Free Turn to Darkness (Offspring 5.6) by Jaime Rush

though he thought— thought —her statement was said out of jealousy or a way to find out if he’d been with someone recently. “The date I was going on that night, when I walked in on you, I said good-night to after dinner. I’ve asked a few girls out and then canceled. Because it’s not fair to go out with one girl while you’re thinking about another.”
    Damn, there he went, being too good for someone like her. “I don’t care what you do. You can go out with a different girl every night. You can screw your brains out, make her gasp and call out your name in that breathless way.” Everything she’d heard that twisted her insides when she walked past his door and did not pause to listen.
    He leaned down in her face. “Well, thank you very much for giving me permission.” Then he laughed, that full-out deep laugh of his. “I know what you’re doing.”
    “What?”
    All humor fled, and he remained only a couple of inches in front of her. “Shea, you’re not going to shut those feelings out, or run away or turn away from them.” She started to do just that, but he used that damned finger to turn her face back to him. “That’s what you do. And I should let you kid yourself that you have permanently killed the part of you that craves touch.”
    He drew his finger down the front of her throat to the hollow at her collarbone. “I should, because I can already feel what Tuck was talking about, that I possess you.” Fire lit his eyes, fierce and protective, setting off her heartbeat. “But I’m not giving up on you. As much as it pains you, that part of you still lives. It lives for me.” He drew his finger down a few more inches. “For my touch. I see it in your eyes, felt it in the way you came up to me a few minutes ago.”
    “That was a weak moment. Nothing more.”
    He took her hand, the one he was still holding, and placed it against his chest. “No, that was a moment of strength. And you know what? I miss you, too. So let’s stop missing each other. I told you, we’d take it slowly.” His gaze shifted to the side. “We’re being watched,” he said in a lower voice. “I don’t trust that guy. Be careful around him.”
    He released her and she nearly stumbled back. He wouldn’t want her if he knew how she’d brought the rape on, what kind of person she’d been then. She opened her mouth to tell him, but Darius yelled, “There’s a car pulling into the driveway.”

 
    Chapter Seven
    F ROST CALLED T ORUS, who answered with, “I hope you have good news to report.”
    “I’m afraid not, sir. I can’t get hold of Graves. Have you heard from him recently?”
    “Not since I spoke to him this morning, when you informed me about the girl. Which, frankly, I thought was odd.”
    “Yeah, me, too. I mean, I thought Graves’s behavior was odd in general. He’d found the girl before I could even tell him her name and address. The guy with her definitely was one of us, but Graves said the girl wasn’t. Very telling that he found two of them and hadn’t reported it to you. He could have called me and we would have taken them out. But no, he’d done nothing. She had Callorian eyes. His eyes. I think she’s his daughter, and he had no intention of revealing her. I forced his hand by taking the phone from him and reporting her to you. He wasn’t pleased about that.”
    Finally, he would gain some of the ground he’d lost all those years ago.
    “Very perceptive of you, Frost. And very disappointing to hear about Graves, especially since he’s nowhere to be found.”
    “We split off, and he was presumably going to take care of the girl. I suspect he warned her. He’s likely gone AWOL, too.”
    “First Elgin and Bengle, and now Graves? Graves, of all people?”
    Frost’s mouth tightened. Couldn’t believe his first in command was corrupt, huh? “You can count on me, sir. I will take care of these two, and I will try to interrogate the male, ensure he’s the one who killed the man. I