Dark Promises 5: Tarnished Read online

  Her budding hopes crashed when Kel stepped out onto the deck and closed the door behind him. “Hey kiddo.”

  “Oh, hi.”

  He gave her a tentative smile. “You don’t look happy to see me.”

  That snapped her out of her mood. He’d been a good friend to her for a long time, and he didn’t deserve to be ignored simply because she’d been hoping he was someone else. Someone who would never show up so she had to stop waiting around for him. She got up from the chair and walked over to give Kel a hug. “Of course I’m happy to see you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to give you the impression that I wasn’t.”

  Kel squeezed her tight before he let her go. “I know you didn’t. You were just expecting someone else.”

  “No, I—”

  “Becca, it’s okay. Believe me, I understand.”

  She didn’t bother to deny it any further. He’d know it was a lie. “Is it too bright out here for you?”

  “Nah. The sun’s going down, and the trees are thick enough that I should be fine.” He gestured to the grouping of chairs where she’d been sitting when he stepped outside. “Why don’t we sit down and talk for a little while?”

  “Sure, why not?” She settled back into her chair and Kel took the one across from her, trying to hold back her sigh. “What have you been up to lately?”

  “Getting my life back together.” He laughed. “It’s funny, but this is still taking some getting used to. I kept a lot from you, and I’m really sorry. I should have been more honest with you from the start.”

  She’d long since gotten over her anger with Kel, if there’d really been any at all. He’d had his reasons for concealing the truth, and she had to respect that. He had to have gone through hell, though, and it bothered her that he hadn’t felt close enough to her to confide in her.

  He looked good now, though. Better than she’d seen him in a long time. Healthy and happy. She should have been the one to help him through his troubles. But she’d sent someone else instead.

  “If you’d told me, I would have helped you.”

  “I know, but I’m not sure if I would have listened. It took someone who’d lived it to clue me in on what I needed to do. That I needed to stop living a lie and accept who I really was.”

  Wil. He’d told her that he’d made the same choice Kel had had to make. She smiled. Wil hadn’t let her down. Perhaps what she’d done had been for the best, after all. Now Kel was whole again, and she had Wil to thank. “Wil helped you.”

  “Yeah. And I think I should probably be mad at you for asking him to do that, but I can’t bring myself to when you most likely saved my life.”

  She rolled her eyes to cover her sudden discomfort. She didn’t want to be thought of as anyone’s savior. All she’d done for the past few years was cause people pain. “Whatever.”

  He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, all humor suddenly gone from his expression. When he spoke again, his voice was low and grave. “I’m serious, Becca. I was in a really bad, dark place. You don’t even understand. I didn’t want to live. I wouldn’t have lasted another few days if Wil hadn’t stepped in to do something.”

  Her heart stopped. She darted her tongue out to wet her lips. Had he really been considering suicide? “Don’t talk like that. You’re fine now. You were fine then, too. I know you. You would have pulled through. You’re so much stronger than I am.”

  He shook his head. “No. I’m not. I moved in with you because I’d latched onto your strength, fed from it emotionally. If you hadn’t been there for me, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I had to move out because I was risking your life getting so close to you, but it damned near killed me to do it. You’ve always been the strong one.”

  “No,” she whispered softly. If she’d been strong, she’d never have run away.

  “Yes. You need to learn to accept that.” He sat back and his expression lightened again. “Enough about that. I don’t want to depress you. I came here for another reason. I have a business proposition for you. How would you feel about being a paranormal investigator?”

  “A paranormal investigator?” She frowned. Hadn’t Charlotte, the sister of the ever-changing jobs, been one of those at one point in her life?

  “Ghost hunts and that sort of thing, and taking out the occasional rogue vampire or equally dangerous bad guy.” His lips tipped up in a mischievous smile. “You know, just to keep your skills up.”

  It sounded like a dream come true. She smiled. “I like the sound of that.”

  “I thought you would. There’s only one problem. Wil and I are working together.”

  She blinked. “What’s the problem with that?”

  Kel was silent for so long worry started to gnaw at her gut. When he finally spoke, amusement tinged his tone.

  “He doesn’t want you doing that kind of work.”

  Anger replaced the worry. Who was he to decide what she did or did not do for a living? She was perfectly capable of making her own decisions, no matter what the big jerk thought. “I don’t care what he thinks. He can take his archaic ideas and shove them for all I care. I’ve known you longer. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

  “It counts for it all, honey. That’s why I told him I want you in. The problem is I think you need to explain that to him yourself.”

  “Fine. Whatever. Put me in touch with him and I will.”

  “You can talk to him right now if you want to. He’s here.”

  Her stomach clenched tight, the anger inside her sharpening. Had he not thought to mention that sooner? “Excuse me? Where?”

  “Inside talking with Ellie and Eric.”

  A fact that Ellie had also conveniently forgotten to mention. She pushed up from the chair and stomped into the house without another word to Kel. She’d deal with him later. Now she had more a important man to put in his place. She found Wil sitting at the kitchen table with Ellie and Eric, Aidan on Ellie’s lap.

  Wil’s expression softened when he saw her. “Hi.”

  She didn’t return the pleasantries. “Come with me. We need to talk.”

  “No time for even a hello?” Ellie asked.

  Becca shot her a glare before taking Wil’s hand and pulling him out of his chair. “No. No hellos. No anything until I get some answers.”

  She ignored Eric’s laugh and Ellie’s gaping mouth, leading Wil up the stairs and down the hall to the room she’d been using. When she opened the door and they stepped inside, she turned to give him the scolding of a lifetime. But he kicked the door closed with his foot, spun her around and pressed her back against it. He put one hand on her waist, one over her head against the wood of the door and leaned in close.

  “Answers can wait.” With that, his mouth crushed down on hers.

  She made a token resistance, but it didn’t last long. She hadn’t stopped wanting him in the three weeks they’d been separated. She’d thought about him nonstop, craved him in the night when she tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep. It was crazy. She’d spent a few days with him, not months, not years. But her feelings ran stronger than she’d ever expected. Chaining a guy to a bed and threatening to kill him must bring people closer in a strange and twisted sort of way.

  Wil’s tongue traced the seam of her lips and she parted them, welcoming him inside. Their tongues brushed and stroked, lips mashed, the tips of his fangs nipping against her lips and tongue. He pressed his body flush against hers. Her nipples beaded under the satin of her bra. Her pussy tightened and her panties went damp.

  She moaned into his mouth. She’d missed this. Too much. The feel of his lips against hers, the weight of his body so close against her.

  Wil broke his mouth away and leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes closed, his breath heaving in his chest.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, cupping his jaw in her hand.

  He turned his head and kissed the center of her palm. “Yeah. I am now. This is going to sound nuts, but I missed you.”

  “I
missed you, too. And believe me, it doesn’t sound as nuts as it should.”

  Wil laughed and pulled back, walking the few steps to the double bed, and sat down. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “You said you wanted answers.”

  “Yeah.” She gulped back the lump forming in her throat. Knowing what she wanted to say to him was easy when he wasn’t right there next to her for the first time in weeks. Now the aggravation moved aside, making room for something she didn’t dare classify so soon.

  “You want to know why I won’t agree to Kel’s suggestion.”

  “Well, yeah, that too. But first I want to know why you walked away.”

  He glanced up at her, surprise in his eyes. “You do?”

  “Well, duh. Did you think I’d let you get away with sneaking out in the middle of the night, no goodbyes, no way to contact you? That was pretty low, even for a vampire.”

  Something dark flashed in his eyes. “You asked me to look out for Kel. I took that to mean you didn’t want me around.”

  Men. They could be so dense sometimes. “Watching out for Kel was a temporary situation. I thought you would have known that. I didn’t mean anything by asking you to do it beyond needing someone to make sure he didn’t hurt himself. I never once said I wanted you to go away forever.”

  “Actually, you said a few similar things that second night when I woke up handcuffed to your bed.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, her hands clenching into fists. “Don’t be a smartass. You know what I mean.”

  He didn’t say anything, but a slow, hot smile spread over his face, making her knees threaten to buckle.

  She pushed the nerves away and let a little bit of the aggravation seep back in. Now that she knew he was okay, she planned to let him know exactly how she felt about archaic ideals. “Now feel free to explain to me why you told Kel you don’t want me working with you.”

  “I didn’t say I didn’t want to work with you. What I told him was that I wouldn’t let it happen.”

  “Hmm.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Sounds like the same thing to me.”

  “It’s not. Believe me. Just because I want something doesn’t mean it’s good for everyone involved. Wanting it myself doesn’t make it the right thing for you.”

  “I can take care of myself, Wil. I don’t need you watching out for me.”

  “There’s a lot of danger involved in this. I don’t want you in the middle of it.”

  “Like I said, I’m perfectly capable of defending myself. I’ve spent the past three years hunting vampires, and I’m still alive. I can handle anything.”

  “Not some of the things we might run across. It’s not just vampires anymore, Becca. It’s shapeshifters and specters and a few very powerful demons. A human woman doesn’t stand a chance. You need immortality in this profession.”

  She stomped to the other side of the bed and sat on the mattress, her back facing him. She took a couple of deep, calming breaths before she dared to speak again. “I lasted three years in that world. Three years. It didn’t take me long to become Kel’s equal. I can handle myself. You know that. I think this is about something else. You don’t want to be around me anymore. If you don’t want me working with you, maybe I’ll just go into business for myself.”

  ‘Not gonna happen.”

  “And how are you planning to stop me?”

  “Sweetheart, I can think of at least twenty ways. And those are just the ones that don’t involve pain.”

  Becca sighed even as something fluttered low in her gut. This was getting them nowhere. If they continued to argue, they might very well end up in an all-out brawl. And as appealing to some strange part of her as that was, it wouldn’t help her cause.

  “In the interest of fairness, I think you need to give me a chance.”

  “In the interest of my sanity, I have to say I disagree.”

  He was worried about his sanity. Poor baby. If he kept up this resistance crap she’d show him insane.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She turned and flopped onto her stomach on the mattress. What a stubborn, pigheaded jerk he was. She searched her mind, but couldn’t come up with a single valid reason for why missing him had been in the forefront of her mind for so long. They had nothing in common. She still wanted him, but in all honestly he wasn’t worth the trouble. “Go away, Wil. Just get out. Tell Kel I said thanks, but no thanks. I don’t want to work with an arrogant asshole.”

  Wil’s heavy sigh echoed through the room. The mattress moved as he pushed himself up and walked away from the bed. She opened one eye and glanced at him, found him raising the blinds.

  “It’s so quiet here.”

  “Yeah, it’s great. I love it.”

  He threw her a quick, unreadable glance over his shoulder. “I don’t care much for the quiet. I prefer cities. Lots of noise, lots of people. It’s easier for my kind to get lost there.”

  A little too much emphasis on “my” for her liking. She muttered an unladylike curse under her breath. “Cities are nice too.”

  He pressed his hands to the window frame on either side of the glass, his shoulder muscles bunching under his T-shirt as he moved. “Look, Becca, I don’t know where to go from here. We aren’t compatible, not long-term. I don’t know what I want, and I don’t know what you’re looking for. All I know is I have this irrational urge to be with you, and an even more irrational urge to make sure you’re safe and protected.”

  “I don’t need your protection.”

  “Don’t you think I know that? Why do you have to make walking away from you so damned hard?”

  She rolled onto her back and patted the mattress next to her. “Come sit back down, Wil. I promise I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

  He laughed, pushed away from the window and came to join her back on the bed. He sat down next to her, one knee bent, his leg resting on the mattress. His expression was so torn she had to laugh.

  “Tell me something, Wil. Why are you here?”

  “Kel had it in his head that he wanted you working with us. I had to come to make sure you understood why that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

  “So instead of calling on the phone, or trying to talk him out of it, or just putting your damned foot down like you’re doing with me, you decided to come and visit instead?”

  A guilty look flashed across his eyes.

  “Isn’t that a little extreme?” she continued. “I mean, for someone who doesn’t know what he wants and all, you sure made a long trip to tell me that.”

  When he stared down at her, unmoving, she decided to make the first move herself. She sat up and kissed his jaw. When that got only a minimal reaction she kissed his cheek, and then his lips. When he started to respond, she pulled away. “You don’t want this, remember?”

  “I never said that.”

  “We’ve been in here for ten minutes and you haven’t said much of anything.”

  “Maybe there’s nothing left to say.”

  She laughed. When was he going to give it up? “Or maybe I’ve finally met the one person on this earth more stubborn than I am. You know why you’re here, even if you refuse to admit it.”

  He let out a breath on a frustrated sigh. “I did miss you, but that doesn’t make any of this right. I promised myself too many years ago to count that I wouldn’t get involved with another human woman. Ever. I’m about ten seconds away from breaking that vow, and it’s killing me. But humans don’t live forever and I won’t lose you a few years down the road.”

  “Nobody ever said anything about forever. It doesn’t have to be like that.”

  “But that’s what it will come down to. I know that. You must know it, too.”

  She took a deep breath. She’d just found him, just discovered the irrational depth for her feelings for the obstinate, sexy man, and she wasn’t about to lose him because he couldn’t get over his past. “What if I promise to let you turn me? Would that make you feel better?”

  His gaze locked w
ith hers, his eyes hopeful. He shifted a little closer on the bed. “Would you do that? You’d really let that happen?”

  “Yes. Eventually. You know how I feel about vampires, so needless to say it would be a huge compromise for me. You’d have to compromise, too.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What do you want me to do?”

  She fought back a smile. She had him, and he didn’t even know it yet. Or maybe he did, and he’d given up the fight. “First, you’d have to give me space as far as turning goes. I need a little more time to be human.”

  “I think I can manage that.” He swallowed hard. “What else?”

  “Second, you need to stop being an idiot and let me come to work with you and Kel.”

  “I don’t like that idea at all.” He shook his head, his expression brooking no argument.

  She snorted. As if she’d budge on this one point.

  “You don’t have to like it.” Inspiration struck, and this time she didn’t bother hiding the smile. “Look at it this way. The easiest way to make sure I’m safe would be to keep me close and not let me out of your sight.”

  “That’s reaching a little, isn’t it?”

  “Probably. Is it working?”

  He gave a slow nod. “It shouldn’t be, but it is. Your rationale is twisted, but it makes sense. Okay, fine. I agree to your terms. If you agree to mine.”

  She blinked. She hadn’t seen that one coming. “What are your terms?”

  “First, you move in with me. It’s a little hard to keep an eye on you if I don’t know where you are.”

  She glanced around the tiny, plain room she’d been staying in. “Tough choice. Living here all by myself like some kind of nun, or having you in my bed every night. I’ll have to think about that for a while.”

  Wil laughed. “Cute, Becca. Real cute. This second one is a deal breaker. If I feel a situation we’re going into isn’t safe for you, you stay home.”