Poison Princess by Kresley Cole Page B

glance over my shoulder. Someone, or something , was definitely after me. I noticed that my thorn claws had returned, almost more upsetting than the—
    I ran right into a man’s solid chest.

I nearly bounced back onto my ass, but a taped hand caught my arm. I craned my head up.
    Jackson. “What’s wrong with you, girl?”
    I gazed up at his face, catching my breath. “There’s l-lightning!” I curled my fingers to conceal my claws, waiting as they slowly returned to normal.
    â€œYou got spooked by a little lightning?” He looked at me peculiarly, like he was disappointed in me. “I knew you were soft, but damn, Evie.”
    That look stung. I backed away from him, fearing that I was about to cry in front of this boy. “The bolts were so close.”
    â€œShouldn’t expect nothing else from a Sterling girl.”
    â€œNo, this was different! It was . . .” Like lightning, but not. Electric and sizzling, but cool. Yet when I looked above me, the sky was clear, the night still.
    â€œYou out here alone?”
    I gave a shaky nod. “I’m supposed to meet Melissa.”
    â€œEverybody’s scattered.”
    â€œThen what are you doing back here?” I actually felt safer in his presence. I didn’t sense a threat from him, and he was a hardened criminal with lots of experience fighting. I knew he’d landed at least some of his hits. “I thought you left.”
    Gazing down at me, he said, “Maybe I came back to claim my taste of you.”
    Between gritted teeth, I said, “Again, I have a boyfriend.”
    â€œAgain, I couldn’t tell. Seems Radcliffe ditched you in the woods. If you belonged to me, I’d never let you out of my sight—much less leave you alone out here.”
    What was his fixation on girls belonging to boys? “Brandon went back to smooth things with the sheriff!”
    In a voice dripping with scorn, Jackson grated, “Of course he did.”
    â€œI’m going to find my friends.”
    â€œNow, wait a minute. You can’t go back there, no. You’ll get pinched.” At my blank look, he added, “Arrested, on roll call, gaffled.”
    â€œWow, you expect me to speak Cajun and Juvie.”
    He raked his taped fingers through his hair. “I doan s’pose I can leave you here.” He started squiring me away from the mill. I thought. I was so turned around I couldn’t get my bearings.
    â€œWhy are you being decent to me?”
    â€œI’m not. I just want to get you on my bike, with you in that skirt. Where am I driving you to?”
    I blinked at him. “I live here.”
    â€œYou live on this farm? In that eerie mansion up the way? No wonder you’re touched in the head.”
    I didn’t deny the eerie description—or the touched-in-the-head comment. Fair’s fair. “You’ve seen my house?”
    He gazed past me as he said, “I saw it from the road once, after harvest. When I was little.” He scrubbed his hand over his mouth, clearly wanting to be somewhere else. “I’ll take you home.” I realized we’d stopped near his bike, parked in the woods.
    Where were his friends? Where was Clotile ? “Wait, I can’t go home! I’ve been drinking. I’m supposed to spend the night with Mel.”
    He raised his brows with an I should care about this why? look. “Two choices, peekôn .”
    I frowned. Peekôn meant “thorn.”
    â€œI can drive you home. Or I can leave your ass here. Alone.”
    What if there was more lightning? I didn’t want to be out here by myself, at least not until I reached the cane fields. But I couldn’t ride a roaring motorcycle home. “Neither of those choices will work for me.”
    He took a pull from his flask.“Nothing else will work for me.”
    â€œThen leave.” Surely he wouldn’t abandon me.
    â€œBonne chance,