Free Tempt Me Eternally by Gena Showalter

got me worried.”
    â€œNo, I’m not infected. You would be able to tell if I were. The skin turns gray, the eyes sink into the skull. I would have been the one to bite you that night in the forest.”
    She gulped, but that was her only response.
    â€œHow did your people defeat them?” he asked.
    â€œI don’t know. I wasn’t working for them at the time.”
    He was glad. Though he wanted the information, badly, he didn’t like the thought of Aleaha engaging such fierce creatures. At least there was hope, a way to win. He would like to work with AIR and increase the chance for victory, but he didn’t think they’d welcome him.
    â€œAll I know,” she continued, “is what I’ve already told you. Several warriors came here. They were crushed, and now their queen, the most powerful of them, is on her way.”
    Oh, yes. The queen was indeed the most powerful. She was also heartless, selfish, determined, and irresistible.
    â€œCome,” he said again. For the moment, there was nothing else to say on the subject.
    â€œAre you taking me to my friends?”
    Rather than start a debate—because no, he wasn’t taking her to her friends—he remained silent as he escorted her out of the home and into the backyard, keeping her beside him with an arm draped around the feminine dip of her waist. She didn’t try to escape. Perhaps she’d realized there was no place to go, nothing around them. Perhaps, as concerned as she was about her fellow agents, she didn’t want to leave without them.
    Or perhaps he wasn’t giving her enough credit. Maybe she meant to bide her time and kill him while he slept. If he was lucky, she stayed because she wanted another kiss. Had she thought of him at all while inside that room? Dreamed of him the way he’d dreamed of her?
    â€œThe air,” she said, nose wrinkling in distaste as her eyes scanned the darkness.
    â€œCold?” He removed his jacket and placed it around her shoulders.
    â€œYes, but also pungent.”
    â€œYou become used to it.” He peered down at her,hungry. “Change for me. Please. No one will see.” There were no trees offering solace, but there was a tall iron fence surrounding the barren yard. Plus, there were no other homes nearby. They’d all collapsed.
    She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “I will if you’ll tell me where the agents are. I never heard them, and I’m trying not to go crazy, imagining them d-dead.” There at the end, her voice shook.
    â€œThey were underground, in a cell not far from where we are standing.” Truth. He didn’t mind telling her since they had already been moved to the new home. “I swear to you, they are alive and well and will remain so. They are also angry as hell that you are not with them.”
    â€œI-I believe you. That sounds like them. Thank you.” Her relief was palpable. “And now for my part of the bargain.” Again, she glanced around. When she saw that they were alone, she began to grow several inches, becoming leaner. Her long dark hair fell over his wrist, and he basked in the silkiness of it. Her eyes were so deep a green he would have sworn he was standing in a lush, dewy meadow every time he peered into them. Her skin was translucent, smooth, and, as easily as she’d responded to him, probably sensitive. She might be able to come with only a caress.
    A man could hope, anyway.
    Actually, a man could hope for a lot more. Even now, he could taste her in his mouth, rainstorms and passion. So much passion he’d nearly drowned in it. Had wanted to drown in it. No matter which guiseshe’d worn, even as the male—surprising, but something he wasn’t going to question—she’d tasted the same. And he’d loved it. She could have eaten him alive with those sharp little teeth, and he would have died with a smile on his face.
    â€œBeautiful,” he