Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) (14 page)

He sighed. 
“Liv… I can’t take you back… not yet.”

With a little growl of frustration, s
he took off at a run in the opposite direction.  To where, she didn’t know, but a place this size had to have lots of doors.  Before she had gotten more than a few yards, two strong arms wrapped around her from behind.  She screamed and fought, more out of anger than actual fear, but in the end it was no use.  Bastien simply gathered her up and slung her over one of his broad shoulders as if she weighed nothing at all.

When they reached the door
to her room, he opened it with one hand, then kicked it shut behind them.  She heard him take a deep breath through his nose as if he was gathering patience, before his arms loosened, allowing her to slowly slide down to the floor within his embrace.  “Don’t run from me.”  One hand came up to trace the line of her jaw.  “It only makes me want to chase you even more.”

Liv
stood frozen, mesmerized by the feel of his arms around her and the fierce look in his eyes.  He had two sides, this man.  One was tender, the other fierce. She had seen both.  And to be honest, she
liked
both.  One side made her want to curl up in his strong arms, and the other made her want to tear his clothes off and ravage him.  But right now, she was clinging desperately to her sanity and her courage, and for the first time since she had turned down that alley in Glasgow, she was beginning to doubt her own grip on reality.  As she looked up at Bastien’s ruggedly beautiful face, Liv could feel her throat tighten and the tears begin to well.  This time, she wasn’t going to be able to stop them.  When her lower lip trembled and the first teardrop rolled down her cheek, all of the danger left Bastien’s expression and he swore softly under his breath. 

“No!  No… don’t cry.  Ah hell…” 

Chapter 14

She was crying and it ripped at his heart.  One minute he had been looking at her lush lips, trying
desperately to talk himself out of kissing them, just once… and suddenly she was sobbing in his arms.  It made him feel almost guilty for the raging hard-on he had.  Almost, but in truth it felt too fucking
good
.  And she felt good in his arms, too, far too good for his own sanity.  His body still seemed to think it could have her, and he could do nothing to convince it otherwise.  He drew in her intoxicating scent, and his fingers dug reflexively into the soft flesh of her back as his whole body trembled and shuddered.  His hips wanted so badly to move against her, and it took all of his will to stop them and step back a little.

He
took her hand and led her carefully to a large, over-stuffed chair and sat down, pulling her onto his lap and holding her close.  “There now lass, I know it’s been a lot all at once.”  He had no idea what to say, and she only sobbed harder. 
Damn it!
  He had known this was going to happen eventually, and he had no real experience comforting females when they cried.  He tentatively began to stroke her hair, and it felt soft and silky under his fingers.  Everything about her was beauty and softness, warmth and happiness, and to be honest, he wanted it all for himself, to hoard like some treasure that he would never give up.  Just holding her like this made him feel… almost whole again.  How could he possibly go back to his world of darkness now, after having even the briefest breath of light?  He pulled her tighter against his chest, so that he could inhale her scent more deeply into his lungs.  The moment he did so, his body again reacted in a most instinctual way, as every muscle clenched and tightened with need, the rush of heat to his already swollen cock almost painful in its intensity.  He had to concentrate just to keep his breathing even, and he wondered if his heart could possibly beat any faster than it already was.  He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting for control of both his body and his mind.

How do you do this to me
Liv, when… when for so long there has been nothing?  I don’t understand… I don’t know what this means.  What in hell am I supposed to do with this?

When she
had finally calmed a little, Liv asked in a small voice, “You really are… what you say you are?”

“Yes.”

She nodded, then laid her cheek against his chest, whether in a gesture of trust or defeat, he didn’t know.  He only knew that it felt… good, to have her there, and he felt almost proud, that he had been able to calm her.  He continued to stroke her hair, and she shifted a little on his lap, rubbing against his aching cock and sending a shock of pleasure-pain through his body.  He caught his breath and shut his eyes for a moment, barely holding back a groan.  How was it possible for him to want a woman like this after so long?  How was it possible when he had already found and lost his mate?  Perhaps he could still feel attraction, but couldn’t follow through on it?  If so, every moment he spent with this woman was going to be a new and exquisite kind of torture.  To want and never to have… then again, he should be used to that by now. 

His mind strayed to the days before he had found
Karis, and known she belonged to him.  He had been just like every other lusty young Fomoirian male, taking advantage of every willing pair of thighs he came across, and loving every minute of it.  With seemingly unending passion and pleasure his for the taking, back then he had no desire to settle down with one woman. 

Then he had
seen Karis, and in one instant his entire world shrank down to only her. He lost his heart to her in that very first moment, and he never looked back.  With her golden hair and lovely face, she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was that she was his.  But more than just physical beauty, she had a pure and kind heart, and a sense of adventure to rival his own.  They were perfect for one another… he had thought they would explore the world together…

“You don’t
seem
like a Demon”, Liv whispered against his chest, bringing him abruptly back to the present.  “Not that I have any basis for comparison.”  She had obviously been lost in her own thoughts while he was thinking of the past.

He bristled
slightly, because the word ‘demon’ had a bad connotation in the human world.  The world she had come from.  “I’m a
Fomoirian
”, he clarified.

“You don’t seem
… dangerous.”

Oh i
f only she knew…
How many times had he lost his temper?  How many enemies had he killed without mercy?  Tearing heads from bodies as easily as someone might pluck a flower.  Thousands.  His pain and anger had driven him to an all new level of violence, even by Guild standards, and though he was revered for his skill and
efficiency
, most of the other warriors gave him a wide berth.  No, she didn’t know the half of what he was capable of…

“I am very dangerous, never doubt that.  But I will not hurt you.”

She looked at him for a moment.  “No, you won’t hurt me.  But you’re not right in the head, are you?  Or is that just how you entertain yourself, snatching women off the street and justifying it with stories of
being some kind of otherworldly creature?”

God, this female was amazing.  Her whole world had just been turned upside down, and already she was accepting, taking it all in stride
, trusting him, and still managing to berate him for his less than sociable behavior.  His lips quirked up into a lopsided smile, she did that to him when no one else could: she made him smile.  “But I
am
an Otherworldly creature.”

***

             
Liv’s heart picked up its pace.  He didn’t smile often, but when he did, it transformed his face into an absolute vision, with twin dimples that gave him a roguish, almost boyish charm.  If you could ever call a six foot plus mountain of chiseled muscle boyish.  Her gaze slipped down his body clad in black jeans and a tight black tee that showed off his pecs to perfection.  Nope.  All man, and then some.

             
As she surreptitiously ogled him, she noticed that Bastien was looking right back at her, and though his pupils were dark, his eyes were softer than she had ever seen them before.  She could drown in those eyes.  She was sure of it.  “What?” she asked, starting to grow self-conscious under his stare.

             
He regarded her with a slight frown, sadly taking away the dimples.  “You look different.  Your hair… it’s lighter.  And your eyes, too.”  He reached for a strand of her hair and let it slide between his fingers. 

             
“What do you mean?”  Liv glanced at the big, gilded mirror hanging on the far wall, pushed herself up off his lap, and went over to it.  As she caught her reflection, she had to admit that something looked… not quite right.  Her normally dark brown hair did appear to be a few shades lighter… but maybe it had just been bleached by the sun. 
In Scotland Liv?  You’re lucky to even see the sun on any given day.
  She leaned closer to look at her eyes.  Instead of their usual chocolate brown, they seemed more of a dark navy.  But that could just be the lighting in this room… couldn’t it?

***

             
As Bastien watched her walk over to the mirror, he selfishly ached to have her back in his arms.  A faint look of alarm crossed her face as she looked in the mirror, and he rose from the chair to go to her.  “It’s normal… for your final form to be a little different.  Most Fae males grow taller.  The females… more”, his dark gaze raked over her body and he swallowed, “ripe.”

             
She turned from the mirror to look at him, her eyes wide.  “How do I even know that I’m really not human?  Maybe I just have special abilities or something.  Besides, wouldn’t I have known by now?  Wouldn’t someone have told me?  I mean, I was raised by my grandmother, and she was just an ordinary person.  It just doesn’t make sense…”

             
Bastien didn’t say anything, but he pulled his long hair to the side and leaned forward slightly, showing her the nape of his neck.  She reached up to trace the mark there with one finger, and he shivered at her soft touch.  Then he stood and took a smaller mirror off the wall, holding it up behind her as he moved her hair aside.  “Look.”  She moved forward to look at her reflection, and the second mirror clearly showed the same mark on her nape as Bastien had on his.

             
Her hand reached up to touch it, and as Bastien set the second mirror down, she turned to him in confusion.  “I never had a mark there before… “

             
“No, you wouldn’t have.  It must have appeared recently.  It is the mark of the Sidhe, Liv, and we all bear it.  The mid-twenties is the average time for Fae to reach maturity.  You are twenty-six, are you not?”

             
“Yes.”  She looked at her reflection, bewildered eyes looking back at her.  Bastien stood over her shoulder, his gaze meeting her wide-eyed, confused one in the glass.  “What does it mean… to be Fae?  I don’t know anything about it.”

             
His mouth softened into an almost-smile, and he reached up to brush a lock of hair back from her face.  “It means you are one of the most beautiful creatures on earth, graceful and benevolent.  When you reach your final form, you will have certain abilities that humans do not, depending on what your parents’ talents were.  And you will be in effect immortal… like me.”

              Liv’s first thought was that Bastien sounded so sad, weary almost, when he spoke of his own immortality, that she actually felt her heart squeeze in her chest.  Her second thought was more along the lines of ‘holy crap, did he just say that I’m going to be
immortal
?’  That may have just been the last blow that her psyche could take right now, because her legs turned to Jell-O and her knees buckled.  Bastien caught her before she went down, scooping her effortlessly up into his arms.

             
“So strong…” she mumbled, pressing her cheek to his hard chest.

             
He carried her over to the couch and set her down, sinking into the cushion beside her and running his hands through his hair.  “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you so much at once.  I’m sorry.”

Liv
shook her head, concentrating on taking deep breaths.  “No… no I’m okay.  I… I just need a minute.”  She took a few more deep breaths, and realized that none of this seemed as strange to her as it should have, almost as if her sub-conscious had already decided that Bastien was telling her the truth, and there was another reality just beyond her reach, like the strange places she often visited in her dreams.  “If all this is true, then how does the whole world not know about it?  Why are there not constantly sightings of strange creatures and things like that?”

Bastien gave her a dark, knowing smirk.  “Oh, but there are, but the one thing we can always count on is the humans’ penchant for rationalizing everything to fit into their
own
view of the world, and their misguided belief that they are superior over all of it. Humans choose
not
to see things all of the time.  And if they do, it becomes a story, or a myth, and thus it’s explained away to everyone’s satisfaction.  After a while, no one even questions whether it ever could have been true.  Have you not noticed that many different cultures, even those that have always been isolated from one another, all have strikingly similar creatures in their mythology?  They only have different names, perhaps different stories, but the creatures, they are essentially the same.”  He paused and tucked a curl behind one ear, almost as if he just wanted to touch her.  “I am telling you these things, and you have every right to know them, Liv, because you are Fae, and you belong to our world.  But… I also think that you don’t completely believe what I’m telling you, and until I know that you do, I have to keep you with me.  The Guild won’t risk a leak to the human world, and right now, you are a risk.”

Liv let out a little laugh.  “I would be locked up in the psych ward if I went around
telling people this stuff, and you know it.  Besides, I
do
believe you, I think… it’s not like I
don’t
, exactly.  It’s just so overwhelming right now.  Nothing has really sunk in.”

             
“Until I
know
that you do, you stay with me”, he told her again.

“Ok.”  She let her head fall against his chest and tried to snuggle closer, but he inhaled sharply and abruptly stoo
d.

“It’s time you get some sleep”, he told her.

             
But Liv couldn’t sleep.  Not a wink.  As soft as the bed was and even with the pile of luxurious pillows under her head, she lay awake for hours.  Eventually she rolled out of the bed and went to the window, where a huge, nearly full moon hung motionless in a strangely cloudless sky.  Hmmm that must be it… she sometimes had trouble sleeping when the moon was full.  Or it could be that she had a sneaking suspicion Bastien was telling her the truth, and she was going to have to seriously adjust her world-view.  She knew that if even one more small piece of evidence came her way, she wasn’t going to be able to deny it any longer.