Sweet Peril

“Father!” Flynn exclaimed. My heart sank. A freaking Duke was right on the other side of the door. I started to sweat. How had this happened? Thank God Duke Mammon wouldn’t be able to sense me like Pharzuph with his annoying virginity-sniffing nose.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” Flynn said. “You missed a bloody awesome fight. It went off!”

He recalled the best of the gory details to his appreciative father. I heard a hoarse laugh.

“I was listening as I drove up, but it’s just not the same. The car show was a snore. I’ve already owned half the ones they showed at some point or another. And you’ve never seen such fugly gold-digging women in your life. You know I can enjoy a greedy woman with the best of ’em but only if she’s a looker, eh?”

Flynn laughed, a jovial burst that would have matched the smile from his pictures, and his father joined in. I didn’t like how chummy they seemed to be.

“Let me take you out for lunch and drinks this arvo, m’boy. Grab a few of your mates. Nothing like a pack of young hooligans to stir up the females!”

They joked a bit more while Flynn got his things together, and they exited the room. I extended my hearing to listen as the friends were invited and rounded up, then as they got in the car, hollering over one another, closing doors, and driving away. Kope and I stood frozen, waiting for them to drive at least five miles—out of the Duke’s hearing range. I flopped my head back on Kope’s chest, and allowed my heart rate to decelerate.

That had been close. Too close. How had Dad known? If one of his whisperers had caught sight of Mammon coming, wouldn’t the whisperer have warned me directly instead of going back to Dad first? Or was Dad here in Australia right now, too? Well, I guessed it didn’t matter—crisis averted. I’d figure out those details later. Now we just had to sneak out of this place without drawing any atten—What is that smell?

My rambling thoughts were interrupted by the aroma of a rich, caramely sweetness in the air that weakened my bones. I recognized that smell. It was the same one I’d sensed when Kope had tackled me to the ground the day we’d met.

My body tensed with awareness. I became conscious of his broad chest and abs against my back and his warm breath brushing my ear and face. He smelled and felt so good.

I was shocked into inaction.

Open the door and step away from him, Anna. Pretend you didn’t notice. He didn’t know my olfactory sense always got away from me when my emotions ran high, allowing me to smell lustful pheromones.

But then Kope’s conversation with Kai came back to me, and a sudden torrent of emotions racked my system. I hated the horrible feeling that I was holding on to something I never really had to begin with.

He’ll never let you love him.

Hurt coursed through my system. I wanted to let go of it all. A sudden blast of angry rebellion pounded inside me. With my body still touching Kope’s, I slowly turned my head and tilted it up toward him. We stayed like that for a moment, faces close in the darkness, very still.

“Hey,” I whispered.

He did not answer. Instead, another blast of intoxicating richness filled the space, prompting my body to turn and face him. Urged on by adrenaline and a speeding pulse, I reached up and ran my fingers along the back of his neck. I couldn’t believe I was doing this, but a shadow of darkness was expanding inside me. Kopano’s whole body was still, like a rock.

Too much tumbled through my mind, emotions pinging off my heart and sloshing through my stomach. Wants, needs, confusions, affections, heartaches . . . they all ran together like colliding trains, wrecking me. Or making me reckless.

I half expected him to stop me—to turn his head away as he’d done to the flight attendant, or reach around me and fling open the door. But he didn’t. So I gently tugged his neck.

Like an exploding rocket, Kope was crushing his full lips against mine and pressing my back hard against the closed door. A stunned breath escaped my mouth before I responded, fingers feeling his thick hair, marveling at his body against mine. I let myself get lost in the moment.

It felt so good to be kissed—really kissed, by someone who wasn’t holding back an ounce of passion—someone who was letting go just as much as me.

I didn’t stop him when he grabbed my leg, hiking it around his hip. His smooth hand pushed up the skirt and roamed the back of my thigh.

Whoa.

Whoa.

Whoa.

I pulled my face away from him as the weight of our predicament came crashing down.

“Kope?” My breaths were fast and raspy.

With a firm grip on my neck, he brought my face back to his for another kiss, then grabbed my other leg and lifted me clear off the ground, holding me up with both hands. Um . . . wow.

“W-wait,” I said, discombobulated.

He broke away from my mouth, only to devour the length of my neck with his hot, soft lips. I let out a small moan. His hands and mouth were wild on me, and it was so un-Kopano-ish.

“Hold on, Kope.” I tried to push him, but he was working the path of my collarbone, and he was so strong. I shoved again, but he was like a giant boulder in motion.

“Kope! Stop!” I shouted and pushed away hard with my arms, squirming until he dropped me and jumped away, panting. My back was already against the door, so my feet caught underneath me and I didn’t fall. Mops and brooms clattered. I tried to use my night vision, but there was barely any light coming from under the door, so I couldn’t see his expression.

“Anna . . .” His voice was stricken.