he’d give it to her. He’d send her to the heavens while he let himself go at last.
“Nay,” he rasped. He removed her hand and climbed out of bed, wrapping the sheet around his waist. “I… Go, then. Please.”
She pouted, that expression that did nothing for him last night and diminished any lust he’d felt a moment ago.
“Jim said you don’t take any women home from the pubs,” she said. She stood, his shirt gaping open to show her naked body beneath. “But I felt it, Luke. You wanted me. You liked what I did to you.”
Luke didn’t want to hurt the girl but he had to get her out of here. He smiled and employed his Braunach charm to its fullest.
“Now, lass,” he said, tilting his head to one side. “You don’t want to lie with me.”
She began to nod, then stared blankly at him. As she lost that predatory gleam he knew his charm was working. She touched her face, her neck, and took in shallow breaths. “Now you want to go home, lass.” He picked up the small pile of her clothes at the floor near his bed and handed them to her. “You want to take your things and go to Jim’s place.”
She nodded. “Y-yes.”
He urged her toward the door, pushing her gently backwards until she was out of his bedroom. She turned then and he knew the exact moment the spell was broken.
She spun to face him. “Hey, wait a minute!”
Luke opened the door and gently pushed her out into the hallway. “Jim’s place, lass.”
She blinked in confusion, then nodded again. She looked down at the clothes in her hands. “But, your shirt.”
The shirt now carrying her perfume? He smiled and that unfocused look came into her eyes again. “Keep it.”
He closed the door and leaned against it, holding the sheet with one hand. Raking his fingers through his hair, he set the woman from his mind as easily as he’d set her from his apartment. First came the dream, the most erotic images he’d ever encountered dancing through his mind as he took all the Pixie offered. Then he finds this mortal harlot in his bed? He’d nearly let her unman him.
He had to find the gold and get the hell out of Indianapolis before his bloody MacDonald charm bit him in his sheet-covered backside.
* * *
Brianna set the medicine spoon down on the bedside table and brushed a lock of
golden hair from Violet’s cheek. “There, love.”
The little girl settled down beneath the quilt and sighed. “I don’t want to go, Brianna.”
Though softly-spoken, she knew the child’s protest was heart-felt. The treatments made Violet ill, and so tired she could scarcely leave her bed. Tomorrow would hopefully be one of her last visits, if the doctors’ promises were to be believed. An examination could indeed prove that miracle. And the afternoon appointment would allow Brianna the opportunity this morning to sell a bit more of the blasted Braunach’s gold.
The Braunach. He wanted the gold, that was obvious. Oh, his kiss! She wouldn’t think about him. Or his lips. Or his hands. Or the way he’d felt as he pressed against her.
She stifled a shiver.
“You have the whole of the morning to read or watch TV, Violet.” Brianna
straightened and crossed her arms. “Please don’t drive poor Mrs. Henning mad.”
Violet snuggled into her pillow and yawned. At last she nodded. Her eyes
snapped open and she shot a glance at Brianna. “You’ll be there, Brianna? Won’t you be there?”
Brianna put on a bright smile and patted the little girl’s hand. “Of course, love.”
She brought Violet’s hand to her mouth and kissed it before setting it beside her on the quilt. “Aren’t I always there with you?”
Brianna blinked. Violet’s trust struck her like a living thing. “Good night, love.”
She left her sister’s room and closed the door quietly behind her. Oh, if she were only as good as her little sister presumed. Well, she would endeavor to be as good as her sister needed. To be the woman her family wanted her to be. To be as strong as she would have to be to face down the Braunach again and again until at last he surrendered any
claim to the gold that was saving her sister’s life. His bloody charm wouldn’t make her lose control again. She would not be moved.
The whole of this day she’d kept to the snug little house. Sunday marked a day of watching movies and making cookies. Violet seemed well today, aside from the paleness that still blanketed her smooth skin, the slightly swollen belly that showed beneath the pink sparkly sweater. Her eyes were clear, her smile bright. Now the evening was upon them, and Brianna had no other way to divert her mind from the MacDonald and the danger he represented to her sister’s fragile recovery.
Brianna padded into her bedroom, ignoring for the moment the hidden treasure at the back of her closet. She stripped off her jeans and T-shirt, shrugged into her thick bathrobe and tucked the crystal key in the robe’s pocket. She walked into the bathroom set in the hallway between her room and Violet’s and hung her robe carefully on a hook on the back of the door. A hot shower would both soothe and refresh her. The tingling spray of water soon had her thinking of nothing more than the pleasure of it and the good night’s sleep that would follow. She couldn’t help but remember the Braunach’s touch on her, as if he touched her bare skin. Her breasts tingled as she recalled his hard body pressed to her, rubbing against her. How could she face him down and protect her sister, if her body was so weak as to crave his touch even now?
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