Immortals After Dark 04 - Wicked Deeds on a Winters Night

wished she didn’t now know that sex like that existed—or that what she’d thought in the past was great pleasure had been a mere toe touch in a vast ocean. She irritably rapped on the bar with her knuckles and signaled the bartender for another round.
    “I don’t suppose you found a big plane?” Carrow asked. “Or that you managed to score some Xanax?”
    “No, and no,” Mari was so sick of B team, she was actually about to fly out on a baby plane . “But I’m lucky to get a flight out at all. Besides, I’m self-medicating with whiskey. I’ll land around seven, so come get me—if you still have your driver’s license—and peel my drunk ass from the plane.”
    “Will do. But, Mari, I have to say that you might not be seeing clearly on the issue of the werewolf, because, well, you have issues .”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Just that you get really chapped over stuff like this. Think about it, the very last time the Lykae was in the same situation—running around with a mate and cavorting or whatever you people do—it was with a female named Mariah. Last night, when he was wolfy and moonstruck and getting laid for the first time in—what’d you say?—a hundred and eighty years, he basically forgot the ket in your name. You might want to cut him some slack. Or, I could cast a spell to make him fall in love with dryer lint. You decide. But if the sex was truly—”
    “Cataclysmic?”
    “Yeah, you already conveyed that like thirty times, you little bourbon lush. So you’re telling me you don’t want to get caught? Not at all?”
    Mari sighed. “I might... if he wanted me .”
    “ I do want you, lass. ”
    She jerked around. MacRieve! He was dressed in new clothes, and looked showered and coolly collected. “How in the hell could you have gotten here so quickly?”
    “Missed you, witch. Ran headlong. Now hang up the bloody phone.”
    “Oh, great Hekate, is that his voice?” Carrow cried. “ I just had an orgasm! Fudge your name tag if you have to, but get you some of that some-some . Remember, friends let friends live vicariously—”
    Click . “How long have you been here?”
    “Got here an hour after you did.”
    “I’m that slow?”
    “I’m that fast. Would’ve come to you sooner, but I had many arrangements to make.” His gaze focused on her drink. “What in the hell are you doing?”
    “I’m getting tee-rashed on some sizzurp.”
    “Why?”
    She shrugged. “Small plane, big scared.”
    He sniffed. “That’s bourbon? Who drinks whiskey on the beach?”
    “Sounds like a great drink name to me! How did you find me?”
    “You cloaked your trail well. But I’m a great hunter.”
    “And so modest, too.”
    “You should no’ have left me like that. What the bloody hell were you thinking to put yourself in danger again? I believed we had an... understanding.”
    “We did. And then you called me by another woman’s name.” He looked like he’d barely stifled a wince. “And then I realized that I’d misunderstood our understanding.”
    MacRieve grasped her elbow and steered her to a private hibiscus-lined courtyard. “Damn it, witch, it will no’ be possible for me to instantly forget someone who has played such a large role in my life. If you think of someone for so long, a couple of weeks will no’ erase it.”
    She snapped her fingers and said, “Exactly. A couple of weeks won’t. A year won’t. An eternity won’t. You won’t ever be happy without her.”
    “I doona believe that any longer. And I can promise you this will no’ happen again.”
    “I don’t know what’s more disturbing... the fact that you called me by another woman’s name or the fact that now you’ll have to make a conscious effort not to. You’re still thinking about her either way.”
    “If you want to leave because you have misgivings or lingering fears about last night, then go. But you canna leave because you think I prefer another over you. It simply is no’ so.”
    “How can I believe you after you yelled her name?” she cried.
    “I need to tell you something”—he stabbed his fingers through his hair—“that I doona talk about, ever. But I will with you.” He gazed to the right of her as he said, “When Mariah died, she died... fleeing me. Running from me as you did last night. Even as I was thinking of naught but you, always the guilt for her death lingers at some level.”
    Mari gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    He finally faced her.