Night Play (Dark-Hunter 5)

Chapter 4

Not once in her entire existence had Bride ever felt more awkward. What did a woman say to a man who had bailed her out of one of the worst moments of her life?

"Thank you" was so inadequate for what she felt for him. He was truly a hero to her.

She left the apartment and headed back toward her store while the movers continued to unload her belongings.

At first she didn't see Vane anywhere. Had he left?

His motorcycle still stood where he'd parked it.

Frowning, she looked inside the store and found him browsing through a rack of slinky dresses that had come in earlier that morning.

He paused at a snazzy black number that had caught her attention. It was made of heavy silk with a halter top that would look great on someone built like Tabitha. She'd ordered them on impulse because she knew instinctively that the dress would really set off the beaded choker Vane had bought for her.

She'd originally planned on displaying the two items together.

Bride opened the door and headed toward him. "Would you like to try one on?" she asked playfully.

He laughed at that. His entire face lightened and his green eyes sparkled.

Gracious, no man should be so handsome.

"I don't think I have the cleavage to pull it off and it'd probably make my ass really flat."

She laughed.

He pulled the largest one out and held it up to her. "You on the other hand beautiful."

"Oh no," she said, smoothing the cool silk with her hand. "It's too clingy for me. Besides, I don't like anything that shows off my upper arms."

He looked confused by her words. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. It makes me really self-conscious."

He looked at the dress, then at her, as if he were imagining her in it. "Yeah, you're probably right. Too many guys would ogle you, then I'd have to hurt them."

He was serious. Amazed by that, Bride arched her brows as she took the dress from him and returned it to the rack.

Vane watched her closely as her scent wrapped around him. The thought of her in that dress He was so aroused by her that it was all he could do to stand here and not leap.

He stared at the bared flesh of her neck, wanting to press his lips there and taste that delectable skin.

In the wild, he wouldn't have hesitated to pull her to him and kiss her until she begged him for mercy. But the humans he'd seen didn't behave that way.

There were protocols to courtship that he wasn't sure about.

She turned toward him.

Vane looked away, afraid she could sense how badly he wanted her. How uncertain he was.

In his realm, a timid wolf was a dead one. In the human realm Did timid win or lose? Damn, he should have paid more attention.

"So how about that dinner?" he asked, trying the middle ground between timid and forceful. "Want me to give you a couple of hours to get the movers straightened out and then come back?"

She bit her lip. "I don't know."

"Please?"

She nodded, then blushed prettily.

For some reason he couldn't explain, he felt like howling in triumph. He reached for the dress on the rack and pulled the skirt of it out. "Would you wear this?" he asked hopefully.

Bride looked at it doubtfully, but the expression on his face made her reach out for it. He'd been so nice to her so far "Only if you swear you won't laugh at me in it."

His look seared her. "I would never laugh at you."

She swallowed at the fierce tremor that went through her at the deep sincerity of his words. He really was too sexy for his own good. "Okay. What time will you be back?"

He checked the time on his cell phone. "Six?"

"It's a date."

The satisfied look on his face sent an unfamiliar thrill through her. Bride, don't. The last thing you need is to have your heart broken by Mr. Bodacious.

Maybe he would be different.

Or maybe he'll be worse.

She wouldn't know unless she took a chance.

Breathing in deeply, she took the dress from his hands. Bride McTierney had never been a timid woman. Occasionally she'd been stupid, such as when she'd let Taylor use her, but never cowardly.

Bride met life head-on and she wasn't going to be afraid with Vane. "Six o'clock," she repeated. "I'll see you shortly," Vane said. He bent down and laid an extremely chaste kiss on her cheek.

Even so, it warmed her every bit as much as a fullblown caress. Bride watched as he made his way out of her store.

Outside, he actually paused to look back at her and smile before he put his sunglasses on.

Hissing at the splendid sight of him, she watched as he started the bike, then rode it off the sidewalk, into the street.

"Oh please, Vane," she whispered under her breath. "Don't break my heart, too."

Bride took the dress to the dressing room and did her best not to remember how fine Vane had looked naked in here. How good he had felt inside her. The look of supreme satisfaction on his face as he rocked her gently in his arms.

She hung the dress up and went to find accessories for it. She didn't know where he was going to take her, but she was going to look her best if it killed her.

Vane made his way back to the doll store where he'd left Ash.

He had a date.

With Bride.

Panic was already setting in. What on earth did humans do on a date besides have sex?

He'd seen humans in the bar interact with each other, but those encounters had been similar to what wolves did. Someone would come in, look around, find the partner they wanted to claim, and take them home to screw them. Dev had told him from the very first night that that wasn't the way the human world normally worked. That some things at Sanctuary were different.

The other, more subdued humans who came in were already dating or married to each other. They usually seemed to be having a good time unless they were fighting. But Vane had never paid very much attention to them.

He didn't know anything about trying to make a human actually "like" him.

He'd spent the last four hundred years of his life either killing those who threatened his siblings or trying to scare the rest away.

What would make Bride fall in love with him enough so that she would agree to be his mate?