“So we’re two imperfect people struggling together.”
“That works for me.”
He went quiet then. The whole room was dead silent except for the two of them staring at each other. She studied his face-almost too beautiful for a man’s, and yet rugged and angled in all the right places. But it was his eyes that captured her. They always seemed to study her, as if he could see inside her soul. It was both comforting and disconcerting at the same time. She wasn’t used to being examined this way, and yet she couldn’t help but enjoy being looked at by him. What woman wouldn’t?
Isabelle was in awe of this man who would give up so much of his own personal freedom, the life that he was comfortable in, for someone he knew so little about. It still didn’t make sense to her. Why would he do that when she could give him nothing in return?
Unable to help herself, she reached up and palmed his cheek, let her hand slide down, shivering at the contact of her skin against the stubble there. His expression turned wary and that made her smile.
“What are you doing, Isabelle?”
She didn’t answer, instead leaned into him, lifting her face to his. She remembered what it was like to kiss him. It was fireworks and magic and volcanoes with melting lava. When he kissed her and touched her, she forgot everything except what it was like to be a woman.
She wanted that right now. While it was the human Isabelle fully in charge, not the demon side of her taking control.
And the human Isabelle knew exactly what she wanted.
Their lips were only inches apart, and Dalton didn’t seem to be going anywhere, just studying her cautiously. Of course he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to make the first move, either. So she’d have to do it.
She didn’t mind. She leaned in and brushed her lips across his, felt the tingle in her toes and other points in her body, felt warmth sweep through her as she moved her mouth over his. She sighed against him, laid her palms flat against his chest and deepened the kiss.
He tasted of orange juice-they’d had some when they first came out here to the sofa. She licked along his bottom lip, savoring the oh-so-male flavor of him, a spicy yet sweet scent that drew her to him like no man ever had before. The fact that he wasn’t grabbing her and tossing her under him on the sofa was even more appealing. It made her want to take charge. She held his shoulders and climbed onto his lap, straddling him.
Dalton wasn’t unaffected. She felt that solid evidence as she settled against him. Her gaze drifted down and she admired the hard ridge of his erection against his shorts, her mind awash in all the things she wanted to do with him. But not just yet. She enjoyed where she was and what they were doing. She glanced back up at him and smiled. And still, he stared at her, as if questioning what she was going to do. She didn’t think it required explanation, so she said nothing, instead drifted toward him and kissed him again. He had such a great mouth. Full, yet firm. And he held still while she explored, so she grasped his head and pressed more firmly, surging into him to press her breasts against his chest. She could feel his heart pounding against her.
It took her all of a minute and a half of wonderful kissing to realize he wasn’t touching her, wasn’t kissing her back. She pulled away.
“What’s wrong?”
“We shouldn’t be doing this.”
She wiped her lips with the back of her hand, suddenly mindful of her wanton, oh-so-bold position on his lap. But dammit, he had an erection. It’s not like he wasn’t into this.
“You want me to stop.”
His lips curled into a hint of a smile, devastating to her senses. That smile held promise. “Parts of me definitely don’t want you to stop. Only the logical part.”
She glanced down at his lap.
“That’s not the logical part,” he said.
“Clearly.” She climbed off his lap and gave them both some distance, dragging her fingers through her hair, trying to shake off the effects being so close to him had on her. She grabbed the glass of juice and drained it, then set it down and turned back to him. “I thought you wanted to wake the sleeping demon.”
“Not that way. If your sexual attraction to me makes the demon take front and center, then we should probably-”
“Yes. I understand.” She stood.
“Isabelle.” He grasped her wrist, holding her there.
She looked down at him, equal parts embarrassed and still needy for something she obviously wasn’t going to have. “It’s okay, really. I’m hungry. I’m going to fix us some breakfast.”
He let go of her and she went into the kitchen, needing distance. “I’ll help you.”
She stopped, turned. “Please don’t. I need some space, Dalton.”
“Okay. I’ll go take a shower, then.”
“You do that.”
She turned her back to him and opened the refrigerator, not exhaling until she heard the bathroom door close. She shuddered out a sigh, blinking back the hot sting of tears that broke through and slid down her cheeks despite her best efforts to force them back. She wrapped her arms around herself when she discovered she was shaking.
Idiot.
“Well, you took that rejection well, Izzy.” She shook her head and began cracking eggs into a bowl, needing to keep her hands busy.
Dalton was right. Being together would have been a really bad idea. She had no clue what even happened to her when she fell under one of those weird spells. And if she was going to be with Dalton again, she’d definitely want to be in the present, so she could remember.
All things considered, there were too many strikes against them.
But oh, it would have been so, so good.
Dalton stood under the cool water, hoping it would chill the heat in his body.
Eventually he turned the shower off, realizing he was still on fire. Cold water hadn’t helped. Not that he’d expected it to. From the time he leaned over Isabelle’s bed and shook her out of her restless sleep, he’d known it was going to be tough to remain in this house with her.
Not impossible, but damned hard.
Just like his condition most of the time around her. Pathetic, really. One would think he could control his libido after all these years, but just being around her, listening to the sound of her voice, looking into her mesmerizing eyes, and he was hard as granite and ready to throw her down and bury his cock inside her.
And he’d wager that’s just what the demon part of her was hoping for. Her demon side had a goaclass="underline" temptation. And he wasn’t going to fall for it. He was the one who had to remain strong, because if he gave in, he wasn’t sure what would happen.
He’d wanted to test the demon side of her, and maybe that had been a bad idea. She really seemed to crave affection of any kind. But was that Isabelle, or the demon?
Maybe he shouldn’t think of her as two entities. After all, she was both human and demon. The confused human Isabelle and the seductive demon were one and the same. He needed to remember that. His goal was to integrate them, not destroy one of them. She could learn to live with and control the demon side of herself, just as Derek and Nic-the other hunters who were part demon-had done.
The key was in figuring out how, because even though he’d like Isabelle to be just like Derek and Nic, she wasn’t. Her demon side was a hell of a lot different from theirs. It was stronger, and the Sons of Darkness knew it. He was going to have to tread lightly, and think before he made any moves.
Which wasn’t easy when living with a beautiful seductress who wanted to have sex with you. A man could only be noble for so long.
He groaned and got dressed, staring at himself in the mirror. It was times like this he missed Lou and the other hunters. Lou would have advice for him, could tell him what to do. How easy would it be to just pick up a phone and call him. He really would like to talk to someone.