by Fleur Smith
“Someone broke into my motel room when I was last here in Charlotte and ransacked it while I was out.”
“What made you think it was me?”
“The words you said when I was in the hospital.”
He flinched.
“And you tracked me to Rolla,” I said. I now knew that I’d misinterpreted the reason he’d found me there, but it had still been the event that had cemented his hatred for me in my mind. “Whoever is hunting me seems to be able to second-guess my every move. It’s like they’re always just one step behind me.”
He frowned at my words.
“I thought you hated me for what happened to Louise. It made sense that you would want me dead.”
“What happened to Lou was her own doing!” he snapped, his voice was harsh and without regret. “It was her fault, and it was just a goddamned miracle that you weren’t killed too. I’ll never be able to get the sight of you, unresponsive on that fucking hospital bed, out of my head. It’s haunted me for so fucking long, Evie.”
His anger sparked my remorse. Tears threatened my eyes as I thought about the years we’d lost because of my stupid assumption. “I know I was wrong now, and I’m sorry. I should have trusted you more.”
“You should have,” he murmured.
Even though the look in his eyes made it clear that his words weren’t designed to hurt, they stung as they reached me.
“I told you that I’d made my choice and that I didn’t regret it. Nothing changed with Lou’s stupidity. I have never regretted you.” He glanced away. “You changed me, Evie. I couldn’t just blindly kill people anymore.”
“People?” I asked, ignoring the hurt of the lost years and miscommunications to smile wryly. “That’s not the man I used to know, Mr. Fifteen Witches.”
His gaze was filled with an enigmatic emotion as he matched my smile. “As you reminded me, some of the monsters aren’t monsters. And some of them have families too. Some of them are even capable of love.” He brushed my hoodie back, revealing my hair.
With the gentle touch, it was as if he’d pushed away the final barriers between us, and even though I was still fully dressed, I was completely exposed in front of him.
“I feel so stupid, believing the memories of my foggy dream and running like that,” I said. Looking into his eyes, I found a truth I’d never have acknowledged—not even to myself. At least, not completely. “I was terrified. I was so scared, Clay.” Tears tracked salty paths down my cheek as I said the words.
He caressed my face softly with both of his hands, clearing my tears away with a gentle swipe of his thumb. The small motion made my stomach clench and my heart soar. He rested his forehead against mine again. “I won’t lie; it hurt when I discovered you’d left, but I was almost relieved too.”
“Why?”
“The Assessors,” he murmured, seeming to weigh his reluctance to give me the information with his need to tell me everything. He pressed on, even though it was clear by his tone that he didn’t really want to tell it all to me. “They’re a special division of the Rain, and the sickest bastards I’ve ever met. I—I trained with them for a while but couldn’t take their methods. And they don’t want you dead anymore. They want to study you, your kind.”
Even if his words hadn’t been enough to terrify me, the chilling tone of his voice seeped deep into my bones.
“They wanted to find out your weaknesses. Before you, they thought the story of the baby rising from the ashes was nothing more than an urban legend. There’s so much they don’t know. Trust me when I say you don’t want to know what they’ll do to find information and disperse it into the lore.”
I shuddered at the thought.
“When I found out you were in Rolla, I had to see you. I needed to tell you what they’d planned and, selfishly, I wanted to beg you for another chance. It was a dark time for me, watching you drive away so soon after learning how desperate the Rain was to study you.”
“How did—”
“I passed the wrong fucking doorway at the right time. Eth and Dad were talking about transferring you to Bayview for observation.” His brow furrowed as he cut me off. Pacing away from me, he put distance between us. It left me desperate for his touch.
Staring at his back, I wasn’t able to watch his expressions.
“Clay, I—”
Spinning back toward me, he held up his hand to silence me again. “They saved your life. In the hospital. They knew you were there and had operatives stationed to stop me finding you, but they kept you alive. They told me they would let you go if I went back to them. They did that just to use you as a pawn against me.”
He closed the distance between us, scooping me up into his arms. The sudden movement took me by surprise, and a gasp slipped past my lips.
“I hated them, but I owed them so much too. They saved your life, even if it was with the plan to hand you over to the cruelest people I know. The things they would have done to you, Evie.”
Dropping me back to the ground, he brushed his hand over my hair before bringing it down to cup my face. I leaned into his touch.
“Then when I got to Rolla and you were in my car, I saw your face. It was clear how scared you were . . . of me!” He dropped his hand and turned away, then steeled himself before turning his gaze back onto me. My hands lifted to his hips, the feel of his body harder than I’d expected given his appearance. I held myself firm against him, unwilling to let him go again. “It hurt so goddamned much to see that look in your eyes because of me. I understand though, I still can’t say how I would’ve reacted under the same circumstances.”
He touched his forehead to mine again.
“I’m so tired, Clay,” I admitted. His revelations about the new desire of the Rain only added to the weight in my heart. “When I first got your letter, I thought that this was a trap. I thought I would walk in and never walk back out.”
He lifted his forehead away from mine and frowned. “Then why are you here?” he asked, although his eyes reflected my own defeat. He’d probably thought about giving up at least as often as I had.
“I had to see you again, even if it was the last thing I ever did,” I said. The bubble of hope that had been building in the pit of my stomach expanded yet again. With it came a rush of emotions that I’d tried unsuccessfully not to feel ever since I’d left the hospital years earlier.
“You were going to throw your life away, for what?”
“For a few more minutes with you,” I admitted quietly. I glanced up to meet his chocolate gaze. “It would have been worth the sacrifice.”
He traced his fingers along my cheek before pulling me into his arms.
“Evie, I—” His voice cut off, strangled by tears. Instead of words, he held me tight, secure in his embrace. It was safe—I was home. I wrapped my arms around his back and rested my head against his chest.
“It’s been so hard,” I added in a quiet whisper.
“Maybe your life wouldn’t be so hard if you weren’t facing it alone,” Clay whispered against my ear, almost voicing my exact thoughts. There was an edge of hopeful longing in his voice.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, I’ve missed you, so much,” he said in a rush. His emotions made his voice quiver and bounce. “I’m saying, if you can think of just one reason to stay with me, then stay. Please?” He pulled me closer to him as the plea left him.
Listening to his heart stutter and pound the same way mine was, I breathed in his familiar, comforting scent.
“I can think of a hundred reasons,” I murmured. Being secure in his arms was just one.
“But . . .” His voice reverberated through his chest and surrounded me like a comfortable blanket. His tone was expectant—he was already certain we’d be walking out of here separately. Under the circumstances, I couldn’t really blame him.
“No buts,” I murmured. “I can’t think of one good reason to say goodbye.”
Unless . . .
“So yo
u really haven’t been hunting me?” I asked.
“I really haven’t.”
“Good,” I breathed. “Then that means this isn’t an entirely stupid move.” Lifting myself up onto my tiptoes, I claimed his lips with mine in an urgent kiss.
He gasped at first as the kiss took him by surprise but soon responded in kind. His fingertips brushed against the side of my face as he poured his passion into me. My lips moved in time with his, and I moaned with delight as all the things that had been missing from my life for so long rushed back to me. My stomach clenched, and desire flamed within me. It was old and new at the same, familiar but different. His wiry beard tickled across my fingertips as I brushed my hands along his cheeks, but his lips were as warm and soft as they had been during our first kiss.
“Evie,” he murmured against my lips, and the same desperate tone from our phone call was back in his voice.
He kissed me with a desperation that made my heart ache for our lost years. His tongue sought out mine, and his lips caressed mine with an urgency I readily reciprocated.
With frantic motions, I clutched at him, holding him anywhere I could grasp. Fingers in hair, arms around shoulders. I pulled him closer to me until barely a breath existed between us. The feel of his body pressed hard against mine woke sleeping serpents that twisted and writhed inside my stomach. Although his frame was thinner than I remembered, he still had strength enough to hold me tight and secure in his embrace.
After pulling loose the tie that held my hair in place, his fingers brushed through my locks. Then he trailed his hands down along my back to slip underneath the hem of my hoodie. Tracing his fingertips along the skin just beneath the material, he sent fires racing through my body. When I didn’t object, he lifted his hand higher, exposing my skin to the air. The sensation spurred me on, and I gripped at the buttons of his shirt. With each one I tugged open, my desire grew until my fingers worked with an almost impossible haste to strip away the barriers between us.
A needful growl rolled through his chest, echoing into my body and setting new fires. Gripping my hips, he guided me backward until I rested flush with the wall. He pressed himself firmly against me.
“I’ve missed you so goddamned much,” he whispered against my skin as his mouth claimed my throat and his hands explored my body. His body echoed his words. His need evident against my hip. A throaty groan escaped me at the overwhelming sensation of being trapped between the solid wall and his hard body.
I hadn’t been touched by anyone since the morning he’d left me to look for work in Detroit, and I hadn’t realized how desperately I’d missed it until his rough hands caressed my sensitive skin with a need that resonated throughout every inch of me.
He tugged at my hoodie, sweeping it off my body and over my head in one smooth movement. Dropping it onto the floor, his hands pressed softly against my sides, trailing from my waist to my exposed chest. He dipped his head so that his lips and tongue could caress my collarbone. I tipped my head back and sighed as he moved, softly lapping at my skin.
My eyes sprung open when he stilled and pulled away.
One of his fingers slid beneath the chain around my neck. “You still have it,” he whispered in awe as he lifted the pendant he’d given me so long ago.
“It never occurred to me to take it off,” I said, shifting nervously.
“What is it?” he asked, his eyes appraising me as if he realized there was more to the story than I was saying.
I sighed before admitting the full truth. “It always comforted me. Whenever the days were at their darkest, I would touch it and be reminded.” I couldn’t look at him as I spoke.
“Reminded of what?” he whispered, the warmth of his breath brushing across my throat as he spoke.
“That, even for a moment, you loved me enough to give me this piece of yourself.”
“Silly, Evie,” he murmured reverently before kissing along the line of the chain. “I’ll love you forever, and I give you every piece of myself. For the rest of our lives. Or as long as you’ll have me.”
As he said the final word, he crashed his lips to mine again and swept me away on a wave of love. Hands fumbled desperately at clothes, pulling and shedding until we were both free of our coverings. Without giving me a chance to second-guess the decision—not that I would have—he sank to his knees in front of me and brushed his tongue across my heated flesh.
Scrambling for purchase on the wall behind me as he devoured me, I was lost. His hands held my hips securely, pinning me in place and holding me upright as my knees buckled with the overwhelming sensation of his intimate explorations.
For so long, I’d expected a reunion with Clay to involve heartbreak and death. I’d thought he would be a merciless hunter. Never had I expected him to fall to his knees in worship of my body. I titled my head back and clutched his hair as he swapped his tongue for two teasing fingers.
Kissing his way back up my body, his breath brushed my skin. “Fuck, you’re beautiful,” he murmured against my stomach.
The higher he climbed, the faster his fingers moved, leaving my legs quivering and my breath shaky. As he claimed my mouth again, he hitched my legs around his waist and pinned me against the wall with one sharp thrust.
Matching moans escaped our lips. There were no words necessary, they’d been used already, and our bodies communicated our desire better than we ever could.
A whimper escaped my lips when Clay pulled away and set my feet back onto the ground. The sound caused his lip to twitch upward.
With a needful gaze, I watched his movements as he went to his bag and grabbed something out. In the next moment, he’d laid a thin, worn blanket onto the ground. Then he reached for my hand and pulled me to it—to him.
Lying down on the blanket, he guided me over his body. With a breathless sigh, I sank onto him.
“Fuck, Evie,” he moaned as I did.
Our new position gave him the freedom to explore my body, and he took every opportunity. When I opened my eyes, it was to find his gaze burning smoking trails over my skin—as if drinking in every inch in case he never would again. At the sight, I bent forward to claim his lips again, and he kissed me like a man possessed.
With his tongue grazing mine, his thumb found my clit and, with a practiced touch, he sent me spiraling into paradise. I was so lost in the moment, so lost in him, that I could do nothing but revel in his touch as wave after wave of pleasure crashed through me.
Spent and sated, I collapsed over his chest, kissing his throat through the smile on my face. Clutching me to his chest, Clay maneuvered us so that he was on top.
“I missed you, Evie,” he whispered as he thrust into me again. “So. Fucking. Much.”
It was like he couldn’t get close enough to satisfy himself. With each motion, he bought me closer to the precipice again until with one final kiss, one final drive, we tumbled over together.
Our union had been nothing like the dreams I’d had. It had been desperate and needful, but absolutely perfect.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LYING ON MY back and relishing the pleasure that still rolled through me, I couldn’t help but consider how stark the contrast was between the love and need Clay had just demonstrated and the hateful reunion that I’d imagined we might share.
How could I have got it all so damned wrong?
I rolled onto my side to look at him and wondered at the difference between the truth and assumptions.
The heartache and years of pain I’d carried around had almost evaporated with his touch, replaced instead by regret that my actions had forced us apart unnecessarily. My fear no longer gripped me tightly in its clutches. Even with the small infusion of hope Clay had given me, I was strong enough to face the world again.
The guilt over the innocent deaths I’d caused, while still hanging around my neck like a noose, had lessened. Or perhaps it was just easier to handle knowing that I could share it with Clay. Seeming to feel my gaze on him, he turned to me too. When our eyes met
, he flicked me a wicked smirk that made my stomach loop-de-loop.
How could I ever have believed he was the one hunting me?
The thought chilled my blood and rendered me motionless. All of the lingering happiness drained from me in an instant, and I saw how dangerous the situation was.
What if whoever is tracking me knows I’m here? That we’re here together?
“Clay?” I asked, my voice ice and steel as I stood to get dressed again.
He frowned at me, no doubt wondering why I was hastily throwing my clothes back on rather than still lying at his side.
“If you weren’t hunting me, who was?” I asked.
His eyes widened at the reminder of the danger I’d lived in for the past few years. He stood as well, yanking on his boxers before closing the distance between us and wrapping his arms around me.
“I can’t say for sure,” he murmured thoughtfully once I was safe in his hold.
“The Assessors?” I breathed the name of the threat I’d only just learned existed.
He shook his head before nuzzling against my hair. It was almost as if he needed to get closer than ever before. “They don’t venture outside the safety of the walls of the Rain headquarters.” He winced as if remembering something painful and for a moment, a shadow passed over his features. “It could be Eth. The last time I saw him, he blamed you for everything.”
Clay’s words reminded me of Tallahassee, of my narrow escape from Ethan, and it made perfect sense.
“He blames me for Louise?” I asked, the weight of her death tugging on my conscience again. I pulled away from Clay’s hold, unable to take his comfort while discussing his sister’s death.
He frowned, but let me go. “And for making me want to leave as well,” he added in a quiet whisper.
I sighed and took a few more steps away from him. Hanging my head in shame, the old bloodstains on the floor caught my eye. A reminder of the danger we brought into each other’s lives. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”
I hadn’t even heard Clay move, but in the next instant, he’d spun me around to look at him again.
