Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(3)

Dev had already taken the ancient god, Bris, into his body. On the night we married, his magic had flared, an invitation to the ancient non-corporeal Irish deity to come and sit a spell inside my husband’s body. I’d become well acquainted with the fertility god on the night of my marriage to Dev.

It was the night Bris might have gotten me pregnant.

“Ah, Loran, ’tis just like you to be lazing away talking to pretty girls when there is work to be done,” a deep voice intoned from behind me.

As I turned, I noticed Neil’s jaw drop and his eyes widen. I tried to keep from doing the same as I came eye level with a large piece of unclothed masculinity. I wasn’t sure what shocked me more, the sight of a guy’s junk just swinging in the breeze, or the fact that said junk seemed to be attached to the lower half of a big goat.

I forced my head up and the chest was a nice specimen of human male hotness. Nice pecs, broad shoulders, arms that looked acquainted with gym equipment. I studied my first satyr. He was disarmingly handsome. His eyes looked almost violet in the gauzy midday light and they were set off by the darkness of his hair and beard. Unlike the sidhe, his hair was short.

“So this is Devinshea’s goddess,” he said in a way that made me think he approved on every level. I stood up because it seemed more polite than talking to his penis. He caught my hand in his and brought it gallantly to his lips. “I’m Ross. I own this tavern. It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Your Grace. Your loveliness surpasses anything I could have imagined.”

That was laying it on a bit thick, but I would take it. “You must not have much of an imagination then, Ross.”

His sensual lips split in a smile of pure pleasure showing even, white teeth. “Has the little prince finally followed my advice and dumped the simpering idiots he used to prefer?”

“I don’t know about what he liked here,” Neil said just a little breathless as he studied the gorgeous satyr. “But I don’t think Zoey’s ever simpered in her life. I’m Neil, by the way. I’m her bodyguard.”

Ross looked unimpressed with what I considered a bodyguard.

I knew what he was thinking. He was wondering how a boy who probably had fifteen pounds on me was supposed to protect me. I grinned because it was one of the reasons Neil was so effective. “Don’t underestimate him. Appearances can be deceiving. Do you know what a werewolf is, Ross?”

“I’ve heard the tales, though we have no lycanthropes here,” Ross murmured, casting his eyes Sarah’s way. “And what do you do, gorgeous? Tell me you don’t turn into something hairy.”

Sarah shook her purple pixie bob at him. She’d visited her salon right before we left because she never kept one color for long. “Nothing so energetic. As for what I do, pray you never find out. Just understand, we might look all sweet and soft and human but we can handle ourselves.”

“I hope you don’t have to,” the satyr said quietly but then he smiled again and returned to his roguish self. He’d never actually put down my hand. Now he took it between both of his and looked deeply into my eyes. “I was so happy to hear the prince had married. He is a good man. We felt his loss when he left. All of Faery is grateful to you for accommodating his ascension. It is said you performed heroically and his taking of the god would not have been possible without you.”

Heat went through my body, and I was pretty sure I turned a violent shade of pink because that act he was referring to wasn’t something I wanted bards singing about. Neil slapped a hand over his mouth and Sarah covered up her guffaw with a weak cough. I decided to change the subject.

“So I take it you knew my husband when he was younger?” Dev had told me about his life in the sithein but it was mostly tales of his life in the palace or in his temple, and I got the feeling even what he’d told me was a highly sanitized version of the truth.

Ross and Loran laughed, looking at each other, and I knew they probably had a ton of stories I’d love to hear.

“I’ve known the prince since he could hold a mug of ale and let a woman sit on his lap,” Ross declared. “I know everything and everyone in this town. You ever want the dirt or the truth about something, my tavern is the place to come, Your Grace.”

I kept a smile on my face, but his words reminded me I had a job to do while I was here. There was a folder tucked away in my luggage that contained the information about the work I had to do while we visited Faery.

I’d only been in Faery for a few hours and yet my world already seemed so far away. Just this morning I’d sat in our condo in Dallas reading through the materials Louis Marini had sent for me. He’d sent me all the information he had on the artifact he wanted me to track down while I was in the sithein. He also sent a cell phone with instructions to call him when the job was done. I was worried I would never be able to make that call because, as clients go, my current employer sucked. His info was crappy and he only had the vaguest idea where the Blood Stone might be. Everything he knew was based on vague rumors. He was expecting a miracle, but I needed to pull it off if I wanted Daniel alive. My payment for this job was the client not killing my hubby.

Louis Marini ran the world my husband lived in. He was the head of the Vampire Council. He was also the man who had attached a device to my husband’s heart and had the detonator on a remote he carried with him. One push of that button and Daniel would be gone.