Like fingertips barely brushing the hairs on his legs, light touches passed from his ankles to his shins, grew infinitesimally firmer, and ran back and forth over his thighs, from knee to groin. Each time the touch flitted across his groin, he jumped, but then relaxed again.
Sean turned onto his stomach, pushed the pillows from the bed, and rested his brow on his forearms.
You are loved.
Startled, staring into the darkness at the table by the bed, the single white chair against a wall, he turned the thought over and over in his mind. It had come unbidden, like an emphatic voice telling him something he had never expected to hear.
Like Elin’s voice but he had to be hearing what he wanted to hear. They hadn’t progressed far enough, telepathically, for her to reach him like that.
Kneading at the base of his skull, down his neck, and along his shoulders made him sigh. He felt knots in his muscles dissolve.
A gentle vise clamping his sides brought another start. But the sensation, insistent, brushing to his spine, rubbing down to his buttocks, and exploring the hard flesh there, had him on total but willing alert.
This wasn’t a dream.
This wasn’t a trick of the air currents.
But this was most definitely a trick and Sean figured he’d already guessed the practitioner after all.
Breathing harder, wiping stinging sweat from his eyes, he flung over to his back again. He would swear his little angel had not known another man but she knew far more about how to please one than she should.
For what felt like hours, hands he could not see or touch caressed his body in almost every intimate way imaginable, and some he hadn’t even imagined.
Sometimes, he told himself, this had nothing to do with Elin, that she couldn’t possibly achieve such a thing and he was reacting to sexual deprivation. Then he rose to the tippy edge of climax again, only to be thwarted on the brink, and he could not believe this was not Elin’s doing. She had touched him before, pressed herself to him before, and although never like this, he decided she had saved her full power for when she could have her way with him.
His smile faded quickly. There was no doubt that the imprint of her lips was on his. He knew her mouth now, would always know it, and she kissed him provocatively as if beckoning him to come to her.
You are loved.
“And you are loved.” Since the channel was obviously open, he spoke into her mind. “I will always love you and keep you. Now, go to sleep.”
In the stillness that followed, he grinned. She had bewitched him but not broken his will. Not that he wouldn’t like to let her break it.
A moment later, the caress was back.
From his neck, over his chest, into the dip at his navel, down the slender line of dark hair below to the flare around what he longed for her to touch most, the wickedly magical fingers progressed like a hot sigh in the night.
Sean held still. Since she wasn’t physically with him, he couldn’t do a thing to either stop or assist her. “I think you should go to sleep.” His mind didn’t pant so she shouldn’t know he could hardly breathe, that his body was damp all over, that while he spoke like a schoolmaster to a difficult child, he was dying for want of her finishing this long, exquisite torture.
She wanted him to go to her and make love.
This deliberate teasing to the point where he wasn’t sure his legs would bear his weight, and wasn’t sure he could stay where he was, would only make sure he found a way to tantalize her even more.
The touch left him.
She might as well have put him in chains before she gave up her quest. There wouldn’t be any peace for him tonight. When he had the energy, he’d shower. And he’d also see how much she liked being roused really early to go to Gabriel’s. After all, she couldn’t have been in a deep sleep while she took him into a sweet hell.
A silky veil settled over his face.
Over his body, inch by inch, The Veil slithered. He tried to capture it but found nothing.
The scent of the forest touched with lemon reached him. The scent of Elin’s hair. Oh, help him, he couldn’t resist much longer.
Pine, fir, cedar, lemon—they filled the room and her hair brushed over his belly, his hips, his penis.
She pulled him into a heated place, dragged his hips from the bed, again and again while he lay, not helpless, but strong and eagerly meeting her.
His senses cascaded, unstoppable and wrenching and so intense he only wanted to hold on to the feelings forever. But they slowed, receded, and he lay there, his heart pounding. How could it have stopped just when he needed it most?
Minutes passed before a small voice in his mind said, “Was that right?”
He covered his face with both hands. No one would believe this had happened to him. “Perfect,” he told her.
“Good,” she said.
chapter FOURTEEN
If Elin were the pouting kind, she would pout right now. Sean hadn’t said one word about last night. Well, a few words at the time, finishing with, “Perfect,” but nothing since he had hammered on her door just before five this morning telling her loudly that they had to leave for Gabriel’s. They had business to attend to before the place started to get busy.
So much for her plot to lure him to her bed and let him have his way with her.
Bundled in Phoebe’s coat, with Pokey deep in a pocket, and buffeted by wind and stinging sleet, Elin clung to Sean on the way to Gabriel’s. She shot off the bike the moment it was parked, but snatched some pleasure out of being gathered against Sean’s body under one viselike arm as they ran to get inside and out of the bitter weather.
At the door he pulled her to one side, under cover, and said, “You understand not to mention anything that happened last night?”
She opened her mouth to ask if he thought she was an idiot, but gave a sly smile instead. “I would never embarrass you, Sean. Some things are absolutely private. Only you and I know.”
His clear, gold eyes showed he knew exactly how funny she thought she was. “Good. What is it we’re here to do?”
“You tell me.” Now she was irritated.
“Elin—”
“You’d better be ready to learn absolutely nothing,” she told him shortly. Her teeth chattered together—she was so cold. “We can only listen and watch. We already discussed this, remember? And you don’t have to worry about Sally or Cliff. Sally will have warned him to pretend everything’s fine. Our best bet is that someone saw Molly before she was picked up near the gas station last night.”
“I’d give a lot to know how she got there,” Sean said.
“Ears open, mouths closed,” Elin said. She had never felt this cold.
“Right,” he said, and the corners of his mouth turned up a little. “Too bad you don’t have that incredible hearing like Leigh and Phoebe.”
She dug him in the middle with an elbow and yanked open the door. “If I don’t get close to the fireplace, my nose will fall off.”
The warmth she craved blasted to meet her. She was surprised to see Gabriel there throwing more logs onto the already huge fire. Elin turned to catch Sean’s eye.
He raised a brow and said quietly, “He gets in early but not usually this early. Something could be even more wrong than we already know.”
“As in he’s expecting Molly? Just don’t say anything about her.”
“No, ma’am,” Sean said. “Morning, Gabriel.”
The man stared at them and Elin realized they should have expected to be asked why they were there so early.
“Heat’s on the fritz at my—at Two Chimneys,” Sean said, and Elin noted that his ears turned pink. “I went over to try to fix it but Elin…” His voice trailed away. He was not a practiced liar.
“He needs parts and it was going to take too long for a fire to warm the place up enough, so we came here. Besides, my coffee is never as good as Sally’s.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said.
He didn’t believe a word they’d
said and knew perfectly well that two roaring fires would have kept the cottage warm enough.
Leigh and Niles came into the big bar from the back entrance with Leigh’s dog, Jazzy, dragging along behind. The dog had clearly been woken up before she was ready. Niles’s grim face didn’t cheer Elin up, but Jazzy’s excitement at seeing her did.
“Your heat gone out, too?” Gabriel said.
Leigh put a hand around Niles’s elbow. “I’m always early,” she said, too brightly.
“Not this early,” Gabriel told her. “Not since you let this great animal sweep you off your feet.”
Elin felt Sean stiffen and held her breath. She thought Gabriel had a good idea that the Team members were a lot more than they seemed to be, but the animal comment could annoy Niles.
“Sally’s coffee is better than mine,” Leigh said and looked askance at Gabriel, Elin, and Sean when they all started to laugh.
“I get it,” Gabriel said. “Or I don’t get it really. But you four want an early morning party here for some reason. I’ll go tell Sally she’s got customers.”
Pokey slid from the pocket of Elin’s coat and landed in front of Jazzy, who started to walk around her. The guinea pig would have none of it and all but glued herself to Jazzy’s side all the way to the fireplace, where Jazzy lay down and the guinea pig snuggled onto her folded paws. The look Jazzy shot at Leigh begged for permission to bat the critter into the next century. Leigh said, “You’re a good girl, Jazzy. You look after your little friend.”
Gabriel could obviously hardly wait to ask, “Didn’t happen to see a little green Fiat on your way, did you?”
Molly drove a green Fiat, but it hadn’t been around for several weeks since she took off on her own.
“No,” Elin said and felt inspired. “Are you talking about Molly’s car?” She didn’t check Sean’s reaction.
“Yeah.”
“We didn’t see it either,” Niles said.
Leigh cleared her throat. “Are you expecting her back, Gabriel?”
“Maybe.” He carried on to the kitchens.
“So much for ears open, mouths closed,” Sean muttered. “How come you didn’t let me know you were coming here, Niles?”
“How come you didn’t let me know you were coming?”
“You’re being ridiculous,” Leigh said. “Both of you. We all know why we’re here and we’ve already found out one thing. Molly was on her way here—I think so, anyway.”
“So why didn’t she want to be brought here when she was in such trouble?” Elin asked.
“You thought you’d find something out and keep it to yourself,” Niles said to Sean. “Did you think I’d be okay with that?”
“That’s what you—”
“I’ve asked you to stand in for me in most things,” Niles said. “That doesn’t mean I want to be cut out of the loop.”
“Something’s eating the pair of you,” Elin said. She couldn’t sit mute any longer. “This isn’t the place to talk about it. We’ll have that coffee, see if there’s anything else to find out here, then go where you can sort yourselves out in private.”
“Niles remains my alpha, Elin, even when he needs me to take a more important role than usual,” Sean said quietly.
She figured he had no intention of allowing Team pecking order to get in the way of his sneaking off to The Island, though.
Leigh took off her coat and tossed it over a chair. The rest followed suit, all except Elin, who kept on Phoebe’s heavy coat and took a seat at a table close to the fire. Jazzy promptly leaped on her lap, leaving Pokey on the hearth.
“Ask Sally about the Fiat,” Leigh said.
Trundling a loaded trolley, Sally came from the kitchen. She crossed the floor with her stiff gait and waved them all to take their seats.
They joined Elin at the table, and Sally parked herself and her trolley between them and the bar. She started unloading mugs, jugs of coffee, and plates of fragrant pastries still steaming from the oven.
“When you found Molly, where was her Fiat?” Sean said quickly. “Where is it now? We need to get it out of the way until it’s time to let Gabriel know what’s happened.”
“Oh, no.” Leigh put her face in her hands. “Poor Gabriel.”
“She was lying on the ground by the Dumpster,” Sally told them. “No sign of her car.”
“Did you know she’d contacted Gabriel?” Sean said.
“I didn’t think she had. She didn’t want to come here at all.”
“So why is Gabriel asking about the car?” Niles checked each of their faces. “He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t expect Molly.”
“We can’t keep Gabriel in the dark,” Elin said.
“Maybe he’s not so in the dark,” Niles said, then waved a hand as if to dismiss his comment.
“Keeping quiet is wrong,” Elin went on. “What are you all thinking of? Sally, why were you so willing to let Saul take off with the body?”
“You’re full of questions,” Niles said, but he sounded thoughtful.
“We couldn’t have a better ally than Saul,” Sally said. She looked downward. “Some of you will fight that idea but I hope you don’t fight it to the death—your own, or his.”
“We made as good a peace as we can some months ago,” Niles said. “I haven’t forgotten.”
Taking advantage of the coat, Elin pulled up the hood and made sure it shadowed her face. She didn’t want anyone to see how terrified she was by this talk of the ones she loved destroying each other. Anything she said in argument would only make things worse. She gathered up Pokey and cuddled her close.
“Elin?” Sean said. “What’s the matter?”
So much for hiding her feelings. “I’m trying to think a few things through. And with my newfound coldness I have to bundle up whenever I can. How much colder do you suppose Tarhazian can make me?” Wow, that had just popped out without her really thinking about the question before. “Oh, ignore me. I’m just waffling on.”
Silence lasted too long.
When Elin made herself look up, four faces stared back with a variety of expressions ranging from thoughtful to horrified, with Sally taking the horrified prize.
“This is a change for you, that’s the only problem,” Sean said loudly, although his worried face didn’t support his words. “You’ll get used to feeling different temperatures.”
“Her lips are blue,” Sally said. “And her nose is so red it looks painful.”
“Sounds lovely,” Elin said with a weak laugh.
Sally poured coffee and said, without looking at anyone, “You can freeze to death.”
chapter FIFTEEN
Silverware rattled and slid around on the trolley. Sean grabbed a plate before it could flip off.
Sally slammed a hand on the side of the trolley and held on. “Is this an earthquake?” she said, her liberally powdered face puckering.
“I don’t think so,” Niles said.
Beside Sean, a figure gradually took form. Diminutive but with regal bearing, Tarhazian fully appeared.
She wore a circlet of black diamonds on top of the black satin turban that hid her hair. Everything she wore was black lace or satin. Her face, perfect in an unearthly way, bore a dusting of glitter.
Elin screwed up her eyes to peer at the familiar face. “Tarhazian?” she said, as if she didn’t believe what she saw. “You said we would never meet again.”
“A mother’s love cannot be so easily extinguished.” Low and modulated, the Fae Queen’s voice softened as she looked at Elin.
“What do you want?” Elin glanced at Sean, who attempted to adjust his scowl. Elin would be afraid of his antagonizing Tarhazian. He would never forgive her for what she had done to Elin but he wasn’t reckless enough to forget that an attempt to punish the Queen could end in disaster.
“It has been brought to my attention that Colin tried to harm you, daughter.”
Elin pressed her lips together.
“I wonder why that would have come
to your attention,” Sean said. “Perhaps it was you who sent him. You have done all you can to make Elin’s life miserable. See how cold she is. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll reverse that.”
Elin visibly held her breath and Sally made a frightened little sound.
Unbelievably, Tarhazian smiled at Sean. “You do love her, don’t you? I assure you it was not I who sent Colin. Someone did but he won’t share that information with me and it would be foolish to retaliate against him without knowing who he serves. He has information we all want, I think. Do you know of anyone who might have the power to make a vampire do his bidding, Sean?”
Sean detested Tarhazian’s conversational tone with him. It was more ominous than reassuring.
Sean gave a slight shake of the head but she couldn’t miss the subtle change in his face. The One was involved in all of this.
His back stiffened. Could it have been on The Island that Saul encountered Aldo? It seemed unlikely but not impossible if the old werehound went there looking for a healing.
“No matter,” Tarhazian said. “I shall find out—I always find out what I want to know. Colin is to apologize for his behavior. That should be an end of it. He won’t make the same mistake again—regardless of who his true master is. I could make him very miserable.”
“Best keep that blood eater away,” Niles said. “We want nothing to do with him or his scourge.”
Leigh said something about forgiveness under her breath and caught her mate’s full attention. “Leigh’s too soft.” The moment he’d said it, he bowed over her and kissed her. Leigh put her arms around his neck.
Sally laughed and got a glare from Niles.
Leigh’s face was comical. She hovered between amusement and annoyance. “Your Highness,” she said, being careful not to meet any of her friends’ eyes. “We have met before. You are a reasonable woman. We would be very grateful if you would restore Elin’s usual body temperature.”
The Queen’s gaze settled on Elin. “I came with a message for you, my dear,” she said. “I know I am not welcome here but, as you well know, where I go and when is almost entirely in my hands.”
He would like to find out, Sean thought, what this creature couldn’t control. He wondered why she was so bent on bragging about her dominance if she took it for granted, as she was supposed to. Could she feel the need to remind Elin? Was Elin’s newfound independence making Tarhazian insecure?
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