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A small crease formed between his brows as if she puzzled him. “I told you I wouldn’t grant the favor you asked for.” His melodious voice all but whispered since she stood so close. “I still won’t bring you onto my base.”
Liliana nodded. “I will have to find another way to protect my friends.”
The spider seer thought of seelie Siobhan and the unseelie goblin the sprite called her best friend, and the dead unseelie sprite Siobhan mourned. She thought of Doctor Nudd’s paternal attitude toward a Celtic wolf, the enemy of all unseelie. Fayetteville seemed to be a place where old enmities could be safely set aside.
And the second time they’d come face-to-face, the prince had plainly sworn to her that he wouldn’t let those old lines define him.
Liliana wondered why, even as she held out her hand to a son of the race that had so many times ordered her kind put to death.
He looked at her slender hand for a long moment before taking it with his much larger, stronger hand.
An oddly pleasant tingle spread from his hand through her body, making her shiver. That was some very powerful chemistry.
Colonel Bennet kept hold of her hand as he got to his feet, but he didn’t pull on her at all. His thumb caressed the back of her hand. “Thank you, Liliana, for aiding me with no promise of reward. Again.”
The heat from his hand spread to her cheeks. She stared at his shiny black boots. “You would probably have survived.”
“Probably.” He chuckled softly.
“I have to go,” Liliana said.
“I understand.” He gave her a formal bow over the hand he held. He clearly out-ranked her socially, yet he had given her a bow appropriate for an equal—oddly out of place in America where almost no one bowed. His eyes took on a mischievous sparkle for just a moment, and he turned her hand over. He gave a lingering kiss to her palm, his lips warm and soft.
Heat fired every inch of Liliana’s skin, making her heart pound like she’d just been in combat.
He looked up at her, still bent over her hand, his dark eyes sparkling with mischief, his full lips quirked at the edges.
On impulse, she moved her hand to his cheek, stroking skin, a tickle of shaving stubble, and bumpy scars. She leaned forward and brushed his lips with hers for the barest moment. As she jumped back, the feel of his lips lingering on hers, he stared at her in open surprise.
Liliana swallowed, her heart racing, and her cheeks hot, wondering why she’d done that. “I have to go,” she repeated.
Alexander Bennet chuckled softly and repeated, “I understand.”
Liliana turned and walked quickly, she definitely wasn’t running, away.
Her friends’ lives were at stake. She didn’t have time to be flustered. She didn’t have time to think about the searing heat of his lips on hers or the tremble in her knees.
Shaking her head to clear it, she ascended the ramp to the exit. She looked with her fourth eyes to find an available auto-cab, but they were all full of people going home to get out of the bad weather.
The spider-kin stepped out of the parking garage and started walking in the pouring rain. The wind blew her hair and her skirt in multiple directions. Lightning danced in the low clouds.
She tried to ignore the driving rain and the cold wind and explore various possible ways of getting onto the Army base to save Doctor Nudd and Siobhan. She could see that the little sprite was already on her way to the base. Liliana could not ride with her. Siobhan’s motorcycle had no place to hide another person.
Lightning flashes made the slanting rain jerk in the air like an old movie shown at the wrong speed. Thunder crashed and rumbled.
Pete had gone to see Detective Jackson at the police station. His van had a secret compartment where he stored his weapons, shielded from military scanners. Hiding in there would be one way for her to get on base undetected. But Pete would not return to the base soon enough to save the goblin or the sprite.
Her teeth chattered together, disturbing her train of thought. Liliana hugged herself harder. This storm was very poorly timed. It made everything more complicated. At least the hail that kept threatening hadn’t yet materialized.
A bit of ice the size of a pea stung her arm.
Hundreds of small hailstones fell all around her.
She felt an urge to stamp her foot and glare at the storm clouds and raging wind. She would have to find shelter until the hail stopped. It might get bigger. She couldn’t afford an injury today.
The prince’s all-terrain vehicle pulled up next to her and stopped. A field of air automatically repelled rain and hail with equal perfection over the windshield.
Alexander Bennet pushed the button that rolled the passenger side window down and looked at her from the other side of the car.
