“What man?” Jahn reached for the brandy bottle. I shook my head.
“No brandy tonight.” I looked around the bar, but didn’t see the man who’d come to my aid. “I dunno, I don’t see him now. He just…appeared from out of nowhere.” I glanced back at the bottle he was holding. “I’m in the mood for something different. Something a little more…exotic.”
Jahn let out a grin. “The day you’re not in the mood for something kinky is the day I close this place down. What’s the matter, Camille? Rough day?”
“Rough week.” I shrugged, scooping up a handful of the torado nuts and popping the salty treats into my mouth.
Lately, my life had been a long string of one bad day after another. My job sucked. I sucked at my job. My father was on my case again about how I was running the house. Hell, I was a Moon witch, member of the Coterie of the Moon Mother, and I worked for the YIA. Between work and Coterie meetings and running with the Hunt, I barely had time to sneeze, let alone help the housekeeper keep things tidy at home. Not only that, but I was worried about my sister Menolly and the new job the agency had assigned to her. It was dangerous—too dangerous, and I had the uneasy feeling they were setting her up for a big fall.
“What happened?” Jahn tossed the bar rag over his shoulder and rummaged through the bottles on the shelves behind the counter. He held up a clear bottle, filled with a chocolate brown liqueur. “Here, try this. Straight from the Nebelvuori Mountains.”
“Dwarven? Won’t that be a little raw?”
He grinned. “Dwarves may be crude in the bedroom and at the dinner table, but they like their liquor, so the drink should be smooth and rich.”
I actually laughed for the first time in days. “Set me up, babe,” I said, resting my elbows on the counter as I glanced around the bar. Still no sign of Roche. He was supposed to be here. My supervisor had practically guaranteed it. And I had a tight deadline. Find the perv before he struck again.
He shook his head as he filled a small cognac glass. “You use the oddest expressions, Camille. But they fit you somehow.”
“I have my mother to thank for that. She was human, you know, and she kept some ties over Earthside.” And I missed her more than I could ever say. It had been years since she died, but her loss still left a gaping hole in our family that no one could fill, no matter how hard they tried.
“I remember her. She was a lovely woman, with gracious manners. So, you ever think you’ll go Earthside when the portals are finally open to travelers?” Jahn pushed the glass my way and rested his elbows on the counter. His eyes were warm. He was one of the few friends I could count on who really gave a damn about my sisters and me.
I snorted. “Are you kidding? Hell, I have a hard enough time coping with one world, let alone two.” But I lingered over the thought. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Seeing my mother’s homeworld might help me understand why she’d been the way she’d been. I had a while to think about it, though. The project would take a number of years to complete.
Jahn motioned for me to drink up. I tossed a coin on the counter and inhaled the aroma whirling up from the glass. One long whiff filled my nose with the fragrance of harvest time, and moss and trees and stone circles.
“You sure the dwarves made this?”
“I know. I was surprised, too,” he said. “I gather they’ve discovered some new process or something for distilling the brew. Nobody’s talking secrets, though. Taste it. I think you’ll be in for a surprise.”
I brought the crystal to my lips and took a sip. The flavors of warm honey and cinnamon raced down my throat, and then—an aftertaste of galangal and oats and…kirmeth? A potent flower bud, kirmeth produced a stiff kick when added to alcohol.
Coughing, I wiped my eyes, trying not to smear the kohl. “Whoa…this is a damned sight better than anything I’ve had lately. Pour me another, please.”
He filled another glass and shoved it my way. “What’s got you so wound up? You’ve been coming in here all tight and tense this whole week. You act like you’re hunting for something, and I know you haven’t found what you’re looking for.”
He reached out and took one of my hands in his. His skin was rough and his face was scarred. I wondered what battles he’d seen in his younger days.
“Sweetie, it’s no wonder the men are scared shitless of you. They want you, don’t get me wrong, but that glint in your eyes promises you’ll take down the next man who even looks at you wrong.”
I slugged the rest of my drink and pushed back the glass, toying with the second drink. As much as I wished I could tell him, I was under wraps. Agents of the YIA were sworn to secrecy, except to one another. Even though Jahn had been a friend of the family since before I was born, I couldn’t confide in him. So I lied.
“Family stuff. Father’s on a tear about the gardens again. Mother loved them. But I don’t have the time to keep them up like she did, and I really don’t have her green thumb. I can grow herbs—some, for my magic. But I’d rather talk to them than tend them.”
“Green thumb?” He looked perplexed.
“Mother was able to grow things…like an herbalist. Anyway, so he’s pissed about that. And I’m worried about Menolly.” I stopped, frowning. And here we come to another problem, folks—my sister and the YIA’s unrelenting use of her in dangerous cases, thanks to her innate abilities to sneak into places and climb walls and so forth.
“What’s she done now?” Jahn knew all about Menolly’s propensity for getting into trouble.
“It isn’t what she’s done, it’s what…Oh, it’s confidential. Let’s just say I don’t trust the mission she’s been assigned to. I have a really bad feeling about this one, Jahn, but there’s nothing I can do. We can’t refuse our assignments.”
I shifted on the bar stool, my body aching. It had been weeks since I’d had sex, at least with anybody other than my own hand. Or even a decent date. The last guy bailed on me when he found out I was half — human. Damned bigots.
Jahn noticed. He leaned closer and whispered, “I thought that’s what was wrong with you. I’ll take you home, darlin’. I’d jump your bones in a second if you’d let me.”
That smarted. Not the fact that Jahn looked at me that way. I was flattered, actually, because he was a worldly, seasoned traveler who had finally settled down after a volatile career on a fishing boat up in the tumultuous Wyvern Ocean.
No, what smarted was that here I was, young, unattached, pretty—or so I was told, reasonably intelligent, hardworking, and willing…and nobody had looked my way in over three months. Well, nobody that I was interested in. Race didn’t matter. I’d dated a dwarf a few years back, a giant, even an elf, but lately it felt like I’d been classified as untouchable.
I stared at the bartender, mulling over his offer. Roche wasn’t around and I might as well give up the hunt for the night. A fling with Jahn might be just what I needed. He was rugged and I had no doubt he knew how to use his hands—and everything else, as well. But he’d been after me for years and there was something a little creepy about sleeping with my father’s friend. And Father would be livid. You just don’t fuck old friends’ daughters.
He leaned on the polished mahogany counter next to my drink. “You’ll walk away more than satisfied.”
Slowly, I reached out to run my fingers lightly over the top of his hand. “I’m incredibly flattered…I know you see beautiful women in here day after day. But I don’t—”
“Stop. Just think about it for a moment,” Jahn said, slowly pulling his hand away. “I’ll make you come like you’ve never come before.”