The Darkest Touch

OUCH. BECAUSE OF the bond, Torin’s attitude cut at Keeley when before it had merely challenged her. And because no other race bonded quite like hers, he would never know how much he hurt her unless she told him—which she wouldn’t.

Guilt wasn’t what she wanted from him. He felt enough of it already.

“If you don’t want to talk about sex...” she began.

He inhaled sharply. Tone guttural, he said, “I don’t.”

“Then how about we discuss your soon-to-be new favorite subject? Me!” Might have lost the first skirmish, but I’ll still win the war. His heart is as good as mine.

“I’m listening,” he said.

“I’ve been married once. At sixteen, my parents forced me to wed the king of the Curators. The union lasted four miserable years, and I made sure there were no babies. He was a terrible father to his other children.”

“Dude. I feel like an idiot. I knew you’d been given to a king, but not that you’d married him. Your title should have been my first clue.”

“Well, Detective Torin, it was just a few months after the king died that I became engaged to Hades, the worst deceiver ever to walk the earth. It was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” Started negatively. End positively. “My favorite color is rainbow, and I firmly believe raisins are nature’s sweetest candy. I don’t care what the haters say! I know everything about everything, and the only time I’ve ever been wrong is the time I thought I was wrong.”

His lips might have quirked at the corners. “The fiancée of Hades. I should be used to it, but I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the idea. What was it like?”

“Exciting. At first. He was magnetic.”

“And homicidal.”

“Yes, but at the time that was part of his charm. He taught me how to protect myself.”

“The lesson cost you, though.”

What did he mean? Too afraid to ask.

Grinning wryly, he said, “So...what would you say is your greatest flaw?”

“Why? Is this a job interview?”

“Could be.”

For what position? “Well, my greatest flaw is probably that I’m far too unselfish...in bed.”

He choked on a laugh. When he calmed he said, “You were locked away for centuries, right?”

“Right.”

“Then how are you so...modern?”

“Easy. I once had a seer in my employ. She possessed the delightful ability to allow others inside her head to watch the future unfold, and I did. Often.”

“Fun, but not exactly helpful. You knew the future, and yet you ended up in prison.”

“True. I suspect she willfully withheld that aspect of my life. What better way to escape my sinister clutches?” But enough about her. “What about you? Give me the down-and-dirty deets.”

Wrong choice of words. Or maybe the right ones. They both shuddered.

She shuddered with remembered—and still-throbbing—desire.

Why did he?

“If you want answers,” he said, “you’ve got to eat. I mean it.”

Oh, very well. He’d been honest every step of their journey. He’d said he wouldn’t poison her, and she believed him. She made a big production of eating a single morsel, exaggerating every motion.

“More.”

Fine! She grabbed a handful and stuffed everything inside her mouth. There was so much she could barely chew.

His eyes twinkled merrily, giving him a boyish, even roguish, appearance. “I’ve never been married,” he said after she’d swallowed.

When he said no more, she rolled her eyes. “Wow. Slow down. I’m not sure I can handle all this new information.”

“My greatest flaw is my total lack of flaws. Do you know what a burden it is, being perfect all the time?”

She fluffed her hair. “Yes, actually, I do.”

He smiled and nudged her with his shoulder. Then, realizing what he’d done, he frowned and cleared his throat. “What do you want to know about me?”

She hated his upset over the spontaneous touch but really liked that he’d done it. Talk about sweet progress. “Why do you have a butterfly tattoo?”

One of his brows winged up. “Thought you knew everything about everything.”

“I knew about the Lords of the Underworld before—well, before. My spies told me different reports about the tattoo.”

“Spies? How cloak-and-dagger.”

“I learned from the best. Hades,” she added, in case he hadn’t put the pieces together. She motioned to his waist. “The meaning.”

“Different things to different people. I got it the day of the demon-possession.”

“So...it’s a mark of evil.”

“For me, yes.”

“Well, if you ask me,” she said, “a butterfly is a weird symbol for it.”

“I don’t think it’s a symbol. I think it’s a reminder that evil can hide beneath even the prettiest of facades.”

“Do you need the reminder often?”

“Only every time I look in the mirror.”

She snorted. “Did you just compliment your pretty facade? Your ego must really need some stroking.”

“Something needs stroking all right,” he muttered, his heated gaze raking over her, making her shiver.

Need a brilliant, sexy response. “Oh, yeah?”

Good one, Your Majesty.