Storm Warning

by Sydney Somers

  “I’m more like the demons you slay than you realize.”

  “Right,” he drawled. “Cause a Scion has got nothing on you.”

  “Damn it, Drew. I’m serious,” she began.

  “So am I. You just don’t seem to get that I want to drive you wild. Whether it’s with my mouth—” he brushed his lips across hers, “—my tongue—” he deepened the kiss, “—or with emotions no one else has ever made me feel.”

  She shook her head, wanting to believe him even as she eased out of his arms. “It’s more complicated than that.”

  “No, it’s not. There’s a fine line for all of us, Blair.” Frustration cut into his voice, as though he feared he wasn’t getting through to her. “Braxton could use his ability to read minds to take advantage of people. Gage could hire himself out as a mercenary. I could make millions eavesdropping on corporate moguls. It’s not how much we’re like Shadow Demons that’s important. It’s what we do with our abilities that separate us from them.”

  She closed her eyes, wishing all of that meant she could trust herself. She’d begun to get a handle on channeling the energy inside her, but she still had a long way to go. “That doesn’t mean I’m ready to go back.”

  “Well, when you are, be sure and tell me how that works because I don’t know what ready feels like.”

  Blair snorted.

  “A lot of nights I sleep with earphones in so I don’t have to wake up to a neighbor bitching about his shitty satellite signal.” He linked their fingers, denying her the small amount of space she’d tried to negotiate between them.

  “I became a dad overnight,” he continued, “and I’ve never been so scared in my life of fucking something up. Molly’s not even living with me yet and I’m having cold sweats about what kind of impact my life will have on her.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “I’m not done,” he growled. “On top of that the woman I’m absolutely insane about can probably power a small neighborhood.” He framed her face with his hands. “It’s never about being ready, but finding the strength to face whatever it is even when you know you aren’t.”

  He kissed her forehead, working his way down to her mouth, lingering there until she would have said anything to keep him right there—with her.

  “When you figure that out, you know where to find me.” Without another word he turned and walked back down the beach.

  “You left her there?”

  Drew tried not to wince. “Yeah.” He’d known coming back alone was going to earn him an ass kicking, but seeing how walking away from her had damned near killed him, he didn’t have a lot left to lose.

  “Alone?”

  “You mean aside from the staff I tipped to keep an eye on her?”

  “What?”

  “Jesus, Brax. She’s okay.” And as long as he kept telling himself that, he could curb the urge to go back and get her. Barely.

  “You should have—”

  “Should have what?” He threw his hands up, needing some kind of outlet to release the uncertainty eating him up inside, and Brax was starting to look better and better. “Should I have tied her up and brought her back kicking and screaming?” It had crossed his mind once or twice. “If I thought it would help, believe me, I’m pretty sure I would have.” And risked lightning burns to pull it off.

  Braxton dropped into his chair.

  “She’s okay.” Hell, he was almost starting to sound like he believed it himself. “I never would have left her otherwise. She needs to work this out for herself, the same way we all did.”

  “She was the strongest, you know. She was only eleven when our dad died. Mom was a mess. I tried to keep it together, but if it hadn’t been for Blair…” Braxton blew out a breath and pushed to his feet. He paced away from Drew’s desk, stopped, then finally spun back around. “Do you love her?”

  Drew crossed his arms. “You mean you haven’t looked for yourself?” Hell, the telepath had probed into his head for a lot less of a reason in the past.

  “I’ve been too scared to look,” he admitted.

  “Consider yourself lucky,” Quinn said, slipping up and wrapping her arms around Braxton’s waist.

  She tucked her head under Brax’s chin and closed her eyes, just…breathing him in. The same way he did Blair.

  She turned in Brax’s arms, but stayed close. “You boys ready to play nice again?”

  Brax’s gaze strayed to Drew. “Yeah, we’re good.”

  Drew started to respond, then stopped, pieces from a conversation down the hall reaching his ears. He stepped into the hallway. “What did you just say about Jonas Holson?”

  Parker and Rae exchanged glances.

  “Who?” Braxton asked, trailing into the hall after him.

  “The same guy Blair was investigating when we met at the resort.” Why would a politician be of any interest to the network? He knew Parker and Rae sure as hell wouldn’t be making friendly chit-chat. They barely tolerated each other’s presence on a good day, something that had been in short supply for a while now around here.

  Rae led the way into the briefing room. “We suspect he may have ties to the cult.”

  Drew didn’t bother to sit. “Suspect or know?”

  Neither Parker nor Rae said anything.

  His gut tightened. “She knew, didn’t she? Blair saw him the day she bottomed out.”

  “He threatened her family if she tried to expose him.”

  Braxton gripped the chair in front of him. “What?”

  “She called you,” Drew guessed, the flash of guilt in Rae’s eyes so quick he might have imagined it. “You knew all this time where she was.”

  “I’ve known for about a week. She asked me not to say anything.”

  “Where is Holson now?” Braxton demanded.

  Parker shook his head. “We don’t go near him.”

  “We?” Drew snapped his gaze to Rae. “And why the hell not?”

  She glared at Parker, but didn’t disagree with him. “We need to be sure who all the players are.”

  “That’s not good enough.” He’d always assumed that Blair being attacked had been some cosmic coincidence. If Holson knew she’d been at the resort that night, he could have easily used whatever influence his cult earned him to make a deal with a Shadow Demon to take her out.

  “He threatened Molly too,” Rae said quietly. “He’s knows about her.”

  Drew started to ask how and then realized the telepath demon he’d fought that night must have passed the information along to the threesome that shot at him. “He was manipulating Blair. Wanted to scare her.”

  “I agree, but we will not rush it.”

  “And when were you going to let us in on this?” Braxton asked, his whitening knuckles on the chair in front of him cluing everyone in to how angry he was.

  “At the right time.”

  Having heard enough, Drew stormed out of the room. He heard Braxton and Quinn still talking, asking questions, but he’d heard more than enough. He needed out of there.

  When the elevator stopped and let him out, he stalked to his Jeep, shoving his key—

  He whipped around at the soft footfalls that came around the vehicle.

  “Think I can get a ride?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Blair shifted from one foot to the other, wondering belatedly if waiting for him here had been the best move. She’d spent the last few hours playing their encounter over and over in her mind, trying to figure out if he was right, if she would ever feel ready…for any of this. In the end she knew she owed it to Brax and Drew to try.She owed it to herself.

  When he’d walked away from her on the beach, denial had hit first. All the progress she’d made in the last two weeks counted for something, if not proof that she was that much closer to being ready. She’d come this far, but she knew she had to be able to trust herself or it was all for nothing.

  Then anger had taken over. Anger that made her want to yell at him for showing up there, all but
calling her a coward, kissing her like he couldn’t go another day without it, and walking the fuck away.

  Again.

  It was almost habit forming for the man. She might have walked away after their first night at the resort, but only because he’d distanced himself first, practically put miles between them instead of just a few feet. Then after finding her at Braxton’s and reminding her with one soul-wrenching kiss of how intense things could get between them, he’d vanished.

  She’d almost grown accustomed to him tucking tail and running since the night she was attacked, when he’d given her some excuse and left her bed in the middle of the night. And who could forget him driving her self-control to the breaking point by using her body against her, and not calling or coming back for the rest of the night.

  Now after showing up at the resort and walking away on her—again—she was just supposed to go back and hope he was done with that game?

  By the time she’d finished pacing on the beach, she’d begun to feel sorry for herself. The sun had set and people walked up and down the shoreline, but still she hadn’t moved. No one else seemed capable of thrusting her from one tumultuous emotion to another the way Drew could. Make her dizzy with wanting him one second and so pissed off she could choke him the next.

  And the second he’d stepped off the elevator, the sight of him blew whatever it was she wanted to say right out of her head. Asking for a ride had been the only words that didn’t tangle on her tongue.

  Unlike at the beach, Drew didn’t wait for her to come to him, and done being scared to meet him halfway, she threw herself into his arms. She needed him the way she’d never needed anyone else, and hoped like hell she’d never have to let go.

  Unlike back on the beach, there was nothing slow or thoughtful about their reunion. No lingering of lips and tongue, or savoring the last breath before falling back into another kiss.

  Her back came up against the Jeep, his body pressing hard against her. He splayed one hand along her jaw, the other sinking into her hair, wrapping tight around the strands as though to keep her right…there.

  His dark eyes flashed, first in relief then in triumph, and he crushed his mouth down on hers. The heat of the kiss sizzled in her blood, and there wasn’t anything to do but ride it out, wave after turbulent wave, until he decided whether or not the kiss was meant to seduce or punish.

  She fisted her hands in his shirt, as close to him as she could get short of crawling under his skin. And even that might not have been close enough. She trembled in the wake of his mouth, his lips scoring a hot path down her throat. His grip on her tightened almost to the point of pain, and she couldn’t have cared less. Every pore in her body felt drenched in his need, his passion.

  She was going up in flames and all she wanted was to get him naked, feel every layer of honed muscle and skin grinding against hers.

  Drew groaned against her mouth. “We need…”

  “…to go,” she finished, dragging her lips from his. Go before she suggested they finish this in the Jeep, and she knew without a doubt he wouldn’t refuse.

  He searched her face, his gaze intense.

  Her pulse slowed down to a crawl. “Does it freak you out?”

  She knew her eyes had changed, had grown used to the slight shadow that crept across the edges of her vision when her eyes transitioned. She might be learning to control the rising tides inside her, but keeping her eyes from revealing the power brewing within seemed an impossible task.

  “At least there will never be any mistaking when you’re turned on,” he mumbled against her mouth, taking them fast and hard into another devastating kiss. “Your brother is on his way down,” he added a moment later.

  She pulled away from Drew, but kept a hold of his hand as Braxton stepped off the elevator and spotted her. She knew when she’d called up to the field office just a few minutes ago to be let into the underground lot and spoke with Darcy, that it wouldn’t be long before her brother would know she was back.

  She was grateful now that Drew happened to leave on his own, and hadn’t had to share that moment with him while anyone else looked on.

  “You scared the hell out of me,” Braxton growled. He pulled her into a fierce hug. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  For the first time she felt the subtle probe at her thoughts. She arched her brow. “Something you want to know, Brax?”

  He gave her a goofy grin that made her feel like she was eight again and sick with the chicken pox. He glanced down to where she still hadn’t let go of Drew, and she waited for him to go into overprotective mode on her.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Got plans for breakfast?”

  She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “I’ll call you in the morning.”

  He turned and headed back to the elevator and she and Drew climbed into the Jeep.

  “So how did you know you were ready?” Drew asked when they hit the street.

  “Oh, I don’t, but someone told me that’s the point.”

  He grinned. “Someone incredibly wise must have said that.”

  She slid as close to him as she could get, not caring if it was her own need or a reflection of his that made her ache for him so badly she could barely sit still.

  “Oh, incredibly wise,” she said, tucking her face against his neck and taking him in.

  A muscle in his cheek ticked, and she didn’t stop there, running her lips the length of his jaw.

  “I’ll be pulling over into the next available spot if you don’t behave.”

  Smiling, she moved down his neck, opening her mouth where his pulse pounded under his skin. “I think you like it.”

  His foot slipped off the gas pedal.

  She waited until he stopped at a next red light. “I think you like it so much…” She grazed her teeth along his stubbled flesh, “…that you’re already thinking about taking my clothes off piece by piece—”

  Heat flared in his eyes.

  “—and fucking me until neither of us can move.”

  He slammed the gearshift into park. A rush of pure satisfaction-driven lust shot through her system. Drew caught her chin in his palm, dragging her up to meet his lips, pushing his tongue deep in her mouth.

  Much too soon the car behind them honked and she slid back into her seat. Between her thighs her sex throbbed softly, and she suffered through the exquisite discomfort knowing Drew’s pants were snug across his groin.

  Though she’d never caught Drew looking at her directly, she could feel him follow every move she made for the rest of the drive to his place. Noticed his fingers tighten on the wheel every time she wet her lips or parted her legs to soothe the hot, hungry ache he was only making worse by all the things he wasn’t doing yet.

  Like kissing her. Touching her. Making love to her.

  She reached for the handle the second he drove the Jeep into his driveway, but that was as far she got.

  “Not yet,” he said hauling her toward him.

  His senses exploded under the onslaught of having her back in his arms, all soft curves and warm, lush mouth.

  And not nearly close enough.

  He dragged her over the center console, shoving his seat back as she settled in his lap. She moaned against his mouth, sliding down his front until she was nestled snug against his groin.

  If Braxton hadn’t come along, he was pretty damn sure he could have had her in the exact same place twenty minutes ago, tilting her head just a bit, deepening the kiss, her hair falling across his hands.

  He pulled at her shirt, trailing his hand along her abdomen.

  How was it that he’d gone most of his life without her? Without knowing the smell of her, the taste of, the breathless whimper that came from somewhere deep inside, and two weeks without it—without her—had been as close to hell as he ever wanted to come.

  She pulled her hair to one side, letting him devour the tempting slope of her neck. He closed his teeth over the tender skin, wringing another breathless sigh
from her.

  “We should go inside.” She shifted on top of him and he grabbed her hips, rocking her up, letting her slide back down.

  “In a minute.” He pushed his tongue back into her mouth, stroking long and deep. Maybe if he did it often enough, good enough, he could keep her right here all night.

  She dragged her fingers across his chest, pulling at his shoulders. Her breasts plumped up between them, the swell of her cleavage pushing at the neckline of her shirt.

  Cupping her ass, he tugged her higher, just enough he could press his face against her, run his mouth from the soft hollow of her throat down to where her nipple lay hidden just beyond the flick of his tongue.

  They wouldn’t finish what they’d started out here, but he could sure as hell play for just another minute. Much more than that and a curious neighbor might wonder what they were doing out here steaming up the windows.

  With no light on in the driveway, he allowed himself to linger just a few moments longer, easing to his side a bit to get his hand between her thighs. He cupped her through her pants, her sex warm against his palm.

  Nuzzling her neck, he caressed her through the material that was quickly becoming damp. She arched against him, rocking gently against his hand.

  Without a lot of room to work with, he pulled his hand from between her legs just long enough to push her shirt up to gain access to her breasts. He wasn’t sure if it was closing his mouth over her nipple and biting down through the fabric, or slipping his hand right down her pants that made her hiss his name.

  She bowed back, her breasts straining against her bra. God, if she’d been wearing a skirt, he would have ripped her underwear off already and pulled her down to take every inch of him deep inside her.

  She fumbled blindly for the door. “Inside.”

  Now she was talking. He ran his fingers down the damp seam of her cleft and sank his fingers into her sex.

  She caught her breath, biting down on his lip.

  The tight confines prevented him from managing little more than a soft, shallow pump, and then another.

  And another, every one making her inner walls squeeze a little tighter around him. He lazily circled her clit, teasing the slick knot until she bounced her hips so damn wildly it took everything inside him not to growl in pure, primal satisfaction.