The feel of his calloused fingertips on her skin made her shiver, and suddenly she was caught in those green-gold eyes. “Why not?”
Before he could answer, she tensed at the sound of two voices out in the cargo hold. She heard the wordsfinal checks.
“I hear them.” Elijah grabbed her wrist and led her to the back of the room. The terrier barked at her departure. Pushing her into the darkest corner, Elijah covered her, his hands flat to the wall above her head. “Pull whatever shadows you can.”
Somewhat surprised at his take-charge attitude, Echo shook herself out of her stupor and focused on the shadows in the cargo hold, drawing them under the bulk cargo door and toward her and Elijah. Between the two of them, they created what looked like one big shadow. It wasn’t in a space that was particularly shadowy, so there was still a chance whoever was coming in would find something odd about it.
“I’ve never seen you like that,” Elijah whispered.
Her heart raced at his nearness. “Like what?”
“Soft. Affectionate. Sweet. The way you were with the dog.”
“I like dogs.”
She felt his grin. “So I gathered. You, Echo Payne, are a complicated lady.”
Something in his tone suggested he liked that about her. A flutter in her belly flustered her, and she snapped, “Will you shut up for a second?”
He chuckled and then silenced.
The door to the bulk hold opened, and though she couldn’t see past Elijah’s body, she could sense the person in the room.
“Hey, Milo. Did you hear us out there? That what’s got you barking?” a man said behind them.
“Everything okay in here?” a female voice asked.
“Yeah, yeah, dog just heard us out there. Poor little fella is in here alone. I don’t know …” He strolled out, the door shutting behind him. “Don’t think I could take my dog on a flight, man. Leaving him down here …” His voice trailed off, and Echo relaxed.
Until she realized Elijah still covered her, and his head was now bent toward her, his nose at her neck.
She swallowed hard as her pulse throbbed. “You can get off me now.”
“Really?” he murmured. “Pity.”
He pushed away from the wall, and Echo could breathe properly again. Avoiding his intense gaze, she scooted past him and back to the dog.
“Your name is Milo, huh?” She unlocked the crate.
“You’re really letting him out?”
“He can’t stay in a crate for five hours.” She let the dog sniff her hand again and petted his coat, getting him used to her. When he licked her all over, Echo asked him if she could lift him and slowly touched his sides so he would know what sheintended. Milo allowed her to lift him out of the crate and into her arms, and he snuggled happily into her chest. He swiped with his tongue, catching her chin, and she laughed. “You are such a flirt, aren’t you, handsome boy?”
She turned to Elijah with Milo in her arms and found the fae grinning at her. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, “What?”
He shook his head, grinning harder. “Nothing. You’re just a big softie, that’s all.”
“I like dogs,” she huffed, striding to an empty space of wall and settling down with her back against it. Milo happily burrowed into her for scratches and cuddles. “After I became a vampire, they seemed to hate me instinctively. I have to coax them out of their fear of me now.”
Elijah settled on the wall, knees bent, his feet almost touching hers. His hands dangled between his knees. Leather cuffs covered his wrists where she’d burned him with the iron handcuffs. A chunky silver ring of Celtic design sat on the middle finger of his right hand.
“Tell me your story. Tell me why we’re doing this,” he said solemnly.
The urge to hide herself, to protect her secrets, was real. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter. And we’ve got hours to kill. I need to know what I’m dealing with here with William, who Odette is to you, what the plan is. I can’t go into this blind, Echo. If I have the facts, I can react accordingly to whatever situations might arise. Do you understand?”
She did. Unfortunately. Glancing down, she saw Milo had started to fall asleep. She kissed the dog’s soft little head.
