“If what?” he asked, unable to stop himself from moving closer. Her pull on him was magnetic, her spell black magic.
“I don’t know if it was me.”
He frowned. “If what was you?”
She spun around. “If I started the fires.”
“What are you talking about?”
Shaking her head, she looked away. “Nothing.”
In one step, he was in front of her. Judging by her flinch when he gripped her chin and turned her face back to him, he’d been less gentle than he intended.
“No more lies,” he said through thin lips. “Your life is at stake, and so is mine.”
She pulled away, escaping his touch. “I didn’t ask you to rescue me.”
“Do you have any idea what would’ve happened if I didn’t find you first?” Each word was measured. “You could’ve died ten times over already.”
“What do you expect me to say? Thank you?”
For the love of the gods, she was an obstinate little witch. He wanted to pull her over his lap, push up that too-short skirt, and spank her pink, like she deserved. If only her blood didn’t lie, he could’ve settled this easily enough.
Frustration welled up in him. “We’re running out of time. I have ways of extracting information, but I prefer not to use them on you. Now make that pretty mouth useful and tell me the truth for once.”
Her manner was hesitant as she studied him. He bet her mind was working at a mile a minute, trying to get ahead of him in the game, but it was already checkmate for her.
“Nothing you say will change your fate,” he said, “so you may just as well go ahead and tell me.” He added in a sinister tone, “One way or another, I will find out.”
The silence dragged on for another few seconds before she finally said, “A month before you came, at the same time the fires started, I started having a dream, the same dream, and whenever I dreamt it, I walked in my sleep.”
“You sleepwalked?”
“Sometimes I woke up in a different room of the house, but sometimes I woke up someplace else, like in the woods.”
Fuck. He didn’t even want to think about the million dangers and all the things that could’ve happened to her.
“I begged Erwan to lock me into my room at night, but his heart wouldn’t let him,” she continued. “He told me it wasn’t me. He said I’d set fire to things only twice, when I was three years old, and never again.”
He stood motionless, waiting for her to continue.
“I wanted to go to the authorities and hand myself over, but Erwan said it wouldn’t accomplish anything because they’d only use me as a scapegoat.”
Yeah. Erwan had been wise.
“Erwan said it was best we both went into hiding for a few months until the dust had settled. I was on my way to the jetty to take his boat when you arrived.”
The fires were malicious. Being evil wasn’t in her making. Not yet. “Cain is certain it was Lupien.”
She considered his answer, then shook her head. “Why would he do that?”
“It’s a way of awakening a regressed art.”
“Is that why you couldn’t pick it up from my blood, because it’s regressed?”
“Maybe.” If she wasn’t lying, it was the only explanation that made sense.
“How could Lupien have known this if he’s never met me?”
“I don’t know, but Lupien is a clever man. His motive for setting a whole village on fire wasn’t only to draw out a virgin firestarter. I suspect he also knew it would draw out his enemy.”
“Cain.”
“Two birds with one stone.”
“If that was so, why didn’t he try to kill Cain?”
“He did. He tried to kill us, remember? The shooting was an effort to get to you. When Cain realized Lupien was involved, I took you to the safe house. Then you escaped, and Lupien disappeared.” He gave her a level look. “Like I’ve said before, he’s still after you.”
She bit her lip, studying him for a moment. “If Lupien is after me to steal my art, it still makes me your enemy.”
“Yes, but we’re going to change that.”
“How?”
“You don’t have to worry about that now. We’ll handle it when we get there.”
“Get where?”
“All you have to worry about now is getting back your strength.” He raked his gaze over her smaller waist and thinner arms. “Eat. Rest.”
“Then what?” she asked, her body tensing.
The distance she kept between them didn’t escape him. “Then you let me worry about the rest.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Joss.”
He hardened his voice. “It’ll work any way I see fit.”
She gave a small, sad smile. “To think there was a time I thought I loved you.”
The words were like an unpleasant aftertaste in his mouth. He wished he could make her swallow them, but she was right. He wasn’t the man she’d fabricated in her mind. “Love or no love, it makes no difference. It would’ve been easier for you if you could’ve held on to that pretty illusion of love,” of loving a good man, “but I already told you I’m not going to deceive you.”
She sagged, leaning her back against the sliding door. “What do you want from me?”
He closed that distance she fought so hard to maintain and stopped flush against her. “Right now?” He lowered his head, holding her eyes. “This.”
Using her shock to his advantage, he took her face between his hands and pressed their mouths together. When she gasped, he stole inside. Tangling his tongue with hers, he kissed her like he’d promised himself he would when he found her. It was wild and uninhibited, a stolen kiss, and he took for as long as she battled to come to her senses.
She protested with a moan and shoved him away with her hands on his shoulders.
He let her. Dragging his tongue over his teeth, he watched her as he savored her taste on his lips and tongue. Caramel and sin. So sweet for a woman who was
