Dark Deceiver. Pamela Palmer
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she hadn’t hurt him.
Kaderil wrenched away from her, breaking the kiss.
“Kade.” Autumn reached for him, try to pull his face back to hers. “I need you.”
He grabbed her band of holly and shoved it into her hand before temptation got the better of him. Slowly, confusion clouded her face, wiping the look of desperation from her eyes.
As he turned and stalked to the window, anger and frustration fueled his steps. In returning her sanity, he’d stripped himself of his own.
He didn’t need her! He only desired her in the most base of ways. And he refused to care that he’d driven to tears the first person to show him true kindness in centuries. He was the Punisher. He demanded fear. Exulted in tears.
Behind him, he heard the brush of cloth, then the soft creak of the sofa. He tried to ignore her, but his body had a will of its own all of a sudden, and he found himself turning back.
Autumn sat, her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking.
Foreign emotions raked him. Regret. Pity.
But to his amazement, the sound that broke from her throat was laughter. She lifted her flushed face and clasped her hand to her mouth. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.” Her eyes, miraculously, brimmed with as much humor as chagrin. “I’ve seriously got to date more.”
He stared at her, bemused, as something about her tugged at him, drawing his admiration. There was no doubt he’d distressed her. The tears he’d seen in her eyes told him that clearly. Yet she laughed at herself and met his gaze with strength despite her dismay.
He found himself unaccountably intrigued by her. And uncomfortably drawn to her. He longed for the familiar rightness of the Punisher’s scowl and an end to this pretense of softness. Kaderil the Dark was not a soft man. He was not a kind man.
Yet there was something about this woman that called to that weakness. That tempted him to be both.
He fought to conceal his scowl. He could not let this pretense of weakness become truth. She was a means to an end, nothing more. Even if her gray eyes sparkled with an intelligence, a warmth he’d been seeking all his life.
Kaderil went to sit across from her, resting his arms on his knees, clasping his hands together.
“We both lost control,” he told her, though it was a blatant falsehood. She hadn’t lost control. He’d stolen it from her.
Damp lashes swept up to reveal eyes that held both vulnerability and strength. “I…um…don’t suppose we can forget this happened?” She grimaced, her slender nose wrinkling in a way that set her freckles to dancing, pleasing him. A flirtatious twinkle entered her eyes, making his pulse quicken. “At least until we get to know one another a little better?”
His pulse stuttered at her words. Get to know him better? Overlaying the carnal image was another that left him cold. If she ever truly understood him, she’d know he wasn’t human. And that could never happen.
He could never reveal his true self to her. Nor did he wish to know any more about her. Autumn McGinn was a pawn, nothing more. Already, he feared he’d long be haunted by the feel of her fingers in his hair and the laughter in her eyes.
What had she done to him? What had he done to himself by toying with her?
He’d known the human world could hold any number of potential perils for a dark blood with little power. Little had he expected the greatest danger would turn out to be this female with a smile capable of taming even the fiercest of monsters.
Him.
Chapter 3
Autumn pressed her hands to her overheated cheeks, thoroughly flustered by her mortifying loss of control. The sun’s last golden rays gleamed through the windows, silhouetting Kade Smith’s dark head. He watched her with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen, eyes that smoldered with the memory of the way she’d attacked him. She’d practically begged him to make love to her!
The hunger he’d stoked with his lips and hands still vibrated along her skin. Never in her life had she felt such an intense desire to be touched. She’d nearly climbed out of her skin with the need to have his hands on her. Which wouldn’t be half as embarrassing if she’d kept the thought to herself.
If only the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Since it showed no sign of cooperating, she rose, looking for another way to escape until her face cooled.
“I’ll…umm…I’ll go call Larsen for you.” He looked up at her, his expression unreadable, as he nodded. He must think she was a complete idiot. “Why don’t you turn on the television or something?”
Without a backward glance, she fled the room to hide in the tiny cabin that was her temporary bedroom, and dialed her friend.
Larsen answered on the first ring. “Hi, Autumn. What’s up?”
My blood pressure, my hormone levels, Kade’s…uh… Autumn groaned and yanked her mind from that thought and back to the conversation she’d intended. “I’ve got a guest, of sorts. I think he’s Sitheen.”
A brief silence answered her announcement, doing nothing for her blood pressure. “Did he tell you that?”
Autumn sighed. “No. He came looking for you. He said he’s had some dreams about a white-skinned man he needs to warn you about.”
“Why didn’t he just call me? I’m in the phone book.”
“I don’t know.” She hadn’t thought to ask. Not real surprising considering what had been on her mind.
“What if he’s Esri?”
Autumn tensed, the word jangling through her like a discordant note. “No. He’s not Esri. He’s…gorgeous. Amazing. And he has dark hair…and a bit of a tan.”
“Autumn…”
“He’s not Esri, Larsen! I’d know.” But as soon as the words were out, she heard how desperate she sounded. Esri were notorious for hiding their true appearance behind glamour. Yes, she was wearing holly, but who was to say holly worked against all Esri? They just didn’t know the extent of the magic these creatures were capable of.
Autumn sank to the bed, her pulse beginning to trip with real fear. “Larsen…what if he is Esri? What do I do?” Tackling this man to the ground wasn’t going to be an option.
Though it might be fun.
She groaned.
“Do you feel threatened at all?” Larsen asked.
“No.” Hot, flustered and thoroughly in lust. But, no, not threatened.
“All right. I hate to ask this of you, but it’s important, Autumn. It could be critical. If he’s Esri, he’s either after the draggon stone or he’s after us.” The Sitheen. “He’s using you to get to us, so he’s not likely to do anything to give himself away. I honestly don’t think you’re in any immediate danger, Autumn. They may be murdering bastards, but they’re smart. If he’s one of them, we need to turn the tables on him. Are you game?”
“Yes. Of course.” What choice did she have?
“I want you to stall him until I can get hold of the guys. It could take me a little while, so maybe offer to fix him dinner or something. I’m hoping it won’t take more than an hour or so.”
Autumn fell back on the bed, her head swimming, her skin crawling with chills. Kade really could be Esri, as much as she hated to admit it. And she had to fix him dinner?
“If anyone’s going to walk into a trap it’s going to be him, not us,” Larsen continued. “Autumn…be careful. I don’t like the idea of you alone with a strange man, no matter who he is.”
A man she’d practically thrown herself at.