A Witch's Beauty (Daughters of Arianne 2)

"You think I'm staying here that long?"

"It's not such a bad idea, is it? This place would be safer for you. Better for your health." His gaze swept over her, seeing too much. "It's dry and warm. And Jonah said Anna would set up an account for you at the store. Before I go, we'll make sure that's been done."

There was a fan rotating on the ceiling. Just as the world turned, but suddenly it felt like the blade was careening in her stomach.

Turning on her heel, she went down the steps and out onto the back porch. Stopping at the edge of it, she drew a deep breath, trying to still the turbulence within her. Winced as she forgot her injury and tried to curl both sets of fingers into tense balls. The quiet had a whisper to it, that faint energy hum. Heat reached up from the desert, soaked into her bones.

She didn't turn around as he came up behind her, but when his body brushed hers, a faint tremor ran through her.

"Mina?"

"You're right; it'll work. For the short term. And I didn't want your protection from the beginning. So this relieves you, Jonah and the rest of them of the personal obligation. And when he decides to throw me out of this house, I'll know he's decided I'm not your problem anymore, anyway."

"Obligation?" He swore softly and turned her, despite her resistance. When he tried to lift her face to him, she jerked it away with a glare. So he hauled her closer, making her slap a hand on his chest to balance herself.

"Let me go."

"I think we need to make something clear," he said instead. "This setup will give you safety. Independence. Maybe the ability to get a good night's sleep. But you're not free of me, witch. I won't be out of your life until you tell me to go, that you don't want me."

"I don't want you. Go away."

He merely raised his brows, drew her closer, until her feet were between his, his hand sliding down the small of her back, and then lower, to cup one buttock with a proprietary ease that had her hackles rising and her nerves sparking. With his other hand he cradled her face, tipped her rigid chin with a not-so-gentle thumb.

"I meant when you don't lie about it. I'm not leaving you, Mina. Are you listening?" He bent closer, until their eyes were no more than a couple inches apart. "I'm not leaving you."

"Why do you think I care? Leave or go; it's the same to me. Just come around when you want this." She pushed her hips against his groin, which was conveniently getting aroused, to prove her point. "The thrill of fucking a freak."

"That's enough of that."

David hadn't meant to respond so ferociously, though the snarled command would have made Jonah proud. It startled her, made her eyes widen in her pale face. Jesus, there were times he had the most overwhelming urge to yank up her skirt and slap her bare ass until it was red.

"Stop it," he repeated, easing his touch when he realized he was gripping her hard enough to bruise. "I'm usually hard around you, and for some perverse reason you provoke me even more when you start snapping at me. It makes me think of all the ways I could keep that viper tongue of yours occupied. But I want more from you, and you know that."

"No. I don't care. I'm not going to listen-"

"Mina, do you remember what I said I'd do if you ever threw another detonation spell at me?"

Her gaze snapped up to him, and he nodded, satisfied. "I will do it for much less physical offenses, as well. And enjoy the hell out of it. So keep talking and give me a reason. Or shut up and listen."

She pressed her lips together. Waiting a bated moment, he took a breath. "This is a place we can spend time together, without having to be on guard against Dark Ones. That has an appeal to me. Watching you study your books, concoct potions. Getting to be by your side while you explore your fascination with the human world, making it your world."

"I'm not human, so why-" At his look, she whitened, crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "You wouldn't dare."

"Once more," he warned. "And you'll find out. In that little town where the store is, there's an old junk shop Anna loves. I know you'll find so many things there you'll like, to make this place more of your own."

He softened then. "Mina, you're not totally human, not totally mermaid. You're you. But I'd have to be blind not to see how this place appeals to you, how a human life would fit better with who you are. I can give you privacy and the solitude you treasure. I do have a duty to the platoon and the Legion. But those are the only reasons I would leave your side, temporarily, and always, always only if I'm assured of your safety.

"So get it through your stubborn head. If I leave here to give you time alone or to serve the Lady, it doesn't mean I'll be gone from your life. You got that?"

Mina held her defensive posture, staring at his chest. "And I'm expected to believe Jonah is just giving me his house forever, for nothing."

"No." He shook his head. "Of course not. He assumes if you're here, under our protection, you'll do us the courtesy of continuing your current efforts to keep the Dark One blood you carry away from the use of your power. As to whether you might consider using your power to help protect the Lady's interests on occasion, that's something you'll have to decide on your own. But you have time before it becomes an issue." He took a breath. "Mina, I'm asking you to look at me this time."

She ground her teeth, her jaw flexing, but in the end she raised her lashes. She didn't necessarily like this, having an argument with their faces so close, where she could see the reflection of her scarred face in his irises, so she shifted to stare at his cheekbone and tried to ignore it, even as she crossed her arms more tightly across herself.

"As long as Anna and I have any say about it, Mina," he said, "you'll be left in peace. You can be safe here. Have a life."

"It's too much. Too soon. I can't..." She shook her head, turned away to look around the porch, back into the house. This time he let her, probably because he did know her. Well enough to know when to get in her face and when not to, maybe better than she did.

Two days ago, she'd not thought beyond the daily routine of her life, the need to survive, to struggle through each day. This house, the energy here, the way it was embracing her in a manner that was devoid of threat... it resurrected a part of her she'd thought she'd long ago destroyed. The wishes of the child were still there. The child who'd been abandoned, tortured. Who'd grown up in the cold and darkness, never expecting or daring to hope for anything. Determined to survive, enough to fight for it every moment she'd breathed, never questioning why she was f

ighting, for the answer would have been so desolate she would have lost the battle. For the first time, she might have an answer she could bear to hear, and the gift of it, after so long, might crack her into a million pieces.

"Mina."

"Don't tell me things like this, David. I can't believe them, you understand?" She turned and stared up into his eyes, trying to convey what she herself wasn't even sure she knew how to say. "I can't afford to believe them. I can only take it moment by moment, okay? You tell me I have this place for the next few moments, that I can consider it mine for just this little bit of time, I can do that. Okay?"

"Okay." He nodded, even as she began to repeat herself, then bit her lip, cutting herself off. He ran his hands up the outside of her arms. "It's all right. Okay."

She closed her eyes, and they stood that way a long moment. He just held her lightly, not pushing. Just reminding her he was there. He was there. And he'd said he'd continue to be there. "I want to go sit in the tire thing," she said.

"Then let's go do that." He stepped back, but retained her hand so they walked down the back porch stairs hand in hand. While her own cooperation flummoxed her, she nevertheless went with him. She stopped at the bottom, though, realizing she'd left her shoes inside, wanting to feel the texture of the wood, the energies moving through it, through her soles. Before she could turn to retrieve them, he made a noise, positioned her a couple steps up and then guided her to take a little hop to ride on his back, her arms looped around his neck, her chest comfortably mashed against his half-spread wings, the tips of the secondary feathers tickling the skin on the insides of her thighs.

"Don't your feet hurt?" Then she glanced down and saw his feet weren't touching the ground, which was scattered with various prickly forms of vegetation and heated sand. "Oh."

There was a cobbled path that intersected from the side of the house, so he let her down when they reached that, and they walked the remaining few steps to the tire swing.

"You sit in it with your feet dangling, and hold the rope, like this." Lifting her by the waist, he directed her to grasp the rope and guided her feet in through the hole with that effortless strength that never failed to impress her, though she tried not to show it. "And then you hold on."