Синтия Иден - Midnight's Master

He sucked in a sharp breath. The shaking eased. Niol swung the steering wheel to the right and pulled to a stop in front of Holly’s tidy house.

A flick of his wrist and the car’s engine died. He didn’t face her again, not yet.

He let her lie hang in the air between them.

One moment, two and-

“I can hear your heart, you know,” he said softly, as his fingers tapped out a matching rhythm on the steering wheel. The beat became faster.

“Shifters have the enhanced senses,” Holly said. “Demons just have the scary eyes.”

Scary eyes. He turned toward her. They were parked close to a bright streetlight. She’d easily be able to see his eyes.

The darkness of his stare.

Most demons cloaked their true eye color with glamour, even the lower-level ones. They hid the black irises. The scleras. They tried to fit in and not scare the good humans.

Fuck that. Niol didn’t really care if the sight of his true eyes made folks nervous. The way he figured it, if folks didn’t like his eyes, they didn’t have to look at him.

And, well, hell, he liked scaring people. Was that such a bad thing?

“I can hear your heart,” he repeated softly and let his eyes drift over her face, down her neck, to the spot where her pulse beat so frantically against her skin. “My senses aren’t as good as those animals’.” He’d never had much use for the shifters. “But my senses are one hell of a lot stronger than a human’s.” And that was how he’d known that someone else was in the alley with her. He’d smelled the stale scent of sweat. Heard the brush of a shoe against the side of a garbage can.

And known that Holly Storm was being hunted.

His back teeth locked. If anyone, anyone, was going to hunt the curvy redhead, it would be him.

He lifted his eyes to meet hers, licked his lips, and realized he wanted another taste.

The sample he’d had at Paradise had not been nearly enough to satisfy him. Not by a long shot.

His fingers rose to trace the line of her cheek. Such soft skin. Silky. Delicate.

He leaned toward her and damn if the woman didn’t inch toward him, too.

Not what he’d expected.

But then, the lady had been keeping him guessing from the beginning.

His fingers slid down her cheek. Feathered over her lips. Her mouth parted and her breath rasped over his fingertips.

Their eyes were still locked. “Holly Storm,” he whispered, “you want me.”

She flinched, but made no move to back away.

His cock pushed hard against the back of his zipper. Her fragrance, perfume, woman, that lavender scent he was coming to crave, had his nostrils flaring.

“You want me,” he continued, voice lowering, “but you’re scared as hell of me.”

He waited for another lie. Waited to hear it fall from her lips.

Instead, she smiled at him. Flashed a dimple in her right cheek, and had his heart thumping into his chest. “Course I’m scared, Niol.” With a snap, her slender fingers unhooked her seatbelt. But she didn’t try to leave the car. Instead, she closed the distance between them, until only an inch separated their mouths. “Knowing what you are, I’d be a fool if I wasn’t ‘scared as hell.’”

Her lips trembled as she spoke the words, but her voice was steady.

Of course, she feared him. She’d seen him kill. Destroy. She’d seen-

Her hand rose. Touched his cheek.

His cock jerked.

“And I do want you.” Her lips brushed over his, just the faintest of touches.

Dammit. Not nearly enough. Not-

She pulled away from him, fumbled with the door handle. “But wanting isn’t enough for me.” The door opened with a squeak, sending the chilled night air flooding the interior of the vehicle. Holly pushed to her feet, flashing thigh, fucking gorgeous thigh, right at him.

Oh, he wanted a bite. A very, very big bite of her.

Growling, he nearly ripped open his door as he fought to get out of the SUV. By the time he rounded the front of the vehicle, Holly was hurrying up her sidewalk.

“Holly.”

She froze. The wind lifted her hair.

“You came to me.” A reminder she shouldn’t need.

Her head turned. Her gaze met his. “Not for sex.”

A damn disappointment.

Holly’s chin lifted. Stubborn. “You know why I came to Paradise.”

Niol’s hands fisted. “You need to stay out of Other business.” Before she got herself hurt.

Killed.

The rest of the demons out there wouldn’t play as nicely with her as he had.

And the vamps wouldn’t hesitate to bite.

Then he’d have to stake the bastards.

“I’m not the only killer in the darkness, love. You need to watch your step.” A fair warning.

She swallowed. “Tell me, did you…know him?”

The kid. The fool demon who’d been too soft. Niol didn’t answer. “ You did,” he said instead and wondered just how close Holly had come to her source.

Her shoulders squared. “Carl was a good man-”

“Demon.”

“-he didn’t deserve to die that way.”

“Most folks don’t deserve the way they die.” Simple fact. He’d seen rapists die gently in their sleep. Seen kindly grandmothers get shot down in the streets. Life wasn’t fair and neither was death.

“I’m not going to forget about him.” Shadows were all around her. Darkness waiting.

“Then don’t.” Blunt. Hard. “Report his death. Talk about what a good man he was, remember him when you’re curled up at night and trying not to think about just what is out there on the streets.” He exhaled on sigh. “But don’t, don’t go digging into his murder.”

Her head tilted to the left. The streetlight shot over her cheekbone, leaving a hollow of shadow. “Sounds like an order.”

Because it had been.

“But I’m not one of your little bar minions. I don’t take orders from you.”

That was going to be a problem.

“I could make you, you know.” The words slipped out, but they were true. It would take only a minute’s concentration. He could slip into her mind, force her compliance, and-

“Been there, done that.” Rage shook her words, trembled her body. “If you want to try that method on me, then go ahead. But I think you’ll find I’m not such easy prey- this time. ”

The memory of her, the memory of the night an incubus had trapped her mind and tried to steal her life, flashed between them.

Niol knew he was a bastard. He’d never denied it. But for an instant, he almost felt…

Shame.

Fuck.

The woman was messing with his head.

“Don’t make me force the issue.” Because he wouldn’t have her blood on his hands. Damn. Why did he even care? He should be shoving his way into her mind, blocking out the memory of the dead demon. But she made him hesitate.

She’d caught his attention months ago. Hell, he’d been drawn to her the first time he flipped on the television and seen her face staring back at him. Holly had been broadcasting about some pileup on Peachtree, and all he’d been able to think about was the fire of her hair.

Stupid.

Horny.

That was him.

He’d taken a redhead that night. Picked up one of the humans who wanted to play at his bar. He’d taken her, closed his eyes, and imagined the reporter from News Flash Five.

Insanity. Yes, it ran in his family.

He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, fantasizing about her. He’d even taken to watching the news-

And he hated the local news. Yet he liked to watch her.

“Don’t make you?” She repeated and he saw her breasts-nice, firm breasts-heave as she sucked in a breath. “Why don’t you just try to force me to-”

In an instant, he’d closed the distance between them. His fingers locked around her arms, tight. Too strong. He jerked her up against him and glared down at her. “This is no game.” Even after all that had happened, she still didn’t understand how vulnerable she was.