Dark Melody (3 page)

"You were going to tell me about the baby."
And the baby's father. We do not want to leave him out of this conversation. You want to tell me.
Shamelessly he "pushed" her, needing to know. The man was dead. Dayan could feel that. He read it in the lingering sadness in her eyes. She had cared for another man enough to bring his child into the world.
Who was the man?

He captured her outstretched hand, her left hand, found the circle of gold, the symbol of human marriage, the mark proclaiming she belonged to another man.

The thought triggered the dangerous aggression of his species, and Dayan fought down the rising beast. He would not chance frightening her. His thumb rubbed over the ring almost absently, back and forth, a gentle caress, persistent. Insistent. He brought her fingertips to his lips. All the while his black gaze focused completely on her, staring directly into her eyes.

His look was hypnotic. Strangely exhilarating. Corinne's breath caught in her throat as his teeth scraped along her finger, his mouth warm and moist. Butterfly wings brushed at her stomach. His teeth tugged gently at her gold wedding band. The sensation was so erotic, she shivered. She stared up at him for a long moment, completely fascinated, before remembering to pull her hand free.

"Tell me about your baby, honey," he commanded, his voice low, almost purring.

He touched her mind very gently, with great care. She was fighting the compulsion to tell him what he wanted to know, but she was human and he was an ancient, one in a long line of dominating males. He was far too strong for her to resist.

Corinne pressed her palm protectively over the baby.

The wind whipped down the street, gusted leaves and debris into whirling eddies. Unknowingly, she moved deeper into the shelter of his body. "I grew up with Lisa and her brother John." She stopped speaking abruptly, her throat closing on the name.

John.
The name pierced him like a knife. The way she said it, the pain reflected in her eyes, told him how much the man had meant to her.
John.
Dayan had never liked that name. He didn't want to hear any more; he didn't want to hear the sound of her voice when she said that hated name.

Corinne twisted her wedding ring nervously. "The three of us had a difficult childhood, so I suppose we were closer than most. John and I were… different." She stole a quick look up at him from under her heavy dark lashes. She didn't want to explain to him what that word meant. She didn't know him, didn't know why she seemed to trust him when he was a virtual stranger to her. She didn't know why her body seemed to know him.
Crave him.
Corinne shoved her wayward thoughts away, concentrating entirely on how much she could tell him… or not tell him.

Dayan examined her mind, wanting an explanation of "different." He caught a hastily censored picture. Telekinesis. She could move objects with her mind. Of course, she was psychic. She would have to be psychic if she were his true lifemate. Dayan had no way of explaining to her exactly what a lifemate was. How could he reveal to her he was of another species? That he had been on earth a thousand years? That he needed blood to survive?

Dayan watched her fingers turn that small gold band. With every touch, every stroke, his stomach knotted tighter and tighter. He tried to force his gaze back to her face, but that small betraying movement fascinated him.

Corinne shrugged her shoulders. "To make a long story short, John and I were married and he was murdered a few months ago. I didn't even know I was pregnant. I haven't said anything to Lisa because… well…" She hesitated, searching for the right words.

That brought his dark gaze back to her face. She felt the impact of his focused stare all the way to her bones. His hands covered hers, stilling the nervous play of her fingers over her ring. Her heart leapt, a curious sensation that alarmed her.

His black eyes never left her face. Not once. And he still hadn't blinked. She felt almost as if she were falling forward into those strange, hypnotic eyes. What difference did it make if he thought she was a basket case? She hadn't asked for his sympathy, nor did she want it. She wasn't telling him the story for sympathy. Why
was
she telling him her story? Her chin lifted and she looked at him almost defiantly. "I have a heart condition." He could run like a rabbit and she'd be very happy. He was a complication, a fantasy, the worst sort of "bad boy," and she wanted no part of him.

Dayan touched her mind very gently. He caught an image of hospitals, machines, endless tests. Her asking about a waiting list for a heart. Doctor after doctor shaking their heads. She had severe allergies. She bled easily, too much. The specialists were amazed she had lived as long as she had. Dayan rubbed the bridge of his nose thoughtfully, his eyes intent on her face. "So the baby is a danger, then. Lisa would not like that."

Corinne let out her breath. It was almost a relief to tell someone. "No, Lisa won't like it all. She'll be so frightened." Corinne had waited until there was no possibility Lisa might try to talk her out of having the baby. She wanted a baby. Her little girl. Long after her death, after John's death, their daughter would live and breathe, run and play, and hopefully lead a perfectly normal life. Corinne had absolute faith that Lisa would cherish and love the baby. She pulled her hands away from his to place them protectively over the small mound where the baby rested.

"You are very small. How far along are you?" Even as the words left his mouth, he marveled that he could say them. In all his imaginings, he had never thought to be asking such a question. Heat blossomed and spread. A sense of belonging. Strangely, he felt as if he had a family already.

"The doctors are a little worried about that, but she looks good. She's growing fine. They've told me it's a girl. I'm six months along."

His breath hitched in concern. She was tiny. "Are the doctors concerned about your heart problem also? Do they view this pregnancy as risky? Perhaps very dangerous?" His voice was still as gentle as ever, yet it had an effect on her she couldn't seem to shake. He sounded almost as if he were reprimanding her in some way and assessing what he was going to do about the situation.

Corinne felt compelled to answer him, although it wasn't what she wanted. "My heart has enough trouble working for just me, let alone a child too," she conceded reluctantly. Her fingers once again found the circle of gold and began to twist, a nervous habit betraying her inner turmoil.

Dayan nodded his head even as his entire body knotted in protest against that small action. "And your husband – " He forced the words out despite the fact they wanted to stick in his throat. "Why was he murdered?" He couldn't help himself, he reached out and caught her hand, pulling her palm to his chest, right over his heart, effectively stopping her from touching the ring again.

Corinne's gaze flew to his. Electricity arced between them. The air sizzled with the charge. She found it difficult to think with his black eyes mesmerizing her and his touch scattering her senses. Discussing the murder of her husband with him should have been impossible, yet she found the words tumbling out. "The police haven't come up with a motive. The killers didn't even take his wallet."

"But you have an idea." He made it a statement.

Corinne felt that same desire to confess every detail. Normally, she confided in Lisa and no one else, yet Corinne hadn't said a single word to Lisa about the baby or her own suspicions about John's death.
Why on earth was she telling a virtual stranger her every secret?
"John could do things that weren't considered normal. About a year ago, he went to a university and told someone there about his talent. From there, he was directed to a center where psychic ability was tested. The Morrison Center for Psychic Research. John believed he might be able to help people in some way, using his unique gift. Almost immediately after his appointment at the center, he told me he thought he was being followed." She withdrew her hand. "This is hardly something you would want to hear about."

"On the contrary. I'm extremely interested. Everything about you interests me."

Chapter 2

"Corinne!" Lisa burst from the club with Cullen one step behind her. She was obviously upset, her beautiful face betraying her anxiety. "Rina, are you ill? I'm so sorry, I should have been paying more attention." She clutched Corinne's purse protectively to her.

"I'm perfectly fine, Lisa," Corinne answered immediately. She stepped away from Dayan, but somehow he moved too in a ripple of power so that he was sheltering her body from the rising wind. Corinne looked up at his chiseled features and found her heart in her throat again. What was it about him? How could he so easily rob her of her breath and sanity with only a look? A movement?

"We were just talking away from the noise," Dayan drawled, smiling lazily, his teeth very white in the darkness. He raked his hand carelessly through his shining ebony hair, managing to tousle it more. Strands fell in disarray across his forehead, yet he looked more attractive than ever.

The two women exchanged a quick glance, rolling their eyes in complete accord while Corinne stifled a groan. How could any man be real and look and act like he did? Corinne mouthed "bad boy" at Lisa, making her laugh.

Lisa leaned close to whisper, "Only you could look at a man too sexy to be on earth and reduce his incredible beauty to bad boy."

Corinne felt herself a fraud. Lisa didn't think Corinne was in the least susceptible to Dayan's dark sensuality. But she was more than susceptible. She was enthralled, under a spell of enchantment. She even briefly wondered if his songs, or his voice, might have somehow hypnotized her.

Dayan reached out and casually removed Corinne's purse from Lisa's hand, then gave it to Corinne. He would have been amused at her thoughts had her heart not been stuttering again, a laboring that bothered him immensely. How could he fix it without harming her child? His eyes moved possessively over Corinne's face as he watched her pull a small container from her purse and swallow a tiny pill. With the same easy strength he always exhibited, he shackled Corinne's bare wrist and brought it up for his inspection. "Why are you not wearing a medical bracelet? In an emergency it would alert strangers how to help you."

Lisa tossed her blond head. "At last! Someone with a little sense, unlike Rina. She never listens to anyone."

A small sensual smile tugged at the hard edge of Dayan's mouth. He leaned down close to Corinne so his warm breath stirred tendrils of hair at her temple. "You do not listen to others?"

"I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions," Corinne informed him, her voice faintly haughty when all she really wanted to do was touch his mouth with her fingertips. Up close he robbed her of breath. Of good sense.

"Until now," Dayan corrected with infinite gentleness. His voice was very soft and, like velvet, it whispered sensuously over her skin, making her shiver. He brought her hand up to his perfectly molded mouth, rubbed the pads of her fingers over his lips.

Her heart stuttered; butterfly wings brushed at her stomach. For a moment she could only stare at him, lost in his magic. She dragged her gaze from his, withdrew her hand to curl her fingers into her palm, holding on to his warmth.

Cullen stared up at Dayan in total shock. He had camped with their leader for several weeks during the Dark Troubadours tour, yet Cullen had never seen Dayan exhibit the slightest interest in any woman. Now Dayan's body language shouted that he felt protective, even possessive, of Corinne. There was something else, something in Dayan's eyes that had never been there before. A flicker of something dangerous. Cullen had assured Lisa that her sister was perfectly safe with Dayan, but now he wasn't so certain.

"Perhaps we had better get the ladies out of the wind," Dayan drawled. "Cullen, let's escort them to their car, and then I'll pick up my guitar." His voice brushed over Corinne's skin again like fingers.

She shivered in reaction. At once he drew her into the shelter of his arms. "I should have realized it was too cold out here for you," he said softly, apologetically, his breath warm against her neck. His body was hot and hard against the satin softness of her cool skin. "I was being selfish, wanting you to myself."

He glanced at Lisa, and she unexpectedly found herself leading the men to her small sporty car, wondering why it was suddenly so important to her to get Corinne out of the wind. Dayan kept possession of Corinne, handing her carefully into the front seat. "Where can we meet you so we can talk in a quieter atmosphere?"

He asked it softly, his black eyes suddenly on Lisa's face.

Lisa blinked and blurted out her address, something she would never normally do. Corinne stared at her in horror. Lisa clapped a hand over her mouth guiltily and watched as Dayan reached casually across Corinne to buckle her seat belt.

Hard and defined with muscle, his body brushed Corinne's. He smelled of spice and woods. Totally masculine. He dwarfed the small car. His chin nuzzled Corinne's hair. "I am not a serial killer, although it is nice to know you have some instinct for self-preservation."

He closed the door on her shocked expression, his arrogant, bad-boy grin very much in evidence.

Lisa put her head down on the steering wheel. "Don't say it, Corinne. I don't know what I was thinking, giving him our address like that. He's just – I don't know, too much. I couldn't think straight for a minute there with his eyes staring at me as if he could see right through me. I'm sorry. You don't think he's some kind of crazy person, do you?"

"I think we're the crazy ones." It was a relief to be away from the potency of Dayan's company. He made Corinne feel out of control. Spinning madly. Wild. Sexy. Wanting. "And he did point out he wasn't a serial killer. That was comforting news, unless serial killers regularly make such statements to strange women."

Both women dissolved into laughter, dispelling most of the tension in the car. Corinne found she could breathe again, think again, as Lisa put the car in gear and, honking the horn, plunged bravely into traffic. "So, are you looking at Cullen? Because he's certainly looking at you." Corinne rubbed her palms up and down her arms over the exact spot Dayan's arms had held her. Oddly, she could still feel him close to her. She could smell his scent on her, and it was strangely comforting.