The Darkest Touch dh-3 Page 25

  They could argue that for hours and it wouldn’t locate Izzy. “Either way, now we have to find my sister.”

  “Yes,” Michael said. “And I know where she is.”

  “You do?”

  He nodded. “We’re going back to the church where you originally hid the black diamond.”

  Angelique frowned. “Why there?”

  “They’re underground in that location. Isabelle and the black diamond are there.”

  “On sacred ground?” Mandy asked. “I thought that was impossible.”

  “Somehow they’ve managed to isolate themselves from the sanctity of the area. I sensed something different about the place, and my suspicions were confirmed when the demons attacked and took Angelique and the black diamond.”

  She didn’t ask how he knew that. Maybe he got those insights, those feelings, just like she did. Keepers had mystical abilities of sight. Angelique didn’t care, as long as Michael was correct about Isabelle’s whereabouts.

  But now she was worried about Father Vintaldi, who had been so nice to her. “How soon do we leave?”

  “We leave immediately,” Michael said. “You will stay here.”

  “I have to go with you.”

  Michael shook his head. “No. They’ve already taken you once. I’m not going to let it happen again.” Michael looked around the room. “I need someone to volunteer to stay behind and protect Angelique.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  Angelique couldn’t believe Ryder had been the first to offer. Immediately. Without hesitation. He loved a good demon fight. Why would he give that up to baby-sit her?

  “Make sure she stays put,” Michael said. “We can’t risk the Sons of Darkness grabbing her again. If they do, it could compromise our efforts to get Isabelle.”

  This was insane. “It’s important I be there. Don’t you see? I know Father Vintaldi. I know the church grounds. I’ve had contact with the black diamond.”

  “You’re not going, Angelique. It’s too risky,” Lou said.

  Michael stood, turned to the others. “Weapon up.”

  Angelique watched, helpless, as the hunters gathered their gear and met at the door.

  “We’ll keep you posted,” Michael said.

  Ryder nodded, closed the front door after they left, and returned to the library.

  Angelique stood and faced Ryder. “Don’t do this.”

  Ryder laid his hands on her shoulders, his expression warm and tender. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but Michael’s right. You need to stay here. After what happened to you the last time at the church, it’s too dangerous for you to walk into the lion’s den.”

  She shrugged him off, turned away, then back again. “You of all people know how important this is to me, how close I am to Isabelle. I need to be there.”

  He didn’t answer, just closed the library doors and took a seat.

  “Are you hungry?”

  She shook her head.

  “Tired? We could rest. You’ve been through a trauma.”

  She shot him a glare. “The only trauma I’m going through is not being able to hunt for my sister and the black diamond, and kick some demon ass.”

  He flopped down on the sofa. “Feisty and frustrated. Spoken like a true demon hunter. I’d like to kick their asses, too.”

  She went down on her haunches in front of him. “Then let’s go. We’ll follow discreetly. They won’t even know we’re there.”

  He smiled, leaned forward and took her face between his hands, and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. She felt the warmth there, the genuine caring. She wanted to sink into that comfort, to let him hold her, kiss her and erase the tension with his touch, but she couldn’t. She stiffened, pulled her lips from his, and stared expectantly at him.

  “No,” Ryder said. “Much as I’d like to be out there, too, it’s not safe for you.”

  She jerked out of his embrace and stood, pacing the room behind the sofa, trying to figure out how she could escape from Ryder.

  He knew how much this meant to her. How could he hold her back? She’d never do this to him, would never keep him from something so important.

  Bastard. He was a soldier, following orders. Her feelings meant nothing to him. She meant nothing to him. She’d just have to find a way to outsmart him.

  “Don’t even think about it,” he said, his back to her.

  Damn that man. “What are you, some kind of mind reader now?”

  “I am where you’re concerned. Besides, if our positions were reversed, I’d be doing the same thing. Trying to figure out how to get away from you so I could join the hunters in the search.”

  She stopped, crossed her arms. “Then why aren’t you helping me?”

  He stalked to her, grasping her arms, his expression fierce, his tone even more so. “Because our situations aren’t reversed. And I don’t want the Sons of Darkness to come anywhere near you again. Ever. I don’t want to have to think about what they might be doing to you, or wonder if you’re dead or alive.”

  She knew that underneath his anger was caring, anguish, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. Ryder wasn’t accustomed to having someone in his life who mattered to him.

  Her anger melted away, and she reached for him, smoothing her fingers across his brow. “I’m sorry.”

  He frowned. “For what?”

  “I’m sorry that you care about me. I can see it hurts you.”

  His lids half closed, his chin dropped to his chest as he inhaled deeply. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m not good at this.” He lifted his head.

  “We’re both just frustrated, under pressure and wanting to do things we can’t do. We want instant results and we want things in our past to not have happened at all.” She backed away and looked out the window, realizing how much her life had changed in a few short weeks.

  “I don’t want to be the daughter of a demon. I wish I hadn’t found out about it. If I could transfuse his blood out of me, I would. I hate knowing he lives inside me.”

  “That isn’t who you are.” His voice was soft, reassuring.

  That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Maybe she wanted, needed, condemnation. “Isn’t it? It taints me. It changes me.” Her perception of herself, and no doubt others’ perception of her.

  “It only changes you in your own mind, Angie.”

  She looked at him over her shoulder. “What about that scene in the cottage, Ryder? I killed.”

  “You killed a demon. You used your powers for good.”

  Despite her anguish, her lips tilted. “Okay, you might have a point.”

  “You’re one of the strongest women I’ve ever met, Angie. If anyone can master the demon part of you, you can. You’ll be like Derek and Nic. It will just be another side of you, one you’ll learn to live with, to summon when you need it. Otherwise, it won’t change who you are.”

  She knew what he was saying. “You mean unlike you.”

  “It is what it is. The blood I have inside me did shape me. I never wanted to be the son of a madman abuser, someone who enjoyed his anger, who fed off hurting others. But I am. Living with him, learning from him. . it affected me. Influenced who I became as an adult. I can’t do anything about it. I learned to accept it.”

  “I told you, that’s not who you are.”

  He ignored her. “It’s a hell of a legacy to realize I could turn out like him, especially when I realized I had a propensity for violence.”

  He sat on the sofa and she went with him. “When I joined Special Ops, got into the dirty, dark assignments, I realized how much I enjoyed. . killing.”

  He slanted a glance her way. “Does that shock you?”

  She shook her head. “No. You were killing bad guys, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah, but does that really matter? I should have been unemotional about it, I should have found it distasteful. Instead, I felt a thrill every time I blew someone away, every time I slid a knife across their throat and life drained away under my hand. It felt good.”


  She laid her palm against the rough stubble of his cheek, feeling his pain, wishing she could take it away. “That doesn’t make you like your father. Because you don’t use it on the people you care about or people who don’t deserve it. And that’s the difference between you and him.”

  He sat for a moment, quiet, staring at the bookshelves. She hoped what she said sank in.

  “When you killed that demon at the cottage, did you enjoy it?” he asked.

  She thought about it, then spoke the truth. “Yes.”

  “Do you think you’re evil, Angie? Honestly?”

  She shook her head. “No.” Or maybe she just hoped it.

  “You’re no different after the revelation of who your father was than you were before. You don’t have that darkness within you.”

  He said it with such conviction, as if he really, truly believed it to be so. “Thank you.”

  She leaned in, kissed him, breathed into him, felt the muscles in his arms tense, and pulled back.

  “Ryder, let it go. Let him go. Why is it so easy for you to believe in me, and so hard for you to believe in yourself?”

  He let out a husky laugh. “I don’t know.”

  “I believe in you. And I could never love someone who was like him.”

  He looked at her. Really stared at her, like he couldn’t believe she’d said the words.

  She couldn’t believe she’d said them either, but now that she had, the need to tell him everything bubbled up inside her.

  “We’re so much alike,” she continued. “Strong, stubborn, able to survive out there on our own. I knew when we first met that we were similar spirits. We’ve been solitary for so long that I think it’s taken both of us our entire lives to learn to lean on someone else.”

  She inhaled, aware she might be the only one who felt this way, but needing to tell him.

  “I’ve never loved anyone other than my mother and my sister. I’ve had men in my life, but they never mattered to me. But you and me, we have a connection. We share something together that I find amazing. When I’m with you, I’m at peace, in body and heart. I’ve never had that before. No one with the violence inside them that you think you carry around could make me feel that way.

  “I need you, Ryder. And I’ve never needed anyone before. I love you.”

  She didn’t wait for him to speak, just crawled into his lap, wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Angelique’s words played over and over in Ryder’s head. He’d started this to try to make her feel better, to show her the difference between him and her. Instead, she’d blown him away, accepting him for who he was, convincing him that he wasn’t his father and could never be, and then telling him that she loved him.

  She loved him. What the hell had he done to deserve such an honor? He wasn’t an honorable man.

  Ah, hell. Her soft lips slid like warm, silken butter over his, melting the last of the tension away. He gave up on thinking when the tip of her tongue slid through his teeth, jolting him into full sexual heat. With a sharp groan, he gave up and jerked her fully against him, wrapping his arms around her so he could feel her body-really feel her body.

  Within seconds he was hard, his cock pushing against his pants with the rush of heat and desire that seemed to occur so damn fast whenever Angie was near. From the first time he’d become aware of her in the caves in Australia, when she’d thrown that first teasing remark his way and he’d responded by storming over to her and pulling her into his arms for a kiss, he’d known there was something about her that was different from other women.

  She was right. There was a bond between them. He sure as hell felt it now. Like sparks of electricity that zinged through his nerve endings, firing him to life, concentrating all his thought processes on just her-on getting her clothes off so he could touch the soft silk of her body, kiss her all over. They were alone now. He didn’t need to hurry. He could take his time and really love her.

  Really love her. Yeah, he did, didn’t he?

  He stood, lifting Angie into his arms. She broke the kiss, looked at him, her gaze warm and melting all over him with heat and understanding.

  It seemed to take forever to get upstairs and to his room. He could have taken her in the library again, but this time he wanted to be assured of privacy, so he could take his time.

  He kicked the door closed and laid her on his bed. Yeah, he liked seeing her there, knowing that’s where she belonged, where she’d stay from now on.

  She was his. A rush of possessiveness hit him like a mortar blast. He waited for the inevitable twinge of discomfort, the need to run that always happened when he started to get too close.

  It didn’t happen. He liked having her here in his room. This is where he wanted her to stay.

  She leaned up on her elbows, arched a brow, and watched him. She’d never looked sexier, one slender leg raised, her bare foot planted on the mattress. A natural, unaffected pose. And when she smiled at him-a smile of confidence in what was about to happen, but also mixed with a touch of vulnerability-man, that was hot. He knew how she felt. Yeah, they both knew they were going to get down to it, but they both had feelings bubbling up to the surface. They could both get hurt. But they were still going to put themselves out there.

  He liked knowing they were even. It made him want to show her that she didn’t have anything to be afraid of. Not with him, anyway.

  He’d never been one to take time with a woman, to explore every inch of her body, to really pleasure her. It was always about getting to the sweet spot, getting them both off, then hightailing it the hell out of there before anything emotional happened. But now, with Angelique, he had all this damn. . emotion. It was physical, for sure; but there was much more than that, and he wasn’t sure he knew what to do with all of it.

  Other than he really wanted to take it slow.

  He crawled onto the end of the bed and kissed the top of her foot.

  “That tickles,” she said.

  “Does it?” He did it again, this time kissing his way up to her ankle and onto her calf, reaching out to hold her leg in place when she laughed. The deep, gravelly sound of her laugh sent shock waves of pleasure through his body.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Kissing you.”

  “Oh.”

  He loved the feel of her skin against his lips. Even her knee. And he loved even more the way she responded, lying back and just. . breathing. Deeply. As if she was really affected by his lips on her kneecap. That made him smile.

  She let out a little whispered gasp when he moved upward, pressing his lips close to her inner thigh.

  “Ryder.”

  “Yeah, darlin’,” he murmured against her skin.

  “I love your mouth.”

  He loved the sound of her voice. “Keep talking to me.” He reached for the waistband of her shorts and tugged them over her hips, drawing them down her legs and out of his way. “Now these are pretty.”

  Tiny black panties, part lace, part satin, skimming just her hipbones and barely covering her sex. Naughty little things, just like the woman wearing them.

  She tilted her head up, watching him as he pressed his hand over her pubic bone.

  “I. . I like underwear. It makes me feel feminine even when I’m working a dusty, dirty archaeological dig. Sometimes it’s. . months before I can dress up and I. . oh, God.”

  He grinned, knowing she’d lost her ability to speak when he slid his fingers under the silky material to caress the moist, swollen cleft of her sex. Her head dropped to the mattress and she lifted against his hand.

  “That’s it. Tell me what you want.”

  “More.”

  He gave her more, caressing her, dipping his fingers inside her. Damn. She clenched tight around him, grabbing his fingers with a warm, welcoming grip. His cock tightened and he wanted to be deep inside her. Right now.

  But he was going to thoroughly pleasure her from the
tips of her toes to the top of her head, which meant his own needs would have to wait. Which wasn’t difficult considering how she was squirming underneath him. Her reactions ratcheted up his own desire to please her. So he rolled to the side of her, placed a soft kiss on her hip, and just watched her face as he dragged his thumb over her center.