by Erica Woods
Suddenly a dark, thunderous sound boomed from Ruarc’s chest, and Jason’s hand disappeared. Ruarc dragged him by the neck away from the couch and threw him out into the hallway.
“Mine!” he snarled.
I jumped to my feet, gnawing at my lip and taking a hesitant step toward the hall.
This was what I’d been scared of. Two men and one woman; jealousy was bound to be a problem.
A noise, something clattering to the ground.
I rushed after my two guys, crashing into Ruarc in time to see Jason spring to his feet in a lithe move that would have made a gymnast proud.
“W-what are you doing?”
Patting imaginary dust off his pants, Jason grinned up at me, completely ignoring the dangerous presence grumbling at my side. “Having some fun, love.”
“It didn’t seem like fun.” I reluctantly stepped away as Jason moved past us and was surprised when Ruarc let him. In fact, Ruarc’s anger seemed to have fled, and a pleased look passed over his rugged features. He grunted and turned, keeping hold of my elbow as he led us back to the couch.
I looked between them, felt my brows draw together in confusion. Why did they both seem to be in such a good mood?
“I don’t understand this,” I said as Ruarc deposited me next to Ash. He took the time to pin Jason down with a scowl before taking his original place next to Lucien.
“I cannot say I blame you,” Ash said. “Ruarc and Jason have always had a strange relationship. Jason enjoys riling up Ruarc, and Ruarc enjoys putting Jason in his place. It has been a while,” he added. “It is nice to see them having fun again.”
“Fun?” Were my eyes bugging out of my head or did it just feel like it?
With a sly wink in my direction, Jason turned back to the board. “Come on sixes,” he said and threw the dice. Two threes peeked up at us, and Jason’s victorious whoop was loud enough to make me wince. “You’re all doomed now.” Gleefully rubbing his hands together, he took a moment to include us all in a gloating sweep of his gaze, then reached over to pluck his new property out of Lucien’s hands.
Apparently, Lucien always controlled the bank. Not only did he never cheat—cheating was apparently allowed as long as you didn’t get caught—but his meticulous manner and sharp mind kept everyone else from cheating as well.
Mostly.
“Careful, youngling, or your confidence may prove to be your downfall.” Lucien pointed at Jason’s dwindling stack of cash. “A wrong step and you will be forced to sell.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice until it was a cold whisper. “And then you may end up losing everything.”
A shudder of unease rippled below my skin, but while I rubbed at my arms to get rid of the sudden chill, Jason only smiled.
“Can’t lose something you never had, mate,” he replied and picked up the dice once more. “What do you think, love? Do I have another double in me?”
A calculated look flashed through Ruarc’s eyes. “Wasn’t that what got you in trouble before?”
Jason jerked, his throw going wild. Both dice tumbled off the table.
Ruarc bared his teeth in a wicked smile and gestured to the floor. “Every double you roll, you get a cherry.”
There was a moment of silence, then Ruarc’s deep, gravelly chuckle filled the air, and all the air in my lungs disappeared.
I loved that sound.
“Ruarc’s first prank,” Lucien said after the laughter died down. His upper lip twitched. “I’m confident Jason would have preferred Ruarc settled the manner in his usual way, instead of stealing a page out of his book.”
“I’m used to the fists,” Jason muttered. He picked up one dice, rolled it around in the palm of his hand, then picked up the other. “The prank was . . . new.”
“When was this?” I made the mistake of looking at Lucien when I spoke, and as soon as I saw him stiffen, I winced and braced myself for a scathing reply.
None came. He only stared, a tick in his jaw, expression unreadable but not frozen.
Not yet.
Jason cleared his throat. “Five years ago, I think. I can’t really remember what I’d done to piss off the beast, but instead of starting a fight, he just walked away.” An accusing look at Ruarc. “That should have been my first clue.”
Ruarc’s jaw tensed and he glared at Jason. “Meaning?”
“Meaning that you never walk away from a fight, and you are incapable of controlling your temper.”
Ruarc shot to his feet with a menacing growl. “Not true.”
A lazy smile, Jason gesturing to Ruarc’s aggressive stance. “Proving my point here. What do you think, love,” he asked me. “Think I should have known?”
When Ruarc huffed and sat back down, scowling at Jason, a part of me wanted to rush over, climb into his lap and plant kisses all over his face. Only fear of what the others would think held me back.
“Know what?” I asked, distracted.
Hands on my waist. Quickly, before I could react, they pulled. Then I was pressed against Jason’s side, his arm around my shoulders, his finger under my chin. He searched my gaze with eyes that turned from serious to playful in a flash, then leaned down and placed a smacking kiss on the tip of my nose.
When another growl rumbled from Ruarc, this one more grumpy than aggressive, Jason ignored it and kept his gaze locked on me. “Known that the old man had a plan. A monstrous, evil plan.”
Amused, I turned to a still scowling Ruarc. “What did you do?”
“Nothing more than he deserved,” he grumbled.
“That’s a vicious lie, old man!”
“Watch it, pup.”
“Typical.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Old men are all the same, grumpy and envious of the young and virile.”
Ruarc snarled a second before a thunk sounded. My eyes as wide as saucers, I turned just in time to see one of the metal pieces bounce of Jason’s forehead. A tiny, red spot bloomed between his brows.
“Nice aim,” Lucien said and snapped up the dice.
“Excellent,” Ash chimed in.
Jason narrowed his eyes at Ruarc. “You’ll pay for that.”
The slow smile Ruarc sent back was all teeth. “Try me.”
Jason glared another second or two before turning away and absentmindedly rubbing at the spot the game piece had hit.
“You okay?” I whispered, leaning in to take a closer look.
Jason looked down at me, brows drawn together. Whatever devious thought flashed through his mind had a grin forming on his lips before he sent a quick, victorious glance in Ruarc’s direction. “It hurts, love,” he told me, tilting his head down. “Kiss it better?”
“Oh . . .” Tension gathered in my stomach. Everyone was staring.
So what?
Being uncomfortable wasn’t a good reason to reject his request, innocent as it was. So I leaned in, prepared to kiss the rapidly fading mark, only to find Jason dipping his head at the last second and catching my lips between his teeth. He growled, a light, playful sound that spiraled tendrils of heat down my belly, and kissed me so deeply I felt it to my toes.
A deafening growl. A flash of movement. Then I found myself at the other side of Ash, blinking up into piercing, blue eyes.
“What . . .” I trailed off. I knew he must have lifted me, but it had happened so fast it almost seemed like magic.
“I thought it best to move you away from the troublemaker before Ruarc lost his temper.”
A quick glance over at Ruarc was all it took to convince me Ash was right.
“Spoilsport,” Jason said in a voice dripping with self-satisfied smiles. He passed me dice. “It’s your turn, love.”
I rolled, and the game continued.
“That’s five hundred.” Ruarc crossed thick arms over a massive chest and eyed Jason with grim satisfaction. “Reminds me of something.”
Jason groaned. “Oh, come on! Haven’t I suffered enough?”
“No.”
A soft sound from Ash was all it took to draw my attention. “I
t began when Ruarc walked away from a fight. Jason’s face when he thought he’d been let off the hook . . .” He’d tied his long mass of silky, black hair back in a knot, and when he shook his head, I thought for sure it would all come tumbling down around him. It didn’t. The hair stayed magically put, and my gaze strayed to his temple, where a single braid dangled to his shoulder, bound at the bottom with a piece of red string. “I do not think I have ever seen Jason looking so stunned.”
“And for good reason,” Jason muttered.
Ash didn’t smile, but amusement showed in the way his eyes crinkled at the corners. “When Ruarc joined us at the bar that night—”
“I thought he’d come to kill me.” Jason sent me a look. “You know how unreasonable he can be.”
“He can be a little . . . difficult at times,” I agreed.
Ruarc huffed. “You shouldn’t talk, female. See this?” He pointed at a spot on his head and glared. “You’re making me gray. Lycans don’t do gray.”
“I’m not difficult! And there isn’t any gray where you’re pointing. All your hairs are black as night.”
“Like his soul.”
“Who went out against my orders?” Ruarc opted to ignore Jason’s insult and pinned me with a silver glare. “Getting yourself into all kinds of trouble.”
My jaw clenched, and something hot stirred in the depths of my soul. “You can’t forbid me from doing things.”
“I can.”
“No, you can’t!” The need to establish some ground rules rose as something inside me strained for release. It pushed against my battered psyche. Ignited a fire I hadn’t thought myself capable of. I was about to argue when I realized what was happening.
A vice tightened around my chest, squeezed all the air from my lungs. I froze. My breath froze. My muscles froze. The only movement inside was the stubborn beat of a heart that refused to pause, sluggishly working to pump blood through my veins.
Thump-thump-thuuump.
I pushed the monster back down, wrapped it back up in its chains, shoved it into a cage, and hung padlocks on the door.
When it was once again secured, I averted my gaze and slumped against Ash.
The heat from his body drove the cold away, and after a minute or so, my fingers and toes began prickling as they regained sensation.
Slowly, I became aware of a strained silence.
I looked up, caught by blue eyes that seemed to . . . change? A presence, something other than Ash, something ancient and cold and terrifying, stared back at me. Then it was gone, and Ash was the only one left.
He tilted his head. Assessing.
I jerked my gaze away, found Ruarc. The gloating I’d expected was nowhere to be seen.
Strange.
He’d won this argument. And even if he hadn’t, he could kind of tell me what to do. In some ways. Sometimes.
Admit it, it makes you feel safe. And sometimes . . . sometimes it makes you tingle in places you have no business—
Cutting the thought off before it could fully form, I blushed and looked away again, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze until the story continued.
“Hope?” Jason leaned forward so he could see my face. “Love, you know I agree with you. Ruarc can be downright monstrous.”
My head snapped up. “He isn’t monstrous!” I gave Jason a good glare before turning to Ruarc with an apologetic look. “You aren’t. I’m sorry if I made you feel like that.”
Eyes wide, Ruarc looked from me to Jason before a slow smile tugged his lips away and showed a glimpse of white teeth. “Don’t worry, mo chridhe. Jason likes exaggerating. Don’t you, pup?”
Jason sighed. “Don’t you start.”
“So you were at a bar?”
“Brought cherry drops,” Ruarc said. “In a big glass. Had to be at least fifty.” A slow, toothy smile. “Jason’s the kind of male who has to have what he’s not allowed. So I refused to share.”
“It was cruel, love. Downright cruel.”
“Jason must have asked him at least as many times as there were candies in the glass.” Lucien handed Ash two hundred monopoly-dollars for passing go. “Ruarc kept refusing.”
“Made me think they were little drops of heaven,” Jason said. “The way he hoarded them.”
“Were they?” I asked.
“More like drops of hell.”
Ash passed the dice to Jason. “Ruarc eventually told him they could play for it. Jason agreed, but the way he groaned when Ruarc pulled up a monopoly box could be heard around the bar.”
“Pup’s horrible at the game,” Ruarc agreed.
My gaze whipped around the room, following the person speaking with a fascination that bordered on the obsessive.
I was starved for information. Not the way I should have, not about general life and the things that would help me survive, but information about these four men. About their lives, their hopes and dreams, anything they deigned to give me.
If they’d known my thoughts, they’d probably have thought I was a creepy stalker.
“How did it work?
Looking reasonably glum, Jason told me, “Every hundred I made off the big bully would buy me a drop. If he won the whole game, he’d get a dare.”
“A dare?”
Ruarc grunted. “I’d tell him to do something and he’d have to do it.”
“That’s . . . risky.”
“Pup was cocky.”
“I did fine in the beginning,” Jason argued. “And with each piece of candy I wrestled from this one’s”—he jerked his thumb at Ruarc—“evil grasp, I grew more sure it was all worth it. They were delicious.”
“So delicious you could not help but gloat,” Ash said. Then he . . .
He winked at me.
My mouth snapped shut, catching the tip of my tongue between my front teeth.
Serious, unreadable Ash actually winked.
When Ruarc had winked at me I’d nearly fallen off my chair. When Ash winked, I’d almost bitten my tongue in two. If Lucien ever decided to jump on the wink-train, it would probably be to shock me into an early grave, for if he ever did wink . . .
I would burst into spontaneous flames.
“He was making a spectacle of himself,” Lucien said, not looking at me but watching Jason move his game piece. “Pursing his lips, making sounds meant to annoy Ruarc. He had no idea the candy was coloring his lips a bright, cherry-red.”
“Really?” I looked at Jason, tried to imagine what he’d look like with bright, red lips.
“Truly.”
“In the end, it looked like he was wearing lipstick,” Ash said. “And it did not take long for others to catch on. Jason was friends with most of them—having spent many nights in that particular bar, a bar for supernaturals—and most had been victim to one of his pranks in the past.”
Ruarc snorted. “They started joining the fun. One told me my date looked pretty, another asked Jason ‘How much for a blowjob?’, and Jason”—he rubbed a hand over the scruff on his neck—“what did you say again?”
Jason frowned. “It was Gideon’s enforcer.”
“That’s right,” Ruarc growled. “You said ‘I thought you only stuck your wick in sheep, you Scottish bastard.’” He leaned over the table and plucked a hundred dollar bill from Jason’s stack. “Didn’t think this Scot saw you land on my property, eh?”
Jason frowned harder.
“Sufficient to say, there were a lot more jokes before the game finished,” Lucien said. “And when it did, Jason owed Ruarc a dare.”
“There was this female at the bar. A genie—”
“A genie?” My head spun. A freaking genie? They were real?
“They’re not that special, love,” Jason said, casting a sour look at Ruarc. “Though they like to think they are.”
“This particular genie was well known in the community,” Ash said. “You see, a genie can only ever grant three wishes in their lifetime, and Lana—that was her name—boasted that she didn’t need her powers to mak
e a man’s dream come true.”
“Sex,” Lucien said in a droll voice. “She was talking about sex.”
An ugly feeling slithered through my stomach. It reached my heart, twisting. I looked at Jason.
“World class bitch,” Ruarc growled.
“Really?”
He dipped his chin and grunted, Ruarc speak for yes.
“She did have a reputation that drew a lot of males,” Ash said. “Lured by her looks and her promise of pleasure, they tended to overlook her less . . . favorable qualities.”
Accusation in every line of his body, Jason pointed at Ruarc. “The bastard dared me to seduce her.”
My stomach dropped. If he’d gone home with her . . .
How could I ever compare?
No matter what Jason had said, I wasn’t pretty. Dull, brown eyes, even duller hair. A face that looked too gaunt, a body that needed time to heal before it would look healthy, let alone attractive.
Not to mention my utter lack of experience with both sex and relationships. Hell, I didn’t even have experience with real life, having been locked up and tormented for most of it. And what did I do the first time Ruarc saw me . . . bare? I freaked out and spent the night crying into his shoulder.
God, I’m a mess.
A sharp pain in my bottom lip, and I realized I’d been chewing it. Again.
I looked up, past Ruarc’s frown and into cool, green eyes. They narrowed, swept over my face, and returned to burrow into my soul; an icy presence that curled around me, dove deeper and deeper until it touched upon the leashed monster inside.
The monster stirred, interested, and before I could panic, Lucien spoke and the monster quieted. “She, of course, believed she was god’s gift to men, but the only thing she had to offer was her body.” His lips curled with distaste, and I realized it was the same look he’d given the woman we’d met when shopping, the same look he’d used to crush me under his heel like a bug, on more than one occasion.
What, exactly, brought it about?
Ruarc grunted again—agreeing with Lucien?—and held his palm up for Jason, who’d just landed on his property. Again. “Should have seen yourself,” he said, accepting the money Jason begrudgingly handed over with a flash of teeth. “You were so cocky. Marched up to her, said whatever crap you say to pick up girls, a fucking arrogant grin in place. But that died quickly, didn’t it?”