Prince of Air and Darkness (16 page)

When she was fully sated, Hunter slid his hand reluctantly away, still gazing down at her sweat-dampened skin, watching the rise and fall of her breasts. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, her hand reaching out to touch his cheek tenderly.

“Wow,” she whispered. “All that with just your hand.”

He smiled at her pleasure, turning his head to kiss her palm. He’d pleasured women before, but never had he himself gotten such pleasure out of the act, never had he felt the glow of satisfaction that heated his chest at the moment. Never had he realized just how wonderful it felt to give, not just receive.

Kiera’s hand slid down his face, brushing over the light smattering of hair on his chest, making a beeline for his belt. His cock ached with need, a desperate ache he could only satisfy by burying himself in her warmth and softness. His heart pounded insistently as she made short work of the buckle. He watched her face as she started on the button of his pants, saw the desire that still hovered in her eyes. She slid the zipper down and ran a single finger over his hardness.

The hunger was more powerful now than he could remember it being in all his life. Every instinct in his body screamed for release, and the way Kiera looked at him made it obvious she wanted him inside her. He glanced toward the drawer with the sabotaged condoms, meaning to reach for them, but a chill shivered down his spine.

Damn it, she
trusted
him. She wouldn’t be here if she didn’t, wouldn’t look at him with that kind of openness, wouldn’t have let him touch her as he had. How could he betray her like this?

You’ll do it because you’re a Prince of the Unseelie Court, and you have no choice,
he told himself sternly. But somehow, he found himself wrenching away from the delicious touch of Kiera’s hand. Practically shaking with the conflict that raged within him, Hunter sat up and moved away from Kiera. She blinked and looked at him in confusion.

Hunter wasn’t sure at first he’d be able to find his voice, though he knew he was going to have to come up with a reasonable explanation for his sudden withdrawal. Even though no reasonable explanation existed, save the unacceptable truth. Did he honestly think heroically refraining tonight would save him from having to do his duty? Or that he was somehow lessening his guilt by delaying the inevitable?

“What’s wrong?” Kiera asked softly.

He shuddered, trying to cool his desire while searching for a logical explanation for backing off now. Usually, lies came to him with practiced ease, but this time, he stumbled, his mind going blank.

“Hunter?” She sounded worried.

He let out a long, slow breath. “I forgot to buy condoms,” he mumbled. It was the only explanation he could think of. It would have sounded much more convincing if he could have thought of it sooner. His hesitation was bound to make
anything
sound like a lie.

“What?”

He cleared his throat, and his voice came out steadier and stronger. “I was so wrapped up in planning the romantic dinner that I forgot to buy condoms.” He glanced at her face from the corner of his eye. What he saw was not promising.

There was a long silence as Kiera continued to stare at him skeptically and he continued to avert his eyes. There were too many lies between them, and he couldn’t bear to meet her gaze. Even though he knew his refusal was making his latest lie more suspect.

Hunter shook his head. “You must think I’m the world’s worst idiot.” And she’d be right. Backing away now was pointless—and yet now that he’d started down that path, he had no choice but to continue.

Another long silence. “I don’t know
what
to think,” she admitted eventually. “Do you honestly expect me to believe a guy like you doesn’t have any condoms lying around his apartment?”

He forced himself to look at her, trying to ignore the beautiful body he so badly wanted to possess. There was hurt in her eyes, but mostly there was confusion. She knew he was lying, but couldn’t figure out
why
. Not that he could blame her.

“I hope you know that I want you quite badly,” he said. “I’m sorry I screwed up.”

She cocked her head as she regarded him. Hunter was rarely at a loss for words, but he couldn’t think of a single thing to say to make this better. She huffed out an exasperated breath.

“You certainly are an enigma, Hunter Teague.” She slid off the bed and gathered her clothes.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, miserable.

She shook her head, throwing her clothes on carelessly, her eyes now hard and cold, her lips compressed with anger. The glimmer in her eyes suggested there was pain under her anger. So not only had Hunter just royally screwed up his mission, he’d also managed to hurt Kiera anyway. What a fine specimen of manhood he’d proven himself to be tonight.

“I’ll see myself out,” she said.

Hunter swallowed the protest that tried to escape him. Anything he said now would only make things worse.

There was a dull ache in his chest as he watched Kiera storm out of his bedroom. The sound of his front door slamming filled him with remorse and despair.

Chapter 9

Dressed in a warm, ragged pair of flannel pajamas, Kiera sat on her bed with her arms wrapped around her knees. She’d showered off the makeup and hair gel, as well as the last sticky traces of chocolate and jam—and Hunter’s lingering scent.

Surely if Hunter had really forgotten to buy condoms, he would have remembered far earlier than he had. Besides, he’d obviously planned his seduction with great care. How could he have shown such attention to detail with the meal and then forgotten something as vital as condoms? Not to mention how strange and evasive he’d gotten about it. She couldn’t shake the impression that he’d been lying to her, and that he hadn’t even tried to be terribly convincing about it.

So what had gone wrong? Why had he stopped?

Maybe she’d done something wrong, something that turned him off. Maybe she’d been
too
responsive to the touch of his hand, had shown herself to be verging on desperation. Or maybe she’d been too passive, lying back and greedily enjoying the pleasure he gave her without giving back—although at the time, he’d certainly seemed to enjoy her abandon.

Kiera’s throat tightened, and she swallowed hard, refusing to let herself get weepy over this. She’d known from the moment she’d met him that he was trouble, and his mysterious rejection was just a stroke of luck, stopping her from getting too close to yet another man who would trample her heart.

Too bad her heart insisted on feeling rejected instead of lucky.

The phone rang, and Kiera groaned when she glanced at the caller ID and saw her mother’s number. Somehow, Kiera had never gotten around to returning her mother’s last call. The last thing she wanted to do right now was talk to her mom, but if she didn’t answer at this time of night, she’d face the Inquisition when her mom finally got hold of her.

Grimacing in anticipation, she picked up the phone. “Hello?” she said, the tightly controlled edge in her voice betraying her turmoil.

“Kiera, honey, what’s the matter?” her mother asked.

Kiera cursed whatever maternal instinct had caused her mom to call at a time like this. “Nothing,” she said unconvincingly. “Just a long day. Can we talk some other time?”

Yeah, like
that
had a chance of working.

“You sound terrible. Have you had another close encounter of the weird kind with that new client of yours?”

Geez, that maternal instinct was in overdrive tonight. Just what Kiera needed. “Mom, I don’t want to talk about it. Please give me a break just this once.”

Her mom snorted. “You don’t honestly think I’m going to meekly give up, do you?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Has he touched the horseshoe?”

Kiera thunked the back of her head against the wall behind her bed. She wished there were some force in the universe powerful enough to make her mom back off. Unfortunately, she knew her mom too well.

“Well did he?”

Kiera suppressed a groan. “No, he didn’t touch the horseshoe, but the trap I set was pretty lame.” Heat bloomed in her cheeks as she remembered just how Hunter had distracted her from her purpose.

Her mother sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this, honey.”

“Mom, he’s not a fairy, all right?” It wasn’t fair to be snapping at her mother, but Kiera was too wounded to control her temper.

“I’m coming over.”

“Mother, no!”

“Yes. We need to talk. Too many strange things have been happening lately, and we need to figure out what it all means.”

“I don’t have the strength for it. Not now.” Not ever. “I just want to curl up and go to sleep.”

“That’s too bad. I’m coming over.”

“It’s after ten o’clock.”

“I know what time it is. I should be there in, oh, twenty minutes.”

“Mother—” But her mother hung up the phone before Kiera managed to finish the protest.

****

Kiera had reluctantly changed out of her comfy pj’s into a comfy set of sweats. As she waited for her mother to arrive, she prayed for strength. She felt far too vulnerable to deal with nuttiness right now, and she feared her temper would make her say things she would regret. She really, really didn’t want to hear about how Hunter might be some supernatural being. He was just a very human jerk, one of many she’d been taken in by.

She stood in front of her door, arms crossed over her chest, foot tapping with frustration. Maybe when her mom got a look at her face, she’d finally realize this was not a good time to push.

The doorbell rang.

Even though Kiera was standing within arm’s reach of the door, she waited a few beats, trying to calm her furious pulse, before opening the door. The wait didn’t help any, and she opened her mouth for a caustic remark as she swung the door open.

The words died in her throat when she saw Phantom standing close by his mistress’s legs. The dog stared up at her with his usual baleful expression, and Kiera blinked.

“There are no pets allowed in this building,” she told her mother, still looking at Phantom.

“I know.”

Kiera shook her head. “How the hell did you get him past the doorman and the desk clerk?” She could understand if Phantom were a toy poodle or something, but you couldn’t miss an Irish wolfhound. The dog was big enough to be mistaken for a small pony. She finally dragged her eyes away from the wolfhound to meet her mother’s grim face.

“Trust me, sweetheart, you don’t want to know.”

“What the—”

“You’re blocking the doorway, dear.”

Too perplexed to argue, Kiera stepped out of the way. She noticed that Phantom was not on a leash. How could her mom walk through the streets of the city with her dog off the leash? Didn’t she know the poor thing could get hit by a car? Or that she herself could be fined for breaking the law?

“Mom, what is going on?”

All signs of genial goofiness were erased from her mother’s face, and Kiera clearly saw the worry in her eyes. “I don’t know, honey. That’s what I’m here to find out.”

“But . . . but . . .”

“This Hunter Teague—he lives in this building, right?”

“Yes, but—”

“I’d like to meet him.”

“What?” The word came out almost a shriek, and Kiera winced at her own tone of voice. “Why?” she asked, more calmly.

“You’re going to have to humor me on this one. If I’m totally off base, then I’ll keep my silly suspicions to myself and you won’t feel quite so sure I need to be institutionalized. If I’m not . . . Well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

Kiera rubbed her eyes. “I am
so
not up to this right now.”

Her mom put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “I know. And I’m sorry. But I don’t think this can wait.”

Kiera blinked, yet again. She’d meant she wasn’t up to having the
conversation
. “You mean you want to meet him
now
?” she cried.

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

Kiera shook her head. There was no way she was taking her mom to meet Hunter, not after what happened tonight. It would be embarrassing enough to see Hunter later, when her nerves had calmed and when her mother was ten blocks away. “Absolutely, positively not. End of story.”

Her mother stood up extra straight, making the most of her height. Her eyes were frosty and determined, and Kiera realized with a start that the green contacts were gone. She’d never seen her mom look so grave, or so powerful. “Kiera Malone,” her mother said in a voice that would have cowed the most unruly school bully ever to walk the earth, “this is too important to fight about. You are going to introduce me to this man, and you’re going to do it now. You can yell at me all you want when it’s over, and if I’m imagining things I will apologize until I turn blue in the face. Now, let’s go!”

Her mother took hold of Kiera’s upper arm and started marching her toward the front door. Kiera tried to dig in her heels, but Phantom head-butted her from behind. She turned a glare over her shoulder as he padded along behind them.

“You can’t drag me there by force,” she grated through her clenched teeth. “You don’t know what apartment he lives in.”

“Nine B.”

Kiera gaped.

“The nice man at the front desk told me.”

Kiera’s bullshit meter maxed out. “The guy at the front desk let you bring a horse-sized dog into the building
and
volunteered information about one of the residents? Either it’s time for him to get a new job, or you’re making this up as you go along.”

“Close your front door,” her mother said as if Kiera hadn’t spoken. “We might be gone awhile.” She strode into the hall and hit the down arrow without waiting to see if Kiera would follow.

Kiera considered ducking back through her door and locking it behind her, but she was pretty sure her mom was going to confront Hunter with or without her. At least if Kiera was present, she could do some damage control, maybe eventually rein her mom in.

Bowing to the inevitable—much as she dreaded it—Kiera grabbed her keys, pulled her door closed and got into the elevator.