Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian 3)

"What the fuck does it matter, given what you just did?"

"If you'd tell me the truth for a change, I wouldn't have to resort to such measures!"

His voice was as loud and as angry as mine, but there was a tremor in his tones that suggested I had hurt him. Part of me was fiercely glad. Part of me hated it.

"I have a right to privacy. In my life, and in my thoughts."

"This is different."

"Why? Because you're a twelve-hundred-year-old vampire who no longer has to obey the rules?"

"And yet, for all my age, and for all my psychic skills and knowledge, you just ripped through my shields as if they were paper. And then you sent me flying. You couldn't have done that a few months ago."

A cold hard knot formed deep in the pit of my stomach. He was right. God help me, he was right. Even though Jack had been training me in the fine art of breaking through psychic shields over the last few months, I'd never managed to break through all his shields, no matter how hard I'd tried. And Quinn was far more powerful than Jack.

I licked my lips, and pushed the thoughts away. Now was not the time to think about the implications of his statement, or what it might mean to the future I so desperately wanted.

"Don't try changing the fucking subject."

He sighed, climbed a little unsteadily to his feet, and redressed himself. "I admitted to you months ago that I was, in part, using you. You were my quickest way of finding information about my missing friend - information that the Directorate, and my friendship with Director Hunter, wasn't providing. That hasn't changed - though the reason certainly has."

"So that's why you're back now?"

"Partially. Something changed yesterday afternoon. Something is happening. I can feel it."

He could feel it? How? We hadn't shared dreams in any way yesterday, so he couldn't have leeched information that way. And, usually, he could only catch my thoughts if he was physically near.

But maybe he had been. Maybe he'd been here in Melbourne all along, and just hadn't contacted me.

Bastard.

"So the real reason you came to my apartment last night was for a little extra information gathering? I bet it sucked having your grand plans foiled by Kellen's presence."

"It wasn't the only reason I was here last night. I did want to see you."

Yeah. Believing that big time. "How in the hell could you supposedly feel anything when we're supposedly only sharing erotic dreams and nothing more?"

He didn't answer. No surprise there. The bastard never answered questions that really mattered.

He walked toward me and held out my panties. I snatched them from his hand and threw them to the floor. And some childish part of me wanted to stomp all over them - or maybe its just that I wanted to stomp all over Quinn, and with no hope of achieving that, they were the next best option.

"Was I ever anything more than just a convenient source of information?" I asked bitterly.

He reached out, his fingers briefly caressing my check with heat until I jerked away from his touch. His hand dropped back to his side, but the determination in his eyes said he was far from defeated.

"There has always been something more between us."

"Yeah, great sex."

"More than that. I care for you, Riley. Deeply."

I snorted softly. "You keep saying that, and yet you couldn't even be bothered coming to see me for the last two months. The only reason you're here now is the fact that you sensed something was happening with the case."

He studied me, arms crossed, face impassive. But there was nothing impassive in his eyes. Nothing impassive in the explosive swirl of emotion scorching my skin with heat.

"If it was your brother they'd snatched and killed, would you not do everything in your power to exact revenge? Even if that meant betraying someone you cared for greatly?"

"That's different - "