Page 10 of Seduce Me in Shadow

“I’ll never tell.” She smiles coyly.

“Let me get this straight: This hunky bloke suddenly appeared and whisked you away to fulfill your fantasy, exactly as you wrote it?”

“Yes.” Dreamy doesn’t begin to describe Aquarius’s faraway expression. “It was fantastic.”

I grope for a chair and sink into it. “Good thing you’re taking a holiday. I think you need it.”

“I’m overworked, not mad. I thoroughly enjoyed Alex. As a life partner, he wasn’t right for me?—”

“No man ever is.” Aquarius is notoriously picky.

“There’s a man out there. Somewhere. I’ll know when I meet him. But the point is, I don’t need this journal anymore.” Aquarius shoves it at me. “But you… If you want Caden, write your fantasy in here.”

The idea is tempting, but if Caden ever discovered my words, mortified wouldn’t begin to cover how badly I’d want to crawl into a hole and wait for a new millennium.

“That’s a terrible idea.”

“Pining away is no better. Look”—her voice drops to a whisper—“take the diary with you this weekend and write your deepest desire about Caden. Wait a day or two. If it doesn’t come true, what have you lost?”

Chapter

Five

Caden

Imarch into Sydney’s office and barely refrain from slamming the door. The fiery sun setting over the jagged London skyline matches my mood.

How in the bloody hell did Aquarius acquire the Doomsday Diary to put it in Sydney Blair’s very human hands? She can’t keep the book. It’s too dangerous by far.

I need to seize it.

I’m besieged by an equally strong urge to punch both Bram Rion and Jamie What’s-his-name.

Wanting to beat Bram to a pulp makes sense. He embodies so much of what I despise about magic: the blithe assumption of supremacy, the unpredictability, and the utter inability to compromise, not to mention the total lack of awareness that it might be required. Oh, and the blatant inequality. In the human world, anyone can learn to defend themselves and grow stronger each day—or buy a better weapon. But a witch or wizard never has more magical abilities than they were born with. If they findthemselves at the mercy of someone more evil and powerful… God help them.

But I don’t understand my reaction to Jamie. Every time the prat even looks at Sydney, I barely restrain my homicidal urges. My gut compels me to touch her, take her, possess her until she admits she’s mine. I’ve done my best to ignore the impulse, but she’s become a fever in my blood.

Still, I’m on a mission. I’m good at those, thanks to the U.S. Marine Corps. Focus. Get in, get the job done, get out. End of story. Don’t do anything stupid—like fall in life-altering lust with Sydney. Yet no matter how much my desire defies logic, I can’t stop.

I’ve been tasked with stopping the saucy reporter from exposing magickind to the humans—a move that will protect her, too—and discover if Anka is her source of information. Unfortunately, I can’t bloody focus on anything except pushing Sydney against a wall and kissing her senseless before I fuck her into sighing bliss.

I wasn’t naive enough to believe that my assignment would be easy, but she’s been a distraction and a roadblock at every turn. The woman is both infuriating and admirably determined. Throw in the sudden and unexpected appearance of the Doomsday Diary? This has become what my platoon buddies called a clusterfuck.

Cursing, I pull my phone from my pocket and dial an increasingly familiar number.

Bram answers immediately. “You have news?”

Do I ever, but first things first. “How is Lucan?”

Bram hesitates. “Weak. We’re doing our best, but…”

Those words are a stab in the chest. Without an energy surrogate, my brother’s condition has only worsened in the past two weeks. “You best not let him die while I’m in London doing your dirty work.”

“Believe me, if I had anyone else suited to this task, you would still be gnashing your teeth at Lucan’s bedside. But matters are too critical here for me to be playing office. Duke can pass as a human, but who would believe that the Duke of Hurstgrove wants a job at a paranormal tabloid? That leaves a fifteen-hundred-year-old warrior, an attitude-challenged wizard, and you. You alone have both experience in photography and the human world.”

“Your problem is mine only as long as my brother is alive. Is that clear?”

“As if you’d drawn me a picture,” Bram shoots back. “I’m against this, but Sabelle insists on providing Lucan energy. Or trying, anyway.”

---