Should I pat myself on the back now or later?
She trembled as she flattened her palms on his chest. He expected a push. Instead, she curled her fingers into the fabric of his shirt and asked, “You want to hug me?”
That’s the one she’d focused on? Well, hell. Why not? The urge had shocked him too. Comforting wasn’t in his wheelhouse. Casual sex? Absolutely. A great time? Baby, get ready. He gave more than he received. But there was something haunting—and haunted—about this particular woman. Her eyes weren’t just endless, they were windows to the wounds that festered inside her. Wounds she couldn’t hide. Not from him.
His Arcadian side saw far more than his human side appreciated.
What had caused those wounds? What kind of childhood had she had? As a relative of Trinity, she must have been a patient at IOT, not a staff member.
He smiled, hoping to turn up the charm. “I want to give you a naked hug.”
Longing sparkled in her eyes, only inciting his unprecedented lust. She wanted him too. She wanted him just as intensely. The chemistry was there—and explosive.
“A naked spanking too?” she asked, even more breathless.
“Of course.”
“So . . . really you think I need a fuck, a fuck, and another fuck.”
Dirty words on those porn-star lips . . .
Should be illegal. “Exactly,” he said.
A tremor rocked her against him—against his throbbing erection—and she licked her lips.
He swallowed a groan.
“You’re thinking about sleeping with me,” she said, “but you know nothing about me.”
“I don’t have to know you to want you.”
The longing began to fizzle. “If you don’t know me, you don’t want me. Not the real me. You just want my body.”
His gaze slid over her. “Can you blame me? It’s a beautiful body.”
Fizzle, fizzle. “Beauty fades. So do feelings.”
All right. Charm wouldn’t work on her. Noted. “I watched you with Devyn. In a way, I do know you. You’re determined, capable, lethal. You don’t bow to fear, but conquer it.”
A-a-a-and the longing began to intensify, making him feel as if he’d conquered the world. But quick as a snap, it fizzled again. “You plan to hurt Trinity, so I can promise you only one thing: You won’t like what you learn about me.”
The perfect lead-in for his plan. Time to get to work. “What would you do if I promised not to hurt her?” A promise he could truthfully make and actually keep. He didn’t have to hurt the woman to kill her. When AIR found a way to dispose of her properly, that is.
Surprise softened Lilica’s ethereal features, but she maintained her rigid stance. “I wouldn’t believe you.”
“Something you’ll learn about me. I never lie. Weaving truth and lie is too complicated for my poor masculine brain.” Exactly what he was doing right now?
“I believe that is the first honest thing you’ve said. Your poor brain.” She patted the top of his head, adding, “While I admire truthfulness with every fiber of my being, I’m not blinded by it. Even liars claim they are telling the truth. The only way to stop you from hurting Trinity is to kill you, so that is what I will do.”
Her admission stunned him. Why reveal her intentions? Why not try to take him by surprise?
Why was his erection now harder?
“She means that much to you?” he asked. “Even though she’s diseased, and willingly spreads her disease to others? To innocents?”
Her gaze held his for a second longer, only to slide away . . . to hide the quick flash of guilt and remorse he’d glimpsed? “You don’t know how she became diseased.”
“And you do?”
In lieu of an answer, she lifted her chin.
I’ll take that as a “Hell, yes.” “I’m an officer of the law. An agent at AIR. Some would call me a superagent.”
“By some, do you mean only yourself ?”
He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Attacking me will get you labeled a predatory alien and sign your death warrant. But hey, if you want to risk it, you should know I’m most vulnerable after sex. The stronger my orgasm, the weaker I’ll be.”
Her gaze whipped back to his face. She studied his lips, then his eyes, then his lips again. She gulped, the air between them thickening, crackling with awareness. Always crackling. The sweetness of her scent intensified, a delicious waft he suspected he would follow to the ends of the earth.
Already addicted . . .
“Forget Trinity,” he said, his molars gnashing. Before she could protest, he added, “Just for the next few minutes.” He remembered the vision he’d had of her and decided to use her own words against her. “Right now, I’m just a man, and you’re just a woman.”
“But you’re not just a man, and I’m not just a woman.”
“We’re pretending.” He brushed the tip of his nose against hers.
She closed her eyes, her lashes casting shadows over her cheeks, and leaned toward him, as if seeking another touch. When he gave it to her, she rewarded him with a sexy purr as arousing as a caress. But not once did her skin change colors, and he wondered why. Could she control it? And if so, how could he make her lose control once again?
“I don’t know how to pretend.” Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing pools of yearning and confusion. “I don’t even know why we’d want to do it.”
A pang cut through his chest. Did she truly not know? “We pretend because it’s fun . . . and we want to do it because we desire each other and we’re desperate for an excuse to touch.”
Her gaze returned to his lips and lingered. “I don’t want you . . . shouldn’t want you . . . but I do want to know what it’s like to be kissed.” She whispered the last, reverent.
She’d never been kissed? No. Hell, no. She was playing him. She had to be playing him. But he would pretend he believed her. He would do anything to learn the taste of her.
“Let me teach you how.” He lowered his head, driven by an insatiable hunger he could no longer override. “If you bite me . . .”
“I won’t, you have my word.”
“I’ll probably like it,” he finished. Right now, she could do no wrong.
Her breath caught, but just before his lips met hers, she placed a finger on his chin, holding him just out of reach. “This doesn’t mean anything. Afterward, I will kill you.”
“May I suggest you kill me with pleasure?” he whispered, and her finger fell away.
“Yes. Pleasure.” She sounded drunk. “But afterward I’ll make it hurt.”
“That’s not a deal breaker.” He pressed his mouth against hers. She opened for him eagerly, welcoming him inside, gifting him with his first taste of heaven on earth. In that moment, stroking his tongue over hers was as much about survival as pleasure. The woman devastated his senses, lust for her consuming him.
She leaned closer, but remained tentative, again seeking more contact with him. The action, small as it was, only inflamed him more, animal need threatening to fell him.
Slow and steady wins the race.
He gently bit her bottom lip, running the delicious little plum through his teeth. Her gasp of surprise slowed him down further, and in a moment of startling clarity, he realized she hadn’t been kissing him back, had merely accepted his possession.
A stray thought jolted him. What if she’d told the truth? What if this really is her first kiss, and she doesn’t know what to do?
No, no. Impossible. There was no way a beauty like her had gone her entire life without the attentions of a man. But his suspicions lingered. . . .
And a lance of possessiveness nearly cleaved him in two. One side would kill to keep her while the other would keep her to kill her.
Too much too fast! And yet he only wanted more. “Going to kiss you harder now.”
A warning.
A warning she failed to heed. “Yes . . . harder . . .”
He ate at her, and this time she responded in kind, her tongue rolling against his, her teeth biting at his lower lip, her mouth sucking on his. No finesse between them, only white-hot need, and he didn’t just like it; he loved it.
“That’s the way.” He anchored his hands on the backs of her thighs and lifted her up. Her skin color began to change, matching the kitchen, then remaining the dusky bronze of his. “You’re getting me so hot.”
He set her on the counter, and she moaned, her arms and legs winding around him, her breasts smashing into his chest. Her nipples were hard little buds of arousal, creating the perfect friction every time she inhaled.
“More,” she all but growled.
“Greedy girl.” He tangled his fingers in her braids, and she combed her fingers in his hair. She bit down on his lip with a little more force, a bead of his blood welling.
Her next moan tapered into an animalistic snarl, and the power inside her—just—exploded.
No warning. Just whoosh!
A second later, he was flung across the room, though he never hit the wall or even the floor, instead hovering as if suspended by invisible chains. The apartment he’d rented just for Lilica faded, and a midnight sky took shape around him—around them. She floated a few feet away, her eyes and strands of her hair aglow, as if the northern lights had just been made flesh. Stars fell around her, leaving rainbow-colored streaks in their wake. A clap of thunder boomed.
“What’s happening?” he shouted.
“I don’t know!” she cried out, her back bowing, her head thrown back.
“Lilica!” Her powers . . . she had her powers as if she’d been shot full of adrenaline . . . or intense sexual arousal—
What the hell had he done?
The rainbow lights shot out of her to coil around him; they burned and scalded him . . . before drawing him closer and closer to her . . . until they were only a whisper away from each other—then completely flush against each other. Though he fought with every bit of his considerable might, he couldn’t sever the connection.
I’m being touched. . . . I’m touching someone else . . . touching a man.
Lilica was overcome by astonishment and joy, awe and lust. So much lust. But at the forefront of each emotion was an instinct she’d never learned, never honed, and now couldn’t control. An instinct to possess. To master, to brand . . . to own.
It had started with the kiss, when Dallas had backed her into the counter and caged her in, his scent blending with hers, his gaze hot on hers, his body as hard and intractable as steel while hers softened against him, as if melting.
She’d thought, Killing him is a must, and I will strike—later. What would it hurt to indulge my curiosity for a few seconds . . . perhaps a few minutes, to pretend just as he asked? To be touched. To touch in return.
He was a beautiful man, the sexuality he exuded raw and in-your-face. She was drawn to it—drawn to him—and utterly captivated by his words, expressions, and thought process, desperate to experience everything he had to offer. He’d been right about that. Any excuse . . .
And she couldn’t regret it. Her first kiss had come from a master. His tongue had expertly caressed hers, his body heat wrapping around her, hugging her. Her first hug too. A previously untapped and untamed ferocity had consumed her then, and she’d needed more, needed to give and to take. She’d lost control. That’s when she’d remembered something she’d read about her ancestors. How they’d bonded with their captors to save themselves.
She’d thought, If I bond with Dallas, perhaps I can save Trinity.
The urge to bite him had struck, so she’d bitten him. Hadn’t even considered resisting. His blood—
Oh, his blood! She’d never hungered for blood before, but she thought she would now forever crave his. The power that had come with a single drop . . .
At her first taste, the drug he’d used on her had disintegrated. Just, boom, gone. She’d amphed his alien abilities without even trying and, because he’d been a part of her, she’d amphed herself in the process. They’d ended up in this strange, endless night where they were seemingly being knit together with light.
Knit together . . . bonded?
Would they now share pleasure and pain? Life and death?
No, no. Impossible. Instinct and blood couldn’t bond two people . . . right?
Of course not! Especially because nothing and no one mattered more to Lilica than her sisters. They were bonded to her too, though not like this. Not this intensely.
The girls had been her only source of joy for so long—for all the days of her life, really. They loved her, and she loved them. Dallas was simply a blip, here today, gone and forgotten tomorrow.
But even as she tried to convince herself that he meant nothing, that this meant nothing, a deluge of memories she’d never lived began to pour inside her head. A drug-addicted mother . . . the many boyfriends the woman had entertained . . . her screams as she was beaten . . . living on the street . . . dead, she was dead . . . the little orphan boy no one wanted . . .
Fat tears rolled down Lilica’s cheeks. Had she just gotten a glimpse of Dallas’s childhood?
Dallas caught the tears, rubbing the moisture between his fingers. “So rarely touched . . .”
He knew. How did he know?
He must have seen into her past as well. The knowledge unsettled her. All of this unsettled her.
He let his arms fall to his sides, and she whimpered. Anger replaced his tenderness. “Make it stop, Lilica.”
“I can’t. Trying . . .” However, the stars ceased to fall at last. The rainbow lights faded, but so did the darkness—until she and Dallas were once again inside the kitchen.
Now they were both sprawled on the floor.
Up, up! For one bright moment, she would be the taller of the two. She would have the position of power. Unable to catch her breath, she lumbered to her feet.
The moment ended in a snap. Dallas jumped up, a tower of menace and rage.
He closed in on her, aggression in every step. “Whatever you did to me, undo it. Now.”
She opened her mouth to tell him to back off, but her mind beat her to it. —Back off!—
“What the hell?” He ground his fists into his temples. “You spoke inside my head. How did you do that?”
What! Telepathic communication? With him? No! No, no, no. She absolutely refused. If he had access to whatever thoughts she had while they were open to each other, she would be unable to keep secrets from him, and she had to keep her secrets. All the secrets.
. . . On the flip side, he would be unable to keep his secrets from her.
“You’re going to tell me everything you did to me, Lilica, and exactly how to undo it.”
“No, you’re going to back off and ask nicely, or you’re not getting anything from me.” With her power no longer under siege, she was able to gather a bolt of energy. She reached for him, ready to unleash as soon as they touched—but the power shot out of her before they made contact, the invisible stream launching him across the room.
He slammed into the counter, smacked into the floor, and grunted. She grunted too, pain suddenly ricocheting through her as if she’d been the one to experience impact. But even with the pain, she wasn’t weakened, her power used up. No, on the contrary. She was strengthened. She’d once again amphed herself by amphing him.
They were bound.
Dread unfurled as the truth—and the consequences—slapped on spiked boots and danced through her head.
Dallas rolled his shoulders, shook his head. He spoke one word, only one, but it burned with enough rage to torch the entire world. “Nicely.”
Well. She had to admire his unwillingness to back down, even when circumstances continued to worsen. He was—
&nb
sp; A deluge of information shoved its way to the forefront of her mind, claiming her focus. He was a love-’em-and-leave-’em guy. One and done. Dick it and quit it. Hit and run. Many women had accused him of having no sticking power. Many of his victims had called him the Heartless Foe, lamenting his willingness to kill for cases, pouting about his lack of concern for the people he hurt.
The knowledge boiled in her mind, as real to her as he was . . . as real as the memories she hadn’t lived. She didn’t have to see into the future to know what would happen next. He would attempt to break the bond, realize he could use her to complete his mission, then actually use her. Once her sister had been defeated, he would attempt to sever the bond again, through any means necessary.
Rational of him. Can’t fault him.
When he failed, and he would, he would forever resent her. Resentment she would feel through the bond.
If he killed Trinity, Lilica would resent him. She would kill him, even if she had to die too.
If he allowed Trinity to live, his resentment for Lilica would only grow.
Always unwanted . . .
I don’t want him either. I don’t! “I don’t know a lot about the Falle,” she said, treading carefully. “I was raised in the lab.”
He blinked, shook his head again, as if surprised by his thoughts. “You weren’t just raised there. You were created there.”
How had he—
Never mind. The same way she’d known about him. “I was an experiment.”
“You and your sisters.”
“Yes.” A spasm in her chest, a cramp in her stomach. “According to everything I’ve read, the Falle are able to establish bonds with others, but there’s a special bond we can establish with only one person—the one we select as a mate,” she added softly. She looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
Is that what I did? Selected him as my one and only?
“Mate,” he grated. “Sweetness, there’s no way but brutal honesty to break this to you, but I am not your mate. Not now, not ever.”
Dark Swan Page 6
