by Bonnie Vanak
The girl’s eyes narrowed as she scanned him. “I can see your aura. You’re one of us.”
Wrinkling her nose, she skirted around Kelly. Okay, I’m not back in elementary school and this isn’t the popular girl tossing eggs at me. Still, it stung.
“It’s the Festival of Summer Solstice. We heard it was held in this town this year and decided to visit.”
“Then what?” Sam demanded.
“After backpacking across Central America, Bob and I came here. We joined up with friends from school, got a hotel and went to the restaurant for dinner. That was last night.”
The girl looked bewildered. “Wasn’t it?”
Sam smiled. “Go meet your friends. It’s fine now.”
As the girl rushed away, he gave Kelly a meaningful look. “The annual festival of the sun was four weeks ago.”
Her mouth went dry. “They’ve been here that long. Gods, how many weeks have these Arcanes planned this?”
“Maybe months, even years.”
“My agency never got any missing persons reports.” Kelly pointed to the girl scurrying away from them. “I’m sure she has parents who are worried about her.”
“Unless the parents are here. It’s a big village, and it’s an important festival to Mages.”
“Elementals,” she corrected. “Your people cull power from the four elements of earth, sun, sky and water. Mine can’t. Mine don’t celebrate the summer solstice.”
Sam’s gaze hardened. “And mine do, which made it easier for these rogues to lure them into a trap. Goddamn Arcanes. Damn them to hell.”
His words sliced her, jabbing deep. Seeing her face, he softened his expression. “I’m sorry, Kel. Spoke before I thought. Not all your people are like that.”
“For a moment, you sounded as if they were. And I’m one. What your people consider the enemy.”
His voice went husky. He stroked a finger down her cheek. “Not you.”
Kelly closed her eyes, relishing the tender touch. Remembering what they once shared. Time had crushed all her young hopes, replacing them with cold reality.
Her eyes snapped open. “Not me, Sam? Even though I belong to the group targeting your kind?”
Bleakness shadowed his face. “Sometimes I wish we could go back in time, when it was you and me, not Arcane and Elemental. Life was easier, Kelly.”
“But it isn’t now. We’re on opposite sides. When everything is said and done, I’m still Kelly Denning, Arcane.”
A hollow ache settled in her chest. “Always the enemy in the eyes of your people.”
His palm cupped her cheek. With a gentle thumb, he stroked over her skin, arousing feelings she tried so hard to bury. “Screw the labels. Arcane. Elemental. You’re Kelly Denning. A courageous and stubborn woman. When I pulled you from the room, thinking you were dead, part of me wanted to die, as well. I wasn’t thinking of what group you belong to, Kel. All I could think of was you.”
Kelly’s heart skipped a beat. “I’ve missed you, Sam,” she said, her voice catching.
This man had saved her life, had risked defying his lieutenant to save innocents. He was a true hero.
If only he could be hers once more. Once he had been. Could they ever go back again? Or would they always have their loyal alliances to their own people come first?
* * *
Stroking her cheek, Shay felt like drowning in her eyes. So sweet, pretty and seemingly fragile, yet inside Kelly was a core of solid steel.
Gods, he missed her with every single breath he drew into his lungs. For so long, he’d tried to forget her and erase her from his heart.
Didn’t work.
Now he told himself to concentrate on the mission.
Stepping away from her, Shay sent streams of white energy into the streets. Good, pure magick shot through the village, touching everyone inside.
He lowered his hands. “I sent an exposure shield through the town to protect the villagers. It’s not as powerful as I’d like, but it should suffice. With a small bonus.”
“Which is?” she challenged.
Shay rubbed the back of his neck. “Any Arcane will have an extremely visible aura to Elementals.”
Kelly turned over her palms, as if trying to discern her own natural aura. “Smacks of profiling to me.”
“I know,” he said gently. “But it’s the only way we can identify the Arcanes. We know what the potential enemy is, but not which ones.”
“Sam, you painted a bull’s-eye on my back. What if an Elemental decides on target practice?”
“They won’t, as long as you’re with me.”
“So as long as I’m with you, an Elemental, I’m okay. Because they’ll assume you’re restraining me. Like keeping a vicious dog on a leash.” Kelly bit her lip. “No matter what I do, or even how many of your people I save, I’ll never be free, will I? Your kind will always despise me. Use me, but hate me.”
Shay went still. Her stricken expression twisted his heart. She spoke the truth.
His gaze swept the streets, filled with the soft gold glow of Elemental auras. His people. The righteous ones, who thought themselves better than Arcanes. The thought disgusted him.
“You’re right. They will never value you for who you are, Kel. I can’t promise things will change. But I will promise to do everything in my power to convince my people of how wrong they are. Until then, I need you to stick close to me.”
Something in his chest eased. He released a deep breath.
And what about later, when he had to turn her over to the authorities? Could he make the pigheaded council listen to reason?
Somehow, he must. Because not only Kelly’s life depended on it, but that of her entire people.
They went to a small restaurant, where Kelly ordered tea. Outside, he called Dakota, relieved to finally contact his lieutenant.
Shay quickly explained what had happened.
His lieutenant’s voice crackled over the phone. “Plans have changed. Get your ass on the next flight from Tegus with Kelly until we figure out what the hell is going on.”
“No way, LT. Too dangerous on these roads at night. We’ll leave tomorrow.” Shay told him about the village filled with Elemental Mages.
“And you’re a target. Stay out of sight. Need a safe house?” Dakota asked.
Shay closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the lamppost. He remembered one place no one would ever look for them. “Got it. Need a car, though. Have one waiting for me at the Atlanta airport.”
“We’re finishing up here, cutting this training op short.” Dakota hesitated. “Take good care of her, Shay. Kelly is our only link to this, and if something happens to her, we’re screwed. No one else can see the Death Mask.”
He hung up and then made a reservation on his cell. Then he returned to Kelly and tossed some lemps on the table. “Dakota officially ordered me to take good care of you.”
“Forget me. We have to find those kids, and they’re back in the States.”
“We’ll find them. We’ll get a room for tonight and head out tomorrow. I booked us on the afternoon flight from Tegus to Miami and then Miami to Atlanta.”
As she started to protest he put a finger against her lips. “It’s getting late and I’m not risking driving in the dark and running into another Arcane itching to kill you.”
A morass of politics muddied everything. Soon as they returned to the States, Shay knew the council would be riding his ass to hand Kelly over to its custody.
Chapter 16
Sam clearly had no intentions of leaving her alone. Placing a proprietary hand on the small of her back, he scanned the crowd as they walked the cracked sidewalk paralleling the main street. Seeing his scowl, and the pistol he now carried openly, Elementals gave them a wide berth.
He booked them into a single room in a small hotel in a private cul-de-sac. Frying peppers and onions from the little restaurant downstairs scented the air as they climbed the narrow staircase. Inside the room, he set down their p
acks. Kelly gazed at the sapphire-and-emerald-embroidered quilt on the wide bed.
“Planning to sleep on the floor again, Sam?”
“We’ll see,” he said softly.
Downstairs, he found the corner table by the wall gave a wide view of the restaurant as he sat facing the front. Other Elementals nodded respectfully to Sam but gave Kelly cool looks of disdain. Lust flared in the gazes of a few males. Kelly hunched her shoulders, hating the tight blouse.
Sackcloth would suffice.
“Those guys keep staring as if I’m your toy and they’re next at the sandbox,” she murmured, reaching for a corn chip from the bowl their waitress placed on the table.
His gaze a warning blade, Sam scowled until the interested Mages looked away. He leaned back and took a long pull of beer. “I don’t share.”
“And I’m not a plaything.”
“But you are fun in the sandbox. I always enjoyed the times we played together.” A corner of his mouth pulled upward as he winked.
Blushing, she glanced away. He was accustomed to women tumbling into his bed. Flirting came naturally to Sam, but not to her. Work came first, an effective barrier between her and a potentially hurtful world.
“You look so pretty when you blush. Your cheeks don’t turn pink like other redheads. More like fire, a passionate, living flame,” he murmured.
It hurt so much to hear his seductive whispers, just like those that came from the man she’d known, that Kelly put up a hand. “Stop. This is too much like old times. I can’t do this.”
Sam drew his brows together. “Do what?”
Pain wrenched her insides. Did he truly forget what they’d shared, the passion and the heated desire? Kelly swallowed hard. “Pretend I’m normal, and you’re acting as if you want me.”
“You are perfectly normal, and it’s not an act,” he said softly. He covered her hand with his, the strength in those fingers able to snap a man’s neck now gentle as his thumb slowly stroked her skin.
Like an addict craving a drug, she hungered for more. Sam still held her hand, his caressing gaze turning her nipples hard as pearls. He stared at her mouth with such intensity, she had to squeeze her thighs together to stop squirming.
She knew if she surrendered, she’d end up sprawled naked in bed, those same clenched thighs spilling open as he settled between them...
A wiry metrosexual Elemental in a lavender polo shirt stared at her. He elbowed his male friend and laughed. She couldn’t hear the words but discerned their meaning. Flicking his tongue in a crude manner, the Mage formed an O with one hand, licked his other finger and then plunged it rapidly in and out.
Heat crawled up her cheeks. Shame and humiliation replaced sexual arousal. As she prepared to deliver the bastard a stinging insult, Sam glanced over. Seeing the obscene gesture, he narrowed his eyes.
It happened so quickly, she didn’t see Sam move. And then he was shoving Polo Shirt against the wall hard enough to make the picture frames rattle.
He gave the young Mage’s throat a powerful squeeze. “Got a problem?”
At the gasping head shake, Sam gave a dangerous smile. “Good. Because next time you insult my lady like that, I’ll crush your windpipe, cut out your wagging tongue and shove it up your...”
“Sam!” Kelly hissed.
He glanced over, his gaze softening. “Okay.”
As he released the Mage, the man rubbed his throat and wheezed. “Chill out, man. She’s just an Arcane. Don’t know why they let scum in here.”
Sam gave a thoughtful look. “Right. Scum shouldn’t be allowed in here.”
Wincing, Kelly watched Sam drag Polo Shirt through the restaurant and toss him onto the street. “Adios! I’d leave town now. If I see you again, I’ll rearrange your face.”
Then he swept his hard gaze over the onlookers, suddenly absorbed in their meals except for a few women, who sighed in apparent admiration, and Polo Shirt’s companion, who dropped money on the table and ran after his friend.
When he resumed his seat, Kelly shook her head. “Was that necessary?”
Sam gave a mild look. “What? Taking out the trash?”
“You didn’t have to make a scene.”
Rolling his muscular shoulders, Sam shrugged. “If I didn’t, others would take his place. They won’t bother you anymore, Kel. I always protect my own.”
Barely leashing her temper, she scowled as Sam bit into a crunchy taco. “You’re acting and sounding like a bad B-movie hero.”
He swallowed a mouthful of taco, his expression mild. “Funny. I always thought I was more the A-list type.”
“I fight my own battles. I don’t need your protection. I’m not a spineless coward they can push around.”
Speculation in those hazel eyes now flared with intent. “You never were a spineless coward. But you were naive and sweetly innocent in the ways of men.”
He’d taken that innocence and turned it into experience in taking her to the heights of pleasure. Tension steeled her spine as she leaned forward, feeling the electricity spark between them.
“Sexually inexperienced before, but not now. I can handle guys like that.”
“When you’re with me, you won’t have to. When I saw how that bastard was humiliating you, I had to teach him a lesson.”
“Dial down the testosterone, Sam. I never enjoyed domineering males.”
“Once the bedroom door was closed, you did.”
His satisfied smile made her flush. Deep inside, her feminine side felt aroused at the memory of Sam, insatiable, sexually aggressive, uncontrollable. Dominating her thoroughly in the bedroom. Sam responding to the sheer desire in her eyes, fisting a hand in her hair as he bent her over the bed’s edge and took her from behind like a wolf.
Sam, his ragged breath echoing in her ear as he pushed her from one shattering climax to another, refusing to stop, making love to her until they both lay exhausted.
Sam, the sexually dominant male turning tender and endearing as he pulled her into his strong arms afterward, stroking her cheek as they shared their hopes and dreams.
That was in the past. A fantasy.
Fantasies aside, she resented him playing the shining knight. She could take care of herself. “I’m not the girl you once knew, who’d fall into your arms if you snapped your fingers.”
“No, you’re not,” he murmured. “But can you handle what I want to give you now?”
She locked gazes like a bull touching horns. “I can take whatever you want to give. Are you willing?”
A dangerous smile touched his wide, full mouth. The kind of smile that lured women into opening their thighs. “Maybe you couldn’t in the past, when you were innocent.” Sam’s voice deepened. “But now...you’re more exciting, spirited, stronger. The kind of sensually mature woman who makes a man wonder what she’d feel like splayed naked beneath him.”
Kelly choked past a sip of beer. “Try it. Not going to work.”
“I enjoy a challenge.”
The husky intent in his voice stroked over her shivering skin. Once he’d whispered words of passion, his big hands caressing and coaxing her until her shyness and control fractured. Daring her to reach beyond her inhibitions, coaxing her into the heights of unbridled sexuality.
Sam leaned forward, flames dancing in his darkened eyes. “Do you? Because I won’t lie, Kel. I want you so badly right now, it’s hard to breathe. You think that asshole turned me aggressive? No. It’s being around you and the thought of that bed upstairs. Manners and politeness go to hell. I turn into a man with one thing on my mind....”
Breath caught in her throat at the dangerous glint in his eye. “Dragging you upstairs and getting you naked into that bed. Making love to you until we’re both panting and exhausted. I want to make you sweat, make you tremble, make you scream, and just when you think I’m done, I’m going to push you harder and harder until you scream again. And again.”
His voice thickened. “I want to make you mine. So I’ll ask you again. You up for
the challenge?”
Beneath the table, Kelly pressed her thighs together, feeling the space between them grow warm and moist. So long since fire had raced through her blood, arousing her until her own clothing felt tight and restrictive and every breath constricted her lungs. If he didn’t take her soon, she’d die.
Her voice dropped to the barest whisper. “Oh, yes. So get ready.”
* * *
The past hadn’t escaped them after all. Because it was here, vibrant and alive, in all its fervent need, Shay realized.
Not a flirt, nor experienced in seduction. So she’d said. Not true. As they ate dinner, Shay watched her with growing hunger. He saw her pulse beat wildly at the base of her slender throat. He itched to stroke his tongue over that jumping pulse, feel all warm, soft female skin as he stroked her naked flesh.
Kelly moistened her wet, red mouth with the tip of her tongue. She looked flushed, hot. Oh, man, so very hot.
Shay set down his beer, his blood surging straight to his groin. He stood, the chair toppling to the floor.
“Upstairs. Now.” He hardly recognized his voice, deepened by sexual urgency. His cock hardened painfully inside his jeans.
With languid grace, she stood. Each sinuous sway of her hips sent blood surging straight to his groin. Seeing the other men watch, he turned and shot a warning glance.
Mine.
Upstairs, he pulled her into the room and slammed the door shut with a hard boot kick. Breathing jaggedly, Shay pinned her to the wall, desire cranked up to a frenzy at the flush of sexual heat on her face, the glittering arousal in her blue eyes mirroring his own.
“I want you so much,” he muttered. “And I’m no gentleman, Kel. So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll run into that bathroom and lock the door and stay as far away as you can before I touch you.”
Shay released her. “You have two minutes. Maybe less.”
Breathing hard, she gave a sultry smile. “I never did like what’s good for me.”
They tore at each other’s clothing. Shay peeled off boots, socks and shirt. Then he reached for the buckle of his belt and slid his pants down and kicked them off.