How to Worship a Goddess (18 page)

Brand could tell there was more to this story. “And this is a problem why?”

Lucy sighed. “It's not a problem. It's just… the rituals involve sex.”

His back snapped straight and he swore he got whiplash. “Sex. With you.”

She nodded. “Myself… and other partners.”

Plural.

Brand flashed cold then blazing hot. He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, then forced himself to give this some thought.

And not of the “Damn, I'd like to watch” variety. No, he wanted to rip apart the other men she'd taken to her bed. Intellectually, he realized she'd been around a long time. A
really
long time. She'd had other lovers.

Still, he wasn't thinking with his brain at the moment. And that was ridiculous.

Get
a
grip, idiot. Or at least ask intelligent questions. And not about the sex.

“So this, ah, power boost, what does it do exactly?”

“For one, it allows me to hide my village from the rest of the world. I'm still not sure how you managed to slip through the boundary wards.”

She shot a glance at Sal, who shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe your desire for him gave him passage through. I don't know, but it's something to look into.”

Brand liked the sound of that, but Lucy's frown made it clear she wasn't buying into it. “What if there's a flaw somewhere, Sal? What if the wards are weakening? We'll need to perform the ritual again—”

“Oh,
no
way
in hell.”

As soon as the words slipped from his mouth, Brand wanted to take them back.

Shit
and
double
shit, you stupid ass.

She caught and held his gaze, hers turning chillier each second. And her expression made it clear she thought he'd overstepped his bounds.

Tough shit. She was his. For now. No other man would touch her.

“Brand, I can't let—”

“Use me.”

She paused and heat flushed her pale cheeks before she sighed and shook her head. “It has to be someone with
arus
in their blood. If you're not
berserkir
, you won't do me any good.”

Well shit. That sucked. “Then let's find out, because I'm really not liking this other men scenario. And you can bitch at me all you want, that's just how I feel.”

He thought for sure she'd kick him to the curb. Take her little goat man and his memories and walk through the door.

Instead, her lopsided smile made his pulse race. It began to gallop when she reached out to run her fingers down his cheek. “It's not very appealing to me, either. Right now.”

He wondered what she'd do if he told her he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He bit his tongue so he wouldn't find out. Swallowing hard, he turned to Sal, his gaze catching on those little black horns, which made him shake his head. “So what do we need to do?”

***

Lucy watched Brand closely as Sal explained the process.

It wasn't for the faint of heart, but then anything involving running a sharp iron blade through his body wouldn't be.

Brand seemed to take it all in stride. He nodded at the appropriate spots, asked intelligent questions and, when Sal was finished, he didn't fall on the ground laughing hysterically or pass out from fear.

He took a breath while he stared at the wall, his jaw set, his mouth a straight line. “So, it'll hurt like hell but I'll be okay by tomorrow?”

She laughed. She couldn't help it.

Brand slid his glance her way and raised his eyebrows. “What? I've got practice.”

She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “You don't need to do this.”

His arms wrapped around her with a fierce grip. “Yeah, I do. And not just because I don't want you taking other guys to your bed.” She felt his grimace move against her cheek. “Alright, so maybe that's a big part of it, I gotta be truthful. But… if it's true, if I have some of this
berserkir
blood in my veins, it might help explain some things in my background.”

She pulled back to look at him but Sal beat her to her question. “Like what?”

Brand's entire body moved with his shrug. “Mainly the aggression. That's how I got started in hockey. It was a way for my parents to run me ragged. I had a lot of energy, and as I got older, that energy turned a little… vicious. I was in a lot of fights as a kid. And since I was bigger and stronger than most of the others, I usually won. My parents spent a few years shuttling me back and forth between doctors and therapists who tried to get me to ‘think about' why I wanted to pound the crap out of everyone else.”

Sal's laugh was short but sharp, and told Brand all he needed to know about the little goat man's opinion of therapy. Which was exactly the same as Brand's.

“Anyway, the only thing that helped was hockey. I tried basketball and baseball but neither held my attention. Football was okay but there was too much downtime, same with wrestling.

“So, Sal.” Brand stroked a hand through Lucy's hair, trying to relieve some of her tension. Knowing it was as much for her as for himself. “If I live through it, I'll be fine, right?”

The goat guy gave a thoughtful nod. “Yeah. I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be any lasting problems. If you live through it.”

Pretty
sure. Lasting problems.
“Then let's do it.”

Lucy sucked in a short, sharp breath and her hand wrapped around his bicep. “Brandon, you need to take some more time to think about this. What if something happens? What if—”

“Hey, babe.” He pressed his lips against her temple then pulled back, infusing as much confidence as he could into his expression. “I'll be okay. I'm hard to hurt. And I've got you.”

***

Lucy shook her head, feeling in her bones that this was a bad idea, though she couldn't put her finger on why exactly that was.

Brandon looked at her with absolute conviction in his eyes, convinced he was doing the right thing. And that if he had her on his side, he'd come through with flying colors. What if that didn't happen? What if he was injured, damaged? She didn't know if she wanted to live without… What? She didn't want to live without him? She'd known him all of three days.

But she couldn't imagine waking up tomorrow and knowing he wasn't in her bed. Or at least in the next room. And wasn't that the same as living together?

She'd had men throw themselves at her feet, spouting declarations of love and devotion. She'd had gods grovel for the slightest crumb of her affection.

She'd also had one god who'd confused affection with obsession. But she'd survived him. She'd triumphed. She
was
strong.

“Yes. You do. I'll be right here. Everything will be fine.”

He looked rock-steady, like he could survive a hurricane. She felt like a boat in rough waters. About to capsize.

His mouth quirked in a lopsided smile before he turned to Sal and nodded. “So what do we need?”

***

Brand wasn't as steady as he fronted to Lucy.

But he didn't want her to worry and he didn't want her to stop Sal from performing the ritual. And he really didn't want her to use other men to recharge her batteries. Hell, he couldn't even think about it without wanting to rip something apart. Not Lucy. Never Lucy. But he also had to be careful not to let his jealousy get out of hand or he'd take it out on a teammate tomorrow who'd wind up in the hospital.

Sal took a look around the apartment, those dark eyes taking in everything.

“Well,” Sal said, “I'm thinking maybe we wanna do this somewhere else.”

“Like where?”

“Well, I'd prefer to do it outside, but you'd need to be naked and it's about twenty degrees—”

“Not a problem. The cold doesn't bother me. I grew up in Maine. Northern Maine.”

Sal slid a look at Lucy and raised his brows. Lucy bit into her bottom lip and fretted it until it looked like she'd break the skin.

“Alrighty then, polar bear. Outside it is. The
lucani
altar?”

Lucy sighed and her expression cleared, but not before he realized she'd only now given up thinking he wouldn't do this. “Yes, I suppose it should be there. I draw more power there than in the city at Uni's Temple.”

“Just wanted to check.” Sal looked back at him. “You wanna take a little trip, son?”

“What about the sun? Lucy, it's broad daylight—”

“I'll be fine.” She shook her head at his concern. “Sal can transport us without exposing me to the sun. We'll be able to get what we need at the den to perform the ritual.”

“Cat may be around. The girl's getting stronger by the day. You're really going to have to address that soon.”

“Yes, I know.” Lucy sighed. “But not today. I'll call Kyle, see if he can have the girl meet us there.”

“What about Ty?”

She shook her head. “I doubt he'll come if he knows Catene will be there. He's trying his damnedest to make an untenable situation bearable for her.”

“Yeah, but you know it's gonna have to come to a head sooner or later.”

“Ty is hoping later.”

Brand stood quiet, listening to Lucy and Sal talk about people and situations he had no clue about.

He had no idea who Kyle and Catene were, but he recognized Ty's name. Lucy's son.

“Ty can hope all he wants. She's nearly nineteen—”

“And she has a few more years before she needs to know what's going on. Let the child have those years.”

It was Sal's turn to shake his head but he took the hint and changed the subject. And gave Brand a look that made his stomach tighten in fear. “So, Brand. This is going to feel a little weird. Just try to breathe.”

Sal reached out to touch his chest and in the blink of an eye, his apartment disappeared in a rush of color and sound, almost like he'd stepped into a wind tunnel in the midst of a fireworks display.

Before he had time to really think about what that meant, he found himself in another room. And he didn't mean in another room in his apartment. A room he'd never been in before.

“Brandon?”

He turned to see Lucy, standing by his side, staring up at him with a worried look on her face.

“Hey, babe—”

A wave of dizziness came over him and he nearly pitched over. Lucy grabbed onto him as he reached for something, anything to hold onto. All he found was Lucy.

“Brandon, come here. You need to sit and put your head between your legs.”

Bullshit. He wasn't a pussy. He wasn't going to pass out.

“No.” He forced himself to take a deep breath, to force back the disorientation. “I'll be okay. Just give me a sec…”

He saw her bite her bottom lip, as if she wanted to argue with him. She didn't. But she didn't take her hand off his arm and that helped to ground him.

After a short time, the feeling passed and he had a chance to look around.

“So where are—holy
shit
.”

Sal stepped through what looked like a slit in the wall. No, not the wall. The air. Hell, it looked like he stepped out of an invisible lightning bolt in the middle of the room.

The
salbinelli
seemed to have no problems with his trip. He walked over to Brand, peered up at him for a few seconds before nodding.

“Not bad for a newbie, son. I would've bet you'd be on your ass by the time I got here.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. And where is here? And how exactly did I get here?”

“Well, here is the
lucani
den, and you traveled by magic.”

Magic. Yeah, he'd kinda figured that one out but didn't bother to ask for more of an explanation. His head probably would've exploded. “And a
lucani
den is…”

“Home to a couple hundred werewolves.”

Oh, yeah. “Casey.”

“Yes, Casey is
lucani
.” Lucy looked at him with worry in her eyes. “Brand, are you sure—”

He bent and kissed her, hard and fast. No tongue. Just sealed his mouth over hers and pulled her tight against him. His body reacted to her proximity by pumping blood into his cock and away from his brain, which could use the infusion to actually be able to think.

Damn, he needed to keep that under control, especially since Sal was standing only a couple of feet away and Brand wasn't much of an exhibitionist. A little PDA was okay. A few kisses, holding hands.

But… Lucy melted into him. Her hands flexed against his chest, her hips pressed forward into his and he felt her sigh shudder through her body.

The lust he'd been trying to keep at bay fired up and he wanted to press her back against the wall, strip off their pants and get hot and heavy in seconds. And he wouldn't give a shit if everyone watched.

“Hey, kids. We're about to be descended upon so I'd wrap it up, if I were you.”

Brand drew back after another few seconds, opening his eyes to look down into Lucy's. Hers had gone thundercloud gray, turbulent with emotion and desire.

He couldn't help himself. He smiled. The goddess of the moon wanted him. An actual freaking goddess…

Footsteps sounded outside of the room. Lots of them.

With a wry smile, as if she'd read his mind, Lucy reached to stroke her fingers along his jaw and he swore he calmed like a dog being petted.

Damn, he should just offer up his balls to her now. It wasn't like he'd ever find another woman like Lucy.

“Ay, you're starting to drop like flies,” Sal muttered under his breath as he turned toward the door. “I don't think I'm gonna live through this.”

Brand had no idea what the little goat man was talking about and he didn't get a chance to ask because Sal opened the door.