Читать книгу What She Wants - Lucinda Betts - Страница 10

For a moment, Ann froze, her breasts naked, the skirt of her dress fluttering. “Do you know her?” Ann’s voice croaked with doubt, but she knew the truth.

“It’s not what it seems.”

“Do you know her?”

“No, I don’t.” He touched his hair, straightening it with deft fingers, and for the first time in their relationship Ann knew with absolute certainty that Daniel lied.

“How dare you?” The woman’s voice shook with controlled fury. “How dare you?”

Ann’s lover—her ex-lover—shot Ann a wild expression, his eyes wide and eyebrows high. The moonlight caught the black of his irises. “I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

Shock had been protecting her, Ann realized, but that cocooning layer fell gently away now, leaving her naked and raw. Without a word, she stood and slid the straps of her dress over her shoulders, the surf pounding in her ears. Or was it her heart? Not until she tried for a third time to get the silky straps to stay where she put them did she understand her hands were shaking.

“Oh, my God.” Her words trembled. She’d been sleeping with a married man? Certainly an attached man. “I just—” She wrapped her arms around her chest, wanting to hold onto something solid. “Oh, my God.”

“Ann, listen.” Daniel tried to get her attention, touching her shoulder, but he was lost to her. She jerked away from him like his hands were poisonous, as poisonous as a rattlesnake.

“Ann, listen to me.”

The flitter of hope that he could explain this, that he could make her believe his wife wasn’t real, lived—but only for a millisecond. “Go away, Daniel.” Her voice had no emotion. “Leave me alone.”

“Ann!”

She straightened the bodice of her dress as the wind whipped the skirt. “I want no part of this. Or you. I can’t believe you dragged me into this. You sullied me—and yourself.” She looked at the resolute woman standing in the sand and added, “And her.”

“I don’t know her,” the bastard insisted. Ann saw a shifty look in his expression, a momentary flash of anger that he quickly mastered. The subsequent tightening around his eyes made him look like a cornered dog. “I’ve never seen her before this.”

“I don’t believe you. And I don’t want to see you again. I—”

“You don’t know me?” the woman said to Daniel. She put her hands on her hips, pointing the spotlight downward into the sand so that it highlighted her black sandals. Some weird part of Ann’s mind saw that the woman’s toenail polish, a deep purple, was chipped. “We’ve been together for more than ten years, and you don’t know me?”

“Listen.” He took a step toward her, his muscles tight. “Get out of here before I call the cops.”

The woman backed away, clearly unnerved. A breeze whipped through the night and blew her dark hair into her face. She might have followed them here, but Ann didn’t blame her for moving away from Daniel now. The tension in his shoulders, the hard set of his face, gave him a feral look.

“That’s right.” He took another step toward her. “Run home. Leave us alone.”

“I won’t leave—”

Daniel didn’t let her finish. “We don’t want you.” He took another step closer. “We don’t need you.”

The woman took a third step back and stumbled in the sand, dropping her gear. The spotlight flung crazy shadows over the dunes as it hit the sand, hurting Ann’s eyes.

“Stop it.” The stumble seemed to have bolstered something in her, solidified her resolve to see this confrontation to the end. “I’m not in the wrong. You are.”

“No one believes you.” Daniel’s voice growled like an angry dog’s.

“I believe you.” Ann found her boots and started to put them on. “And I’m so sorry.”

“Ann.” Something in his tone made her pause. “Ann!” Daniel took another step toward the woman.

“Leave her alone, Daniel. I never want to see you again.”

His eyes didn’t leave his wife’s face. “This woman’s raving. She’s a lunatic. Don’t listen to her.” He flicked a quick glance in Ann’s direction, but Ann knew he was mostly blind in the moonlit night.

“Should I show her pictures, Daniel?” The woman reached for a handbag she’d dropped in the sand. She didn’t sound crazy at all. “You and me in the Bahamas. You painting the garage.”

“Shut up!”

“You can look and explain it yourself to the blond floozy.”

Floozy? Ann wasn’t a floozy. Was she? “I’m so sorry,” Ann said, but the woman didn’t seem to hear her apology. And what good would it do anyway?

“I have the love letter you wrote me just last week.” The woman turned toward Daniel as she fumbled with the handbag. The light from the spotlight illuminated the sand rather than anything useful for the woman.

Daniel stepped into the light, his hands in fists. “I’ll call the cops and have you arrested so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

“Go ahead.” She quit searching inside her handbag, and a preternatural calm seemed to settle over her, as if nothing on this beach could touch her. “Call them.”

Daniel hauled back his arm and started to swing a roundhouse punch at the woman. She tried to turn away, her arms in front of her face, but she couldn’t protect herself.

Ann could, though. She let her biology take over.

She pulled power from the earth and shunted it to her arms and fists. Before she could blink, she shoved Daniel with the inhuman strength only her kind could channel.

“Daniel!” the other woman cried, flinging herself in his direction. Was she trying to protect him?

The sound of his elbow cracking into the woman’s face reverberated through the night, and then the woman gave a reedy shriek. She clutched her face and fell to the sand with a terrible moan.

“What have you done?” Daniel pulled himself to his feet. “Is she okay?” He looked at the woman he’d been about to punch, and Ann realized she had never known this man. “How did you do that?” he asked.

“You’ve lost your mind.” Ann went to the unconscious woman’s side. The coppery scent of blood filled her nose, tugging at her, calling to her magic.

“You threw me into her. You did this.” He punted the spotlight across the sand with a kick. The bulb exploded as the light hit the ground, and Ann saw bits of white glass shower the sand like wedding confetti.

And Ann knew the truth. She had done this. She’d ruined the relationship the woman had had with the man she’d thought of as her husband, and now Ann had ruined the woman’s face.

“You have no idea what was at stake. If I bring you in I can—” Cutting off his own words, he stalked to the blanket. “I was protecting you,” he snarled.

“I don’t need your protection.” Because unless he had planned to help her fight a predator he didn’t know existed, she didn’t need his help—the magic coalescing in her blood saw to that.

“You have no idea,” he repeated. He stood unmoving as a black cloud skittered in front of the moon, leaving them in darkness for a heartbeat. Despite the blackness, she read his expression. He showed no emotion, no fear or remorse. In that moment she realized if she were a normal woman—a human woman—she would be afraid.

Regardless, she wasn’t normal. Ignoring him, she kneeled in the sand beside the woman. Even without her powers in full swing, she knew the woman’s left cheekbone was crushed and her eye already swelled shut. The hard cartilage of her nose sat at an odd angle, and blood poured from her nostrils.

Ann watched blood trickle from the victim’s ear and faced an ugly, ugly truth. Her own denial had caused this. She should’ve paid more attention during their courtship, realized she’d been cast in the role of the “other woman.” Even Daniel’s perennial unwillingness to truly make love to her should have keyed her into the truth.

She’d have more time for regrets later. Now, she needed to fix this.

Squatting next to the woman, Ann reached for her purse, wanting her phone. She needed paramedics now, but her hand found nothing. “Where is it?” She scanned the sand where it must have fallen.

“Wanting this, babe?” Daniel dangled her cell in front of her. His smile mocked her.

“Let me have the phone, Daniel.”

“I think you can heal her. You should do it.”

The words should have chilled her, but anger boiled in her gut instead. She pointed at the woman. “You’re crazy. She’s bleeding from her ear. You’re a vet. You know what that means.”

“Then do your magic.” He nodded at the woman. “They told me you have special powers. Use them.”

What? “She needs paramedics now.” Or healing magic, like Daniel suggested. “Don’t rob her of her life.” Who’d said she had special powers? What nest of snakes had her mother stumbled into?

“I’m not robbing her of anything—you are, if you just stand there. I can protect you. Let’s see you do your stuff.”

Devils would dance across the beach in figure-skating dresses before she showed him anything. “Call 911, and I won’t tell anyone you did this. We’ll say we found her like this.”

“No.” He shook his head and his blond hair gleamed in the moonlight. “I think you need to tell me what you were about to say before she interrupted.” He loomed over her as he said this. The moon threw crazy shadows over his shoulder, but Ann wasn’t intimidated. “Tell me now.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” How could she get this woman to the hospital? “You need help, Daniel, but she needs help more. Just give me the phone.”

“You were telling me about your extraordinary hearing and your amazing vision.” His white teeth glittered in the odd light.

And Ann realized he was right. She’d been just about to tell him her secret.

With a growing disgust, she realized she’d been just about to accept his marriage proposal. Dear God. How pathetic could she be? “You would risk her life for some crazy idea?” she asked. “You’d wait for me to heal her like I’m some wizard from another realm rather than call a doctor?”

“You’re not human, are you?”

“No, I’m an alien from Mars.”

“I knew it!” Harsh glee filled his voice as he jerked his hand back and pitched her cell into the crashing Pacific waves.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” She stood so that he didn’t lurk over her. “You’re out of your mind. Do you still have your phone, or did the little voice in your head that sounds like Cthulhu tell you to chuck that, too?”

“I have something better for you than a phone, babe.” He walked over to the cooler and squatted, rummaging through the wine and cheese. What was he going to do? Start a food fight? She considered jumping on his back and taking the phone—but the pistol stopped her.

“You’re going to shoot me?” Incredulity rippled through the intellectual part of her mind.

Except her animal self believed the threat. Magic began swirling through her blood, licking her veins. Ozone crackled through her hair, and she focused so her power didn’t whip from her control.

“I’m going to bring you in. There’s a huge bounty on your head if I bring you in alive.” He centered the weapon at her heart. “Don’t be scared, though. I can keep you safe. I love you.”

Time to state the obvious. “People don’t usually use pistols on people they love.”

“It won’t hurt you. It’s a dart gun.”

Her nose caught whiff of a chemical—Telazol. She’d used it herself to knock out wild horses. He was going to tranquilize her, which just might work, if she stood here and did nothing. Unlikely. “Good luck with that,” she said as she moved away from him.

“I don’t need luck, babe.” He pointed the pistol and started to pull the trigger. “Not tonight.”

She didn’t stop to think; she acted. Her biology worked its spell, and hot lust surged through her veins. Unfocused desire woke in her, imbued every cell in her body with a dark craving. Her lips ached for a lover’s kiss. Her neck yearned for the caress of a skilled tongue. Her breasts and nipples craved a skillful stroke, a hard touch.

And for the first time in years, it wasn’t Daniel’s face and mouth and hands she longed for. Detective Atlanta’s slow smile flashed though her mind, searing its way through her veins—but that gave way to an image of the dark-haired stranger, the predator. And she wanted him.

Yes, her body said. Him. The predator.

She ignored the urge to fuck, relying on years of purposeful changes, the strength originating from resisting that temptation.

And even as her cells pulled strength from the earth, even as her mitochondria pulsed with energy while forming iridescent green tendrils and wrapping them through her breasts and hips, she ran toward the roses, her human feet still clad in boots.

Her fingertips craved the feel of hard muscle beneath them like a junkie craves heroin; her mouth craved the searing kiss of a magnificent lover, even her ex-lover—but all that desire was beside the point. Her rational mind craved secrecy, and it won the battle.

Never in her life had she let anyone see her change, and she wasn’t about to let this pustulant asshat be the first. Foliage crackled beneath her feet as thorns ripped her thin dress.

A flash of yellow whizzed past her face just after she heard a crack. She needed a heartbeat to register the truth: he’d shot at her. The glow-in-the-dark yellow was the tranquilizer dart.

Only the ineffectual workings of the human eye in the darkness had saved her—Daniel was a great shot. She herself had watched him bring down her wild horses, one after another.

Ignoring the jagged thorns, she crouched into the thicket. Her breasts ached for a rough caress. Her clit longed for a hot tongue, skilled fingers—and her hands and feet gave way to hooves. She channeled breath-stealing lust into power, shunting the desire throbbing in her core into muscle tissue, storing away the excess energy until she needed it, until she could use it.

Waves crashed on the shore, and her thighs morphed into gaskins and stifles. Toenails and fingernails gave way to coronet bands. The scent of crushed roses filled her equine nostrils, mingling with the odor of blood in a way not possible in her human form to detect. Her equine hindquarters formed, and her tail sprouted. Her neck elongated and her mane tangled in the thorny branches—but she didn’t care. Daniel wouldn’t hurt her. He couldn’t. And she’d see to it that he’d never hurt anyone again.

Another yellow dart flew past her with a cracking explosion. It missed her.

Her ex-lover might know where she was, but he didn’t know what she was, not for certain. By the end of the week, the man would be locked in a padded cell and labeled insane.

“Ann!” Daniel called. She heard him reload the pistol, knew he had plenty of Telazol darts. “You can’t hide from me,” he called.

Hiding wasn’t what she had in mind. Concentrating her strength into her haunches, she sprang from the thicket, her mane and tail flying, her ears pinned back.

“Dear God, it’s true,” Daniel gasped. She heard him pull the trigger as she blasted toward him, and she felt the loaded dart fly past her neck. “We’re going to be famous!”

Fucking bastard.

She galloped a long distance past him, not because she was afraid—she wasn’t—but because she needed speed for her plan to work.

Damp sand sprayed over the beach as she slid to a stop and spun around. Pouring the excess energy she’d collected into her legs and pulling more from the earth as she caught her bearings, she focused on Daniel—and then barreled toward him.

As her nostrils dilated, salty air filled her lungs and oxygenated every one of her cells with an efficiency Secretariat would’ve envied. She ran faster than any racehorse, and her hooves slammed into the sand, channeling more energy to her veins.

She’d smash Daniel into the sand.

But even as her head bobbed in tandem with the pounding of her hooves, even as the wind whipped her mane flat against her neck, she saw him adjust his aim.

He trained his pistol right on her chest, and Ann realized her white coat must shine in the full light of the moon.

“Ann,” he called across the beach as she closed the distance between them. “Just hold still. I won’t hurt yo—”

She didn’t let him finish. Within two heartbeats she slammed her withers into his chest, and he hit the ground with a thud.