Dark Stranger Immortal (The Children of the Gods #3)(34)

How sweet. It made her like him even more.

It was a shame she couldn’t just drag him off somewhere private and show him how much. But there was something she needed to do away from Syssi and her yummy brother.

Amanda sighed. “As much fun as this is, I have a few more errands I have to run. You two stay. No reason to cut your time together short on my account.” Pushing up from her chair, she collected her handbag. “Onidu is parked in the back and will take you home when you’re ready.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll call him when I’m done to come and pick me up, or maybe I’ll just take a cab home.” Amanda leaned to kiss Syssi goodbye. “Andrew, it was a pleasure. Once the lab is up and running again, I would love to run a few tests on you as well, if you’re willing of course.”

Andrew stood up and offered his hand. “Sure, it would be my pleasure.

Just let me know when. I had a really good time… You’re a fascinating woman, Amanda.”

Ignoring his offered palm, Amanda pulled him in for a quick hug and kissed his cheek. “We’re family now, shaking hands is for strangers.”

Flashing him her megawatt smile, she chuckled as a blush crept up his rugged face.

Once out of the café, Amanda walked the short distance back to the shops, heading for a jewelry store.

She planned to have a duplicate made of the small heart pendant hidden behind the collar of her blouse—the one Syssi had given her. There was no reason for Andrew to get upset upon discovering that Syssi had given away his gift. With both of them having identical pendants, chances were he would never find out.





2 2

D A L H U

Dalhu stuffed his shopping bags in the trunk of his rented car, still outraged at the obscene cost of the few items they contained. Two pairs of designer jeans at over a thousand dollars each, and a dress shirt at close to eight hundred—insane—he’d bought three.

Not to mention the custom tailored suit he’d ordered for six thousand four hundred dollars. And this was supposed to be a great deal. After over an hour of bargaining, he’d managed to get it at half the price he’d been quoted, the timid tailor probably giving in out of fear.

That still left the shoes.

Damn! He hated shopping.

It seemed as if all the high-end mens apparel boutiques were operated by faggots. And not the kind that kept their sexual orientation to themselves. No, he had to be served by the flamboyant types; getting drooled on in one store and fondled, accidentally, in another.

The guy was probably still nursing the offending hand… It had taken supreme effort on Dalhu’s part to refrain from crushing it to dust.

The things he had to endure for his job…

Leaving the car parked behind the restaurant he had lunch at, Dalhu headed back to the war zone of the shopping jungle.

With the shoe store across the street in mind, he walked over to the crosswalk and waited for the lights to change at the intersection when a tingling at the back of his neck made him turn his head and look to his right.

His attention was immediately drawn to a tall, exquisitely shaped female walking away from him. And as he kept staring at her retreating back, Dalhu felt a shiver of awareness and a hint of recollection.

Everything else forgotten, he hurried to shorten the distance between them, careful not to get too close.

He needed to see her face.

There was something familiar about her tugging at his memory. Perhaps she was a movie star, or a model he recognized from the screen or from a magazine. Either way, he had to find out.

The woman stopped in front of a window display, and he had no choice but to pass her by. Pausing to stand beside her would have been too conspicuous. There weren’t that many people walking down the street, and with his height and build it was impossible for him to blend in—even in a crowd.

Passing several stores, he ducked into the first one that wasn’t exclusively geared toward women and displayed a decent selection of luxury watches for men. Pretending to look around, he had his eyes on the street, waiting for her to walk by.

A few minutes later, he grew anxious. She’d either turned back or had gone inside the store with the window display she had been admiring before.

But as he stepped out, intending to backtrack and pick up her trail, he was relieved to see her a couple of storefronts down, looking at another display.

Good, she was still heading his way.

Glimpsing her profile, he was certain he’d seen her before. Something about this magnificent creature made his stomach churn with excitement.

And it wasn’t just a male’s natural response to an attractive female. For some reason, he had a feeling about her…

A very good feeling…

With his muscles coiled and ready to pounce, Dalhu retreated into the darkened interior of the watch store and waited.

It was his lucky day…

She walked in.

As her eyes landed on him, she froze, the rising terror on her beautiful face indicating that her mind had just finished processing what she had already felt in her gut.

In that moment of recognition, two lighting-quick realizations hit him at once. First, he knew who she was. She had cut her hair short and colored it black, but there was no mistaking the stunning face he knew so well from the framed picture he kept by his bed. Second, he was going to grab her and run.