by Kathy Love
And she gave into him, shouting out her climax. He followed her, his own yell of release filling her ears.
Then she fell into blissful oblivion.
CHAPTER 15
Sometime during the night, Jo was aware of Maksim lifting her up to the pillows and tucking the covers over her. But she didn’t rouse enough to speak or even know what he did after that.
When she woke in the morning, she found the other side of the bed empty, and she realized he must have left. She sat up, still disoriented from her deep sleep. His clothes were gone and she heard no sound of him in the apartment. The destroyed bedding and her scattered clothing were the only signs that last night had ever happened.
Disappointment filled her, then she pushed the feeling away. They hadn’t agreed to anything more than sex. So she couldn’t very well expect him to be cuddled in beside her in the morning. And in truth, she didn’t want their arrangement to be different. Anything more would be too complicated.
Complicated was something she already had plenty of in her life.
Telling herself everything was good, she fell back against her pillows and stretched. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was 7:00 A.M. She smiled slightly and sighed.
She couldn’t recall a time in the past two months when she’d slept that soundly. Or for that long. She’d been functioning on two-hour intervals of sleep every night, usually never making it more than six hours before giving up and getting out of bed to wander around in a dazed exhaustion.
Who knew that the perfect treatment for her insomnia was good sex? She stretched again, her muscles aching, but in a very satisfying way. Good? Okay, she’d give Maksim credit where credit was due. Great sex. Stupendous sex. The best sex she’d ever had.
She lounged amid her fluffy bedding for a few moments longer, then groaned, forcing herself to get out of bed. Enough basking in the fond memories of last night. She padded to the kitchen and forced herself to drink a glass of milk.
She shuddered and grimaced as she set the glass in the sink.
Yuck. She really hated milk.
But a shower. Now that she could really enjoy. She stretched again; muscles she didn’t even know she had were protesting.
She stopped in the hallway to open a small cupboard that she used as a linen closet. She grabbed a towel and a washcloth, then continued to the bathroom. The small room, which was only big enough for the shower/tub, toilet, and pedestal sink, was dim. The one small window was covered with a curtain decorated in big colorful daisies.
She walked into the room, not bothering with the light. She set her towels down on the closed toilet seat, then turned back to flip the light switch. But as she took a step forward, her foot landed on something.
Quickly stepping away from the unknown object, she flicked on the light and looked down to see what felt both hard and squishy at the same time under the ball of her foot.
There in the middle of her daisy-covered bath mat, which matched the curtain was…
She leaned forward to pick the item up, certain she was seeing things. As her fingers curled around it, feeling the rubbery texture, an icy chill stole over her still bed-warmed skin.
She stared at the object, telling herself there was nothing to get nervous about. She shouldn’t make a big deal over this. It wasn’t that weird. But even as she told herself that, she knew she didn’t have one of these. Even though she’d seen the object before. In fact the last time she’d seen one of these up close was burned indelibly into her mind.
A shiver racked her body as she continued to stare at it.
A swimmer’s nose plug, the kind with a clip that fit over the nose with a band that wrapped around the swimmer’s head. Made out of pale blue rubber.
Like the one that had been around Kara’s neck when they’d pulled her out of the water.
How had it gotten there?
Maksim wasn’t surprised to see Jo walk into the daycare room, clearly looking for him. After all, she’d been a very satisfied lady last night, and he knew she’d be back for more.
Of course, he wasn’t going to analyze why he’d been checking the door every five minutes since he arrived here an hour ago. He also wouldn’t analyze why he’d shown up so early this morning. He avoided the topic when Cherise asked him about his premature arrival.
But now that Jo beelined straight to him, he waited with a wide, contented smile on his face, showing no signs that he’d been waiting.
“Hey,” he said easily, walking over to meet her.
“Hello. Did you drop this?”
Maksim blinked as something swung back and forth inches from his face. Well, that wasn’t the greeting he expected.
“What?” He frowned, not able to make out the item, because it dangled so close to him.
“Did you drop this?” she asked again impatiently. She shook the swinging thing closer to him. He stepped back and took the item from her hand. He stared at it.
“I don’t even know that the hell it is.”
She studied him, her eyes narrowing. “Are you sure?”
He looked at the blue rubber strap with a clip at one end. Then he smiled. “Is this a sex toy?”
Jo glanced around them, clearly concerned the kids or Cherise had heard him.
Not likely. Nothing could be heard over the constant jabbering.
Jo glared at him. “No, it is not a sex toy.” Her voice dropped to a whisper on the last two words.
Maksim shrugged. “Well, I’ve never seen it. Why?”
He held it back out to her, and for a second, he got the feeling she didn’t want it back. She eventually took the odd little strap and tucked it into the pocket of her black capris.
Clearly, whatever that thing was, she found it upsetting in some way.
He studied her, wanting to understand. He also wanted to know how she felt about last night, but her gaze wasn’t on him anymore. She was distant, her thoughts clearly not on him or last night.
“Are you okay?” he asked. What was that innocuous little thing and what did it mean to her? Aside from her agitation about that, she looked better than she had in days.
Of course, he knew when he left her, she’d been sleeping soundly. Which he knew she needed. He’d been tempted to stay, but decided waking up together might imply more than he was willing to give.
Jo frowned now, her mind miles away from this room, from the kids chattering around her. From him.
“Jo?”
Her attention didn’t return to him immediately, but after a moment, she shook her head as if physically casting off whatever was plaguing her.
“What?” She blinked, clearly confused by his question.
“What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Yes. I—yes.”
He couldn’t help himself. He touched her, his hand coming in contact with the warm skin of her bare arm. A charge of electricity shot through him. Just from that innocent touch. She met his gaze, and he could tell she felt the energy, too.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, offering him a tentative smile. Then, surprisingly, she touched him back, moving her arm out from under his hand to catch his fingers, squeezing them.
For a moment, their eyes locked. More energy passed between them.
He smiled. “Good.”
She stared at him for a moment longer, as if she wanted to say something more. He wanted to say more as well, to question her about her obvious anxiety, but he didn’t. In part because he didn’t quite know what he wanted to say, and in part because he was afraid if he did know what to say, it wouldn’t be the words she needed or wanted.
“I should go to work,” she finally said.
He nodded. “Okay.”
She walked back toward the hallway, and he remained in the center of the room, watching her go. That was until a tug came on the back of his shirt.
He turned to see Damon regarding him with those wide dark eyes.
“Mr. Maksim, is you a player?”
Maksim frowned, wondering where
a kid that age even learned such a word, much less the proper usage of it. And apparently, the kid hadn’t missed the interaction between him and Jo.
“Is you?” he asked again when Maksim didn’t answer.
Maksim glanced back at the doorway to the hall, now empty. Jo shut away, out of sight, in her office. And again, he wondered what he’d wanted to say to her.
Something too personal. Something that he normally wouldn’t even think of saying. Which was ludicrous. The ground rules of “just sex” were perfect. Exactly what he wanted. He couldn’t ask for a better arrangement.
He looked down at the four-year-old who was an odd combination of innocence and savvy.
“Yeah, Damon, I’m a player.”
The boy nodded, his reaction holding no disappointment, no approval. No judgment at all. Then he scampered back to the table to work on his coloring.
And Maksim looked back to the empty doorway.
Jo closed her office door and moved around her desk to her chair. Sitting carefully, she leaned back a little, rooted around in her pocket, and pulled out the nose plug. She dropped it on the desk and it naturally coiled like a pale blue snake ready to strike. At least that’s how she stared at it.
It was just a strange coincidence. Not anything scary. Not anything paranormal. Just a weird…
She shook her head, unable to find any legitimate, plausible explanation for that nose clip being in her bathroom. And unlike the glimpses she’d had of the girl in the rainbow bathing suit, she couldn’t write this off to her imagination. If it was her imagination, then Maksim had just held the figment in his hand and denied knowing anything about it. He didn’t even know what it was.
She opened her desk drawer and brushed the clip inside, closing the touchable figment out of sight, praying it went back to wherever it came from.
To Jo’s surprise, she managed to push the strange discovery on her bathroom floor out of her mind. She’d like to say it was because she was so busy working, but that would have been a lie. Instead she’d spent the morning alternating between trying to work and fixating on Maksim. Another typical day.
Last night had been…
Well, it had been wonderful. And that was so very dangerous. It was especially precarious, because not only did what happened between them make her skin tingle—along with other parts of her body—but also she found herself wanting to confide in him.
She’d actually considered telling him what she thought she’d seen over the past few days. But she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t get close to him in that way. That reaction was, in many ways, more risky for her than just straight lust.
And frankly, he was more likely to accept that she thought she was seeing her dead sister than the other truths she was hiding about herself.
She had to play it cool. But several times, when she heard the kids’ laughter, or the rumble of a male voice, which she knew could be no one else’s but Maksim, she had to fight the urge to go see him.
Dangerous. Dangerous. Maybe she should just call off the physical thing with him, too. It was too risky.
Just then her cell phone rang, forcing her to focus on business. A woman wanted to set up a course teaching quilting. Jo leapt at more chance to get people into the center.
After she agreed to meet with the woman later that afternoon, she flipped her phone shut, only to realize she had a voice mail.
“Hey girl,” Erika’s voice greeted her, “I’ve been trying to call you all evening. I hope you are okay. I wanted to see if you’d like to come over tonight. Maggie’s taking the night off from playing with The Impalers, and we thought we could have a little impromptu get-together. Hope you are okay, and you feel up to coming over. Call even if you can’t come, I’m worried about you. Talk to you soon. Bye.”
Jo erased the message. She dialed Erika back, knowing she’d get her voice mail, too, and left a quick message telling her that she was fine and that she’d be there.
Then she hung up, feeling better. If she kept busy, she wouldn’t be tempted to go there again with Maksim.
Great. Another thing in her life that made her feel like she had to keep busy. To keep ahead of her thoughts, her worries, her truths.
A rap on the door snapped her out of those thoughts. Saved again.
“Come in,” she called.
But she was only saved for a brief moment as the door opened, and the main topic she shouldn’t be thinking about stuck his head in the door.
“Hey there,” he said, the simple sound of his voice sending ripples of desire through her.
“Hi,” she said, keeping her calm. This man was too much for her. She had to put things back onto a…
Well, she didn’t know what kind of footing they’d had before last night. It had always been precarious at best. But she needed to take it to a safer level. And she supposed any level was safer than where they were last night.
“I was wondering if you’d like to join me for lunch.” He smiled, tilting his head slightly with inquiry.
God, he was so cute—cute, of course being the most understated description she could have given him. He was cute, to be sure, but he was so much more than that. Sexy, charming, breathtakingly handsome.
She actually had to suppress a sigh.
See, she told herself, that was why she needed to let last night stay what it was—a great time with no strings. And if she was smart, leave it at a one-time event.
“I can’t,” she said, keeping her voice level, feeling like even lunch would be too tempting for her. “I have a meeting.”
So what if the meeting with the quilt lady wasn’t until three this afternoon?
He frowned, his eyes narrowing as he tried to read her reaction. She gave him a brief regretful smile.
He finally nodded. “Okay. Well, I guess I will head out for the day.”
“Okay,” she said readily, trying to stay as cool as she could.
He nodded, his smile disappearing behind a composed look of his own, but he did ask, “I’ll see you later?”
She couldn’t miss the longing in his tone. She also couldn’t ignore the yearning that rose up in her instantly in response. She squashed the feeling down.
“I’m actually going over the Erika and Maggie’s tonight.”
His expression grew almost grim, his beautiful sculpted lips compressing into a line.
“Okay, then.” He lifted a hand in salute, then left.
She watched the door being pulled closed behind him and fought the urge to call out to him. To stop him.
This was for the best, she told herself. What was the point of going forward with this relationship—even on a purely physical level? It would have to end sooner rather than later anyway.
As soon as the door clicked shut and she was alone again, she dropped her head to her desk. What the hell was she doing now? Hadn’t she learned her lesson yet?
This was for the best.
It was.
CHAPTER 16
Is you a player?
Maksim sure as hell didn’t feel like a player at this very moment. He felt—rejected.
He made a face. Rejected. Him. Unheard of.
He refused to think that. But one thing was for certain, he wasn’t acting like a player. Flying without a net. That was the better description of what he was doing. And it was pissing him off. A lot.
He was used to not being able to read preternatural creatures’ minds. He knew how to accept that, and most of the time paranormal beings were easy to understand. Jo, however, was a total mystery to him. And he was not pleased that he couldn’t read her mind.
Not that he knew that for sure.
He’d debated jumping into Jo’s head again just now. As soon as that damned unreadable mask had fallen back into place, he’d been irritated beyond belief. But still he didn’t jump in.
And that pissed him off, too. What was stopping him? Was it the fear that he’d discover he couldn’t read her mind again? Or was it the fact that he didn’t want to hurt her?
Which idea bothered him more?
He was ruthless in getting what he wanted. And he wanted to keep having sex with Josephine Burke. After last night, he definitely wanted to have sex again. Yet, here he was walking away.
He should have just jumped in her head and mucked around. He wanted to know what she was thinking. About him. About her sister. About everything.
But he’d held back. He’d walked away.
Maksim Kostova, a demon known as Malebolgia, ruler of the eighth circle of Hell, didn’t walk away from anything he wanted. He was known as a seducer, a flatterer, a deceiver. He always got what he wanted by using these abilities. These sins, as some saw them.
But instead of walking back to the center and taking what he wanted, he found himself wandering into a bar on Bourbon Street. He sat at a table in the corner and ordered a double whiskey on the rocks—how dreadfully human of him. Drowning his rejection in drink.
He was pathetic.
“Maksim is what?” Erika stopped slicing cheese and gaped at Jo.
Jo didn’t look at Maggie, but she heard her wineglass hit the kitchen table with a loud clink.
Jo drew in the condensation from her glass of ice water, making wet swirls on Erika’s sunshine yellow kitchen table. “He’s been volunteering at the center.” She tried to sound blasé.
“Jo,” Erika said, her voice full of warning. “Do you think that’s wise?”
Jo stopped water-doodling and glanced back and forth between her friends. Both women stared at her, and for some reason their shocked expressions irritated her. Even though she knew this was the reaction she would get.
“I had my doubts, too. But he’s doing surprisingly well.”
“I don’t know,” Maggie said, shaking her head.
“He’s not a good person, Jo,” Erika added, leaving the counter to sit at the table with Maggie and Jo.
Jo was surprised at the bluntness of her friend’s statement. It wasn’t like Erika, but instead of increasing her concern, it made her oddly protective—in Maksim’s defense.
“You two are acting like the man is Satan himself.”
