One woman moved forward with a stack of money in her hand. She began flipping the dollars onto his body as if she was dealing a deck of cards. Another flung a stack into the air, and money fell like confetti all around him. It was absolutely crazy. When the last dollar stuck to his sweaty chest, Caelius leaned forward, caressed the face of each one, and then backed away. Upon the last beat of the music, he bowed, threw a little wave, smiled, and pushed through the curtain. That’s when she saw it.
Caelius’s smile wasn’t genuine. He was forcing himself to appear happy. This was a totally changed man from the one that had left her in Austin. He had a slight dusting of a beard, and his eyes were beyond sad. However, it was the beautiful tattoo of large, gray eyes peering through a misty fog and stretching across the top portion of his back that told her everything she needed to know. He was suffering—for her.
That realization flipped a button deep inside. This was the man she loved. There was no denying it. Something thick and fierce surged into her chest and overtook every emotion. She wanted to strangle any woman that touched him, or even looked like she wanted to place a hand on his body. The feelings were insane, and she had to turn away to keep from acting on the thoughts. This was his job, for god’s sake!
Taking a deep breath, she backed up into the opulent room behind her and plopped down on a sofa to get her bearings. The sensuous voice of the emcee drifting through the room interrupted her scramble to decipher the newly discovered barbaric side to her nature.
“Ladies. That was Caelius from Austin, Texas that got your motor running. Not to worry, he’ll be back to finish what he started. Now, put your hands together and prepare yourself for The Magnificent 7 Male Revue. Not one, but seven rock-hard, sweaty pieces of man meat to lose your minds over. Getcha ass up to the stage, and let’s start this party rolling.”
Rhia watched in quiet wonder as the horde lining the upper platform scooted out of sight and descended the stairs. She had the whole doorway to herself, if she was so inclined. Rising back to her feet, she darted back to her perch and watched the entertainers keep the packed crowd on their feet and screaming for more. They performed perfectly choreographed acts that included the full team as well as individual performances. How some of those large men could flip and contort their massive bodies around like that was beyond her comprehension. She had to admit their butts were every bit as scrumptious as Caelius’s. Women were pulled up on stage and endured the feigned horror of having a hunky man writhe all over their bodies. However, they always wobbled from the stage with a huge grin on their faces. The towel acts were particularly invigorating.
Realizing that she was completely exposed at the gaping entrance to the upper level, Rhia thought it best to descend the stairs and get lost in the crowd. In the calming darkness next to the exit, she watched as Caelius joined several of the acts. He looked like he’d worked with them for years. He was definitely in his element.
An hour later, she realized that the men were moving out into the crowd for some one-on-one dance action with the ecstatic women. As soon as Caelius hopped from the stage, Rhia hauled ass out of the room. She couldn’t stomach the thought that the girls would have greater access to him. She marveled at how fast jealousy had firmly sunk its greedy claws into her and refused to let go. She’d never felt this intense about anyone in her life. It was surreal.
Rhia snorted as she flew down the stairs and through the Althalos’s expansive interior. Yep. It was best if she parked her butt in the rental car, strategically placed three slots over from his Jaguar, and just waited for him. Otherwise, he’d be bailing her out of jail for assault. It was that simple.
Chapter 18
Hunching down behind the steering wheel of the Ford Escort, Rhia blinked a few times and tried to calm her heart. Caelius was standing next to his Jaguar. He looked freshly showered, and his hair was back in the familiar thick braid. Three of the entertainers from the show were trying to talk him into joining them for an after party. He was steadily thanking them while also declining their offer with a promise of a rain check. Eventually, she heard the purr of his engine and scooted up so she could see which direction he was heading.
Quickly getting the car into gear, she followed him from the parking lot. Thankful she was in a vehicle that wouldn’t break down on her at a crucial point, Rhia kept her eyes glued to his distinctive taillights and hoped he was heading back to his hotel. Twenty minutes later, they were entering Los Angeles and she allowed her shoulders to relax. That respite immediately halted as soon as his signal flashed and he turned into the parking lot of what looked like a bar. Crap!
Swinging the Escort into a slot five down from his, Rhia decided that if she couldn’t catch him before he got inside, she’d just follow him in and reveal her presence. She was starting to feel like a stalker with a few loose bolts, and this needed to end. Closing the door quietly, she skirted the edge of the shrubbery and tried to catch up with his long strides.
Rhia stopped in her tracks when he paused at the door leading into the club. He stared up at the neon sign flashing over the entrance, placed his hands on his hips, and eventually lowered his chin. Confused, she watched him shake his head and start to turn away from the door. She gasped when it flew open and smacked him right in the back. Caelius immediately swiveled around and caught a young, blonde woman erupting from the entrance and crashing right into his arms. He ensured she was steady on her feet, and then quickly released her. She was crying.
Rhia pressed her body up against the wall of the bar and watched the interaction play out. It only got worse. No sooner than Caelius lowered his hands, four men burst from the door at a dead run. They almost plowed right over the girl. They were built like football players and would have crushed her. Caelius snatched her out of the way, set her to the side, and released her again. The glare from the tallest one spelled trouble, and she was right.
“Get your fucking hands off of her.”
Caelius raised his palms and backed away. “No worries. I was just making sure she didn’t fall to the ground. You almost knocked her over. I don’t want any trouble.” He turned away and walked unhurriedly across the parking lot. Rhia gasped when the group followed him, and the leader shoved Caelius on the back. He stumbled, swiveled around, and raised his palms again.
“No need for violence. I’m leaving.”
The blonde grabbed the aggressor by his arm. “Logan, leave him alone. He didn’t do anything wrong. What the hell? This is exactly why I don’t want to be with you. You get too damn jealous when you drink. I can’t even glance at a guy and you want to tear his head off. He was just helping me. Don’t be an ass.”
Logan peeled her fingers off his arm, moved her aside, and stalked toward Caelius.
“He needs to keep his hands to himself, and I’m just the one to teach his foreign ass that lesson.”
Rhia watched in horror as his big hand formed into a fist and the other guys moved forward with him. They wanted a fight, no matter the circumstances. She watched Caelius’s body move into a defensive stance and become very still. Scrabbling to get her phone out so she could call 9-1-1, Rhia gasped when Logan swung his meaty fist toward Caelius. It was too late to call for help. All she could do was watch and pray no one got injured.
Caelius easily stepped aside and dodged the strike. She heard the girl scream a string of profanities at Logan before she stalked across the parking lot and away from the inevitable. She wanted no part of this, and Rhia couldn’t blame her. Undaunted, Logan lunged again, but this time Caelius caught him with an uppercut that sent his big ass flying backward. Rhia swore she could hear the idiot’s tailbone crack when he struck the ground. He howled in pain, and the remaining three immediately attacked.
Rhia watched in amazement as Caelius easily beat their asses. Maybe all that training for the stage taught him some great defensive moves, because the guys didn’t stand a chance. Anything thrown at him was blocked. Arms were twisted, legs kicked out from underneath them, and punches to the gut provided i
f he got bored with slinging them around. The group began tiring, and one scurried away as if he knew that they’d met their match and the fight wasn’t going anywhere near their favor. He jumped into a black pickup and started the engine. Perhaps this would end now that they were down a thug.
Rhia frowned when she spotted him returning to the fight. When he lifted his arm, she lost the ability to breathe as soon as she saw the object in his hand. It was a gun, and it was aimed right at Caelius’s back. It wobbled in his hand, but he was close enough to cause severe damage.
Rhia felt like she was shouting in slow motion. “Gun,” was all she could manage to get out of her throat before her gaze flew back to Caelius. His head swiveled around, and she saw the immediate comprehension of what was pointing in his direction. She screamed, and Caelius promptly disappeared.
Staggering backward, Rhia clamped a hand over her mouth to stop another scream from bringing attention to her location. Frozen to the spot, she watched the thug with the weapon blink a few times and then start frantically looking around the parking lot. “Where the hell did he go? Logan! Did you see that?”
Rhia ducked low and scurried back to the Escort. When she was inside and brave enough to peek over the steering wheel, she found the guy trying to lift his buddies up from the ground. Eventually, he had all the injured idiots in the truck. She heard Logan yelling from the back seat. “Go find Mandy. The bitch took off again.” She felt instant relief as the vehicle roared away.
Sitting up, Rhia rubbed her eyes, blinked a few times, and stared at the spot where all the insanity had taken place. Where the fuck was he? Her mouth fell open when a foggy mist began building slowly over the spot where the attackers had fallen. Gradually, Caelius reappeared as the mist dissipated. Just like that. He didn’t walk around a corner or rise up from the ground. No, he simply formed out of a cloud. He pulled his keys from his pocket and began walking toward the Jaguar. Rhia felt like she’d lost her mind. Cognizant enough to realize he was drawing closer, she slid down in the seat and waited until she heard his engine start.
Rising up, she tried several times to stick the key into the ignition. Silently screaming for her shaking hands to get their shit together, she was able to get the car moving and catch up with him. Cursing her stupidity, Rhia knew that by all things that were sane, she should be hauling ass to the airport and boarding the next flight back to Austin. What she’d witnessed was beyond comprehension. But no, here she was, following a being that she knew full well, and without hesitation, was not from this world. Nope. She wasn’t in the least bit sane. Hell, she hadn’t been since the moment she’d met him. She wanted answers, and she wasn’t going to stop until she got them all.
Five minutes later and mind still spinning, Rhia watched Caelius’s Jaguar pull into a hotel parking lot. She passed the entrance, turned on the side street, and drove slowly as she kept an eye on his car. She pulled over to the curb and watched him park and enter room 142. Swinging the car around, she made her way to the lobby entrance. After several minutes of convincing the desk clerk that she wanted a room on the other side of the building so the sun wouldn’t blind her in the morning, she snatched the key card for room 144 and quickly made her way back to the car. Assured that Caelius wasn’t outside, she grabbed her piece-of-shit suitcase and sprinted to the room. Relieved to find herself behind closed doors, Rhia plopped on the mattress, stared at the plush blue carpet as if it held all the answers, and tried to reason with herself.
“Think, Rhia. Do you march down to his room and demand to know how the hell he could disappear like that, or do you wait and see if he does some other fantastical feat of magic?” Flopping back against the mattress, she glared at the ceiling. “Fuck! Neither option sounds like it’ll turn out good for me.”
Rolling to her side, Rhia tried to calm her thoughts. If she asked him outright, she was positive he’d laugh his ass off before promptly denying everything. He’d try to play it off like she hadn’t seen it correctly, or she’d been too frightened to know what really happened. Then she’d spend the next hour trying to explain why she was even there in the first place. Snorting, she could just hear her lame comeback.
“You better be glad I was stalking you, dipshit, or you’d be dead right now. Now let’s get back to why you keep confusing the hell out of me.”
Despite how incredulous it was, she knew what she’d seen. He wouldn’t be able to convince her otherwise. Okay, then. My only other option is to keep an eye on him and catch him in the act. Snorting, she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like he’s going to wander into another situation like that. I’ll be waiting forever.”
Rising up, she glared at the clock. “Hell, it’s three in the morning. No wonder I can’t think.” Grabbing her suitcase, Rhia dragged it next to the bathroom and flipped it open.
“Shower and sleep. That’s what I need.” She pulled her phone from her purse, set the alarm to go off in four hours, and jumped in the shower. As the warm water beat a soothing pulse on top of her head, Rhia closed her eyes. “I’m going to stick to you like glue, Mr. Caelius Meron. I need to know what you are.” She released a weary sigh as she leaned her forehead against the tile.
“And especially what you are to me.”
* * * *
Caelius rolled to his side and pulled the comforter up to his nose. He was completely baffled as to why hotel rooms had to place the air-conditioner right next to the bed. It wouldn’t be so bad if he could just turn the stupid slots to point somewhere else. No, they had to blow ice right on his face. If he turned the damn thing off he started sweating in three minutes. The knobs claiming low, medium, or high variations of freezing air were a joke. They were all high.
Flopping to his back, he piled two pillows up next to his head to block the artic wind trying to turn him purple. Fuck it! It didn’t matter anyway. He couldn’t sleep and it had nothing to do with the air. His mind kept running the parking lot scene over and over and the outcome always turned out the same. He’d misted. Right there in front of the humans.
Looking down the barrel of a gun held in the hand of a drunken asshole could make you do the craziest things. The Trejani could forgive exposing their abilities when it came to life or death situations, so it wasn’t guilt that had him uneasy. It was the voice that had warned him of the weapon. There had been another person in the parking lot. Perhaps it had been the leader’s girlfriend. He wasn’t sure. It would forever be a mystery, but it still bothered him. Whoever it had been, he hoped they’d been too frightened to film it with their phone. That would be hard to talk his way out of.
If he’d only kept driving toward the hotel instead of making a last-minute decision to pull into the bar’s parking lot, he’d probably be asleep right now. He’d known better. Drinking wasn’t the answer. It only got him into more trouble. The problem was only buried, not destroyed. It wasn’t a theory any longer. He could’ve been killed. And for what? Something as stupid as a misunderstanding mixed with alcohol? No, he’d gotten his second wake-up call. It was time to go home. Not to Austin, but to Insedivertus.
He hadn’t seen his father in over six months. Perhaps if he recharged with the pure energy of his home world he could begin thinking clearly, too. He needed a distraction, and this was the only thing he could think of that would take him far enough away to possibly allow him to decide his next step. Would it be a future with or without Rhia? He groaned and rolled to his side.
Gods! He missed the way her eyes would turn different shades depending on the color she chose to wear that day. The first time she’d worn that dark blue T-shirt to work, he’d actually lost his breath. She was excruciatingly beautiful. One smile and his knees trembled. He was complete toast as soon as her husky voice passed those pouty lips. She was so smart and had goals for her life. He just wished that he could be a part of it, too.
Lifting his lids, he stared at the phone lying on the nightstand. Before he could talk himself out of it, he snatched it up and punched in her number. She’d be asleep, but at
least he could hear her voice on the answering machine. He smiled when her sensuous, lilting words sounded in his ear.
“You’ve reached Rhia Brennan. I’m not available at the moment. Please leave a message, if you’re so inclined.”
Caelius worked himself through several deep breaths, but couldn’t bring himself to speak. He felt a deep sadness fill his chest that threatened to suffocate him from the pressure. He pressed the “End” key and set the phone aside.
Why couldn’t he leave that poor female alone? She probably hated him with a passion by now. What women wouldn’t? He’d begged her to be with him, and then he’d just disappeared. Flowers? What kind of message had he sent with that move?
“Yeah, it’s me. Just wanted to remind you that I misled you. Don’t worry, they’ll die just like my promise.” Fuck! He’d be surprised if she didn’t slap his face if he ever ran across her by accident. Resigned to the fact that sleep was off the agenda, Caelius flipped the TV on and prayed for something boring enough to knock his ass out.
Chapter 19
Rhia bolted up from the chair and promptly knocked her head into the lamp swinging over the small table. Groggy, she stared at her phone ringing and vibrating across the table. Panic struck the middle of her chest, and she yanked the curtains aside. The brightness blasted her directly in the eyes, and she cursed. Blinking rapidly, she sank back into the chair from sheer relief when she saw Caelius’s car still parked in the same spot. Shoving the curtains closed, she fought through the black spots dancing around the room and snatched her phone up.
“Hello?”
“Rhia?”
“Yes. Oh, Hi Scott.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Perfectly fine. What’s up?”
“I can’t find the long flat tray that fits the bottom of the third pastry cabinet.”
Fueled by Lust: Caelius (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 16
