Sunshine hung up the phone and looked down at the Snoopy in her hand. She laughed.
Talon might not be perfect, he might even occasionally screw up and get run down by a Mardi Gras float, but he had been a great guy, and great guys were hard to come by in this day and age.
It was a pity she'd never see him again. But then, she wasn't the kind of woman to mope over what could have been. She was an artist with a good career that she had worked very hard for.
A serious relationship with someone wasn't something she was looking for right now.
She liked living alone. Loved having the freedom to just pick up and go whenever and wherever she wanted to. Her brief marriage in her early twenties had schooled her well on what a man expected from a
wife.
She had no intention ofever revisiting that fiasco.
Talon had been a fun afternoon diversion, but that was all he was. Her life would now go on just as it always had.
Her heart lighter at the thought of him, she took Snoopy into her bedroom and set him on the nightstand by the bed.
Sunshine smiled. She'd never had a memento before. But that's what Snoopy was to her. A token reminder of a wonderful day.
"Have a nice life, Talon," she said, turning off the light by the bed before she headed back to her work.
"Maybe someday we might meet again."
It was just after onea.m . when Talon found himself outside the club Runningwolf's onCanal Street . He'd tried to tell himself that he was here because Daimons were often found hanging in and around clubs where drunken humans made easy pickings.
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) He'd tried to tell himself that he was just doing his job.
But as he looked up at the dark windows above the club and wondered if Sunshine was up there in her bed or if she was at her easel painting, he knew better.
He was here because of her.
Talon cursed under his breath. Acheron was right. She was inside him in a way no one had been inside of him in centuries.
No matter what he tried, he couldn't get her out of his mind.
Over and over, he could feel her. Feel her body under his, her breath on his skin. Hear the sound of her soft Southern drawl whispering in his ear.
And when she had touched him…
It was like a song from heaven.
The physical comfort and companionship she'd given him this afternoon had touched him profoundly.
He'd felt welcomed in a way that wasn't sexual.
What had she done to him? Why after all these centuries had a woman crept inside his feelings?
His thoughts?
Even more frustrating, he knew if he were human, he'd be with her now.
You're not human.
He didn't need the reminder. All too well, he knew what he was. He liked what he was. There was a special kind of satisfaction that came with his job.
And yet…
"Speirr? What are you doing?"
He tensed at Ceara's voice coming out of the darkness and at the fact that someone had caught him doing something he shouldn't be doing.
"Nothing."
She appeared beside him. Her shimmering face smiled knowingly.
He let out a disgusted breath. Why did he bother trying to hide anything from the ones who could see straight into his thoughts?
Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)
"Yeah, okay," he admitted reluctantly, "so I wanted to check up on her and see how she's doing.
"
"She's fine.
"
"And thatreally irritates me." The words were out before he realized it.
Ceara laughed at that. "You were expecting her to be sad?
"
"Of course. She should at least have had a moment or two of regret or something.
"
Ceara clucked her tongue. "Poor Speirr. You found the only woman alive who doesn't think you hung the moon and the stars.
"
He rolled his eyes at her. "So maybe I'm being a little arrogant…" She arched a brow and he corrected himself. "So I'm being a lot arrogant, but damn, I can't get her out of my thoughts. How can she feel nothing?
"
"I didn't say she felt nothing, I only said she's not sad.
"
"So she did feel something for me?
"
"If you like, I could do more investigating.
"
"Nae," Talon said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Ceara to find out what he and Sunshine had been doing all afternoon.
Ceara was naive and he wanted to keep her that way.
His sister walked a small circle around his body. For some reason she'd always liked to do that. As a
little girl, she'd made him dizzy as she raced around him at a dead run, giggling as she went.
Even though she was a young woman before him now, in his heart he always saw her as that chubby little toddler who used to sit on his lap for hours, playing with his braids as she gibbered her baby speech at him.
Just like Dere…
His stomach clenched at the memory.
Ceara hadn't been his only sister. Three more had been born between them. Fia had died her first year of life. Tress had lived to age five when she perished of the same illness that had claimed their mother.
And Dere…