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away? “Um, she’s still here.”
    Tanner sat back in his seat, studied the waitress for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Go away.”
    The young girl blinked and shook her head as though coming out of a trance, opened her mouth to say something, then let out a little squeal and rushed off.
    “Do you always have such an effect on women?” She couldn’t blame the girl. Even the woman at the bar had a difficult time taking her attention off him.Hilly took a drink of her wine and adopted an innocent expression.
    “I do.” The beginning of a soft smile played on his lips.
    She choked on the last sip, then coughed, trying to recover. “I guess modesty isn’t a concern for you, is it?”
    “The facts are the facts.” He leaned forward, his eyes sparkling even as they darkened. “I can’t deny what I am any more than you can deny what you are.”
    Oh. My. Word.
    How dark would his eyes turn? What did it mean when they grew dark? Hilly swirled her drink, using the movement as an excuse to tear herself away from his tantalizing eyes. Even without looking at him, she could feel his magnetism, feel his overpowering charm oozing from every part of his body. How could one man possess so much charisma, so much allure, so much…danger? She itched to touch him, to explore every inch of him, to have him touch her in every way.
    Get a grip before you start acting like the silly waitress.
    “Did you hear me?” He waited until she lifted her head to meet his gaze. “I know what you are.”
    “Hmm?” She took another drink, unsure of what else to do. She couldn’t just keep acting dumb.
    Would he follow her if she got up and left? She caught him studying her in an I-want-your-body kind of way. Trouble was, her body wanted to answer with a resounding “yes!”
    Did she even want to leave?
    He laughed, turning the head of every woman within fifty feet of them. The warmth in the laugh, the fullness of his voice rippled through her. “You, Hilly Tristan, are amazing. A real treasure. That’s what you are.”
    Hilly let out a long, slow breath of relief. She was wrong. He didn’t know what she was, after all.
    “Of course, being a treasure goes along with the fact that you’re a shape-shifter.”
    Her quick inhale brought the wine into her throat and up through her nose. She grabbed a napkin and covered her nose and mouth as she sputtered.
    “Are you all right?” He started to rise, but she held a hand up and shook her head, keeping him where he was.
    “I’m fine.” Swallowing hard, she dabbed the napkin at the corners of her eyes. “You caught me off-guard, is all.”
    “I’m not sure why what I said surprised you. You didn’t think I was fooled by your impersonation of Emma Grace, did you? Granted, it was a dead-on impersonation, but maybe that was part of the problem.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    His face lit up as though intrigued by her denial. “Seriously, Hilly? Come on. No one, not even identical twins look exactly alike. You were a perfect match, from the hair, the skin tone, down to the tiny scar on her forehead. Are you trying to tell me two children can get a scar in exactly the same place and both scars are exactly the same length with a slight bend at the end? You were too close a match to be anything other than a shape-shifter.”
    “A shape-shifter?” She had to think, had to find a way out of the conversation, but every time she looked his way, she couldn’t think straight.
    “Are you really going to play dumb? You are much too intelligent a woman to play games. You know what a shape-shifter is as well as I do.”
    She couldn’t see any way out of the situation. Besides, what was the point if he already knew what she was?
    “I wasn’t trying to fool anyone.” She straightened her shoulders. “Okay, maybe in a little way I was. But not directly. Not like I was attempting to trick anyone. I was just playing with my niece.”
    He tilted his head, and the slight