She stared at him.
“I want to keep you safe, Clelia. And I want to claim you.”
“Claim me?”
He moved forward, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. “Like this,” he said, gently kissing her eyes, her nose, her cheeks, and her lips.
He closed his eyes when he tasted her mouth, the shape and the warmth that were imprinted in his mind, once more real. He deepened the kiss to feel her respond to the caress, and nothing could have gladdened him more.
Hugging her tighter, he felt her heart skip, and drank it in greedily, like a starving man. He remembered the shape of her breasts under his palm, the feel of the tight skin over her tummy, and he wanted to become heady on her taste and scent, wanted to make her scream with pleasure so much that it was almost all he could focus on. But not like this. Not here, in this ugly place, where it wasn’t safe, where she had suffered.
He pulled away from their embrace and smiled at her soft moan. He nipped gently at her lips.
“Can you trust me, Clelia?”
Her eyes became clouded. “I don’t know, Josselin. After everything that’s happened...”
It was a stake in his heart, but one he deserved. “I can be patient. I’ll work hard at winning your trust. But for now, you have to believe me when I tell you that you’re not safe. You’re in danger from both Cain and Lupien.”
“I know that, Josselin,” she whispered. “Why do you think I’m hiding?”
“Let me make you safe.”
“But you work for Cain.”
“If I lose you, I lose everything. Don’t you see? Not even the team will matter.”
“Then he doesn’t know you’re here?”
“No one knows where I am.” He took her hand. “The only way for you to be safe is to face Lupien and to fight for your freedom.”
She sucked her breath in. “I can’t fight someone like that. I can’t even start a fire. Since the boat ... I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.”
“Your talent has regressed. I’ll help you. We’ll do it together. You’re stronger than you think. It’s the only way to save you ... us. If we can destroy Lupien, and by doing so, prove that you’re pure and that your heart can’t be twisted, Cain won’t have to eliminate you.”
He felt her trembling under his hands. “I don’t know, Josselin.”
“There’s no other way. And we don’t have a lot of time.”
She bit her lip. “Where do we start? How am I supposed to do this?”
“We’ll start by getting you out of this dungeon.” He stroked her hair. “You’re mine. It took me too long to realize it, and I have a lot of lost time to make up for. We belong together.” His fingers tightened around hers. “Please give me a chance to show you how good we can be together, how much I love you.”
“You love me?” she whispered, as if it weren’t possible.
“Yes, little witch. More than you can ever know.”
He got up and held out his hand, wanting her to come to him freely. This time, she gave him her sweet, innocent trust when she placed her hand in his.
He pulled her to her feet gently, eager to take her away from all that resembled her suffering, but when he moved toward the door, she said, “I should have a shower. I came home from work only a few hours ago. I’m still dressed in my working clothes. If you give me a few minutes, I’ll clean up and pack.”
“No,” he said, more harshly than what he intended. “You can shower at my hotel. And I don’t want you to have things that will remind you of this.” He motioned around. “I brought your things. You ‘forgot’ them when you left.”
Chapter Sixteen
Josselin took her back to his suite at the Westcliff. He watched as she looked around the lounge and bedroom that were ten times the size of the room in which she had lived for the past four months, and he clenched his fists. To hide his turbulent emotions, he walked to the dressing room and pulled open the sliding door of the cupboard.
“Your things are all here,” he said.
Clelia followed him and flipped through the hangers, touching each piece of clothing. He had also brought the contents of her backpack, but had replaced the old rucksack with a leather bag. Her hand rested for longer on the silk coat.
“Were you so sure of finding me?”
He took her hands and turned her to him. “I wasn’t as sure as I was determined, Clelia. I had to find you.”
“What now?”
He smiled. “You asked me that in France, too, but then I didn’t know.”
“And now you do?”
“Yes.” He knew with absolute clarity. “I need to take you home.”
She pulled her hands free and took a step back. “It’s not safe.”
“Clelia, listen to me. Lupien will stop at nothing. He won’t stop until he’s found you.”
He could see the fear in her eyes and it pulled at his heart.
“What will he do when he finds me?”
Josselin didn’t want to add more to her burden, but she deserved the truth. She needed to be prepared, to be ready to face the inevitable.
He took a deep breath. “He will want your gift of fire. It will add to his power. The only way he can take it from you is to corrupt you, and then to kill you.”
Her lips parted, but no sound escaped. A little frown spoiled her perfect brow.
Josselin caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. “Trust me, Clelia. Please. Please let me help you.”
“I don’t even know if I can do it–if I can start a fire. Unless it was I...” Her voice broke.
Josselin folded his arms around her and cradled her head against his chest. When he felt her silent tears soak his shirt, he pulled away, distressed, and lifted her chin with his finger.
“What is it, Clelia?”
She wiggled from his embrace and walked to the balcony doors, facing outside. “I don’t know if it was me.”
He frowned. “If it was you who did what?”
She flung around. “Me who started the fires.”
“Of course it wasn’t. What are you talking about?”
Her bottom lip trembled. He saw her biting down onto it, and then she lifted her eyes like a silent apology.
“Clelia, what is it?”
“A month before you came, the same time that the fires started, I started having a dream, the same dream, and whenever I dreamt it, I walked in my sleep.”
“You sleepwalked?”
“Yes. Sometimes I woke up in a different room of the house, but sometimes ... sometimes I woke up someplace else, like in the woods.”
He looked at her in disbelief. He suddenly understood, but his main concern wasn’t for the fires. It was for her safety and what could have happened to her.
“I begged Erwan to lock me into my room at night, but he couldn’t get it over his heart. He told me it wasn’t me. Said I had set fire to things only twice, when I was three years old, and never again.” Tears ran down her cheeks. “Oh, Josselin, what if it was me?”
He couldn’t stand her agony. He crossed the floor and grabbed her to him, pressing her precious body against his, feeling the sobs shaking her.
She pushed her palms against his chest, putting some distance between them, and sensing her need to continue her confession, he let go.
“I wanted to go to the authorities, to hand myself over, but Erwan said it wouldn’t accomplish anything, that they’d only use me as a scapegoat and brand me as guilty without seeking the truth. He wanted me to get away, to hide for a few months until the dust had settled. I didn’t know what we were going to do afterward.
“Erwan knew he was a suspect. The mayor, one of his closest friends, found out about it and leaked the information to him. It wasn’t Erwan who started the fires, either. As much as I doubted and wanted to face the fact that it could have been me, he maintained that it was someone else. Erwan said it was best that we both go into hiding, asking me to take his boat and disappear for a while. I was on
my way to the jetty to do exactly that when you arrived.”
Josselin shuddered. The fires were malicious. He sensed it when he visited each site. It had never occurred to him that she would worry herself over it, believing she was capable of something like that.
“Clelia, it wasn’t you,” he said gently. “It could never be. You’re not capable of such evil. I knew it when I tasted your blood, and even without tasting your blood, I always knew that it could never be you. We’re sure now that it was Lupien.”
“But why?” She chewed her lip. “You truly believe that Lupien burned down innocent people’s homes just to draw me out?”
“It’s a way of awakening a regressed art.”
“Is that why you couldn’t pick it up from my blood?”
“Yes.”
“But how could Lupien have known this if he’s never even met me?”
“I honestly don’t know, Clelia. But Lupien is a very clever man, from what I’ve managed to learn about him. We’re also concerned that his motive for setting a whole village on fire over the course of a month wasn’t only to draw out a virgin firestarter. I suspect he also knew that it would draw out his enemy–Cain.”
“So he would have been able to steal my art and to launch an attack on Cain, hoping to kill him too? Two birds with one stone?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t he kill Cain?”
“He tried to kill us, remember? The shooting. It was an effort to get to you. Thank God, it failed. That’s why I had to hide you, why I took you to my house, and when Cain realized that Lupien was lurking somewhere, to the safe house. Then you escaped and Lupien disappeared.” He touched her cheek. “He’s still after you, Clelia. I’m extremely lucky to have found you first.”
“I thought...”
Josselin kissed her tenderly. “Clelia. You’re too good to do anything bad, even in your sleep.”
“If you want me to face Lupien, does that mean I’m going to have to learn how to use my gift?”
“Yes, darling, you are going to have to master your art.” He took her hands again. “But I’ll be here. You won’t have to do it alone.”
“I’m not even sure I can do it.”
“You will. Under the right circumstances, it will surface.”
“What are the right circumstances?”
“A life-threatening situation. Protecting the ones you love.”
“Oh, God, Josselin, I’m not that brave.”
“Of course you are,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Despite it all, despite what I am, you still want to be with me?”
He pulled her to him. “I only want to be with you. Always.” He kissed her tenderly. “Please allow me to love you. It will make me the happiest man alive.”
She smiled at him, giving him hope and warming his heart.
“I love you so much, Josselin de Arradon. I loved you long before you knew I existed.”
His soul leaped. He no longer felt broken, hopeless, and twisted. He was whole, and worthy of the love of someone as beautiful as she.
“You’re wrong, little witch,” he whispered. “I always knew you existed. I stayed away to save you from the darkness of my soul.”
“And now?”
“Now I know you are my soul, that without you, I don’t have a chance at life. You are my salvation. My angel.”
She pressed against him and immediately his body reacted.
“Kiss me, Josselin.”
He obliged. He took her face between his hands and kissed her like he had promised himself he would if he ever found her. No, when he found her.
* * * *
She gripped his hair and arched her neck, giving him access to the tender flesh his lips were seeking. He kissed her gently, but she could feel the urgency under the surface of his touch. She wanted Josselin with all of her soul, but he was already pulling away from her as she was trying to get closer. He planted a final, feathery kiss on her shoulder before keeping her at arm’s length. Physical need soared through her. An emotional ache evoked by his rejection made her feel vulnerable.
“Don’t you want me, Josselin?”
He lifted his head and closed his eyes. He blew out a puff of air and when he looked back at her, his eyes were a darker shade. “How can you even ask me that?”
He took her hand and guided it to the front of his pants. Even before he cupped his hand over hers, holding it to his rock hard desire, she felt the heat creep up her neck and face.
“Of course I want you.” He released her hand and gripped her fingers to lead her to the bed. “But not like this.” He lay down, pulling her with him, and wrapped his arms around her.
She nestled her head in the crook of his arm. “Not like how?”
“You’re a virgin, Clelia. I’m not going to make love to you for the first time in a common hotel room.”
That declaration brought a smile to her face. So, Josselin at least had intentions of making love to her.
“Where, then?” she said, smiling.
“Someplace special.”
She traced the hard disk of his nipple with her finger. “This seems like a very nice suite.”
He groaned under her caress and took her hand in his, stilling her movement. “Don’t touch me like that, little witch. I don’t have that much self-control.”
“Maybe the problem is that you don’t want to lose control.”
In a swift movement, he had rolled on top of her, keeping his weight on his elbows. “There is no problem.” His eyes followed the contours of her face. “I want to do right by you, give you what you deserve.”
“And what do I deserve?”
“Everything. I want your first experience to be a good one.”
“Why wouldn’t it be now?”
He kissed her nose. “Stop bickering, my little witch.” He tugged her hair playfully. “Patience is not one of your virtues, is it?”
“Seemingly not where you are concerned.”
He smiled. With a jump of her heart, Clelia noticed that Josselin actually looked happy. For the first time since she had known him, he didn’t seem his usual haunted self. He almost seemed peaceful.
“Are you hungry?” he said.
“Not for food.”
He groaned. “I can see I’m going to have my hands full with you.”
When he sat up on his knees, it was her turn to whimper, not just because of the loss of contact, but because of the mental image her mind suddenly conjured of him posed over her, naked, willing to claim her.
“I’m going to order lunch. You need to eat. And then I’m going to book us tickets on the next flight home.”
“Where are Maya and Lann?”
“Working.”
“Another mission?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re not?”
“I took a sabbatical.”
“They don’t know I’m alive, do they?” she said with a sudden flash of insight.
“It’s safer that way.”
“And Bono?”
His eyes became intensely mercurial. “Why do you ask about him?”
She crossed her hands behind her head and smiled at Josselin’s possessiveness. “Because he works for you. I thought maybe you would have told him, or that he was waiting somewhere with his helicopter to take off at the flick of your fingers.”
“Not even Bono knows. I wasn’t going to take any chances.”
When he moved, she said, “I’m glad you took a holiday to come looking for me.”
He grinned. With that smile on his face, he was even more irresistible than usual. Clelia looked with hunger at his muscled body and bulging pants. Even as her mouth went dry, another part of her became wet.
The silver of his irises seemed to swirl into a dark shade of gray. “Don’t look at me like that, witch. I don’t want to lose control.”
“Maybe I want you to.”
His jaw clenched and his eye
s narrowed. “Enough teasing.” He got to his feet and pressed the fast-dial button on the communication pad for room service. “Any preferences, or can I order for you?”
“Go ahead.” She didn’t have an appetite, anyway. She waited until he had placed an order for two Caesar Salads, steaks, French fries and a bottle of Pinotage before she got to her feet to hug him from behind, kissing his back.
“The food will be here soon. Go ahead and have a shower if you wish. We’re leaving after lunch.”
* * * *
Clelia looked at the tub longingly, but had a quick shower instead. She dressed in the red dress, the silk coat and the black boots Josselin had bought for her. She brushed out her hair and regarded herself in the mirror. The reflection staring back at her wasn’t the girl who had left her hometown a short few months earlier. It was a woman who was blossoming, who knew that she was loved–by a man like Josselin de Arradon.
The room service had to have arrived while she was in the bathroom, because when she stepped into the lounge, a table set with their dishes had been wheeled in. Josselin stood by the window, staring into the distance, but when she entered, he turned and smiled.
“You are beautiful, Clelia.” He pulled out a chair. “Have a seat.”
She touched the hem of the coat self-consciously. “Thank you for the clothes.”
He helped her to move her chair forward and took a seat opposite her. “Like I said before, you have no idea how much joy I got from buying things for you. This is not something I’ve had the privilege of doing in my life before.”
The enormity of his confession launched in her heart like a missile. Big, strong, capable Josselin had never had anyone to take care of since the death of his family, no one he could call his own. She realized that, sexually experienced as he was with women, in an emotional way, he was on virgin territory too.
They ate in silence. Josselin seemed preoccupied. Clelia noticed that he had served her wine, but only drank water himself.
When she finished and neatly folded her napkin next to her plate, Josselin forced a smile. “Would you like me to ring for coffee?”
“No, thank you.” She bit her lip. “What’s wrong, Josselin?”
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