Her eyes roamed up his torso. His dark grey shirt fitted snugly to his lithe body, revealing just enough about his physique to arouse her curiosity. The top few buttons were undone, giving a hint of muscled chest and sexy collarbones. No bite marks on his throat. Not into that sort of thing? Maybe he didn’t take vampire lovers.
She reached his face and slowed her visual exploration of the six-feet-plus of sex god in front of her. Every feature was sinful, from his profanely sensual lips, with slightly fuller bottom one, to the strong cut of his jaw, to his straight nose and fine eyebrows that flared above his striking grey eyes. They shifted back to her and her breath hitched in her chest. The dark edge to his eyes sent a thrill through her. Mother earth, he was gorgeous.
Forbidden.
She knew the rules. Incubi were demons. Demons were a big no-no for a witch.
She wouldn’t break the rules with him. Cross her heart. She just wanted to peel away the layers of this enigmatic male and learn about him. All witches were naturally curious, but Elissa was honest enough with herself to admit that what she felt for Payne went beyond natural.
It was dangerous.
Part of her said that she should help him because he had helped her by saving her from those Rozengard coven brutes. The rest of her said to bargain with him and try to get a taste of him. She wanted to know if the reality would live up to the fantasies she had about being with one of his kind. It was a risk though. A huge one. Incubi were volatile and aggressive. She might end up in over her head and she knew what awaited her if that happened.
Her heart piped up and said to ask only for his assistance. He was her key to getting Luca back. She had sworn to her sister to protect the boy and that bastard had taken him from this very home three weeks ago. She had cried for hours before finding the resolve to get him back somehow.
Elissa had scoured every book in her sister’s home but none of them had provided her with a means of finding where Arnaud had taken the boy.
She had been out looking for new books to buy when she had run into the men from Rozengard. They had asked whether she whored herself for demons too, calling her spiteful names and pushing her to get a reaction out of her. She had honestly thought that her life had been about to end in some dank street and that Luca would be lost forever.
And then Payne had come blazing into her life.
When he had caught her wrist to stop her from whipping him, she had seen the markings on his forearm. His lineage. Arnaud had been the second name in. Fate had given her a chance to reach Luca and save him. She needed Payne to help her.
Payne growled. “I’m not interested in playing.”
No. He had to help her. She took a step towards him and hesitated when his eyes narrowed on her, bleeding red around the edges of his irises. Volatile and aggressive. She didn’t need to provoke him. He had already proven he had a nasty temper.
“Please.” If she told him what she wanted to take back from his grandfather, would he help her? Elissa realised that it would only make him more unlikely to lend a hand. He clearly despised his incubus side. He wouldn’t want to help another one, not even an innocent child.
He squared up to her and she didn’t like the way he towered over her in an obvious attempt to intimidate her. It worked. She wanted to shrink away or at least drop her gaze. It was a struggle to keep her eyes locked on his.
“Tell me what I need to do to know where the incubi den is and I will go alone.”
Elissa shook her head. His eyes blazed red. She wasn’t going to let him threaten her.
She breezed past him and he huffed. She could feel his gaze tracking her. Her body burned wherever it touched her and she wanted to smile when it slid slowly down her back and settled on her bottom. He so wanted her.
“Tell me, Witch,” he barked and Elissa ignored him, going about her business.
She stacked more of the books, taking her time to neaten the piles, aligning the sides of each tome. When she was done with that task, she went to the desk and sorted through the loose sheets of parchment, arranging her new spells into alphabetical order. She wished she had something to knock a vampire-incubus on his backside, but she made her living by mixing politer and more useful potions and so had Verity.
He growled again, this one born of frustration, and Elissa realised that he didn’t like it when she acted as though he wasn’t a threat to her. It annoyed him. She tested her theory by neatening the glass beakers on the shelves above the desk, ordering them by size from big to small.
He snarled this time, impatient and snappish.
He moved, coming to stand behind her. Elissa didn’t look at him. It was hard to ignore her desire to turn and face him. She could feel him close behind her, her body tingling with awareness of his, veins filling with hunger to turn and step into his embrace, tiptoeing to bring her lips to his. Would he kiss her or push her away? She continued to tidy, picking up all her tongs, tweezers, spoons and stirrers and putting them into the desk drawer. She frowned, pausing with her hand on the front of the open drawer.