think I have just the thing. Try this,” she coaxed, moving in even closer, her body almost touching his. She lifted the delicate amber bottle to just beneath the beautiful stranger’s nose. “I think this would suit you perfectly.”
He inhaled gently, and as Ember had hoped, heat flashed in his luminescent gaze. Good. That was good, to be wanted.
No, it’s bad. And I have serious impulse-control prob lems. And claws. And fangs …
“Interesting. This is a cologne?” he asked, his voice a velvety rumble. He lowered his head to her when he spoke, his large body curving around her small one until she felt they were the only two people in the room.
For the first time, rather than enjoying the knowledge of her own dominance, something in her recognized a stronger power than her own. Ember’s fascination rendered her strangely helpless.
“It’s a blend of essential oils,” she replied, tilting her head just a little as she looked up at him, startled again at just how fathomless his eyes seemed. “You could let me blend it into something for you … lotion, bath salts, that sort of thing. I could dilute it, make it more subtle. Or,” she continued, tipping the little bottle against her finger, “you could just wear it the way it is. Strong,” she breathed, hesitating only for a moment before daring to reach up and trail the finger down his throat, from Adam’s apple to the warm, intriguing hollow right at the base of it. “Elemental.”
Ember heard his sharp intake of breath, saw his pupils dilate. His lips, sculpted perfection, parted slightly as he dipped his head toward her.
“You’re a clever little demon, aren’t you?” he whispered, his breath feathering her ear.
It was a strange thing to say, but she hardly spared a thought for it. Instead, Ember gladly fell under the thrall of whatever strange magic this man carried with him, her surroundings fading until there was nothing for her but his scent, the steady sound of his breathing, and the intense heat that radiated from him and made her feel as though she’d gotten too close to the sun. She let her eyes drop shut, skimming her cheek against his, tipping her head back to allow him access to her waiting lips.
After so long, such a relief, to give in. Maybe this one would be strong enough to take all she had to give….
Come to me. Mine.
But when he was just a breath away, her beleaguered nuisance of a conscience managed to get in one final word.
I can’t believe you’re going to make out with this guy right now. In front of everybody. In the STORE!
That was what yanked her back, with an agonizing jolt, to herself—and to the reality of a strange man (albeit a stunningly gorgeous strange man) moving in for a very public lip-lock. Ember gasped as she realized what she’d been about to do, and the bottle of fragrance slipped from her fingers to shatter on the wooden floor.
The mess, and the now overwhelming smell of too much fragrance in one place, helped her hang on to sanity, even as shame flooded her and set her cheeks aflame.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, stumbling backward two steps, her eyes wide. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her body was racked with flashes of both intense heat and brutal cold. She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with her, but she had to get out of here, and away from the man who watched her with a steady gaze that was less human than it was pure predator.
She watched in horror as he reached for her, a frown creasing his dark brow.
“Ember,” he said. “It’s all right, wait—”
“I’m just … c-clumsy today, I guess!” She backed away from him so quickly that she banged her hip on the sharp edge of one of the small tables that were scattered about the shop. She barely felt it through the adrenaline, though the display of decorative glass perfume bottles wobbled precariously. Ember forced out a sharp, nervous laugh. The unnatural sound of it made her wince, but she kept backing up, wrapping her arms protectively around herself.
“I’ll go get something to clean that right up. Watch out for the glass.” She started to go, then turned, suffused with a helpless misery she’d sworn she was done with. But of course, she would never be done with it.
Not as long as she lived.
Why couldn’t she just be like everyone else?
Unable to resist, she took one last look at Raum. He really was magnificent. And because of it, one of the most frightening things she’d ever encountered. She knew she’d never be able to get him out of her mind … but since that, at least, would be safe, Ember knew she would welcome the dreams.
There was just no way they could ever be her reality.
“Ember, are you okay?” she heard Ginni ask, though it sounded far away. All she could see were the two men watching her with eyes that suddenly seemed to flare and burn, everything around them going dark. She had seen eyes like that before. No matter how she tried to block it out, she remembered.
“I’m just … I’m sorry,” she said softly. And though she knew it was madness, she turned and fled. But she knew now that she would never be able to run far enough.
There was no way to run from herself.
Chapter 2
“So. Our first she-demon. This one’s going to be interesting.”
Raum slouched over his beer and glared at Gadreel, whose infernally good mood was improving with each passing second. He shot a quick look at Leviathan, but the serpent was as impassive as ever. He had a sudden urge to throw a punch that would knock him out of the chair. Maybe that would elicit a reaction.
“You think anything with a vagina is interesting,” he said instead, and took a long pull of his beer.
Gadreel’s grin widened, and the sudden burst of feminine giggling from the direction of the kitchen door told Raum that the waitresses in this little sports bar had already formed their own Gadreel fan club. Disgusting. Raum frowned more deeply, and hoped it would keep any admirers away. Since his glory days, during which he’d earned his one great claim to fame of having seduced Eve into partaking of a certain forbidden fruit in the Garden, Gadreel had moved on to the seduction of every female, be it lovely and lethal she-demon or soft and yielding human, that he could get his hands on.
The show was getting old.
And like every day since he’d drawn the short straw and had to accompany Gadreel on this mission, Raum wished that just once the stupid idiot had ignored the useless piece of flesh between his legs and thought better of laying so much as a finger on Lucifer’s favorite concubine. That would have improved his own existence greatly.
But no. Another little nothing of a human town, an other homicidal half-breed demon to take out, per the orders of the white-winged powers-that-be. He’d had no idea how overrun Earth had become with such things, or how difficult it was making life for the angels who actually gave a damn about protecting humans. Too many half-breeds, not enough white wings who could devote all their time to slaughtering them. Enter the demon assassins with nothing but time on their hands. It really was the perfect solution.
Raum might have found it amusing, in a sick sort of way, had it not meant that
