“Are you trying to insult my manhood?” His words were obviously meant in a joking fashion, yet there was a definite spark of curiosity there.
“Show me then. I’ve seen a demon transform before, from a distance, of course.” She was lying through her teeth, but he didn’t need to know that. “If you’re really a demon, then transform. Show me what you really are.”
His expression was comical. He looked utterly horrified, and yet, much as he might try to hide it, just the slightest bit tempted.
“No.” Gideon rubbed his palms up and down his thighs, as if they’d begun to sweat. He shook his head and pushed from the chair to tower over her. And yet, agitated as he was, she still sensed no threat from him. “You have no idea what you’re asking for,” he warned.
“Sure I do. I know you’ll get bigger. And scary looking—”
“Scary looking?” Gideon huffed out a mirthless laugh as he paced away, paced back. “You don’t know the half of it. I won’t change for you because I’ll—” He broke off. Color suffused his cheeks. Was he embarrassed? Angry? It was a simple request. Why did he look like he was about to freak out?
He raked a hand through his already messy hair and admitted, “I can’t control that other side of me. The rage takes over and there’s no more logic, no more sanity. I become a killing machine. I have trouble distinguishing friend from foe…hell, half the time I don’t even care. No.” He shook his head again, moistened his lips and visibly forced a swallow. “I won’t change. Not to satisfy your curiosity, not to convince you. Believe me, or don’t. That’s your problem.”
“But—”
“Damn it! I said no.” He’d started pacing away, then swiveled to face her. “Actually, I can do this. But this is all you get.”
Holding his arm out to his side, open palm up, he gave her a grim smile. That was all the warning she got. A seething, pulsing ball of a lavalike substance erupted, hovering in the air just above his palm. Even from that distance, she could feel the searing heat of the thing. Her mouth fell open.
Gideon abruptly fisted his hand, and the ball disappeared with a hiss.
“Satisfied?”
She slowly nodded her head, her gaze still locked on his hand. When she realized she was still gaping, she snapped her mouth closed and dragged her focus back to his face.
Clearing her throat, she worked hard to sound calm and unimpressed. “Okay then.”
She took another moment to compose herself. A moment to form coherent questions. “Why are you different?”
Now he looked wary, almost defensive. “What do you mean, different?”
“With other demons, I get that oily, oozy sensation. With angels, it’s the warm fuzzies. With you…there’s just…nothing. Like an emptiness. A void.”
The look he gave her was fiercely blank. Like a wall had dropped between them. And then he looked down and away. His brow crushed on a frown.
Gideon drew a deep breath, making a visible effort to relax. His moods were mercurial, to say the least. Once more he straddled the chair in front of her, his seductive grin back in place. Those grins were dangerous.
And they were starting to get to her.
Confused, she glanced away from his face, only to watch as long, slim fingers toyed with the heavy watch on his left wrist where it hung over the chair’s back. Tiny specks of odd colored stones glinted from the watch’s face. She didn’t want anything to do with this world, she reminded herself forcefully. And while she may hate the only angel she’d ever met, that didn’t mean she was ready to jump into bed with a demon either.
Jump into bed…
No, she hadn’t meant it that way. Jumping into bed had been a figure of speech, nothing more. Certainly not some subconscious suggestion.
Whatever! Focus!
“So,” he said in that purring drawl of his. “If you hate your f—Michael so much, why keep his name?”
That question hit her out of left field. “That’s none of your business.”
“Not only am I protecting you from others of my kind, but I’m protecting you from his kind as well.”
That gave her pause. One of the sperm donor’s warnings came back to her. Good can be just as dangerous to you as evil. Surround yourself with humans. At all times. Use your gifts only when absolutely necessary and then leave the area immediately afterward.
“Why would you need to protect me from angels?”
Heaving a weary sigh, Gideon raked both hands through his hair, leaving it all but standing straight on end. “We’re just going round and round chasing our tails here. So this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to have full disclosure between us, yeah? I’ll tell you everything I know. You have questions, I’ll answer them. But you have to answer whatever questions I have too. Deal?”
She gnawed on the inside of her lip.
“The only other alternative you have,” he said softly, “is to spend the foreseeable future locked up in one of the rooms upstairs. Makes no difference to me, but one way or another, you aren’t going anywhere. You’re too valuable to risk.”