Page 7 of Falling (Scared Sexy Collection #2)

I f sex with some sort of magical creature at a crowded party wasn’t surreal enough, then sitting across from him afterward at a small booth at King’s Ale House, having a drink, certainly was.

Cat could barely blink as she watched him lift his glass of scotch and bring the rich amber liquid to his lips.

He sipped it, let out a happy Ahhh , and swallowed.

“Shall I start, or would you rather?” he asked, wiping the pad of his thumb across his mouth. His hand fell away, revealing that amazing smile, and he laughed at her stunned silence. “Is it really so hard to look at me?”

It was, actually. She’d seen him in the dark bedroom, she’d seen him in the shadows of the porch light.

But she hadn’t seen him under the warm lighting of a bar, and she didn’t even feel embarrassed about the time it was taking her to get used to being this close to someone so expansive, so massive, so beautiful.

His skin was smooth and unmarred, every feature in perfect dimension and proportion.

Those black eyes held a constellation of mirth and teasing and fondness.

His mouth, that sinful mouth, was full and smiling, teeth straight and white and perfect.

But there was something else there in his eyes. Loneliness, anguish, a haunted tightness she couldn’t identify.

Cat gnawed at a hangnail, wondering where to begin, and a shimmer ran through her. Starting, she registered he’d said something in that low, vibrating voice. “What?” she asked, meeting his gaze.

“I told you to stop eating your hand.”

She huffed out a laugh, tucking it in her lap under the table.

“How are you able to ignore it?” he asked bluntly, and although to anyone else the question would be vague and nonsensical, Cat felt vindicated that he was finally acknowledging the voice he used. “I’ve never met anyone who could,” he explained.

“I can hear it,” she said, thinking back to the low hum of Brigan’s voice in Harry’s living room and in the bedroom, both times sounding as if it was coming from every direction at once.

“But it’s almost like a voice coming from another room, on every side of the one I’m in. Quiet, deep, vibrating.”

“What do you feel when I speak in that voice?”

“The same thing I feel when I look at you.”

“Which is?”

Cat thought about it more, feeling now how the desire to move to the other side of the booth, to slide in beside him, was nearly irresistible. But also, that it was curiosity above fear, only a desire for him to come closer. “Warm and relaxed.”

“So it doesn’t scare you?”

She shook her head. “When we were ...” She trailed off, blushing.

“Enjoying each other?” he prompted with a grin.

“Yes—during— that —I let you in and it made everything ...”

“Better?”

She nodded, blowing out a breath. “Yes. So much better.”

Brigan sat back in the booth, smiling. “Fascinating.”

With a deep breath, Cat leaned forward, planting her elbows on the table.

“Oh,” he teased, eyes twinkling. “She’s getting settled in.” He mirrored her posture, leaning forward again, resting his forearms on the table. “Shall we begin?”

“Begin?” she asked, laughing. “You’ve already asked me four questions.”

He grinned, shaking his head. “We hadn’t officially started yet. Those don’t count.”

With a soft growl, she relented. “Fine. First question, ” she said pointedly. “How old are you?”

He looked surprised; obviously this wasn’t where he expected her to start. “Twenty-five.”

And she’d expected him to be honest. “Yes, but how long have you been twenty-five?”

Brigan grinned, saying cheekily, “A while.”

A laugh burst out of Cat’s throat. “Is this your way of admitting to me that you’ve read Twilight ?”

“How could I resist? Vampires and werewolves? I had to know if my friends were portrayed accurately.”

Cat narrowed her eyes at him. “Come on.”

He waved a casual hand. “Truthfully, it was pretty inaccurate. No vampire is all that good looking. They’re hideous.”

“ That’s what’s inaccurate?” she said, laughing. “Not the sparkling or superpowers?”

“Why would the superpowers surprise you?” he asked slyly.

“Yes, okay, good point.” Cat held up two fingers. “Second question: What are your powers?”

Brigan lifted his glass, taking a sip of his drink. She watched him sit it on his tongue for a beat before he swallowed, his throat moving seductively.

“I have a few,” he said, drawing her attention back to his face.

“Nothing like mind reading or premonition. But, the voice, as you’ve noticed.

Also strength, speed, stealth, I have those.

” A furrow flickered across his brow. “For example, I vanished from the room, as you registered, though it was through the door, quite ordinary. I’m simply fast, and quiet, and most women are exhausted and a bit cloudy after sex, left only with the sense of being perfectly sated.

Never has a lover chased me out onto the street.

” He chuckled, swirling his drink, ice cube clinking against the heavy glass tumbler.

“The attraction is also a power,” she said, not a question, and Brigan grimaced as if, to him, this gift was tedious.

“Humans are drawn to me,” he said simply. “It’s quite embarrassing to say it aloud, but my simple existence is a seduction. That’s what I call the allure.”

“Do you use the voice on humans all the time?” She laughed at his quirked brow. “Come on, you got four free questions when we first sat down.”

Brigan scowled playfully at her, but he didn’t argue.

He took another sip of his drink, frowning as he swallowed, and she had the sense that he rarely, if ever, spoke about this.

“Well, yes. I can use it to make humans do what I want.” He leaned forward again, slowly spinning the glass on the coaster.

“Except with you. I could compel you once you’d let me in, but not entirely. ”

She stared at him, silently willing him to tell her more without making her burn a question to ask. Curiosity was a roaring fire in her chest. But this time, she relented before he did: “Okay, fine, question three: What have you tried to compel me to do?”

“I tried to make you relax in the bedroom back at the apartment, and you did, but not fully. Once we were clearly going to be intimate, I told you to take your shoes off.” She smiled at this, and then he added, “And I instructed your body to be wet for me so that I could take you easily.”

Cat felt herself go completely still as heat engulfed her skin.

“Ah,” he murmured, his heated gaze sweeping over her face, and a hum filled her head, her body felt warm and liquid. “That’s my sweet lamb.”

Sucking in a deep breath, Brigan tore his focus away as if it were a struggle.

Cat stared at him, fascinated. “Try it again now.”

Brigan returned his eyes to hers. “What? Try to compel you?”

She nodded, and then she saw his lips move, heard a noise that was more vibration than sound, and felt a tickling urge in her palm, her index finger, her arm, but she resisted the pull, and it slowly fizzled out.

She frowned at him. “What did you tell me to do?”

“Pick your nose.”

Cat barked a horrified laugh. “Shut up.”

“Very well.” He mimed zipping his mouth closed.

“No, no, don’t shut up. Just ... oh my God.

If that had worked, I would have poured this drink over your head.

” Brigan laughed as she picked up her beer and smiled at him over the top.

She wanted to ask for this night to go on forever.

“All right. Your turn to ask some now,” she said. “I’m saving my last two.”

The only question Brigan needed to ask Catalina was right there at the tip of his thoughts, but he already knew the words wouldn’t form on his tongue—no sound would emerge.

He’d tried to ask it before, of course he had. Over the span of nearly nine centuries. Do you notice anything different about me? Do you see anything?

But he’d learned long ago that the ability to ask a human whether they saw what he desperately wanted them to see was impossible. It was a curse for a reason.

So, he asked the next most important thing instead. “You are beautiful and funny and kind. Why on earth are you lonely?”

Catalina’s eyes widened in surprise, but she quickly tucked it away.

“I moved here a few months ago for graduate school. It’s an amazing city,” she said, “and I love my program—I’m studying environmental ethics.

But it’s hard to meet people. Jake is in my program, and turns out he’s the most inattentive and clueless guy I’ve ever dated, but he’s the only person I’ve gotten to know at all so far.

I’m close to my parents and my brother. I have good friends back in Denver.

” She shrugged. “If I’m lonely, it’s because I really miss home. ”

He studied her as she lifted her beer and took a sip. For a beat, she stared down into her glass, and when she looked back up, her gaze was suddenly wary, as if something had just occurred to her. “You don’t tell people about yourself very often, do you?”

He shook his head. “Never in my existence.”

She swallowed, holding his gaze. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

Brigan wanted to laugh at this, to wave it off as absurd, but there was a growing kernel of awareness at the back of his mind that urged him to do exactly that.

He’d told Catalina too much already, and even as infatuated as he was with this soft, rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed little lamb, he should probably kill her anyway.

“I haven’t decided,” he said, trying to joke, but feeling the way the words burned at the back of his throat.

She gave a trembling smile as she swallowed again, cupping her hands around her glass. “I knew immediately that you weren’t like other men. I guess that answer doesn’t surprise me.”

“You won’t argue for your life?” he asked, smiling.

She grinned at him. “Is that an official question?”

“Yes. It’s my second one. If you really thought that was my plan, you wouldn’t try to convince me to let you live?”