Down the corridor, Fiona was startled to see Rohese walking with Jaycee. Already upset, her heart constricted. She hated the idea Rohese was sleeping with her, much less living with her. But Lorcan was right: if she wouldn’t commit, she couldn’t expect Rohese not to seek other relationships.
But, damn it, he was supposed to fall in love with an elven or Fae female and be eternally mated. That’s what would make him happy. That’s what she wanted for him.
Not Jaycee. God! Was it just a sexual thing? Was that any better?
Rohese was looking at Jaycee as though trying to unravel something she’d said. He did that with Fiona too; he didn’t always catch the finer nuances of human language.
She sighed. He had done that with her.
Jaycee looked up and met Fiona’s eyes. Was she being paranoid or was Jaycee pleased that Fiona saw her with Rohese? She took his hand and beamed up at him. Did Jaycee know Rohese and Fiona had been involved?
“Hello, Fiona,” the younger woman said, revealing the tip of her forked tongue. Fiona heard the smugness in her hissing tone.
“Jaycee, Rohese.” Fiona tucked the whiskey bottle behind her back and spoke casually, as if greeting anyone at LAMB and not someone she’d slept with for nearly a year and still cared for.
“Fiona Maguire.” Rohese’s voice was strained, his cheeks colored.
“How’s the trainin’ comin’ along?” she asked, hoping she sounded unaffected.
Be cool and casual. At least civil.
“Rohese is a magnificent archer.” Jaycee touched his muscular arm. “I’m learning so much from him.”
Yeah. Rohese had taught Fiona how to use the bow, too.
Jaycee gave him the kind of secret smile lovers shared, but Rohese turned away, his cheeks still ruddy.
“It was lovely seein’ you…both.” Fiona pasted on a smile. “I’ll let you be on your way.”
She walked away quickly, her heart beating faster. It shouldn’t hurt this much to see him with someone else—certainly not when she’d ended it. Even though the decision had been mutual, it was her inflexibility that led to the final quarrel and the agreement to avoid each other.
Fiona heard Jaycee raise her voice and turned back to see her glowering at Rohese. Then she threw Fiona a hateful look and huffed off.
“Fiona Maguire,” Rohese said, approaching.
Trouble in paradise? she wanted to say, but bit back the snark.
“I do not wish for you to be displeased with me,” he said in his silky, formal tone.
She shrugged but kept walking. “I’m not displeased, Rohese. I’m sorry I behaved badly when I heard about the two of you. I want you to find love. If Jaycee is the one, you’d better go after her. She looked annoyed, and if you’re livin’ with her, you’ll want to…”
Rohese reached for her arm. “It’s not like that, Cailleach Bhan.”
Tears welled at the familiar endearment.
“You don’t have to explain.” She needed to go. She didn’t want him to see her cry.
But Rohese held tight.
“I am sorry I wasn’t there when our miog met his end…or when your home was ransacked.”
“I wish you could’ve seen him one more time, but it’s okay, Rohese. I should tell you…I’m…I’m probably sellin’ the shop. We’ll have to figure out what to do with the portal.”
“The portal cannot be closed!” His unusual star-flecked blue gaze intensified.
“What do you suggest?”
“If you are truly wishin’ to discard your domicile for compensation, I will purchase your dwellin’ and reside there,” he said, firmly. “I need to find an abode.”
She stared. “Really?” Fiona didn’t question how he’d find the money. He once spoke of chests of elven gold.
And did that mean he wasn’t going to stay with Jaycee?
“I have pleasant memories of bein’ in your residence, Fiona Maguire.”
He wouldn’t meet her eyes but she suspected he was remembering their first kiss and only days later when she’d taken him to her bedroom.
Rohese sighed deeply, which she’d never heard him do.
“I swear on the soul of my mother—an elven queen—I never intended to be intimate with Jaycee Orm or for my stayin’ with her and her brother to be a permanent arrangement.”
Fiona believed him.
“Your love life isn’t my business, Rohese, but judging by how she looks at you, Jaycee believes it might be permanent.”
“She is much mistaken,” he said.
He stared hard. He had never told her he loved her. That wasn’t what those of elven blood said. He had, however, assured her his heart was hers.
But that only made her feel guilty when she hadn’t been able to commit to him.
“If you’re really interested in buying The Third Eye and the apartment, I’ll give you Timothy’s number. I presume you have a cell phone now? That must be how LAMB contacts you?”
“I have a communication device.” Rohese patted his tunic pocket. “I would like your number, Fiona Maguire.” He conspicuously wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Should I need to discuss…the sale of your residence.”
“Timothy’s handlin’ all that. I was worried about the portal and how you’d get back home if or when you wanted to go.”
“You worry for me, Fiona Maguire?” Now he met her gaze deliberately.
She closed her eyes and inhaled. “Of course I worry about you. Working for LAMB is dangerous. You’ll always be important to me, Rohese.”
“But not enough to be eternally mated? And now you care for the Irish demon?” Rohese sounded as low as she’d ever heard him. “You live with him and will one day share his bed.”
Fiona shook her head. “I won’t be sharin’ Lorcan’s bed. He’s my friend. I don’t live with him. I didn’t even stay two full nights.”
“In that time he nearly let you be killed by vicious MBs.”
“That wasn’t Lorcan’s fault,” Fiona defended. “But I should go. I need to rest; I leave on a time journey tomorrow.”
“I have an assignment as well. Be safe and wise, Cailleach Bhan.” He glanced meaningfully at the bottle of whiskey in her hand.
“And you, Rohese,” Fiona said, staring back down the hallway still feeling the negativity from Jaycee.
Fiona turned and placed her eye to the retina scan. To her surprise, instead of leaving, Rohese did the same and followed her inside. He’d obviously achieved the highest clearance level in a short time.
“We must speak further, Fiona Maguire.”
“I think we’ve discussed everything we need to, Prince Elrohese Elowen Midhir of Terelwyn.”
He smiled at that. Initially whenever he referred to her by her first and last name, she called him by his full name and title. She walked faster toward the mystical cabin. He followed. She opened the door and he started after her.
“Sorry, this is as far as you can go, Rohese. Unless you have witch magic?”
He lowered his eyes. “I cannot even win a witch’s heart.”
My heart isn’t the problem, she thought. It’s my mind. Always overthinking. Never living in the moment.
“No matter how many times we discuss this, it won’t change the fact that I’m going to age much faster than you.”
“Should you continue this perilous life…” Rohese pointed to the time portal behind them “…you may die tomorrow without having lived contentedly together as we might. Your stubbornness robs us of what happiness we would find together now.”
He pulled her to him then, not gently as usual, but with a ferocity she hadn’t seen before. He kissed her without the typical tenderness either. They’d had an ardent love affair, but this seemed different…more desperate.
“I want you, Fiona Maguire,” he whispered, his breath warm on her neck.
“Rohese.” She pushed him away even though her body was humming with need.
He must’ve seen that in her eyes, for he kissed her again. This time she responded and she led him inside the cabin and straight to the bedroom.
No one had ever been in this bedroom with her.
She placed the bottle on the nightstand, removed the bow and quiver from his back and set them and his sword on the dresser.
She tugged off his tunic and he eagerly pulled her shirt over her head and undid her bra with an ease that was new. He used to struggle. He’d probably become adept after sleeping with Jaycee.
Not where her mind should be now.
She glanced at his muscular chest and her breath caught when he pulled her to him and their skin met. He grazed her neck and shoulders with his lips in a way she’d only ever experienced with him. Apparently it was part of a mating ritual for elven males.
It began with him making a low humming sound that was nearly musical. It made her entire body tingle. He caressed her face, then lifted her onto the bed.
As he pressed his body against hers, she moaned, aching to be with him. He stared into her eyes as he undid her jeans and slipped his hand beneath the fabric.
“I assure you, Fiona Maguire, I never wanted Jaycee Orm like this.”
She placed her fingers to his lips. “A word of advice, Rohese, don’t mention another woman when you’re about to have sex with someone else.”
“It has never been only sex with you, Cailleach Bhan. It is always much more.”
He kissed her again. She touched the front of his pants, tried to undo the complicated elven knot and finally removed them with magic. He brushed his body against her and began lowering her jeans when her eyes flew open.
“Shite! Wait, Rohese! Stop!” She pushed at his chest.
“I cannot wait and do not wish to stop!” His breath came in tortured gasps.
“I…don’t have any protection. Do you?” she asked, already breathing heavy.
He glanced at his sword and bow on the dresser.
“Not that kind of protection. I mean condoms.”
He eyed her closer, evidently not understanding.
“Oh my feckin’ God, tell me you and Jaycee used protection!”
He looked flustered.
“A protective barrier? A sheath a man…a male wears on their…” She glanced down.
His face colored then. “You and I did not use these sheaths when we mated before.”
Fiona tensed. “True, but only because the first time wasn’t planned.”
He’d also explained to her that he’d never fathered children—those with half-eleven and half-Fae blood seldom produced offspring. It was a big part of why he wasn’t accepted as elven king.
He clearly still didn’t see the reason for her worry.
“Condoms also prevent disease,” she continued. “You and I hadn’t had another sexual partner for a very long time…but believe me Jaycee has had…several.”
Fiona moved from the bed. Rohese leaned on one elbow, tugged at his braided section of hair, noticeably distressed.
“With your magic…might you summon one of these protective barriers?”
She shook her head, found her bra and top, and began putting them on.
“I’m sorry, Rohese. It wasn’t my intention to lead you on. This shouldn’t have happened. It’s a good thing it didn’t actually happen. I realize that now that I’m thinking clearer and not caught up in the heat of the moment.”
He groaned. “I assure you my moment is still heated, Fiona Maguire.”
He tugged his braid again in agitation, then inhaled several times. “What is your human term for madness of the mind and pain within the heart?”
She shrugged. “Insanity? Heartache?”
“Whatever this is.” He touched his head then his heart. “It is what you do to me, Fiona Maguire.”
She closed her eyes and took a breath. “For that, I’m even sorrier. Maybe I should go back in time to the day Charcoal came into the shop. I’ll make sure I’m not there. We’d never meet. You could take him back to the elven lands. He’d be alive and you’d be…better off, too.”
His eyes clouded. He stood, turned away and yanked on his pants and tunic, then with rough movements, donned and tied his boots.
“Then we would not have shared all that we did.” Even furious he remained soft-spoken. “No. I will put up with this insanity and heartache, for the memories of what we experienced are worth the torment.”
He looked at her again and her heart squeezed. She reached up to touch his face but thought better of it. She couldn’t give him hope. She swallowed, trying to ease the painful lump in her throat.
“Do you want to stay for a cup of tea?” She stepped back knowing, if he held her again, they’d end up in bed despite her good intentions.
His tunic remained unlaced but he retrieved his weapons and sighed. “Contrary to somethin’ you once told me, Fiona Maguire, a cup of tea does not cure all ails.”
He was right about that. She took a breath, trying not to cry, left the bedroom and put the kettle on the stove.
He walked to the door with his usual long gliding steps.
“I will speak with Timothy Byrne about procurin’ your home. I am aware it is important to you.”
“Don’t spend your elven riches on somethin’ for me, Rohese. You don’t know how long you’ll stay in the human realm.”
He looked her directly in the eyes now. “My interest in the establishment is not only because of you, Fiona Maguire. If I should decide to return to the eleven lands and my kind…if workin’ for LAMB doesn’t turn out fortuitously, I would not wish the portal to be sealed leavin’ me no way back…unless you’d take me in this peculiar abode.”
Rohese started out the door as Angus MacIntire’s spirit materialized. The ghost threw a displeased expression at Rohese before entering the cabin. Perhaps because she was holding the door, he thought he was welcome.
She glanced once more at Rohese as he strode away, then shut the door feeling the tears rolling down her face.
She’d be adding a healthy portion of whiskey to her tea.