CHAPTER 5
Alex saw Lilly the moment he opened his eyes. She slept on an overstuffed chair beside him, her head on one arm, her feet hanging over the other. She managed to look comfortable, though he couldn’t figure it out. Like a kitten, curled into an impossibly small space.
The fire had burned low but embers still glowed in the ash. The room was chilly, but the blanket she’d put over him, warm. The twin to it covered Lilly. From the beds on the floor, four dogs watched him. A fluffy head popped up from the gap behind Lilly’s bent knees. Harley, she’d called that one.
He reached out and touched Lilly’s hair. It looked like burnished gold and felt like silk. Her chinks were pink, her lashes lace against them. He wanted to bury his face in the crook between her shoulder and neck, and breathe in the scent he’d only managed to catch in passing so far. He hadn’t come to dally with humans, but with this one….forbidden or not, he definitely wanted to dally.
He closed his eyes, remembering the soft brush of her fingers against his skin. Her face had been flushed as she touched him, her eyes jewel-bright. Her thoughts had laced the air between them, rousing him from semi-consciousness with the bite of longing.
He should be glad he hadn’t had the strength to answer it.
Carefully, he sat up. She’d bandaged the bites on his arms and legs and the one on his ribs. Blood had soaked through the gauze, but as far as he could see, it was dry now. Even his arm. That one hurt the worst.
The room had a strange cast to it, a sickly yellow that pulled him from the couch to make his slow and painful way to the window. The world outside was a blustering white beneath a sky so gray and frigid it blocked out the sun and distorted its glow. The storm hadn’t eased at all. If anything, night had given it power that even dawn couldn’t diminish.
The big dog—Belle—came to him with a soft whine. The others followed. Even the ridiculous small one. As if hearing the thought, Harley showed Alex his teeth.
“Going to take more than that,” Alex murmured, amused.
“They want out,” a sleepy voice said.
He glanced at Lilly, still curled in her chair and then down at himself, wearing nothing but his briefs.
“Do they need an escort?”
She sat up and looked at him, her crystalline gaze taking in every inch of his naked skin from bare feet up his belly to his chin. It lingered on his mouth before her gaze met his. Her face turned red and Alex crossed his hands in front of his hips to hide a response he couldn’t control.
“Have you heard anything out there?” she asked.
Like the hellhounds she couldn’t hear or see.
He shook his head. “This storm is bad. I don’t think even hellhounds can track in this.”
She looked relieved. He’d always heard that hellhounds were made for the fires of hell, not the bitter cold of winter, but he doubted she’d feel reassured by the information. They’d held their own yesterday and it had been damn cold then. It made him wonder what other false information he’d been given.
Lilly stretched, an uninhibited movement that made Alex’s muscles tighten. Her back arched and her toes pointed. She looked so sleepy and soft that he could almost imagine the scent of her and he yearned to know her taste.
She was staring at him now, her mouth slightly open. Her beautiful eyes, wide.
She’d heard his thoughts.
The desire to act on them nearly pulled him across the room but the toy dog at his feet yipped, reminding Alex that he was waiting. Lilly stood and crossed to the door. She wore soft, clingy pants that accented her shape and a big t-shirt with a wide neck that gaped at her shoulder and hugged her breasts.
“Porch,” she said in a stern voice. Five dogs gave her the okay and she let them out.
Alex came to stand behind her as she waited in front of the open door, her body warm against the cold blast that chased inside. He felt her stiffen and yield in the same compelling moment. She wanted to lean back; she thought she should move away. Before she could overthink it, Alex stepped closer until he was touching her, chest to shoulder blades, hips a whisper from her round behind.
The dogs had raced down the stairs to take care of their business within a foot of the porch. In seconds they were back in the house. Each one of them shook a shower of snow at him as they passed.
Lilly swung the door shut, but she didn’t move away. Neither did he.
“They listened,” she said, her voice filled with breath and nervousness. “Usually they don’t. Not like they did when Amy talked to them.”
“Oh.” Because she seemed to be waiting for a response.
It was hard to think with her so close. Her hair smelled of apples and looked too soft not to touch. He moved his fingers through it, gently letting the tips scrape her scalp before he pushed it aside, baring the curve of her shoulder where the round neck of her shirt was loose. He felt her catch her breath.
“The storm hasn’t let up at all,” she said.
In case he hadn’t noticed, hadn’t considered that he might be stranded here for days. With her.
He lowered his head and she tilted hers to the side, giving him access to the graceful slope of her neck. He let his breath caress the satiny skin, afraid if he did more, he wouldn’t be able to stop. He should back away, but he couldn’t seem to do it.
“Maybe they won’t be able to find us,” she said.
The words held a wistfulness that wrapped around his senses. Maybe they wouldn’t be found. An idea so intoxicating and forbidden that it made him close his eyes and ground himself in reality.
“They’ll find me. But I’ll be long gone from here when they do.”
She spun to face him. The top of her head came to his chin. He wanted to tuck her into the curve of his body and shield her from anything that meant her harm. But that wouldn’t work when it was Alex’s presence that placed her in harm’s way to start with. She stared at him, confusion sharing space with something that might be anger.
At him? At the situation? At herself?
“You’re not here to protect us, are you, Alex?” she asked, her voice husky. “Humans, I mean.”
“Did you really think I was?”
She didn’t answer. He wished she would. For reasons he didn’t understand, he wished the truth could match her expectations.
“So why are you here, then? Why do you care if hellhounds eat up the natives?”
“It’s not natural.”
“Human’s aren’t meant to know they exist,” she finished for him, her voice flat. Disappointed.
He hated that he cared.
“How did you even know where to find the hellhounds?” she demanded. “Were you tracking them?”
“There was a sighting not far from here,” he said. “We knew we just needed to get close enough for them to smell us and they’d come.”
Her eyes rounded and her jaw dropped. “You’re not serious.”
“I am.”
“Well that’s a great plan if you want to get eaten.”
The bite of sarcasm caught him by surprise. Before he could respond in kind, she went on.
“If you want to hunt them, however, you have to see them before they know you’re there.”
“And how many hellhounds have you hunted?” he asked derisively.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re hunting. If they see you first, they have the advantage.”
“And you’re an expert because?”
“I watch the Discovery channel and I have five dogs, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Hellhounds are not dogs, not that you know a damn thing about them either.”
She scowled. He was right and they both knew it. “I could still tell they were smart.”
“They are.” He paused, eyeing Belle with a dark look. “Smarter than your dogs.”
“But what are they?”
“If I said, demons, would you sleep better knowing?”
She recoiled. She couldn’t help it. Alex wasn’t surprise
d.
“Why do you ask me questions when you know you’ll hate the answers?” he asked.
“I hate not knowing more,” she said with raised brows.
He couldn’t help but smile. “Do you practice that look in the mirror?”
“What look?”
“The one that hides your fear.”
“What makes you think I’m afraid?”
He laughed softly. “You’re too intelligent not to be.”
She didn’t want to be pleased by the backhanded compliment he hadn’t meant to give. But she was. He could see it in her startled eyes, in the way she tried to hide them by looking away.
She sniffed. “I’m not hiding anything. I have a gun and I know how to use it.”
“So brave.”
“Says the man whose ass I saved.”
He laughed and for a moment she seemed fascinated by the sight and sound of it. Her stare made his muscles tighten all over again. He wanted to touch her. He wanted more than that.
“So that’s it?” she asked in a voice that wasn’t quite steady. “You zip in, round up demons, kill them, and fly away home, wherever that is? What does that make you? A hellhound exterminator?”
His smile faded in the face of his true circumstances. “Well, right now I’m an outlaw.”
From her expression, he guessed that she hadn’t yet considered the impact of what he’d done, fighting one of his own to protect her. Killing Jared. He could scarcely believe it himself, but Alex had been enraged when Jared had attacked her. His brain had disconnected and all he’d been able to think of was Lilly. Protecting Lilly.
“Oh,” she said in a small voice.
“Oh.”
She placed her hand on his chest, palm soft against his bare skin. Could she feel how hard his heart was beating?
“Why did you do that?” she asked. “Why did you take such a risk?”
“I don’t know.”
It was an answer that didn’t satisfy either one of them. She began to pull away and he stopped her, covering her hand with his.
“I couldn’t let…I wanted to keep you safe.”
She heard the truth in his voice. It made the lavender in her eyes turn gray and solemn.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, because clearly something was. “Why did that make you sad?”
She looked away, but Alex turned her face back. Her fake smile made him shake his head.
“I’m not sad,” she said, adding a lie to her ruse. “It’s just…it’s… I haven’t had many protectors in my life. Thank you.”
The words sank deep inside him, a pearl falling to the soft sediments of his soul. He hadn’t had many protectors either. He was glad he’d been one for her.
“You realize that I’m the reason you needed protection, right?” he teased.
“Don’t do that,” she said. “Don’t belittle it.”
Her shoulder lifted in a small, meaningless gesture. Except right then, it was filled with meaning. About what he’d done…about what it meant to her…about the current that raced through him whenever she touched him.
He wanted to look into her face. He needed the cues of expression, of eyes to understand this deeply layered conversation. But she’d be the one to see too much. She’d know what it meant, the yearning inside him. The desire to pull her against him and make her his.
The idea of it was crazy. He was not meant for this world or this woman. Creatures of the Beyond didn’t mate like humans. They fornicated—of course they did. But that wasn’t what he wanted to do with Lilly and he knew it.
The thought led him down a dangerous path he shouldn’t tread.
She sighed, as if hearing his thoughts, and stepped away from him. He forced himself to let her go, but he didn’t want to. Silently, she stepped to the table where a box with a red cross on its lid sat.
“How do you feel?” she asked, not looking at him.
He should be grateful that she’d changed the subject, that she’d moved them both to safer ground.
But he wasn’t.
“I feel like I’ve been chewed up by a pack of hellhounds.”
She almost smiled as she reached for a small bottle and shook two capsules out. “Take these and sit down so I can check your bandages.”
“What are they?”
“Roofies.”
“What?”
“Just kidding. Amoxicillin. For infection. I don’t know if you need a rabies shot. Probably it’d be a good idea once the snow clears to find a doctor and get one. Sit.”
He took the pills and sat down at the table so she could change his bandages. He tried not to feel the soft brush of her fingers against his skin, but he’d have had better luck trying not to breathe.
“No bleeding,” she said, golden head bent. “That’s good.”
He was glad she thought so, but it hurt like a bitch.
She worked quietly, pulling off the old bandages, cleaning the wounds with something that stung, before covering them again with clean gauze.
“Who were the men you were with, Alex?” she asked, still not looking at him.
The question was soft. Lilting. She didn’t expect an answer from him. But she hoped. He heard it in the way she rushed the words, her voice so low that he almost missed it.
It was another way to ask who he was, information he knew better than to give her. He’d told her he wasn’t human. He’d told her he wasn’t a man. She should be hiding under the bed instead of teasing him with her feather-light touches and elusive scent. She glanced up and he found himself falling into the blue of her eyes. Eyes that spoke to him, to some different version of him. One he wanted to be.
“Caleb was a friend. Jared, a fellow soldier. I never trusted Jared.”
She dabbed at the cut on his forehead where Jared had slammed the hilt of his machete into Alex’s temple.
“I’m part of an army, Lilly, and I just killed someone on my own side. Others will come looking for me.”
She gave him a somber look. “I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Jared had issues with humans. Always did. He never missed an opportunity to punish them. I couldn’t let him hurt you, though. Not after you’d saved my life.”
“Do you have issues with humans, Alex?”
He hadn’t seen the question coming and he had no idea how to answer it. Did he? It wasn’t a simple yes or no. Humans had freedoms that he’d never known. Choices he’d never had the chance to make. But did he harbor resentment because of it?
He cleared his throat. “No issues,” he said.
Lilly’s eyes called him a liar, but she didn’t say the word aloud, nor did she put into words any of the questions he saw lurking in the blue depths.
“I just need to be sure I’m gone before they come looking for me. I don’t want you involved any more than you already are.”
He took her hand in his. Her fingers were soft, small in his grasp. It felt overwhelmingly intimate to be touching her like this, but Alex didn’t understand why. Hands shouldn’t be so sensitive, so…personal.
“You can’t talk about what you saw today, Lilly. Not to anyone. Not ever.”
“I understand.”
She held his gaze for a moment, her fingers moving against his. A lump had formed in his throat. Alex swallowed and released her hand with reluctance.
After a moment, Lilly asked, “Will you confess or will they already know how your people died? When they find you, I mean.”
The question was a good one, but he hadn’t decided how to handle it when the time came. They’d been told that as beings of the Beyond, they were under constant surveillance. But Alex had always had doubts.
She took his silence as an answer and met it with another question. She had them stockpiled, it seemed. “So this army you’re in …did you sign up or were you drafted?”
“It’s not a choice. We’re bred to protect the Beyond.”
She didn’t like that answer. Her full lips drew into a flat line.
; “We are promised afterlife if we die in glory,” he tacked on, as if that would make the truth of it any better.
She cast him a disparaging glance that told him it didn’t. “But they can’t see you—your people or leaders or whatever you call them,” she said. “They’re not omnipotent, like God?”
“I don’t think so. No.”
“So for all they know, you’re down here fighting the good fight. Your two friends will still get afterlife, right? They died in their own kind of glory, fighting for what they believed in.”
She was right. Alex was hazy on the logistics of how such things as the afterlife worked, though. He had a comical vision of a bearded being with a checklist and an inventory of deeds waiting at the gates. No matter how it was written, though, both Caleb and Jared had died doing their duty.
For now, that’s all anyone could know.
He looked at Lilly. “So what are you, a war analyst?”
She flashed a smile. “I’m a marketing advisor for a small health store chain.”
He stared at her for a moment, too surprised to respond. It seemed so ordinary, and Lilly…Lilly was the opposite of ordinary.
“Health food?” he disparaged. “Does that mean you don’t eat meat?”
She shook her head guiltily, adding, “Not veal, though.” Like it was for bonus points.
She smoothed the edges of the last bandage and stood. Alex stood, too. He should move away. And now. Because having her in touching distance seemed to be destroying all of his common sense.
“The longer I stay, the worse it will be,” he said, trying to infuse the words with the power to make him leave.
“Who are you trying to convince, Alex? You or me?”
“You’ve got a smart mouth,” he said. “You know that?”
“It’s a gift.”
A gift. One he wanted. She stared at him with those lavender-blue eyes and all he could think of was tasting that smart mouth. One kiss, that would be enough, he told himself.
But she met him halfway as he leaned closer and he knew it was a lie.
CHAPTER 6
Slowly, Alex kissed her. He’d meant to be quick. A small sample and then walk away. But lips and breath and tongue combined to shut down his brain. Her taste was like a drug that spread rapidly through his system. Suddenly, not touching her everywhere seemed like the worst choice he could make.
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance Page 81
