He looked me over, his gaze intense, as if he could see through my clothes.
I felt tingly all over. “Stop that,” I whispered.
“Stop what?” he said in a soft voice.
“Looking at me.”
He chuckled, deep and rich. “When are we going to end this little game we’re playing and take things to the next level, Clarke?”
“Never,” I said.
“Bedroom’s through there.” He pointed. There was a luxurious bedroom on the jet, and I could see the bed through the door where he was pointing. “No time like the present.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“You know why not. Because you’re only interested in something casual, and sex is more important to me than that.”
“But I promised to commit to you, and to be exclusive,” he said. “And I have been.”
I scoffed.
“I have,” he said. “Even without your agreeing to let me make love to you, I’ve given up all my typical female conquests.”
“You are such a liar,” I said.
He shook his head. “Not lying. I don’t find myself interested. No woman out there holds a candle to you, Clarke.”
That was cheesy and cliche and his attempt to manipulate me. And yet, I liked hearing it. I felt a wave of warmth and goodness at the sound of it. I sighed.
He leaned forward, his voice full of dark promise. “I’d like to spread you out on your back on that bed, and peel your clothes off, inch by inch, putting my mouth on every piece of skin I bared.”
In spite of myself, I shivered. “Naelen…”
“Yes?”
“Stop it,” I said again.
He laughed softly.
Truthfully, I did find him incredibly attractive, and he wasn’t wrong that I had speculated on what it would be like to climb between the sheets with him. But I could never do that, even if I was fairly sure that he wasn’t taking any other women to bed. After all, he and I were together most of the time. If there wasn’t something to do with Cunningham, Naelen made up something for us to go and investigate. We spent our time searching for clues, fighting and killing bad things, and flirting afterward. He had no time for other women.
And sure, he had been adamant lately that he wanted us to be exclusive, and that he wanted to have an actual relationship with me, and maybe he did, in his own way. I knew that he cared about me. We were friends. Good friends.
But he was Naelen Spencer. He was rich and he was obsessed with sex and he was so damned cocky. I could never give in to him. I could never be with him. It was ludicrous to even consider it.
Not that I was considering it. I would never… ever…
“No,” I said. “I will never let you spread my out on my back, Naelen.”
“You want to be on top? That can be arranged.”
I raised my glass and eyed him over it. “You just can’t conceive of the idea that a woman doesn’t want you, can you? Well, let me spell it out for you, Naelen. I do not want you. Not now. Not ever.”
He arched an eyebrow. But there was a twinkle in his eye. He was enjoying our sparring.
Hell. Maybe I was too.
CHAPTER TWO
“Ugh, I can’t believe you convinced me to come here,” I said, gazing around the club. Naelen and I were back home in Sea City, and he’d asked me out for a drink. The bar I usually hung out at, Happy Harry’s, was largely populated by dragon slayers, which meant it wasn’t a particularly safe place for Naelen. It was out. So, we had to go to a place that he liked, which meant something like this.
It was all dim lights and dark woods and polished surfaces. The people in the bar wore suits and skirts. They looked coiffed and proper.
I was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a t-shirt. I’d left my bow and arrows back in the car, at Naelen’s urging, even though it made me feel twitchy not having them. I did have a weapon, though. I had a knife strapped to the inside of my ankle. I didn’t know if I could kill a dragon with it, but I thought I might be able to take down a vampire if I really had to. Anyway, I didn’t fit in here. At all.
“What?” he said. “It’s nice here.”
“Exactly,” I said. “I’m not nice.”
“You are incredibly nice,” he said. “Nice to look at. Nice to talk to. Nice to try to figure out.” He gazed at me hungrily.
I loved it when he looked at me that way. I might act as though I didn’t, but it was nice to be so desired. I felt myself melting a little bit. “I’m just… I’m underdressed.”
“You look great,” he said, gaze raking me in the way that always made me feel as if he was looking through my clothes. He wound an arm around my waist and walked me over to the bar.
The place where his hand touched me sent waves of sensation through me. I wriggled out of his grasp, a little breathless.
He gave me a small smile.
I swallowed.
“Naelen!” said a voice.
Naelen turned.
There was a man next to him in a navy suit with styled hair and a cleft chin. “Thought that was you.”
Naelen smiled. “Oh, Ethan, so good to see you.”
“Yeah, long time,” said Ethan. “You weren’t even at the charity ball for leukemia patients last month. Worried me a little.”
“I’m fine,” said Naelen.
“No, so I hear,” said Ethan. “You’re off playing cowboys and Indians, from what they tell me.”
“Cowboys and Indians?” Naelen furrowed his brow.
“Cowboys and vampires, maybe,” said Ethan. He peered around Naelen. “This the dragon slayer, then? Is she really a dragon slayer?”
I stiffened.
“This is Clarke,” said Naelen. “And you shouldn’t worry. She’s not an opportunist. She doesn’t kill shifters, and she doesn’t kill for money. She only kills rogue dragons—out-of-control monsters that do nothing but kill. She saves people. She’s not—”
“She is a dragon slayer then.” Ethan laughed, shaking his head. “Man, I have heard some kinky shit in my time, but this… wow, that really…” He eyed me. “Does he ask you to use the arrows in bed? You guys play little games?”
I glared at Ethan. “We’re not sleeping together.”
“Who’s telling you this?” said Naelen.
Ethan shrugged. “Everyone knows, Naelen. And if you’re not sleeping with her, what is the point? Of course, now that I look at her, I wonder if it’s really worth it to take her to bed. She’s kind of—”
“Stop right there,” said Naelen in a very low voice.
Ethan cocked his head to one side, his smile growing wider. “Wow, you’ve really gone over the deep end, haven’t you? I thought maybe it was all just in fun, but you’re serious about this gold-digging slut. Let me know if you want the name of my therapist, man. She’s—”
Naelen grabbed Ethan behind the neck and held him there. “You need to apologize for calling her names.”
Ethan raised one hand and freed himself using a burst of magic that propelled Naelen and me back two or three feet. “Have you lost it?”
“It’s fine,” I muttered in a low voice. “It’s fine.” I turned on my heel and walked out.
* * *
“Clarke, wait,” said Naelen, hurrying after me.
I kept walking. I headed down the sidewalk as fast as I could go.
“You’re walking past the car,” he said.
I kept going. I wasn’t getting back in Naelen’s car. I wasn’t going anywhere with him.
He caught up to me and grabbed me by the shoulder. He turned me to face him. “Hey, I’m sorry about that guy. He’s an asshole.”
“It’s fine,” I said.
“It’s not fine,” he said. “I should have taught him a lesson, but I still haven’t shifted, and I don’t have any magic right now, so… let’s just go somewhere else.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“No?”
“I can’t.”
“Okay, we’ll go back to my place, then?”
“No.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because if we go to your place, you’ll just try to sleep with me again, and I am so not in the mood for that crap.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Clarke—”
“I can’t be around you right now,” I said.
“Come on,” he said. “I don’t want to be around anyone else but you right now.”
Was he serious about that? I couldn’t figure him out. Sometimes, he seemed so cavalier about everything, and then others, he seemed sincerely into me. “This doesn’t work, Naelen.”
“What doesn’t?”
“Us hanging out,” I said. “I don’t belong in your world.”
“Because that guy was a dick?” said Naelen. “He was saying shit to me too, you know. It wasn’t just about you. He was telling me that I needed to stop doing what I’ve been up to.”
“I heard him,” I said. “But maybe that’s my fault too.”
“What?” he said.
“You make up these missions for us to go on. You want us to hunt down Cunningham or to go after some crazed drakes. But you only do it to try to get in my pants.”
“That’s not true.” His brow furrowed. “Look, I’m serious that I want to be with you, Clarke, but I want to stop Cunningham regardless. And I like helping people. It’s much more meaningful than trying to make more money than I could ever spend. I’d do that even if you refused me.”
“I do refuse you.”
“Yeah, but you’re not serious.”
“Stop that,” I said. “Of course I’m serious. And playing around like this, having drinks with each other, it’s pointless. I can’t be with someone like you. You can’t be with someone like me. Heck, it’s messing up your life.”
“Well, maybe I don’t think I even had a life before I met you.”
“God, would you stop that?”
“Stop what?’
“Saying stuff to try to manipulate me into thinking you’re into me? I know it’s all about sex, and I know you don’t think of me that way. I don’t think of you that way either.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Sometimes, Clarke Gannon, I get the distinct impression that you’re deaf. Do you listen to anything that I say?”
“Sure, I listen,” I said. “But I also read between the lines.” I turned and started walking again.
He caught my shoulder again.
I shook him off. “Let me go, Naelen. Just let me go.”
CHAPTER THREE
I was so angry that I walked all the way home to my apartment. I could have sat and waited for a bus to come and pick me up, but the thought of sitting on one of those benches sounded like being trapped to me. Keeping moving seemed better somehow.
When I was on the road with Naelen, sometimes I spent too much time in his company, and I got to thinking that the way he behaved toward me was normal or something. But it wasn’t. Fawning over me, teasing me, making suggestive comments… Who did that?
Naelen. Only him and people like him.
Because he wasn’t like me. He was wealthy and entitled. He didn’t take anything seriously. He was a joke. I could never be with a guy like him.
I didn’t fit in his world. He didn’t fit in mine.
It was a good thing that I’d resisted sleeping with him thus far.
I stopped on my way home at a convenience store and picked up a six pack of Corona. They didn’t sell limes there, more’s the pity. Corona wasn’t the same without lime, but I’d have to make do.
Standing in line, waiting to pay, I scolded myself, because I couldn’t believe that I was even thinking about sleeping with him. Or thinking about anything else. I didn’t want him, not really. I had a physical curiosity, nothing more.
I got home, opened a beer, and sat down on the couch, feeling depressed.
“You’re being stupid,” I said aloud to myself. “Nothing’s changed. You were never with him. You were never going to be with him. Ever.”
I drained my beer and glared at the couch, thinking of the first time Naelen had come into my apartment, and the way my pulse had raced as he’d invaded my space.
“Because he’s an asshole,” I said aloud. “You hate men like him.”
There was a knock on my door.
Oh, Jesus, Naelen had followed me home. “Go away!” I yelled.
“Clarke?” called a voice through the door. A voice that was definitely not Naelen’s.
I leaped up and went to open the door. “Logan?”
He smiled at me. Logan was a gargoyle. He had gray skin, like living stone, and he was tall and chiseled and beautiful. He also had wings. He was my ex.
But we were still friends. We had a history, starting back when we were teenagers and he’d killed this bastard who’d assaulted my sister Gina. After a guy kills for you, you know he’s devoted, yeah?
Anyway, I cared about him too, even though we couldn’t be together romantically anymore.
“Hey,” he said, grinning.
“Hey,” I said.
He pointed at the Corona I was holding. “You going to ask me inside, offer me a beer?”
I cringed. “Um… you can’t sleep here.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?” I stepped back. “Just like that, okay?” Logan was in denial about the fact that we were not a couple anymore. Up until a few months ago, every time he showed up in town, I had been in denial too and ended up sleeping with him. Now, though, I was stronger than that. Especially with Naelen…
Why had I thought that? There was nothing going on with Naelen.
Logan laughed, looking embarrassed. “Uh… guess I’ve been a little pushy, huh?”
I stepped out of the doorway to let him in. “You have a one-track mind about certain things.”
He came inside and shut the door after him. “I do. I have to admit it.”
I got a beer out of the fridge and handed it over.
“Thanks,” he said.
We stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, and then I headed over to the couch where I’d been sitting and sat down again.
Logan came after me. He sat opposite me on a ratty recliner that I owned. “You still, um, working for that dragon guy?”
I pointed at him. “If you came over here to give me shit about that—”
“I didn’t.” He took a swig of beer. “I was in town, and I, um, I wanted to talk to you, so I came by.”
“How’s business?” I asked. Logan was a dragon slayer, too, among other things. He traveled around solving problems and hunting down monsters. He saved people. But he always had to keep moving. He could never stay still for too long.
“Same as ever,” he said.
“Did you meet any pretty girls?” I said.
“You know that I only have eyes for you, Clarke,” he muttered into his beer.
I sighed. “Logan, you don’t have to be faithful to me anymore. We aren’t together now. You can move on.”
“No moving on from you,” he said. “Uh, actually, that’s sort of why I’m here.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ve been talking with Gina,” he said. “She reached out to me because she’s doing some twelve-step thing? Something like that?”
“Oh, yeah, she’s working through the last part of her rehab program,” I said. “She’s doing really well. She’s even got a job with the facility. They give her a place to live as part of her wages. She loves it there.”
Thanks to the generous salary Naelen paid me, I’d been able to send my sister to the best rehab facility in Sea City. She was a drake who’d been addicted to dragon flesh, the way most drakes were. The addiction came first, generally, then the transformation. Dragon meat was powdered, put into pills, and then sold on the street as drug called dice. People liked to take it because it gave them a magical high, made them feel invincible. Then, under its influence, they’d do stupid
things like jump off buildings. When they died, they came back to life transformed into a magical human/dragon hybrid. It had happened to my sister years ago. She’d never been able to kick the addiction until now.
“Right,” said Logan. “Well, she seemed good. A little… uh, nutty—”
“Yeah, they’re big into spiritual stuff at that place. It’s all about the white light or something.”
Logan laughed. “Like I said, nutty.”
“But it works for her,” I said. “Even AA has that higher power nonsense. It helps to think there’s something bigger than yourself out there. Who knows? Maybe there is.”
“If someone was looking out for us, he’s done a shitty job,” said Logan.
“True,” I said, sighing. “Anyway, she got in touch with you?”
“Yeah, she wanted to apologize for the past and stuff,” said Logan. “I told her I never held a grudge about anything.”
“Well, that’s good of you.”
“Hey, for you two?” He shrugged. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do. You guys are my family. Closest thing I’ve got.”
I smiled at him. “I agree. You too.”
“Well, uh, anyway, we got to talking about you. How you afforded the rehab program. What you’ve been up to.”
“Oh?” Where was this going?
Logan set his beer down on my coffee table. “She said you’ve been traveling around a lot with that dragon guy.”
“You know his name,” I said, feeling annoyed.
“You never used to travel,” he said.
“I know,” I said. “But that was because of Gina. She was always in trouble one way or the other, and I couldn’t leave Sea City. Besides, there’s a big rogue dragon problem here.” There were two different kinds of dragons. Shifters, who were intelligent and could turn back into humans, and rogues, who were nothing but monsters that breathed fire. I only killed the monsters.
“But now, Gina’s doing okay,” said Logan, “so you can travel.”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “Besides, we really want to stop Cunningham. He’s a bad guy, and he keeps evading us.”
“Right,” said Logan. He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Well, I kind of like it,” I said. “It’s cool to go places that aren’t Sea City.”
Embers (The Slayer Chronicles Book 2) Page 2