by Lexi Ostrow
There was no reason for him to wait until she responded. If she turned him down, he’d simply go visit her. Marie wasn’t interested in emotions, but he couldn’t imagine that he was the only one being woken up in the middle of the night with a fantasy.
10
The shower had done wonders to help ease his body from the mission. His mind was still focused on Marie and what it would mean if she was feeling the same way he was. “It means you both might get to start completely over,” he said as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He didn’t look like a man who’d just spent the better part of a week in an African camp, but that was likely because his author had written him to be damn near superhero perfect when it came to military work.
Damn near perfect. Something he hadn’t really focused on much with Stacey because they’d both known there couldn’t have been a better match for them. The things he was feeling for Marie after such an insignificant amount of time made him question that, not to mention worry about what he was and wasn’t written to be.
It didn’t matter that he’d made a life that was distinctly his own after being freed from his book for so many years. At his core, he knew he was still what he had been created to be, which thankfully was a damn good person. Marie was the same. She was obviously trying to outrun the compassionate caretaker she’d been in her world but was failing to do so simply by her work with the dogs. If that was who she was deep down, he knew she would want more than an empty life of caring for others sooner or later. He sure as shit did, even if he hadn’t been able to admit it until Marie had come along.
Walking out of the bathroom, he hit the light and smirked at his phone he’d tossed on the brown blanket. The satisfying little green light was blinking. Not that it meant it was Marie, but he hadn’t told anyone else he was back, so it stood to reason it was her. Grabbing it off the bed confirmed it was Marie, and her text was exactly what he was hoping for.
“Sounds good. I could use a drink or three after the dicks I dealt with today.”
A strange protectiveness rose up in him at the idea that someone had given her a hard time. Which was stupid since she could likely kick his ass without breaking a sweat, but it did. He wanted to take annoyances out of her life. Something he knew was a sign he was falling, little by little, for the woman he barely knew.
“Perfect. I need about twenty. Stoney’s at nine?”
“We need to talk.”
The distinctive voice spoke so close to Sean’s fucking ear, he almost jumped. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to control his instincts, and he did slam a fist into his leader’s face as he spun. Something that was useless, as all it did was send a shooting pain through his body.
“Jesus fucking Christ! Do you always enter that way? Like a fucking burglar out on a heist?” He grimaced as he wound up his arm to ensure it was still working properly.
“I would say no, but I find I’m missing the desire to wait and announce my arrival. So, yes, I always enter like that.” The man in the khaki coat grinned wide, showing off perfect teeth.
The smile didn’t match the intensity of his tone. It never had in Sean’s experience. “What could you possibly want? I told you, my career would come first. I’m home now, and I’m ready to push forward with Marie.” He heard the slightest hint of unrestrained anger in his words, and he knew he needed to curb it if he didn’t want to be thrown across the fucking room.
“I actually would like a full report. I went to Marie’s a moment ago, and she threw so much ice at me she almost did damage.” He pointed at a few bloody streaks on his otherwise impeccable jacket. “It’s not often anyone gets the jump on me. In light of that, I’ve decided to check in with you and wait until she’s cooled off before trying to her again.”
Laughter bubbled out at the comment about cooling off. Laughing at it was idiotic, but he couldn’t help it. “I’m pretty sure they don’t get much cooler than that Ice Demon.”
Even the brother’s lips twitched into a genuine smile, for about half a second. “I want to know how things are going. As you know, I pay attention, but my responsibilities do not lie just with you.”
Without asking for permission, he walked to his closet and tugged a green shirt off the hanger before scooping his jeans off the floor. “How about you let me get dressed so I’m not standing here in a fucking towel in front of you and then we talk?” Because I need to decide just how much you need to know.
He should report everything. The way they were getting along and the feelings he was developing. It seemed wrong, sharing intimate information about his thoughts with someone before he even shared them with Marie. The snarl of annoyance slipped out before he could control it. A large part of him was furious at the woman for something utterly out of her control — that she made him behave slightly differently than the perfect pre-programmed soldier he had always been. Jerking the zipper up on the jeans, he turned to face the man whose name he would literally kill to know.
“What do you want to know?”
“Tell me everything. Your participation is crucial to seeing if I can repair the hellish damage my brother did. A seal was broken to the start of the war. If I can mend the broken one before the other two can break, I’ll have a stronger army.”
“So this honestly has nothing to do with giving us hope or making us have a happy life? Not like you’d first said.” He crossed his arms over his chest as a wave of irritation crashed over him like a tidal wave. “I don’t like being lied too.”
“I didn’t lie.” The words were hardly comprehendible through clenched teeth. “I want to help you all, but my priority is my war. If fixing your broken hearts and souls gives me the warriors I need, I will not deny that is useful beyond belief.”
“Sounds like you don’t give a flying fuck about helping us.”
Something akin to a growl came from the man seconds before Sean felt himself slam into the bathroom door. It didn’t hurt, but it sure as shit got his attention. Uncrossing his arms, he tried to launch at the man but couldn’t. He could feel himself attempting to move forward, but nothing on him actually moved.
“What the fuck did you do to me?”
“Something I’m getting tired of having to do. You all keep thinking I’m your damned enemy. Well, I’m not. I’m the only person looking out for your best interests while trying to save the entire fucking world. Something I have lived every day of my life dedicated to since I was barely old enough to be a man in my tribe!” His eyes sparked a bright silver twice, and his chest heaved with the force and volume of his words.
“I’m not scared of you. So you can cut the yelling and screaming bullshit.”
“I don’t need you to be scared of me. I need you, and every other damn person I try to help, to respect me and realize I have a delicate balance to maintain. I don’t need every fucking Guardian and Word Speaker questioning me thirty times a day!” The words were still roared with fury.
Sean didn’t notice the fact the others didn’t trust the man either. Does that mean you shouldn’t? The thought was logical but foolish just the same.
“Now, I’m going to ask one final time. What do I need to know about what is occurring between you and Marie?” His words were strangled.
Sean was torn. A part of him was ready and willing to attack the man, or god, before him. The sensible part of him was trying to remember the suicidal tendency of that thought. Sucking in three deep breaths through his nose, he blew them out so slowly he could hear the sound of the man’s irritation.
“It is working,” he finally admitted, his eyes remaining narrowed and his voice as cold as he could keep it. “I must admit I was skeptical and didn’t understand how a bond could form that was anything like what I shared with Stacey, but I can see there is something just as unique between Guardians.”
That lifted some of the ire from the man’s visage. “And, by that, you mean you have found yourself attracted to Marie? Or that you can sense a connection that would drive you to fight side by side?”
“I care for her. I’m attracted to her, and I know how fucking insane that is after such a short time. So I decided there has to be something exactly like a Word Speaker to Guardian connection. I can’t have just let my guard down and been overcome with emotions I didn’t want otherwise.”
The man let out a small chuckle and amusement flickered in his silvery-gray eyes. “I had hoped to hear as much.” His entire body relaxed, the tension simply vanishing as he leaned against the wall.
His ever annoying smirk slipped across his lips before he spoke again. “This could have been rather disastrous. Pairing too similar Guardians together in hopes it would work as it does with Word Speakers. You could have ripped one another apart. Instead, you’re saying you feel what you felt with your Word Speaker. Proof positive that hearts and souls can indeed be mended, no matter how tricky or messy a process it is.”
Something in the arrogant way he spoke set Sean’s blood on fire. “I am not a toy.” He took a step closer and barely restrained from wrapping his hands in the man’s coat and tugging him forward. “Marie is not a fucking toy. We have lives.”
“Ah, yes, lives you have because of me.”
“Lives we have because of whatever gift Word Speakers have. Lives that feel and bleed and break just the same as any human’s.” His chest rose and fell with every shouted word. He could feel his face flaming with heat in his anger. “You’ve done more than enough. I participated in your game. I gave you the answers you wanted. Get out of my house. Do not return unless this fabled war is upon us. I am a soldier. Your soldier. But I want nothing to do with you outside of this war.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he puffed his body up—a useless tactic against the man he was dealing with, but one that had worked wonders for lesser men.
It was eerie the way the man didn’t lose him temper a second time. In fact, the pure calmness emanating off him made him that much more of a threat. Men who lost their temper were easy to provoke and easier to take down. Men who looked at adversity and let it wash over them, well, they were by far harder to fell.
“I see this is a battle we will fight until the prophecy starts, if I allow it.” He slipped his hands into his coat pockets and shrugged. “So I will simply be the bigger man this time. You are all alive, and that is what matters. Many of you are in horrible positions because I failed to protect you. That destroys your lives as well as my war. So I sought to fix things. I needed to see if what was shattered could be glued back together if the Guardians were selected correctly. I admit to not knowing the proper selection process, but it would appear I got it right.”
Sean’s body trembled with barely restrained annoyance. He wanted nothing more than to strike out and punch the arrogant jackass right on his nose. “Because I am reacting on her behalf?”
That damned smirk again. “Precisely. So now I have to wonder if Marie’s had the same effect or if it is one-sided.”
The words crashed into him as severely as any physical blow could have. He’d never imaged that Marie hadn’t felt what he was. He understood she wouldn’t be accepting of it. Fuck, she’d run from it already, but he hadn’t even thought it could have been one sided.
“What are the odds of that?” The words slipped out before he could stop them.
“Anywhere from a million to one to one in a million. I didn’t know what I was doing when I tried this out. You were both similar, and one of you had progressed better than the other. Aside from that, I had no prerequisites for what I was doing.”
The vibration of his phone against the wooden dresser snapped them both from the conversation. Hastily, he snatched it up.
“Better cowboy up because I have no idea how to do a country bar.”
“Do not allow her to run. Marie is likely more stubborn than you’ve realized, and if she senses there is something between you, she could drop off the face of the Earth to avoid it. She loved with her whole being, and when she lost Zach, I almost lost her. See to it that this experiment works. I need my warriors, and they need their happiness.”
Without so much as a hint that he was leaving, the man flashed out. Sean was once more standing alone. Never in his life had his mind reeled over information in the way it was currently doing. His thoughts were a jumbled mess like ivy vines that had grown together. It was impossible for him to distinguish idea from idea as they bounced around in his brain. All about Marie and all about their place together. For the first time he could remember, a bout of nausea rose up from his gut and bile laced his throat. He’d lost friends, he’d lost the love of his life, and he’d damn near lost himself. Yet, nothing had set him on edge so much as the idea of Marie turning her back on what was forming because it was all he had left to have hope for.
11
Country music would never be her thing. That was the best and nicest assessment she could make about the genre while standing in a bar amidst a blaring rendition of some song she’d never heard of and watching a group of people enthusiastically line dancing.
“This doesn’t seem quite like your scene.” Sean’s breath was hot against her ear as he leaned over to speak to her.
Not her scene was one of the biggest understatements she’d ever heard. Had she not been shaken by the events with the brother who wore leather, she likely wouldn’t have accepted. Less than eight hours ago she’d been ready to give Sean the boot because her feelings for him were just that—feelings. She shouldn’t have been able to have any, but she was. They weren’t anything an average person would even notice. For someone who’d frozen her heart to stop flirtatious and romantic occurrences, they were as powerful as any declaration of love could be. Even if they were the furthest thing from love. Thanks to her concern that the less than trustworthy leader wasn’t done with her, she’d found herself practically racing to Sean’s side.
Wrapping her lips around the Budweiser bottle, she chugged back the liquid, ignoring the fact she didn’t even remotely like beer. The bitter taste was as strong as her current mood, and it didn’t shock her that Sean had noticed.
“I wouldn’t say it’s not my scene,” she responded as best as she could without shouting and offending the dozens of entertained bar goers next to her. “I just like my music a little less . . . twangy and my alcohol a lot stronger.”
A rather attractive smile affixed on Sean’s lips, and Marie hated the way she noticed how attractive it was. Smiles could be attractive. They just shouldn’t be to her any longer.
“Guess I was just written to be a good ole’ country boy.” He winked and reached for her empty bottle. “I can, however, do something about the alcohol. Two shots of Wild Turkey coming up.” With a playful tip of his head, he wandered off to the left, toward the emptier of the two bars inside Stoney’s.
“Well, hello there, little lady. Fancy a dance?” a deep voice shouted far too close for her liking.
Turning, she found herself face to face with a rather pretty looking man. He had Sean’s impressive build, but pale blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. Eyes that were as deep as the ocean in color, and she imagined quite a number of women had fallen into his arms thanks to those eyes after a request for their attention was made.
Smiling as politely as she could, she reminded herself not to make a scene. Especially since, with her thin stature, any physical force she used would freak people out. It would be nearly as shocking as if she used a little bit of frost to freeze the man’s dick and send him looking for something a lot more important than a potential dance partner — out on the floor or in his bed.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m here with someone.” She plastered on as sweet of a smile as she’d used when trying to convince families a dog was right for them.
With a tip of his ridiculous cowboy hat, the man smiled and turned to walk back into the crowd. Marie was left standing, stunned it had been that simple. She’d always heard the rumors and jokes that cowboys and country lovers were quick to brawl and fast to compliment. That hadn’t prepared her for a man to take rejection
in such stride.
Would Sean take rejection so easily? Can you reject him that easily?
It didn’t take a genius to know the answer to the second question was no. Sean had sunk himself into her life in a way that shouldn’t have been possible but obviously was. He was the man she was beginning to think could do no wrong. Everything from his classic good looks to his intense sense of duty was starting to be the things she felt belonged in a man.
“He’s going to make someone a very wonderful partner,” she said wistfully to absolutely no one.
“What was that?” he shouted next to her, causing her to jump at his quick return as he passed over what looked like a Long Island Iced Tea.
She was lost in his eyes the second they met. She could see herself in them, stark white hair and near colorless blue gaze reflected too perfectly out of his deep eyes. Could he see her beyond her looks? Did he know what she was thinking?
Kiss me. The thought floated through her mind, and she choked on the sip of alcohol. She did want him to kiss her. She wanted him to pin her against the wooden railing she was standing next to and make love to her too. It didn’t need to be about more than the way his body moved with a fluid grace that intrigued her. In fact, she knew it still wasn’t, but it wouldn’t be anything more than that for much longer. Not if they didn’t go their separate ways.
Whether he could read her mind, could read her body language or simply had the urge, Sean took what he wanted — giving her what she wanted.
His lips were calloused, likely chapped from his time on his mission. He’d never said it was a desert operation, but between the dark tan he’d returned with and the feel of his lips, she could hazard a correct guess. That sensation was the last rational thought she had as she felt him take the drink for her and pull her body against his.