Читать книгу Renegade Angel - Kendra Castle Leigh - Страница 13

Ember awakened to find herself strapped into the passenger seat of a sexy black Corvette, slumped to the side and with her mouth wide-open. Since that was her usual mode of travel sleeping, it wouldn’t have been a really big deal, just kind of embarrassing.

Except that she also felt as if a truck had driven over her recently. And she didn’t normally travel in mismatched pajamas with strange men who sometimes turned into birds.

She swallowed hard as she tried to sort through the hazy, fun-house memories of the night before, and the adrenaline began to pump again through her sluggish, sleep-addled system. Seemed as if there was plenty to be afraid of, all of a sudden. And that was a switch, since she was usually the scariest thing in any given place.

At least, that was what she’d always thought. Now, Ember wasn’t so sure. About anything. And there was only one person available to ask. She cleared her throat softly, and hoped that her rapidly beating heart wouldn’t be given away by a shaking voice.

“Wh-where am I?”

Raum looked frighteningly intense with his hands on the wheel, piloting the sports car smoothly along at well over eighty miles an hour. She didn’t know what he’d been thinking about … wasn’t actually sure she wanted to know. He jumped a little at the sound of her voice, though, as if he’d forgotten she was even there.

Then his eyes met hers, just for a quick instant, and Ember felt a hot sizzle of connection that had nothing to do with fear. Her heartbeat slowed a little, but the fear was replaced by an angry tug of possessiveness that was disconcerting in its strength.

Mine, she thought, and remembered thinking it right before she’d fallen into his arms. When the poison had begun to work on her. And his touch had been so much gentler than she’d expected. She knew she should be afraid. But knowing that this man, supernatural creature, or whatever he was, had saved her life prevented her from being much but grateful that he’d been around when she’d needed him to be.

“You’re awake,” he said, and there was a slight edge to his voice, as though he wasn’t quite sure what to do with her, either. To have at least that in common was oddly soothing to her.

“Awake,” she agreed, trying a small smile. “And alive. Thanks to you.”

Ember fully expected that this would be the opening to a detailed conversation about why, exactly, her house had been invaded by something that looked to have come from the seventh circle of Hell, not to mention why Raum had been looking out for her.

She did not expect that he would continue to drive, silently and way too fast. Or that he would look kind of pissed off, which she thought was an inappropriate reaction to her continued existence, at best.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Raum finally said, and the surly tone of his voice told her that yes, he was in fact kind of pissed off.

“Okay, I’ll be angry that you saved my life,” Ember said with a frown. “Would that suit you better?”

“You could just forget about it. That would be my preference.” His rich, warm voice slid through her, waking up nerve endings that had no business being awake right now. Her eyes drifted for a moment, and Ember noted for the first time that his hands, gripping the steering wheel, looked red and raw. Painful.

The old and familiar guilt flooded her immediately.

“I didn’t do that, did I?” she blurted out, and without thinking she reached out to brush her hand against his. It was her greatest fear, hurting people. Especially when they had done nothing to warrant it. It seemed she hurt anyone she got too close to; God knew her own mother had gotten scars from her when she was too young to know better, only one reason why the woman wanted next to nothing to do with her only child. And a big reason, despite the widely recognized fact that Dina Riddick had never wanted and still did not want responsibility for anyone other than herself, that Ember had let it go. Let her go.

But every once in a while, that deep and denied need for a bit of human contact got the better of Ember’s com mon sense. She felt it only for a moment when their hands touched, that hot and tingling rush when their skin connected, before Raum jerked his hand away with a furious glare. Ember let her own hand linger in midair for a moment, staring at it as it continued to tingle with tiny aftershocks.

“No,” Raum growled. “You didn’t do this. Now, sit still. We have a ways to go yet, and you don’t need to be crawling all over the car. You already know I’m not going to hurt you.”

Ember pulled her hand back and looked away, angry and embarrassed all at the same time. She knew what he’d meant: crawling all over ME, he might as well have said. But she knew he’d felt it, too. She just didn’t know why he found it so repulsive, when to her it held the promise of something like Heaven.

Ember ran a hand through the unruly tangles of her hair, winced as she pulled through innumerable snags. Then she sighed and again looked over at her big, grim-faced chauffeur. Her reaction to him was no less powerful than it had been last night, but this time it was tempered with annoyance. It didn’t stop her from wanting to crawl into his lap, but it did allow her to hang on to her wits this time. Or maybe her body was adjusting to a new, erotically charged baseline.

“Raum, if that really is your name,” she said, and saw by the slight turn of his head that he was listening. “I really don’t feel like I should have to ask, but what the hell is going on?”

He paused. And at least this time, when he answered her, he didn’t sound as if he wanted to fight. It was progress, of a sort.

“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to explain this that doesn’t end with you throwing yourself out of the car,” he said. “So I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you just ask me the things you want to know? And start small.”

She nodded, inadvertently amused. He really did seem to be a man of few words. But as long as he was answering, she could work with it. “Okay,” she said. “Agreed.”

“Good.” He took a deep breath, and Ember realized, suddenly, that Raum was as knotted up as she was. Somehow, knowing that made it easier to start.

“What are you?” she asked.

He considered this for a moment. “Start somewhere else.”

Ember blew out an irritated breath. “Okay, fine. What am I? I’m assuming you’re not unaware of the fact that I was growling and snarling right along with everyone else last night.”

“At least you have a sense of humor about it,” he said. When she just glared at him, waiting for a response, he relented.