Bewitch(10)

He couldn’t do this.
He turned to leave.
Elissa was there before him, her hands braced against the doorframe, blocking his exit. There was a decidedly different look on her face now. She had gone from stubborn, determined and wicked, to scared, desperate and weak. What was it that she wanted him to retrieve for her? Whatever it was, it looked as though it meant the world to her.
“This is the only way of fixing your friend’s problem and you’re my only hope of getting back what he took from me. Please, Payne.”
Payne swallowed again, his throat as rough and dry as sandpaper. He closed his eyes and hung his head, waging a war against his better judgement. He had promised to find a way of freeing Chica and he had found one. He couldn’t give up now when he was so close. But could he do as she was asking?
Could he put aside his hatred of his incubus side and learn to embrace it?
Payne clenched his fists and knew the answer to that question in his heart.
The things he did for his friends.            







 
    Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
    
 


 
CHAPTER 3
Elissa had firmly crossed a line and she had a feeling where. She had known from the moment she had set eyes on Payne in the street that he was more than what she could see on the surface. She hadn’t expected him to be part vampire though.
Or should that be part incubus?
She should have schooled her features when he had revealed that little titbit about himself, not pointed out that he was a half-breed with some serious issues.
Payne stood before her, his head hung and eyes closed, the soft sandy spikes of his hair catching the firelight and shining. His powerful body was taut beneath his clothes, as tight as a bowstring, his fists clenched at his sides. She could see his struggle written in every toned facet of his physique. He opened his eyes and looked into hers. Their deep grey depths sparkled with flecks of blue and gold, a sign of his incubus nature.
Elissa couldn’t imagine what sort of mental number having a dominant vampire side and recessive incubus one did on him. Incubi were in no way submissive creatures. It probably pushed for control all the time, barely held at bay by his stronger vampire instincts. She hadn’t been lying when she had said he was all shades of messed up, but she had only meant this war between his dual natures. The way he had reacted said that he had taken it to mean something far deeper than that.
What reason did he have to feel majorly screwed in the head? It had to be more than just the twin species in his genes.
The struggle shone in his beautiful eyes, as clear as day to her. He wasn’t bothering to mask his feelings as he waged a silent war in search of an answer to her proposition. The flecks of gold and blue brightened, marking his apprehension but also his desire. He wanted her. She shivered at the knowledge, feeling empowered that such a beautiful man would desire her. She had offered herself to him, wanted him too, but he had denied her.
She had never seen a male so fiercely deny his desires.
She had definitely never seen an incubus refuse an advance from a female.
Normally, they were quick to take what they were offered. She had heard tales about the sexual prowess of incubi from some of the female fae who visited her spell store near the square, every one of them wicked and filling her head with forbidden desire.
She had even met a few incubi, selling them vials of potions designed to remove inhibitions and unleash desires. Ever since the incubi had taken a vow to feed only from willing females, swearing they would never use their abilities to take an unwilling woman and make her sleep with them, she had been busy concocting and selling liquids that would help them bend their own rules.
Payne was nothing like the incubi she had met, and something within her said that it was more than just his dual natures at work.
He gazed off to her left and Elissa took the opportunity to close the purple wooden door, shutting out the noise from the street. She used her magic to lock it. Not that it would stop him from leaving. He could easily teleport away. She did it to drive her point home. She didn’t want him to leave. They needed each other.
She ran her gaze over him, starting at his black boots and dark blue jeans, and then drifting upwards to his hands. Strong hands. Long fingers. Made for squeezing, palming, stroking and caressing. She blushed and averted her gaze. It lingered on his bare right forearm and the scars that littered his skin. He must have badly injured himself at some point in his life or perhaps his not quite one hundred percent vampire genes meant that he didn’t possess the same level of healing that pure vampires had.#p#分页标题#e#