Deceptions: A Collection (39 page)

A familiar grin tugged at his lips. “Baby girl, the only time I’ve been in your way is when you put me there.”

He was gone before I could figure out what that could mean. Gone before I could ask a question. Gone…but there was a giant cat stalking along at my back. His tawny pelt smooth as silk, the sooty gray marks rippling over his muscled frame.

“Damon?”

The great cat’s head swung up to look at me and he watched me with Damon’s eyes.

“How do we stop this?”

He sat down and started to lick one paw.

Fucking cats.

Frustration chewed at me as I headed off through the undergrowth. His voice followed me. “I was just here for the kid, baby girl. That’s all My Lady wanted. The rest is up to you and I don’t think you can handle it. Nobody thinks you can.”

I flipped him off.

His laugh chased me.

Nobody thought I could handle anything.

Maybe they were right, but it wasn’t going to stop me.

I tripped over the massive body of a beheaded snake and found myself in a pit. Surrounded by bones. I started to scream, but all that came out of my mouth was the sound of a phone ringing—

I jerked upright in the bed at the second ring.

Damon stroked a hand down my belly. “Sorry. I should have turned the damn thing off.”

Laying my hand over my heart, I tried to make myself breathe. “Yeah. Like she’d really appreciate that.”

He watched me. A brooding look entered his eyes as the phone rang a third time.

“You have to answer that,” I said quietly.

A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I don’t
have
to do anything,” he said flatly.

After the fourth ring, it went silent.

“Why did you do that?” I asked, dragging a blanket up and trying to ignore the way my heart continued to jitter around inside my chest like a hummingbird on Torque. I hadn’t ever touched that drug—it was speed for shifters and would probably kill me, but I imagined it would jack up my heart like this.

“Because once I talk to her, I’m going to have to answer questions, probably gather up Doyle and head back. I’m not ready to do that yet. As long as I don’t talk to her, it’s not an issue.” Wide shoulders moved and I found myself distracted by the way the tattoo played across his skin. The stark, unyielding lines of it mesmerized me and I found myself wanting to crawl on top of him and learn it with my eyes, my hands, my…

Shit. Now
really
wasn’t the time.

I swallowed and jerked my eyes away from him, staring at the wall in front of me. “You can’t avoid it forever. You know that.”

“Yeah. I’ll have to take the next call, but…” his voice trailed off and he sighed, lowering his head and staring at the floor while he rubbed the back of his neck.

He looked tired. It was an odd thing, I thought, seeing him look tired. “Did you sleep?”

Gray eyes flicked my way. “Yeah. Not a lot, but I don’t need much anyway.” He shifted on the bed, moving until he was kneeling over my thighs, hands braced on either side of my hips. “You had some crazy dreams. And you talk in your sleep. Muttering about snakes and trees and bones.”

“I was dreaming about those kids. Whoever is behind this…” I nibbled on my lip and toyed with the sheet. “This isn’t done for me. I can’t…I can’t walk away from it.”

His eyes studied my face. “She’ll call me back. I’ll have to go…for now. I don’t want you diving into this without me.”

I didn’t answer him. There was just no way I could.

“Kit…” he growled.

“Don’t,” I said softly. “You’re going to try to make me say something I can’t say, snarl at me, try to intimidate me into something that just isn’t in me to give. I won’t do it, Damon. I won’t.”

Threading his fingers into my hair, he tugged me close, pressed his brow to mine. “Foolish little girl…I still think you’re a foolish girl. Why in the hell am I here with you?”

“Nobody is making you stay.”

“Yeah, somebody is. You are. I just fucking
can’t
.” He growled the words against my lips and nipped me lightly.

It turned into a deeper kiss that left my blood humming, but before I could do anything about it, he rolled off the bed and started to prowl the room. “Can’t,” he muttered. “Can’t right now…”

“How much time before she calls again?”

Damon shrugged. “No telling. Five minutes. Five hours.”

“Then maybe we should have that talk.”

He stilled. It was an eerie, peculiar stillness. Light reflected off his eyes as he stared at me. “Kit—”

Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the wooden headboard. It was old—reclaimed wood, made from what looked like old doors and painted white. Set against the dark, burnished red woods, it shouldn’t have looked so charming, but it did. The wood felt scratchy against my back and I focused on it to give my mind something else to think about as I puzzled through the mess in my head.

“We either have this talk now or we’re not doing it,” I finally said. “You have this idea in your head that I’m incapable of handling shit and I’m fed up.”

“It’s not that I think you’re incapable,” he muttered. “You’re too fucking capable, even as you take on shit that I know should break you, that I know you should run screaming from, but you do it anyway. You do it, you handle it, and even when I think you’re crazy, when almost anybody
else
in your shoes would find a way out, you just soldier on.”

“So am I capable or am I a silly little fool?” I demanded.

“Both!” he snapped. “I’ve got messes of my own that I have to deal with, and the last thing I needed was a cocky little half-human throwing herself in my way. I don’t want to do this and watch myself get tangled up with you and then see you plunge into some disaster you can’t get out of.”

Blowing out a breath, I said quietly, “That’s a little deep, isn’t it? I mean, we’ve known each other…what…a week?”

Gray eyes stared at me. “You want to know what rut is, Kit? Really know?”

My heart banged against my ribs. The intensity in his voice, the deep growl of it danced across my skin and I could hardly breathe. The air in the room was charged, so tight and hot.

He came to me, all hard muscle and grace and feline beauty and I couldn’t think for wanting him. He knelt on the bed and braced one hand on the headboard by my head. “Do you, Kit?” he asked again, his breath drifting across my lips.

When in doubt—or terror—reach for the sarcasm. Curling my lip at him, I said, “Are you going to tell me it’s some mystical fated mates shit? Sorry. I won’t buy that. It doesn’t work that way.”

His hand curled around my neck, his thumb resting in the hollow of my neck. “No. Absolutely it doesn’t. This is all on my part, and whether or not you’ll ever feel a damn thing for me is up to you…but you already feel something. Even if I hadn’t already figured that out, I would have gotten a clue when you came muttering my name and clutching at me during the night, baby girl.” The pad of his thumb stroked over me. “No. It’s more complicated…better. Easier. Worse. Harder. It started when you pulled that fucking sword on me in your office. I wanted you then, but wanting is easy. Almost any woman can satisfy a guy when he just needs to get laid.”

“Nice to know this isn’t just about you being horny.”
Look away
, I told myself. Needed to do that because the raw intensity in his eyes was killing me. Killing me—

But that was one thing I just couldn’t do. Couldn’t. At all.

“Your mouth was another problem for me,” he muttered, leaning in and licking my lower lip. “You fucking smart ass. Mouthing off from the get-go. I’ve never found a smart ass so appealing until I met you.”

“Uh-huh. You’re still not explaining much here.”

A slow smile curled his lips. The hand he had on my neck stroked down. I had the blanket tucked under my arms, but it caught under his palm and went down under the path of his hand, stopping when he paused, just over my heart.

“Sex is easy. Rut is anything but—it’s physical, emotional, mental. We focus on one woman and I started focusing on you from day one. It got worse every damn time I did something that I knew scared you…but you just snarled back at me. I knew you were smart and quick, and all I needed was your brain and your connections—I didn’t want your mouth or anything else.”

His thumb stroked over the inner curve of my breast as he continued. “But you didn’t just give me your mouth. If you’d just been mouthy, or if you hadn’t tried…but hell, you gave me everything. Five minutes after I all but brutalized you, we walked into a hall full of shifters and one of them dared to touch you and instead of showing fear, you busted his nose—you had no weapons and still you fought.”

His mouth brushed over mine as he whispered, “You stood by the body of a dead kid, a wolf you didn’t know and I saw the grief in your eyes and it gutted me. You had no reason to care, but you did. I knew, then, even if the Alpha
wasn’t
issuing threats you would have done everything you had to do to find Doyle…that was when I really started to slip. But I’d already done the damage and I couldn’t undo it, could I?”

Reaching up, I laid my hand over his. “If you couldn’t undo the damage, pal, you wouldn’t be in bed with me.”

A smile tugged at his lips. “Well, there is that, I guess.”

He shifted his hand around and caught mine, lifting my wrist to his mouth. It was the one Jude had bitten. Even that single thought was enough to send a cold sliver of fear lancing through my mind.

Damon, the bastard, sensed it and a storm danced in his eyes. “Then the vampire showed up—I wanted to tell you then that I’d keep you safe, but how could I make you believe it when you were already scared of me? When you had every right to be afraid of the Alpha?”

Something tickled the back of my mind.
The Alpha
—

But before I could latch onto it, he continued. “And he bit you. I knew he had, knew there would be troubles. There will
still
be troubles. As soon as you leave this house—” A muscle pulsed in his jaw, a growl vibrating deep in his chest. “That’s why I don’t want you going out there to work this until I can get back to you.”

“She’s not likely to turn her favorite killer out just to help round up a couple of people who like to hunt stray shifters and witches,” I told him, resting my hand on his thigh. “So far, the only one who had any affiliation was Doyle. And that was a fuck-up of epic proportions, but still. I can’t wait idly by for you to come back. What if they go into hiding and we don’t find them?”

“And what if he sends his fucking servants after you? In
here
, you are safe, but out there? Or if you get hurt, caught by some of those fuckers? Just a few seconds after he wakes for the day and you’re his, Kit.”

I swallowed. “Not if his bond is broken.”

Damon tensed, his grip on my wrist tightening. “Be careful where you go from here, Kit.
His
hold on you is temporary…
mine
won’t be. Don’t go rushing into this just because you’re afraid of him. Because I’ll do it. I want you that much and I won’t care if you change your mind…I won’t let you go.”

“Who says I’m doing it because I’m afraid?” Wiggling out from under him, I moved onto my knees and stared into his eyes. “We’ve already established I do stupid things that I shouldn’t do, right? I’ll deal with Jude—no matter what happens, I’m going to find a way to deal with the shit he tried to pull. It doesn’t
matter
if we snap his hold or not, the son-of-a-bitch is going to pay for the number he pulled last night.”

The storm clouds in his eyes deepened and he gripped me around the waist. “You are not going after him alone, Kit. You understand me?”

“I’m starting to think
you
are the silly little fool.” Then I frowned. “Well, not little. But still. And this isn’t the topic we’re discussing. I’ll deal with Jude. I’m not doing it
now
because he’ll expect it and I have to figure out the right way. I’m not stupid and I don’t rush into things, nor do I think I can take him down solo. But
he
isn’t what we needed to talk about.”

I laid a hand on his chest, splayed my fingers wide over the black ink of his tattoo. “We’re talking you and me. There
is
a you and me….right?”

“Yes.” It was a low, harsh growl.

“And what will your dearest
My Lady
think?”

“She can fuck herself.”

I blinked. “Ah…well, then.” My mouth had somehow managed to go dry. Very dry. “What…what happens, then?”

“You better be sure,” he rasped. “Remember what I said. It’s permanent. I don’t give up what’s mine.”

Mine
…

It made something warm and sweet bloom inside me. Smiling at him, I tugged my wrist from his grasp and reached up, cupping his face in my hands. “I kind of like the idea of it, really. And you’re mine, then, right?”