Stripped Away

by Sydney Somers

  She’d also refused to wear a hospital gown another minute. Dressed in a plain navy T-shirt and her favorite cargo pants, her hair washed and even a little makeup on, she no longer looked as though she’d faced down a Scion less than forty-eight hours ago.

  “Start at the beginning.”

  As far as Quinn was concerned Rae had put off their talk long enough, and she was done waiting. Although she’d half expected Braxton to side with Rae that maybe they should wait until Quinn was released, he’d insisted on them having the conversation now.

  He sat on the end of the bed, his arms crossed, his usual stoic expression abandoned for one he usually reserved for his “following protocol” spiels. Only this time he fixed his unimpressed gaze on Rae. Each time Quinn had opened her eyes in the last two days it had been to find him next to her bed. She’d cried on his shoulder, laughed at the faces he made when he uncovered the food they were feeding her, challenged him during every game show they’d watched on the room’s crappy thirteen inch television, and felt herself fall harder for him every second of it.

  She focused her attention on Rae. “My father was a Shadow Destroyer, wasn’t he?”

  Rae nodded. “He’d been an active field agent for fifteen years and then assigned a field office of his own to oversee.”

  Quinn frowned then a sad smile teased over her lips. “The day of his promotion. He’d been happy and my mom looked so relieved. Now I know why.” She closed her eyes, embracing the memory of her father sweeping her and Cass into his arms for a sloppy hug that they’d both rolled their eyes at.

  “Four months before your father’s death, a telepath Scion crossed over,” Rae continued. “Numerous attempts to track and vanquish it failed. Until your father finally coordinated a successful attack, taking out every lesser demon that had aligned with the Scion.”

  “But the Scion got away, didn’t it?”

  Her boss nodded grimly. “Two weeks later it went after your father. When your father didn’t show up for work the next morning, another agent stopped by the house. By then it was too late to save them. They found you and Cass tied up and locked in a basement closet.”

  At the mention of the closet, the room’s four walls seemed to press in on her. She gripped the sheet, bunching the material between her fingers until the worst of the panic the reminder generated had faded. In the last two days she’d experienced the same reaction whenever the memory was thrust to the forefront.

  “Why lie about how they died? Why tell us they were killed in a car accident?” Out of everything, she struggled with that the most. When her parents were taken from her, and then her own life had been changed when her genes mutated, the network and senior agents like Rae had become like a second family.

  Knowing they had lied to her…

  “You and your sister were in shock for days. Given what little bits were coaxed out of the two of you it was obvious you’d witnessed almost everything. A few of the higher ups suggested helping the two of you to cope.”

  “So we were what, brainwashed?”

  “With both of you unresponsive to almost anyone but each other they contemplated hypnotically planting the suggestion of a car crash. No one really expected it to take, not with both of you. According to the reports, in a matter of hours the two of you were grieving the loss of your parents naturally instead of traumatized by the memory of them dying right in front of you.”

  “My DNA mutated that night didn’t it? Not a few weeks later like I’d always believed.”

  “A war demon had tracked you on your way home one night, but after your parents’ deaths both you and Cass were being watched.”

  “In case the Scion came back to finish the job?”

  Rae nodded. “Your stealth abilities were slow to emerge from the night your family was attacked, and simply explaining to you then you’d been attacked by a stealth demon instead of a war demon made sense.”

  Quinn snorted. Made sense to everyone but her. It didn’t matter they thought they were somehow protecting her, they’d let her believe a lie for six years. Hell, she’d let herself believe it. How had she ever faced that war demon so soon after her parents’ deaths and not have her memory triggered. Why not until six years later?

  “According to the notes in the file, everyone was certain that after you were attacked by the war demon you’d remember everything.”

  “Guess the head doctors were just that good.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

  Rae held out the file she’d carried in. “Everything is in there.”

  “How long have you known?” Quinn asked, hating the feeling of betrayal that churned in her stomach.

  “The information on your parents’ deaths and the surrounding circumstances had been classified even to me until three weeks ago when I pressed my superiors for access.”

  “But you didn’t feel it important to tell me?”

  “Based on the reports from Royce and conferring with the high-ups, I was led to believe you might be remembering details of your past on your own. Although it went against my better judgment, I caved to the argument that it was better for you to remember on your own than be told outright.”

  “My best interest? Right.”

  “What about the Scion the other night?” Braxton asked Rae.

  “It knew me,” Quinn said, aware of Braxton’s sharp look. “Said it expected more from me.” The bastard had taken her parents from her, then had gone after Cass before finally coming for her. But the Scion hadn’t killed her.

  At first she’d believed the master demon hadn’t finished her off because maybe someone had stumbled across them. People leaving Jake’s maybe. A Scion didn’t stay in this realm for years by confronting every innocent it crossed paths with. They were smarter, choosing their confrontations. Which left her to face the fact that it just hadn’t wanted it to end there. It wanted her to suffer, wanted to draw out her pain and indulge in every second of it.

  Braxton paced around the foot of the bed. “So after Quinn’s parents were killed, no one caught up with the Scion?”

  “No.” Rae looked ready to pace right alongside Braxton, but stood perfectly still.

  “It went after Cass and then came looking for me. The Scion wants to finish what was started six years ago.” The fading bruises at her throat seemed to tighten as she admitted it aloud.

  “Why now?” Braxton gripped the frame of her bed. “If the Scion wanted them dead, why didn’t it kill them that night? Why wait six years?”

  “The Scion wanted to prolong it,” Quinn guessed, suppressing the shiver that wrapped around the base of her spine.

  Looking more ruffled than Quinn could ever remember, her boss slid into the chair next to the bed. “We all know it’s not uncommon for some Shadow Demons to forge a deeper connection to their victims when they feed on their emotions, making friends or family members a hostile’s next target. We can’t assume this is over.”

  “I need to see Cass.”

  “She’s still with Drew. She’s safe.”

  “Then I want to talk to her again.” They’d shared a brief conversation after Quinn had slept off the worst of the drugs they’d used to ease the pain from her injuries. Cass was handling confinement about as well as she was, and her sister wasn’t stupid or easily pacified. Cass knew there was much more going on than just hunting for the man she believed attacked her. When the topic had come up, Quinn had changed the subject and promised Cass everything would go back to normal soon.

  “You want to tell her the truth?” Rae asked quietly.

  “And dump something like this in her lap over the phone? No.” She didn’t even know if she wanted Cass to know the truth.

  Every time Quinn closed her eyes and saw her parents’ deaths was like a knife to her heart. She didn’t want that for Cass, and at the same time knew what it was to be misled. To be lied to by the people she trusted. How could she live with herself if Cass started to remember on her own the way she had? Or if she blamed Quinn for holding out o
n her, the same way she wanted to blame Rae and the network?

  Rae took Quinn’s comment as an end to the conversation and slipped out of the room after commenting about getting some safeguards in place.

  Safeguards that would probably be useless. If the Scion wanted them, it would keep coming until she was taken out.

  Although she wouldn’t admit it, the brief conversation had left her drained. She needed out of here yet she slumped back against her pillow and closed her eyes. The mattress dipped as Braxton sat on the end of the bed.

  She knew he wanted to ask why she hadn’t told him the Scion had known her, but she hadn’t wanted to talk about any of it after she’d awakened to find the horrible things she’d dreamed had actually taken place.

  “It’s like I’m mourning them all over again,” she said a moment later, her gaze trained on the view of the private clinic’s rear parking lot. She met Braxton’s dark amber gaze. “I won’t spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”

  “You won’t. We’ll find it.” Braxton vowed.

  * * *

  “What are you working on that’s so interesting?”Braxton looked away from his computer to see Quinn standing in the doorway to his home office.

  The soft glow from the lamp on his desk cast shadows across the room, only her lower body fully revealed by the meager light. She stepped past the doorway, yawning.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she shuffled into the room. The plain gray cotton shorts and skimpy pink tank top she slept in were as enticing as if she’d strolled into the room completely naked.

  She paused three feet away, her gaze fastening onto his computer screen. “What’s so captivating?”

  “You are,” he answered honestly.

  She slowly lifted her eyes, surprise and tenderness reflected on her face. Quinn took her time crossing to where he sat behind his desk. She straddled his lap, her hands sliding around to anchor at the nape of his neck.

  “So you haven’t gotten tired of having me around?”

  He could feel her warmth right through her shorts when he gripped her waist. He shifted in the chair, the gesture more of an excuse to feel her rub against his growing erection. “You’ve only been here for three days.”

  “So you will get tired of me.” Her siren smile licked a flame right through his middle.

  “Not a chance,” he murmured, then tugged her forward, slanting his mouth across hers.

  With no thought to rushing things, he lingered over her lips, savoring the taste of her. Her tongue slid hot and teasing across his, making him deepen the kiss. He nipped at her bottom lip, sucking the plump flesh into his mouth, pulling a soft whimper from Quinn.

  He threaded his fingers into her hair, tipping her head back to plunder her mouth completely, not stopping until his own lungs hungered for air nearly as much as he hungered to work his way deep inside her.

  Still, there was no hurrying as he slid his mouth down her neck to taste her everywhere. She dropped her head back to give him more room to explore, trembling in his arms when he laved the soft hollow of her throat.

  Streams of psychic energy pooled around him, tangled and carnal. Quinn’s.

  He drew back to watch the desire play across her gorgeous face, her kinky black hair framing her already flushed cheeks. The emotion that burrowed through his chest wasn’t entirely unexpected, but his insides still shook with the intensity of it.

  He curved his palm along her chin, and her eyes drifted shut.

  “Why did this take us so long?” The sound of her voice lulled the deepest places inside him.

  He kissed her chin, her cheek. “I used to think it would make things too—”

  “Complicated?” she breathed. Her lips slid slowly over his, the soft touch undoing him one sweet pass of her mouth at a time. “And now?”

  He caged her face in his hands, kissing her until the answer was effortless. “I wish it hadn’t taken us so long.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Quinn’s smile transformed her face from striking to breathtaking. She tangled her hands in the ends of his hair, dragging him back to her mouth.There wasn’t anything slow or patient this time as blatant need tore through Braxton’s veins. He found his way under her shirt, and palmed her breast, pleased that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her nipples hardened under his teasing tugs. She arched her back, pressing herself against his hand.

  He bent and nipped at the stiff peaks, wetting the cotton fabric right through. Rocking her hips, Quinn rubbed her center against the length of his shaft, coaxing a ragged groan from the back of his throat.

  “I need to feel you on my skin,” Quinn whispered, dragging her teeth along the sensitive flesh below his ear.

  Taking her cue, he worked her shirt over her head, pitching it to the floor. This time nothing stood between his lips and her breast. He curled his tongue around the tip, sucking slowly.

  Her breath caught, and she flexed her hips to grind her lower half against him. She hooked her finger over the snap of his jeans.

  “Not here,” he growled, pushing to his feet and taking her with him. He wanted her in his bed. For three days she’d been staying with him and he’d done his best to keep his hands off her, waiting for her to be sure she’d healed enough.

  “Good.” Her lips followed a tantalizing path from his neck to his jaw, but she avoided his mouth when he turned his head to capture her lips. She wrapped her thighs around him, and the short walk down the hall was torture as she purposely rocked into his aching cock the entire way.

  “You need to stop that,” he grunted in warning. Now would not be the time to come so easily unraveled.

  Her teeth trapped her bottom lip, and she tipped her head. “I don’t think so.”

  He stopped and pressed her up against the doorjamb. He thrust against her parted thighs.

  Her heels dug into his lower back, and she leisurely swiped her tongue along the seam of his lips before pushing inside. Half a second later she rasped her cheek across his. “Is this where I’m supposed to say I give up?”

  He pivoted around and dropped her in the middle of his bed. He caught her ankle, his other hand sliding up the inside of her thigh. He skimmed the hem of her shorts, and yanked. “This is where you surrender.”

  She gave a seductive squeal but didn’t scramble off the bed. Maybe she knew he was already half anticipating that. Prepared for it. He ran his gaze from the tips of her painted toes and up her legs, parted just enough to give him a tempting view of her sex. Her chest was flushed and rosy, her breasts full, nipples swollen and hard as she rose up on her elbows.

  Never had he expected her to want him as much as he wanted her, and if the warm waves of psychic energy curling through his mind didn’t convince him, the feverish look on her face as she crooked her finger at him would have.

  He stripped off his clothes, reluctant to break eye contact for any longer than necessary. She sat up, her fingers gently cupping his sac. He closed his eyes as she moved her focus to the base of his cock.

  “We’ll just see who surrenders first.” She wet her lips and drew the flat of her tongue over the head of his shaft.

  “Yes, let’s.” He pushed her back on the bed.

  Quinn couldn’t hear a thing beyond the wild pounding of her own heart. She dipped ever so slightly to the left as Braxton placed a knee next to her hip and hovered over her.

  His fingers skated up the inside of her leg. The muscles running the length of her thigh quivered and bunched, and she eased her legs apart in delicious anticipation. Raw need glittered in Braxton’s eyes until she didn’t know how the heat from his gaze alone didn’t ignite every cell in her body.

  He found her slick center, and she bowed up into his touch. He brushed her opening, and his groan of approval at finding her damp and ready warned her there would be no stopping a complete meltdown.

  No stopping falling hopelessly in love with him.

  Braxton parted her cleft, the sluggish pace making her rake the blank
ets beneath her. God, she needed more. It didn’t matter that she knew she’d still see his face if she closed her eyes. Didn’t matter that his rich scent flooded her mind or that she could still taste him on her lips. That his heart beat in perfect rhythm with hers or that his body responded to a mere brush of her fingers. She needed more. Wanted more. Wanted him. Always him.

  “Then I surrender,” she whispered.

  His expression grew both tender and primitive in the same moment, and he thrust his fingers into her sex.

  Quinn cried out, lifting her hips to meet each fast pump of his thick fingers. He was ruthless as he filled her over and over, until she screamed her release.

  His body came down on hers, his smooth hot flesh hitting the overload button on her senses. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her as his cock pushed past her slick folds to sink deep inside her.

  She pushed her feet into the mattress, then drew her legs up, moaning as he withdrew and slid deeper still. She opened her eyes to find him staring down at her, and something was unleashed in her heart at what she saw reflected in his eyes.

  He took her mouth, fierce and possessive, the brutal pleasure of it shooting her over the edge once more.

  Braxton groaned, his hips riding her hard as he drove his shaft into her sex. Her inner walls clenched and spasmed around him as she cried out against his mouth. The sound in his throat deepened and he slammed into her harder still.

  The roar of his release echoed in her mind as he shuddered and pressed her into the mattress. She could barely drag in a breath. Everything inside her sagged into a molten pool, drunk on the sensations that cocooned her.

  He lay perfectly still on top of her for a full minute, the racing of his pulse gradually slowing. When he lifted his head again, it wasn’t to say anything, but to pull her heart over heels into a drugging kiss.