Shadow Thief - Eva Chase Page 0,17
the disdain he’d shown for Leland sank in, something clicked in my head. “You tripped him, didn’t you? In the theater?” I said, remembering how Leland had gone sprawling out of nowhere. He’d never been particularly clumsy—and he’d been walking where the shadows of the chairs fell. It wouldn’t have been hard for a shadowkind to extend just enough physicality to knock a mortal off his feet.
Ruse glanced back at me with a cheekier smile. “I figured he had it coming to him.”
He’d acted on my behalf—because the way Leland had treated me and thought about me had actually bothered him? If it’d only been a ploy to win my affection, he’d have brought it up himself. I could easily have never realized.
The incubus was continuing on his way. “Wait,” I said before he could reach the kitchen.
He stopped and turned all the way around, lifting an eyebrow in question. I didn’t normally find myself speechless around the shadowkind or, well, anyone, but just this once, my mouth had gone dry. I scrambled to sort out the mess of emotions and impulses racing through me.
Ruse needed this. Maybe I did too. Why should I care what Leland or any guy before him had thought? If heights were being offered, I wouldn’t mind going flying. I didn’t know much about the incubus, but I was pretty sure at this point that, at the very least, he wasn’t out to hurt me in any way.
And when would I get a chance like this again? Tomorrow they might find the lead they needed and give up the whole protection scheme.
“You think you can do so much better?” I said. “Let’s see you try.”
A pleased glint lit in Ruse’s hazel eyes. He strolled back to me. At my gesture, Pickle leapt onto the bookcase just inside the bedroom and tucked himself away in the felt cave of a cat bed that sat on the top shelf, filled with rags he’d shredded. I raised my chin to meet the incubus’s gaze in challenge.
“I’m so glad you’ve reconsidered,” Ruse said, all smoothness and charm, but I thought I caught a hint of relief in his expression too. The earlier “snack” had only delayed his starvation a smidgeon. Of course, if I was going to give him anything more than that, we had a negotiation ahead of us.
I eased farther into the room so Ruse could come in after me and set my dinner down on the vanity. It could wait a little longer with this other hunger stirring inside me. I fingered the fabric of my blouse over the badge I’d returned to my undershirt. The incubus might not be able to see it, but the presence of those metals would prickle at his senses.
“It’ll be even more enjoyable with the special effects,” he said. “But if you’re uncomfortable with me using any of my influence, I can hold back without your protective patch. My skills would hardly be worth bragging about if I didn’t know how to ply my trade with the same parts any mortal can put to good use.”
My hands dropped to the hem of the blouse. “You can feed, however exactly that works, but I don’t want you peeking at anything inside my head—or heart—or creating feelings with your powers.” A flicker of that icy panic passed through my chest. “Not even a tiny bit. Are we clear?”
“Crystal,” Ruse said, with a grin that practically sparkled. “We can make this all about you, Miss Blaze. My most important need will be fulfilled perfectly by your fulfillment.”
My body quivered in anticipation. The heat already rising through me overcame the chill of my worries. Why should I let events from decades ago dictate what I got to enjoy right now?
I grasped my blouse and tugged it up over my head. When I’d tossed it over the bed post, I reached for my undershirt, but Ruse touched my hand to still it.
“Allow me,” he said, so low the words washed over me like a caress. I hesitated and then let my arms fall to my sides.
He leaned in, catching my mouth with his in the most delicate of kisses, like the brush of a butterfly wing. It shouldn’t have affected me much, and yet it set off a sizzle through my lips and a pang of longing sharper than I could ever remember feeling before. At the same time, he drew the thin cotton of my undershirt up, skimming over my skin and grazing my