Edge of Desire (6 page)

A few more steps across the dew-covered lawn, and she stopped, no more than a handful of feet separating
them. Enough space for her not to feel crowded, but close enough that she could feel the blast of his hot, sharp-edged energy. Pull in the rich, mouthwatering scent of his skin. Her breath quivered in her throat, eyes hot…burning, as she stared through the moonlit night, soaking up the beautiful, breathtaking details. God, he was insanely attractive. Not pretty, in any sort of polished Hollywood kind of way. He was too hard, too rugged, too devastatingly male to appeal to the masses, his rough-edged masculinity sending a nervous shiver down her spine, as if she’d just encountered something beautiful…but deadly. A pitch-black panther roaming the foggy dead of night, or a long, sinuous viper twisting through the damp blades of savannah grass. The bump on his nose that he’d gotten during a varsity basketball game somehow only made him more appealing, as did the firm, sensual mouth that could no doubt induce hot flashes in the most frigid of matrons. And those Buchanan-blue eyes. Dark, intense, beautiful. She still saw those eyes in her sleep, the endless beauty of them making her awaken with her breath jerking in her lungs. Angel’s eyes, darkened now by some kind of angry, violent emotion that looked almost like pain. Fear. Desperation. Which was madness. Just her own emotions projected on to him. She couldn’t imagine anything in the world that would frighten a man like Riley Buchanan.

He was a mountain. A rock. Something immovable and strong. Completely indestructible.

He stood silent and still beneath her breathless scru
tiny, then lifted the smoldering cigarette for another long, slow inhalation that made the tip burn like a tiger’s eye in the hazy darkness. “I can’t believe you smoke,” she finally rasped, her voice feeling strange in her throat, as if the husky sound didn’t belong to her. “It doesn’t fit with how athletic you were in school.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t believe you live in Washington.”

The graveled blast of his words made her flinch. “Small world, I guess.”

He took another drag on the cigarette, the exhaled smoke curling through the damp night, while another storm brewed out over the water. She shivered, pushing her hands into the pockets of her jeans, and he said, “I thought I told you to be careful.”

She frowned, recalling the lecture he’d drilled into her that afternoon about the need for her and Millie to be cautious until he and the redhead were out of town. He’d even gone so far as to demand that they not go anywhere alone, especially at night. She’d have scoffed at the ridiculous dictates, except for the fierce intensity with which he’d delivered them, as if he honestly
did
fear for her and Millie’s safety. And she supposed the fact that he was a lawman added an authenticity to his warnings that she couldn’t ignore, though it still drove her crazy that he’d refused to answer the barrage of questions she’d fired at him. “I know how to be careful, Riley. I always am.”

“Speaking of careful, do you have an alarm for the house?”

“We do,” she replied, lifting one hand from her pocket to push her windblown hair behind her shoulder. “Two women living on their own, in a place that takes in pretty good money.” She shrugged, adding, “Purity is a safe town, but we figured it would be stupid to take any chances.”

The grim set of his mouth pulled her gaze, the brackets that lined those sensual lips becoming deeper as he said, “I have some things I’d like you to use on your bedroom doors and windows, just as an added precaution.”

“Are you serious?”

“As a heartbeat,” he muttered, tossing the cigarette butt into the damp grass, then grinding it out with the toe of his boot.

“What are they?”

Pushing his own hands into his pockets, he said, “Kellan makes them. Behind that irritating attitude, the guy’s some kind of genius when it comes to technology.”

“And you say he’s the brother of a friend,” she said, a wealth of questions hidden beneath her casual tone that he seemed to pick up on.

He held her stare, his nostrils flaring as he drew in a deep, searching breath that made her feel somehow exposed, as if he were pulling in her scent. Taking it in. Holding it. Finally, he gave a slow nod, a silky, ink-black lock of hair falling over his forehead. “That’s what I said.”

“Okay,” she breathed out. “I’ll accept that, for now.
And I’ll take the gadgets. I’m not stupid, and God only knows what kind of trouble you’ve brought with you. But you can stop lecturing me on the need to be careful, because I always am.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Coming out here by yourself at night is not what I would call careful.”

“I’m not alone,” she argued, lifting her chin. “I’m with you.”

He grunted under his breath. Internally debated with himself, she could tell. And then quietly said, “It’s not safe for you to be alone with me, Hope. In fact, that’s the last place you need to be.”

A dry, brittle laugh jerked from her throat, the ragged sound lingering between them with painful, unsaid meanings. “It’s not safe in the town. Not safe to go out alone. Not safe with you. Is it just me, Ri? Do you think I’m so weak that I don’t know how take care of myself? And just what exactly do you think I’m going to let you do to me?”

His eyes narrowed further at the provocative words, though she hadn’t meant them that way. Thick, curling lashes shadowed his gaze, but she could still see the startling intensity of that deep, dark blue. The same fierce, wicked color that had haunted her dreams for years.

When he looked at her like that, she felt stripped. Naked. Bared down to the raw, as if he could see right through the protection of her clothes, her skin, down to the truths she tried so hard to hide. With so little effort,
he could peel back the layers and stroll through her mind at his leisure. Through the mangled minefield of her issues and emotions.

Needing a distraction, she lowered her gaze to the shoulder holster he wore over his long-sleeved black T-shirt, the dark handgun like some kind of perfect accessory, as if it were a part of him. “So you’re a sheriff, huh? That’s an awfully big position to fill at thirty.”

He blew out a rough breath. “Yeah, but I’m ages older where it counts.”

“You always were,” she murmured, and it was so easy to remember how much she’d worried about him when they’d been together. His dad had left when he was little, and after Ian had bailed out on them, Riley had been forced to become the man of the house, which had been a hefty role to play at such a young age. “And now you have the weight of the world resting on your shoulders. Protecting your town. Your family. Millie and me from some unknown danger lurking in the dark. It must be exhausting, Riley. No wonder you look tired.”

“The danger is known, and all too real,” he grunted. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to convince you to leave town for a while?”

“Are you serious?” she asked again, lifting her brows, suspecting he just wanted to get her to leave so that he didn’t have to deal with her. And considering this was
her
home, and
her
life, she wasn’t about to let him run her off.

“Yeah,” he replied, his tone grim. “I’m deadly serious, Hope.”

“Well, that’s too bad then. Because I’m not leaving.”

R
ILEY WANTED TO ARGUE
with the hardheaded woman, but choked back the sharp words burning in his throat, knowing she was determined to fight him, pushing against him out of anger and bitter resentment. Not that he blamed her. If she’d dumped him the way he’d done to her, he would have still been hurling nasty insults in her face. Instead, she stood there with her head held high, the epitome of cool, calm composure. It made him crazy just to stand there, so close to her. He wanted to map out those lush, womanly curves with his hands. Taste the pansy-soft texture of her mouth. The soft inner curve of that voluptuous lower lip that could have driven a saint to sin. And despite his annoying nickname, he wasn’t feeling at all saintly at that particular moment in time.

No, there was something about the way the ethereal streams of moonlight were hitting the smooth, vulnerable stretch of her throat that pushed him into a dark, dangerous place. Made the night feel too close, as if the heavy weight of the darkness was pressing in on him with crushing force, his temperature rising from the strain of holding himself together, until a fine sheen of sweat covered his body. Memories of the girl she’d been had always tempted him in ways that no other woman ever had. But seeing her all grown up damn near
killed him with need. There was a fertile, succulent facet to her scent that cranked his need up to the point where he worried he’d do something stupid. A stinging heaviness in his gums that signaled the release of the Merrick’s fangs. He knew that if he wasn’t careful, they were going to descend, eager for the chance to sink into that pale, tender flesh. To take her blood into his mouth, hot and sweet against his tongue, feeding the primal darkness within him.

And no doubt scare her to death in the process.

And while the hunger for blood was most definitely the Merrick’s doing, Riley knew he had to take responsibility for the violence of his desire. Though his Merrick blood was only just awakening, his physical appetites had always been dark…aggressive. It was just a part of who he was, and he’d always chosen women who could handle it. Handle him. Strong, independent, career-minded women, who had no desire for a relationship, but still needed a sexual outlet from time to time.

Not that he slept with women indiscriminately, or ones he didn’t like. He just chose partners who were safe. Who could match his sexual appetites, and enjoy sex for what it was, without involving complicated emotions in the mix. Simple, clear-cut, mutual exchanges of pleasure. That was all he’d ever had—all he’d ever been able to find.

Until now. Already, the cutting edge of desire that Hope brought him to was screwing with his head. They didn’t have an emotional attachment. The rational part
of his mind knew that. Accepted it. But he also knew that sex with her would be unlike anything he’d ever known, pushing him to levels of need that he’d never come close to experiencing. He’d always suspected that would be the case, but the reality of facing her again after all these years was so much more than he’d been prepared for.

His fictional idea of the person she would become had been based on the girl he’d known, but the woman standing before him now was a stranger. She was all grown up, the product of years that had had nothing to do with him. Unknown experiences that had shaped her personality, like powerful forces of nature upon the planet. Rushing waters that cut through the ground, digging deep, shifting and shaping and molding the earth into something new. It should have made it easier, but instead, he found that the “real” Hope was so much more fascinating than his imagined one. Throwing pies at him. Losing her temper. Hammering questions at him that afternoon with an intensity that would have put even the most seasoned investigator to shame. Facing him barefoot in the moonlight, with the wind whipping through her long hair, unwilling to back down or to let him intimidate her. She was fire and heat and passion, and he just wanted to pull her around him like something warm and soft, until she could melt the cold burn of fear sitting in his gut like a leaden weight. Fear of the darkness inside him. Of the danger closing in around them. Of what he was becoming…changing into.

Despite knowing that the Merrick were the good guys in a fight against one of the most deadly evils the world had ever known, Riley couldn’t let go of the bitterness he’d felt for so long. He couldn’t embrace the family legacy breathing down his neck like Saige had always done, largely because of what it had cost him. His mother, Elaina, obsessed to the point of mental instability. His brother, Ian, who had finally left home to get away from her. His sister, simply because he hadn’t been able to deal with Saige’s own ardent devotion to the search for answers about their family bloodline. And then Hope, who had been the crushing blow, nearly doing him in, so violent he was still reeling from its force thirteen years later.

He’d been too shocked for most of the day to really process it—this colossal screwup of fate. But now it was sinking in, soaking into him, and with it came a sharp, piercing rage.

He wanted to know what kind of jackass was looking down on him, pulling the strings, as if some cosmic prankster had taken over the heavens, tossing the dice with his life. And with Hope’s.

He’d been putting it off all evening, knowing he needed to have this talk with her, but dreading it all the same. Just being near her threatened his ability to keep himself together. Another chink in his emotional armor. A constant struggle that he knew, instinctively, was going to grow worse with each passing day.

He’d tried to think, to put together a plan, while he
and Kellan had spent the afternoon getting the layout of the town. There was no doubt that the Casus wouldn’t be far behind them, if they weren’t already there. The best plan was to stay at the cabin, and find the damn Marker as quickly as possible. Then get the hell out of Purity, taking his troubles with him. If he could keep his distance from Hope, then maybe she’d go under their radar. He’d warned her about the danger, but hadn’t gone into specifics. God willing, he’d be able to spare her the details. He didn’t want her looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life, living in fear. There was still promise for Hope. Happiness. That rose-colored dream. He didn’t want to shatter it with death and monsters and terror. Didn’t want her jumping at every sound she heard in the night.