Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) (10 page)

             
“Listen”, Jess interrupted. “I need to see you for myself and make sure you’re all right, and you have a lot of explaining to do.  I want to hear
everything
.  Where are you?”

             
“Umm…”  Liv glanced out the second story window down the shop-lined street, trying to get her bearings.  “There’s a pub on Center Street called Gillie’s.  I don’t know what it’s like, but I walked by it the other day and it’s the only place I can think of that I actually know how to get to.  I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes, okay?”

             
Jess let out an audible sigh.  “Yeah, okay.  I’ll grab a cab and I’ll see you there.”

             
Shit
.  She had forgotten how she had ended up here in the first place.  Jace and Erath had been so nice to her this morning, but they weren’t likely to let her just walk out the door, either.  Liv poked her head out into the hallway and listened.  No sound.  She slipped the door closed behind her and headed for the stairs, feeling like a naughty child sneaking out, which was ridiculous, since she was a grown woman and no one had actually declared her a prisoner here, even if it had been implied more than once.  Even so, she didn’t
feel
trapped or frightened, which was really… puzzling.

She could see the front door from the bottom of the
big wooden staircase, and she paused to listen again.  Voices were coming from behind a partially closed door off of the living room, and it sounded like arguing.  It must be Leanan keeping the guys busy, maybe even so she could escape.  She didn’t know why the strange, beautiful woman Erath called
Grandma
would want to help her, but she wasn’t going to question it right now.  Only a few more steps to freedom. 

She reached for the ornate brass doorknob, but quickly drew her hand away when the thing seemed to have some sort of elec
tric buzz going through it.  An alarm system maybe?  She tentatively reached for it again and her hand tingled, but nothing bad happened.  She turned the knob slowly, and the door opened easily.  Shrugging, she walked out, carefully closing it behind her. 

The walk to Gillie’s was only a couple of blocks, so she got there before Jess. 
She knew she should be glad to get out of that place that for all she knew could be a half-way house for lunatics, which would actually explain a lot, but… her mind kept going back to Bastien.  What was it about him that made her want to… well, to be perfectly honest, rip off both their clothes and slide her skin over every inch of his hard, hot body.  He was gorgeous, but that wasn’t all that drew her to him.  He seemed distant somehow, almost sad.  She sighed.  And wasn’t it just the stereotypical feminine delusion, to think she could take the lost, broken man and fix him. 
Pathetic, Liv.
 

In typical pub fashion, the interior
of Gillie’s was dimly lit and smelled of layers of stale beer and cigarette smoke.  Hard rock music thudded through the sound system, barely competing with the voices and laughter of the thirty or so patrons scattered around the place even though it was barely after noon, most with a beer in hand, a few playing darts in one corner.  The group of men standing near the bar looked like they might belong to some sort of motorcycle gang, and their eyes followed her as she made her way to a free table against the far wall.  Unabashed, she gave them all a sweet smile.  With their tight jeans and black leather, some of them weren’t bad looking at all, and this was, after all, supposed to be her vacation from reality.  Jess was going to love this place.

             
Liv wasn’t there more than a few minutes before her best friend walked in.  All of the male heads at the bar turned to look at her with appreciation, because quite frankly, Jess was stunning.  Tall with delicate features and thick auburn hair, she constantly turned heads no matter where she was.  Liv raised her hand and waved.  “Jess, over here!”

             
Spotting her from across the room, Jess narrowed her eyes and strode over in her high heeled boots, cuffing Liv playfully in the shoulder before pulling her into a suffocating hug.  “Damn you!  I was worried half to death!  I thought you’d been murdered in a back alley or something.”  At the sheepish look on Liv’s face, Jess dropped suddenly into the chair next to her.  “Oh… my… god… you were attacked in a back alley, weren’t you?”

             
Her friend was nothing if not
extremely
perceptive.  Sometimes it bordered on scary, like she could read minds or something.  “Yeah… I got lost.  But before you go all crazy though… I’m fine.  This guy came out of nowhere and saved my ass.”

             
Jess wasn’t going to be placated that easily.  “Jesus Liv, what were you doing in a goddamn alley?  This is Glasgow, not Windsor Palace.  You could have been killed!”

             
“But I wasn’t.  I’m telling you, this unbelievably gorgeous guy showed up, and he… took care of the thug for me.”  She would leave out the little fact that her attacker then apparently disintegrated before her eyes.  For now.  She still hadn’t come to any viable conclusions on that one herself.

             
Jess pressed her hand to her chest.  “He called the police, right?”

             
“No, he took the guy out.  Then he insisted on taking me back to his place because… and this is where I still don’t know the details… I apparently saw too much or something.”  She purposely left out the part where he had drugged her, because Jess would go ballistic and probably call the cops on her own. 

             
Jess’s mouth had formed a perfect round ‘O’.  “Is he in the mob?  Do you think he’s in the mob?  Because that’s not something to get messed up with Liv…”

             
“No… no nothing like that.  Whatever’s going on, he’s one of the good guys.  I’d know if he weren’t.  Oh, and get this… he drives an Aston Martin.”

             
Jess relaxed a little at the mention of an expensive car.  “So he’s hot
and
he has money?  Where the hell is he?  Don’t let him get away!”  She paused as a waiter came over and casually ordered them both a local brand of beer that Liv had never even heard of.  Then she leaned across the table and said in a low voice, “So, he took you home… and you banged him, right?”  Jess was grinning from ear to ear, looking so hopeful for juicy details that Liv had to laugh.

             
“Nothing happened.  I fell asleep.”

“So
… you were saved by an unbelievably hot and apparently very wealthy man who took you back to his place and… nothing happened?”

             
Liv felt her shoulders sag a little.  “Well, no.  I don’t think it was his place, exactly.  More like a private hotel or something, I don’t know.  But maybe I’m just not his type.”  And now that she had walked away from him, she was kind of regretting it.  She would probably never see him again, and that was leaving her with a strange, hollow feeling in her chest.  She wished she had at least gotten to kiss him.

             
Jess snorted.  “Are you kidding me?  You’re everyone’s type.  You’re drop-dead gorgeous Liv.  Every man in this room has his eyes glued to you as we speak.”

             
Liv
knew
she had nothing on Jess’s extravagant beauty, but as she glanced around, it did seem like several of the male patrons were looking at her with interest… the rest were looking at Jess… but that wasn’t the point; she at least had a small portion of the leers.  She smiled with satisfaction.  “I only just met the guy, Jess.  I’m not just going to jump into bed with him… presuming he would even want me to.”

             
“Of
course
he wants you to jump into bed with him, don’t be stupid.  He’s
male
.”  The waiter plunked their beers down on the table and walked away.  Jess picked hers up and took a sip.  “Mmmm… this is good.  Look Liv, I see it this way.  If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  If life hands you a rich, sexy guy on a silver platter, you open the champagne and have a party.”  She tossed her long hair over one shoulder with a flourish.  “That’s my philosophy and I’m sticking to it.”

             
Liv laughed out loud.  “I have to admit, that
is
a good philosophy.  But unfortunately, I’m not always as… uninhibited as you are.”  It was true though.  If Jess had found herself in the same situation, she would not only be dating the guy, but probably would have chained him to the bed and talked him into buying her a Maserati by now.  That was a kind of confidence and control with men that Liv could only hope to aspire to.

             
“Don’t look now”, Jess leaned closer to whisper, “but two hotties from over by the bar are headed this way.  And here I was starting to think we’d lost our charm, girlfriend.  Took them long enough.”

             
Liv picked up her glass from the slightly sticky table and looked anyway as she took a drink.  Both men were good looking, but her mind automatically flashed to Bastien. 
Not nearly as good looking as Bastien
.  He was on his own planet of good looking, as far as she was concerned. 

T
he guys introduced themselves as Seamus and Donnie and sat down at their table when Jess scooted over to make room for them, flirting shamelessly all the while. Liv’s mind wandered and she realized she hadn’t given any thought to where she would go after she was done here.  Back to her hotel, most likely. Certainly not back to Bastien’s place, because that would be just pathetic.  But what if she
really
never saw him again?  Somehow, that thought was far more disturbing than it should have been.  Would he track her down?  She hadn’t told him where she was staying… but wouldn’t it be so sexy if he showed up at her hotel and…

             
“Liv!  Earth to Liv!”  She suddenly realized that Jess was talking to her.

             
“What?”

             
“Are you game, or not?”

             
“Yeah, sure”, she answered absently.  “Wait, game for what?”

             
Jess rolled her eyes impatiently.  “Whiskey tasting!  Where were you just now… oh no, wait.  I know where you were.”  She gave Liv a shit-eating grin and a wink.

             
“Whiskey tasting.  Okay, sure.  We
are
in Scotland, I guess.”

             
The two guys turned out to be complete assholes, at least in Liv’s opinion, but at least they were a distraction.  And they bought the whiskey shots, as Jess no doubt would have pointed out.  Although several shots of the hard stuff when she wasn’t used to it was perhaps not such a good idea.  She was a light-weight to begin with, and now Liv was feeling just a bit tipsy.  Pleasantly tipsy, though.  The hard bass of the music thumped inside her chest almost like a second heartbeat, and her inhibitions began a slow slide as she relaxed and even flirted a little.  Jess would be proud… no wait, Jess was frowning, tapping her fingers on the table, and watching the door as if she was expecting someone to walk through at any moment.  Liv turned to look for herself, and when she looked back, Jess was twirling her hair around her finger and chatting with Seamus.  Whatever.  She must have imagined it, because she was pretty sure Jess didn’t even know anyone in Scotland, so there couldn’t be anyone in particular she was watching for.

Chapter
8

             
The late afternoon shift was not Bastien’s favorite, but he had switched with Jace so he could leave for Avalon sooner.  Erath had promised to keep an eye on Liv, and Leanan had offered to talk to her alone and see what she could find out, but he still wished he had gone upstairs to see her before he left for work.  It wouldn’t be long now until he had the female all to himself while the Guild followed up on the Buggane spies and made sure everything was clear.  He was both excited and absolutely fucking terrified at the prospect.

But right now he was following
the trail of the bad guys through an abandoned mill building, a place so dark and derelict no human would set foot there, unless they happened to be out of their mind.  The Dark Sidhe were close.  He held his dagger at the ready, his body tensed, every muscle taught.  He lived for this: the adrenaline rush of the hunt, the thrill of the kill.  It was all that sustained him, and he fed from it as much as he did the food he took into his body.  Maybe more.

But tonight, something was off.  He was having a hard time concentrating, and his mind kept drifting
back to Liv.  He wanted nothing more than to be done with his job for the night so he could go home and see her… just to make sure she was still safe, of course.  And that Jace had gotten her something to eat like he had promised. 

The crazy thing was, he’d rescued females many times before.  Hundreds if not thousands of them over the years.  And once they were safe, he never thought of them again. 
Never
.  Not even once that he could remember.  So what was so different about this one, other than she apparently wasn’t human?  She had him wanting to crawl out of his own skin, or press his naked flesh to hers…
fuck
.  He had to stop thinking about it or pretty soon he wasn’t going to be able to walk.

             
His cell suddenly vibrated in his pocket, and he fished it out to glance at the screen.  It was Erath, but why the hell would he be calling when he knew Bastien was hunting? Something must be wrong.  Frowning, he took the call.

             
“Yeah, what’s up?”

             
“Hey man, sorry to interrupt, but we thought you’d want to know that the female you brought in is missing.”

             
“What?”  Bastien swore he felt his heart skitter to a terrified stop.  “What the fuck do you mean she’s missing?”  Shit, there went the hunt, because he had just yelled loud enough for any and all creatures in the entire building to have heard it. 

             
“Well, Jace went up to see if she wanted some dinner, and she wasn’t in your room.  We searched the whole house.  She’s not in it.”

             
“Leanan?”  Bastien paced a few steps and shoved a hand through his hair with an agitated motion.

“She just left, Liv
wasn’t with her.”

“Damn it
Erath!  We can’t just let her walk away.  Who was guarding the fucking door?”

             
Silence, then “Um… no one was guarding the door.  It had a spell on it.  We kind of forgot that she’s not human, so it, um… didn’t keep her from opening it.”

             
Bastien let loose a string of expletives that would have made Balor himself blush.  When he finally calmed down, he thought he heard Erath heave a sigh of relief.

“Take over the rest of my shift.  I’m going to find her.”

              As he passed by Gillie’s Pub on his way from the mill building, Bastien came to a sudden halt on the sidewalk.  He
knew
Liv was inside.  He could feel her there as surely as he could feel the ground beneath his feet.  A radiant life force that drew him like a moth to a flame.  Thank god! 

Liv
. He pushed open the door and stalked inside, pausing to scan the room.  He stopped cold when he saw her.  She was sitting at a table near the far wall, and she was with a small group of people.  There was a man seated next to her, and she was smiling at him, and he had his hand on her arm, fingers skimming back and forth over her skin.  There was another couple at the table, but Bastien didn’t care about them.  All he could see was Liv, and suddenly all he could think of was getting her away from the other male.  Why, he didn’t know, because he certainly had no real claim on her.  He might have told himself it was concern for what she knew about the Sidhe, and the Guild for that matter.  But the hot, twisting, flood of primal possessiveness and rage that was currently washing over him went far beyond concern about anything at all.  It was pure, visceral instinct.  With fists clenched at his sides, he prowled over to the table.

              Liv looked up as a shadow fell over the water glass she was about to lift to her lips.  She had already given up on the alcohol since the last thing she needed was to be drunk on top of everything else.  A sizzling shock of awareness skipped all the way to her fingertips when she saw who it was, and butterflies filled her stomach so quickly that she almost lost her breath. “Bastien?  What are you doing here?”

             
She took in the magnificent sight of him.  Black leather boots, black leather pants encasing long, powerful legs, tight black tee and black leather jacket.  Long hair tied at the nape of his neck.  Powerful, virile, sexy male.  She moved her gaze to his face and stopped short. 
And apparently very angry
.  She had forgotten for a second that she had kind of walked out on him.  Maybe she should have left a note?

His jaw was clenched,
nostrils flared, eyes narrowed not on her, but the guy she was sitting with.  She thought his name might be Sean, but she hadn’t really been paying attention.  No wait.  Seamus.  Yes, that was it.

             
Bastien held out his hand to her, his eyes never leaving Seamus.  “Liv, let’s go.”

             
Her breath caught in her throat at his demand, and her eyes flew to Jess, who nodded subtly and flicked her eyes towards the door.  When Liv gave her a questioning look, she mouthed
‘Oh. My. God.  He’s hot!’
. 

“
Liv!” 

She turned back to Bastien as he spoke
, no growled, her name, and began to rise from her chair.  Seamus stayed her with a possessive hand on her arm.  “This bloke your boyfriend?”

             
“Um… no”, she answered honestly.

             
Seamus smirked and looked up at Bastien.  “Look mate, the lady’s with me tonight, so go bugger off.”  

              Ignoring him, Bastien
tried
to remain calm as he concentrated on Liv.  It was not easy, what with the tight ball of anger lodged in his chest, threatening to violently erupt, and the red he was beginning to see at the edges of his vision. 
He
had found this female, and he had the inexplicable urge to throw her over his shoulder, caveman style, and walk right out the door, away from all the other males.  But the effort it was taking to keep a leash on the rage within him was costing him, pushing him towards the physical changes that Fomoiri males could not let humans witness… ever.  How long had it been since anything had pushed him this close to the edge of changing his form in plain sight?  He couldn’t even remember, his mind could only focus on one thing, as if instinct had taken over and drown out all rational thought.  He held out a hand to Liv.  “Come with me…”  Yes, that was what he wanted.

             
Liv was staring at him with fascination, as if she’d never seen anything quite like him before, but she jumped to attention as Jess pinched her under the table.  “Go!” Jess hissed in a low voice.  “Don’t be stupid!” 

              Liv didn’t budge from her seat, nor did she take her eyes off Bastien.  He seemed… different.  A little larger, stronger… and his eyes were wild with anger and pure male aggression that he was obviously keeping tightly leashed.  In that moment she had no doubt he could kill whomever he pleased… with his bare hands.  And Liv found herself drawn to all that leashed power and masculinity like a moth to the flame.  Already her heart was racing out of control, and her chest felt tight.  So much for women’s lib, she
wanted
to be the one he protected and possessed with that body.  Every feminine instinct she didn’t even know she had was crying out for her to go to him and let him carry her away, take control of her body, rip off her clothes and… she shook herself out of the fantasy that was quickly spinning out of control in her head.  Though she would certainly be finishing it later.

             
Either Seamus was already two sheets to the wind, or he hadn’t taken a good look at the amount of muscle Bastien was packing, because he stood up and put a hand possessively on Liv’s shoulder.  Honestly, she had already forgotten all about him, hadn’t even spared him a thought since Bastien had walked through that door.  “I
said
, the lady is with me tonight.  Now get the fuck outta here, punk!” 

             
Liv looked back and forth between the two men, certain that Seamus was about to be killed in a most unpleasant way, and wondering absently if she should maybe warn him somehow. 

             
Bastien held perfectly still, a predator ready to strike.  His nostrils flared again and his entire body tensed.  Liv realized Jess was tugging at her arm, whispering urgently near her ear.  “Go with him!  He has an
Aston Martin
, for god’s sake!  But
call
me!”

             
Liv turned to her friend as if a spell had suddenly been broken, and she laughed, shaking her head.  Leave it to Jess to simplify things to the point where absolutely no rules applied.  “Well if that isn’t reason enough…”  Knowing she was probably completely insane, but not wanting to see Seamus with his head ripped off, either, Liv went with her gut instinct and got up from the table, taking a step towards Bastien and slipping her hand into his.  It was large and warm and hard with calluses.  Not the hand of a man who had a desk job, that was for sure.  He looked down at her, as if he were surprised she had acquiesced so easily, then he looked to where their hands were joined, and his lips parted silently.  She felt it too… a kind of tingling awareness between them that made her have to catch her breath.  Oh yeah, there was definitely some powerful chemistry going on here.  Maybe she wouldn’t mind being held against her will for a while after all…  She started towards the door, tugging at Bastien’s hand, turning back to smile at him.  “Are we leaving, or what?”  The look of complete confusion on his face was priceless, but he followed her.  He had obviously been expecting more of a battle.  She turned and waved at Jess, who was grinning and giving her a thumbs up.  Seamus looked thoroughly pissed off, but that wasn’t her problem now, was it?  At least he was smart enough to stay in his seat and let her go.