It only served to reinforce the Tightness of my decision.
"It ends here, tonight."
"It'll never end between us, and you know it."
"What I know," I said softly, "is that you've used me, and continued to use me, these last ten months. You swear to care, and yet I am never first in your thoughts, never the one you rush to when things go wrong. Your own aims and needs are always first and foremost. You proved this by using the link we'd formed to leash and control the very desires that make me what I am."
"What did you miss out on?" he said, a touch of anger in his voice. "A few nights with strangers? Big deal."
I stared at him, unable to believe he couldn't see the wrongness in what he'd done. "What you did is really no different to what Talon, Misha, or even Starr have all done to me. You tried to force me down a path that was not my choosing. Damm it, you hated it when it was done to you, Quinn. You stripped your so-called fiancée of her identity and her life in retaliation. And yet here you are, using a psychic connection rather than a drug to force me down a path of your desiring."
He didn't say anything. Hard to refute something that was nothing more than the truth, I suppose—though I am surprised he didn't try. He usually did.
"Jack's given me six weeks off work," I continued. "And I want double that to sort out my life. During that time, I don't want any contact from you. I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear from you, I don't want you in my thoughts or in my dreams. I want a total and absolute break."
"For only three months?" His voice was still flat, and yet I had an odd feeling he was controlling himself very tightly.
Which was half the damn problem.
How could I trust what I never, ever saw?
How could I trust emotions he kept telling me about but never really showed in action or deed?
"After three months, I'll see where my head is at. There's no guarantee whatsoever that I'll ever be with you again, Quinn."
He didn't say anything for several heartbeats, just stared at me, his obsidian eyes darker than the night and a hell of a lot more dangerous.
Then he grabbed my arms and crushed me against him, his mouth finding mine almost savagely. I could have fought. I really could. But I didn't want to. If this was a good-bye, then I sure as hell intended to enjoy it.
And if it wasn't? I'd enjoy it anyway, and smack him later.
Because this kiss was like nothing I'd ever felt before. It was a wild, erotic, and very unapologetic affirmation of what he wanted. What he felt. He might never, ever have said the words or hinted at emotions, but it was there, right there now, in his kiss, in the press of his body, in the thick, desperate heat that swirled around us.
But it was too little, too late. I needed time. I needed to think. I broke off our kiss, pulled out of his grasp.
"No," I said, holding out a hand and backing away from him. "Enough. You owe me time, Quinn. If nothing else, you owe me that."
"Don't ask for things you don't really want," he said, voice little more than a harsh rasp. "Because you might just get them."
With that, he wrapped the shadows around his body, spun around, and walked away. I let out a slow, shuddery breath.
"Well, that went a whole lot better than I expected," Rhoan said from across the road.
I laughed softly and spun around.
And suddenly, gloriously, felt free.
"How about we go to the pub and I buy you a steak and a beer?" I shoved my hands in the pockets of my borrowed coat and offered him my arm.
He handed me my coffee, then hooked his arm through mine and began walking down the street. "And after?"
"I call Kellen and start making plans."
"Good."
It was good.
Because for the first time in ages, I was actually looking forward to the future. My future.
And that, after everything that had happened over the last ten months, was an excellent place to be.
About the Author
Keri Arthur received a "Perfect 10" from Romance Reviews Today and was nominated for Best Shapeshifter in PNR's PEARL Awards and in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards. She lives with her husband and daughter in Melbourne, Australia.
Smart, sexy and suspenseful, the Riley Jenson novels are rapidly gaining fans world-wide. And now, following the rapid-fire publication of the first four books in four months comes Riley's fifth epic adventure—less than three months later!
Embraced by Darkness
by
Keri Arthur
Coming from Dell in July 2007
Here's a special preview:
EMBRACED BY DARKNESS
On sale July 2007
The only trouble with getting away from it all was actually getting away from it all.
Six weeks of lazing around on secluded and luxurious Monitor Island, with nothing to do except cat, drink, and lust after the occasional hot-bod sounded like heaven itself. And it was.
For the first three weeks.
But now, with the fifth week done and dusted, the wolf within was beginning to hunger for the company of my own kind. Werewolves are not, by nature, solitary souls, and we tend live in packs just as much as our animal counterparts.
My pack might now only consist of my twin brother Rhoan, his lover Liander, and my lover Kellen, but I was missing them all something fierce.
Especially Kellen. He'd been here for the first three weeks, and the result had been a deepening and strengthening of our somewhat fragile relationship. Even so, I hadn't really expected to miss him this much. Not after only a couple of months of being together—and especially considering we'd probably spent more time apart than together in those months. Of course, I knew now that a lot of that separation was due to Quinn, the enigmatic vampire who swore his feelings for me ran deep—even as he used me to achieve his aims of killing the people who had destroyed his lifelong friend and creator. Even now, despite the feelings I had for Kellen, part of me still hungered to be with Quinn. Would probably always hunger to be with him.
Because there was a connection with Quinn that I'd never found with any other man. Not even Kellen.
But Quinn was out of my life for the moment—maybe even permanently—and I couldn't really regret that. I'd never condoned force in any relationship, and that's basically what Quinn had done when he'd used his vampire wiles to curb my very nature. His methods might have been psychic rather than physical, but in the end, it was the same thing. Anything that forced someone down a path they would not otherwise have taken was abuse, no matter how prettily the situation was wrapped.
What I needed to do was forget him. Just get on with my life, and stop remembering he was ever a part of it. Even if the very thought made my soul ache and my heart weep.
But the last two weeks alone had basically left me with nothing to do at night except think about the people in my life and the events over the last ten months or so. And all that was supposedly what I was here to forget.
I rubbed a hand across tired eyes, then leaned my forearms on the balustrade of the small patio lining the front of my pretty little villa unit.
The breeze coming off the sea was cool, teasing my short hair and sending goose bumps fleeing across my bare flesh. I briefly thought about going inside to grab a shirt, but in the end, I couldn't be bothered moving.
I let my gaze roam across the waves, watching the foam hiss across the white sand. It was a peaceful sound, as peaceful as the night itself, which made me wonder what the hell had woken me in the first place.
Certainly there was no noise coming from any of the other half-dozen villas that lined this section of half-moon beach. Not even the newlyweds were stirring, and they'd been at it nonstop since their arrival five days ago.