Wraith’s eyes went to the V of her blouse, which was buttoned too conservatively for his taste, and then down, to her tiny waist that flared into hips she probably thought were too wide but which excited both the primal male and the horny incubus in him. Her body was made to buffer a male’s lust, and for carrying his offspring.
The former would happen, the latter would not. He could sense fertility in any female, and Serena wasn’t ovulating. Besides, no self-respecting Seminus impregnated a human. Offspring born of other demon species would be purebred Seminus demons; those born to human women would be half-breeds, and of no use when it came to carrying on the Seminus breed.
Wraith reluctantly dragged his gaze back up to her face and tried to forget she was human. “Honey, as hot as you are, you shouldn’t trust any man.”
Her easy laughter cut through the cool night, and through his gut. He liked the soft, feminine sound in a way that left him feeling vulnerable… and that he didn’t like.
“You’re smooth,” she said. “I’ll give you that. Something tells me you leave a trail of broken hearts in your wake.”
He crossed his fingers over his own heart. “I promise not to leave any on the way to the hotel.”
She snorted and started down the sidewalk. “Gee, thanks, Josh.”
“My friends call me Wraith.”
She grimaced. “Wraith? That’s a horrible nickname. I’ll call you Josh.”
Great. Just great. Bad enough that he had to pretend to be nice. Now he had to do it while being called Josh.
Wraith stayed cocked and ready as they hoofed it toward the hotel. He wasn’t sure what was up with the creepy Byzam dude, but he knew without a doubt that the male wasn’t human. Which meant he was up to no good. Maybe he was after Serena’s charm, maybe he’d learned why she was in Egypt and wanted whatever she was after. Either way, his presence was a thorn in Wraith’s side. The last thing he needed was interference.
Wraith’s gaze returned to Serena’s lithe, graceful body. Her breasts were smaller than he liked, but when it came down to it, he didn’t have to like her. He was after one thing. Still, he’d be stuck with her for a few hours at least, so he might as well observe. And it wasn’t as if she was hard on the eyes. Far from it.
She was short, maybe five-feet-five, with wavy blond hair she’d pulled into a high ponytail that stuck through the hole in her beige baseball cap. Long eyelashes framed big brown eyes shot through with gold. High cheekbones added definition to a slightly rounded face, and her generous mouth tipped crookedly to the right when she smiled.
“Are you staying at my hotel?” she asked as they halted at the corner of a busy street. He loved the natural, sultry rasp in her voice that made everything sound as if she’d added “in bed” to the end of every sentence.
“Yup. Flew in this afternoon. I’m already checked in.”
“You live in Italy, right?” She had to yell over the sound of a honking horn.
He nodded, recalling what he’d extracted from Josh’s mind, and said, “I’m originally from Ohio, but I’ve been in Perugia for the last six months.” He had no idea why Josh had moved there, so he hoped she didn’t ask.
“I love Italy.” In bed. Her smile grew dreamy, and he really wished she wouldn’t do that, because it made him want to kiss her.
Which was crazy, because he’d never kissed a female before, not in his hundred years of life. But suddenly he wanted to put his mouth on Serena’s and see what all the fuss was about.
She watched him, her eyes glittering with curiosity, and he wondered if she felt the static crackle of awareness between them. When her gaze slid to his mouth and she swayed, he knew she did.
In an almost dreamlike state, he drew closer to her. His vampire senses picked up her sweet scent, the sound of her pulse rate increasing. His own went erratic and off the charts as he leaned in. Anticipation made his skin tingle, but out of nowhere a foul scent like burning flesh hijacked the air.
He started, shaken out of his insanity. Oh, he was going to kiss her—Tayla had given him a damn primer on what human women liked, and she insisted kissing was part of seduction—but pouncing on Serena out in the open was probably not the way to go.
“Do you smell that?” He swung his head around, zeroing in on the odor. There, behind a truck parked on an incline between two closed-up shops… eyes. Red, glowing eyes.
“I don’t smell anything—”
“Stay here.” He peeled off toward the threat, his body revved for battle, adrenaline pumping hotly through his veins.
The creature behind the truck growled, a chilling sound that made the hair on the back of Wraith’s neck stand up. This was a khnive, a summoned demon tracker bound by its master to do his bidding until the spell controlling it timed out.
“What is it?”
Wraith paused at Serena’s voice. She was right behind him. “I told you to stay where you were.”
“Last time I looked, you weren’t my boss.”
So she was sexy and spirited. An admirable yet annoying combination.