by Tate James
Coughing awkwardly, he shifted his arms to circle my waist and pulled me in closer so I could feel his rapidly increasing feelings for me, and I bit my lip in satisfaction.
“Well, that would mean I hadn't imagined yours…” he whispered back to me, his thumb brushing the underside of my breast and making me sigh, remembering the feeling of his hands on me during our not-dream.
“Do you two fucking mind?” Cole asked from the backseat, but not actually sounding that annoyed. “We still have a decent drive ahead, and I'd probably prefer not to do it with a raging hard on.”
“I would second that,” River groaned, adjusting himself one-handed before turning his attention back to the road. Wesley was clearly trying not to smile while his face flushed with heat, and I snuggled back into him to show I wasn't embarrassed. From the backseat I could feel Vali's heavy stare boring into me, but I had no idea how to deal with him yet. He was an issue for future-Kit to deal with.
27
CALEB
Austin smacked my hand away from the controls as I tried to change the radio station for about the seventeenth time since we had left Manhattan.
“Sorry,” I muttered, not feeling sorry in the least. Nerves made me fidgety, he knew that, and I was anxious as fuck.
“No, you’re not,” my twin snorted, glancing at me quickly as he navigated the road. “You’re clearly stressing the fuck out. You don’t need to subject me to song changes ever three seconds to prove it to me. I get it. Just, talk if you need to talk.”
Heaving a sigh, I began drumming my fingers on the armrest as I stared out of the window. “This whole thing is fucked. She only just got back from whatever hell she went through getting kidnapped, and now someone tries to blow her up? It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Fair?” Austin sounded like he was about to laugh. “What’s ‘fair’ when it comes to a magical war that we are totally in the dark on? We know nothing. Not what’s at stake or who the opponents are. All we are running off is that bad people want to use Christina.”
“Yeah. What’s your point?” I put my feet up on the dash and didn’t miss the small noise of frustration from my brother’s throat. He hated when I put my boots all over his car.
“My point, dickhead, is that until we get a little more info, we should all stop being so fucking shocked at every new turn of events.” He reached over and slapped my feet down off his dash.
“I see your point,” I agreed, thinking it over. We really did need to get more info. After the address Mr. Gregoric had supplied didn’t pan out, or at least not yet, we should have tried harder to track him down. He had just up and disappeared that night. Kit’s chat with him in our garden seemed like the last time anyone had seen or heard from him, which was just insanely frustrating.
“Do you think she’s okay?” I asked, mostly rhetorically. My brother knew exactly as much as I already did. Sweet fuck all.
He glanced at me again, quickly. “Yeah, bro. I think it takes a lot more than a badly made car bomb to take her down.”
“She looked really rough… like she was wrecked.” I chewed on the edge of my thumbnail while I ran over everything that had just happened in my head, like a movie stuck on repeat.
“I’m not really surprised,” Austin responded, startling me with the lack of condescension in his tone while speaking of Kit. “She did just heal herself from what should have been fatal injuries and then Cole as well. I imagine it’s got to be draining?”
My eyebrows shot up, and I gave him a sharp look. When did his attitude suddenly change?
“What?” He frowned, noticing my look and my eyes narrowed at him.
“What was this Kit said about you two making out at paintball?” In all the chaos, it had totally slipped my mind until now. But I needed answers on this. My twin never kept secrets from me. Especially about girls. Especially since Peyton.
“Why? You jealous, bro?” Austin’s walls were back up, I could tell by the sarcastic tilt to his voice, and I heaved another sigh. It was doubtful I’d get anything out of him when he was like this.
“No, Aus. Not jealous, or I mean yeah, I am, but that’s not the point. You didn’t tell me. Why?” Might as well give it a try, even if it did just turn into an argument. We had a decent drive ahead and nothing better to do.
For a tense moment, he said nothing in response, then deflected. “I’m surprised you admit you’re jealous, Cal. After all, she is already sleeping with both River and Cole, and you don’t seem too jealous of them.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I coughed a laugh. “I’m so insanely jealous of them I literally want to punch them both in the dick. I’d do it, too, if I didn’t know Cole would get me back way worse.”
“Okay, so I don’t get it. Why are you still interested when she’s clearly not that into you all?” He genuinely seemed interested in my answer.
“Why do you say that?” I frowned.
“What, that she’s not into you?” he clarified, flicking a confused look at me, and I nodded. “Ah, isn’t that kind of obvious? She’s sleeping with two of our best friends, then kissed you in front of them… If she cared about any of you, I doubt that’s the best way to show it.”
For once, my twin didn’t seem to be picking a fight with me. He was actually confused and asking the question because he wanted to hear the answer, so I paused before responding, to get the words right.
“Aus, just because it’s not normal doesn’t mean it’s not possible to care for several people at once. She already knows that Cole and River are okay with each other being involved; I mean fuck, they make it pretty clear. I kissed her in front of everyone so she would understand that I was into it as well.” He didn’t respond, but I could see the tension in his jaw mounting and knew he wasn’t getting my point. “Okay, so consider how a parent can have more than one kid. They love them all equally, right?”
“I hardly think this is the same thing,” Austin scoffed.
“Why not?” I challenged. “Why can’t it be? Why can’t Kit hold the capacity to love, or at least care for, more than one guy at the same time?” This conversation was actually giving a lot of clarity to my own jumbled thoughts while I spoke them aloud. If I was totally honest, Austin was simply voicing my own fears. But in defending Kit, I was finding my own peace with the situation.
“So, you’re what,” Aus snorted, “in love with her now? How the fuck is that going to work?”
“Maybe? I don’t know. This whole situation doesn’t exactly lend itself to ‘dating’ or anything. If anything, it brings to light how fickle life is. So shouldn’t we do whatever makes us happy with the time we have?” Jesus, I sounded like some sort of fucking hippie with my flowers and rainbows bullshit, but I couldn’t help it. That’s truly how I felt about it.
For a long time, neither of us said anything, but eventually Austin cracked and gave me a pitying look.
“I’d find it easier to believe this whole ‘group love’ crap is a byproduct of her magic,” he muttered, half under his breath, but I heard him and shrugged.
“Maybe it is. I don’t really care. I just know that for whatever reason, I’m so insanely into her that I would walk through fire. Sharing her time with two of my best friends really isn’t such a tough ask, and the way things have been going, it’s kind of nice to know she has them looking after her too.” Yep, I was a certifiable hippie. Time to start tie-dying my t-shirts and smoking pot.
“And if she doesn’t feel the same? If she’s just using you three for sex, and you all end up getting your hearts broken, or worse, breaking up this team?” he challenged with a very valid concern, and he was not going to like my answer.
“Sometimes, bro, you just gotta trust your gut.” I grinned broadly at him as he gave a pained groan and pretended to smack his head on the steering wheel.
“Now, if you’re done with your questions, are you going to fess up about this paintball makeout, or can I channel flip again?” Smug as shit, I cocked an eyebrow at him when he
glanced over.
“Have at it,” he grunted, smacking the power button on his radio and filling the small space with loud music once more.
28
The twins had beaten us to the safe house and were already waiting when we arrived, leaning against Austin's car like the cover of a magazine or something. As we exited River's car, with me stumbling and almost falling while clambering off Wesley's lap, Caleb gave us a surprised look.
“Kitty Kat, you could have come with us you know. It looks like that was an awfully cramped ride…” He looked curiously at the other men piling out of the car.
“You have no idea,” Cole muttered, stalking past us and into the house.
The safe house was a lovely countryside home, set in perfectly manicured gardens and looking like the sort of place you expect to see a nice old lady baking pies. Not at all what I would have expected from a spy safe house, but I guessed that was kind of the point.
“Hey, Austin.” I grabbed his arm as he moved to walk past me, and he paused, raising his eyebrows. “Do you have the number for Lucy’s rehab? I want to call and let her know what’s going on. Actually, maybe we should get her out of there…”
“I’ve already called and spoken to her,” he told me with a slight frown. “She said she’s not going anywhere, that the whole point of moving her there was that no one knew where she was, so it’s the safest place. Also, she said not to stress about Finn and that she’s handling it.”
Lucy’s message did the complete opposite of instilling confidence in me because now I was stressing about her getting herself in trouble if she tried to question Finn herself. As I had already seen, he was no stranger to casual murder.
“So I am going to ask you again, princess,” Austin continued with narrowed eyes. “Who the fuck is Finn, and why does Luce need to handle it?”
“Kitty Kat!” Caleb called out, and I saw that everyone else had already gone inside. “The Director is on the phone wanting to speak to you.”
Austin held my gaze for a moment longer, silently demanding answers, but I took the distraction Caleb had provided and ducked inside to take the call.
“Kit, what the hell happened outside the townhouse?” Jonathan's irate voice echoed down the phone, and I cringed. We should have called him sooner.
“Car bomb,” I told him succinctly. There was a long pause on his end and then a heavy sigh.
“Never mind; I will get the details from Alpha later. There is a huge mess of paperwork that I will need to action in order to get this cleaned up. Are you okay though? Was anyone hurt?” Instead of sounding worried, like I might have expected, he sounded sort of… curious? Has he been body-snatched or something?
“Um, no, everyone is fine; we were all out of range when it went off.” Why I’d just lied to him, I had no idea. Other than his failing to sound super-concerned, which could have just been my imagination, I had no reason not to trust him.
While I was speaking, River had come to stand in front of me, and when he heard my lie, he raised an eyebrow in question, to which I just gave a small shrug.
“I see,” Jonathan murmured. “That’s very lucky. I understand you’re at the Omega safe house with Alpha team right now. What are your plans from here?”
“Ummm,” I looked to River for guidance, but of course he hadn’t heard the question and just gave me a confused frown. “I think we will stay here for a bit and try to work out who was responsible for that car bomb.”
“Okay, sounds like a good idea, kiddo. I have to deal with all this paperwork tomorrow, so I will come up there as soon as I can get finished.” There was something seriously strange about his tone as he spoke, but he gave me no further opportunity to question it. “Can you pass the phone to River please, hon? I want to get his report directly.”
“Uh, sure.” I handed the phone to River with a small shake of my head, and he nodded, taking it from me.
Not bothering to hang around and listen to their conversation, I headed through to where the guys were all gathered in the living room. When I got there, I sighed heavily, rubbing my tired eyes.
“I understand there is a whole thing going on here between you two,” I waved my hand between Cole and Vali. “But can it wait? I’m so exhausted it’s not even funny. I need sleep, and then we need to get ourselves to Alaska somehow. Can everyone please stay alive for like… eight hours?” Running my hand through my wild, tangled hair, I grimaced. There were little twigs and bits of stuff all through it, and I probably looked a sight.
“You do kind of look pale,” Caleb noted, stepping forward to lay a hand against my forehead. “Do you still feel sick? Wes just told us you vomited when you woke up from that faint.”
“I’m fine,” I brushed off his concern. “Nothing a shower and sleep can’t fix.”
“You’d better do that then, Vixen,” Cole suggested from his spot on the couch. “I’m sure Dragomir’s bullshit can wait until morning.”
Vali glared hard at his brother then nodded to me, his eyes softening. “Of course, dragă, I’m not going anywhere.” Cole grunted an angry noise, and I rolled my eyes.
“Whatever; you two have a fun night, and try not to kill each other. We can talk tomorrow.” Leaving them to it, I followed Caleb as he tugged me down the corridor to a bedroom.
“Bathroom’s just through there.” He motioned to the door leading off the bedroom. “I’ll see if I can find you something to sleep in. Most safe houses have spare clothes somewhere.”
“Thanks, Cal.” I pressed a quick kiss on his cheek then took myself into the bathroom to shower off the soot and dirt from my near death experience today, again. This was getting way too damn frequent. What were the odds that in two days I would need to use my newfound magic twice to save the lives of guys I cared for?
Woah, calm down, sunshine. You do not “care for” Vali. That’s the Stockholm Syndrome talking.
If only I could make myself believe that. No matter how hard I tried, my brain just kept seeming to focus on his redeeming qualities and skipping over his casual attitude towards murder and drug running. Every time I tried to remind myself that he was a bad person, all I could see was him catching me as I lost my grip on his window or getting shot trying to save me from Mr. Grey’s men.
“Kitty Kat?” Caleb’s voice cut through my troubling thoughts as he cracked open the bathroom door. “I found some clothes; where did you want me to leave them?”
Having just stepped out of the shower, I laughed when I saw him politely staying on the other side of the door.
“Seriously, Caleb?” I snickered. “Now you’re worried about seeing me naked? What happened to offering to help me wash my hair?” There was a short pause on his side while I wrapped myself in a towel and grabbed another to start drying my hair
“Was that you asking for assistance? Because I am in the business of assisting damsels in distress you know…” The door creaked open a little wider, and I grinned.
“Sadly, you missed the boat. My hair is already washed. I could use some help drying and brushing it though,” I suggested. “I really am feeling a bit off, and my arms hurt just looking at this tangled mess.”
“Your wish is my command, Kitty Kat,” Caleb replied, slipping into the steamy bathroom and closing the door behind him. For a moment, he hesitated where he stood near the door, his gaze heavy on me as he raked his eyes over every inch of wet skin exposed by the too-small towel wrapped around my body.
“What?” I teased. “You act like you've never seen me in a towel before.” A sly smile crept across his face, and I knew I was playing with fire. Despite the circumstances, having just been bombed and five other guys only just down the hall, nothing could make me stop playing with this particular fire. It had been too long coming already.
Tossing my second towel to him, I turned back to the vanity, bending down to grab the hairdryer and a brush out from one of the drawers. Thank goodness someone has kept this house stocked with useful items. If my hair had gone much longer w
ithout seeing a brush, it would have needed to be cut off or fashioned into dreadlocks.
As I bent, Caleb sucked in a sharp breath, stepping closer behind me and trailing a finger up the back of my thigh.
“Kitty Kat…” he murmured. “Are you intentionally teasing me?”
With a cheeky grin, I straightened back up and winked at him in the mirror. “Maybe.”
He let out a frustrated groan and held out his hand. “Give me the damn brush.”
For a few minutes, he worked in silence, gently and methodically working the tangles out of my long hair while I kept my hands braced against the sink. Every now and then, as he encountered a particularly nasty snag, my balance was tugged backwards and my towel-covered rear would bump into him. After this had happened several times, he stopped and placed the brush down on the sink, bracing his hands on the counter to either side of mine.
“What's up?” I asked a little breathlessly because I was not totally unaffected by the hardening region my rear had just bumped.
“Fucking Christ, I don't think I can do this,” he muttered, his head hanging to press his forehead on my shoulder.
“Do what?” I teased, being deliberately obtuse. “Brush my hair?”
“Keep my hands off you.” He grasped my waist, spinning me to face him and grabbing my lips in a crushing kiss. My heart raced in excitement, and I lifted my hands, one snaking into the back of his hair and the other grasping his neck to pull him closer to me. The movement caused my towel to shift and untuck, and it slid off my body and pooled at our feet.
“Fuck,” Caleb moaned, his hands sliding down my naked body slowly, as though memorizing every inch of skin, until he reached my ass. Lips still caressing mine, his palms smoothed over the round of my butt, making me sigh against his mouth, silently begging for more. His hands slid lower, grabbing tight to the tops of my legs and lifting me just a couple of inches to perch on the edge of the vanity.
