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the galley and had seen them, Sarah had known there
    was something different about the two men -- something not quite human. And the scent they’d given off was like nothing she’d smelled before... raw, wild, musky, and primitive.
    The only other time she’d caught a whiff like that was connected to a tragic childhood memory.
    In the brief glimpse she’d caught of both men, Sarah had noticed they were incredibly attractive, but she hadn’t wanted to stick around to get a closer look. Damn. She knew she should have stayed home and painted today; instead, she’d decided to come down to the gallery for inspiration. Now she was in a fix and wasn’t sure how to get out of it.
    That scent...
    They were here.
    Looking wildly around the ladies room, she wondered if she should try to escape
    through the narrow bathroom window or wait out her pursuers. Then the pounding on the door let her know that she had to think fast.
    “Um, just a minute,” she called out unsteadily. Climbing onto a toilet seat, she pushed against the sill with one hand, while lifting the window at the same time with the other.
    Shit! It was stuck.
    Sarah used the flat of her hand to give the window a hard shove, dislodging the entire thing in the process. The frame dangled and glass shattered, spraying to the ground a few feet 22 Eve Vaughn
    below. She briefly cursed her own strength; if that didn’t draw everyone’s attention, she didn’t know what would.
    Again, someone beat on the door, and a deep masculine voice spoke from the other
    side. “Open up. We just want to have a word with you.”
    “I’ll be a minute. Hold your horses.” Slipping through the window face first, Sarah had barely got her hips out when a pair of strong hands grasped her arms and yanked her forward the rest of the way. She gasped, momentarily robbed of her breath.
    He was nothing short of perfect. Ink-black hair rested in a dark cloud of waves around his face, giving him a wild look. His features were strong and pronounced, almost arrogant, and his gray eyes seemed to be looking right into her soul. Dear Lord, his mouth was sexy, too; it was deep red, and while his top lip was full, the bottom one was sinfully plump, forming his mouth into a sensual pout. Sarah had never seen anything like those lips before and couldn’t tear her eyes away.
    With a quick shake of her head, she examined the rest of the man. Since she was an
    inch shy of six feet herself, she figured he stood at least seven inches taller. The stranger was lean but athletically built and had a broad chest. He was so blatantly masculine that he actually made an Amazon like her feel petite and feminine.
    “Why did you run?” he asked smoothly.
    Sarah’s body heated with awareness. No. Please don’t let me be attracted to this man, who’s quite possibly a psychotic killer. Replying with bravado she didn’t quite feel, Sarah snapped, “Why were you and your friend following me?”
    An amused smirk tilted his lips. “I asked you first, sweetheart.”
    “I’m not your sweetheart, and I’ll thank you to take your damn hands off me!” When
    she tried to wrench her arms out of his grip, he held on effortlessly, much to her surprise.
    Sarah was no weak woman, so why couldn’t she break free of his hold? “Besides, I don’t owe you any explanation. It’s my prerogative where I choose to go. Now, I insist you release me, or I swear I’ll scream.” As each second passed, she began to lose the little bit of courage stored within her.
    “Go ahead and scream. No one will come to your rescue. My cousin can be persuasive
    when he wants to be, and right about now he’s probably convinced everyone in there that they simply imagined everything or that the locked bathroom door and broken window was the result of a prank.”
    “You don’t think I will?”
    “Oh, I think you will, but it won’t you any good.”
    Sarah narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”
    “Try it and find out.”

    Kyriakis