“Exactly my thoughts. There must have been powerful magic in it.”
“If your dad’s involved, then there probably was. Why would Ivor What’shisname want Walther le Madhug to capture you?”
“And marry me.” Rhianne drew her fork across her plate. “Even if I did want to marry, Walther is not the one I’d choose.”
Ben reached to her, turning her hand over to reveal her burned wrist. “Did Walther do that?” His voice rumbled menacingly.
“No, I did.” Rhianne liked his touch, though she knew she should pull her hand away. “I used a spell to melt the chains, and it made the cuffs hot too. Do not worry—it will heal quickly.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t reach you sooner.” Ben lightly traced her wrist just outside the burn. A warmth that rivaled what the cuffs had done wound its way up her arm.
Rhianne held herself still. “It was soon enough. For which I thank you. You and your dokk alfar friend were very courageous.”
Ben’s eyes flickered and he suddenly withdrew his fingers, as though he hadn’t realized he’d touched her. “Yeah, well. When Lady Aisling says do this, you do it.”
“I owe you my life. You saved mine, at risk to yours. I do not hold that lightly.” Rhianne’s face warmed. “And it’s a little embarrassing.”
“It’s Cian you should be pleased with. He loves messing up a hoch alfar’s day. He’s one crazy dude.”
“But he’s very helpful.”
“Yep, very helpful.” Ben met her gaze again. His midnight dark eyes held so much—the pain of an ancient being, the faint flicker of hope deep down that Rhianne suspected never went away.
“I am trying to say thank you.” Rhianne gave him a shaky smile. “I’m not good at it.”
“You’re Tuil Erdannan. Everyone else is dust to you.”
“You are not.”
Ben’s lips parted at her statement. He started to answer but his words died, and he simply looked at her.
Rhianne’s heart thumped. Ben had beautiful eyes in a face that held her attention. She thought of his strong hands on hers, first pulling her to safety in the dungeon, then thrusting her fingers under the cold water when she’d burned them.
He helped people. That must be his purpose. Rhianne didn’t know much about goblins, because they’d died out or disappeared before she’d been born. Ben had obviously found a way to survive in the human world.
She knew she had no business feeling safe around him. Ben claimed that Lady Aisling had sent him, but she had no way to communicate with her mother and find out if this was so. For all Rhianne knew, Ben was working with her father in this mad scheme to get her married to Walther. Ben might be softening her up so she’d trust him, before he delivered her back to the hoch alfar.
For some reason, Rhianne knew this wasn’t the case. The rage in Ben’s eyes when he spoke of the hoch alfar was real. That rage touched on an old wound, one he kept buried.
Rhianne likewise had no business finding beauty in his eyes. Ben wasn’t Tuil Erdannan. Not for her.
But the thought of his powerful hands on her body, perhaps sliding over her soapy skin in the bathtub, warming her breasts while he pulled her to him to take her mouth …
A shrill peal of a bell sliced sharply through her daydream. Rhianne jumped. Her fork slipped from her fingers and clattered against her plate.
Ben raised a quick hand. “Just my phone. Don’t worry.” He pulled the cell phone he’d used before from his pocket, unfolded it as it pealed again, and put it to his ear. “Yeah?”
A voice sounded, tinny and far away. Ben’s brows slammed together, and he glared out the window as he listened, as though he could see the speaker there.
“How the hell did he find out so fast? What? … Yeah, yeah, I know. Thanks for the heads-up, Sean. Sure. See ya.”
The device went dark when Ben pushed a button, then he folded it and set it gently on the table.
“Company’s coming,” he announced.
Chapter Four
Rhianne’s sudden apprehension made Ben’s anger surge. She’d been through trauma—she needed to heal, not be interrogated.
But that wasn’t how things worked in the Shifter world. Shifters lived on the edge of danger all the time, and they investigated any new threat, or potential threat, immediately.
How Dylan had found out so quickly that Rhianne had been sent here, Ben had no idea. Dylan just seemed to know things.
“It’s okay.” Ben laid a hand on Rhianne’s arm once more, trying to soothe her. Before today, he wouldn’t have dreamed of touching a Tuil Erdannan, but Rhianne was scared, uprooted, alone. “It’s only Shifters. You could blow them to dust if you wanted. They know that too.”
“Can I?” Rhianne did not pull away from him. “I’m not as gifted as my mother. I’ve always understood that.”
“Even a weak Tuil Erdannan is more powerful than Shifters. They’ll be aware. Don’t let them mess with your head. They like to do that.”
“Mess with my head?” Rhianne touched her thick red hair, which fell down her back in a loose braid.
“Not on the outside.” Ben tapped his temple. “On the inside. Dylan will look at you as though he knows everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen to you. He tries to make everyone go along with his picture of the world. To do whatever he wants. He’s a serious alpha, which might not mean anything if you’re not Shifter.”
“Dylan Morrissey?” Rhianne’s mouth quirked when Ben started in surprise. “My mother has mentioned him. She’s met him, and she keeps abreast of the Shifters and their situations. She became interested in them when the leopard Shifter—Jaycee?—came to her for help. Mother talks to Jaycee quite often, apparently.”
Ben felt a qualm. “Don’t tell Dylan that. I don’t want him up in Jaycee’s face. Not that Jaycee would betray to your mum anything that would harm Shifters, but Dylan’s touchy.” He considered. “Of course, watching Dylan try to get into Jaycee’s face might be fun. She’s loyal to her mate and her leader and no one else, including Dylan. She’d probably tell him to go lick himself. Big cat Shifters do what the hell they want, and now that Jaycee has a cub, she’s even more likely to tell everyone to back off.”
“The Morrissey family are big cat Shifters too, aren’t they?” Rhianne asked.
“Exactly. Not that wolves are much better, and don’t get me started on the bears.”
Rhianne’s smile dimpled her cheeks. Damn, she was gorgeous when she did that. Ben kept reminding himself who she was, what she was, but the needs in him didn’t care. Rhianne was a beautiful woman, alone with him, helpless …
All right, maybe not helpless. She could probably kick his ass if she tried. But she didn’t know the human world, or Shifters. He was her buffer against both.
Ben had never seen Rhianne at her mother’s house, which could mean she’d left home to have her own life. Lady Aisling could be pretty intense. Or maybe Lady Aisling had kept Rhianne out of the way for a reason. Like her own father being a danger to her?