Chapter Five

Pagan

Was he talking in my head, or had I lost my mind? I hadn’t been able to focus on anything my calculus professor had said. Luckily it was a brief welcome and an overview of the syllabus. Then we’d been dismissed. I was sure I’d missed something important but Dank Walker was beside me. Every female eye in the room was on him and my body tingled every time he brushed his arm against mine, and it seemed that happened a lot. Almost as if he knew what it did to me and he made sure to do it just enough to keep me frazzled.

My book bag was still slung over his arm as we left, I was being forced to endure every fan who stopped him to ask him about his concert, to slip him their number and promise him everything from a deep throat to a strip show. If it wasn’t for the fact I really wanted my book bag and I wanted to see if he talked in my head anymore now that I was fully awake so I could gauge whether or not that was real, I’d have walked off and left him to his adoring fans.

“Follow me,” Dank said as he took my arm and steered me away from a girl in midsentence. I had to run to keep up with him as he led me toward a large oak tree behind the building. There was a picnic table underneath it. Was he hiding?

“They won’t notice me back here,” he explained, making sure the tree was blocking him from the view of everyone else before he sat down on the picnic table. Something about seeing him sitting there seemed familiar. Almost as if I were experiencing déjà vu. He smirked as if he’d read my mind.

“I’m surprised you walked off and left that last girl. If you’d brought her back here I am more than positive you’d have gotten some pretty naughty action. She was getting ready to offer to carry your first born.”

Dank chuckled and shook his head, “I’ll pass. Not my type.”

So far I wasn’t sure what his type was. Not only did he seem to be stalking me, but I hadn’t seen him with anyone else. Was it because I was a challenge?

“Why the interest in me? If I offer to strip for you, will that send you running away? Am I the unique toy you never got to play with?” I made sure to smile as I asked. I didn’t want to sound like a jerk, but I really wanted to know, why me. There were plenty of girls available who were more than willing to do what he wanted, when he wanted it. Dank let my bag drop to the wooden planks of the picnic table and slowly stood up. His eyes were focused on me and the intensity of his gaze almost scared me. Sometimes his eyes didn’t seem real. They seemed unnatural---beautifully unnatural and haunting.

“Understand this, Pagan Moore,” he began in a deep sexy voice, “if you ever offer to strip for me then you will have my complete undivided, attention.”

Oh my.

Swallowing hard I managed to give a semblance of a nod. Dank didn’t back away, instead he moved closer until I was pressed against the tree. “You aren’t a game. You will never be a game to me,” he said as he traced my jawline with the tip of his finger. The longing in his eyes was too strong. It didn’t make sense. We’d just met each other yesterday. Why did he react this way to me? And why did my heart go crazy when he got close?

“It’s been too long. I can’t not kiss you,” he whispered before his mouth covered mine. His words made no sense but that faded to the back of my mind when his tongue slid into my mouth and the rich decadent foreign taste teased my senses. My hands flew up to his shoulders and I held on for dear life. My knees were weak and I needed support, but mainly, I just wanted to keep him there. Just like this. I inhaled the warm dark scent that engulfed me as his body crowded mine. His teeth grazed my bottom lip and I whimpered as his lips began kissing the spot behind my ear. The heat of his breath tickled my skin. Gripping his shirt tightly I pressed closer. One of his knees slid between my legs and settled between them, causing sparks of pleasure to shoot through me.

“Ah,” I cried out as he moved his knee higher. My body trembled in response. Dank buried his head in the curve of my neck and shoulder. His heavy breathing accompanied by his sudden stillness told me this was about to end. I didn’t want it to end but then again the way I was reacting to an innocent kiss might mean I wasn’t ready for Dank Walker’s kisses. I started to move and his arms tightened their hold on my waist.

“No. Please. Not yet. Let me have this,” the pleading sound in his voice as his words were spoken against my skin compelled me to do as he asked. Who could say no to that?

His heavy breathing made very bad thoughts run through my head. His arms slid around me and pulled me closer as his knee lowered, but his leg stayed there between mine. “Are you coming Friday night? I want you there,” he said as he finally lifted his head to look at me.

He wasn’t my type. He wasn’t safe. But I didn’t care. I was a college student. I’d been safe long enough. It was time I gave in a little to the wild side. “Yes, I’ll be there.”

Dank closed his eyes in relief and a smile tugged the corner of his lips. “I was prepared to bribe you. That was easier than I thought,” he replied.

“Bribe me, huh? Maybe I should have held out longer.”

Dank’s eyes lowered and studied my lips. “What do you want, Pagan? Just ask.”

Whoa. He was once again a little too intense.

“Um, well, right now I want to take a nap because I didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night.” I was sure that was not the answer he’d been hoping for but it was true.

Dank stepped back and I suddenly felt cold. “Don’t let Gee make you do things you don’t want to. She doesn’t require as much sleep as you do.”

Were they related? Nothing else made sense. She seemed close to him but they weren’t a couple or anything remotely close to that. “I’m a big girl. I can handle Gee.”

Dank let out a short sexy laugh and nodded, “Yeah. I know.”

Dank

“She doesn’t remember you either. I expected her to forget me. But why doesn’t she remember you?” I’d felt his arrival but I had waited until Pagan was far enough away to turn around and look at him.

Leif, the voodoo spirit that had once held a claim to Pagan’s soul, stood several feet away from me. I had thought taking her from him with the warning to end his world would be enough to keep him away. The boy was verging on stupid. “She isn’t your concern. I suggest you go back to Vilokan and play with your friends there. My patience with you is wearing thin, Voodoo prince.”

He glared at me and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not doing anything wrong. I’ve left her alone. I just came to see if she was okay. Before you showed up, protecting Pagan had been the only life I’d ever known.”

Leif had been Pagan’s dark angel. One she hadn’t known existed. His sick and twisted claim on her soul had been something I’d fought his father, the Voodoo lord of the dead for in his own dwelling.

“You’ve screwed with Pagan’s future enough. She is just now learning what a normal human life is like. I’m the only one that she needs to assure her protection. I won’t tolerate your hanging around. This isn’t your business.”

Leif started to say more when Gee appeared by my side. “Well look what Hell has done drug up,” she said with a sigh and plopped down on the table. “Do I need to make sure you boys play nice? Because I will and I’ll enjoy every second of it.”

Leif’s glare turned to one of hatred when he shifted his focus to Gee. There was no love lost between the two of them. “She doesn’t remember you either,” Leif snarled.

“Ooooh look, Dankmar. He’s still just as quick as he ever was. Doesn’t that just make us the lucky ones?”

“I’m not leaving until one of you explain to me what is wrong with Pagan,” Leif demanded.

Gee cackled and I knew her small bout of humor was running thin. The Voodoo prince was pushing it. “Pagan is fine. She is finding herself without the claim of evil on her soul. “

Leif started to take a step forward and Gee was in his face in less than a tenth of a second. She’d moved at inhuman speed and I looked around quickly to make sure no one had seen her.

“You take one more step this way and I will cut.you,” she hissed.

“You need to leave. This is your final warning.”

Leif didn’t argue. He was gone.

Gee cursed and spun around to look at me, “Dammit. I was hoping he’d stay here. That woulda been fun. I’ve been wanting to beat his voodoo ass for a year now.”

“That would have been fun to watch, “ I agreed. “But we need to get to work. There’s been an earthquake in Haiti. It’s a bad one.”

Gee sighed, “Guess you’re taking me too, this time.”

Surprised at her lack of enthusiasm I stopped and raised an eyebrow her way.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. Can I help it if I like being a college student? It’s a helluva lot more fun than dealing with dead people.”