Mystical Seduction: full-length sensual paranormal romance (The Protectors) (3 page)

“Oh.” That sounded reasonable enough. And didn’t she feel
just a little foolish with her finger still pressed against his warm chest?

He didn’t seem to mind. “I also happen to know that you’re
working on your Ph.D. in Anthropology and that you have just a few more
semesters before you graduate. You’re a good bartender. I’m going to hate to
lose you after you graduate.”

He knew all that? So why then did he avoid her? She wanted
to ask him, but her pride stepped in the way. “Since you seem to know
everything about me, what’s my favorite color?” she demanded instead.

His gaze narrowed. The palm of her hand now completely
pressed against his chest. When had that happened? Had he stepped closer to
her, or had she leaned in toward him?

The air between them sizzled and sparked.

“Well?” she pressed. “My favorite color?”

He huffed, obviously frustrated by her unwillingness to be
intimidated. “I assure you I wouldn’t know.”

“I’d be glad to tell you, if you’d take the time to talk to
me. What’s been going on tonight? Every time I’ve tried to introduce myself,
I’ve—”

“Horace, I need to have a word with you,” a man dressed in a
black suit and with shockingly pale blond hair said.

“—been cut off, interrupted.”
It was like speaking to the
air
.

“Sorry, it’s been a busy night.” Horace gave her an apologetic
smile. “You’re working tomorrow night, right? I’ll make some time for you to
discuss whatever’s bothering you then.” He lifted her hand from his chest and
lightly caressed it. “Go home, Faith. Get a good night’s sleep.”

Without knowing why, she found herself nodding in agreement.

He was right…

Why hadn’t she listened to him before?

She glanced at her watch.
Gracious, look at the time
.
She should go home. Tomorrow would be a long day. She had an early class to
teach, and then a full day at the library researching Incan fertility rituals
for a directed studies class. She needed to forget about her birthday. What had
possessed her to plan a late night in the middle of the week? She should have
known better.

“Good,” he said as he turned and walked away with the other
man.

Faith was about to look for Kimmi and tell her friend that
they needed to leave when she overheard Horace say, “
Thanks for that
” to
his blond-haired friend.

“No problem. You looked like you needed rescuing,” the man
replied.

“Probably.” That, she read off Horace’s lips as he glanced
back at her.

Horace thought he’d needed rescuing from her, did he? And
what was with that tone of his? Did he think she was a child? Someone who
didn’t know herself well enough to make her own decisions? Telling her to go
home. He had no right to tell her to do anything.

She crossed her arms over her chest and simmered. “That was
humiliating.”

“
What
?” Kimmi shouted as she danced by with a new man
in her arms, the minx.

“The air sizzled. It had actually sizzled.”

Kimmi whirled around. She pushed her dance partner away,
grabbed both of Faith’s hands and started to dance with her. “You mean the air
sizzled when you were with that guy?”

“Yeah.”

“I felt it.”

“You also saw afterwards, didn’t you? He nearly ran away
from me.”

“So?”

“It was embarrassing.” A fresh wave of heat crept up her
neck.

“The air sizzled when he touched you,” Kimmi reminded her.
“He wants you.”

“You think?”

Kimmi nodded. A knowing smile brightened her pretty face.
“It’s your birthday, sweetie. Don’t waste it dancing with me. Go get yourself a
piece of beefcake.”

* * * *

“You need to stay focused,” Frank Stone reminded Horace.
Stone, with his polished looks, was more or less the leader of their motley
group of wizards in Chicago. “No distractions. Your actions tonight will
determine whether you live to see another day.”

Horace dragged his hand through his wavy hair. “No kidding.”

Brendan had gone home to his wife…without Horace. He hadn’t
been happy about it, but short of kidnapping, Horace had no plans to leave his
club—not while the threat of danger hung over his and everyone else’s head.

Not twenty minutes later, Frank Stone had showed up with
Derrick and Ricker in tow. Stone, an elegant dresser, blended nicely with the
trendy look of the club. Black suit. Black shirt. Black tie. Gleaming shoes.
His silvery eyes created a stunning contrast to his perfectly pressed dark
clothes.

Even though he fit in with the crowd at Club West, Horace
couldn’t help but feel insulted that Stone had arrived on the scene to take
over, and had brought backup with him. Stone had no right to make those
decisions. Stone may be in charge of
the Protectors
, but Club West
belonged to Horace. He’d built the club from nothing and took great pride in
running it
by himself
.

He’d have been burnt up over Stone edging in on his
territory if Faith hadn’t already set his body ablaze with the sight of that
newly pierced tongue of hers.

He couldn’t seem to get her, or her sexy tongue, out of his
mind.

Something about her teased his libido. Not a stunning
beauty, but she had an earthy quality that drew him to her. She had lightly
tanned skin. Her gold-streaked hair looked natural as if she spent hours in the
sun.

According to Tim, the head bartender at Club West, she did
spend hours in the sun. Both her parents were well-respected anthropologists,
professors, and researchers who traveled to the far corners of the world
studying primitive societies. Growing up, Faith had traveled with her parents
and had spent her formative years in desolate, remote regions that must have
been unsuitable for a young child. Hell, according to Tim, Faith had been in
the Andes weaving woolen clothes and chewing on roots instead of worrying about
what she would wear to the prom like a normal teenager. Not that Horace had
much experience with normal.

His early years had been spent digging through dumpsters and
taking shelter in abandoned buildings. But that had just been the way of things
for him. Faith was different. She was human. Most humans didn’t grow up, traveling
from one primitive locale to the next. The thought of Faith spending most of
her life learning about other cultures had intrigued him. He hadn’t exactly been
prying into her background. He’d simply dropped a word here, made a comment
there, and then had sat back and listened to Tim and the other bartenders talk
about what had quickly turned into Horace’s favorite subject: Faith Summers.

Not that he was alone in his infatuation for her. It
appeared Faith impressed everyone who knew her, which seemed reason enough to
keep her at arm’s length.

He didn’t need that kind of temptation, not when the hungers
clawing inside him continued to grow dangerously close to beyond his control.

Every time she was in the club, he couldn’t keep his mind on
business. No matter how hard he tried to ignore her, his body wouldn’t let him.

He had no right to think of her in that way. He knew that.
They had an employer/employee relationship. There could never be anything more
than that between them even if he was looking for a relationship, which he
wasn’t.

Lavender
.

She’d asked him if he knew her favorite color. It had to be
lavender. Though there was nothing ever demure about the way she dressed, she
almost always wore a light lavender shade somewhere on her body.

The color suited her. It gave her blue eyes an extra glow.

Tonight she’d worn a short black skirt. Not so short that it
was indecent. Just short enough to tantalize. Just short enough to hint at what
a man might find if he was lucky enough to pin her against a wall and slide the
silky material up her long, shapely thighs. She’d left the soft lavender tank
top untucked. The thin material molded perfectly to her breasts.

She must have used one of those glittering moisturizers
tonight. She literally sparkled and shimmered as if she’d been dusted with
diamonds as she danced under the glare of the bright lights twirling above the
dance floor. She danced with herself, moving her body as if making love to a
man. Her hips rolled slowly, matching the music’s sensual Latin rhythm.

“Uh…Hello?” Stone snapped his fingers a couple of times in
front of Horace’s nose. “Are you even listening to me? I was asking if you’ve
noticed anything unusual tonight?”

“What?” It took considerable concentration to draw his gaze
away from Faith and the dance floor in order to focus on Stone. “She was
stalking me,” Horace said after a long moment. His gaze traveled back to Faith.

Faith had started to dance with one of her girlfriends. They
were lightly touching each other’s arms. Horace found it a surprisingly erotic
sight.

“All night. She’s been following me around. I can’t figure
out why.”

Stone frowned at that. “The girl? You think she’s the
shooter?”

“What?”

“The shooter,” Stone said with an edge of impatience. “You
know, the shadowy figure Brendan saw kill you in his vision?”

That jolted Horace back to reality.

“No, no. She’s just an employee.” He scanned the expanse of
his club and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, nothing much. The two men Stone had brought with him
stood out. Neither would have gotten past the security at the door without
their rather unique credentials.

“I don’t mind Derrick coming along, but why did you have to
bring him?” He hooked his thumb in Ricker’s direction. The man was a disaster.
He looked like a killer with his hard expression and deep scar running down the
left side of his face. His old, tattered jeans belonged in a garbage bin. And
Horace knew he’d never seen an uglier shirt than the bright carrot-orange
T-shirt with a faded picture of a smiling Florida orange on the front.

“Ricker can stop time,” Stone said. “If someone comes in
here with a gun, we might need that.”

“Couldn’t he have at least put on something appropriate?”

Stone chuckled. “Perhaps he’ll start a new trend.”

“Heaven forbid!”

Horace’s gaze returned to Faith and her female dance
companion. He also spotted a trio of men with their sights set on Faith. He
moved toward her tempted to intervene. Unreasonable, he knew, but he wanted all
the damn men in the bar to keep their filthy hands off his assistant bartender.

Derrick, with his kind brown eyes and easy smile, had edged
his way toward Faith as well.

“Keep your bodyguards on a tighter leash, Stone.” Horace
growled as he gestured toward Derrick. “I don’t want them interacting with…with…the
humans.”

Stone’s expression hardened. Horace knew he was treading on
dangerous ground. Stone wasn’t a man to be taken lightly. But Horace couldn’t
seem to keep his prickly feelings under control…not with Faith around.

He’d given Faith’s mind a considerable push when he’d told
her to go home. She should have mindlessly obeyed and left the club. Yet she’d
stayed.

Horace wanted Faith gone, out of harm’s way. He had to watch
out for everyone else in the bar. But something about Faith made him pay extra
attention to her. He didn’t get visions and had never been adept at seeing the
future, so he knew what he felt meant nothing. Even so, he intended to do
everything in his power to make sure Faith stayed safe, even if that meant
keeping her as far away from everyone, himself included, as possible.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t seem to shake the
worry that Faith’s life was in as much danger as his.

* * * *

“Sometimes foreknowledge can be enough to change the future,”
Stone said with a yawn several hours later as he headed toward the door.

Horace nodded. Time had drifted to the small hours of the
morning. The last of the club patrons had left about a half hour earlier. His
employees kept busy cleaning up.

It had been a relatively quiet night. Horace had stopped a
college student from overdosing on prescription drugs, broken up a fight, and
had handed over two drug dealers to the local authorities.

He rubbed the back of his neck. The tension bound up there
had turned into dull thud at the base of his skull about an hour ago. He felt
tired and ready to go home.

“Hey, Horace!” Tim called from the bar. “Do you have a
minute?”

Horace gave a nod and then told Stone, who looked as weary
as he felt, “Go on home. I just need to wrap up with Tim. After that, I’ll be
right behind you.”

Stone hesitated before releasing a long breath. “It is late.
Call me if you need anything,” he said as he headed toward the front door.

Horace joined Tim at the bar. He listened as Tim explained
how he’d found a glitch in the new computerized cash register system. “It’s not
recording who entered the transaction, which means we won’t know who gets the
tips from the credit cards.”

“I’ll call the tech guys tomorrow,” Horace assured him. “Go
home to your wife and kids. I’ll lock up.”

“Did you see—?”

“We’ll talk more tomorrow.” He simply wanted to go home and
bury himself in the darkness of his covers. Not that he’d get any sleep. His
mind was too tuned into Faith who must be tucked into her own bed by now like a
real-life sleeping beauty. Thinking about her and her bed was making him feel
as if he was losing his mind.

Those feelings were dangerous, considering—

He couldn’t think about that.

And he shouldn’t be thinking about Faith. Hell, he wasn’t
going to get any rest tonight.

While kicking himself for losing control over his emotions,
Horace started to lock up and head out to his car when he spotted
Faith
.
She had a garbage bag slung over her shoulder and a determined stride as she
started to go out the back door.

“What the hell?”