Sweet Temptation

When I get to the hotel we just park and sit there while she gets it all out. She hides nothing—making her joy, love, sorrow, and disappointment plain. Her father clearly loves her, but he’d been brutally honest about her fate on earth and afterward. She would have to at least appear to be working for the dark cause. She had to toughen up. I’d been wondering if her father would have positive news about A

It’s not right. It’s not fair.

I shake my head and turn off the ignition. I haven’t worried about whether or not something was “fair” since I was a small child. It hadn’t taken long to realize nothing was fair in life. That bloody word shouldn’t even exist. But it’s the thought that continues to blaze through me—a soul like A

Yet another thing to fill the churning pit of anger that fuels my daily life.

I’m incredibly edgy when we reach the hotel room. So much so that I stand in the doorway while A

“This hotel has a gym,” I tell her. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll get in a workout this afternoon while I can.”

Physical exertion is exactly what I need.

A

“I can tell them we’d like laundry service when I pass the front desk.”

She gives me a puzzled expression. “Oh, you mean have the hotel do it? No way, that’d be way too expensive. There’s a Laundromat right across the street.”

I cringe. “You mean with the crackheads?”

A

“You don’t have to do mine.” I’m a bit appalled. How can she be so casual about this?

“Oh, just let me.” She yanks the shorts out from under my foot. “I’ve had to use a Laundromat lots of times, and it’s perfectly safe. It’s mostly just moms. I’ll just, um, need some money. If that’s okay. I mean, not much, just a couple—”

I whip my wallet out in a flash to erase the embarrassed blush staining her cheeks, and thrust a bill at her. “You’re sure it’s safe? This is L.A., not backwoods Georgia.”

“Ha-ha.” She snatches the ten and stuffs it in her pocket.

“I’ll be listening,” I tell her.

She rolls her eyes, but then whispers, “Thanks.”

I keep my hearing locked around her for the hour plus that I run on the treadmill and do a series of push-ups and sit-ups. I’d prefer weights right now, but this poor excuse for a gym has none.

A

She bends to pull my T-shirt from the dryer, and within two seconds flat my beast sniffs the air and smacks his lips. A

I’ve moved across the room until I’m just behind her, and I swear she’s so focused and lost in thought she doesn’t notice. Even after meeting her father and knowing fully what dangers are out there, she is still too trusting. It’s a damn good thing it’s only me creeping up behind her, and not some dangerous bloke.

And then I remember I am a dangerous bloke where A

Before I can advise myself otherwise, I’m reaching for her waist. She startles at my touch, and I pull the back of her closer into me.

“Just me, luv,” I say. I shouldn’t let myself get this close, because I can hear the lust in my own voice. I wonder if she can hear it, as well. I wonder if she’s feeling the same. There is barely any space between us now, and I’m breathing in her scent from behind like a fiend who can’t get enough. Why must she smell so lovely?

“Kai . . . you shouldn’t . . .”

No, I really, really should.

I feel her tremble in my hands. “Unless you’re going to be my boyfriend, you shouldn’t touch me like this.”

Boyfriend. I go still, and for a heartbeat I want to smile. Would she want to be attached to me in such a way? Never once in all my life has the word boyfriend had a smiling effect on me. Boyfriend and girlfriend are the most useless, flimsy labels out there, yet people put such stock in them. They trust those labels to mean so much more.

But hearing A

“The Neph are not permitted to be in relationships,” I say against her hair. “Especially not with one another.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “Nobody has to know. Just us.”

I am a maelstrom of emotion, spi

“It can never happen,” I say. And I wonder if I’m saying it to her or myself.

Her body stiffens and her chin rises as she gently pries my hands from around her waist. I want to thank her for doing the thing I couldn’t do myself. I’m glad one of us is strong enough.

I leave her, taking deep breaths the entire way to the hotel room, attempting to shake off the odd sensations. This has gotten out of hand. I’ve allowed myself too much leniency where A

Tonight, I will take things one step further and show A

I’m primed and poised when A

“What are you getting into?” I ask.

She shoots me a suspicious and rather a

Brilliant. Father made me study the great “romantics.” While A

I flick off the television and go to A

A