Forgotten Enemy (The Powers of Influence Book 1)

by C. B. Haight

  Collett could smell his crisp scent even now. She inhaled the masculine smell, and figured out why she could smell him.

  Crap! She thought, never fails, speak of the devil, and he will appear. Collett lowered her gaze from the skylight toward the entrance of the room. There he stood, crowding the doorway with his tall, imposing body.

  Cade wore a black pair of long basketball shorts, and that’s it. His lack of a shirt against the cool color of the room highlighted the dark tan color of his skin. It was a natural color received from spending long periods of time in the sun, and though she hated to admit it she couldn’t help but appreciate the whole picture of him. Who wouldn’t?

  Cade smiled at Collett saying, “Do you know what you need?”

  “I am sure you’re going to tell me,” she answered sarcastically.

  Cade’s smile spread even more. He loved the way her face pinched when she was irritated with him. He ignored her tone and said, “You need a good solid workout. There’s nothing like taking out your frustrations by pushing at your body’s physical limits.”

  Collett glared at him, “Well, it just so happens I already worked out before my meditation session with some yoga.”

  He laughed aloud “Ha, that Honey, is not a real workout. I was thinking more like three minutes on the heavy bag, or hey, I have an idea, how about a small sparring match, you against me. It will give me a chance to teach you some self-defense.”

  “I don’t think so,” she replied, slightly stunned by his proposition. “I wouldn’t want to bruise your ego. Besides, I’ve taken a self-defense course.”

  “Oh yeah, one whole course? Well then show me, what can you do?”

  His sarcastic tone hit a nerve and made her angry again. Why was he able to get under her skin so quickly? As much as she would like to smack the crooked smile off his face, she knew she remained too intimidated by him to even try.

  Instead, Collett declined as politely as she could, “I am sorry Cade, but I don’t think it is a good idea right now. I’ll leave you to your workout.” She uncrossed her legs, standing gracefully.

  Cade could tell the idea of sparring with him made her as nervous as a rabbit that had just spotted a wolf. An analogy that was not far off the mark, he thought to himself. Hell, just staying in the same room with him made her jumpy.

  He couldn’t help himself though. For the better part of a week, he gave Collett space, tried not to provoke her. He watched her become more and more frustrated as the days passed, and as her frustrations built, so did his. Although, for very different reasons. His frustration came from her constant need for space from him. Her cool attitude and avoidance drove him mad.

  Cade came up here intent on a physically draining workout. He had hoped to block his all too often thoughts of her, only to find Collett sitting there with her distracting scent filling the room. What was a man to do? he thought.

  In seeing her in her tight-fitting workout clothes that allowed her sexy belly button to peek out when she lifted her arms, he could no longer resist the challenge, or the urge, and wondered somewhere in the back of his mind why he bothered to do so in the first place.

  She made her way to the doorway where he stood. He decided not to move. “Why…” he started then corrected with a quick mental shake of his head, “You’re scared of me.” He stated as a fact rather than a question.

  Collett stopped then and looked up at him, “Excuse me?”

  For some unknown reason, he felt a need to goad her, “That’s it isn’t it? I think you are afraid, afraid of me, afraid of anything that challenges you, for that matter. You won’t even try. I don’t think you could fight off a flea. Just how do you intend to fight off another demon? I wonder, are you going to keep running Collett, or are you going to stand and fight?” He knew the accusation sounded harsh, but he wanted an answer, and wouldn’t take it back.

  She narrowed her eyes into slits, giving him an icy and mean glare, “Why you mean, snotty, arrogant, egotistical, overbearing, monster! Just who do you think you are? You have no idea what I can or can’t do!” The tone of her voice rose with every word, “How dare you come in here and accuse me of being afraid of you. YOU! You’re nothing, you hear me! Nothing! Compared to what has followed me every day, you can’t even begin to compare to the malice that sticks to my heels. Now you had better get out of my way.”

  Cade returned her glare, and with a soft, yet firm voice he challenged, “Make me.”

  His taunt pushed her over the edge. Her temper boiled over. Collett couldn’t recall ever feeling this angry and frustrated at the same time. She wondered why he kept pushing her.

  Losing control, Collett rushed toward Cade, closing the distance between them in a second. Stretching her arms out she moved to push him with all the momentum she had collected.

  Cade saw her coming, and using his quick reflexes, easily grabbed Collett’s right arm. He used her own movement against her and swung her around hard. Her back was now to his front. Then effortlessly, despite her struggles he grabbed her other hand, crossing her arms and pulling her back forcefully. The maneuver effectively pinned her against his hard body; not that she was thinking about that, Collett told herself.

  However, she wasn’t ready to give up yet. She dropped her left leg swinging it backward almost hitting the intended target between his legs. He barely dodged the crippling blow. Her heart pounded and her thoughts raced. I have to outthink him, she thought, and knew she would never outmatch his strength.

  She tried the classic tactic of forcing a captor to deal with the dead weight of his victim, by letting her body fall limp. On a normal man, the ploy might have worked, but Cade’s superior strength still gave him the advantage. He easily lifted, and supported her extra weight, not even slightly bothered.

  Cade then leaned close to point out her mistake, “You know... this tactic won’t work on anybody with supernatural strength. You’re not even a minor burden to them.” His breath tickled against her neck with every word.

  Instinctively, knowing this is what would happen she sighed and feigning frustration said, “Maybe you’re right.” Then with shocking speed and foresight, she promptly and efficiently threw her head back.

  Her head slammed with vicious impact right into his mouth and jaw. “But, that will hurt some,” she huffed out on a satisfied breath. Cade stumbled back dropping her on the mat because of the blow.

  Caught off guard, Cade started to curse, but stopped when he saw Collett scramble from the floor making her way to the door to escape. “Oh no you don’t!” he said. He moved quickly, easily grabbing her arm as she passed with his quick reflexes.

  Collett tried again to use Cade’s own move against him, by whipping around and jumping on his back, forcing Cade’s arm at an awkward angle. He easily let go of his hold without regret, knowing he still held every advantage. Though, he admitted to himself her quick thinking impressed him.

  Collett began to lock her arms around Cade’s neck intending to choke the arrogance right out of him, when she felt Cade reach behind, grabbing her just under her arms. He bent forward and effectively lifted her, flipping Collett off his back, and onto the mat with a thud.

  She lay there huffing in and out for a moment, with Cade staring down at her. He wasn’t even out of breath, she thought, and felt somewhat humiliated by the emotional and physical outburst. At the very same time, she felt relief. It felt good, great, in fact. Even though she happened to be the one laying there prone on the floor, she felt so charged and excited, more alive than she had felt in a long time.

  Tilting her head back she looked to Cade, who stood there above her, waiting for her next move. His lip was cracked but it no longer bled. Knowing she smacked him hard enough to draw blood, gave Collett a slight satisfaction. At least I got him with one good hit, she thought. Smiling slightly, Collett burst out with laughter.

  Cade watched Collett with an unsure and confused expression, which made her laugh even more. She rolled to her side in an effort to get
up. Cade moved to assist her, pulling Collett up by the arm.

  As Collett staggered to her feet with Cade’s help, she settled her laugh down somewhat to say, “You were right.”

  Cade tilted his head in that way she’d seen him do before, when puzzled by a question or a problem, “I’m sorry, right about what?”

  Giving him a full and sincere smile she said, “I really needed that, I feel…” she paused, “better.”

  Cade stared at her captivating smile unconsciously locking the sight away in his mind. She truly was absolutely beautiful, he thought. Seeing her happy for the first time in days became nearly as invigorating for him as the workout ended up being for her. Pulling gently, he moved her right before him.

  His intense scrutiny and the butterflies in her stomach kept her from offering any resistance. Completely sober now, Collett looked up at him with her perfect, clear, innocent eyes. Uncertainty and desire warred with each other and covered her features replacing the smile.

  Unable to hold back any longer, he put his hand behind her neck. Leaning forward he waited just a moment, a split second, giving Collett time to stop him. When she didn’t resist, he moved the rest of the way.

  Their lips met tentatively at first. He kissed her softly, and she tasted to him as sweet and delicious as she smelled. As he began to move his lips slowly against hers, Collett felt her arms move up his chest to his shoulders, and she began kissing him back. She felt the heat between them rise, the power of the kiss rise, and wondered if their sizzling connection would surely cause them to combust. She heard a soft whimper and hardly realized it came from her.

  Suddenly, the tempo of the kiss increased. Cade’s control snapped. He fisted his hands in her hair, wanting, no, needing more. He pulled her in tighter, closer, feeling as though they couldn’t get close enough. He wanted to touch, to taste. Cade felt her soft curves press against him through his clothing, as he sipped on the sweet flavor of her mouth pressed against his.

  The blood rushed out of his head. He knew he needed to stop, knew this was going too far, but in this moment with her spellbinding citrus scent assaulting his senses, the sweet flavor of her on his lips, he just couldn’t bring himself to care.

  Collett wasn’t entirely sure what was happening. She felt needy, confused. She was enjoying this far too much, so much in fact, that it scared her on a very basic level but thrilled her on another. She moved her hands to his chest, pushing gently, half-heartedly at first, thus displaying her own control was slipping.

  Her head spun and her brain felt fuzzy. Nothing mattered except him. Cade nipped lightly at her bottom lip, and kissed the sting away. Collett lost her battle of trying to stop him and wrapped her arms tighter around him instead.

  They kissed each other with a fierce urgency, and lost themselves in the desperate heat and fervor of it. With their lips touching and arms tangled and clinging to one another, they didn’t notice the heavy footfalls coming down the hall.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Ahem.” As they heard Rederrick clear his throat awkwardly, they immediately released their grip on one another, snapping away from each other, as if a rattlesnake had just been dropped in the space between them.

  Collett turned around too embarrassed to face Rederrick at the moment. She felt the heat in her face. She knew it would be beet red right now.

  Keeping his eyes on Collett, Cade kept his back to Rederrick as well. He wasn’t sure how he felt about what happened, even more so, he felt unsettled by her reaction. “Is there something you needed, Rederrick?” he asked.

  “When you have a minute, I just came back with Nate. He made it into town a little over an hour ago. He’s downstairs. I thought we could go over some security plans together.” Rederrick answered quickly.

  “Yeah, sure,” came Cade’s terse reply.

  “Well, um I’ll just meet you downstairs when you’re ready.” With that, Rederrick turned and left the room. Shaking his head as he moved to the stairway, he thought to himself, I didn’t see that one coming.

  Standing in the room silently with her back turned to Cade, Collett felt unsure how she should handle this. Several emotions ran through her system all at once. Her mind felt overloaded, and her body felt as if it was on fire from the needy feeling Cade stirred within her. It was frightening. Slowly turning, Collett met Cade’s warm eyes.

  He stood there silently, looking as confused and as flustered as she felt. Collett wanted to lash out at him to help her feel better about what happened, and if Cade had given her that cocky smile of his, she would have done exactly that.

  The words died in her throat. Cade seemed as uncertain as she was. In fact, he looked a bit worse. She could see he felt torn about what had happened. For some reason, Collett didn’t want, and she knew couldn’t handle hearing the words “I’m sorry,” uttered from him. She could see he was thinking about saying it, too.

  Finally, after a minute or so, Cade ran his fingers through his hair, then dropping his hands to his sides as if not sure what to say. Without being aware of it, he chose wisely by saying softly, “I guess I better get downstairs.”

  She nodded, “Yeah, probably.”

  “Collett, I um…Well I’m not really sure what just happened. I’m also not honestly sure what I should say.”

  She tried for easy going nonchalance, “Well don’t worry about it. It just happened, no big deal. You better get going. Rederrick is waiting for you.”

  “Yeah,” Cade mumbled.

  Even in his quiet voice, Collett could hear the anger in the single word. Her response must have bothered him.

  He took one-step backwards, and then turned abruptly, escaping from the room.

  She stood there, confused, alone, and feeling very vulnerable. She took a deep cleansing breath to center herself, but it didn’t help. She slowly moved across the room to the door.

  She stepped off the end of the hallway rug feeling the cool wood floor underneath her uncovered feet. She reached the stairway and picked her way down each step slowly, trailing her fingers down the smooth polished banister as she went. As Collett distractedly reached the second-floor hallway and walked down to her room, she was so lost in thought, she failed to notice Cynda.

  Cynda stood at the entrance of her own room only a short distance from the stairway. She watched the way Collett moved and wondered what had put the confused look on her face.

  Making her way to Collett’s room, Cynda lightly tapped on the closed door. No answer. Worried she opened the door a small crack, “Collett? It’s Cynda, can I come in?”

  “Sure.” She answered quietly.

  Pushing the door open wider, Cynda took a good look at Collett. She sat on the little bench at the end of the bed staring at her hands. “What happened? Did you remember something?” Cynda questioned, as she moved to sit down by Collett.

  “No,” was the mumbled reply

  Cynda put her hand on Collett’s shoulder. With concern apparent in her voice she asked again, “What happened, what’s wrong?”

  Collett lifted her head looking at Cynda as if barely considering her presence, and then she blurted out. “Cade…Cade kissed me.”

  “What was that?” Cynda asked surprised.

  Collett stood and paced to the window to look outside. She could see winter storm clouds now blocked the sun. The dark, angry-looking clouds slowly drifted overhead in the massive sky. Small white flakes floated down every now and then.

  Cynda tried to remove the shock from her tone to talk to Collett as a friend. “Well how do you feel about it? I mean, Cade um, kissing you.”

  Without turning she replied, “I’m not sure. I mean really, it wasn’t as if I pushed him away or stopped him. I kissed him back for heaven’s sake, and I felt this…this tingling inside me.” Collett paused looking at the moving clouds again, “What if there’s someone waiting for me, someone who loves me, someone I can’t remember.”

  Cynda knew how to answer this. She knew exactly how to help Collett with this pro
blem at least. She asked simply, “Do you feel an empty feeling in your heart Collett, as if you’re missing a part of it? Like there is a void there?”

  Collett turned and looked to Cynda, then asked confused, “What do you mean? My whole life is missing.”

  Cynda smiled and patted the seat next to where she sat, “Come here, let me explain.” When Collett eased herself down into the seat, Cynda continued, “You see when you love someone, truly love, Collett, they become a part of you. You would sacrifice everything you have to stay whole. Love like that lasts forever. It doesn’t end when this life does. It goes on into the next.

  I truly believe that if our roles were reversed, and I had no memory, I would know a part of me was missing. I would go to the ends of this earth and beyond to find it. Nothing! Nothing would stop me from knowing that piece of my life, that piece of myself, was missing. I know Rederrick would feel the same. He would give his life up for me. He almost did once long ago. It’s not something you could just forget, or something you would ever forget!”

  Collett’s shoulders slumped forward, “I think you’re right. I never even wondered before today. I have always felt like I’m alone in this.”

  “Was alone,” Cynda corrected firmly. “You are no longer on your own. You have all of us now. If this thing with Cade makes you uncomfortable, I’ll talk to him. He would never want to hurt you or make this harder on you.”

  “It’s not that, I do feel something for Cade. It scares me. I feel so confused. I’m scared to face any more right now. I’m scared to find out the truth about myself in general. I feel like I am constantly standing at the edge of a cliff, and it would only take a small breeze to push me over.”

  Cynda knew the answers would come. She also understood that waiting was the worst part. It felt nerve wracking, and it made people edgy, so she spoke carefully trying to comfort Collett’s frayed nerves by reaffirming her previous statement.