Nexus

by C. L. Parker

  Tori could tell by the glint in Dante’s eyes that he was thinking about other things that might zap them of their energy, but she wouldn’t play into his hand. “What did you have in mind?”

  He unleashed the full power of his bedroom eyes on her. “Whatever you’re comfortable with. We can start out light and then build up to something more stimulating if you want. There’s really no need to rush. I’d much prefer to take my time with you anyway.”

  Tori stood and went to stand toe-to-toe with him. “You really have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  Dante licked the inside of his bottom lip. “Perhaps not, but the prospect of finding out excites me in very unhealthy ways.” He looked down at himself, drawing Tori’s attention in the same direction. Oh, yeah. His excitement was very evident, and if she hadn’t thought it before, she was certainly thinking it now: sweats really didn’t leave anything at all to the imagination.

  An hour later, Dante found himself flat on his back atop the wall-to-wall red matting that covered the floor of his training room. Again. For the seventh time.

  Tori had been right; he had seriously underestimated her abilities. Where Dante was all brawn and strength, Tori was light on her feet and quick as lightning. Not to mention it was like she could read his mind, knowing his every move before even he did. It probably didn’t help that she could conjure up balls of Light in a fraction of the time it took him. And she did it all without even breaking a sweat.

  It was a good thing their windowless basement had been transformed into a training room that could handle anything a Guardian could throw at it, or else Her Majesty’s Armed Forces would’ve already stormed the house in search of weapons of mass destruction.

  He reached for her offered hand and let her pull him up. “Had enough?” she asked with an arrogant smirk.

  “Not nearly.”

  Dante swept his leg in a wide arc, but she jumped, tucking both perfectly aligned knees into her chest before extending them back to the ground and flipping into a hands-free somersault. During her aerobatic display she had formed another ball of Light between her palms, and as soon as her feet hit the mat, she launched it straight at his head. Dante ducked at the last possible moment and it sailed overhead, smashing into the steel-lined wall behind him. He sniffed the air, smelling the distinct aroma of burnt hair.

  “Hey! Watch the hair!” he said, pointing an accusing finger at her.

  Tori giggled and licked the pad of her finger before drawing an imaginary line in the air to signify another point earned on her behalf. It was a good thing the scoreboard wasn’t actually visible, or else Dante would be able to see how truly pathetic his performance had been. Time to pull out the big guns.

  He crouched down into a fighter’s stance and swayed from side to side in a slow, methodical manner. Tori eyed him, instinctively watching for any telltale sign of his next move. Dante clapped his hands together, feeling the static electricity of the Light manifesting between his cupped palms. Before she could formulate a plan of counterattack, he pushed his hands forward, sending the ball straight at her middle. Tori turned and ran toward the back wall, kicked off with one foot, and twisted into the air right before the ball of energy was absorbed by the wall. She landed into a backflip, springing into another after another until the next would place her directly in front of him and within lethal striking range. Dante grabbed her in midair and flung her to the ground, covering her with the weight of his body. Her wrists were pinned above her head and he smirked down at her, basking in the victory.

  Tori writhed beneath him, trying to break his hold, but brute force won out over nimbleness. She was trapped—just where Dante wanted her—with her legs spread and her full breasts pressed against his chest.

  “You’re cheating!” she said, still moving beneath him.

  “There’s no cheating in a fight, Angel. You use whatever you have at your disposal to gain the advantage. Were I a real opponent,” he said, leaning in to whisper against her ear, “you’d be at my mercy. I rather like the thought of that.”

  She bucked her hips, and he tsked her. “Careful, love. The beast is already stirring. You wouldn’t want to wake him fully. Only one way to put him back to sleep after that.”

  Tori stopped moving and looked confused until her eyes suddenly went wide. Obviously, she had felt the evidence of his words through the unrestricted material of his sweatshorts.

  Dante smirked down at her, proud as a peacock of his generous endowment. “Shall I move?”

  “Yes.” The word was breathless, a whisper that gave away the desire she felt but would never admit. She needed coaxing, and that was what he did best.

  “Very well, then.” He rolled his hips against her and she stiffened even as her eyes closed.

  “That’s not what I meant,” she said through clenched teeth.

  “No? Hmm . . . I could’ve sworn—”

  He didn’t have the chance to finish his goading. Catching him off guard, Tori hooked her legs over his and used the mat for leverage to roll them until she was on top and her wrists were free. When Dante tried to grab her, she quickly slid up his body and pinned his shoulders to the mat with her knees while holding his arms captive with her legs.

  He lifted his head to look right at her crotch in front of his face. Yoga pants were a gift from God. He was convinced of it. He scraped his bottom lip with his teeth and purposely hummed, knowing no woman in her right mind could resist his charms. He was sure that if she would scoot forward just a little bit more, he’d be able give her something no other man had probably ever given her, even through the thin material of her pants.

  “You like what you see?” she said seductively as she ran her fingers through his hair.

  “Indeed I do, Angel. Is this supposed to be my punishment?”

  “No, this is.” Tori grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head to the side before doubling up her fist and hitting him as hard as she could in the jaw.

  The blow jarred his teeth and a throbbing pain radiated from the point of contact along his jaw to his ear. “Bloody, fucking hell, woman!” he shouted, shaking his head until the high-pitched ringing subsided.

  “Never let your weaknesses be known, Dante. They just might come back to bite you in the arse,” Tori pronounced the last part with a mock English accent.

  Tricky, tricky . . .

  Adding insult to injury, she pushed his head to the mat, using it as leverage to lift herself off him. With a wink, she strolled across the room to grab her bottle of water without giving him, or the injury she had inflicted, a second thought.

  Bloody fucking hell, indeed. I think I’m in love, Dante thought as he used a hand to move his jaw back and forth to be sure she hadn’t dislocated it. He ignored the throbbing numbness and propped himself up on one elbow to watch her reflection in the mirror that lined one wall.

  “Where did you learn to fight like that?” he asked.

  Tori swallowed the gulp of water she had just taken and met his gaze. “I’m a Guardian of the Light slash Guardian Angel who just happens to be the only daughter of Dominic Grayson. Do the math.”

  “Yes, well I can see how that might contribute to your skills,” he said, lifting his knee and propping his forearm over it. “I’d wager that even if you weren’t gifted, Dominic would’ve made sure his little girl was equipped with the tools to defend her virtue.”

  Tori arched a brow. “I’m not a little girl.”

  He looked her over for the hundredth time since he had met her, still very much appreciative of the swell of her breasts, the dip of her waist, and the curve of her hips which flowed with poetic fluidity to thighs of creamy flesh over toned muscle. The red tint to her auburn hair was rich and luxurious even while gathered in a ponytail, and her eyes were round and bright. But the features that most held his attention captive at the moment were her very full lips wrapped around the opening of the bottle while she took long pulls of the ice cold liquid into her very hot mouth.

  “N
o, you most certainly are not a little girl.” He resituated himself in his shorts, vowing to never again wear sweats to a training session.

  “You might want to get some ice on that jaw before it starts to swell,” she said with an air of smugness. “Wouldn’t want your friends to find out a girl beat you up.”

  Dante chuckled. “I’m sure if they saw you they’d say the wallop was worth it just to be that close to you, especially if they had the pleasure of being between your legs.”

  Tori rolled her eyes and stuck her hip out, putting all of her weight on one foot. It was sexy. “Does that really work?”

  “What? Being between your legs? Well if it’s done right . . . it works very well.”

  She let an exasperated breath loose, blowing a wayward strand of hair out of her face that had fallen from its binding. Christ, even that was sexy.

  “You’re such a pervert. I’m talking about all the sexual innuendo. Does that really work on women?”

  He shrugged. “You tell me.”

  She cocked her head to the side as if in thought. “Hmm. The jury’s still out. I’ll have to get back to you on that when I’m not still basking in the afterglow of the ass kicking I’ve just put on you.”

  Dante couldn’t help but laugh. At least he now knew that his gentle persuasion was working. He wasn’t even sure why it was so important that it did. It wasn’t that he just wanted her in a way that all men wanted women, but it was something far more than that. He wanted to know her, for her to want to know him as well, to finally have someone who could sympathize with his guarded life other than the people who had brought him into the world.

  He lay back on the mat with his hands behind his head to look up at the ceiling. “Gloat all you want. Tomorrow will be a new day. I haven’t even begun to work you out yet.”

  One of her perfectly manicured eyebrows lifted in disbelief. “You actually want to do this again? So your idea of working me out is to stand in as my human punching bag?”

  Dante laughed. “Very funny, Angel.” He turned to look at her. “I think we should definitely do this every day. Suffice it to say, I like it rough. Foreplay,” he shrugged, “that’s all it is.”

  Tori shook her head at him. “You’re incorrigible. You’re also a glutton for punishment.” She grabbed her bag and hung it on her shoulder. “Same time, same place tomorrow?”

  He smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  At dinner that night, Drew announced that there was a big music festival complete with a carnival just on the outskirts of London. Everyone seemed really excited about going, especially her father. Dominic was a huge music buff, and apparently there was a live band giving a tribute to some of the greatest rock musicians born and bred in England. It was a no-brainer that they would go. For the first time in a really long time, Tori was actually excited about getting out with her family and genuinely having fun.

  The music festival was indeed a huge deal. It seemed like nearly half the population of London was there, but Drew and Dominic still managed to find a spot that was neither too close nor too far away from the main stage. The band was none too shabby, playing the greatest hits from bands like The Rolling Stones, Queen, Pink Floyd and of course, Led Zeppelin, to name a few.

  Never had Tori seen her father look so young. And because he was so relaxed and in his element, Kerrigan seemed like a completely different person as well. Perched in her husband’s lap while they both sang along, Kerrigan bobbed her head while Dominic’s fingers twitched sporadically like he had his guitar in his hands. Looking at them, Tori knew she was getting a glimpse of what they must have been like together before they realized how important their daughter was to the salvation of mankind. She felt guilty for being the cause of what took that away from them, which only solidified her reasoning for keeping them in the dark about the demented workings of her inner mind.

  Between songs, a group of women decided crossing through their group would be a much better path than walking around like everyone else had been doing. Tori was sure it had everything to do with the caliber of males among them, especially when she saw how the so-called ladies increased the sway of their hips and pushed their already bulging tits out the closer they got to where Dante, Drew, Colton, and Dominic sat. Not that she was surprised, but Gabe noticed their attempts at drawing attention to themselves as well. Apparently, years spent with Colton had really mellowed him out because although Tori expected him to make a scene, he merely mumbled his thoughts to their own group.

  “Good Lord, that little slut must not even realize her cooter’s hanging out,” he said about the one who had on a skirt that was so short it left nothing at all to the imagination. “It’s looking mighty hungry. Are those teeth I see? Oh shit! She should definitely see a doctor about that before someone loses an arm . . . and a leg . . . and a face. Nasty ass,” he said while shaking his head.

  Dante threw his head back and laughed. “You know, I really like you. By the way, what the hell is a cooter?”

  “Don’t ask,” Dominic mumbled before taking a drink of his beer. Having spent nearly twenty years in Gabe’s company, he knew it best not to, but sometimes the urge was too great to ignore.

  Gabe rolled his eyes dramatically while throwing his hands into the air before putting them on his hips. “I swear, I’m dealing with some geniuses. Cooter . . . it’s right next to your pooter, which sometimes doubles as a tooter, duh! Ha! Lookie, lookie, snookie! I’m a poet and didn’t know it.” Gabe slapped his knee, amused at himself. “I can also connect the pooter and a roto-rooter if you want me to.”

  “No!” was the collective exclamation.

  “Fine, but I bet y’all wouldn’t be offended if I’d said hooters instead. And I ain’t talkin’ about them furry bug-eyed fuckers with wings, either, although my hairdresser once told me a story about this woman she knew with coke-bottle glasses and a hairy chest. Thought her father was a nearsighted Sasquatch. I wonder if she’s still traveling with that circus?”

  “The woman with the hairy chest?” Sinclair asked.

  Gabe looked at her like she was crazy. “No, hon,” he said slowly and deliberately. “My hairdresser. If you’re going to be hanging around me, you need to learn to keep up.”

  “Why would your hairdresser be traveling with the circus?” she asked, confused. Gabe had that affect on people.

  Before he could answer, the band started their next song, Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets, and Gabe’s eyes lit up, his story forgotten. “Oh my God! I love, love, love this song! Come on, Mini-Me!”

  He grabbed Tori, yanking her up from the bench and dragging her into the open space in front of everyone. Tori laughed as Gabe moved his shoulders sharply to the rhythm of the piano, goading her into following his lead like he had when she was seven. When she hesitated, Gabe took her hands and whirled her around in a complicated turn until she ended up next to him with their hands still locked together as they swayed from side to side to the beat.

  When the lyrics started, Gabe sang them from the top of his lungs, drawing the attention of the entire crowd surrounding them. Tori probably should’ve run and hidden in embarrassment, but she couldn’t resist the allure of the song, or Gabe’s infectious personality. That song . . . that song held a special place in her heart, as did the prissy man making exaggerated motions with his hips next to her.

  As a young girl, Gabe was pretty much the only friend she’d had, and they had spent many days dancing around the living room to the very same song. It was his most favorite, after all. Gabe always knew how to have a good time. It was the one thing he had tried to instill in Tori—well, that and how to give a killer manicure—but she never quite grasped the lesson. Maybe it was time for her to break out of her shell and finally live, take some chances instead of playing it safe, and just have fun. She threw herself into the song and dance, not caring how silly she looked or how many people were staring at her. She’d never see any of them ever again anyway.

  Gabe beamed at her
with a proud smile. “That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout, Mini-Me. But don’t try to show me up now.”

  When the chorus hit, Gabe bent over at the waist and tossed his head back and forth with the words, pouring his heart and soul into every movement. Tori never did understand his obsession with the song. The lyrics didn’t make any sense whatsoever, but she figured it was because it made people feel good.

  Gabe’s enthusiasm and flamboyant theatrics were contagious—always had been—and before long, the rest of their family had joined in, putting on quite a show while swaying back and forth and accentuating certain words with random body movements. Tori giggled through most of the words, mostly because Dante was butchering them beyond recognition, but she could safely say that it was the most fun she’d ever had.

  Then, to Tori’s utter shock and surprise, Dante grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out of Gabe’s grasp. With nothing more than a smirk, he took her hand and spun her around and around. Tori laughed so hard her side was beginning to hurt and she was knocked off balance, nearly toppling over. He caught her in his arms, transitioning her into an awkward dip, holding her there as he smiled down at her. His eyes flared to an icy blue, the honey-colored specks like flames dancing to the music.

  The song ended, but was immediately followed by a slower version of Mad World. Tori’s smile faded with Dante’s as time seemed to come to a halt and all the faces and voices of the crowd around them faded into the background like all those epic scenes from every chick flick she had ever seen. Tori gazed into Dante’s eyes, the lighthearted mood shifting as she felt the Light come to life like thousands of microbeads bouncing through her veins. Magnetized to Dante’s energy, pulling and arcing, straining to connect with his energy, something sparked between them and quickly fanned into a flame that sucked the oxygen out of the air around them. Her skin vibrated from his nearness and her insides throbbed in a rhythmic pattern that was both exquisite and scary as hell. It was the combined energy of their mutual gift, pulsating and palpable. Tori was drawn to him, desiring nothing more than to give the Light what it wanted, to become one with Dante in whatever fashion it deemed acceptable. Apparently feeling the same thing, Dante swallowed hard and began to close the gap between them.