"Why?"
Alec stopped and shot me a look that probably should have warned me he was at the end of his patience, but I decided that was less important than knowing where he was hauling me. "Do you ever stop asking questions? "
"Not really, no," I said after some thought. "There are so many things to be answered."
He grinned. My inner devil squealed and swooned at the sight of it. I told her to buck up, that he may be sexy as hell, but he was not for us. "I happen to agree with that philosophy, but now is not the time to discuss it. What did you do to get tossed in here?"
"Wrong place at the wrong time, as best I can figure it out," I said, following when he tugged on my wrist. Although the screaming in the distance had stopped, I had an uneasy feeling that something was back there that I'd rather not meet.
Something is. A wrath demon.
How did you hear about that? You were unconscious.
I know the sound of a wrath demon when I hear one. What wrong place?
I sighed. "You're really persistent, aren't you?"
"No more so than you. Why are you glowing?"
I looked down at myself. "I didn't know I was until Ulfur told me - "
He jerked me forward, spinning around. "Ulfur? You know Ulfur? A ghost about my height, with brown hair?"
"He has brown hair, yes, but he wasn't a ghost. He said he was a . . ." I bit my lower lip, trying to dig the word out of my memory.
Alec's gaze flickered to my mouth. Stop that.
Stop what, trying to remember?
No. Stop tempting me with your mouth.
I'm not.
You are. You're flaunting your lips at me. Stop it.
A little warm kernel of feminine pleasure glowed inside me at his mental growl. "I hardly think a bad habit like biting my lip is deliberately flaunting, but if it amuses you to think that, knock yourself out. Lich. That's the word. Ulfur is a lich."
"That's right." Alec looked beyond me, his eyes unfocused. He rubbed his chin with his thumb as he thought, the rasping noise sending little shivers down my back. "Pia said something about them trying to bring him back, but the Ilargi had him by that time."
I couldn't stop looking at him. I tried to look at his shoulder, or the rocks beyond him. I reminded myself that he was a man who didn't think twice about murdering people, not that I didn't feel sympathy with the fact that the ox lady had decapitated me with her cart and left him without his only salvation, but still, he admitted he'd murdered other people. He was bad to the bone, and I didn't give a damn what my swoony inner bad girl thought - I was going to tolerate him only until he got Diamond and me out of this hellhole.
Dear god, I wanted him again. He just stood there, his brain whirling away with some thought, all smoldering sensuality and raw male attraction that made my body hum with happiness.
"Stop that," I said, unable to stand it one minute longer.
He looked startled. "Stop what?"
I stared at his thumb. "Stop tempting me with your manly stubble. And chin. And jaw. But mostly your chin. Did I mention stubble?"
A little frown pulled his eyebrows together. Merciful heaven, even his eyebrows were sexy. I wanted to lick them. "What in the name of the saints are you going on about now?"
It was too much. It was all suddenly too much. "You're too damned handsome, OK? I don't like handsome men! They're always halfway in love with themselves, and they use their looks and their seductive bodies to sway women into doing whatever they want, and I won't have it, do you understand me! I will not have it! Stop being handsome!"
"Corazon - "
"Garrgh!" I yelled, and with both hands, mussed up his hair until it stood up in clumps.
He looked deliciously tousled, like he'd just been engaged in a wonderfully energetic romp between the sheets.