He gave a heavy sigh. “China—”
She bit her bottom lip and held her finger to his mouth to stop him. “Don’t say it. I can see it in your eyes.” Her finger dropped, leaving him feeling oddly bereft of her touch.
“Let’s just keep going so we can get to the Book.” She turned on her heel and marched on ahead of him down the tunnel, leaving a sodden wet trail in her wake.
Remington ached. Why did he feel like he’d screwed up even though he was trying to do what was right?
Chapter 19
The tunnels beneath the ice were just as much a warren as the previous ones. Trying to get her bearings down here without daylight or dark, or any kind of way to feel her way through made it impossible to tell which direction they were headed any more. Her anger had come down to a simmer and then lost steam altogether. What did it matter if he’d gotten her wet? What did it matter if she wanted him? The chances of escaping this place intact were slim to nill just as Diego had predicted.
Suddenly the tunnel came to a dead end. Green and black flames writhed over a glistening pool of what looked like congealed blood. The dark, viscous surface reflected the screaming faces and tortured images revealed in the flickering flames.
“What in blue blazes is that?”
“Darkin fire. Magical flame.” She edged closer, placing a hand on his arm, absorbing strength just from touching his hard muscles and knowing he was there beside her.
“Deadly?”
She gave him a sardonic look. “Isn’t everything in here deadly?” Even you.
Remington flashed her a smile that melted her bones. “We seem to specialize in deadly. What do you propose?”
China shook her head. His famous Jackson smile alone gave her plenty of ideas she could propose, most of them involving his clever hands, and wickedly wonderful mouth, and never leaving a prone position again. But that was for another time. If there ever was another time, the possibility of which was growing dimmer and dimmer.
As for the Darkin fire, there was nothing that could penetrate it. It was magical. Evil. Pure. It had no weaknesses that could be exploited.
“Can we fight fire with fire?”
She gazed up at him. The flicker of light from the flames threw the solid planes and angles of his strong face into stark relief, making a slow sizzle snap and spark along her veins. Just being near him did that to her. “How so?”
“You can change into anything, right?”
“Almost.” Anything but a plain, boring human woman who could have your heart.
“What about a phoenix?”
China frowned. A phoenix. A Darkin creature made of fire. It just might work. It was genius. But there was just one problem. She placed her hand on his chest, felt the strong and sure beat of his heart beneath all that muscle. “The fire won’t let anything but Darkin pass, and I won’t go on without you.”
He grasped her around the shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. “You might have to.”
In those blue depths China saw something she’d never expected: trust. It shook her to the core. Remington Jackson might not love her, but he trusted her, which was almost as good—almost. More than that, he appreciated her, and that was something she’d never gotten from Rathe. Ever. And in that moment something deep within her shifted. The iron grip Rathe had held on her fell away. She no longer cared if she received his approval. Not when something she longed for far more was in sight—love.
But all that responsibility on her shoulders made her uneasy. China shook her head, her sweat-dampened hair sticking to her skin. “I’m not the Chosen. You are. Your brothers are. It’s you who has to get the piece of the Book of Legend. Not me. You who must put it together to stop Rathe.”
He tipped up her chin, slowly brushing her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. Sparks of need flared into a full-blown flame. Her entire body grew hungry for him, wanted him, needed him, but China held herself back.
“I can’t do it without you,” Remington admitted.
“Why?”
He glanced at the wall of green flames. “That, for a start, and because you’re part of this legacy, China, whether you know it or not. All of us knew we couldn’t reach the piece of the Book on our own—we always knew it took Darkin powers. You are my Darkin.”
His touch was so tender, so loving, her heart fractured a bit. His Darkin. His Darkin. She didn’t want him to see her only as a child of the night. She wanted to be so much more. She stared up into the mesmerizing blue of his eyes and let her gaze stray lower to his mouth and the indention in his chin. With a sinking sensation born of past heartache, China realized she loved him, every inch of him, and she knew she was headed for heartbreak once more.
She pulled back from him and turned away, unable to bear being so close to the object of her affection, yet knowing it would all come crashing to an end sooner than later. Once he knew her terrible secret. “You’ll have to leave everything here. It won’t go through the fire.”
His mouth twitched. “Everything?”
“Your clothes, the pack, the Blaster.”
“But that means we’ll be leaving the codex, the diary and the statue behind.”
“We no longer will need the codex. We’ve found our way, haven’t we?”
“But the statue—”
She pressed a finger to his lips. “It’s a sacrifice we’ll have to make. Everything must be left behind.”
“Can I assume that would include your clothing too?”
Heat engulfed her from her scalp to her toes—a full-out body blush. “Yes.” But in the back of her head she was loathe to expose herself fully to him because it would be harder to conceal her awful, damning brand.
“Shall I help you?” The undertone in his voice was sensual. China’s heart pounded hard in her chest. She wanted to take him up on the invitation; Lord, did she want to. But there was a risk he’d question her.
He began unbuttoning his pants, and her mouth went dry. His bronzed skin was taut over an impressive chest dusted with hair just as dark as the thick hair on his head. The hair arrowed down past his navel toward his waistband, leading her gaze lower still. There a distinct ridge gave evidence of his desire. If he asks about it, lie, her libido whispered insidiously inside her head. Her desire won out over common sense.
Truth was she was glad to be rid of the black dress. Her fingers trembled as she unfastened the small buttons along her back. But she couldn’t get to all of them.
“Let me help.” His words were warm against the nape of her neck and sent a delicious shiver down her spine. His deft fingers made short work of the persistent buttons, skimming along her shoulder blades as he spread the bodice apart and slid the short sleeves down her shoulders. The dress fell with a whisper of fabric to the floor, leaving her in her corset, chemise, and bloomers.
He kissed the back of her neck, then beneath her ear, and across the slope of her shoulder as he unlaced her corset. China closed her eyes, absorbing the sensation—the smooth heat of his mouth, the gentle sweep of his damp tongue as he tasted her skin. She let it fill her up and radiate out through her body like sunlight reaching in to dispel the shadows that had haunted her for so long.
The pressure released around her ribs as the corset loosened, and the walls she’d built around her heart crumbled. He slid the corset down enough to reach around from behind her and cup her breasts in his warm, roughened palms. He drew her back to him, her bare back against the heat of his chest, his hair-roughed thighs brushing the back of her legs. China gasped at the sensation. Somehow in the time it had taken her to fiddle with her own buttons, he’d removed the rest of his clothing. She leaned her head back as he rolled the points of her breasts between his fingers.
Through the thin cotton of her bloomers, she felt the hard length of him pressed against her. It flexed, and the throb that had started when she saw his bare chest turned into a full-blown aching need that made her slick. She arched her back, pressing herself against him.
Rem
ington growled deep and low, the reverberation of it vibrating through her back and making her breasts tighten further. She pulled open the fasteners of her loosened corset and let it fall to the ground. She reached for the strings on her bloomers.
He settled one hand on the curve of China’s hip. “Don’t.”
The intense heat of the cavern amplified the spicy sweet scent of her. He inhaled, letting it imprint on not just his mind, but on his soul. No matter where he went or what he learned, he would never forget how she looked, how she felt, the scent of her skin and hair in this moment. She turned in his arms. Her body warm and pliant, her skin damp from the heat. Her thin cotton garments clung to her damp skin, revealing almost as much as they concealed.
“Why?” Her voice was soft, breathless, her eyes shimmering.
“I just want to look at you.”
A glorious pink suffused her skin, making her breasts rosy and her areolas even rosier. He pulled her closer, bringing the damp slide of her heated skin against him.
A sultry smile curved her lush mouth, and he fixated on it, wanting desperately to kiss her, his hands kneading the flair of her hips.
“I thought all you wanted to do was look,” she teased.
“Semantics,” he answered, his voice husky and ragged with need. “Pretend I’m blind and I need my hands.”
Her eyes widened with delight. Her full lips parted slightly. He threaded his fingers into the damp hair at her nape, cupping the back of her head, indulging in the silken feel of it as he kissed her. Her lips were sweet and soft. She opened for him, her mouth welcoming him with a sensual moan that made him want to hold her tighter. The soft mounds of her breasts pressed against his chest. She was so damn soft against everywhere he was hard. Her body fit his to perfection like matched pieces from a puzzle.
He’d kissed women, plenty of women, but this with China was different. She reached inside him and twisted him up, made him want things he couldn’t have, desire things he shouldn’t. And damn, did he want more.
He pulled the strings just above her navel and felt the fabric of her bloomers relax and slip down her legs. He bent down, pushing the fabric down as he kissed the soft, smooth skin of her belly and nuzzled the fragrant curls at the juncture of her thighs. He remembered the smoothness of her thighs beneath his lips and the tension, already a throb he couldn’t ignore, increased, until his penis ached so badly he gritted his teeth.
“So perfect,” he murmured against the skin of her thigh as he gently lifted each dainty foot in turn and pulled the bloomers from first one ankle and then the other.
He stood and kissed her, his erection brushing the soft damp curls, and he flexed against the red-hot animalistic instinct to drive himself into her. She lifted up on her toes, the slide of her body against his mind-numbing. He circled her waist, intent on lifting her up. China tangled her arms around his neck as her kiss deepened, her tongue sliding over his teeth. Remington wasn’t sure how much he could take. The flames around them soared higher, a match to the inferno raging inside him.
But in the heat of the moment, none of it mattered, not the caverns and tortures of the temple, not finding the Book or his brothers. There was only him and the goddess in his arms, his alone for a moment that stretched into eternity.
For as long as she’d been around Remington he’d found a way to keep himself clean-shaven. But here in the bowels of the temple, his beard had grown, leaving his skin abrasive as he kissed her. The light scrape of his beard down her neck and over her breasts made the tender skin even more sensitive and responsive to the caressing touches that followed in the wake of his mouth.
“We need—” she panted.
“More time?” he growled against her breast as he pulled it into his mouth.
She groaned at the spike of sensation that shot to her toes. “A blanket.”
He slowly let her slide down the length of him, her body memorizing every ripple and roll of his muscled torso as she moved against it. Remington quickly pulled a blanket from his pack and spread it over their clothing, trying to pad the hard stone floor. “I’m sorry it’s not more comfor—”
China placed an index finger on his lips, then slid the finger downward over his sculpted bottom lip to trace the indention in his chin. “If I wanted comfortable, I wouldn’t be here with you, now would I?”
Hunger flashed and burned in his eyes. She followed the path of her finger with her mouth, swirling her tongue in the divot of his chin. She pulled him down with her as she lay on the blanket. Inside her everything flexed and tightened. She wanted to feel him inside her. Needed it. If she couldn’t have his love, she could have this one moment of perfection with him.
The green light of the Darkin fire highlighted his hair and the blue of his eyes, making him look even more intense. “I don’t know if this is the right thing for either of us, China, but I can’t stop myself.”
“I know.” She kissed him hard, putting everything she couldn’t say into her kiss. His heated weight on her body felt secure and strong, allowing her to let go and just ride the wave of need crashing over both of them with him. The hard, solid length of him slid home, and China cried out as her body responded with unbridled pleasure. Fireworks exploded across her vision, and sparks shot out along every nerve ending. Her hips lifted, taking him in farther. She wanted more. Everything he could give her, she’d take.
The need between them intertwined, until it was a living, breathing thing unleashing its fury on them both. Her body spun higher and higher, until it shattered, leaving her boneless and damp with sweat.
Remington rolled to his side beside her, breathing hard. His hair stuck damp to his cheek. He looked wild and untamed, nothing like the properly-dressed attorney who’d gotten her out of jail what felt like a lifetime ago. He turned his head to the side and gazed at her, his eyes softer now.
“I think I could die happy now.”
She smothered a laugh. “That’s good. We might have to do just that.”
He touched her hair, taking a piece of it and smoothing it between his fingers. “At least we’ll do it together.” He kissed her tenderly, and all the explosive warmth China had felt coalesced into a small ball in the center of her being.
His clever fingers kneaded along her skin, soothing away her cares. It felt so damn good. China closed her eyes and let herself relax into the sensation of being pampered by someone for the first time in her life.
His hand smoothed along her skin, slick with perspiration. China tried to roll onto her back so he wouldn’t touch the brand. She didn’t want to think of it. Especially not now. Not in this place.
But Remy held her close, her body pressed deliciously against his, his fingertips tracing a shivering path down the length of her spine. His kisses soothed her, made her forget not only this hellish place they were in, but who she was, for just a moment.
And then his hand stopped on the curve of her buttock. His fingertips brushed the edge of her scar, and everything within her froze in an instant, rigid and hard. Her throat filled with her heart, making her choke. She pushed away from him.
Suddenly the air was even more stifling than it had been. They were both breathing hard and fast.
Remington’s eyes narrowed as he propped himself up on his elbow, the sheen of sweat on his skin making it glisten. “That’s a hell of a scar. What happened?”
“Accident.” She could barely get the lie out between her gritted teeth.
His blue gaze bore into her, but his voice was calm and level. “Tell me the truth.”
Sitting up, she curled her legs up against her body, wrapping her arms around them and putting her chin on her knees. “I’m one of the marked.”
“Marked?”
And here was where everything between them would crumble and die. Once he knew, there was no going back. He’d know precisely who and what she was and that he never should have trusted her. She would lose him.
The searing pain in her chest spread, like a vicious attack on her body,
making her ache all over. She let the curtain of her hair fall around her as she placed her forehead on her knees. But there was nothing she could do to hold back the tears.
Remington, damn him, made it all the harder by gathering her up against him, his strong arms about her shoulders as he caressed her hair. Every touch drove the pain that much deeper. “Darling, what is it?”
“You’re going to hate me,” she said between sobs. “Rathe didn’t just torture and murder my mother. He’s the one who branded me. I’m marked because—” It was so damn hard to get the words out. She hiccupped. “Because he’s my father.”
Chapter 20
For a moment Remington wasn’t sure he could breathe. Or that he’d heard China correctly. He pulled back and gripped the back of his skull with his hands to keep from throttling her. “You’re Rathe’s daughter?”
China bit her lip and nodded, her gaze slowly rising to meet his. Uncertainty fill her eyes. She expected him to push her away. China wasn’t just any Darkin. She was Rathe’s spawn. Had everything sweet and tender between them been a lie all along? Had she used her Darkin powers to manipulate him into falling in lo—into caring for her? Remington didn’t know what to believe. How in hell was he supposed to trust her knowing that?
Remington closed his eyes to give himself space to think in the confines of the room, where there was no door he could walk out of, no window he could open to let in some fresh air. It was just him and her. Alone. And no foreseeable means of escape. He could come to terms with this right here, right now, or potentially die here with a woman who’d been trained since birth to be his enemy. But he didn’t hate her. He didn’t despise her. He ached for her, bone deep.
His inner attorney whispered in his ear, challenging his Hunter self. Since when could a child be responsible for who his or her parents were? Yes, this made her an even bigger liability to his mission than he’d realized, but on the other hand, it also made her potentially an even bigger asset. Regardless, his trust in her was shaken, but it was still there. Dammit, he’d told her they were in this together and they were, for better or worse.
The Chosen Page 23
