“My lungs ache, and my pride’s taken a significant hit too.” She shook her head. “They felt better when you gave me your Air, but now they feel like deflated tires.”
His concern morphed into a deep frown. “I need to put a hand over your ribs.”
“Why?”
“Because if I injured you, I’ll be able to tell. If I caused it, I can fix it faster than if the Astrux did it. You said you were better.”
How could she tell him that in his arms was the best place she’d ever been?
“Let me check.” He started at her side, his wide palm gliding toward her stomach.
Delicious warmth baked into her skin, and though she couldn’t sense the immense strength of his Fire, she marveled at the obvious physical power beneath his gentle touch. A twinge of pain came from nowhere, and she winced.
“You just hit a tender spot.” She put a hand over the area, wishing she could stem the ache settling into her muscles.
His fist pounded the wall.
“Shit. Shit. I’m sorry. Let’s get you inside.”
“Why are you mad?”
“Because I seriously screwed up.” He scooped her purse from the carpet and strung it around his neck, the thing hanging down the front of him like a name badge.
“You saved me. It’s the one thing I’m certain of.”
“I fucked that up too. I’m not in the business of saving people.” He looked down and reached toward her jeans pocket.
Her stomach tensed at the swipe of his finger through the thin pocket material. He had her apartment door open in seconds.
“I need to lie—”
Her knees gave out.
His arm wrapped around her waist. “I got you.”
In a blink, his arms locked tight and firm beneath her knees and around her back, and her cheek was resting against his collarbone. The door slammed like he’d kicked it closed.
“Let’s get you into bed.”
Yes. Yes. Her eyelids grew heavy. Everything came back. His power. His rage. His brutality. She had no idea how power release worked, but if there were some kind of internal doors involved, he’d thrown his wide. Everything open. Fire on blast.
His warmth crept into her, down her side tucked against him, in the bend of her knee, the side of her breast where the tips of his fingers rested. He’d taken a great risk to save her. That thing that had poured itself down her throat, thick as bread dough in her lungs, had sought to destroy her. Her heart gave an extra hard thunk.
She remembered the vines, the snakes of power he’d ripped away from her, enduring the brutal bites himself.
“It tried to kill you. It wanted me dead, but whatever that thing was, I felt its hatred for you.”
“You shouldn’t have felt a thing.” He placed her gently on the bed. “How’s your breathing?” He sat beside her, his gaze taking in every inch of her like he was a frantic nursemaid.
Thank Goddess, she’d felt something.
“Passives should at least be able to recognize when someone’s about to fill their lungs with sludge.” She tried to take a deep breath. “I need to sit up and get out of this bra.”
“No, you don’t. Be still.”
“Have you ever worn a bra?”
He gave her a look that made her smile, despite the pain, the confusion.
The aching, unmet need.
“Imagine jamming yourself into a too-small jockstrap. My ribs ache, and I don’t need a band digging into them. Would you like a rubber band around your balls?”
She didn’t think it possible, but he blanched. “I can’t believe you said—”
“I have brothers. Stop giving me the what’s-a-proper-girl-like-you look—ooh.” She rubbed at a zing of pain under her boob.
“Roll onto your side.”
“I can unhook a bra.”
“So can I.” He cocked an I’ve-done-it-plenty brow.
“Fine.” She moved to turn.
His warm hand rested on her waist, guiding her. She braced a hand on the other pillow. The mattress moved, shifting as he climbed onto the bed behind her. Cool air kissed the skin right above the waistband of her low-slung jeans. She sensed the thin strip of fabric tucked between her cheeks and remembered—
His touch grazed over the edge of her thong. She heard his rough rush of breath and felt the slight tug of fabric as he lifted the band of her sweatshirt. Time turned into the sweetest of gifts. The moment drew out. His knuckles brushed warm and tentative over her skin, the band of the bra pressing into her and slowly releasing.
“Fuck.”
Yes. Please.
She didn’t have the strength to pleasure herself, let alone him. No way was she going to lie there and not savor every inch of him. It’d been a long time. So long since she’d been with a man. There’d been Eamon, her first boyfriend. Then a human in college. A few Naturas on rare wild nights out. One in a limo. One in a bathroom stall at a club. Naturas who’d gone on to marry the women she’d introduced them to.
“I need to call a doctor. You’re…bruised.”
She jostled as he got off the bed. If he called for one of their physicians, Seanair would know, and then she’d have ten guards, maybe more. She’d be confined to her apartment. Trapped inside the white walls. No park walks. No bakeries. Her Goodbye, Manhattan Tour would be canceled.
“No. Please don’t.” She struggled to sit up, pressure building in her temples. She was giving up everything, and she wanted a month. A month to say goodbye to her life. “If I really felt like something was wrong with me, I’d tell you. My lungs ache, and I have zero energy. That’s all.”
She didn’t feel gravely injured, more like she’d gone from couch to marathon.
In a day.
“I’m out of my depth here, and I’m not going to play doctor when we have a team at Lenox Hill who makes house calls.”
“Give me your Air. One more time.” She remembered the alley, his mouth, and his glorious power filling her. Great breath of winter, she’d inhaled his magnificent, life-giving Air. “Please.” She closed her eyes, trying to re-create the sensation. “It felt so good when you were inside me.”
Her eyes flew open at her choice of words. She met his gaze. A flicker of orange heat flashed deep in his brown eyes. Had he lost control of his power, or had he let her see it? Naturas concealed their energy around her, their gazes either soft with pity or sharp with triumph.
“If a doctor comes here, I won’t be able to leave this apartment again, and if that thing wants to get to me, it will.” She suffered no illusions about her predicament, the situation not new. “I think you surprised it, but you’re stronger than it is with your two Fire mantles or…well, you’re a Dual with the Air you gave me.” The phantom scent of clean, crisp air teased her nose. “Do what you did one more time. Today was the best day. Before it went to shit, I felt…free.” She met his hard gaze. “The other night at Freddy’s and today, I felt normal. I’m about to give up everything. Please.”
He folded his arms behind him and assumed the stone stillness and dead-eyed stare of her usual guards. She sensed her freedom slip, her last hurrah unlatched and drifting, floating to join her uncertain future.
A grave sense of loss crept over her.
“Where’s my phone?” she asked. “I’ll call the doctor myself.” Goddess, when Seanair heard about this…
She turned her head toward the windows soon to be her only link to the outside world.
“I’ll do it.” He came to the left side of her bed into her sight line.
“I don’t want your pity.”
“Do you remember how I gave you my Air?”
She shifted her gaze up to his. “That’s not something I’ll ever forget.”
“If I do this, you can’t tell anyone about my Air energy. No one else knows I have it. It’s saved my life more than a few times.”
“You know the fully story about my brother.” Her muscles grew heavy, her body seeming to sink farther into the mattress. “I’l
l keep your secret.”
“Lie on your back.”
She did, never taking her eyes from his, her heartbeat accelerating as he climbed onto the bed and straddled her hips. His arms crossed, and he pulled his sweater over his head. The black T-shirt underneath pulled tight across his chest and biceps. Muscles. Hard. Flexing. His body a solid mass of them.
“It’s hot in here.” He eyed her with cool indifference.
Her gaze cut to the hollow of his neck. His heartbeat punched against his skin.
You’ll never tire of a night with a Fire.
The memory cemented as he placed a hand on either side of the pillow and leaned toward her. Her hair rustled. A light breeze tickled over her face.
“I have to go slow this time. Those bruises may be from me.”
“If they are, I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I should have been more careful.”
“You didn’t have time to be careful. You saved me. That’s all I know.” She cupped the side of his face with the scar.
“Whenever you’re ready.” Her need to know the mark’s history faded as his mouth drew closer and closer to hers.
He kissed her. Her mouth opened on its own. The strangest press of power pushed its way inside her. A gentle strength. A coolness filled her mouth and streamed down her throat, much like that rosewater lightning, the temperature warming like he realized the air had been too cold.
Her breasts swelled, and a longing ache bloomed low. Goose bumps broke over her skin. An immediate warmth blanketed her. She recognized the sensation and realized he was the reason she hadn’t been too hot or too cold since he’d arrived. She arched up, wanting to feel his warmth, his heavy body pressing against hers.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, toying with the chain that hung there, and pulled him closer. Closing her eyes, she remembered the smile he’d given her at their shared love of lemon. The image shifted, back to the alley, where his expression had been murderous and his hold on her steel. He would have scorched the earth for her, would have been a one-man wrecking ball of destruction to save her.
He would have died. To save her, he would have sacrificed himself.
The soreness in her lungs dulled. A sense of rightness like she’d never experienced washed over her. She should break the kiss and let him rest, but she didn’t. She laced her fingers into his hair. A faint groan rumbled from him.
She wanted him. Inside her. Driving and grunting and sweating above her. His gruff exterior hid a selfless man. One who, in the face of sheer wrongness, did the right thing. The noble thing. She wanted to feel the stretch of him, the scrape of his stubble, his harsh huffs of breath all the while never taking her eyes from his.
He broke the kiss. She immediately felt the loss of his warmth. She had felt him. Not his body, but his power. She’d felt the caress and lick of his Fire. A call wanting to be answered.
“Take off your sweatshirt so I can heal the bruises.”
The rush from the alley returned, when he’d filled her with his energy, and something so incredibly right snapped into place. Exhaustion seeped into her arms and legs, her body a leaden lump.
“Let me help you.” His gaze softened like he could sense her lethargy.
She tried to arch, her muscles useless, but he managed to shift the shirt up her body and gingerly guided it over her head.
His eyes glowed orange. Red. A tiny ring of blue edged his irises. His hand covered the right side of her lower ribs.
“Oww.” She winced at the tender spot.
“I’m sorry.” The light in his eyes died. His gaze rounded, his mouth firming, his expression grim with shame. “I’ve never harmed anyone before that I didn’t want to hurt.”
He’d said he didn’t save people.
“Do you kill people for my grandfather?” Her gut gave a knowing nod.
“Not all Naturas use their powers the way they were intended.” He gently palpated her sides.
“But you kill them, and my brother does too.” She aired the suspicion she’d long held but hadn’t wanted to verify.
Seanair kept her out of the way, but she’d overheard things when she was younger, when her grandfather had been less careful.
“Yes. Close your eyes. The light will be bright.”
She did, and her other senses opened. A glorious smoke hovered under her nose. A rapturous heat caressed her skin. Pure, raw pleasure sizzled inside her.
A rush of breath escaped her. “Stop.”
“Does it hurt?”
“No,” she managed, not about to tell him if he kept up his healing, she was going to have the orgasm of her life.
“The bruises are fading. Let me do something less intense.” He shifted down and hovered his mouth over one side of her ribs.
He took a deep, long inhale, then blew like he was extinguishing birthday candles in slow motion. A faint orange stream colored the air and bubbled like peroxide over the tender area. Damp heat sank into her skin and covered her in an electric-blanket warmth. Her eyelids fluttered.
“Rest now.” He started to move.
“Stay.” She slid her hand over the covers toward him. “Stay until I’m deep asleep. I’m scared.” The memory of the thing’s hold came alive as her vision grew hazy.
“You have nothing to fear as long as I’m around.” He lay on his side, too much space between their bodies. “I’ve got you.”
He did have her. With him near, she felt untouchable, his power infinite and immense and numbing her in the most exquisite sense. Goddess, the heat of him kindled deep inside her. Deeper still was the feel of him. His arms around her. His mouth on hers. The thing she sought to cling to wasn’t his Fire, but his touch. It’d been so long since she’d been held. The shelter of his body had rocked her way more than his power, and she longed to snuggle into him, bury her nose in the bend of his neck, and wait for those Goddess-blessed arms of his to pull her close.
She found his hand and curled her fingers through his warm ones, her mind fuzzy, trying to re-create the feel of him. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been touched?” She struggled to lift her eyes to his, knowing she should shut her mouth, but she needed him to know. “No one hugs me. Family sometimes, but not like you. In your arms, I feel like everything’s going to be okay.”
She tried to hold his gaze, but her eyes wouldn’t stay open.
Her last thoughts were of him and an impossible dream.
He pressed his hand into the mattress and slipped it from beneath hers. A small sigh sounded, but she didn’t wake. He’d almost decided to sleep beside her in case she had a nightmare. The urge to comfort, protect, and soothe her prodded at him like a hot poker.
He couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said, how she’d looked at him. His last hug had come from his father, right before they’d split up on the trail heading for the chapel. About half an hour before his dad had been murdered by Seanair.
Twelve years since, he’d had more than a handshake. He didn’t hug his regens. He gave, she received, and they went on about their business. He’d had a girlfriend in high school. Caitlin. Young love. First love. Though they’d never gotten a chance to have sex. He’d lost his virginity at twenty-four, the night he came into his full power, his Fire settling in with the assistance of a tender assigned by Seanair to service him.
He didn’t understand why it’d felt so right to protect Elspeth, shield her. This primal protective streak for her buzzed and spit inside him like a broken power line. He liked her in his arms, her breath warm against his mouth and her soft body tight against his.
Of all the people he could be attracted to, why her? The granddaughter of the man he hated with every single cinder of his Fire. He shouldn’t do it, but he couldn’t stop his hand from moving gently toward her, his knuckles skimming the soft curve of her jaw.
She was beautiful and kind and all of the things he’d once envisioned he’d have.
He longed to hold her one more time. Let her r
est easy against him. Fall asleep with his nose buried in her hair.
He climbed from the bed and crept across the carpet, chastising himself for letting things get so out of control. He had a goal, one shot to achieve it, and he kept…dreaming. Dreaming shit that wouldn’t come to pass. His life was set, and any dreams he’d had died with his father.
Leaving her bedroom door cracked in case she needed him, he vowed to set fire to any further distractions. He cast a second swath of Fire, sending it across the floor and up the walls, making sure to reinforce the windows and the vents.
A spark of holy-shit realness shot down his spine. He had a problem. A big, powerful, invisible problem. How did he battle an unseen enemy? Within sight distance, Naturas could see each other’s auras. Waters were blue, Earths green, and Fires red. Airs were white and kinda glittery, like walking party sparklers, making them easy prey. Even if Naturas couldn’t see each other, their energy emitted a signal similar to cell phones, so they essentially announced their presence like pings on a radar.
That Earth energy had come out of nowhere.
He dug his cell from his pocket and checked the screen. Shit. Twenty-seven texts. Four phone calls from Elite One HQ.
He pulled up the last one and fired off a response.
Inferno: Unicorn in lockdown. Sensed problem. Initiated total isolation. Unicorn fine.
Elite One never used real names, but he wished he’d given Elspeth a different one, as he wanted to think of her as his unicorn, not anyone else’s.
EOHQ: Zeus wants full report. Hold for check-in.
Inferno: Assignment was to protect unicorn at all costs.
EOHQ: Zeus ordered sole access to your cell. Lockdown, but for him.
What? The point of total lockdown was so a location couldn’t be determined. Kinda important to hide when dodging a covert ball of festering energy.
Inferno: Affirmative on access. Zeus only.
EOHQ: What was that thing? A squadron’s investigating. Two non-responds.
Inferno: Which two?
EOHQ: Flicker And Kindling.
Shit. The two newbies.
The Call of Fire: A Natura Elementals Novel Page 10
