Boomer whined and barked once at something behind me.
My pulse thudded and my mouth went dry when I sensed Luc’s presence. I wiped my hand across my eyes to dry them, then turned to see him standing in the bay window, staring at me.
“Am I too late?” he asked.
Somehow, I found my voice. “Shade already moved on, and Nuala blinked out.” I hated that I sounded breathless. Vulnerable. My anger put me on the defensive. “You should have gotten here faster if you wanted to see the show.”
His brow furrowed into a puzzled frown. “I got here as soon as I could. Pop wanted to talk to me about Connelly.”
The manner of the man’s death would always haunt me. “Did Cezar have some regrets?”
“None. He simply wanted to make sure no one was blamed for Connelly’s disappearance.”
Of course not. Heaven forbid that Cezar Lazare be blamed for any of his actions. “So he what? Cast a spell on the police so they’ll forget Connelly even existed?”
“That’s a little beyond what even Pop can manage. He suggested that Connelly’s wallet should wash up on the beach north of The Ark, and that a witness will claim he stole a motorboat to make his getaway. The boat will be found near one of the water cribs.”
The water cribs providing drinking water for the city were two miles out in the lake. “So the authorities will assume Connelly drowned.”
Luc nodded. “Since no body will ever be found, they’ll assume he’s resting at the bottom of the lake.”
So Luc had intruded on my grief just to tell me about his father’s clever plan.
I snapped at him. “I’ll let Ethan know in the morning. Now if you don’t mind, you can do one of your vanishing acts. I’m exhausted.”
My spine so straight I felt stiff, I started down the hallway toward the kitchen door and whistled for Boomer, who trotted after me.
Luc’s words stopped me in my tracks. “When I asked if I was too late, I meant for us.”
What was this? Another of his word games? I wasn’t playing anymore.
Turning, I found him directly behind me. Too close. I licked my lips. “I don’t get it. What exactly are you saying?”
“That I love you and want a future with you.”
I nearly reeled with shock. “Why are you doing this?”
My pulse thrummed and my head went light, but I couldn’t open myself up to more heartbreak.
So when Luc came closer, hand reaching for me, I cried, “Don’t touch me.”
He didn’t stop and I reacted on instinct. Furious, I hit him in the chest with the flat of both hands to make him stop. What felt like an electrical charge jolted up my arms to my shoulders, but Luc lit up like a Christmas tree, then flew back down the hallway and landed on his butt square in the middle of the dining room.
He looked as shocked as I was feeling. I hadn’t thought to do him any harm, but apparently my anger had gone out of control even more than it had with Doyle’s wild dog. I could thank my ancestors and The Book of Powers for protecting me.
“Are you going to do that to me every time I touch you?” Luc asked.
“Which will be never.”
He got to his feet. Despite his getting tossed, his lips quivered as if he were trying not to smile. “Remember how much you like me touching you?”
He was putting out that seductive beacon again. As much as I tried to shut it out, a wave of familiar, knee-weakening sensation washed through me.
“Luc, don’t.”
Panic made me back up. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I didn’t want to be hurt again, either.
So when he reached for me a second time, I batted away his arm. The mutual shock jarred me but sent him spinning into a wall, face first.
He righted himself and his smile widened into a grin. “You’re angry with me.”
“What was your first clue?”
He was doing it again, making me feel things I didn’t want to feel. He stood so close that I had trouble breathing. He wasn’t even touching me this time, yet sensations I couldn’t banish spread throughout my body. I wanted to back up. To run from him. I couldn’t move. Instead, I imagined his touching me, his taking me, my giving over to him.
“Luc, don’t make me feel things for you when you don’t mean it.”
“What makes you think I don’t mean it?”
“You walked away from me twice tonight. Okay, vanished once, walked the second time.”
“Afraid for you once. Had to talk to Pop the second time.”
“We’ve already been through that.”
“Not all of it. Not the part when I told him I was coming for you.”
“You told him?”
“More like warned him. I told him I didn’t want any repercussions. That I was going to make sure you were safe no matter what.”
“And he agreed?”
“He didn’t disagree.”
“What changed in a matter of hours?” I asked.
“Nuala’s love for your brother made me rethink everything. She would have done anything to be with Shade, and she reminded me that she never abandoned me and that some people are worth fighting for.”
My voice went up in pitch. “Now you think I’m worth fighting for?”
“I think you’re worth everything to me, Skye Cross. I especially love you for your courage, which has nothing to do with your birthright. It’s who you are. An extraordinary woman.”
He was so close, his breath whispered over my face as he spoke. I wanted to sway straight into his arms and stay there forever. Instead, I glared at him.
“Um, I do I hold The Book of Powers, remember. You realize that I’m going to work to save humanity from Kindred corruption.”
“That’ll be a challenging task, and I won’t try to stop you. I’ll even be there for you when you need me.” He grinned. “Besides, even if we’re not together, you’re bound to get into trouble anyway.”
“And you won’t try to stop me?”
“I have no reason to. I may continue to work for my father, but know that I will never pledge my soul to the Kindred.”
I gasped. Could I believe him? “When did that happen?”
“When I realized that’s who I was. No matter what you decide, I stand by you, because I love you. And when Pop gets to know you, he’ll give you his respect.” His expression intent on my face, he asked, “So what do you say? Can you see a future with me?”
His voice was as mesmerizing as his touch. As he had on the first night we’d met, he made my insides tremble and my breasts feel full and tight. Every fiber in my being longed to say yes, but I couldn’t speak.
Instead, I slipped my hands up his chest. Little sparks followed the trail made by my fingers, making me think any heightened emotion could transform me. Which would make the future even more interesting for us.
I wound my arms around Luc’s neck and felt the current pass through us and bind us together. I kissed him until we were both breathless.
“Let’s go upstairs…um, the human way, so Boomer can come with us. If you’re serious about us, I have some cats who need to put their paws of approval on you.”
“No problem.”
Grinning, he kissed me again, picked me up, and carried me upstairs and into our supercharged future.
About the Author
With 90 novels and more than seven million books in print, Patricia Rosemoor is fascinated with “dangerous love” – combining romance with danger. She has written various forms of romantic and paranormal romantic thrillers, even romantic horror, bringing a different mix of thrills and chills to her stories. Patricia has won a Golden Heart from Romance Writers of America and two Reviewers Choice and two Career Achievement Awards from RT BOOKreviews, and in her other life, she teaches Popular Fiction and Suspense-Thriller Writing, credit courses at Columbia College Chicago.
BORN TO LOVE
by Caridad Piñeiro (3rd book in the Reborn Vampire series; Contemporary Romance/Paranormal Suspense)
Fated to survive…
FBI agent David Harris’s life nearly came to an end during a botched raid. Though he survived, his body and spirit were broken by the perilous underworld he believes his estranged partner, Diana Reyes, has embraced with her Vampire husband. Now, left to a life in a wheelchair, David is angry, distrustful, and withdrawn…
Meant to love…
Seeing her former lover, David, again rekindles feelings long forgotten for Maggie Gonzalez. But she’s been thrown into a terrifying future as a werewolf, threatening to destroy what they might have again.
Destined to die…
Diana Reyes has lived on the edge since her blood was contaminated by Vampire Ryder Latimer. Her unexpected pregnancy is putting a huge strain on her body, but she’ll do anything to help right the wrongs of the past and help her former partner find happiness…even if it’s in the arms of a werewolf.
KING OF HEARTS
by Kay David (Contemporary Romance/Suspense)
She loved him so much, she was willing to kill. He loved her so much, he was willing to die.
One night with bad-girl biker Jessie Delacort should have been enough for straight-laced cop Kingson Landry. But she got under his skin and hasn’t let go. Discovering she’s an undercover Texas ACES agent makes it even harder to resist her. But he must, because his past could kill Jessie just as easily as it has the other people he loves.
When Jessie Delacort rides into town on her Harley, the last thing she wants is to fall in love with another man who is hiding secrets too dark to reveal. But when they’re forced to work together to bring down a powerful drug cartel, Jessie knows she’s got it bad for the quiet cop with the haunted eyes.
When the cartel’s vengeance-driven leader sets his sights on the two of them, King knows he’ll do whatever it takes to keep Jessie safe. Even if that means giving up their chance of turning the white-hot attraction between them into love.
A KISS OF REVENGE
by Natalie Damshroder (Contemporary Romance/Paranormal Suspense)
To Reese Templeton, marriage is completely over-rated, especially after her quadruple failure. She wants to settle down to a solitary life of owning a bakery. Too bad her super-human talents and the search for her husband’s killer have made her something of a human Taser. She’s full of enough electricity to short out a city block or send a man into cardiac arrest with just one kiss.
But the alluring P.I. Griffin Chase, a man she has a history with, is stirring up feelings of need she hasn’t felt in years. Only this time, her desire to be in his arms has nothing to do with her fear of loneliness and everything to do with the current charging through her body every time he looks at her…touches her.
Griffin doesn’t need the spark of Reese’s super-human talents to light up his body. The woman does it with one swipe of her tongue across her bottom lip. He’s determined to help her move on, but to do that, he must catch her late husband’s killer, staying on track before she has a chance to exact her revenge. Because leading Reese to jail in handcuffs may just break his heart for the final time.
DUET IN CRIMSON
by Patricia Rosemoor (2-in-1 bundle; re-release; Contemporary Romance/Suspense)
In Holiday in Crimson
Westbrook Department Store’s Christmas party wasn’t that wild--but Santa ended up dead and now window designer Shelby Corbin suddenly finds herself the prime suspect in his murder. While CEO Rand McNabb’s romantic attentions both thrill her and frighten her—is Westbrook’s impossibly sexy co-owner really helping Shelby search for the truth about that fatal night? Shelby wonders if Rand has a deadlier motive for courting the only possible witness to the crime...
In Nightmare in Crimson
Last holiday, Pippa McNabb’s faithless husband was found murdered in a Santa suit after a Christmas party. Another year, another Christmas party, and another dead Santa – this time, run down by eight tiny reindeer and a sleigh. And now Pippa is the prime suspect.
Sexy sleigh driver Sky Thornton seems intent on helping her, but is the man who knows too much about her really trying to clear her name, or is he trying to frame her for a murder he committed?
Animal Instincts (Entangled Ignite) Page 23