“Except, in the dream, I had a gun, I was shooting—but at the last moment, it …” She covered her face with her hands and felt like throwing up. “It was a horrible corpse attacking me, a rotting half skeleton with glowing black eyes—it was so real…”
Gradually, thanks to him stroking her back with his broad hand, she calmed down.
“I wish you’d told me about that sooner,” he said, after she finally sighed and relaxed.
“The police haven’t found anyone.”
“Bad part of town, that theater district.”
“I know.”
In the silence that followed, she thought of G.B.
She propped her chin on Duke’s chest. “Just so we’re really clear. I’m not seeing him anymore.”
“The singer?”
“Yes. I’m going to call him tomorrow.”
“So he doesn’t know about this. Between you and me.”
“He will, though.”
Duke tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. After a while, he said, “Good. I’m a one-woman kind of man.” He leaned up and kissed her. “Well, when it comes to you, that is. And as for what went down in that garage? I wish I’d been there to help you.”
Funny, that was just what G.B. had said. Then again, there was a commonality to the protective instinct in men, wasn’t there.
Duke frowned. “It was just before you came and saw me at the club, wasn’t it.” When she nodded, he cursed. “Great. I jump you like an animal—”
“I wanted it, remember.” She traced his jaw with her fingertips, feeling the stubble of his five-o’clock shadow—or five a.m., or whatever the hell time it was. “I debated going to see you for the longest time.”
“Yeah?”
Boy, it was so much easier to talk to him like this, lying close in her bed, the soft light from the hall glowing over the planes of his face.
“As I told you, it’s been a long time for me.”
Duke pulled her in for another kiss and then rolled her onto her side. “Was it worth the gamble?”
“And the wait.”
With slow, lazy strokes, he licked his way into her mouth, and it was funny how it no longer felt so strange to put her arms around the back of his neck and feel his pecs on her naked br**sts. This was natural; this coming together was like breathing, necessary and easy.
Parting her thighs, she welcomed him in close, and this time they both went for the drawer, making sure that a condom was in place before things got too far.
Thank God he’d caught that mistake when he had. Although that punishment thing had seemed a little unnecessary.
Slow, loving, and tender.
As he entered her, she sighed and wrapped her legs around the backs of his thighs, giving herself up to the communion. He moved like a wave on top of her, the pleasure building slowly, cresting into a shimmering climax that went through her and lingered, her body tingling, a pleasant sense of falling overtaking her.
And then his orgasm followed, his hips tightening, his breath hitching in. As he worked himself in and out of her, she ran her hands up and down his surging back, the smooth skin and tight muscles undulating under her palms.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered when he finally fell still.
“Me, too—”
A flash from outside sent a fresh source of light into the room, illuminating them both.
“What the hell?” he said looking around.
“Was that lightning?”
“Not this time of the year, it isn’t,” he said grimly as he withdrew … and got out of bed.
Chapter Forty-seven
Jim was not leaving the pair of them unprotected. As he stood with his hands on the outside of the woman’s cute little house, he passed some energy from his core into the structure itself, the transfer creating a brief flare of light … along with a protective barrier that would warn him if the demon, or any of her types, crossed its threshold. It would also inform him if that man or woman took off as well.
He was so over sleeping on her couch, however. It was five a.m., well, nearly six, actually, and he wanted to go home to catch an hour of sleep, have a shower, food up. The truth was, he was dizzy from lack of rest and nutrition, and as much as he was committed to this round of the war, his years at XOps had told him that he was a danger to himself and others if he got as worn-out as he was.
Not that he would necessarily have been sleeping at home.
Goddamn Devina. Just when he thought she’d nailed him for the last time? She popped a new and different kind of shit.
Unbelievable, he thought for the hundredth time as he removed his palms from the clapboard and stepped back.
To his eyes, there was a light field all around the home, starting at the ground line and rising up past the first and second floors to run over the hip roof.
Tight as a tick.
Ghosting home, he walked up the front steps of the mansion and reached for the door. As he pulled it open, no squeaks … and no creaks as he went down to the kitchen and cracked the refrigerator. Lots of food, now, and he ate the remnants of that beef stew Sissy had cooked cold and standing up.
The stuff was really good even under those circumstances.
His next move was to go up and hit the shower. Funny, the water tasted different as he opened his mouth under the spray—it used to be copper and dirt; now it was like it came from some kind of spring, a sparkling clean rush that danced over his tongue and down his throat.
Hard to believe that Sissy had managed to scrub up the inside of the pipes, too, but he’d take it.
Stepping out from the water, he wrapped a towel around his hips, picked up his clothes and went into the hall. It was impossible not to think of her down even farther, past those closed doors, lying in between her sheets.
He wanted her in his bed. But he was willing to bet his left nut that he wasn’t going to be lucky two nights in a row—not when he was getting back this late.
Cursing, he pushed his way into his room, dumped his duds on the dirty pile, and draped the towel on a hook on the back of the door. Then he walked barefooted across—
“You’re home.”
His steps faltered as he closed his eyes in relief and gratitude. “You’re here.”
“Where else would I be?”
The world went for a little spin, the pitch-black room whirling around him. “Lemme get some sweats on. Hold up.”
Throwing a hand out, he navigated his way across to the clean pile and bent down—
Click.
As light blinded him, he jacked upright and went for his cock, covering it with both hands. “Clothes—need clothes.”