Eve frowned and touched her injured lobe. Even that didn’t hurt anymore. How odd. But darn, she’d lost her favorite earring. She undid the remaining hoop and dropped it in her bag.
No, Kataya was wrong. He didn't fry her brains. But he sure left her with a trembling need for something more. Ugh, maybe she was insane, but the man fascinated her. Dangerously sexy and utterly gorgeous, he looked like he could tear down walls with his bare hands, and yet those big hands had been gentle when he tended to her ear. A shiver raced through her.
Well, that was before he’d wrapped his fingers around her neck in a deathly grip.
Yep. She was definitely certifiable.
***
Reynner scanned the chaotic club for the female with the green eyes, but it was a waste of time. He picked up nothing except a shitload of intoxicated emotions from the humans partying there.
A hand drifted down his back where he stood on the landing. A sweet scent combined with liquor crowded his nostrils. He cut the busty, dark-haired female an impatient look and stepped away. He had to find green eyes, had to know for sure she was the one he sought.
How the hell was he going to do that when she seemed to have vanished right off his radar?
No matter, he would locate her. Besides, she was mortal. How much trouble could she be compared to the wily prince currently living with him, one who had a penchant for roaming mortal nightclubs?
With Aerén’s trigger temper and his immense power, wiping out the city was a sure thing. Michael would definitely kick Reynner’s ass into oblivion. Or worse, make him a Guardian of the human race.
Damn. He wasn't cut out to be anyone’s protector.
Reynner left the club and headed down the alley, rubbing his chest where she’d knocked into him. Warm, feminine, she was—no, he couldn’t think about how perfect she felt against him. Something scraped his palm. Frowning, he freed the piece of metal caught on his shirt and stared at the small, gold, half-circle.
Her earring. He ran a thumb around the misshapen loop, lowered his psychic shields, and tried to read her magic on the piece of jewelry. A slight tingle teased his senses. Dark green eyes flashed in his mind and his body hardened again.
Shit, not the effect he wanted. Reynner dropped the earring into his coat pocket when a wavering shape took form beside him, snagging his attention.
“Sire, we have a problem,” the ghostly figure of his houseman said. Izzeri's face appeared paler than usual, his copper hair disheveled, his apparition flickering in the dark alley.
The fact that the male would contact him in this manner meant only one thing. Aerén had taken off again. Dammit!
***
Eve shivered, desire coursing through her blood, her entire attention focused on the glitter of the cool blade trailing down her bare abdomen. Her stomach clenched whenheglanced up at her from his hunkered position, the dim lights turning his pale hair into a shimmering halo.
At the predatory look in his night-sky eyes, she sucked in a shuddering breath at the raw need he elicited from her. She tugged at her hands, but he’d shackled her wrists above her head to the wall.
“Tell me what you want, Eve.” The husky taunt of her name on his lips stretched her taut nerves further. Arousal burned higher. He was playing with her. He knew what she wanted. For him to touch her, finish this off instead of tormenting her—
“How much longer, Evie?”
Brenna’s voice threw ice water on images that wouldn’t leave her alone.Christ.Unfulfilled sex dreams had kept her awake last night, and now they seemed equally determined to take over her day. Eve forced her mind back to her work and off a stranger she had no business dreaming about in the first place.
“Another ten and I'm done,” she told Brenna.
Afternoon sunlight streamed into the warehouse, flashing off the assortment of metal sheets, wire, and narrow steel pipes. She’d rented this place a block from her apartment since it provided the right amount of space. The huge windows made it perfect when she worked, without the need for extra lighting.
“This isn’t like painting, I don’t have to stay abso-still, right?” Brenna flexed her foot where she lay in her underwear on the makeshift daybed near the window. “It’s almost three P.M., Evie. I still have to get home and get ready for tonight. David’s opening, remember?”
“Hmmn, yes,” Eve murmured. She warmed the copper strip she held between her palms then bent the metal and attached it to her sculpture to shape the outline of Brenna’s supposedly relaxed foot, now tapping to the soft strains of Debussy drifting from the CD player.
Of all of Eve’s friends, Brenna was the only one who seemed to sail through life with her ready smile and charm paving the way. Despite the fact that her family had gone back to Scotland a few years ago, Brenna was content. She dated, but never got seriously involved with anyone.
“Are you excited about your showing?” Brenna asked. “The big day draws closer.”
Eve struggled to contain the sudden flutter of butterflies in her stomach. “I try not to think about it. But I sure don’t regret giving up painting yellow ducks on nursery walls,” she said with a wry grimace, thinking of her unsatisfying job as a mural artist and the menial tasks her ex-boss usually dumped on her.
“Well, Eric raves about your pieces he’s seen.” Brenna sat up on the bed. “He’s the owner of a successful gallery and only his opinion counts, right?”
