My heart neared bursting when he looked straight into me. We were alone. So alone up here. As if gravity weighed all the heavy stuff down and we’d risen above it. Jealousies and insecurities couldn’t exist this high off the ground.

Kaidan moved his head to the side of my face as if to whisper something, but instead his soft lips grazed the sensitive spot beneath my ear. I stilled. The hand that had been blocking the sun slipped beneath my hair in a caress. His mouth moved down my neck, slow, like a playful whisper. At the base of my throat I felt his warm tongue tasting me. I wove my fingers into his hair. When he raised his face to mine, our quickened breaths mingled. I took in the sweetness of citrusy pheromones, lifted off him by the breeze. Even sitting, it made me dizzy.

I tried to pull him, to close the gap between us, but he resisted.

“Tell me you want it,” he whispered against my mouth, transforming me into a puddle of desire. He groaned, a deep sound of pleasure and need, probably smelling the pheromones my own body expelled.

I closed my eyes and whispered, “I want it.”

“Look at me when you say it.”

My eyes drifted open and his hands gripped me, one at my waist and the other still behind my neck. I looked straight into his ocean eyes. “I want it, Kai.”

Moving closer, with his tongue he ran a warm path across my bottom lip and my whole body tingled. A whimpering sound escaped, revealing my desperation for him to end this teasing torment. I was about to burn up from the anticipation.

How many times had I dreamed of kissing Kaidan again?

A cloud moved in front of the sun, bathing us in a moment of cool shade.

A scratchy voice invaded my mind and Kaidan went rigid.

“Well, well . . .”

It was not a cloud blocking the sun. My clipped scream pierced the air at the sight of the demon hovering close. Kaidan jumped away from me with surprise and the car rocked. I gripped the bar again, terror ripping through me. This demon was not my father’s ally. It was a jackal-faced whisperer I’d never seen before. I clapped a hand over my mouth as sour nausea surfaced.

“What do we have here, eh? Two little Nephies going at it!”

Bad. Very bad. I’d left the hilt in my bag at Blake’s. Dad would be furious at me for not being on guard.

The demon must have sent its speech into both of our minds because Kaidan was the one to answer, sounding peeved.

“Just needed an opinion on a new technique. You can bugger off now. Shouldn’t you be at the summit?”

I sucked in a shocked breath at the offhand way he spoke to the spirit. Jackal-face laughed, a vile sound. He let his words drag out, cruel and torturous. “I’m on my way there now. Perhaps we can make a deal, yes? You do me a favor and I won’t tell the Dukies about what I seen today.”

“What sort of deal?” Kaidan asked.

The spirit gave a creepy smile.

“I want to feel the touch that humans live and die for. Let me use your body to have this Nephie girl just once.” He got closer, leering. “Just once, and I will keep your secret.”

A live serpent may as well have slithered into my lap and curled up as I processed what he was asking. I’d never been more repulsed by anything in my life.

Kaidan let out a sound of pure disgust. “You can’t be serious.”

My mind was quickly throwing together an idea. “It’s not a secret,” I told the dark spirit with confidence. “The Dukes know we work together. Pharzuph’s the one who told him to train me in the first place. But what you’re asking to do goes against Lucifer’s orders. So how about this for a deal? You leave us alone, and we won’t tell the Dukies that you tried to possess one of us and take a break from working.”

His evil canine features tightened into a scowl before he let out a wraithlike screech and called me a string of nasty names. I held my breath until he swooped away from us, allowing the bright sun to reheat our blood-drained faces. Kaidan and I sat straight, not touching. I stared at the blurry-looking ocean and tried to calm my heart and stomach as the ride clanked to the ground. Kaidan rubbed his face, muffling a curse.

What had we been thinking? This was a public place—of course there was a chance of whisperers being around! But we’d been so caught up in each other that we weren’t on our guard.

We couldn’t get off that thing fast enough. I stumbled from the car when the attendant opened the door. But as we sped away from the Ferris wheel, it clearly wasn’t over yet. There, in the row of game booths, was the same demon whisperer. Watching us.

“Go to the left,” Kaidan whispered to me, barely moving his lips. “I’ll distract him. Go straight back to Blake’s and I’ll meet you there.”

I tensed at the thought of separating, but he was already walking away. I went to the left where several small rides for children were. A horrid feeling of dread passed over me. I whipped my head around but saw only humans. A single thought weighed me down: Kaidan is in danger. Deep in my gut I was sure of it.

I turned back, trying to stay within the crowd. Lingering at the corner, I peered into the game booth alley and saw Kaidan at the very end. He stood beside the last booth talking to the Latina girl with the pink teddy bear. They weren’t alone. The disgusting spirit swished around them, watching from every angle as Kaidan swept her long hair over her shoulder and ran the back of his fingers along her arm. The demon swooped down to whisper into her mind at the same time that Kaidan leaned and whispered something in her ear. Lust flared to life in her color spectrum and Kai caressed her waist. Her hand curled around his bicep.