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Connor pushed open the glass door and hit the street, sun and fresh air washing over him.

He didn’t like feeling he’d fucked up royally. It was no secret he and Sorcha rubbed each other the wrong way. Anybody who had ever spent more than a minute with the two of them knew they were like a cat and a dog trapped together in a sack.

So why, deep inside, did he want to fall at her feet and grovel until she gave him one of those warm, Sorcha smiles?

He spotted her ten yards away, a lone, beautiful woman on a teeming city street. Jogging, he caught up and clamped a hand on her elbow, forcing her to a halt.

She swung around, reluctance clear on her face.

Connor sucked in a bracing breath, prepared to apologize. “Hey—”

Brown eyes, usually soft and liquid, were like permafrost. He hadn’t known brown could be icy. “Forget it, Connor.”

“But I want—”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“Sorcha, would you just—”

“Shut up! Just shut up!” Sorcha leaned towards him until they were one unit for the steady stream of pedestrians to flow around. “I get it, okay? There’s nothing to apologize for. Not liking me is not a crime.” Lips twisted wryly. “Don’t shred your tender heart for me. If you’ll notice, right now you’re not on my list of favorite people either. But it doesn’t matter. Let’s just find the missing wyrm so this will all be over with.”

Sorcha’s anger brought the blush back to her skin. The faint breeze blew strands of dark hair across her cheek and lips.

Connor wanted to have the right to reach out and brush the hair away.

He wanted to throw a blanket over her. She was showing too much of her body, and only he should be the one to see, to know how beautiful she was.

He wanted to be inside of her. It would be hot there, sizzling.

Today, more than ever, the rejection of these feelings tore at him, raged inside him. How much longer could he deny them?

It was like the words came from a different person. “You’re showing too much skin,” Connor said. “Your shirt is cut down to your navel.”

Oh, great, Connor. Insult her again, why don’t you? He braced himself. Sorcha had a tongue like a wasp and never thought twice about using it, especially on him. And this time he deserved it.

She didn’t say a word. She simply stood there, like a remote statue, freezing him out.

He stared at her, thrown. Where was Sorcha? Where was the fire, the vibrancy?

“Are you quite finished?” Clipped and final, the words chilled him.

A shoulder rose in defense. “Sorry,” he muttered, stung.

Sorcha took a deep breath, blew it out. She shook herself, and he could see her throwing off the tension and acclimating herself to the world beyond the two of them. “Where do you think we should start?”

Start? Who cared where they started? Why wouldn’t she argue with him? “Um…”

He looked at her helplessly. What had been the question?

Shaking her head as if she were the most unfortunate woman on earth, she said. “Okay. Let’s split up. You check Raul’s apartment one more time. I’ll go to Louis’s. If we find either at home, great. If we don’t, we can snoop and maybe find a clue as to where they might be. Let’s meet at the diner on Fifth Street in one hour.” She turned to go.

A solid, reasonable plan.

“No,” he said.

Sorcha swiveled back to face him. “What? Why not?”

All right. Now you have to think of a reason. Why? Why? “The Director wants us to work together.”

As justifications went, it was weak as runny oatmeal. Sorcha would know it, too.

She stopped, placed one hand on her hip and cocked her head. “Connor, are you okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You’re acting…bizarre.”

“I’m fine.”

She snorted. “So you say. Why do you want to stick together when we could cover twice as much ground apart? We need to split up.”

Plus, he suspected, she was trying to get rid of him. Well, he wasn’t about to let her go so easily.

“I’ve already been to Raul’s apartment today.”

“I know,” she said, “But he could be home now. Raul’s apartment is across town. If Louis isn’t home, we’ll just have to trek all the way over there. This way, we can each go to our wyrm’s apartment and call each other to see what we’ve found. It’ll save us time.”

He cast around desperately for another excuse, and all he could come up with was, “I don’t have my cell phone.”

She looked at him strangely. “Raul’s got a phone in his house, doesn’t he? Use that one.”

For a second, he considered telling her it had been disconnected, then decided he didn’t want her thinking he hadn’t been making sure Raul’s bills were paid on time and discarded the idea. Then he was hit with inspiration.

“I could just call him.”

“You could, but I know for a fact that Raul doesn’t always answer his phone. If he doesn’t, you’ll still have to go over there just to be sure.”

She had him there. It felt different, being on the other side of logic. Usually he was the reasonable one, the calm one. All he could do was push and hope she didn’t notice he wasn’t making a lot of sense. “It could be dangerous,” he said, jaw hardening as he prepared to fight to the bitter end. “We need to stick together.”

Now she would blow up, tell him what an idiot he was. That she could take care of herself and didn’t need a man along to make sure she was safe. She would call him a cretinous barbarian and insult his mother.

Finally, she just sighed and said, “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.” She took off down the street, each round ass cheek dropping as she walked. “Louis’s apartment is closest. Let’s go there first.” Stopping short, she turned and surveyed him with raised eyebrows. “If that’s okay with you?”

He nodded, his features schooled, as they always were around her. It was instinct, an animal drive for self-preservation.

Usually he was shielding her from his lust, but now he had another emotion he couldn’t allow her to see. A feeling caused not so much by her as of the thought of never seeing her again.

It was a feeling Connor hadn’t known often, but it bit at him now, sharp and cold, spreading through his blood.

Oh, he had a feeling all right. And it was fear.