Von tangled his dirty fingers in my hair, his eyes closed as he pressed his lips next to my ear. “I don’t hate you,” he admitted in a fierce whisper. “I love you, Peach. I’m just really bad at it. We’ve got the always kind of love, not the terrible kind you say and then regret later like dreadful Chinese food. You’re my best girl. You’ll never be old Chinese food to me.”
I laughed through my tears at the sweetness that filled my heart to the bursting point. My arms wrapped around his shoulders so I could have him and keep him right where I wanted him. “Oh, Von. You’re my best girl, too.”
He laughed with relief into my skin. “You’re home? You’re safe? Where’d you go? What happened?” He inhaled in the crook of my neck with lust that made my eyes roll back and forget that Ezra was still in the room. “Oh, Peach. You cut yourself bad. You smell… Bollocks. You smell like I need a blood bag if I’m going to hear everything I missed, yeah?”
“I can remedy that. I’ll give you two a moment,” Ezra said as he exited the room, closing us in so we could be as weird as we were without an audience reminding us that our friendship was peculiar at a glance.
I exhaled with relief I didn’t realize I desperately needed to feel. His shoulders were broader than I remembered, so I made quick work of memorizing his body, as though we’d been apart for a year. The four days felt like hundreds stacked up against me without the constant affection he bathed me with. Von’s tongue laved over my stitches, and before I could stop myself, a quiet moan escaped my lips. “You don’t want to do that,” I reminded him, my eyes closed at the totally freaky seduction neither of us meant to have happen.
“You left,” Von accused, still holding me as if I was precious to him, as if it didn’t matter which world I landed in, so long as we were together.
“I’m sorry. I freaked out and ran.”
“Then I freaked out and ran all over creation searching for you. I took Ollie and went to every place he said you might be. Phoned all your friends while Mason started visiting the different countries to look for you in Terraway. Never again!” He gripped the back of my head, squeezing with too much force. “When I’m a wanker, just slap me upside the head to knock some sense back into me, yeah?” He shook his head, his cheek pressed to mine to warm it. “Scratch that. I won’t be stupid like that ever again. Problem solved.”
I could feel him gently pulling the waves of anxiety away from me, and I knew I’d been wrong to leave one of my greatest sources of comfort. “I do love you, Von.”
“I know you do. You finally admit it when I’m inches away from tearing open this cut on your neck and sucking you dry.” He brought my arms to his nose and drank in the scent of my blood beneath the bandages, his eyes rolling back as he moaned sumptuously. “If I tell you to run, only go downstairs until Ezra comes back with a blood bag. Don’t actually run away again.”
“Breathe through your mouth. Don’t breathe through your nose; you have a harder time when you can smell the blood.” I felt his jaw open as he took my advice, his minty cigar breath teasing my neck. I reached up and stroked his cheek, loving that, despite everything, we could be like this, that life could be like this. I did love Von, for better or far worse. “I love you,” I whispered, partly in revelation to myself. “You don’t want to hurt me.”
He swallowed thickly before pulling back to press his forehead to mine. “You’re right. If I tore open your stitches and drank you until you collapsed in my arms like a dying flower, that would be bad.”
“Very bad,” I agreed, running my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.
He reached his hand between us and stroked my lower lip that was malleable to his touch. “If I bit you a little right here, it would be bad if I tasted your blood, yeah? I shouldn’t do that.” He was talking himself through, reminding his conscience to speak up.
“It would be very bad. It would get you one step closer to being rabid. Then I’d lose you forever,” I reminded him.
“Just a little taste would be bad.” His tone took on a note of begging. “Just a little taste?”
I held onto his face, making sure the only thing he saw were my eyes. “Love bug, you’ve got to get a grip on this. Breathe through it. Ezra’s coming. When was the last time you had blood?”
He whined for a second when I mentioned his favorite food group. “We barely stopped for anything. I’ve been eating human food when I can, but I haven’t even thought about blood since I lost you. Now it’s the only thing I can think about. You smell like a glorious Christmas feast.”
“Poor baby,” I cooed, massaging his temples for him. I felt him take a wave of my worry and hissed in disapproval. “Pulling only makes you hungrier. Stop doing it until you get some blood in you.”
“But I can feel your anxiety.”
“I’ll be more stressed if you try to eat me.”
“Thanks for making a joke.” Von snorted out a laugh and then kissed my cheek. “I love you so very much. It feels good to finally say it.”
“Hold on, honey. It’ll be okay. I’m right here.”
Von’s eyes closed, as if in prayer. “You’re right here,” he repeated, squeezing me tighter. “I’ve been replaying the awful things I said to you. I’m a horrible fake fifties sitcom husband. Just the worst.”
“Oh, Mr. Brady,” I teased, grateful I heard Ezra’s footsteps running toward us. “Don’t you know? I love you even when you’re at your worst.”
23
My Lethal Kiss
Mason volunteered to patrol the mansion when it was time to turn in, rather than be in the same room as me. “I’ll probably crash in one of the guest rooms,” he said without looking in my direction. “Just call me if she needs extra pulling. Otherwise I’ll see you guys in the morning.” Without waiting for a response from the two of us, Finn, Ezra, Mariang or Danny, Mason stood abruptly and left the dining room.
“He’s a wee bit frosty,” Von commented as he downed his second nightcap. His arm looped around my waist so I was tucked tight to his side at the dining room table. It was like he was afraid I might run off again if I had an inch of breathing room. He eyed the rest of my burger with unconcealed lust. “You going to finish that, love?” Von asked, his chin on my shoulder.
“I am. You can have my fries, though.”
Finn snorted derisively at us. “Give her some space, Von. I’m suffocating just watching you crowd her.”
“Now, now. Don’t be jealous, Finn. I’ve always got a place on my lap for you.” Von had kept one arm affixed around me through our whole meal. Each time I’d leaned forward to take a drink or pass a dish, he’d scooted my chair an inch closer to his. Now we were practically sharing a seat, the outsides of our thighs glued together. He wolfed down my fries, my pickle, the second helping of steamed carrots I’d only made it halfway through and still eyed my burger with too much interest.
“Oh, fine,” I harrumphed, feeding him the last mouthful of beef. His lips closed around my fingers with a light moan at the sustenance he couldn’t get enough of. When he drew back, he caught my wrist when he noticed a glob of ketchup on my thumb. Without hesitation, he popped my digit in his mouth and laved his tongue around it, sweeping the ketchup away and giving me the guilty shivers.
No, Von hadn’t had germs in a long time. He was bathed in my love, so my OCD hiccups were forgotten all too often around him.
Mariang and Danny watched us with curious glances and an exchange of wary looks that I didn’t have the energy to address. I had to whistle for my supper, which meant Finn and me taking turns regaling the others with our little adventure. I steered us around the battle, making Finn look like the hero, and me the battlefield nurse who only helped on the sidelines. We both left out any mention of our kiss and certainly didn’t look at each other like we had participated in any kind of sensual foot rubbing. In fact, Finn and I tried not to look at each other at all.
When it was time to turn in, Von was reluctant to leave my side even to take a shower, but I insisted it was ne
cessary. “I promise I won’t leave. I can’t.” I held up my black leather bracelet.
No sooner had Von disappeared and turned on the shower did a quiet knock sound on the bedroom door. I opened it to find my favorite captain standing in the hallway. “Hey, Finn. What’s up?”
Finn let himself in, moving past me to make sure we were alone in the bedroom that had been furnished in light green with gold accents. “I came to check your stitches before I went to sleep.”
“Oh. Well, that’s nice of you. I’m sure they’re fine.”
Finn pulled out the narrow chair for me that matched the blond wooden desk in the corner. “Sit down. And I’m not just here for that. Thanks for not mentioning what didn’t happen in the tavern.”
I lowered my voice. “It didn’t happen, so we don’t need to talk about it.”
He moved my hair to the side after I sat down, poking at my wound like a layman. I’m pretty sure he was just stalling for time before he summoned up the courage to say his piece. He sighed irritably. “Von knows a certain side of me, so if he starts running his mouth, try not to listen. I was good to you some of the time in Silo. Remember that.”
I was wary of his warning. “What’s Von going to tell me about you? What kind of demons are you hiding? And nothing happened between us, so you don’t have to feel the need to hide things from me. We’re friends, Finn. I’m not your girlfriend or your mom.”
“Thanks for the clarification,” Finn simpered.
I lowered my voice yet further. “I know all about Von’s time in Dagat, and that you signed him into the harem.”
He cleared his throat a few times. “Yes, well, as soon as Ezra gives me enough of a punishment to where he trusts me again, I’m going home. I’ll be back when it’s time to move the stone again. Otherwise, I won’t see you.”
“I guess that makes sense.” I don’t know why I felt a slight bit bummed about that. I mean, we had only just started to get along, and now he was bolting. “Have a nice trip, then.” His hand drifted from my wound to my shoulder, and I cupped his hand as it rested there. “Be good to the women you’re in charge of. Don’t order anyone into Banak’s bed, Finn.”
“You know I don’t have control over that. I do as Banak orders.”
“Be better than this. Dyesebel would want more from you than strategy and blind obedience.”
“She’s the one who used her Mer song on me to get me this way.”
Fair point. “Well, I want more from you.”
“See? I knew you’d go and make it all serious and dramatic like that. I knew you’d lay on the guilt. I should never have told you about Bel.”
I didn’t let go of his hand, but looped my fingers through his as I looked up at him. “Be a good man, Finn. Find a way to steal back your conscience. I know it’s in you, otherwise you wouldn’t be up here, hoping for a lecture and the serious and dramatic talks.”
“Yes, well…” He frowned, and I knew he was grinding his teeth together to chew on his tart response. “I don’t want to go home,” he admitted.
“Where do you want to be?”
Finn’s eyes fell to my lips, his hand migrating from mine to palming my chin in that possessive way I couldn’t decide how I felt about. My heartrate picked up as I watched his tongue wet his full lips, and though we’d said we’d leave it all behind in Silo, a strong desire of feral want descended on us both. “Just one more kiss,” he whispered more to himself than to me.
“Just one more kiss,” I said, more to myself than to him. He drew me closer, his lips caressing mine gently, as if still holding himself back from me. As if I was the dangerous one. As if I might hurt him.
I let out a breathy “hmm” and sunk in to the kiss, letting the colors and the sounds dance around us. Finn wasted no time, introducing his tongue to tango with mine, which was new for us. His tongue tempted, and then claimed me, making me want only more as the green and silver swirled around us, looping us closer together.
A different sensation began to wind itself into our kiss, popping and sizzling like carbonation on our lips. The tingly effervescence travelled outward across my face, and I shivered in time with Finn, who let out a bleat of distress as he deepened the kiss.
Abruptly, Finn broke away and stumbled back a few paces before grabbing his chest like he was having a heart attack. He fell to his knees in alarm. “Something’s wrong! Get Ezra!”
I blinked the colors away, but my body still felt the cool dance of the carbonation on my skin as I stumbled toward the door, too foggy to think more than a simple compliance of orders. “Zezra!” I slurred through the hallway. “Help!”
It was a thing of luck that Ezra had been down the hall in Mason’s room to get his account of Silo when I called. I didn’t have much more oomph in me. When I turned back to Finn, he’d collapsed face-down on the carpet.
Ezra charged in, calling for Danny, who bolted into the room with Mason two seconds later. “What happened to him?” Ezra asked, rolling Finn over and staring into his drooping eyelids. He roused, but not enough to assure us he was right as rain. Danny and Mason helped him to sit up, his limbs weighted and clumsy.
“I don’t know!” I cried, wringing my hands. I dropped to my knees and felt his pulse. “We were just… And then he grabbed his chest and collapsed!”
Just as quickly as Finn succumbed to gravity and whatever else, he seemed to snap out of it in the next few breaths, more confused than in pain. “What was that?” he asked, shaking his head to rid himself of the fog. He rubbed his chest like it was sore. “I felt a little of this creeping on before in the tavern, but I stopped it before it could… What happened?”
My eyes went wide in warning for him not to rat me out. I knew he was talking about our first kiss, and apparently something about it almost gave him a heart attack the first time. Whatever I almost did to him back in the tavern, I for sure did to him this time around. Was my kiss turning lethal or something?
Ezra’s face was grim. “When was the last time you ate anything before dinner downstairs? Have you slept a full night at all?”
“I dunno. We got the stone delivered. That’s all that matters.” He shook his head. “I caught up on my sleep in the tavern. It’s not that.”
Ezra took a paternal shine to Finn, patting his back and helping him up, despite Finn’s protests that he could stand on his own. “Come downstairs and get some more to eat. You know I keep buhay here for the council. Then you can stay in one of my rooms until you feel better.”
“I feel fine,” Finn lied, posturing. I could tell he hated being fawned over. “I’m just going to port home. Sleep in my own bed.”
Before any of us could insist he take some time to rest, Finn cast me a look of confusion mixed with silent alarm and then vanished.
Danny scratched the back of his head. “Well, I guess that’s that.”
Mason whirled on me, accusation in his face and tone. “What happened?”
“He was checking my stitches and stood up too fast, I guess. Then he collapsed and I called for Ezra first thing. That’s all,” I lied.
My mouth went dry and my palms were sweaty. I didn’t need people knowing that now I apparently had the ability to send people to the hospital with a kiss.
24
A Sister and her Mister
I was relieved when the guys left shortly after that, and tried to push my encounter with Finn out of my mind. Mariang took out fresh pajamas with the tags still on from the drawers she’d stocked for me. I took my turn brushing her hair, holding her close through my sincere apology for worrying her as I’d done. All the clothes she’d selected were the correct size, and I don’t know why this attention to detail struck me with just the right amount of sweetness. She fawned over me a few more minutes before she wished me sweet dreams, and I let her, basking in the glow of having a sister again.
The shower turned off a few seconds after she left. Von appeared in only a towel a minute later, standing in the bathroom doorway looking, well, exact
ly like Von would in a towel. His hair was dripping at the base of his neck, and he smelled like fresh soap and carefree guy, which it turns out, is a great combination. “Forgot my pajamas downstairs in my bag,” he explained of the towel.
“I’ll go grab them for you.” I had to get out of there. Finn scrambled my brains to where I was too attracted to Von to keep things platonic, as they had to be. Stupid Finn. I all but ran downstairs away from my beautiful BFF, barging in on a hushed conversation between Mariang and Danny in the kitchen. They sat close together on stools at the counter, and stopped talking as soon as I walked into the room. “Hey guys. You see Von’s bag anywhere?”
Danny jerked his thumb toward the foyer by the front door. “Probably didn’t even make it past the entrance.”
Mariang caught my eye and motioned me to her. I expected another lecture on disappearing, but her sad eyes kept me from checking out before she opened her mouth. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun that made her look like the ballerina her body was suited to be. She held out her arms, and when I got near enough to grab at, she wrapped me in a warm hug, resting her head on my shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re home safe,” she said to me, and I could feel the relief in her embrace. “We’re supposed to be sisters, but you left without saying goodbye.”
“I guess that’s true. I had a feeling your boyfriend wouldn’t have let me go, so I bolted when I got the chance. I shouldn’t have done it, though.”
“We’re supposed to be sisters first and coworkers second. I was worried about you. Don’t make me worry.”
The hurt in her tone matched mine when I’d confronted Ezra about the exact same thing. Here I had a family member who treated me like one, and I’d kept her at a distance for no reason at all. “You’re right. I should’ve told you.” I wrapped my arms around her thinned frame and gently squeezed. I’d said as much upstairs when I’d been brushing her hair, but she seemed to need the extra reassurance. I found I had a hard time refusing Mariang anything, sweet as she was. “Can I make it up to you? Do something together that has nothing to do with work or anything serious?”
Tempt (Terraway Book 4) Page 13
