by Cynthia Eden
“Uh…Luke?” The worry was deeper in Rayce’s voice. “Just what are we dealing with here?”
He wasn’t touching that one, not yet. He let go of the light. The sky was a red right then, deep like blood, and soon, more of the sun would be falling onto them. He probably would have found her without the search light, but Marcos had insisted they use it. Marcos…a by-the-book human if Luke had ever met one.
“How long has she been in the water?” Marcos asked again. Everyone on the damn boat was worried about Mina, that was obvious.
“She’s been in there long enough.” It was time for her to come back to him. Luke took a deep breath and leapt over the side of that boat. He sliced into the water, powerful, deep strokes.
He thought she’d run from him. But…
She waited.
This time, anyway. Maybe she was more tired than she looked.
Luke closed in on her. She stayed right there, swimming so easily. But…
The closer he got to her, he realized that her body was tense. And her gaze darted nervously around her, as if searching those dark depths below her.
“Stay the fuck there,” he growled. He was so close to her.
“G-get back on your boat,” she told him and there was fear quaking in her voice. Yes, she needed to be afraid of him. She needed— “Sh-shark.” Her stutter came again. “It brushed against me. You need to get out of the water and get back on the boat.”
He paused, just the smallest of hesitations. A shark wouldn’t dare take a bite out of me. Most creatures—those on land and on sea—recognized him for what he was. A primitive awareness of danger.
Humans, though, they were the exception. They always foolishly ignored their primal instincts. They chose to ignore the warning signs that went off in their heads when he was near. They didn’t acknowledge the danger he presented to them, not until it was too late.
But Mina…she wasn’t afraid of him in that moment. The woman actually seemed afraid for him. What an unusual twist.
His hand grabbed her shoulder. He pulled her closer to him. Their bodies brushed beneath the water.
“Shark,” she said again, and her whole body was shaking. “I-I saw its fin…it came right up to me. Bumped me. That’s what they do right? Just before they bite, they bump their prey—”
“Nothing is going to bite you.” Well, he might. But that would be for later. And lots of fun. “Hold on to me.”
Her hands came up and curled around his neck. She held him tightly. And he…liked it. He bent his head closer to her, pulled, compelled to get—
Something came whizzing by his face, missing his head by about a foot.
“Life preserver!” Rayce yelled as the object splashed into the water. “Grab it and I’ll pull you both back.”
He didn’t need to be pulled back. And Mina was still treading water just fine, but to shut up the wolf—Rayce always had a tendency to worry—Luke put an arm around the life preserver and held it. Rayce immediately started hauling them back toward the boat.
“I-I think I felt it bump me again,” Mina said, voice sharp. “You have to get away!”
And again…she was trying to protect him. Needless, but cute. “I don’t feel anything.” Nothing but her. “It’s okay. Relax. I’ve got you.”
She’d been looking down at the water, but at his words, her gaze jerked up and locked with his. “But…I thought you wanted to hurt me.”
He wasn’t sure what he wanted from her yet, but her pain? No, despite the stories circulating about him, her pain wasn’t on his agenda. Others? Well, of course, but…not her.
They were at the back of the boat now. Rayce stood near the ladder.
“Give her to me!” Rayce called.
Luke curled his hands around Mina’s waist and he started to lift her up. Rayce was hanging over the back of the vessel, his arms outstretched to her. “Be careful, wolf,” he said, the warning slipping from him without thought. Handle her with care.
Luke lifted Mina as if she weighed nothing. Water poured down her body and Rayce locked his hands with hers, pulling her up.
Luke followed, dragging his body up the ladder. He swiped a hand over his face, wiping away the water. Then he paced forward. Mina stood there, her arms around her waist, and her clothes were soaking wet. Her shirt clung to her like a second skin and her skirt had hiked up her incredible legs even more. She was shivering and he could see the tight outline of her hard nipples against the front of her top and—
Rayce was staring, too.
Luke walked past him and shoved the guy in the gut. “Look away.”
Rayce spun on his heel, immediately turning his back to Mina. He started whistling. Off-key, terrible whistling.
Marcos hurried toward Luke. “Here’s a blanket, boss.”
Mina jerked at the sound of his voice. Her eyes were so big and she seemed so…helpless standing there, soaking wet. Though he knew someone with her particular skill set would never truly be helpless.
Unless she couldn’t speak.
He took the blanket from Marcos, and Luke wrapped it around Mina’s shoulders, being extra sure to pull the ends forward so that the front of her shirt—and her breasts—were covered. “Are you okay?”
Her hands had flown up to clutch the blanket. “No, I am not okay.”
She sounded furious. Her fear seemed to have vanished now that they were on the boat and away from any potential shark attacks. He nodded toward Marcos. “The lady’s all right. Get us back to the island, would you?”
After a quick inclination of his head, Marcos rushed back to the wheel. A moment later, Luke heard the whir of the anchor rising. When he’d jumped overboard, Marcos must have lowered that anchor really quick. Luke made a mental note to give the guy a bonus for his work.
“Is it okay to turn around?” Rayce asked, voice amused.
Since he wasn’t feeling a bit of amusement, Luke shot the wolf a glare. “Yes, but watch yourself.”
Moving slowly, Rayce turned toward him. Rayce met Luke’s stare first—a sign of respect—and then the wolf shifter’s gaze darted to a still shivering Mina. “You sure swim fast.”
“If it hadn’t been for the shark, I would have kept swimming.” Her focus was on the water. She swallowed. “It was circling me. I could feel it in the water. Just going around and around me. Like it was holding me in place.” Suddenly, her stare jerked toward Luke. “Did you do that?”
He let his brows climb. “Did I convince a shark to hold you prisoner? Interesting idea…and I’m flattered that you think I can control everything and everyone around me…but sharks don’t exactly fall in my dominion.” They weren’t evil. They were just…
Fish. Swimming. Eating. Surviving. No matter what Hollywood and their movies wanted to say, sharks weren’t some sort of predatory killing beasts. And, to date, he’d never encountered a shark shifter. Not to say there weren’t any out there but…
“What is your dominion?” Mina asked as the boat turned and she stumbled just a bit.
Automatically, his hand reached out to steady her. His fingers curled around her waist and he pulled her against his body. Much better. Her shivers seemed to ease when he touched her.
“She doesn’t look particularly afraid,” Rayce mused. “Shouldn’t she look afraid?”
Probably.
Mina’s head turned toward the wolf. “Same eyes,” she said. “I guess they don’t change, whether you’re man or beast?”
Rayce blinked the green eyes in question.
“White wolf,” Mina continued. The lights from the boat shined down on them. “That would explain the blond hair.”
Rayce’s blond hair was thick and unruly, curving over his forehead.
The guy was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Luke was glad the shifter wasn’t bounding around naked any longer. When you had shifters as friends, you learned fast that they let their animal sides out…a lot.
“Uh…did you just call me a wolf?” Rayce laughed. “Lady, you must’ve ha
d one hell of a lot to drink to—”
“She knows the score, Rayce.” Luke kept his hold on her. He liked having Mina close. “So don’t bother with the bullshit. I’m not.” Most humans didn’t know about the monsters who lurked in the dark. Most didn’t want to know.
Mina was different.
Because she was one of the monsters?
Rayce’s features tightened as he took a step toward Mina. He suddenly didn’t look quite so easy going. His gaze raked over Mina and his nostrils flared. “She doesn’t smell like a shifter. She smells like—”
“The ocean,” Mina muttered. “Considering my swim, I—”
“Strawberries,” Rayce said, nodding. “Sin.”
Mina’s body inched closer to Luke’s.
The boat hit a hard wave and shuddered. Considering how fast Marcos was driving, Luke was surprised they didn’t all stumble. To be on the safe side, he tightened his hold on Mina. He also glared a bit more at Rayce.
Rayce stared back at him. “What is she?”
Mina stiffened in Luke’s arms. “Um, excuse me, she is right here, wolfie.”
Rayce growled.
“Don’t.” Luke gave the order flatly. “You don’t want to threaten her.”
Now the wolf shifter’s jaw just dropped. “Are you kidding me, man? The woman was running from your house, fleeing like a thief who’d stolen you blind. She jumps into the water—swims because she’s so desperate to get away from you—and now you’re treating her like she’s some delicate piece of glass that’s going to shatter if I growl at her?”
He shrugged. “I’m dealing with her. Your job—and Julian’s—is to make sure there aren’t any other unplanned exits from the island.” Because he’d decided something important. Luke caught Mina’s chin in his left hand and turned her face toward him. “Guess what, sweetheart?”
“What?” The one word came out worried, fearful.
He grinned. “I’m keeping you.”
***
Mina was in Luke Thorne’s bedroom, and she was wearing a silk robe that he’d given to her. Just that silk robe and nothing else.
She was scared. She was pissed. And she was way, way out of her league.
“You can’t just…keep me,” Mina said for what had to the twentieth time. “You don’t get to keep people. That’s not legal.”
He was standing in front of the big, gleaming French doors that led out onto the balcony. “Who cares about legal? You know human laws don’t work in our world.” He threw open one of the doors and walked out onto the balcony. “Come enjoy the view. It’s killer.”
She didn’t want to enjoy anything with him. She wanted to get the Eye and get the hell away from Luke and his crazy self.
Luke. The wolf. The panther. I want away from them all.
Her hands fumbled with the robe’s belt, just to make sure it was good and tight. “I want to leave. I want to get on the boat and go back to Key West.”
He was outside, seemingly not even hearing her. Such a lie—Mina was willing to bet he had super hearing. Supernatural hearing. She hurried out onto the balcony. “Luke!”
Lazily, he turned toward her, propping one elbow on the balcony.
“Take me to the mainland, take—” Her robe blew up and her words stopped on a gasp. Oh, hell. She was pretty sure she’d just flashed the Lord of the Dark. She shoved down the robe, holding the silk against her thighs.
“Absolutely beautiful.”
Her heart was about to burst out of her chest.
“Feel free,” Luke invited with a lazy grin, “to flash me anytime.”
“Not funny,” she snapped back at him.
He kept leaning against that balcony, looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Probably because he didn’t. How wonderful it must be to just…be him.
His head cocked as his gaze slowly rose to her face. Her rather flaming face. “I wasn’t being funny,” Luke told her, his voice almost…tender. “I was being dead serious. When I first saw you, I thought you were sexy. A wet dream walking right up to me.”
Her mouth had gone dry and her heart beat raced even faster.
“Now I realize I was wrong. You are absolutely beautiful.”
She wasn’t. Her nose was too long. Her lips too wide. Her eyes—
“Beautiful,” he said again, utter conviction in his voice.
Her fingers had fisted around her robe. “I need to get back to Key West.”
He just stared at her.
She had to get this conversation back on track, ASAP. “Get Marcos to come back and take me to the mainland.”
“Are you trying to use that tricky little power of yours on me?” He lifted his index finger and actually shook it at her as if she were some naughty school kid. “Didn’t we agree that only works when I’m drunk?”
Then I need to get him drunk.
“And I don’t plan on drinking,” he added, as if he’d just read her mind. “When you’re near.”
“Luke!” He was about to drive her insane.
His smile stretched at her. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry I tricked you.” Maybe that was what he wanted. An apology. Her groveling. Fine. She could handle that. “So sorry.” She hoped she sounded sincere. She wasn’t. “I won’t do it again. I won’t bother you again. I just want to leave and—”
“But I don’t want you to leave.” He turned away from her and went back to staring at the sun. “So you aren’t.”
He couldn’t do that. She took two fast steps forward.
“You know about the Eye of Hell. You know about monsters. You know about me. Or at least, you think you do.” He didn’t look back at her.
So he missed seeing her freeze.
“What, exactly, do you think you know about me?” Now he just seemed vaguely curious.
She licked her lips and tried to figure out what to say. And what not to say. “You rule the dark.”
He waved his hand vaguely in the air. “Go on…”
Mina glanced over her shoulder. Oh, but the temptation to run again was strong. She could get down to the dock, dive into the water…
“And find yourself surrounded by sharks.”
She gasped. “You can read my thoughts!”
He laughed again. A low, rumbling laugh that she shouldn’t have found sexy, but she did. Dammit, she did.
“No, Mina.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “But I am starting to figure out the way that you think. You might fear me, but I learned you fear the sharks even more.”
“They have a lot of teeth,” she mumbled. “Sharp teeth.”
“So do I.”
She frowned at him.
“Come take a look at the view. You’ll enjoy it.”
Well, okay, fine. She took her time sidling up to the balcony. The wind hit her again, coming strong off the ocean, but she still had her death grip on the robe, so she didn’t flash anymore skin. Her breath eased out as she looked at the sun. At the waves. At the beauty all around her. “Incredible,” the word slipped from her, but it was true. The view, the scene—it was as if they were thousands of miles away from everyone else. The water just stretched. The waves rolled. She’d never seen anything so gorgeous.
“I agree,” he said, his voice a rasp.
Her head turned and she found Luke staring at her, not the view. He wasn’t smiling. Just…watching her.
Her heart stuttered. “You’re still angry.”
“Because you lied to me, manipulated me with your power, locked me in a cell and gassed me?”
Mina nodded.
He leaned toward her. His fingers slid under her jaw. A delicate touch, one she didn’t expect from him. “No, sweetheart, I’m not angry. I’m impressed. There’s a difference.”
He was—Mina frowned. “What now?”
“How many people…” His fingers slid down her throat, pausing over her frantically beating pulse. “Do you think have ever managed to get the drop on me like that?”
“Probably not ma
ny.”
“Only two. You and…” He stopped, clearing his throat. “Well, my asshole of a twin, but we won’t talk about him right now.”
Oh, no. He had a twin? “That part of the story is true, too?”
His fingers stopped their gentle caress. “You’ve heard about him?”
His touch made her feel funny. Hot. Shivery. Weird. “Could you move your hand?”
His brows lifted.
“Please?”
“Am I hurting you?” His fingers were still around her throat.
“No.”
“Then why move?”
Her eyes closed. “Because I think you’re turning me on. And it’s weird…wanting you when I’m scared. Wanting you when all you’re doing is touching me on my throat.”
He’d gone silent.
“I think you’re using your power against me now.” It was easier to speak when she didn’t have to look him in the eye. “Payback, huh? To see what it’s like to be vulnerable? To need someone else, to want someone, against your instincts. To—”
He laughed again. Only the sound was richer. Darker.
Her eyes opened. For just an instant, she could have sworn that she saw the flash of gold in his dark gaze. Gold…like the panther shifter’s stare. But then the flash was gone.
“I’m not making you want me. I’m not using any power against you.” His lips brushed lightly against hers. “What you feel is real desire. No tricks. You want me, Mina. You want to strip off that robe and have sex with me right here, right now.”
He was wrong. “That isn’t me. I’m not like that.” Despite what everyone thought. Despite what she’d made others think. “I’m not supposed to want you.”
He kissed her again. His tongue slid past her lips, pushed into her mouth. Tasted her.
A moan broke from Mina.
“Why not?” he rasped against her mouth. “I want you.”
She had to stop this. Stop him. Stop herself. Her hands flew up and pressed to his chest. “Don’t do this to me! Stop punishing me!”
But he shook his head. “Desire isn’t a punishment, especially not between us.”
She realized that he was telling the truth. “You…aren’t doing anything to me?”
“No.”
Her heartbeat seemed to echo in her ears.