Read Reluctant Adept: Book Three of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life for Free Online

reminded me we had an audience.
    "Hey, don't— " Glen reached out, as if to grab Kieran, but stopped short. His confused gaze ping-ponged between us, eyebrows raised and mouth slackened with shock. I swear I heard Julie snicker, but that could have been my imagination.
    "You— " he stopped, dropping his arm and stepping back as he took a breath to regain his cool. "He can touch you. You said … I mean, I thought that was a problem."
    Problem for you , dickwad, I thought as I slid my drink to the nearby table, freeing my hand to wrap around Kieran's waist.
    "Not for the right man," Kieran replied, his fingers still curled possessively at the back of my neck.
    Whoa . Okay, maybe I was starting to enjoy this. Glen looked nonplussed. If not for some of the hurtful things he'd said when he dumped me, I might even have felt bad about it.
    I leaned into Kieran when his arm snaked to my waist, encouraging me closer. He sure knew a little something about marking territory, and I planned to reward him later. He hadn't needed to go along with Julie, who'd certainly instigated this, but he'd done it anyway, surprising me yet again. There was a playful side to Kieran, and I enjoyed uncovering it.
    "You mean the right elf ," a statuesque brunette threw in, her sultry voice failing to conceal a sneer.
    Perhaps an inch taller than Glen's five-foot-ten and looking way too young for his late-thirties, she insinuated herself into the conversation, perching her narrow chin on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist. With her heavily made-up eyes, stylishly tousled hair, and what little I could see of her skintight leather ensemble, she wouldn't have looked out of place at the MTV Video Music Awards. For a party among friends, though, it was a little much.
    Her turquoise-blue eyes narrowed as she examined Kieran and me and added, "Although, any elf would do. Like the strigoi, touchies can't read them."
    I bristled at the derogatory terms. Interesting, though, that she'd used the formal name for vampires.
    She stalked to Glen's side, draping a possessive hand on his left shoulder and fingering the top edge of his black turtleneck with the tips of her glossy-red nails. "But as far as elves go, this one has little to crow about." Predatorily, she scrutinized Kieran and sniffed. "Pity."
    What the hell was she smoking? If Kieran walked the runway, he'd be a slam dunk for hottest male model of the year. Whenever we went out in public, he drew appreciative stares from practically every female we passed, in addition to a fair number of men. It would have irritated me if not for the fact that Kieran dismissed it, as if the attention meant less than nothing to him. At first, I thought it was because he continued to harbor a dim view of humans—he'd once told me, in his experience, human women had proved to be 'vain, weak-minded, insipid creatures' who only craved to bed him a their 'earliest convenience.' However, I'd come to realize that Kieran simply didn't view himself as being particularly attractive.
    Squeezing my side in warning, Kieran placed his beer on the nearby table, but I was too incensed to spare it any thought. Who did she think she was, anyway?
    "Clearly, you don't have eyes," I scoffed. "Not that we give a flying crap." I dismissed her with an eye roll and turned to Julie. "I must have missed the 'Rude Skanks Allowed' sign on your door, Jules."
    Julie didn't react. In fact, our exchange seemed to have left both her and Steven lost for words.
    Kieran's magic swept over me and blurred movement wrenched my attention back to Glen and Miss Brunette-and-Bitchy.
    Joining the two of them was an eye-catching newcomer, another MTV-wannabe by the look of his trendy, monochromatic wardrobe. Slim ebony suit, silver-gray shirt, and meticulously trimmed goatee, the man was a six-foot-three study in how to be tall, black, and handsome without trying. He stood at the brunette's side, restraining her outstretched arm, which he'd plainly