Byzantine Heartbreak (33 page)

Nia might have felt some building warmth and arousal at watching their kiss, except that this was a kiss goodbye and the knowledge lay like a lead weight in her heart.

Cáel let Ryan go. “I love you,” he said, his voice rough. “Try not to forget that, hmm?”

“Very funny,” Ryan said dryly.

Cáel swept Nia up against him again. His heart was racing and his body was tight was arousal, which tripped her own responses. She reached up eagerly for her kiss and let the power of it sail her away into a sea of bliss.

Cáel ended the kiss with a groan and almost pushed her into Ryan’s arms. “Go,” he said roughly.

Nia put her arms around Ryan’s waist, in preparation for a jump, but she couldn’t take the final leap. The trembling that had possessed her since she had understood what Cáel meant by being the weak link now rose up and evolved into a full body shaking that threatened to make her teeth chatter.

“I can’t,” she told Ryan helplessly. “I can’t leave him.”

“We have to,” Ryan replied, his voice hoarse. “It’s for Cáel’s protection as much as it is everyone else in the agency.”

Nia stepped away from him. “Wait,” she said, reaching inside her shirt. She unclipped the chain at the back of her neck, letting Ryan see what she was doing. She hesitated. “Yes?” she asked him.

Ryan nodded. “Finally, yes,” he told her. “That’s where it belongs.”

She walked back to Cáel and held up the chain, with the Celtic tree of life medallion hanging from it. “You must wear this now,” she told him.

Cáel’s face shifted and worked and for a moment, she saw something flare deep in his eyes. His gaze skittered away from her, then came back. “Put it on,” he told her, his voice as rough as Ryan’s.

Nia reached up and fastened the chain around his neck. The medallion settled against his chest, inside the open neck of the shirt. She rested her fingertips against it as Cáel’s hands settled around her waist. She could feel him trembling.

“Go,” Cáel said, pushing her gently back toward Ryan. “You do your work. I’ll do mine and I’ll be waiting when you’re done.”

Nia looked over her shoulder at him. “Promise?”

“I happen to be good at keeping promises,” Cáel told her. He rested his hand over his heart, a form of sealing the promise.

Ryan drew her to him. “He kept his promise to win us for himself, Nia, even though it took nearly two years and most sane men would have laughed at his odds.” He smiled at Cáel. “Don’t give up on us.”

“Never,” Cáel replied instantly, his hand shifting to the medallion.

Ryan kissed Nia softly on the temple. “Take me home. The sooner we go, the sooner we can come back forever.”

“Hurry,” Cáel told them.

About the Author

Tracy Cooper-Posey is a national award-winning writer. An Australian, she brought her family with her to
Edmonton
,
Alberta
,
Canada
in 1996 to marry.
Tracy
is a net citizen— she met her husband on the Internet, and has coordinated discussion groups and teaching on-line. She also built and maintains her own web site. She has taught creative writing both on-line and at university, and entertains students and the public with anecdotes and insights into the publishing industry.

By the end of 2011, Tracy had published 38 titles, under her own and other pennames. She has won the Emma Darcy Award, and the Sherlock Holmes Society of Western Australia’s Best Pastiche Award
.
She has been a Romantic Times Top Pick author.
Her short stories and articles have appeared in various Canadian and Australian magazines and periodicals, and on the Internet.
Thief In The Night
was announced as one of RRT Review’s
Best Book of the Year
, and also selected by eCataromance for their Reviewers’ Choice Awards in February 2007. Her 2004 historical romantic suspense,
Heart Of Vengeance
, was nominated for a CAPA Award for Best Historical of 2004, a
Romantic Times
Magazine Reviewer’s Choice finalist for best medieval historical romance for 2004, and was published in Germany in February 2007. In 2010, she was again nominated for the prestigious CAPA awards, in the best erotic paranormal category, and as favourite author, and in 2011, for best paranormal romance. In early 2011 she began self-publishing her novels, with
Blood Knot
, which has been nominated at least twice for Book-Of-The-Year.

So far her life has encompassed an eighteen month stint on war-ravaged Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, and at various times she has been a secretary, office clerk, single mother, freelance writer, public speaker, columnist, law student, international traveler, writing teacher, advertising production coordinator (for a national newsmagazine), web-press production coordinator, and the first female cinematograph operator in Western Australia. She has been the editor of
WHERE Edmonton
magazine, and managing editor of the national magazine,
Canadian Cowboy Country
Magazine, and for a decade, she taught creative writing at Grant MacEwan University. She currently lives in Edmonton with her husband, a professional wrestler. You can find her web site at
http://www.tracycooperposey.com
.