Darkest Caress (4 page)

She jerked to her feet so fast her chair toppled over.

“Are you all right?” He’d risen from his chair and now watched her carefully.

“Yes. Sorry.” God, she must look like an insane woman. Something wasn’t right. She cleared her throat. “It’s just…that was really weird.”

“What was?” He hadn’t moved, simply stood there staring at her. Like he was waiting for something.

“When you touched me. The pain disappeared, like…”

“Like?”

“Magic,” she whispered, gazing helplessly into his eyes.

Another of those knee-melting smiles. “I’m glad.” The sunlight streaming through the bay windows made his eyes glow with an unearthly light. She thought she detected amusement in them.

And almost a sort of longing.

Her heart squeezed. It had to be her imagination, but she would have sworn he seemed lonely. She couldn’t bear the thought of him being alone. Something inside her wanted to hold him, draw him into her.

What the hell is wrong with me?

“Maybe we should talk about my offer,” he said in a low voice.

“Great.” She felt like she’d lost her mind. Grabbing her briefcase, she took out the necessary papers and spread them out on the table. She babbled a bit more about the house while she got everything ready, acutely aware of the way he stared at her mouth as she spoke. As though he was thinking of kissing her too. The man made it hard for her to breathe. She got out her pen, forced a smile to cover her nerves. “What figure did you have in mind?”

He stared back at her for a long moment before naming a number just ten thousand dollars under the undisclosed asking price.

Her fingers reflexively tightened around the pen.

“Think that will get me the house?” he asked with a speculative tilt of his head.

She swallowed. “I—I think that’s a very good offer.”

“If it’s accepted, when can I get possession?”

Possession? She stared into his eyes, imagining what it would be like to be possessed by him. No doubt he’d do it spectacularly. Her inner muscles clenched in agonized denial. She struggled to answer him. “Ah, as soon as the lawyers clear everything and the paperwork is taken care of.”

Daegan leaned back with a satisfied grin, the sexiest thing she’d ever laid eyes on. “Good. This place has really grown on me.”

With effort she wrestled her mind out of the gutter and got busy filling in the paperwork. She sent some e-mails and made a few calls, got the offer accepted, subject to financing and inspection. When it was done she helped him tidy the table, then locked the place up, prepared to say goodbye. Though she wasn’t frightened of him, she had the driving urge to put some distance between them before she did something stupid.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking,” she said, starting for her car, “but what do you do for a living?” The man had a serious amount of money at his disposal.

One side of his mouth turned up. “I’m a businessman. My company’s name is Trident Group, but you know that already because I’ll bet you Googled me last night.”

Heat crept into her cheeks, but she didn’t deny it. “I couldn’t find out much aside from some businesses you own and the charitable donations you’ve made.” She tilted her head, considered him for a long moment. “You don’t seem like just a businessman. I got the impression you might have a military background.” His bearing radiated that sort of confident, controlled power.

“I do.”

“Is it recent?” He still had a razor-like edge to him beneath all the civilized manners and sex appeal.

Something moved in his eyes. A shadow. “Fairly. I’ve spent most of my life in the military.”

“I can tell. So is part of what you do military contracting?”

He nodded, the hint of a smile softening his features. “A big part, actually.”

“Do you still do it?”

“Yeah. I was in Afghanistan for a few months not too long ago.”

She didn’t like the thought of him doing such risky work. “I’m glad you’re back safe and sound.”

“Me too.” Daegan surprised her by snagging one of her hands when she started to unlock her car.

She looked over her shoulder at him, the keys dangling from her hand.

“Will you have dinner with me tonight?”

The intensity in him intrigued her. An aura of strength and authority clung to him. He was so incredibly masculine, so in command. She suspected his time in the military must have been hard-core. Maybe he’d even served in Special Operations. “You don’t have to take me out to dinner.”

“I want to.”

“Because I showed you the house?”

“No, because I want to get to know you better.”

Good. She didn’t want this to be about the house. And she wanted to get to know him better too. Badly. “I’d love to. I was supposed to have another showing here at six, but…just a sec.”

She dug out her phone and scrolled through the call display until Aaron’s number came up. Thankfully his voicemail picked up. She left a message saying the estate had already accepted an offer, so there was no need for him to see the property. If he called back she fully intending to let
that
call go to voicemail. With luck she’d never have to speak to him again.

Tossing the phone into her purse, she smiled at Daegan, her heart pounding at the thought of going on a date with him. “There. Where do you want to go?”

Instead of answering, he took her right hand, raised it to his lips. His pale eyes held hers as he bent his head, brushing a soft kiss to the back of her hand. Tingles raced up her arm, shot throughout her body. She sucked in a sharp breath.

He paused, gauging her reaction, then turned her hand over and pressed another seductive kiss to her trembling palm. His lips were soft and warm, so incredibly gentle despite his obvious strength, that hard edge to him. It made her melt. Her eyes drifted closed on a wave of pure desire as it swept over her body. Goosebumps broke out all over her skin.

His grip on her hand firmed. “Cold?”

Not cold. Try melting hot. She pressed her lips together and shook her head, fighting to regain control. God, she’d never felt anything like this. Whatever was happening between them, it went way beyond chemistry. She just hoped he felt it half as keenly as she did.

Daegan kissed her palm once more before lowering her hand, then gently released it. When she finally opened her eyes he smiled and opened her car door. “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty. I’ll need your address.”

She hesitated for a brief moment, then gave it to him. Maybe it was crazy, but she trusted him.

As she drove away, she took one last longing glance at him in the rear view mirror. Standing in front of the house, he looked like he already owned the place. It suited him perfectly.

A huge grin spread across her face. If he could make her senses explode with a simple kiss to her hand, she couldn’t wait to see what else he would do to her tonight.

* * *

“Okay, tell me again so I can understand it—why Lithuania?”

Dr. Nairne Roberts smiled at her coworker then slid her laptop into her briefcase. “Research trip.”

“Witch hunt, more like it,” Liz grumbled, making a face. “And how will I get through my mornings without your charming Scottish accent to listen to?”

“I’m sure you’ll manage.”

Liz swiveled around in her chair, facing away from the spreadsheet on her computer screen, the rows of test tubes and other equipment atop the bench beside her work station. “You’re seriously going to spend your two weeks’ vacation in a place that just came out from behind the Iron Curtain a couple decades ago? To study folklore?”

“Aye. I’ve wanted to go there since I was a little girl, to find out if the stories my granddad told me were true.”

Liz frowned. “Must have been one hell of a storyteller to get you interested enough to go to Lithuania.”

She laughed. “You make it sound like it’s a third-world country. The place I’m going to has been a popular summer resort destination for decades.”

“Yeah, well I can think of a lot of resorts I’d rather visit. Mexico, Hawaii, anywhere in the Caribbean…”

Nairne shrugged, stripped off her white lab coat. “To each her own, I guess.”

Liz eyed the papers Nairne gathered up, carefully organized into various folders for the long plane ride ahead. “You writing a book on all this or something? Because from the looks of it, this is hard-core research, not just a hobby.”

“I’d love to write a book about it,” Nairne confessed. “Not sure many people would want to buy it, though.” She didn’t care if people thought she was obsessed and wasting her time researching myths. This trip would satisfy a curiosity that had burned in her for as long as she could remember. “You’ll hold down the fort here while I’m gone?”

Liz gave her a bland look. “Yeah, because the lab’s going to suddenly explode with activity once you’re gone.”

“Never know,” Nairne said with a shrug. “If anything comes up you can always reach me on my cell.”

“Of course, because you’re the only person I know who would be willing to work while on holiday.” Liz shook her head then waved her away. “Go, have a good time. Research those witches and goblins—”

“Goddesses and devils.”

“Sure, those too. But for God’s sake, promise me you’ll do something
fun
too.”

“Will do.” She couldn’t wait to get to Nida, stand on the largest sand dunes in Europe and drink in the breeze blowing off the Baltic. Just the thought energized her. “See you later.”

On her way out of the lab she checked with a few other lab techs about some of the genetics projects they were working on, then headed for the elevators. She took one to the ground floor and exited onto UBC’s main mall.

The air was pleasantly warm, smelling of fresh-cut grass. The leafy oak trees bordering the Mall glowed in the summer sunshine, creating generous patches of shade for students to sit in. Being July there were fewer students around the university, mostly populated right now with full-time staff, faculty and grad students. Nairne preferred it that way. She got along with people, but she preferred her own company most of the time so she could work on her secret project without having to explain herself. She might be a geneticist by trade, but she was just as much a genealogist and historian.

The main library beckoned ahead. Nairne picked up her pace, anxious to check on her secret document one last time before she went overseas. Once inside the main stacks, she headed up to the special collections area to find Thomas, the librarian in charge of keeping the collection safe.

“Hi, Dr. Roberts,” he said with a grin. “Come to say goodbye to your baby?”

“Aye, please.”

He led her into a special room, seated her at a table before disappearing into the back to retrieve the document from a secure vault. “Here you are,” he said, laying the scroll in front of her. She’d stumbled across it by accident in an old Edinburgh library while researching her family genealogy.

“Thanks.” Nairne tugged on a pair of white cotton gloves he’d provided her. They protected more than just the parchment, however. The barrier on her skin kept her from the shock of emotion she’d felt when she’d first touched the scroll. Hatred and hope. Fear and resolve. Snatches, really, nothing she could truly decipher.

Sometimes when she touched an object she got clearer impressions. Once she’d even experienced a mother’s grief when she’d held an infant’s christening gown. Later she’d found out it had belonged to her great grandmother who’d lost her firstborn baby and held a posthumous baptism for the child. The same woman who, according to family legend, had “the gift” and could see things before they happened. Nairne had always wondered if her great grandmother had foreseen her baby’s death.

“Decode all its little mysteries yet?” Thomas asked with a hike of his eyebrows.

“Not yet, no.” But she would, eventually.

Once he left, Nairne gently unrolled the scroll. Every time she looked at it she got a thrill. The parchment was about four feet long but in amazingly good condition, considering how old it was. Carbon dating confirmed it was from the period when the Teutonic Knights ruled the part of Lithuania she was about to visit. The scroll was written in both Gaelic an old German dialect, covered with elaborate, painstakingly hand-colored illustrations.

This single document had given her the clues necessary to finish her PhD dissertation on Baltic Lithuanian genetics, pointing to the Celtic connection she’d found in certain bloodlines.

Her gaze immediately went to the depiction of Neringa, the sea goddess. Done in golds, greens and blues, the goddess’s eyes seemed to glow up at her from the parchment. A rush of excitement flashed through Nairne as she read a passage of old German she’d finally managed to translate with the help of a few linguistic experts.

Sounded dire, whatever it referred to. Almost biblical.

Beneath the prophetic words, a demonic creature she assumed must be the Black Lord was depicted. Colored all in red, it looked like it was eating human victims’ souls. Sucking the life force out of them with its open mouth. Its eyes blazed an eerie yellow, and around its body a thick line of black encircled it. Like some sort of aura.

Several other passages remained below it, still guarding their secrets within the old German and Celtic text. Intriguing allusions to people with special powers, as far as the linguistic experts could piece together. Nairne hoped they might be references to the Empowered themselves.

The tales of the Empowered told by her grandfather had fueled her imagination since childhood, sending her on her career path in genetics. Her interest in genealogy led her to trace his side of the family back to coastal Lithuania over three hundred years ago, and she was determined to dig even further. She couldn’t wait to unlock every last secret hidden within the priceless scroll. Something told her she was close to finding the key.