by Lisa Kessler
CHAPTER 8
The officer dropped them off at Tera’s place, and Gavin followed her inside. Tera had told Nate about Gavin’s birthmark and the superspeed, praying he’d help her break it to Gavin, but Nate’s advice had mirrored Callie’s.
Tell him.
Ugh. Neither of them had any idea how much she struggled with communicating, especially when it might lead to confrontation. Okay, maybe Callie understood her anxiety, and Nate had experienced the strange burning mark firsthand, so they weren’t completely clueless about her predicament. But she didn’t have any idea how to broach the subject.
The kiss only made it more complicated. It would have been different if the kiss had been awkward or if he hadn’t returned it with a passion she’d never known existed. Now that it was obvious he felt the same attraction she did, though, she didn’t want him to walk out.
The first time they had met he’d held her hair back while she tossed her cookies. This couldn’t be much worse, could it? He hadn’t run away screaming. Not yet, anyway.
She fumbled to unlock her door, and Gavin rested his hand on her shoulder. “You must be having a killer conversation in your head.”
“Oh, you have no idea.” She glanced back at him as she opened the door. How did he manage to make her smile right in the middle of an internal freak-out?
Gavin walked past her, checking every room in her condo with his gun drawn, all business. Maybe he was going to pretend the kiss had never happened. It would be easy to blame it on elation they had survived the shooting. It sounded logical, and maybe it was partially true.
But deep down, her kissing him had nothing to do with the gunfire. Until Gavin, her only experiences with physical intimacy were with male dancers she’d performed with, and the encounters had merely been carryovers of the passion they had exuded on the stage. Her heart had always remained safely cloaked behind the role she’d been playing.
With Gavin, there was no acting. He’d seen her at both her most vulnerable and her best in the dance studio. And tonight, he had taught her to play basketball like they’d been friends forever. Until she’d moved to California and found her muse sisters, her mother had been her only companion, coaching her that “friends” were just girls who wanted to steal your spot in the company when you weren’t paying attention.
Gavin came back, holstering his handgun. “All clear.” He stopped in front of her, his gaze wandering over her face. “I’m sorry about tonight. I never should have had you out there in the open like that.” He shook his head. “I’m having a tough time keeping my distance with you, and that puts you in danger.” A muscle ticked in his cheek. “It won’t happen again.”
“The kiss or the shooting?” She gaped when she realized the words were no longer inside her head. She’d blurted them out loud.
His lips twisted into a crooked smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Both.”
Her heart sank, surprising her. Could he really turn off his feelings? Or maybe he didn’t have any and her own were blinding her until she’d imagined he felt the same. She had initiated the kiss, not Gavin. She could’ve misread everything.
She cleared her throat and walked past him to the couch. Without thinking, she sat down next to his pillow and grabbed it, hugging it to her chest for emotional support. The damn thing smelled like Gavin, and an ache grew inside her at the realization she’d never feel his strong arms holding her close.
“I need to tell you some things,” she said quietly. “Crazy, insane things.”
“All right.” He came over and took a seat at the other end of the sofa.
The distance between them was like an invisible wall with its own palpable energy, and she hated it. Taking a deep breath, she stared at the pillow, rather than his eyes. “When I came downstairs this morning and you were still sleeping, your shirt rode up. I saw your birthmark.” He chuckled, and she glanced at him. “Is that funny?”
He shrugged, his smile fading. “It’s an odd shape, but I’ve never thought my birthmark was crazy or insane.”
She broke eye contact, looking at the pillow again. “It’s not that… I’ve seen that mark before. You’re a Guardian. The gods marked you to protect a muse.” She finally met his eyes. “Me.”
He grimaced. The struggle to understand and believe her was evident all over his face. Gods, she wished verbal communication came easier to her. At this rate, he’d be running out of her condo any second now.
She set the pillow aside. “I’m screwing this all up.” She rubbed her forehead as the familiar tingle began in her hands. Not now…
Gavin moved a little closer but didn’t reach for her. “Tera, look at me. Please?”
She sighed, lowering her hand. There wasn’t trace of anger or shock or revulsion on his face. She did not deserve a guy this patient.
“I’m not going anywhere. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve got some insanity of my own to share.” He searched her eyes. “I’m starting to believe my birthmark might be some kind of sensor, like a warning to be alert. It seems to burn when you’re in danger.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And you probably already figured out that I was really in your parking lot this morning to see if I could recreate how fast I can move when I need to keep you safe.” He placed his hand between them with his palm up. “You’re not the only one on this couch who is scared.”
For a second, she couldn’t breathe. “I’ve got to tell you everything, but I’m afraid you’ll walk out that door and I’ll never see you again.” She cleared her throat, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “In spite of the shooting, tonight was the best date I’ve ever been on.”
His voice softened, became more intimate. “Give me your hand.”
She placed her hand in his, and he threaded his fingers through hers. Her hand seemed so small in comparison. He reached over with his other hand and tipped her chin up until their eyes locked.
His warm smile set off butterflies in her stomach. “I had an amazing time with you tonight, too, but I need to stop being your bodyguard.”
“No.” A wave of emotion swelled within in, and she shook her head. “No. I don’t trust anyone else.”
“Wait a sec. I’m not going anywhere.” He leaned closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead before his gaze found hers. “Tera, I’m telling you that I can’t take your money when I’m falling for you. It’s a matter of principle. Things got a little complicated, and I’m not on the couch holding your hand because it’s my job. I’m here because I care about you. And—” he shook his head slowly “—I’m never going to let anyone hurt you.”
She slid her arms around his neck and clung to him, breathing him into her lungs. “I’m falling for you, too,” she whispered. “Scares the shit out of me.”
His laughter warmed her all over. He pulled back to look at her. “If I’m going to protect you, I need to know what we’re really up against, crazy or not, so educate me on my birthmark, and muses, and these guys with gold masks.”
“You’re sure?” She raised a brow, teasing. She was teasing him. For a second, she almost pinched her leg to see if she was dreaming. She didn’t recognize herself when she was with him.
He nodded. “Lay it on me.”
Gavin settled back on the couch, loving the way Tera’s hand felt on his thigh. Nothing had been solved yet, but getting their budding connection out in the open lifted a weight off his shoulders. His feelings for her were far from professional, and the kiss earlier had laid bare the desire he’d been trying to bury. It was impossible to hide from any longer.
And she’d told him she didn’t want him to go. She trusted him. Although he hadn’t known her long, he’d met her abusive mother, and it was clear why her trust was a rare gift.
Tera stared at her hand, not making eye contact as she spoke. “I’m going to start at the beginning. All of the women in our LLC… Well, there is a muse inside of each of us.”
He tilted his head. “Like a Greek muse from mythology?” he asked, struggling to
keep an open mind. “I know Nate warned me this would be nuts, but I wasn’t expecting…this.”
“Yeah.” She nodded, sneaking a peek in his direction. “Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, blossomed inside me before I even turned nineteen. Maybe she was always there, I don’t know, but after I started dancing with the city ballet, I kept having these crazy dreams about Greece and this run-down theater. I couldn’t tell my mom, and I didn’t have any friends, so I’d wait until my mom was sleeping and then comb the Internet.”
“For what?” He waited for her to lift her head and look at him. “I swear I’m not teasing you. I’m just trying to wrap my head around this. Do people search for theaters in dreams on Google?”
“No. I wish I could describe the dream and do it justice, but I would see flashes of places I’d never been before, and even though they’d blur together, I started remembering and recognizing some of them.” She squeezed his thigh. “The dreams don’t matter as much as the other stuff I need to tell you—about being a Guardian.”
“All right.” Nothing about this was all right, but he could see this was tough for her and he didn’t want her to give up. He rested his hand over hers on his leg. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She smiled sadly. “Not yet, anyway.” She sucked in a deep breath and met his eyes. “I should’ve told you the second I saw that birthmark on your stomach, but I didn’t know how.” She shifted on the couch until she faced him. “My friend Clio is also the Muse of History, and she found a scroll with a prophecy on it about the muses. I don’t have it memorized word for word, but basically, every generation the muses are reborn inside mortal women. We’re like a vase or a vessel or something, and the muse is part of our soul. Anyway, each generation there are also nine men marked by the gods to be Guardians of the daughters of Zeus. The gods give each of them a supernatural ability that only presents itself when he finds his muse.”
A giant floodlight went off in Gavin’s head. “That’s how we got around the building so fast that first night. You were afraid of your mother, and suddenly, I could move at light speed.”
She nodded. “I didn’t know then, but when I saw you sleeping…” She worried her lower lip. “I should’ve said something. When I saw you running in the parking lot, I knew it must’ve been bothering you, and I still didn’t know how to tell you.”
He lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “I’m not angry.” He lowered her hand, shaking his head. “In a messed-up kind of way, I’m relieved.”
She raised a brow. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “When I tried to make myself run with superspeed, or whatever the hell it is, I couldn’t do it. I was starting to think I imagined it. I’d been toying with calling the shrink who helped me when I retired from Special Forces.”
“Ah, I see.” She treated him to a smile. “So being a Guardian with special abilities is crazy, but at least you don’t need a padded room?”
“Exactly.” He chuckled. He waited for her to go on, but she didn’t make a peep. He sobered. “Ready to tell me about the guys in the gold masks?”
“Not really.” She shook her head. “Are you sure you want to pile on even more impossible reality?”
“We’ve come this far.”
She laced her fingers with his and stared at their joined hands before raising her gaze to his face. “I’ve never been part of a ‘we’ before.”
“No basketball and no boyfriends?” He tried to keep his reaction light, but part of him tensed. How sheltered was she?
“No boyfriends.” She pointed at him with a glint in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before, playful and sexy. His body had an instant physical response. “Before you go thinking you found a virgin, I’ve had sex more than once…but no boyfriends.” She rolled her eyes. “I have this hang-up about people sleeping over.”
He laughed and pulled her closer, encouraged when she settled on his lap. He caressed her cheek, his laughter dying away. “No offense to virgins, but it’s not a big turn on for me.”
She brought her hand to his chest, searing his skin with the simple touch. “What about you? Girlfriends?”
He shrugged. “A few. But I’ve been so focused on my business, I haven’t had much time for relationships.”
“Yeah right.” She shifted a little on his lap, and there was no way to hide the effect she was having on him, but she didn’t shy away. “You protect beautiful women, staying with them all day and night, and you didn’t fall for any of them?”
“Nope.” He ran his hand up her leg. “I’ve never had any difficulty keeping things professional until I met this shy dancer. She’s gorgeous, but it wasn’t her looks that did me in.”
She raised a brow. “Was it the puking?”
He laughed, his heart swelling in his chest. “No.”
She was such a magical mix of contradictions. Shy, funny, and although she might consider herself weak and fearful, he saw a survivor who embraced life while others might stay in the shadows.
He lost himself in her eyes, his words coming straight from his heart. “It was catching glimpses of the real woman she keeps hidden away, winning her trust. She’s much stronger than she gives herself credit for.” He shook his head slowly. “She’s the first client I’ve ever been tempted to cross the line for.”
She worried her lower lip and mustered a whisper. “What line would that be?”
He bent to claim her lips. Words weren’t going to do to the emotions she stirred inside him justice. One of her hands raked through the hair at his neck as the other moved around to his back. He held her tighter, his tongue tangling with hers.
She started to pull back, her lips brushing his over and over until she rested her forehead against his. “Can we talk about the guys in gold masks later?”
“What masks?” He grinned. He was never going to get tired of making her smile.
She chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy without dancing.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Having her sitting on his lap was impairing his ability to get blood to his brain, and in spite of how urgently he wanted to carry her up the stairs and get familiar with every inch of her, the guy who shot at them tonight was still out there. He forced himself to move away from her. “I need to check the alarm and cameras.”
“Okay.” She got up, and it took all his self-control not to pull her back into his arms.
She took a seat on the couch and started unbraiding her hair, seeming very focused on the task. Damn, had he just hurt her feelings?
He headed for the front door. “Just so you know, I hope we’re not through kissing.”
She peered up at him from under her thick lashes. “I thought…” Her words trailed off.
“Until Nate tells us otherwise, there’s still danger out there.” He checked the dead bolt and the display for the camera before meeting her eyes. “Even though I’m not invoicing you anymore, I still won’t let anyone hurt you. They’ll have to go through me first.”
She stood up and walked right past him. He’d swear her hips had an extra sway to them. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked back at him over her shoulder. “Come up when you’re finished down here.”
He raised a brow. “I don’t have any alarms to check up there.”
That sexy sparkle was back in her eyes. “Then I guess you’ll just have to check me.”
CHAPTER 9
Ted’s eyes snapped open. Someone was banging on his back door. Adrenaline burst into his bloodstream as he reached for his cell phone. With 9-1-1 glowing on the screen, ready for him to press it at the first sign of danger, he exited his bedroom to the kitchen. The pounding started again, and a familiar voice came through the door.
“Ted, please. You gotta help me. I’m shot.”
Ted frowned, setting his cell phone on the counter. “Mark?” He opened the door and Mark Gibb stumbled into Ted’s kitchen. His left hand was clamped ove
r his right shoulder, but blood was still trickling down his arm, leaving a crimson trail across Ted’s tile floor.
“What the hell happened?” He got Mark settled on a chair in the breakfast nook and went to the sink to wet a rag.
“Kevin sent me to get Tera Muldoon, but her boyfriend shot me.” He started to slump onto the table, but he winced, straightening up when Ted pressed the compress against Mark’s wound. “Fuck,” he groaned.
Ted shook his head. “We’ve got to call an ambulance. You’re losing too much blood.”
“No.” Mark’s eyes were wide, terrified. “No, we can’t. He’ll find out.”
“Who?” Ted frowned.
“The detective. He cornered me this morning, asking lots of questions about the Order.”
Ted sighed as he moved the rag and tried to get a better look at Mark’s wound. “Malone, right?”
Mark nodded. “I think they saw my car tonight. They’ll be looking for me.”
Ted wiped his hands on a clean towel. He didn’t even know what he was looking for. His first aid training consisted of streaming episodes of ER. “You’ve got to go to the hospital, Mark. I don’t even have my CPR card. I’m not equipped to handle this.”
Mark grabbed Ted’s hand, his skin was cold and clammy. “I can’t go to jail. Kronos…” He bit his lip and corrected himself. “Kevin has my wife. He’ll hurt Trish.”
Shit. Ted’s last conversation with Kevin had made it clear that the Father of the Gods had no love for mankind in his heart, but Ted hadn’t realized Kevin had already begun hurting people.
“Keep pressure on the wound,” Ted said. “I’m going to call Mikolas.”
Mark did as he was told, quietly sobbing. Ted turned away from the bloody scene, dialed, and stared out the window as the phone rang.
Mikolas answered, his voice drowsy. “Yeah?”
“It’s Ted. Mark Gibb is in my kitchen bleeding from a gunshot wound.”