Night Falls on the Wicked - By Sharie Kohler Page 0,9
she knew. She didn’t even know his name. Good-byes weren’t a requirement. He was just a stranger. That’s all he could ever be. All she could let him be despite her instant attraction to him. Despite how much she still wanted to linger and talk to him.
She watched her breath fog before her lips and tried to forget those eyes—that stare. Easier said than done. She hadn’t found herself in close conversation with a good-looking guy in forever.
She was better off not getting involved. With him. With anyone.
He was better off. Everyone was.
And yet several feet down the street, she could not resist another look back. Just to assess. Just to make sure he wasn’t looking after her. He wasn’t. And for that, she felt a stab of disappointment that she had no business feeling.
FOUR
When Niklas looked back, she was gone.
He quickly scanned the small parking lot and spotted her ahead, continuing down the sidewalk with her bag of groceries and her blue hood pulled low over her head, obscuring her profile. He suspected this wasn’t just because of the cold but because she didn’t like to draw attention to herself. She had a way about her—a quiet way of moving, almost as though she didn’t touch the ground when she walked. Of course he noticed her. He missed nothing or no one.
He’d known instantly it was her. The woman he’d seen walking across the street from the B&B yesterday. Aside from his recognizing the coat she wore, his body had reacted instantly, his skin jumping and tightening the same way it had yesterday.
He felt a stab of disappointment to see her go. A strange sensation. He had barely viewed her face and he hadn’t even glimpsed her hair. Just a vague impression of a pale face and wide hazel eyes. Nothing remarkable—on the surface. But there was something more there, something lurking beneath. Something that caught his attention. Yesterday and now. Something that held his rarely caught attention.
He frowned at her brisk pace. She was practically jogging. It was almost as if she were fleeing. From him? Had he frightened her? Those hazel eyes had stared at him with a wide-eyed awareness. At first, he thought she recognized him. Impossible, he knew. He knew no one. Had no one. He was all alone in this world and had been for too many years to count.
He considered following her. She wouldn’t live far if she was on foot in this climate. He took one step in the direction she’d fled and then stopped himself. Shaking his head, he wondered why he should care where she lived. But he knew that answer deep and swift in his blood. Just as he knew himself.
He hadn’t spent this long keeping himself tightly in check without coming to understand precisely what he was.
She turned a corner in front of the town diner. Out of sight. His breath came easier. He’d felt a connection to her. A response. It was all tied up in his baser instincts. No matter how he struggled to suppress his nature, the essence of what he was rose up inside him now and then. A bitter reminder just in case he started to feel normal. In case he started believing he was an average guy.
There was no formula as to what female might arouse a reaction in him. No predicting. Yesterday, the maid, Holly, had been easy enough to pass by, to reject. But this one …
He shook his head, the satin-soft sound of her voice still running through his mind
Certain women affected him more than others. Every once in a while he got within breathing distance of a specific female and a primal need seized him to take her, have her, possess her. She was one of them, he guessed. Nothing more.
Usually he walked away as fast as he could manage when one of those situations occurred. A few times, admittedly, he didn’t walk away.
A few times he succumbed. Sometimes when he was feeling particularly weak he took what he craved, what the woman invited, and then he left. As quickly as possible.
Tonight, she was gone before he had a chance to decide for himself if he wanted to pursue her. A heavy sigh welled up inside him and pushed past his lips. Just as well.
He returned his attention to the idiots cheering over a few wolf corpses. It was the same story everywhere. Sad, really, that wolves got blamed for the attacks.