The Cursed Read online

  All of Wall Street.

  He’d invented a computer system that made all the others look like stone tablets and chisels. Of course, nobody outside Bordertown realized that there was magic involved. If they did, they probably wouldn’t care, so long as their Twitter feed worked.

  Chance indicated Luke’s empty chair. “May I sit?”

  Before waiting for her assent, he seated himself and offered her a smile. The man was great looking, she’d give him that. Tawny blond hair that looked like he spent a lot of time in the sun went perfectly with his deeply tanned skin. He looked a little rough—a little dangerous—and also like a man completely in control of every situation he encountered.

  She had freaking had enough of arrogant men.

  “No, you may not sit down. You may leave because my . . . friend is on his way back.”

  “If you’re talking about Luke Oliver, I can see him through the kitchen pass-through window, and his back is to us. There’s no need to be alarmed, Ms. Green. I only want to speak to you.”

  Rio looked around. The restaurant was very full, so it wasn’t like he’d get away with trying to hurt her. She might as well listen to whatever it was he had to say, so he’d leave before Luke got back and decided to blow something up.

  “Fine. What?” She almost laughed when she thought of what the nuns would think of her rudeness, but then she remembered that she never again had to worry about what they thought.

  “You’re very beautiful, has anyone told you that?” He laughed, and the sound was darkly seductive enough to turn female heads at several nearby tables. “I’m sorry, that was an idiotic question. Of course you must hear that all the time.”

  “Yes, I’m a freaking beauty queen,” she drawled. “Now can we quit with the butter-Rio-up portion of the conversation and get to whatever your point is?”

  Chance’s eyes gleamed, and she had the feeling she was entertaining him. It ticked her off.

  “Blunt. I like it. Here then, as you humans say, is the deal. I represent a consortium of people who are very interested in you. Especially now that it’s almost your—”

  “If you say twenty-fifth birthday, I’m going to scream,” Rio warned him.

  “Celebration of the anniversary of your birth,” he finished smoothly.

  He smiled, flashing a mouthful of beautiful white teeth, and a passing waitress nearly dropped her tray.

  “Okay, you seem like a smart guy.” She took a sip of her beer and then pointed a finger at him. “So why are you, one of the richest and most powerful men in the world, acting as a lowly messenger boy? I was a bicycle messenger until very recently, so trust me, I know about lowly.”

  Oh, he hadn’t liked that at all. He clenched his jaw against whatever he had been about to retort and shook his head.

  “Let’s just say that my interests align with theirs in this matter.”

  Rio wanted to punch him. “Now I’m a ‘matter’? Funny, I used to think I was a person. But that was before the Winter Court Fae, the League of the Black Swan, and now the famous Chance Roberts all expressed an interest in little old me.”

  His face had tightened minutely at the mention of the League, and Rio found that very interesting. Also, for such a powerful man, he didn’t have much of a poker face. She put her anger aside and started thinking through the convoluted facts of the matter. Why was she wasting time baiting Roberts when she could be interrogating him?

  “Why? What is it about my birthday that’s important? Who exactly do you think I am?”

  His gaze traveled down to her locket and then back up. A look of wonder spread across his face.

  “You don’t even know who you are, do you? How intriguing.”

  He started to laugh, and her blood pressure shot through the roof.

  “I know exactly who I am,” she shot back. “I’m the woman who is tired of this conversation. If you don’t have any answers for me, then you can just leave. Now.”

  She felt Luke before she saw him, as if the air in the room had shifted, or gravity had tilted to concentrate on his approach. Luke was headed toward their table, and he was moving fast. She shoved her chair back and stood up to intercept him before he started destroying things or people.

  “I’ve got it handled,” she said firmly. “Don’t blow up my friends’ restaurant.”

  She put her hands on his chest to stop him, but it was like trying to slow down a speeding bullet train. He lifted her out of his way before he plowed over her, but she could feel the heat rising in his body and knew serious trouble was coming.

  “Oliver,” Chance said, rising unhurriedly from his seat.

  “Roberts,” Luke replied, blue flames already glowing around his fingertips. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here? If you’re bothering Rio, consider this your last meal.”

  Chance smiled, not giving a hint that he was the slightest bit worried. So maybe he did have a good poker face after all, because everybody else in the restaurant was scrambling to get out of the way.

  “I didn’t eat, unfortunately. But if it had been my last meal, I couldn’t imagine a better place to enjoy it, or a better dinner companion. I was just having a conversation with your friend.” He put a mocking emphasis on the word that made Rio start blushing.

  Luke noticed, and all the muscles in his big body tightened as if in preparation for battle. Rio moved to stand between the two men and wondered if stomping her foot would do any good. Or maybe dumping her beer on their heads. She hated to waste good ale, though.

  “Enough. I’ve had enough of all of this. Mr. Roberts, if you have something you want to say to me you can call my cell phone.” She gave him the number. “But I’m warning you, if you don’t have any more information for me, then don’t bother to call. I’m tired of vague insinuations and even vaguer threats. There are an awful lot of people claiming to know something about my past and, I guess, my future, considering everybody’s interest in my birthday, but nobody’s willing to tell me anything.”

  She turned to signal Zephyr that she wanted the bill. “For now, I’m leaving. I need to check on my fox.”

  Roberts bowed to her in a surprisingly elegant motion and then walked out the door. The restaurant patrons slowly returned to their meals and conversations, and Seven walked over to the table smiling.

  “This one is on the house,” he said, and he shushed her when she tried to protest. “Trust me, it’s worth it to us for the pure pleasure of watching Chance Roberts get put in his place.”

  “He tried to buy us out once, did we tell you that?” Zephyr said, walking up to stand beside her husband.

  The demon couple frowned at the memory.

  “Let’s just say it was a very unpleasant few months. He has resources that I can’t even begin to imagine,” Seven said. “Even on the Demon Rift ruling council, we suspect.”

  “Is he a demon? I couldn’t read him,” Luke said.

  Seven shrugged. “We don’t know, either, and nobody else seems to know—or at least they’re not admitting it if they do.”

  “He told me he wasn’t human, but didn’t go any further,” Rio said. “Great. Just great. Now a guy who’s buddy-buddy with the demon council is after me.”

  She hugged her friends and thanked them for the excellent dinner, which was now roiling around in her stomach like acid.

  “I don’t like that man,” Luke growled as they left the restaurant.

  She suddenly smiled. “I’m proud of you.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

  “You got angry, you read the situation as there was a man threatening me, and yet you didn’t blow anything up. Not even a single car met its maker. This is real progress!”

  He started muttering something under his breath, and she laughed all the way to the Jeep.

  CHAPTER 15

  Luke and Kit sat on the couch and watched in astonishment as Rio took yet another swig from the bottle of Summerlands Shiraz. Her second.

  “Does that sort of thin
g happen to you all the time?” She was slurring only a little, so either she had an enormous capacity for very strong wine or it just hadn’t hit her yet.

  He shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. “It happens more often than I would like.”

  Rio had persuaded him to stop by Bordertown Spirits, and a couple of thugs had rushed into the wine store while Luke and Rio had been there. The unlucky criminals had picked the worst possible time to try to rob the store. Luke had already been in a bad mood, and they were just making it worse. So he’d picked them up, knocked their heads together, and hurled them out the front door.

  Then he’d pulled out his wallet to buy the bottles of wine Rio had selected.

  “I didn’t really do anything, and I didn’t blow up even a single bottle of wine,” he pointed out, wanting some credit.

  She started laughing so hard that she fell over sideways on the chair. “That’s true. But you blew up their getaway car.”

  “Hey! I let the driver jump out of the car first,” he muttered.

  Kit yipped and laughed at him in her fox way.

  “Traitor,” he told her.

  “Will you be buying him a new car?”

  “Hell, no. Criminal,” he said, wondering why that wasn’t obvious.

  “And you did incinerate that Oliver for Sheriff sign the woman was holding when we walked out.”

  Luke banged his head against the back of the couch. “Where did she come from?”

  He made a gesture with his hand and started a fire in the fireplace. “Do they just lurk around, hiding signs in their pockets, and wait for me to show up? Isn’t there anybody else in this town that people can ask to be sheriff?”

  Rio took another long drink of wine. “Is that a sign in your pocket, sir, or are you just happy to see me?”

  That set her off again, and she laughed until she was breathless from it. Luke loved watching her laugh. He was a little worried about the drinking, but he was also happy that the wine was making her relax and forget her problems for a little while. Also, she was freaking hot when she laughed. She put her whole body into it, throwing her head back and enjoying every ounce of amusement. He wanted to hold her against his body and feel the vibrations of her laughter travel through his skin.

  “I think you should kiss me, Luke Oliver,” she said, decisively, putting the bottle on the fireplace hearth and then launching herself at him.

  Kit yelped and ran for cover down the hallway, and Luke found himself with an armful of warm, curvy, slightly drunken woman. When she started wiggling around in his lap and nestled her head on his chest, he groaned.

  “You’re going to drive me over the edge,” he said fervently, trying to think of something—anything—to fight off the massive erection that was already starting to strain the crotch of his jeans.

  “That’s kind of the point,” she said, giggling, and then she licked a hot trail of fire up the side of his neck. “Who needs edges? We are puppy and duck egg rescuers! We throw caution to the winds! We should eat, drink, and fuck merrily, for on my birthday, at least one of us might die.”

  A bolt of chained lightning sizzled through him at her sexy version of the old saying. He was surprised to hear her talk like that; he bet sober Rio would be surprised at herself, too. Although maybe that was the point.

  “Did you need to drink wine to gear up to seduce me? Imagine how great that makes me feel,” he said grimly.

  She stopped feathering little kisses along his jawline, and he immediately wanted to take back his stupid question.

  She pulled back far enough to look him in the eye, and her silly grin had vanished. “I don’t actually get drunk on Fae wine, Luke. It relaxes me a little, so I can sleep, and it makes me feel happy and silly, but I could drink three more bottles of this and then head out for a day’s work at my old job, if I’d wanted to do it.”

  Her lashes swept down to hide those beautiful golden eyes from him. “It’s not drunken courage I need to seduce you, Luke. It’s just plain old ordinary courage. You may not have noticed this, but I’m not very practiced at this kind of thing, and you have about a kajillion years’ worth of experience.”

  Her eyes flashed amber fire. “Don’t think I don’t hate that, too. How many women have there been? Did you always use condoms? Did they even have condoms?”

  She suddenly moved sideways so she wasn’t sitting on his lap anymore, and he wanted to howl.

  “That’s a good question, actually,” she said, pushing her hair away from her face. “When were condoms invented?”

  He pounced on her, pushing her back on the couch and stretching out his full length on top of her, while being careful to hold part of his weight on his arms so he didn’t crush her. He bent down and caught the edge of her earlobe between his teeth and bit gently, nearly groaning again when she cried out and trembled beneath him.

  “That’s a terrible question. Any question either one of us could ask now would be a terrible question, in fact, but to answer what you’re really asking, you are safe with me. It’s been a long time, Rio, and I always used protection. Not to mention, I’m immortal, and human illnesses can’t touch me; I’m also a wizard, so I can control the possibility of conception. For now, though, why don’t we quit talking altogether?”

  When she took a breath to answer him, he took complete advantage and captured her mouth with his. He took her mouth as if he were a conqueror: claiming her. Possessing her.

  Branding her as his own.

  Rio moaned into his mouth and made little gasping noises that inflamed his predatory instincts. He wanted to take and take and take—everything she had to give. All of it. All of her. Her warm body trembled under his and he settled his cock into the vee between her legs, exactly where he belonged.

  “Luke,” she whispered, when his lips left hers to travel down the side of her neck, kissing, licking, and gently biting. “Oh, gods, Luke, you’re—I don’t—I need you so much.”

  His breath quickened, and his arms tightened around her. The beast within him roared out a claim, and he realized that both he and the beast needed her surrender—but they needed something else from her, too.

  “Rio, my name is Lucian,” he growled. “I need you to say my name.”

  She met his gaze, her face glazed with desire, and he’d never needed anything so much as he needed to sink his cock into her sweet heat, but he forced himself to wait.

  “Say it,” he demanded. Pleaded.

  “Lucian,” she breathed. “Kiss me again, Lucian. Touch me all over.”

  He leapt up off the couch and lifted her with one arm under her shoulders and the other under her lovely rounded ass.

  “We’re going to my bed. Now.”

  She pouted a little. “Then will you kiss me?”

  He bent his head to murmur in her ear as they walked. “Yes, then I’ll kiss you. I’ll kiss your lovely lips, and then I’ll kiss those perky nipples until they plump up and you squirm in my arms.”

  He shoved the door to his bedroom open so hard that it smashed against the wall and rebounded shut as soon as he’d passed through with his precious cargo in his arms. He tossed her on the bed and stood staring down at her, reveling in her parted lips and widened eyes.

  “And then, my beautiful, brave, sexy woman, I’m going to kiss every single inch of your hot little body and tease you and taste you until you come, screaming, in my mouth.”

  Rio’s heart stuttered in her chest. She’d unleashed the predator that Luke always kept so tightly controlled, and now she was going to see the power and passion that he’d hidden. Her secret, feminine heart rejoiced at the idea, but her courage faltered a little.

  He pulled his shirt off, and she allowed her gaze to travel down the rippling muscles of his chest and the tight six-pack abs. His body was an incredible specimen of pure male perfection, and—at least for tonight—he was hers. She shivered at the thought, but then she crooked a finger at him.

  “I think this would go better if you were a little closer.”
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  He shouted out a laugh and leapt onto the bed, pushing her back and caging her in with his arms and legs.

  “I have been dreaming about this moment since we were on that rooftop,” he confessed, just before he kissed the skin above the neckline of her sweater. “Hell, if I’m being honest, since the first time you delivered a package to my office.”

  Her breath caught in her throat when she felt the warmth of his hand slide up under her sweater to the bottom of her breast. Time for her own confession.

  “I had a similar reaction to you,” she admitted. “I think I nearly bored Clarice to death talking about you for a while.”

  He stopped kissing her and stared down at her with a delighted expression on his face.

  “Really? Tell me every sexy little detail,” he said and, for the very first time since she’d known him, the tiniest hint of an Italian accent was present.

  For some reason, that made her hesitate. This man—Lucian Olivieri—he hadn’t wanted her before. What had changed?

  He must’ve seen the shadow cross her face, because he tilted his head and then rolled onto his side next to her.

  “What is it? What were you just thinking?”

  “If you really had thoughts like that about me, why did you turn me down?” She wanted to look away, but courage demanded she face him.

  His eyes darkened. “I didn’t want to blow things up. There’s a curse hanging over my head, Rio, and I should tell you all the details, so you can make an informed decision as to whether you want to stay in my bed or run screaming for cover.”

  “I’m not really the ‘run screaming for cover’ type, as you may have noticed,” she said with some asperity. “So let’s leave all talk of curses and birthdays for tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”

  Then, because he was ticking her off, she leaned over and bit the tendon of his neck where it met his shoulder, and he instantly grabbed her and yanked her on top of him.