“You sure took off like a flash.” Jason grinned as he fell in step next to her. “Sorry if I said something to offend you in there.”

“No, you were fine,” she lied, and shook her head. “I just didn’t realize how late it was. I have to be getting home.”

“You haven’t eaten anything yet,” Jason reminded her. “Let me take you out somewhere. I’ll find you something real special.”

“No, I’m all right,” Gemma insisted. She turned down the alley that led to the lot where she’d parked her car, and Jason stayed at her side.

“Please, Gemma,” he entreated. “I was a jerk inside. Come back in. Get something to eat with me. Let me make it up to you.”

She softened a bit and slowed down, but she still didn’t want to go back in there or eat with some stranger. Really, she just wanted to get out of there.

“Sorry.” She smiled up at him. “I’m not hungry anymore. I should go.”

“Wait.” He grabbed her arm when she started walking away, and while his grip wasn’t exactly painful, she didn’t like it. “If you’re not hungry, there’s plenty of things we could do.”

“I need to go home.” She tried to pull her arm away, but he hung on tighter.

“I know I’m older, and that scares you, but that’s no reason to be shy.” He smiled at her, but there was something menacing in the smile that made her recoil.

Thanks to her siren strength, she could overpower him, but just then he caught her off guard. He pushed her back against the brick wall of a building, putting an arm on either side of her and pinning her there with his body.

“Move,” Gemma insisted. “Jason. Please. Move.”

Just because she could overpower him didn’t mean she wanted to. It would be easier and create much less of a scene if he just stepped away on his own. Not that there was anyone there to watch the scene. The alley was deserted.

“Move?” He laughed darkly. “Honey, I’ll show you some moves.”

He rubbed his body up against hers, and something flared inside her. It wasn’t the lust she’d felt before, not like back at the house with Sawyer. At first it reminded her of when she went swimming, when the ocean hit her flesh and her body began to transform. It was that same kind of tingle running through her.

But instead of feeling the tingle in her legs, she felt it in her arms, and her mouth. Her lips trembled, and her vision changed. She couldn’t explain it exactly, but it was almost as if her eyes shifted and her pupils dilated, so she could see better in the dark.