A sharp rap on the door and she jumped up, pulled out of her Buffy haze.
Christ on a crutch!“Still too edgy, Callahan,” she muttered, heart in her throat. Her gaze darted to the wall clock. 1:47 AM.
It couldn’t be Nora. Her friend was overseas visiting family.
Daniel? Her nephew sometimes stayed overnight with her when he was in town, but he usually called and warned her. Smoothing her lemon-colored tank top over pale blue pajama bottoms, she padded barefoot to the front door and peered through the security hole. At the flash of familiar blond hair, she threw the door open.
“Daniel…” Her worried voice trailed off as her gaze zipped straight past her nephew to the stranger behind. Predator-still, he blended into the night, dressed entirely in black.
The man was tall, his shoulders double the size of hers. Brutally cropped dark hair plastered his skull. He sported an awful shiner around his left eye, and his cheek bore a red welt. Even battered and bruised, the man was impossibly good-looking.
Leathers hugged his muscular thighs. A t-shirt stretched over his broad chest. He sported some kind of sword tattoo on his right biceps. At five foot nine, Darci was tall enough to look most men in the eyes without straining her neck. Butheforced her gaze waaaay up until she bumped into his empty, pale blue stare. And felt as if she’d been sucked into a void.
“This juvenile belongs to you, I believe?” He thrust Daniel forward by the arm.
Her gaze dropped to her nephew and widened in horror. “Daniel! Dear God, what happened?”
Smears of dirt and dried bloodmarredhis face; the discolorations on his right cheekbone were turning a horrible shade of purple. Darci reached for him, accidentally brushing the cold man’s arm as he dropped his hand. A zip of electricity darted through her body. Awareness stirred. She ignored the eerie sensation as Daniel stumbled into the living room.
“You were in a fight? Again? Darn it, Dan, what were you thinking?” she snapped.
“I’m fine. I’m fine—” Confused blue eyes bounced all around the room before settling on her. “Please don’t call Dad. Please, Darci?”
Darci didn’t know whether to hug him because he was all right or yell at him for making her worry. She pinned him with a gimlet stare. “You hooked up with those loser friends of yours, didn’t you? Christ in heaven, Dan, what were you thinking? How is this supposed to work when you won’t follow the few simple rules your dad’s set for you, huh?”
His chin lowered and his shoulders sank. Feeling his embarrassment, Darci sighed and abandoned the hardcore aunt. “Go clean yourself up. We’ll talk later.”
Daniel trailed upstairs. Once he’d disappeared out of sight, she turned to the stranger on her front porch. Her breath caught at his unwavering stare. So intense. It made her uneasy, her inner alarm shooting all sorts of warnings through her head.Thug. Assassin.
Ugh, no, she dismissed that. He’d brought Daniel home. He couldn’t be that dangerous, could he?
Darci hooked a coil of loose hair behind her ear to hide her nervousness. Those piercing pale eyes followed the movement. She had to force out the words through a suddenly dry throat. “What happened?”
“I suggest you keep him leashed.” Ice edged his lightly accented voice. “He gets into fights in places he shouldn’t be.”
Darci scowled, her wariness morphing into irritation. No matter what trouble Daniel got into, no one spoke about her nephew in that manner. “I asked what happened, not your opinion.”
Those eerie, empty eyes narrowed. No, not empty, something deeper—darker stirred within those frozen depths. Wariness crawled up her spine, chasing away her belligerence.Déjà vusettled over her in a haze.
She felt as if she’d looked into those eyes before.
* * *
A brush of her hand, that was all it took.
A roar built in Blaéz’s head. The air rushed out of his body like he’d been on the receiving end of a deathblow. His senses flowed awake as if from a long drought. He drank her in like a man dying of thirst. And desperately inhaled another lungful of her scent.
Did he look as shell-shocked as he felt?
She smelled like sunshine and some flower—at that moment, he had no clue what the hell it was, just knew he’d smelled it before. It grew abundantly around the castle.
She spoke. He answered. Had no idea what he’d said or if he’d said anything at all. Only knew this human with her creamy coffee skin tone and sultry, slanted eyes damn near blew his mind apart. Her curly honey-brown hair was held up with a…chopstick? It revealed high cheekbones and a delectable pair of lips.
The combination of her scent, her mesmerizing stare, and the delicious scatter of freckles across her nose became his siren’s call.
He wanted to leave, walk out. But held there by some impossible force, he reached out and gently stroked her petal smooth cheek instead. Her eyes widened in surprise. Her warmth seeped through the husk of him and his formidable control cracked.
In a move so fast he crowded her against the door, his hands braced on the wood beside her head. Powerless to stop himself, he lowered his head and trailed his nose down her neck. Her soft, feminine scent filled his lungs. His heart pounded in his ears. Blood buzzed, and desire like a tidal wave crashed through him.
