Darkness Seduced (Primal Heat Trilogy #2) (Order of the Blade)

by Stephanie Rowe

  Lily slowly shook her head, but he could see the torment in her gaze, her instinct to trust him warring with her fear of all that he was. She fought to overcome the traumas that had taught her not to trust anyone.

  Gideon moved closer and cradled her face between his hands, probing her with his gaze. “I promise I will protect you. I won’t hurt you, I swear.”

  Lily stared up at him, then her gaze flicked down the road, in the direction of the approaching Calydons. She gripped his wrists, resolution setting on her features as she breathed strength and determination back into her body. “They work for Frank, and you killed them to keep them from taking me,” she said, her voice desperate, but strong. “I have to believe in that. Right now, I have to choose you.”

  Gideon felt such an immense sense of relief and satisfaction at the look of trust on her face that his insides snapped. Possessiveness swirled through him. Her eyes widened at whatever she saw on his face, and she jerked back. “You’re so dangerous to me.” Her words were replete with horror that left him cold, a rejection that struck straight to his core: it was a truth he deserved.

  Lily whirled around and tried to run toward the truck, limping painfully with each desperate step.

  Gideon recovered a split second later. Screw that. Yeah, he was a cold bastard, but that didn’t change the fact that he was all she had right now. As hell was his witness, the Order needed her, too. He ignored the whisper in the back of his mind that suggested that he also needed her, and it had nothing to do with the Order.

  Gideon strode after her, caught up to her in a heartbeat, and swept her up in his arms, not even giving the exhausted female a chance to fight her battle alone anymore.

  To his surprise, she didn’t resist. Lily simply wrapped her arms around his neck as he tucked her against his hip and sprinted for the truck. Rightness settled through him at the feel of her body against his, and he tightened his grip protectively as he ran. You will be safe with me, Lily.

  She frowned at him, and for a second, he thought maybe she’d heard him. Something leapt in his chest, and then they were at the truck, and it was time to focus.

  Gideon set her gently in the back, climbed in next to her and yanked the door shut as Ian peeled out, whipping past the upturned Hummer and out into the road, just as their pursuers rounded the corner behind them.

  *

  Lily twisted around in the seat, her hand instinctively going to Gideon’s shoulder for balance as Ian swerved back onto the right side of the road. The headlights behind them were closing fast, and she dug her fingers into his broad shoulder. Her mouth was dry with fear as she watched their pursuers approach. God help her. Would it ever end? “Is that them?”

  Gideon turned, his shoulder wedged up against her side. He was far too big to fit in the back seat comfortably, and he had no business trying to share it with anyone. There was nowhere for her to move that didn’t result in her being pressed up against him. Every inch of his body emanated heat and danger, and she couldn’t keep from noticing, not with him invading her senses so thoroughly.

  He peered out the back window, then cursed. “Any ideas, Ian?”

  “A couple.” Ian glanced at them in his rear view mirror, and Lily could tell from the look on his face that she was not going to like his idea. “You want to flip a coin?”

  He and Gideon exchanged silent looks that were heavy with information she couldn’t interpret, and she realized they were communicating mind-to-mind. Gideon nodded and shoved open the oversized pass-through to the back of the truck and climbed though the opening.

  She groaned and closed her eyes, letting her head flop against the seat. “I’m not going home, am I?”

  “Not yet.” Ian tightened his grip on the wheel as they careened around a corner.

  The truck whipped around the bend in the road, and the momentum tossed Lily across the seat. She grabbed for the door handle as the right side of the truck lifted off the ground. “Ian!”

  “I’ve got it,” he said calmly as the tires squealed, and she hit the side of the truck hard as they bounced back down.

  There was a curse from the back of the truck, then a medium sized duffel bag flew from the pass through and hit Ian in the back of the head. “Fuck, Gideon. Watch it!” The truck skidded, and Lily sucked in her breath as Ian fought to keep control of the vehicle. He jerked the bag off the back of his neck and hurled it into the back seat, where it landed with a thud next to Lily’s hip.

  Gideon stuck his head through the pass-through. “Why are these Calydons after you, Lily?” He tossed another bag into the front, and this one landed on the floor next to her feet instead of on Ian’s head. “I know you smell good, but hell.”

  She stared at him blankly, so surprised by his comment that it took a moment to even understand what he meant. She smelled good? Was he serious with that? They were on the run from the most terrifying man she’d ever met, and Gideon was actually thinking about how she smelled? And what in God’s name was she doing actually noticing his comment and feeling all ooey-gooey inside from it? Had it really been that long since anyone had said anything nice to her?

  Well, yeah, it had been. She should let herself appreciate it, even if it was just a compliment on her body odor while she was on the run from certain death and torture. A girl had to take what she could get, and she hadn’t lasted two years in hell without taking advantage of opportunities to feel positive. So, yay for the big, manly man who thought she smelled good, even though she hadn’t showered in God knew how long.

  “Lily?” Gideon apparently didn’t like having his question ignored, a grim reminder that these were two deadly, determined Calydons she’d entrusted her life to. God, what a choice to make.

  “I don’t know specifically why they’re after me.” She fumbled for the seat belt and yanked it around her as Ian took another sharp turn. “I think they work for Frank Tully, a partner of Nate’s. Frank seems to have an interest in me.” She shivered, unable to keep the fear out of her voice. The desperateness of her situation came crashing down, and she leaned forward. “Can you drive faster?”

  Ian met her gaze in the rear view mirror. His answering grin didn’t hide the deep anguish haunting his eyes, or the torment that had brought hollows to his cheeks. “A woman who likes speed,” he said. “My kind of gal.”

  “Frank Tully?” Gideon repeated as he hauled himself through the pass-through and dropped on the seat next to her, his bulk crushing her into the corner of the seat. He smelled like leather and man, and woods. Like freedom. Like safety. “Who the hell’s Frank Tully?”

  She found the receptacle for the seatbelt and shoved hard until she felt a click. “A scary bastard. I couldn’t figure out who was in charge between Nate and him.” She leaned back against the seat, gripping the handle above her head to try to keep from slamming into Gideon as the truck careened down the twisting road. “He wanted Nate’s stone. I heard them arguing.”

  Gideon threw an arm out to brace himself against the front seat, and hauled her against him with his other arm, anchoring her to his side. He and Ian exchanged glances. “So you think this Frank guy is after you?”

  “Probably.” Lily shuddered at the thought of being at Frank’s mercy. The way his eyes had fastened on her… Her head started to spin and she bent over, putting her head between her knees. “I can’t deal with this.”

  Gideon shifted, setting his hand on her head, his fingers tangling in her hair. “Sure you can.” His voice was quiet and confident, his touch warm and reassuring. “You think he wants you, or the stone?” he asked, continuing his urgent questioning.

  She closed her eyes and concentrated on his touch, letting it ground her. God, it had been years since someone had given her physical comfort. It made her want to crawl into his lap and give up all pretense of being able to cope. To let someone else take care of her. For a day. Or even an hour. Just to be able to stop fighting for a minute…but it wasn’t an option. Not now. She clenched her fists and willed herself to be stro
ng. “I don’t have the stone, so I’d have to think he wants me specifically.”

  “Why?”

  She winced as the tires squealed, but Gideon kept her anchored against him, and she barely slid in the seat. “Because of my charming personality, of course. Why else?” No way was she going to admit who she was to them. Never could a Calydon be trusted with the truth of what she was. Never.

  His soft chuckle made her belly curl. “Why else, indeed?”

  “Seriously, I don’t know. I don’t know why Nate kept me, either, but he had a reason. I tried to find out, but he kept his secrets locked up.” Lily had some ideas, but she wasn’t about to share them with Calydons she couldn’t trust. “He had big plans, and I think Frank is trying to take over now that Nate’s dead.” She felt the truck tip again, and she sucked in her breath. “We’re going to die right now, aren’t we?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “You might, but we’re immortal.”

  She glared at Gideon. “What kind of comfort is that?”

  He grinned and brushed his thumb over her cheek, an affectionate, playful gesture that seemed so incongruous for the situation they were in and for the power of the man who’d done it. “Just trying to distract you. The time to worry about dying is after you’ve beaten death, not when you’re about to take it on.”

  She blinked as panic surged through her. “We’re really about to take death on? I thought you were exaggerating.” She moaned and bent over to the floor again as the interior of the truck started spinning again. “You couldn’t have told me that later, and just let me be mad at you right now?”

  “I can see down your shirt.”

  Sudden heat flared through Lily, and she sat up, holding the collar of her shirt against her chest. “Letch.” But she didn’t feel like he was a letch. She felt dangerously tempted by his comment, by the way his gaze roamed over hers. Her response to him was so unfamiliar, unsettling. She’d spent her entire life being careful to hold all Calydons at bay and suppress her magic’s response to them. Having a Calydon look at her as a woman had always made her uncomfortable, and for good reason. But her response to Gideon was like a raging inferno he was stoking with each look, each comment, each touch.

  It was terrifying to feel herself respond to him, but at the same time he made her want more. Which she couldn’t do. Ever. No matter how heroic Gideon had been thus far, he would never be able to handle who she was. She had a sudden vision of Gideon caught up on the high of her power, and she went cold. A warrior with Gideon’s power would destroy her. It would be a thousand times worse than before—

  Gideon gripped her tighter as the truck bounced high over a rut. “I could distract you with sex.”

  Lily swallowed at the pulse of desire that coursed through her and the sudden clenching of her belly. How was it possible that those words didn’t make her run screaming from him? Her mind logically knew she should be afraid, but her body didn’t. Why? She didn’t understand, and it scared her to think that Gideon could strip away the years of self-preservation she’d worked so hard to erect. “Are you kidding with the sex talk?”

  His grin faded. “Not really. Ever since I saw you in that hallway, I’ve been completely fixated on getting you naked. Inappropriate as hell, but I can’t fucking help it.” His blue eyes darkened with utterly masculine heat, and she felt her body burn in response.

  “Cut it out,” Ian snapped. “I can smell your lust all the way up here, and I don’t need to deal with that shit right now.”

  Lily started with surprise, then felt her cheeks flare with embarrassment. Gideon winked at her, and she realized that Ian wasn’t the only one privy to the desire coursing through her at this ridiculously inopportune time. “God, this sucks.”

  “It’s not you he scented.” Gideon touched Lily’s hair, his fingers drifting lightly over the ends. Then he clapped his hand on Ian’s shoulder in a silent apology that got a nod from Ian, and the tension was gone from the air as suddenly as it had appeared.

  “Bridge construction up ahead,” Ian reported. “Three minutes.”

  “Ready.” Gideon released Lily to unzip one of the duffel bags.

  Lily peered out the windshield, then gasped when she saw the red brake lights lining the street several miles ahead and the flood lights from the road crew as they worked on the bridge. “Oh, no.” Behind them, their pursuers were closing in quickly.

  They were trapped. Lily’s heart began to race. “I can’t go back there,” she whispered. “I can’t.”

  “You won’t.” Gideon thrust a black jacket at her. “Put this on and zip it up. Fast.”

  She didn’t ask for a reason; she just jerked off the seatbelt then yanked the jacket on. Her fingers were shaking so badly she barely managed to get her arms in the sleeves. Gideon had his on and zipped before she’d managed to get the ends of her zipper matched up. The sleeves hung way past her hands and she had to shove the collar away from her face so she could see. He took care of her zipper, then grabbed a nylon harness out of the duffel on the floor. “Turn around.”

  She bit her lip and spun around as he quickly fastened the harness over her shoulders and around her chest, looping one strap between her legs, moving so fast that she didn’t have time to be embarrassed by the flood of heat that rushed through her when his hands brushed against her bare thigh, the skirt riding up from the straps.

  “Two minutes.” Ian flicked a button on the dash, and a police siren began wailing from the truck. Blue lights reflected on the hood.

  Up ahead, Lily saw people begin to scatter, clearing the way for the truck speeding toward them, so no one would get hurt. What ordinary Calydon would have a truck equipped with a police siren?

  Suddenly, all the pieces fell into place. The way Gideon and Ian had fought with such dominance when they’d been so outnumbered. How her attacker had vanished into the desert rather than risk Gideon’s wrath. She realized Gideon’s protective instincts weren’t actually that he had some special connection with her. It was what he was trained to do, what the Order of the Blade was trained to do.

  “Protection of innocents at all costs,” she whispered. Was that what Ian and Gideon were? Order members? Her stomach turned. “You’re with the Order of the Blade?” Her blood ran cold as Gideon checked her harness, and she shoved his hand away frantically. “You’re Gideon Roarke? You’re that Gideon?”

  The warrior who had destroyed her family? The murderer who had haunted her nightmares for years? That Gideon?

  “Yeah, I am.” His blue eyes hardened as he donned the mask of the cold, heartless warrior she knew he was. Gone was that rush of heated connection between them. He sucked it all back in, and became the man who killed so ruthlessly. “I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, but I’m your only damn chance to evade the assholes chasing us, so get it together and stay with me. You can hate me later.”

  Lily’s breath was racing and her chest was starting to close up. How had she not figured it out? Ian Fitzgerald. Gideon Roarke. Order members for the last five centuries. She knew everything about them. About Gideon. About the man who’d murdered her family.

  This man she was entrusting her life to was Gideon. She batted at his hands as he reached for the harness again, and she tried to pull the harness off. She had to get out. Not Gideon. She couldn’t put her life in his hands. “No, you don’t understand. I can’t—”

  He grabbed her shoulders and forced her still, his blue eyes penetrating. “For hell’s sake, Lily, cut it out. I’m on your fucking side! I’m trying to keep you alive, so stop fighting me.” He growled. “I swear I’ll knock you out if that’s what it takes to keep you safe.”

  She stared at him, into his intense eyes, and saw the truth of his words. He wasn’t going to hurt her. Not right now. He was her only chance. Oh, God. She had to trust him. But how could she? “I don’t know if I can trust you—”

  “What do you know about the Order of the Blade?” Ian asked.

  She shot a wild glance at him, gra
teful for the interruption as Gideon grunted and went back to adjusting her harness, muttering about how it was too loose. “Order of the Blade,” she recited, using the opportunity to try to calm down, to shut out all she knew about Gideon. To stop thinking about what he’d done to her family— No. Don’t think about that. Not right now. “The Order is an elite group of Calydon warriors who’ve taken an oath to protect innocents from rogue Calydons. The Order members are ruthless killers who are willing to trade the life of one innocent to save many.” Her mouth became dry as her gaze slid involuntarily toward Gideon.

  He scowled as he yanked on the buckle. “I’m not about to trade your life for anything right now, so stop worrying about it.”

  “It’s so much more than that,” she said, her voice raspy in her throat. “You killed—” She couldn’t even say it. Not with her life in his care right now. She couldn’t afford to think about it. “Rogue Calydons are at least insane when they kill innocents, but you guys do it on purpose.”

  “You’re too damn skinny.” Gideon ignored her comment as he unbuckled the harness, tied a couple knots in it, then buckled her back up. “Next time you get kidnapped, find someone who will feed you better.” The nylon cut into the glass still wedged in her back, but she was too freaked to protest.

  Lily swallowed. “Yeah, sure, I’ll try to keep that in mind.” She focused on his eyes, on how intensely he was concentrating on securing her into the harness. He’d come to her rescue tonight, more than once. She reminded herself that Ana had trusted Gideon enough to send him after her. He was Gideon, but he was also more than that. And it was this extra bit, this protector side, that she needed to focus on right now. Let him help you, Lily. You need him.