Taken by the Fae Lord (2 page)

“
Oh?” He must have taken
her reply as an invitation to talk because he sat down on the chair
next to her. Well- it was a party, therefore making conversation
with a stranger almost mandatory. His break would be over soon
anyway. “You aren’t one of the matched?”

“
I am, but it’s not like
I’m going to be chosen.”

“
What makes you say
that?”

The genuine curiosity in his tone spurred
Liana into turning her head to study him a bit more. What the heck
did he mean, he had eyes, didn’t he? But when she took in his dark
hair with a slight wave, chiseled bone structure and sensual mouth,
she understood. He might look white with his hazel-green eyes, but
something a bit browner than Europe graced his bloodline, so he
might not see anything unfashionable about her coloring despite
current trends. Come to think of it, dark haired males were a rare
sight- they all tended to go blond these days. Studying him a bit
closer, Liana appreciated the width of shoulders underneath his
dress shirt. And his hands, lightly clasped at the knee
were...pretty, without sacrificing masculinity. Long, strong
looking fingers with short trimmed nails.

She used her champagne flute to point to a
group of women a few feet away. Shades of blonde, all of them. One,
a stunning creature with straight hair down to her tiny ass. Pale
skin protected from the sun- gone were the days of the glowing
bronze look- encased in a short, white cocktail dress overlaid with
glittery beaded fringe. Expert, understated makeup. Silver and
shiny rocks at ears and wrists. And her nails were done. Liana
shook her head. Unbelievable.

“
She looks like a Fae
princess. My money’s on her.”

The man’s eyes followed Liana’s flute and he
shrugged. “Don’t you think the Lords get tired of all the pseudo
Fae blondes?”

Liana choked on her hearty sip of champagne;
the statement was that ridiculous. When she caught her breath, she
laughed at him.

“
I’ve seen a few on TV who
like the ‘exotic’ type- but not many. And we’re talking about
babies here.”

He tilted his head, amusement crinkling his
eyes. “You think the Fae are so shallow they pick their children’s
mothers based off physical characteristics?” He nodded at the
woman. “The hair color isn’t real anyway.”

Liana snorted. “Poor man. He won’t know her
natural color until the baby comes out. Talk about a shock if
you’re expecting something else.”

“
You have no desire to
catch the Lord’s eye? Your coloring...differentiates
you.”

The way he said it sparked her buried
resentment.

“
You mean I’m not white,”
she snapped. “You don’t have to pussy foot. I’m half Puerto Rican,
a quarter Creole and a quarter Italian. The white in there is
buried under plenty of brown.”

He raised a hand and touched one of her
curls, lifting it with careful precision from her chest- didn’t
want a girl to think you’re trying to cop a feel- and gently
twining it around his finger. She started to snap at him when he
spoke.

“
Lovely,” he murmured. “My
grandmother’s hair curled like this.”

Yeah, she’d know there was a little junk in
his trunk.

“
Okay, hand’s off,” she
replied with a small smile, tugging her hair from his grip. She met
his eyes and froze for a split second. For a moment, she’d thought
she’d seen a flash of... something. Liana looked into her empty
champagne flute, sifting through the muffled thoughts floating in
her head. Maybe she could save up and spring for a
bottle...

“
More?” Her companion
asked, lifting a hand and waiving a server over. He plucked a glass
from the tray and handed it to her. He murmured something to the
young man who left and returned only seconds later with a small
hors d'oeuvre plate, which he presented to Liana. She took the
plate and he left.

Popping a decadent something into her mouth,
Liana said, “It’s nice of your coworkers to serve you on your
break.”

The man looked at her, blinking. “Yes,
indeed,” he replied. “Very... nice.”

“
At least you get a break.
I worked for an event company before, and we didn’t even get a ten,
especially not when we were serving Fae. Man, can they
party.”

He smiled, a curve of lips both sweet and
dark. “Indeed. What is your name?”

“
Liana Sandoval.” She set
the plate of goodies on her lap and held out a hand, old-fashioned
style. His fingers wrapped around her wrist in the Fae manner of
greeting and Liana just barely stopped herself from rolling her
eyes. “What are you called?” she asked.

“
Eero.”

She blinked at him. What a... different
sounding name. She took another long sip of the champagne.

“
This stuff is fabulous.”
Liana sighed, lowering the flute. “I’d better not have any more
though. I have to work in the morning.”

Eero crossed his arms, settling a shoulder
more comfortably on the chair. “What do you do?”

“
I’m a daycare teacher.
Well, part time because I have day classes for my major. I’m going
to have a dual degree in business management and early childhood
education. I wait tables at night, though.”

“
Preschool? Ah. That is
the facility where women leave their young to be cared for because
their men are not men.”

That was one way of putting it. “Yeah. The
little ones mostly just sleep and play and need to be held. The
older ones start to learn their shapes and numbers and stuff.”

“
You enjoy caring for the
children?”

She smiled. “Yes, I do. I want to open my
own center when I’ve saved up enough.”

He leaned forward, reaching out to pick up
her now empty hand, drawing designs on her palm. Was he flirting?
She frowned at him, but he didn’t release her, eyes glinting. The
orange and pink sky shaded into purple and blue, but she could
still clearly see the flecks of green in his eyes.

“
Do you want children of
your own?” he asked, caressing her palm with the pad of his thumb.
Tingles pirouetted down her spine.

“
Of course. But I have to
find a family man first, and those are in short supply these days.
Hey, stop that.”

“
What if I don’t wish to
stop?”

She curled her palm and tugged, ineffective
against his strong grip. Her wrist felt fragile, now wrapped in his
fingers.

“
I’m not that kind of
girl. Besides, I don’t think your employer would like you poaching
on one of his matches, at least until he’s made his choice,” she
said, then paused, looking around. “Where is the guy anyway? Let’s
get this ball rolling. Some of us have to work in the
morning.”

“
Your wish, Lady.” He
released her hand, rising, and Liana realized after a moment of
champagne slow thinking that he must have gone way over his
fifteen-minute break. He smiled down at her and waved a little then
strolled away, hands in his trousers. She watched him walk through
the crowd until it swallowed him, a little taken aback by the
abrupt departure and almost... regretful. Especially since she’d
gotten a nice look at his ass. Tight. Shrugging, she picked up the
champagne flute and downed the rest. Didn’t want to be
wasteful.

***

Lord Eero’s anticipation dug into the base
of his spine and crawled up his back with the ferocity of cat
claws. He met the eye of his guard, Assar, who detached himself
from the shadows and stepped close.

“
Make sure the woman is
close during the announcement,” Eero said. “I want to see her
face.”

“
Lord.” Assar slipped into
the crowd to do Eero’s bidding and he turned his attention to the
recently erected platform, hands in his pockets. Oh, how surprised
she would be. How could she guess his interest lay neither in
artifice nor in women who saw his child as entry into a life of
ease? Many of his brethren preferred the duskier hued mortal women-
a secret they endeavored to maintain as it helped weed out females
who would otherwise make their lives miserable. A woman with so
little pride she saw no wrong in drastically altering her
appearance to fit what human media- without even consulting the
Fae- guessed about their physical preferences?

Eero suppressed a shudder. If he must do
this thing- though with a human grandmother, he wasn’t nearly as
opposed as some of the other Lords- then it would be with a woman
who would mother their child with genuine love and care. His
impatience spurred him. He wished to claim his human, and then be
gone. He imagined unveiling the ripe breasts she encased in a
modest blouse, spreading her legs so she lay wide open and helpless
to his demands. He would fuck that smart little mouth of hers
senseless. Keep her tied to his bed until her womb nurtured his
child.

He knew Liana didn’t understand her unique
beauty. Sultry mouth, fathomless dark eyes, lush curves. She oozed
sensuality and would intimidate a man who wasn’t sure of his own
power. If offered a bet, Eero’s platinum would proclaim his belief
Liana’s life remained empty of a man who didn’t quail under the
sardonic tilt of her head or direct, clear-eyed intelligence. A
steely strength stiffened her spine as she sat, coupled with an
inner vulnerability in demurely crossed ankles that challenged him
as a warrior and aroused his instincts as a man. She was perfect.
Her background check said so anyway.

Eero looked forward to the day he would tell
Liana the whole party was orchestrated for her.

The event manager appeared next to him, a
competent looking woman of medium height, no nonsense uniform and
brisk manner.

“
Lord Eero, I think
everything is ready when you are.”

He nodded and drew his hands from his
pockets, confident Assar would execute Eero’s will. Stepping up
onto the platform, he walked to the mic, tapped it once to get
everyone’s attention, and allowed a sly smile to curve his mouth.
He located Liana in the crowd staring at him, a dark brow raised
over her confused eye. Eero held her gaze for several moments.

And dropped his glamour.

She was a moron.

Liana stared at the Fae Lord, his glowing
green eyes with their half moon pupils smirking at her, realizing
that he had never said he was one of the servers. The whole time he
had been cruising his own party incognito, dressed down in a human
glamour, no one the wiser. Just an average, handsome man in a
nondescript server’s uniform.

The bastard.

Fury overtook embarrassment in a flash flood
of emotion. She gripped the stem of her flute, holding back the
curses as if the rat’s life depended on it. She would not scream.
She would not scream.

Distantly, Liana considered maybe the depth
of her ire didn’t match the harmless ruse played on her. He hadn’t
lied or anything. So why did her anger grab her by the throat and
squeeze, every trace of alcohol induced relaxation evaporating?

Because he made her body wake up and take
notice, that’s why. Because she entertained a brief fantasy of
finding him after the party and slipping him her cell number,
something she never did. She’d felt comfortable talking to him, as
well as attracted in a pleasant kind of way.

The pleasant attraction and comfort were
gone, vanquished by the assured, inhumanely beautiful man standing
on a pedestal surveying his potential concubines like a potentate.
His hair still waved, contained in a loose tail. His skin shimmered
a few shades too golden for him to be pure blooded Fae- and Liana
didn’t think any of them rocked curls like hers- but the face with
the body, now encased in silk that molded to a muscled chest in the
breeze, belonged to some woman far higher on the totem pole than
someone like Liana. Suppressing disillusionment, she turned to go
when his voice stopped her.

“Thank you all for coming,” Eero said, his
dark voice caressing the microphone. “You are all worthy choices,
and this gathering was my way of saying thank you for making
yourselves available in cooperation with the law, however after
reviewing all of the information presented by the local agency, I
have selected the most viable candidate.”

Liana felt an insidious breeze which
manifested into phantom hands. Knuckles brushed her jawline,
trailed down the center of her throat and between the valley of her
breasts. The hands cupped her breasts, thumbs flicking her nipples
until they became hard nubs. Liana inhaled, struggling to deny the
molten heat between her thighs. The hands trailed down the center
of her torso, down, down- she jerked back. She would have thrown
her flute at him if she could. She appeased herself by dropping it
to the ground and stamping on it with the low heel of her
serviceable office shoe before whirling around and pushing through
the crowd.

“Liana Sandoval. Where might you be
going?”

***

His human didn’t disappoint. He watched her
eyes widen in embarrassed anger then narrow in clenched rage before
she insulted him by throwing down her champagne and storming away
before he even announced his choice. He punished her a little,
making a public spectacle of her choosing. If she stayed still like
a good girl, he wouldn’t have done it. But then, he knew from the
heat she banked even from herself that Liana’s personality didn’t
include ‘good girl.’ His blood heated.

“Assar,” he called his First Guard, still
speaking into the microphone. “My human thinks to flee me already.”
He allowed dark amusement to seep into his tone. Assar stalked the
girl, but she stopped on her own, turning around with a force
bordering on confrontational.