Broken Dawn

by Duvall, Dianne

  Shrugging, Eliana whispered, “At least Becca’s not jealous of her mom. That would’ve been messed up.”

  He nodded. At least there was that.

  Chapter Six

  Kayla glanced down at her daughter.

  Becca had fallen asleep halfway through the second episode of Luther and was now curled up on her side beneath the covers, her hands tucked beneath her chin.

  She smiled. Becca was right. Kayla did still think of her daughter as her little girl and probably always would.

  She looked around the darkened room. Where was Nick? He had gone downstairs an hour ago to put the leftover pizza in the fridge and see Eliana out, but he hadn’t returned.

  Was he sleeping in one of the guest rooms? No clock graced the walls or bedside tables, so Kayla had no idea what time it was. Maybe she and Becca should’ve gone home. Or maybe she should wake Becca and go home now to give him some peace? She hadn’t exactly asked if they could stay… or even thanked him for giving up his bedroom. And his bed.

  Almost against her will, she smiled. This was the biggest bed she’d ever seen, much higher than her own. High enough that she would have to jump just to get her butt up on it if she didn’t use the board that ran along the side. It was also long enough for Nick to stretch out his six-feet-one-inch-tall frame without his feet hanging off the end. Her full-sized bed was tiny by comparison.

  Reaching for the remote, she muted the volume on the television.

  No sound trickled in from downstairs or from one of the other bedrooms up here.

  Was Nick asleep? He usually worked nights, sometimes not getting home until just before dawn. Kayla’s night owl tendencies often kept her up late enough to notice when the lights came on next door.

  She scooted over to the side of the bed, impressed when her movement didn’t shake the mattress. This must be one of those she’d seen in commercials that someone could jump up and down on without causing the glass of wine on the opposite corner to spill.

  Once she reached the edge, she slid off and landed with barely a sound. The bamboo floor was cool beneath her feet as she left the room. She paused in the hallway. All but one of the doors were open, revealing darkness within. No light shone beneath the door that was closed.

  She did, however, glimpse flickering light on the first floor.

  Nary a board creaked as Kayla padded down the stairs. The huge flat-screen television in the living room flashed and flickered with images of a football game. Must be a repeat.

  Sprawled on the sofa with his big bare feet propped on the ottoman, Nick watched it with the volume turned off.

  He looked up at her approach, then rose. “Everything okay?” He kept his voice low.

  She nodded. “Becca’s asleep.” Kayla felt oddly shy as she approached him, stopping about a foot away. He was so tall compared to her own five foot nothing that she had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

  Reaching out, he curled the fingers of one hand around her upper arm and drew them up and down in a light caress. “How do you feel?”

  “Fine.” She sent him an impish smile and decided to be honest. “More relaxed than I’ve been in ages.” Thanks to the nap and the orgasm he’d given her. Heat rose in her cheeks.

  He grinned. “Good.”

  She eased a few inches closer. “So.”

  “So.”

  Her heart thumped a little louder. “It’s been a weird-ass day.”

  He laughed. “Yes, it has.”

  “A long one, too.”

  He nodded. “And terrifying at times.”

  That he cared enough about her to have been that shaken by her accident still stunned her.

  “There have been a lot of surprises.”

  His look turned guarded. “Too many surprises?”

  Nick’s superhuman speed and strength and glowing eyes might seem unreal and would take some getting used to, but she could handle it. Because it was Nick. “No.”

  “Even if there are more to come?” The spark of vulnerability that entered his eyes hit her right in the chest. Was he referring to his gift, whatever it might be?

  “Yes.”

  His reluctance to share it with her inspired no resentment. She suspected it had less to do with trust issues and more to do with concern that it might make her reject him. And how crazy was that? Nick worried that she would reject him. He was a smart, gorgeous, charming man who would have no difficulty enticing a different woman into his bed every night. She, on the other hand, was a single mom who had stressful ex-husband baggage, worked at home, hadn’t dated anyone since she was a teenager, and basically only left the house to grocery shop and check the mail.

  Yet Nick was worried she might reject him.

  “There’s a way out of the rabbit hole, you know,” he murmured. Resting both hands on her hips, he drew her closer.

  Damn, she loved this man’s hands. They were so big and warm. And no matter where or how he touched her, Nick made her feel more alive than she had in years. “What?”

  “You said you felt as though you had fallen down the rabbit hole.” Sliding his hands around, he clasped them at the base of her spine and drew her against him. “If it’s too much… there’s a way out of it. There’s an exit.”

  Heart pounding, barely listening, Kayla followed his example. Wrapping her arms around his trim waist, she clasped her hands at the base of his spine, just above the muscled ass she wanted to fondle. “What do you mean?”

  Her breath caught when a faint amber glow lit his irises.

  “I can ask Seth to bury your memories of everything except the crash.”

  That snagged her attention, yanking it away from how good he felt pressed against her. “What?”

  “If it’s too much… or if you’ve changed your mind… Seth can bury your knowledge of what I am and”—his gaze flickered up toward his bedroom and back—“what I feel for you, so your life can return to normal without any preternatural stuff impinging upon it. And things between us can go back to what they were.”

  Anger swiftly rose, strong enough to make her step back and break his hold. “First of all,” she bit out, “the fact that your friend can do that unnerves the hell out of me. I don’t want anyone fucking with my mind and my memories. Ever.”

  Then uncertainty zoomed in and halted what otherwise would’ve turned into a nice long rant.

  Had he had to do that before? Had some woman in Nick’s past reacted so badly to his being immortal and having special abilities that he’d had to ask Seth to bury her memory and make her forget? Had some woman rejected him for it? Or women plural?

  Goodness knew the world was full of people who were eager to hate anyone who was different from themselves and jumped at any chance to treat them like shit. And Nick was about as different as you could get. She had never in her life met anyone who was so different. The fact that he now looked as if he were bracing himself for a blow made sympathy rise and merge with the absolute certainty that some dimwit—or dimwits—had actually done that. They had actually treated him like shit because he was different, which spawned a new anger.

  “And second,” she snapped, bolstering her nerve, “does this feel like I want to forget?” Heart pounding in her chest (no one would ever accuse her of being bold), she closed the distance between them once more, rose onto her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and drew his head down for a fiery kiss.

  Nick’s muscled arms banded around her, crushing her close. Her breasts smashed against his chest. Her hips melded with his, letting her feel his long, hard length. Heat flooded her as he deepened the kiss, his tongue stroking hers. Her breath shortened as she fought the urge to jump up, wrap her legs around his hips, and grind against him.

  On the brink of losing that fight, she dragged her lips from his and drew in several deep breaths.

  It didn’t help. Every inhale drew his scent into her lungs and filled her with Nick pheromones that made her ache for more.

  She looked up at him.

&
nbsp; He stared back, his eyes boring into hers with a bright amber glow. “You don’t want to forget.” His voice was deeper and husky with desire that did nothing to dampen her need.

  “I don’t want to forget,” she assured him, as if her tight hold on him hadn’t already made that clear. “But someone in your past did. Someone rejected you because of who and what you are.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow before he nodded.

  “Who?”

  He hesitated for so long she thought he wouldn’t answer. “Almost everyone I’ve ever loved,” he confessed wearily.

  Her heels dropped back to the floor. Her chest tightened. And the backs of her eyes began to burn with tears she hastily blinked back.

  Those five words held a wealth of sorrow.

  Leaving her casted hand on the nape of his neck, she cupped his strong jaw with the other. “They were fools.” Fools she would love to give a strong kick in the ass. One corner of her lips turned up as she arched a brow. “And total wusses apparently.”

  His lips stretched in a smile that bespoke both amusement and relief.

  She winked. “I’m smarter and made of sterner stuff.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “I don’t want to forget.”

  “You don’t want to forget.”

  Though desire still rode them both, their embrace loosened and shifted to one of affection rather than need.

  Kayla drew her thumb across the stubble on his cheek as she studied him. She was not without insecurities of her own. “I’m a socially awkward single mom who hasn’t dated in nineteen years. Are you sure you don’t want me to forget?”

  He flattened his hands on her lower back, slid them down the curve of her ass, lifted her onto her toes again, and pressed her hips into his. “What do you think?”

  She thought she wanted to push him back onto the sofa and straddle him again, this time without clothes. “My daughter is upstairs.” It was more a reminder for herself than for him.

  “I’m aware.” He winced, then loosened his hold on her. “Which reminds me…” Stepping back, he shuffled his feet and looked sheepish as hell. “I’m sorry about earlier. About what happened when Becca first arrived. I woke up with your beautiful body pressed against mine and—when she burst into the room—I’m pretty sure my physical reaction was as obvious then as it is now.”

  Against her will, her gaze dropped to the large bulge in his pants, flitted back up to his face, then dropped down again because she couldn’t help it, and back up. Her face flamed with a blush she wished she could hide. Damn her pale, freckled skin. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure my nipples were standing at attention.” Why the hell did I just say that? “And even though I like to think Becca is still a little girl, she’s an adult now.”

  His lips twitched. “I’m not sure that’s going to make it easier for her to accept her mother having a sexual relationship with her next-door neighbor.”

  Kayla smiled. “Accepting it is one thing. Seeing it is another. No one likes to imagine their parents having sex.”

  Chuckling, he gave her a boyish grin that resurrected the warm and tingly feeling inside her. “I’m convinced a stork left me on my parents’ doorstep.”

  She laughed. “Me, too.”

  “I’ll try to keep a lid on things whenever she’s around,” he promised.

  “I will, too.” She sent him a wry smile. “She’s the only reason I’m not climbing you like a stripper pole right now.”

  Groaning, he dropped his head back. “Don’t say things like that when you know I can’t act on them.”

  She grimaced. “Sorry. I’m actually surprised I said that at all. I’ve never been what one might call bold or aggressive when it comes to sex.” She bit her lip as a new worry dawned. “Shit. I hope I don’t end up boring you in bed.” Her husband had tried to blame his cheating on her inability to satisfy his sexual needs.

  Straightening his head, Nick stared at her with what could only be described as patent disbelief. “Are you serious?”

  Unfortunately, old insecurities didn’t die easily. “Yes. My husband—”

  “Was an asshole. Does this look like you bore me?” He motioned to the very enticing bulge in his pants.

  Heat wriggled through her once more, leaving all kinds of tingles in its wake. “No.”

  “Damn straight. And I will prove how much you don’t bore me several times a day as soon as your daughter leaves.”

  Several times a day? Really?

  She drew her tongue across her lips as she imagined it. “Okay. I’m going hold you to that.”

  He groaned again as he stared at her mouth. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

  “Make what easy?”

  “Waiting.”

  “Hell no. If I have to suffer, you do, too.”

  He laughed.

  “I know we can’t fool around.” Becca could wake and come looking for her at any moment. “But can I hang out with you down here for a while?” Now that she knew he cared, she couldn’t seem to spend enough time with him.

  He smiled. “I’d like that.”

  The world outside his windows lightened to gray in anticipation of sunrise as Nick stared down at the woman beside him.

  He and Kayla had eaten a few slices of cold pizza as they slumped on the sofa and watched a movie. He couldn’t say which one. He had been more interested in watching her than the film. He loved her laugh, the way her eyes would light up and she’d glance at him every time something funny happened so he could share her amusement. He loved the way her cheeks flushed with embarrassment when her eyes teared up over someone dying. He especially loved the way she leaned against him as her thick lashes began to droop. Loved the feel of her drawing her legs up and curling into him as she fell asleep.

  His cell phone buzzed on the table beside him. Nick picked it up and glanced at the screen.

  Oliver.

  Keeping his voice low, he answered. “Hey, man. How’s the vacation going?”

  “Meh,” his gruff Second replied. “Apparently I don’t know what the hell to do with myself when I’m not keeping an eye on your ass. And I don’t mean that literally. I have no interest in eyeing your ass.”

  Nick laughed.

  “How’d your hunt go?” Even though Oliver was on vacation, he called Nick before sunrise every morning to double-check he was doing okay without him.

  Nick glanced at Kayla to make sure she still slept. “I didn’t hunt tonight.”

  “Why not?” Oliver’s tone sharpened. “Did something happen?” Immortal Guardians didn’t take nights off. Vampires vastly outnumbered them, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say humans would suffer if Immortal Guardians took vacations.

  “Kayla was in an accident,” he disclosed softly.

  “Shit. How bad was it?”

  “Bad. It might’ve been fatal if we hadn’t intervened. I called Seth in, and he healed her before they could take her into surgery. He had to leave some superficial wounds—mostly scratches and bruises—to make covering it up at the hospital easier.”

  “So she’s okay?”

  “Yeah.” He cuddled her closer. “She’s good.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Home.”

  “Is Kayla there with you?”

  “Yes. She’s asleep. Becca is, too. The hospital called Becca in North Carolina and put her in a panic. She knew it would be hours before she could get here, so she called me. I had Reordon fly her in while Seth, Eliana, and I took care of things at the hospital.”

  “Sounds like you had a long day. Sorry I wasn’t there to help out.”

  “Don’t be. You haven’t taken a vacation in years. And after what happened at the base, you more than deserve one.” Oliver and some of the other immortals’ Seconds had backed them up—along with a huge contingent of network special-ops soldiers—when they’d helped Seth blitz the military base that had been under Gershom’s control and liberate their brethren w
ithin. Oliver had been among the injured. Though Seth and the other immortal healers had spared him and the others a long recovery period, Nick still felt guilty… as he always did when one of his Seconds was injured or slain in the line of duty.

  “I still say Seth should’ve left me with a scar or two,” Oliver grumbled. “Chicks dig scars.”

  Nick laughed.

  “I could’ve accidentally flashed one or two at a club, then evaded answering any questions so the women would get all intrigued and shit and think I’m a former Secret Service agent or a war veteran or something.”

  Nick shook his head with a smile. “You are a war veteran. They just aren’t aware of the war we fought.” The war with Gershom had been an intense one. No enemy in Nick’s long lifetime had proven a greater challenge.

  “So are you going to make me ask?” His Second didn’t have to specify what.

  Nick glanced down at the woman cuddled up to him. “Yes, I told Kayla what I am.”

  “All of it?”

  “No.” He grimaced a little before admitting, “I left out my gift and what I do for a living.”

  “Wuss.”

  Nick laughed. “Hey, you said yourself—it’s been a long day.”

  “Excuses, excuses.”

  “I know. But I’ll work my way up to the rest.”

  A beleaguered sigh carried across the line. “If I have to cut my vacation short and fly home to play matchmaker for you, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

  “Don’t cut your vacation short.”

  “Don’t fuck this up.”

  “I’ll sure as hell try not to.” He really would.

  “Good. I’ll let you get back to it then. Take it easy, man. And keep me posted.”

  “Why?” Nick asked with a grin. “So you can share all the details with your sewing circle?”

  “Fuck you.”

  Grinning, Nick returned the phone to the side table and enjoyed holding Kayla for a little longer.

  Her warmth permeated his clothing and sank through his skin, reaching all the way to his heart. Her scent grew more and more familiar, soothing him like the scent of fresh-baked cookies, as the fragrance of whatever soap they’d used to clean her at the hospital faded.