Page 44 of Which Witch Is Wicked?
Even his fucking smile was inscrutable.Beautiful.There had never been formed in heaven or on earth a man more beautiful than this.
“If that weapon is meant for me, I surrender.” He lifted his hands in a mock gesture of fear.
Aerin looked down at the ax in her grip, stunned to find out that she’d lifted it in a defensive gesture, as though to protect herself.
“It’s not.” She lowered it, trying to recover her wits.
“Then am I to assume you are going to use it on a tree, even in an Alexander McQueen cashmere suit?” Dark brows lifted in surprise.
“If I feel like it.” She inspected the elm, which was closest, her neck craned to see if she could find a limb low enough to hack at. Which tree would be the most magical, she wondered. Which branch wanted to fly?
“Might I inquire as to your reasons for playing lumberjack?” He fell into step behind her, his hands still clasped tightly behind his back.
“We weren’t supposed to meet until midnight.” Aerin retreated from him a bit, unexpectedly uncertain, and pretended to consider the ash tree.
He was suddenly closer, his breath warm on her ear. “What is that intoxicating scent?” he queried.
“That, I believe, is a brined tofu soy pig fart.” She slipped away from him. Or rather he allowed it as he paused.
“I—beg your pardon?” His voice colored with confusion, as though he thought he’d misheard her.
“It’s your brother Bane who should be begging our pardon. He’s the one that slipped it to my sister without using protection. Now she’s pregnant and poisoning the atmosphere with dastardly consequences of a household fed on fuck-all but cruciferous vegetables.” Aerin bitched. “Of which there are many.”
He was quiet for a moment, and Aerin moved on to a pine tree, then dismissed it out of hand.
“You don’t smell like a…” He cut himself off, and Aerin smiled as her back was to him. She knew he couldn’t bring himself to say something so ridiculously vulgar. “I was referring to an aroma, not a stench. Your scent, it’s changed to something warmer than when I saw you last. You smell…expensive.”
“That’s because Iamexpensive,” she said, marveling at the fact that only Julian Roarke could discuss perfumes and still manage to sound masculine. How many men noticed when a woman changed her perfume?
“No doubt,” he muttered.
I will not be charmed. I will not be impressed.
“What are you doing here, Julian? Did you learn something about the zombies that couldn’t wait until tonight?”
He turned toward her then. Slowly stalking the handful of yards between him and the beech tree beneath which she now stood. His hands were still behind him, as though bound, but it provided little comfort to her. His shoulders were so wide, his movements so impious and unapologetically predatory. The paradox of his placid features with the sinful intent in his blue eyes was astonishing. No, scratch that, terrifying.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she threatened, cringing at the note of hesitation that escaped her usually dynamic tone. “You shouldn’t come to the house.”
If he tried to seduce her, how could she resist him?
If he tried to kill her,how could she resist him?
He reached her, his towering height dwarfing her, even in her three-inch heels, causing Aerin to do something she’d never done before in her entire life.
She retreated a step. Then another. Then another. Until her back was up against the solid trunk of the beech tree.
“I came to warn you,” he said in a voice that was ironically empty of warning and full of wickedness. Dark hair shot with silver fell over his face as he lowered it within inches of hers, placing his lips once again against her ear. “The undead… I have reason to believe they’ll come for you, with the intent to do you harm.”
He had yet to touch her, but their cheeks were so close she could almost feel the sharp rasp of the dark stubble there. Molecules vibrated on a more frenetic frequency in anticipation of their physical connection.
“For me?” she breathed, gasping as his hair caressed her collarbone.
“For you all.”
“Yeah, well, they’ll have to get in line.” Her fingers tightened on the ax between them, but she didn’t move.
“I urge you and your sisters to ward the house against them. To seek answers within the Grimoire on how to defeat them.”
