by Jaime Rush
“Kye,” he said on a long breath, wrapping his leg around her to pin her close. Now she felt the evidence of the desire he was reining in. She rocked against his erection, touching off her own fire.
He found evidence of that when his fingers slid into her intimate folds. “So wet for me,” he whispered, making her breath catch as he circled her sensitive nub.
She wrapped her fingers around his penis, rubbing her thumb across his slick tip. “Mmm, you, too.”
“Always,” he said on a low chuckle. “Every time I look at you, I want you. I don’t think I could ever get enough of you.”
She closed her eyes on those words, spoken from his heart. “Me, either.” But she had to know, and so she met his gaze. “When you say you want me, that you could love me too much, do you mean sex? Or…more?”
“More. Much more.”
He dipped his finger into her entrance, sliding it back and forth while he let his thumb graze her nub. She rocked her hips against his hand, and he kissed her deeply, moving his tongue in the same rhythm as his fingers. The sensation built, her thighs tightened, and she screamed her pleasure into his mouth. And he seemed to swallow it, growling and tightening his hand on her.
He gently pushed her back, nudged her thighs apart, and guided his erection to her slick entrance. He teased her, moving the tip all around her already sensitive nub, and then she gripped his arms and fell to her pleasure again. When she opened her eyes a minute later, he was watching her with a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.
“I love watching you come,” he said without apology.
Kye realized she felt no embarrassment. She reached down and took him in hand, relishing the long, hard feel of him as she stroked. “And I love coming for you.” Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he sank his shaft into her. She shifted her hips up high so that he drove in to the hilt. Gripping his shoulders, she moved her hips to match his rhythm, his fervor. “I also love the look on your face right now.”
He rolled his head back, his eyes closing for a second, giving himself to the satisfaction she felt coming from him. No, completion. And he hadn’t even come yet. His eyes were on her again, intense, effervescent as they moved together. No hint of black, no Dragon Shadow. This was all Kasabian.
All mine.
He rolled over so that she was on top, letting her control their movements for a while. She planted her hands on his chest, hard muscle and soft skin, and lost herself in the feel of him filling her so perfectly, so exquisitely. He gripped her hips, sinking deeper still, until she shattered. She threw her head back and lost herself to it. Then she got to watch him come. The tendons in his neck tensed, he let out the most delicious groan, and all the while his eyes held hers.
When he caught his breath, he moved his hand down over her breasts and across her stomach. He gave her a heart-stopping grin. “I like watching you when I come, too.”
She lay down on his chest, careful not to disengage. She looked at that gorgeous face and felt him in her heart. “What are you doing to me?” she whispered.
“Making you mine,” he said simply, running his hand across her back in slow strokes.
His. Every cell, every thought, every inch of her, his.
The smile faded to something else. He stroked his thumb down her cheek, to her jaw. “I’ve never belonged anywhere. Not with Caidos, not with Deuces. But when I’m with you, I belong here.” And when those eyes locked onto hers…Omigods, I’m so in love with this half angel, half devil, all thief. He’d stolen her heart from its secure place behind stone walls and laser alarms. She would never get her abilities back because all she’d be thinking about would be him. In bed like this. But also the way he was looking at her now, as though he needed her. Not just her body, but all of her.
“I already am,” she whispered. “Yours, I mean.”
Those words stole his smile altogether. He took her hand and pressed it against his mouth, his eyes intense and fierce. “What have I done to you?”
Loved me.
Before she could speak the words, he answered. “Screwed up your life. Someday you’re going to realize that. But I’ll take this until you do.” He took a ragged breath, then looked at the clock. “I need to check in with Hayden. Maybe he called while we were in here losing our minds.”
He got out of bed and walked over to his discarded clothing. She let her gaze linger on his backside before getting up and dressed. The woman in her bathroom mirror looked trippy. Loopy.
In love.
Shit. That’s what he was doing, making her fall in love with him. She should be thinking about their next step, not how delicious he looked wearing only jeans as he thumbed through the texts on his phone.
“Hear from him?” she asked, pulling her shirt over her head as she walked over.
He shook his head. “Something’s wrong. He would have checked in by now, even just a text. They got caught. It’s the only explanation.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Damn it, how do we help them?”
“Hayden’s a Vega in the Guard. It’s not like he can’t take care of himself and Mallory.”
“He’s capable.” Kasabian seemed to grab on to that. “And Mallory’s no slouch either.”
Worry permeated his expression, and Kye wrapped her arms around his waist. He surprised her by crushing her to him. She heard his heart beating furiously.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
His hands tightened on her, and she thought he shook his head. “I know you’re capable, that you have lethal magick. But the thought of something happening to you…”
She leaned back to look at his face and saw the terror of the thought. “I’ll be all right. I’m strong.”
He gathered her face in his hands. “You’re in me now, in a way I can’t even describe. You flow in my veins; you’re settled into my bones. The thought of something happening to you sucks the breath right out of my chest. If you were hurt, it would make me beyond crazy.” His eyes shimmered black.
The intensity of him enveloped her, unnerving and calming at once. She’d never been consumed and possessed like this. Now she craved all of that. All of Kasabian.
Kye recognized the knock on the door, three quick raps followed by three more. “Sarai. Maybe she’s seen something that will help.”
Kasabian pulled on a shirt as Kye went to the door.
Sarai’s gaze went right to him, her blue eyes hard. She steered her gaze to Kye. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”
“Kasabian can hear whatever it is you have to say.”
“No, he can’t.” Sarai clamped Kye’s arm in her grip. “Excuse us for a few minutes.”
Kye shrugged as her friend led her out the door. She knew Kasabian would be watching, keeping her safe. “What’s going on?”
Sarai kept steering her farther away, heading to the parking area designated for visitors. “Come sit in my car with me.”
Except they didn’t make it to the car. Doors on a van slid open, and arms grabbed Kye and pulled her inside. Panic choked her as she fought, getting in a solid kick at her captor’s stomach. He grunted but remained in control, tying her wrists behind her. She was gagged and unceremoniously dumped on the floor of the van as the door slid closed. Someone was already in the driver’s seat, easing out of the parking spot. Oh, my gods! What was going on? What had happened to Sarai?
Wait. She was in the van. Sitting next to her looking worried and chagrined, not at all like someone who’d just been kidnapped.
“I’m sorry we had to do it like this,” Sarai said.
We? Kye strained to see the person who’d gagged her mouth. “Dad?” she managed through the thick material.
And her mother was driving. Kye had fallen into a bizarre nightmare. Her parents and best friend had gone psychotic!
“I’m sorry, honey,” her mother said. “This wasn’t my idea, but I agree that it’s the best way to handle this.”
“Handle what?” Kye tried to ask.
Her father untied her mouth.
“I didn’t like the gagging part at all, but we couldn’t have you screaming and attracting attention.” He grimaced, holding his side. “I’m happy to know you’re a fighter.”
Her mother drove calmly down the street. “You’ll understand all of this once we explain. Explain it, honey.”
“It was my doing,” Sarai said, pulling her knees up to hug them to her chest. “My visions. I told your parents. They were getting scarier, Kye, and nothing seemed to deter you from doing whatever it is that’s putting you in danger. Kasabian has you under his Thrall.”
“He does not.” Kye couldn’t say how it was so much deeper than that.
“I saw it, too,” her mother said.
“It’s not the Thrall. I’m in love with him. There’s a difference.”
Her mother threw up one hand. “It’s even worse than we thought.”
Kye tried to wriggle free. “This is ridiculous. Untie me.”
“Not yet,” Sarai said to her father. “She still looks like she’s going to kill me.”
Kye narrowed her eyes and gave her a rigid smile. “With love. I’m going to kill you with love. Take me back. Kasabian is going to freak.”
Her father put his arms on her shoulders. “This is an intervention. When Sarai told us her latest vision, we knew we all had to act together.”
Kye worked the rope around her wrists. “What was the latest one?”
Sarai’s voice went very low. “I saw a Caido—not a Caido, exactly. He had wings like a Caido but a face like a Dragon. Remember that I sensed Dragon energy. Well this Caido was sort of both, which I know doesn’t make any sense. He was killing you in a jealous rage. And it was Kasabian.”
No one there knew about Kasabian being a Wraithlord. They probably didn’t even know there were Wraithlords, and yet Sarai had seen one. But not Kasabian.
Kasabian appeared in the van in full wing, frantically looking around. His black gaze locked onto her, noting the gag still around her neck and her father’s hands on her shoulders. He lunged. Kye only saw a dark blur and claws reaching for her father’s neck as he was slammed into the side of the van. She could feel Kasabian’s murderous rage, his capacity for violence.
Kye screamed, “Stop! Kasabian, it’s my father!”
Her mother slammed on the brakes and pulled into a parking lot, tires screeching.
“That’s what I saw!” Sarai stuttered, pointing at him and shrinking away at the same time.
Kye saw Kasabian struggle to pull his Wraithlord back under control. “You’re all right?” he asked her, shadows moving across his eyes.
“I’m fine. Sarai saw a vision of—”
“You, Kasabian! I saw you killing Kye in a jealous rage. Like you’re doing to her father. Let him go!”
Kasabian finally reined in his power and released him. He looked Kye over again, surveying her with his now hazel eyes. He shifted that gaze to Sarai. “Tell me about the vision.”
Sarai, who’d shrunk against the back of the passenger seat, regained her courage and described the vision.
“You’re sure it was me?”
“I didn’t see your face clearly, but I sensed that it was you. Seeing you now…yes, it was you.”
Kye saw the horror of that possibility cross his face, felt his pain in thinking he would hurt her. “Kasabian, you would never do that to me.”
Her father was rubbing his neck. “Did you see what he just did? Of course he could kill you.” He positioned himself between Kasabian and Kye. “What are you?”
“That’s not important,” Kye said. “You saw how he pulled it back in.” She turned to Kasabian. “You controlled it.”
He was still trying to catch his breath. He met Sarai’s gaze. “I’ve heard about your visions. You have true foresight.”
Sarai nodded. “That first night you met at the club, I warned her about getting involved with you. I saw it then, something bad.”
“And something good,” Kye said. “You saw that it was good between us.”
Kasabian’s focus was on Sarai. “What was the bad?”
“Danger. I felt flashes of fear. Something about Kye’s heart being ripped out, though I didn’t take it literally at the time. Then I got the Dragon-Caido vision and knew I had to take desperate measures. I went to her parents and implored them to stage an intervention. They were completely on board, especially when I told them about that last vision.”
“Of me hurting her.” Kasabian’s voice was soft, dead calm. His expression changed in a way Kye couldn’t understand. She saw—and felt—his relief. He met her father’s gaze. “Keep her locked up, like a princess in a tower. Away from me.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Kye said. “You are not shutting me out of this. You need my help!”
“It’s the only way to keep her safe,” he said to her father, ignoring her.
She knew he could feel her outrage, her anger. And she let him have it. “You will not—”
Kasabian pulled the gag back up over her mouth. He kept looking right past her toward her father. “I only need her to stay in your custody for a day. Can you manage that?”
Her father nodded. “Anything for my girl.”
Those words might have warmed her if Kasabian wasn’t totally pissing her off. He finally dared to meet her eyes. “You know it’s for the best.”
“It is not,” she ranted, but it came out muffled. She struggled, wanting to shake and smack him. “You need me.”
His eyes became a slate of gray. “No, Kye, I don’t. As you said, you’re worthless as far as your magick goes. There’s nothing you can do to help.” The word worthless hit her like a slap in the face. It dug at the core of her insecurity. He met her father’s gaze. “If something happened to your daughter because of me…” He meant him hurting her. Sarai’s vision had scared him. “She is out of her element, and I haven’t been able to convince her otherwise. As much as it pains me, she’s better off far away from me.”
“Permanently,” Sarai said. “She’s better off away from you permanently, you mean.”
“I’m right here,” Kye tried to say, furious. The knucklehead was trying to protect her, and Sarai had just handed him the perfect reason. And damn it, he’d lanced her in the most tender spot of her psyche, trying to widen that distance between them.
“Yes, permanently.” He looked at her for a moment. “I don’t think that will be a problem.” Kasabian kissed her forehead. Now he does it! “Mmm, your rage is lovely.” He brushed her tangled hair from her face, the tips of his fingers lingering against her skin. “I love how you believe in me. I wish I could believe in myself the same way.”
He disappeared. Kye kicked and screamed. He would not leave her out of this. And damn it, without Hayden, didn’t he realize he was entirely on his own?
Chapter 18
Kasabian returned to Kye’s apartment to get his things. The barrier was still in place, which meant Hayden was alive. Kasabian tried to Leap to him, but his soul hit a barrier that threw him back to the living room. He tried Mallory, too, with the same result. They must still be at the Tower.
Kye’s anger radiated directly into him through their bond.
Sorry, love. It was a golden opportunity to keep you out of Treylon’s grasp. Hell, out of my grasp. Now that he’d been intimate with her, the possessiveness was even stronger. The need for her consumed him.
Mine, mine, mine, the refrain kept chanting.
He’d almost killed her father. Had wanted to tear out Hayden’s throat for his comment about her. Just a freakin’ comment. It made Sarai’s vision even more likely to come true.
Kye’s phone rang. He paused to listen to her outgoing message, the light cadence of her voice both soothing and painful.
“Kasabian? Are you there? This is Sarai.”
He picked up the phone. “Yes, I’m here.”
“I got a vision of something else that I think is tied to what you’re involved in. Maybe it’ll make sense to you, because it seems bizarre to me. I’m seei
ng children who are fading. Like they’re becoming invisible.”
Kasabian’s heart tightened. “That’s what’s happening, though not in a literal sense. Can you see anything around them?”
“At first I thought it was an estate, but it looks more like a small resort with a handful of medium-sized buildings and concrete pathways connecting them. I see a hallway with many doors that have numbers on them. And one of those signs that shows you how to get out in case of a fire. That’s all.”
He’d take any clue at this point, even a scrap. It corroborated what he’d seen. “That may be enough. I’m going to give you my cell number, in case you find anything else.” After he did, he couldn’t help asking, “How’s Kye doing?”
“She’s pissed.”
“Good.” It would help her separate from him.
After he disconnected, he soaked in the details of Kye’s space one last time. The cat watched him from the window seat in the kitchen nook. At least he had the good sense to stay away. “Your mistress, not so much.” Would Kasabian be strong enough to stay away from her? He knew better. That’s why he’d tried to made her angry, though using the word worthless had hurt him as much as it had hurt her.
He grabbed his duffel bag and Leaped to Cory’s office at Harbor.
Cory yelped before catching himself. “Dude, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“I need to borrow the car again.”
Cory’s expression darkened. “This is some pretty serious shit you’re into.”
Several kids trudged by with suitcases and bags, talking about getting eaten by alligators. One girl was whining about mosquitoes.
Kasabian let himself enjoy the banter for a second before answering. “You wouldn’t believe how serious. Right now I need transportation. Do you have anything I can use for a day?”
“Dude, I’m afraid to loan you anything. But I do feel an obligation since you did donate the sedan to Harbor.” He unlocked a cabinet and handed him the keys.
“I’ll bring it back in one piece or replace it.” Kasabian started heading out.
“I just hope you’re alive to honor that promise.”
