Shadow of Temptation (Asylums for Magical Threats #2.5)

by Jessie Donovan

  She frowned. “Work together? What are you talking about?”

  He took her hands and squeezed them. “Come. Let’s clean up, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sabrina was simultaneously sore, relaxed, and anxious. Being taken from behind was definitely something she wanted to do many times over again in the future. Just remembering how deep Jorge had reached inside of her made her heart rate kick up.

  But as good as the sex had been, now came the aftermath, which meant talking about very important and scary things.

  She’d never had to worry about planning her own future before. For the last five years, she’d been given assignments and tasks, and did everything she could to finish them. True, she’d devised tactics and strategies for how to succeed, but she’d never really been in charge of her personal life, let alone been able to think about whom she might share it with.

  She glanced toward the closed bathroom door where Jorge was cleaning up. Was there a future with him? She hoped so.

  The door opened, and while she loved looking at the deep brown of his bare chest and arms, she was disappointed to see he’d donned a pair of boxers. It must’ve shown on her face because Jorge came over and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Don’t look so sad, Sabrina. The boxers are keeping me from taking you again, right here and now, because we need to square away a few things first. The faster we talk, the faster you can decide if you’ll honor me with your body again.”

  Some of her anxiousness eased. “For all of your claims of the nicer version of Jorge Salazar being dead, that comment tells me some of him survived.”

  His smile faded. “If you’re waiting for him to come back, it’s not going to happen. I was rarely tortured outright, but being forced to kill to survive and protect those close to you is something that will change a person.”

  At the mention of him being tortured, Sabrina remembered the secret Neena had told her during their first chat; the one Sabrina had decided to keep from Jorge when she’d recounted all Neena had told her: If he doesn’t tell someone about his guilt and experiences from his time with the Collector, Jorge Salazar will die within the month.

  She’d dismissed it at the time, but after everything that happened and Neena’s tendency to be right, she wasn’t going to take any chances. Call her selfish, but she wanted Jorge to live. She was falling for him, and she wanted time to explore those feelings outside of a constant life or death situation.

  Of course, getting Jorge to talk wasn’t going to be easy, but she had to try. She patted the bed next to her. “The only Jorge Salazar I want is the man you are now. Now, sit down and keep me warm while you tell me about that nightmare from the other day.”

  He opened his mouth, but Sabrina beat him to it. “No, you’re not going to deflect it this time, Salazar. If you want any sort of relationship with me—work or otherwise—then you’re going to start being honest. If all I’ve told you about my past and who I am isn’t enough to let you trust me, then walk away now because I’m not going to keep wasting my time proving over and over again that I’m not out to stab you in the back.”

  He simply said, “I know.”

  She hadn’t expected that answer.

  Hiding her surprise at his easy agreement, she patted the bed next to her. “Then sit your ass down and start talking.”

  Jorge sat next to Sabrina and pulled her close against his side. He kissed her hair and said, “A little bossy, aren’t we?”

  “Jorge, stop trying to deflect and—”

  He moved to nuzzle her forehead. “You didn’t let me finish. I like it when you’re bossy.”

  She pushed against his chest and looked him dead in the eye. “Tell me about the nightmare or I’ll put my clothes back on and stand on the far side of the room, where you can’t touch me, if that’s what it takes.”

  He sighed. Talking about his dreams and time with the Collector was the last thing he wanted to do. Especially because deep down, he was afraid Sabrina might not be able to forgive him for what he’d done.

  A hand brushed his chest and he looked down. Sabrina’s face was soft, and her eyes were full of encouragement. “You can tell me anything. You know about some of the stuff I’ve had to do to keep up my cover ID. I know what it’s like to make the least evil of two bad choices.”

  “That’s what people say to make themselves feel better.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Jorge.”

  Remember, you’re not inside the Collector’s facilities anymore. Sabrina won’t hurt you for displaying any emotion other than strength and obedience.

  He laid his head on top of hers. If he was going to do this, he didn’t want to watch the horror creep into Sabrina’s expression. “In the dream I had the other day, Watkins came into a room with my sister, slit her throat, and said I was no better than him. In a way, I believe it. I’ve killed or kidnapped innocents—fathers, mothers, someone’s sister or husband—all to protect the life of my sister Alejandra. I would do it again to protect her, but I’m aware of how selfish it was to keep ruining people’s lives to protect one person. If I were a better man, I might’ve realized the kidnappings, etc., would never end and I should’ve escaped to expose the Collector and her coerced army. But I wasn’t strong enough to let my sister die.”

  He closed his eyes a second and then let out a sigh. “Don’t you see? If I’d been strong enough, I could’ve saved hundreds, maybe even thousands, of humans and Feiru. But I didn’t. You were able to give up everything—your life, your friends, hell, even admitting you’re human—to help make the world a better place.” He opened his eyes and decided he needed to stop being a chickenshit and see what Sabrina was thinking. He looked down at her face, but it wasn’t disgust or disappointment he saw, but rather she was angry. “What’s wrong?”

  “Wanting to protect your family isn’t selfish. Part of what I’ve done is for the same reason, to protect my sister. The other part was for far less noble reasons than what you’ve created in your mind.” She turned her body toward him. “I didn’t want to live a life of seclusion. If I’d chosen that path, no one would’ve been hurt and my sister still would’ve been safe. Yet I still chose the life with the Feiru Liaison office and all that went with it. So don’t you go thinking I’m all noble and self-sacrificing, because I’m not. We’ve both done what we thought best at the time, and we’ve learned from it. The cowardly thing to do is to throw that knowledge away and simply give up. So are you going to keep living in the past, blaming yourself for what can’t be changed, or are you going to try to make up for it by making the future better for those still alive?”

  Sabrina was part angry, and part ashamed. She’d never admitted how selfish she’d been in her choice to join the Feiru Liaison office, but it was true. If she’d just allowed herself to be locked away, she wouldn’t have blood on her hands.

  But, screw that. She’d done good things too, and there was so much more she could do to help both the Feiru and the humans, especially if Jorge was at her side. She just needed to convince him to help her.

  The corner of his mouth ticked up. “Now I’m going to have to prove I’m not a coward, aren’t I?”

  Her body relaxed a fraction. “As long as it doesn’t mean you’re going to start beating your chest and doing stupid stunts to prove your manliness.”

  His eyes were now at half-mast, and full of heat. “I’d rather prove my manliness in other ways.”

  Her mouth went dry at his husky tone, but she gave her head a shake and playfully slapped Jorge on the chest. “Stop it. You still haven’t told me what you meant by us working as a team.”

  Jorge’s look only grew more intense. Then one second she was sitting next to him, and the next, he’d flipped her onto her back on the bed. He moved and caged her body with his before he said, “We’re going to be partners in DEFEND. We can hash out who’s in charge later. Right now, I want to pleasure my girlfriend until she screams my name loud enough that the guards in
the hall can hear her.”

  She stopped breathing. After so many years of wishing she could have someone to confide in, someone she could truly be herself around, she didn’t want to hope she finally had a chance at happiness. The secret agent in her needed to know the unequivocal truth. “Girlfriend?”

  He leaned his head down and nipped her jaw. “I want you so much it hurts. You’ve given me a second chance at life, and I don’t plan on taking it for granted. My first act is to make you mine and show you how much I want you because the sex in the front room was barely icing on the cake to my feelings. So say yes, Sabrina, because I want to treasure you in the way you deserve.”

  Her heart was pounding in her ears, but she knew she’d heard him correctly. In that second, she knew she would keep fighting to make Jorge the man he could be. Given some time, he would accomplish some of those grand plans she’d heard all those months ago of how he would save the first-borns.

  And she would be by his side.

  She brushed the hair from his forehead and tucked it behind his ear. “As long as I can do a little ‘treasuring’ of you too, then my answer is yes.”

  He smiled. “Baby, you can do whatever you want to me as long as you promise not to cut off certain parts of my anatomy.”

  She laughed. “I can’t make any promises, but I will try every other trick I have before it reaches that point.”

  As Sabrina stared into his dark brown eyes, she decided they’d done enough talking for now. She reached her hand up, threaded it through his shoulder-length hair, and pulled his head down to hers. “Now, kiss me to seal the deal.”

  Jorge lowered his head and kissed her gently. “Is that all you want?”

  “Jorge.”

  He grinned and her heart skipped a beat. The man was gorgeous when he full-on smiled.

  Jorge let his weight settled on top of her and he whispered into her ear, “Let’s see if I can get you to say my name without the reproof, and much, much louder.”

  Before she could say a word, he kissed her and delved his tongue into her mouth. It wasn’t long before he had his wish, and reproof was the farthest thing from what was on her mind.

  Epilogue

  Two weeks later in Bogotá, Colombia

  Sabrina lay next to Jorge on top of a flat roof, looking through her binoculars at a dilapidated house two blocks down the hill. She was waiting for a signal, but the tall plant was still standing straight up. She lowered her binoculars. “How are they still not ready?”

  He gently rammed her shoulder with his. “Give them some time. Not everyone is as punctual as you are.”

  “There is nothing wrong with being punctual. But this is my first time working with Cam and Marco, and so far I’m not understanding their ‘don’t fuck with us’ reputation.”

  Jorge chuckled. “Just don’t say that within hearing. According to Santos, Marco can do some crazy shit with his elemental powers, and from what I’ve heard, Cam isn’t far behind, even without taking her latent ability into account.”

  She handed Jorge the binoculars, and he took his turn watching for the plant to be flipped on its side and covered with a white sheet. She studied his face. “Are you upset that you can’t be down there with them?”

  Jorge kept looking through the binoculars. “No.”

  “Jorge.”

  He sighed and looked at her. “Yes, it would be awesome if my shadow-shifting abilities had come back and I could sneak in to help save more lives, but I have other skills, too. Besides, that means I get to watch your back, my little human.”

  She clasped her hands in front of her. “Thank goodness I have my big, strong Feiru boyfriend to look after me.” She rolled her eyes. “I came here as a favor to you, so how about you stop belittling my skills and go back to watching that damn plant.”

  But Jorge just continued to stare at her. She rubbed a hand over her cheek and said, “What? Do I have something on my face?”

  He gave a lazy smile. “No, I just realized something.”

  “What? Did we forget to do something for the take-down?”

  He shook his head and traced a finger down her cheek. “No, it just hit me how much I love you.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. She stared at him a second before glancing quickly to the building with the plant. She could just barely make out the shape—it was still standing up. She looked back at him. “You decided to tell me this now?”

  He shrugged. “It seemed as good a time as any other.”

  Sabrina had fallen for him early, but had decided not tell him how she felt until he was ready. To say that Jorge was at high-risk for running was an understatement. The man was still working through his nightmares as well as still trying to display non-sarcastic emotions to anyone other than her.

  But in all of her hopes and dreams of this moment, she hadn’t imagined him saying he loved her while lying on a roof of a broken down building, waiting for the signal to help take down the Colombian arm of the Federation League.

  Of course, his do-it-in-the-moment approach was just one of the many things she loved about him.

  She grabbed his chin, turned his face toward hers, and kissed him gently. “I love you too, but if you think I’m going to reward you with sex right now, then you’re sadly mistaken.”

  He grinned. “I’ll take your rain check. It gives me another reason not to screw this up.”

  She gave him one more kiss and then turned his head back toward their target. “Good. Then go back to watching the plant.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She shook her head. She might love him, but there were still times when he tried her patience. Of course, she wouldn’t have it any other way. The last two weeks had been healing not just for him, but for her as well. Each day she seemed to realize more and more of who she was, and a large part of that was thanks to the man next to her.

  “Sabrina, there’s the signal. Move into position.”

  Her mind switched into work mode and she crawled over to the modified sniper rifle already loaded and ready for her. She gently moved behind it, peered through the scope and said, “Ready.”

  She couldn’t see him, but she knew Jorge was giving the “We’re ready here” signal.

  Sabrina had practiced for hours over the last week to brush up on her rifle training from her rookie days as a Feiru Liaison officer, but she still took in a few slow, deep breaths to calm her nerves. This was her first real mission for her new DEFEND/Feiru Liaison office position. This needed to go well, or it could damage the fragile partnership.

  She watched as Cam and Marco flushed out the building, and the Fed League members started to flee into the streets. Due to the roadblocks and other DEFEND soldiers, the few who managed to escape were heading her way. When they were close enough, she fired one tranquilizer round, and then another, until she had four unconscious people down on the street.

  She kept her mind in the zone until she heard Jorge whisper, “That’s it. It’s over.”

  She moved away from the rifle and sat back on her legs. As she rotated her shoulders, Jorge took her chin in hand and lowered his face to kiss her. “The mission’s over. Does that mean I get sex now?”

  She laughed, and any remaining tension she’d had from the operation eased. “I guess men really do only have one thing on their minds.”

  Jorge grinned and pulled her flush up against him. “I can’t help it. Seeing you at that rifle, damn, Sabrina, you were sexy as hell.”

  “I had to show you that I don’t need a strong, muscled Feiru boyfriend to take care of me. But...”

  “Yes?”

  She traced a finger along his collarbone and she could feel his body lean into her at the touch. “Cam and Marco will be busy tying things up for the next hour or so. If you can find a private room before then, I’ll let you cash in that rain check and you can take care of me any way you wish.”

  He gave her a quick, rough kiss and tugged on her lower lip with his teeth before he released it and said, “I know o
f at least four places within walking distance.”

  She shook her head. “Well, at least you always have an escape route.”

  He stood up and tugged her to her feet. “Yeah, yeah, tease me later. The clock’s ticking and I plan on taking you at least three times before I check in with Marco Alvarez and company. Now, grab your gun and let’s go.”

  She smiled, quickly disassembled her gun, and put it in the case before she followed him down the ladder on the side of the building and down the street.

  As they walked hand-in-hand down the street, she couldn’t help thinking that just a few months ago, she never would’ve imagined being free not only to be herself, but to have someone love her true self in return.

  It might be silly, but after so many years of loneliness, she yearned—no, needed—to hear the words again. Sabrina squeezed Jorge’s hand and said, “I love you.”

  He looked down at her with a smile, tugged her to the side of the nearest building, and leaned his body against hers. His gaze was a mixture of hunger and tenderness, much like the man Jorge Salazar was slowly becoming.

  When he spoke, she could feel his hot breath on her cheek. “I might’ve been flippant up on the roof, but I meant what I said. Without you, I would be lost, bitter, and maybe even dead. I’m going to prove to you every day that I’m worth your love. I never want to let you go, Sabrina, or I might become lost again. I love you.”

  She knew it was silly, but she couldn’t help but blink back tears at his words. She raised her free hand to his face. “I’d be lost without you too, Jorge. Kiss me to remind me I won’t be alone again.”

  He kissed her tenderly at first, before growing rough and demanding. The feel of Jorge surrounding her, his taste in her mouth, and the knowledge of his love reassured her that she wasn’t alone, and if she had any say in it all, she never would be again.