Leaning against the headboard, my head raced to process this problem. “I don’t want you to tell her.”
She frowned as she tilted her head to the side, meeting my stare. “I need to tell her. She’s in danger.”
“She’s in danger if you tell her.” I folded my arms. “I understand why you want to and your need, but if she knows the truth, she’s in danger.”
“But keeping her in the dark is worse, Daemon.” Rising to her knees, she faced me. “Will is a psycho. What if he comes back and picks up where he left off? I can’t let that happen.”
I ran a hand through my hair, exhaling long and hard. “We need to find out if Will actually has intentions of coming back first.”
Irritation darkened her eyes. “And how do you propose we do that?”
“That I haven’t figured out, but I will.”
She stared at me a moment and then nodded. How I was going to figure out if Will was coming back was a mystery, but right now, he didn’t feel like the worst of our problems.
“What were you doing all day?” she asked. “Chasing Dawson?”
I nodded.
“What was he doing?”
“He was just roaming around. I know he was trying to get back to that office building, and if I hadn’t followed him, he would’ve. The only reason I feel safe leaving him alone right now is because Dee has him cornered.” I paused, looking away. My shoulders tensed as his words replayed over and over. “Dawson…he’s going to get himself captured again.”
Chapter 4
Since Dee was keeping an eye on Dawson Saturday evening, I wanted to do something with Kat. Well, I wanted to do a lot of things with her.
A lot.
But I wanted to take her out, do dinner and then a movie. Something normal, and God knows, she needed something normal right now. All of us did. And what I’d told her while we made snow angels had been true. We had to forge forward like nothing had happened. Easier said than done, but if we had to act normal, then I was going to take advantage of it.
Going out on a real date, the dinner and movies variety, wasn’t something I’d ever done before, not even with Ash. We’d always seemed to skip that step, but with Kat, I didn’t want to bypass a single stage.
But then I saw her Sunday evening and not rushing through all those steps became real hard.
Kat was…damn, she was beautiful with her hair down, falling over her shoulders in soft, dark waves. The red turtleneck and dark jeans clung to all the areas I wanted to get to know personally. Like real intimately.
After chatting up her mom, I led Kat outside. Held her hand and everything, even stopped and opened the car door for her. I was the epitome of a gentleman…on the outside. In my head, the things I was thinking about were definitely not gentlemanly.
Warm air blasted out of the vents when I cranked up the heat in the SUV. I grinned at her. “Okay. There are some rules about our date.”
Her brows rose. “There are?”
“Yep.” I backed out, careful around the patches of black ice. “Rule number one is we don’t talk about anything DOD-related.”
“Okay.”
I glanced at her sideways and saw that she was fighting a major smile. “Rule number two is that we don’t talk about Dawson or Will. And number three, we focus on my awesomeness.”
Kat lost the battle. Her smile was huge. “I think I can deal with these rules.”
“You better, because there is punishment for breaking the rules.”
“And what kind of punishment would that be?”
Pulling out onto the main road, I chuckled. “Probably the sort of punishment you’d enjoy.”
I reached for the radio at the same time Kat did and our fingers brushed. Static raced over my hand, jumping to hers. Kat jerked back with a soft gasp. Her eyes were bright, and it was suddenly so damn hot in the SUV, and it had nothing to do with the heat coming out of the vents.
I’d picked out an Italian restaurant and had stopped by earlier. The manager had been rather ecstatic when it came to helping me out with dinner. She most definitely developed a crush.
Kat eyed the red-and-white checkered tablecloths as we were led to a small table in the back. She blinked once and then twice when she saw the bare table lit with small candles and two wineglasses filled with water.
Kat sat across from me. “Did you…?”
I propped my elbows on the table and leaned forward. Light from the candles flickered across her face. “Did I do what?”
“Arrange this?” She waved at the candles.
I shrugged. “Maybe…”
Smiling, she tucked her hair back. “Thank you. It’s very…”
“Awesome?”
She laughed. “Romantic—it’s very romantic. And awesome, too.”
“As long as you think it is awesome, then it was worth it.” I glanced up as the manager arrived at our table. “Hi there…”
Rhonda, who probably didn’t normally take orders, smiled at me and then took our orders. Once she dashed off, Kat grinned at me and said, “I think we’re going to get extra meatballs.”
I laughed. “Hey, I’m good for some things.”
“You’re good for a lot of things.”
Her blush that immediately followed her words stopped me from pointing out all the things I was good at. Instead, I asked her about the book I’d seen in her room, one with a shirtless dude who looked like he could chest-press a truck.
“It’s a historical romance,” she explained. “About pirates.”
I arched a brow. “Pirates.”
She grinned as a ginormous pile of breadsticks was placed in the center. “Pirates were all the rage back in the day.” She plucked up a breadstick. “You’d look good on a book cover.”
“I don’t wear leather pants.” I bit into the garlic-and-butter heaven.
“Still. You have the look.”
I rolled my eyes. “You just like me for my body. Admit it.”
“Well, yeah…”
“I feel like man-candy.”
She busted out laughing, and that one laugh was worth a million bucks. Finishing off the breadstick, I wiped the specks of garlic off with the linen napkin. “What are you going to do about college?”
Kat blinked and then sat back, eyeing the candle. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s not really possible unless I go to one near a buttload of beta—”
“You just broke a rule,” I reminded her.
She wrinkled her nose. “What about you? What are you doing for college?”
I shrugged. “Haven’t decided yet.”
“You’re running out of time,” she pointed out.
“Actually, we’ve both run out of time, unless we do a late acceptance.”
“Okay. Rule-breaking aside, how is it possible? Do online classes?” she asked, and I shrugged again. “Unless you know of a college that has…a suitable environment?”
Our meals arrived, pressing pause on the conversation for a moment. Rhonda basically grated an entire block of cheese on my plate before turning to Kat’s.
“So, do you?” she asked when Rhonda left.
Knife and fork in hand, I cut into the lasagna. “The Flatirons.”
“The what-a-what?”
“The Flatirons is a mountain just outside of Boulder, Colorado.” I continued knifing away until the lasagna was in bite-size pieces. “They are full of quartzite. Not as well-known as some places or as visible, but they are there, under feet of sediment.”
“Okay.” She twisted her spaghetti noodles around her fork. “What does that have to do with anything?”
I peered up at her. “University of Colorado is about two miles from the Flatirons.”
“Oh.” She chewed slowly. “Is…is that where you want to go to school?”
“Colorado isn’t a bad place. I think you’d like it.”
Kat swallowed and then smiled faintly as she placed her fork down beside her plate. The sudden look on her face was distant, as if she were a mil
lion miles away as she stared at her plate.
Picking up a breadstick, I tapped the tip of her nose with it. Sprinkles of garlic puffed into the air. “What were you just thinking about?”
She brushed off the rest of the crumbs and smiled. “I…I think Colorado sounds nice.”
Yeah, I didn’t believe her. She was thinking about something that had stolen the light from her eyes. The possibilities of what it could’ve been were limitless. Stabbing a piece of lasagna, I changed the subject.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay with the movie I picked? I don’t want you to be scared,” I teased.
She pinned me with an arched look. “It’s going to take a lot more than a haunted box to scare me.”
My lips twitched. Haunted box. Ha. “Then again, if you do get scared, then you’d have to get super close to me.”
Kat rolled her eyes.
“I like the sound of that.”
“I bet you do,” she replied drily, but her eyes were a light gray again and she was eating once more. She cleared her throat, but her voice was still a bit raspy when she spoke again. “This movie sounds right up your alley. You’re obsessed with ghost-related stuff.”
My eyes met hers. “That’s not what I’m obsessed with.”
Her lips parted. “Then what is?”
I glanced down at her mouth. How inappropriate would it be if I just knocked the table out of my way and kissed her? Pretty inappropriate. “I think you know.”
Pink splashed across her cheeks, and then she all but shoved the last of her noodles into her mouth. “Do you believe in ghosts?”
Sipping on my glass, I sat back. “I think they exist.”
Her eyes widened. “Really? Huh. I thought you just watched those ghost shows for entertainment.”
“Well, I do. I like the one where the guy yells, ‘Dude! Bro!’ every five seconds.” I smiled when she laughed. “But in all seriousness, it can’t be impossible. Too many people have witnessed things that can’t be explained.”
“Like too many people witnessing aliens and UFOs.” She grinned.
“Exactly.” I set the glass down. “Except the UFOs are total bunk. Government’s responsible for all unidentified flying objects.”
Her mouth dropped open.
Our check arrived shortly, and I took care of that. We walked side by side through the restaurant. Near the door there was a group from school. They stared at us like I was in my true form.
Flurries fell from the sky, leaving a fine dusting along the pavement as we walked to the passenger side of the SUV. I went to open the door for Kat, but she stopped and tipped her head back. Curious, I watched her.
She closed her eyes and then the tip of her tongue sneaked out. My mouth dried and a pleasant, heady tension invaded me. She caught the snowflake on the tip of her tongue.
Hell.
Opening her eyes, she leveled her chin. Our gazes met. “What?” she whispered.
“I was thinking about a movie.”
“Okay. And?”
“But you’ve broken the rules, Kitten. Several times. You’re owed some punishment.”
Her heart kicked up, and so did mine. “I am a rule breaker.”
My lips tilted up on one corner. “You are.”
Kat flushed, and then I moved as fast as a cobra striking. I was in front of her, my hands against her cheeks and tilting her head back, before she could take another breath. I brushed my lips over hers, swallowing a groan at the sweet contact. I swept my lips against hers again, and her mouth opened. The kiss deepened, and she tasted like paradise.
My hands coasted down to her hips, and I pulled her against me, hip to hip. Her soft gasp echoed through me. I backed her up, pressing her against the side of the SUV. The rest of the world fell apart around us, and maybe I shouldn’t have been kissing her like this in public, not when anyone could see us, but I didn’t care.
Kat did that to me.
And she was kissing me back just as feverishly. Her hands were on my chest, her palms burning through my sweater. I didn’t want anything between us, but that wasn’t going to happen right now. She slipped her hands up and around my neck as she moved her hips against mine.
Damn. I lifted my mouth from hers, forcing myself to breath. “Movie?” I kissed her again. “And then what, Kitten?”
She knew what came after a movie even if she didn’t speak it, and I think she was a little beyond the whole talking part as my fingers drifted under the hem of her turtleneck. She jerked and moaned softly as my hands smoothed over the bare sides of her waist. Her side was so smooth, silky and soft. I could spend forever just touching her.
Kat dropped her hands to my hips, and surprised the hell out of me when she tugged me against her, lining us up in a way that made it hard to keep a semblance of control. Raw sensation pounded throughout me. I growled against her swollen lips. The tips of my fingers brushed against lace. We were so not making it to—
My cell phone went off in my back pocket. I wanted to ignore it, but considering everything that was going on, that wouldn’t be wise. I pulled back, knowing my eyes were glowing. “One second.”
I kissed her as I dragged my phone out my pocket and kept my other hand where it was, under her sweater, and so damn close. She shifted against me, pressing her face into my chest as I answered the phone. “This better be really important—”
“Dawson made a run for it,” Dee shrieked into the phone. “He’s gone.”
Chapter 5
My stomach clenched as Dee’s words settled in and I could feel my pupils dilating. “Okay,” I said into the phone. “Don’t worry, Dee. I’ll take care of it. I promise.”
Kat’s face had paled as I slipped my phone back into my pocket. “What?” she asked.
Every muscle had locked up in my body. “It’s Dawson. He made a run for it.” Dammit. “I’m sorry.”
“No. I completely understand.” She brushed the flakes of snow out of her hair. “What can I do?”
“I need to go.” I grabbed the keys out of my pocket and placed them in her palm. I then handed over my cell. “And I mean I need to go really fast. Go home and stay there. Keep that in the car. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“Daemon, I can help you. I can go—”
“Please.” I grasped her face once more and kissed her hard. “Go home.”
Trusting that she’d listen to me, I let go and then I moved faster than anyone could track. I had a feeling I knew where Dawson was heading. Dammit. He waited until I was out with Kat to make a run for the office building where he’d last been kept.
I darted across the highway, narrowly missing getting taken out by a truck. I hit the heavily wooded area and slipped into my true form so I could move even faster.
We had maybe two hours together, Kat and I, before the real world intruded and I had to chase down my brother. Fury was like red-hot lava pumping through my veins. It wasn’t so much that the date had been ruined that infuriated me. It was the fact that I had to leave Kat in a parking lot alone. It was because I had to chase down my brother and stop him from ending up in the DOD’s clutches once more. It was because I knew this wasn’t going to be the last time.
Several miles out from the office building, I caught sight of
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