smile in his voice. He cradled me closer as though he wanted to tuck my head against his shoulder. I didn’t want to get much closer than I already was. The man’s scent seemed everywhere, like a cloud that wanted to hug me.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re sharp toothed and clawed, like a kitten,” he murmured, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. When I jerked my head back, he didn’t seem remotely perturbed by the action. “You’re impulsive and headstrong. You’re doing things without an ounce of consideration for the fact that you’re alone with a much older, much stronger, and far more dangerous being than yourself.” His voice dropped an octave as he reached the end of his not-threat.
“Far more dangerous than me?” I almost purred—fuck that analogy, really, but I did it anyway—and narrowed the distance to his face myself this time. I cupped his cheek, the rasp of stubble prickling my palm. His slitted eyes constricted, but the glow behind them intensified. Shifting until his lips were a breath from mine, I met his stare unblinking. His body went taut, and the band of steel around my back tightened further as his fingers dug into my side. “I don’t know about that,” I whispered. His sharp intake of breath made me smile. “I’ll give you old and cranky,” I said after a pregnant pause. “But dangerous? Hardly.”
The split-second between his pupils’ constriction and sudden expansion warned me of his intention, and as soon as he darted his head forward to claim my lips, I wrenched his head sideways.
I didn’t snap his neck, but the action promised I could have, and I held his head tight, not releasing my grip even when his own turned bruising.
“Don’t presume you know me,” I whispered through clenched teeth. “I didn’t ask for your help. I didn’t ask for you to come here. You don’t own me. No one does.”
“Fuck, that’s hot,” a new voice said from behind me, startling the fuck out of me. I scrambled to disentangle myself from resting dick face. Not that I needed to bother, he’d already risen and tossed me behind him on the cot as he lunged to put himself between me and our new arrival.
Instead of an immediate fight, Maddox laughed. “You always did know how to make an entrance.”
“Been here a few minutes,” the new voice said, though I couldn’t make out more than a faint outline of negative space in the dark. “But you two were being all cuddly, I didn’t want to step on your moment. Should have known better, brute. Your lack of charm seems to have rubbed our lady the wrong way.”
The possessiveness in that last sentence irked. With a light slap, the owner of the voice sidestepped Maddox and then seemed to hover over me. Top notes of ginger, grapefruit, and cardamom teased a clean, almost playful essence, but the vetiver, cedar, and the rich loam of freshly turned earth cautioned me.
“Has Maddox been being his normal, boorish self?” Sympathy and humor weaved through his voice. “He means well, he really does.”
“Fuck off, Fin,” Maddox growled. “Kitten, this is Fin. Our ticket out. Fin, this is Kitten.”
“Kitten?” ‘Fin’ sounded almost insulted. “Maddox, the lovely lady has a name. Don’t you, darling?”
The sweetness in his voice threatened to choke me, or maybe send me to a dentist. Instead of answering, I turned my glare on where Maddox stood. “Why are there now two of you?”
“Ignore her, she’s been in here too long,” Maddox stated. “Has the breach calmed down?”
“No,” Fin said before he dropped to sit next to me on the cot. Only—there was an absolute absence of warmth. If Maddox was the sun, this guy was the cold, dark void. How did he have such a powerful scent and absolutely no heat?
And why couldn’t I be left alone to design my house?
“In fact, it’s worse,” Fin sounded almost cheerful about the fact. “The warden’s pacing the levels, going one by one. Did you know he’s a shadow demon?”
Maddox growled.
Fin leaned toward me. “Don’t mind him, he gets a little grouchy about demons of all kinds. Present company excepted, of course.”
“She’s not a demon,” tall, dark, and growly snarled. He said it with almost the same amount of force I’d used when I told him I wasn’t a vampire.
Weird.
“Anyway,” Fin said, with a wave of his hand. I couldn’t quite make him out, even this close. My night vision was good, even with the absence of light, but it was