Banshee Seduction (Montgomery's Sin Book 1) (7 page)

She raised her hand, smoothed back any rebellious tendrils from her sleek blonde hair, and took a calming breath. She wanted to kill someone.

From the moment she’d met the stupid, irritating player the night before, nothing had gone right for her. All he’d wanted was a quick tumble, yet she couldn’t rid herself of the thought of him and the feel of his solid-as-steel muscles as she’d leaned on him in the alleyway. The temptation just to go with the moment had almost overwhelmed her, and the nags in her head had given no support. All they’d done was screech with frustration for the rest of the night. Damnable man made her crave something that simply wasn’t going to happen.

Her mind insisted on dwelling on the hunk. He’d been big. Really ridiculously big for her. They were never a good match anyhow, so she and her wailing banshee buddies had just better forget him.

Emotionally exhausted, she wandered back to the central desk. It appeared the library, in her absence, had emptied.

Grateful for a moment’s peace, Ginny spotted a paperclip that had slid under her keyboard and ducked her head to reach for it.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes?” With her head tucked under the counter, the security tag ribboned around her neck slipped neatly between the counter and the keyboard rack and became trapped. Having experienced it before, she dipped down low to loosen it, this time without success. She gave an insistent tug.

“I need a book.”

“Nice voice.”

“Lovely voice.”

“Hmmm, sexy.”

“Deep and sexy.”

Ginny raised her head and fell into the beautiful aquamarine depths of Matt Dane’s eyes.

Breathless, she opened her lips and took several attempts to speak while he leaned on the counter to watch her. A quirky smile played across his mouth, and the raging madams in her head fell into dumb silence.

His eyes crinkled at the edges, and as she straightened, so did he. He deliberately kept his face on a level with hers until she reached the extent of the ribbon tethered around her neck and it jerked her to a halt. Feeling foolish, she swallowed and nodded like the brainless bird she had become because he’d stolen her voice. He smiled, and she couldn’t help dipping her gaze to stare at his beautiful mouth with his even white teeth and firm lips. When he smiled, the top one remained straight and dipped inward slightly so she wanted to grab him and nibble on it.

Rich and famous he might be, but you couldn’t buy sex appeal. He’d been born with it.

She fluttered her eyelashes as she forced her gaze away from his mouth and back to the soft jade of his stare.

Without breaking eye contact, she gave a subtle yank on the ribbon. Perhaps he wouldn’t notice it was trapped. The security tag remained wedged, and her efforts were all for nothing. What would he think if she simply face-planted the desk and remained there until he’d gone? Surely it couldn’t get any more awkward.

He reached out, and her mind emptied of all thought. His long fingers stretched toward her breasts, and her mouth went dry. Heavens, he was going to touch her breasts, and she wanted him to. The voices in her head didn’t so much screech as purr in pleasurable anticipation.

“Yes.”

“Oh yes.”

“Please, do it.”

“Do it. Yes, yes, do it.”

Close enough for his face to almost touch hers, his smile widened to create deep laughter lines on either side of his mouth. A mouth she’d already kissed and had a desperate desire to kiss again.

With a loud click, he sprung her free. Her neck jerked, and she shot upright, gasping as molten heat suffused her with what she imagined was a bright unattractive puce as she realized he’d had no intention of sexual contact.

She stared at him. Confusion washed over her normally active brain to drown out all intelligent thought.

“A book,” he repeated, and she nearly curled into a ball of overheated shame. Why would he make a sexual approach? She was a librarian, for goodness’ sake, in a library, and he was there to collect a book.

It was obvious he didn’t recognize her from the nightclub. She couldn’t look more different from the way she had in Montgomery’s Sin with her heavy, red-framed glasses covering half her face, her hair scraped back in a torturous bun, and her boxy gray suit doing nothing to accentuate the curves she’d had on display the night before.

She stretched to her full height, gave her jacket a firm yank into place, and plastered a strained smile on her face in a vain attempt to be all business while the man who insisted on haunting her dreams stood in front of her and tempted her to drool.

“Yes, sir. What book would you like?”

His mouth twitched, and the desire to grab him escalated. Those gorgeous firm lips were such an enticement. Luckily for him, the library provided insulation against the raging banshees in her soul. Small murmurs escaped them, but their frenzied screeching remained under control. It was the only place she could come for peace and quiet. Luckily too for the library, she was unable to self-combust within its boundaries. All those dusty books would be ash. Some higher power had decreed her flammable qualities and inner tormenting voices were doused temporarily in their presence. That’s why she worked there, for the protection of herself and others. Or else the officious twerp from earlier would have been barbecued ribs.

Matt’s small cough jerked her wayward attention back to him, and the voices sighed in unison.

“I don’t know what it’s called.”

“Okay.” She touched her fingertips to her hairline to pat the beads of sweat that had started to form and noticed the amused twitch of his eyebrows, the tiny quirk at the corner of his mouth. She would have considered him observant—except he didn’t know it was her. He was probably well aware of how he affected every woman he met and used it to his best advantage.

With a sigh, she tried again. “ISBN?”

“I don’t know.”

“Publisher?”

“Nuh-uh.” He leaned on the desk and brought his face closer to hers. Amusement crinkled his eyes. Her pulse rate went into overdrive, and her breath hitched. Unprofessional in the extreme.

“Author?” The word exploded in a labored gasp from her lips. She had no idea if she would survive the encounter. What cruel form of torture had been sent to plague her now?

“I’ll know it when I see it.”

He cupped his square chin in his hand, and she fancied she saw a golden swirl pass through the deep ocean green of his eyes. She resisted leaning in closer to check, but his move did nothing to slow the pace of her heart or reduce the heat lower down.

She couldn’t help the impatience tingeing her voice—impatience with herself and the effect he quite obviously had upon her. In all honesty, for the sake of her sanity, she needed to get rid of him. “Subject matter?”

“Sex.”

Dear Lord. Legs weak with lust, her knees almost buckled under her as his grin spread wider. That one word had rolled out of his mouth like smooth, mellow, honeyed whiskey. If she stopped breathing, she’d be unable to talk, and she really needed her voice. She tightened her lips, pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, and gave her avid concentration over to the computer screen.

“Sex…hmm, let me see now.”

With a businesslike tap on the computer keyboard, she turned the screen for him to see and pressed the Enter key. Thousands of book titles appeared, and she obligingly scrolled through. She needed him to go. He was melting her like a hot flame on soft wax.

“Care to choose one?” Pleased with the sharp tone in her voice, she waited.

He studied the screen carefully as the titles flashed by, his brow pulled low, making puzzled seem sexy. He lifted his hand, paused, and then pointed a long finger at the screen.

“This one.”

Quick as she could, she whipped her finger off the mouse and pulled her hand away, only to see hundreds more titles flash up the page in rolling succession. “I think I missed it.”

His smile turned to a huge grin, and his eyes glowed with a mischievous light. With the same finger, he reached out to tuck a loose tendril of her hair behind her ear. His touch sent goose bumps chasing down her neck; his sexy smile fried her brain cells and thickened her tongue.

“No, I think you got it.”

He pointed back to the screen, and there was the title.

How to Apologize to the Opposite Sex for Being a Complete Ass.

She peered closer, and the subtitle jumped out at her.

An exploration of the fifty most common mistakes a man makes in the sexual mating dance.

With a slow turn of her head, her gaze met his smoldering green one, and her knees gave out completely, leaving her with no option but to lean on the counter, bringing her head closer to his. The smile dropped from his lips, and his gaze skimmed over her face. All it would take was for one of them to lean in, and their lips would touch. Heat spread from her core; anticipation burned her.

Her eyelashes fluttered downward, and she dabbed her tongue out, parting her lips to touch it against her lower one. The gorgeous hunk in front of her took a small breath in, and she waited for him to make a move.

“Ma’am?”

They leaped apart as the strident voice intruded on the moment, grating its way through her consciousness. If she could have zapped the man with a fireball, she quite possibly would have.

Mr. D’mon was back, tapping his fingers impatiently on the counter in expectation of her immediate attention. She pulled herself upright and tugged her suit jacket back into place as though the giant had already had his hands on her and mussed her up. Shame he’d missed the opportunity.

“Yes, sir, how can I help you?”

“This book you gave me.”

“Yes?” Tone sharp, she stared hard at the man, desperate not to listen to the whispering wraiths in her mind who encouraged her to twist his head off his neck and eat it. It wasn’t something she would do, but it wasn’t unheard of in the banshee community, and it appeared her banshee half was getting a stronghold.

“It’s the wrong one.”

She whipped her security tag from around her neck, unwilling to make the same mistake in front of the miserable man, and gave Matt an apologetic smile as she flicked her card across the keycard reader to scan the book.

“It’s the one you ordered, sir.” She really tried not to sound impatient, but she wanted him gone so she could smooch the big guy. Just a touch of the player’s lips to hers would let her know if she’d overreacted the night before. Had she truly been so attracted?

“But it’s not the one I want.”

“Ah, well…perhaps you need to order the one you want.”

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“Sarcastic.”

“You want us to be sarcastic?”

“We can be sarcastic.”

“Let us at him.”

With a gentle touch of her fingers to her aching ear, Ginny mustered up a pained smile. “No, sir, just pragmatic. Would you like me to order another book for you, sir?”

“Well, yes, of course.”

Her heart dropped when Matt wandered away, hands dipped in the pockets of his jeans. She spared him a quick glance, noting how the material pulled taut across his tight, toned ass; his solid muscular thighs filled the faded blue material to the stretching point and made her mouth water. Perhaps a kiss wouldn’t be enough. Perhaps…

“Huh-hum!”

Her attention reluctantly turned back to Mr. D’Mon, while the quiet slide of the doors indicated Matt had left the building. “Which book would you like me to order?”

“Well, I don’t know, but it’s not this one.”

“Would you like to hazard a guess?”

“No, I would not. I thought you were here to help.” With a fast move, he slapped the unwanted book on the counter hard enough to make it bounce and marched out of the automatic doors, leaving her alone. She scanned the library, checking for any further strays who might have wandered in to disrupt her day.

She heaved a sigh and glanced at her watch. Hallelujah! Time to go.

•
●•

He pushed himself away from the wall where he’d been leaning to wait. The cute kitten walked toward him, wearing her conservative gray suit. Her skyscraper heels flashed fire-engine red with black flames licking across the top of them. Tiny steps brought her teetering closer to him.

He inhaled her scent and allowed the warm glow to swirl in his belly and seep into his chest.

No mistake. She was his mate.

From the nervous glances she kept giving him, it was going to take a bit of time and patience to convince her.

He narrowed his eyes to watch her approach. He had time. He wasn’t so sure about the patience, though. He wondered how long he needed to wait before he again suggested they go to bed. He didn’t fare so well last time. Perhaps a drastic change to his approach was required.

He blew out an exasperated breath and took a step forward.

She hesitated. Her delicate hand fluttered to her neat bun that he had the urge to destroy. He wanted to pull out the clips, or whatever shit she used to tether it down, and ruffle it up, make her look as though they’d just made love.

She stopped altogether, and he figured it was probably the look in his eye giving away how much he wanted to devour her. Her eyes widened behind her heavy glasses, and she looked like she might run. He smiled and hoped like hell he wasn’t blowing smoke out of his nostrils. Perhaps he was. The fire she’d stoked in the pit of his belly could certainly generate it.

“Hey.” He took another step forward, so close he could touch her. Apart from a hesitant blink, she never moved. “Did you bring my book?”

Several more confused blinks and her full, sexy lips parted. “No. It’s special order. You never left your details. I thought you didn’t want it. You just, ummm, left.”

She touched her top lip with her tongue in an uneasy gesture, tempting him to remain silent and see what else she would do in her nervous state. Still looking like she might do a disappearing act, he raised his hand, touched his fingers to the silken skin of her throat, and slid them around to the back of her neck to give it a gentle rub.

“Yeah. I wanted to punch the little guy. I figured it was safer if I got out of there.”

“Well…” She waited in silence and then glanced down the street. “I’d better get going.”