First Do No Evil: Blood Secrets, Book 1 (21 page)

Looking directly at the camera and raising his manicured eyebrows, Edmond said, “You’re not really going to film this are you?”

“Why not? I can’t think of a better engagement present.”

Engagement present
. A wave of nausea hit Sky hard. As the sound drifted toward her in slow motion, her brain decoded the unmistakable voice of Halston Reece. This wasn’t what it seemed.

It couldn’t be.

But it was.

A moment later, Halston appeared on screen. Clad in nothing but a lace thong, she bounced onto the bed on her knees, straddled Edmond and peeled off his trousers and briefs.

Sky’s hand fluttered to her chest. Every beat of her heart brought with it a throbbing ache. As long as her heart continued to beat she couldn’t stop the pain.

Gripping the remote, she began blindly pressing buttons, waving her arm up and down at the television, but the disc kept playing, and she kept watching—hoping against hope that Edmond would push Halston away and put an end to this nightmare.

Edmond sat up. He grabbed Halston’s toned arms and rolled her off of him. Sky’s breath caught, and for an instant, sweet relief swam over her. Then Edmond’s hand parted Halston’s thighs. He dragged her thong down, and with that scrap of lace still dangling from one trim ankle, he buried his face between her legs.

First Sky’s cheeks startled to tingle, then the numbness spread down her neck onto her chest and arms, finally settling in her fingertips. She squeezed her eyes shut to black out the sickening image of Edmond and Halston naked on the screen. But closing her eyes didn’t block out the moaning.

Then, from behind her, a low growl cut through her agony:

“That Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch.”

A steel hand wrenched the remote from her grip. The moaning stopped. And then strong arms closed around her, gathered her close against an iron chest.

Danny
.

Danny huddled against the arm of the couch watching Sky sleep. Like a talisman keeping Edmond’s ghost at bay, he meant to guard even her dreams. As soon as he’d recognized the man in the sex-tape as Edmond, his only thought had been to get Sky out of that room and away from the pain. He’d scooped her into his arms, carried her up to the loft, and ordered her to rest. His left arm protested his gallantry, but he’d carry her up those stairs one hundred times over if that’s what it took to wipe the hurt from her eyes.

As he rubbed his arm to ease the soreness, serial pinpricks fired across his nerve endings. He tried to close his left fist and couldn’t. Flexing his trigger finger, he felt its tendon jerk stiffly through its sheath. Not good. A guy liked his trigger finger to be fully operational.

As petite as Sky was, lifting her had put too much strain on the already inflamed nerves of his brachial plexus. He’d been warned by his Ortho not to put those critical nerves to the test:
Permanent injury might result
.

Danny wasn’t worried about that. He didn’t intend on staying down for the count…but he knew, unfortunately, he’d never get away with returning to work on Monday now. His disability would be apparent, and he didn’t want the captain calling his mommy to come pick him up.

He was going to have to admit to his Ortho that he’d omitted one little detail about his condition: His left hand was his gun hand. On the bright side, more leave meant more time to chase down Sky’s devil.

Having declared a moratorium on his usual teetotaling, Danny raised his second tumbler of whiskey to his lips and swallowed a long draught. Liquid fire trickled down his throat, and he figured the ache in his shoulder would ease up soon. When he set the glass down sharply on the coffee table, it clunked, and the sound was followed, in short order, by a swift kick in his side. Ah. He’d awakened Sleeping Beauty.

“How long have I been asleep?” From her reclining position on the couch, Sky bolted upright, rubbed her eyelids with her fists. “I had an awful dream…”

“About an hour,” he said warily, observing a shadow of vulnerability fall over her delicate features. He knew the exact moment Sky realized the truth—that her nightmare was no dream, that Edmond’s betrayal was real, because she jerked her mouth into a don’t-pity-me smile and stuck up her chin.

That determined bravado he might have predicted, but he was completely unprepared for what Sky did next. Sliding next to him, she cupped his chin in her hand and brushed a kiss over his lips. He didn’t move a muscle, he
couldn’t
move a muscle, and deep in his bones, he knew he was in trouble. Because even though Sky had aimed it elsewhere…her kiss had landed in his heart.

He’d simply grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. When Danny didn’t so much as wet his lips in response, Sky knew her kiss hadn’t impacted him at all. Covering her embarrassment, she pretended to admire the décor. A champagne-colored sheepskin sprawled across the planks beneath her feet. “Nice rug.”

He went back to staring at her. She didn’t look away. Apparently, Danny had built a fire in the loft while she’d slept, and the warmth penetrated her core…or maybe the heat came from within. The firelight’s amber glow flickered over Danny’s rugged profile, playing with the catchlights in his eyes. Shadows ducked and danced behind the angles of his jaw, accentuating the raw masculinity of his features.

A hard ache fisted around her heart, and she knew what she had to do—no matter the consequence. Fate was propelling her inexorably toward a solitary life…or a solitary death. But if she could grab onto one real moment of happiness, if, on that solitary journey, she could have but one good thing to carry deep in her heart, maybe that would be enough. All she wanted was one true moment—and she wanted that moment to be with Danny. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she clasped the hem of her shirt.

A spark of anger flashed in Danny’s eyes.

Not exactly the reaction she’d hoped for.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Trying not to let something wonderful pass me by,” she said. Her voice sounded husky, but that was okay. She didn’t want to hide, not anymore, not from Danny. “I’ve decided to take your advice and grab the moment by the balls. Remember, that’s what you said—”

“The day we first met. But everything was different then.
We
were different then.”

Her hands started to tremble, and she folded them on her lap. She wished they could go back. She wanted to be that girl who’d been drawn out of herself by a handsome stranger—the girl who’d laughed and flirted with an outlaw outside Jolene’s. And she wanted him to be that outlaw, that fearless guy who’d winked at her and leaned in to touch her hair. But tonight Danny was no outlaw. Instead of leaning in, he leaned as far away from her as he could get.

But…he had remembered that first sweet moment between them, and for that reason, hope still flickered in her heart. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to protect me. But I don’t need you to protect me from
this
. This is what I want.
You
are what I want.”

He lifted his glass and tossed back another slug of whiskey. “And what about what I want, Sky? Maybe you’re not the only one I’m looking out for in this situation. Maybe I’m not all that jazzed about the idea of making love to a woman who’s looking to revenge fuck a dead guy.”

Lights
.
Curtain
.
That’s a wrap
. Danny had just delivered her exit cue. Time to gather her things and go back to her solitary life. But…she didn’t want to. She wasn’t ready. “I’m not trying to seduce you to get revenge on Edmond.”

“Then your timing sucks. And anyway I don’t believe you.”

She dropped her hand to his inner thigh and despite the layer of denim separating his skin from hers, his body heated her palm. Unashamed she let her eyes follow the seam of his pants, travel up his inner thigh to his groin. She was having an impact after all. Casting aside any remaining fear, she said, “This has nothing to do with Edmond. It has everything to do with how I feel about you. That morning at the diner, before all hell broke loose, I wanted to touch you. I wanted you to touch me. I’ve wanted you ever since the moment you first smiled at me, but given what happened to poor Edmond—”

“Poor Edmond was a bastard.” Jumping up, he raked his hand through his hair. “He proposed to you and then left you to go ball Barbie. If you have so much as ounce of sympathy left for him, if you can’t see him for the creep he really was, then you’re even more naïve than I thought.”

Her cheeks stung like Danny had given her a rough slap, and he must’ve noticed her flush, because he eased back down beside her and gentled his voice. “I’m sorry to hurt you, Sky. But truth is truth. Running from it is never a good idea.”

Blinking hard, she tossed back her head. “I’m not afraid of the truth, and I have no intention of running from it. But that was plain brutal. Who are you mad at? Edmond or me?”

“Both of you, Goddamnit.” With his fingertips he pressed his eyelids. “And myself. I’m mad at myself.” It was his turn to blink away moisture from his eyes. “Because right now there’s nothing I want more than to believe you. I wish to God I could.”

“This isn’t about Edmond.” In a soft voice, a voice so quiet he leaned forward to hear her words, she said simply, honestly, “I want you.” Turning her shaky hand up, she extended her open palm to him.

He exhaled a long, rickety breath, and then his fingers tightened around hers. “Truth is truth,” he said. “Best tell it. So here’s mine: if I believed that you wanted me as much as I want you…I’d already have carried you into the bedroom, or maybe I’d have taken you right here on the floor.”

Encouraged, she drew his hand up and cupped it beneath her breast.

With seemingly great difficulty, he dragged his hand away, as if it were tethered by a heavy weight. “There’s something else that’s bothering me. How many lovers have you had?”

“Fair enough question, I suppose,” she said. “Two. What about you?”

“Considerably more than two, but none in the past year. I’ve got a clean bill of health…not that we’re going through with this, but, just so you know.” Scrubbing the back of his neck with his hand, he said, “You’ve only been with two men, Sky. Is that…is that because of…”

“Because I was assaulted. Before the night my father was killed, I had a boyfriend, my high school sweetheart. Scotty Humphries, you probably know him… Anyway, we had sex a few times, and I liked it. I liked it a lot. But after I was attacked, even though I wasn’t raped, I never felt comfortable letting Scotty touch me again. Eventually we broke up. And I just didn’t have the desire to try again, at least not until I met Edmond.”

“And with Edmond how did the sex go? Were you all right?” His eyes sought hers and held. “I’m not trying to embarrass you. It’s just I know the aftereffects something like that can have on a woman, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m not embarrassed. I want us to be open with each other. That’s kind of the point isn’t it? But to answer your question, with Edmond, it was…okay. I felt comfortable making love to him, but I don’t think he felt comfortable making love to me. We were only together a few times, and he was always so restrained.” She dropped her eyes, and her hands twisted in her lap. Then she looked up and squared her gaze with his. “I thought maybe Edmond was unenthusiastic about sex, that it wasn’t important to him. But after watching that video, I see I was wrong. I think Edmond was holding back because of my past. Because he thought he might frighten me. I think that’s why he went with Halston. He wanted to be with someone who wasn’t…damaged.” Her throat went dry, and suddenly she understood why her hands trembled. She didn’t think she could bear it if Danny, too, looked at her that way, like she was fragile and half-broken, like she was damaged goods.

“Good God, Sky, don’t you understand what an amazing woman you are, how lucky any man would be to share your bed?” Rising with determined purpose, he pulled her up to stand beside him.

“I’m not afraid, Danny. Not of you.”

He raised her palm to his lips and kissed it softly. “Will you lie down with me? I just want to hold you a while.”

She nodded and watched in silence as Danny tossed couch pillows onto the floor and then dragged the sheepskin rug directly beneath the loft’s skylight.

“Christian installed this skylight especially for stargazing.” Danny switched off the floor lamp, and she let out a soft whisper of awe. Darkness swept the room, then broke where a spotlight of stardust beamed down from the windowed ceiling. Danny pulled her down beside him onto the sheepskin.

She sighed and stared up at the starry night. “So beautiful.”

He touched her chin and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Yes,” he said. “You are. And I don’t mean just on the outside.”

She didn’t know how to respond, so she stayed quiet, and then, Danny started to talk. “You know Flagstaff’s a Dark Sky City. That’s why the stars are so bright, even in town. When I was a kid, Christian and I used to camp out in the back yard in the summer. We didn’t have a tent, but Mom had some old sleeping bags and she’d lay them out on the ground for my brother and me. We’d lie under the stars, and Christian would point out the constellations.”

Aiming his index finger toward the ceiling he said, “See that bright star? That’s Jupiter, and that cluster up a little higher, that’s the Pleiades.” He grinned. “Christian never shut up. I’d fall asleep with my big brother rambling about the stars and about his dream of becoming a baseball player. Shocked the hell out of us all when he gave up that dream for medicine.”