by Dianna Love
All three statements were true, but he held back from speaking until she unwound.
“Just pick one, Quinn, but if you start with saying this was a mistake, I will make you regret it as soon as I have my medallion.”
In the face of her words, he could only admit the truth. “I regret nothing as long as you aren’t upset with me.”
“Me? I just had the best sex of my life and you think I’m going to complain?”
He should be cheering her cavalier attitude about what had just happened, but he couldn’t shake the disappointment tumbling through his chest.
Setting all that aside, he said, “We have a few supplies. One is a cream to heal wounds.”
“Oh, really. So nice of his lordship the Keith to give us that.”
He herded her into the bathroom, which had a strange mix of rustic walls and floor, but upscale facilities.
Opening a jar that had been left on the counter, he said, “Turn around.”
She crossed her arms and her breasts bulged. “That gooey stuff could be something that turns us into houseplants.”
Quinn shut his eyes. “I’ve used the cream. It’s fine. Please give me your back, Reese.”
“Okay.”
He opened his eyes and she was still standing there with her glorious boobs facing him.
She laughed. “Made you look. Twice.” Then she turned.
Heathen. He put a healthy layer of cream on a long slash across her back. “What did this to you?”
“A demon. I’m going to be pissed if they gave me the harder gauntlet to run without my powers. This was some kind of screwed up game. What happened to you?”
“When I woke up and realized I was not in the room with you, I was informed I had one chance to prove myself. I would have to play the Keith’s version of a live video game.”
“I knew it had to be something like that.”
Quinn took his time smoothing the cream and enjoying the delectable back, which was just as nice as her front and beginning to heal already. “He offered me a choice of which gauntlet to run, but seeing your back infuriates me.”
“Why?”
“He said the only way I would see you again was if we both survived our challenges. We could both face level two, or one of us could take level three and the other would get level one.”
She stepped away from him and shifted around. “You took level three, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” He hoped some of those creatures would not return as nightmares.
“You’re too good, you know that, Quinn?”
No, he was not good at all.
He wanted this woman and she might trust him with her body, but his gut was squawking that she hid secrets that controlled her life. He planned to tap every resource he could when he returned to find out who she answered to, because no one deserved to control Reese.
Looking over her shoulder, she said, “Huh. Feels like it’s healing. Think it will continue working while I shower?”
“Probably. If not, we’ll reapply the cream.”
Once she’d entered a steamy shower, he turned to pull off the condom and discard it in the receptacle provided. Before it hit the bottom of the empty trash can, the condom paused and twinkled into tiny sparks then blinked out of existence.
Had the can caused that or had the condom only been an illusion?
He had to stop questioning everything or he’d go mad here.
The condom had felt real. Enough said.
Chapter 25
Reese kept listening for someone to call them to the Keith. She didn’t care that time stood still while they were in this place. She wanted to get moving and find Phoedra.
Dressed in a clean pair of jeans, a soft pink shirt that she left loose and a pair of ballet-style, slip-on shoes, Reese brushed her hair, which had turned into a hot mess of wild waves.
Quinn seemed to like it. He couldn’t keep his hands off her hair.
She smiled.
He stepped into view behind her and kissed said hair.
See?
“You have a fetish about crazy hair?” she asked.
“Possibly.”
“How much longer do we have to wait?”
Quinn said, The Keith indicated he would send for us between three and one hundred hours.”
“Lunatic wizard.” She put the brush down, still shaking her head at all the things her host had arranged for them.
The kind of host who tried to kill you first.
If you survived, he then decided whether you were worth wasting oxygen on. She and Quinn had showered, changed, made love again, and finally eaten the fruit and cheese left for them with a carafe of red wine.
Decadent and unnerving at the same time.
Putting the sink and mirror to her back, she looked up. “This wizard had better come through.”
Quinn twisted a lock of her hair around his finger. “The Inchkeiths are a family who live by their word. We made it through the Keith’s gauntlet and proved worthy of his aid. He’ll at least listen to us. If he believes in our quest, he’ll do his part.”
She considered what had happened earlier when they’d made love. They’d used a condom, but they’d also kissed every inch of each other. She wasn’t concerned about either of them being clean as she couldn’t hold a disease in her body and Quinn had the ability to heal anything in his.
Plus, she hadn’t been with anyone in so long, she’d been mostly just worried about remembering how it all worked. No problem there. Quinn proved to be a master at making love.
He had even remembered to use protection.
He’d never know how much she appreciated his attention to that detail.
From what Quinn had told her, the Keith’s realm controlled all consequences of actions that happened within it. She took that to mean that if the Keith allowed them to live, they would be absolved of any crime against his people or creatures during the live-action games.
Seemed like that rule of the Keith’s personal universe would also cover consequences from making love, but in addition to using condoms she was between her cycles.
No problem, right?
Quinn asked, “What’s worrying you?”
No big deal. I’m just terrified of getting pregnant again and putting another baby at risk. Instead, she said, “I can’t find my medallion. I haven’t seen it since I woke up in the room without it.”
“The Keith probably has your medallion. Nothing goes missing unless he deems it to be.”
“Exactly. What if he decides he likes it and wants to keep it?”
“I’ll address that when I speak to him.”
“You mean when we speak to him, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
Why didn’t she believe Quinn? She hated playing mind games. “Yes, of course, but ... what, Quinn? What are you not saying?”
“It’s impossible to get anything by you.”
“Glad you realize it, now give.” She curled her fingers in a give-me motion.
“I don’t want you here.”
“Wow, not feeling the love after all I just went through and what we just did.”
He muttered, “At one time, I knew how to say the right things to a woman, but I’ve clearly lost my touch.” He ran a hand through his hair, which was nicely messed up.
She liked when he lost that perfect look, the one that fit with the chartered jets and limos.
A life she didn’t fit into.
Explaining further, he said, “I love having you here right now, but I hate having you neck-deep in danger. I’ll be honest that if the Keith gives me any opportunity to let you out of this place, I’m taking it.”
How could Quinn be so incredibly different from the first man she’d met, who had stomped on her fragile love? When faced with both of them taking an equal route to this room, Quinn had opted for the more difficult, and definitely more dangerous, path. He’d left her an easier course.
She had a hard time imagining just what he’d faced aft
er what she’d gone through.
Now he was willing, yet again, to throw himself on the blade for her safety. She said, “We are a team. I want you to repeat that.”
“Reese, please.”
“No, you can’t make my decisions. I entered this realm of my own free will. I’ve been banging around on my own for a long time. I’m perfectly capable of taking responsibility for anything I decide. So, say it.”
He gave her a fierce stare.
She laughed. “It’s not possible to make me shake in my boots. I lost them.”
His face broke out of the dark glare and he said, “You’re impossible. We are a team.”
She enjoyed her win, because with control-freak Quinn, that statement was definitely a victory.
“If we are a team,” he began, each word pronounced with precision, “then when this is over, promise me you won’t vanish into the ether.”
Oh, crap.
She pushed past him and scrubbed her hands over her face. “This is temporary, Quinn.” Turning back to face him, she said, “You’re special. I won’t deny what I feel, but you don’t know me. I’m not someone you want in your life.”
“Why?”
“There are things I can’t tell you.” Actually, she’d like to share some of it, but Quinn was a protector and fixer. He’d immediately dive into fixing her life.
Then he’d find out it wasn’t possible and he wouldn’t walk away.
She would not drag him into the hell of living with a demon magnet.
“I only asked that you wouldn’t vanish like last time, Reese.”
What could she tell him? I have a one-way teleportation ticket and have to return with Phoedra? The minute she showed up empty-handed, Yáahl would lose his shit.
Coming into this realm and being with Quinn had shifted her thinking. She’d been trying to convince herself that she was taking Phoedra back no matter what, but she wasn’t sure she could do it.
Her heart made a sound of longing every time she looked at this man.
What if they didn’t make it out of the Keith’s realm alive?
She had to give Quinn something in return.
Let him know that if she had it within her power to change her life she would stay. “I don’t always have control of my world or my decisions, but I’ll promise to try my best not to disappear. Okay?”
“I can accept that.” Crossing the room to her, he said, “I assume the medallion is part of those things you can’t share with me, but wearing it around your neck is not a good plan. You should have a ring you can curl your hand around and access your powers.”
“I said the same thing but got overruled.” She needed to distract him, which was ridiculously easy. She went up on her tiptoes and kissed him.
He was trying to hold back, but he cursed and kissed her all the way down until she stood flatfooted. Her breasts ached, wanting their share of attention from those amazing hands of his.
Just as his fingers moved up to touch her, two hard knocks on the door startled her.
Reese jumped back, then felt like an idiot. She could kiss anyone she wanted.
Quinn kissed her again quickly and said, “It’s time.”
Chapter 26
Quinn kept his hand on Reese’s healed back as they walked through the Keith’s palace, where guards lined the walkway. The Keith’s healing cream had even repaired the scratches from when she’d been shot out of the bolthole. Yes, Quinn felt protective, but mostly he just couldn’t stop touching her.
The arched ceiling rose twenty feet, covered with paintings that showed the style and ability of a master artist. Recessed areas in the walls were filled with red marble sculptures of men and women in golden clothing, when they had any.
Reese smirked.
Quinn whispered, “What?”
“He has a thing about red and gold.”
“You noticed that?”
She nodded. She’d changed into dark-blue silk pants with a matching full-sleeved top and a filmy wrap around her shoulders, which had been delivered to their room with the request that she wear them.
Her clothes shimmered and caught the light of hundreds of candles floating through the palace on crystal butterfly wings larger than his hands.
Reese lifted her gaze to him.
He was taken by how beautiful she was, with her soft hair flowing over the gauzy wrap. She licked her lips and he clamped his mouth shut to stifle a sound of need.
Her eyes narrowed. “Mind on business,” she hissed.
Just like that, she snapped him out of his lusty haze and lightened his heart. “I’m ready, if you are.”
She swallowed, the only hint of her nervousness. “I am. I would be irritated at dressing up for this meeting if you didn’t look so good in a tux.” She lifted an eyebrow and whispered, “And out of one.”
Laughing right now would send the wrong message to anyone watching, but holding back was an effort.
They paused outside a pair of doors that belonged in the Emerald City of Oz. The tall doors swung inward with no sign of physical aid.
Reese stared in awe. “Who lives like this?”
An immortal wizard who enjoys life on his terms.
One of the wizard’s guards, who had accompanied them to this point, announced, “May I present your victors, my liege?”
The Keith’s large blue eyes and almost feminine mouth resembled the rest of the men in his family, whom Quinn had met years back while brokering a major business deal. This man could thank his French ancestors for the long, dark-brown hair he wore loose, as well as thick, black lashes.
His white tunic and matching loose pants suited a man surrounded by a half-dozen women wearing casual gowns and similar loose clothing, but all in bright colors.
He lounged on piles of furs with his women positioned just as comfortably all around him. One female massaged his head while others flipped through magazines and chuckled with each other. Some even had electronic tablets in hand.
How did any electronic work here?
“Welcome, Quinn and Reese,” the Keith said, not bothering to rise. He waved a hand and all the guards left.
That made it very clear he could handle any threat on his own.
Quinn touched Reese’s back, guiding her forward until they were within a few feet of the steps to the Keith’s raised dais.
Sending a chalice he’d been sipping floating across to one of his women, the Keith watched as she refilled it with a dark liquid and waited for her to send it back.
He sipped and said, “You have proven yourselves worthy to reach this point. I must admit, I considered bringing you here for immediate execution when I receive your message, Quinn, especially when you did not share your identity beyond a first name.”
Reese frowned, but remained still.
Quinn had asked Reese to leave the talking to him.
He said, “I hoped you’d find my message interesting and I had no doubt that you could determine my identity,” Quinn pointed out, to give credit to the Keith in front of his harem. There was no other word for this group of women hanging on his every word.
Give me a smart-mouthed pistol with fire in her eyes any day over a roomful of cookie-cutter women.
“True,” the Keith agreed. “I did find your message intriguing. You said ‘An honorable man would never allow a debt to go unpaid.’”
Reese turned to Quinn with her eyebrows climbing as high as they’d go.
Yes, he’d questioned the Keith’s integrity and honor.
Quinn patted her back, reminding her to keep all attention on the Keith, as he was sure the wizard had more to say.
“Now you can explain your message, Quinn,” the Keith said, stretching to allow one of the women to massage his feet.
“I met your Uncle Jacques a few years ago in Marseille. I negotiated a trade with someone we’ll call a financial opponent of his. I handed him the shipping lanes he needed to move his people and products without any human or preternatural issues.”
> The Keith sat up, dropping his feet to the fur-covered floor. “I remember him telling me about a Belador who saved him a lot of trouble. That was you?”
“Yes.”
“Well done, but that is not my debt.”
“No, it isn’t,” Quinn agreed. “I merely wanted to establish that I do have some history with the Inchkeith dynasty and, as the Belador Maistir, I have knowledge of your extensive family.”
The Keith managed to hide his surprise at hearing Quinn was a Maistir. Quinn had withheld any information on his background to prevent the Keith from denying him a meeting outright.
Beladors outnumbered Inchkeiths, but the wizard’s family possessed powers of magnitude that few could imagine. Still, in the wizard’s position, Quinn would have denied this meeting and kept his hands clean.
Quinn nodded. “If meeting with you was not of such extreme importance, I would never have imposed upon you.” Always good to let the Keith know Quinn respected the wizard’s position. “I am searching for a thirteen-year-old girl who has been kidnapped by a member of your extended family.”
The Keith jumped to his feet, cursing in French. His face erupted with fury. “Mon dieu! You dare to come here and claim such a thing? We are not pedophiles who touch children.”
Quinn held his hands up for a moment. “You misunderstand me. He has not kidnapped the girl for that reason. We are dealing with preternatural chaos in Atlanta. There are bounties out for anyone who possesses power. I believe the man has taken the girl for a bounty, but he should not have chosen this particular one.” Quinn shoved power into his last words unintentionally, but no one touched a member of his family, especially the females, without drawing his wrath.
“Why do you believe this kidnapper is of my family?”
“Because he opened a bolthole to enter New Orleans right before I sent my message to you. It is my understanding that no one would dare enter this city in that manner without permission ... unless they had Inchkeith blood.”
“A bolthole?”
“Yes, and he calls himself Turbo.”
French cursing torched the air then the Keith snapped out, “Chasseurs!”