Echo, Mine (8 page)

“I don’t.”

She sighed. Before she could respond, a stir
on her right pulled her attention away. A big blond god jogged down
the stairs from the upper VIP level. The few people walking up
parted like the Red Sea. Týr’d probably coined the phrased ‘drop
dead dazzling.’ He barely noticed the patrons’ gawking as he
stopped beside her and Aethan near the balustrade.

He winked at her, his toffee-brown eyes
filling with laughter. Judging from Aethan’s dark expression—yep,
her man finally knew who was responsible for telling her.

Týr wasn’t fazed at all. “I need your mate
for a sec, gorgeous.”

“Týr, he knows you told me,” she said with a
wry smile. She moved away from Aethan’s side. “I’ll wait for you at
the bar.”

“No—”

“I’ll be fine, Aethan. Talk. Meet me there
when you're done.” Deftly, she slipped away before he could stop
her and weaved her way through the masses, past the crowded dance
floor, and to the packed bar. A rail-thin blonde knocked into her
and glared like it was all Echo’s fault. In this swarming place,
people were bumping into each other all the time.

Ignoring her, Echo squeezed into a
just-vacated seat at the packed bar. She ordered her drink and
swiveled in her stool to face the raving crowd.

Despite the bar’s distance from the dance
floor, it didn’t mute the crashing music.

The night had been perfect, well, except for
those drunken idiots. It felt really good to be out—to be away from
the castle, her lessons. She glanced back at the stairs but
couldn’t see Aethan or Týr. They must have stepped away from the
busy landing.

Echo
? At his telepathic link, she
smiled. Obviously, he’d sensed her looking for him.

I'm fine. Just having a drink…or maybe
three
, she teased.

A slight pause before he responded;
Then
you’ll be easy to spot. I’ll be there in a few.

Did he think she’d be the lush dancing on
the counter? Snorting, Echo took her G&T from the bartender and
sipped, enjoying the sharp lime taste.

The last time she’d been in this place,
almost nine months ago, it had been the lowest point in their
lives. She’d broken off with Aethan and was trying to get over him.
It was here that he’d come after her. Here he’d seen her with Jon,
who’d had a crush on her and had kissed her palm while dancing.
Aethan had been furious.

That night
had
changed hers and
Aethan’s lives. He’d finally put aside his fears of hurting her
with his power and had claimed her in that elemental way of his
kind, with a soul joining when he’d made love to her.

She liked this club so she didn't want any
bad memories attached to it.

Now, if he could just get his sexy self over
here, they could wipe that slate clean when he danced with her.
Whatever Týr had to say must be pretty important to delay him.

Echo shifted on the high bar stool and
crossed her legs. The hemline of her short skirt rode up her thigh.
She tugged at it, but the thing refused to budge.

With a grimace, she gave up and sipped more
of her drink. Someone swung her stool to the left, startling her.
The brown-haired guy next to her smiled, and despite her scowl,
caged her in with a hand on her seat. The corners of his dark eyes
crinkled as his lusty gaze swept over her tight, sleeveless top
molded to her chest, then down to her legs, and back up to her
face. “Dance, sugar?”

Echo nudged his hand off her stool. “No. I'm
waiting for my”—mate? He’d probably think it was a friend and get
excited—“husband.”

His gaze lowered to her left hand and he
smirked.

That’s the part that made people not believe
her. No ring. She didn't care for rings, mostly because it got in
the way of fighting. She smiled sweetly. “It’s at the
jewelers.”

“No probs, you change your mind, I'm right
here.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Of course, he’d be. Her pheromones—or
angelic allure
as Aethan insisted on reminding her she now
possessed—still leaked, no matter how much she tightened her mental
guards. So anything with a Y chromosome was drawn to her.
Tightening her psychic shields, she met yet another man's
smoldering stare.

Echo took a healthy swallow of her drink and
turned away. A nice buzz had started when her seat was swung around
once more.
Shit
. Not again.

Arms slid past her, trapping her against the
bar counter and caging her in. Echo narrowed her eyes, taking in
the impossibly handsome face in front of her. Ooh, time for some
fun.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” she said coolly.
“Like I just told him,” she flicked her thumb to the guy next to
her who was now chatting up his other neighbor, “I'm waiting for
someone. My other half, actually.”

“Other half?” A dark brow shooting up, he
leaned closer. “Too bad for him. He shouldn’t have left you alone
and unattended.”

Since he was practically in her air space,
she put her hand on his chest, keeping him back. “So you just hit
on women sitting alone, is that it?”

“No, I have very selective tastes,” he
murmured, his gaze caressing her face. His low, heated tone sent a
shiver of awareness sliding through her. One she struggled to clamp
down.

“Oh, really?” she drawled. “What exactly is
that, pretty boy?”

“Pretty boy?” His mouth flattened.

Hated that, did he? “Well, you are. You have
this whole sharp…”—devastatingly smoldering stare? Nah, then her
plan wouldn’t work—“totally useless look about you,” she
paraphrased the end line from a movie she’d recently seen, trying
hard not to smile.

That sensual mouth so close to hers
twitched. “So I'm a prostitute now?”

He remembered. She bit back her smile. She’d
been so sure he’d fallen asleep during the rerun of
Pretty
Woman
last weekend.

“Well, considering you're trying to pick me
up, what am I supposed to think?” She batted her lashes at him.

Those storm-gray eyes narrowed.

Satisfied she’d had the last word, it was
time for part two of her plan—to render him totally speechless and
utterly horny. The moment on the beach was a start, but it had been
all about her.

Echo took another sip of her drink then
rested her elbows on the counter behind her, which, of course,
pushed her chest out. His gaze slid down to linger on her cleavage.
With her buttons unfastened, the front parted, revealing the
swelling curves of her breasts and more of the lace edges of the
black, push-up bra Kira had given her.

His eyes, slits now, came back up to meet
hers. Her heart pounded. She’d never in her life dressed so
provocatively as to reveal her underwear in public. Trying to get
her breathing back to normal, she glanced away from his heated
stare. A group of women standing several feet away eyed him in awe.
Echo couldn’t blame them. Aethan was luscious. And his bottom lip
was just so biteable. She wanted a taste of him—

“Why, exactly, are you're wearing your top
like this?” He fingered her unfastened buttons. “I don’t think I
care for it—”

She smacked his hand away. “I like it—”

Someone bumped into him, his mouth
tightened. His arms still caging her protectively, he turned his
head, as did Echo.

“So sorry—” a curvy brunette with
collagen-plumped lips threw out with a contrite smile. Then her
eyes widened. “Wow, I think it’s my lucky day—or yours. Let me buy
you a drink to make it up to you. I'm Kenya, and this”—she wave a
finger to the other woman who joined her—“is my sister, Tracy.”

Twins. Of course. Echo narrowed her eyes at
the woman’s blatant come-on to her mate.

Aethan scarcely gave the two of them a
glance and shifted his attention back to Echo. He studied her face,
a barely there smile tugging at the corners of his lips that she
wanted to wipe clean off his face. He knew she was irritated. Why
the hell didn't he say
no
?

“I'm not interested,” he said, his gaze
holding hers. “I have everything I want right here.”

Okay, so she wouldn’t really punch him. She
loved his face too much to hurt it. Echo eyed the twins coolly. She
wouldn’t be surprised if they’d deliberately bumped into him.
Though he was ace in shielding
his
angelic allure, the way
he looked was reason enough.

Their brows furrowing, the twins slunk off,
appearing bewildered. “Well, if he prefers some lanky skank with
freak-eyes, it’s his loss, not ours,” Kenya muttered.

Freak eyes
…
devil’s eyes,
the
old, childhood taunt whispered in her mind.

Aethan straightened, his expression
hardening. She laid a hand on his arm. “Forget them.”

Those steel grays met hers, deadly in its
intensity. “I won’t allow anyone to say that shit about you.”

“I'm fine, really.” And she was. He gave her
that stability, the grounding she needed.

After a tense moment, the stiffness left his
body. “You are precious to me, Echo mine.” He brushed the dimple in
her chin with the back of his knuckles and kissed the tip of her
nose.

Her heart dropped. He kissed her on the
nose—on her damn freaking
nose
—not the mouth!

“Button your top.”

He was worried about her unfastened blouse?
“Aethan, stop. This is supposed to be our night out, and it was
going well until those two
bumped
into you!”

“Yes, it was. But not with every male’s eyes
on your chest,” he muttered. “And I don’t care about
them
or
their agenda.”

“Really?” She rolled her eyes at his
possessive tone. “We’ve been together nearly a year. And
they
were so coming on to you.”

“No,
me’morae
, we’ve been together a
bare eight months, and six of those I lived in hell not knowing if
I’d lose you,” he said darkly. “And
they
can do whatever the
hell they want.
I. Wasn’t. Interested
.”

“Next time try harder.”

“What?” His brow furrowed in confusion.
“What did I do?”

“
Nothing
!” And
that
was the
whole point. Gritting on her frustration, she slugged back the rest
of her drink, slammed the glass on the counter and stalked off,
pushing her way through the crowd.

Aethan would never cheat on her. Even now,
confused as he was about why she’d stormed off, through their soul
joining, his immense love surrounded her, filling her with warmth
and tenderness. Once an immortal found their mate and soul joined,
that was it—no other could snare their attention. But he could have
damn well kissed her properly instead of on her bloody nose!

That was what had her seething, and the fact
that he had no clue as to why she was so mad.

In this very club, months ago, he’d kissed
her, all raw and needy—it hadn’t mattered that he was angry with
her. Hell, he’d used to take her mouth in those hot, carnal kisses
that simply melted her bones for just smiling at Týr. But now?
Nada!

A guy stepped in her path with a loopy grin
and glazed eyes. He probably saw ten of her. “Wanna h-hook up?”

Yeah, right! Scowling, she shoved him out of
her way and stomped out of the club. As she cleared the stairs, one
of the twins was there, talking to a man—a demon. She flung a smirk
Echo’s way and stroked the dark-haired man’s chest, as if to say
‘
see, I too have a sexy man
.’

She was welcome to him. Sexy, handsome men
could be so darn impossible! Besides, Echo was well aware of how
good-looking demons were, too. She’d dealt with many during her
stint as a hunter when she pursued the demonii responsible for
killing her friend.

As the twin sashayed off with her conquest
who sported dark shades, an acrid trace of sulfur drifted to
Echo—oh, crap!

Demoniis. They wore sunglasses to hide their
red eyes when they hunted for prey. Echo opened her psychic sight,
and at the pulsing red aura surrounding the fast-disappearing man,
she swore under her breath.

***

What the hell had just happened? Aethan
stared at Echo’s disappearing form. Why was she so riled at him?
She had to know it was always about her. No one had ever fascinated
him the way she did.

Their first night out was turning into a
fucking disaster. He’d intended to take her out to dinner, a quiet
bar to relax, but nothing had gone according to plan. Echo,
apparently, had a whole other agenda for their evening.

He hadn’t wanted to come here, but she was
right. It was time to let go of the past. This place always
reminded him how he could have lost Echo to that human, Jon, or
another had he not overcome his fears and claimed her. But more, it
was only a few days later that she’d died in his arms…

Shit
. He rubbed his jaw, his stomach
hollowing out. The gut-wrenching desolation that had gripped him
would never disappear. He doubted it ever would.

So he shut it away and followed Echo then
stopped and glared at the crowd surrounding him. Unlike his mate,
he didn't care to be pushing his way through the masses. He walked
around them and took off after his fast-disappearing mate, but more
people got in his way.

Irritated, he headed for the stairs when the
air was knocked right out of his lungs
.
Godsdammit—
Rahvert
! Týr had mentioned seeing a scarred demon
loitering in The Bowery. Echo was heading outside alone. The fucker
just had to get a whiff of his scent on her—

Willing people out of his way, Aethan
sprinted for the exit, hoping it was just some random demon and not
Rahvert and crew.

***

Echo pushed through the swarm of people
heading for the exit and finally stumbled out into the muggy night.
Inhaling a deep breath, she squinted, peering down the shadowy
backstreet. Dark places were demoniis’ preferred feeding spots. She
sprinted down the narrow alley, turned left into a short dead-end
lane and skidded to a halt near the Range Rover. Grateful she
didn't twist an ankle.