by Eden Rivers
Neither of them had showered yet, and Sky resisted the urge to lean over and rub a smudge of dirt off Alec’s cheek. Like hers, his clothes were smudged with Zach’s blood. His hair surrounded his face in frothy brown waves, and worry lines stretched across his forehead. What a pair they made. Two wounded spirits unable to trust anyone.
She’s on Sorren’s safe list ‑‑ his innermost circle. The thought that they might have escaped the human gunman and a dark lord with a penchant for making things go boom, only to land in the hands of Jaimis’s spy, didn’t do much for her sense of personal security.
“Look…” Laura spread a layer of salve across where the bullet had traveled clear through Zach’s arm. “You may as well go back to talking out loud. At least that way I know what you’re up to.”
Alec’s scowl deepened. “Right. Sky and I were just discussing the fact that Sorren hasn’t been able to ferret out the spy yet. Someone’s feeding Jaimis information on our whereabouts. Someone close enough to know Sorren’s most closely held plans. We were thinking it might be you.”
Sky tensed and channeled a thread of power, ready to let her broken magic do what it would if Laura made a threatening move. For someone who’d had a brilliant career in politics, Alec sure lacked tact under pressure.
“Interesting strategy, especially since Zach still needs her care.” Sky glanced in the healer’s direction. On the other hand, maybe Alec feared Laura might do Zach more harm than good. If so, best to sort out her loyalties from the start.
Rummaging through her bag for another roll of bandages, Laura raised an eyebrow in their direction. “You’re right. I’m a spy.”
The truth in the healer’s voice set Sky on instant red alert. Leaping to her feet, she let her damaged aura ripple free around her, power brimming to the surface like a thunderstorm. Alec tipped the armchair over in his haste to stand beside her, and when he grabbed her arm, she elbowed him in the ribs. Blessed goddess, he hadn’t called so much as a whisper of defensive energy to the surface. What the ‑‑
“She said she’s a spy, not Jaimis’s spy.”
Calmly, as if the discussion involved no more than which salve to use on the ragged edges of Zach’s upper arm, Laura turned to smile at Sky. “Oh, is that what you were worried about?”
Okay, she didn’t just dislike the woman. She hated her. Letting a bit more energy ripple free, Sky twined her hair into a rough braid and planted her hands on her hips.
“Down, girl. The spy deal’s strictly as Sorren’s agent. I’ve been investigating Jaimis’s activities for years. How do you think I got stuck looking after you? Dealing with the rogue witch and the fallout from his dark arts is part of my job description.”
Sky tore away from Alec and returned to her chair, glaring at Laura all the while. “You ever refer to me again ‑‑ even obliquely ‑‑ as ‘fallout from Jaimis’s dark arts’ and you’re going to find yourself on the wrong end of some very messed-up, unpredictable magic.”
Unable to sit still, she rose and went over to brush a kiss across Zach’s forehead, pleased to find it cool and dry, and then stalked toward the back of the cabin. Unfortunately, it was a damn small cabin, and Laura’s taunting voice chased her down the narrow hall.
“When it comes to safe, I’m as close as the three of you are going to get right now. Sorren trusts me, and that’s going to have to be good enough for you. Why don’t you go take a nap? And wake up without the chip on your shoulder.”
Sky headed into the shabby bedroom, hoping she’d heard the last of Laura’s words of wisdom for a while. As fatigued as she was after the morning’s ordeal, she doubted she could actually rest with her mind buzzing with tension. But a little privacy would do her a world of good at the moment.
“This cabin’s not on the original safe house list.” Laura’s bossy tone drifting in from the front room grated on her frazzled nerves. “And Sorren personally screened the three witches guarding the perimeter. No one’s going to find us for a while, so clean up a bit and get some sleep. Or have a good fuck, if it’ll help you relax. But if you question my integrity again, I’m going to nail you for it.”
At that last bit, Sky heard a chair scrape across the wood floor and Alec’s rapid footsteps approaching down the hall. He exploded into the room before she had a chance to disperse the agitated ripple of bluish purple light dancing around her, and as he brushed past her on the way to the bed, his own frantic energy hit her like a slap of sunlight on a stark winter day.
Muttering under his breath, he peeled his torn shirt over his head and tossed it on the bare mattress. No sheets. Sort of went along with the theme of no food in the refrigerator, meager canned goods in the cupboards, and ‑‑
“Fuck, there’s no bathroom in here.” Alec turned a full three-hundred-sixty degrees, as if he might have missed a secret passage or something.
Despite everything, Sky couldn’t help but grin at his appalled tone. “There’s a shack behind the cabin. Pit toilets, I’m guessing. Bathe in the pond, if you want.”
Her own dismay at the state of the cabin evaporated in the face of Alec’s shock. “Guessing they didn’t use pit toilets in Congress, eh, Senator?”
When Alec kicked the ramshackle chest of drawers beside the bed, she wondered if she’d gone too far. Closing the bedroom door to gain at least the illusion of privacy, she sat gingerly on the edge of the grimy mattress.
“I told you, Senator Kouklakis died months ago. Don’t ever call me that again.”
When her life disintegrated around her, she lost a household of belongings and a job tending bar. Stupid of her to forget how much more dearly her mistakes had cost Alec. A world of friends, the career of a lifetime, power, prestige ‑‑
“Bullshit.” Delivering another kick to the chest of drawers, Alec radiated enough irritation to make her more than a bit apprehensive. “I told you before, I work for Sorren. My own choice. Nothing you did had any bearing on this whole fucking mess.”
Right, the good Sen ‑‑ witch obviously had a few rage issues. For all she cared, he could spend the night in the outhouse with the rats. Dealing with Laura had her on edge to begin with, and if Alec thought he could pick a ‑‑ “Oh!”
Sky shrieked in surprise as he let his aura crackle through the surrounding air with an almost audible snap, blinding and hot with more than anger. He closed the distance between them in two strides and pulled her up against his bare chest.
I’m sorry. His thought caressed her mind, whisper soft as he tilted his head down to kiss her.
With the flat of her palm pressed against his chest and his lips traveling over hers like a shiver of wind, his fear and desire raged across her. Fear for Zach, echoing her own. Fear of Jaimis and the dark lords. And fear for her safety.
As for his desire… Her anxiety fanning her lust like a prairie fire, she shivered as his tongue traced her lower lip. Hot, searing, smoky, and blessed near irresistible.
“Hold that thought.”
When Alec pulled away, she felt as if a piece of her broke off, leaving her shaky and hollow. Sky listened to his footsteps in the hall and the brief conversation between him and Laura as she worried over the blatant and inescapable fact that she’d allowed herself to get attached to him. No blessed good could come of that. Last one she’d let herself fall in love with was Lena, and look how that ended. With her roommate ‑‑ her former lover ‑‑ kidnapped as a pawn in Jaimis’s power play. She shuddered to think of what might have happened if she hadn’t been able to help Lena escape.
“Your relationship with Lena ended a long time before that, from what Matt tells me.” Alec stomped back into the room, closed the door with a thud, and dumped their packs on the floor by the chest of drawers.
Right. Nothing like a clear and compelling reminder that she was closer in age to his son than she was to him. Or that his son had paired up with Sky’s ex-girlfriend. Fucking witch’s soap opera, that.
“Hey!” She tried to shove him away when he wrapped his arms ar
ound her.
“If you’re looking for reasons not to get close to me…” Alec studied the stained mattress, as if evaluating its potential, and shook his head. “I’d think my feelings for Zach would offer a better excuse than either age or the fact that your ex-roommate ended up with Matt.”
“Look, Lena’s a sensitive issue for me, just like having left the Senate is for you” Leaning close, she nipped his bare shoulder. “So maybe we could let the topic of her and Matt rest for now, hmm?”
No question where this was leading. Still scared as shit after being shot at in the woods earlier ‑‑ not to mention that they could have been blown up along with Zach’s car if they’d been any closer ‑‑ at the moment, sex with Alec seemed like the safest thing in the world.
Moving closer, until she could feel the heat of his bare chest through her stained tank top, he undid what remained of the makeshift braid she’d fashioned during her altercation with Laura. He ran his fingers through her hair until he hit a tangle, then worried it loose, his movements gentle and slow. Her breath hitched in her throat as he continued grooming her, fanning his hands through her hair and easing the knots free until tendrils floated loose around her chest and back.
“When Zach fell in the woods, I thought…” Bless it, she couldn’t even force the words out. One tumble in the sheets with the two men, and the fear of losing either of them paralyzed her.
“I thought so, too. If you hadn’t been there to call Laura…” He shook his head. “But you were, and you did. And Zach’s tougher than both of us put together. He’ll pull through fine. And FYI, ‘tumble in the sheets’ doesn’t even begin to describe what the two of you did for me.”
Right, but delving that deep would drag her into a realm of complex emotions she’d rather not explore right now. “You want to ‑‑”
“Hell, yes, but not on that bed. Let me fix some blankets on the floor.”
As Alec rummaged through their packs and pulled out a couple of blankets, she pulled her filthy yellow tank top over her head, took off her jeans, and discarded both items on top of the dusty chest of drawers. Action beat anxiety hands down, and seeing as they’d be cooped up here for a while, her options were limited. If anything could make her forget this morning’s near disaster…
“I aim to serve.” Alec tossed a blanket on the floor, raising a cloud of dust, and stalked over to the window to double drape the other blanket over the naked curtain rod.
This guy had to learn to stay the hell out of her head. Either that, or she’d have to remember her thoughts had become public property. “I didn’t mean… Look, I’m sorry.”
Angry, she undid her bra and tossed it on top of her jeans, then slid her panties over her hips and down her legs, leaving them discarded on the floor. Alec knew just how fucking vulnerable she felt right now ‑‑ how dare he get huffy about her need to blow off some steam. Not as if he didn’t feel as needy and frightened as she did.
When he turned to her, his face reflected a mix of regret and apprehension. She reached for his arm before she could think better of it. What was there about Alec that made her need to comfort him, made her want to tangle herself in his arms and forget their cursed game of cat and mouse with the rogue witch?
A small sigh escaped as he leaned down to kiss her neck, his hands playing across her naked spine. Then something furry brushed her ankle, and she bit her lip in an effort not to shriek.
“Rat.” Sky shivered. The telltale skitter of feet underneath the bed indicated it might have friends, too.
“A little mouse, maybe, but I doubt there’d be a…” Eyes wide, Alec bent to look under the bed, formed a glowing white orb over his palm, and tossed it hard, eliciting a burst of angry chatter and skittering feet. “Rat ‑‑ or rather, several. You’re right.”
Without further explanation, he picked up the blanket he’d dropped on the floor, removed the other one from where he’d hung it across the window, and headed out the door. Sky didn’t need any encouragement to follow. This revolting cabin might be the safest damn place in the universe ‑‑ and it could very well be, since she was certain no witch had ever stepped foot in here before. Jaimis would have no reason to search for them in an abandoned hunters’ cabin. But right about now, she’d give anything for a night in one of Sorren’s carefully chosen, clean, fully-stocked safe houses.
Laura glanced at them as they stomped through the living area, and keeping her shoulders square ‑‑ nude, who me? ‑‑ Sky stopped to feel Zach’s cool forehead and brush a kiss across his cheek before following Alec outdoors.
The trees grew so thick that it looked like dusk, even though it couldn’t be much past midday. Birds carried on in a riot of song, and the leaves rustled in the slight breeze. Mosquitoes be damned, sex in the open air had to be better than spending another moment in rat city. As Alec spread the blankets in a hollowed-out spot between several bushes, she slapped at her legs, already providing a feast to the local bloodsuckers.
“Here, settle in quick, and I’ll take care of that.” Alec held out his hand, and she joined him on the blankets, stumbling over a fallen branch at the last minute and landing indelicately against his chest.
As she removed a few stones from under the blanket and tried to find a comfortable spot to settle, Alec raised his arms, and the air around them turned shivery silver. Although she’d felt this silken cocoon twice before, as recently as this morning when he used the power of concealment to usher them away from the burning Jeep and through the woods, goose bumps rose across the backs of her arms.
“I don’t know why, but the temperature drops when I call the cloak of mist. Sounds are muted.” Humming softly under his breath, Alec sprawled on his side and pulled her naked bottom against his jeans. “And the bugs won’t bother you now.”
Holy goddess, she could feel power around her, as potent as a crashing waterfall, and yet, he didn’t even break a sweat. Still humming, he stroked her belly with his palm, smooth and warm.
“This isn’t like a normal spell, or the energy you’d use in a rite. Or even Laura’s healing power. It’s more…” He shrugged. “Like breathing. A part of me.”
“I’m supposed to find that reassuring? That you can summon this kind of power and not bat an eyelash? And for the sole purpose of scaring off a few mosquitoes?”
Alec’s hand strayed to her breast, and she inhaled sharply as his fingers found her nipple. “For safety. Keeping the bugs off is just an added benefit. No one can see us now, and even if someone breached the guards’ wards, we’d be covered.”
While she mulled that over, he scooped her up and turned her to face him. His eyes looked way too serious for a casual encounter, and if she stopped to think twice, she suspected she’d decide this was a bad idea. But when he pulled her closer, and the warmth of his bare chest pressed against her pebbled nipples, she decided some things just didn’t bear further analysis.
“You can maintain this…” She gestured at the silvery mist around them, wondering what to call it. “While we…”
“Yes.” He kissed her nose. “Like I said, no more trouble than breathing. And Sky?”
“Hmm?”
“Nothing casual about this.” His eyes swept her body with a mix of affection and hunger.
Running her tongue along her lips, she let her hand trail lower, her fingers tickling the skin just over the waistband of his jeans. A wave of energy passed between them, power seeking power, and she swallowed hard.
When he reached down to unzip his jeans, her heart kicked into overdrive. Her nerve endings popped and crackled in anticipation, and she felt each nudge and poke of the uneven ground beneath the blankets like a caress. The earth smelled rich and damp, and the aroma of pine mingled with Alec’s own salty, musky male scent.
She grabbed the waistband of his jeans and helped him shove them past his narrow hips, revealing burgundy silk boxers which couldn’t hide his long, stiff cock. “I don’t know how to do this, you know. Me and you…here…now.”
His laugh, low and musical, rippled over her. “It’s been a while for me, too, but I suspect we can figure things out together.”
The silver mist around them shifted and reformed when she smacked his shoulder. Might be as easy for him to weave a concealing spell as it was to fill his lungs with air, but she enjoyed a smug moment knowing she’d ruffled him enough to mess with his all-powerful magic. She gasped when he grabbed both sides of her hips and pressed her mound tight against his cock, only the thin fabric of his boxers separating them.
“If I were so blessed powerful, Jaimis never would have gotten his hands on you.”
Not going down that road, not by a long shot. “So, if I can’t bind you, can’t blindfold you, can’t call upon the services of a number of helpful sex toys…” ‑‑ don’t have the stomach to so much as drag my fingernails deep across your back ‑‑ “then what in the world am I supposed to do with you?”
“How did you ever get so jaded so young?”
Before she could come up with a reply, he scooted down and took her nipple into his mouth, sucking until her universe reduced in size to about the diameter of her areola. Problem was, his question had an answer. And all these years later, it still didn’t sit easy.
Tell me.
Sucking harder, Alec seemed determined to get as much of her left breast into his mouth as possible. Slick little forks of fire raced from her nipple, down her belly, and across her clit, sending shock waves deep into her pussy. Hungry, she reached down to cradle his sac in her palm, playing the silky fabric of his boxers back and forth until he moaned.
“My first serious boyfriend. Human, a couple years older than my sweet sixteen, and the sick fuck had a veritable dungeon in his van.”
When Alec released her nipple with a soft sucking sound, she regretted sharing. She grabbed the waistband of his boxers and liberated his straining cock, all but tearing the silk in her haste to undress him. Tossing the rumpled shorts aside, she slithered toward his groin, hungry to take him in her mouth, but he caught her shoulders and pulled her back until she lay face-to-face with him.
