Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance (45 page)

He frowned at her again.

Her grey eyes were as wide and bright as full moons. “You can’t ejaculate inside me.”

Had he just heard her right? He had barely contained himself the last time they had played this game and he wasn’t in the mood for it today, not when he was barely controlling his incubus side as it was, and not without a condom as a safety net.

“Playtime is over, Witch. We do this my way now.”

She locked her elbows and held him off her. “Seriously. You can’t.”

Not playing. Rapid heartbeat. Scent of fear in her blood. She wasn’t joking at all.

Payne sat back and fixed her with a black look. “Why don’t you want my seed within you?”

She hesitated. His anger spiked and he stepped off the bed, distancing himself physically because he was having difficulty doing it emotionally. His head swam with reasons, taunts that drove him to the brink and had him feeling like a complete fool.

“Is it because I’m a vampire? I know witches don’t like vampires but you seemed to like riding my cock before.”

She sat up, drawing the covers over her, and shook her head. Her silvery eyes drifted down to his chest. No, not his chest. His biceps and the markings that snaked over them.

He growled at her, anger combining with the hurt that clawed his heart to pieces and becoming rage. He folded his arms across his chest and bared his fangs at her.

“I see. I get it. You don’t want to risk bearing the offspring of an abomination.” He turned his back on her and stared at the dark grate of the fireplace, struggling against the crushing weight of the pain in his chest. “I should have known. You’ve got what you wanted... used me to get you here... and now you want nothing to do with me.”

A breeze shifted behind him, across his backside, and Elissa grabbed his arm. He refused to heed her command when she tugged on it and remained facing away from her. She pulled harder and Payne turned on her, snapping his arm out of her grip and smacking her hand away when she tried to touch him again.

She flinched and cried out, the sound startling in the quiet room, and clutched her left wrist to her chest. Tears swam in her eyes and he could feel the pain beating in her heart, rushing through her blood. He had heard the bone crack.

He stopped himself from taking a step towards her and took a step back instead. “That was your fault.”

She didn’t deny it. She simply held her wrist and stared at him in silence. His guilt couldn’t erase his rage and his pain. It did nothing to dampen it and he only felt worse as he looked at her. He turned away again, unable to bear the sight of her now that he knew the truth.

“Payne?” she softly whispered his name and it stirred heat within him that he pretended not to feel.

He looked over his shoulder at her. Her silver eyes were beautiful, glittering with diamond dust as she used her magic to heal her broken wrist.

“It was my fault.” She looked down at her arm and then back up into his eyes. “And it isn’t about offspring or you being an incubus.”

He roared. “I’m a vampire.”

She shrank back, her fear flooding the room, and nodded even though he could see in her eyes that she wanted to mention that he wasn’t wholly vampire. He hated her for it but it didn’t stop him from wanting her. She fascinated him and made him weak, stripped his strength away and left him needing her, willing to do anything for another taste or touch.

Desperate to do anything to win her heart.

Impossible.

She had proven that barely a few minutes ago. His little witch wasn’t his after all. She had merely played him for a fool to make him do exactly as she had wanted. She had manipulated him.

He growled and glared at her, not hiding any of his anger or hurt. He wanted her to see what she had done. He needed her to know just how much she had hurt him and that things would never be the same between them.

“Witches are not supposed to mate with demons, and dark fae species like incubi are considered demons by my kind and others,” she whispered, as though afraid to voice it any louder in case it drew a violent reaction from him.

He kept his head and spoke calmly even though he wanted to grab her and scream it down her ear so she would finally get the message. “I’m not a demon. I’m a vampire.”

She didn’t nod this time. His hatred of her grew as she stared straight into his eyes in that way that always made him feel as though she was tearing his mask away to reveal the ugly truth beneath. He turned his back on her again.

“Don’t leave.” She moved behind him but stopped short of grabbing him. She was learning after all.

He wasn’t sure how he would react if she touched him again. His incubus and vampire sides were both angry and hurt, both out for blood and violence because neither understood why their mate had betrayed them. He didn’t understand. She was supposed to be his. He had foolishly begun to believe that the wonderful, incredible time they had spent together would blossom into something he had only ever dreamed would happen to him. He had wanted a mate. He almost laughed at himself.

He had spent so long denying his nature and his needs, shutting down his emotions and keeping his distance to protect himself, that he hadn’t realised that he wanted that from Elissa. He needed her to be his salvation. He had begun to hope that she would be the good that would balance out the bad in his life, the reward at the end of so much pain.

“I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just... I have my reasons.” Her voice was soft, edged with warmth and concern that only hurt him all the more because he wasn’t sure how to react around or how to feel about her now.

“Other than using me to come here?” He wouldn’t let that one go. She had been gunning for him from the moment they had met. She had wanted to get into his pants and she had succeeded in doing what his last lover had failed to do. She had enslaved him, but rather than using his name to do it, she had used her body as the lure and his own heart as the shackles.

He pressed his hand to his chest and cursed himself for being idiotic enough to trust anyone again, let alone a witch.

“Please, Payne. Let me explain,” she said and he did her an honour she didn’t deserve.

He turned to face her because he needed to see in her eyes that she believed whatever poison was about to come out of her pretty mouth. She looked lost as she stood before him, body bare, vulnerable. He probably looked the same. Weak and pathetic. Easily broken.

“Explain away.” He grabbed his boxer shorts from the floor and slipped his legs into them, tugged them up, and let the elastic snap against his waist.

Elissa didn’t dress.

She twisted her hands in front of her stomach, her gaze on the floor, and then frowned and looked up into his eyes. “You came to the town to find another witch.”

He nodded. “You said you were covering for her. Verity, wasn’t it?”

Tears rose into her eyes again and she scrubbed them away with the heel of her hand and nodded. “Verity... was my older sister.”

“Something tells me you lied.” He hated that but the hurt swimming in her eyes said that she had a good reason, and now he knew why she had looked ready to cry that day in her home. “She’s dead?”

Elissa swallowed hard and nodded again.

“Did my grandfather kill her?”

A shake this time.

She moved to the bed on legs that shook so much he was surprised she reached it without collapsing and sat down, her hands between her knees. He had never seen her looking so lost and he wanted to go to her. It was hard to hold himself back but he had to. Until he knew this hadn’t all been a twisted game to her, he needed to maintain his distance. It wouldn’t stop the pain that ebbed and flowed through him, growing weaker and stronger by turns, but it would stop her from completely destroying his soul if he discovered that he was right about her and she had used him.

“When a witch takes demon seed into her body, it taints her powers... the connection to her coven is also tainted and she weakens dramatically. Witches draw on their coven to boost their natural abilities. The more there are in a coven, the stronger each witch becomes. If a witch...” She drew her legs up onto the bed and wrapped her arms around them, looking small and uncertain as she eyed him. Didn’t she want to tell him? He moved a step closer, aching to reassure her that he wanted to know about her so he could understand everything. “Verity had a fling with a demon. She took precautions but it didn’t stop her connection from becoming tainted. The coven exercised their right to deal with her.”

“They killed her?” It sounded barbaric to Payne and now he could see why Elissa was so afraid. She didn’t want to suffer the same horrific fate as her sister.

“She knew they were coming... had found her. She asked me to take care of something for her and I swore that I would. I tried so hard to keep it hidden because I knew how precious it had been to Verity.”

“My grandfather took it from you though.” What had she sworn to conceal? Whatever it was, it was important to Elissa. He could see it in her eyes and now he understood why she had fought so hard to come with him to this place. She had to fulfil her promise to her dead sister and protect this item.

“And I want it back.” She glanced into his eyes and then off to his right, at the unlit fire. “I didn’t use you, Payne... and I do want you... I’m crazily attracted to you even when I know how dangerous that is.”

“Maybe you just want me because I’m dangerous.” It was a sound theory but Elissa’s frown told him that it wasn’t the case.

“I think it has more to do with your ridiculously good looks and that body.” She waved a hand down the length of him and actually smiled.

Payne’s heart missed a beat. He was glad she had found her smile again and that the sombreness in her eyes had lifted. The sight of it eased the ache in his chest and he couldn’t hold on to his anger. It slipped from his grasp and he looked her over, seeing the hint of vulnerability that still edged her eyes. She looked small as she sat alone, waiting for him to react or perhaps retaliate. He sighed and decided to be the better man and let it go. He already had enough reasons to feel angry. He didn’t need to add Elissa to the list, not when she was the one good thing in his dark world.

“I said you just wanted to get into my pants.” He grinned, gunning for charming again, and crossed the room to her. She patted the bed beside her, a peace offering that he gladly accepted. He sat down and took hold of her left arm, gently inspecting her wrist. The bone felt whole again, no sign of a break. “I’m sorry about that.”

She shrugged. “I should have explained myself better... I didn’t mean to make you feel that way.”

Elissa leaned her head against his shoulder and he slipped his fingers between hers, holding her hand. He stared down at them. Where the hell did he go from here? Elissa tied him in knots and had him on the edge all the time, looking for hidden meanings in everything she said. Did he want her to be out to use him or only in this to hurt him in some way? Why couldn’t he trust her?

“Payne?” she whispered, her soft voice warming his heart and easing the pain away. She looked up at him and then pressed her lips to his bare shoulder, lingering there.

“Elissa?” he said when he realised that she wouldn’t continue without him prompting her. She felt tense, her anxiety flowing over him, carried by her scent. What had she wanted to ask but was now too afraid to voice?

Payne gently squeezed her hand and she looked up at him again. He kept his expression soft and open, hoping it would soothe her and help her find her voice. She could ask whatever she wanted and he would answer her this time because he no longer wanted any barriers between them. He wanted to know her, wanted to break through everything that had happened in the past few minutes and find solid ground with her again.

“Why do you feel you deserve pain?” she breathed the words against his skin, her lips brushing him at the same time, stirring heat and desire in his veins.

His guard was down and he realised for the first time in his life that he ached to tell someone and share the burden. Would she turn on him if she knew? He thought that she might. She would want nothing to do with him.

But he needed to tell her.

Payne let go of her hand and Elissa thought he would refuse to answer her. She could almost feel him distancing himself as he moved to lie on the bed, slung his left arm behind his head on the pillows and laid his right across his bare stomach. Was he going to give her the silent treatment again? He didn’t look at her. His dark grey eyes fixed on the green canopy of the four-poster bed, the flecks of blue and gold in them bright against their stony backdrop. There was a touch of red edging his irises though. What was he thinking to make them change, veering towards their vampire state?

He drew in a deep breath and sighed it out.

“I was born to an elite bloodline and my parents were very loving towards me.”

Elissa’s eyes widened. He was going to tell her. He was actually going to answer the one question that always seemed to set him on edge. Was it because she had talked about her family with him? It had hurt her to speak about her sister, even when she had kept most of the details about her hidden from Payne still. The colours of his fae markings shifted, the change beginning along the underside of his arms and working up the lines of symbols towards his shoulders. They gradually darkened to shades of ash and blood. He was angry but the distant look in his eyes said that it wasn’t directed at her.

Purple and blue bloomed along his markings, swirling and mixing with the black and the red. Hurt. How did he feel about those markings? Did he hate that they gave everything away about his feelings? She had once thought that he could control them to a degree, masking his feelings. Maybe he couldn’t, or he wasn’t as good at it as she had thought, because she could see all of his feelings in his markings.

Or maybe she was reading too far into things, and he was letting her see his feelings. If that was the case, then it touched her that he was letting his guard down.

“I should probably correct that... my parents were loving towards me at first.” He closed his eyes and exhaled again, causing his torso to shift in a beautiful wave that lured her eyes to it. She forced them back to his face, refusing to stare at him while he was opening his heart to her. He tilted his head towards her and opened his eyes. “We were a close family and my father adored my mother. He had turned her long before they decided to have a child and I loved her as deeply as my father, adoring her too.”