Free Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole Page A

protecting you for months. Because you drive me crazy, and I want you more than is right. “Yeah, just for the pay. I have a history of taking on tough jobs.”
    â€œHow much are you getting?”
    â€œSomething priceless to my family.”
    â€œMore specific, please,” she said in a voice she probably used with unruly jocks.
    Second rule of being a mercenary: Lie through your teeth—but stick as close to the truth as possible to keep it convincing and less complicated. “My brother Rydstrom—the one we’re meeting—is king of our kind, the rage demons. But his kingdom was usurped by a dark sorcerer called Omort the Deathless. Like the name indicates, he can’t be killed in the usual ways.”
    â€œUsual ways?”
    â€œMost immortals can be killed only by an otherworldly fire or by beheading. Omort is immune even to those means. As you can imagine, he’s hard as hell to defeat. But now, if I do this job with you, I’ll get a sword that was forged specifically to kill him.”
    â€œA dark sorcerer.” She pinched her forehead. “It just keeps getting better. I wonder that he doesn’t want ‘the Vessel’ for himself, since everyone else seems to.”
    That supposition was a little close for comfort. A wicked sorcerer did want her, just not the one she was aware of. So Cade told her the truth: “Omort won’t seek you. He can’t breed with a Vessel. Because he was born of one.”
    But his half brother Groot hadn’t been.
    â€œSo if Rydstrom is a king, then you’re a prince?”
    â€œOf a lost crown.”
    â€œIs he the one who dragged you away that day on campus?”
    â€œYou remember that?” On the one occasion he’d had to speak to her, for the first time in his life, he’d been off his game. Unfortunately, Rydstrom had been there to see it. “That’s him. He’s the good brother of the Woede. I’m the bad one. You’ll see it as soon as we’re together.”
    â€œWhat’s the Woede?”
    â€œThat’s what they call the two of us because we rarely separate.” No matter how much they might want to.
    â€œWhat was wrong with you that day?” she asked. “Why couldn’t you talk?”
    â€œCouldn’t talk? It wasn’t like that.”
    â€œYou were babbling incoherently.”
    Funny, Rydstrom had described it as blathering . “I never babble.”
    â€œWhy were you on campus anyway? Were you already watching me about this?”
    â€œNo, it was a coincidence.” He exhaled. A fated one . . .
    *   *   *
    At the mention of Cade’s brother, she noted the instantaneous change in him.
    Clearly, he had issues with this Rydstrom.
    She remembered the brother from that day of the awards. He’d seemed more reasonable. Maybe he’d be moreinclined to answer her questions with direct, comprehensive answers. Every time Cadeon explained something, she got the sense that he was just treading the surface of the subject.
    And yet again, Cadeon’s gaze strayed to her bare legs. She hated this vulnerable feeling, going with no underwear, no hose, no bra.
    Everything she’d ever learned about concealing her emotions she used now. She reached for her pearls to calm herself, but they weren’t there. Nothing was as it should be, and she wanted to hit something in frustration.
    This night was all wrong. A nightmare for someone like her. She didn’t need a male like Cadeon casting her lustful glances—not now and certainly not when she’d been naked earlier.
    Most times she endeavored to forget she had a body at all, much less one that could be sexy. Or could feel sexy.
    No man had ever seen her completely naked before tonight. Now thirteen demons had.
    But only one had lived to tell about it.
    Oh, God, this is too much, too much to take in.
    â€œAll right, poppet, you’ve got to stop