Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance

by Ashley Jennifer

  Elissa’s gaze followed him. Was helping him a possibility? He had said that her toying with him and her requests were messed up, but there was something about him that warned he was seriously screwed up in the head.

  He shot a glare her way and her eyes darted to the books on the desk. She thumbed through one of them, pretending to look at it while she monitored him, waiting for his temper to fade. The longer she knew Payne, the more she longed to peel away the layers and reveal the man beneath. Could she help him?

  She wanted to.

  His pacing slowed and he stopped near the large rectangular window. He leaned his forearm against the wall above the window and rested his forehead on it, staring out at the world with his back to her. A sigh raised his shoulders. He didn’t feel angry anymore. It was hard to get hold of his emotions but he seemed calm enough for her to approach him now.

  Elissa rose to her feet, closed her book, and crossed the room to him. She stopped beside him. His grey gaze slid to her, full of feelings she found impossible to discern.

  He leaned back and lowered his arm, towering over her. “What?”

  Elissa held her nerve. “What thrills you the most... blood or sex?”

  He turned back to the window. “Blood.”

  Elissa didn’t believe that. He seemed to though. He must have worked hard to convince himself. Why? Why not embrace the wicked side of his dual nature?

  She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.

  In a low, dead voice, he said, “If you don’t shut up, then I will make you shut up.”

  He flexed his fingers and she got the message. She motioned with her right hand, zipping her mouth closed, and then smiled and unzipped it again.

  She stared up at him and his eyes shifted to hers, and she was struck again by his masculine beauty and darkness. He radiated danger and even though she knew that she should keep her distance, she couldn’t resist her attraction to him. She had to know more about him.

  “I swear I will be quiet if you answer one question.”

  He frowned, eyes narrowing and lips compressing, turning his handsome face as black as his aura. “What?”

  “Why do you call yourself Payne?”

  He stared down into her eyes and a brief flicker crossed them, a glimmer of darkness, hurt and intense vulnerability. What on earth had happened to this man to make him so wary and make him hate his incubus side? Elissa wanted to ask him that too but it looked as though he wouldn’t answer one question, let alone two.

  He sighed. “Pain is all I know and all I bring to this world.”

  Elissa shivered. An overwhelming desire to lay her palm on his sculpted cheek and tell him that couldn’t possibly be true raced through her and she barely resisted. The look in his eyes said that he believed it.

  He turned away and stared out of the window again, his forehead resting on his arm above it.

  She ignored her need to speak and break her promise to be quiet and went to the desk. She sat in the wooden chair and leafed through more of the new books. Payne remained still. The longer he stood there watching the world go by, the less she could concentrate. The words on the pages swam before her eyes and she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. What was she doing? She had the method of saving Luca in the room with her. She had to convince him to help her.

  Elissa stood, her calves forcing the chair backwards. It scraped across the stone flags, shattering the heavy silence. Payne looked over his shoulder at her, a trace of melancholy in his expression that quickly disappeared. Had he been thinking about what he had told her and the reason he felt that way? She wanted to ask him to explain it so she understood why he felt as though he brought only pain to this world but he didn’t look as though he would tell her. It was his secret to keep and she had no right to push him to tell her, not when she was keeping secrets from him too.

  “I need a walk. Will you walk with me?” She wasn’t sure why she asked him to accompany her. Because she feared he would leave if she left him alone here or because she feared the Rozengard males would come after her again?

  He nodded but seemed tense. “Where? I don’t think it’s wise for you to be walking the streets right now... especially with me.”

  Elissa stifled her smile. He was worried about her. She found that sweet and endearing, a side of Payne she hadn’t thought possible.

  “Topside,” she said. “I like to walk in the woods.”

  Payne closed his eyes and frowned, and she knew he was focusing through the layers of rock over their heads, trying to sense whether it was daylight or not up there.

  “It’s dark, gone midnight.” Elissa waited for his response. Now that she had thought about the males and he had mentioned them too, the idea of walking alone in the woods unsettled her. She needed air but if those damn Rozengard jerks came at her again, she wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Not without Payne at her side. He was strong, powerful. She had never met a male as strong as he was. “Will you walk with me?”

  His expression remained dark. “Will you help me get that ring?”

  She nodded, knowing that he still meant to go without her to get it. She would just have to change his mind about that. “After I have some air.”

  Payne nodded too and held his hand out to her. He meant to teleport her. Well, it certainly beat walking but he had snarled and growled at her earlier when she had touched him. Was he that concerned about those males finding her that he was willing to break his no touching rule to get her up to the woods unseen? It was a start.

  Elissa slipped her hand into his. Heat chased up her arm as his fingers closed around it. She gasped and stared up into his eyes. The flecks of blue and gold in them brightened, glowing in the low light from the fire and the candles. A louder gasp left her when he pulled her hard against him, wrapped his arms around her, and darkness swallowed the world.

  They reappeared in the middle of the grounds of the mansion, the manicured lawn stretching around them and glittering with dew. Elissa shivered, the cold air instantly chilling every inch of exposed skin. She should have put a jacket on before letting him teleport her. She tipped her head back and stared up at the crisp moonless sky above her. Bright stars twinkled and winked at her. She drew in a deep breath and sighed it out, the sight of the universe on display above her relaxing her.

  Witches always felt an affinity to nature and whenever she was out in the open, surrounded by greenery, she felt as though she had come home.

  Payne moved against her, his arms still around her waist, his cool breath caressing her face. She lowered her eyes and froze as they found his were on her throat. The light from the mansion behind her was weak but enough for her to see where he was looking and that he was thinking very naughty things. She could see his fangs between his sensual lips.

  Elissa swallowed her nerves and the action caused him to frown and hold her closer. It seemed he could deny his incubus urges but his vampire ones were more difficult to control. It was definitely his stronger side and that was a problem. She needed his incubus side at the fore, and the only way she could think of bringing it out in him was pleasure. She needed him to give in to his desires. He stared at her throat and the longer he gazed upon it, the faster her breaths came, until she was panting with anticipation in his strong arms.

  “Payne?” she whispered, breaking his reverie. His eyes slid to her and the look in them would have knocked her on her backside if he hadn’t been holding her so tightly.

  A man had never looked at her with such intense desire and need before.

  She risked it.

  She wriggled her arm free from between them and raised it to his face. The moment she made contact, her palm cupping his left cheek, he sucked in a sharp breath, closed his eyes and leaned into her touch.

  He growled. Not in warning this time. It carried unadulterated hunger.

  He clutched her closer and her eyes widened, skin flushing with prickly heat. Oh, mother earth. His hardness pressed into her belly and all ma
nner of wanton naughty thoughts cascaded through her mind.

  Gods, kiss her.

  She needed to be kissed.

  He dipped his head, his mouth nearing hers. She couldn’t breathe. She slipped her hand around the nape of his neck and tried to make him move quicker.

  Payne tore away from her and distanced himself, instantly placing over ten feet of grass between them. He stood with his back to her, shoulders heaving with his breaths. Elissa cursed herself. Too fast. She should have let him set the pace and maybe she might have had that taste of him she so desired.

  Craved.

  Now she wasn’t sure what to say. Things had turned strained between them again. She paced back and forth, her eyes on the stars, searching for inspiration. How could she get him to give up his restraint and unleash that passion on her? She knew it was the key to making him accept his incubus side. He only needed to feel at one with it for long enough to know where to teleport them.

  Payne gruffly muttered something and started towards the woods. It seemed their walk was still on the agenda. She had promised to help him get the ring he needed after their walk. Clearly, he wanted to keep his end of the bargain. He was going to be disappointed when she insisted she came with him to the incubi hideout and refused to change her mind.

  Elissa fell into line, keeping the ten-foot gap between them. He looked as though he needed the space and she intended to prod a little and try to find out more about him. She liked the thought of a ten-foot lead. If he attacked, she would have the split second she needed to mutter a spell and escape.

  “Do you know much about your kind?” She eyed him. No reaction other than jamming hands into jeans pockets. He did that a lot. It reinforced her feeling that he liked to keep to himself and kept everyone at arm’s length, if not further, from him.

  “Vampires?”

  Elissa couldn’t find her voice to answer. She shook her head. His expression darkened, giving her the impression that he denied everything about his incubus side, right down to its existence. Why?

  What had happened to the male beside her to make him turn on himself?

  What had made him hate himself?

  Elissa wouldn’t stop until she knew.

  CHAPTER 4

  Payne could feel the questions bubbling inside her and he knew that she wouldn’t be able to resist voicing them forever. He wanted her to. She was beautiful, bewitching, and he couldn’t deny that he was attracted to her, but whenever she mentioned his incubus side, he wanted to leave and forget helping Andreu and Chica.

  He could be their only hope though. Elissa could be their only hope.

  They reached the edge of the woods and she paused and faced him.

  “Have you ever submitted to someone?”

  Payne froze and blinked hard. He had to have heard his petite, enchanting Elissa wrong. She couldn’t have just asked what he thought she had. The dark colouring on her cheeks said that she had and was regretting it.

  He forced a shrug. “Once or twice.”

  His stomach clenched. He hoped that answer would satisfy her.

  The frown on her face said it hadn’t. “I don’t believe you’ve ever really submitted to someone. It isn’t in your nature. That’s part of your problem... neither side of you can submit. Both sides crave control too much. The incubus and the vampire.”

  Payne couldn’t deny that and he didn’t like that she had seen it in him so quickly after meeting him. His version of submission had been letting women go on top. Hers seemed far more threatening, and alluring. Surrendering complete control to a woman? The very thought had him as hard as steel in his jeans but at the same time made him want to flee.

  She swallowed, her sexy throat working overtime, and braved a step towards him. Her eyes were dark in the low light but he didn’t miss the challenge they issued.

  “Submit to me,” she said and he almost choked, barely stopped himself from making a scene that would only render him weak in her eyes, stripping him of his masculinity.

  He wanted to tell her that there was no way he was going to do such a thing and that he would find some incubi and ask them about finding the den and his grandfather. He still tensed inside whenever he thought about that. The ring he needed was not only in the clutches of an incubus. It was in the grip of his grandfather, a man he had hated without ever knowing.

  He must have looked as though he was going to ditch her because she launched forwards and grabbed his wrists.

  Elissa looked up into his eyes, that sense of fear, desperation and hope in them again. She needed him.

  He needed her, but he couldn’t indulge such desires. What she was suggesting was dangerous.

  “One night of passion at my command. It will help you. It will help us both. The only way to find the incubi hideout is to embrace your incubus side and let it take control. You’ll sense the location and be able to teleport straight there.” She paused for air and tightened her grip on him and he could feel her trembling. “Please, Payne. We both need this. Please. Surrender to your desire.”

  He knew his eyes were positively glowing at the prospect but he couldn’t stomach the thought of allowing his incubus side to take dominance over his vampire one. He shook his head.

  “You’re afraid.” She didn’t say it in a mocking way but that was how his heart heard it, and he couldn’t deny it. It wasn’t fear holding him back though.

  “It isn’t that,” he said calmly and her grip on his arms eased. “I cannot do it. My incubus side will want to dominate you as well as the vampire in me.”

  “That’s only because you’ve never really embraced it. You constantly want to reject it. It’s the whole point of the exercise... you need to embrace that side of yourself if we’re going to stand a chance of discovering where the other incubi are hiding.”

  Payne despised how easily she could see through him to the truth he tried so hard to hide. What else could she tell about him whenever she looked at him? He hoped she couldn’t see some things, like the black stains on his soul.

  “You just want to get into my pants.” He gunned for charming even though it was hard to smile at her when his insides were in turmoil, his heart and head tearing him in too many directions.

  She smiled and it was dazzling, alluring and just a little bit wicked. He had the feeling that her one night of passion had absolutely nothing to do with helping him connect to his incubus side so he could find this place of the incubi. She really did want him. Why? What did she see in him to make him worthy of her that he couldn’t?

  He had tried to figure her out back in her temporary home. Whenever she had glanced his way with desire darkening her beautiful eyes, he had tried to understand what it was about him that made her look at him that way. He had snarled at her, gnashed his fangs, and hurt her, and she had still found ways to touch him, still smiled at him, still wanted him.

  He didn’t understand her at all.

  “I’m only asking for one moment with you, Payne.”

  One moment too many and one thousand too few.

  Payne stared at her, knowing his eyes were brightening and unable to stop the reaction. He couldn’t take it anymore. He was so hard for her, too far gone to care about the danger or the details. She was offering him a moment with her and he needed it. He had never needed anything so fiercely. She might break him though. He had never submitted to anyone because it wasn’t in his nature, but he would try for her, because right now he would do anything for a taste of this exquisite beauty before him.

  He would try to stifle his incubus side to protect her. He couldn’t embrace it though, not as she wanted.

  He had only embraced his incubus side once in his lifetime and it had awakened something terrible within him.

  That night, he had lost the only woman he had ever loved.

  CHAPTER 5

  “One night.”

  Those two words leaving Payne’s lips shocked Elissa. She didn’t feel as though she had won. It was offered grudgingly. Still, a single night of
pleasure with Payne. It excited her but scared her too. She wasn’t sure where to begin or what he would expect from her, or whether she really could help him accept his incubus side so they could discover where the rest of his kind lived.

  When she had suggested he submit to her, she had done so because she had figured that she needed to do something dramatic in order to push him over the edge and force him to give in to his needs. It had worked. Now what was she meant to do?

  She had asked him to submit to her. She had never done anything like this before. She had never experienced being with a male as strong as Payne was. She’d had mortal males in her lifetime, but nothing that had lasted, and she had never been with a demonic breed of fae because certain aspects of them were forbidden. What was he going to say about that when she told him?

  What if he was too powerful for her?

  Her heart told her to give up this foolish venture before it ended in tears and disaster, but she couldn’t ignore her intense attraction to him or the need that shot through her whenever she looked at him.

  Payne excited her. He was forbidden fruit and she was desperate for a taste. She knew that with him she would be pushing the boundaries and dancing with danger. It thrilled her and she couldn’t help wanting it. She ached to know a demon’s touch.

  Payne’s touch.

  Nerves skittered through her, causing her hands to shake and palms to sweat. They worsened when Payne slipped his arm around her waist, pulled her flush against his body, and teleported them back to her sister’s home. She swallowed and tried to stifle her trembling, but the way he frowned at her said that she couldn’t hide it from him. Fool. Of course she wouldn’t be able to hide her fear from a vampire. They thrived on sensing it in others.

  She tipped her chin up, grabbed his hand and led him towards the bedroom.

  Mother earth, what was she doing? She didn’t have the first clue about this sort of thing. She had never seduced a man, let alone played the role of dominant to their submissive.