Page 33 of Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Eileen

Eileen had abandoned her slingbacks somewhere between the dining room and the parlor, and now, as she stepped into her mother’s favorite room in the house, her toes sank into the plush carpet.

The room reminded her so ferociously of her parents that setting foot inside usually elicited angry tears, but tonight, she wasn’t alone, and she was in high spirits.

There was a light at the end of her family’s centuries-long tunnel, and that was worth celebrating in style, in the bohemian-style parlor with its fringed pink lamps and velvet loveseats.

“Oh my gosh, there’s got to be a hundred of them,” Nicola said, dazzled by the shelves crowded with chess sets, board games, puzzles and tins of antique playing cards.

Jennifer Kirkfoyle was a former socialite with more of a head for matchmaking than competition, but she had always indulged her daughter’s voracious appetite for games.

She commissioned carved jade dice for birthday presents, wrapped riddle boxes to stow under the Christmas tree, and returned from every excursion away from Craigmar, as few as they were, with a new brainteaser in her purse for her daughter.

“There are seventy-two,” Eileen said with a fond smile.

“I’ve counted. My mother had hoped to use this room to entertain her out-of-town friends, but not many friends came calling, so she turned it into a games library for me.

I was always allowed to play in here as a child, even after I got too rowdy during a bout of checkers and broke a Tiffany glass lamp. ”

“You’ve played all these games?”

“Yes, and I’ve beaten every one.”

Adam was looking at her with something between pity and marvel, and it made Eileen’s skin itch.

He was looking at her like he understood something about her she didn’t even understand herself, and she wasn’t sure if she liked that.

So, instead of allowing him to speak, she stepped into her role as master of ceremonies.

“The rules of the Confession game are simple,” she said, plopping down on the carpet and beckoning for Finley to follow.

They sat like children, knee to knee and with their legs crossed.

Nicola and Adam followed suit, if a little hesitantly, until they formed a perfect circle of four.

“We go around asking questions of each other, one question a turn. The point of Confession is to tell the truth. If you lie, you lose.”

“How can you tell if someone is lying?” Adam asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I can always tell. The final rule is that, beyond telling the truth, there are no rules. You can exert any sort of influence you want over someone to get them to tell you the truth, and no one can hold it against you in the light of day.”

“She’s not kidding about that,” Finley said, pushing the cuffs of his sweater up to his elbows before yanking them back down again over his wrists. He was nervous. “She once held my head underwater in the loch until I told her the name of the boy I had a crush on.”

Finley’s eyes didn’t leave Eileen’s face, but she caught the glance Adam threw his way in her peripheral vision.

Was this the first Adam had heard about Finley’s long history of falling all over himself over men?

And why should Adam, who practically salivated every time Nicola walked into the room and did exactly what Eileen said with breathless delight, even care?

She hadn’t taken him for someone with a very developed sexual palette. Yet he surprised her.

This, she decided, was interesting.

Moreover, it was something she could use.

“Who goes first answering a question?” Nicola asked.

“Traditionally, one would draw lots,” Eileen said. “But I’m willing to take volunteers. Is anyone feeling brave?”

Finley screwed his mouth shut. Nicola looked a little too nervous to go first, so Adam stepped in.

“Sure. I’ll go.”

“Fabulous. We’ll go counterclockwise after you. Me, Finley, Nicola and then back to you.”

“Sounds good to me. Ask away.”

“Happy to,” Eileen said, fixing him with her steely gaze. “Adam: Do you think magic is real?”

“Eileen, you’re cheating,” Finley cut in. “You can’t just blurt out a question. Everyone has to agree on what we’re asking.”

“The question stands,” she said, ignoring him entirely. “Do you think magic is real?”

“Do you?” Adam shot back, knocking her off balance. He was looking at her hard, gauging her reaction. Had he come to suspect that she was lying about the whole sordid family saga, about any of it at all?

Maybe he was smarter than she thought.

“Adam, wait your turn,” Finley said.

“If Eileen isn’t playing by the rules then why should I?

” Adam said, electrifying Eileen to her core.

A twist. She loved a twist, and she loved a dark horse even more.

“And she may have agreed to follow your orders, but I haven’t.

With all due respect, take it down a notch with the Fifty Shades of Grey thing. ”

Finley looked like he had just been slapped across the face and then spat on for good measure.

“First of all,” Finley said, in that voice he only saved for lecturing or winning arguments, “you’re in my house, so I would watch—”

“You’re all in my house,” Eileen said with a frustrated noise. “And you’re all boring me to death. Stop measuring cocks and answer the question.”

Nicola clapped a hand over her mouth, but not before a giggle bubbled up. She was practically kicking her feet with glee, watching Adam and Finley peacock. Maybe Nicola had a little bit of a capricious streak, just like Eileen, and maybe she liked watching men compete to impress women.

Eileen could use that, too.

“I believe that there may be some things out there in the universe that we can’t explain,” Adam said with a huff. “Is that a good enough answer?”

“Not on your life,” Eileen said, at the same moment Nicola rolled her eyes and Finley made a disappointed tsking sound. “Come on now, details. Are you really such a rationalist or not? Aren’t bite marks and freak weather enough to convince you?”

“You only get one question, Eileen; now it’s your turn to confess,” Nicola said, as quick a study as Eileen could have hoped for.

“I like Adam’s question,” Eileen said, crossing her arms. “I’ll answer it. I do think magic is real, Adam. More than that, I know it. And I know better than most that it’s nothing to be trifled with, especially by those with no respect for it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“One question per round,” she sneered.

“My turn,” Finley said. “I can’t promise how many rounds I’m going to go, so make it a good one.” Then, muttering under his breath only loud enough for Eileen to hear, “I know how this game always ends.”

Nicola seized the moment, leaning into the circle and asking, “Have you ever seen a faery?”

“Of course. Dozens of times.”

“Come on,” Nicola whined. “I need details. Tell a story.”

“That’s not part of the game.”

“Oh yes it is,” Eileen said, leaning in close and ghosting her lips over his neck. “Shall I motivate you?”

Finley stiffened beneath her kiss, but he didn’t pull away. She moved her mouth languidly over his neck, tasting the salt on his skin and feeling the way his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed hard.

“Fine,” he blurted, and Eileen pulled away with a triumphant grin.

He was a piss poor Confession player, and she liked that about him.

“There are the lights, out in the woods. Old folks call them friar’s lanterns.

My dad didn’t believe in television; he said I could either read or climb a tree if I got bored, so I spent a lot of time playing outdoors.

If I was out at night I would sometimes see a haze glowing off in the distance, but it would always get further away the closer I got.

The first time it happened I was so spooked I ran all the way home and barreled through the cottage door, shouting about aliens in the woods.

My father gripped my shoulder and said, so serious, ‘That was something dangerous, Finn. If you’re lucky, they’ll cause mischief, and if you’re unlucky, they’ll snatch you away underground.

You ever see something like that again, you stay far away from it, you understand? ’”

“Then what happened?” Nicola asked, rapt. Their little circle was getting tighter, and Nicola had leaned so far forward that she was almost able to reach out and touch Finley. Eileen was closer to Adam, too, close enough to see the golden stubble coming through on his jaw after the long day.

“I’d go years without seeing them,” Finley went on. “And then overnight, they would be everywhere I looked. After a while I realized they only showed up at certain times. Hard times.”

“What do you mean hard times?” Adam asked, rapt.

Finley opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.

“That’s enough, I think,” he said.

“Finley,” Nicola groaned, sounding practically pained. “Come on.”

Eileen rolled her eyes, then leaned back into Finley’s space and started trailing kisses across his jaw. He withstood her advances valiantly this time, keeping still as a stone.

“It won’t work, Isla,” he said.

“Won’t it?” she asked, then cupped him unceremoniously through his slacks.

Finley hissed, the sound ripping through the air like a bullet, and then seized Eileen by the wrist, hard enough to bruise. Eileen just laughed.

“Come on,” she tittered. “You know the rules of this game as well as I do. Nicola, do you want to have a go at getting the story out of him? Or maybe Adam?”

“I saw them the night your parents died,” Finley said, tossing her hand back into her own lap.

Eileen had nothing to say to that.

“Why would they have come out then?” Adam pressed, curious as a cat and just as foolish.

“One question per round,” Finley said quietly, looking chastened. Once again, he had ruptured Eileen’s fantasy with the double-sided sword of truth. “I’m done for now.”