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thick-skinned and he would probably punish her by leaving.
    Elissa adjusted her plum halter-top to flash a little more cleavage in his direction and then toyed with her long hair.
    No reaction. The blue and gold in his eyes didn’t even change. His fae markings remained placid cool grey.
    It irked her.
    Wasn’t she pretty enough to get his attention?
    She paused.
    Did she want him to think she was pretty?
    No. She was just bored and annoyed, and he was stubborn. He was a challenge and she liked that. The fact that he was damned hot was just a cherry on top of a very delicious sundae.
    He was a way of getting what she wanted. Luca back in her arms, safe and sound.
    What she had proposed seemed like a fair exchange to her. She really didn’t understand his reluctance. It was strange. He was willing to go alone to get the ring, and might even get Luca for her too if she explained her situation and convinced him that leaving a young boy in the grasp of his grandfather was cruel, regardless of how Payne felt about incubi, but he refused to let her tag along in the role of his lover?
    Most incubi would have been all over her, intent on turning it from pretend to real. Payne looked as though he wanted to run a mile from her, as soon as possible and as quickly as he could.
    Elissa crossed the room and stopped before him, standing close. He didn’t look at her. His gaze remained glued on the strip of wall above the door.
    She shook off her nerves and raised her hand. Was she really going to do this? Her fingers shook and she focused, trying to steady them and her trembling heart. She ran her fingertip along his collarbone. No reaction. Her gaze leapt up to his. The colours in them remained muted. He looked like a man waiting for a long jail sentence to end, as though everything depended on surviving until he made it back through that door. Why didn’t he just leave then?
    Did the ring mean that much to him that he was willing to endure her company and wait until she changed her mind and did things his way?
    “Is the ‘friend’ with a problem your lover?” The thought that she might be caused a weird tight sensation behind Elissa’s breastbone and acid in her stomach.
    He reacted to that, his gaze darting to her and darkening. “No.”
    It went back to the door.
    It was progress. He didn’t have a lover. Elissa found that oddly relieving.
    She upped the stakes and ran her finger over his lower lip. He bore his fangs at her but nothing more.
    “I don’t like strong silent types,” she muttered and focused her magic, willing it to reveal the object of his focus.
    Her insides lit up.
    He was locked on her like a heat-seeking missile on an inferno. She delved a little deeper with her magic, unravelling the threads of his feelings. They were murky. Probably his mixed genes at play. She searched and found a glimmering red ribbon of desire amongst them. He did want her. There was so much black in his feelings though. She hoped it was just his genes muddling her spell and not a sign that he held endless darkness and pain inside him. She lowered her hands to his chest, resting her palms against the rock hard muscles hidden beneath his soft grey shirt.
    Elissa tiptoed and shivered as their bodies came into contact. She brought her mouth to his ear, making sure their cheeks brushed. His heart thundered like a war drum against her hands and she realised something shocking. He was trembling too. She closed her eyes as he moved, his cheek against hers and his breath cool on her throat. Mother earth, it felt so good that she forgot what she had intended to say.
    Her cheek heated against his.
    Elissa swallowed and remembered what she had meant to ask him. “Why did you call yourself Payne?”
    He grabbed her waist and pushed her away. “It is none of your business. Tell me how to find the incubi den. I desire to leave.”
    Like hell he did. The remaining trace of her spell said that he wanted to stay. She would have given anything to