Immortals After Dark 09 - Pleasure of a Dark Prince

bounded up them. “Where were you?” he demanded, his eyes flickering blue.
    “Right up here. You couldn’t scent me?”
    He visibly relaxed, the tension easing from his broad shoulders. “It’s difficult to find you aboard a ship like this.” At her nonplussed look, he said, “I scent your bathing suit top drying on the clothesline by the galley.” He twined a lock of her hair around his finger. “I smell a strand from these curls up by the wheel-house. All around, I detect your scent. It’d almost be easier for me to find you from thirty or forty miles away.”
    “I told you I wouldn’t leave. Don’t you trust me?”
    “Aye, but I chased you for the better part of a year. Old habits die hard. It actually feels
odd
no’ to be running after you. Welcome, but odd.”
    She tilted her head at him. “In all that time, did you… did you ever think about giving up?”
    “Never.”
    “Not once?”
    His voice was so deep as he said, “Lousha, you’re my lass.” He shrugged, as if he spoke an irrevocable truth.
    If I’m not careful, I might just prove him right….

THIRTY

    “You doona expect to catch dinner with that setup?”
    Imagine that, MacRieve taunting Damiãno
, Lucia thought. For the last ten days, the two men had been constantly at odds. They neared a boiling point, unable to pass each other on the narrow gangway without slamming shoulders.
    “You think
you
could do better?” Damiãno snapped.
    “Oh, aye.”
    “Wager on it.”
    Lucia sank down on the weathered lounge chair. Elbows to her knees and her chin in her hands, she settled in for the duration—because neither male had caught a single fish the entire trip. And now she could tell that neither would budge until they did….
    For each of these ten days, as the
Contessa
had headed deeper down the San Miguel into a primeval jungle, Garreth had grown more on edge. He paced constantly, palpably restless. He couldn’t run, and it weighed on him. Lucia knew the Lykae needed to run. Especially with the full moon tonight.
    And then tomorrow they planned to arrive in the vicinity of Rio Labyrinto—another source of unease for him. He’d said to her, “I doona suppose there’s any wayI could talk you out of going to the labyrinth?” At her look, he’d added, “Dinna think so.”
    Yet as much as Garreth hated it here, she’d enjoyed it. She recalled that explorers used to talk about the jungle as if she were a mistress, leading men astray, making them shrug off civility. She finally understood what they’d meant.
    And she
liked
it.
    Levelheaded Lucia was
losing
it. Her façade of control, her tenuous rationality. Everything about this place was sensual—the colors, the warmth, the evocative scents. She felt more alive than she had in memory.
    Or maybe that was owing to the werewolf whose bed she shared? MacRieve was wearing her down every day—and night. As if she needed anything to erode her control. Her house of cards was in the midst of a maelstrom. With one stray touch, all would come tumbling down….
    Over these days, life aboard the
Contessa
had taken on a routine. Damiãno always seemed to be around, and though she sensed the male could be a threat, Lucia couldn’t muster any real fear. Damiãno might have been of the Lore, but no species could match Garreth in strength.
    As for Rossiter, when he wasn’t pacing in his cabin, the doctor got Charlie to teach him about the inner workings of the ship, and together, they did everything from refueling the generators to changing engine filters.
    Lucia didn’t think Rossiter had been asleep for an hour since they’d left. He was growing paler, his tall body rangier, and sometimes she thought she detecteda growing glint in his dark blue eyes, like a… madness setting in.
How could it not?
Like her, Rossiter was running out of time.
    Schecter continually crept about at all hours of the night, dipping his sonic lure into the water, and just as continually, Izabel gave Travis long looks.
    When Travis didn’t think anyone was around, he’d checked her out a couple of times, then had appeared furious with himself. Yet it seemed Travis hadn’t noticed Charlie was giving him long looks as well.
    Despite the fact that the Texan wasn’t particularly kind to either twin, both of them were falling for him.
    Lucia actually liked Izabel. For a mortal. The girl was affable and no-nonsense, and reminded her a little of Regin. Though Lucia could never shake the feeling that something