Common sense urged Blythe to be the one to turn her back.
But reckless curiosity, the kind that came from too many sleepless nights spent allowing self-doubt to cripple her, had her doing the opposite instead.
Stretching, she stood and crossed to him. With her heart beating in her chest like a trapped hummingbird, she moved closer to him, with their gazes still locked.
In unison, they moved backward, around the corner and out of view of the sofa. No words were spoken as he took her hand and pulled her close, up against him.
She kissed him first, standing up on her toes and arching her body into his. He deepened the kiss, letting her feel the heat of his own desire. She was glad to learn it burned as hot as her own.
Chapter 1
The instant Lucas Kenyon heard the manâs cultured, sanctimonious voice on the six oâclock evening news, his blood froze. Despite not having seen the speaker for fifteen years, he shuddered. He knew that voice, knew it too damn well. Even after fifteen years, it still haunted his nightmares.
Up until this past January, heâd assiduously avoided anything to do with The Church of Sanctuary and its leader. If something came on the news, heâd changed the channel. Newspaper or magazine articles were tossed, unread. Heâd wanted no reminders of his painful past.
But the time had come to face his demons. Lucas had never in his life made a New Yearâs resolution. This year, he had. No more would he bury himself in work and avoidance.
âWhat the hell?â he muttered, grabbing the remote and turning up the volume.
The man, Jacob GideonâLucas refused to think of him as his fatherâsmiled benevolently. âWe can heal young Hailey, I promise you that.â His tone reverberated with the sincerity of his conviction. âFaith works through my hands.â
Faith? Try murder. Un-freaking-believable. Briefly, Lucas closed his eyes, allowing the long-ago grief and pain and shame to wash over him. On some inner level heâd known. After all, Jacob had killed once in the name of his faith. Lucas had no doubt the man would do it again.
If he hadnât already. Lucas cursed. No wonder the voice of his conscience had gotten so loud heâd been unable to drown it out.
As the man spoke again, Lucas snapped out of it. What Jacob was suggestingâno, statingâwas more than wrong, more than an outright lie.
Of course, Jacob spoke as if he really meant his own nonsense. Lucas made a sound of pure disgust. Jacob had always believed he was an angel appointed from up high who had somehow misplaced his wings.
As if angels killed. Though thinking about how Lucifer actually had been a fallen angel, Lucas supposed it was possible. Jacob always had styled himself as if he sat on the other side of God.
His father looked sincere and kind, but Lucas knew better. Jacob was pure evil. Studying the man, he shook his head. Jacob looked eerily the same, as if selling his soul to the devil had granted him eternal youth. He was more than dangerous. He was deadly. No one knew that better than Lucas. After all, Jacob had been hunting him for the past fifteen years.
With narrowed eyes, Lucas watched the rest of the news segment, wincing as a fragile little girl with a heart-shaped face smiled painfully at the reporter. Something about her delicate vulnerability reminded Lucas of the child heâd once been, and the other. The twin heâd lost. The sister Jacob had killed.
As the camera narrowed in on a womanâher mother?âLucas moved closer to the television. The sight of this unknown womanâas defenseless as her daughterâhit him like a sucker punch to the gut. Her brownish-blond hair as fine as spun silk, creamy porcelain skin and long-lashed green eyes, made her a beautiful mystery that interested him far more than his fatherâs manipulative faux spiritual healings. She was, Lucas thought, both lovely and otherworldly, in a way neither he nor Jacob Gideon would be able to resistâfor reasons as different as they were themselves.