Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1)

by Sierra Dean

  Cade shut off the water and got out after me, standing with his legs on either side of my hips.

  I should punch him in the nuts.

  I should claw out his eyes.

  Instead I pressed my cheek against the cold tile and closed my eyes, pulling in long, deep lungfuls of air until the urge to scream faded. The red haze of my anger towards him dissipated, and soon I felt almost like myself again.

  “Help me up,” I grumbled, rolling onto my back. My shirt was soaked through, and my jacket, still in the tub, was probably ruined. “What kind of moron takes a girl who is throwing off electric sparks and tosses her under water?”

  I wasn’t about to acknowledge that his plan had worked. That would be telling him he was right.

  Cade said nothing but offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet. He was already so close the action drew me up along his front, his shirt lifting slightly from the press of my body. A flash of abs peeked out above his belt buckle, and my fingers accidentally grazed bare skin on his back when I went to steady myself.

  In an instant, I forgot how cold I was, because I was flushed all the way through with heat.

  His hands went to my arms, squeezing a ever so slightly too hard. I glanced up and found him staring at me, an unexpected intensity in his brown eyes. It was something I’d never seen on Cade’s normally emotionally shuttered face. Hunger. A bare, unhidden want had tightened his features, and he looked like he was in pain.

  My heart pounded, and given how close we were he must be able to feel it.

  Instead of pulling my hands away, I adjusted them up a fraction of an inch, my fingers tracing the bare, cool skin of his lower back, finding the groove of his spine and where it went lower, lower…

  He sucked in a breath.

  “We…” There was a chance he was trying to come up with something logical to stop this, whatever it was, but he didn’t finish the thought.

  “We could have died,” I whispered. “We almost died.”

  His hands moved up to my shoulders, then my neck. Strong, rough thumbs rubbed along the line of my jaw, and he kept touching me, tentatively, exploratively, until he paused at my mouth, one thumb pressing down on the center of my lower lip.

  I fully stopped breathing, worried the smallest exhalation would send him flying off like a murmuration of starlings.

  “We didn’t die,” he said finally, pressing down a little harder until my mouth opened.

  Around us, the floor was a growing puddle of cold water. Goose bumps had erupted on my skin, but I didn’t think they had anything to do with the chill from the shower’s blast.

  His hand trembled the slightest bit as he tilted my chin up, and my heart was beating so hard all I could hear was the pulse of it in my ear.

  He had just complained about me being crazy, but here he was trying to drive me absolutely mental.

  Cade took a step towards me, his knee pressing between my legs as he backed me into the bathroom vanity. Then his hands were gone, leaving my face and dropping to my jeans, clasping behind my thighs as he lifted me onto the sink.

  I made an Oh sound, but once again his lips were on mine, and any thoughts of speaking vanished in the span of one breath.

  Compared to how cold our clothes were, his mouth was a shock of warmth. His kiss was hesitant and tentative at first, like he was waiting for me to push him away or stop this. But he must think I was crazy if he believed I’d be the one to put the brakes on.

  I balled my hands into fists in his shirt, pulling him closer to me, my legs wrapping around his thighs. This was all the invitation he needed to take the kisses from tentative to demanding. Maybe this was nuts, maybe it was a terrible idea, but right now it was the only thing in my world that made sense. His mouth tasted faintly sweet, like mint and desire, and I wanted to lose myself in the solace of his touch.

  He pushed against me, hips grinding into mine, and my head bumped the mirror as he devoured me one kiss at a time. The room became a blur, and all that mattered was the burning heat of his skin and the demanding urgency of his passion.

  Cade moved his hands from my hips to my waist, then sliding under my shirt and up to my bra, cupping my breasts. His palms were warm, tickling my nipples, which were already rigid from all the wet cloth.

  “Tallulah.” He whispered my name against my lips, and the naked desire of his voice, raspy, aching, made me dizzy.

  He tried to kiss me again, but this time I stopped him, bracing against his chest to hold him back as I fought to catch my breath.

  We couldn’t do this.

  Oh, gods help me, I wanted to do this. His hands were still covering my breasts, and only an inch of distance needed to be crossed and I could be kissing him once more. Just thinking of the way his tongue felt against mine was almost enough for me to throw caution to the wind. I could feel how bad he wanted me, pressed between my legs, and I would have given damn near anything to undo his pants and let him have his way with me.

  But we couldn’t.

  Adrenaline was high, and barely five minutes earlier we’d been trying to kill each other in the shower. A minute before that I’d been so out of control I’d damn near sparked lightning in our motel room. Yes, my body ached for him, demanded him, wanted to feel him all over me. It was like I was filled with a thirst so intense I needed to drink down the whole ocean, and here he was offering me every last drop.

  Was I out of my mind to say no to this?

  He saw my hesitation and closed the gap, kissing me again, slow and imploring. I moaned, dragging my nails down his chest. His body was strong and firm, and I imagined how good it would look if I could get him out of his wet shirt. I wondered how far the tattoos went.

  I let out a shuddering breath and bit his lower lip. I didn’t draw blood, but it was enough to give him pause.

  “No.” I forced the word out. Cade was rough around the edges, but he was a gentleman at the core. I hoped he’d understand how hard it was for me to say it.

  He stopped like I’d uttered a magic incantation. “No.” He repeated it back to me, but not as a question.

  Oh, let me take it back. He could help me forget everything we’d been through in the last two days. His body would be enough to make everything okay, at least for a few hours, while we waited out the last breaths of night.

  “I can’t.” I gave him a gentle push and hopped down off the sink.

  “Oh.”

  I could tell this wasn’t what he’d expected me to say, and it was the last thing I wanted to say. Even though this had to stop now, I felt like I had to add something. “I want to. Gods, Cade…I… You turn my brain to soup. How did a priest learn to kiss like that?”

  This brought a smirk to his lips. “I told you I wasn’t temple pure. Did you think I was lying?”

  “I definitely don’t now.” I let out a shaky breath. If I had any less willpower, I’d be in his arms right now, ripping the shirt off his body.

  “But we can’t?” He asked it as a question, like he was hoping I’d change my mind.

  “Not yet.”

  “Yet.” He mulled the word over, scrubbing his hands over his cheeks and through his short hair. The way it sounded when his palms scraped against the shaved hairs on the side of his head was so profoundly erotic I almost lost it.

  I wanted to say something else to explain my reasoning, but everything that came to mind seemed like an absurd excuse, no matter how real the logic was. We were marked for death by the gods, and I had a demigod’s life to save. While the possibility of being killed at any minute might seem like a powerful motivator to get in one last booty call before I died, the truth was I didn’t need the risk of an added emotional attachment.

  Cade wasn’t just anyone, and if the last two days had taught me anything, it was that he wasn’t who I thought he was either. He was, for better or worse, someone I was growing to care about, and that meant sex wouldn’t just be sex.

  And falling in love would be a major disadvantage to me right now.
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br />   Chapter Thirteen

  Both Cade and I needed a break from being in close quarters near a bed.

  Because we couldn’t use his car, we were limited to where we could go, but the Sleepy Dayz motel happened to share a lot with a quaint diner, giving us an obvious place to distract ourselves from what we’d done in the bathroom.

  We were probably better off giving each other a little breathing room before we attempted to discuss our hot-and-heavy romantic encounter. Chances were if I brought it up now, I’d climb across the booth and mount him in the restaurant.

  Keeping a table between us was a good idea.

  Being in my Mustang with him for the next two days would be…interesting.

  A slim part of me hoped someone else would attack us just so we’d continue to be distracted until we got to New Orleans. Fighting for our lives was a sure-fire way to keep my mind off getting into his pants.

  I pulled a slim tablet out of my bag and set it on the table so he could also see it. The restaurant, though promoting a vintage vibe, also had a Wi-Fi password listed next to the pie specials. The password was MMMPIE. Because why not?

  The waitress came by and didn’t bat an eyelash when I ordered two cheeseburgers, a side of fries, and a slice of apple pie a la mode. Instead of assuming I’d ordered for us both, the waitress then looked to Cade and asked, “And for you?” I grinned. The farther south we went the less anyone judged me for eating my weight in fried foods.

  That said, if I didn’t get a few days’ rest from using my powers, I was going to run into some serious trouble. The extra calories certainly helped settle me, but what I really needed was sleep and an opportunity to recharge.

  Fat chance of that on this road trip from the depths of the underworld.

  I opened the browser on the tablet and navigated to a P.I. website. I had a login but rarely had reason to use it, unless a prayer request involved doing something to a specific person. The service helped me locate the right person the prayer was being directed at. Didn’t want to crash a tree branch into the wrong John Smith’s bedroom window, right?

  Cade had looked Leo up that morning, but I wanted to do my own research. I typed the name Leo Marquette into the search box, hoping Leo was his birth name and not a nickname. The program thought, and Cade fidgeted with his spoon while the wheel spun. The waitress brought us both coffee and a pile of creamers. “Looks like y’all are going to be here awhile,” she explained politely.

  Her tip just doubled.

  She didn’t look twice at the angry red fractal scars visible on my arms. My jacket, which I’d rescued from the tub, would need to dry overnight, so I was stuck in shirtsleeves for the time being. It made me feel exposed, and I was wishing I’d packed more long-sleeve shirts in spite of the August heat.

  The search results popped up, showing information for seven Leo Marquettes. Two were deceased, which helped eliminate them instantly. Two more were on the West Coast, one in Portland and the other in San Jose. One lived in Kansas and another was in a New York State prison. The seventh Leo, who had a prison record but wasn’t currently incarcerated, had a last-known address in Louisiana.

  I entered the address into the search and used the street-view feature.

  A burnt-out husk of a house looked back at me.

  “I think it’s pretty safe to say Leo has moved on.” Cade continued to spin his cutlery, his knees bouncing constantly underneath the table. He was a ball of barely restrained energy, vibrating in his skin.

  I almost told him to stop, but it might have been the outlet he needed, so who was I to take it away from him?

  I looked forlornly at the burnt building on the tablet screen. Our only solid lead on Leo had literally gone up in smoke. Going back to the search page, I entered Jacqueline’s information, and just as Cade had said, she had an address listed in LaPlace.

  “I’m still not convinced he’s an adult.” I entered Jacqueline’s address into my phone so I could avoid looking it up later. “Seth doesn’t function on the same timeline as us, what with the whole immortality thing messing up his internal clock, but he called Leo a child. Could he really believe he’s still a kid? That’s an enormous mistake to make.”

  “How long do you think it’s been since Seth saw him?”

  I shrugged. I honestly wouldn’t have put down money that Seth had ever made an effort to meet Leo. His other children were around more often because they sought him out. There were a lot of benefits associated with being a confirmed demigod. Along with a longer life, better looks, and having a parent who is an actual god, there was also the added perk of instant celebrity status. Demis took up more tabloid cover space than actresses with drug problems.

  Our waitress delivered the food, and I eyed Cade’s chicken-fried steak, wondering if the cheeseburgers had been a mistake.

  No. Cheeseburgers were never a mistake.

  We lapsed into silence as we ate, the quiet only broken up by my occasional mumbled sounds of satisfaction. Diners never failed when it came to making great grease bombs. It might have been the magical exhaustion talking, but this was possibly the best burger I’d ever eaten.

  I looked up to find Cade staring at me, barely touching his food. The intensity of his expression reminded me of how he looked when he was angry, but there was no rage in his eyes. His jaw was set tight, and he couldn’t seem to move his eyes from my face.

  I paused mid-burger, making sure there was no mustard on my cheek. “What?”

  He seemed to realize that he was staring then, because he shook his head like coming out of a dream. “You’re something else, Sparky.”

  Placing the burger back on the plate, I smiled at him. “I’m one of a kind.”

  “Thank the gods. I’m not sure the world would survive if there were two of you.” He laughed.

  He couldn’t have known, but the words hit me like a punch in the solar plexus. All the air in my lungs escaped in a whoosh. I’d done it to myself with the one of a kind line, but for some reason I hadn’t thought anything he said would get to me.

  Yet he’d accidentally found the perfect knife and stabbed me in the heart with it.

  Cade must have seen a change in my expression because his smile vanished. “Sorry. I offended you.”

  “No.” I gave my head a gentle shake.

  “I did, you’re upset.”

  I so didn’t want to get into this with him right now. It’s just when it came to Sunny, reminders were hard. There were days her absence felt like a death, like part of me was gone forever instead of living in Arizona.

  Twenty years was a long time to live without half of yourself.

  There were days I barely thought of her, and that made it harder when something would come out of the blue to remind me of her, and I’d feel hollowed out all over again.

  I picked a slice of bacon out of my burger, then dropped it on the plate.

  “Well, now I know something is wrong.” He touched my hand, and that only managed to make things worse, reminding me of everything going on between us and more stuff I could add to the list of things I shouldn’t be wasting my time thinking about.

  “It’s not you, I promise.” Grabbing the tablet, I shut it off and jammed it in my bag. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Let’s get some sleep, okay?”

  Cade opened his mouth like he wanted to argue, but I shut him up with one stern glare. If he kept pushing this, there was a chance I’d start crying, and I did not want to cry twice in one night. Blame it on being run-down by all the magic use, but I was hanging by a thread.

  Plus, I knew now that Cade had no finesse when it came to dealing with an emotional female.

  We paid and walked back across the lot to the motel. He ducked inside to check the room, making sure no surprises had appeared while we were gone. Dropping my bag next to an Adirondack chair in front of our room, I plopped down into the low seat, kicking my legs out in front of me.

  I had a gun in my bag, something I rarely had cause to use, but I w
as grateful to have it right now. As useless as it would be against an immortal, not everyone coming for us would be a god. And thinking about attackers was a great way to distract myself from thoughts of Sunny.

  Cade reappeared in the doorway and glanced down at me.

  “You sleeping out here?”

  “Watching.”

  A deep furrow formed between his brows. “Tallulah, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  “And I’m not sure it’s a good idea for me to be in there with you at the moment.” I tilted my head up and gave him a meaningful nod.

  He smirked. “I won’t try anything.”

  I snorted. “I’m not worried about you.” The man clearly had no concept of how much sexual charisma was radiating off him at any given moment. I was not immune to it.

  “Want me to join you out here?”

  The offer was sweet, and under different circumstances I’d have said yes, but one of us needed to be well rested in the morning if we were going to make decent time. We had to get at least as far as Shreveport the next day. I was hoping between the two of us we’d be able to push the full twenty-hour drive, but that would only be possible if no one else tried to kill us between now and then.

  Fat chance.

  Shreveport was still a fifteen-hour haul, and if we stopped there for the night, we could formulate a plan for what to do when we got to New Orleans.

  It didn’t matter if our goal was Shreveport, Fort Worth, or all the way to NOLA. Cade would need to sleep. I could catch intermittent shut-eye in the car, because honestly there was no way I’d be able to sleep now, even if I tried.

  “I’ll be fine. It’ll make me feel useful, keeping an eye out for trouble. Get some rest.”

  “I’m not the one who needs it the most. You saved us back up in the mountains.”

  I couldn’t handle the look of admiration in his eyes. It made me feel guilty. Yes, I’d saved us, but I was also the only reason his life was in danger in the first place. I didn’t want him patting me on the back because he hadn’t gotten killed.