He smiled. Right before he kissed her, he gave an arrogant, self-satisfied male smirk. And then she couldn’t think anymore, not even to reprimand him. She was lost in the hot urgency of his mouth. They merged, fused together, burned up in each other’s arms. And the strange thing was, only their mouths were touching. His body remained so close she felt the heat of it arcing through her, around her, but he was careful to keep their bodies apart. And it was the only thing that saved her from melting into a puddle at his feet.
She went weak in the knees and light in the head. The earth shifted and moved. Colors danced behind her eyes, and a strange purring was in her mind. She wanted to climb inside of him and take refuge, take shelter in the cool pools she saw in his mind. How he could be so cool inside and heat up her world so rapidly, she didn’t know. And she didn’t care. Only his mouth and the magic it made mattered.
* * *
CHAPTER NINE
Contents – Prev | Next
Nicolas lifted his head with more reluctance than self-control. He should never have initiated a kiss with her on the street. His body reacted immediately with urgent demands. Worse, his head seemed to be spinning along with his surroundings. He dropped a brief, hard kiss on her upturned mouth and turned his head slightly to get a view of the watcher on the rooftop across the street from them.
“I think my vision’s blurred,” he murmured.
She responded with a hesitant laugh. “If that’s all that happened, you’re a heck of a better kisser than I am. I can’t stand up.”
“I’m afraid to touch you. We might both go up in flames.”
She sighed. “The story of my life. What’s our friend doing?”
“He’s climbing off the roof. People will be all over the streets soon. He can’t afford to get caught up there. He would have done better to be on a balcony watching like everyone else is.”
“If you ever decide to get out of the business, you might want to write a manual.” She couldn’t take her gaze from his face, not even to look at the man they needed to follow. She felt mesmerized by Nicolas. The pad of his thumb was caressing her chin, stroking back and forth in a small rhythmic movement that both fascinated her and sent a shiver down her spine. “Have you ever been anyone’s obsession?”
The faintest trace of a grin softened his mouth. “Only those who want to kill me.”
“Are there many?”
“Not alive.” He shifted and scooped up his pack. “I don’t like people trying to kill me, obsessed or not. I have a rule about that. Come on.” He took her arm. “He’s on the move. Just walk with me, flirt a bit and hold my hand. We’ll catch an early cup of coffee.”
“You want me to blend.” She sighed and tossed back her abundance of hair. “I’ve never been much of a blender. I prefer the dark corners myself.”
“I don’t want him to get a look at you.”
“They don’t know me. I was trained under another name. Even if they manage to find that information, it won’t do them any good.”
He glanced down at her. “The name you trained under was Novelty White. Which of course translates to Dahlia Le Blanc. Not very clever.”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t my idea. How would you like to be called Novelty?” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “I was a teenager, for heaven’s sake.”
“You have a point. I would have thought you would strenuously object.”
“At the time, I gave very little input. I was going through my silent stage.” She glanced at him with a small smile. “You know the ‘I’m the superior teen and you’re just lint’ stage. Mostly I wanted to defy and irritate Whitney. I took great pleasure in making him angry. Did he really get rid of everyone but Lily? Because if Lily is real, so are the others.”
“Do you remember them? The other girls?”
“Some of them. Most are vague, but there are a couple of the others like Lily I remember. Flame. She had another name, but I’m not certain I remember it.”