by Nina Bangs
Kim took Fo from her purse. She shielded the detector’s screen with one hand. “What do we have here?”
“All humans, Kimmie.” Fo sounded disappointed.
Brynn glanced at his watch. “It’s time again. I’ll go out and watch the gunfight, and then we can keep looking.”
Kim watched the crowd part for him as he left. Brynn had that effect on people. Surprised, she realized she felt a little lonely without him. That hadn’t happened before. Especially with a man she’d only known for a few days. Putting Fo back into her purse, she ordered a drink from the bar and stood sipping it. This is how it would always be for him if he wanted to stay with one woman. Someone would have to love him a lot to go through a lifetime with a man who couldn’t say no. To any woman.
“Looks like you’ve been deserted.” The male voice held a note of laughter in it.
Kim turned to the man standing next to her at the bar. First impressions—average height, short dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a nice smile. But he looked too civilized to ever feel at home in the cowboy outfit he was wearing. “He just stepped out to watch the gunfight. He’ll be back.”
The man nodded. “I’m Vic Burton. I teach in Houston, and I’m staying at the castle over spring break. I saw you in the restaurant this morning. Have you tried any of the castle fantasies yet?”
Kim returned his smile. “Kim Vaughn. I’m staying in the castle, too, but it’s strictly business. I’m an architect, and the owner hired me to plan a few changes to the castle.” A teacher? Couldn’t get more ordinary than that. Then why wasn’t her heart singing with joy?
“So is that guy your husband?” Vic smiled his wonderful, ordinary smile at her and watched her hopefully from his ordinary blue eyes.
“No, just a friend.” Who happened to be an anything but ordinary demon of sensual desire.
“How about doing a castle fantasy with me? I’m not here with anyone. Bet it would be fun together.”
Wow, she was having a conversation with a real human male, an ordinary human male. She couldn’t pass up a shot at a normal guy, even if there wasn’t instant chemistry on her part. “How about Wednesday night?” Brynn had said he was off tonight and tomorrow night, so she’d have to keep that time free to do demon stuff.
He nodded, and his smile widened. “Terrific. I’ll meet you in the great hall at eight.”
Without warning, Brynn’s emotions flowed over her—anger, confusion, and a feeling he tried to hide. What feeling? Inquiring minds wanted to know. This was only the third time he’d lost control of his emotions enough for her to pick up on them. The very fact that she could read them reminded her she wasn’t as normal as she’d like to be.
While she tried to make sense of his emotions, she felt Brynn behind her—his heat melting into her back to warm her all the way through, and his scent, a mixture of raw need and male possessiveness. Wait, possessiveness didn’t have a scent. So how did she recognize it? Interesting.
“If you’re ready, we can leave now.” Brynn’s voice had all the warmth of an Arctic ice floe.
Kim turned and smiled up at him. He’d wiped his face clean of all expression, but his eyes were hot with something very male and very primal. Jealousy? Satisfaction filled her before she could plug the source. She didn’t want a demon to feel either possessive or jealous about her. But do I still think of him as a demon? She wouldn’t go there right now.
“Brynn, this is Vic Burton. He’s staying at the castle for spring break.” She glanced at Vic. His expression was open and friendly. Couldn’t he feel the danger swirling around him? Guess not. “Vic, meet Brynn McNair. He and his brothers run the Castle of Dark Dreams.”
Back to Brynn, whose expression was still, well, expressionless. But his eyes blazed with a desire to stake his claim. “Vic asked me to do a castle fantasy with him on Wednesday. Should be fun.” And it would be, but not because of Vic. Okay, so she wanted to see Brynn in action during one of his fantasies.
Brynn nodded at Vic, but he didn’t offer his hand. “Nice to meet you.” His eyes said not loud and clear. “I’ll have to make sure your fantasy is memorable.”
Uh-oh. That sounded like a warning to her. Vic’s smile faded. He couldn’t help but feel the waves of aggression hitting him in the face.
“Sure. Can’t wait.” He cast an uncertain glance toward Kim.
She shrugged. “Guess we’d better get going, Brynn. We have to be back at the castle by six or else Lynsay will come hunting for us.”
Kim let Brynn guide her out the door before saying anything. Once outside, she moved away and then met his gaze. “What was that all about?”
He didn’t try to hide his confusion. “Damned if I know. I wanted to rip him apart for planning a fantasy with you.” He shifted his gaze somewhere past her shoulder. “Jealousy? I’ve never felt possessive about any woman.” His expression hardened. “I don’t want to feel that way now.”
“Because?” She knew why, but she wanted to hear him say it.
He started walking toward the next building on the Wild West street. “Because wanting to be with you, feeling possessive, is an invitation to disaster.” Abruptly, he stopped and sat down on a bench. She sat next to him.
“Look at me.” He sounded way too serious.
Kim looked. She understood why Vic had acted uncertain. It didn’t matter what term you used, dominant or alpha male, Brynn would always be the leader of the pack. So that would make it twice as hard for him to submit to women like Liz. She pushed aside the sympathy he’d hate.
“I have to keep leaving you every fifty-five minutes, and if I forget, then I start ripping my clothes off no matter where I am. Suppose you were in a meeting with an important client and that happened? You’d be ashamed of me.” His expression said his own shame would trump hers every time.
Kim shrugged. “No problem. First off, I don’t think you’d want to be sitting in on any of my meetings. If you were, I’d just make sure you were sitting next to me. When I sensed the change starting, all I’d have to do is lean over and whisper that I didn’t want your body.” A lie, but she wouldn’t tell him that.
He raked his fingers through his hair and stared into the darkness. “How about if I timed things wrong and ended up being with another woman for more than an hour? How would you feel then?”
Okay, he had her there. If Brynn were hers, she’d probably be the ultimate jealous bitch. She wouldn’t be able to handle that, even if she knew it wasn’t his fault. It surprised her to realize how fierce she could feel about this imaginary relationship that definitely wasn’t going to happen.
Kim had to tell the truth. “I’d want to rip out her heart and kick her very dead body down the stairs.” Whoa, mega-violent images here. Her family would stand and applaud if she brought the same savagery to her demon hunting.
“That’s what I thought.” No self-pity, no accusations, just acceptance.
It was the acceptance that got to her. “There’s something not right about this whole thing. Ganymede said you didn’t have any demon characteristics. Why not? And if you’re a demon, why hasn’t an archdemon or some other demonic authority figure ever contacted you? Oh, and another thing, demons are evil in all things. For example, Kiki cheated you on that mattress. After we’d left the store, I glanced at your receipt. She charged you more than the price on the tag. I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t think either of us wanted to go back.”
“And your point is?” Sarcastic but interested.
She drew in a deep breath of courage and voiced the thought that must’ve been forming ever since he told her about Ganymede’s comment. “How do you know you’re really a demon? Sure, you woke up believing you were one. So what? I mean, now that I realize there’s a whole underground of supernatural beings out there, I think some of them might be powerful enough to wipe your memory clean and give you a whole new purpose in life.”
“Why?”
She shrugged. “Just because they can? To demonstrate th
eir power? I don’t know.” Her theory sounded farfetched, but not any stranger than a demon that didn’t remember hell.
She thought about her theory and her aching feet during the next fifty-five minutes as they covered every inch of the Wild West. For a chance to slip her feet from Sparkle’s tootsie-torturing shoes, Kim even talked Brynn into taking a short stagecoach ride. Surprise, surprise, she forgot about demons for a short time and had fun.
Now they stood outside a building with a Coming Soon banner stretched across the front. Kim looked up at the sign above the door. “The Cock Crows at Dawn?”
Brynn grinned as he led her around to the back. “The best little bordello in all of Texas. Donna named it. We’ll go in the back so no one will think it’s open and follow us inside.”
“You think there might be demons inside?” The streetlights didn’t reach back here, and night closed around them as Brynn searched through his keys before opening the door. Spooky.
“No.” He strode through the darkened building until he reached what must be the front parlor. Then he drew the heavy drapes closed across the window and threw a switch next to an impressive-looking fireplace. Fake flames created a credible impersonation of a blazing hearth. The light from the flickering flames cast a constantly changing pattern of shadows across the room. “But it’s almost time for the compulsion to hit.”
“And?”
“And I’d like to test it this time.” He glanced at his watch. “It should begin in about two minutes.” He sat down on a plush crimson sofa.
Kim sat beside him. And waited. And then waited some more. After a few minutes she had to look away from the silent man beside her. It was sort of like waiting for a hiccup when you thought they were over, but you sat almost afraid to breathe for fear they’d come back one more time. But then this was a lot worse. Brynn’s hiccups had lasted five hundred years.
The room was everything a bordello parlor should be. Red that bled down walls and gathered in the crimson puddles of area rugs. Velvet that coated everything like red mold—drapes, chairs, their sofa, and a huge round couch in the center of the room. Silver candelabras that rested on the intricately carved tables scattered around the room as well as on the piano.
Ladies of the night who’d never ever need breast enhancement smiled down from paintings hanging on the scarlet walls. Fine, so she was jealous. All in all, it was an awesome whorehouse.
Kim wanted to look at her watch but controlled the urge. Brynn didn’t need any reminder of the time creeping by. The compulsion must be a lot more than five minutes late this time. Whatever the reason, she was fiercely happy for him.
Finally, when she didn’t think she could stand the silence for one more minute, she felt him shift beside her. She could feel the sexual flow of his change wash over her, so when she turned her head to look at him, she knew what she’d see.
He’d already stripped off his shirt, and she knew she should speak up right now. But a tiny unrepentant part of her waited a moment to enjoy the sculpted perfection of his muscular chest. The otherworldly beauty of his face caught at her and shook her in its sensual teeth.
He leaned close, his heat and scent of aroused male making mush of her common sense. Kim understood why down through the centuries women had taken what he offered. He was raw sex and all the fabled delights of the flesh.
“Take my body, Kim. Use me in any way you want.” His husky murmur said he’d never needed anyone as much as he needed her.
Low in her belly, heat coiled and spread. Representatives from the parts of her responsible for primitive erotic stimulation whispered, We took a vote. We all agreed. Go for it.
She wanted to. She really wanted to. She couldn’t. He was a strong man—yes, man—who was helpless now and needed her strength. She sighed. “I don’t want your body, Brynn.” Sometimes moral victories sucked lemons.
He leaned even closer, his whiskey-colored eyes reflecting the fire’s glow. “But I want yours, Kim.”
12
Brynn watched her eyes widen, her lips part, and for one scary moment he thought the compulsion still held him. He wanted her that badly.
He wanted to cover her mouth with his, slide his fingers along her sleek inner thigh, and take joy in the first real sexual excitement he’d felt in five centuries.
“Are you okay, Brynn?”
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue, a nervous gesture he found sexier than all the erotic acts countless women had practiced on him. He growled his appreciation.
She stood and then walked away from the sofa. “Is that a player piano?” She didn’t turn to him.
Brynn sensed her uneasiness. He’d better keep his growls to a minimum. No matter what doubts she might have about his demonic nature, he was still a demon until proven otherwise. And she was still a demon hunter.
“The compulsion is gone, Kim.” He rose and then hesitated before walking to stand behind her. “But I still want you. I haven’t said that of my own free will in five centuries.”
She turned slowly to look at him. He’d expected to see fear in her eyes, but it was something very different he saw there.
“I want you, too.” Her lips curved in a warm smile that touched all the important parts of his body and fed his growing arousal. “And I guarantee I’ve never said that to any demon before.” She slid her fingers the length of his bare arm. “It scares me.”
He moved closer, invading her space. She swallowed hard, and his gaze slipped to the base of her throat where he knew her pulse beat hard and fast. He’d never shared Eric’s fascination with the female throat, but right now he thought Kim’s neck was a definite sexual hot spot.
Kim couldn’t back up because the round velvet couch was behind her. She sat. “You do looming well.”
Brynn smiled at her, allowing her to see all the sexual knowledge in his eyes, all the pleasure he could give her.
Her smile faded, to be replaced by something darker, more elemental. “Talk to me, Brynn.”
He wanted to keep this light, playful, but he couldn’t. “This is all new to me, but I don’t want to waste one minute of my time with you. We don’t know what will happen in the next few days.” You might decide to embrace your demon-destroying side. I might be claimed by the archdemon.
Did he believe that would happen? No, but through the centuries he’d learned he couldn’t count on anything remaining the same except the compulsion. And now even that was changing.
He reached down and slipped off her shoes.
She sighed her relief and wiggled her toes. “I’m crippled for life, but I’ll have to tell Sparkle they worked.” She offered him a teasing grin, but there was a question behind it.
Brynn smiled back, the remembered smile of the sexual creature he became during the compulsion, the smile that filled women’s eyes with lust. He didn’t know any other smile that said what he wanted. “Let me show you what I’ve learned of pleasure.” He slipped easily into the language of the compulsion.
Her expression said she wasn’t too sure about his wording. She studied her toes rather than meet his gaze. “Something about that doesn’t sound right, like you’re bringing all those women from your past into the room with us.”
“Believe me, you’re the only woman in this room.” What could he say to her? When it came to sex, he didn’t know how to be anything but what he’d always been. And this was about sex. He wouldn’t let it be about anything else.
Kim studied him, and she must’ve seen something in his eyes, because she nodded. Slipping out of her jacket, she dropped it to the floor. Then she handed her purse to him. “Please put this in the kitchen we passed on our way in. I don’t think Fo needs to enlarge her life experiences any more than she has today.”
The pocket of her purse did some serious vibrating. “You’re no fun, Kimmie.” Fo was in full whine. “I want to see. Why can’t I see? Besides, I sense a demon nearby.” She paused to consider her demon statement. “Of course, it might not be a demon, because all
entities feel the same to me.” Fo qualified her statement a little more. “Okay, so I don’t see any demons. But one might be around. Somewhere.” She sounded hopeful.
Brynn didn’t wait for Kim to answer. He took the purse into the kitchen and set it on a chair. Then he put Fo on the table so she could see her surroundings. “A lesson in human interaction, Fo. Sometimes, people need privacy.”
“Humph.” Fo didn’t sound convinced.
“And if you see a demon, just yell, and we’ll come get you.” Leaving Fo a little less disgruntled and on the lookout for rogue demons, he went to the back door and locked it before returning to the parlor. Kim was still sitting on the couch, but he sensed her sexual excitement had given way to doubts in the few minutes she’d had to think. Damn.
He’d deal with them. “Second thoughts?” He knelt in front of her, making himself shorter, less threatening.
“Try third and forth.” She reached out to run her fingers through his hair.
And even though he knew his hair couldn’t “feel,” he’d swear each strand she’d touched turned to liquid fire.
“I was into the moment. Translation: my lust burned with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. Diane Chambers, Cheers. And I think she was talking about hate, but it fits lust, too. Now I’ve had time to think.”
Brynn smiled. “Ah, the brain. The body’s ultimate party pooper.” He cupped one of her feet and massaged gently.
She frowned. “Here and now might not be the best place and time.”
