by S. J. Harper
Zack’s arm is suddenly draped over my shoulders. “What are you thinking about?” he asks.
“I’m thinking maybe it’s time we start back?” Not true, but safe.
His grip tightens. “Are you cold? You can have my jacket.”
I shake my head. “No. Just a little tired. The events of the week are catching up to me.”
“How’s the headache?”
“Better. I think the fresh air did the trick.”
We swing around and retrace our footsteps, still outlined in the damp sand.
“Do you think our version of what happened is going to hold?” I ask after a moment.
“Yes.”
I give his arm a playful swat. “You spin a pretty convincing tale.”
He shrugs. “Well, Amy’s home, so that case is closed. And we just handed Garner the evidence to close the case that everyone will be talking about tomorrow. We stick to the story. Mager will go down and pay for the crimes he’s committed.” He gives me a sideways glance. “How are you at lying?”
I grin. “I’m betting not as good as you!”
“We’ll practice.”
Then another troublesome thought occurs to me. I’ve seen thrall wear off on occasion. “What happens if Alan starts to remember what really happened? It’s going to be a shock when his mother’s body is discovered in that burned-out clinic and the story hits the papers. How do you think Kallistos will react then? I want to believe that Alan’s safe and that no more humans will be hurt. I want to believe it’s over, but maybe it’s not.”
Zack squeezes my shoulders. “You’re worrying too much. Kallistos is ancient. He’s a king. His thrall will hold.”
“Maybe he had one of his henchmen do it.”
Zack shakes his head. “A vampire as old as he is has to be an expert at tying off loose ends. He left the note for you in Alan’s office, so we know he was there. No. He wouldn’t have left the task to anyone else. He knows Alan poses a threat. He would have tied off that loose end himself, too.”
I feel a shudder pass through my body. Zack has nailed it. That’s what Alan would be to Kallistos, nothing but a loose end.
Zack feels the tremor. “There’s something else on your mind. What is it?”
I hesitate a moment before answering, “I’m thinking about how all this will affect the organ recipients on Pierce’s log. Do you think they’ll escape prosecution?”
“Don’t know,” Zack replies with a shrug. “My guess is they’ll cooperate. Mager will go down. He’s a three-time loser. One more conviction and he’ll be put away for life.”
I let my head rest on Zack’s shoulder as we walk. “I hope so. I’d hate to see someone in Michael’s situation dragged through the media and punished. If we’d arrive just a few hours later, his name would have been on that list.”
I think of all the people—friends—I lost before organ transplants were available. I shake my head. “It’s not so black-and-white to me. If you were dying, or a friend was dying, and someone came to you with the way to save him, wouldn’t you take it? Regardless of whether it was breaking the law?”
Zack’s arm tightens around my shoulder. “I don’t know. But I have a feeling I know what your answer would be.”
To my relief, his tone is neither judgmental nor condescending.
He stops and draws me into his arms. “Let’s stop talking about work and start thinking about something much more pleasant.”
I smile up at him. “And what would that be?”
He’s leaning down, his lips now a whisper away. “This.”
And then we’re kissing and all misgivings about Kallistos and Alan and Sarah and the complications of the case are chased from my mind. Right now there’s only Zack.
Our case is closed. And for the moment, being in his arms feels wonderful. I try to focus on the sensation and block out everything else.
Tomorrow will be a new day. With it will come a new case.
But I don’t want to think about what’s to come tomorrow. I’m tired of sacrificing my present because of my past.
Right now I just want to live. And I can. At least for one night.
Tonight will be about Zack and me.
Tomorrow will come soon enough.
CHAPTER 25
I really need to have a talk with Zack about leaving his door unlocked. Maybe it’s still safe to do on the beach in South Carolina. It most definitely isn’t in San Diego. Especially with Stalker Sarah around. I close and lock the door before setting the brown paper bag filled to the brim with cartons of Thai food on his countertop.
After our short walk on the beach, I was starving. Zack, however, was a ball of pent-up energy. So I suggested he go for a run while I foraged for food. The ease with which the domestic simplicity of our arrangement fell into place is bittersweet. I know our arrangement is neither simple nor secure. While I should be thinking with my head, the heart wants what the heart wants. And I’m tired of being denied. So very tired.
My cell phone chimes. There’s a new text message from an unknown number: Dinner tonight? K.
K? Kallistos? How the hell did he get my number?
Of course, Liz.
The shower is running overhead. My eyes drift to the ceiling.
The phone chimes again. Another message: I’ll make it worth your while.
This has to be Liz’s doing. Probably with the best of intentions. I know what I might be interrupting, but I dial anyway.
“You gave him my number?”
“Who?” Liz’s breathless voice and a groan from Evan in the background confirm my suspicions.
Too bad. “Kallistos! He’s texting me.”
“That’s why you called me?”
“How could you give him my number?” I ask.
“It was for your own good,” Liz replies. “You know my views on rebound sex. Nothing heals a broken heart faster.”
“My heart is not broken.”
“Yet.”
“Call him off, Liz. I mean it.”
“You’ve met Kallistos. I couldn’t call him off if I wanted to. He gets what he goes after.”
“Not this time.” I disconnect before she has a chance to argue. Immediately my cell phone rings and the call indicator shows it’s Liz. I power off the phone and try to push my anger aside. I understand what Liz is trying to do. But no one ever really knows what the future will hold. This curse may seem eternal, but it’s not. It can’t be. Someday, it will be lifted. Zack and I may not have a promising future. But we are here. This minute. Together.
And right now Zack is still in the shower.
Suddenly I’m no longer feeling hungry. What I’m feeling is very, very dirty.
I pop the cartons of food in a warming oven and race up the stairs to join him.
The bathroom door is cracked open. Steam from the shower billows out into the bedroom, warm, wet, and inviting. The familiar scent of citrus and spice that I’m beginning to associate with Zack hangs in the air. I want to wrap myself in it, drown in it, drown in him. And for the next few hours, I will.
I push the door open with my arm and step inside. He must have heard me coming. He’s waiting for me.
“Took you long enough to get up here.”
He’s inside the shower stall, heat rising around him. His hair is slicked straight back. His hands grip the top of the glass door, making his biceps bulge. He’s hard and ready.
I let my eyes drift over his body, appreciating every spectacular inch. “Been thinking about me?” I ask him.
He glances down at his erection. “Can’t seem to stop.”
“Food’s in the oven,” I tell him, moving closer until only the glass separates us.
“It’s not food I’m hungry for at the moment.”
I see the predator in his eyes. His naked desire sends a chill up my spine.
“I’ve missed you,” he says.
The confession makes me smile. “We practically spent the entire day together.”
“
Wearing far too many clothes.”
Before our walk on the beach, I’d stopped by the house to exchange my work clothes for something more comfortable, a white peasant blouse, my most comfortable blue jeans, and a pair of brown leather sandals.
I reach back and pull the band from my hair, letting it fall around my shoulders. “Maybe I should take some of these off?”
“Unless you want them to get wet.”
The sandals are already gone. The jeans and blouse come off next, leaving only the white lace bra and panties.
“God, I could just eat you up,” Zack growls, his voice rough with desire. He reaches down with one hand and strokes himself from tip to base and back up again. I remember the feel of him, the taste of him.
“Would you like me to do that for you?” I unfasten the back of my bra, then turn around, slip off the straps, and let it fall onto the growing pile of clothes on the floor.
“What I want you to do is get your ass in here.”
I hear the shower door open behind me, feel a rush of heat and moisture roll out. He’s anxious. I can tell. Yet I take my time. This is the fun part, the buildup, the seduction. I pull down my panties slowly, with a sway of my hips. As they fall to my ankles, Zack scoops me up. One arm is wrapped around my waist, his hand cupping the opposite breast. His other reaches forward, his palm covers my sex, his fingers deftly separate and slide inside.
“Tell me you want me,” Zack murmurs.
I push back against him, providing friction where he needs it the most. The words tumble out. “I want you. Desperately. Completely. Recklessly.” I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with such honesty to a man.
In the blink of an eye we’re in the shower. The speed at which he’s moved leaves me breathless. I’m pinned facing the side wall, hands above my head, feet spread apart. I feel his breath on my back between my shoulders, feel the low rumble of a growl forming in his chest and belly. Teeth graze my neck. I freeze. The beast is close to the surface. I feel it.
“Zack?” I hear a tinge of panic in my voice.
“Shh. It’s okay. No need to be afraid,” he assures me. “I control the wolf. It doesn’t control me. Except for those three nights a month, but I’m even getting better at that. You can trust me. I want you to trust me.”
He releases my arms, letting his hands skim down the length of them, then over my shoulders before settling on my hips. He turns me around and tilts my chin up so that I can look him in the eye. The light above the shower enhances the gold in them.
I don’t have to use my powers to feel the truth and sincerity of Zack’s statement.
I place my hand on his chest and swallow down the lump in my throat. Zack and I are alike in so many ways. Living lives shrouded in secrets and built on too many lies. It’s impossible to connect with anyone when you can’t be real. And at the end of the day, whether human, Were, or Siren, that’s what we crave, what we truly yearn for—a connection.
“I wouldn’t be here, Zack, if I didn’t trust you.”
It’s almost as if he was waiting for permission, for assurance. Zack cups my face in the palms of his hands. His mouth covers mine and he kisses me deeply. Our tongues curl around each other, languidly exploring. Time stands still for me. I focus on the moment, on the sensation. On the taste and feel and smell of the man before me.
His hand leaves my hip. He lifts one of my legs onto the bench in the back of the shower, leaving me open and so wanting. Two fingers slip inside.
I gasp. My eyes widen and my head snaps back.
My reaction evokes a grin. His pumping is slow and steady, the rhythm old and familiar. After one night together, he already knows my body. He knows how to touch me and how to make me respond.
My hands reach for his biceps. I feel his power and strength as I run my hand over them, wanting, needing to hold on to something. I’m climbing. Higher and higher.
Zack adds another finger. His thumb is working, too. I want more. I want him with me, in me.
“Please.” My body is strung as tight as a bow. I’m breathing too fast.
“Tell me what you need, baby.”
One hand guides him, the other moves to still his movements. “You,” I manage to say before my knees start to buckle.
I needn’t worry.
Zack is there to catch me, more than catch me. He lifts me up.
My arms and legs wrap around him. The cool tile presses into my back as I slide down, letting him fill me to the hilt. He eases out, and then back in, deeper this time. My stomach is a mass of coils, tight, ready to explode.
“I’m all yours,” he whispers into my ear.
My heart wrenches.
It’s too much.
It’s not enough.
“Give it all to me, then.” I reach back and grab a fistful of his hair. “Don’t. Hold. Back.”
He doesn’t. He tilts his hips and picks up the pace, making me appreciate just how much Zack Armstrong has to give.
CHAPTER 26
“You’ll be very relieved to know that my legs are working again. And I found chopsticks.” I tilt my head toward the breast pocket of the shirt I’m wearing. It’s Zack’s. I commandeered it from his closet.
He’s kneeling in front of the fireplace, dressed only in sweats. The fire is roaring and he’s lit the gas heaters on the upstairs deck. There’s a love seat and chair out there along with a coffee table. I have the bag of Thai in one hand and two beers in the other. Zack promptly relieves me of one of the beers and the bag of food.
“Smells great!”
I follow him outside. “I worked very hard heating it up in the microwave.”
Zack’s arranging the cartons, but he pauses to pull me into his arms. His hand curls around the same spot where Sarah grabbed me this morning at the elevator. Without thinking, I wince.
“Did I hurt you in the shower?” The alarm in his voice makes me realize I can’t pass this off as something he did. It would cut him to the quick.
“No, it happened earlier today.”
He’s pushing up the sleeve and inspecting my arm. There’s already a bruise. Several. With a gentle finger, he traces the outline of the handprint. “Did Kallistos do this to you when you were locked in that room with him?”
“No. It wasn’t Kallistos.” The last thing I need is for Zack to have one more reason to go gunning for Kallistos. I tell him the truth. “It was Sarah.”
“Sarah?” From the expression on his face I can tell it wasn’t the answer he was expecting.
“She showed up at the office.”
“Looking for me?”
“Me, actually.”
He frowns. “I have a feeling I’m not going to like your answer, but what for?”
“To give me the stay-away-from-my-man speech.”
“I’m not her—”
“Did the two of you sleep together the other night? Just tell me the truth, Zack. I’m ancient. I haven’t the heart for games and betrayal.”
To his credit, Zack doesn’t skip a beat. “Yes. Slept. She showed up here after you left. She had no place to stay. She knew I wouldn’t turn her away. I couldn’t. We shared the cage.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. I meant it when I told you it was over between the two of us.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “I’ve got to put an end to this. It isn’t Sarah’s fault. Without meaning to, I’ve put her in a bad spot. She’s desperate and feeling cornered. That’s a dangerous combination.”
He pushes a button on his cell and listens intently before leaving a message. “J.C., it’s Zack. Look, I know what you’re trying to do. I can even understand it. But it’s not going to work. I told you before, I’m done. I’m not coming back. This isn’t my fight and Sarah isn’t going to convince me otherwise. She has no sway over me. None. If you don’t set this right, I’ll have to.”
Zack tosses the phone onto the coffee table, then walks over to the rail and stares out at the ocean. The nerve in his jaw is ticking
. I give him a moment to collect his thoughts before asking, “So, who’s J.C.?”
He turns back to face me. “J. C. Hewitt, he’s the current beta of my old pack. He’s wilder than a June bug and dumber than a doornail. Before I left there was an upset, a turnover in leadership. The new alpha, Asa Wade, is a heartless bully. He’s ruthless. He’s also smart and ambitious. He started to develop alliances. The culture began to shift in a direction I couldn’t abide.”
“And that’s why you left?”
Zack nods. “People were getting hurt. Everyone was afraid. Some, including J.C., were looking to me to put a stop to it all.”
I hand Zack his beer. “They were pressuring you to take on this Wade character?”
He drinks down half of it before answering, “I’ve spent too much time on my own. Too much time dealing with brutal killers and cold-blooded sociopaths who will do anything to hold on to power. I joined the pack because I wanted to be a part of something, not because I wanted to be in charge or responsible.” Sadness washes over him, clouding his features. “Power has a way of changing a man. I’m not fit to be a leader. I’ve made too many mistakes.” He finishes off the rest of his beer.
I hand him mine. “I bet it wasn’t an easy decision, walking away.”
Zack reaches for my hand and leads me to the love seat. “Easy, no. But I’d walked away from bigger and badder than Asa Wade. I was lost once. I promised myself I’d never go down that road again. Some of the pack members evidently think they can still persuade me to come back, J.C. for one. Apparently Wade has his eye on Sarah and he scared the shit out of her. It didn’t take much persuading. J.C. planted the seed and—”
“Sarah came here to talk you into going back and getting rid of Wade.”
“Only in doing that, she put herself in a tight spot. She can’t really go back. Not without betraying her agenda or submitting to Wade. That pack, that place, it’s all she’s ever known.”