Tourmaline fought the temptation to roll her eyes, thinking they certainly grew them breathtakingly big around here, not to mention gorgeous, but obviously not too bright.
“What. Do. You. Want?” she asked slowly, enunciating each word with patronizing precision. She hoped that he would understand that she was not at all liking this situation. After all, this condition could not be to anyone’s liking at all.
He blinked, and then the corner of his mouth suddenly twitched, and a smooth spill of surprise warmed her insides at the fact that he’d reacted to her sarcastic tone with humor, rather than anger. Not that she wanted him angry, mind you.
No, all she wanted was for him to leave her alone, so that she could get some sleep, and then get on with her search…while doing her best to forget this fluttery feeling he’d put in her belly. It felt good, damn it—dangerously good—and that made her more nervous than his primal intensity ever could. Sexual desire was a dangerous trap that couldn’t be trusted any more than the male species could be. She had to find some way to ignore it, no matter how good the rush in her pulse felt, as if she were stretching to awareness after a long, heavy slumber.
Part of her wanted to shout So this is what it’s all about!—while the other part snarled For the love of God, what kind of idiot starts thinking about having sex with a total, behemoth-size stranger?
Apparently her kind, she realized, since she couldn’t get the thought out of her head of what it’d be like to be covered by this sexy-as-hell hunk.
Thunder suddenly rumbled in the distance, signaling an approaching storm, bringing with it the crisp scent of rain. Tourmaline glanced toward the swollen sky, and then softly, in a tone completely unlike her, she heard herself say, “It looks like a storm’s coming. You wanted to talk, so talk, before it starts to rain.”
He looked up, staring at the sky…at the moon, and when he lowered his head, once again trapping her in the piercing intensity of his stare, the look in his eyes burned even brighter, as though that silver gaze was somehow glowing, fired with heat from within. Glowing eyes?
She blinked, shaking her head, knowing she needed more sleep. God, she’d been pushing herself so hard, she was getting delusional.
After what seemed like forever, he finally asked, “What are you doing here?”
The gravelly sound of his voice raised chill bumps on her arms, and she resisted the urge to reach out and smooth the deep furrows between his brows, then the harsh lines of frustration bracketing his sensual mouth.
Instead, she reached up to the visor and took down Sapphire’s picture, holding it up for him to see. “I’m looking for this girl. She’s my sister. Have you seen her?”
He glanced at the photo that had been taken on Sapphire’s last birthday. “No. Never set eyes on her before. She isn’t here.”
“Well, I’m not leaving until I’ve found her.”
He drew in a slow, deep breath, taking a step closer to the bus, bringing the details of his ruggedly gorgeous face into a sharper focus. The ink-black hair, cut severely short, emphasizing that spectacular bone structure. The dark, mesmerizing glitter of those heavy-lidded eyes. The strong line of his nose, as well as the shadowed hollows of his cheeks. Each detail was almost painfully beautiful, and yet, perfectly masculine.
The air seemed to crackle between them, as if something was building…growing stronger, layer upon layer upon layer, each one gaining in intensity. Something powerful and electric that you couldn’t see—that you could only feel…sense. His breathing grew deeper, his chest rising and falling as if he were exerting some kind of physical effort, when he only stood there…staring…watching.
The way he suddenly shoved his hands back in the pockets of his jeans caught her attention, and she could have sworn he was struggling for some kind of control over himself as he asked, “What makes you think your sister is here, on our mountain?”
Instead of answering his question, Tourmaline returned the photo to the visor and posed one of her own. “Our mountain? What, you own it?”
He shrugged those impossibly broad shoulders, and her eyes snagged on the intricate design of the tattoo swirling over his right biceps, just visible beneath the tight stretch of his sleeve. It made her heart beat even faster. She had seen handsome men before but they did not even hold candle to the guy who was standing right in front of her, it was just like every female’s fantasy of the night come true in the best way possible. He was a yummy and delicious combination of such sexiness that he should be banned from the sight of women.
“In a way, yes. This is private property.”
A sick feeling swept through her stomach. “Your boy soldiers over there claimed the same thing, but I don’t see how you can own an entire mountain. And I was on a public highway,” she argued.
“Which you then turned off of,” he explained, his voice a low, mesmerizing rumble, “and onto a private road.” He arched one dark brow as he added, “I assume you missed the clearly marked signs when you exited the main highway a few miles back?”
“Must have,” she said tightly, wondering what the hell she was going to do. “So what now? Are you going to waste your night trying to kick me out of here, or go back to wherever you came from and leave me alone?”
“I’m not going to try anything,” he murmured, while something that almost looked like regret flickered through those beautiful gray eyes. “I am kicking you out of here.”
With a tired sigh, Tourmaline shook her head again. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but you aren’t leaving me much choice. In fact, you’re acting like a complete and total ass.”
Then she lifted the pistol from her lap…and pointed the barrel right at him.
Though there wasn’t anything particularly funny about having a gun pointed straight at your heart, Razl had to fight the surprising urge to laugh at the human’s audacity. A bullet wouldn’t kill him, but it would still hurt like a bitch. He should have been furious that she was threatening him, but that wasn’t the source of his anger. Instead, he was uncomfortably aware that the more she stood up to him, the harder it was for him not to pull her out of that goofy-looking bus and show her just how much danger she was courting here.Running his
She her cut her gaze away again, but not before he caught the luminous wash of tears glistening in her eyes.Aw, hell. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to take it if she broke down—that he’d rather have her angry than sad— Razl curled his lips and said something guaranteed to piss her off and get her back up. “Some big burly man, huh? I get it now. You’re one of those women who has guy issues, aren’t you?”
The second the words left Tourmaline’s mouth, a low, rich vein of laughter jerked from his chest, seeming to catch them both by surprise. Her toes curled inside her socks at the delicious sound, while her face burned with color as she realized what she’d just said.Wow. I’m so smooth. Why don’t I just shout it to his face that I think he’s hot?
It wasn’t like her to be whiney, but she’d lost her sense of optimism so long ago, Tourmaline no longer even knew what it felt like. Now all she had was this grinding, sickening feeling in her gut, and a bad case of nerves. Not to mention the sudden addition of ill-founded lust for the gorgeous jerk trying to get rid of her. She could not seem to catch a break with anyone at all. It seemed like fate had given her a kick in her ass just like always, even this time…Talk about crappy timing. And that would probably be the understatement of the year
By the time Razl pulled onto the gloomy, rain-sodden streets of downtown Wesley, he’d managed to learn a bit more about the human than just her name and the fact that she had a prickly attitude. She was twenty-six years old, had just bought her first condo and taught Women’s Studies at a private university in Smythe, Virginia. He’d also learned that she had spent the past few weeks searching for her younger sister, a nineteen-year-old named Sapphire, who also lived in Smythe…and whose party-girl lifestyle and recreational drug use had a habit of landing her in a variety of unsavory situations.
All of which meant that Sapphire Smart had landed herself in some deep shit—and if Tourmaline kept searching for her, she was going to end up in the same situation.As he took the next right, she shifted in the passenger’s seat of his truck, drawing his gaze, and he damn near couldn’t take his eyes off her. The watery spill of light from the garish neon signs in that part of town played softly over her feminine profile and that long, wavy spill of hair. Though her attitude grated on his nerves, Razl had the strongest urge to fist his hands in that
“It is now,” he said with a harsh sigh, taking one hand from the wheel to rub at the knots of tension in the back of his neck, “whether you want it to be or not. So you can take the gun you stashed in your bag and hold it on me if you want to. Go ahead, if it’ll make you feel better. But I’m not going to back down about this.”“You arrogant bastard,” she seethed in a choked voice, the angry, electric pulses of her rage slamming against him, filling the interior of the truck. It made her scent thicker…richer, ti
“Whatever. Just wait here,” he grated, choking back his own anger as he climbed out of the truck. Christ, she had to be the most mule-headed woman on the planet!A chime dinged as Razl jerked open one of the double doors at the entrance to the hotel, and a young guy behind the registration desk looked up from the comic book he was reading. “What’s up?” he asked, staring at Razl from behind a pair of thick reading glasses.