Charming (Exiled Book 3) by Victoria Danann Page A

goal was to know what everyday people are saying and thinking.”
    He grew serious. “And everyday people are talking about the Racial Purity League?”
    She shrugged. “Not everybody, of course. But it comes up. RPL and all their offshoots. Are they so radical that they would kill humans to bring about a ‘racial cleansing’? Yes. They are.”
    Nodding, he said, “Okay. Got any idea why all of the victims are human males in their late teens?”
    Ana looked away. “No. I have to admit that’s a real puzzle. If the strategy was just to blame hybrids for killing humans, then any human would do. As a matter of fact, it might even cause more emotional reaction if victims were among the more helpless. Women. Or children. So it’s a mystery why just boys that age.
    “Could you isolate them? All the human boys who are that age. Maybe keep them under wraps for a while?”
    “Under wraps?”
    “It means out of the way. Someplace where the killer couldn’t get to them.”
    Charming shook his head. “It’s a possibility, but it also spotlights the fact that all the victims are human.”
    “They already know that, Charming,” Ana said softly.
    “Come on.” He stood suddenly and held his hand out to help her up. “You’ve got an early day.”
    Cultures clashed and so did their bodies when they both tried to go through the door at the same time. In Ana’s world, a man who wanted to show respect offered to let the woman go through the door first. In Charming’s world, in unspoken recognition of superior size and strength, males go through doors before females and young to be certain it’s safe.
    When they ran into each other at the threshold, both turned toward each other and said, “I’m sorry,” at the same time. Before they could separate, Charming took hold of Ana’s hips just below her waist. Her hands flew to his shoulders of their own accord. She saw his gaze drop to her lips and, for an instant, she was certain he was going to kiss her. She tracked his eyes as they focused on her tongue peeking out to wet her lower lip.
    She leaned in slightly, not enough to press herself against him, but enough to be hyper aware of the heat radiating from his body and the rock hardness of the muscle under her fingers.
    Charming turned his head to the side and said something she didn’t understand just before withdrawing abruptly, leaving her standing there alone in the darkness wondering what had just happened.
    She made her way back to bed, pausing outside his closed bedroom door to wonder how she could possibly be misreading signals that badly.
     
    Charming stripped down and lay on top of the covers remembering the look of Ana’s face by starlight. His eyes were good enough to make out the faint freckles that were scattered across her nose. He loved the fact that she didn’t wear stuff on her face like most of the human women. She also didn’t wear smelly stuff. That was nice. Because hybrids didn’t like cosmetics or lotions or soaps or shampoos with scents. Sometimes, when dealing with humans, it was all he could do not to wrinkle his nose and turn away.
    Her own wholesome smell was more than good enough. As he’d told her one night when he wasn’t thinking, she kind of smelled like cookies. When they’d collided at the kitchen door, he’d wanted to pull her in for a kiss, and more, much more. He’d never had such a driving impulse to be with a female. He felt his heart rate pulse in his cock. Time for a drain party or he’d end up ravaging the houseguest.
    When her alarm went off in the other room, he sat straight up thinking the world was coming to an end. It was that loud to hybrid ears. When he heard her get up and start water in the bathroom, he wiped a hand down his face and stumbled toward his own connected bath. He was thinking that he needed to go easy on that clear moonshine stuff in the future. It apparently packed an after-wallop.
    Though he was normally militaristic in his approach to