Seduce the Darkness (Alien Huntress #4)(23)
Author: Gena Showalter

"No," she said raspily. How was he affecting her this way? Making her crave things she shouldn’t? "I haven’t."

"That means you were raised here." Attention never leaving her, he set his now-empty glass at his feet and straightened. "Interesting."

By "here," did he mean New Chicago? Had vampires simply settled in another state? "Yes, I was. I’ve never left New Chicago."

"A new twist." He scrubbed two fingers over his stub-bled jaw, the very picture of intrigued male. "Perhaps we can trade information."

"Men must like that game." Nolan had wanted to play, too. "Good thing for you, I’m all for it, as long as you don’t ask me about the otherworlder."

"Oh, I won’t, pet. There’s no need. Not anymore." Leaning forward, Devyn tossed something at her. "You’ll simply bring him to me."

Bride caught it by reflex alone and held it up to the light. A necklace. Obviously cheaper than Nolan’s with dull, scratched metal links and a scuffed emerald stone hanging from the center. Breath froze in her throat, frosting up her lungs. "This belongs to Aleaha." She knew because she’d stolen it and given it to her one Christmas. "I know."

Her lashes lifted, and she leveled a piercing glare at her tormentor. "You have her." A statement, not a question, laced with disbelief, fear, and grim expectation.

"Oh, yes. But the question is, what am I going to do with her? Which in turn raises another, more important question. What am I going to do with you?"

CHAPTER 7

Devyn had relished his words, every last one of them, eager to watch Brides reaction to them. What was he going to do with her? Anything he wanted.

First, Brides mouth floundered open and closed, not a sound leaving her. Then she pushed out a heavy breath, as if she were trying to calm herself down. Then she narrowed her eyes at him, murderous intent glowing in their emerald depths.

"Where is she?" Bride demanded. Gone was any hint of her earlier breathlessness. Breathlessness that could have sprung from desire … or anger.

"We’ll get to that," he said smoothly.

She wound the links around her neck, the motions jerky. "What have you done with her?"

Devyn kicked his feet out, crossing them at the ankles. Why, I sent her to a motel room fifteen miles from here, where she has been watching another room for any sign of you. "Again, we’ll get to that. I believe I once mentioned that I only converse while naked."

Those lush red lips parted on a gasp, and he almost laughed. He’d known he would enjoy this, but the depth of his enjoyment surprised him. She was everything he remembered, yet so much more. Beautiful, witty, and oh, so charming. She was also a fighter by nature. Proof: she’d hunted him down. Twice. Proof: she’d captured Nolan when he and Dallas had been unable. Proof: she sat on the edge of his bed, the chains surely taunting her, but she didn’t run away.

He found himself curious about her past, about what had shaped her into the strong, vibrant woman she’d become. A woman who knew nothing about her own race, but a woman who was desperate to know everything. A woman who loved her missing friend with a loyalty that astounded him. Most people turned their back on their loved ones the moment their own lives were placed in danger. Bride plowed through that danger with no thought to her own safety.

He liked that. He liked her. She’d entered the apartment smug and eager, just as he would have done were the situation reversed. Would she have reacted as he had, though? He’d sensed the emotions pulsing off her, and they’d short-circuited his brain, causing great waves of arousal to sweep through him. Dark and carnal and consuming. Blood had left his head, then his limbs, and flowed straight into his cock. It had yet to leave.

"I’m not stripping," she finally said, breaking the silence. Each word dripped with quiet rage. "But I hope you feel free to do so."

"Oh, I do." And he would. Maybe. He hadn’t yet decided how far to take this round. Her reactions would dictate his. "But ladies first."

Devyn pushed mental fingers into her mind, clasping onto the energy required for movement. As each time before, hers was spellbinding, enough to drown him with power. For a moment, she resisted, doing her best to shove him out and reclaim her rightful property. But he’d been doing this for so long, it was as simple as breathing. People, objects, it didn’t matter. If he could hold the energy, he always prevailed.

The more people he controlled, the harder it was to force individual movements. Usually he’d resort to locking them in place or moving them in the same direction, as he’d done in that alley. It was just

him and Bride now, however, and she was his to do with as he pleased.

"Take off your shirt." He didn’t need to say it aloud to make it happen, but he wanted her to hear his voice and feel her body respond accordingly, unable to stop herself. Hopefully, it would become habit and she would later do what he wanted without his having to exert any energy of his own.

Her eyes narrowed further as her fingers gripped the hem of her shirt and yanked it over her head. The material lifted her hair, and that amazing black silk tumbled back down, landing on the smooth expanse of her shoulders … covering her bra … probably tickling her stomach.

She retained a tight grip on the material. "Is this the way all AIR agents act? Like dirty perverts?”

“I’m only an agent when I feel like being an agent. Right now, I only want to be a dirty pervert."

Her nostrils flared in renewed—and far more potent—anger, her eyes bright with sudden … pain? "Well, does this make you feel powerful, forcing a defenseless woman to your will? Revealing a body she’d rather hide and shaming her?"

For a moment, only a moment, he paused as his own sense of shame washed through him. Bride’s words were nearly a mirror of his father’s. Bodies should- never be revealed, the man had always said. It’s degrading … disgraceful.

Devyn scowled, shoving at the memory and the emotion until both left him. There was nothing degrading or disgraceful about nudity. It had taken him centuries to realize that, to not hate himself for his love of the female form.

Bride didn’t believe it, either, he told himself. How could she, when she’d traipsed the streets naked? This was simply her way of fighting back with the only weapon she currently possessed: her intelligence.

"You have no qualms about exposing those decadent curves and that delicious femininity. I know this because you gave me the peep show of a lifetime in public."

She returned his scowl.

"Now be a good girl and drop the shirt for me."