Chapter 23
Adrianna had been holding her umbrella against the drizzle, but in the last few minutes the freaky weather had taken a sudden turn. The cool change finally seemed more like winter. The rain had stopped and the temperature now felt closer to fifty. She pulled her umbrella down and closed the spines.
Hard enough to see at night without still having to dodge water puddles, but she’d take that over being wet from head to toe.
She walked up to her house in the quiet, reserved area around Emory University. She’d chosen this stone-and-brick home built sixty years ago because it had hummed with happiness when she’d first walked in to view it. She’d purchased it just this year.
She distinctly remembered the front porch being just as cozy looking when she left this morning, but without the man sitting on her porch swing.
That was new.
Isak had a streak of determination a mile wide.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as she climbed the steps.
He stood. “My men refuse to snatch you off the street again, after you turned their tires into stone. I almost had a mutiny.”
She’d wanted to send Isak a message that she was not someone to kidnap and to remind him she belonged to the club of other, strange, nonhuman, it.
After all that, she should have found a way to squash this attraction—on her part at least.
When she said nothing to his explanation for not sending a black ops team out for her, he walked over with his usual swagger. He had a confident stride and, to her detriment, she was drawn to that.
He touched her face with his fingers, gently moving them to push her hair over her shoulder. “Why are you avoiding me? I only want to take you to dinner.”
She wanted to have dinner with a man. She’d like to do a lot more with this one, but deep down she knew this could be the one who would destroy her.
Not because he would stray. Isak would never be a man who cheated on a woman.
He would bring flowers and romance her.
She had the feeling that his focus would reach a new level while making love.
No, she couldn’t fault him for his moral character or his attention, but he was human.
One day, he would look at her as a person on the wrong side of the human-not-human continuum.
“Isak, I don’t live in your world.”
“You could.”
Those fingers of his were slowly severing every reason she had for staying away from him. If she didn’t stop him soon, this would end up in the wrong place.
Her bed.
Taking a side step, she offered, “Would you like to come in for tea?”
“Sure.”
She unlocked the door, then cleared a ward that he couldn’t see, but would notice when it threw him backwards. She left the umbrella on the porch and dropped her purse on the side table.
He closed the door and said, “This fits you.”
She’d just crossed the living room to the kitchen. The remodeling had turned this part of the downstairs into one large great room. “What do you mean this fits me?” If he said it was strange and unusual, she’d boot him out the door on her own, no majik needed.
“It’s feminine without being frilly. It’s attractive and has a sincere air to it.” He placed his phone on the side table and strode across the room as he spoke, pausing only inches from her.
That was nice. He was nice. That wasn’t the issue.
Toying with her hair, he asked, “Why are you so opposed to spending time with me?”
He was killing her the longer he touched her so tenderly. She had to put a stop to this. The best way to do that was by addressing their issue head on.
“Isak, you will never get over your prejudice against nonhumans, so we have nowhere to go. I don’t want to get involved with someone who is—”
“Closed-minded?”
Those had been the next words she planned to say. Now, she wanted to smooth it over. But that would be counterproductive so she said, “Yes.”
He argued, “I’m not running around killing all nonhumans anymore and you have to admit not all are good ones. I didn’t kill Evalle the first time I found out she was an Alterant and I was actively hunting them.”
“The way I heard the story, she used her kinetics to save Kit’s life and still, Kit had to stop you from shooting Evalle with your blaster.”
“Okay, that might have been a bad example,” he admitted.
She found his honesty under fire adorable, but telling him so would not help her case. Since he’d brought up Evalle, Adrianna pointed out, “You were also attracted to Evalle. Now you want me to believe you’re attracted to me?”
He pulled her to him and lowered his head until they almost touched noses.
She had trouble breathing.
Isak explained, “I’d never met anyone like Evalle who knew about demons. Sure, I found her intriguing, but ... you’re different. If I had really wanted to be with Evalle, I wouldn’t have given Storm a chance to get in the picture. I think about you day and night. If a man looks at you, I can’t think about anything except bundling you off to keep you away from all of them. I want to get to know you, to find out what makes you happy, what movies you watch, where you’d like to go for a vacation, anything and everything. From the minute I saw you, I admit that I tried not to pay attention.”
She’d been mesmerized until then. He lost points admitting that he hadn’t wanted anything to do with a witch.
“But you aren’t someone to be ignored. You draw my eyes the minute you’re in a room. You’re a woman that appeals to me in every way. I’ll never meet anyone else like you and I know it.”
Okay, his points were going back up.
But there was still the issue that would never go away. She sighed and said, “We can’t—”
He moved with stealth and kissed her, tasting her and sending his tongue in for a hello.
Unfair tactics.
How was she supposed to think and maintain her control when he ... his hand scooped her up to him. She gripped his arms, strictly for support since he had her off balance.
Very off balance.
His mouth would not give up, but then who liked a quitter?
Isak snaked his other arm around her and lifted. That brought her up against him and left zero confusion about how much he wanted her.
Her body was not helping one bit. Her breasts ached. She rubbed against his chest. Nice, but not exactly what she needed.
He moved a hand to the closest breast and cupped her.
She felt that touch in her womb.
This wasn’t her first rodeo with a man, but it felt like the first time one had made it past the surface of her emotions. Touching Isak wasn’t in the same category as touching other men. She loved his strength and she’d always found confidence in a man a huge turn-on.
Was she really going to take this step?
Breaking the kiss, she watched his face when he pulled back. She touched his lips with a finger, drawing it across the perfect shape. “This is not something I can do lightly, Isak.”
“I know that without you saying so.”
Still, she hesitated. “My friends are always going to include nonhumans.”
“That’s probably a good thing since it seems I now have a few myself.” He smiled and her heart did a spin.
How could she deny him when he’d removed the one real barrier between them? She didn’t expect a commitment of love before sleeping with him, but she was not frivolous with her body, or her emotions.
Maybe over the years she’d been forced to keep her emotions locked down while she channeled the pain of her twin sister who’d been in captivity, she’d forgotten how to open up. Her sister was no longer in pain, no longer of this world.
Adrianna took a breath and stepped off the cliff. “Yes.”
“Yes, as in yes we can have dinner?”
“Yes, as in we can ... do more than that.”
He picked her up and carried her to the sofa.
She said, “Are you going to go caveman on me?”
“Depends. Do you like it?”
He lowered her to the sofa and eased down next to her. His hands pulled her blouse from her pants. “I love how you dress so prim and proper.” He smiled at her with so much warmth. “It’s like a live fantasy, because I can feel the passion you hide beneath that pristine look.”
When his fingers reached her breasts, she had to catch her breath.
“You’re beautiful, but that’s not what makes you special.” He leaned down and kissed the mound of breast pushed up by her red lace bra.
She let her breath out on a sigh. That felt so good.
He kept kissing her, pausing only to say, “You’re special because no other woman is your equal. No other woman can hold a candle to your bright light.”
His fingers had unzipped her pants and eased in.
She had to be careful or her majik would slip from her grip.
“I want to see you let go of all that control you hold close.”
Maybe not if he knew what it would be like if she did let go.
His phone buzzed.
Isak didn’t so much as look toward the phone. He was too busy reaching inside her lace panties to touch her ... oh, yes. Right there.
He kissed her breasts through the bra and she thought about using majik to get rid of the barrier.
His phone played an announcement “Isak, Code Red. Repeat, this is Code Red.”