Free Blood In Fire (Celtic Elementals Book 2) by Heather R. Blair Page B

where do you know Aidan from? How the hell did you two met anyway?”
    Heather tried not to blush, but it was impossible. Not under the scrutiny from those blue-green eyes that knew her better than anyone else on earth.
    “We, uhhh… well, we met in a bar. In Istanbul. I…got antsy, you know. I needed a break…took a couple of days from the shoot—“
    “Are you okay?” Immediately dismissing anything else, those eyes went warm with concern. That old familiar concern. Lacey knew her alright.
    Down to the fucking bone.
    “I’m good, Lace. Really…being with Aidan, it helped…distract me from things.” She hadn’t realized until she said it how true that was. He'd pulled her back from the brink so completely that she hadn’t even noticed when the encroaching blackness had shrunk away.
    Lacey’s lips twitched. “He’s that good, is he?”
    Heather snorted. That hadn’t been precisely what she was driving at. Still, since she didn’t want to talk about what she had really meant, at least until she had a chance to mull it over herself, she’d go with that.
    She swatted Lacey’s arm. “We can compare notes on screwing vampires and werewolves later. And seeing as we’re on that subject, what’s with you and tall, huge and handsome?”
    Lacey’s cheeks pinked, but her eyes glowed with something so deep and beautiful it hurt Heather’s heart. No way . But Lacey’s next words confirmed it beyond all doubt.
    “Ronan’s it for me, Heather. He is just… it. You know.”
    No, she didn’t know. She’d never been in love.
    Ever.
    And she didn’t want to be. Trusting someone that much, letting them see that deep inside her was so not an option. Heather didn’t want to rain on Lacey’s parade but…
    “Come on, Lace, you’ve known him, for all of... what exactly? A week?”
    “Almost three.”
    “Oh yeah, well then, that’s plenty of time. God, do you have any idea what Kate is going to say?”
    Lacey’s mouth trembled, then firmed. “Since when did you give a crap what my sister thinks, Heather?”
    “Since she called me terrified two days ago and begged—no, ordered me to go looking for you.”
    “Oh shit, Katie called you ?” Lacey’s eyes went huge.
    “I know. Apparently even psychopathic sluts have their uses in times of crisis.”
    Lacey winced.
    The term 'psychopathic slut’ had been used by Kate in relation to Heather more than once. Most memorably when Kate had walked into their dorm room unannounced one Saturday afternoon and found Heather in bed with the Polzin twins. Sasha and Sven. It had just been a little experiment, really, one that hadn’t even gone that far, but Kate didn’t care. That scene, coupled with other incidents over the years, had ended any chance for chummy relations between Heather and Kate.
    “I’m sorry, Heather.”
    Heather shrugged. “I was worried, too, you know. What the hell were you thinking, not calling her?”
    Lacey twisted the bed sheet in her hands. “I didn’t know what….how could I explain…Jesus, Heather! You have no idea. You think what you've seen tonight is crazy?! You should have been here a week ago. And Ronan? How the hell do I explain Ronan and me…to Katie? Heck, I don’t even know how to explain it to you.” Lacey’s face, that face that Heather loved so much, looked uncertain and lost.
    Heather couldn't have that.
    She reached over, patting Lacey’s hand with a wickedly sardonic look. “Just tell her you’ve finally found that older man she always wanted for you. Problem solved. She'll welcome him with open arms.”
    Lacey rolled sideways on the rug, laughing so hard she started to snort.
    Kate constantly said Lacey needed an older man. It was like a mantra. She preached about it ad nauseam. Kate was convinced a mature, stable man would do wonders for her 'flighty' baby sister.
    When Lacey manage to speak again, it was in half gasps.
    "Fifteen hundred years older was probably not exactly what Kate had in mind,