Dark Kiss

“Wait.” I drew closer to him so I could get a better look—was it ink or something else? I ran my fingers over the lines to find it didn’t feel like anything but smooth skin. But I felt something else—an energy, a hum, that warmed me being this close to him.

When I’d touched him the first time, I’d had that strange vision that had since faded. For a while, I’d assumed it was just my imagination running wild, but now I wasn’t so sure. Bishop looked like a painfully attractive boy with dark hair and vivid blue eyes, but he wasn’t that. Not at all.

“You’re an angel,” I finally said.

“Thank you for the confirmation. All done?”

Suddenly, I realized that I was touching his back in an intimate way. My cheeks flamed and I pulled my hand away so fast it was comical. Bishop lowered his shirt and glanced at me as if he, too, was surprised I’d been touching him that way only minutes after telling him how much I hated him.

An angel. Here in Trinity.

And I’d just totally groped him in public.

“Sam?” Carly approached us slowly. I guess she was done chatting.

I cringed and turned to look at her. “Uh-huh?”

“Um, what’s going on?”

Good question. I wondered how much of that she’d witnessed. By the look on her face, probably too much.

“Nothing.” Denial was always a nice thing, even when it didn’t help at all.

“Who’s he?” She glanced at Bishop.

“Nobody. We should go now.” I grabbed her arm and started to direct her toward the exit. I felt a strong urge to get Carly somewhere much safer. And I needed to regroup and decide what to do about my problem.

“Leave? Right when it looks like you’re starting to have some fun?” She was actually smiling. My life was falling apart, and she thought it was hilarious.

“No, Samantha,” Bishop said. “We’re not done here. There’s too much to do to wait another day. I need your help now.”

Carly waggled her eyebrows. “He needs your help, Sam. That sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not like that.” I pulled her farther away from the blue-eyed angel. We were so close to the exit. Just another dozen feet to freedom. I stole another glance at Bishop, who’d stopped following and was now staring at me, and ignored my racing heart.

“I knew there was a reason we came here tonight,” she whispered. “I thought it was so you could confront Stephen, but it was so you could meet this guy. He’s a total hottie. You had your hands all over him just now! And he looked like he didn’t want you to stop. Guess you’re breaking that no-romance rule of yours, aren’t you?”

I grimaced. “It wasn’t what it looked like.”

“Sure, it wasn’t.” Her smile faded a little. “I’m all for you finding someone awesome and gorgeous. As long as it isn’t Colin.”

Oh, yes. Thanks so much for the reminder. I dreaded seeing him again tomorrow. He’d asked me out and then I’d nearly accosted his mouth. There was no way he wasn’t going to take that the wrong way. He probably thought I was into him.

For the record, I wasn’t. However, just thinking about how close I’d come to kissing him made my stomach growl softly with hunger. That was disturbing.

Carly slanted a glance in Bishop’s direction. He stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall near the staircase. He wasn’t watching me now; his gaze was on the rest of the club as he did another security check.

“Can you give me a second?” I asked Carly.

“Are you going to give him your phone number?”

“Uh, yeah. My phone number. Sure.”

Her smile returned. “Go for it.”

“Wait here.” As I walked toward Bishop, his gaze locked with mine.

Again, my breath caught. He had a way of doing that to me effortlessly. It was kind of annoying. “It’s been a long day. I want to go home now.”

He shook his head. “You need to come with me.”

I exhaled shakily. “I just told you a few minutes ago that I never want to see you again.”

Yeah. Right before I’d groped him. Colin wasn’t the only one who was getting mixed messages from me this week.

“If I don’t find the others, they’ll be permanently lost, wandering the city, unsure of how they got here or who they are.” Frustration crossed his expression. “I should be able to find them myself, but I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” I asked.

Bishop shook his head. “The searchlights were my only clue, but they’re invisible to me. I must be damaged from entering the city. They told me I might be disoriented, but this is worse than that, and I don’t know why. It could jeopardize my entire mission. But there’s no way I can get a message to them that things went wrong. I’m on my own.”

I twisted a long piece of hair tightly around my finger. “So, the searchlights…why can I see something that you were supposed to see?”

“Good question.” His brows knitted together. “Maybe it was prearranged—a plan B nobody told me about. How else could you have found me last night?”

“I was on my way home, that’s all. I’m no plan B.” I swallowed hard. “I can’t deal with this right now. I need time to think.”

He touched my arm as I turned away. “You need me, Samantha. Without me, you’ll be back here again looking for that gray’s help.” He cast a dark glance at the lounge over our heads. “Trust me when I say that would be a big mistake.”