She turned, just a fraction, and her gaze met Adam's. Her palms started to sweat. "What are you doin' here?" He looked so good.
He stepped off the curb, strolled toward her with a confident, almost cocky walk. "Watching you."
The hair on her nape prickled. She'd had a sense, both last night and this evening when she'd left her safe house, that someone was out there. Watching.
Adam.
"Shouldn't you be back in Maine, taking care of Cammie?" What in the hell was he doing there? And did he have to look so dark and sexy as he stood there, staring at her with those eyes that saw far too much for her comfort? "Cammie's safe-don't worry about her." He stopped less than a foot away.
"Oh." Not a great comeback. She just didn't really know what to say.
"Who the hell are you?" Sean demanded.
Ah, leave it to her best friend not to be at a loss for words.
Sean tried to step in front of her and Maya grabbed his arm, holding him back and barely managing to hold back an eye roll. The guy just can't remember he's the weak one.
Adam's gaze swept over him and his lip lifted just a bit at the left corner. "Good to see you on your feet, Sean."
"How do you know who I am?"
"He was with me when I checked up on you at the hospital." She couldn't seem to drag her eyes away from Adam. She'd missed him. Really missed him. More than she'd thought she would.
She'd felt kind of hollow inside when she got back to L.A., and when she closed her eyes at dawn, she didn't see her mother's corpse anymore.
She saw Adam.
Sean snapped his fingers. "You're the guy she helped in Vegas."
Adam nodded. Then said, "And I'm the guy who is going to be watching her back from now on."
Her spine straightened at that one. "I don't need someone trailing me." Not him, not Sean.
"Um." Those eyes were so deep. "You know," he mused softly, "I really never pegged you for a coward."
She took that hit straight on the chin.
Sean sucked in a sharp breath of air, then exploded, "Are you f**king crazy? Maya's not afraid of anything or anybody, she's-"
"It's all right, Sean." She touched his arm lightly.
He glared at Adam, but stopped snarling.
Maya licked her lips. So he wanted an explanation. He'd hunted her down, when she'd just hoped for a nice, quick break that didn't hurt either of them.
A mistake, of course, because she hurt like hell, but she wasn't going to tell Adam that fact. "I didn't run because I was afraid of you." She thought he'd realized that. "The dragon doesn't scare me and neither do you." Sure, he was strong, probably the strongest being she'd ever encountered.
So what? He wasn't going to hurt her, she knew that. The guy would give his life to save her. She didn't doubt that fact for a minute.
Adam shook his head and the dark locks of his hair brushed across his shoulders. "I didn't say you were scared of me, sweetheart."
His words had her eyes narrowing. "Then just what is it you think I'm so scared of?"
"Yourself. The way you feel about me." He lifted his hand and ran his finger down her cheek.
She steeled herself against the touch. "And you do feel something for me, don't you, Maya?"
Yes. Damn him, she did. "Look, I left Vegas, because the job was finished."
"But we aren't."
Sean watched the byplay between them, eyes wide. She growled, aware of a burn inside that could have been embarrassment. "Go back home, Sean. This is something I need to handle on my own."
He hesitated. "But the L7-"
"I told you," Adam interrupted, "I've got her back, from now on."
Sean still didn't look particularly convinced.
"It's okay, really," Maya told him. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"And you'll tell me what the hell's going on with this guy?" He jerked his thumb toward Adam.
"Yeah."
He shoved his hands in his pockets and marched away. He'd only taken about six steps when he stopped and glanced back at her. "You know, I realized something was different about you, I-I just didn't realize what it was." There was a sad slant to his mouth. "I don't think you're gonna be needing me anymore after all."
Then he was gone, heading fast into the shadows and leaving her on the dark street with Adam.
Maya sighed and cocked her head to the right as she studied him. "You had to make this hard, didn't you?"
He grabbed her arms, pulled her close. "Tell me you don't care about me."
Her lips thinned.
"Go ahead," he said, "lie to me. Try to make me believe that you don't feel this connection, this need that I do."
She wouldn't speak.
"Can't do it, can you?" He whispered, his lips too close to hers. Too close. "Because you want me, just as much as I want you."
His words had her temper spiking. "Wanting isn't everything!" It sure wasn't enough for her.
She'd wanted her entire life. Wanted her mother's love. Wanted a normal home. Wanted a husband.
A family.
Screw wanting-it got you nothing.
Taking, claiming-that was the way of the world.
"I could feel you, even when you were gone," he said and his lips pressed against hers in the briefest of caresses. "Smell you on my skin. Taste you on my tongue."
Maya swallowed as heat rose in her belly. Her sex began to moisten as the lust built with his softly spoken words.
"When I close my eyes, I see you," Adam told her, before pressing another kiss to her lips.
And she saw him.
"I've been alone a long time, Maya, too long. I didn't want to love another human-humans are too weak. They die too soon. There are too few of my own kind. I had no hope of finding a lover who'd shift like me, and then you-"
What the hell? Maya shoved away from him, rage wrestling with the lust her body felt. "So you wanna be with me because I'm a vamp and I can keep living as long as you do? It doesn't matter a shit who I am inside-you just want a long-term bed buddy and I'm available?" He was lucky she hadn't knocked him on his ass. And this was the guy she'd been mooning over? A thin line bisected his brows. "What? No! Dammit, listen to me!"
"I was listening, you said-"
"What I was saying was that I don't want anyone else-not another Wyvern, not a human-no one!" His voice was a roar now, shaking the streets.
And, no doubt, alerting the L7.
"You're the only woman in my life who has looked at the dragon– and still seen me. "