“Cella then. Let’s check it out anyway because it’s the only damned way I’m going to be able to keep my hands off you.” He turned his back, catching her startled gasp and smiling to himself as he strode into the inner temple, feeling her gaze drifting down over his body.
She could pretend all she wanted, but she was throwing off pheromones that were driving him crazy, broadcasting her desire for him and her need, and she seemed to have difficulty keeping her eyes off him whenever she thought he wasn’t looking.
Of course, the fact he had made sure to pull his tank top off before showing up at the temple tonight probably wasn’t helping her self-control.
He liked the feel of her eyes on him though. He loved the slow, unhurried way she would let them drift over him, taking in every inch at her leisure. She could look all she wanted, and touch all she wanted too. He was her male after all. He had been made for her.
She followed him into the enclosed area and began searching at the far end, where the remains of an altar stood. He kept his distance, his focus split between checking out the area around the columns that lined the longer wall at the side of the temple in front of him and checking out her.
She had told him that she had seven days left before she had to deliver the item to her client. She had evaded answering his questions about that client. They were both still quite guarded, unwilling to reveal some things to the other. Thankfully, she had made things easier on him, as she hadn’t asked about the demon he sought. She had taken what he had told her as it stood, without probing for more details.
He didn’t want her to know that he was the offspring of the demon.
He wasn’t sure how she would look at him then.
He had reached the final column and had started on the other side when he realised that she was humming to herself while she worked. He glanced back at her and smiled as he watched her running her hands over the remains of the altar, her gaze fixed on them. She didn’t realise she was humming. His smile widened and he went back to checking the area around the columns, losing himself in his work again.
The sudden feeling of being watched made him lift his head and look across at Iolanthe.
She stood only a metre from him, staring at him with a curious edge to her eyes.
“What are you singing?” She canted her head, the curiosity in her eyes only growing.
Singing? He realised he had been singing to himself while he had worked, and smiled as he recalled the song he had been halfway through before he had noticed she had come to stare at him.
He straightened and turned his smile on her. “Bon Jovi.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, squashing her breasts together in her black camisole, and he had to fight to stop himself from dropping his eyes to them. A frown marred her brow.
“I am not familiar with this type of music.” Her curious gaze turned questioning as it searched his and he felt as if she was seeking an answer from his heart. “It sounded like a serenade.”
Kyter shrugged his bare shoulders. “Bon Jovi is a band, not a type of music… but I guess it was a sort of serenade. People tend to call them ballads.”
Apparently, he had subconsciously chosen one that turned out to be quite apt for them.
Born to be my baby.
She had been.
The pretty hint of colour on her cheeks and the slight awkward edge to her expression and body language said she had taken it as a sort of serenade, a song about them, sung from his heart to reach hers, and she had liked it.
“Why were you singing it?” She looked around them at the dark moonlit temple. “Do you desire to attract the attention of the security guards?”
Kyter frowned at her. “No… and you were singing first.”
Her eyebrows shot up and then she returned his frown. “I was not.”
“Was too.” He smiled when she huffed. “You were humming. Do you often hum when you’re working?”
Her frown lifted and she turned thoughtful, and he realised that he felt at ease around her now, and she felt the same way. They were growing closer, becoming comfortable with each other, and were slowly lowering their guards. He liked it, and liked how he was learning new things about her.
“I am not sure.” She tipped her head up and looked him in the eye. “Do you often sing when you are working?”
Kyter blew out his breath, scrubbed a hand through the messy longer lengths of his sandy hair, and shook his head. “It would be difficult since I often can’t hear myself think over the music, let alone sing a different tune to the one that’s playing.”
Her expression shifted, becoming laced with curiosity again, and she moved a step closer. He sat on one of the broken columns and she joined him, balancing on the one next to him. It felt nice. He hadn’t expected them to make so much progress so quickly. She had accepted his apology and his help, and they were already growing closer.
“I work at a bar,” he said and then figured he might as well be honest, because she might approve of a male who ran his own business, just as she ran her own business. Another thing they had in common. “I own a nightclub.”
She didn’t look impressed. “And you play this Bon Jovi there?”
“Not anymore.” He shook his head, answering her and trying to shake off the way he had deflated inside, his pride taking a knock.
“Why not?” She leaned towards him, resting her elbows on her knees, her violet eyes beginning to shimmer with curiosity again.
He leaned backwards, clasped his hands behind his head and twisted at the same time, shifting his body side on to her so he could rest his shoulders against the wall behind him. She frowned at him and he had the feeling it wasn’t because of his pose. It was because he had moved away from her. She had picked up on his subtle change in mood.
For the first time since opening the doors of Underworld, he didn’t feel like talking about his business.
“Kyter?” The sound of his name falling from her lips jerked the whole of his focus to her and his golden gaze slid her way, probably relaying his shock to her.
She had never used his name before.
That she did so now made him feel she was letting him know that she was interested in learning about his business and she was sorry she had made him feel otherwise.
He sighed and tipped his head back, staring at the stars, wondering how things were going back in London. Cavanaugh would have texted him if there had been a problem. Kyter had fired off a message to him this afternoon, letting the big shifter know that he had moved location and was closer to finding the item he needed. He hadn’t mentioned Iolanthe. Something told him that the snow leopard wouldn’t appreciate talk of mates.
Kyter had been like that once.
He looked back down at the female beside him, a beauty who patiently waited, her violet eyes never leaving his face.
“Nightclubs have to move with the times and evolve. They have to play up to date music to draw in the patrons.”
“But you prefer the music you were singing?” she said, genuine interest in her eyes. She wanted to know about him.
He lifted his shoulders in an easy shrug. “I like it. A few of the other shifters who work for me like it too.”
Her eyebrows slowly rose. “You employ other fae?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Underworld caters to humans, fae and demons, but mainly to our kind. My staff are mostly made up of fae who needed a place… they heard about the club and came to me, and I gave them sanctuary in exchange for a little hard work.”
Her violet eyes brightened, finally gaining the impressed edge he had wanted to see in them earlier. She admired him for giving people like him a place they could call home, taking them in and taking care of them.
“I have the song on my phone.” He lowered his right hand when she looked confused, dug around in his thigh pocket and pulled it out, flashing the phone at her.
She leaned closer, eyeing it. Hadn’t she seen a phone before? He woke up the screen and she darted back, away fr
om it, and then slowly inched forwards again, her face filled with a beautiful look of astonishment.
Kyter smiled, repeating his earlier thought about her. She knew a lot about history, but knew little about the modern world. Elves lived in a realm in Hell. Maybe she didn’t come to the mortal realm very often. That and the fact they had both been after the same artefact at the same time left him feeling that fate really had pulled cosmic strings to bring them together. He only wished it hadn’t involved the death of his only family. He wasn’t sure what his mother would have made of Iolanthe and her independent nature, but he liked to think she would have approved of his fated female.
He found the track he had been singing and played it for her.
Her eyes lit up and she leaned even closer, her face illuminated by the screen. “Fascinating. The male sings better than you do though.”
Kyter snatched his phone back, shut it off and shoved it back in his pocket.
She shrank back and flexed her hands against her knees. “I did not mean to offend you. You sing well.”
“I do?” He cursed it for coming out as a question. Others had told him that he had a good voice, but he hadn’t expected the compliment from Iolanthe. It had caught him off guard.
She looked down at her thighs. “I think you do.”
“You hum well,” he offered and she flicked a glance at him. He smiled at her.
A blush climbed her cheeks, she muttered something in her strange tongue, and hurried away from him. His little enigma. Had no one ever complimented her?
He grinned at her back and hollered, “You’re beautiful too.”
She threw a startled look over her shoulder at him. Deer caught in headlights came to mind. He chuckled.
“No one ever tell you how beautiful you are, Iolanthe?” He pushed onto his feet and she swallowed, blinked, but didn’t answer his question.
He closed in on her, breaking all his rules, and she didn’t run away. She shifted to face him and stood her ground. His smile widened over how defensive she looked, as if she might call her blade to her hand and threaten him to make him shut up. Not this time. A blade to the throat wouldn’t stop him. She could carry out her impotent threats to kill him and he would still get the words he had lined up on his tongue out before he drew his last breath.
He slid his right hand along the line of her jaw, feeling the heat of her blush on his palm, and tilted her head up, towards the moon, so he could see her.
“You’re more than beautiful… I thought that the first time I saw you… beautiful doesn’t do you justice.”
“Kyter,” she whispered and tried to look away, but he didn’t let her. Sure, he was making her uncomfortable. Sure, she wanted to escape him. Sure, he was being a dick again and treading close to overstepping the mark.
But he wanted her to know how he felt about her and know that it had begun long before he had realised she was his mate.
“You bewitched me in that fae town, Iolanthe. You enslaved me and all I could do was follow you, powerless to resist your pull.” He swept his thumb across her cheek and she closed her eyes. “No… look at me.”
She did as he asked, her long lashes lifting to reveal those stunning violet eyes.
“You’re otherworldly… and the more I get to know you, the more beautiful you become.”
“I said I did not wish to hear your silly talk,” she whispered with little conviction and pulled away. He didn’t let her get far. He caught her cheek again and lured her back to him, smiling down into her eyes.
“It isn’t silly talk. I’m being serious. I know you think I’m a dick and I acted like one, but you opened my eyes, and that wasn’t me… I’m not like that. I don’t want to hold you back or take this life away from you.” When she tried to break away again, he did as he had vowed he would. He spoke from his heart and laid it all on the line. “I saw my mother treated that way.”
She stopped, her gaze coming back to hold his.
He swallowed his fear and pushed onwards. “I saw her pinned by society’s conventions and subjected to what others thought she deserved. I would never inflict that sort of life on a female… especially one I care about.”
His heart thudded at a sickening pace against his chest. He had faced a hundred male jaguars in battle, had taken on demons and fae more powerful than himself, and he had never experienced the level of fear he was now. The beautiful female before him stripped him of his strength and had him on his knees without lifting a finger. She could crush him without saying a word.
She did break away from him now, her hand coming up to touch the spot on her cheek where his had been, her eyes wild and heart thundering. She stared at him, her colliding emotions colouring her scent, revealing them to him. She was afraid too and confused, and angry. She thought he was playing her again, out to trick her into being his mate by saying what she wanted to hear.
He sighed and backed off a step.
“I wish you could believe me,” he said with a small smile, struggling to pull himself together and keep his deepest fear from her—fear that he would lose her because of the things he had done. His one mate. The female born for him. One that he felt sure he had started falling for before realising she was his mate. “I fucked up. I got caught up in everything and turned into something I’m not. I’m not one of the males who lead my pride… hell, I’m not even one of the pride anymore. When I realised how I was treating you… I was horrified. You deserve better than that. I would never expect you to behave according to pride rules.”
She still stared at him, her hand still pressing against her cheek.
“You don’t have to believe me.” He turned his back on her and trudged over to the column where they had sat, returning to his work.
“I do,” she whispered.
He didn’t look over his shoulder at her as he wanted to, because he knew it had taken a lot of effort for her to allow those two words to slip quietly from her lips. It had taken a lot for her to confess that she believed him after everything he had done.
He took those two words and held them to his heart, using them as a balm to soothe the ache that had started there when he had thought she would reject everything he said and accuse him of lying to her in order to lure her into being his mate.
They worked in silence until the morning came, the sunrise painting the sky in hues of gold and pink. He stretched and pressed his hands into his aching back. Iolanthe stretched too, the action cat-like and alluring as she held her arms above her head, arched forwards, and then wavered side to side.
“We should stick together,” he said and she stopped with her hands held high in the air. “I have digs near here. It’s just a small rented place in the countryside.”
He waited for her to teleport out of his life again without a word.
She smiled, a gentle one that he came to realise was teasing when she spoke. “You must like all the trees and nature, being a cat shifter.”
Two could play at her game. “You must like it too, being an elf.”
She fell silent and serious. Damn, he needed to figure her out, because whenever he thought he would put a foot right, it went wrong.
“I met your prince once.” The second those words left his lips, her eyes grew enormous and she took a step closer. Feeling he was putting feet right for once, he added, “I served him booze and the guy took it hard.”
Her expression shifted to one of horror. “You gave my prince alcohol? Are you insane? How dare you defile my prince with such poison?”
He held his hands up at his sides and backed off as she advanced. “The other elf with him didn’t see it as poison and he seemed quite good at handling it.”
She snapped her mouth shut and then grumbled, “He is probably already tainted by experience with it. No doubt alcohol has little effect on him.”
“Hey,” Kyter snapped and shot her a deadly glare. “That’s my friend you’re talking about. No one badmouths my friends.”
Her violet eyes shot impossibly wide
.
“My apologies.” She rushed over to him and grabbed his arm before he could respond, her grip fierce. “We should go, now, before we are spotted.”
Kyter frowned at her odd behaviour. Why was she suddenly in a hurry and suddenly so compliant? Was it something he had said or had she sensed someone nearby? Maybe it was another demon sent by her client.
“You’re coming with me?” He had to be sure he had understood her intentions, because he was finding it hard to believe that she was coming to his place, without putting up a fight, and he didn’t want her to turn on him when he grabbed her arm and started towards the nearby station with her to wait for the first train or pick up a taxi.
She hesitated but then she nodded and did something he hadn’t anticipated.
She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Just tell me the nearest town or landmark you remember and I will teleport us there if I know it.”
Suddenly, Kyter was having trouble thinking.
It probably had something to do with the fact that all of his blood had rushed south the moment she had pressed her lithe body against his.
“Well?” she whispered, her mouth tantalisingly close to his, her soft breath fanning across his lips.
Kyter groaned inside, immediately regretting his suggestion that she come back to his place.
His place.
He was going to be alone, in private, all day, with her.
He had the terrible feeling the challenge he had set himself to wait for her to give him the green light was about to become impossible or it was going to kill him.
Gods help him.
CHAPTER 14
Iolanthe stood with her back to the jet of warm water in Kyter’s shower, not feeling the spray or aware of her surroundings. She had hurried into the small bathroom in the isolated villa at the base of Mount Vesuvius shortly after they had arrived and it had struck her that she was alone with Kyter.
She had been alone with him all night, but the idea of being alone with him now, in the privacy and safety of his rented single storey house, had her battling a violent bout of nerves that felt uncharacteristic of her. She felt like a different person, no longer strong and confident. He had stripped those two things from her, had steadily worked his magic on her since they had first met, bringing her to this point where she felt vulnerable to him.
Hunted by a Jaguar Page 14
