Midnight Surrender: A Paranormal Romance Anthology (16 page)

“
I’m sorry, Tessa. I am so sorry.”

Then I was just clinging to him, my last lifeline; the only thing holding me together. He guided me from the room. I let him. Claudette hurried in as we left. Kieran took me downstairs. He set me down at the kitchen table and started to pull away.

“
Stay,” I whispered grabbing his hand.

“
Let me make you some tea first.”

I shook my head, pulling him back to me. “Just… stay with me. Please?”

He gathered me back up into his arms, resting his chin on the top of my head. “Always,” he promised.

I closed my eyes as the house I grew up in shifted around me, humming with its own grief. A heavy blanket of sorrow soaked the air. The only peace was right there, in Kieran’s embrace. He was my rock, had been for months. He had been unwavering in his support and in his affections. He made me laugh when the world had felt bleak and cold. He held me, loved me, trusted me to keep his secret. And I knew I would never have made it through that night without him.

“
I love you,” I whispered into the soft material of his shirt, speaking the words for the first time.

He tipped my face up, smoothed away my tears with the pad of his thumb and peered adoringly into my eyes. “Love you, too, Tessa.”

And I knew I would never be alone again.

Learn more about Airicka Phoenix and The Touch Series at
http://airickaphoenix.com/Author/?cat=10
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She played coy, with her golden eyes hidden behind dark lashes. In the pale shower of moonlight, her sun-kissed body glowed, a Goddess amongst mortals, and I was brought to my knees with images of hot flesh on silk sheets; her body tangled with mine, my teeth replacing hers on her bottom lip. Our gazes locked and the beast in me growled at the rose petals darkening her cheeks. I put no leash on my smirk. I let it claim the moment, exposing the predator prowling inside, and the promise that I would have her before the pregnant moon fell into the horizon and the sky blushed with dawn. She let her lashes drop, splaying like thick fans over high cheekbones. Her chocolate-brown curls curtained between us, hiding her from me. My teeth bared in triumph.

Good.

I wasn’t there to make her comfortable. She had come to me, to my woods, to my home. She had broken my solitude, had stolen my anger, and she may not have known it then, but she had sealed her own fate.

Flames leapt in the pit, bobbing and weaving with the night. It painted sunsets over bared skin. It swayed slow and alluring in the gleaming eyes watching the dance. But I watched her. I didn’t take my eyes off her.

It’s All Hallows' Eve, little luv, I wanted to tell her, taunt her and toy with her. And you’ll be my treat!

Around us, in a stridency of riotous laughter, chatter and merriment, others danced; they drank and celebrated unaware of just how close they’d come to annihilation. They’d summoned me away from my brooding prowl through the woods by the sound of drunken chaos, by the garbage they so carelessly let carpet my grounds, by the tangled mess of bodies pressed into my trees. It had been enough to paint my world red, to pour gas on my blood and set me on fire. I’d had every intention of using that fire to melt the skin off their bones… then I’d seen her, and my blood had burned for another purpose entirely.

My gaze flickered to her again, taking in everything from the unbound mane cascading down her slender spine to the simple, white gown cinched in the middle with a thick band of gold to the tiny flats on her feet. No wings. No haloes. No glitters or gems. She stood alone, a beautiful angel in the dark, yet every male eye within throwing distance was drawn to her alluring beauty, undressing her, touching her with their thoughts. My teeth tightened. I threw a warning glower at a boy who looked just about ready to make his move.

“
I wouldn’t,” I said when he blinked in surprise. “I’ll kill ya before you even get to her and bury your body in the woods.” It was not a threat, but a promise. “There’s a smart lad. Run along,” I muttered when he blanched and scurried away, a pup with his tail between his legs.

The others eyed me. They eyed her, no doubt weighing their chances. But I didn’t wait for them to grow a backbone; I broke away from the fire separating me from what was mine and I went to her.

I knew the moment she realized my intentions. Her eyes widened. They darkened. Her lips parted. Her cheeks flushed, and I knew, I knew like I knew my own name — she was mine.

****

From across the fire, dressed in power, shielded by danger, his eyes burned through me. I felt every penetrating sweep like hands pulling at me, caressing me, taking without permission and I floundered in my flesh, begging for a place to hide from the dark things he promised without words.

He moved a beautiful masterpiece of sinewy limbs, slender muscles and hair the shade of stolen midnight. It gleamed with hints of blue, falling in a sleek waterfall to the small of his back. Wisps darkened his brow, his eyes. Leather shone where it encased his limber legs. The waistline fell strategically to tapered hips, teasing onlookers with a naked torso skinned in gold. Thick bands of black clasped his wrists and a leather cord holding a silver medallion hung from his neck, falling to the center of beautifully carved breastplates. The fire glinted off the sphere, drawing eyes and keeping them there.

God.

He’s coming!

The little voice in my head had no reason to point out the obvious. Every girl within viewing distance could see he was coming. He was walking, moving air, time… space with every dominating stride. A whip of flames lashed through me. Time froze. The noise vanished. My heart was a cacophony of panic. I wanted to run. I wanted to hide. Then he was standing there, watching me with fire in his eyes and I was frozen. I was melting.

“’
ello, luv.” Voice harboring the seductive lilt of Ireland poured through the air like melted caramel, sweet, thick and smooth.

I wasn’t the only girl to sigh her heart away.

“
Hello.” Oh good, I still knew how to speak. But my relief was short lived because he smiled and my lungs forgot I needed them to live.

Eyes so dark I was surprised I couldn’t see the stars in them swept past my shoulder to the emptiness behind me.

“
Alone?” He cocked his head to the side, knocking dark fringes into his face. I fisted my fingers and stuffed them behind me, blocking the temptation to touch.

I moistened my lips. “No, I’m here with someone.”

Something feral leapt behind his eyes, but it could have been a trick of the light, because it was just as quickly gone and he was straightening, tucking hands into his pockets. “Are ya now? And where might he be then?” When I couldn’t answer, because I had no idea, he grinned a little. “Not very smart of him to be leaving you here alone where any scoundrel could steal ya away.”

The statement almost made me laugh. “Don’t think I can handle a scoundrel or two?”

He moved a fraction of a step closer. His heat burned me. I nearly gasped. “Aye, lass, I think you could. Doesn’t mean I think you should.”

I bit my lip and dropped my gaze. “I think the only scoundrel here tonight is you.” I peered at him through my lashes. “Tell me, do girls really fall for that smoky, Irish drawl of yours?”

His lips bowed and his eyes gleamed with the challenge. “I don’t know. Do they?”

“
I think accents are overrated.” I lied instead of telling him only a lunatic wouldn’t melt in a gooey puddle at the sound of his voice.

“
Ah, perhaps, but…” His grin was crooked, his eyes smoldering, and when he raked his tongue over his teeth, he was everything my mother had warned me about. “Ya know what they say about Irish men, don’t ya?” His voice dropped to a husky purr that skated down my spine like the expert fingers of a pianist. “We’ll ruin ya for all other men if ya let us.”

Every fiber of my being, my soul… my sanity, begged him to do it! Ruin me. It was only the tiny voice in the distance that kept me rooted, kept me from lunging on him. It was the quickly unraveling tether reminding me that this wasn’t me! I wasn’t this person. I didn’t just throw myself at random strangers, I didn’t come undone by a pretty face, and I most certainly did not go up in flames by a touch. But the second he raised a hand and skimmed the tips of his fingers down the length of my arm I was done. It was as if that simple gesture had the power to destroy me. My heart tripped over itself. It stumbled, struggling to catch up to the sudden rush of heat that spiked in the pit of my stomach. My knees quivered. My toes curled. My world tipped off its axis.

“
Nora?”

I broke the surface back into reality with a choked gasp. His masterful spell, like glittery confetti, burst around me, leaving me shaken and unsteady as the rest of the world roared back into focus.

“
Nora.” My name left his lips in a husky murmur of wonderment. I shivered. I had never shivered at the sound of my own name before. But then again, I had never met a person who could make me forget it before either.

“
Hey!” A hand closed hard around my arm, jarring me back to reality and the reason I was even there.

Eyes the shiny black of the ocean at twilight rose past my shoulder to the hulk of a man standing there. Then dropped to the hand claiming my upper arm and narrowed dangerously. My throat went dry.

Brad Hensley, captain of the football team and my date, swung a meaty arm around my shoulders and snapped me into his side the way a frog’s tongue snatches a fly into its mouth. “I’ve been calling you for like ten minutes! We’re about to start the game…” His attention turned to the third person in our party. “This guy bothering you?”

I dampened my lips. “No. We were just talking.”

Brad looked the stranger over. “I’ve never seen you before. Are you a Serpent?”

I peeked at the gold, silver and black jersey straining over Brad’s bulk, then at the stranger’s beautifully naked torso. No. He was definitely not part of our school football team.

“
No,” the stranger answered in that melodious voice.

Brad straightened to his full six-five and folded his arms. His wide shoulders tightened. His biceps bulged. It was a move I’d seen him use before when he was trying to be intimidating. Brad, I was sure, had been a bear in a past life.

My gaze flicked over to the stranger, searching his face for signs of fear, uncertainty even. But there was none of that there. No. He was amused. Brad probably outweighed him by a hundred pounds and was a solid force of muscle. Yet, the stranger stood there, head cocked to the side; the ghost of a smile haunting his firm lips like Brad was an overindulged puppy doing an adorable trick.

“
Well, who the hell are you?” Brad challenged. “What the hell are you doing here? This is a private party!”

“
Keane,” straight, white teeth flashed in a cutting grin, “and you’re trespassing on private land.”

Brad’s eyes widened. His arms dropped down to his sides. “No shit! We thought this place was like public property. It’s the middle of nowhere.”

Wickety Bridge and the surrounding wilderness was public property as far as anyone in the town of Mayborn was concerned. No one except the high school kids ever ventured past the perimeter. It was off limits because of bears, but that didn’t stop the after game parties, campouts and secret meetings of all kinds.

Keane’s eyes narrowed, but his razorblade smile remained firmly in place. “That’s the way I like it. It keeps people from hearing my victims scream when I torture them.”

Brad blinked. The little hamster turning the wheels inside his head seemed to be working double time trying to wrap his brain around the blunt statement. I watched him, practically seeing the sweat dot his temples and the little tick he always seemed to get in his right eye when he just didn’t get it.

Brad wasn’t intentionally stupid. He was just lazy. If he applied half the energy he spent chasing girls and playing sports, he’d be the next Einstein. In turn it made me question my own common sense. What the hell was I doing with this idiot?

At long last, he grinned at Keane. “Victims. Right. Funny. You’re kidding, right?” Brad pressed when Keane said nothing. Brad snorted. “Whatever, man. Come on, Nora.” He grabbed me again, something he’d been doing all night, something that was quickly beginning to wear down the lock keeping me from killing him.