She blinked.
The truck slowed, then turned off on the next exit. “And before we get there, you’re gonna start talking. You’re gonna tell me everything I need to know about that ass**le.”
He’ll turn from me. Jude won’t touch me again.
He wouldn’t look at her with hunger in his eyes. Wouldn’t touch her with desire.
Her fingers uncurled and pressed against the tops of her thighs. No choice. “I-I think he attacked Burrows and Lee because he was…giving them to me as presents.” Yeah, sounded sick and twisted as all hell—because it was.
His knuckles tightened around the wheel but he didn’t speak.
“He watches me. It’s what he does.” Always watching. “If he sees someone that he thinks hurts me or disrespects me, then he attacks.” And in the case of Burrows, leaves a body for her to find.
Because that was the kind of present every girl dreamed of. Forget diamonds. She wanted mutilated dead men.
No, no, even she wasn’t that broken.
“One hell of a Prince Charming you got there.” The engine revved as he shot off the exit ramp and down the long, deserted stretch of road.
Tell me something I don’t know. “He hurt a man I dated back in Lillian. My…friend was shot. The bullet barely missed his heart.” A human. He’d been in the hospital for weeks. When he’d gotten out, she’d stayed the hell away from him.
Stayed away—yeah, leaving the city definitely counted as staying away. The real bitch was…she’d cared for him, but she’d had to leave to keep him safe.
Ben wouldn’t have survived much longer in her world.
“No one else but me. You’re mine, Erin. Blood, bones, beast—mine.” She’d never forget that voice. Whispering to her in the darkness.
“The first time I ever heard from the guy,” she licked her lips and said, “he sent me roses. A dozen red roses.”
Jude flinched.
Roses. Just like the ones that had been left in Lee’s parking spot. The truck flew under the streetlights. “I used to love red roses.” He’d taken that from her, too. Now when she saw them, her entire body tensed up, and she could only think of blood and death. She swallowed and looked out the window at the blur of pine trees. “He sent me a note with them. Told me I was the woman he’d been looking for his whole life.”
And she’d been flattered. Excited. Nervous. Smiling and looking around the office as she tried to figure out who her secret admirer really was.
“I got mugged a few nights after that.” A rough laugh broke from her lips. “I could have taken the guy. He was a kid, couldn’t have been more than fifteen, but I was with friends.”
“Humans.”
A nod, one she didn’t even know if he saw because she wasn’t ready to look back at him yet. Since moving in with her father, she’d always stuck with the humans. They might fear her sometimes, when she slipped up, but at least they’d never thrown her away. “I didn’t want them to see”— how strong I am, how deadly I can be—“so I gave the guy my purse.” Not like she’d had much money in the bag. Maybe thirty bucks. No credit cards.
“Let me guess.” He turned off the winding road. Took a left. “Romeo punished the mugger.”
“Used his claws to slice open his throat.” She glanced down at her own nails. Short now, manicured. What a joke.
“Someone saw them fighting and called the cops. He didn’t get to finish the kid.” The boy had survived, barely. “I wouldn’t have even connected the stories. I was mugged. Some kid on the news had a knife wound.” Right. “I mean stuff like that happens every day.”
He pulled into his drive. She could see his cabin. Right where the woods and the swamp seemed to meet. A stark building standing against the glittering stars and the glow of the moon.
Jude killed the ignition, but made no move to get out of the truck. Neither did she. Get it over with. Tell him everything.
A touch on her shoulder.
Erin whirled around and found Jude staring at her with blue eyes that shone in the dim interior of the pickup.
“How’d you find out it was your admirer? ”
She licked her lips again. Nervous habit. Erin saw his gaze drop, then rise, slowly, back to hers. “When I-I got home from work the next night, my purse was there. Stained with blood. He left me a note. The bastard always liked his little notes.” Though he’d never left a fingerprint on them. She’d checked. The guys in the lab had owed her a few favors back in Lillian.
His note had been simple. Terrifying.
I made the bastard pay.
After that, he’d broken into her house. The first time. No security system had kept him out. And, being like she was, getting a dog, a really big, mean-ass dog, hadn’t been an option.
Not that a dog would have stopped him. Or even slowed him down.
Erin wanted to drop her gaze and because she wanted to, she didn’t. Lifting her chin, she stared into Jude’s eyes and said,
“Things escalated from there.” The scar seemed to burn.
Tell him.
“And you ran.” Flat. Jude shook his head and drummed the fingers of his left hand against the steering wheel. “No cops—”
“Lillian isn’t like Baton Rouge.” Too small. Not quite the atmosphere and size most paranormals craved. “The cops there wouldn’t have had the first clue about how to deal with this guy.”
The drumming fingers stilled. “I’ve got a clue.”
Yeah, she knew that and Jude had given her hope. Maybe the nightmare would finally end. Maybe.
Not alone now.
She reached for him, skimming her fingers down his cheek. She loved the soft sting of the light stubble on his flesh.
Jude stilled. His gaze held hers. Then his head moved, a graceful curl into her touch, just like a cat seeking a good rub.
The truck’s cab suddenly seemed very, very small.
Tell him.
But he was looking at her with hunger and need and such lust on his face. In his eyes.
I want him. Just like before. No holding back. No worrying about hurting him.
They were alone out there. Far away from prying eyes and listening ears.
Alone.
One more time. She wanted him again. Couldn’t she be greedy? A little greed never hurt anyone.
Her tongue swiped along her lower lip and she wished that she could taste him.
Do it.
She leaned toward him and heard the hard rasp of his breath. Her lips hovered over his.