Surrender the Dark (24 page)

Directly at the most handsome man she’d ever seen in her life.

He was huge, easily six-four, and he filled the small foyer so completely that all the air seemed to be sucked out from her lungs. Despite the thick coat he wore, she could tell he was in impeccable shape from the way the cloth was stretched over his broad shoulders and how his jeans hugged his long legs. And his boots? Enormous.

Embarrassed that she was even considering the size of his feet, she jerked her gaze up, cheeks beginning to flush. It was a mistake.

Because now she was staring at his face. Hair as black as a raven’s wing swung over his forehead, tousled by the winter wind. Prominent cheekbones and full, lush lips made him look both angular and alluring. But his eyes were what really got her. A curious mix of green and amber, they seemed to glow behind the glasses he wore. He was sinfully beautiful. Could you call a man beautiful? This one was, despite the hard line of his jaw and a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once. It was the imperfection that made him gorgeous. So gorgeous it was scary.

And as she appraised him, he was surely returning the favor, those oddly colored eyes sweeping over what he could see of her behind the desk. His mouth dropped open a little—was he about to say something?—and his gaze sharpened. And then it happened. The thing that robbed her of any ability to function. His lips curled up on one side, displaying straight white teeth, and he smiled. Directly at her.

The small quaver in her belly told Avery one thing: this man was trouble with a capital “T.” And for her, a woman who attempted never to take anything at face value, who tried to look impartially at every issue before making a decision, the fact that her body wasn’t listening to her brain was bad. Really, really bad.

A moment passed. Or maybe it was two.

“Hello? Hello?” the woman on the end of the line squawked.

“I think you’d better get that,” the man rumbled bemusedly in a low, deep voice that warmed her from within.

She blinked and scrambled off the desk before snatching up the ancient phone and flipping the huge book open. “Yes, I’m here,” she said. “March twentieth? Yes, we have availability that week. When would you like to come? Okay, to reserve that I’ll need a credit card number.” She took down the woman’s information, giving her the cancellation information in turn. “Wonderful. See you next March.” She hung up the phone and for a moment, tried to gather her thoughts. Then she returned her attention to the fallen angel before her.

“You must be a Grayson,” she said coolly, trying her best to sound dispassionate.

“I see that my reputation precedes me,” the man said smoothly. “You look familiar, too, but I know we’ve never met.”

“Emma Newbridge—now Emma Bishop—is my sister.”

“You look like her, except for the hair.”

“Oh,” she said, self-consciously sweeping the mass of it over her shoulders, hiding the length from him. “Yes, a lot of people say that.”

Orange. There was no delicate way to put it. Her hair was bright orange. Always had been. While Emma had been gifted with deep, auburn hair that shone like mahogany in the sun, she’d been cursed with hair the color of a ripe pumpkin. Most of the time she wore it in a long braid down her back or up in a twist so people wouldn’t gape so much. And when she met with her clients it was always in a tight bun. Not anticipating any guests at the Inn today, she’d worn it down. From the way this man was staring, she wished she hadn’t.

“So how may I help you?” Despite her jitteriness, she met his gaze evenly.

Without breaking eye contact, he stepped closer to the desk and leaned one large forearm against it. “I need a room.”

With difficulty, she swallowed. He was making it impossible to be rational. “Why don’t you stay with one of your brothers? I’m sure they’d be happy to have you.”

“I’ve been staying with Val on that damned houseboat of his. It’s no good for writing, sleeping … or anything else.”

Blinking, she tried to focus. “So, ah, how long will you be staying?”

“Indefinitely.” He was still staring at her with great interest.

“We don’t really do that here—”

“Theo,” he supplied.

“This isn’t really a long-term kind of place. For one thing, it’s very expensive.”
For another, having you stay here would be dangerous.
She knew her aunt would tell her that turning away customers during the low season, especially when the Inn was empty, was bad for business, but she tried to convince herself she was simply looking out for his best interests.

“You don’t think I can afford it?”

“No,” she said quickly. “What I meant to say was that if you’re going to be staying in town for a while, you might want to consider renting an apartment instead. It would be more cost-effective.”

“Cost isn’t an issue.”

“Even so, sir, I think that—”

“Theo,” he insisted.

“
Theo
, I think that you should find someplace else.” Somewhere far away from the Inn where she wouldn’t be distracted by him. She needed to figure out her long-term game plan for getting back on track with her career. The last thing she needed was to be tempted into some short-term affair that could only go nowhere.

“Clearly, you don’t have a background in sales,” he said wryly.

The redness suffusing her cheeks was answer enough.

“Look, do you have any available rooms or don’t you?” he asked softly. But there was hard steel behind his voice.

“We do, but—”

“Then I’ll take one.” He reached into his pocket, pulled a credit card from his wallet, and handed it to her.

Avery frowned as she looked down at his enormous hand. She reached for the card, but as she grabbed it, her fingertips brushed his. Before she could even think, an electric jolt raced from the place they’d touched and zapped up her arm. It wasn’t static electricity—it was something different entirely. Now she was tingling. All over. She snatched her shaking hand away and glanced up at him.

A mistake. Again.

This time he gave her a full smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling. This man
was
dangerous, no doubt about it. She quickly swiped the card, all too aware that he was watching her every move.

“So,” she said when the card cleared, “would you like me to show you to your room?”

“That would be nice.”

“Follow me, then.” Immediately missing the sanctuary of the desk, she walked as briskly as possible through the foyer. When she reached the staircase, she stopped and turned. He was right there behind her, and though she knew it was unwise, she met his gaze, praying he couldn’t tell how nervous she was. “After you,” she said, gesturing for him to go up first.

“Oh, no,” he said, looking at her intently. “After
you
.” Since he was now a paying guest, she couldn’t exactly insist, so she headed up the stairs to the second floor, stepping precisely on each stair, acutely aware of his gaze.

“So you’re back in town for a visit?” she asked, trying to choose a neutral subject. “You live out West somewhere, right?”

“San Francisco. I’m just visiting for a couple of months. I needed some inspiration for my writing, and Star Harbor seemed like a good place to start.” His voice was low.

Heading up the next flight of stairs—the ones that led to the two rooms on the third floor—she placed her hand on the banister as she made the turn. “I could use some inspiration myself,” she muttered.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing,” she said curtly. There was no way she was getting into that with him. Not now. Not ever. “Here’s your room—Smuggler’s Cove. I put you in the top corner room with a nice view of the water. It should be quiet up here, especially since we don’t have that many guests at this time of year. Tea is served in the parlor at two-thirty every afternoon. Do you have any luggage you’d like brought up?”

“Not right now.” He paused, and she knew he was staring at her. “May I?” he asked, his voice quiet.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” she said, holding out the room key for him to take. He moved closer until he was standing directly in front of her. She forced herself to look at him. When her eyes met his intense gaze, her breath caught in her throat. Instead of reaching for the key, as she’d anticipated, he raised his hand to her head. Without warning, he lightly ran his fingers through her hair from her scalp to the ends of the strands, staring at them with wonder as they fell from his hand. Her body’s entire nervous system went into overdrive, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

Even as she shivered from the contact, he swept the key from her hand, unlocked the door, stepped into the room, and shut the door behind him.

Right in her face.

Avery stood there for a few seconds, frankly shocked. Finally, she came to her senses, releasing the breath that she’d unconsciously been holding. More disturbed at her reaction to his touch than she was by his obnoxious manners, she turned and slowly descended the stairs, fervently hoping—no, praying—that as long as Theo Grayson was at the Star Harbor Inn, he would stay in his room and out of her way.

It was coming to get her.

She could feel the oppressive heat, hear the thundering roar. The ground vibrated. Life-snuffing smoke invaded the air, was sucked into her mouth, down her throat. She was gagging. She clawed at her neck. Choking. It was choking her.

Alive. How could anyone not see that? It moved, leaped, crawled. Lived, died. Killed. She’d learned to accept it was not her enemy. That acceptance had disappeared in the span of one lightning stroke.

She’d been a fool to think she had ever been in control. It would always be after her.

All she had to do was close her eyes.

Once again she was running through the forest, hot red-and-yellow flames licking at her boots, roaring in her ears. She heard the thunderous crack of another tree falling victim to the voracious predator. It rushed up the side of the mountain to meet them, consume them, growing as the wind lent a hand, encouraging the feeding frenzy. It crackled with a vicious snap, leaping easily over the fire line she and her crew had labored over for the past four hours, racing to gobble up more. Black smoke and tree soot sifted through the screen of her helmet, choking her. Her lungs burned. On she ran. Again she heard the bone-shaking crack as yet another tree lost the battle. She tensed, knowing what came next. What always came next.

The pain hit hard. Sharp and numbing. With a whooshing sound it rushed from its point of origin on her ankle to sweep over her entire body. She knew it was the tree, the burning tree. Her mind assembled all these things instantly, had her reaching for her fire cover even as it made first contact, even as she knew she was lost.

She heard Toby. Toby, her jump partner for four years, shouting at her, making her lift her head even as black shadows danced at the edges of her vision and heat began to crawl past the protective barrier of her flame-retardant suit. Pain and sound and smoke all swam together, making it hard to hear, impossible to focus. Then his face was in hers, shouting at her. She heard someone scream when the tree shifted. It was her. Screams ripped from her. Then a flash of silver billowed over her. Her fire cover. How had she gotten it out?

Toby’s voice yanked her back from the edge. She felt the crushing weight of him and his gear, watched as he pulled the fire cover over him. Over them.

The cover wouldn’t hold, she knew that. It had been made to protect only one person. Toby knew that too. They hadn’t cleared the ground of brush. She tried to yell past the knot of smoke in her throat, demand that he run, that he leave her, even as she knew they had both run out of time. Again she heard the rushing sound of the fire as it found them. As it ate them. The tree crushing her ankle succumbed first.

Toby succumbed second.

She heard him scream, felt him die as she waited in breathless terror for the first lick of searing heat, wondered in that split of eternal time what it would feel like. There was a nip, a taste. Heat; oh God the heat.

And then it was over.

In the capricious way of nature’s disasters, the fire had roared on. And she had been left to survive. Survival of the damned.

Now it got even worse.

Shaking her head, as if simple denial would do any good, Jenna King thrashed, fear taking her breath in its terrifying clutches. She despised the fear. Almost as much as the heat. Oh, but it was hot. She’d never be cool enough again. She twisted, kicking, shoving at anything that covered her, oblivious to the spikes of pain shooting up her leg. The heat was worse than the pain could ever be.

A scream locked permanently in her throat. No. No!
You can’t do this to me again!

With a low, wrenching groan, Jenna grabbed at the anger, harnessed it, brandished it like a weapon, unleashing it full force on her enemy: fear. And the split second before she had to turn her head and look at what was left of Toby, she wrenched her eyes open and sat up.

Her room. She was in her room at Paradise Canyon. She blinked the sweat from her eyes, raked her hair back, and swung her gaze around, searching for reassurance, damning the semihysterical movement even as she fought to control it. Recognition of her surroundings came first. It always did. That base was what she needed most to center herself. Or so Dr. Porter had said. Breath came second. Once she drew in a lungful, she couldn’t seem to stop. In no time she was gulping, panting.
Slow down, Jenna.
In. Out. The room is full of oxygen. There is plenty for you. No smoke here. No smoke.

The need to move came last. Thank God she could. She almost wept with relief, purposely shutting out the memories of those early months when she hadn’t been able to. She shifted her legs over the side of the bed, barely flinching at the expected pain that went hand in hand with gravity.

She steadied herself before trying to stand. If she could focus on her recovery, she could put distance between herself and the recurrent nightmare. Then she could tuck it away, make herself believe she had dealt with it, that she controlled it, not the other way around. Eventually she might make herself believe she had won the battle with her mind.