Midnight’s Master (Midnight #3)(29)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Her lip curled in disgust-no dimple-as her eyes narrowed. "Even when the sex is good."

She doesn’t know.

Niol realized he had to tread very, very carefully now.

If he hadn’t been so pissed earlier, he would have realized-

The woman had been thrown into his world months before, a lamb to the slaughter.

Some reactions just couldn’t be faked.

He’d remember her fear in that alley until he took his last breath.

"I’m sorry, Holly." The words were rusty and felt funny on his tongue. Because it was the first time he’d ever apologized.

Judging by the look on her face, she knew it, too. "Uh, run that by me again."

"I. Am. Sorry." He wouldn’t plead. Wouldn’t beg. Had sworn years ago never to do either again.

"Sorry you called me a demon? Well, you should be-"

"Not for that."

Her lips parted.

"You are a demon, love. But the crazy thing is…I don’t think you even know it."

She rubbed her hand over her eyes and growled. "I’m not a demon-"

He caught her hand, pulled it gently down, and kept a loose grip around her wrist. "Yes, you are."

A startled laugh burst from her lips. "You’re actually serious. You believe-"

"I’ll prove it to you. Just give me some time." An investigation of her background, her family history, would take a few days-maybe less, depending on who he hired and how much money he tossed around, but Niol knew he would find the proof.

He just had to look hard enough.

"I can’t be a demon, I think I would know-"

"I thought so, too," he murmured.

"My parents would have told me, don’t you think? But they didn’t because they’re not demons.

They’re perfectly normal people-" A shadow drifted over her face. "My dad was, anyway, but he had a heart attack and-" Her chin lifted. "He was an accountant, for goodness sake! And my mom, she’s an engineer at the car plant in-"

"Maybe she doesn’t know." Maybe neither of her parents had known the truth.

Adoption, one possibility. Or maybe somewhere far back in the family tree, one of Holly’s relatives had been tempted by a demon in disguise. "Make no mistake, I know what I saw upstairs."

When he’d had her naked and open to him and he’d been seconds away from thrusting into that slick pink flesh.

Then he’d met her stare and the world had stopped.

And started again in a red haze of fury.

"You’re wrong." A whisper. " I’d know."

He brought her hand to his lips. He’d screwed up with her, lost valuable ground, and he wasn’t sure how to repair the damage he’d done.

The idea of Holly betraying him-

It had shattered his control and let the fury rage.

"No, love," now, spoken as the endearment it was, "you wouldn’t."

And that was the whole damn problem.

Holly paced her office hours later, Niol’s words still spinning in her head.

A demon. The guy actually thought she was a demon.

Insane.

Ridiculous.

Wasn’t it?

But Niol wasn’t the joking type and the fury she’d glimpsed in his eyes had been all too real.

Because he thought I’d played him.

Shit. Holly stumbled to a stop. It just wasn’t possible.

Holy Christ…what if it were true?

From the beginning, she’d been so fascinated by the idea of demons, drawn, almost helplessly, back to Paradise Found.

Back to the demons.

Because she was one?

No. Not. Possible.

Her hand slammed onto her desk. She was grade-A human, through and through.

No matter what Niol thought he’d seen.

Someone rapped on her door.

Holly sucked in a cleansing breath and turned around. "Kim, do you have those tapes-"

Kim wasn’t standing in her doorway. She’d expected the intern, with the security tapes from the previous morning.

But the pretty brunette wasn’t staring back at her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Holly snapped, her body jerking as if she’d been shocked.

And, yeah, she was pretty damn shocked.

Because seeing Dr. Zachariah Hall, blond hair perfectly slicked back, golden tan gleaming, blue eyes smiling at her-stunned her. He was the last person she’d expected-or wanted-to see.

The lips that had been tilted in a warm grin sagged a bit. "Holly…you aren’t still angry, are you?"

She growled. Finding her fiance half-naked with his grad student hadn’t been one of her best moments. Or his. Jerk. "Uh, yeah, I am. And probably will be for the next, oh, twenty years." Why the hell was the guy there? He’d tried calling her a few times after the breakup. She’d ignored him.

Then, blessedly, he’d gone away.

Back to his classes and the nimble grad girls who would do anything for that A.

The smile was totally gone now. "I made a mistake. A onetime mistake."

One time her ass. She snorted. "One time, twenty times," which she believed more than the "one time" story. "You’re done in my book."

He stepped toward her and closed the door behind him.

Her mouth dropped. "Uh, Zack, I’m not in the mood to talk to you-" Ever.

"I’m sorry I hurt you." The words sounded sincere. His eyes looked sincere.

The apology was completely different from Niol’s. Very smooth and slick. Not at all awkward.

Didn’t sound like the words had been dragged from him.

But she didn’t buy it, not for a minute.

And what about Niol’s apology?

Later.

"I’m sorry I wasted four months of my life on you. Guess we’re even." Okay, that sounded like something a really cold bitch would say.

So call her cold.

And she’d always been a bit proud of being a bitch.

The faint lines around his eyes hardened. He wasn’t wearing his glasses today. Usually he saved those for his classes. She knew he thought they made him look scholarly, and he was all about the smart professor look.

Dr. Zachariah Hall was an associate professor in the biology department at Mellrune University in Atlanta. He spent his days lecturing to bleary-eyed students or writing really lame research papers.

And screwing students, too.

When she’d first met him, Holly had mistakenly believed the guy was a class act. Smart. Honest.

Gentlemanly.

The wild spark she’d always longed for hadn’t ignited between them, but she’d figured she’d be able to live quite happily without that spark.

So she’d accepted his proposal over a lobster dinner one night, then found him having a hands-

on experience with his student two months later.

Extra credit?

"I was scared, Holly." Again, sounded sincere. Maybe it was. "I fell for you, hard and fast. I didn’t know what was happening to me, so I-"