Shadow Rising by Kendra Leigh Castle Page B

perfectly honest with her from the beginning, and he was being so now. She shouldn’t want any part of him. He certainly had no intentions of changing to accommodate her. But he knew this world, knew the underbelly of it where she could barely skim the surface. His goal was the same as hers, though his payoff was very different. And though she knew it was probably monumentally stupid, she couldn’t shake the memory of that lovely, throaty purr or the feel of that hot tongue laving the side of her neck.
    She had no intention of returning to the desert. But if she ended up caught, or worse, then she wanted to at least have tasted something of desire.
    “If that’s how it is, then yes. I’ll handle it.”
    “All this just for a friend?” he asked, looking puzzled again. “He may not want to be found, Ariane, if he’s stillalive. In which case you will have sacrificed everything just to piss someone off.”
    She shook her head gently, knowing this was one thing Damien wouldn’t understand. “We are Watchers, Damien. All my life, I’ve never been allowed to make a difference. This time, this one time, it’s worth it to me to try.”
    “Is that why you saved me?” Damien asked. “Wanting to make a difference?”
    She shrugged, uncomfortable with his shift from sarcasm to genuine interest. “I guess. And also…”
    “Yes?”
    “I… may have liked the idea of having you in my debt.” She couldn’t help the smile that rose to her lips, and it broadened when Damien’s slow, Cheshire cat grin appeared. She doubted he smiled like that often, when it reached his eyes and warmed them. Ariane felt a little like melting into a puddle right there on the comforter. The art of teasing was still foreign to her, but Damien seemed to have appreciated the effort.
    “Nicely done, kitten. You may learn after all. I’ll tell you what… since I am, in fact, glad to still be in possession of my sorry hide, I’ll give you something for your trouble.”
    She looked at him warily. “You can keep that to yourself.”
    This time he laughed, a full, rich sound that seemed to roll up from deep in his chest. Ariane found herself laughing with him despite herself. He had a way about him when his guard went down, and she found herself wishing he did it more often. It was probably just the shock of the evening that had altered him, but she would enjoy this side of him while it lasted. Even when Damien’s laughter subsided, his eyes stayed warm.
    “You’ve already got me pegged, Ariane. I’ll have to work harder at shocking you.”
    She laughed again. “No, don’t, please!”
    “Music to my ears. You’re doomed, I’m afraid.” He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, paused as though checking to see if everything was still in working order, and then rose to his feet. Her eyes skimmed down the length of him again; she couldn’t help herself. Nor could she stop her mouth from watering. Streaks of crimson had dried on his chest where the blood had seeped through his shirt. Ariane wondered what it would be like to lick them off… slowly.
    The tightness between her legs was enough of a warning that she needed to save that particular line of thought for another time. But when she met Damien’s eyes again, they’d gone so dark they were almost black, and she could see he knew exactly what she’d been thinking about.
    She rose from the bed and took a quick step backward, an instinctive response to the predatory gaze now fixed on her.
    “Oh no, you don’t,” he said softly. “Bloody innocent. You’re going to learn to stop that, kitten… because if you provoke me much more, I won’t.”
    She knew he was going to catch her, but Ariane was compelled to run anyway. She made it out of the bedroom, but only steps before Damien caught her from behind. He spun her and pressed her up against the wall before she could make a sound, and once she was face-to-face with him, she couldn’t quite manage to exhale.
    His eyes glowed