Summer Sin (The Anthology Novella Series Book 2) (6 page)

He silently promised himself that he was going to kick the ever loving crap out of Malcom when this whole fiasco was finally over and done with.

“Ex…military,” he murmured, the words sticking in his throat just a bit for some reason. She didn’t need to know that he had been a hunter with the same Special Forces team that she now worked with, but the fact that he was keeping it from her left a bad taste in his mouth that he definitely wasn’t used to. “And you?” he quirked his brow at her and saw her cheeks heat.

“I…I’m a hunter,” she answered quietly, almost apologetically, as if she were ashamed of it.

“Really?” he replied, feigning surprise, “how very admirable.” He noticed an instant sadness come to her eyes that completely threw him for a loop with the tugging to his heart that it caused. “Don’t you enjoy it?” he husked curiously, leaning forward a bit, his gaze not leaving hers for a moment.

“It’s all I know anymore, really,” she answered honestly.

He could see her push that sadness away and damned if he didn’t want to take her in his arms and comfort her.

Victoria didn’t know just why in the hell she was telling him all of this…but she was. It seemed so easy and
natural.
She took another sip of her drink and breathed a small sigh of relief when the waiter came over to take their orders. She held back the urge to order one of everything on the menu and decided to go for a seafood and rice dish that sounded just a little bit like heaven.

The rest of the evening passed much too quickly and before Victoria knew it, they were pulling up to her house and he was helping her from the car.

Cam walked her to her door, his hand at the small of her back as his fingers spread out deliciously with a feather light touch. They stood there quietly like two uncomfortable teenagers, just staring at each other.

“Well…thank you for dinner,” she said after a very long, somewhat awkward silence as the two of them seemed to size the other up. “It was amazing.”

Cam leaned forward, bringing his mouth dangerously close to hers. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Victoria fidgeted slightly, although she didn’t back away from him. She stood firm; she wasn’t about to let him get to her – no matter how intimidating he could be.

“Why don’t you ever laugh?” he asked suddenly, and a startled gasp passed her lips as her mouth dropped open in stunned surprise.
Just where in the hell had that come from?

Victoria stared at him a moment in shock and just the tiniest hint of anger. How
dare
he judge her! He didn’t know her! He had spent a few hours with her and now he thought that he knew all about who she was?

Okay, she silently conceded, maybe she didn’t have his easy, laid back sense of humor…but she laughed. Didn’t she? She tried to think back to a time when she had…and came up at a complete loss.

“I laugh,” she finally bit out defensively, her green eyes darkening slightly.

“No, you don’t,” Cam responded evenly, leaning in just a little closer to her.

She could feel his warm breath on her mouth, mingling with hers in slow, gentle puffs…and it was wondrous. She fought back the shiver that started to creep along the base of her spine with everything she was worth and lifted her brow in silent challenge. If he thought he was going to make her uncomfortable or rattle her, he had another think coming. She didn’t let predators intimidate her.
Ever
!

Cam watched the play of emotion flit across her features with extreme interest. Damn, but the woman had guts. She just didn’t back down. Malcolm had said she was a tough one and he hadn’t been exaggerating.

He was silent as he watched her try to stare him down, although the proximity of their bodies was making it damned hard to actually concentrate on anything else. He could feel her heat, and that damn scent of hers wrapped around him like a fricking embrace. Everything about this woman seemed to soothe him, yet caused his senses to snap and crackle with awareness at the same time.

“I laugh when I find something funny,” she countered softly, her eyes darting quickly to his mouth then back up again only to meet his gaze with a stubbornness that he really had to admire.  “You’re just not as funny as you happen to think you are.”

Cam bit back a grin as he realized that he just couldn’t fight it any longer. He didn’t have it in him. God knew he tried.

He closed the small distance between them and lowered his mouth that fraction of an inch that was needed, his lips taking hers as he pulled her up against him…and it was as if he had been hit by a thunderbolt. As if the Heavens had opened up and were shining down on them in wondrous splendor.

She melted into his firm frame as if she had been made to be there, her soft, sensuous mouth opening up that little bit that he so desperately needed to allow him entrance.

His tongue slid and swirled against hers, reveling in the sensation and taste of this woman. She felt so damned right in his arms. Warm, soft, sensual…not to mention that she tasted just a bit like heaven itself.

He heard her soft moan and responded with one of his own from deep down in the recesses of his chest, his body aching to feel her skin against his as his body trembled and reacted to hers. They strained against the other as their tongues chased and teased and it was beyond words.

When he felt her hands lift timidly and wrap themselves around his neck, he knew that he had to stop now…or he wouldn’t be able to stop at all. He was sent here to protect her and nothing else he forcibly reminded himself. And no matter how much it pained him to do so, he needed to stop. He couldn’t do this!

He reluctantly pulled back and rested his forehead against hers, sighing deeply as his body damned him to the firey pits of Hell for this ultimate betrayal. Just what in God’s name had he been thinking kissing her?

He moved away from her a bit further and cupped her face in his hands, his gaze focused on her incredible mouth—her lips wet and swollen from their kiss, and he sighed once again as if in pain. But, Christ…wasn’t he? He pressed his lips gently to her forehead, letting them linger there for just a fraction of a second longer then he probably should have.

“Good night, Victoria,” he rasped out, his body hating him more with each passing second. “Thank you for agreeing to have dinner with me.” With that, he forced his reluctant feet to move and headed for his car…and an extremely cold shower.  He was as hard as granite!

Victoria stepped numbly through the door and quietly closed it behind her, falling back against it with a shaky rush of breath.

Oh, my good
God
! What in the hell was all
that?
What on God’s green Earth did she think she was doing? She should have knocked him on his ass when he had kissed her like that!

She unconsciously ran her fingers across her lips and cursed herself when that electric tingle slammed through her once again. She was damned pathetic. That’s all there was to it.
Pathetic.

Suddenly, Victoria’s entire body stiffened and her mouth tensed…something wasn’t right! She glanced around the room and saw nothing amiss, but she was suddenly overwhelmed with a very bad feeling. She felt that vibration in her toes that she did on a hunt when her prey was close. The house felt different somehow. Almost as if someone had been here. She walked further into the room, sniffing at the air and letting her senses take over. Nothing.

She dashed up the stairs and quickly checked the remainder of the house, but once again, everything was as she had left it and the silence was suddenly deafening.

She plopped down on her bed and covered her eyes with her arm. That damned man must have just messed with her head, she reasoned darkly. She ignored the fluttering in her belly as she remembered his hot mouth on hers. Shit-fire, but that man could kiss.

Cam parked the car and got out, his body still on fire. Jesus, that woman made him lose all rational train of thought. He tensed slightly as a feeling of unease washed over him and his eyes immediately snapped to the house next door. Nothing seemed off.

He watched as the lights went on upstairs and he let go of a small sigh of relief.

Shaking his head, he walked uncomfortably into the house and out onto the deck, seating himself in one of the chairs to keep his vigil for the night, trying hard not to think about her up in her bedroom…undressing. Ah
, shit!
He was a pathetic fool.

Victoria walked out onto the deck the following morning in a thoroughly foul mood. In fact, she was in such a shitty mood that she was finding it just a bit unbearable to even be around herself at the moment.

She had tossed and turned all night long; that subtle feeling of unease gnawing at her insides, only to be constantly pushed aside by thoughts of the Were next door and how good it had felt to be in his arms. And that was something that she refused to even toy with. If there was one thing Victoria demanded…it was control. She didn’t like complications, and that man was surely just that…a huge ass complication!