by Marie Harte
Cadmus nodded. “He and Samantha are shaking up the west.” He smiled. “My mother is supposedly so happy she hasn’t stopped grinning since they returned.” He rolled his eyes. “Now she’s impossible about finding our affai. We can’t all be as lucky as Darius and Mar—” He froze at her surprise. “I mean, as lucky as Darius and Samantha. What was I thinking? Marla was an old girlfriend. I, ah, hope I never make that mistake again.”
Tessa nodded, her thoughts awhirl. She and Marcus hadn’t discussed the whole ‘affai incident,’ and wanting to keep the peace between them, she’d decided to put off asking him about it for another time. But with Cadmus so close, perhaps she could pester him—
“Well would you look at the time. Already ten and I haven’t called Marcus to let him know how we’re doing. I’ll be right back,” he said and leapt over the chair in an impressive hurdle out of the kitchen.
She glanced knowingly at the wall-mounted phone in the kitchen. How convenient he needed to call Marcus now, and from another phone altogether.
She sighed and foraged for some breakfast, then straightened their living room while she looked for the remote to the television. “Men,” she muttered as she found it buried between couch cushions and pieces of popcorn and loose change.
Flipping through the channels, she spent the next few hours catching up on cable movies, deliberately immersing herself in fantasy so she wouldn’t worry about Marcus and her status at Tomanna.
“That looks good,” Cadmus said and plopped down beside her on the couch. She nodded and watched with him in silence as Russell Crowe cut through a bevy of barbarians in the opening scene of Gladiator. “Just like the real thing.”
She grimaced and flipped the channel to a local cooking show.
“Sorry,” he murmured and gave her a repentant grin, which had her sighing. How could she stay mad a man who looked just like Marcus, but who had a boyish, almost irresistible charm?
“So, that must have been some phone call,” she mused as she watched him from the corner of her eye. She glanced at the clock on the mantle of the fireplace. “Four hours long.”
He had the grace to flush and held up his hands in surrender. “What can I say? The time got away from me. You know how charming Marcus can be.” She chuckled at the outright lie. “But in my defence I did have some work to do for Gerry, my boss.”
She frowned. “You work nights, don’t you?” Last night Marcus had briefly mentioned his brothers’ habits to prepare her stay. “You should be sleeping now, not playing babysitter to me.”
“Not true.” He shook his head, his lips curling into a sly grin. “I might work nights, but I’m not a complete deadbeat during the day. I had some work to do for Gerry since we’re a little short-staffed at the moment.” At her confusion, he explained. “I assumed Darius’ spot as bartender at Outpour, you know, that hot, new nightclub? You had to have heard about it by now.”
“Outpour, right. I’ve been wanting to go but I’ve heard it’s always so crowded.”
“Yeah, and now that Ellie, Gerry’s saint of a bartender,” he added with a scowl, “is gone, I’m trying to take up the slack. You would think the club couldn’t exist without her the way Gerry’s been carrying on. Granted, she was a hell of a hard worker, but I’ve worked my ass, I mean, butt off to make the transition a smooth one.”
“It must have been a shock for them to have you taking over. I mean, Marcus seemed larger than life when I first met him. But seeing the three of you together really shocked me.”
“Ah, actually, they think I’m Darius. It was easier for him to leave and me to slide into his ‘personality’, so to speak.” He looked uneasy. “I don’t like pretending to be who I’m not, but with the wraith threat what it is, it’s better they think I’m him so that he and Samantha can settle in at home. Soon enough, word will leak out Darius has returned. But until he’s ready, I’m him.”
Cadmus scowled and glared at her. “Dammit, Cadmus, you’re not funny. Stop making jokes. Life’s a serious matter.” When she looked at him in puzzlement he sighed. “It’s a much better impression if you know Darius, and if I could throw a fireball you’d laugh your ass—I mean, head off.”
She grinned. “I think it’s just as much fun to see how often you can curse and correct yourself. Geez, Cadmus, give it a rest already. I have an older brother, and I’ve worked with men for the better part of my career. A few ‘asses’ won’t do irreparable harm.”
He sighed with relief. “Good, because trying to follow the rules Marcus set out before he left is killing me. I can take swearing off the list.”
“List?” She grinned. That was so Marcus.
He grinned back. “I’m not to touch you, sit more than a foot near you, flirt with you, curse around you, do anything perverse—though I’m not really sure what that entails—or annoy you.”
She laughed, she couldn’t help it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Marcus is totally anal retentive, not that you didn’t already know that.” Cadmus rolled his eyes. “I love him, but he’s such a pain in the ass it hurts.”
She shook her head. “Maybe to you he is because you provoke him.” At his disbelief, she relented with a smile. “Okay, he can be hard to handle, sometimes. But since getting to know him, I see a very likable person. I can now understand why everyone at Tomanna loves him.”
“So what is he like at work? And speaking of work,” he said quickly to stifle her questions. “He told me to tell you nothing happened at all. No one is looking for you, and it’s like the threat against your career doesn’t exist. He’ll give you the details when he gets home.”
She nodded, unhappy to have to wait for answers. “Did he say when he’d be back?”
“The usual time.”
Damn. That meant another four hours before she could pester him with questions, not to mention she actually missed the conceited sex maniac.
“Tell me about Marcus,” Cadmus prodded.
“At first I thought he was a cold fish.” Tessa smiled at Cadmus’ grin “But even so, I couldn’t deny he was an incredibly talented cold fish. He’s amazing at his job. He has a knack for knowing what sells. Add to that his charm and polish and our clients practically beg to work with him.”
She thought about him, how everyone kowtowed to the blue-eyed manipulator and couldn’t help a small sigh. “The women love him and the men all want to hang out with him. He’s unfailingly polite and courteous, if a little distant.” She shook her head, thinking about Marcus and all his redeeming qualities she’d always before tried to ignore. “And with a face and body to kill for, that, uh,” she faltered, realising what she’d just said and to whom.
Cadmus gave her a wolfish grin and winked. “Thanks, Tessa, you just made my day.”
She blushed and he laughed.
“Amazing how sexy you can look when you blush. Wouldn’t have thought that would look good on a redhead, but, wow.”
“Shut up, Cadmus,” she grumbled, irritated but not the least uncomfortable with his comments. Talking with Cadmus was like talking with Tom, and she wondered that she didn’t feel a bit more attracted to him, considering his likeness to Marcus.
She paused and stared at him, making him wary.
“Um, Tessa? I was just kidding.”
“Hmm.” She inched closer and watched him scramble back in dismay.
“You feeling alright?”
“Yes. In fact, I feel just fine.” Leaning closer to him made her feel nothing. She didn’t want him at all, and the fact he didn’t want her attentions made her feel that much better. The Storm brothers obviously didn’t poach. She liked their ethics.
“You sure?” He looked ready to flee at her slightest movement.
Feeling mischievous, she jerked towards him and watched him lose his balance off the couch in his haste to keep his distance.
She laughed so hard she cried, and when she saw him glaring at her from across the room, she laughed some more.
“Glad o
ne of us is enjoying this,” he muttered as he regained his feet.
“Problem?” Marcus asked from the hallway. He stared at them in curiosity.
Cadmus shook his head. “Your girlfriend is more like you than I’d thought.” He backed out of the room. “Evil woman,” he mumbled and left her and Marcus alone.
“What did you do to him?” Amusement laced his words as he leant down to drop his briefcase. She told herself being referred to as his girlfriend meant nothing. No reason for her pulse to race, her insides to turn to mush.
“I was messing with his mind.” She shrugged and waited for him to sit beside her on the couch. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming home ‘til later.”
He sat down and flowed into her, one moment settling into the cushions, the next plastering himself to her body with a mind-stealing kiss.
After a breathless moment, he pulled away, leaving her stunned and vaguely annoyed he’d stopped.
“Do you want to hear about work?” he asked calmly, a glint in his eyes.
“What? Yes, yes I do,” she said, trying to grab hold of her rampant hormones.
Male satisfaction darkened his gaze, and he smiled before detailing his day.
Everything had been so normal. “…So now we know it’s relatively safe to come in tomorrow. I need your help on a few items at work, especially since I’m behind from this weekend and now doing the job of three men.” He gave her a measuring glance, one that made her flush.
“Hey, it’s not my fault.” She tried to dismiss the heat staining her cheeks. “You really wouldn’t have gotten Conklin’s go-ahead using so many employees on one account. Besides, you needed to be taken down a peg.” Her eyes narrowed at the memory. “You were deliberately cruel mentioning Davis, who, by the way, will never come within ten feet of me without losing a year of his life.”
Marcus glanced away and she knew she’d hit a nerve. “I apologised for that already.” He sounded stiff, and she pushed again.
“Not only were you rude then, you made a complete idiot of yourself yesterday when I did that teleportation thing into your room,” she reminded him, more curious than angry. “Care to explain that? Why are you so warm one minute, so cold the next?”
He looked agitated and she regretted, if only for a moment, she’d confronted him right as he returned from work—at three in the afternoon?
“And why are you home so early?”
“I had wanted to be with you,” he said coolly and made to rise.
“No, not this time.” She forcibly tugged him back down to sit next to her. “Explain it to me, Marcus. I want to understand you.”
* * * *
Sighing, he pulled at his tie. Might as well tell her. He had been a bastard about Davis. “I apologised about Davis, and I really am sorry. But Tessa, you had me so stirred up,” he paused, the sincerity in his eyes unmistakable. “I wanted you so much that day in the office.” He clearly recalled his first taste of her, and incredibly, he was hard as a pike. “I wanted to fuck you right there on my desk,” he said hoarsely, shocking her with his crude language.
“Oh,” she said in a tiny voice.
He laughed roughly. “Yeah, oh. You make me say and do things I normally wouldn’t.”
She was quiet a moment. “And when I teleported?”
His eyes narrowed as he recalled the monumental fear he’d felt when she’d vanished right in front of him. “It was a foolish thing for you to do. You might have been killed. You could have transported anywhere, into anything. Aerolus had no right to ask you to do that.”
She stared at him, her hand stroking his shoulder as if soothing a wild animal. Oddly enough, her touch calmed him.
“You were worried,” she said quietly, making him feel weak for being afraid.
“No, I—”
“It’s okay, Marcus,” she said with a small smile. “I was just as terrified when Arim showed up. I thought he was a wraith and I just…reacted.”
He frowned, recalling how reckless he’d been accepting Arim’s presence.
“I should have protected you better.”
“Better?” Her baby-blue eyes stared in astonishment. “You took a beating to your back, and even healed, he left scarring bruises on you that haven’t faded.”
“They will,” he said, surprised at her accusing tone. “It’s only been a day, Tessa.”
She blinked. “Funny, it feels like a lot longer.”
He knew the feeling. Since she’d been here in his home, Marcus felt as if he and Tessa had known each other forever. And instead of feeling cloying, she felt like a breath of freedom, a wash of vitality that made him feel things he shouldn’t.
He still refused to admit it to himself, but he knew, deep down, what she was to him. A better man would have grabbed her already. But some part of him wasn’t yet ready for what bonding with Tessa would entail. He needed to return home, hell, he wanted to return. But to be king when he could barely protect a woman who was coming to mean so much to him?
“Marcus?” She stroked his hair, and he wanted to close his eyes and never move from this spot again. “Are you okay? You look a little funny.”
“I’m fine, now,” he said on a sigh, content to let her massage his scalp and run her fingers through his hair.
“My, isn’t this cosy.”
‘Sin Garu floated above them, a wry smile teasing his perfectly sculpted, blood-red lips.
Chapter Nine
Marcus instinctively shielded Tessa as he shot a blast of water from his fingertips and pushed a tremendous amount of psychic force at the sorcerer, neither of which did anything to the smiling evil floating above them. Instead, the attack passed through him, his image as transparent as the bay window glass over which he loomed.
“It’s not real,” Tessa whispered, staring at ‘Sin Garu in what looked like fascinated disgust. “Just an image of him.”
Marcus withdrew his waters and quickly recited another protection spell around Tessa, adrenaline surging though his system like a drug. How the hell had ‘Sin Garu penetrated the house’s shields?
“Good morrow, water bringer. And to your friend, how wonderful to finally meet her, face to face as it were.” The sorcerer turned his attention to Tessa, staring at her from powerful yet venomous dark blue eyes. “She’s truly unique. Beautiful,” he murmured and glanced at Marcus. “Too much for a commoner like you.”
“Commoner, my ass,” Tessa said angrily, surprising Marcus with her temper. “He’s a royal prince, what the hell are you?”
Marcus widened his stance in front of her, warmed by her defence, but conscious ‘Sin Garu was dangerous in any state he appeared. “What is it you want, sorcerer?” he asked calmly, prepared to withstand an attack at any moment.
“I just wanted to exchange greetings, Marcus. I keep missing Darius. I thought it most remiss on my part not to have greeted you sooner, so here I am. And I so wanted to meet you, Tessa.” He grinned, his smile showing sharp, white teeth. “Such passion. That fiery red hair, that creamy white skin. Such luscious breasts.” ‘Sin Garu’s nostrils flared and his eyes gleamed as he stared at her groin. “I’ll bet she tastes—”
“What do you want, sorcerer?” Marcus repeated softly, the icy threat clear in his tone.
“Your brother would have ripped my head off by now,” ‘Sin Garu chided. “You’re not as much fun. But I’ll bet she is.”
Marcus simply stared, aware of Tessa pressed against his back. She was tense, but thankfully, left the verbal sparring to him.
“Fine.” ‘Sin Garu sighed. “I sense I’m not welcome here. I’ll leave.” He eyed Tessa with hunger. “But before I go, I just wanted to say I’m glad you avoided a prison sentence. We have much to talk about, you and I.”
Marcus stared at the sorcerer, and suddenly wondered at the spell he’d overheard Aerolus practicing the other day. He murmured it under his breath and watched as a thin trickle of blood ran from the sorcerer’s nose.
With a confused
frown, ‘Sin Garu wiped at his nose and stared, his blue gaze churning with both anger and pain.
“You’ll pay for that, Marcus.” He sneered, his threat muted by the gurgle of blood that suddenly flowed over his thin lips. ‘Sin Garu began flashing in and out, his projection choppy.
He shimmered and spoke one last time. “River Prince? The Djinn bedamned. You both belong to me, and no one else. When next we meet, your last broken breath will be at my feet, begging for mercy. And you, Tessa, you’ll be mine for as long as you can survive it.”
His threat hanging in the air like a dark cloud, he vanished.
Marcus stared at the ceiling, nonplused that the spell he’d used had worked, and that ‘Sin Garu had been there at all. He turned and glanced at Tessa.
“No, he was there. I saw him, plain as day.” She studied the ceiling, then focused on Marcus. “Explain to me what just happened here.” She swallowed loudly and he noted her hands trembling until she saw him staring and clenched her fists.
Damn, but she had strength. Trust Tessa Sheridan to handle wraiths, Storm Lords, and an impromptu visit from the leader of an evil army bent on death and destruction. A small smile curled his lips and seeing it, his Amazon exploded in temper.
As she ranted and raved about his stupid sense of humour, the right and wrong time to be brave, and denounced every other aspect of the male species in general, Marcus couldn’t help wondering how he, of all his brothers, had been gifted with such a woman.
This visit with ‘Sin Garu made him see that avoidance wasn’t the answer. Ready or not, Marcus would have to face his responsibilities, first here in this plane and then at home. Evil didn’t set schedules, and women, he thought as he studied the passionate female in a tirade before him, were just as dangerous to a man’s sense of order.
The more he watched her, the faster his heart beat. His internal temperature rose, and had he been capable of such, he would like to have channelled his churning energy through his living waters into steam. As it was, he transferred much of his pent-up energy to the lake beyond his house. Past Tessa’s form pacing in front of the bay window he could make out a crowd gathered around a raging water fountain that had no reason for being, but served as a place to release his pressing adrenaline rush.