by Helen Scott
Alec’s eyes drifted over Ellie again, her soft curves, sexy without trying. He wished he could slide his hands under her tank top and feel the soft, warm skin of her belly as they moved up to investigate some of her luscious curves. Her lips were parted as she listened to Hal. The soft pink color combined with the flush in her cheeks made the green of her eyes seem even more vibrant. He couldn’t help but wonder what those lips would feel like pressed against his or how her body would feel, writhing under him as he pleasured her. She wasn’t the kind of girl you would find at a club but more like one you would find in a library. She was the total opposite of Jessica, and maybe that’s why he found her so appealing.
While his brain was busy remarking on how he should stay away from her, how she was vulnerable and didn’t need attention from him, or his brothers, other parts of his anatomy were letting him know what their opinions were as well. He discretely crossed his legs, hoping to hide his arousal, and started thinking about the sea: cool, clear, and calm water. Before he could stop it, his mind betrayed him. The image of Ellie swimming and what she looked like in a swimsuit drowned out any other thoughts he might have. His mind conjured pictures of her walking on his private beach, water dripping from her, forming rivulets as it ran down her creamy skin. He would walk out and kiss the saltwater off her body.
“Alec!” Hal’s voice was sharp.
“What?” Alec cleared his throat. “Sorry, lost in thought.”
Hal looked at him pointedly, seeming to know exactly what he was thinking about.
“I was saying I would like to meet Demetrius. I wanted to thank him personally for trying to help Granddad.” Ellie tucked a lock of chestnut hair behind her ear as she watched Alec.
“And I told Ellie we might be able to bring Demetrius with us tomorrow when we come back for the ingredients. What do you think?” Hal said, breaking their eye contact as Ellie looked back at him.
“If you think he’ll come.” Alec’s words were clipped. He didn’t trust his voice not to betray his lust.
“I’m sure I can persuade him. I was thinking we should get going and start working the leads we have on the torches.” Hal stood and waited for Alec.
“Ah, yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” Alec was torn between thanking the gods that he was able to get away from this unintentional seductress before he had lost his mind with lust and cursing Hal from dragging him away before he had the opportunity to seduce her properly. He would have trouble restraining himself around her. But maybe, just maybe, they could explore the chemistry between them while she was in town.
Ellie cleaned up after the brothers left and was now alone again, which was kind of the story of her life. The memory of arriving at Speak O’ the Devil about a week ago replayed in her mind.
The suitcase and duffel bag had slipped from her hands, her throat thickened with grief as she crossed the threshold of the second-floor apartment for the first time. It still smelled of him. She swallowed the knot in her throat and pushed to her feet. Tea. That’s what she needed.
Ellie brewed herself some tea. It was all she could manage after over twelve hours and three different planes of traveling, not counting the layover time in between flights. The hot liquid scalded her mouth on the first sip, but she was so eager to have something familiar. She had taken another mouthful, glad that—at least for a moment—she hadn’t been surrounded by memories of Granddad. She blew on the tea, willing it to cool faster. It’d warmed her all the way through her cold, numb bones, like a hug from the inside.
A rogue tear made its way down her cheek, followed quickly by a few of his friends, which had turned into an all-out cascade of tears. Ellie had lost the only family she had left. She collapsed in a chair as the sobs began to erupt. She’d curled up on the couch, lost in a sea of self-pity and grief. That was over a week ago though, and she wasn’t going there again. No pity parties tonight.
Her mind drifted back to the brothers. They were a handsome pair. Alec was smaller than Hal, although that wasn’t saying much, as they were both large men. Alec hid his power and size well, and there was something a little more savage yet more sensual about him that made her squirm under his gaze. Hal, on the other hand, was a mountain of a man and didn’t hide his size at all—plus he came across more like a big puppy. She could spend a day with Hal, and it wouldn’t be work, but it would never spark anything for her. Alec definitely sparked something. Spark may be a bit of an understatement. She knew she would need to be careful around him. Even now her mind was reliving how it felt to have his passionate gaze traveling over her body. A wave of heat saturated her at the memory of it, making her feel as though her insides were writhing for his touch. If just his eyes made her feel that way, then she wondered what the rest of him would feel like.
She left a little food out for the brownies, marveling to herself that they actually existed, and went to bed, thinking about the spark between her and Alec. How could she resist? Should she even try? She could have a fling, couldn’t she? There was nothing explicitly forbidding it, but it wasn’t in her character either. She shook herself. She was leaving in a month, so she shouldn’t get attached to anyone. She knew sleeping with Alec would do the opposite.
Alec stood outside Speak O’ the Devil for a few minutes—his mind still focused on Ellie and all the temptation she contained—before he wrapped the filaments of the universe around himself and jumped home to their island. Hal was organizing a meeting while Alec stood on his beach. The vision of Ellie walking out of the waves came to him again, and he almost fell to his knees as desire flooded him. She was a seductress—unlike anything he had ever encountered before. He could still see her vibrant green eyes evaluating him, the blush that stole up her cheeks when she thought it would be just the two of them drinking.
It was more than he could bear.
He shut down that line of thinking with great effort, forcing himself to take deep, calming breaths and to think about puppies and kittens instead of Ellie naked on his bed. He turned to walk along the coast of the island he shared with his brothers, trying to get his mind out of the gutter for five minutes so he could attend this meeting.
The siren half, combined with the small amount of power they had from Poseidon, seemed to call them to the water; no matter where they lived, they had always been on a coast. The vastness of the sea spoke to each of them differently but no less strongly. They had always lived close to each other—the nature of their job demanded it, although they usually worked separate assignments.
He was thankful that in recent years they had all built their own houses on an island they found in the Atlantic. Ellie would probably be shocked by what they considered recent, not that he was still thinking about her. When they discovered it, they shielded it from prying eyes. Boats would unknowingly sail past it, and planes would never spot it from the air, seeing it as just another wave. They had shielded it from magic as well, using their sirens’ calls as a repellant instead of a lure, which also created a specific vibration around the island that any visitor would have to match if they wanted to get in or out. The gods couldn’t just pop in on them here, which had infuriated some of them to no end. No mortal knew the island was there, so they could do whatever they wanted with it.
Having his own place on the island made his relationship with his brothers easier. Dem was always ready for a fight, and Alec was usually ready to give him one. He blamed Alec for bringing Zeus’s attention to them. Even though he was the one who broke the rules, he resented Alec for being the reason the rules existed in the first place. The two of them in a house together had not been fun. They usually ended up hurting each other and needing Hal to heal them. Being alive for a century meant that they all got sick of each other at some point and needed their space.
Hal was the most easygoing out of all of them, so his house was usually where they met. Alec could just jump himself there, but he was trudging along through the wind. He needed to get Ellie out of his head, and some cold fresh air would help with
that.
The brothers stared at him as he walked in, dripping wet from the ocean spray.
“You walked?” Hal seemed concerned.
“I needed some air.” Alec shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant and probably failing. A bottle of beer waited for him by his usual seat. He took a long swig from it before Hal continued.
“Okay, well, we’ve got an assignment that I would like us all to work together on.” Hal breezed past Alec’s strange behavior, but he would no doubt address it with Alec later in private.
“I am still working on tracking down one of Medusa’s snakes,” Thaddeus announced from his chair, his face almost completely hidden by his mop of blond curls.
“And it’s supposed to be my weekend off.” Dem growled from the opposite side of the room.
“Well, this takes precedence. Hecate’s torches were stolen, and she believes someone is using them; she claims to feel the drain on her power. They are Objects of Significance and, as such, should receive our full attention. Plus she’s a close friend of Aunt Persephone, so she gets some special perks.”
Demetrius rose from his seat and started pacing. “A few weeks ago I stopped by Speak O’ the Devil for some mugwort. MacLeod and I got to visiting a bit when someone broke into the back of his shop—who the hell knows what for—but they grabbed a box from his deliveries and vanished. And no, I don’t mean they ran away quickly; I mean they vanished.”
“What did the attacker look like?”
“Dead or very dirty. It was weird, and I mean weird for us.”
“Shit. And you called 911?” Alec could see where this was heading.
“Yeah, the old man was kinda shaken up. Why?” Dem was irritated with Alec right off the bat, which was nothing unusual.
“MacLeod is dead.” Demetrius and Thaddeus snapped their heads toward Alec. “He had a massive heart attack. I’m guessing it was after you left to avoid the 911 responders?”
“No shit?” Dem whispered before taking a long pull from his beer.
“Wow.” Thad tilted his head back. Alec watched as he pushed the curls out of the way, and for a brief moment Thad’s white eyes shone in the light. His mother had called them the eyes of the seer and sometimes the eyes of the oracle. Only the small gray ring on the outside of his iris denoted the difference between the iris and the rest of his eye; even the pupil was clouded with white. Thad muttered a plea for Hades to be kind to MacLeod’s soul before sipping his gin and tonic.
“His granddaughter’s closing up Speak O’ the Devil and wanted to meet you.” Alec nodded at Demetrius. “Apparently, the first responders at least got your name out of the old man before he passed, and they told Ellie.”
“Why does she want to meet me?” Dem’s eyebrows drew together. He generally avoided women like the plague.
“You didn’t tell them much on the phone?” Alec asked.
Demetrius nodded.
“The old man didn’t say anything about the attack before he passed, so they assumed you called about the heart attack. I’m going to the store tomorrow to pick up something he ordered for me and restock. I’ll come and grab you midafternoon?” Demetrius nodded his agreement. Alec couldn’t help but feel a touch of excitement at seeing Ellie again.
“Not to be unfeeling, but we need to get back to the torches. Who wants to go and talk to Hecate?” When no one came forward, Hal sighed. “Fine, I’ll go myself.”
They spent the rest of the meeting theorizing who could have taken the torches and occasionally mentioning how dumb it was to tie your powers to an object. By the end, they were all drunk and ready to kick ass, not that they would necessarily succeed in their current condition.
“To MacLeod,” Hal said as he raised his beer. They all echoed his sentiments and drained their drinks before departing for their own homes. Alec fleetingly thought about jumping to Speak O’ the Devil to check on Ellie, but thankfully his body took over and he passed out.
Chapter 5
Ellie was nervous to see Alec again, but she was happy not to have to spend the day alone in the store. She had been trying to organize the backroom for most of the day. When she had the right tunes, there was nothing she couldn’t organize. The back of the store was proving to be quite the challenge—especially since she barely knew what half the stuff was. She looked at the clock again. Only a few minutes had passed since she last checked it. Alec hadn’t shown up yet. He did seem like more of a night owl, but the anticipation was killing her. The thought of seeing him again made her skin tingle.
Ellie had a brief moment of insanity earlier when she debated wearing a skirt, but then she realized that she shouldn’t care what Alec thought and stuck to her leggings. While her slipper socks weren’t sexy, they were most definitely comfortable and warm, so those stayed. She quickly sniffed an armpit to make sure she wasn’t stinky after all her box lifting and decided to check her makeup, just in case. Ellie went into the small downstairs bathroom and froze when she looked in the mirror.
She had a black eye.
Suddenly she was with Robbie again, and he was yelling at her about smiling at other men—he didn’t like that she was so friendly to people. He told her she was asking for it, making it look like she wasn’t satisfied, and how could he show his face in the pub if that was the case? The blow landed, and Ellie flinched, shaking herself back to reality. She brushed her eye, and the dust and dirt that had been on her face wiped away. She forced herself to look in the mirror and smile. She was somewhat pretty, and she was definitely friendly. And he wasn’t going to take that away from her.
When two more hours had rolled by, she started to worry that no one was coming. She was starving; she needed to get some food soon, otherwise she was going to get cranky. She started jotting a note to Alec, letting him know she was going to get a bite to eat. Just as she grabbed her keys, Alec and another man, who was clearly related—although much larger than Alec—appeared in the middle of the shop.
“What would ye have done if there had been other people here?” She put her hands on her hips as she breathed through the panic of their sudden appearance.
“I knew you would be closed, so no one would be here.” Alec shrugged as though the two of them just appearing in the store was the most natural thing in the world.
“Fine! You were lucky.” Alec grinned at her as she conceded.
“This is Demetrius, the brother who called 911 for MacLeod.”
“Oh!” She rushed around the counter and held her hand out to him. He took it, his hand engulfing hers. Between Alec, Hal, and now Demetrius, these men were starting to make her feel small, which she wasn’t used to. “Thank you so much for trying to help Granddad. It means the world that at least someone he knew was with him when he died and that he wasn’t alone.” She got choked up at the end and wanted to scream at herself.
“I was just trying to help.” Demetrius discreetly wiped his hand on his jeans when Ellie released it.
“Please know that if ye ever need anything, I would be happy to help ye.” Ellie tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear.
“Thanks.”
Ellie stared at Demetrius. He was a certified dreamboat with dark hair and eyes, the color of midnight. His hair wasn’t short, but it wasn’t long and had a little wave to it, making it fall around his eyes.
She could feel Alec’s eyes on her almost as though he was touching her, and her skin burned with the desire to be touched by more than just his lingering gaze. The image of them in bed together flashed in her mind again, and she felt her body temperature rise in response. She imagined the smile on his face if he knew he was driving her crazy. Ellie didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was affecting her this way though, so she stayed facing Demetrius.
They stood there for a moment, Ellie staring at Demetrius adoringly. Alec felt wretched that they hadn’t told her that MacLeod’s heart attack had been induced by a creature attacking the store, but what good would it do? She was leaving and didn’t want anything to do
with this life. Why make her grief over MacLeod that much worse? Then she did something that Alec wouldn’t have predicted; she wrapped Demetrius in a bear hug. He just stood there, the cold bastard that he was, and accepted it with a small, almost patronizing, pat on her back. When she backed off, he was clearly relieved.
“Well, uh… I should go to work. It was nice meeting you.” He nodded at Alec and again at Ellie and jumped out.
“So he’s yer brother, eh?”
“Yep.”
“Well he’s a quiet one, I’ll give him that.” Ellie smiled. Her eyes had a light dancing in them again that made Alec want to reach out to her.
“He’s had it rough, but he’s always been quiet.” The sight of Dem curled into a ball after screaming until he lost his voice made a shudder run through him. He had never seen someone react so strongly to losing a lover. Dem had loved Eliza in his own way, and Zeus hated him for it. The big guy drove her to the brink of madness, and then just when she thought everything was normal again, he came back and started all over, rinsing and repeating until she tried to kill herself. Dem had to lock her away in a mental institution for her own safety and had never forgiven himself for what had happened simply because he loved her.
“Aye, ye can always tell the ones that are naturally quiet.”
Alec realized that he finally had a chance to observe Ellie without worrying about the brothers jumping all over him. She looked fantastic. He loved that she was a fan of leggings. She wasn’t a small girl, which made it even sexier. His gaze traveled up her legs to the T-shirt she was wearing today. It was actually a pop culture reference he understood, which amazed him. A classic silhouette of a speedy hunk of junk spaceship covered her belly and the bottom of her breasts, which looked perfectly perky.
Her hair was down—the thick chestnut waves fell over her shoulders, begging to have a hand run through them. Almost as though she could read his mind, she reached up and ran a hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face, revealing an elegant neck. Her eyes were locked onto him, a sparkling forest green, gazing out from a heart-shaped face. His eyes strayed to her full, pink lips that were just begging to be kissed, although right now they were slightly pursed. She put a hand on her hip and cocked it to one side, accentuating the curve of that hip and reminding him of the phenomenal butt that he hadn’t had a chance to see yet today. His groin throbbed painfully as he thought about what he would do with a woman like that.