He frowned and turned back to Harp, pulling a slip of paper from his pocket and handing it over. “Got it off Riley in a fight at the Caipora’s Den.”
“In the ring?”
He nodded, unconsciously clenching and unclenching his fist at the memory of the fight he’d been in just before Andrasta had shown up. It had felt good to hit the bastard. Better yet to get the name of the man who had the location of the Rosa McManus specimen. The rose had proven extraordinarily difficult to track down.
“Find this guy, Harp.” He nodded at the slip of paper as he passed it over. “Name’s Lorenzo. He knows where the Rosa McManus grows. I’ve got to go out of town for a while and won’t be able to do it. Wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to. But you know how it is.”
Harp nodded. “Got a time limit on it?”
“As soon as you can. The Rosa McManus sample we had turned out to be as effective as we thought. Before we realized that the bastard who gave us the first sample didn’t know where the rest grew, we’d planned to start trials next month for two different drugs. Important ones. Alzheimer’s and Crohn’s. I’ve been after those two for years, and our lack of enough Rosa McManus is the only thing that stands in the way. Call me once you’ve found Lorenzo.”
“Alzheimer’s and Crohn’s? Jesus, Cam, if you sold this stuff you could make a mint.”
Cam shrugged. “Not about the fucking money. Just find him.”
He took a swig of his rapidly warming too-light beer and glanced over his shoulder at Andrasta. Had she just looked away from him? And was that bastard’s hand on her ass? He felt a growl rise in his throat.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll find him. When will you be back?” Harp asked.
Cam turned back to Harp and dragged a hand over his face. Fuck, she was making him crazy. “A week? Two, max. But I’m counting on you to find this guy by the time I get back. I’ve been working on this a long time. Now that we’re so close, with the key ingredient isolated, I can almost taste it.”
Ana leaned back against the bar, listening with half an ear to Kon, the Incan god of wind and rain, trying to chat her up. A babble of other languages floated through the bar. Mostly, though, she was listening to Cam’s conversation.
He was hunting down a cure for Alzheimer’s and Crohn’s? And it wasn’t about the money? She’d underestimated him.
She caught sight of Cam swiveling to look at her and jerked her head up to look into Kon’s eyes. He really was handsome. She jumped a bit when she felt his big hand on her ass. A jolt shot up her body, illuminating her nerve endings like lanterns flicked on one by one.
He might not be exactly the man she wanted—as much as she hated to admit it, that man was sitting down the bar, talking fancy roses meant to cure diseases—but the arousal that had been riding her hard since she’d gotten to earth was pretty pleased with Kon’s advances.
She turned her back to Cam and smiled at Kon. He grinned down at her. He really was much more fun than the Celtic gods. But then, who wasn’t?
“Can I get another beer?”
Ana started at the sound of the voice, so rough that it dragged across her skin and made her shiver. Cam. He was standing right behind her. Her skin prickled with goose bumps. Slowly, her heart in her throat, she turned her head to look at him.
But he wasn’t looking at her. He had eyes only for the pretty bartender. But if he only had eyes for the bartender, why had he come over to Ana’s side of the bar to order his drink? She licked her lips, hoping that he’d turn to look at her.
He didn’t, though she swore she could feel the tension radiating from his stiffened muscles and the clenched fists that rested on the bar. Confused and disappointed, she turned back to Kon.
“Thanks,” Cam said as his drink was handed to him.
His voice sent a shiver through Ana, a sound that sucked all the noise from the rest of the room until just the echo of it remained in her head, trapping her. Unable to help herself, she glanced over her shoulder to see that he’d walked back to his friend. She felt a twinge of disappointment, then cursed herself for being an idiot.
She’d come here for some company, to make up for all the lost time she’d spent hanging around alone in Otherworld. Cam was too complicated. Being involved with him would get her heart broken again.
She needed a distraction.
“Kiss me.” She reached up to grab Kon’s big shoulders.
He grinned, a sexy white swath that cut across his tan face. His green eyes sparkled with appreciation as he yanked her toward him and captured her mouth with his own. Hot and hard, he kissed her, and a jolt of lust streaked through her.
Yes. This was what she’d been missing. This was what she needed. Just as she opened her mouth to return his kiss, hard hands gripped her upper arms and lifted her away from Kon.
“Time to be going.” Cam’s
voice, rough before, was gravel at her ear as he all but carried her out of the bar. Kon yelled after them, but he shut up as soon as Cam swung his head around to pin the man with a gaze that promised pain.
“Hey!” she said as the bar door swung closed behind them. “I was having a good time.”