Whispered Temptations

Chapter Eight

「 ✦ Hero's POV ✦ 」

I had known lust before.

Had known fascination, appetite, the sharp bite of wanting something because it was beautiful and close enough to take.

This was not that.

This was profoundly worse.

The moment I saw her, something primitive inside me had risen to full attention and refused to sit back down.

Even now, standing in the archway with Carter murmuring something useless at my shoulder and half the room making noise around us, all I could feel was the pull of her.

Halsey.

Just thinking her name made my jaw tighten.

She stood near Niko's sectional between her sisters, a bottle of water in one hand, dark hair spilling over one bare shoulder in waves that caught copper where the lights found them. The black halter top she wore should have been a simple thing. On her, it looked like temptation made textile. The jeans hugged hips made for a man's hands. Her mouth - full, heart-shaped, impossible - looked faintly kiss-swollen even though I knew for a fact no one had touched it tonight.

Yet.

My body went hard all over again at the thought.

It was ridiculous.

I'd been in rooms full of beautiful women my entire life. I'd dated beauty queens and socialites and women who knew exactly how to weaponize a man's desire. I'd f****d actresses, heiresses, daughters of senators and oil men and men who mistook proximity to power for personality.

None of them had ever looked at me and made the world go silent.

None of them had ever fled from me either.

That had been the first hook.

Not fear. Not exactly.

Recognition wrapped in panic.

She'd looked at me like she felt it too, whatever this was, and had gone outside because staying under my gaze in a crowded room had been too much.

I understood that.

Barely.

And then, out in the yard beneath the oak, she'd stood in front of me flushed and defensive and brave enough to be honest even while she lied. She'd admitted I unsettled her. She'd looked at me with those sea-glass eyes and asked who I was like the answer might actually matter.

I still didn't know how to explain why that affected me so strongly.

Only that it did.

Carter leaned closer and muttered, "You've looked homicidal and lovesick in under twenty minutes. That's new."

I ignored him.

He took a sip from his cup. "You know Niko's about to have a territorial meltdown if you keep staring at Halo's sister like that."

That got my attention just enough for me to glance sideways.

"I am not staring."

Carter laughed softly. "Ro, I can practically hear your thoughts from here."

I didn't answer.

Because he wasn't entirely wrong.

Ashton joined us a second later, snagging a beer from a passing tray as if one had materialized specifically for him.

"So," he said, following my gaze across the room, "which one of us is going to tell Niko that his little warning speech in the car was catastrophically useless?"

Dawson appeared behind him, expression unreadable.

"No one," he said. "Because I enjoy being alive."

Ashton tipped his bottle toward Halsey's younger sister. "The little one already threatened to bury Halsey's backyard companion under the porch."

Carter grinned. "You mean Hero?"

"I mean the walking felony over there, yes."

I tuned them out.

Halsey had tilted her head closer to Halo, listening to something her older sister said. Her expression shifted as she listened - alert, then exasperated, then soft around the edges in a way that made me feel something low and rough move through my chest.

She was beautiful, yes.

But that wasn't the center of it.

The center was how alive her face was.

How much she revealed without trying to.

How she held herself like visibility still felt unfamiliar, as if some part of her expected punishment for stepping into the light.

I wanted to know who had taught her that.

Wanted, with a violence I did not enjoy examining, to break their hands.

Niko appeared at my side before I saw him coming.

"Hero."

His voice was calm.

Too calm.

I dragged my eyes off Halsey and looked at him.

He was smiling for the benefit of anyone watching, but his blue gaze was pointed.

Protective.

Not angry. Not yet.

Fair enough.

"Niko."

He took a swallow of his drink, then said without preamble, "She okay?"

I understood at once which she he meant.

"Yes."

He studied my face.

"What happened out there?"

"We talked."

"That's all?"

I paused.

Niko's brows climbed.

Ashton made a sound behind us that suspiciously resembled a stifled laugh.

Dawson muttered, "He's not answering fast enough."

I ignored all of them.

"That's all," I said finally.

Niko considered that.

Then: "Did you make her uncomfortable?"

"No."

The word came out harder than I'd intended.

Too immediate. Too certain.

Niko noticed.

So did Carter.

It didn't matter.

He held my gaze one moment longer and nodded once.

"Good."

Then, because he was not an i***t and had known me too long to miss what was written across my face, he added quietly, "She's had a rough year."

My body went still.

Niko saw the shift and kept his voice low.

"Halo will tell you more if she wants to. I won't. But don't play with her."

There was no accusation in it.

Only warning.

The kind a man gives another man when the stakes are very real.

Something grim and old moved through me.

Because the idea that Halsey had ever been toyed with - laughed at, used, mishandled in any way - made a black pulse of rage hit the base of my spine.

I kept my face neutral by force.

"Not my style."

Niko nodded like he'd expected that answer.

Then his mouth twitched. "And if it becomes your style, I'll remove your arms."

"Violently," Ashton supplied.

Niko didn't look at him. "Very."

That should have amused me.

Some part of it did.

But I was too focused on the new information grinding against my ribs.

A rough year.

It fit too well.

The hesitation in her.

The watchfulness.

The way she responded to directness like she'd spent too long around liars.

I thought of the backyard again - the instant I'd asked what happened to her and she'd closed up, every line of her body quietly defended while pretending otherwise.

I wanted to know.

Not because it would make the puzzle easier.

Because her hurt had become important to me with frightening speed.

Hazel laughed loudly near the couch, drawing Halsey's attention.

She smiled at something her sister said.

Not broadly. Just enough to bring dimples briefly into her cheeks.

The sight struck me so directly I had to set my drink down before I crushed the plastic in my hand.

Jesus Christ.

Carter noticed that too.

"You are in deep trouble."

"Shut up."

He grinned. "Already taking your tone with us. This is serious."

Dawson crossed his arms. "You're scaring women now, Hero. That's usually Ashton's thing."

Ashton placed a hand over his heart. "I feel seen."

I rubbed a hand over my jaw and kept my eyes on Halsey.

She looked over.

Straight at me.

The room quieted again in my head.

Not around me. Never that. The party still thundered on - bass, laughter, shouted lyrics, bottles clinking in the kitchen, Halo's heels clicking on hardwood as she moved around the sectional.

But for me, the noise split and fell away.

There she was.

Watching me with the same startled intensity she tried so hard to conceal.

This time she didn't run.

Good girl, some savage part of my brain supplied, and I almost recoiled from myself.

Possessive. Too fast. Unacceptable.

And yet the instinct stayed.

Not because I believed she belonged to me.

Because something in me had already begun rearranging itself around the possibility that she might.

Madness.

Complete f*****g madness.

Still, when Carter said, "Well? Are you going over there or are you planning to court her through dramatic eye contact all evening?" I found myself already moving.

Niko sighed behind me.

Ashton whispered, "And there he goes."

Dawson said something dry and unsympathetic that I didn't catch.

I crossed the room slowly, not because I lacked urgency but because urgency would have looked predatory and I had no intention of frightening her again.

Every step drew more eyes than I wanted. A few women shifted as I passed, their perfume catching in the air. Someone called my name from behind the beer pong table. I ignored them all.

My attention stayed fixed on one face.

One pair of green eyes behind thick dark lashes.

One mouth that looked made for sin and sincerity in equal measure.

By the time I reached the sectional, Halo had folded her arms.

Hazel was practically vibrating.

Halsey stood very still, bottle of water in hand, watching me come.

Niko looked like a man deciding where he'd hide the body if necessary.

I stopped a respectful distance from Halsey and let my gaze take her in once - one clean sweep, then back to her eyes.

"Hi again."

Her breath caught so softly I might not have heard it if I weren't already attuned to every f*****g thing she did.

"Hi," she said.

The word sounded smaller than it had in the yard.

Shyer.

It twisted something in my chest.

Hazel looked between us like she'd just discovered live theater and premium seating.

Halo, on the other hand, looked ready to conduct an FBI background check using only determination and eyeliner.

I inclined my head toward her and Niko first.

"Halo."

"Niko."

Then to Hazel, because she'd earned the courtesy by threatening me sincerely.

"Hazel."

She grinned. "Hero."

Finally, back to Halsey.

"I seem to have interrupted."

Hazel snorted. "No, you didn't. You dramatically advanced the plot."

"Hazel," Halo warned.

"What? It's true."

Halsey's cheeks flushed.

I had to look away for half a second.

For self-preservation.

When I looked back, she was still studying me with that careful, searching expression that made me feel like an animal learning to stand still for a hand it wanted and mistrusted at once.

Good.

I could work with mistrust.

Mistrust was honest.

"So," Halo said, all velvet over steel, "how do you know my sister?"

I almost smiled.

Fair question.

"I don't," I said. "Not yet."

Hazel made a strangled little noise.

Halo's eyes narrowed.

Niko covered his mouth with his cup to hide what was definitely amusement.

And Halsey...

Halsey looked at me like I'd done something to the air around her all over again.

That was when I knew there was no salvaging the rest of the night.

Nothing else was going to matter half as much as getting close enough to know her properly.

The only question left was how slowly I'd have to move to keep from spooking the wild, beautiful thing standing in front of me.