Page 4 of Cocktails & Cauldrons

Her gaze shot to Eoin.

He grinned. “I thought you might have a little fire inside you, love.”

Oh, she’d give him all the fire he could handle if he’d continue to look at her like that for the remainder of her days.

CHAPTER 2

“Alastair Thorne,” Odessa breathed in delight. Her beady eyes narrowed, and a sick pleasure curled her garish lips.

Brenna wanted to hurl for real this time. Instead, she quickly grabbed a flute of champagne from a passing server and sidestepped so she was directly in her aunt’s path, thereby protecting Alastair from a sexual mauling. “Here you are, Aunt,” she said brightly.

Odessa glared down at her. “Stupid girl. You know I can’t have more than one glass with my medication. Are you trying to put me in a coma?”

Mortification hit Brenna hard, and she didn’t dare look at any of the guests, or she might cry. Of course she was aware it wasn’t wise to mix alcohol with the pharmacy of drugs her aunt consumed each day. But Brenna was tired of Odessa throwing herself at unsuspecting men with little regard for their feelings or how predatory she was behaving, and she had simply sought to sabotage her aunt’s obvious sexual advances, not kill her. That fantasydidexist, however, but only in the far reaches of her mind, back behind a closed door with crisscrossing DO NOT OPEN tape over the opening.

“No, Aunt. I merely—”

Odessa waved a hand in dismissal, effectively cutting Brenna off. “Oh, do shut up, girl. Your ignorance is showing.Again.”

A warm muscled forearm encircled Brenna’s upper body and dragged her back against a rock-hard chest. She thought she might faint when she recognized the arm’s owner. The myriad of bracelets—from leather to beaded to precious metal—gave her the clue. Only Eoin could wear such an eclectic range of jewelry and get away with it.

“Enough,” he snapped. “You’ve no call to belittle Brenna, and I’ll not stand for it.”

One of Brenna’s hands came up to grip his wrist in case she swooned at his feet, which was likely if he continued to hold and defend her.

“How dare you!” Odessa’s jowls wobbled as her overly made-up face turned an alarming shade of purple.

“I dare a lot of things, Ms. Sullivan,” Eoin assured her.

Only Brenna could feel the coiled tension in his frame, and she wondered why he’d bothered to stand up for her at all. Her aunt could make or break careers, and Brenna suspected Eoin knew it. It made the mystery of why he was protecting her that much more confounding.

She tried to pull away and put the brakes on this runaway train, for his sake. “Mr. O’Malley—”

“It’s Eoin to you, love.” His deep voice next to the shell of her ear made her tremble.

His grip tightened marginally, and he removed the champagne flute from her fingers, probably fearing she’d drop it in her surprise. Brenna could swear he rubbed his cheek against her hair. Her eyes widened, and she caught sight of Alastair’s smile. Feeling as if she’d stepped into the middle of a hereto-unknown play, she shook her head and straightened her spine.

“Aunt Odessa, I—”

“You are dead to me, you foolish girl. Don’t come crawling back when the Eoin O’Malleys of the world use you up and spit you out.”

“She won’t,” Eoin assured Odessa.

Brenna almost swallowed her tongue. She glanced to the side, seeking help from the Thornes, but they looked highly amused by the entire incident. Her panicked gaze shot back to her aunt, but the woman was in high dudgeon, and Brenna had no way of talking her down this time.

Odessa hobbled away, and Brenna felt each sharp slap of her aunt’s cane on the polished floor like a blow to her heart. Not that the old bat had ever treated her with courtesy or respect—Brenna was the poster child for Cinderella, minus the fairy godmother and singing mice—but Odessa was her only means of financial support.

“That went surprisingly well,” GiGi said with a bright smile and laughing eyes.

Brenna pressed her fingertips to her temples and shook her head. “I guess this means I’m out of the will.” She was only half joking. Or maybe she wasn’t joking at all. “I get to be homeless for the foreseeable future.”

“Never going to happen, child.” GiGi pressed her flawlessly manicured hand to Brenna’s cheek and gave a gentle pat. “We’ll see you’re taken care of.”

“Right.” Eoin gave her one more slight squeeze, as if he was reluctant to let her go, then he turned her to face him. “Besides, love, you’re coming home with me, remember?”

Her heart plummeted to her big toe. Odessa was right—Brenna was a foolish girl.

“I can’t, Mr. O—uh, Eoin,” she corrected when he squinted a warning at her. “Aunt Odessa doesn’t necessarily pay me. She always insinuated she’d compensate me, uh, later. After. Like, because I was her sole beneficiary.” Her cheeks stung with heat,and she wanted to smack herself. She barely refrained. “I can’t afford to go.”

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