Primal Pleasure: Pendragon Gargoyles, Book 3 (8 page)

Briana poked him in the chest. “Don’t you dare use that tone with me.”

“What tone?”

“The same one you used when you ran off and joined the Guard when we were barely more than cubs.”

“For the thousandth time, you couldn’t have come. Females weren’t allowed.”

“Thank the gods this realm isn’t as chauvinistic as ours.”

Cian snorted, but before he could reply, Cale stepped between them. “Is this where I have to step in and threaten to toss both of you around by the scruff of your necks?”

“I’d pay a small fortune to see that.” Sorcha strolled into the room. “Or more specifically the part where they team up to take you down.”

Cale scoffed, hauling his mate into his arms. “I can take you down.”

Sorcha nodded. “When I let you.”

Cale growled softly at the challenge, and both Cian and Briana rolled their eyes.

Turning her back on the couple, Briana caught his arm. “You don’t need to do this alone. I can—” She broke off, glancing at Cale.

“You can what?”

Her brows drew together. “Help,” she finally answered, leaving Cian with the impression she’d wanted to say something else.

“I need to do this on my own. She may not be my mate, but the cat thinks she is. Someday you’ll get it.”

Pain blinked across her face so briefly he might have imagined it.

“Hey,” he began, unsure of what he should apologize for. He’d swear he spent half his adolescence telling Briana he was sorry for something, whenever he wasn’t dragging her into whatever trouble he’d found.

A smile curved her lips but didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Just be careful and if you need me, call. Promise me.”

He pulled her into his arms for a fierce hug, the sudden tightness in his throat preventing him from responding right away.

Briana’s eyes were suspiciously shiny when she drew back. “And if you’re stupid enough to let that sorceress curse you again, just know that I’ll be using your stone ass to hang my lingerie on.”

“Nice,” Sorcha quipped.

Cale shook his head at her. “Don’t even think about it.”

The huntress grinned at him. “C’mon. I’d bet you’d look fabulous in a little black or red lace.”

Shooting his sister a dark look, Cale turned Sorcha back the way she’d come. “Thank you for that.”

Briana smiled. “Anytime. Don’t worry, I won’t mention how good of a target you’d make the next time she and Nessa are playing paintball.”

Cian cringed on his brother’s behalf. Having had the—pleasure? Misfortune?—of meeting Sorcha’s huntress friend, he sympathized with Cale.

Sorcha held her hand to her ear in what Cian had learned was some universal sign for
call me
.

Yeah, his brother had his hands full with that one.

“Briana’s right about watching your ass.” Cale clapped him on the back.

Cian grinned. “I’ll miss you too.”

Briana shoved her hands in her pockets when Cale and Sorcha left the room. “I mean it, call me. I’m number one on your speed dial.”

“I know.”

She nodded, ducking in for another quick hug. “Give her hell, Cian.”

He planned on giving Emma a lot more than that, even if it killed him.

Emma stared at the cards on the blackjack table in front of her as the dealer waited for her. She glanced at the cards face up in front of the other players, quickly adding the values in her head and ending with a positive count. With a higher number of face cards still in the deck, she had the mathematical advantage. Doubling her bet, she then tapped for another card.

The dealer laid a Jack of Spades, bringing her total to twenty and beating the house.

“You’re moping, you know.”

Emma tinkered with the stack of chips she’d just won, looking anywhere in the busy casino but at her aunt. Surrogate aunt anyway, according to the woman who so closely shared her hair and eye color that they were often confused as mother and daughter.

Twenty years ago, when Elena had been at the height of her rebellion, they’d found themselves stranded on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Leah had stopped to offer them a ride, and although Emma had half-expected her twin to charm the woman out of her vehicle and whatever cash she had, they ended up hitting it off. Probably had something to do with both Leah and Elena being free spirits.

When Leah had offered them a place to stay, they’d quickly agreed, wanting to stay off their father’s radar for a while. Since then, they’d both made a habit of dropping in on Leah whenever they were in Vegas. Which was a lot.

Leah had eventually recognized them as something more than human—Emma was convinced there was Fae blood in her family line somewhere—but not until a pissed-off sorcerer cornered them did they tell her the truth. In true Leah fashion, the revelation rolled right off her back and they carried on with their evening as though nothing had changed.

“It’s a man, isn’t it?” Leah stood and scooped up her chips.

Emma kept her attention on the table, setting her initial bet and waiting for the dealer to come back to her.

What in the hell had she been thinking when Leah asked her to tag along this afternoon? She would have been better off staying at Leah’s, curled up with a stack of DVDs and enough fudge to pave the Las Vegas Strip.

But no, she hadn’t wanted Leah to think she was moping—which had turned out
beautifully
—so she’d come along. She’d assumed Leah would vanish within the first twenty minutes, right around the time she inevitably spotted a potential candidate for her next husband.

As far as Emma knew, they were only ever candidates. As much as Leah adored men in general, she had never really gotten over her first husband.

“You’ll tell me eventually, you know.” Leah sent another flirtatious smile to the man two seats down from Emma. “Does Elena know you had your heart broken?”

“I did not have my heart broken,” she hissed, sending the dealer an apologetic look for Leah’s constant distractions.

He stared back at her. She frowned, then realized he was waiting for her. Doing the math, she doubled down and motioned to stand when he laid down an eight of hearts.

“Trampled a bit, then.” Leah shrugged as though it was all the same.

“Hardly.” She might have been foolish enough to give in to the gargoyle but there was a world of difference between love and lust. Hardcore, hot-all-the-way-to-her-toes lust. The kind she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about—whenever she wasn’t looking over her shoulder for him, or imagining him dangling over the catacomb fire pits.

“Good,” Leah murmured. “Get right back up on the horse, I say.”

Since she’d been on a roll for a while and caught the dealer glancing in the direction of the pit boss a couple of times, she pulled her next bet back and intentionally busted. Counting cards wasn’t illegal, but casinos were well known for banning suspected card counters from the premises.

“And if there was ever a stallion in need of mounting, it’s him.”

Emma choked on her drink, afraid to look at whatever male specimen had caught Leah’s attention. Instead, she checked the time on her cell phone, ignoring the lingering redness on her wrist from the cuff it had taken her a week to get off, and only with a Fae’s help. She now owed Dolan and didn’t look forward to him collecting any time soon.

“Oh,” Leah added a moment later, sounding disappointed.

“What, spot a wedding ring?”

Setting up for the next hand, the dealer cracked a smile.

“No, but I’d say he’s off the market.”

Assuming the guy in question had just been joined by his wife or girlfriend, Emma debated whether or not to give up her seat after the next hand.

“Room for one more?” a familiar voice said to her right.

Emma froze, afraid to look. Awareness licked up her spine, and she slowly lifted her head. Her gaze collided with Cian’s.

“Giddy up,” Leah quipped.

“Where are you going?” Without taking her eyes off Cian, she reached her hand back to catch Leah, but she’d already backed up.

“The craps tables are calling my name.”

Hundred bucks said she only went as far as the bar, where she could keep an eye on Emma and her stallion.

Emma watched, not a little dumbstruck, as Cian joined the game. The entire scene felt like something out of a nightmare. If it had been a fantasy, he would have been naked, or at the very least without a shirt.

He gave her a knowing smirk, as if he could tell she’d just been thinking about his chest.

How in the hell had he found her? She’d been careful not to stay in any one place for more than a day or two, or tell anyone where she was going next, and neither she or Elena ever told anyone about Leah.

He cocked his head, lifting a hand to probe the place she’d nailed him. “Still attached.”

“Unfortunately,” she murmured, forcing her attention back to her cards.

And to think she’d been worried she’d struck him too hard that night in his bathroom. She might have been crazy enough to think she’d felt some kind of connection to him, but his anger following the best sex of her life had helped her come to her senses. She’d never blindsided anyone the way she had Cian when she’d lain in wait for him with the heavy toilet tank cover, and the guilt afterward had nearly paralyzed her.

Remembering the fury in his eyes, though, had gotten her ass moving in the end. Too bad it hadn’t been enough to erase the memory of being with him altogether.

It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to find you.

She’d believed him. As crazy and naïve as it was, in the moment, she had felt the same, and the only person she was furious with—other than herself—over the whole mess was Elena. And when she caught up with her twin…

“Ma’am?”

She scanned the last cards played from beneath lowered lashes and motioned for another card of her own, then stayed at nineteen. She counted the seconds until the hand ended and she could get away from the table.

Cian motioned for another card. “Hit me.” He leaned forward, his attention on Emma. “Oh wait, you already did that.”

She smiled sweetly. “And enjoyed every second.”

He scowled, and she basked in the minor victory as his total hit twenty-two and she beat both him and the house.

Gathering up her chips, she slid away from the table, knowing the thirty-second head start Cian gave her meant nothing. He hadn’t tracked her to this point to let her walk away.

The gargoyle proved her instincts were dead on when he tipped the dealer and trailed after her. She headed toward the slot machines, glancing over her shoulder to find his purposeful strides bordered on stalking. He weaved around tables and people the way an animal leaped over obstacles in the woods.

They both knew it was just a matter of time before he made his move. That didn’t stop her from zigzagging between rows of blinking slot machines. So intent on getting some distance between them, she stopped paying attention to her surroundings and lost track of where she was in the casino.

Chancing a quick glance behind her, she slowly came to a stop. He wasn’t behind her, so she waited a beat, anticipating him rounding the corner any second.

He didn’t.

Could she have actually lost him? She started to dismiss the possibility before remembering he’d probably never stepped foot in a casino before today. He could have learned the rules of modern blackjack from watching television or online, which meant the casino’s design and intentional lack of easy-to-recognize landmarks could have disorientated him.

Hope flared in her chest, and she whirled around intent on grabbing Leah and getting the hell out of there. She dug in her bag for her cell phone, keeping an eye out for Cian.

Ducking into a small alcove between two rows of slots, her fingers fumbled over the keys while texting Leah to meet her outside. She slipped her phone back in her bag and froze as she caught a glimpse of Cian searching for her. She held her breath, letting it out slowly when he moved on without spotting her.

Heading in the opposite direction, Emma collided with a twenty-something woman on crutches.

Crap. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem.” The woman smiled, and Emma paused, momentarily distracted by her smile.

With long, wavy black hair, a flawless complexion and a full pouty mouth, the woman was gorgeous, plain and simple. Probably a model or a showgirl. “I should have been paying more attention.” Not an easy feat with a vengeful gargoyle hot on her trail.

“I just broke my foot a week ago and still feel a little like Godzilla lumbering around whenever I get in tight spaces.” She held out her hand for the crutch Emma had knocked into a planter.

Careful not to shove it at the woman, she forced a smile. “You might want to steer clear of the buffet then. The starving masses don’t think twice about crowding people when food is involved.”

She laughed, started past Emma, then stopped. “I don’t suppose you might know where the bathroom is, would you?”

“No, sorry.” She glanced around for Cian.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. You look like you’re in a hurry and here I am babbling. I have a bad habit of doing that when I’m nervous. This is my first trip to Las Vegas and my boyfriend has disappeared, and I had one too many cocktails, hence my search for the bathroom…and I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay.” She smiled again, but it didn’t light up her face like before, and Emma swore she looked a little worried.

There wasn’t time to play Good Samaritan, and yet the way the other woman worried her necklace, the same way Leah did whenever she was pretending she wasn’t overwhelmed by something, made Emma cave. “You know, I’ve been looking for the bathroom myself. Maybe between the two of us, we can find it.” Sooner rather than later, preferably.

The other woman’s smile brightened. “Great. Two sets of eyes are better than one, right?” She fell into step with Emma, not complaining that Emma was probably walking too quickly for someone still getting used to crutches.

Feeling a little guilty over that, she tried to slow it down just a bit.

The woman glanced behind them, following Emma’s gaze. “Is something wrong?”