Black Tide [Panther Key 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  She hesitated for a moment, but something made her want to sit down. She nodded and stepped toward the empty seat, her bare arm brushing against the man’s chest as she maneuvered into the row. A hot tingle shot down Emma’s arm at the contact. Her gasp mirrored his. She looked up into his eyes and saw the same expression of surprise and shock she imagined she wore on her face. A shiver shot through her. She tore her gaze away from his and sat in the seat he offered.

  The man continued to stand in the aisle for a moment, his hand pressed against his chest and his face still a mask of shock. Emma hoped he wasn’t about to have a heart attack. Finally, he sat down slowly next to her and remained silent, but she could feel his stare. After several tense moments, she couldn’t take it anymore.

  “What the hell was that?” She searched her mind for an explanation. Static electricity, maybe?

  “I don’t know.” He extended his hand to her. “I’m Diego Anton.”

  She stared at his extended hand and wondered if she would get the same shock again if she touched him. Realizing she was being ridiculous, she moved her hand toward his.

  “Emma Walker.” She slid her hand into his. A hot tingle shot down her arm to her hand again, but with more intensity. She gripped his hand, unable to let go, and stared at him in stunned silence. His wide eyes stared back, his hand gripping hers just as tightly. She finally wrenched her hand away and backed up in her seat, pressing her body against the small window.

  “What—what—?” Her teeth chattered so bad she couldn’t get the words out.

  Diego shook his head. “Interesting.”

  Emma scoffed. “That’s an understatement.”

  Diego’s mouth turned up into a crooked grin. “Would you like a drink?” He didn’t wait for her to answer and motioned for the flight attendant hovering in the front of the first-class section.

  “Yes, sir?” The attractive attendant smiled warmly at Diego. For some odd reason that irritated Emma just a little.

  “I’ll have a scotch, neat. And the lady will have a vanilla vodka and Diet Coke.” He turned to look back at Emma with raised eyebrows. “Yes?”

  “I…um…yes.” She looked at him in confusion and suspicion. How had he known what drink she preferred?

  The flight attendant nodded and moved toward the front of the cabin to retrieve their drinks. Diego turned back to Emma with a chagrined look on his face.

  “I must admit, I walked back through coach earlier and noticed what you were drinking.”

  Emma relaxed a little. “Oh, okay. For a second there I wondered if you were psychic or something.” Her heart beat a little faster as she realized he must have checked her out if he had noticed what she was drinking. A flutter of excitement shot through her.

  A strange look crossed Diego’s face, but he quickly turned it back into a crooked smile and chuckled softly. “And I’m assuming that would be a problem if I were psychic?”

  Emma shrugged and tried to slow her quickening pulse. “No, not really.” She had always been much more accepting of the strange and supernatural than the rest of her family, especially her mother. Her mother had always balked at any discussion of paranormal activity.

  Diego’s smile broadened to reveal gleaming, white teeth. Emma couldn’t help but stare at him. His white teeth stood out against his tanned face. He had strong features, with a square chin and a perfect little dimple right in the middle of it. His thick, black hair barely brushed his shoulders and contrasted against his white button-down shirt. He wore the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and Emma’s appreciative gaze wandered down his muscular arms and across his chest. He was well built—very well built—and his broad shoulders easily took up the wide first class seat. So much for trying to keep her pulse rate down.

  She shook herself a little and forced her gaze back to his face. Embarrassment flooded through her when she caught his crooked smile and one raised eyebrow. Her cheeks burned, and he chuckled.

  “Don’t be embarrassed, Emma.” He brushed one finger against her cheek, triggering the tingling sensation again. “A blush looks good on you.”

  Emma shivered but didn’t pull away. The tingling wasn’t exactly unpleasant. Quite the opposite, actually. Something about this man drew her to him. It was as though she was helpless to pull away from him.

  She floundered for something coherent to say. “Are–are you vacationing in Miami?” Her mouth felt as though she’d swallowed sand. Where were those drinks?

  A dark cloud seemed to pass over Diego’s eyes, but it quickly disappeared. “No. I’m travelling on business.”

  “Oh. Are you from Austin?”

  “No. I was there on business, as well. My home is in St. Augustine.”

  Emma cast around for something else to say. “You have a little bit of an accent.” She instantly wished she could take the words back. What the hell had made her say something so stupid? “Sorry—I’m not trying to be rude, it’s just that you sound like you’re from somewhere else.” Emma scolded herself. She sounded like an idiot.

  Diego smiled, and she thought her heart might flutter right out of her chest. “No offense taken. I’m originally from Spain, but I’ve been in Florida for many years.”

  The flight attendant finally returned with their drinks. Emma accepted hers eagerly and took a gulp, still trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t make her sound socially inept. Why did this guy make her so tongue-tied? She wasn’t usually like this around men.

  Diego sipped his scotch and watched her over the rim of his glass. His gaze unnerved her, but not in a bad way. It just served to fuel her growing arousal for this man. Which was ridiculous, since he was a stranger and she’d probably never see him again after this flight.

  “Touch your lips.”

  The strange voice sounded in her head again and compelled her to react, even as confusion seized her. Emma reached up and brushed her lips with her fingers.

  “Did you…?”

  Diego arched one eyebrow. “Did I what, mi belleza?”

  Diego’s words brushed over Emma like a caress, and she shuddered. She tried to shake off the sensation. “Um…nothing.”

  What the hell was wrong with her? She was acting like a teenaged girl with a crush. And what was this voice she kept hearing? And the tingling she felt every time he touched her? There was something very odd going on.

  A flight attendant approached them from the coach section and stopped next to Diego.

  “Excuse me, miss. Your mother is asking for you to return to your seat.”

  Emma started to protest but realized her mother would simply come looking for her if she didn’t return. She nodded at the attendant. “Thank you. I’ll go back in a moment.”

  The flight attendant smiled at her and then turned a much warmer smile to Diego. “Can I get you anything else, sir?”

  Okay, Emma really didn’t like the way this woman was looking at Diego. She’d never been the jealous type, but for some reason she felt unusually possessive. Diego shook his head, and the flight attendant turned and walked back to the coach section.

  Panic gripped Emma at the thought of having to leave. She couldn’t explain it, but an overwhelming need to be near this man swept through her. She didn’t understand why she was having such a strong physical reaction to him. Granted, Diego was damn sexy, but she’d never had this kind of instant attraction to anyone before.

  “I guess I’d better go. My mom can be a little stubborn.”

  She reluctantly stood up, and Diego stood as well. He moved out into the aisle to allow her to pass. Her legs once again refused to cooperate. She stared up into his eyes and wanted to say something, anything, to prolong their parting.

  “Um, maybe I’ll see you in Miami.”

  Diego’s eyes seemed to cloud over again, but the shadow was quickly dispelled by a lopsided smile. He reached for Emma’s hand and brought it to his lips. An electrical jolt shot down her arm and lingered in her fingertips, but Diego didn’t let go.

&nbs
p; “Count on it, mi belleza.”

  Chapter Four

  Diego’s thoughts reeled as he settled back into his seat. He pressed his hand against his chest. He had held himself together quite well while Emma had been seated next to him, but now that she was gone his body shook from the sheer magnitude of what was happening to him. This wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible. Diego’s heart had not pumped a single time in over nine hundred years. But at the moment Emma’s arm brushed against his chest, his heart actually began to beat again. At the moment she had touched him, it had felt as though a billion tiny crystals had burst and melted into hot liquid inside him.

  Sensations overwhelmed him as he listened to his long-still blood coursing through his veins. It sounded like rhythmic drumbeats in his ears. He felt the gentle beat against his hand as he held it against his chest. He didn’t feel dead anymore. He felt alive. Very much alive. Emotions he hadn’t felt in generations flooded through him. Joy. Wonder. Disbelief.

  Questions raced through his mind. How was this possible? What did it mean? Was he still immortal? What had she done to him?

  He had no answers. All he had was a new beating in his chest and an overwhelming urge to race back to the coach section and find her. Emma. The psychic part of his mind reached out, searching for her unique mental signature, the one he would recognize now that he had spent a few minutes talking with her and forging a link with her. He filtered through the faceless consciences he sensed on the plane, until he felt the one he searched for.

  Agonizing pain shot though his head and took his breath away. It propelled him to his feet. Something was terribly wrong with Emma. He raced down the aisle toward Emma’s seat, her pain slicing through his head through their psychic link. He frantically scanned over passenger’s heads until he spotted Emma. His newly-beating heart almost stopped when he saw the look on her face.

  She was curled up with her knees drawn to her chest. Her hands gripped her head, and her face was contorted in a mask of pain. Her mother and a flight attendant hovered over her, concern and confusion evident in their panicked expressions and the emotions rolling off them.

  Diego forced his way around the attendant and pulled Emma’s worried mother from her seat then took her place next to Emma. He placed his hands over Emma’s and turned her face toward him. The familiar tingle shot through his hands, but he focused his attention on Emma.

  “Emma! What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Emma stared blankly at him for a moment, her mind lost to the blinding agony. But then she blinked. And then blinked again. Her face relaxed, no longer contorted into the reflection of the pain Diego had felt through their link seconds earlier. It had been bad for him, but he had only felt an impression, a shadow of what he knew the real pain must have been.

  “It’s gone.” Her voice was weak but filled with awe. “It hurt so much, but now it’s just…” She shook her head, clearly confused. “Gone.”

  Relief washed over Diego. “What happened?”

  Emma shook her head. “I don’t know. It started hurting when I was walking back here, but by the time I got to my seat it was awful.”

  The flight attendant leaned in. “Sir, we’ll be landing soon. You need to return to your seat.”

  Diego scowled. The flight attendant’s intrusion was not welcome. He ignored her and watched Emma’s face, gauging her emotions for any indication that the pain was returning.

  A sharp burst of agitation flared from Emma’s mother. “Young man, I would like my seat back, if you don’t mind.”

  Young man. Diego scoffed to himself. If she only knew. He turned to Emma and studied her again. She seemed much more at ease, though still confused.

  “You’ll be okay?”

  “I think so.”

  Diego stood up and slowly backed away, not wanting to turn away from her as he retraced his steps up the aisle. Emma’s mother returned to her seat and fidgeted over her daughter. Diego hadn’t gotten more than a few aisles away when Emma’s face contorted in distress again and her agony tore through his mind. He reversed course and raced back to her, pulling her mother out of her seat and taking her place. As soon as he reached her, though, the pain disappeared and her face cleared.

  She turned a pleading gaze to Diego. “What’s happening?”

  He shook his head, but dread crept through him. “I’m not sure. Let’s try that one more time.”

  He slowly stood up and watched her face as he took one step backward, then two, then three. On his ninth step, he saw a twinge of agony cross Emma’s face and felt it slice through his mind. He rushed back to her, and she let out a soft moan as the pain faded.

  “Just what is going on here?” The shrill demand from Emma’s mother reminded Diego that they had an audience.

  Diego squared his shoulders. He turned to face to the woman, uncertain as to how he was going to explain to her that he was going to be sticking very close to her daughter until he could figure out what was going on. The irony of the situation was not lost on him. The man sent to abduct Emma Walker had just become her protector.

  Chapter Five

  “I can’t believe we’re on chauffer duty.” Chase pushed himself away from the wall near baggage claim at Miami International Airport.

  Cash watched his twin pace across the waiting area. “Look on the bright side. If she’s Kate and Abby’s sister, she’s gonna be gorgeous.”

  Chase rounded on Cash. “Don’t you think I know that? That’s what I’m worried about! I’m worried my cat will take one look at her and…” Chase shuddered, threw up his arms, and stalked away.

  Cash didn’t need his brother to finish the sentence. He knew exactly what had his twin in such an agitated state. Their cousins had mated with Kate, an exceedingly rare black panther shifter and the first of her kind in countless generations. Their brothers had mated with Abby, also a black panther shifter. And if Kate, Abby, and Emma were actually triplets, as it was coming to be suspected, then that would mean Emma would also be a black panther shifter. Considering their family’s track record with Kate and Abby, Cash was seriously worried about the prospect for his and Chase’s continued bachelorhood.

  He knew that’s why Chase had protested so much about coming to the airport to get Emma. Chase had lobbied for them to be on their boat and as far away from Panther Key as possible by the time Emma arrived. But their brothers wouldn’t stand for it. Brad and Bryce had threatened them with all sorts of physical torture if they ran out on them. Cash and Chase weren’t afraid of their brothers, who they had grown up fighting and wrestling with and could equal them in any physical competition. No, it was Kate and Abby they were really terrified of. Kate was bad enough, with her pregnancy hormones running rampant, but she and Abby together were a dynamic duo who could put the fear of God into the bravest of men. God help them all if it turned out there were actually three of them.

  And so Cash and Chase had dutifully gone to the airport to fetch Emma. Cash sighed and dug his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans. It wasn’t that he and his brother didn’t want to find their mate. They did. Someday. But they were still young—only twenty-eight years old. They could live to be a thousand years old or more, so there was no reason they needed to be in a hurry to find their mate.

  He and Chase enjoyed the endless parade of beautiful young women that seemed to constantly find their way off and on their yacht. That would come to an end when they mated. They had built a nice charter business and enjoyed the flexibility it gave them. When they weren’t taking hopeful anglers on deep-sea fishing trips or shuttling tourists and local divers out to offshore reefs, they were heading out on their own to isolated beaches in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. They would disappear on extended fishing trips, living off the bounty of the sea and sleeping on deck under the stars. If they mated, they might actually have to—Cash shuddered—build a house. Being mated would mean the loss of freedom. It was the death of spontaneity.

  At least, that’s what Cash told hi
mself.

  Passengers emerged into the baggage area. Chase stopped pacing and locked gazes with Cash. Cash felt something—fear, inevitability?—grip his heart. He felt the same emotions emanating from Chase through their sibling link, a trait common in shifter littermates.

  Chase walked to Cash’s side and dug his hands in his own pockets. “This is it.”

  Chase nodded and stared at the place where Emma would emerge into the baggage area. “It is. For better or worse.”

  Cash had tried to prepare himself for his first look at Emma. He had steeled himself to hide any reaction, whether relief if she was not his mate or terror if she was. He had sworn he would be nonchalant, even if he took one look at her and his cat started growling its possession. He felt his brother’s resolve mirror his own.

  As the passengers continued to emerge into the baggage claim area, Cash scanned the crowd, looking for the one face he had never seen but that was already so familiar, since she should be identical to Kate and Abby. And then he saw her. She emerged around the corner, and her gaze darted around the room. When it briefly connected with his, all of his former resolve fled.

  “Oh, fuck.” Chase’s words were barely audible, but they were filled with the same rush of tangled emotions Cash felt surging through his heart, mind, and soul.

  She was theirs.

  Cash had told himself a hundred times that he would not go all male-dominant crazy when he found his mate. He might have actually succeeded in keeping that promise if it had not been for the bloodsucking leech sticking close to Emma and guiding her with his hand against the small of her back.

  Cash felt a snarl build in his chest just as he heard his brother’s low growl. It took all of his restraint to keep from launching himself through the crowd and ripping the vampire’s head from his cursed body, right along with the hand that dared to touch Emma.

  The monster’s presence on this flight, his proximity to Emma, couldn’t be a coincidence. He was after her. And regardless of the dread Cash had felt earlier about the prospect of finding his mate, he knew in that moment he would die to protect her. And he might have to do just that.