Celtic Fire Collection: PRINT

Excerpt From: Solstice Seduction

Chapter One

Emerson Matthews watched her patient through the two-way mirror, and he gazed right back. Obviously, he knew he was being observed. Stretching out his long legs he leaned back in the chair and stared as if he could bore a hole through the glass. He shoved his shoulder-length hair from his face in irritation�chestnut coloured waves she itched to drag her fingers through. At this distance it was impossible to discern the colour of his eyes, but she had no trouble making out his high cheekbones and gorgeous mouth.

It was impossible to look at him and not imagine how his lips would feel against hers. He pushed up the sleeves of his knit shirt to reveal beautifully sculpted forearms. With his broad chest, she couldn�t help but wonder what he looked like beneath his clothes. She�d bet his legs and ass were as tightly muscled as his arms.

She sighed. Getting worked up over a patient was number one on the no-no list for therapists everywhere. She�d clearly gone too long without sex and it was affecting her work. The slightly less rational part of her brain insisted that she was merely experiencing the logical response to being confronted with the single most gorgeous man she�d ever seen. No matter what he looked like, she needed to get her mind out of his pants and help him. Focus, Emerson. Focus.

She reread the scant information on his chart. Having attempted suicide by train, Taliesin No-Last-Name was brought into St. Mary�s Psychiatric Facility late last night by the local sheriff�s department. The train operator insisted that he�d hit the man, but the guy didn�t have a scratch on him. Even his clothes were fine. He�d complained of a headache, but that was it. He�d also initially demanded�loudly�to leave. But that wasn�t going to happen, not until he�d been thoroughly evaluated. Adjusting her glasses, she turned the knob and opened the door.

The man rose to his feet with a loose-limbed grace and offered her his hand as he read her name tag. �Dr. Matthews. I�m assuming it�s too much to hope that you�ve come to release me.�

�Why don�t we talk a bit first?� Trying to place his slight accent, she gestured to the chair behind him as she sank into the one opposite him. He didn�t bother to hide his annoyance as he sat and stared at her while she straightened the forms on her clipboard. His eyes were grey. Definitely grey. God, he was gorgeous. Focus.

�Despite what it likely says in your file, I wasn�t attempting suicide.�

She glanced at the chart. �I�m not sure how else to interpret standing in front of an oncoming train.�

He crossed his arms over his chest. �I was pushed.�

�By whom?�

He shifted uneasily. �A friend.�

�Some friend,� she muttered.

His lips curved in a bone-melting grin. �Yeah. He can be a real bastard.�

Emerson stared at him trying to remember where she�d been going with that line of questioning.

Train. Death wish. Right. �The engineer�s statement doesn�t mention anyone else.�

Taliesin tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. �It wouldn�t. My friend is rarely visible to humans.�

Rarely visible to humans. It was going to be a long night.

Emerson glanced out the window behind him and watched as huge fluffy snowflakes drifted to the ground. She might as well get comfortable. It wasn�t like she had anywhere to go�besides, she�d volunteered for the three weeks prior to Christmas, just so she could get time off over the holidays to spend with her family.

She studied the man across from her. He looked completely lucid, but his comments so far belied that. �Let�s start with a history,�

she said turning to a fresh intake sheet. �Name?�

He shifted in his chair and she tried not to admire the way the worn fabric of his jeans encased his legs. �Taliesin.�

�Last name?�

�I don�t have one.�

Emerson tried not to frown. �What about your parents? What�s their surname?�

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, a lock of hair partially covering his eye. �I don�t have parents in the strictest sense of the word.�

Emerson fought the urge to brush his hair aside and see if it was as soft as it looked. �You�re an orphan?� she asked. Perhaps she�d follow in Angelina Jolie�s footsteps and adopt him.... Okay, this was inexcusable. She was a professional, for God�s sake. Obviously she needed to get laid and quickly. This inability to focus was interfering with her job.

�Not exactly.� He stood and walked to the window.

She tried not to groan. His ass was as perfect as she�d imagined it would be. Clearing her throat, she asked, �Age?�

�Not sure.�

She studied his reflection in the window pane. If she had to guess, she�d say late twenties to early thirties. Time for a different tack. �I�ve noticed you�ve got a bit of an accent. Where are you from?�

�Lots of different places.� His lips curved in a sad smile as he stared out the window. �But I spent my formative years in Wales.�

That was an interesting coincidence. Her grandmother was from Wales. Of course, her sister, Beckett, would tell her there were no such things as coincidences, but Emerson didn�t buy into it. There were no mystical forces guiding hers or anyone else�s life. If God existed, and that was a huge if, as far as she was concerned, He sure as hell didn�t care about any of the people he�d supposedly created. If He did, He�d actually bother to answer prayers.

The pain of loss clogged her throat, but she pushed it away and stood, nearly colliding with the man she was supposed to be evaluating. Taliesin placed his hand under her elbow to steady her.

�Are you all right?� he asked, concern darkening his eyes.

The warmth of his body seeped through her blouse, and she wanted nothing more than to sink into him and forget. He stared into her eyes as if he could find the answers to the mysteries of the universe.

She swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly dry. �I�m fine,� she managed and stepped back.

Excerpt From: Moonlit Magic

�You can�t avoid him forever.�

Glaring at her best friend, Beckett Matthews crossed her arms over her chest and turned towards the window, watching the lush, green countryside race by. �Sure I can. Just watch me.�

There had been nights when she thought it would kill her, but she�d avoided him perfectly well for five long years. Of course, the fact that the Atlantic Ocean had stood between them had made staying away from him somewhat easier.

Now that she�d returned to Ireland, steering clear of Kieran Brennan was going to be a bit more difficult. But, she reminded herself, she was just visiting. This was simply a last minute stop on the European museum circuit. She�d be in Dublin only as long as the Tapestry and Textile exhibition. When the tapestries went back to the U.S. so would she, and Kieran would once again be relegated to the land of memories and mistakes.

It hadn�t all been a mistake, had it? Longing flooded her at the memory of his lanky, muscled body pressing her into the cool earth under the stars.

Shaking off the past, she focused on the present. The present consisted of riding from the airport to her aunt�s cottage outside of Wicklow with Tara. Every landmark they passed brought back memories better left buried. The standing stones where he�d first kissed her. The pond where they�d gone skinny-dipping after dark. The castle ruins where they�d made love. She closed her eyes, willing away the memories. All roads led back to Kieran.

�Admit it,� Tara chided, her lilting accent bringing back memories of every summer she�d spent here at her aunt�s home. �You can�t stop thinking about him.�

Beckett sighed. She�d never stopped thinking about him. At twenty-three he�d been gorgeous. She�d loved running her fingers through his long tawny hair and staring into his deep, sea green eyes. And God knew she�d never tired of touching him�lean and muscular �golden perfection. She clenched her hands, remembering the feel of his sweat-slick skin against hers.

She needed to stop behaving like a hormonal eighteen-year old. That chapter of her life was long past. She�d willingly walked away from everything he�d offered�ran was more like it. She ran home to a lonely existence.

It was stupid to think that her relationship with Kieran would have turned out like her parents� relationship had, but she couldn�t free herself from the bone deep fear that he would leave when she needed him most. That he would abandon her like her mother and father. Granted, her mother hadn�t had a choice, but her father did. And he chose to leave her and her siblings after her mother died.

Part of her knew that Kieran would never do anything that cowardly, but old fears died hard, apparently. Instead, she�d focused on the physical, fucking him at every opportunity and when he wanted more...she�d run. She pushed away the almost tactile recollection of the way their bodies fit together, only to wonder how they�d fit now.

How had he changed? She could only hope he�d developed a receding hairline and a beer belly. Of course, his voice was probably the same. He�d been able to seduce her by simply whispering endearments in his low, sexy brogue. It wasn�t just the accent, though thinking of the way he murmured her name against her neck as he moved inside her had her ready to insist that Tara drop her off on his doorstep.

Frowning, Beckett shifted in the seat of the cramped economy car. �It�s been five years. If he�s not married, I�m sure he�s involved with someone.�

No matter how much she might still want him, she refused to get involved with a man who belonged to someone else. For all she knew, he could have kids. It wasn�t difficult to imagine him with children�he�d adored his younger siblings and cousins.

For a moment, she pictured him happy and in love with someone else. If she�d stayed when he�d asked her�

Beckett tried to swallow past the rock that suddenly lodged in her throat. The sting of tears burned her eyes and she blinked rapidly, hoping her friend hadn�t noticed.

How could she still feel so strongly about him? Sure, he�d been her first love, not to mention her adolescent-long infatuation, but how could she still be moved to the point of tears by imagining him with someone else?

�He�s not involved with anyone.� Tara glanced meaningfully at her. �He hasn�t been with anyone since you left.�

Beckett snorted. �How stupid do you think I am?� There was no way someone like Kieran would go a few months without a lover, let alone five years.

�I�m serious.�

�So am I. There�s no way. It�s just not possible.�

Excerpt From: Moonlit M�nage

The softly babbling river behind Bront� Matthews and the breeze dancing through the leaves provided accompaniment to the haunting melody spilling from her fingertips. It pulled at her, drawing her into a swiftly moving current of emotion. Unease and pleasure swirled together, flowing through her as rapidly as the water. It was as if the music wove a spell, drawing out her hidden feelings for the two men in front of her�desire, confusion, longing, lust. The song echoed her every emotion.

Closing her eyes, she tried to grasp the next, elusive phrase from her memory as her bow danced across her viola. In her mind�s eye, she could see the cascading notes, scrawled across her composition notebook, but they vanished into a smudge of ink. Frustrated and unable to recall the phrase, she repeated the previous line and lifted her bow from the quivering strings. The last note hung suspended, trembling in the still morning air.

�Where did you hear that?� Quillen Davies demanded.

Bront� slowly lowered her instrument to her lap as his voice slashed through the tranquillity of the moment.

�What do you mean?� she asked, studying his face. His normally relaxed demeanour had vanished, and horror replaced the laughter always apparent in his eyes. She looked to his friend, Tarran Ashe. Though he was usually the more taciturn of the two men, he looked as upset as Quill. She frowned. What the hell was their problem?

Quillen bent his head closer to hers. �I mean, where did you hear it, cariad?� Worry increased his accent�s musical lilt, contrasting sharply with the husky timbre of his voice.

He watched her through the black fall of silky hair that partially obscured his deep green eyes. Darker than the lush foliage around them, they seemed to hide a wealth of secrets. Strange how she�d never noticed that before. Shaking his hair from his face, he scowled�his sculpted lips turning downward. In the month she�d known him, she�d never seen him so much as frown. Now, he practically glowered at her.

She glanced at the other man. Tarran�s pale grey eyes were narrowed as he glared at her, too. Of course, that wasn�t much different than his usual expression, but there was something pinched�something that looked off somehow.

Apprehension and confusion gnawed at her.

The river gurgled pleasantly in the background, but a chill she couldn�t shake settled over her skin like a damp, cloying shroud. The trees of the Gwydyr forest seemed to crowd closer as if listening to them. What had started out as a peaceful morning had quickly become ominous and unsettling. For the first time since arriving in Wales a month ago, she felt like an outsider�an interloper. She was supposed be here working on her graduate degree at the Bren Gwyrdd Music Conservatory. In fact, she hoped to complete this song as one of the requirements of her composition class. But the way Quill and Tarran acted, she was beginning to feel like she�d committed a crime.

How was she supposed to explain that the song had come to her in a series of dreams? Who would believe it? Each night, she dreamt a little more of the melody. The sounds were so vivid, they�d wake her from a sound sleep until she was forced to scribble down the tune, lest it vanish from her mind forever. It was true that the subconscious mind was capable of amazing things, but composing entire songs? Not entire songs, she corrected herself. She still didn�t have the ending.

Tarran reached out and took her hand, enveloping it in his much larger one. �We�re not trying to scare you, love.� His usual, deep, smooth tone was clipped and sharp sounding.

�No? Well, you�re doing a pretty good job. What�s going on? What�s the problem with the song?�