He braced his hands against the bar, ignoring those in front of him. I felt a little bad about that. He clearly knew Kace and the others. He obviously wanted to catch up.

Just one more experiment, and I’d let him get back to his night. Maybe it would encourage him to take a much-needed break later.

Breath coming a little heavier, the arousal fanning higher, I ran my fingertips up the inside of my thigh, spreading my legs a little as I did so.

His eyes were cobalt fire. His fingertips dug into the wood. I slipped my other hand under my shirt and felt along my stomach, focusing on my soft skin, drifting upward…

“That’s goin’ta get awkward real fast,” Niamh drawled.

A zing of embarrassment and I pulled my hands away and clasped them primly in my lap. I yanked my focus away from Austin. “You didn’t feel that, did you?”

“Through the link? No. You’re starting to be very handy with muffling it. Earl won’t like that one bit. But Austin Steele is about to combust, and I can see that yer the reason. Unless ye want to get nailed in the bar’s office, I’d stop.”

Heat such as I’d never known washed through me, burning me alive.

“Now, that I felt,” she said. “Maybe just keep going, then.”

I clasped my hands more tightly in my lap, barely able to breathe. “I should probably head home.”

“Nah.” Niamh lifted her hand. “Donna, get Jessie another one.”

“No, no, I have one—”

Donna wasted no time in plopping one down in front of me. I sighed.

“There. Now. Enjoy yerself until he has a spare moment, and then I’m sure he’d be happy to clean yer pipes. Lord knows you need it. Yer too wound up, girl.”

“Please stop.”

“You need a good rogering.”

“Seriously, stop.”

“Ye’ll be glad ya did.”

I took a long sip of my drink and tried not to agree with everything Niamh had said. Tried not to wonder when I’d get Austin alone again. Tried not to make a plan for how I could kill this desperate itch he’d put inside me.

Twenty

“Hey, you—”

I jumped and swung out my hand, just barely stopping from saying, “Hah!” with my lame karate chop.

Austin ran his hand down my back, releasing pleasant tingles throughout my body.

“It’s just me. I was about to ask if you were good, but I guess I somehow snuck up on you even though you have the link wide open and should be able to feel my every move.” He didn’t smile, but I felt it in every fiber of his being.

I blew out a breath, which would’ve probably caught fire if a candle were close by. Ulric had wandered away a while ago, but Kingsley had stuck around, getting rid of the extra seat and pulling up closer, still staring. Always staring. I’d mostly ignored it, chatting to Niamh and watching Austin either work the bar or step away to talk with someone or other. His mood had become darker, likely as a result of more bad news. I’d have to ask him about that.

Tomorrow. Everything could wait until tomorrow. Especially now that I was neck-deep in suds and wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes open much longer.

“Yep.” I wobbled a thumbs-up at him. “I miss my son, though. I think he had a really good time, don’t you?”

Austin pushed in closer, his side pressing against mine. I leaned into his comforting warmth.

“Need this seat?” Kingsley half rose, his hand on the back of his chair.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll stand.” Austin swished my hair over my shoulder, seemingly in a playful mood despite whatever he’d learned. Or maybe he was just laughing at me. I hadn’t been this tipsy in a while. “Yes, I do think he had a good time. A great time. He took all of this in…well, almost in stride.”

“I wish he could’ve stayed.”

“He’s becoming a man. He can’t have his mother’s butler coddle him all the time.”

I spat out a laugh.

“What are ye at?” Niamh leaned away, yanking her arm up to ward off my flying saliva.

“Sorry.” I wiped my mouth, leaning harder into Austin because that was the way my body decided to head. I tried to push off with my head, super ladylike, but he curled a hand around my ribcage.

“Those beers are strong,” I murmured, straightening up and trying to get back on track. I rolled my shoulders, shrugging Austin away. He wanted to laugh—I could feel it—but his expression didn’t show the slightest glimmer of humor.

“I thought, with advanced healing, ye’d eventually grow a tolerance.” Niamh rattled the ice in her glass. “Wrong.”

I grimaced. “So it seems.”

“We’re about to do last call,” Austin said. He’d slung a hand over my chair’s back but respected my desire to sway on my own. “Do you want something else, or should I walk you home?”

“She’s no quitter, boy!” Niamh threw back a shot of Jameson. “May as well just finish’r up.”

“Hear, hear.” I leaned heavily against the bar, sagging. Then groaned.

“You should take her home,” Kingsley said.

“It would be a mistake to listen to someone who barely knows me but thinks he should tell me what to do.” I straightened up and reached for the full beer that had magically appeared in front of me. Niamh was good. Or Austin was. I’d stopped paying attention to who was ordering them.

“Ah, but he wasn’t telling you what to do,” Austin said, the humor bleeding into his voice this time. “He was telling me what to do. He thinks he has that right, being my big brother and having done it all of our lives.”

“Sometimes you even listened,” Kingsley replied.

“Not this time, though.” I took another sip. It tasted like water. I was going to regret all of this tomorrow. Maybe not the hangover, since I could probably heal that, but you couldn’t heal regret over acting like a fool. “He would get an awful surprise if he listened to you this time.” I leveled a finger at Kingsley, then drew a circle in the air. When I’d done that earlier, he’d leaned back and crossed his arms, as though greatly debating grabbing my finger and yanking it off. Now he just sat placidly, one hand curled around a bottle of Bud, and the other splayed in his lap. He’d finally realized I was not the threat he’d imagined. “You killed my game earlier today. Or your man did, anyway. I might’ve gotten stabbed this time, okay, fine. But I was nearly there. I would’ve definitely gotten him next time.” I made a stabbing gesture. “I would’ve gotten him right in the back.”

“What’s this now?” Austin asked.

“This is the fifth time she’s berated me for Kace stopping her…game.” Kingsley’s displeasure was evident. “She was about to be stabbed, apparently by design.”

“Ah.” Austin’s gaze roamed the bar, ever watchful.

“You let those sorts of…games happen in the territory?” Kingsley asked.

“That, my dude, is the shifter version of talking trash.” I put my finger to my nose. “I’ve learned a thing or two.”

I chuckled under Kingsley’s hard stare. Niamh outright laughed.

“No,” Austin answered, running his palm across my shoulders gently and down my other arm. “Only Jess gets that privilege.”

“Does that not…cause problems?” Kingsley asked. “Tension? People don’t like to see a favorite get privileges others do not.”

“First of all, not many people, even shifters, would be jealous of a game that always ends in a stab wound. Second, the game was offered to any who wanted to play. Everyone knows how unpredictable she is. How powerful…” Austin paused when Kingsley moved his hand. “You know it’s true, brother. She locked you in a spell, right?” Kingsley moved again, almost imperceptibly. Austin inclined his head, some sort of affirmation. I wasn’t drunk enough to miss that they were conducting a second conversation in gestures. “You might not be able to feel or smell her power while she is swaying in place right now, but you felt it when she used it. That was no mistake. Right now she is learning, and so she gets passes any trainee would. She doesn’t mean anyone harm, and this territory knows that. They are content to allow her these rare…privileges because they like watching when it blows up her in face.”

“Well, that is new information,” I muttered.

“Only to ye.” Niamh chuckled.

“And outsiders?” Kingsley asked.

“Outsiders typically challenge me.” Austin ran his fingertips along the back of my neck.

“Wait.” I swatted his hand away. I couldn’t think when he was doing that. It was turning me into a puddle of goo. “People are challenging you because of me?”

Austin’s eyes were soft. “They would’ve anyway.”

“No.” I took another sip of beer. It dribbled down the side of my face. “Damn it.”

“Ye’ve got a hole in yer lip,” Niamh said.

“Yeah. Awesome.” I wiped it away with the back of my hand, swayed toward Austin, was gently nudged back, and clunked my glass down on the bar. “That’s probably a good cue to stop.”

“Sure, ye’ve just gotten goin’. Only good things will happen from here on out.”

“You just want to see me fall on my face. Little do you know that I am a professional. I do not fall on my face. Down a flight of stairs, sure, nobody’s perfect…”

“The video feature on my phone is already cued up,” she replied.

I waved a hand at her image—one of them, at least—and turned in my seat to glare at Austin, closing one eye to keep his image from multiplying. “The stabbing game has them challenging me? I mean you? Because just send them to me. I will rock their world.”

“The stabbing game, your random seeping power that I don’t control, a mage that I don’t cast out…”