The Missing

frail.

    “You know what I’m going to do to you if I see you touching her again?” Cullen asked, his voice pleasant, almost friendly.

    Leon sneered. “Even after all these years, that harlot niece of mine has control over you, doesn’t she? You succumbed to temptation, and now you’re as damned as she is.”

    Cullen’s hand shot out, and he fisted the sturdy black cloth of Leon’s shirt. Jerking Leon forward, he said in a soft, deadly voice, “You want to watch how you speak of her, Carson. You might have half the town thinking you’re a benevolent, God-fearing man, but I know better, and I’d sooner knock your teeth down your throat than look at you.” He gave Carson a hard, fast shake before he turned the older man loose. “You don’t want to touch her again, old man. You do, you’re going to deal with me.”

    Anger did a bad thing to Leon’s common sense. Dropping the pretense he always used in public, he lifted a bony hand and pointed a finger at Cullen. “I’ve tried to warn you, tried to keep you from the evil you want to surround yourself with. But you’re no innocent lamb led astray. You seek out the evil, embrace it. You’ll burn with it when the time is right.” Muttering under his breath, Leon stormed away.

    “Why didn’t you just hit him?” Cullen asked, his voice cold and flat as he turned to face Taige. “He needs it.”

    “Yeah, but I don’t need the headache.” She frowned at him. “What are you doing here?”

    Lifting a brow, he replied, “I’m looking for you.”

    “Why?”

    “Unfinished business.” His voice softened as he looked her over from head and toe, and Taige had to suppress a shiver. Nearly a hundred degrees and so damn muggy breathing was a chore, and he could make her shiver with just a look.

    Then she focused on what he had said, and she felt something dig at her heart. “We don’t have any unfinished business, Cullen.” Damn, he wasn’t going to try to pay her or something, was he? A niggling suspicion wormed through her, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t want any money from you.”

    A reluctant grin tugged at the corners of his lips as he shook his head. “I’m not here to pay you.” That hard, sexy mouth of his flattened out into a thin line, and his eyes scanned the parking lot. He held his hand out to her and murmured, “We need to talk.”

    Taige really, really didn’t want to touch him. She’d worked hard to avoid doing just that as much as possible in the few hours she’d spent with him last month, but there had been a good excuse for avoiding physical contact. Now? There was no logical reason for refusing to put her hand in his. Other than the fact that she really didn’t want to touch him.

    “Scared of me, Taige? Or just pissed at me?”

    Yes. No. In that order. But was Taige going to tell him that? Oh, hell, no. She took a deep breath to steady herself and then reached out, placed her hand in his. Instinctively, she braced herself for the onslaught of memory flashes that came with physical contact, and just as quickly, Taige forced herself to relax. She hadn’t ever been able to pick up anything concrete from Cullen, and now wasn’t any different. When she lowered her mental shields, she caught a few faint flickers, but none of them were solid. None of them of were defined.

    “Where to?” she asked and hoped he didn’t notice the way her voice shook just a little.

    THEY ended up at an oyster house that Cullen remembered from his summers there. The red and white striped awning hadn’t changed, and the restaurant still had the best salad bar and excellent fried oysters. Too bad he had next to no appetite. He sat pushing the food around on his plate and wondering why he’d thought getting a bite to eat would break the tension.

    “Where’s Jillian?”

    He looked up to see that Taige had eaten about as much as he had: next to nothing. Her eyes glimmered against the warm gold of her skin, framed by long, spiky lashes. Cullen’s mouth went dry as he stared at her. Seeing her had the same effect on him as it had twelve years ago: hot need and a tenderness that turned his bones to mush. He was torn between wanting to pull her against him so he could cuddle her close and wanting to strip away her clothes so he fuck her brains out.

    Only with Taige had he ever experienced anything besides lust. She hadn’t been the first girl he’d slept with, but she’d been the first girl to really matter to