Dark Carousel (Dark #30) - Christine Feehan Page 0,27

heat. Uh-oh. Her gorgeous man had a temper after all. His eyes, a deep blue, had gone turbulent, a sea storm out of control. He suddenly looked much larger. Although he retained that sophisticated air, it looked more a veneer when he was very predatory.

Charlotte moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. His gaze dropped to that small, nervous gesture, and she wished that she’d been more careful. She’d parked the car a distance from the house because she’d wanted to get out and see his property. The high fence had scared her a little and she hadn’t wanted to jump into any commitment, but she definitely needed a safe haven for Lourdes. For the first time, she was really uneasy.

“We needed to draw them out into the open,” Charlotte said.

“We’re sick of being afraid all the time,” Genevieve added, her voice trembling.

That told Charlotte that Genevieve saw the predator in Tariq as well. She tried to step back, to put distance between them, but Tariq pulled her closer to him, bending his head until his eyes stared directly into hers. The irises were dark, wide, and she could see flames burning there. Up that close, he was still gorgeous, maybe even more so, but he was also mesmerizing, a strong, angry male, trapping her in his stormy, turbulent gaze.

She drew in her breath sharply. Moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. Tried to find her voice, even though her throat seemed to be closed. “Tariq.” His name. Not his last name. Just his name. An intimacy she hadn’t expected or wanted, but she’d put it out there in a low, trembling voice she hadn’t meant to use.

“Sielamet.”

Just that. Another language, one she didn’t understand, but the way he said it, so softly, so intimately, she felt the name like a caress moving over her skin.

“Why are you angry?” She had to understand. That was important. Extremely important. She rarely thought it was prudent to run, but his anger was a tangible, living entity, so oppressive, the air around them thickened.

“You put yourself in danger.” An accusation. Plain. Stark. Raw.

She glanced at Genevieve, because she needed to look away from that unblinking, focused stare. He reminded her of a large wolf watching prey. Waiting for an opportunity to leap. But he was right. She had put herself in danger. She’d put Genevieve in danger as well. They hadn’t known whether the three men following them were involved in the murders of their friends and family, but they’d known what they were doing was dangerous.

She nodded. “Yes. That’s true. I did that, but we weren’t safe. Lourdes wasn’t safe. We had to know what we were dealing with, and we didn’t know about Fridrick. We hadn’t realized there were two threats, not one. So good came out of it.”

His fingers tightened around her wrist and he pressed her hand tighter against his chest. So tightly she felt the steady beat of his heart. Strangely, her heart reacted, slowly picking up the same rhythm so that she thought the two hearts drummed one beat at a time together. It was such a strange phenomenon that she paused, her brain still scrambling for a defense, when her mind and body was totally tuned to him.

“Good came out of it?” he repeated slowly, each word enunciated tersely. “Fridrick could have taken both of you. Do you realize how dangerous he is? You wouldn’t have been able to stop him or his men from taking you and believe me, life would have become a living hell for you.”

She didn’t doubt that for a moment. She knew he had saved them. He hadn’t put it in so many words, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt in her mind that if Tariq and his intimidating friends hadn’t come along, she and Genevieve, and most likely Lourdes, would have been in deep trouble. On that thought came another much more disturbing one.

Charlotte pressed her fingertips against Tariq’s broad chest, feeling the muscles beneath his immaculate shirt ripple in response to her touch. “How did he know where Lourdes was?” She tipped her head up so she could meet Tariq’s eyes again. The jolt was hard to take. It felt as if their souls connected and he could see right into her. “How could he have known?”

“She is safe and will be here soon,” Tariq reminded, very gentle again. He stroked a caress along the back of her hand. “Breathe, sielamet;