"Oh, c'mon, Talon, give me a break. Don't hold something against me when I had no idea you even existed. If anyone has a right to be mad, I think it should be me."
"Excuse me?"
"Selena told me about you and your rep, bud. How you've pretty much laid every woman in New Orleans. You want to tell me about that?"
"That was different."
"Why? Because I'm a woman? You knew I wasn't a virgin, Talon. What did you expect?"
Talon didn't know. But then, it didn't really matter.
After tonight, she'd hate him anyway. The last thing he wanted was to spend the evening fighting with her.
This was all the time they would ever have.
"Okay, Sunshine. You're right. I'm sorry."
Sunshine was stunned. This was the first time she'd ever known a guy to cave so easily. "Are you really?"
"Yes," he said, his eyes sincere. "I don't want to fight, okay? Let's just forget about him and go eat."
She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles. "Sounds good."
As they walked to a small cafe on Iberville, she noticed he had a slight limp. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just twisted my leg when I jumped over the railing," he said. "Whenever I get mad, I tend to lose my Dark-Hunter powers, and without them, my body becomes human."
"Do you need a doctor?"
He shook his head. "As long as I stay calm, it should heal while we eat."
Talon kept her close to him the entire time it took them to reach the restaurant and be seated. He memorized everything about her. He would always remember her like this and those memories would live inside him right along with the ones of her as Nynia.
Or would he lose those memories when Eros shot him?
Would his mind somehow distort them so that he couldn't love her anymore?
His stomach knotted at the thought. What would it be like to not even have the comfort of his memories of Nynia and Sunshine?
To not remember the softness of her touch, the smell of her patchouli on his skin?
The way her eyes lit up every time she looked at him?
Grinding his teeth, he tried not to think about that, or to feel the pain in his heart.
This wasn't about him and what he stood to lose.
This was about her.
He had to do this for her.
She sat in the booth across from him, her head bent while she ate. The candlelight reflected the darkness of her hair, making her skin a creamy tan. A creamy tan that made his mouth water for a taste.
Talon watched the graceful gestures of her hands as she cut into her garbanzo bean salad and ate it. He loved those long, tapered fingers. Loved teasing them with his mouth, feeling them on his body.
"What made you want to be an artist?" he asked.
"I love working with my hands."