Page 8 of Dark Hunter's Touch
“Damn,” he muttered.
“You’re safe now. They are too arrogant to double back; they will never believe they overlooked us.”
“They were right on top of us.” Almost as close as he’d been on her. “A kiss made us invisible?” Of course, it had been more than a kiss.
“They weren’t looking for two enraptured lovers on the beach. They are hunting a rebellious sylfana.” She clutched the folds of her wings tighter without looking up. “A sylfana is a heartless, worthless fae princess, cold as ice over stone, inhuman, unfeeling.”
He reached out to touch her averted face and tipped her chin up to meet her gaze. “But you hid us—which was quite a good trick, I think—and they didn’t see, so you must have felt something too.”
Her eyes caught the moonlight. “I could not lie about that.”
“From the stories I remember, fairies lie all the time.”
“Not when you get ahold of them. Skin to skin, they must tell the truth—if you can find the skin—the truth—under their glamour. But then you can never let them go.”
“I’m not holding you now,” he pointed out.
“No.” Regret throbbed in her voice. “Which is why I have to go. The hunters might not return tonight, but tomorrow when the sun sets, they will come again and try to catch my scent.” Slowly, she reached up to touch his jaw, echoing his caress. “I might not be able to protect you again.”
“Since when is protection in the job description of fairy princesses?”
“It isn’t.” Her hand slipped down his chest to rest above his heart. “Usually sylfaniialead men out of the sunlit realm and into our queen’s court of illusions where you are summarily devoured, in more ways than one. But I will not do that—will notbethat—anymore.”
“Brave of you to fight them.”
She gave a harsh laugh and fisted her hand on his chest. “Brave? Not me.”
“Then if the hunters come back, I will just have to kiss you again.” Frustration made the promise sound vaguely threatening.
But she shook her head. “Notifthey come back…when. They are relentless. I will never truly escape them. And they mustn’t find you with me. It is too dangerous.”
“Maybe I am dangerous too.”
A wobbling smile tilted her lips. “I will keep that in mind.”
“At least let me walk you home. If you’re wrong and they do come back, I…” He swallowed hard. “I suppose I can sacrifice my virtue for you.”
This time, she laughed softly. The sound lifted his heart in ways her wings hadn’t. “My noble knight. Where is your shining armor?”
Fifty pounds of steel would be no protection from her smile. “Must have left it in my other pants pocket. Which way are we going?”
She studied him pensively, and for a moment, the breath caught in his throat. His skin tightened, as if she was looking through his nakedness. Then she nodded. “Just for tonight.”
And he told himself one night was all that he wanted.
Chapter 3
Olette guided Vaile by the faint light of the will-o’-the-wisps that winked and teased amid the towering trees. When they had crossed into the primeval forest, he had laced his fingers through hers and stayed close at her side.
The forest rose, cathedral silent, on all sides. Once upon a time, she had played like this with her sylfana sisters, leading human males astray with sparkling lights and lilting voices in the darkness. It had all been mere mischief, a fleeting entertainment, hardly worth the remembering. Except now she knew sometimes the bewitched and bewildered humans never found their way out again.
The ring on Vaile’s forefinger was a thick band in her grasp. The touch of the steel made her shiver a little—just enough to remind her that she was not and could never be human.
How many bones moldered unfound because of her? The thought wrenched a shuddering breath from her belly. Not that the exact number mattered. When the hunters found her, she would pay for her desires just as the human men had: with her life.
Vaile squeezed her hand. The warmth of his fingers seemed to trickle through her veins. “Are we getting close? You must be tired, and my shoes are soaked.”
She knew her fae vision was sharper than his, making the shadowy forest less daunting, but his concern for her made her feel delicate and cherished—like a true princess must feel. “Almost there. I came to this place because of all the rain. Water runs everywhere here.”
