Sincerely,
The Sexy Druid Inside the Diner.
P.S. I’d go with the red. It’ll look good on you.
I scowled, then glanced over at the clothing he’d left for me. Sure enough, one top was red, while the other was black. Both were sweaters, to account for the nippy weather, but as I shook them out, I could already tell that the black one would cling to me like a second skin. The red one’s V-neck would show a good amount of cleavage, so no wonder he wanted me to wear it.
Typical man.
Still, both sweaters were similar to what I might find in my own closet, and the jeans, socks, and underwear were all acceptable too. I should take them, at the very least, before getting out of the car. Was there a spare set of keys hiding out here somewhere? I could wire the car if I really had to, and then I’d be on my way back home. I knew how to get there from here. Brodie wouldn’t miss the car. He could ride the currents back home to Scotland, or wherever he lived.
That’s a dick move, Palladino, a voice in my head accused.You should go in there and talk to him.
I bit my lip, conceding. Running away wasn’t the answer. I’d already tried that and failed. And even though crawling back to my bed and pulling the covers over my head sounded tempting, it wasn’t the right thing to do. Now that this crazy can of worms had been popped open, I needed to confront it and find out just what was in there. I needed answers, and Brodie was the only one who could give them to me.
Sighing, I got out of the car and walked to the diner.
“Well, yer a sight for sore eyes,” Brodie said with a grin after I came in and approached his table. He was sitting in a booth with a huge platter of French toast in front of him, and he gave me an appreciative once-over with those wicked eyes of his. “I see ye’ve decided to spite me by wearing the black,” he added as I slid into the seat opposite him. “But the joke is on you. I wanted ye to wear the black.” He winked, forking up another piece of toast.
I gaped at him. “Is this some kind of joke to you?” I asked, fisting my hands beneath the table. “You fucking roofied me!”
“I did no such thing,” he insisted blithely. “There were no drugs involved. Just a wee bit of magic to mobilize your hormones against ye. More like holistic intervention, I’d say.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” I slapped my hand against the table, jarring his cup of coffee. “You kidnapped me!”
“And here I was thinking I had saved you from the kidnappers.” He pinned me with a hard stare, his voice deadly serious now. “Or was that someone else, then? Where do ye think ye’d be right now if I hadn’t come to break you out of there?”
“I… I…” I let out an angry breath. How the hell had he turned the tables to make me feel guilty instead? “How did you find me anyway?”
“Gaia, of course,” he said around a mouthful of French toast, as if receiving orders from an earth goddess didn’t make him sound like a madman. “Would have been downright rude of her to show me that vision and not tell me how to rescue ye.”
I opened my mouth to ask him what he’d seen in the vision, but the waitress came by and asked me if I wanted anything to eat. Suddenly, I realized I was ravenous, and I ordered a platter of eggs, bacon, and hash browns. It came much more quickly than I expected, and I had to force myself not to fall upon it like a starving beast. It didn’t matter what Brodie had seen, I decided. He’d already rescued me from the danger, hadn’t he? I didn’t want to be haunted by nightmares about how Lucas would have slowly killed me if Brodie hadn’t shown up. At least, that was what I told myself as I resolutely shoveled ketchup-covered potatoes into my mouth.
“There ye go, lass.” Brodie nodded with satisfaction. “Fuel is what ye need. I can already see color coming back into those bonny cheeks of yers.”
I blushed, but didn’t stop eating. Brodie watched me in silence for a few moments, then, bizarrely, started talking about his past. “I never knew my dad,” he said, folding his muscular arms behind his head. “He left when my mam was still big in the belly with me. Must have been a handsome devil though.” I expected him to grin, but he stared out the window instead, his eyes narrowed in contemplation.
“Is this when you tell me that good looks run in the family?” I scoffed in between bites.
He looked back at me with a grin, those eyes sparkling devilishly. “No, but I like the way yer thinking. I was going to say that Druids are forbidden from having relations out of wedlock, and everyone told me my mam was a good Druid. Agnid, the woman who raised me after she passed, told me my mam loved me a lot, even though I damaged her reputation with my birth. Told me she was full of love, my mam. Makes me wish I could have met her.”
The melancholy in his voice touched my heart, but I refused to show it. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because,” Brodie answered, taking a sip of his coffee. “We’re stuck together, ye and me, at least for now. I figured I’d give ye a few truths about me, because I’m about to tell ye a few things that might be hard for ye to hear. Things that might be easier to hear from someone ye ken a little.”
I tensed. “What kind of things?” A chill of foreboding spread through me, and I tried to ignore it. After all, I wanted answers about what was going on, even if they were unpleasant ones. I needed to know what I’d gotten myself into.
“I’m about to get into that,” he said. “But before I do, is there anything else ye want to know? My favorite song? My astrological sign? How good I look with my shirt off, perhaps?”
“As if.” My cheeks flamed even as I glared at him. But I found my eyes trailing up and down his torso. God, but why did that T-shirt have to be so tight on him? I couldn’t see every detail, but it was obvious there was a masculine masterpiece beneath that black cotton. “Why don’t you tell me about your tattoos?” I blurted out. Yeah, that was better. That was a perfectly legitimate question. They were beautiful, intricate Celtic designs that covered both his arms. When he shifted, the black ink seemed to shimmer in a way that normal tattoos didn’t.
“They’re ceremonial for the most part,” he said, the knowing look in his eyes sending tingles through me. “But a few of them are enchanted.” He pushed up his sleeve a little, revealing a design near his shoulder. “This one makes me move faster.” His strong fingers trailed down his bicep to the crease of his elbow, stopping at two concentric triangles. “This one lends me otherworldly strength.” He moved down the shaft of his arm, stopping at a pair of inverted lines crossing each other a few inches above his palm. “And this one here, it makes me a really, really good lover.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Oh, stop.” I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t fight the grin twitching at my own lips.
“I cannae help it,” he purred, giving me a once-over that sent thrills rushing through my body. “We may have gotten off to a rough start, but yer a bonny lass, and if we weren’t in such danger, I’d toss ye over my shoulder and rush off to the nearest cave so I could have my wicked way with ye.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. Was he serious? I knew I should be outraged, but my breath caught as a series of erotic images, all involving a naked, gleaming Scotsman, paraded through my mind.
