Kissed by Darkness(73)

Except something was bothering me about those dreams, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Unfortunately it was escaping me at the moment.

“Well come on, then. Let’s go save the world.” He opened my bedroom door and waved me outside.

I shoved aside my doubts and flashed him a grin. “And kick Darroch’s butt.”

His answering grin was frighteningly feral as he followed me out the door. “And definitely kick Darroch’s butt.”





Chapter Twenty





I was not entirely stupid, so before Jack and I did the whole breaking and entering thing, I sent a text to Kabita and Inigo to let them know where I was and what I was doing. Jack was one of the best fighters I’d ever seen. OK, he was the best fighter I’d ever seen (900 years of experience would do that), but Darroch had a lot of goons. Backup was never a bad idea.

“Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” His voice was low in my ear. His breath tickled my skin and sent shivers through my body. Bad libido. Bad! This was so not the time to be acting up.

“He must have one hell of a night life. I swear the man is never home.” I scanned the grounds. Sure enough, two of the big, black cars I’d seen on the day of the barbecue were gone. Then again, I wasn’t discounting the possibility of a trap. Call me suspicious.

“How many times have you broken in?”

I shrugged. “This is only the second time. And lucky you, I’ve been here before. I know how to get in.”

“Good. You know where the amulet is kept.”

“Um. Not so much,” I admitted.

“So it could be anywhere.” Exasperation was clear in his voice, which resulted in some eye rolling on my part.

“Well, excuse me. I only had time to search the bedroom before he came home,” I sniped.

“It wouldn’t be in the bedroom.” He sounded very sure of himself.

I gave him a look. “What do you mean; it wouldn’t be in the bedroom? Wouldn’t he want to keep it close?” I guess I had a few things to learn about the fine art of burglary. Was it my fault I was better at killing things than stealing them?

Jack shook his head. His eyes glinted silver in the moonlight. “No. That’s the first place a burglar would look. There’s no way Darroch would allow that amulet to accidentally fall into the hands of some petty thief.” Now it was his turn to give me a look.

“I am not a petty thief.” I couldn’t help it if my voice came out a little snippy. “I was trying to get the amulet back for you. So it’s your fault.”

He laughed softly. His face was awfully close to mine. Wouldn’t take much for him to lean over and kiss me. I shivered with the thought. Despite the slight chill in the night air, I suddenly felt decidedly warm.

“Hey.” He reached out and stroked one finger down my cheek, leaving warm tingles in its wake. Oh, good lord, I was going to melt into a puddle right then and there. “When this is over, I’m taking you out for dinner. How do you feel about Italian?”

Did he just ask me out on a date? Seriously? “I, uh, I love Italian.” What could I say? I was a pizza kind of girl. I know. Italian food wasn’t just pizza, but it was still my favorite, especially if it was the real deal. Yum.

He flashed me a grin. “Great. I know this fantastic little spot just outside Rome. Very romantic.”

Rome? As in Italy? I think maybe I squeaked. The guy hadn’t even slept with me except in the literal sense and he wanted to take me to dinner in Italy? Holy crap, wait until Kabita heard about this. She was going to freak the heck out. I swear, sometimes I was so sixteen.

“Guess it’s now or never,” I said, playing it cool instead of blurting something stupid about Rome or Italy or dinner or even worse, begging him to throw me to the ground and have his way with me. Seriously, what was wrong with my libido lately? It was completely out of control. “Let’s go.”

He grabbed the back of my head and pulled me in for a quick, hard kiss before taking my hand and heading off across the lawn. Great. Now all I could think about was how warm and strong his hand was and how soft and full his lips were. How it made certain parts of me sit up and take notice. How much I wanted to kiss him again, strip him naked, climb on top and …

Honestly, had it been that long since I’d been with someone? Come to think of it, yeah. It had definitely been that long.

I led him around to the side of the house where the pantry window was. Unfortunately, this time it was locked up tight so we were going to have to find another way in. Dammit.

“Thought you said you knew the way in,” he hissed at me. I just glared at him and moved around to the back where I knew there was a nice, big sliding glass door. Push come to shove, a rock could accidentally make its way through said door.