by Cassi Carver
Jaxon’s breath rolled around in his lungs like the beginnings of a growl. When they stepped into the bright kitchen, he took her arm and pulled her close. “Come here. Your hair is full of soil. It looks like strawberry sauce with chocolate crumbles.” She closed her watery eyes as he brushed his fingers over her scalp in quick sweeps. “You’ll need to wash it to get it all out. And your eyelashes… Keep your eyes closed.”
When she felt his breath on her face, his lips just inches from her eyes, gently blowing the soil from around her lashes, she went weak in the knees. He was so close, she could feel the heat from his body and smell the spicy scent of his skin. Her nipples tightened to rock-hard nubs, and it was a struggle not to lean into him. Drawing on her strength, she stepped back instead. “Hey, what about your personal hygiene?”
He bent at the waist and shook his head like a dog after a bath. “There. Good as new.”
She laughed, hoping he didn’t see how he was affecting her. She had to get out of here before she did something stupid. “A shower sounds nice.”
He smiled and extended his open hands. “I’ll hold the book until you’re finished.”
Abbey paused for a long moment, searching his eyes for signs of subterfuge, but then she handed it over. “You’re not gonna do anything weird to it, are you?”
“I’ll keep it safe—for now.”
She shrugged and turned for the master bedroom. “Hey, they’re your wings.”
The master bathroom was decorated in white and black. Too bad her uncle and his plans were a hazier shade of gray.
She stripped off her clothes, folded them neatly and laid them in the corner of the bathroom on the large, black granite tiles, then she unwrapped the long, stretchy bandage from around her stomach and peeled off the wadded tissues. “Oh, no.”
The gooey paper shredded, wedging itself in the grooves of her brand. She might have a better immune system than a human, but she was pushing her luck. She was going to have to wash the wound in the shower and then find something different to cover it before replacing the bandage.
She started the water, and once it got nice and steamy, she stepped in carefully. The hot spray felt like heaven. After enduring six months with the water-conserving faucets in Kara’s guest bath, Abbey couldn’t complain about Claude’s choice of a fancy rain-style showerhead. The water didn’t feel great filtering in through the burrows in her skin, but she was used to that. At least the area was mostly numb since the suture incident.
Several of her toiletry items hadn’t made it through the crash—their little plastic containers busting and leaking all over her clothes—but she managed to wash her hair with body soap.
After she was finished, she dried off with a fluffy white towel, taking care not to touch it to her abdomen. “Jaxon?” she called.
Within moments, she heard his deep voice from the other side of the door. “Yes?”
“My gauze supply got crud on it from my bag, and I forgot to grab a replacement for after my shower. Would you mind brining me some paper towels or napkins?”
“They won’t be sterile.”
“Eh.” He missed her shrug from behind the closed door. “If I was going to get another infection, I’d have it by now. And besides, there’s not much we can do about it at this point.”
“I’ll look for a first-aid kit.”
She bent and towel-dried her tangly hair. “Paper towels are fine. I’ve used them before.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She wrapped her towel around her breasts, trying to hold the snowy terrycloth fabric away from her skin until she could cover it. A moment later, Jaxon knocked and pushed the door open. He handed her the paper towels then walked from the room, not quite shutting the bathroom door behind him.
Abbey quickly wrapped her abdomen from just below her ribs to just above her pubic bone, then she walked out of the bathroom, the towel once again wrapped around her body, and headed for the dryer to grab her pajamas. Jaxon was standing in the hallway, waiting for her. When she reached into the dryer to grab her clothes, the towel loosened and slid to her feet.
“Eeep!” she shrieked and clutched it to her front. Her breasts were bared for Jaxon to see, but at least her bandages were covered.
He shook his head and waited for her to readjust the towel. “Stop trying to hide yourself. We will find a way to heal you, but if we never did, you would be perfect the way you are. There is no symbol on this earth that could detract from your beauty.” He stepped close to her and put his hand over her heart. “It comes from here, inside you.”
She met his eyes. Every day it was getting harder to deny how much she needed him. How easy would it be to shift the towel a mere inch and slide her bare breast under his fingers? She wanted to so much it was almost a physical hunger. Instead, she squeezed his hand and backed away. “Thanks for saying that. That’s really sweet.”
The look in his eyes made her nervous. She was closer to him than anyone else on the planet besides Kara, but that didn’t mean they could overcome the obstacles in their paths. “Well, I’d better go change.”
He stood his ground in the hall. “Stop running from me.”
“Running? How am I running? We live together. We sleep together. You’re one of my closest friends.”
“What if I want to be more?”
Electric chills swept from her chest up her flushed neck. “That would be a mistake. We both know it.” She saw in his eyes that he still wasn’t getting it. “I don’t want to lose what we have.”
His strong jaw clenched. “What if it wasn’t lost but only made stronger?”
“Are we really having this discussion? This is crazy. I’m bandaged up. I’m ugly as hell. And you…you’re perfect. You always have been and you always will be. I’m not sure a witch and a silver-wing were meant to make sparks.”
His body was rigid and erect, his hands fisted at his sides. “I feel sparks when I’m near you.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m telling you that I want more than your friendship—and I’m obviously making a fool out of myself.”
“I can’t go there with you, Jaxon. Don’t you understand? You mean too much to me.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You’d rather continue your string of shallow one-night stands than try something deeper with a man who cares for you?”
Her lips pursed tight. “First of all, when was the last time I had a one-night stand? Not since I’ve known you. And you may call it ridiculous, but I call it self-preservation. See—” she held her arms out on display, “—the only wounds I have are on the outside.”
“I would never hurt you.”
“No, not on purpose maybe, but you’re not even my species. You’re going to live forever, and I have about another hundred years. Besides…let’s be honest. If something was going to happen between us, it would have. For six months we slept together like buddies, and now you’re finally horny enough to pick up on me no matter what I look like.”
His nostrils flared and the muscles in his jaw went rock hard. “I’ve never wanted to throttle you before, Abbey, but in this moment, I’m inclined to put you over my knee. Don’t you ever insult your body in my presence. And don’t you dare lie to me and tell me we don’t have a spark. It’s a fucking inferno inside me. I felt it when you kissed me, and I feel it now.”
He took her roughly by the arms and pulled her to him, grasping her by her nape and pressing his mouth firmly against hers. Her body responded in a wash of sensation, her tongue reveling in the taste of his sweet mouth, her insides turning to jelly. “Jaxon,” she panted, “we shouldn’t.”
Still holding her arms, he pressed his thigh between her legs and tipped her off balance, laying her down in the hallway where they’d stood.
“You feel this?” He sucked at her neck and nipped at the tender flesh above her breast. She gasped in pleasure when he yanked the towel lower and took one aching nipple into his mouth, sucking hard
. “This,” he growled against her skin, “is a spark.”
She couldn’t bring herself to stop him, and when he kissed her again, she felt so lightheaded, she could barely conjure a rational thought.
And then he moved lower, and thinking was done. Removing the towel completely, he laid her bare under him, and the next thing she felt was his hot breath against the V of hair between her thighs. She grasped his head, and his short, ultra-thick hair was pure silk under her fingers. She’d felt the unusual and luxurious texture of his hair before, but always in play. Never with both hands gripping his head in passion.
“Spread your legs for me,” he commanded.
Without a word, she complied, opening to him completely. When his nose nudged into her folds and he drew a deep breath, his resounding growl vibrated through her core.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she protested weakly. At least she thought she did, but she wasn’t sure she’d actually said the words out loud. “Friends can’t be—”
When his tongue lapped at her slick center and found her clit, she forgot anything she was about to say and simply pulled his head tighter against her.
He started a rhythm that was absolute perfection. Total mastery of the art. The right pressure. The right spot. His tongue, the perfect blend of strong and smooth. Her body was going to come before her brain had a chance to catch up. But then…he stopped.
“Tell me you don’t want this, Abbey.” His soft breath tickled her swollen clit. “Tell me you feel nothing for me but friendship.”
She whimpered and ground against his face. “I want it.”
With a snarl of victory, he buried his mouth in her folds and feasted on her, bringing her over the edge so fast, she was almost embarrassed when she screamed her release and bucked against him, her ass clenching as she thrust against his mouth, desperately trying to get more of his talented tongue.
Her orgasm went on and on, until her hips finally relaxed into the faintly scratchy carpet. Jaxon kissed her inner thighs and ran a gentle hand over the fabric of her bandages before his lips touched down once again on her breasts. He nibbled a slow trail to her mouth, and when his lips met hers this time, their kiss was filled with emotion.
Her heart lurched. No matter how much she wanted to lie there with him and simply bask in the glow he’d given her, they’d already taken this too far. “Please let me up.”
He met her eyes, his eyebrows raised as though he wasn’t sure if she was serious. “Is everything all right?”
She shimmied out from under his weight, trying to block out the delicious feel of his chest hair against her naked breasts. “It won’t be if we continue down this path.”
When he stood and crossed his arms over his chest, she reached down, snatched up her towel and turned toward the bedroom.
“Is that it, then?” he asked. “Would you really walk away and treat me like one of the men you’ve used and discarded?”
“What?” She whirled to face him, so instantly livid, she could have blown smoke from her nostrils. “Hey, I didn’t ask for that. I said no, if you remember.” At least she thought she did.
“That was a no?”
“Yes, it was.”
He dragged his tongue over his moist lips. “You just came apart in my mouth.”
“Jaxon! That’s disgusting! You don’t talk like that. One-night stands talk like that. What’s the matter with you?”
“Stop acting so innocent. I know what those other men have done to you. I know what you like.”
She wrapped the towel so tightly around her breasts, it just about cut off the circulation. “How would you know that?”
“I can’t live with two women and not overhear the talk. It seems if a man wants to fuck you, all he has to do is pull your hair and tie you up, and you’ll let him do anything he wants… Any man but me.”
“Oh, please. I’d hardly say any man. And besides, that’s because you’re special.”
His laugh made the hairs on her arms stand up. “Lucky me.”
She felt his words like a jab to the jaw. She’d never heard him be anything less than grateful for what they had. “And, by the way, even if you think that’s what I used to be into, that was before Gable tied me to those rocks and made a nametag out of me. I’m done with all that. It’s not the same anymore.”
Jaxon ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I would kill him if he were alive, you know that, don’t you? But you have to start living again, Abbey. You can’t be afraid of everything. Your body. Men. Me. At some point, you’re going to have to take a risk.”
“Maybe. But I won’t risk our friendship for something that would never last.”
His eyes lit with angry fire, but he didn’t say anything more, just turned and walked down the hall.
“Who’s running away now?” she called after him.
He turned back, his face a bitter mask. “I’m not running. I’m going to catch an early dinner. You eat your invalid chicken soup, if you wish. I’m eating rabbit.”
Her jaw dropped. “You just said something mean!”
“Yes I did,” he answered with a defiant tilt to his chin.
“That’s not like you either.”
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.” He slowed by the laundry room, then a moment later, Abbey heard the front door slam shut.
She sat in the hall, dropping to her bottom on the damp terrycloth towel. Why was he trying to make this so complicated? And even more importantly, how long was she going to be able to resist him?
Jaxon stalked through the woods, silent but for the occasional snap of a small twig. If his wings were working, he could have floated without touching the ground and gone invisible to anyone but his own breed.
The sooner Abbey shut down that ward, the sooner he could fly them out of this place, and yet he suspected that in the long run, that damn book would bring them nothing but grief.
Kara didn’t want them back at the apartment until she’d dealt with the black-wing stalking her and Claudius’s summons to appear before the Northwestern Coven, but Jaxon wasn’t enjoying his one-on-one time with Abbey at the moment. Well, that wasn’t true, he’d never enjoyed anything more than tasting the tender flesh between her legs. But mostly, being alone with her was a special kind of hell.
Why was she so damned put off by the idea of there being more between the two of them? To his mind, they were perfect together.
A rabbit dashed between two trees, and Jaxon followed closely, the rock in his hand aerodynamic enough to ensure he would knock it out on the first pitch if he could get a clear shot at its head.
Hunting had always been easy for him. If his mind was clear, he would have had that rabbit by now. But instead he was absorbed by thoughts of Abbey spreading her legs for him when he’d told her to. She might be independent outside of the bedroom, but she liked firm leadership within. And that was something he longed to give her. He’d never had a female of his own, and whether she liked it or not, Abbey was his.
If it weren’t for that damned wound, she might already have given in to him. He prodded her to take risks, and yet he’d neither told her what he believed could help her condition nor taken a chance at healing her himself. But if he told her the truth, their friendship might truly come to an end.
Jaxon rounded the next tree where he’d seen the rabbit flee, and then he paused, lifting his nose into the wind. It smelled like smoke from a barbeque. The rabbit forgotten, he crept along, following the scent until he came upon a small cabin. It couldn’t have been a half mile from Abbey’s.
Jaxon approached the cabin carefully, assessing the grounds. There wasn’t a car in the driveway, but then there wasn’t really a driveway, either—just a thin path in the scrub brush and trees that ended directly at the cabin door.
On one side of the house, there was a tall woodpile, but other than that, very few signs of life. If not for the smoke coming from within, he might have thought the cabin wasn’t inhabited at all.
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br /> He approached the front entry, dropping the rock in the yard. From the window next to the door, he saw a thin man dressed in jeans and an old SDSU sweatshirt who looked to be in his thirties. The man stood at the stove, wrestling with a smoldering hunk of meat.
“Fucking woodstove,” the man said, then he came straight toward the window where Jaxon was standing, reaching to open it just before he saw Jaxon and jumped back, dropping the pan to the floor. “Who are you?”
“I’m so sorry to bother you,” Jaxon began, feeling ridiculous for talking through a sheet of glass. “I’m staying at the house up the road, and my fiancée and I have had a car accident. May I borrow your phone?”
The man put the pan in the sink and came to the door, opening it just a few inches and looking Jaxon up and down. “A car accident? Is everyone okay?”
“Yes, thank you. The car is finished, but we were unharmed.”
“Where did you come from?” the man asked again.
Jaxon couldn’t blame him for being wary. They likely didn’t get many visitors being out in the middle of nowhere like this. “My fiancée has a house not more than a mile up the hill.”
“The brick house with the big front doors?”
“Yes. Are there other houses on this mountain?”
“Nope. I’m Brad, by the way.” He stuck his hand out, and Jaxon grasped it firmly.
“Jaxon Hex.” He released Brad’s hand and quickly scanned what he could see of the room from his position on the porch. “I apologize for the intrusion, Brad, but if you have a phone I could use, I would appreciate it.”
“I don’t. Sorry. No phone and no car. And there aren’t any cell sites up here anyhow. You’d have to have a satellite phone to make a call.”
“Ah.” Jaxon nodded, disappointment filling him. He would’ve liked to bring back good news to Abbey to smooth over yet another awkward incident between the two of them—an awkward incident he planned to repeat if given half a chance.