by Kita Bell
The waitress wheezed to a halt, her face going tight. Joshua watched as her brother turned to snarl at her. “Kenzie, you told us…no. You promised us that you were well and truly done with the bastard! You told Dad and Jeremiah. Hell, you even promised – “
“I know what I promised everybody, Indy!” she cried, arms her crossing over her chest, temper rising. “Well it changed.” Her breasts plumped and Joshua didn’t bother to hide his fascination. “But we are done, so you can just get out the snit you’re in—”
“Right. Like I’ll believe that. Two weeks?!” Indy roared, waving his arms in the air. “You hate him, remember? You swore you’d stay away. You know what Jeremiah will do when he finds out…”
Who the fuck is this “him” they keep talking about? And who the fuck is Jeremiah? Joshua didn’t like the implications.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Kenzie hissed, her eyes darting to Joshua. When her brother didn’t seem to agree, she set her teeth and smiled at Joshua – too brightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, mister,” she told him sweetly, “since I’ve never been to The Lot. And stop staring at my breasts. Fifty-percent of the population have breasts, so mine are no novelty.”
Joshua just shook his head. “Darling, trust me. Yours are a novelty. And I maybe I was staring, but I’m not deaf. You’re the worse liar I’ve ever heard.”
Her lips thinned. Behind her, Indy said with stubborn impatience, “Kenzie, stop flirting with that bastard. We need to talk about this now.”
Kenzie whirled on him. “No. Not now. Not with a stranger! Now Indy, please just go back to the bar so I can take his order.”
“I’ll throw him out first.”
“I’d rather have his money!”
Indy narrowed his eyes on her, then switched his glare to Joshua. After a long moment, he stalked back to the bar. When Kenzie turned to Joshua again, he observed mildly, “If this is how you treat your customers, I’m surprised this place makes any money at all.”
There was the faintest flicker of gold in her gaze, but that was all he saw to reveal her annoyance.
“Have you decided on your order yet?” she asked with forced pleasantry.
“I’d rather have answers.”
“We don’t serve answers. We serve pizza. You can order, or I can let my brother kick you out.”
“Then I’ll take that damned house special of yours.” Joshua watched her scribble on her notepad. “With chicken. And barbeque. Who the fuck is Jeremiah?”
“Chicken? Normal people don’t want chicken on their pizza.” Disbelief in her tone. “They want extra cheese. Or meat. Like normal meat. And, Mister Nosy, Jeremiah is my brother.”
“Thought the bartender was.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I happen to have more than one brother.”
Good. Got that question out of the way. Joshua relaxed. “Chicken’s about as normal as meat can get,” he said. “How about this: if you answer my questions about the Boston Gens, I’ll save you the trouble of bothering with a pizza. I saw a fast food joint around the corner. They can put a bucket of chicken together in under a minute. Probably cheaper, too. Will that work for you, kitten?”
Her lips went flat, her eyes hard; Joshua resisted the urge to laugh.
“I don’t trust you,” Kenzie told him angrily, marking his order on the pad with a fierce hand, “and I’m not going to tell an outsider anything.” She turned to leave. Joshua curled his hand into a fist to keep from reaching out, cupping a hand over that firm, round ass.
Like he said, if he was going to live forever, he wanted all his limbs attached.
Though she would be worth the risk.
He grinned.
Outside in the rainy night, there came the revving of an engine, the sound of a vehicle going far too fast. Joshua cocked his head, listening to that approaching sound – an odd feeling settled into his gut as he turned toward the large front windows, squinting out into the rain-slick night...
Through the glass there was a flash of headlights, the squeal of tires, the sound of a car stopping to idle. Then the shooting started.
The first thing to go was the large plate-glass window over Joshua’s head. As glass rained down, bullets riddled through the walls of the restaurant with the staccato of illegal machine guns, and Joshua whipped around in time to catch the pretty waitress’s pale, frozen expression.
“Damn it woman, take cover!” He tackled her and took them both to the ground.
Fire scored along his ribs beneath his leather coat, and Joshua snarled, knowing that if Kenzie had been standing a moment longer, she would have been shot. Bullets continued to spit into the back wall, spraying through the glass and wood, throwing large splinters into the air. Joshua tucked his face down over hers and inhaled the warm scent of her lithe body. Her heart raced, terrified, and he found himself stroking her arm, murmuring reassurances into her little ear.
His mind wasn’t really on what he was saying.
He had been right the first time: she smelled like apples and whiskey. She smelled delicious, delectable…right. And hell, maybe bullets were flying over their heads, but his body was busy reacting to the softness beneath him.
Gunfire wasn’t usually so effective.
Hell, for the past 400 years, nothing had been so effective. For him, sex was about the physical release. It was rare when he truly desired, and when he did…
Joshua dipped his nose to the soft crook of Kenzie’s neck and pulled her scent deep into his lungs. He analyzed his reaction: his body relaxed, his cock tightened further. Unfamiliar need pushed at him. He didn’t even know this woman, but he felt – odd inside – like his heart was ready to bleed out of his chest and onto the floor to puddle at her feet. That could have been the bullet wound talking, but…hell. Either she’s packing a major ability and hit me with it or she’s something else.
“You just use your ability on me, kitten?” he rasped. “Truth this time.”
“What? No…” she sounded dazed, weak, no lie in her voice.
So she was something else. His something else.
Never thought I’d see the day.
Joshua laughed softly, hugging her close. Her body reacted beneath his; he smelled the faintest hint of surprised arousal as he pressed a kiss to the back of her head, smoothing down a wave of rich black hair.
This had to be Her.
His her.
Conviction was sharper than knives.
The gunfire stopped.
Silence echoed in the tiny restaurant. Kenzie’s body tensed beneath his and Joshua enjoyed the sensation, his gloved hand covering her head protectively. They both lay there, panting in the darkness as they listened to the tires screeching off into the night. Then his little waitress went utterly limp beneath him, the strain finally leaving her body as she collapsed against the floor. She heaved a long sight and rubbed her cheek fondly against the dirty wood grain as if simply glad to be alive.
Joshua thought he could do the same, though it wasn’t the floor he would be rubbing his cheek against. He levered himself up on his forearms and gazed down at her. He needed to see her. Study her – know her.
My amati.
It hit him like a punch to the gut.
She was beautiful. She had skin the color of rich, creamed coffee – he smiled, seeing the faintest shadowing of freckles across the bridge of that pert little nose. Her ponytail had spread out across the floor, and Joshua ran his good hand over it, luxuriating in the heavy, silken texture. Her voice was honey, her smile kind. And, he glanced back up at the intact table, she was a hell of a cook.
Maybe there was a god.
“You could have been shot,” he told her roughly, struggling with that knowledge. “The one thing I’ve been looking for, forever, and you could have been shot. Killed. That’s something I can never risk.”
“If you’re talking about me, I wasn’t,” Kenzie whispered, still limp and stroking the floor like a lover. “I’m fine.
And you’re saying crazy things.”
“I’m not.”
“Mmm. Crazy isn’t good at judging itself.”
He snorted. Like hell he was going to risk letting her get away from him. Khael had made that mistake with his amati, and Brand had almost repeated it with Eva; Joshua wasn’t into rehashing anybody’s pasts, not even his own.
He eyed the creamy column of her neck, and smoothed a thumb over the soft skin there. His waitress’s eyes flashed open, a startled whiskey color, irises thin gold bands around her dilated pupils. “What are you…but no. Thank you for—”
“Saving you? Any time, darling,” Joshua murmured, not giving her a chance to finish. Then he leaned down and sank his teeth into the back of her delicate little neck…
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Epigraph: the Kaspians
Prologue – Brand
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Sneak Peek: Shadow of an Immortal Heart
