by C. G. Blaine
She backs toward the bed. My steps match hers. I pull the tie on her robe and slip my hand in the opening, running it over the smooth skin of her stomach. The fabric moves, so I can see what I’ve been missing, and then it falls to the floor, pooling at her feet. She’s bare in front of me. Fuck, she’s gorgeous. And right now, she’s all mine.
She stops when the backs of her legs hit the bed, but I don’t. I lift her, hands cupping her ass, and our lips meet. It’s frantic, like my mouth didn’t just claim hers a few hours earlier. Tongues colliding, her hands all over me, my skin burning against hers.
By the time I lower her onto the bed, I’m shoving my sweatpants and boxers down with one hand. The entire night has essentially been foreplay, leading up to this. And after her little performance, we’re both more than ready. But I still need time to appreciate her, kissing down her neck to her perfect breasts. My teeth drag over one of her hard nipples. She arches her back, pushing it even farther into my mouth.
“Oh God, Cass.”
I do the same on the other side, her moan sending a shock through me. Her hands are in my hair, pushing and pulling like she can’t decide what direction she wants me to go.
“What do you want, Hannah?”
My lips vibrate against her skin, and the sensation echoes back through me when she feels it. I lick a line from her breastbone down to her navel. Before I can go any farther, her hands move to each side of my face. She pulls me back up until I’m hovering over her. My hips are between her thighs—one move from being inside her.
I brush my lips over hers, saying, “Tell me what you want, baby.”
Her fingertips trace over my jaw. “I want to feel you.”
My eyes stay locked on hers as I slowly push inside of her. Her eyes shut, and a rush of sensations floods through me. Hannah’s. Mine. All of them come at me at once. I’m desperate to move, but I wait for her to look at me before I ease in and out a few times, letting our bodies adjust to each other. Then I thrust into her harder. It’s all I can do to keep a steady rhythm and not lose control. Her fingers dig into my back, her hips meeting mine. Every time she moans, it ripples through me.
My hand grasping the back of her thigh emits enough of a spark that it travels through her and back into me. As her heart rate climbs, I sink deeper. I need more of her. Every part of her possible. My lips drop to hers, then to her cheek and neck and chest. Hannah’s legs lock around my waist, and she pulls me into her faster.
The first time I made her come, I wasn’t paying attention, only interested in proving to her that I could make her fall apart. This time, I want to experience every second of it. Each erratic breath and heartbeat and wave inside her.
And I do.
Her head falls back on the pillow as she breathes out my name. The heat rages the hottest as her body shudders and tightens around me. I can’t even tell what’s the light and what’s her anymore. At this point, they’re the same thing.
I quicken my pace, unable to hold back with the aftereffects of her release rocking through me. She’s everywhere again, only this time I want her to drown me so I’m surrounded by everything her. I groan and bury myself in her one last time. She holds me there, not letting me draw back while we recover. Her chest rises against mine, and I rest my forehead on hers.
Sated green eyes stare up at me. Seeing them, and feeling her like this, I doubt I’ll be looking up at the stars anymore. Not when she's right here.
Like I said … fucking fucked.
A barely-there buzzing eases me awake. Hannah’s head is nuzzled against my chest, my arms around her. I kiss her hair and slip out from under her. I grab my sweatpants from the floor and pull them on, then I follow the sound back into my own room. My phone rattles on the nightstand, stopping as I reach for it.
Jesus, fuck. Ten missed calls?
They’re all from Chaz. Before I can call him back, his name appears on the screen.
“This better be a—”
“Demon attack,” he says. “Three at once. They went after my charge in the bathroom of a nightclub, not caring that humans were around.”
“Fuck.” I walk back to the doorway between the rooms, the anxiety of not seeing Hannah overwhelming. “All lower-level?”
“Yeah, they were sewer rats. They reeked of the worst parts of Hell. Shifty fuckers too. By the time I dropped my charge, two were gone. I lost the third after a few teleports.”
I watch her while she sleeps, her breaths slow and even.
“Cass,” he says, no hint of his usual fuck it attitude in his tone, “we might be looking at an Upper. Or at least someone who knows how to coordinate attacks. There’s no way this many Lowers are working together without someone else pulling the strings.”
“But why now?” I switch to the Angelic language in case she wakes up. “Nephilim have been around for thousands of years. The bloodlines have been vast, spreading across the continents. Why would an upper-level demon wait until only a handful remain?”
The line goes quiet, both of us sorting through the possibilities. It doesn’t make sense. We’re missing something.
“What if this is where they’ve been the past few centuries?” Chaz says. “Working on some demonic plan that requires us out of the way, so they can get to them. We know better than anyone the power within Nephilim blood.”
“It’s how we pull off most of our magic,” I mutter more to myself than him.
“Whatever the hell they want, we can’t wait around, trying to figure it out anymore. It’s time to spell up, bro.”
“Yeah.” I wander back into Hannah’s room. “Tell the others, and have Ros send me scrolls to read through tomorrow.”
“Dude, why do I have to—”
The phone lands on the nightstand, my interest in his whining nonexistent. I crawl back in beside Hannah and move my arm underneath her to bring her to my chest. She wakes enough to sigh and cuddle against me. I hold her tighter, my eyes not falling shut again for the rest of the night. The vacation ended the second Chaz said demon. It’s back to demons-are-trying-to-kill-my-charge reality.
Only now, it’s not my eternity I care about.
It’s her.
It’s Cass.
Nothing is ever guaranteed with him.
I reminded myself of this when I got out of the shower last night, and when I texted him, and when I ran my hand down my body, and when I answered the door, and when he laid me down on the bed. But I let myself forget when he was inside me, and when he made me come apart, and when he stared down at me like I was all he could see, and when he held me close, and when I fell asleep in his arms.
Then I remember again, waking up. No Cass. The door between our rooms is shut. If not for the robe on the floor where it fell and the tender spot on my thigh from his hand, I might think it was a dream.
He walks in, eyes on his phone. “You going to be ready soon?”
I don’t answer right away, and he looks up. It’s the same look he always gives me, two seconds away from annoyed.
Pulling the sheet over my bare chest, I sit up. “Give me twenty minutes.”
He looks back at his screen and disappears into his room. After months of his dismissive behavior, it shouldn’t bother me anymore, but I at least thought he’d wait a few hours after screwing me to go back to it.
It’s Cass, Hannah. Nothing is ever guaranteed with him.
No matter how much I wanted this time to be different.
By the time I’ve showered and finish packing my suitcase, he’s waiting by the door with his. He carries both our bags down to Jesse’s Jeep. Neither of us says a word. It’s easy to fall back into not talking to him. I just need to pretend like the last few days never happened between us.
We all pile in the car to start the twenty-hour drive back to campus. Terra trades seats with Gabe, giving him the front. Unlike on the ride down, he’s not insisting on sitting next to me. With her in the back, the drive goes fast. She creates the
most ridiculous games, her favorite being Name the Driver.
It quickly develops into Name the Driver and Give Him an Entire Backstory That Always Takes a Dark Turn. Like the trucker with a gray goatee and red trucker hat. Better known as Peter from Tallahassee. He has a wife and three children and was voted Most Likely to Succeed in high school. Then, after losing his football scholarship due to a horrific car accident in which he lost seven out of ten toes, he turned long-haul trucker to support his family.
I think Jesse pulls off the highway for an early supper just so we stop ruining people’s imaginary lives.
We’re walking into the small mom-and-pop diner, rightly named Mom and Pop’s, when Cass finally acts like I exist. He holds the door for me, a half-smile bringing out a dimple. It irritates me, mostly because my belly flips at the sight of it. I look away and slide into a booth next to Terra to avoid sitting with him. Not that he notices since his attention’s already back on whatever has him so riveted on his phone.
A few hours later, he says his first words to me since we left the hotel.
I’m passing him in the aisle of a gas station, and he asks, “Do you have more than one phone charger?”
I shake my head and keep walking.
Once we get back on the road, he returns to broody Cass. Every now and then, I glance over and think I see his mouth moving. It reminds me of his lips on me, so I stop letting myself look at him.
He’s made it clear that last night meant nothing to him. Whatever I thought it might have been was wrong. Cass is my Watcher. That’s all he’ll ever be. It’s time I figure out a way to live with that.
It’s late. Almost midnight.
Terra and Gabe are both asleep. Jesse’s tapping away on the steering wheel, having just chugged a cup of coffee.
I’m staring out the window at shadows and brief glimpses of the world around us through headlights when Cass reaches for my hand. He pulls it onto his lap and laces his fingers through mine. Unsure what emotional whiplash awaits me, I have to force myself to look at him. He’s watching me with a relaxed expression on his face. Almost peaceful, like when he stares at the sky. How he looked at me last night.
He brings his other hand to my face and leans in, sealing his lips over mine. It’s unlike any other time he’s kissed me. Slow and gentle, and it makes me feel everything I’ve been telling myself not to want from him.
His eyes stay shut for a few seconds after he pulls back. “God, I’ve wanted to do that all day.”
“Why haven’t you?”
He checks up front, but Jesse’s focused on the road, drumming along to a song.
“Chaz had three demons attack last night. Ros sent pictures of a bunch of scrolls to sort through, so I could find a spell to keep you safe.” His eyebrows pull tighter, his eyes dropping to my lips. “I knew the second those things were near me, I would lose all focus, and fuck if I wasn’t right. Come here.”
He barely finishes before his mouth is back on mine, hungry and commanding. He parts my lips with his tongue, and God, it’s what I’ve wanted him to do all day. My free hand runs up his chest and around to the back of his neck, tugging so his tongue plunges deeper. A low sound vibrates from the back of his throat. He pushes down on my other hand, rubbing it over the hard ridge in his jeans. It’s a mistake we both recognize, and he wrenches his mouth away from mine.
“Shit,” he whispers, his eyes darting around. Then he calls up front, “Jesse, we good for a stop?”
I pull my hand away from his crotch. “You’re not fucking me in a gas station restroom.”
A sly smile forms, the shadows darkening his dimples. “Never said I was.”
We only make it to the door of the men’s room before he spins me around. His hands grip my ass as he backs me in. I don’t even waste time pretending to be disgusted by our surroundings because, despite my claim in the car, I will let him do whatever he wants to me right now. His fingers rip open the button on my shorts, and he drops to his knees in front of me and wiggles them over my hips. I tug at his hair as he hooks his thumbs in my panties, yanking them down as well.
His skin continues to warm, his lips hot against me. Then it’s too bright, and heat surrounds me, the floor beneath us shifting. My eyes are still adjusting to the darkness as Cass urges me back onto a bed. He finishes taking off my shorts and underwear.
“Told you I wasn’t going to fuck you there.”
I laugh, recognizing his bedroom. It turns into a moan when he’s between my legs again. He wraps his arms around my upper thighs to stop my hips from lifting. I’m completely at his mercy, his tongue rolling and lips coaxing. I claw at the sheets on each side of me while he works me over with his mouth. As long as he keeps doing this, he can never talk to me again.
It doesn’t take long for me to teeter, ready to fall. But the heat of his mouth leaves me before I do. I blow out a frustrated breath as he climbs up my body, a smirk on his lips.
“Not without me,” he says, nudging his jeans down.
His mouth covers mine, and I’ve already missed the way his tongue invades—tasting me, claiming me. He takes his time kissing me, keeping me torturously close with his hand until I buck against him, wanting the rest of him.
“Cass,” is all I can manage.
Finally, he sinks his hips between my legs, a growl escaping him. My body picks up right where I left off the second he pushes himself inside of me. Only instead of the sheets, my nails dig into his blazing skin with each thrust. He bites down on my shoulder in response and drives into me harder.
“Come, Hannah.”
The command tips me over the edge, everything but Cass gone when I fall or float or maybe fly. Whichever it is, I want him with me, and I hold him tighter, arms locked around his neck, his burning forehead pressed to mine. His breaths become shorter, ragged, and he groans, his body tensing as he follows me down.
Our chests rise and fall in sync, his eyes heavy as he stares down at me. He lazily kisses my cheeks, nose, lips.
“Think they’ll notice if we just stay here?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, nipping at my lower lip and rolling off me.
It only takes a minute to re-dress and return to the grimy gas station. Then we’re walking back out into the cool night air, hours away from his bed.
Tapping away on his phone, Jesse doesn’t pay attention to us getting back in the Jeep.
“You want to switch?” Cass asks him.
“I have a few hours left in me.” He drops his phone in the cupholder and pulls away from the gas pump.
The lights fade, and we’re once again in the dark, except for the green glow of the dash. Cass’s arm slides behind me, holding me close to his side. I rest my head on his shoulder, and he brings my hand back to his lap. His thumb travels back and forth. It makes the slightest hint of a spark tingle against my skin.
“What happens now?” I ask.
The dimming light appears and disappears beneath his cooling hand.
“We tolerate the confines of a car for another several hours.”
“I meant, after we get back.” I tilt my chin to look at him.
His lips press to mine. “I do that as much as possible and spell-cast my ass off.”
I cuddle into him, and he rests his cheek on top of my head.
I was wrong about nothing being guaranteed with Cass. One thing will always be true: he’ll always be here. Moody and broody and pissed off at the world, but here. With me. Always.
My suitcase lands on the curb after Cass flings it out of the back end of the Jeep. He slams the rear door. “You need to bring less shit next time.”
Terra’s already hauling her bags inside as he nudges mine the rest of the way over with his foot. “I’m not carrying it any farther for you either. I’m done being your bellboy.”
I wave at Jesse as he drives off. “You weren’t that great at it anyway.”
“The best one you’ll ever have.” He steps over it to get to me
and secures his hands on my waist. “You said Terra won’t stick around long?”
“She hates doing laundry here almost as much as she hates not unpacking right away.”
His head lowers, lips lightly touching mine. “I’ll be back the second she leaves. Until then…” He lets go of me to retrieve a keychain shaped like an alligator from his pocket. “Keep this on you.”
My eyes narrow at him as he shoves it into my hand. “An alligator?”
“The hotel gift shop wasn’t exactly swimming in options, Hannah.”
I dangle it between us. “What is it, exactly?”
“For the next twelve or so hours, it’s a solution to our demon problem. A cloaking spell slapped together with what should keep any powers or magic from affecting you. Which includes mine, so stay in your room so that if I need to find you, I can. Because the orb won’t work.”
Examining my new keychain, I smile. “You gave me a present.”
He rolls his eyes and kisses me. “Stay in your room.”
I walk into the room I’ve been banished to, still smiling.
Terra stops loading her laundry. “I knew it.” She drops the bag and lands on my bed at the same time as I do. “I was watching out the window, you hussy. Now, this is the last time I will say this to you. Spill.”
I pull my feet up on the bed between us. “What do you want to know?”
She claps her hands, wiggling around like I just promised to keep her young forever. “When did this really start? Because he said he’d just moved to town, but Gabe met him months ago.”
“We ran into each other at the Halloween haunted house. Then a few times after that.”
“But you didn’t hook up until recently?”
My face scrunches up. “January.”
Her mouth falls open. “When you were with Gabe?”