He brought his face close to hers. Stared into her eyes and said, “My dreams, Cara. I want to tell you all about my dreams.”
The glass nearly slipped from her fingers. “Dreams?” He remembered them?
Men weren’t supposed to remember dreams of a succubus. Pleasure, passion—those were the only impressions meant to stay in a man’s mind. The succubus herself, well, she should be forgotten.
“You’ve been in my head,” he said. “Awake, asleep, I just can’t escape you.”
And she couldn’t escape him. “Do you want to escape?”
He brought his lips down onto hers. Kissed her once. A slow, leisurely taste of her lips, then a deep thrust of his tongue into her mouth. The human sure knew how to work his tongue.
When his mouth lifted, she wanted to moan at the loss.
“No.”
At first, she didn’t understand. Was he rejecting her? Then he said, “I don’t want to get away from you.” His eyes narrowed. “I just want you.”
“Do you usually get what you want?” She bet that he did.
“Sometimes I do.” For a moment, his lips tightened. “Sometimes I don’t. Guess that’s the way it is for us all, right?”
The way for humans.
“We can play the game, Cara,” he told her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms in a rough caress. “I can be the gentleman.
Take you out on a dates. Movies. Theater. Whatever you want.”
He was what she wanted. The lust between them burned too bright for a slow courtship. She needed release. Pleasure.
Him.
Was it because he was a sensitive? Was he somehow magnifying the feelings of desire? It could be possible. Human psychics were rare. She’d only encountered a handful of others. Dr. Drake was by far the strongest she’d ever met.
Todd was strong, too, but his power was different.
Maybe because he didn’t even realize he had it. If he channeled his magic—
Well, she wasn’t exactly certain what would happen.
Her gaze dropped to the hands that still held her. She lifted a brow.
With a muttered curse, he released her.
Able to move more easily now, she pushed her glass back across the bar. Gave an almost imperceptible nod to Cameron. Despite his pissy mood, she’d managed to grill him about the detective earlier in the evening. Grudgingly, Cameron had admitted that the cop was known for being on the level. Not one to take a bribe or to “misplace” evidence. And, apparently, if the gossip around town was anything to go by, Todd had quite a reputation with the ladies. Not that she’d been particularly surprised by that news.
Cameron had also said the guy was a straight-up ass**le, but Cam usually said that about human males.
Judging by Cam’s continued glare, she figured he was clinging tightly to his ass**le theory.
“I’ve never really had much use for gentlemen,” Cara murmured, and the words were true. Of course, she hadn’t really met that many gentlemen.
“So what do you want?”
She leaned toward him. Put her hand on his chest so that she could feel the fast thump of his heart. “I want to get out of here. Go someplace dark and quiet. And I want you with me.” Under her. In her.
Now that she’d lowered the walls around herself just a bit, the lust was bursting though her body like water that had been contained behind a weak dam.
His jaw clenched. “You sure?”
“Very.” She smiled at him, stepped back. “But the choice is yours, Detective.” He was the one taking the bigger risk. He just didn’t know it yet.
She wouldn’t hurt him. She never hurt her lovers. Well, unless she meant to do so.
And she’d only meant to kill once.
A life for a life. Primitive justice, but it had been what her sister deserved.
She shook her head slightly, trying to push away the past. Now that she’d started thinking of Nina, that terrible night kept slipping into her mind.
This really wasn’t the time to think about death and darkness. With Todd, she only wanted to think of pleasure and life.
She held up her hand. Offering, waiting.
“There’s something different about you,” he said. “I know it.”
He was right, but he had no idea just how very different she could be. Perhaps she’d show him.
He reached for her hand.
The choice was made.
The whore had the cop under her spell. From the shadows, he watched as Cara and her detective left the bar…the human had his f**king hands all over her.
The fool didn’t know who— what—he was touching. And he sure as hell didn’t know what price he’d pay for his pleasure.
The others hadn’t known, either. They’d fallen so easily for Cara and her lying eyes. Fallen…then died.
A smile curved his lips even as his hands clenched into fists.
Cara should have learned by now—the humans weren’t for her.
Just how many would he have to kill before she learned her lesson?
Dr. Emily Drake stepped out of the elevator and into the dimly lit parking garage. It was late, well past midnight, but her vampire client hadn’t been able to make it into the office any sooner. And Marvin had insisted on seeing her. Seemed he’d almost taken blood from a human the previous night. The near miss had so rattled him that Marvin had been physically sick ever since.
Poor Marvin.
A classic bloodphobic vamp.
But the guy was making some incredible headway. At least he wasn’t afraid of the actual blood anymore.
No, now he could drink the blood just fine, provided he didn’t have to get it straight from a source.
As she walked, Emily clutched her keys tightly in her right hand. The garage was all but deserted, the fluorescent lights flickering above her. Her car waited up ahead, maybe fifteen feet away, and—
Someone else was in the garage.
The certainty came to her on an icy wave of knowledge as Emily’s psychic gift flared to life.
Hell. Who was—
She spotted the Jeep then. Parked behind one of the large columns. Nearly hidden from prying eyes. The perfect place to wait for unsuspecting prey.
Her shoulders slumped in relief when the driver’s side door opened. Of course. She should have known he would be there. When she worked late, he usually showed up, even if he was working on a case.
“Colin.” He stepped toward her, and for a moment, the glow of the shifter caught her stare. All shifters carried that glow, and as far as she knew, she was the only person on earth able to actually see it. The glow was a soft shine, kind of like a second skin. It was the beast glowing.