DH 05 Kiss Of The Night (39 page)

But it wasn’t the merchandise that made him pause.

It was
her
.

Bride.

He’d seen her only once and then only briefly as he guarded Sunshine Runningwolf in
Jackson Square

while the artist had sold her artwork. Oblivious to him, Bride had come up to Sunshine and the two of them had chatted.

Bride had been the most beautiful woman Vane had ever seen.

She stil was.

Her long auburn hair was pul ed up into a messy bun on her head. She wore a long, black dress that flowed around her body as she jerked a vacuum cleaner around on the carpet.

Every animal instinct in his body roared to life as he saw her again. It was primal. Demanding.

Needful.

Against his wil , he found himself headed toward her. It wasn’t until he had opened the burgundy door that he realized she was crying.

Fierce anger tore through him. It was bad enough that his life sucked, the last thing he wanted was to see someone like her cry.

Bride paused her vacuuming and looked up as she heard someone entering her shop. Her breath caught in her throat. Never in her life had she seen a more handsome man.

Never.

His long wavy, dark-brown hair was worn back in a sexy ponytail. His white t-shirt was pul ed tight over a body that most women only saw in the best magazine ads. It was a body that had been meant for sex. Tal and lean, that body begged a woman to caress it just to see if it was as hard and perfect as it appeared.

His handsome features were sharp, chiseled, and he had a day’s growth of beard on his face. It was the face of a rebel who didn’t cater to current fashions, but who lived his life solely on his own terms.

He… was… gorgeous.

Bride couldn’t see his eyes for the dark sunglasses he wore, but she sensed his gaze. Felt it like a smoldering touch.

This man was tough. He was fierce and it sent a wave of panic through her.

Why would someone like this be in her shop that specialized in women’s accessories?

The vacuum, which she hadn’t moved a single mil imeter since he’d entered her store, started to smoke.

Drawing her breath in sharply, she quickly turned it off and fanned the motor with her hand.

“Can I help you?” she asked as she struggled to put it behind her counter.

Heat suffused her cheeks as the motor continued to smoke and added a not-so-pleasant odor of burning dust to the potpourri-scented candles she used.

She smiled lamely at the devastatingly hot god who stood so nonchalantly in her store. “Sorry about that.” Vane closed his eyes as he savored the melodic Southern lilt of her voice. It reached deep inside him, making his whole body burn.

But she was scared of him. His animal half sensed it. And that was the last thing he wanted.

Reaching up, he pul ed the sunglasses off and offered her a smal smile. “Hi.” It didn’t help. If anything, the sight of his eyes made her even more nervous.

Damn.

Bride was stunned. She wouldn’t have thought he could become better-looking, but with that devilish grin, he did.

Worse, the intense, feral look of that languid gaze made her shivery and hot. Never in her life had she seen a man even one-tenth as good-looking as this one.

“Hi,” she said back, feeling like nine kinds of stupid.

His gaze final y left her and went around the store to her various displays.

“I’m looking for a present,” he said in that deeply hypnotic voice. She could listen to him speak for hours, and for some reason she couldn’t explain, she wanted to hear him say her name.

Bride cleared her throat and put those stupid thoughts away as she came out from behind her counter. If her cute ex couldn’t stomach her looks, why would a god like this one give a rat’s bottom about her?

So she decided to calm down before she embarrassed herself with him. “Who is it for?”

“Someone very special.”

“Your girlfriend?”

His gaze came back to hers and made her tremble even more. He shook his head slightly. “I could never be so lucky,” he said, his tone low, beguiling.

What an odd thing for him to say. She couldn’t imagine this guy having trouble getting any woman he wanted. Who on earth would say no to
that
?

On second thought, she hoped she never met a woman that attractive. If she did, she would be moral y obligated to run her over in her car.

“How much are you wanting to spend?”

He shrugged. “Money doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Bride blinked at that. Gorgeous and loaded. Man, some woman out there was lucky.

“Okay. We have some necklaces. Those are always a nice gift.” Vane fol owed her over to an alcove against the far wal where she had a mirror set up with a multitude of beaded chokers and earrings.

The scent of her made him hard and hot. It was al he could do not to dip his head down to her shoulder and just inhale until he was drunk from her. He focused his gaze on the bare, pale skin of her neck…

He licked his lips as he imagined what she would taste like. What it would feel like to have her lush curves pressed up against his body. To have her lips swol en from his kisses, her eyes dark and dreamy from passion as she looked up at him.

Even worse, he could sense her own desire and it whetted his appetite even more.

“Which is your favorite?” he asked, even though he knew the answer.

There was a black Victorian choker that had her scent al over it. It was obvious she had tried it on recently.

“This one,” she said, reaching for it.

His cock hardened even more as her fingers brushed the black onyx stones. He wanted nothing more than to run his hand down her extended arm, to skim his palm over her soft, pale skin until he reached her hand.

A hand he would love to nibble.

“Would you try it on for me?”

Bride trembled at the deep note of his voice. What was it about him that made her so nervous?

But then she knew. He was intensely masculine and being under his direct scrutiny was as excruciating as it was disconcerting.

She tried to put the necklace on, but her hands shook so badly that she couldn’t fasten it.

“May I help?” he asked.

She swal owed and nodded.

His warm hands touched hers, making her even more jittery. She looked up in the mirror to catch sight of those gorgeous hazel-green eyes that stared at her with a heat that made her shiver.

He deftly fastened it. His fingers lingered at her neck for a minute before he met her gaze in the mirror and stepped back.

“Beautiful,” he breathed huskily, only he wasn’t looking at the necklace. He was staring into the reflection of her eyes. “I’l take it.”

Torn between relief and sadness, Bride looked away quickly as she reached to take it off. In truth, she loved this necklace and hated to see it go. She’d bought it for the store, but had wanted to keep it.

But why bother? It was a six-hundred-dol ar, handmade work of art. She’d never have anyplace to wear it. It would be a waste and the pragmatic Irishwoman in her wouldn’t al ow her to be so foolish.

Pul ing it off, she swal owed the new lump in her throat and headed for the register.

Vane watched her intently. She was even sadder than before. Gods, how he wanted nothing more than to have her smile at him. What did a human male say to a human female to make her happy?

She-wolves didn’t real y smile, not like humans did. Their smiles were more devious, seductive. Inviting.

His people didn’t smile when they were happy.

They had sex, which to him was the biggest benefit to being an animal over a human. Humans had rules about intimacy that he had never ful y understood.

She placed the necklace in a large white box that had a cotton pad in the bottom. “Would you like it gift-wrapped?”

He nodded.

Careful y, she removed the price tag, set it next to the register, then pul ed out a smal piece of paper that had been precut to the size of the box. Without looking up at him, she quickly wrapped the box and rang his sale.

“Six hundred and twenty-three dol ars and eighty-four cents, please.” Stil she didn’t look at him. Instead, her gaze was focused on the ground near his feet.

Vane felt a strange need to dip down until his face was in her line of sight. He refrained as he pul ed his wal et out and handed her his American Express card.

It was laughable real y that a wolf had a human credit card. But then, this was the twenty-first century and those who didn’t blend quickly found themselves exterminated. Unlike many others of his kind, he had investments and property. Hel , he even had a personal banker.

She took the card and ran it through her computer terminal.

“You work here alone?” he asked and quickly learned that that was inappropriate since her fear returned with a scent so strong it almost made him curse out loud.

“No.”

She was lying to him. He could smel it.

Good going, jackass
. Humans. He’d never understand them. But then, they were weak, especial y their females.

She handed him the receipt.

Aggravated at himself for making her even more uncomfortable, he signed his name and handed it back to her.

She compared his signature to his card and frowned. “Katta…”

“Kattalakis,” he said for her. “It’s Greek.”

Her eyes lit up just a bit as she returned the card to him. “That’s very different. You must have a hard time spel ing it for people.”

“Yeah.”

She tucked the paper into her drawer, then placed the wrapped box in a smal bag with corded handles.

“Thanks,” she said quietly, setting it on the counter in front of him. “Have a nice day.” He nodded and headed for the door, his heart even heavier than before that he had failed to make her happy.

“Wait!” she said as he touched the knob. “You left your necklace.” Vane looked back at her one last time, knowing he would never see her again. She was so beautiful there with large, amber eyes set in a pale face. There was something about her that reminded him of a Rubens’s angel. She was ethereal and lovely.

And far too fragile for an animal.

“No,” he said quietly. “I left it with the woman I wanted to have it.” Bride felt her jaw go slack as his words hung in the air between them. “I can’t take this.” He opened the door and headed out into the street.

Grabbing the bag from the counter, Bride ran after him. He was quickly making strides down toward the center of the Quarter and it took some serious rushing to catch up to him.

She grabbed his arm, amazed at the tautness of his biceps as she pul ed him to a stop. Breathless, she looked up at him and those beguiling hazel-green eyes. “I can’t take this,” she said again, giving the bag to him. “It’s way too much.”

He refused to take it. “I want you to have it.”

There was so much unfathomable sincerity in those words that she couldn’t do anything more than gape at him. “Why?”

“Because beautiful women deserve beautiful things.”

No one unrelated to her had ever said anything so kind. Today more than any other, she needed to hear it.

Overwrought with his kindness, she burst into tears.

Vane stood there feeling completely at a loss. What was this? Wolves didn’t cry. A she-wolf might tear out a man’s throat for pissing her off, but she never cried and especial y not when someone had complimented her.

“I’m sorry,” he said, completely confused by what he’d done wrong. “I thought it would make you happy. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

She cried even more.

What was he supposed to do? He looked around the street, but there was no one there to ask.

Screw the human in him. He didn’t comprehend that part of himself either. Instead, he listened to the animal part that only knew instinctively how to take care of someone when they were hurt.

He scooped her up into his arms and carried her back toward her store.

USA Today
bestsel ing author Sherrilyn Kenyon knows men. She lives outside of Nashvil e, Tennessee, with her husband and three sons. Raised in the middle of eight boys, and currently outnumbered by the Y

chromosome in her home, she realizes the most valuable asset a woman has for coping with men is a sense of humor. Not to mention a large trash bag and a pair of tongs.

Writing as Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kinley MacGregor, she is the bestsel ing author of several series including The Dark-Hunters, Brotherhood of the Sword, and The MacAl isters. Her novel
Fantasy Lover
was voted as one of the Top Ten Romances of 2002 by Romance Writers of America.

You can visit her sites at: www.sherrilynkenyon.com or HunterLegends.com
Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17