by R. J. Blain
She was right, and my crumbling resistance bothered me almost as much as the feel of her pressed so close to me. “How are you so certain?”
With a laugh, she pinched my arm again, just hard enough to hurt. “I asked Richard at dinner.”
I groaned from despair at the thought of what he had said to her. “Dare I ask?”
“You’re like another brother to him, Jackson. You scared him—you scared me, too. I can’t protect you if you escape from me now.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s my job to protect you,” I protested.
“From all the unwanted males? Certainly. Just as it’s my job to guard you against the unwanted females.” She sniffled, flicking my nose with her fingers. “Open your eyes and look at me.”
I obeyed. Her jade eyes were rimmed in gold, and I held my breath. She smiled at me, stroking my cheek. “I’ll hunt you until the day you die, if I must.”
“I thought I was supposed to hunt you.”
“It’s mutual, just as it should be. You’re chasing my tail. I’m chasing yours. That’s how these things work.” She tugged at my shirt, fiddling with the top button. “That’s how it should be, and if Suzanne wasn’t chasing after you as hard as you chased after her, her loss. Neither Richard nor Elliot liked her. They said you deserved better.”
I scowled, torn between anger at their belittling Suzanne and my growing unease. I had harbored many doubts after Suzanne’s death, but I hadn’t considered another woman in my life until Evelyn had come along. She was a tornado, ripping away all of my defenses, leaving me raw and torn up in her wake. She was volatile and drew me to her flame. A shiver ran through me at the realization that I wanted her to burn me, if only to prove I was capable of the emotions I had smothered over the years. Suzanne was gone, and there was nothing I could do to change that.
It didn’t make it any easier for me to accept what Evelyn was offering. I wanted to feel alive, with her skin against mine. I wanted to please her.
I sighed.
“She hurt you,” Evelyn whispered.
“No, I hurt me,” I replied, wincing at the truth of my words. In too many things, Zachary had been right—as had my brother and Richard. It didn’t change my love for Suzanne. Unfortunately, all that remained were my memories of her, which were dulled by the passage of time.
I was running out of reasons to deny Evelyn what she wanted, but I feared what would happen if I gave in to what we both desired.
I shuddered at the thought of what I would do if Evelyn vanished out of my life.
“Jackson,” she murmured.
Why was being honest so difficult? What I needed to say stuck in my throat. Evelyn waited for me with patience I didn’t feel I deserved. When I managed to speak, it was in a broken whisper, “I’m afraid.”
“Of what?” The concern in her voice was reflected in her eyes.
“I won’t be able to handle losing you,” I said, unable to keep looking her in the eye. When I had lost Suzanne, I had lost so much. If I lost Evelyn, there’d be nothing left for me, and that frightened me most of all. When had she become so important to me? How had she worked her way under my skin so quickly?
“You’re so much like a Fenerec, Jackson. You will do everything you can to protect what is yours. I’ll be careful if you promise to do the same.”
“I’m careful.” It was a part of my job; mistakes risked the lives of those working for me, which was unacceptable.
“Then there is absolutely no problem, is there? We’ll be fine.” She ran her thumb over my lower lip. “The only thing you’ll have to worry about is keeping away the other males.”
“Have you looked in a mirror recently?” I said, groaning at the thought of trying to keep other men from admiring her as much as I did. “I’ll have a lot to worry about.”
Lacing her fingers together behind my head, she pulled me down. “Tough luck for you,” she said, pressing her lips to mine. Pulling away, she released her hold on my head, trailing her hands down my neck. “I don’t like that she hurt you.”
Her touch on my bruised throat hurt enough I couldn’t hide my wince. “I don’t like it either.”
“How are you feeling?”
Certain that ‘aroused’ wasn’t the answer she was looking for, I replied, “I’m tired, sore, and ache in places I shouldn’t.”
“Is that all?” she murmured, making me doubt my original assessment of what she wanted to know.
I swallowed, torn between wanting to know exactly what she had in mind and trying to make my escape while I still could. “Not entirely.”
“Do you need me to kiss it all better?” she murmured in her smoky, seductive voice.
I sucked in a breath, shivering as she ran her fingers up and down the side of my neck. If I moved, what little restraint I had left would crumble away to nothing. My voice was as husky as hers when I asked, “Do your kisses have curative powers?”
“We should do extensive scientific testing to find out.” She started with my ear, nibbling at my lobe, stealing my breath when she licked tentatively at my skin. She worked her way down to my bruised throat. Her touch hurt, but I didn’t want her to stop.
She did, long enough to say, “What did she do to you?”
“From what I understand, there’s a video.”
Evelyn’s teeth scraped against my neck. “I haven’t seen it. I was too busy looking for you. That woman had your scent on her.” She growled before nipping me again. “What did she do to you?”
My embarrassment was smothered by my desire to find out what she intended to do to me when I told her. “She strangled me with her hair,” I whined in a blatant bid for pity.
Once again, her lips brushed against my skin, and I shivered at her touch. “That wasn’t very nice of her.”
“No, it wasn’t. Not at all.” I couldn’t help myself; I ran my hands over the soft and smooth material of her dress, caressing her sides. She pressed closer to me, and I slid my fingers up her back.
The knock at the door startled me so much I jumped backwards. I tripped over my own feet and ended up in a heap on the floor, taking Evelyn with me. She sprawled on top of me, sighing in what I took to be a mixture of disgust and frustration at the interruption.
I echoed her and grumbled, banging the back of my head against the carpeted floor. “If I kill them, do you think it’d classify as justifiable homicide?”
Evelyn kissed me on the forehead, untangling herself from me. “I’ll go deal with whomever it is.” She rose, smoothing her dress with a wordless growl. “Don’t go anywhere.”
Prowling to the door, she cracked it open without removing the chain. I heard Richard’s rumbling voice in the hall. She listened for a few moments before saying, “Yes, he is here. No, you may not come in. Go away. You’re interrupting us. I’ll tell him you were here. Please do us both a favor and tell everyone that he’s occupied for the rest of the evening.”
She didn’t quite slam the door, although I could tell by her tense stance that she wanted to. “Nosy male!” she snarled.
“What did Richard want?”
“To annoy me,” she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. “He was just checking in. He wanted to make sure you made it back here intact. You’re popular.”
“I’m sorry.”
From my position on the floor, I got a wonderful look at her legs as she crossed the room. “You’ll be sorry.”
There was a wicked gleam in her eye, and I felt my breath quicken. “Have I told you that you’re a very beautiful woman, Evelyn?”
She smiled down at me. “You’re not so bad yourself, Jackson. You know, I haven’t confirmed—personally—that you indeed made it back here intact. This is unacceptable.” Stepping over me, she sashayed her way to the jacuzzi, sat on the edge, and started filling it. “I seem to recall telling you that I do not let my prey escape.”
“So you did. What do you do with your prey once you’ve captured him?”
“Whatever I want.” She bec
koned me with the flick of her finger. Stifling a groan, I got up from the floor and made my way over to her, doing my best to hide my limping. She tilted her head back to look up at me. “I’m not letting you escape this time.”
“It’d be a slow and painful escape attempt,” I admitted, faking a heavy sigh.
“You poor, abused rabbit. Don’t worry, I’ll kiss you and make everything all better.”
While I was expecting her to do something, it wasn’t her grabbing hold of my shirt and dumping us both into the jacuzzi, clothes and all. It didn’t take her long to live up to her threat, erasing all of my concerns and worries with her kisses.
~~*~~
Someone was banging on the door, but I was too warm and comfortable to want to move. The cinnamon scent of Evelyn’s hair encouraged me to remain exactly where I was, with my cheek nestled against her shoulder. I draped my arm across her side to pull her closer to me.
“You need to let me go,” Evelyn said, her tone amused. Mumbling disagreement, I rubbed my nose against her neck, drawing a deep breath of her scent. She reminded me of freshly baked cookies. All I wanted was to go back to sleep, secure in the knowledge she was nearby.
“Jackson, they’ll break the door down if they keep it up.”
“Let them.” I nipped her neck, and she shivered against me. For a moment, I thought my shameless ploy would work. Then, with a giggle, she smacked me with a pillow, beating me with it until I retreated under the blanket, grumbling protests. Ignoring my complaints, she abandoned our bed, grabbed a bathrobe, and headed to the door.
“I’m awake, I’m awake,” she called out, and I heard her curse at the door’s chain. “Keep your pants on, Elliot. What is it?”
“He better keep his pants on,” I snarled, covering my head with a pillow while considering how I could remove my twin from existence.
“Where’s Jackson?”
“He’s still in bed, denying that it’s time to get up. What time is it, anyway?”
“Ten. Can I come in?”
“Jackson, your brother’s here.” Evelyn poked her head into the bedroom. “You better put your clothes on. There’s another bathrobe over there.” She pointed at the floor.
The robe was near the wrinkled ruins of my suit, which still looked wet from its adventure in the jacuzzi. There was also a rip in the jacket’s shoulder, which I didn’t remember happening. After a moment of consideration, I retreated back into the warmth of bed, covering my head with the blanket. “Why don’t you come back to bed?”
“Later,” she promised. Laughing, she came into the room. I peeked as I heard her draw closer. The bathrobe smacked me in the face. “You’ve done plenty of sleeping. Rise and shine.”
“I brought you a laptop, courtesy of Zachary. I have the schedule for once we reach shore,” my brother called out from the other room. “I also come bearing a gift, but it’s bad coffee.”
“That’s not a gift, that’s poison,” I grumbled. “What happened to my getting rest? It’s necessary to heal.”
“Does he need more rest, Evelyn?”
The Fenerec chuckled. “Unlike you, he didn’t fall asleep during the movie, or so I hear.”
“We all have our flaws,” my twin replied. “You’re looking lovely this morning, Evelyn, albeit slightly rumpled.”
“I’m getting up,” I snapped, throwing off the blankets and grabbing the robe. With my luck, if I didn’t intervene, she’d tell my brother just why I hadn’t gotten enough sleep and why her hair was even more of a mess than it had been before I’d found her asleep in bed. When I staggered out of the bedroom, hissing at the stiffness in my knee, my brother was seated on the couch booting up a laptop.
“Good morning, Jackson,” he said, lifting his hand in greeting.
“It’s ten, which means it’s too early to be awake when on a cruise ship. What are you doing? Go back to bed and leave us alone,” I complained, sitting down beside him with a groan.
“Your throat looks terrible.”
I sighed, wondering how much worse it’d look before it healed. Last night, it had been a deep black and blue band around my throat. “Let me guess; I’ve graduated to green and yellow to go along with the black and blue?” When I touched my throat, it ached. “All the more reason to hide here for the next few days.”
There were plenty of things to keep me amused and occupied, and all of them involved Evelyn. As if reading my mind, she smiled at me and blew me a kiss.
“Doctor’s orders, Jackson. You’re to get up and walk, like it or not. That means leaving your room.” My brother leaned over and pulled out several scarves from the laptop bag beside his feet. “Zachary sends his regards and hopes these match your various suits. You can start a whole new fashion trend this way.”
“Wonderful,” I grumbled, grabbing the gauzy fabric and tossing them onto the coffee table. “Is this a thinly veiled excuse to get me back to work?” I accused, scowling at the laptop. “If that’s Inquisition-issued, I’m going to be spending all day removing the spyware, I hope you know.”
“It’s Zachary-issued, and he claims that it’s set up just how you like it. Amanda claims she will accept a hug in payment for staying up last night, so long as you give it to her where Zachary sees you doing it.”
Evelyn stiffened, her gaze fixed on me. Smiling at her, I shook my head before saying, “Amanda will, alas, be forced to suffer without a hug from me. She only wants to make Zachary jealous, anyway. Tell her I’ll shove her into one of the pools the next time I see her.”
“That’s what she said you’d say,” my twin replied with a chuckle. “I’ll tell her to jump in to spare you from having to push a lady.”
“Why don’t you hug her for me?” I asked, elbowing my brother.
“She’s pretty, but she’s not my type—and anyway, she’s Zachary’s woman.”
I grinned. “Vicky’s your type, isn’t she?”
Flushing at my comment, my brother spluttered something unintelligible, shoving the laptop in my direction. “I loaded a few databases on it for your use, current as of an hour ago. Maybe you’ll find something I’m missing. Also, Richard found something in the cargo bay that he insists has your scent all over it, so he wanted me to give it to you.”
I frowned, wondering what I had lost in the cargo bay. My brother reached into the bag and pulled out a red stone. The light reflected on its facets, drawing my gaze.
The names of the dead slammed into me, so many I couldn’t comprehend a single one of them. Pain burst through my head, centered behind my eyes. Voices shrieked at me, so loud that my ears throbbed.
“Jackson?” My brother’s voice cut over the wails of the dead, and they quieted to hissing whispers. Shuddering, I shook my head, tearing my gaze from the stone.
“What’s wrong?” Evelyn perched on the arm of the couch, resting her hand on my arm. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What is that stone?”
“This is yours, isn’t it?” When my brother held the gem out to me, I recoiled, my back pressing against Evelyn in my effort to distance myself from the stone. The names of the dead once again rattled in my head, one after another, the individuals lost in the deluge hammering away at me.
“No,” I choked out.
“What is wrong with you?” my twin asked in exasperation.
I opened my mouth to snap a reply, but the stone once again caught the light, and I remembered what it felt like to die. The pain, the disbelief, and the terror consumed me. It wasn’t Scarlett’s death; hers had been brief. It hadn’t taken long for her to die.
Someone screamed, a plea for mercy and relief, and my horror welled up. The voice was one I hadn’t heard in so long, but knew without doubt. It was Suzanne screaming, her cries unheeded as her life fled from her body after what felt like an eternity of agony.
All I caught was a glimpse of whitewashed walls, seen through her eyes in her final moments.
Suzanne had been killed instantly in the car accident. That’s what I had been told—t
hat’s what I had spent the past five years believing. Yet, I heard her screams and felt her pain.
“Jackson!” Evelyn’s voice was shrill, silencing Suzanne’s misery.
The dead cried out for me, striking out in their need.
“Can you tell what’s wrong with him?” my brother asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” was Evelyn’s reply.
The voices, the echoes of so many lost lives, wailed in dismay, their wordless cries turning into demands for justice and freedom.
The stone flashed as it skittered across the coffee table. I was faintly aware of my brother grabbing his phone and dialing a number. When the stone vanished somewhere behind the laptop, I went limp. Evelyn cried out, grabbing hold of me and pulling me against her in her effort to keep me from sliding to the floor. Sweat stung my eyes, and my breath wheezed as though I’d run a race.
“It’s Anderson. I think my brother is having a seizure,” he snapped into the phone. “No, I don’t know. His eyes are dilated, and his breathing is really fast. He’s shaking. No, he’s never had a seizure before.”
“One-twenty,” Evelyn reported. I hadn’t been aware of her fingers pressed to my throat until she had spoken.
“Evelyn says his heart rate is at one hundred and twenty beats per minute. His normal is half that.” My twin leaned towards me, pressing the back of his hand to my forehead. “Yes, he feels hot.”
I stared blankly at him. I didn’t feel hot; the chilling presence of the dead froze me from within. Closing my eyes silenced their cries in my ears. Tremors swept through me.
Why couldn’t I escape them? There were so many names thundering through my head that I couldn’t think beyond my horror. It was worse than when I went to the cemetery. My Suzanne hadn’t even left me her true name or the name of our daughter. Their grave had always been cold, still, and silent.
“Jackson?” Evelyn’s voice was full of concern and uncertainty.
“She says to check his heart rate again,” my brother said.
Evelyn’s touch was icy against my neck. “It’s still really fast.”