Jenny watched this display of bravado with the kind of patience that reminded Derek of how she’d treated him when he was a teen. She’d known that deep down, he was scared. So afraid that he couldn’t even admit it to himself and had to cover it up with a tough front. She’d taken care of him then, and he would bet money that she’d do the same for Hex. It made him feel a bit better.
She put her arm around the younger girl and said, “I’m going to get in touch with Darius and let him know what’s up. Then Hex is going to come home with me, and I’ll make us some dinner.”
“But—”
“No arguments.” Jenny shook her head firmly and then added. “I’d really rather not be alone right now. You understand that, right?”
Hex let out everything she’d been about to say in a long, drawn out breath.
“Yeah, I do. I could use some company myself, I guess,” she said.
“Good. And Derek? I try not to intrude on your personal life, but let me give you a piece of advice?” Jenny’s eyes flickered over to where Citrine still stood by the space where the portal once stood. She’d tuned them all out, lost in painful thoughts. “Life’s too short to let an opportunity like that one pass you by. Maybe you’ll hurt her, or maybe she’ll hurt you. But I can tell you from experience that it’s worth the risk. You gain more than you lose.”
A lump rose in his throat and remained there stubbornly despite his efforts to swallow it away. So instead of saying something, he nodded.
“Good.” She stood up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
She led Hex away to the bus stop, since her car was still at Darius’s house. Neither one of them looked back, but they walked close to each other, each drawing strength from the other. Watching them together made Derek feel better about letting them leave without him. Darius would check in on them, and he would make a point of it too. But later. Citrine needed him.
And he needed her.
Once the shifterkin were out of earshot, he moved closer to Citrine, approaching her like he would a frightened animal. She didn’t seem to notice, but he worried about startling her after everything that had happened. It felt like she’d been through enough already.
“Citrine?” he said gently.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide and shocky. Then she looked down at the broken pieces of the wand in her hands. For a moment, he thought he must be mistaken, that there was no way she would have broken the wand that provided her only link to her mother. But she’d done it.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
It was a stupid question, but he didn’t know what else to say. Nothing seemed sufficient to cover what he’d just witnessed. Her sadistic stepfather, the surprise appearance of her mother, the twisted illusions of the castle and its court. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it for himself.
“She really cared after all,” said Citrine. She sounded numb. “I thought she’d written me off.”
He thought of the queen, blazing with her love for her daughter, and found himself at a loss for words too. Finally, he managed a lame, “Yeah, she did.” But somehow, the meaningless statement got through to Citrine. Or something did—she snapped out of her fugue and looked at him with those sad purple eyes.
“You’re naked. That seems to happen a lot.”
He shrugged with one shoulder, holding Jenny’s jacket in place around his loins.
“First world shifter problems.” She didn’t laugh at the lame joke, probably because she didn’t get it. But no matter. “We should get inside before I’m arrested. I’ve got some spare clothes in my office. You should come up.”
“Okay.”
She dropped the broken pieces of the Wand of Doors on the ground and headed for his office. Surreptitiously, he picked them back up and stashed them away in the pockets of the jacket before following her.
Derek shrugged on a t-shirt and ran a hand through his hair and over his face. He’d been splattered with Ben’s blood in his wolf form, and sometimes things like that went away when he changed. Other times they stuck with him. He’d never quite figured that out; Mark had theorized that the blood would stay if it made it through his fur to his skin, but Derek had never been able to tell for sure. He didn’t feel sticky, so probably it was alright, but it would be good to double check.
When he opened the door to ask Citrine, he was taken aback by how fragile she looked. She stood in the lobby, holding her arms tight to her body in an unusually vulnerable stance. Her gaze was vacant as she stared out the window.
“Am I all bloody?” he blurted.
It wasn’t the most tactful thing to say, but he couldn’t think of anything better. At least it drew her back to herself. She turned to look at him and seemed to brighten up a bit in the process. Or maybe she was just acting. It was tough to tell.
“No, I don’t think so.” She moved closer, looking up at him intently. “I think you’re okay.”
“Thanks. Should we… are you okay? I want to help, but I don’t know how. This is kind of new territory for me.”
“What? You’ve never known someone who was magically abused by her stepfather, set up by her best friend, and then had her mother speak up to save her after not talking out loud in public for years? I’m so surprised.”
The dryness in her voice took him off guard, and he laughed.
“Well, when you put it that way… but no. That’s not what I meant. I meant that I’ve never been in love before. Seeing you hurt makes me hurt. I’m pitifully desperate to make it better, but I can’t. It makes me want to punch something.”
The soft, tentative smile that rose to her lips made him feel like he’d done something right, at least. She lifted her hand and began tracing the line work of the tattoo that poked out from the sleeve of his white t-shirt. The feeling of her nail skimming over his skin made him shiver, and that made her smile all the more.
“I’ve never been in love before either,” she said. “I never even thought it was possible. You have to trust someone to love them, and I didn’t think I could do that.”
“I’m glad I’m the lucky man who got to prove you wrong.”
They were edging closer and closer as they spoke, eyes locked on one another. Derek could feel his heart beating at a jackhammer pace in his chest. It felt like it might stop altogether if he couldn’t touch her, but that was wrong. She was hurting, and he wasn’t the kind of man to take advantage of that. But he couldn’t make himself pull away.
“This is a bad idea,” he managed to choke out.
Her breath was on his neck, and the shivery sensations it gave him suggested that maybe he was wrong. Based on what she said next, Citrine agreed.
“Love me,” she said. “That’s a very good idea.”
Chapter 21
Citrine couldn’t take it anymore. She had been through hell and back, and now she wanted Derek more than anything she’d ever wanted. She’d earned him. She wanted to feel the hard body of a man who would give anything for her, someone she could open up to fully and know that he wouldn’t let her down. What would sex be like, when it was more than just the simple pleasure of two bodies together? She intended to find out, but Derek wasn’t cooperating. He was too busy worrying about what he should do and not about what he so clearly wanted to do. Her.
She would just have to persuade him, then. So she wound her hand in his collar, tugging him down to her level. She didn’t kiss him, though, just letting her mouth skim against his, waiting to see which one of them would break first. His protests died, dissolving into his ragged breaths. Then he murmured,” Oh, to hell with it,” and bent to kiss her.
She had intended to tease him more. To flick her tongue over the sensitive skin of his ear, or to nibble at the base of his neck. To see what made him moan and beg. But the desperate need in his voice drove all of those thoughts out of her mind. She just wanted him, and now.
“I promised you a bed,” he said against her mouth, his hands q
uesting up under the fabric of her shirt, finding the hard nubs of her nipples and teasing over them gently. “I don’t like to break my promises.”
She nibbled at his lower lip, enjoying the groans it elicited. “Consider this practice. We should make sure we’re doing it right before we take it to the bed.”
“We might need lots of practice.”
He grabbed her shirt at the collar and tore it right off her body. After years of needing to shed his clothes quickly before a shift, he knew exactly how to do it. Before she could so much as protest, he bent before her, kissing her breasts with a voracious hunger. Her hands twined in his hair, and she rocked against him, enjoying the waves of pleasure that ran through her.
“The desk,” she said when her need became too much to bear. She had to have him inside of her or she was sure she’d go insane. “Now.”
He growled his agreement, an animal sound of need that made her want him even more. He picked her up with such ease, carrying her to the desk one-handed and swiping all of the things atop it off into a heap on the floor. Something might have broken. She found that she didn’t much care. She was too busy unbuttoning his pants and shoving his clothing to the floor. His skin was hot under her fingers, and she looked forward to tasting every inch of it.
His deft hands made quick work of her clothing, and soon he was poised with the hot length of him up against her.
“I love you, Citrine Avonmora,” he said.
“I love you, Derek Ranier. And I want you inside me.”
He plunged into her, and she cried out in delight, grabbed at the tight muscles of his ass to draw him in deeper. When her nails raked over his skin, it was his turn to cry out. Over and over, they brought each other to the edge, unwilling to let it end.
Their lovemaking lasted for three hours, and during that time, they broke the desk, a potted plant, and the windowsill. Lying in an exhausted heap on the floor after it was over, they both agreed that it had been more than worth it.
The next morning, Citrine found herself getting ready for her very first day of work. It would be strange to go to a job that didn’t involve killing anything, but she felt like she might get used to it. She also looked forward to her first paycheck, since Derek seemed to have a thing for ripping her clothes off, and her wardrobe wasn’t very extensive to begin with. But one step at a time.
When they entered the office, they found a very concerned looking Jenny and Hex waiting for them there. Hex was standing at the door to Derek’s office with a broom in her hand, and she whirled around when they entered.
“There you are!” she exclaimed. “We’ve been calling and calling, and you didn’t answer.”
“We were…ah… busy,” said Derek. He smiled down at Citrine with an expression that either melted her heart or made her want to undress. She wasn’t entirely sure which. Maybe both.
“We thought one of the fae had come back to attack you when we saw the mess in the office,” said Jenny. Now she no longer looked worried. She was smirking instead. “But I’m glad to see that isn’t the case. I take it you two did this?”
“We were…um…”
“Training,” said Citrine when it became obvious that Derek was at a loss for words.
“Training?” asked Hex, who seemed to be a little slow on the uptake. But comprehension finally dawned on her face, and she shook her head in amazement. “Let me guess. Naked training.”
“The best kind. Nothing for your opponent to grab onto,” replied Citrine promptly.
“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say nothing,” added Derek, red-faced.
Jenny threw back her head and laughed, surprising them all. When she caught their expressions, she said, “Hey, I used to be a hot young thing, and I was married to a shifter. I get it.”
“I did not need that mental picture,” said Derek. “Gimme the broom and I’ll start cleaning up.”
He snatched the cleaning instrument from Hex’s hand and marched into the ruins that used to be his office, resolutely stepping over the scattered remains of his possessions. Citrine was glad they’d taken the time to put his computer away safely. From what she understood, they were expensive.
“So I guess you’re doing okay, then?” asked Hex. “I mean, if you could do all that…”
“There’s hope for the future,” said Citrine, looking fondly through the door at Derek. “I’ve never had that before. I’ll take it. What about you? I…I’m sorry I was kind of out of it last night. I should have checked on you when we got back. It’s my fault you ended up there in the first place.”
Hex rolled her eyes, and Jenny flapped her hands as if waving the comment away.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not responsible for that man’s crazy,” said Jenny.
“Yeah, he seemed to have plenty of it on his own,” added Hex. “It was well-tended crazy.”
“You’re taking this awfully well.” Citrine looked from one to the other, finding it hard to believe what was happening.
Jenny shrugged. “My husband used to turn into a wolf. I’ve been shot at and demon-gnawed and a bunch of other stories we’ll have to tell you another time. This isn’t particularly noteworthy. Just some wannabe with a wand.”
“He had another wand?” asked Citrine eagerly. “I was wondering how he managed to get you to Faerie, with all of the portals closed and the wand in my possession.”
She didn’t say what she was thinking, but inside, she was wondering if maybe, just maybe, she might see her mother again after all. Because she had some questions after everything that had happened. It was her one misgiving about breaking the wand, that she might never see Thelisyle again. It seemed like the safest thing to do, just in case Ilimitaine could somehow use Ben’s magic to track her, but it still hurt.
The two shifterkin looked at each other uncertainly.
“More like smoke in the shape of a wand,” said Jenny tentatively. “Like, it disappeared from his hand while I was watching.
“I wasn’t watching,” admitted Hex. “I was trying to claw his eyes out.”
Citrine wasn’t sure what to think of the wand made of smoke. Maybe Ben had used his link to the wand to create some kind of duplicate, or to draw on its magic from afar. But Citrine didn’t want to waste time being heartsick about that now. Her mother loved her, and no amount of distance between them could change that. They would meet again someday. Citrine just had to keep telling herself that.
As she thought this over, she realized that her friends were looking at her with twin expressions of worry. This seemed a bit backwards to her, since she was the one who had gotten them kidnapped instead of the other way around, but what did she know about humans? Still, she had to say something.
“I’m just glad you’re okay. I’ve never really had friends before, and I was going to be really upset if I lost my first two.”
At first, Citrine worried that her joke had fallen flat. After all, what did she know about joking around with friends? Absolutely nothing. The gladiators had joked around, but that was to cover their fear or intimidate their enemies. This was completely different and more difficult than Citrine had anticipated.
Then Hex let out a guffaw. “I’m glad to be of service, then.”
Jenny shook her head. “You two.”
“Oh, don’t pretend that wasn’t funny,” said Hex. “Because it was.”
“Well, anyway. You’re going to work here from now on, aren’t you, Citrine? If so, I was hoping you’d help me convince Derek to renovate that ugly office of his. You know, since all of the furnishings got mysteriously destroyed,” said Jenny primly.
“I might have some pull with the boss. I’ll see what I can do,” said Citrine.
She looked into the other room, where Derek was bending over to pick up a pile of papers from off the floor. The view was quite nice, and Citrine thought she could get used to it very easily. As he straightened up, he caught her eye and smiled at her, and to her amazement, she thought she might like that view even better.
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br /> “Yes, I think I could really be happy here,” she said.
Chapter 1
There was a bare butt on her computer screen, and it bothered Audra James. It bothered her a lot. Not that she had anything against nudity, or anything against this butt in particular. If she was going to spend time looking at asses, this one would have been at the top of her list. It was muscular. Smooth skinned. Perky. In the Olympics of butts, this one would have taken a gold medal.
She considered herself an expert on this particular ass, since she’d spent many a night admiring it sans clothing. The behind in question belonged to her boyfriend Chad. They’d been together for five months now, and by this time, she could have taken a final exam on the status of his anatomy and passed with flying colors. It was a topic she liked to study.
Apparently, though, she hadn’t liked it enough. Because here she was, testing the new camera system at the Las Vegas pawn shop she’d inherited from her Uncle Grey. She’d expected to see a lot of things when she’d installed the top-of-the-line hidden cameras with their fancy remote access system and supposedly hack proof wireless structure. Like an employee pocketing a little extra cash off a sale, or someone giving their buddies an under the counter discount. Or maybe a customer helping themselves to one of the smaller jewelry items scattered in baskets around the store. Of course she kept the more expensive items behind glass, but putting out the less valuable stuff encouraged impulse buys. And installing the cameras would insure that none of them walked out the doors without being purchased first.
It had been a great idea, and she’d gotten such a deal on the cameras from the first company she called that she had them installed within a couple of days. The whole thing had happened so fast that she must have forgotten to mention it to Chad. Either that, or she’d said something and he’d failed to listen to her because he was daydreaming about something. Like maybe cheating on her with a dark haired woman wearing the colossal ruby necklace recently pawned by a daughter of a sheik.
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