Adric's Heart Read online

  Adric turned. “No,” he said, letting his cat into his eyes. “She’s not.”

  The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He released Adric and backed away. “Right. I—” He fled back to the safety of his wingmen.

  Adric turned to Rosana. “Hello, love.” Her lips were a slick crimson the same shade as her jacket. “What’re you drinking?”

  “Adric.” In her faint, sexy accent, his name came out as Ah-dreek instead of Aaa-dric. The two syllables shivered deliciously over his skin. He could almost ignore the way she inclined her head like she was a princess and he a slimy green frog.

  So she was still pissed off at him. He supposed he deserved it. The gods knew, he’d been an ass the last time they’d met.

  Her deep blue eyes flashed. “I can get my own drink, thank you.” She reached for her wallet.

  He slapped a hand onto hers over the glove. “I asked,” he said between clenched teeth, “what are you drinking?”

  “Fine.” She jerked her hand out from beneath his. “Buy me a Dos Equis.”

  He raised two fingers at Sophie, the motherly Mediterranean Sea fada tending bar along with Claudio. “Two, please.”

  While they waited for their beers, he put an elbow on the bar and angled his body toward Rosana. She had the fresh, clean scent of a clear mountain pool. Beneath his T-shirt, his quartz warmed, like it always did when she was near—seeking to complete their connection, as if they were two mated earth fada.

  But Rosana wasn’t an earth fada, she was a river fada. And the two of them could never mate.

  Inside, his cougar hissed in disagreement.

  A corkscrew of black hair had fallen forward over her shoulder. He itched to finger it, see if it was as soft as he remembered. Instead, he fisted his hand and gave her a mocking smile.

  “Didn’t expect to see you in Baltimore again so soon. Decided you want to tangle with a cat, huh?”

  The last time they’d met, he’d told her to stay out of his city if she knew what was good for her. Said that if she wasn’t careful, “a big, bad cat would carry her off to his lair.”

  Her long-lidded blue eyes narrowed. “You know what?” she asked sweetly. “Sometimes you can be a real cabrão.”

  A bastard, a motherfucker. That was one Portuguese word he knew. She wasn’t the first Rock Run fada who’d tossed it at him. But with Rosana, he deserved it.

  His gaze slid from hers. “It was for your own good.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Her look should’ve fried him where he stood. “Well, maybe I’m tired of other people deciding what’s good for me. Maybe I want to decide for myself.”

  He raised his beer to her. “Then go for it.”

  When she shot him an uncomprehending look, he shrugged. “Hey, I’m not your brother or even a member of your clan. You want something, go out and get it. Just don’t come to my city and try to mess in my business.”

  She leaned closer, dropped her voice. “And if what I want is you?”

  He gulped. Took a swig of beer. Replayed her question in his head. “That’s why you’re here?”

  A tiny nod. She looked out over the crowd, seemingly unconcerned, her slim frame was taut with tension. “I want to take you up on your offer.”

  His heart slammed in his chest. Hard, disbelieving beats. “My offer?”

  He’d practically begged her for one night, had even offered to meet her out of town so no one would know. But she’d turned him down.

  He shifted closer and she turned her head to meet his eyes. The noisy bar faded away until it was just the two of them.

  He swayed toward her, his gaze locked on her shiny red lips. He could already taste them beneath his, feel their softness. Hear her gasp as he took her deeper…

  “Here you go, bibi.” Sophie’s cheerful voice wrenched him to his senses. She set the beers on the bar behind them.

  He dragged in a breath, handed the bartender a ten. “Keep the change.”

  “Thanks.” Her gaze flicked between Rosana and him, and then she chuckled before moving on to the next customer.

  Adric picked up both bottles and handed one to Rosana.

  The other fada in the bar—both river and earth—were eyeing them.

  He smoothed out his expression and lowered his voice to subvocal tones. “Just to be clear, you’ll give me one night.”

  She dipped her chin in assent.

  He rubbed a thumb over the bottle’s two bright red X’s. “And you changed your mind—why?”

  Why the fuck was he arguing? She’d said yes, hadn’t she? But he couldn’t help being suspicious.

  He’d wanted—no, craved—this woman for six and a half years. But it was like Romeo mooning over Juliet, and he wasn’t the idiot Romeo had been. Besides, she’d been barely sixteen, too young and way too sweet for a cynical bastard like him. He’d contented himself with a dance the few times their clans had socialized—and a searing kiss or two. She was twenty-two now, and he was tired of pretending this thing between them didn’t exist.

  But he’d made a move—twice—and both times, she’d shut him down.

  Then, a few weeks ago she’d come looking for him, said she’d had a “hunch” that he was planning something against the night fae, and she wanted to help.

  He’d told her no fucking way.

  They’d argued, and then he’d taken her hand. She’d gone stick-straight, her irises darkening to an eerie black. That was when he’d realized she had the Sight.

  “The Darktime isn’t over,” she’d said in a Seer’s toneless voice. “The prince will destroy your clan from the inside out.”

  A chill had run over his skin. She was a Seer. He hadn’t known, and there wasn’t much he didn’t know about the do Rio family.

  He’d shaken her, demanded to know what she’d Seen. There was a fraught silence, and then with a shudder, she’d come back to herself and whispered, “That’s insane. You can’t kill him. You’ll set off something you can’t stop.”

  But maddeningly, that had been all she could tell him.

  His spine had iced. Nobody knew what he was planning. Not even his sister.

  And Rosana didn’t know. Not really. She’d Seen a possible future, that’s all. So he’d sent her on her way, told her to stay the fuck out of Baltimore.

  Now her fine dark brows scrunched together. “If you’re not interested…”

  He growled. “You know damn well I’m interested. I’m just wondering why now.”

  A shrug. “Maybe I’m curious.”

  Cat’s balls.

  His dick twitched, his dark side picturing all the things he could teach a curious virgin, because he knew she hadn’t had another man. She was only twenty-two turns of the sun, and an alpha’s pampered baby sister.

  Unashamed, he reached down and adjusted his pants.

  Her eyes tracked his movement. The tip of her tongue darted out to moisten her full lower lip. He stifled a groan as his dick went from half-hard to full, aching attention.

  But the alpha in him was still suspicious. “Does this have something to do with that vision you had?” He lowered his voice even more. “Because I told you, there’s no way I’m letting a river fada help in any way, shape, or form. Especially a Rock Run fada.”

  She blew out a breath. “Deus, Adric. I’m just looking for a little fun. But if you changed your mind, I get it.”

  And without giving him a chance to reply, she took her beer and headed into the crowd. A few seconds later, she was dancing with another man, this one a river fada.

  Adric’s nostrils flared. No. Hell no.

  So Rosana wanted some fun? Then she’d damn well have it with him.

  Still, he hadn’t become alpha of a murderous, warring clan by playing his cards for all to see. And the other river fada in the bar were glaring at him with fire in their eyes.

  He lifted his beer to them in a mocking salute and headed to the back room and the poker game.

  But when she left the bar, he was waiting.

  2


  Rosana eyed the small bathroom window in the ladies’ room, calculating she’d just fit. Locking the door—Sorry, ladies—she removed her jacket and gloves and eased up the window.

  A hop and a slither got her upper body through the narrow opening, but her hips were stuck fast. She turned sideways, pushed hard against the frame and with a deep inhale and a little cursing, popped the rest of the way out. Twisting in mid-air, she landed on her feet in the tiny parking lot behind the saloon.

  An icy January drizzle spattered her. She raised her face, drinking in the coolness against her heated skin, before pulling on her jacket and heading around the corner to her sportbike.

  Built on the waterfront, Fell’s Point dated to the time when Baltimore was a major port and shipbuilding center teeming with seamen and pirates. The road was paved in cobblestones, the streetlights an old-fashioned black metal. Trees pushed through miniscule squares of earth in the sidewalk to raise stunted branches to the moonless sky, and the buildings were a mix of shops, warehouses and brick rowhouses with gabled roofs.

  Her hands were clammy. She wiped them on her pants and pulled on her gloves.

  Elation filled her. She’d done it. Gone to Adric, the man she’d wanted since forever, it seemed.

  But he didn’t say yes.

  Her steps slowed. Was he going to just let her leave?

  He’d been so suspicious. She hadn’t expected that. But then, that vision had shocked them both.

  It had been last month, right before the winter solstice. She’d tracked him down because she’d been having maddening glimpses of the future. Her gut had told her he was planning something against the night fae, and she’d wanted to help.

  He’d been suspicious then, too. But he’d taken her hand, kissed her wrist. His fingers had closed on hers, and…

  Darkness. So much darkness.

  Stomach churning, she pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes.

  His touch had triggered her Sight. She’d Seen Adric crouched as his cougar in a tree, focused on a tall, black-haired man with pale skin and a fae’s pointed ears.

  Adric is slipping through the forest, a man now.

  Something flashes in his hand—a dagger made of iron, the only metal that can kill a fae or a fada.

  The black-haired fae turns around. It’s Langdon, the night fae prince.

  His gaze flicks in Adric’s direction. A smile moves across his coldly beautiful face…and three night fae warriors converge on Adric.

  The scene shifts to Baltimore, sometime in the near future. Adric’s clan is hunkered down in their dens. The night fae are everywhere, and darkness slinks through his people like a feral wolf.

  Cold. Relentless. Hungry.

  And their alpha is nowhere to be seen.

  She removed her hands from her eyes, stared at the gloved fingers.

  Why had she let Adric touch her bare hand? She knew touching people could set off her Sight, and when she was in the grip of a vision, she wasn’t in control. Things—prophecies—spilled out of her as if she were just a mouthpiece.

  Her lips twisted. Wouldn’t it be ironic if she’d scared off the man after he’d been chasing her for six years?

  “Rosana.” A thread of sound from a nearby alley, accompanied by Adric’s scent, musky, a little earthy. The forest on a rainy day.

  Her heart jumped.

  The alley appeared empty until she looked up. The Baltimore alpha crouched on a warehouse roof like the cougar he was, blending into the shadows in dark jeans and a black leather jacket. She knew she’d only seen him because he’d let her.

  Her mouth dried. Anticipation shivered up her spine.

  A supple flex of his muscles, and he dropped soundlessly to the pavement.

  He straightened, prowled nearer.

  He wasn’t as big as her brothers, but he was just as powerful, lean and hard-bodied. An alpha to the bone.

  And gorgeous with tawny skin, spiked-up black hair bleached blond at the tips, and a face meant for sinning: long cheekbones, heavy-lidded eyes and a sensuous mouth just this side of mocking.

  In the human world he’d have been a rock star. A badass, rule-breaking rock star.

  He stopped so close she felt the heat of his body. Earth fada ran warmer than water fada; it was like standing next to a bonfire, hot and heady.

  Her nipples pricked, pushed against her shirt. Her pussy clenched.

  His nostrils flared, and she knew he scented her arousal. His odd bronze eyes darkened. “Tomorrow night. I’ll book us a room on the Eastern Shore.”

  “And no one will know.”

  “No one,” he confirmed. “There’s a B&B on the beach. Owned by a human. He takes cash and he doesn’t ask questions. Can you meet me on I-95?” He named a service plaza between Baltimore and Grace Harbor.

  “What time?”

  “Noon.” His mouth edged up in a sardonic smile. “You sure this is okay with your brothers? I don’t want to wake up with a knife to my throat—or…” He gestured at his crotch.

  She shrugged, because it wouldn’t be okay with them—if she told them. But Adric didn’t need to know that. “No one followed me here, did they?”

  A shake of his head.

  “I’ll be there,” she told him. “Alone.”

  Fada had a hard time lying, but she didn’t have to tell the whole truth, either. She’d explain to Dion and his mate, Cleia—who were more like parents to her—that she wanted to get away for a night or two. The Goddess knew, that was the truth. Sometimes she was so desperate to get away from the base and her well-meaning but overprotective family that she felt like screaming.

  Adric stepped back. “Come here.” He leaned against the brick wall and extended a hand.

  Her stomach did a little flip. She moistened her lips.

  I’m really doing this.

  On the nearby sidewalk, several too-loud humans strolled past, but she barely heard them. Here in the alley, it was just her and Adric.

  He cocked a mocking brow. “You in—or not?

  She lifted her chin and took his hand. “I’m in.”

  He drew her closer and in one smooth move, had her crowded up against the wall. His eerie metallic irises were shot with blue now. His cougar was awake, intent on her like she was prey and it was starving.

  He fisted his hands in her hair. His gaze went to her lips, and then his mouth was moving over hers. Softly, slowly. Teasing. Seducing.

  The nerves in her belly fired up. Points of heat sizzled up and down her spine.

  She moaned and opened her mouth, and his tongue slipped in, curling around hers. She sucked it deeper. He gave a low, exciting groan from deep in his throat.

  He tasted of beer and his own dark male flavor. His body pressed hers to the wall, his cock hard against her belly. Heat came off him in waves. Stoking her desire, scrambling her brain.

  She forgot that anyone could stumble upon them, especially those Rock Run men in the saloon who’d watched, narrow-eyed, the whole time she was speaking to Adric. They’d be out here now if she hadn’t escaped through the bathroom window.

  Worse, she completely forgot that she shouldn’t touch him.

  She jerked off her gloves and slid her hands under his jacket. She dragged up his T-shirt, seeking skin. Sliding her hands over his hard, dangerous body.

  His hands were busy as well. One gripped her hair, pulling her head back so he could nibble at her throat. With the other, he unzipped her jacket and palmed her breast through her shirt.

  She twined a leg around his thigh, urging him closer, rubbing herself against his erection. His chest flattened her breasts, the pressure easing her aching nipples.

  He sucked on the tender skin beneath her jaw. Sensation speared from her breasts to her womb.

  She gasped and writhed against him. “Adric. I—”

  “Shh. It’s okay. Just a little more…”

  He moved to another spot, murmuring how beautiful she was. Telling her how much he wanted her. That he’d make it good
, so good for her.

  “Sim, sim.” She slipped into Portuguese and then caught herself. “Yes. Anything.”

  Adric was the one who called a halt. He lifted his head, breathing hard, and she gave another moan and tried to pull him back, but he set her a little away from him.

  “Tomorrow.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Tomorrow. Noon.”

  “Okay. Yes.” Her voice sounded hoarse to her ears.

  “I want your promise. You’ll be there, no matter what.”

  “I’ll be there. I promise.”

  “Good.” He nipped her earlobe and then faded back into the shadows, watching as she zipped her jacket with fingers that felt thick, awkward.

  He waited until she’d picked up her gloves before turning toward the wall. She watched as he leapt ten feet straight up, catching onto a gutter and swinging himself back onto the roof.

  The man was a freaking human cat. Literally.

  He remained on the roof, watching over her as she walked the half block to her sportbike.

  She touched her tingling lips. The man sure knew how to use that sexy mouth.

  She turned and walked backward. “Tomorrow,” she mouthed and blew him a kiss.

  Adric’s eyes flashed an electric blue. His growl was soft, but she heard it. A thrill shivered over her skin.

  She grinned and turned back around. She was halfway up I-95 before her body stopped humming.

  Back in Grace Harbor, she parked the sleek purple bike in the clan garage and wiped the rain off the body. She didn’t own the sportbike—the clan shared most vehicles—but she used it enough that she thought of it as hers.

  That done, she tossed the rag into the bin provided for that purpose and headed into the passage that tunneled under Rock Run Creek to the base on the other side. The caverns were quiet, most of the clan in bed. An aqua-blue fae light wafted over to light her way through the labyrinthine tunnels.

  She nodded at the few people she met without adding the usual hug. Since coming into her Gift as a Seer, she’d learned to avoid casual touches so as not to set off the Sight. People thought it odd, but fortunately, she’d always followed her own quirky drum. The clan expected her to be different.