“Robin, we can’t…” he breathed out roughly. It was a warning, but all she could concentrate on was the warmth of his breath. “I can’t…”
“I’m so hot, Simon…” she responded, licking his lower lip. “I’m so hot for you…”
Then, unable to contain her moan any longer, she finally deepened the kiss and threw all caution to the wind.
He lowered his grip to her hips as she assaulted his mouth with eager kisses, and she half-thought he would push her away. She didn’t want him to because he tasted like man and everything that made him the Simon she knew—earthy, bright and addictive to the soul.
Then Simon opened his mouth, and surprise filtered as her tongue suddenly, easily slipped in. Then his tongue was colliding with hers, and whatever brightness was there turned dark and dangerous as he kissed her back with an intensity that knocked her off her feet completely.
He kissed like a drug, and she was intoxicated. He kissed her with a skill that was sexy and seductive at the same time, teasing her between soft and hard tongue movements and sucking on her lower lip every once in a while. Her hands tightened on his shoulders as one hand moved to her thigh, while the other rested on top of her wet robe and his palm brushed her stiffened nipple. Another moan came out of her, this one longer and rougher as he assaulted her mouth over and over. She wanted the kiss to go on and on, unable to get enough, but Simon had other ideas as he broke the kiss almost roughly and proceeded to cruise his lips down her throat, where he sucked softly. Robin’s hands moved up, gripping his hair for support as she felt like she was losing her mind bit by bit at his every caress.
His hand tightened on her breast, and suddenly she wanted his mouth on it, making the ache go away. A strangled sound came out of his throat, something between a groan and a curse, and she heard the words come out with difficulty.
“Robin…we can’t…”
She whimpered her protest and yanked his head back up, their teeth clashing. She pressed her body against his and felt the huge, hot erection that he’d been hiding all along. Robin lifted her body to grind against it, wanting more, more, more—
A voice whispered in her head that this wasn’t real. Magic seeped out, making the voice louder.
All of a sudden, her senses came back—that she’d been letting her body dictate her actions, that she’d been allowing the poison to intensify her desire without doing anything about it.
That she’d been letting it flow into Simon, too, which was why he was responding with an intensity that was beyond what he showed her in the past few days.
But her instincts were stronger, and that magic fought the poison now like a sledgehammer. Slowly, her fingers untangled from his hair one by one, and she allowed herself to respond to his kiss for a few more seconds before finally letting her more sensible side take over and break the connection.
She moved away from him as if burned, her breathing heavy and her heart beating a mile a minute. Arousal pounded in her veins, threatening to make her come undone, but she held on and consciously crossed her arms over her breasts and tried to find the words to say as she watched him with his own erratic breathing. She wanted nothing more than to press her body back against him, and realization came over her that was harder to accept than kissing him had been.
She was attracted to him even without the poison—seriously, dangerously attracted to the Simon he was now.
“Simon…”
Simon’s gaze snapped up and pinned her in place, burning hot with desire. She swallowed, her mouth going dry.
Then that gaze cleared in an instant, and a frown marred his face as he sat up quickly.
“Jake,” he uttered.
Robin blinked. What?
“Kismet, where the hell are you? We’ve been trying to contact you.”
It all made sense as he pushed one hand in his ear where the earpiece was. Most thoughts of the kiss left her head as she instinctively moved closer, and Simon didn’t think twice as he removed his hand and let her ear come closer. She used her magic to enhance the connection, and suddenly she could hear Jake, too.
His voice was tense and unclear, but she could hear something about Lucy, running away from monsters, and a maze that they couldn’t get out of. Her mind raced as she tried to piece together his description of the size, the shape and the colors he saw before the line cut off again, and his voice faded into nothingness.
A light bulb popped in her head, and she was standing up in an instant and racing towards the bathroom, where she dressed speedily. When she went back out, the first thing she noticed was Simon already up, too…and his erection gone.
Her cheeks heated at where her thoughts went, but she steeled her spine and faced him.
“I’m sorry. My magic fought the poison too late. And it seeped into you.”
He was quiet for a moment, simply gazing at her intensely. Then he shook his head. “Forget it. We need to find Jake.”
There was a dismissive tone to his voice, and she should feel relieved that he wasn’t picking at it. But instead of relief, disappointment settled in her chest, heavy and odd.
She ordered herself to respond accordingly. “I think I know where Jake is. I haven’t checked the back garden a second time because of the wall, but I have a feeling…”
Simon nodded. “Right.”
“So let’s rescue them and go home.”
“I’m not going home yet after the rescue.”
“Why?”
Simon’s eyes turned dark and steely. “I’m killing Jin first for doing that to you.”
And then he was out the door before she could say anything, and Robin was left to wonder how things could have gotten out of control so quickly.
CHAPTER TWELVE
There were a few things Simon didn’t do when it came to women, and among them were: sleep with his mission partners, sleep with his women friends, and sleep with those outside the shifter circle. The first was because it distracted one from the mission, the second was because friends were precious and few to him, and the third was because when he had sex with someone, no matter how slow and sensual or rough and dirty it was, he wanted it with the awareness that his sex partner could be his mate and the person he was destined to be with.
He’d just almost broken all those rules with Robin.
The worse thing was, he still wanted to break those rules as he recalled their hot kiss in his head over and over, unable to take it off his mind.
It wasn’t just the kiss. It was the way her hands held on to him when she kissed him, the way her body molded against his as if it belonged there. It was her soft skin and her faint lemon and honey scent, and those purely erotic sounds coming out of her mouth whenever he did something that pleased her. All of those combined had him reacting before he could stop himself, and he should have regretted it.
Except he didn’t, and he wanted more.
He could have accepted her explanation about the poison doing things to his senses it shouldn’t have done, rendering him unable to do anything but kiss her back like his life depended on it. But he would be lying to himself if he did, and he knew there was only one explanation left.
He wanted Robin more than he wanted anyone else in a long time, and it was something deep and instinctual and calling out to him like air. Acknowledging it was the first part.
Putting it aside to focus on the mission and to save their friendship was the second and the most difficult one.
Desire rushed inside him as he remembered how she tasted and how he wanted to kiss every part of her body until she was crying out his name. Anger surged in after it as he kept in mind that this was all Jin’s doing, because he had wanted to do those things to Robin, too—and he’d have been doing it by now if she hadn’t run away from Jin and into her room as she became aware of the poison early on. Simon set those two feelings aside as he ran as quietly as he could beside Robin towards the back of the mansion.
Everything was quiet, and they both did their best to avoid the guar
ds roaming the compound. The house itself was dark except for some select parts, indicating that Jin was either asleep or still in that damn sauna.
The garden was Japanese style, not really big but not really small, either. Simon remembered the two of them sneaking out one time at around midnight to check it out, but her magic had detected nothing unusual about it. Hence they hadn’t paid attention to this area since. Now they navigated the plants until they got to the high brick wall, which was supposedly the end of Jin’s area as it extended into a hilly area ahead. Robin touched it now with her palm, feeling it up as she let magic seep into her hand. Simon kept his eyes alternately between what she was doing and their surroundings, where he noted that everything was relatively quiet.
A few minutes later, Robin cursed under her breath. Simon turned his head back to her to hush her—
He snapped his mouth shut at the sight of the portal and the greenery beyond it.
“It’s been here all along,” she muttered. “I feel so stupid.”
Her hand went in, then back out. She glanced at Simon, a determined expression on her face. “Come on. We need to do something.”
By entering a dangerous portal? Normally Simon was the adventurous one, and Robin was the cautious one. But she was already moving ahead, creating a tiny string of magic that looked like a line before explaining to him that it was a trail for when they needed to find their way back. The line went invisible. Then she pulled him in, and Simon had no choice but to follow.
A cold sensation wrapped around his body, rendering him freezing for a few seconds. He closed his eyes and watched the whiteness turn brilliant behind his eyelids. He didn’t find portals that bad, but the different sensations in every one always caught him off guard, and this chilling sensation was no different. Robin didn’t blink an eye, obviously already used to it. In fact, she’d had no reaction at all after she’d pulled away from him earlier, going back to her usual placid expression that didn’t give anything away. He’d have given his arm to find out exactly what she was thinking but realized that was just asking for trouble.
When the cold sensation was gone, Simon opened his eyes, feeling Robin’s hand drop away. She closed the portal, and he looked around instantly to assess the situation.
Jake had said there was a maze, but seeing it in actual was different. They were right in the center of it, where a courtyard with a standard stone fountain was located. Entrances branched out in different directions, and they stayed back-to-back of each other as they tried to figure out how to find Jake.
Noises came from the left—scurrying sounds that didn’t sound like human footsteps. Not liking the vulnerability of their open space, Simon tugged at Robin’s arm. He quietly counted to three with his fingers, then ran to the right with her following at his heels. They entered the entrance opposite to the sounds, straying further and further away from it until silence enveloped them.
The circular hedges took many twists and turns, and they used hand signals to communicate. Robin did a spell that placed a sprinkle of firework in the air, but no response came from Jake or Lucy, so they kept going.
A few minutes later, they came back to the courtyard and had to backtrack again. They stopped on one side while trying to think it over, and Simon finally leaned towards her.
“There’s no choice. We need to engage. Can your magic sustain you in a fight?”
Robin looked like she didn’t like the idea, but she steeled her shoulders and nodded. Together, they went to the courtyard and kept going until they reached the scurrying sounds, where it disappeared almost instantly.
They kept following it, with Simon taking the lead and using his senses. They kept getting near the sound, only for it to disappear once they got there. More sounds came, a cross between the scurrying sounds and gnarling noises that were rough and squelching. They took a turn and dove deeper until they eventually found a pond, where a trail of footsteps started and faded. Simon tracked that now, not stopping even while he heard Robin’s breathing narrow behind him.
A blur appeared in front of him, and he shifted his hands in defense and prepared to leap. But the shadowy figure leapt first, raising arms and what looked to be a branch of wood swinging at him.
It was a blonde woman, and she looked like she’d been through hell. Simon blocked her hit, then stared at her as she stared back, her golden eyes holding a certain panic that she tried to hide well.
“Lucy,” Robin breathed out as she stopped beside him.
“Jake’s friends,” Lucy responded after a while, her eyes widening. She really looked like a mess with her torn dress and mud-streaked cheek, and even in their company, she didn’t lower the branch. In fact, she looked like some kind of doll with how her cool face held a calmness and polished quality, and it reminded him of the character Robin played with Jin.
But Simon sensed something inside her that was about to come out, and he stepped forward, the instinct to protect coming out. “You’re safe with us.” Then something clicked. “Where’s Jake?”
Her pretty face crumpled, and she finally lowered the branch. Then the cool, perfect façade disappeared completely, to be replaced by a woman who was trying to keep it together but no longer able to.
“He tried to fight a huge creature and told me to run. Help. He’s somewhere out here. He’s dying.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
There were many ways to die a quick and painful death, and had he been older and lived a fuller life, Jake wouldn’t have fought it anymore and just told all his enemies to go to hell before dropping to his grave and being up and done with it.
Now, he still said go to hell, but he fought for every inch of his breath as the creature attacked him with a speed that threatened to slice him to pieces if he wasn’t careful.
This was the third one they’d battled in their time here, and it was the most dangerous one so far. The creature wasn’t as huge as the tree-like one in the beginning, but what it lacked in height, it more than made up in width as its dark brown shoulders brushed both hedge ends as it ran for him. Its legs were stubby but strong, and its body was covered in spikes that dripped with what looked like a sordid amount of pus that could contaminate you with a single touch.
But that wasn’t the worst part—it was when the creature rolled into a ball and acted like some kind of damn bowling ball ready to trample anyone in its path.
Right now, it was still running, and Jake did his best to run as far away as he could. He realized after a few minutes that he was going in circles again and wondered why he hadn’t seen Lucy at all. Was she hiding? Had she stayed in one spot he hadn’t gone to yet?
Was she unconscious somewhere?
The gray smoke had been inconvenient, but they had adapted by avoiding it the moment they killed the next creature. They also adapted to the sexual feeling in the air, knowing it wasn’t real.
Jake’s preoccupation delayed his reaction as the creature moved faster, then swiped at his arm. He cursed loudly, then shifted his arms to swipe back at it, feeling pain zing as blood flowed. He’d been battered and bruised for the past couple of days now, and hungry and sleepless to boot. Now, he was just pissed off and roaring to go, and he shifted without thought and swiped at the monster’s head—the only place not covered in spikes. He got in a scratch that only served to irritate the creature as it roared.
Then it curled into a ball and rolled towards him.
His wolf form ran and ran, barely missing the attack as he dove to the edge of one of the hedges. The creature would lose momentum at every turn, then gain it again at the next. It felt like hours trying to evade it, and even while he tried to keep quiet, the creature seemed to know where he was.
A plan formed in his mind and his wolf form sprinted ahead to make it come to fruition.
A blur appeared in front—another creature, similar to the first one. Jake’s momentum didn’t allow him to stop, and he crashed into it and felt pain radiate everywhere as he stumbled on his paws. He snarled and lunged at
the tree-like creature, his teeth latching on to the creature’s hide. He felt sharp claws sink into his ribs and pry him off, then he was tossed to the ground where he crashed violently. He heard a snap and knew he wouldn’t be able to stand up. Jake closed his eyes and braced himself for the rolling creature’s attack, no longer able to get away from it.
Nothing happened. He heard shouting, and Jake’s eyes snapped open to find Simon battling the tree-like creature, and Robin holding a shield in front of them. The shield hit the other creature and stopped its rolling, and Robin pushed harder at it, creating a massive ball of power that coated the creature. It screamed in agony, and he watched pain cross Robin’s face before it flickered off, to be replaced by a deadly glare. The ball coating got smaller and smaller, squishing the creature until blood flowed out and it stopped moving. She crushed it completely until it winked out of existence, and even the blood was gone. Then Robin slumped, and Jake gritted his teeth and moved forward, ignoring his dislocated foot to catch her.
She seemed surprised by the movement and turned to him with a frown. Then she glanced at Simon, who had just finished killing off the fourth creature. Smoke came out again, which Robin eliminated with more magic. Footsteps sounded, and Jake tensed. But he smelled her before he saw her, and his gaze snapped in Lucy’s direction as she came running and kneeling towards him.
Worried eyes pinned him in place, and her face was filled with soot. But he’d never seen anyone so beautiful, and he doubted he would again.
Then Robin let her magic flow on his foot, and excruciating pain followed. All thoughts left his head as he yowled loudly, and all three of them hushed him to be quiet.
He glared at Simon and Robin, but couldn’t quite manage it with Lucy. Then, realizing he was being an idiot, he barked his thanks.
Five minutes later, the pain dissipated, and Robin stepped back with a look of exhaustion on her face. Simon frowned, pulling her up. “You once healed countless children on a ship. What’s wrong?”
Simon (The Clan Legacy Series) Page 6
