Storm the Night

by Zahra Stone

  “Oh, I’m counting on it,” I murmured, eyes closed, waiting with utter anticipation. I wasn’t disappointed. The pop as his fangs pierced my skin didn’t hurt, not even a twinge, and then his mouth sealed over the punctures, and he pulled my blood into his mouth, his growl telling me how good I tasted. But I couldn’t think, only feel as sensations exploded. Fire and ice danced through my veins, traveling throughout my body until I was burning all over. My skin overheated, and stars exploded behind my closed lids.

  When he lifted his mouth from my neck, I clasped his face in my hands and kissed him, tasting the coppery tang of my own blood, and instead of being repulsed…I was aroused. More aroused if that were even possible. My hands squeezed in between us as I frantically kissed him, trying to undo his trousers but wrapped around him as I was, it was impossible.

  He set me on my feet, hands steadying my shoulders when my legs threatened to buckle. The look on his face told me he wanted to undress me slowly, unwrap me like a Christmas present, but I couldn’t wait—I had no patience for taking it slow. I’d waited too long, and I needed him now. The ache was painful. Pulling my tank up and over my head, I tossed it aside, then my bra, watching through hooded eyes as his hands went to his belt. We undressed, watching each other, the revelation of flesh almost my undoing.

  “You are…stunning,” he whispered, eyes traveling over my naked body. I stood proudly, letting him look his fill. He’d seen me naked before, once when I was unconscious and then after I’d flamed, but never in passion. This was different. We both knew it.

  “So are you.” Once I got over the magnificence of his chest and abs, my eyes trailed lower down to the corded muscles of his thighs. Fuck, even his calves looked sexy.

  Then the eye fuck was over, and we were in each other’s arms again, hands traveling frantically, mouths open, seeking, finding, a collision of flesh and tongue and teeth. Curling a leg around the back of his knee, I toppled him, landing on top of him in the mud with a whoosh and a laugh. Then my mouth was on his in a frenzy I couldn’t control—in fact, I was so out of control that afterward, when I examined it, it would terrify me.

  I’d never felt like this before. I’d had other lovers, but with Nate, it was different. It sounded clichéd, but the chemistry was off the charts, and I had a feeling we were only getting started.

  “Oh my god,” I whispered, lost for words. How could I explain to him the sensations buffeting me, the wonder he’d just given me?

  Chuckling, Nate wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight. “Do you have any idea how hot you are?” he whispered in my ear. “And not just because you’re a fire demon!” Lifting me to my feet, Nate presented me with his muddy back. “Wash me off, would you, babe?”

  My breath hitched. Babe. A term of endearment I’d never expected to hear, and yet, corny as it sounded, it warmed my heart. Obliging, I cupped my hands, capturing the rain, and rinsed the mud from his body. I may have lingered over his tight as steel butt longer than was entirely necessary, and I flushed when he chuckled, but he stood still and let me have my way with him.

  Once clean, he scooped me up and rushed us into the barn. I’d been expecting him to throw me down in the hay, but instead, he pushed me up against the wall, and I shuddered in delight.

  “Do you trust me?” He growled, each word punctuated by gentle nips around my throat.

  There was that word again, trust, the one we’d been throwing at each other since we met. This time I didn’t hesitate, the word “yes” escaping my mouth before I had time to think.

  “Good” was all I heard before his mouth was on mine, crushing me against the wall. I was on fire, unable to identify where his hands were touching me as the sensations I was experiencing threatened to overwhelm me.

  When I finally came to my senses, we were lying on the straw by the fire. Nate curled along my back, his arms wrapped around me, my head tucked beneath his chin.

  “What just happened?” I whispered, my throat hoarse.

  Nate hugged me, “what do you think just happened?” he laughed “you seemed to enjoy it.”

  I had a twinge of envy for every woman who’d ever fucked him before me. It was as if I’d laid claim to him, that I’d thrown caution to the wind—he was mine.

  “Paige,” he warned, sensing where my mind was going. “We both have pasts.”

  “You’re right.” I didn’t want to tell him of my past lovers, and I sure as hell didn’t want to hear about his.

  “Get some rest.” He kissed me, the softest, sweetest kiss, and I closed my eyes, sighing. I felt like I’d been traveling my entire life and had finally found home. With my body pleasantly aching and entirely satisfied, I did as he suggested, letting sleep claim me.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I awoke to his kiss on my lips.

  “Mmmmm.” With a slow, languid stretch, I opened my eyes. Nate was lying on his side, propped up on one elbow, watching me.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Good. You?” I wasn’t sure how to act. Should I be putting as much space between us as possible since I’d just done the unthinkable? Slept with a vampire. But I didn’t want to move away. I wanted to be closer. I wanted more. Last night he’d satisfied my every need, but I’d awoken with a new hunger, a new need pulsed through me, and finally, finally, I’d found a man who could match me.

  “We should get dressed, get moving.” His voice was low and deep, his eyes dark as they roamed over me.

  “We could do that. Or…” I trailed my fingers down his chest and over those magnificent abs that I so admired.

  “I like your idea better.” Rolling me onto my back, he kissed me, long and hard, and I was arching beneath him, my legs wrapped around his waist, my fingers tugging at his hair when an amused laugh had us both freezing.

  “Should have known.” A female voice laced with amusement carried across the barn. Peering over Nate’s shoulder, I saw a stunning woman standing there, with hands-on hips, her black hair falling over her shoulder in a long braid.

  “Raven?” Nate’s voice held a tone of disbelief, and I shifted my attention to him. He knew her? A twinge of jealousy had me stiffening beneath him. Not that he noticed. He was already untangling himself from my embrace, and just when I thought she was going to get an eyeful of his nakedness, she suddenly spun, presenting her back.

  “Pants on, Wilder,” she demanded. “I’ll give you two a minute to get dressed.” Then she was walking away, and I could hear her talking with someone outside.

  Still flushed from our love play and body still thrumming with desire, I jerkily pulled on my clothes that had been laid out on the other side of the fire. Nate must have brought them in when I was sleeping.

  “Who is she?”

  “Raven Black. She used to work for the SIA, but now she’s on the Council.”

  I wanted to ask more questions, but Nate was already striding outside. I carried my shoes closer to the doorway and sat to pull them on, watching the scene outside. Nate walked up to the black-haired beauty and wrapped her in a hug, then slapped the big man by her side on the back and shook his hand. They were friends, the three of them, that much was clear. The big man tugged Raven into his side and dropped a kiss on the top of her head, and my tension eased somewhat. They were together, a couple. Not that it mattered, I argued with myself. Nate was a free agent. He could do what he wanted with who he wanted. Liar, a voice inside my head screamed.

  Smoothing down my hair as best I could, I stepped outside to join them, just in time to hear Nate ask, “What are you guys doing here anyway? I was expecting an SIA rescue party, not a Councilor and the Secret Service.”

  “When she heard your chopper had been shot down, there was no way I could stop her from coming and searching for you herself.” The big man chuckled, then his eyes landed on me, and he stepped forward, offering his hand. “Alex Carter, ma’am, at your rescue. And this is my wife, Raven Carter.”

  “Raven Black.” Raven corrected with an indulgent smile. �
�I kept my name. It’s so unique.” Raven gave my hand a squeeze.

  “Paige Shelton,” I responded automatically, a little overwhelmed by the powerful couple because they were powerful—I could feel it coming off them in waves. Add Nate to the mix, and it was mind-blowing.

  “Sun’s going to be up soon,” Raven said to her husband. “We’d better get him out of here before he fries.”

  Alex winked. “If you insist.” Then he was talking into his phone, and Raven turned her attention back to Nate. Their heads bent close together, voices hushed, so I couldn’t hear. Affronted, I turned my back and headed toward the barn. I knew when I wasn’t wanted, and those two didn’t want me to know what they were talking about. Both of them glanced my way and then at each other, and anger started to niggle beneath my skin. They were talking about me.

  “Don’t mind those two. They’ve always been as thick as thieves.” Alex Carter came and stood by my side, leaning back against the barn with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Have they been friends long?”

  “A few years. Raven and I were working a case for the SIA that Nate was involved in—actually, he was a suspect.” He laughed, remembering. “And the stubborn son of a bitch was determined to clear his own name without our help. Actually, I have him to thank for finally making me take action about my crush on Raven.”

  “Oh?” I didn’t know why he felt this need to reveal all of this to me, but I was definitely keen to hear it.

  “Yeah, Raven and I had been partners for years, and I’d liked her all that time, but she wasn’t interested. Then Nate came along, planted a kiss or two on her, and I was suddenly anxious that I didn’t have all the time to win her over that I thought I did. So, I made my move and what do you know? Chemistry. Fireworks. And I won the girl.” He chuckled at the memory. All I could focus on was that Nate had kissed Raven. He’d kissed her. I saw red and had to clench my fists to stop the fire from erupting from my fingertips.

  “Carter!” Raven suddenly called, concern in her voice. “Whatever you’re talking about, stop!”

  Nate stepped towards us, but Raven caught his wrist, holding him back. My blood boiled at the sight of her touching him. What was wrong with me? Why was I so jealous? My mind was clouded, and I wanted to rip that black-haired bitch limb from limb.

  “Jesus.” Carter stepped away from me, looking at me in shock.

  “What?” I grumbled, really getting annoyed now.

  “Paige, take a breath.” Nate shook Raven’s hold off and covered the distance between us in rapid strides.

  “What’s everyone gawking at?” I snapped.

  “You’ve got a little”—Nate waved his hand indicating my body—“electric blue bubble going on.”

  Glancing down, I saw my entire body was shimmering with blue electricity. Great.

  Nate raised his hand to touch my face, and Raven called out to him not to touch me. My electricity spiked and turned to flame. I would burn her to the ground.

  “Easy. It’s okay.” Nate kept his hand near my face but not touching it. “Look at me. Just me. Don’t worry about them.”

  I looked into his eyes, the stormy grey comforting, soothing. My flame sizzled, and as soon as it had left my skin, he slid his hand around to the nape of my neck, not breaking eye contact.

  “Can you give us a minute?” Nate spoke to Carter, who nodded and quickly headed off his wife, who was making noises about it not being safe for Nate to be near me.

  “Ummm.” Now that I was calming down, a wave of embarrassment took hold. This was not me. I was not a jealous person.

  “Carter told you about how we all met, huh?” Nate kept his voice light and his grip on my nape firm. I nodded.

  “Raven and I were never an item.”

  “Not that it’s any of my business,” I muttered, breaking eye contact and looking over his shoulder.

  “If it bothers you, it’s your business. And I’m kinda glad it bothers you.” His admission brought my eyes back to his.

  “What do you mean?”

  “That I feel very possessive of you, Paige Shelton. I do not even want to entertain a single thought of any lovers preceding me. I imagine if I were in the position you are in today, I’d react…badly.”

  “You would?”

  “I would.” The words were whispered against my lips right before he kissed me, and the power of that kiss wiped out any thoughts of Raven from my mind. That kiss told me that right here, right now, Nate Wilder was all mine—if I wanted him.

  We were wrapped in each other, lost in the kiss when Carter yelled at us to break it up. Nate lifted his head just as a big black Hummer busted through the trees and appeared in the clearing by the barn. I hadn’t even heard it approaching; I’d been that wrapped up in Nate.

  “Ride’s here,” Raven called, stating the obvious. I’d decided the best way for me to deal with my jealousy was to ignore her. So, I did. Nate wove his fingers through mine, and we approached the vehicle side by side. It was massive, its tinted windows designed to keep out the sunlight, I assumed; otherwise, Nate was going to have an uncomfortable ride back to Redmeadows.

  “Hop in.” Carter held the rear door open for us, and I climbed up, grinning when Nate cupped my ass to help. “I think she’s got it, man,” Carter drawled.

  “Just helping out a lady.” Nate grinned, settling by my side and grabbing my hand again as if worried I’d scoot away. Carter and Raven rode up front with the driver, and I wondered if it was for my benefit—to keep us separated.

  “They’re riding up front so they can talk business without me overhearing,” Nate explained, nodding at the partition that separated the front of the vehicle from the back. “Soundproof. Bulletproof. UV proof. Like I said, Raven is on the Council, Carter is with the Secret Service, and I’m SIA. Although we all work together on occasion, there are things they wouldn’t want me to know, and vice versa. Plus, it’s a security thing. If the vehicle were to be attacked, we wouldn’t want all our high-powered people sitting in the one area, making it easy.”

  “You think we’ll be attacked again? And who attacked our helicopter in the first place?” I hadn’t given our crash too much thought until now. Still, someone had to have known the helicopter was traveling between Maxxan and Redmeadows and had been ready with whatever it was that fired at us.

  “Carter is onto it. He doesn’t think it’s ghoul-related. Someone has been tracking SIA movements from Redmeadows. We think they had a tracker on the helicopter, and as soon as it was back in range, they fired.”

  “The danger never stops.” It was an observation that wasn’t wrong.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Are you kidding me?” My mouth dropped open at the sight of my sister, Katie, dressed in the SIA black uniform, red badge pinned on her belt. We’d arrived at SIA HQ, an impressive building entirely underground. Nate had explained the layout to me as we’d traveled down in the elevator. Level one was the Cadets and training facility, level two was for the Protectors, Nate explained the human equivalent would be Sergeant, level three was the executive offices—Nate’s office, plus IT, payroll, and general admin, level four was the Enforcers—think Detectives, Level five was the Guardians—similar to Corporals, and the final level, all the way at the bottom was level six, the holding cells.

  We’d gotten off at level four, where Nate explained he needed to brief the Enforcers on what he’d discovered in Maxxan.

  Recognizing my voice, Katie’s head swiveled in my direction, narrowed her eyes, and strode over. “What are you doing here?” She didn’t sound pleased.

  “Enforcer.” There was a warning in Nate’s voice.

  “You’re her boss?” To Nate. “You work here?” To Katie. Both ignored me. Katie rounded on Nate, her back ramrod straight, her jaw tense.

  “You have no business bringing her here. You said you’d keep her out of it!” Fury underlined the accusation, and Nate frowned.

  “She’s safe.”

  “Oh sure, we kno
w how easy it is to protect someone, so easy to keep them from harm.” I’d never seen my sister so furious. Electricity danced over her clenched fists. “It was bad enough you dragged Rae into this, but now Paige?”

  “Calm. Down.” His words were coated in steel, as cold as the look he threw at her. “You want to challenge me, Enforcer, you do it in my office, not here. Understood?”

  My head swiveled from one to the other, wondering what the hell was going on.

  “Understood.” Spinning on her heel, she stalked away, only to suddenly turn and come back, her eyes on me. “You shouldn’t be here. The SIA is not the place for you.” I opened my mouth to protest, but she’d stalked away again. Nate’s grip on my wrist stopped me from following.

  “Give her some time. She’ll calm down.”

  “What was that about?” I’d never seen Katie so angry nor so coldly determined. I’d seen her sad and in so much pain my heart hurt for her, but never like this.

  “She’ll tell you in her own time.” I tilted my head to consider him. His tense jaw and flashing eyes warned me not to push him on this. Not yet, anyway. And not here.

  “Where’s Rae?” I asked instead.

  “Training. Out in the field. You might see her later. It all depends.”

  “On?”

  “Developments here. And how she does in her training. She’ll be gone for as long as it takes to get the job done.”

  “Are you talking…live training? As in real-life situations?”

  “I can’t discuss this with you, Paige. I’m sorry.” Right. I wasn’t SIA. Even though I was standing slap bang in the middle of their headquarters, I was not a part of it. Even though it had been their helicopter I was riding in when it was shot down, I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t want to think my next thought…but it crept in regardless. Even though I was sleeping with the boss. I sighed. It kinda hurt to be shut out, but I was smart enough to know it wasn’t personal.

  “Not until I appoint you an agent. If you want,” he added.