Seduced by Chaos

by Stephanie Julian

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Seduced by Chaos

  ISBN 9781419921612

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Seduced by Chaos Copyright © 2009 Stephanie Julian.

  Edited by Sue-Ellen Gower.

  Cover art by Noeland Collins.

  Electronic book Publication March 2009

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Seduced by Chaos

  Stephanie Julian

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Chuck (Converse All Star Chuck Taylor): Converse Inc.

  Converse: Converse, Inc.

  Food Network: Television Food Network, G.P.

  Phillies: Major League Baseball

  The Matrix: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

  Glossary

  Aitás: Etruscan Underworld

  Arus: magical power inherent in the races of Etruscan descent

  Enu: humans of magical Etruscan descent

  Etera (pl. eteri): Etruscan for foreigner, used to describe regular humans

  Fata: elemental beings of magical Etruscan descent

  Lauru: Etruscan sprites who love to clean

  Linchetto: Etruscan Fata, a night elf

  Involuti: Founding gods of the Etruscans, those from whom all other Etruscan deities were descended

  Querciola: Etruscan Fata, always female, induces fierce sexual desire in men and feeds off that desire

  Salbinelli: Etruscan satyr

  Versipellis (pl. versipelli): literally “skin shifter”—shapeshifters including Etruscan Lucani (wolves), Norse Berkserkir (bears), and French loup garou (wolves)

  Chapter One

  The guy walked into her bar like he expected to be greeted by a hail of bullets.

  Broad shoulders hunched and dark head lowered so she couldn’t see his face, he slid through the door with the ease of a man who made a habit of keeping to the shadows.

  Lacey Kohl kept an eye on him as she tapped a beer. Tuesday nights were typically slow at her bar, the Stay-A-While. At the moment, she had only four customers—regulars Mike and Joe at the end of the bar and a couple she’d never seen before.

  The man and woman had taken a booth on the side wall and hadn’t stopped talking since they’d come in. The intensity in their voices pinged against Lacey’s arus, the magic inherent in all those of Etruscan descent.

  The couple might prove useful.

  The new guy… Her gaze narrowed. He was Etruscan. Even in her deliberately weakened state, she sensed the arus in him.

  And even though she didn’t feel any evil surrounding him, he’d bear watching, if only for his long-limbed stride across the floor. And his very fine ass.

  Damn, he could prove dangerous if she wasn’t careful.

  And if life had taught her anything, it had taught her to be extremely careful.

  She snorted silently. Hell, life had taught her to be terrified of walking out the door in the morning. Just the fact that she could stand there and not want to crawl under the bar to hide was a victory in every way.

  As she delivered the beer to Mike, the guy headed to the rear of the room and sat at a table, back against the wall with a clear shot at the door.

  Control issues. She could relate.

  Since she was alone out front tonight, she walked over to his table, an easy smile on her lips. She still couldn’t see his face but his shaggy, sable brown hair curled and waved and made her want to sink her fingers into it.

  She’d have to watch that.

  “Hi there.” She let her lips curve in a welcoming smile. “What can I get you?”

  After a brief second, he lifted his head.

  And oh, Sweet Mother Goddess, the guy was freaking gorgeous.

  Lacey felt her eyes widen but caught herself before she became a complete idiot and drooled.

  He wasn’t classically handsome. He didn’t have the refined edges of Cary Grant or the casual elegance of Paul Newman.

  He looked like the all-American boy-next-door dialed up a notch and infused with the brazen masculinity of the Etruscans.

  He had a strong nose that tilted up slightly at the end, making him look years younger than he probably was, but his broad forehead, square jaw and high cheekbones were all male.

  And that mouth… Tinia’s teat, the man’s mouth should be cast in bronze. Strong lower lip, full cupid-bow upper lip. Made for kissing.

  Then she looked into his eyes and the boy-next-door image shattered as she saw something she recognized all too well.

  Heat flared in his beautiful hazel eyes when he looked at her. Heat and a strong dominance that should have made her run for the door.

  She’d seen that look before, had learned to fear and dread it.

  But strangely enough, she felt no fear here. Instead, those eyes drew her in. Such an unusual color, they were brown, flecked with green and blue sparks so bright, she swore they glowed.

  Damn, she was staring. Not good.

  “I’ll take a lager,” he said finally. “Whatever you’ve got on tap.”

  Wow, the guy’s voice matched those looks, a slow, sexy cadence low enough to make her tingle from head to toe and every place in between. And she did mean every place.

  She hadn’t had that happen in… Well, she hadn’t had that happen to her ever.

  Shaking some sense back into her head, she gave the guy a smile she hoped wasn’t too bright. “Coming right up.”

  She hightailed it back to the bar, cursing herself all the way.

  * * * * *

  Teodoro de Feo watched the bartender walk away, feeling like she’d just stuck a pugio blade through his gut and twisted.

  Lust, strong enough to nearly topple the internal walls he kept around his amentia, the madness lurking in his very cells, broadsided him. If he’d come equipped with warning lights, they’d be flashing bright red right now.

  He’d never had such a strong reaction to a woman before. He’d grown comfortable believing he never would.

  Maybe Rio and Rosie were right. Maybe he had been stuck in his apartment way too long with nothing but work to do.

  But when you were an Etruscan linchetto, a night elf, with the handicaps he’d acquired… Well, he’d learned to spend a lot of time by himself and like it. Or at least pretend to like it.

  Still, he wasn’t so out of practice that he hadn’t seen through her glamour, the thin veil of magic she used to muddy her features into blandness.

  Seemed she was hiding too.
Which was a damn shame because she was a classic beauty along the lines of Audrey Hepburn. High cheekbones. Huge eyes tilted up at the corners. A full mouth that made a man wish she’d wrap it around his cock.

  And if her mouth didn’t incite thoughts of sex, her body would make any red-blooded man want to get her out of her clothes. Especially those unflattering baggy jeans and that oversized button-down shirt. Even her shoes were scuffed black Converse high-tops. Not exactly high fashion.

  What was she hiding from?

  The front door opened and a couple breezed through the door, arms wrapped around each other, laughing. The sound made his chest ache with a longing he thought he’d managed to submerge. Obviously, he hadn’t done such a good job of that.

  “Hey, Teo, you beat us here.” Rosie slid into the seat next to his and smacked a kiss on his cheek as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders for a hug. “Your brother…”

  The wry twist of her lips let him know more than he wanted to about what his youngest brother Rio and his mate had been up to.

  “Kids, kids.” He held up his hands in classic time-out formation. “TMI. I’m just glad you didn’t stand me up.”

  “You know we’d never do that, dude.” Rio hit him on the shoulder. “Besides, I didn’t really believe you when you said you’d show up tonight. Figured I could hold it over your head when you didn’t.”

  Teo shook his head at Rio’s teasing, though he still wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing.

  Rio and Rosie had been bugging him for weeks to meet them for a drink, since they all lived only blocks from Lacey’s Stay-A-While here in Reading. But because of his unique challenges, nights out like this were few and far between.

  Hell, he couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d had a drink in a bar. Oh wait. Yeah, he did. There’d been a brawl and he’d ended up feeling so damn guilty, he’d paid for the damages. Anonymously, of course.

  Tinia’s teat, he hoped that wouldn’t be a problem tonight. But with the bartender pushing his buttons…

  He lifted one eyebrow at Rio. “You’re lucky you’re younger and weaker and our parents love you, little brother. Or I’d take you apart.”

  Rio laughed, completely at ease. “Never happen, dude. You’re—” He looked up as the bartender returned with his beer, “Hey, Lacey. How’s it going?”

  “Hi, guys. Nice to see you.” Not looking at Teo as she set his beer down, she gave Rosie and Rio a warm smile. “What’s up?”

  “Oh, not much,” Rosie responded, a slight flush heating her cheeks as she slid a glance his way. “Lacey, this is Rio’s brother, Teo. I know we mentioned him a few times. We finally tore him away from his apartment for the night.”

  Lacey’s gaze slid back to him, contemplating, as her lips curved. “Nice to meet you, Teo. I should’ve realized. There’s a strong family resemblance.”

  Had he imagined it or had her smile thawed just a little?

  Against his better judgment, he felt his mouth curve in a rusty, answering smile. “Well, I certainly hope you don’t hold it against me.”

  “Holy shit, bro. Did you just make a joke?” Rio’s smile held a wealth of teasing warmth. “Damn, you definitely need to get out more.”

  Teo flashed Rio a look to let him know he wasn’t fooled. He hadn’t been out of circulation so long that he didn’t realize what was going on.

  Rosie and Rio had invited him here for the express purpose of meeting Lacey. Since falling in love a few weeks ago, after Rio unknowingly unlocked Rosie’s magical powers and fought a dead evil witch to save her life, they’d turned some of their not-inconsiderable focus onto him.

  Rio had decided since he was so happy and their older brothers already had women, Teo needed one too.

  Even if he didn’t want one.

  He was going to wring Rio’s neck the second they were alone.

  But damn, the woman was gorgeous.

  With a laugh, Rosie engaged Lacey in conversation while Rio gave him “the look”. The one that always made Teo shake his head at whatever prank Rio had pulled. The kid had been a handful from the moment he’d been born forty-three years ago.

  At one hundred and twenty-three, Teo might look like he was only in his thirties by eteri standards, but there were times he felt he should look decrepit. Haggard and wrinkled, hobbling around with a cane.

  Linchetti, the Etruscan night elves, usually lived at least three centuries, if not more. That meant another two hundred years for him. He didn’t want to live them alone. But the amentia didn’t leave him much choice.

  As Rio gave him a final wink and joined the conversation, Teo tried to act interested in what they were saying but his thoughts turned inward.

  He wondered what pretty Lacey would say if he told her he was a ticking bomb, unsafe to be around for any length of time.

  While his older brother Antonin had been born with the bassadone spell in his genes, making him sexually irresistible to most women, Teo had been struck with a completely unwelcome spell that had forced him to become a virtual hermit.

  Because what person in his right mind wanted to cause chaos wherever he went?

  That’s what the amentia did. It made him a cloud of doom and gloom wherever people gathered. The amentia worked kind of like the bassadone spell in that it affected others around him but Teo hadn’t been born with it. He’d been cursed with it by a woman.

  A vindictive woman who thought he deserved to pay a special price for seducing her then having the unmitigated gall not to want to spend eternity with her.

  He should be the subject of an after-school special for Etruscan teens. Watch who you sleep with, kids, or your life will turn to shit too.

  Blinking, he dragged himself out of those black thoughts and back into the conversation, just in time to hear Lacey say, “I’ll be right back with your drinks, guys.”

  Then she flashed a smile at Rio and Rosie, but it dimmed a bit as she looked at him.

  Really know how to scare ’em off, don’t you?

  He held back a sigh as she turned but let his gaze follow her back to the bar. The woman had a fine ass that the baggy jeans didn’t manage to completely hide—

  Rio’s fist slammed into his arm, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to let him know his younger brother was disappointed in him.

  “Christ, Teo, could you act any more uninterested?” Rio shook his head. “I’m seriously starting to worry about you. If you don’t snap out of this mood soon and start living, I’m gonna sic Mom on you.”

  And that was no idle threat. He’d managed to hold off his mother’s well-meaning interference in his life, but if his brothers goaded her into taking an active interest in his love life, he was toast. She’d want him to try again, try to find a cure. And when he couldn’t, it just might make him give in to the amentia and let it take him under.

  “I’m not uninterested, Rio.” He looked directly into his brother’s eyes. “I’m just not safe.”

  * * * * *

  After delivering Rio and Rosie’s drinks—and studiously avoiding the handsome Teo—Lacey headed back to the bar to tend to the three business suits who’d just walked in, yukking it up and clapping each other on the back over some deal.

  They seemed decent enough. Just loud. Most eteri were. They’d never had to learn the fine art of blending in. Of being unseen in plain sight.

  The Etruscans had it down to an art.

  These three sharp tacks dressed in their thousand-dollar suits and hundred-dollar ties wouldn’t give her the time of day, thanks to her glamour. Oh, they weren’t deliberately rude when she took their drink orders but they certainly didn’t look twice. Which was just fine with her. She’d had enough male attention in her life.

  Which didn’t mean…

  She slid a glance Teo’s way as she headed to the far end of the bar to refill the cooler there. Shaking his head at Rio, he looked…sad. Like the weight of the world rested on those broad shoulders. She wondered what he was saying but even with her better
-than-average hearing, she couldn’t hear because of the too-loud suits and the low hum of the Phillies game Mike and Joe were cursing.

  Too bad, because there was something about the man that drew her. Something that made her heart beat a little faster when she looked at him and her thighs clench when she got close.

  Most men, unless they were decrepit or gay, made her want to run the other way. That this one didn’t could be…problematic.

  But Rio and Rosie had both said they’d had to drag the guy out of his apartment tonight. Maybe he wouldn’t be back.

  And wouldn’t that be a damn shame.

  * * * * *

  Teo tried to enjoy Rio and Rosie’s company. He forced himself to contribute to the conversation, to laugh at Rio bitching about working with their older brothers and smile at Rosie’s stories about the children in her preschool storytime.

  Rosie tried to draw him out about the building he was designing but there wasn’t much to talk about. His design work paid the bills. It didn’t satisfy him in any way other than monetarily.

  Hell, he hadn’t been satisfied in a while.

  And looking at Lacey brought that fact front and center.

  His lust for her built every time he caught a glimpse of her behind the bar, every time she came over to get them refills, every time their gazes caught and held before she looked way.

  She felt it too. He could tell by the way her eyes dilated and her chest rose and fell in a quicker rhythm. When her gaze slid away, his slid to her breasts. Just because he couldn’t pursue her didn’t mean he couldn’t look. He wasn’t dead.

  Just trapped by the fucking amentia in limbo.

  They sat and talked for hours and Teo had to admit he enjoyed himself as much as he could. The fact that there weren’t a lot of people in the bar helped.

  The two guys at the end of the bar kept to themselves, swearing at the Phillies every now and then. The couple in the booth were the same, only speaking to Lacey to order more drinks.