Who was I kidding? I was totally checking her out.
For someone who was so short, her legs appeared incredibly long, but that might’ve had something to do with the skimpy cut of her bottoms—a cut that displayed the fullness of her hips and the surprising tininess of her waist. Muscles low in my stomach tightened as I dragged my gaze over her soft-looking stomach and then farther north. How that red top was staying on was beyond me, and I didn’t know if I should be grateful or disappointed by that.
Average? Had I seriously used the words average or plain to describe her? Hell, this girl…
The old saying surfaced in my heated thoughts. Be careful what you wish for. So true. I wouldn’t have wished for this if I had known how intensely my body would’ve reacted to it, and oh, it was reacting all right.
This plan I’d come up with had to be an all-time dumbass one.
My smile slipped from my face. “I’m never happy around you.”
“What did you say?” she demanded, eyes narrowing.
“Nothing. You better get in before that blush reaches your toes.” And before I really started considering all the stupid shit I could do right now.
And that blush deepened. She walked stiffly over to the edge of the lake where the water was shallow, giving me a view of her backside, and that really did nothing to help dampen the purely physical response.
Folding her arms along her waist, she dipped her toes into the water. “It’s beautiful out here.”
Yeah, it was beautiful out here. And it was hot. My gaze dipped to her bent knee and then slid back up, getting hung up on certain areas. My throat tightened. Other parts of me tightened.
Shit.
I dunked myself and when I came back up, it hadn’t helped, because now she was wet. She must’ve gone under while I had. We were only a few feet away, and I was in deeper water, hunched down to where the water lapped at my mouth.
“What?” she asked.
“Why don’t you come here?” My heart was pounding in my chest. If she were smart, she wouldn’t get anywhere close to me at this moment. Actually, if I were smart, I wouldn’t have called her over.
Kat was smarter than me.
She twisted around and dipped under the water, swimming toward the rocks. When she pulled herself out of the water, climbing onto the rock, I swallowed a groan. I wanted to—
“You look disappointed,” she said.
God, I was disappointed, and I really didn’t know what to make out of that. I pushed it aside.
“Well…what do we have here?”
Her legs dangled off the rock, her feet slipping into the water. “What are you talking about now?”
“Nothing.” I waded closer to the rock.
“You said something.”
“I did, didn’t I?”
“You’re strange.”
“You’re not what I expected,” I admitted, voice low.
She gave a little shake of her head. “What does that mean?”
I grabbed for her foot, but she moved her leg out of reach. No fun.
“I’m not good enough to be your sister’s friend?” she asked.
“You don’t have anything in common with her.”
“How would you know?” She shifted back as I reached for her other foot.
“I know.”
“We have a lot in common. And I like her. She’s nice and she’s fun.” She scooted back this time, completely out of arm’s reach. “And you should stop being such a dick and chasing off her friends.”
Her words slipped over me, and I laughed outright. “You’re not really like them.”
“Like who?”
Like any person I’d ever met. Truth was, human and Luxen females treated me the same. Only Ash and Dee mouthed off at me, but we’d grown up together. It was different for them, but others? They pretty much wanted one thing from me. Most of the time I was okay with that, but if I so much as glared in their direction, they scattered like bugs. Not really attractive when you thought about it. But not Kat. She may not have a clue what I was, but she was not scared of me, she wasn’t wowed, and as twisted as it was, that turned me on.
That did make her dangerous.
I pushed away from the rock, making ripples in the water, and then I slipped under. I swam to the other side of the rock and I stayed under, hoping the icy water would cool down the very inappropriate arousal thing I had going on.
Dammit, I didn’t even like the chick, I thought, trying to convince myself.
Yeah, she was amusing. Yeah, even entertaining. And yeah, I wanted to trace her curves with my hands and my mouth. Possibly even my tongue—okay, definitely with my tongue—but she irritated the hell out of me.
And she didn’t even like me. She liked looking at me, because who didn’t, but the distaste went both ways.
I had no idea how much time passed underwater until I was about 92 percent confident I wouldn’t do something, and I broke the surface.
“Daemon!”
The sheer panic blanketing the sound of my name caught me off guard. I burst onto the rock, crouching as I scanned the lake, expecting an Arum to be nearby. Those assholes wouldn’t blink an eye when it came down to taking out an innocent human.
All I saw was Kat, on her knees, in her damn bikini.
Whelp, there went all the work that cold water had done for me.
She was frozen for a second and then scrambled over the rock, clutching my shoulders. Blood had drained from her face and she was exceptionally pale. “Are you okay? What happened?” Then she let go of my shoulders, hauled back, and smacked my arm. Hard. “Don’t you ever do that again!”
“Whoa there.” I threw my hands up. “What is your problem?”
“You were under the water for so long. I thought you drowned! Why would you do that? Why would you scare me like that?” She jumped to her feet, chest heaving. “You were under the water forever.”
Oh shit. I’d been under there longer than I’d thought. My body didn’t function like hers, and I’d forgotten that. Luxen didn’t need to breathe air, but humans weren’t supposed to figure that out, dumbass. “I wasn’t down there that long. I was swimming.”
Her hands were shaking. “No, Daemon, you were down there a long time. It was at least ten minutes! I looked for you, called for you. I…I thought you were dead.”
I climbed to my feet slowly, cursing myself every which way from Sunday. “It couldn’t have been ten minutes. That’s not possible. No one can hold their breath that long.”
Her throat worked. “You apparently can.”
Damn. I stepped closer to her, my eyes searching hers. “You were really worried, weren’t you?”
“No shit! What part of ‘I thought you drowned’ don’t you understand?” A tremble rocked her.
Hell, she was really upset. Honestly, if I’d drowned, I figured she’d do a little dance on my grave. In her bikini. Shit. Screw the bikini. “Kat, I came up. You must not have seen me. I went right back down.”
Taking a step back, she shook her head, and I could see in her steely eyes she didn’t believe me. Holy hell, here I was worrying about Dee doing something to expose us, and it was me who did the bonehead thing. Let it go, Kat. Let it go. I took a deep breath, thinking maybe if I pissed her off, she would forget what happened in her anger. Better than the other option. “Does this happen often?” I asked.
Her gaze snapped back to mine. “Does what?”
“Imagining things.” I gestured at the lake. “Or do you have a horrible issue with telling time?”
“I wasn’t imagining anything! And I know how to tell time, you jerk.”
“Then I don’t know what to tell you.” I stepped forward, crowding her. “I’m not the one imagining that I was underwater for ten minutes when it was like two minutes tops. You know, maybe I’ll buy you a watch the next time I’m in town, when I have my keys back.”
She stiffened as she stared up at me and anger clouded over the suspicion in her eyes. “Well, make su
re you tell Dee we had a wonderful time so that you can get your stupid keys back. Then we won’t need a replay of today.”
I smiled at her. “That’s on you, Kitten. I’m sure she’ll call you later and ask.”
“You’ll have your keys. I’m ready—” She turned, and it happened so fast. Her foot slipped over the wet rock. Thrown off balance, her arms flailed.
I didn’t stop to think.
Snapping forward, I reached out and caught her hand just as her feet left the rock. I pulled her forward, and then we were chest to chest. Her skin was warm and dry, mine wet. I clenched down on my jaw as sensation powered through every one of my cells. There was no denying the bolt of lust that shot through me.
Hell, she was so soft in all the right places.
“Careful there, Kitten,” I murmured. “Dee would be pissed at me if you end up cracking your head open and drowning.”
Kat slowly lifted her head, and her gray eyes met mine. Her lips parted, but she didn’t speak, and I was A-OK with that. Words were freaking pointless at this moment, because our bodies were pressed together.
Electricity coursed through my skin, and I had no idea if she felt it, and if she did, if she thought it was just her imagination, but I swallowed a low groan as a light breeze washed over our skin. Her chest rose against mine, and I needed to either let her go or…or what?
There was no other option.
I dropped my arm from her waist, letting my hand slip off her lower back just to freaking torture myself. The skin was soft and smooth, and the near-painful pressure building in me was worth it. “I think it’s time we head back.”
Officially the smartest decision I had made since first seeing her.
Pathetic.
Kat nodded, and we didn’t speak as we made our way back to land, dried off, and dressed, and that was probably a damn good thing, because I was in one hell of a mood for a multitude of reasons.
The walk back was silent and stiff, and when we crested the driveway, my mood went from shit to punch someone when I saw the car in the driveway. Dammit all to hell in a hand basket. Kat glanced up at me, her expression curious.
“Kat, I—”
My front door swung open, banging off the side of my house, and Matthew strolled out like he had every right. He came down the porch steps, not even looking in Kat’s direction. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.
Man, I cared for Matthew like a brother, but he had no business being in my house like that. I folded my arms. “Absolutely nothing. Since my sister is not home, I’m curious as to why you’re in my house?”
“I let myself in,” he replied. “I didn’t realize that would be a problem.”
“It is now, Matthew.”
Kat shifted uncomfortably beside me, drawing Matthew’s attention. His lip curled up as he shook his head. “Of all people, I’d think you’d know better, Daemon.”
Tension poured into the air around us. “Matthew, if you value the ability to walk, I wouldn’t go there.”
“I think I should go.” Kat moved to the side.
For some reason I’ll never understand, I stepped in front of Kat, blocking her from Matthew’s glare. “I’m thinking Matthew should go unless he has another purpose other than sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, voice wavering, and that did a funny thing to my consciousness, made it take notice. “But I don’t know what’s going on here. We were just swimming.”
I squared my shoulders. “It’s not what you’re thinking. Give me some credit. Dee hid my keys, forced me to take her out to get them back.”
Kat sucked in a breath.
Recognition flickered across Matthew’s face. “So this is Dee’s little friend?”
“That would be me,” she said from behind me.
“I thought you had this under control.” Matthew gestured at her. “That you’d make your sister understand.”
“Yeah, well, why don’t you try to make her understand,” I retorted, my patience wearing thin. “So far, I’m not having much luck.”
Matthew’s lips hardened. “Both of you should know better.”
And my patience snapped. I was tired. A certain area of my body was aching, and being scolded wasn’t going to work for me. Energy crackled over my skin, invisible to the human eye, but it leaked out, charging the air. Thunder cracked. Lightning streaked overhead, bright and near blinding. When the light receded, Matthew’s eyes widened for a second and then he spun around, walking back into my house.
Warning received.
I started to turn to Kat, but there was really nothing to say, and so I said nothing as I stalked toward my house. I thought I heard her speak, but it didn’t matter.
Nothing that had happened with her mattered.
Chapter 6
Matthew started the moment I walked into the kitchen. “What is going on with that girl, Daemon? You have never acted that way.”
I passed him on the way to the fridge, beyond irritated and hungry. “Acted like what?”
He turned to me. “You know what I mean.”
Opening the fridge, I eyed everything needed to make a kickass sandwich. Waving my hand, I got all Beauty and the Beast up in here and danced the items over to the counter. “Want a sandwich?”
Matthew sighed. “Already ate.”
“More for me.” I grabbed a plate and moved to the counter.
“Daemon, we need to talk about this.”
I snatched up a knife and the jar of mayo. “We don’t need to talk about shit, Matthew. I already told you what was going on when we were outside. The story isn’t going to get any more interesting.”
“You’re making sure Dee doesn’t get too close to her by hanging out with her?” he asked, disbelief coloring his words. “Swimming together? Is this a new tactic?”
Slapping the slice of bread on the plate, I glanced over to where he stood near the table. My voice was deadly calm. “Let it go, Matthew.”
“I can’t let it go.”
My eyes met his. “You might want to try.”
He ran a hand over his short brown hair. “I don’t want to argue with you, Daemon.”
I almost laughed as I slapped deli meat onto the bread. He was doing a shitty job at not arguing. Tension had stiffened the muscles of my neck and back. Matthew was right about one thing. I’d never acted like I had outside a few minutes ago, not over a human and not against one of my own kind. I don’t even know why his presence or his words had grated on me so badly.
Maybe because deep down I knew I passed up the chance to either find out something about Kat I could use against her or scare her off enough that she’d stay away from Dee. I really hadn’t done either of those things.
Instead, we’d talked about school and gardening and stupid shit like we…like we were normal.
“This is different,” Matthew continued quietly. “We live among the humans, but we don’t get close to them, not for any extended period of time. If we do, something always happens. They either find out about us, because we let our guard down, or we trace them and the Arum hunt us down. It never ends well. Never.”
I faced him, my hands at my sides. “You think I don’t know that? What do you expect me to do about her? There’s only so much I can do unless you expect me to take her ass out.”
Matthew’s blue eyes deepened, going from ocean blue to dark skies at dusk. “I don’t want to see a young woman harmed, and I don’t expect you to be the one who would take care of that if it came to that point. If that girl proves a risk, I will handle it.
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