She shook her head. “I have my blazer. I’m fine.”
He shoved it toward her. “I’ll be fine, too. Put it on.”
His gruff kindness touched her. And she’d thought that boyish Joey was the nicer of the two.
She accepted the coat, pulling it on, and was shrouded in cold leather. She shivered. Strange that it would be so cold given that it had just been on his large body.
“Do you live around here?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m at a hotel a few blocks from here.”
He nodded. “I’ll walk you there.”
She smiled gratefully, but then the smile slipped as she cast a wary look down the alley.
As if reading her thoughts, the stranger said, “He’s long gone. The coward.”
She glanced into the dark tunnel once more, then gestured down the street. “It’s this way.”
Before Rhys fell into step beside the little mortal, he concentrated. The ex-convict coward was still in the alleyway, unconscious. He lifted his head and breathed in deeply to commit the coward’s scent to memory, so if the man should rouse and run, Rhys would be able to find him. He meant to make a meal of that one as much for the pixie as for himself.
But the pixie’s sweet, brilliant scent kept overwhelming the coward’s tainted stink. He’d never known any mortal’s scent to be as strong and alluring as hers.
Then her voice as well as her smell distracted him. “Is everything okay?”
He inhaled once more, fairly certain he would be able to track the ex-con if he fled. He turned to her.
She stared up at him, her pale skin lustrous in the streetlight. Her eyes wide, concern clear in their green depths.
Again the sweetness of her amazing scent filled the air. This mortal was truly good. Unbelievable.
He cleared his throat and answered her more gruffly than he intended. “Yes. You said your hotel was this way?” He pointed in the same direction she just had.
She nodded.
They headed down the cracked concrete.
Maybe it had been her genuine goodness that had allowed Rhys to sense that the pixie was in trouble. He’d still been sitting at the bar when all of a sudden the whole room had been flooded with her smell. But it wasn’t the same scent as when she’d first arrived. It had been flowery and warm—but there had been a sharp undertone to it. Then all her emotions were clear to him. Desperation, terror, pain.
That had never happened to him before. He’d never been able to read the emotions of a mortal not near him. In fact, the only one he could connect with across any distance was his brother, Sebastian. And he was a vampire, too.
He glanced at her again. With his black coat wrapped around her, the pixie did look a bit like a child dressed up as a vampire for Halloween. But she wasn’t. And he should have no connection with her.
But he had.
“I had been just about to apologize to you when that guy showed up again.”
Rhys frowned, confused by her sudden announcement. “Apologize?”
She nodded, not looking at him, but watching the sidewalk in front of them. “For being so rude to you.”
“Rude?”
She glanced up at him. “I yelled at you.”
She did?
“I asked you what you were looking at,” she clarified.
He shook his head, and felt a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “That wasn’t yelling. In this city, that was just a typical greeting.”
The pixie laughed slightly, but it broke off into a strangled sob. She stopped, holding her hands over her face. Her shoulders shook.
Rhys stood beside her, listening to the heart-wrenching crying, feeling her awful distress. The pain of it in his own chest almost crushed him. He found he wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t know how to do that. He hadn’t consoled anyone in—so long. But cautiously, he touched her shoulder.
“Shh, it’s okay.”
She swiped at her face, obviously irritated with herself for falling apart. “I’m sorry.” She forced a shaky smile at him. “This was supposed to be a new beginning. I sold everything I own, my house, the family business, everything, to start this great, new life. But after today, I’m thinking I made a big mistake.”
He didn’t know what to say. She was talking about life, and he didn’t have one of those. “Maybe tomorrow will be better,” he offered lamely.
She stared at him for a moment. Then a genuine laugh escaped her, even though she did hiccup slightly at the end of it. She rose up on her tiptoes and flung her arms around his neck. She pressed her warm, soft lips to his cheek.
If his heart were beating, it would have stopped. When was the last time he’d felt the warmth of a human’s embrace, the tenderness of a kind touch. But it wasn’t tenderness that he felt in return. Not even close. Raging, searing hot desire ripped through his icy body.
He wanted this woman. He wanted to sink into her heat. Devour her. Making her scream for him. And he wasn’t talking about with his fangs. Although he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to taste her as she orgasmed for him.
His cock spiked and his fangs unsheathed.
Roughly, he disengaged her arms from around his neck and set her away from him.
“I’m sorry,” she said, although she couldn’t quite keep the wounded look from her eyes.
He quickly ran his tongue along his teeth to make sure his fangs had receded. “No, I just…” What could he say? I didn’t want to either screw you or bite you or both right here on the sidewalk. “I just don’t want you to think I’m like that coward back there.”
She smiled, then shook her head. “I’d never think you were like that guy. That man is a violent monster. You saved me.”
Damn, if she knew the truth about him. She’d run so fast.
“We better keep walking.” He had to get away from her. He had to put distance between them and sever this connection he felt with her. He didn’t understand it, but he knew it was dangerous. Any association with a mortal could only bring them both pain. That’s why he’d worked so hard to stay away from them, except the ones as empty as he was.
She looked around nervously and matched her steps to his rapid pace.
Her hotel was a nondescript building, square and run-down with tread-worn carpeting and shabby sofas in the small lobby.
She followed his gaze. “I was only supposed to be staying here a couple days. Now I might have to stay a little longer.” When she saw his deepening frown, she added, “It shouldn’t be longer than a week or so.”
He nodded, but he hated to leave her here. Still, she was safer here than with him. He didn’t think he could keep looking into those green eyes of hers and not touch her. His longing for her appeared to be growing by the second. And although it was lust, the feeling seemed to be laced with something else. A craving for warmth, and caring, and affection. All things that were dangerous for him to want.
“Okay, well, good luck,” he said.
The slight curve of her lips was more a forlorn grimace than an actual smile. “Well, like you said, things will probably get better tomorrow.”
She waved at him and started toward the rumbling, creaking elevator. She stopped.
He felt a wave of anticipation. Maybe she would return and