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“Come, you must be starved.” We began to walk along the sandy beach of Honolulu. As I stared up at the stars, I knew I would never forget my brief time in Hawaii.
* * *
Corran hadn’t touchedhis Wagyu ribeye, only the vegetables, but even those he only picked at. He seemed miles away as we sat in a restaurant fit for royalty. Embroidered curtains, dark oak tables, sandstone tile floor, and meals were served from silver trays. The restaurant was full, each table bustling, voices buzzing, and a delicate piano played throughout the dimly lit room. I was worried if Corran regretted what had just happened when he finally looked over at me with a smile, the worry he had carried moments earlier vanished.
“You look beautiful.” His attention fell to my low v-neck dress, the one he’d bought me once we arrived in New York for a meal. The trip itself was another testament to Vepar technology since Hawaii to New York had only taken thirty minutes. I blushed all over, the earlier fire from the beach surging through me once again, and I grew hot and bothered as I clenched my thighs. It didn’t take long for him to affect me, for any of them to affect me, just a simple look did the trick. Something had to be wrong with me to react to the Vepar so fast.
I looked down at the blue gown I wore, it was the color of the night sky with tiny sparkles all over it when the light caught it in the right direction.
I blushed when I looked up and he was still watching me with admiration.
“I’m sure this dress could make even you look handsome,” I told him, laughing at myself trying to downplay the fact that he and his friends were the most gorgeous males I had ever seen. Looking around at my surroundings, this place was the most posh and uppity place I had been to in my life. I’d never be able to afford to visit such a place, and if I stepped foot in here without Corran, I’d be marched out. I suspected that the way we had been treated while we were here, like we were royalty, had everything to do with being on the arm of a Vepar.
“I didn’t mean to upset you back by the ocean. I’ve got a few things on my mind,” he explained and reached over to take my hand in his. His thumb stroked the back of my wrist in slow, gentle circles. His hair, the color of mahogany, framed his strong face and his eyes reminding me of milky caramel. Despite being the quieter of the three Vepar, the one who analyzed things first and who seemed to calculate everything before he acted, Corran was incredibly handsome in his own way. But unlike the others, he didn’t seem to know it.
Despite all the logic in my mind and everything that had happened, I couldn’t help but fall under his spell each time we exchanged glances. What would it be like to really date someone who looked this perfect…Someone normal. Not an alien with so many secrets it gave him a Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. I wanted to look past that, to believe Corran meant well.
“Feel like talking about it?”
He sighed heavily. “Some things are better left unsaid.”
I wasn’t sure if that was one of his riddles I had to decipher, or he was speaking directly this time.
He flinched and reached for his pocket, before pulling out a ringing cell. “Give me a moment.” He was on his feet and marching outside with the phone pressed to his ear before I could respond.
Glancing down at my half-eaten gnocchi, I pierced one with my fork and ate it, loving the buttery taste. Why hadn’t I tried these before?
Eating could only distract me for so long and I couldn’t prevent my thoughts from thinking about the complicated situation I had found myself in. For so long my life has been about living to get through the day and into the next. With these three Vepar, my life had become so much more in such a short time. The deep-seated emotion they awakened in me was enticing, and it makes me want to feel even more. The opportunity to taste any level of the type of intensity they brought into my life was becoming a necessity.
When someone flopped into Corran’s seat, I sat up, expecting him, ready to say that was fast, but it wasn’t his face I met.
Across from me sat the Devil, and I shuddered in my shoes.
He wore a black jacket, hair oily and slicked off his face, and he had regained that haunting gauntness in his cheeks of the monster who’d tortured me with whips.
I pushed back in an instant, my seat’s feet scraping the ground in a terrifying screech, drawing attention from those at nearby tables. My heart pounded in my chest, and I shook, unable to stop remembering the way this bastard had hurt me, took my blood, and threatened to come for me. And here he was, trying it in public.
Shit!
“Don’t go,” the Khonsu whispered, glancing toward the door where Corran had left moments earlier. I mentally counted the space between me and the exit. Fifteen, maybe sixteen steps.
I jolted to my feet, but he grasped my wrist before I could get anywhere, also standing, his grip as cold and solid as iron.
“Sit!” he growled beneath his breath, hauling me back to my seat with such force, I stumbled into it, almost sliding off.
Fear pressed down on my chest, squeezing my lungs as he held onto my wrist, not letting go.
I was never going to be left alone. I would always be hunted. I hated this. I loathed the constant terror.
“What do you want?” I snapped, wrestling to free my hand, but he didn’t budge.
“Tonight, you’re not my prey,” he murmured, his gaze flipping back and forth from the door to me, and I prayed Corran returned fast.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I have some information I think you would be interested in,” he replied, picking up Corran’s dinner knife and casually inspecting it as if it held interesting information.
“I can’t think of anything you could tell me that would interest me except why you’re stalking me.” My words came out brave, but inside I was trembling. I set my napkin purposely on my knife and slipped both off the table. I gripped the knife hard under the table determined that when he did try to take me, I would fight back.
