“You are very small. How far along are you?” Even as the words left his mouth, he marveled that he could say them. In all his imaginings, he had never thought to be asking such a question. Heat blossomed and spread. A sense of belonging. Strangely, he felt as if he had a family already.
“The doctors are a little worried about that, but she looks good. She’s growing fine. They’ve told me it’s a girl. I’m six months along.”
His breath hitched in concern. She was tiny. “Are the doctors concerned about your heart problem also? Do they view this pregnancy as risky? Perhaps very dangerous?” His voice was still as gentle as ever, yet it had an effect on her she couldn’t seem to shake. He sounded almost as if he were reprimanding her in some way and assessing what he was going to do about the situation.
Corinne felt compelled to answer him, although it wasn’t what she wanted. “My heart has enough trouble working for just me, let alone a child too,” she conceded reluctantly. Her fingers once again found the circle of gold and began to twist, a nervous habit betraying her inner turmoil.
Dayan nodded his head even as his entire body knotted in protest against that small action. “And your husband — “ He forced the words out despite the fact they wanted to stick in his throat. “Why was he murdered?” He couldn’t help himself, he reached out and caught her hand, pulling her palm to his chest, right over his heart, effectively stopping her from touching the ring again.
Corinne’s gaze flew to his. Electricity arced between them. The air sizzled with the charge. She found it difficult to think with his black eyes mesmerizing her and his touch scattering her senses. Discussing the murder of her husband with him should have been impossible, yet she found the words tumbling out. “The police haven’t come up with a motive. The killers didn’t even take his wallet.”
“But you have an idea.” He made it a statement.
Corinne felt that same desire to confess every detail. Normally, she confided in Lisa and no one else, yet Corinne hadn’t said a single word to Lisa about the baby or her own suspicions about John’s death.
Why on earth was she telling a virtual stranger her every secret?
“John could do things that weren’t considered normal. About a year ago, he went to a university and told someone there about his talent. From there, he was directed to a center where psychic ability was tested. The Morrison Center for Psychic Research. John believed he might be able to help people in some way, using his unique gift. Almost immediately after his appointment at the center, he told me he thought he was being followed.” She withdrew her hand. “This is hardly something you would want to hear about.”
“On the contrary. I’m extremely interested. Everything about you interests me.”
Chapter 2
“Corinne!” Lisa burst from the club with Cullen one step behind her. She was obviously upset, her beautiful face betraying her anxiety. “Rina, are you ill? I’m so sorry, I should have been paying more attention.” She clutched Corinne’s purse protectively to her.
“I’m perfectly fine, Lisa,” Corinne answered immediately. She stepped away from Dayan, but somehow he moved too in a ripple of power so that he was sheltering her body from the rising wind. Corinne looked up at his chiseled features and found her heart in her throat again. What was it about him? How could he so easily rob her of her breath and sanity with only a look? A movement?
“We were just talking away from the noise,” Dayan drawled, smiling lazily, his teeth very white in the darkness. He raked his hand carelessly through his shining ebony hair, managing to tousle it more. Strands fell in disarray across his forehead, yet he looked more attractive than ever.
The two women exchanged a quick glance, rolling their eyes in complete accord while Corinne stifled a groan. How could any man be real and look and act like he did? Corinne mouthed “bad boy” at Lisa, making her laugh.
Lisa leaned close to whisper, “Only you could look at a man too sexy to be on earth and reduce his incredible beauty to bad boy.”
Corinne felt herself a fraud. Lisa didn’t think Corinne was in the least susceptible to Dayan’s dark sensuality. But she was more than susceptible. She was enthralled, under a spell of enchantment. She even briefly wondered if his songs, or his voice, might have somehow hypnotized her.
Dayan reached out and casually removed Corinne’s purse from Lisa’s hand, then gave it to Corinne. He would have been amused at her thoughts had her heart not been stuttering again, a laboring that bothered him immensely. How could he fix it without harming her child? His eyes moved possessively over Corinne’s face as he watched her pull a small container from her purse and swallow a tiny pill. With the same easy strength he always exhibited, he shackled Corinne’s bare wrist and brought it up for his inspection. “Why are you not wearing a medical bracelet? In an emergency it would alert strangers how to help you.”
Lisa tossed her blond head. “At last! Someone with a little sense, unlike Rina. She never listens to anyone.”
A small sensual smile tugged at the hard edge of Dayan’s mouth. He leaned down close to Corinne so his warm breath stirred tendrils of hair at her temple. “You do not listen to others?”
“I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions,” Corinne informed him, her voice faintly haughty when all she really wanted to do was touch his mouth with her fingertips. Up close he robbed her of breath. Of good sense.
“Until now,” Dayan corrected with infinite gentleness. His voice was very soft and, like velvet, it whispered sensuously over her skin, making her shiver. He brought her hand up to his perfectly molded mouth, rubbed the pads of her fingers over his lips.
Her heart stuttered; butterfly wings brushed at her stomach. For a moment she could only stare at him, lost in his magic. She dragged her gaze from his, withdrew her hand to curl her fingers into her palm, holding on to his warmth.
Cullen stared up at Dayan in total shock. He had camped with their leader for several weeks during the Dark Troubadours tour, yet Cullen had never seen Dayan exhibit the slightest interest in any woman.
Now Dayan’s body language shouted that he felt protective, even possessive, of Corinne. There was something else, something in Dayan’s eyes that had never been there before. A flicker of something dangerous. Cullen had assured Lisa that her sister was perfectly safe with Dayan, but now he wasn’t so certain.
“Perhaps we had better get the ladies out of the wind,” Dayan drawled. “Cullen, let’s escort them to their car, and then I’ll pick up my guitar.” His voice brushed over Corinne’s skin again like fingers.
She shivered in reaction. At once he drew her into the shelter of his arms. “I should have realized it was too cold out here for you,” he said softly, apologetically, his breath warm against her neck. His body was hot and hard against the satin softness of her cool skin. “I was being selfish, wanting you to myself.”
He glanced at Lisa, and she unexpectedly found herself leading the men to her small sporty car, wondering why it was suddenly so important to her to get Corinne out of the wind. Dayan kept possession of Corinne, handing her carefully into the front seat. “Where can we meet you so we can talk in a quieter atmosphere?”
He asked it softly, his black eyes suddenly on Lisa’s face.
Lisa blinked and blurted out her address, something she would never normally do. Corinne stared at her in horror. Lisa clapped a hand over her mouth guiltily and watched as Dayan reached casually across Corinne to buckle her seat belt.
Hard and defined with muscle, his body brushed Corinne’s. He smelled of spice and woods. Totally masculine. He dwarfed the small car. His chin nuzzled Corinne’s hair. “I am not a serial killer, although it is nice to know you have some instinct for self-preservation.”