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Authors: Angela Knight

BOOK: Master of Smoke
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Davon opened his mouth and tugged his fangs free of her throat with exquisite care, so as not to tear her skin any further. “I think I’ve had enough.” He was breathing hard, but as she lifted her head, his dark gaze met hers, sane and intelligent.
The knife vanished from her hand as she gave him a grin of pure, dizzying relief. “That’s good. That’s very good.”
But as he wrapped his arms around her in a hug, the thought came again:
I am so very sick of this.
TWO
There was something
extremely disconcerting about driving with a naked man in the passenger seat. Even the coat didn’t help.
Eva had found a jacket in the backseat and given it to Tall, Dark, and Naked. He’d looked at it askance. “I do not think it will fit.”
Since it was her jacket, it sure as heck wouldn’t. “It’s to put in your lap while we drive.”
He’d shot her a look of pure puzzlement. “But why?”
“To cover up your ... umm.” She gestured below his waist.
His lips quirked. “But why?”
Jackass. “To keep the other drivers from running off the road.”
To keep
me
from running off the road
.
So he got in the car and draped the jacket over his lap as if humoring a crazy person.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t helping. Her memory was way too good, and TDN’s naughty bits weren’t really bits. More like hunks. Of hunk.
Really, really naked hunk. Eva fought to keep her eyes from sliding sideways while she tried to drive. Meanwhile, TDN filled the passenger seat with lots and lots of delicious bare muscle.
She couldn’t keep calling him TDN. For one thing, she intended to get him dressed as soon as possible, if she had to wrap him in a sheet like a refugee from
Animal House
. “What’s your name? I’m Eva Roman.”
There was a pause that went on entirely too long. Either he was thinking up a lie and wasn’t bright enough to do it fast, or he didn’t know. And she didn’t think he was dumb.
Eva flashed him a look and had to drag her eyes back to the road. Her inner werewolf was drooling again. “That question is not supposed to require so much thought.”
“I ... do not seem to know.”
Oh, hell. She really hated amnesia plots in comics. Living one would be even worse. “What
do
you remember?”
“You.”
Something about the velvet purr in those words made her nipples tingle. Eva turned to stare at him again, then had to whip around when the car swerved, and drag it back onto the road. She was going to get pulled over for DUI if this kept up. “What else?”
“My enemy.” TDN paused. “He has a great many teeth.”
“No shit.”
TDN looked at her, puzzled.
“That means ... never mind. Do you know why he was after you, other than he thought you’d make tasty kibble?”
The puzzlement intensified.
“That means ... Oh, forget it. Why. Is. He. After. You?”
“You do not have to enunciate like that. I am not stupid,” TDN said with vast dignity.
“I know that!” The other bad part about That Time of the Year was that her temper went straight to hell.
“I do not remember why he wishes to kill me.” He paused. “That is bad.”
She opened her mouth to say “No shit,” then closed it again. “What would you like me to call you?”
He looked at her, and his lips curved. “Whatever you want.” That was definitely a purr, deep and rumbly and ...
“Cut it out!” Hearing the snarl in her own voice, she winced. “Sorry. This time of year, I get a little bitchy.”
“Why?” He looked honesty interested.
“I don’t know.” Eva took a deep breath. She had to tell him. He needed to know, and anyway, he was pretty damned weird himself. “It has something to do with me being a werewolf.”
TDN turned to look at her. He didn’t seem in the least frightened. More interested, like she’d said she was a firefighter or a doctor or a comic book artist. “Like my enemy?”
“Yeah, only I’m not going to eat you.”
“Too bad.”
“Please don’t.” He blinked, and Eva drew in a breath, wrestling her inner werewolf for control. Fluffy just loved to take over. “Look, like I said, this time of year is difficult for me. I get very ...” Horny. “... Short-tempered.”
“Why?”
“You’re like a two-year-old, you know that? You keep asking questions I don’t know the answer to.”
His lips twitched. “I can see how that would be annoying. But how do I know which questions you cannot answer?”
“Take a wild guess.” He was making Fluffy crazy, and Fluffy was making Eva incredibly bitchy. Okay, bitchier. “I’m sorry.”
“I accept your apology.” He let several seconds slip by before adding slyly, “Would you like to make it up to me?”
“Would you like to share this car with seven feet of pissed-off werewolf?”
Honest to God, he seemed to consider the question. “I do not think so.”
“Trust me, it wouldn’t be any fun. Fluffy has the anger management issues of the Hulk.”
“Who is ...?”
“Never mind, comic book reference.”
He looked confused. Even that looked good on him. “Fluffy?”
“Oh. No, that’s not from a comic book. That’s what I call my werewolf.”
TDN blinked. “You have a different name for your werewolf?”
“Well ... yeah.”
“
Fluffy?
”
“It kind of fits.”
“I sincerely doubt that, if you look anything like my enemy.”
“Well, she’s definitely not as big as
that
guy.”
“Why do you talk about your werewolf form as though it’s someone else?”
“Because she is. Kind of.” Eva sighed. “It’s a little hard to explain.”
“Apparently.”
“Let’s just ... drop that subject. What do you want me to call you?”
He looked as if he was considering saying something outrageous.
“Give me a serious answer, dammit.” She really needed to dial back the bitch. “Please.”
“I have no idea. What would you like to call me?”
Clark? Bruce? Peter? And what did it say about her that all the names that sprang to mind belonged to comic book characters?
I am such a geekizoid
.
Maybe David. She couldn’t think of a comic book character named David. And he did look like something sculpted by Michelangelo—big, hard, and very, very naked. “How about David?”
He gave it some thought and a regal nod. “That will do.”
“Glad you approve.”
 
The Drayton Apartments
were a cluster of six beige three-story buildings surrounded by azalea bushes and Bradford pear trees, all of which were currently in gorgeous bloom. Its residents included college students, new families saving for a first house, and one or two assholes.
And a werewolf.
Eva parked in her assigned spot in front of Building Five. “Wait here. I’m going to go get you something to wear up the stairs.” Before he could ask—and she knew he would—she explained, “Kids live here, too. I don’t want one of them to look out a window and see you walking around nekkid.”
David frowned, but before he could question her further, she opened the car door and bolted up the wooden stairs.
Eva lived in a two-bedroom on the second floor. Fortunately, her ex-boyfriend Joel had left behind a pair of ratty jeans and ancient running shoes he’d never returned to collect. He was a couple of inches shorter than David, but with any luck, the pants would fit. Probably not well, but they just needed something to cover that gorgeous ass until they could buy something better.
Though Fluffy liked his gorgeous ass just the way it was—buck naked so she could eye it lovingly. And drool a little. She’d especially been looking forward to watching him walk up the stairs. Preferably in slow motion with George Michael crooning “I Want Your Sex” in the background.
Fluffy had never grasped the concept of shame.
Eva found the jeans and shoes in the back of a closet and rounded out the set with an oversized Comix Cave T-shirt she often slept in.
She trotted downstairs with her prizes and handed them through the passenger window. David shot her a lifted eyebrow and started trying to squeeze his big body into the clothes. Eva turned her back and directed her gaze elsewhere.
Fluffy gave her a disappointed mental grumble.
Finally the car door opened. Eva turned as David got out to stand oddly hunched. “They do not fit,” he gritted.
Frowning, she looked down the length of his body. As she’d expected, the hem of the jeans fell well short of his ankles, but Joel was a fairly muscular guy. The jeans were certainly very tight, but ...
Oh.
David glowered at her as he tugged at the crotch of his pants. The fabric clearly outlined three large, interesting shapes that looked more than a little squashed. “They are digging into my genitals.”
She bit her lower lip to keep from snickering at his disgruntled expression. “I’m sorry. We’ll head to Wal-Mart in the morning and buy something that fits better. But you can’t go around naked. You’d scandalize the neighbors and get arrested.”
He growled, sounding more like a very large, wet cat than anything human. Turning, he limped up the stairs. Apparently Joel’s shoes didn’t fit him all that well either.
Eva clattered after him. She tried, she really did, but she just couldn’t keep herself from watching his ass in those skin-tight jeans. It was a view to make a nun hyperventilate.
Fluffy started humming “I Want Your Sex.”
 
The only thing
David knew was that he wanted her. Otherwise his mind felt as blasted as a bombed-out building—nothing but dust and mental rubble. When he contemplated the aching gaps in his memory, panic rose. He didn’t care for panic.
Much better to contemplate Eva’s lush little body. As they reached the top of the stairs, she slipped past him to unlock a door with a musical jangle of keys. He followed her into her home, admiring the roll of her tight little derriere.
Tearing his gaze from her backside, David scanned the apartment, searching for exits and vulnerabilities. A glass door lay off to the right, across the small living room. He glowered at it in disapproval. His enemy would go through that like a bear ripping into a shrink-wrapped steak. Along one wall near the worrisome door sat a bright red couch crowded with fat yellow pillows. A bowl-shaped chair occupied the opposite corner, a red pillow in its bright yellow seat. A large black rectangle he somehow recognized as a flat-screen television hung from the facing wall.
The remaining walls were covered with posters of people in heroic poses. Their clothing was very colorful, and so tight it showed every muscle. He frowned, staring at one. It appeared the man had no genitals at all, judging from the lack of bulges below the waist.
Odd. Why would she have pictures of people who had suffered such a terrible injury?
Statues of similar figures stood here and there on the coffee table and inside a tall, narrow display case. Both those pieces of furniture were made of oak, with clean, simple lines.
He breathed deeply as he inspected. To his pleasure, the only male scent belonged to a young child who seemed to visit quite frequently.
“Are you hungry?” Eva asked, walking into the kitchen area that was separated from the living room by a long island. His stomach growled, and she grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Combat sharpens my appetite.” And not just for food, though he decided not to mention that. She didn’t seem to like double entendres. He followed her around the oak island into the small efficiency kitchen, drinking in her scent as he went. His eyes shuttered in pleasure.
Sex. Distilled femininity, pure temptation. He really had to get her into bed.
“Do you like lasagna?” She opened the freezer door and withdrew two packages wrapped in aluminum foil.
“I have no idea, but I would be happy to eat it.”
Eva laughed as she unwrapped the packages and put them in the microwave. “Enthusiasm. What more can a cook ask?”
David studied her profile as she moved over to open a drawer beside the stove. Her face was delicate, but there was strength in the line of her nose and the stubborn angle of her jaw. Her eyes were large, a velvety brown so deep as to be almost black. Her hair was the color of dark chocolate, falling around her shoulders like a straight, gleaming curtain that framed her face in shorter wisps.
The microwave pinged, and she took out the two containers. Picking up a spoon, she scooped their contents onto a couple of plates. He watched intently as she brushed past. She moved well, with a lithe athlete’s grace.

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