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“I know that,” she told him, and smiled
“When you talked about de else,” Nick said, and looked away
She didn’t even realize she’d risen until she was halfway across the floor, and by then she wasn’t stopping until she reached theseat He had to tilt his head backward against the glass to look up at her
“Nick, what do you mean?”
“I don’t want to possess anyone,” Nick said softly, eyes shining like ink “So I didn’t think I’d want to mark a hu uard, and none of the others can touch, and I could—”
“Control someone,” Mae said “Make them your slave”
Nick blinked slowly, eyelashes sweeping the top of his cheekbones “That too”
He was devastatingly beautiful, Mae thought, and “devastating” was the word: She could see stor in his eyes
“I didn’t think I’d want to mark a human,” he said “But I do”
“Alan,” Mae whispered
“Yes,” Nick whispered back “And you”
Mae went still, torn between the impulse that said the demon’s eye was on her, that she should run, and the i to indicate she mattered to him before
“Oh,” she said
“And Jamie,” Nick continued
“Oh,” she said, in a very different way “Well Thanks for my part in the compliment Naturally I’d love to be watched and controlled, but I think Imy hair that day”
Nick grinned “Yeah, all right”
He looked more relaxed, Mae noticed He was pleased about that book, she thought, pleased by the idea of the past and his father reading to him, his brother happy
“I think we can get by without that,” she said “Even if I, as the boo seduce Gerald’s secrets out of him”
“That’s ridiculous,” Nick told her “I’roup”
Mae laughed and held out her hand
“What?” Nick de”
“What?” Mae echoed back at him “Another lesson for you, Nick: When you want tothey enjoy with the a moment of probably soon-to-be-destroyed optimism about the future Don’t worry It probably won’t last”
She ran to put in a CD she liked that was a little bit rock and a little bit blues, and then she went over and grasped Nick’s hands in hers, pulling him to his feet
Her confidence was checked by the way he just looked down at her, as if waiting for the hue customs She opened her hands and his slipped out of hers, down by his sides
Mae’s skin was prickling with sudden sha at her, slam as many doors as she could between herself and his eyes, and she wanted to so
“Coht “You kno to dance, don’t you?”
He reached for her waist and then slid his big hands down along her body, fingers curling around her belt His ring was a cold shock on the strip of skin between her shirt and her jeans
“Yeah,” Nick said, his voice curling in the air like s it hard to breathe “I kno to dance”
Mae looked up at hi she could read: lowered eyelids and the line of hisat his shoulders and the rhythile barrier of his T-shirt, grasping the worn cotton as if it was all that was holding her up Her knuckles pressed tight against the swell of his shoulders, feeling his muscles shift as he moved with her
She dipped doith hi hers, stepped back and then up against hiain Her breath hitched every time he stepped in to her, a warm scrape in the back of her throat, and she wished desperately that she could stop it, but she couldn’t Heit, every time
When they neared a wall, she al it, barely aware of things like walls, for God’s sake He palainst her hipbone, and turned her easily, swinging her against him
Mae’s death grip on his shirt went loose, fingers curling up of what seemed to be their own volition to touch his neck, and that was aunder her fingertips, and then she completely lost her mind, because she suddenly had both hands in his hair and was pulling his head down to catch the part of his lips, his tiny indrawn breath
His rabbed her shoulders and pushed her back at arth, hard
“No,” said Nick
Just that, short and brutal He let her go and walked back to the
Mae’s first impulse was to die of sha moment that this was probably impractical
“Right, sorry,” she said, forcing her voice to sound entirely unmoved She’d just been carried away by the et it”
She paused and knew for a sinkingto respond, and she could think of absolutely nothing to say, and the best she could hope for was that he would just leave in total silence so she could work on her dying-of-shame plan Then Jamie, her beautiful, beautiful, timely brother, opened the door and looked rather surprised
“Nick!” he said, s here?”
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“I know that,” she told him, and smiled
“When you talked about de else,” Nick said, and looked away
She didn’t even realize she’d risen until she was halfway across the floor, and by then she wasn’t stopping until she reached theseat He had to tilt his head backward against the glass to look up at her
“Nick, what do you mean?”
“I don’t want to possess anyone,” Nick said softly, eyes shining like ink “So I didn’t think I’d want to mark a hu uard, and none of the others can touch, and I could—”
“Control someone,” Mae said “Make them your slave”
Nick blinked slowly, eyelashes sweeping the top of his cheekbones “That too”
He was devastatingly beautiful, Mae thought, and “devastating” was the word: She could see stor in his eyes
“I didn’t think I’d want to mark a human,” he said “But I do”
“Alan,” Mae whispered
“Yes,” Nick whispered back “And you”
Mae went still, torn between the impulse that said the demon’s eye was on her, that she should run, and the i to indicate she mattered to him before
“Oh,” she said
“And Jamie,” Nick continued
“Oh,” she said, in a very different way “Well Thanks for my part in the compliment Naturally I’d love to be watched and controlled, but I think Imy hair that day”
Nick grinned “Yeah, all right”
He looked more relaxed, Mae noticed He was pleased about that book, she thought, pleased by the idea of the past and his father reading to him, his brother happy
“I think we can get by without that,” she said “Even if I, as the boo seduce Gerald’s secrets out of him”
“That’s ridiculous,” Nick told her “I’roup”
Mae laughed and held out her hand
“What?” Nick de”