Chapter Three

C ome home with you?” Shay knew the objective was to get close to Nic and earn his trust. She supposed getting an invite to his house was about as close as she could get. But how much closer?

“I just want to get to know you better. I don’t mean anything nefarious by the invite. I’m not a secret agent, remember?”

She laughed. “Not a secret agent. Got it.”

“I have a big house. We could hang out by the pool and talk.”

“I’d love to go to your place. I was hoping we could…continue our conversation. I like spending time with you.”

She liked it for more reasons than just the job she was doing, too. Nic was engaging, beautiful to look at, and her vibes had been zinging for hours now, which was both disturbing and fascinating.

But the main part was her job and she had to remember that. The vibes were just a troubling add-on that she had to figure out.

Like why him and why now? It wasn’t as if she got the sensations from just anyone.

Nic stood and pulled out his wallet. “Ready to go?”

Shay put a hand on his wrist, feeling a low hum through her body at the touch. She blocked any visuals—she couldn’t handle them right now. “I said I’d buy, remember?”

His brows raised. “So you did.”

She paid and they climbed into his SUV. “I’ll drop you at your car and you can follow me.”

Of course she already knew where he lived, but when he let her off, she got into the car and followed behind him. The Diavolo mansion was surrounded by tall black privacy gates, warning signs plastered on the front making it very clear that the property was secure and well guarded. The main double gates opened as he approached, and he drove through, Shay following and smiling at the guards in the shack. They didn’t smile back.

They didn’t look like demons, either.

What did she expect? Gruesome hybrid demons guarding the gates of Hell at the Diavolo mansion?

She snorted at her wayward imagination.

They snaked through a twisted path lined with tall trees that shadowed menacingly over the road as if in preparation for attack.

How appropriate, given who owned the house.

Finally, they broke through the trees and faced a sunlit home.

Not really a home, since it was as big as a freakin’ hotel. Four stories tall and equally as wide, the driveway alone constituted a parking lot. Nic pulled up in front of the house and Shay pulled behind him.

“Uh, wow,” she said as she exited her car. “Nice house.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. It’s a goddamn mausoleum. My dad likes that ostentatious shit.”

She resisted the urge to laugh and followed him up the steps. Two men ran outside and nodded to Nic, who tossed them his keys.

“They’ll park your car in the garage,” he said. “Give them your keys.”

She handed them over, not really liking the idea of being unaware of the location of her vehicle, but not wanting to invite suspicion, either.

Once inside the house, she tried not to gape, but it was difficult considering the house was a showcase. Marble flooring, expansive view of the ocean, jeweled colors from the pillows to the rocks adorning the crystal bowls on the tables—she wondered if those were real gemstones. Fancy furnishings and everything polished and gleaming to perfection. She was afraid to move, certain her tennis shoes were tracking sand onto the floor.

The rooms were so huge her voice echoed when she uttered another “Wow.”

Nic sidled her a glance. “I find it kind of cold, myself.”

She tilted her head. “Why don’t you get your own place, then?”

“Good question. Probably because I’m not here often enough, so staying at Dad’s isn’t that big a deal when I’m in town.”

“I thought you worked in Sydney.”

“This is where our corporate offices are, but I’m rarely here.” He led her out onto the deck.

Now this she liked. The ocean waves crashed against the rocks below and the soft breeze blew through her hair. The smell of sweet roses trailing upward from the vines surrounding the deck was heavenly. Off to the side of the deck was an Olympic-size pool complete with attached hot tub, a slide, and a tall waterfall. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

“Rarely here, huh? More cryptic stuff,” she said as she did a complete turnaround, surveying the area. “Are you sure you’re not a spy?”

“Positive. Though if I was, would I really spill all my secrets to a virtual stranger?”

She hoped so. She was counting on it.

“Come on,” he said, laughing. “I’ll take you on a tour of the house.”

The house was massive, and if Shay spent any amount of time there, she’d need a map to keep from getting lost. But she made mental notes. Living rooms and kitchens and the library were on the main floor, the bedrooms on the second floor. The third floor was used for offices, where Nic said his father and his uncle Bart did work at home, and the top floor was for staff quarters and use.

“I noticed a driveway going down when I pulled in. Is that the garage?” she asked as they took the staircase back to the main floor.

Nic nodded. “Garage and cellars.”

Cellars. Interesting. She wondered what went on down there. “Don’t suppose you have any diamond mines under the house, do you?”

“Uh, no. The mines aren’t in Sydney. They’re up in the northwest territory, clear across the continent. We just house our corporate offices here.”

“Oh,” she replied, playing dumb, since she knew exactly where the mines were located. “So do you get up to the mines at all?”

“Not that often. We have people in charge of them. I go up when I need to show them off to buyers. Fortunately it’s not that often. Things run smoothly there.”

She followed him into the kitchen where he stepped into a wine room.

“Whoa. Nice selection.”

“White or red?”

“White. Not sweet.”

“Good.” He pulled a sauvignon blanc from the rack and grabbed two glasses from a cabinet, opened the bottle, and poured. Then he led her into the great room, where she could still hear the ocean waves through the open windows.

“So tell me about diamond sales. What are you in charge of?”

His half smile was devastating to her senses. He took a swallow of wine. “Global sales. Large accounts.”

She nodded. “Do you get to handle the diamonds yourself, take them around with you and show them off, or do any actual mining?”

“I’ve done it all at one time or another.”

“How fun.”

“Not really. Like I said, it’s dusty and dirty and the mines are dark and dank.”

“Still, finding diamonds is probably thrilling.”

“Most of the mining is automated. It’s not pickaxes and shovels like mining of old.”

She frowned. “So no hands-on?” That could be a problem based on what they were after.

“There’s some, depending on the location. Smaller groups still do individual mining outside the main mine if they feel there’s something to go after. But no, most of it is automated now.”

“I see.” She leaned back and took a long swallow of the wine, wondering how that would affect their search for the black diamond.

“I think we’ve talked enough about me for a while. What do you do, Shay, when you aren’t taking month-long vacations in Australia?”

“Me? Uh, I job-hop.”

“Job-hop?”

“Yeah.” She smiled behind her glass. “I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”

“You could surf.”

She choked out a laugh and set the glass down. “That was funny.”

“Okay, so maybe not.”

She shook her head at his sly grin. “Definitely not. But I’ve tried damn near everything else. I won’t even tell you how many majors I had in college.”

“Try me.”

“Eight.”

He didn’t seem at all shocked. “Some people like learning.”

“Yeah, well, my reasons were a little different than just my love of education. I was…unfocused.”

“Because?”

“My dad died; I started college, couldn’t decide what I wanted to do, so I just rambled along and kept switching majors, figuring I’d eventually find something to fall in love with.”

“I’m sorry you lost your dad. That must have been rough.”

“Thank you.” A topic she wasn’t about to get into. It wasn’t necessary to her mission.

“And did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Fall in love with something?”

She shook her head. “No.” And truthfully, she was still feeling her way, even though she’d stumbled onto the demon hunters and the Realm of Light. She knew she fit with the hunters, that she was supposed to be there. They were her family now. But she wasn’t yet settled. Something was missing. She’d made a commitment to the Realm. She was a hunter and that wouldn’t change.

Still, there was more. She just didn’t know what that was yet.

“You have time. That’s why I like the job I have. It gives me enough free time to focus on other things, like surfing.”

She shifted sideways in the chair so she was looking at him instead of the water. “So you don’t love your career?”

He let out a short laugh. “I’m not one to get stuck in an office twenty-four/seven. That’s why I chose global sales. There are too many other things in life I want to do, and my dad doesn’t really need me around.”

There was an edge to his statement that Shay found curious. Did that mean Nic and his father weren’t tight? It begged further exploring.

“Is your father here at the house now?” She already knew the answer. Nic’s father was dead. The demon hunters had killed him. But did Nic know that yet?

“No. He’s sort of missing right now.”

She leaned forward, her eyes widening. “Missing? Oh, my God, Nic. What happened?”

He shrugged. “It’s not that kind of missing. He’s been out of the country for a couple months, but he usually checks in and he hasn’t. Which doesn’t really mean anything. He often goes off on treks into far reaches and doesn’t bother to call in.”

Did Nic really believe that, or was he worried about his dad? Since he didn’t know the truth about his father, Shay felt bad for him. He had to be worried, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

“Do you have people out searching for him?”

“I don’t. My uncle Bart said he’s trying to track him down.” At her look of concern, he took her hands in his. There was that zing again. “It’s really okay. I shouldn’t even have mentioned it. He’ll turn up. He always does.”

He won’t this time, Nic. And she felt sorry. Not for Ben, one of the Sons of Darkness, who deserved to die. But for Nic, because there was so much he needed to know.

And these revelations weren’t going to be easy for him. But the sooner they got to it, the better for Nic. Which meant she needed to step this up so the Realm of Light could get to doing their job, and Nic could be brought into the fold.

If that was the way things were destined to go.

She glanced inside the house. “So where’s your uncle? Does he live here, too?”

Nic nodded. “Yeah, but I have no idea where he is. The nice thing about the house being so big is we don’t run into each other a lot.”

So was Nic’s uncle a demon, too? He would almost have to be if he was related by blood to Ben. Then again, Shay didn’t yet fully understand all the inner workings of the Sons of Darkness.

She squeezed his hand. “I hope you locate your dad soon.” God, she felt a stab of guilt at the lie.

“Thanks.”

He slid his hand from hers and Shay felt a sudden chill as his warmth left her.

Strange. Really damn strange. And she’d already experienced her fill of the bizarre in the past couple months.

“So what do you say to a swim and lounge by the pool?”

She grinned. “Sounds great.”

“Then maybe later we can have dinner and drinks? Or would you rather go out somewhere?”

She looked down at her cover-up. “I’d need different clothes. I can’t hang out in this all day.”

Heat flushed her body as Nic perused her intently with a sideways glance, then fixed his gaze on her face. “You look pretty damn good to me like that. But I understand. We can go out. I’ll drop you off at your place so you can change.”

That wasn’t going to work. She needed a little more time with him. “I have clothes in a bag in my car. Unless you want to go out.”

“No, that’s perfect. I’ll have Steve bring your bag up from your car. Is it in the trunk?”

She nodded and followed him out to the pool.

So she’d bought a little more time to figure out if she could bring about any changes within him, before the hunters had to reveal everything. Because once they grabbed him, he’d clam up.

They wasted away the remainder of the afternoon by the pool, swimming and lying about. Nic didn’t say anything more, just seemed content to laze around and do nothing. She didn’t want to press him and raise his suspicions, so she went with it. One of the servants brought them cocktails and snacks. A girl could get used to this decadent lifestyle. What an incredible lure. No wonder Nic had always been surrounded by women—who wouldn’t want to be indulged like this?

By the time the sun shifted, she was feeling like a water-soaked prune. She flipped over on the pool float to face Nic.

He was lying on his back with his arm flung over his face. Quite possibly he could be sleeping. She studied his washboard abs, the defined yet lean muscles of his arms and legs. She was close enough to see the fine golden hairs on his thighs.

She swallowed, chastising herself for ogling him. But damn, he had one hell of a body. And when she touched him, something happened. Something beyond her visions. A primal, instant chemistry that had nothing to do with weird psychic phenomena and everything to do with man/woman attraction.

“I need to take a shower,” she said.

He removed his arm and lifted his head. “Aren’t you wet enough already?”

She grinned and splashed water at him. “I’m on the pool float and perfectly dry.”

His eyes lit up when he gave her a wicked smile. He flipped over into the water. She looked down, but couldn’t see him.

Until he turned her float over and she went crashing into the pool. She came up sputtering, dragging her wet hair out of her eyes. He was right in front of her.

“Now you’re plenty wet,” he teased.

She laughed and pushed at his chest, then swam away. But he was on her in seconds, wrapping one arm around her middle and hauling her up to prevent further escape. She squealed, enjoying the play. He turned her around to face him, pinning her between his rock-hard body and the side of the pool.

Heat exploded inside her, a meltdown of sensation as he pressed full-on against her. Breasts against chest, hips against hips, thighs against thighs. Her internal electricity was going haywire. She stared into eyes so blue she couldn’t breathe.

She wanted to say something, but couldn’t. She waited for him to say something funny, to crack a joke.

He didn’t. There wasn’t even a smile on his face. Just hot, hungry intent.

He leaned in, swept his mouth against hers and heat exploded into an inferno. With just the softest touch of his lips, she caught her breath, unprepared for the sensations. Physical and psychic, they wrapped around her like a vortex of lightning and energy.

Stars burst behind her eyes, molten lava settling between her legs as he pressed up closer against her, pinning her with everything hard about him. And everything about him was hard, oh-my-God, was it ever. He breathed into her, slid his tongue inside her mouth, and she gave up trying to fight whatever was assaulting her from the inside out. This was magic and she was going to have more of it.

She pushed off the bottom of the pool and wrapped her legs around him, fitting herself closer. When her sex hit the target point, she moaned against his eagerly searching lips. Her reward—a hard groan from Nic and a deepening intensity of his kiss. He ground his lips against hers in the same maddening way he rubbed his erection against the pulsing center of her.

Passion had never flared out of control for Shay. She had never wanted so much so fast before, had never completely lost her mind or her senses in this way. This was unexpected, had caught her unprepared. A small part of her was aware that this wasn’t in the game plan, but that part was weak, soon gone in a puff of smoke and erased.

She craved. Her sex drive was in charge now and she was a goner, tangling her hands in the thick spikes of Nic’s hair. She lifted her hips, surging forward to embrace more of that astounding pleasure.

The buoyancy of the water kept them apart. She squeezed her legs around him, wanting him close. He pushed forward, scraping her back on the side of the pool wall. She didn’t care, because he was feasting on her mouth, dipping between her lips and taking her with an urgency that spoke of wild desire, untamed need, an animal hunger she’d never experienced but wanted.

She needed a man to want her that desperately—so much that he growled deep in his throat, one hand sliding under the water to dig into the soft flesh of her hip in order to draw her closer, while at the same time rocking against her until she whimpered her desire for him against his mouth.

He was pulling at her, clenching her, driving his tongue deeply inside her mouth. He moved one hand upward until he found her breast, then pulled the material aside to palm her nipple. Shay gasped for breath. The edge of a vision pounded at her psyche, but she held it at bay. She wouldn’t let it in, didn’t want anything to disrupt this moment.

Not when Nic had hold of her like he was desperate to be inside her. His fingers were doing wild things to her nipple—exquisite sensation shooting straight to her core—while the rest of him pushed against her, tight, gripping her, and pushing with almost violent force. Oh, no. She wasn’t going to stop this. The sensation was like having a front-row seat on a runaway train, a high-speed roller-coaster ride without brakes, and she wanted to take it right off the cliff and into the abyss.

But he suddenly stopped, tore his mouth away, and rested his forehead against hers. He pulled his hand away from her breast and righted her clothing.

His breathing was harsh, as was hers, as she fought to come back to some semblance of reality. Because she didn’t know where she’d been in the past few minutes, but it sure as hell hadn’t been the real world.

She wanted to protest, to grab his head between her hands and make it go on, but she sensed his hesitation almost as remorse.

Did he regret kissing her?

He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. That got a little out of hand.”

She tilted her head back and offered up a reassuring smile. “It was just a kiss, Nic.”

“It was more than that.”

Yeah, it was. But he couldn’t have felt what she did. He didn’t possess the curse that she did.

“It was just a kiss,” she said again, wanting to temper any second thoughts he might have about spending time with her. She had to remember her mission, though she’d conveniently forgotten that when Nic had shoved his tongue in her mouth.

He nodded. “How about we shower now, and have some dinner?”

“Sure.”

They climbed out of the pool and Shay shivered, though it was still quite warm outside. It was the separation, the lack of heat from his body that caused the goose bumps on her skin.

Nic led her upstairs to one of the guest rooms. Her bag was sitting on the bed.

“I’m just down the hall at the end. Let me know when you’re done.”

“Okay.”

She turned to say something, but he shut the door behind him. With a sigh, she stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower, peeling off her swimsuit and climbing in under the warm water.

She was shaking and kicked the water temp up, though she knew that wasn’t the problem. Fighting the visions always did this to her. She slid down the wall and wrapped her arms around herself, allowing her body to settle, knowing it would pass after a few minutes.

Why had Nic pulled away? She knew from his response to her that he was invested in what they’d been doing, so what made him stop? He had the reputation for being a guy who really got into women, though that had somewhat changed in the past year according to the intelligence they’d gathered. He still went to clubs and hung out with his buddies, but he hadn’t been seen with a woman on his arm for a long time.

Is that why he’d pulled back from her? And if so, why? Though she wasn’t the type to push a man about what was going on in his head, in this instance she was going to have to. Because if Nic’s hesitancy with her had to do with the demon inside him, that was crucial information.

Yeah, like that was the only reason she wanted to know. She could still taste him. Her body still pulsed all over from the feel of his hands on her.

And dammit, she wouldn’t have stopped.

Once she got the shakes under control, she finished showering and dried off, then slipped on the top and short skirt she’d folded into her bag. She had spent so much time in camouflage gear the past couple months it felt good to dress like a girl again.

Even if the respite would be brief.

After she combed out her hair, she bagged her wet suit and headed down the hall, determined to gather some intel on Nic.

Time was running out, and there were things the hunters needed to know about him. The sun was setting; it was time for all the demons to come out.

Would the demon in Nic be coming out tonight?

 

Nic stared into the mirror and dragged his fingers through his wet hair, trying to calm down enough to face Shay again.

Darkness still filtered the edges of his mind. Like the dreams, only infringing on his conscious thoughts.

That was bad. Especially since it had happened with Shay.

Christ. Something had come over him when he kissed her. A driving, animal-like need to take her. This weird, possessive caveman mentality that drove him nearly to the brink of madness.

He’d always been a little wild and intense with women, but it had been sprinkled with playfulness and fun. Nothing out of hand. With Shay it had been damned serious. And more than a little frightening, once he’d pulled back and figured out what he was doing.

Though she hadn’t complained, thankfully. Then again, they hadn’t gone too far yet. He’d withdrawn before he lost his mind completely.

Was he losing his mind?

Shit. Maybe he was. As if the fucking nightmares weren’t bad enough, now he was going nuts in the daylight.

He turned at a soft tap at the door.

“Nic?”

Pulling on a shirt, he went to the door and opened it, his breath escaping in a rush.

Her hair fell in soft waves over her shoulders, still wet from her shower. She wore a little scrap of a skirt with a matching top that clung to her body. A body he’d wanted to explore with his hands, his mouth. A body he’d wanted to drive inside of until the hunger went away.

His cock stirred and he fought the urge compelling him. Oh, no. He wasn’t going there again. He wasn’t about to go round two with these demons battering him from the inside out.

With a rush of disappointment, he realized that after tonight he wasn’t going to see Shay anymore. He couldn’t handle being around a woman. Especially this woman. Not until he could figure out what was going on in his head.

He cast her a relaxed smile. “Let’s go see about dinner.”

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