Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jenson Guardian 5)

I nosed around the gateway and, through the many scents that crowded my olfactory senses, found the one I was hunting for.

With my nose to the ground, I followed. The chill wind ruffled my fur but did little to affect the trail. Liam obviously hadn't run after he'd murdered his girlfriend - not if these spoors were anything to go by. Running steps tended to be longer, the distance between each step - and therefore each scent mark - greater.

Liam had walked. Casually, unhurriedly. As if he hadn't a care in the world, despite all the blood that must have covered him.

I followed the trail into Rose Street, then crossed another road and found myself in a park. Trees lined the rim of the park, and seemed to snake through the middle. Liam didn't stay on any of the well-worn tracks, instead heading for a small but thick clump of trees in the middle.

It was there I found him.

Only he was well and truly dead. ;Leave it," Kellen said, kissing my forehead.

"I can't. It might be urgent." I pushed upright.

"You're still officially on vacation," he said, annoyance edging in his rich tones. "Nothing is so urgent that someone else can't take care of it."

"But it might be Rhoan." Though I doubted it. He obviously knew Kellen was picking me up from the airport, and he also knew about my fantasy involving the limo - a fantasy I hadn't finished with yet. He wouldn't disrupt us, no matter how urgent.

I reached into my handbag and pulled out my vid-phone. As I suspected, it wasn't Rhoan. It was Jack. He obviously knew I was back - thanks to the damn tracker permanently implanted in my car - but it was a little unfair for him to be ringing even before my holidays had finished. Of course, tonight was Halloween, and it was one of the busiest times of the year for the Directorate. Rather like hospitals during the full moon.

If I'd wanted to enjoy the full length of my vacation, I should have stayed on the island where the sheer distance between us made it impossible for Jack to call me in.

But I never actually got the chance to answer the phone and find out what Jack wanted, because Kellen took one look at the number, then plucked the phone neatly from my hand and threw it out one of the open windows. It hit the road hard and disintegrated into dozens of metal bits that went scattering everywhere.

For a moment, shock held me speechless. "What the hell - "

"You're on still on holidays," he cut in. "They have no right to be contacting you just yet."

Annoyance rolled through me, but so, too, did desire. Nothing got my hormones scurrying faster than a man taking charge for all the right reasons. Still, I couldn't help adding, "You just destroyed my phone. And it might have been important - "

"This is important, Riley. Us. Not work." He raised a hand to my cheek, cupping it lightly. "And if it was a matter of true urgency, Rhoan can contact me, He knows where we'll be. He has my number."

I raised my eyebrows, curious despite myself. "So we're not going back to your place?"

"Given your propensity in the past to run off on guardian business, no, we are not. I intend for our night of pleasure to be far away from the madding crowd. And any form of transport."

I wriggled on his lap, feeling his growing readiness, loving the heat of him pressed against me. "I should be very angry with you. And Jack certainly will be."

"Jack doesn't scare me. And you, my love, will enjoy every moment I have planned."

"Is that an order?" I murmured, my lips so deliciously close to his that I could taste every breath, every move of his lips.

"It most certainly is," he said, and kissed me.

Our night of pleasure was spent in the Macedon hills, on a property belonging to one of Kellen's friends.

There was just the two of us, a tent, and a huge picnic basket of food on five acres of manicured lawns and lush gardens. We laughed, we played, and we made love - sometimes in full view of the neighbors - and it was absolutely divine. Even the notoriously fickle Melbourne weather dealt us a nice night for a change.

Dawn had barely begun to creep her fiery fingers across the blackness of night when Kellen's phone finally rang. He unwrapped himself from around me and fished out the phone from the tangle of our clothes.

"It's Rhoan," he said, and handed the vid-phone tome.

"So," my brother said, expression wry, "Had a good time?"

"Absolutely wonderful," I said, stretching like a contented cat languishing in the sun.

"I certainly hope so, because Jack isn't happy."

"Jack's never happy." I paused, barely resisting the urge to giggle as Kellen began tickling the underside of my foot. "What docs he want me to do?"