by D. Laine
I slipped my free hand inside the loose waistband of his pants. I instantly found what I was looking for. “You sure about that? Seems to me that you can. Like right now. In fact, I doubt it would take very long.”
“It would be over embarrassingly quick. Probably no good for you,” he admitted breathlessly, sinking into my touch with a slow roll of his hips. Then with a jerk, he pulled away. “But we can’t.”
At my shocked and confused expression, he nodded over his shoulder. My gaze drifted to the narrow bed a few steps away, where Sadie still slept. I had forgotten she was there. What in the hell was wrong with me?
“Oh, my God.” I covered my face with one hand. Realizing the other hand was still in his pants, I yanked it away with a yelp. “Oh, my God.”
Dylan’s weight shifted, and he peeled apart the fingers covering my eyes. “As much as I love the idea of you taking all this pent-up energy out on me, you’re going to have to find another way to do it.”
“Does it involve either of us being naked?” I asked, hopeful.
“Everything is better naked.” He grinned. “But no. That’s not going to work for what I have in mind.”
“Then I’m not interested.” I feigned a pout.
“You haven’t even heard my idea yet. You might like it.”
“You are the only thing that I want to do right now. Other than maybe—wait.” My eyes widened theatrically. “Will I finally get to beat up Maria?”
He rocked back onto his heels with a sigh and promptly zipped up his pants. A flash of something I couldn’t read crossed his face before he looked away. His mouth opened, then snapped shut without a word. Despite the playful glint that remained in his eyes, I sensed a shift in his mood.
“No beating anyone up today.” He leaned forward, blanketing me with his body, and used his lips to keep me from asking him what was wrong.
I wasn’t an idiot. While it was easy to get distracted by his mouth, I couldn’t allow it now. Not this time.
“Dylan?” I mumbled against his lips.
He kissed me harder, confirming my suspicions. And I let him. I let him a lot, and it wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy it. Until the sobering reality of where we were, and the memory of everything that had already happened, broke through the hazy cloud of bliss.
I had been out cold for days. Anything could have happened. So much could have gone wrong.
A trickle of fear danced across the back of my neck. I shoved his shoulders, abruptly ending the kiss. “Is it Jake?”
He shook his head once. “Jake’s fine.”
“Marcus? Ma—”
He cupped my chin with his hand. “Thea, everybody is fine. They’re all outside, playing with Robbie.”
I stared up, into his eyes, and tried to interpret the cloudiness I glimpsed in them. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. I was sure of it. “Then what happened? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing happened,” he told me. Swallowing hard, he then proceeded to lie to me. “Nothing is wrong.”
JUDGING by the way everyone hugged their ragged, heavy coats, the weather had taken a drastic turn toward winter while I slept. I had to admit the crisp air stung my face, but the anger boiling inside of me fended off the worst of the cold.
He lied to me.
My eyes were on Dylan despite the fact that I had a target impatiently waiting five feet away, in the small clearing in front of the cabin. He evaded direct eye contact with me, instead observing the entire scene with assassin-trained, critical eyes. Not one glance, not one wink, not one I-plan-on-seeing-you-naked-soon promising grin. He had been distant since the moment we walked out of that bedroom.
He knew I was on to him. That was the problem. As it turned out, he was actually a terrible liar. I wanted to kick myself for not recognizing his tells sooner, back when lies were all I knew about him. And I had thought we were past all of that nonsense.
I peeled my gaze off of Dylan with a disappointed shake of my head, and decided to take my frustration out on my intended target.
Ewing smirked as I sized him up. “What did he do this time?”
I tilted my head to the side. “None of your damn business.”
“You don’t even know, do you?” His leer grew. “That’s hilarious.”
“What’s funny is that you’re talking instead of attacking me like you’re supposed to do.” I leaned forward with wide eyes and stage whispered, “Are you scared?”
He glared at me pointedly. “You’re the one who’s clearly distracted.”
His words took me back to a time not so long ago, when I faced off with someone else. Tanner Ergot had been my reluctant trainer for several weeks when I resided with the agency. He had accused me of being distracted when he put a fist in my face, ultimately blaming me for his wrongdoing. He was dead now, but his words had stayed with me.
You’ll get one of them killed.
I darted a glance at Jake, then Dylan.
“Not going to happen,” I muttered under my breath.
“What’s that now?” Ewing angled his head.
“Let’s go,” I said louder, waving a hand with the “come get me” signal.
Ewing didn’t hesitate to lunge across the gap between us. Despite his proximity and bullet-like speed, I easily dodged him with a quick step to the side. He sailed by me, nearly tripping over his own feet, as I turned to prepare for another strike.
Behind me, the others whistled and hooted like they had done when Sadie and Robbie tested out their newfound gifts moments ago. I had seen what they could do—how much faster and stronger they both were. Now I felt it—the swift current of energy flowing through me like an extension of my body.
I evaded Ewing’s weak second attempt. Growing bored with the lack of contact, I switched to the offensive. My arms and legs moved fluidly, perfectly in sync with my brain. All of my strikes got through, and I forced Ewing into a retreat. Near the base of the steps leading to the cabin porch, I cut his legs out from beneath him.
He jumped up quickly—only because I let him. When he dropped his head and ran at me shoulder first, I feinted to the side and threw an arm out. Really, he should have dodged the classic clothesline move easily. It wasn’t my fault he ended up with his face in the dirt again.
I stalked toward him, arms up and fists clenched, ready to do it all over again.
“I think we’ve seen enough.” Jake put a hand up, signaling me to stop. He studied me for a moment before turning his inquisitive eyes on Ewing. “What the hell, man?”
Ewing rose to his feet with a shake of his head, too out of breath to offer a response.
“Maybe it’s one of those things where the females are the dominant sex,” Dylan offered, his voice a blend of confusion and amusement. His lips twitched under the hand he had fisted over his mouth.
Marcus didn’t bother to hide it. He laughed loudly. “Like spiders that eat their mates after they get knocked up?”
I heard a few stifled snickers. Surprisingly, no smartass remark from Dylan followed. He glanced between Ewing and me contemplatively. Then he withdrew the gun permanently attached to his hip and handed it to Sadie. His eyes on me, he stepped forward.
I watched his stealthy movements cautiously. “What are you doing?”
“Try me.”
I started to shake my head. “That’s not—”
“I know you want to.” He waved his hand impatiently. “Take me on. Let’s go.”
“I want to?”
He nodded confidently. “You’re pissed at me. I don’t know why, but I can sense that shit rolling off of you in waves. So get it out of your system already. Let’s go.”
“You sense that I’m mad at you?” I asked skeptically, glancing at Jake. Technically, he was the only one who could sense my emotions. Thanks to our bond. But I knew Jake would never betray me like that. He would never tell Dylan what he felt coming from me—good or bad. Granted, we were still working on getting to know each other after being separated for over fifteen years, bu
t I trusted him.
It wasn’t Jake. The perplexed burrow of his brow while he glanced between Dylan and me confirmed that. Then there were the others in the group. Marcus, Sadie, and Robbie all nodded enthusiastically, like they had all taken a peek inside my head.
“Honey, everyone knows you’re mad at me about something,” Dylan said. “You’re not exactly hiding it.”
“I guess I’m not as good as you are at hiding things,” I retorted.
He stared at me, and I waited. For what, I wasn’t sure. Maybe for him to admit I was right. Maybe for the truth. Or a denial.
I didn’t get any of that.
What I got instead was a solid wall of muscle barreling toward me. Though he managed to catch me off guard, I evaded him easily. I spun around, hands raised and ready, as he whipped by me. Unlike Ewing, Dylan recovered quickly. His arm was a blur of black and gray as it swung out to hook me around the waist. He took me to the ground with him.
My knees struck cold, hard earth. I threw my weight and we tumbled, each taking a turn in the power position. When we finally stopped rolling, I had the upper hand. Straddling Dylan, I pressed his shoulders to the ground. His eyes snapped up to mine when he felt the strength of my hold.
“Holy shit,” he grunted.
Behind me, Sadie and Robbie cheered. We so had this girl power thing down.
His upper body rendered useless, Dylan resorted to using his legs to buck me off of him. I squeezed my thighs tighter around his waist, refusing to move. Smirking down at him, I waited patiently for him to concede defeat. He finally did, but not in the way I anticipated.
He nodded up at me once, and I eased off of his shoulders cautiously. An instant later, he pushed up and slipped both arms around my waist. He held me in his lap as he pressed his lips hard against mine. I could have avoided it. I could have stopped him if I wanted to.
Despite the hum of lingering irritation between us, I did nothing to evade his kiss. My newly minted strength was rendered useless against him now. I turned into putty in his hands.
I detected a few scoffs and sighs and the stomping of feet as our unsuspecting audience dispersed behind me. A heightened sense of hearing was just one more thing I had noticed since waking up in this foreign body a few hours ago.
For the first time since then, I didn’t feel like an imposter. Nervous energy no longer rippled under my skin. I was very much in tune with my body now, and it responded to Dylan as it always had.
An involuntary moan worked its way up my throat. My hands went around his neck and my fingers delved into the longer locks of hair I found there.
He parted my lips with his tongue, kissing me harder. His hands slid greedily under my coat and shirt to press against my back. Obeying his command, I rocked forward. His arousal was evident through two layers of heavy cold-weather clothing. I pressed closer, forcing a groan to vibrate deep in his chest. Our mouths slid apart. Cloudy puffs filled the narrow space between us with each heavy breath.
His nose nudged mine. “I want to show you something.”
“I’ve already seen it.” I brushed my lips against his teasingly. “It’s nice.”
“Nice?” His head whipped back. “It’s not . . . nice is not the word I would choose.”
“Okay. It’s . . . not nice? What’s the opposite of nice?” I pretended to contemplate an appropriate antonym while Dylan watched me with amused annoyance. I nodded when I had it. “Mean. It’s really mean.”
A muscle in Dylan’s jaw ticked. Apparently, it was more annoyance than amusement I saw in his eyes.
“No? Don’t like that one either?” I feigned indifference. “How about . . . despicable? Callous? Uncaring? Stop me when I get it. Cruel? Hurt—”
“I know what you’re doing.” His voice was soft. It didn’t match the malice in his eyes.
He was mad? Oh, no, no, no. The frustration I had nearly forgotten when he kissed me came surging back. He was the one who had lied. Not me.
“Well, I’m certainly not hiding it from you,” I snapped.
The moment those words left my mouth, I wanted to take them back. I had seen an angry Dylan before. I had witnessed him do some scary stuff, but never before had I been the target of his anger. And boy was he pissed at me now.
I shifted, distancing myself from his venomous eyes. His tight grip on my waist didn’t allow me to get far.
His voice was razor smooth. “So you think I’m cruel, huh?”
My little play on words had started off lighthearted. I hadn’t intended for it to go in this direction. I really wished I could take back the last two minutes.
“Dylan, you know I—”
“Uncaring?” He threw my words at me with a crooked smile—the kind that was anything but friendly.
“You know I don’t really feel that way,” I gushed. “I was just—”
“What the fuck are you doing with me then?” he demanded.
Cold terror squeezed my heart and spread throughout my chest. I shivered from the sensation of dread that gripped me. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“If that’s what you think of me, then why are you with me?” Rephrasing the question didn’t take any of the anger out of his voice. If anything, it grew with each word he uttered.
My head shook rapidly. “But I don’t think any of that. I was just upset because I know there’s something you’re keeping from me.”
“Right.” His eyes fixated on the ground while his head bobbed up and down. “And it’s not possible for a callous asshole like myself to be waiting for the right time to bring it up.” He finally looked up, and gritted, “No, of course, you assume I’m hiding something.”
I tried to breathe, but it hurt. My voice, when I found it, came out barely a whisper. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“Forget it.” He seized my hips in both hands and lifted me off of him. Setting me down on the ground, he got to his feet. He didn’t wait for me before he turned to march toward the cabin.
I jumped up, but stood rooted to the ground. “Dylan, wait. What—”
“I said forget it.” He didn’t look back.
Why are you with me?
Those words haunted me. Fear and doubt clouded my judgement. Probably made me think stupid things. Definitely made me open my mouth and make a bad situation worse.
“Forget what exactly?” My voice cracked, and he finally stopped. When he turned, I jabbed a finger at the ground. “Forget this or”—I waved the same finger over the distance between us—“forget this?”
For every second he stared at me without saying something, a piece of my heart chipped away and floated into the dark abyss of despair. Why didn’t he answer? It was a simple question. One he shouldn’t have to think about.
Finally, he turned toward the door with a shake of his head. “Whatever you want, Thea,” he tossed over his shoulder. “Just let me know when you decide.”
My throat tightened. The moment he disappeared inside, I cracked. My fractured heart shattered. Sorrow and regret poured from my eyes as a hot, burning liquid. The energy and power I had felt only moments ago abandoned me, leaving me to feel defeated and helpless.
Whatever you want, Thea.
He couldn’t even tell me what he wanted. He couldn’t even tell me that my question was preposterous, that of course he hadn’t meant to forget about us.
He once told me that everything he had said—or had not said—was done so with my best interest in mind. Including the lies. When I pushed for the truth, I learned things that threatened to devastate me.
Today was the most devastating of all.
Too late, I realized I should have learned a lesson from the past.
6
DYLAN
At times, I didn’t give Marcus enough credit. Not as a fellow assassin, but as a human being. He had that mindless killing machine persona down to a science, and I suspected, if it weren’t for the apocalypse, he would have done well as a bouncer at a ritzy club full of high-profile celebrities. Or a
hitman for the Mafia.
Despite his intimidating appearance, he was a follower. Not a leader, and most definitely not the brains of the group. But there were times he wowed me.
I stretched out my legs and enjoyed the little treasure he had found soon after we arrived at the campground a few days ago. Waves of cold water splashed across my bare chest, stealing my breath and causing my teeth to chatter. My fingers were numb and I was pretty sure my lips had turned blue a long time ago, but I refused to get out yet.
On the other side of the pool, Jake gave up and climbed out. The air inside the enclosure was significantly warmer than outside, but it was still cold. He immediately wrapped himself in one of the three blankets we had brought with us and started to put his clothes back on.
I stole a glance at Marcus where he rested against the wall, his arms propped up on the ledge behind him but his body otherwise submerged in water. His eyes were closed. The ghost of a smile on his face hinted that he had never been more relaxed. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“Fuck it.” I shoved away from the wall. Dipping my head under the water, I scrubbed my hair quickly. Enough to get it somewhat clean. I rose to the surface with a gasp and hauled ass out of the pool.
Jake greeted me at the steps with a blanket, which I promptly wrapped around me. His lips were tinted a dark shade of blue.
“It’s nice to get clean again,” he said, “but it’s too damn cold.”
“I don’t see how he can stand it.” I pointed a trembling finger over my shoulder.
“Is he dead?” Jake squinted his eyes at Marcus.
“No, he’s smiling.”
Jake shook his head with an exasperated sigh. “Isn’t he from southern California, or something like that? Shouldn’t he have an aversion to this kind of cold?”
“Hell if I know.” I shrugged. “There’s no way the girls were in there the whole time they were gone. They had to be messing with us.”
Attempting to be the gentlemen we were definitely not, we had insisted that the girls take their turns at a pool bath first. Thea, Sadie, and Robbie had jumped at the chance. Watching them go, I had swallowed the disappointment of knowing how close I had come to having Thea to myself in here.