“Where were you? I thought Torin and the others hurt you. Then I was sure you were on the road uprooting trees and destroying grapes.”
He chuckled. The sexy sound rumbled through his chest and mine, doing things to me that defied description. I wanted to purr.
“I was watching out for you. Which one is Drew?” he asked, swinging me around so he could look at the group I’d been sitting with.
“Leave him alone, Echo.”
“Kiss me and I’ll play nice.” He dropped a kiss on my neck.
Heat shot through me, and a low moan of pleasure escaped my lips. Gah, I wanted to kiss him so badly. Devour him. “Behave!”
“I will once you tell me which one is Drew.”
“You don’t need to worry about him.”
“I’m not worried. I just want to tell him to forget about you in the nicest possible way.” He stepped away from me, and I knew he’d humiliate Drew in front of his friends and not care.
I grabbed his shirt and pulled him back. The T-shirt rode up and revealed his ridged abs and the intriguing line of hair disappearing under his waistband. I drooled a little. Okay, a lot. He chuckled, and my eyes flew to his. The smile disappeared from his face.
“A kiss it is,” he whispered, cupped my face, and lowered his head. “I need to kiss you.”
I expected him to take over my senses like before, bending me to his will. Instead, the kiss was gentle. He rubbed his lips across mine as though waiting for my permission to deepen it. I sighed and invited him to take more. He did, nibbling my upper lip then lower. I trembled, but frustration washed over me. He was holding back, while I wanted more. Needed him to make me remember what it felt like to be in his arms.
I reached up, grabbed his coat, and pulled him closer. At the same time, I flicked my tongue and tasted his lips. The dam broke. He groaned, angled his head, and took charge of the kiss. The earth fell from under me. I clung to his shoulders so sure I’d fall if he let me go.
Sensations crested and exploded through me. The music disappeared into the background. Where we were and who might be watching ceased to matter. All I cared about was Echo. His lips. His tongue. The feel of his body against mine.
He broke the kiss. More like yanked his mouth from mine and muttered, “Hel’s Mist.”
The smoldering look in his eyes had me wishing we were alone. I looped my hands around his neck and buried my face in his chest, my heart threatening to burst.
He moved his mouth to my ear. “Now he knows you’re not available,” he said in a husky voice, his arms tight around my waist.
Sanity was slowly returning. My body still hummed, and my lips tingled. “You’re a jerk.”
He chuckled. “I know, but you still want me.”
I did. Too much. “Shut up.”
“I’ll see you later tonight. Okay?”
Surely, I hadn’t heard him right. I leaned back, my eyes narrowing. “You are not leaving me here.”
He glanced at the other students and smirked. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget me. Now be a sweetheart and go have fun with your Mortal friends.”
“In your dreams, buster. You are not going anywhere until we talk.” We couldn’t do it in the middle of Drew’s deck with everyone watching. It was time to say my goodbyes. “I’ll be back.”
Echo pulled me back into his arms again and peered into my eyes. “I have to go, Cora.”
“Why?”
“I’m trying to stop Hel’s private army from finding you.” He winced as though he hadn’t meant to say that.
“Finding… What?”
He touched my cheek and chuckled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to drop it on you like that. I meant to explain everything last time after your trip to the hospital, but a couple of my brethren were on your tail and had to be stopped. Now, give me a kiss before I leave.”
“You’re not doing that to me. Not again.”
“Doing what?”
“Leaving without an explanation. I was worried when you just disappeared.” I glanced around. We were the center of everyone’s attention. “Don’t move.”
“Cora—”
“Do. Not. Leave.” I marched to where Drew sat. “Sorry, I have to go. Something’s come up.”
Annoyance flashed in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he glanced behind me and clammed up, his jaw tense.
“See you around,” he said through clenched teeth. He looked pissed. I guess that meant this was the last party I’d be attending here. Oh, well.
“Yeah, see you around.” I turned, expecting eyes to be on us. Instead, they were on Echo. The attention didn’t seem to bother him. He stood in the middle of the deck like an island and watched me with piercing eyes, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was only there for one thing. Me.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed his arm and tugged. He allowed me to pull him along. Just before I entered the house, my eyes met Kicker’s. The expression on her face was comical. I waved.
“You know what everyone is thinking, right?” Echo asked.
“I don’t care.”
“That you can’t wait to get me alone.”
“I can’t wait to get you alone.”
“Rip my clothes off and have your way with me,” he added, smirking.
I threw him an exasperated glance. He wanted honesty? He was about to get a bucket load of it. I was done pretending I didn’t want him. “I’d like nothing better than to do that, but first we talk.”
He cocked his eyebrows. “Rip my clothes off?”
“Uh-huh.” We left the house and headed toward my car. I unlocked my car, but before I could slide behind the wheel, he gripped my hips and turned me around.
“You mean it about us and clothes off?”
I touched his cheek, his lips. “We’ve done it many times before, right?”
He nodded, a heavy hooded expression settling on his face.
“Then it’s no big deal.” I reached up and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Let’s go.” But before I could turn, he palmed my face, eyes blazing under the moonlight. He wanted to kiss me. My pulse raced. Knowing he wanted me was thrilling.
“I want you.” He pressed me against the car door, one thigh pushing my legs apart. He settled between my thighs, pressed closer. “I stayed away, hoping I’d get you out of my mind, but the longer I was gone the stronger my craving for you became.”
Holy crap! What had my admission unleashed? “I thought you were stopping Hel’s army from coming after me.”
“Hel’s army doesn’t stand a chance against me.” He rubbed his cheek against mine. Inhaled deeply. “I missed your smell. When I’m away from you, I dream about holding you, touching you, making you happy.” He kissed the corner of my eye. “When with you, I want you in my arms.”
“That’s because you remember what we had.”
“No, it’s more than that. There’s something different about you. I feel it whenever we… Before, we’d have sex and I’d leave without a single concern. Not caring if you went back to Eirik or a Mortal.”
His hand crawled under my top. I trembled when his fingers caressed my side. His skin against mine was stimulating. I stopped breathing when his touch became intimate. I knew we’d done this before, but it all seemed new and exciting. Part of me wanted to tell him to stop, but I was curious, so I didn’t push his hand away. Worries about privacy flitted in my head. We were away from the house, and darkness hid us from prying eyes. His duster also gave us some cover.
Thoughts of lack of privacy became unimportant as his caresses grew bold. I wanted to say something, but speech was beyond me.
“Now I want to punch every Mortal that looks at you. I want them to know you might live among them but you are mine.”
The possessiveness in his voice should’ve bugged me, but all I felt was elation. Then I realized his hand was on my leg, inching up under my skirt. Now was the time to tell him to stop.
“I’ve tasted every inch of you, doll-face, y
et this all feels new, like I’m rediscovering you. You want to know why?” he whispered in my ear and nipped my earlobe.
I trembled, my mouth too dry for me to speak. Worse, his hand was under my skirt, on my thigh, hip, slowly creeping to the front, totally driving me crazy.
“Your kisses are different, your responses natural.” He kissed my neck then moved to my shoulder. “You taste so sweet. Every time your eyes widen or your breath catches, it makes me feel invincible.” He moved to my jaw, punctuating each sentence with a kiss. “It makes me want to please you more. Keep you with me always.”
Our lips connected. Once again, the kiss was gentle, worshipping. When I sighed with pleasure, his tongue slipped between my lips to caress mine. The tempo of the kiss changed, and he became demanding. Lost in sensations, I clung to his shoulders.
A rumbling groan vibrated through his chest as his fingers tugged my thong. The material rubbed intimately against me, and the intensity of the pleasure stole my breath away. I pressed closer to him. I wanted his touch. Needed to remember what it felt like to have him make love to me. Every fantasy I’d ever had about being intimate with a guy ceased to matter. He was my fantasy.
He let go of my lips to trails kisses along my neck, nibbling and suckling.
“If you want me to stop…” His words came out disjointed, his voice husky and ragged.
“Don’t,” I gasped.
His fingers slipped my thong aside and touched me intimately. His touch was electrifying, the feeling mind-numbing. I strained against him, needing more.
He looped his free arm around my waist and lifted me up, using the body of the car and his thighs to anchor me in place. I wrapped my legs around his waist as each movement of his fingers pushed me higher and higher, the intensity of the pleasure increasing with the number of the runes appearing on his body.
I heard something rip, and then cool air rushed on my chest. My silk bra didn’t stop Echo. The heat from his mouth replaced the cold. Pressure built. My body became a fine-tuned instrument at his hands, until something beautiful unfolded in my core and spread through me like a wild fire. I cried out, but he kissed me and swallowed the sound.
7. Breaking Rules
My world would never be the same again, I thought dreamily. I would never, ever be the same again. Echo didn’t stop kissing me. His kisses became slow. He was taking his time, as though giving me a moment to recover. Didn’t the reaper know a kiss from him always had the opposite effect?
“Wrap your legs around me.” I tightened my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist. Echo secured me against him by crisscrossing his arms under my butt. He started around the car to the passenger side of the car.
“You know I can walk.”
“I’m not ready to let you go.” He stopped by the passenger door, propped me against the car body, and started shrugging off his coat.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Stripping just for you.”
Oh, baby. The visuals were enough to make a girl drool. “Cute.”
“Your shirt is ripped, and I don’t want anyone looking at you.”
Heat rushed to my face. There were a few students, some making out, others walking to or from their cars. Had they seen us? Echo had ripped my shirt. I still couldn’t believe what we’d done. What I’d let him do. Should I offer to return the favor? Even now, I could still feel the evidence of his need pressing against me. My legs tightened around him, and he groaned.
“Did I hurt you?”
He chuckled. “No, but you could.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Forget I said that.” He lowered me to the ground and pressed against me, sandwiching me with the car. He ran a finger down my neck. I shivered. He smiled, pleased with my reaction. “Engage your runes and fix your top.”
“What?”
“Use the right runes to fix your top.”
I shook my head. “How do I do that?”
He cursed softly under his breath. “That really pisses me off.”
“What?”
“The way the Norns erased all your memories you can’t even remember simple runes.” He shrugged off his coat and held it up.
I shoved my arms through the sleeves. “So, uh, did you write the runes on our truck?”
“Yeah. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Why should I? What do they mean?”
“They are protection runes against car accidents. Your parents will be safe now. And before you ask, I didn’t etch them on yours because I assumed you were covered, that you could engage healing runes and self-heal. You are going to need a crash course on runes, doll-face. Once you know them, you can visualize them and make them appear on your skin whenever you want.” He started buttoning the duster. “There are runes for healing, speed, strength, protection, guidance…”
Something pressed on my left ribs. I reached inside, pulled it out, and frowned. It was his scythe.
“My artavus.” He took it and touched the tip. “Sorry I forgot about this. You don’t want this cutting you. It is sharp and cuts deep.”
“Is artavus another name for a scythe?”
“No, artavus just means magical blade, which is what a scythe is to a Grimnir. Our most important magical blade. You might disperse a soul in this realm with a metal rod, but the scythe does it and inflicts excruciating pain. That’s why souls freak out when they see it. It also opens a portal to Hel’s Hall. The scythe, like any artavus, is sacred to its owner.” He shoved it somewhere in his back pocket, helped me with the buttons, and looped the chains on his coat. The duster was longer on me and dragged on the ground.
“I look like a clown,” I said.
“You look dangerous. My kind of girl.” He opened the passenger door. “Get in. I’m driving.”
“Oh no, you’re not.” I started around the car, but he grabbed my hand.
“I need to focus on something else, Cora, not you or how amazing you smell or how you felt in my arms a few minutes ago. I need to stay preoccupied or I’m not going to keep my hands off you while you drive.”
Put that way, who was I to argue? I opened the door and settled into the passenger seat.
“No snarky comment?” he teased.
“No.” Until I knew how to engage my runes and self-heal, I was playing it safe. “But I’m happy to know you can’t keep me out of your thoughts and dreams, or keep your hands off me.”
He chuckled and ran his knuckles down my cheek. “That mouth of yours drives me crazy. Do you want to head to your place and talk?”
“No.” I shook my head. “If I go home now, my parents will want to know why and start worrying that someone said or did something to make me leave the party early. I have until midnight, and I know the perfect place to go for our little chat. It is quiet, and with Drew’s party here, no one will be there to bother us.”
“Good.” Echo ran around to the driver’s seat, slid behind the wheel, and studied the dashboard.
“You do know how to drive, right?” I asked.
He chuckled and extended his hand toward me, palm up. I dropped the key in his hand. “I’ve been driving for centuries, doll-face. From steam to electric cars.” He started the car and eased out of the spot.
I couldn’t remember details of industrial revolution. Steam engines were used in the 1700s. “How old are you?”
“Old.” He reached for my hand, interlaced our fingers, and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. “At least much, much older than you.”
“Where were you born?”
“France.”
“So you are French?”
“You could say that.”
I sighed. For someone who talked a lot, he was being stingy with information. “Okay, Echo. Hide your identity. Continue being Mr. Mysterious. Turn left ahead.” I waited until he turned. “Stay on this road then turn right at the light.”
“Tell me again where we’re going?”
“A scenic overlook. It’s quiet, a
nd the scenery at night is breathtaking. It is only five minutes from town. Right turn’s coming up.”
Silence filled the car. Soon were headed out of town on I-5.
“About my past,” Echo said, “I’m not trying to be mysterious. I just hate dwelling on it.”
The wariness in his voice surprised me. Echo wasn’t the type to be so cagey. “Why? What happened?”
He let go of my hand and gripped the steering wheel. “Long story.”
“We have…” I peered at the time on the dashboard. It was a little after nine. “About three hours and I’m a good listener.”
More silence. Okay, this was out of character. Echo was cocky, bold, badass, and unstoppable. He was Hel’s best reaper. What could have happened in the past that was so horrible he couldn’t share?
I took his hand, wrapped it between mine, and rested my head on his shoulder. “It’s okay. Talk to me when you are ready. Just know that I won’t judge you or anything like that. I’ll just listen and keep my opinion, good or bad, to myself. Of course, you must also know I hate people who keep secrets from me and I’m not a strong believer in double standards.”
“You didn’t want to talk about Eirik before,” he reminded me.
“Yeah, well, that’s because he’s not important. You are.”
He chuckled. “Are you trying to manipulate me, Cora Jemison?”
“Of course. How else am I going to get you to talk to me? Seriously, what’s so bad that you can’t tell me? I swear I won’t laugh or joke about it. If it’s sad, I’ll keep my tears to myself.”
He chuckled again. “You are amazing.”
“I know.”
He laughed. “I came from a Druid family.”
“See, that wasn’t so bad.” I knew next to nothing about Druids, except what I’d read in fiction and watched on TV. They were a magical people. “What were the Druids?”
“We were a priestly race during the Iron Age. Very spiritual. We sought knowledge and enlightenment. Respected nature and tried to learn from it. Our scholars were respected and revered. In fact, rulers could not make decisions or maintain order without our help.”
Runes #03 - Grimnirs Page 11