Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Margo Bond Collins

  Wade shook himself, sighing under his breath. “I can go a few days without sleep.”

  Riley grabbed his arm and tugged him to his feet. His large body staggered into hers, and she grabbed him around the waist before she could think about it. Wade looked down at her. So much taller, his broad shoulders dwarfing her. But graceless in his exhaustion. She could have led him around like a toy on a string.

  “You can’t fight in this condition,” she said. “If Colton comes, you’re worse than useless. Get into my blankets and get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

  He must have been tired for he let her tuck him in, and tug his boots off. His eyelashes fluttered closed, and he was asleep before she could drop his second boot on the ground.

  Fool.

  She hesitated then brushed the silky black strands of hair off his forehead. He looked infinitely more innocent asleep, his features softened, the hard line of his mouth easing. Riley’s fingertips grazed over the heavy stubble on his jaw.

  Sleep had driven away all of the confusion of the day before. She dragged a blanket up over Wade’s chest, turning to find Jimmy watching her through his raccoon eyes.

  “Ain’t that... the warg?” he rasped.

  Riley scurried to his side, helping him sit up. She wrapped her arms around his scrawny shoulders and hugged him. “Oh, thank God!”

  Jimmy winced and pushed at her. “Hurts, Riley.”

  She let him go and fetched the canteen for him. The water inside had warmed, but it was still fresh. Jimmy gulped it down, trying to drink around the split in his lip.

  When it was empty, he dropped it and collapsed back into his blankets.

  “Do you want food?”

  He shook his head tiredly. Then turned to glare at Wade. “What’s he doin’ here?”

  “He promised to help me get you back,” she replied. Something defensive rose in her breast. “He went into Black River with me. He didn’t have to. He didn’t have to make that promise,” she realized, even as she said the words. “He could have just thrown me over his shoulder and headed out into the desert.”

  Jimmy blinked through one swollen eye. “Why?”

  She didn’t have an answer to that.

  “What’s he want?”

  “A chance at McClain,” she replied quietly. “I’m going to give it to him.”

  Jimmy’s eyes darkened. “We don’t give the humans to the monsters.”

  “I’m not.” Her voice hardened. “I’m just giving him a chance. I’ve seen McClain on the hunt. He’s good, Jimmy. I’ve never seen a man move like that.” Not until Wade anyway. “Chances are he’ll bury Wade in the first few minutes.”

  A part of her didn’t like that at all. Her breath hitched. What if she broke her word? Got Jimmy and her out of there before Wade woke? He’d miss his chance, and both he and McClain would be safe.

  He hadn’t moved, not even when her voice had risen. Sleeping like the dead. It wouldn’t be hard to sneak out.

  Wouldn’t be hard for Colton to sneak in.

  Riley bit her lip. She couldn’t leave him there for the vultures. Her gaze shuttering, she pressed Jimmy back into his blankets. “Rest,” she murmured. “I’ll organize breakfast.”

  And figure out what she was going to do.

  After a breakfast of bread and cheese, Riley took the chance to explore a little while the men were sleeping.

  Sunlight spilled through gaps in the cavern roof, and the floor was creamy white sand. A long ago water course, she imagined, which had carved its way through the mountains until it formed this. The walls were washed smooth, and mustard-yellow stains marked where water had discolored the wall at stages.

  Wade hadn’t been kidding about the supplies. Enough long-term food items to keep a man for months, plus spare blankets, binoculars, guns, knives, ammunition and clothes. She found them packed in crates behind a curve of rock, his footprints imprinted in the sand in front of them.

  He’d planned this well.

  There was no sign of anyone following them. Riley climbed to the ledge of rock above the cave and scanned the desert with the newly found binoculars. Heat wavered over the rocky plains. A roc soared high overhead, riding the blistering thermals. But nothing moved over the gravelly sand.

  Clambering back down, she headed as deep into the cave as she dared, past several corners and winding outcroppings. And that was when she found it. Water. Pure and fresh. Spring-fed.

  It gleamed a crystalline blue from the shaft of sunlight that speared down through the roof’s opening. Riley took off her boots and dipped her toes into the edge. God, it felt divine. So cold, it startled her wits into crystal clarity.

  Glancing over her shoulder revealed nothing but silence and shadows. She lifted the hem on her shirt – Wade’s appropriated shirt – and wiggled out of it. The jeans were next, hitting the sandy floor around her ankles.

  She kept her bra and panties on, wading out into the cool water. It struck her thighs, the cold of it leaving her almost breathless, but she couldn’t wait to wash off the past few days’ dirt and grime. And the blood. Definitely the blood.

  “Kid’s asleep.” Wade’s voice called from behind. “Got one hell of a shiner.”

  Riley squealed in surprise and dove under the water. When she came up, Wade dropped his bag on the sandy shore and reached over his shoulder for the collar of his shirt.

  “What are you doing?” she blurted. “I thought you were asleep.”

  “Someone kept tiptoeing past like a small elephant.” He paused as he saw her face, the shirt half over his head, revealing inches of hard, chiseled abs. “Please. Tell me you’re not going to play the helpless virgin now.” Wrenching the shirt off, he tossed it aside, his hands falling to the snap on his jeans. “I stink,” he told her. “I’m covered in blood and God knows what, and I’m not standing in it one more minute. Either we share the pool, or you get out.”

  Riley stared at him, fanning the water slowly with her hands. “I only just got in.”

  “True,” he said. “You weren’t smelling real good either.” A sudden smile lit up his face, his white teeth gleaming in the shadows. The sunlight’s reflection off the water danced over his upper body in blue rippling movements. “I have soap,” he said suggestively.

  Soap. Her lips parted on a sigh. She’d do a lot for soap right about now. It was incredibly tempting. “What about Colton?”

  “That’s why I chose this place.” He shrugged. “This jumble of rock is the only hill out here. I can see for miles, and there’s no sign of him.”

  “Fine. I’ll let you share my pool. On the condition that you keep your hands to yourself.”

  The pewter amulet gleamed against his tanned chest. Wade tugged his jeans open, enough for her to realize he was wearing no underwear. Arching a brow, he met her shocked gaze. “Darlin’, I ain’t the one staring.”

  Damn him. Riley ground her teeth together and spun around, staring at the blue-lit cavern walls. The low, throaty sound of his chuckle echoed through the area. He’d obviously recovered some of his usual spirit after the couple hours of sleep. A pity. He’d been almost pleasant when he was exhausted.

  “Please,” she said. “You surprised me.”

  The sound of his jeans hitting the sand echoed. “You hate it, don’t you? The fact that you can’t keep your eyes off me?”

  Sometimes, she forgot he was a monster. Sometimes, all she saw was the man. In quiet little moments, like the night before, when he’d been whittling that toy, or when he carried her to the blankets and tucked her in.

  And, as a man, he was a damned fine specimen.

  She’d rather die than let him know that though.

  “That’s not the reason I watch you,” she retorted. “You don’t turn your back on a warg.”

  “Yet you’ve got your back to me now.”

  Why the hell did it have to be Wade?

  Riley bit her lip. There were plenty of men at the settlement. Even McClain was one hell of a handsome devil,
although they rarely saw eye to eye. Yet she’d never found her gaze lingering the way it did on Wade, and when he’d kissed her... Her nipples tightened, goose bumps springing up all over her arms and the back of her neck. Behind her, the water sloshed around her as he waded into it.

  Water splashed and then silence filled the cavern. Riley glanced over her shoulder. He’d vanished beneath the surface, ripples refracting light off the water. The pile of abandoned clothes on the sand sent an odd fist of longing through her belly.

  Wade’s dark head surfaced first, tanned hands raking over his face as he flung water everywhere. It dripped from his elbows and the tangled lengths of his hair, sluicing over the smooth muscle of his chest. Riley’s mouth went dry. Then her eye caught the pewter charm, and a shiver ran over her skin.

  Not human. Don’t ever forget that.

  Wade looked up, a knowing little smile toying over his lips. “When I first saw what you were wearing, I wondered what the women out here in the settlements were thinking.” His gaze dropped. “But there’s something to be said for white cotton, it seems.”

  Wet cotton. Riley dropped under the water, glaring up at him. He was too close to her, all of that smooth olive skin. She pushed backward, idly fanning the water, as if she were just swimming.

  Wade caught her ankle, holding her in place. His smile held nothing of humor in it now, his eyes turning molten with heat. Riley couldn’t have looked away to save herself. His thumb stroked the inside of her ankle, and he glanced down beneath thick, dark lashes, as though examining the smooth length of her leg.

  “It’s a leg,” she said, trying to make the words dry and cynical. For some reason, the last word was a breathy whisper.

  “I’m aware of that.”

  “I’m sure you’ve seen dozens of them,” she retorted, tugging ineffectively at his grip.

  Wade held onto her for a moment, then let her go. “What do you mean by that?”

  “A man like you. You’d have women all over the place.”

  Water spiked off his eyelashes, clumping them together. His blue eyes were burning with some emotion she couldn’t quite figure. “Right. You’ve got me all pegged, sweetheart.” A hint of anger turned his voice sour.

  Riley splashed backward, uneasy with his sudden intensity. Her back hit the cool, sloped rock wall, the rasp of granite rough against her skin, sending shivers down her body. Or perhaps that was the fact that she was virtually alone, half-naked in a pool of water with a man like Wade.

  She examined him in the half-light. The emotion had faded off his face, but it had been thick in his voice. Anger. Wade was angry with her assumptions. Riley frowned. “Tell me then. Since I’m obviously wrong about you. You’re all sweetness and good conscience. I don’t know how I missed that.”

  “I’m not denying my baser qualities, but womanizing isn’t one of them.” He edged closer, ripples circumnavigating his body. Sliding under the water until it covered his mouth and nose, he eyed her through the darkness.

  Riley’s breath caught.

  Wade vanished beneath the water, the surge of his incoming body sweeping the water up over her skin. He surfaced in front of her, brushing his dripping black hair out of his eyes. Riley’s mouth went dry at the sleek show of muscle. This was insane. She was insane. She knew what he was, what he could be, yet her body knew no difference. It ached for his touch, for the sight of him.

  For just one more kiss....

  Riley’s heart gave a little flutter as he speared her with that hot look again.

  Somehow, she found her voice. “You’re trying to tell me you’re as innocent as a lamb? Do women actually fall for that?”

  “You’re the one who keeps throwing it in my face about me being a warg. Limits my options. I won’t pay for sex, darlin’, and I ain’t interested in taking it by force. The last woman I slept with was my wife.”

  Riley’s breath caught in her chest, and her gaze dropped toward his left hand. No ring. Not even a tan line where one had been.

  As if realizing he’d revealed too much, Wade swam backward, his face shuttering. The sunlight washed over him, gleaming on black hair.

  “Where is she now?” Riley asked, creeping forward. Oh, God, had she kissed a married man?

  “Don’t know.”

  Curiosity pricked her. The tone of his voice was so flat he might as well not have cared. But something in his expression warned her.

  “I didn’t know wargs had wives.”

  “They don’t.” He surged to his feet, the water hitting his hips. A trail of black hair arrowed down from his navel, vanishing beneath the hypnotic blue of the water. Wade met her gaze, a nasty little smile tilting his mouth. “I’ll fetch the soap.”

  Conversation over. Riley watched him wade toward the sandy shore, water running down over his bare buttocks and heavily muscled thighs. She wanted to know more. Had the wife left him when she found out he was a warg? She’d never once given thought to how it must be for them. They’d only ever been monsters to her before. But they hadn’t always been so. Every single one of them had been human once.

  Imagine coming home, knowing what you’d become? Knowing it would tear your family apart. A little snarl of sympathy knotted in her stomach. Her father had done as all men out here would do if clawed up – he’d bitten a bullet. But that was never an easy choice. Sometimes, a part of her wished he’d chosen the coward’s way out. Chose to run off into the desert, and that maybe, one day, she could meet him under the sun, when he was still a man. That part of her was still a little girl, longing for her daddy to pick her up in his arms, and swing her ‘round.

  What had Wade’s wife thought when he was bitten?

  Wade snatched a bar of soap out of his bag, and a thin flannel. Riley turned away as he returned to the water, troubled by the thought of him as just a man, albeit one cursed with a horrible affliction.

  Just a man....

  “So, what was her name?” she asked over her shoulder.

  A growl echoed in his throat. “Why?”

  “You were right,” she said. “I know nothing about you except what I assume. I want to know.”

  “Curiosity killed the cat.”

  Riley glanced over her shoulder. Waist deep. It was safe to look. “You won’t hurt me.” She frowned a little, watching him lather the soap between those large, tanned hands. “You were never going to hurt me, were you?”

  He didn't answer that. Just watched her as he scrubbed soapy lather over his chest. His expression hardened. “Abbie. Her name was Abbie.”

  Abbie. Riley tested the name in her head, a part of her wondering who the woman had been. “You loved her.”

  “Why would you assume that?”

  “You don’t want to talk about her,” she said. “So some part of losing her hurt you. Did she turn away from you when you turned warg?”

  Water rippled as he edged closer. Riley turned, flinching as hands caught the silky strands of her hair from behind and started soaping them. She’d taken a few lovers in her time, but that had only been sex. No one had ever done anything like this before. It was intimate. Uncomfortable. She was very close to pulling away, but something stopped her.

  “I loved her,” Wade admitted in a quiet voice. “More than anything.”

  Riley held still, allowing him to soap her hair. She barely dared to breathe. “What happened?”

  “I got clawed up,” he said. “By someone I trusted.” He cupped water in his hands and dropped it over her head, washing away the suds. The scent of fresh lemons rose around her. Must have cost a fortune on the black market.

  “Knew what was going to happen,” he continued. “So I walked away, left her. I’ve been told she waited a few years before she married again. One of my cousins. A good man.”

  “Did she try to find you?”

  “She knew what had happened,” he said gruffly. “I was sparing her what I could.” The law said that the marriage was dissolved if a man went missing for seven years – or if he turned wa
rg.

  Wade’s hands ran over the straps of her bra, soothing the skin of her arms and shoulders. He had a good touch. Patient. Steady. Riley tried not to shiver, her breath coming a little quicker. His hands were so warm, his calluses rough against her skin.

  Sweeping her hair to the side, over her shoulder, he brushed his fingers down over the ripple of her spine. The sensation shot right through her.

  “It’s been a long time since I touched a woman,” he murmured. His fingertips turned questing, as if he were soaking up the sensation of her skin, content just to feel her, to explore. “A long time... since one let me.”

  Riley ground her knees together. She didn’t know what was happening, or what to do. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her to get out of there, but the slow, hypnotic slide of his hands stole her willpower.

  And something else. Curiosity. Longing. Loneliness. It was hard trying to remain an independent woman out here in the settlements. Too many men would mistake an offer of companionship for something else, as though it suddenly gave them the right to rule her life. Either that, or they'd use it – and her position on Haven's Council – to barter for something. It had been a long time.

  Too long, obviously.

  “Here.” His voice was rough velvet. “Hold the soap.”

  She took it, fumbling with the wet bar as he lathered his hands together and urged her out of the water.

  “I’ll wash your back.”

  A quick flick of his fingers and her bra suddenly sagged, the edges hanging at her sides. Riley gasped, cupping her breasts in her hands, the thin, worn cotton barely containing them. “What are you doing?”

  His palms slid down over her back, the soap silky-slick beneath his skin. He massaged the muscles on either side of her spine, his hands trailing off just at the indent of her hips. Gripping the side of her waist, he slid them back up, fingertips brushing against the curve of her breasts.

  Riley shifted uneasily. A glance over her shoulder showed she wasn’t the only one affected. She’d expected that devilish smile, the teasing gleam in his eyes, but he wasn’t smiling. Not at all.