She’d said he could touch her any way he wanted, and she hadn’t stopped him yet. Now he was going to do exactly that.
Squeezing his hand between their bodies, he brushed his fingers once over the silky fabric of her panties, knowing something silkier was within reach. And then he dove inside the elastic, body tightening as he cupped and stroked over her hot, wet flesh.
He loved the way her body arched, the way she threw her head back on a long moan, the way she shifted her hips in his palm. Now deaf to the storm outside, all he could hear were her little pants and moans and they were more beautiful than the song of the Earth. Every year of abstinence he’d had before was worth it for this moment with Jade. For these weeks with her on the mountain. It felt like everything in his life had been waiting for her.
He’d definitely been waiting for her touch, and when her hands stroked him, he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t concentrate. He moved his hands to her hips to give her better access and held his breath reflexively, overpowered by pleasure. It was all he could do to keep his fingers from clenching as she teased him, tortured him.
Bare to her hands, her bare to his, he kissed her again.
They took turns touching each other until a clever move by Jade had her panties pulled hard to one side and his flesh in her hand, the head of him stroking over the skin where his fingers had been. Lightning struck somewhere on the peak again, and he felt it through the ground, through Jade’s body, as she worked herself slowly down onto him.
For a moment, he felt like Lightning and not Earth, the sensation of being inside Jade, of touching her and holding her, like a hot buzz in his bones. The pleasure of it made his spine tingle, and he waited for it to lessen so he could catch his breath.
But the pleasure never abated, instead building until he was clinging to her like a rock-climber on the face of a cliff. He wanted to slow down, to touch her, make sure to give her pleasure, but she kept moving and he kept moving and everything was spinning out of his control. Growling, he arched his hips up to meet Jade’s movements as she lost her rhythm, lost her breath, and cried out, clutching at him. The feel of her coming sent him over the edge.
His orgasm crashed through him, shaking him from head to toe.
Unprepared for the feeling, Micah threw his head back against the rocks, teeth clenched and eyes closed, releasing Jade and digging his fingers into the stone on either side of him. He couldn’t be gentle right then.
When he could breathe again, when he could open his eyes, he brought his arms around Jade and held her to his chest as they recovered. Much of their skin was touching. He should drain her now, should have been draining her all along, but...
She was physically taxed from digging and working all day. She hadn’t been thinking clearly, which is how they ended up in this situation. Though he was thankful for it now, it was an indication that she was mentally tired as well. He couldn’t justify draining her, taking the risk that he would make it all worse and she wouldn’t be fully recovered by tomorrow when she went back to work again.
And, he just didn’t want to.
He kissed her damp forehead as emotions, sweet, dangerous, dark, swamped him again. She was the call of Earth. She was inside him, and he inside her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
WHEN MICAH WOKE, IT was slowly and peacefully to the sound and scent of rain and woman.
Though it had never stopped raining yesterday, the fierceness of the storm had abated and Micah was able to lead Jade safely down the mountain to camp. They’d both been soaked and frozen when they got to his tent, but they stripped down, and cold kisses and hands had quickly turned much warmer.
He put an arm behind his head and looked at Jade, standing just inside the doorway of the tent, looking out. The hard rain of the day before was now a misty drizzle.
She was wearing one of his shirts, the neck hole hanging off one smooth shoulder and the hem halfway to her knees. He’d hadn’t really noticed her legs before. She always wore jeans and he’d been focused on other things yesterday. But she had great legs.
She caught him staring and smiled.
“Good morning. It’s still raining.” She sighed and peered back out again. “Maybe it will clear up soon and I can get up to the claim.”
“Or, you could spend all day in bed with me.” The thought of touching her again, running his hands and his mouth over her skin, had his body hardening, but there was a shadow of pain behind her eyes that curbed his eagerness.
“Rain check?” She smiled, brief and shallow before her lips returned to a flat line. “As much as I’d love that, I think I’m going to go visit my mom today.”
Her mother was important to her, and he wouldn’t attempt to change her mind, no matter how much he wanted her back in his bed. “I need to head to town for a bit, too. I could drive you.” There was a protest on the edge of her lips, but he pushed forward. “I’m good at driving in the mud. And if we get stuck, you’ll need me to help push the vehicle out.”
He flexed his chest and shoulder muscles, and she laughed, eyes warming appreciatively. She knew what he was doing, but now she would say yes.
“Okay, deal. If we get stuck, you do all the pushing and I’ll do the steering.”
She reached up and drew his shirt off her body, every curve on her lithe form highlighted by the soft gray light from outside. He was still appreciating her curves when his shirt hit him in the face.
“Get dressed. I’m going to go change, too.” She put her own shirt on, and drew her jeans up her legs with a little wriggle.
He was transfixed.
Barefoot, holding her shoes, she turned back to him from the door and smiled. “Meet you in a few minutes.”
Micah drove through the rain, subtly using his powers to tame the mud sucking at their tires, and dropped Jade off in front of the nursing home.
Then he made his way to the base, but barely made it through the doors before Ajax began talking.
“Micah. Boy, am I glad to see you. I have a critical mission for you. And it’s urgent.”
He nodded, awaiting his orders. Something must have happened. What were the Chaolt up to? Where had they come from, to cause trouble? The portal remained blocked—
“I need you to go on a food run.”
“Excuse me?” Micah blurted, confused.
“Brooke is hungry. Emory is hungry. I need to get that guy some snacks,” Ajax said, thumb pointed at Jackson in his playpen. “Brooke has to stay off her feet and Levi won’t leave her side. Emory is caring for her, helping her prepare for the birth, so neither one can cook. And I don’t know shit about cooking, I only know how to eat. We have nothing here for them to eat but energy bars and Emory said they taste like dog food.” He threw his hands out wide. “I don’t know what the fuck dog food tastes like, but neither of the ladies will eat the damn bars. And we can’t do delivery because no one will get past the Elemental barriers. I need you to go buy them some real food.” Ajax reached a pleading hand in his direction. “Can I depend on you for this mission, Micah?”
Micah didn’t answer. This was out of the range of his duties, of his comfort level.
“I have a list,” Ajax said, handing it to him.
It was long and confusing.
Micah ate his bars and nothing else. Even though the others sometimes ate Brooke and Emory’s cooking, he never had. He’d never been in a grocery store and didn’t understand what most of this stuff was or where to find it. There was no way he could get all these things and make it back to Jade by the time he needed to pick her up.
He might have said no, except that it was for the women, not for Ajax. And because baby Jackson was gumming the rail of his playpen in a way that looked hungry.
But his first priority was Jade.
“I must be back to Jade by three.” He had to get back to her, make sure she was safe. And somehow, he already missed her presence.
“Jade?”
“The Earth Erratic.”
“Ah,” Ajax sa
id nodding, a look in his eyes. “So she’s Jade now, huh? How’s the mission going, anyway? Are you making headway with her?”
“I am making progress.” It felt like a lie to say that. Yes, Jade trusted him more, and that was progress. She trusted him with her sorrow and her thoughts and her body. But he’d not made much progress in draining her. And if he was honest, he was glad, he didn’t want it to be over yet. He needed more time with her.
Because yes, he’d made headway with her, but he was also falling for her. Hard.
“Interesting.” Ajax’s expression was suspicious, but then it cleared. “Well, by all means,” he added, motioning to the door, “please hurry. Take her with you if you have to.”
Right then, Jackson fussed from the playpen. Because of his age, he could go from calm and happy to upset and dangerous in just a few seconds. Ajax clenched his eyes shut as a breeze started to shuffle papers on the desk behind them.
“Do you want me to...?” Emory sometimes needed help soothing Jackson when Ajax was away on missions. He would get tired or hungry and lose control, crying and unintentionally using his Air powers. When that happened, Micah would hold him and sing to him and he would relax.
“I can calm him down, Micah.” Ajax pushed his hair back with a deep breath and put his hands on his hips. He looked tired. “But I can’t leave to get anyone food.”
Micah caved. “Okay.”
“Yeah? You will?” Ajax asked, perking up.
Micah nodded.
“I owe you.” Ajax’s eyes glowed turquoise a bit when he said it. Then he walked forward and pointed to the list. “Brooke said she wants ice cream, any flavor. All the flavors. Emory wants granola bars, but the chewy ones, not the hard ones. Get a lot of freezer meals. Neither one of them has much time to cook right now. And in the baby section, they have these little cereal puffs that dissolve in Jackson’s mouth so he won’t choke. Be sure to get those. And baby food. As many jars as you can carry. But not the green beans, he won’t eat those...”
Ajax continued on while Micah stared at him, explaining every item on the list.
He wanted to take it back, say no, tell Ajax to handle it himself somehow. But he wouldn’t. He could not abandon his fellow Warriors and their families, even in a small way such as this. They needed his help, so he would help.
But maybe he needed help, too.
He knew nothing about shopping, had never stepped foot in a store before, and only knew what the items on the list were in general terms.
He stood there, unsure, as Ajax turned to pick up Jackson. He bounced him, distracting him to keep him from getting too upset.
Ajax was trusting him to do this, because he had his hands full, and so did Levi.
Micah couldn’t ask any person here for help with this. He would be forced to do it himself, or ask Jade, but the thought did not cause any mental resistance. Everything was easier with Jade than with anyone else.
Well, most things. He still couldn’t tell her exactly how he felt about her. But hopefully, in time, he’d find that easier too.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, Jade walked through the glass doors into the nursing home with lightness in her steps, in her heart. It wouldn’t be long after she extracted the full crystal plate and had everything appraised that she would have a check in her hand to move her mom to a new home.
She didn’t know if she should tell her mother that, or if it would cause her some anxiety to think of moving, so for right now she’d keep it quiet. But it was hard not to share her excitement.
Her enthusiasm dimmed a bit after spending a half hour with her. Her mother was a shell of herself today, quiet, washed out. Starting a hundred different sentences, finishing them with something random or not at all. Jade knew from experience that there was no sense trying to exercise her memory today. So, determined, she opted for exercising her body instead and took her for a walk to the cafeteria for a coffee.
Over the worst coffee she’d ever tasted, Jade talked about her mom about mining, the mountain, any number of things she might want to know on a good day.
“...And,” Jade bit her lip and smiled, thinking of Micah. “I met someone.”
“Yeah?” She asked, looking up from her cup and smiling. “Good for you. What’s his name?”
“Micah.”
A few forehead wrinkles appeared alongside the smile. “And who is Micah?”
“The man I’m seeing?”
“Oh. And how is he related?”
Jade took a deep breath. “He’s no relation. He’s the man I’ve just started seeing.”
“Oh,” her mother replied, smile gone now, forehead wrinkles stacking on top of each other like a logjam in a river. She stared at her for a long moment, and Jade had a sinking feeling, a cold feeling at the confusion on her face.
So she cleared her throat and changed the subject. But no subject was safe, not even the mundane. They were both frustrated. Her mom, grasping at thoughts and words and names that were escaping her, and Jade, at her inability to help. At her own very natural urge to finish her mom’s sentences for her, or correct her, or a dozen more instinctive but unhelpful urges. She was still learning how to be a good caregiver, yet failing a lot of the time.
Jade ended up sitting silently for the rest of it, just praying that her mother took some comfort from her company even if their visit was unsatisfying.
When she walked her back to her room, it was more of the same. Jade looked out the window while her mom went back and forth between talking and watching t.v.
The misty rain obscure the scenery beyond the bushes under the window. Everything, the parking lot, the trees, the street, was shrouded in a thick fog. Like her mother’s mind.
Normally Jade would stay and let her ramble and look for a natural place to say her goodbyes, but since she’d told Micah to pick her up at 3 o’clock, she felt like she couldn’t do that today.
“Ok, well it’s time to go now. It was nice talking to you.”
It was like a switch was thrown. Her mother’s eyes regained clarity, and she stood and grabbed her sweater, pulling it over her shoulders.
But it was the wrong switch.
“What are you doing, Mom?”
“You said it was time to go. I’m ready.”
“No, Mom, I’m sorry, you can’t leave. This is where you live. They take care of you here.”
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me!” her mother said, aghast. “I just need to go home, to my house, where I know where everything is.”
Never mind that she hadn’t lived in her own house for several years.
Jade moved closer, patted her arm. “I’ll take you home as soon as I can, but you’ve got to stay here for tonight, okay? Just for tonight.”
“I don’t need to be in the hospital.” They tried to make places like this look cozy. Some homes tried harder than others, but they couldn’t hide what they really were, even from her mother. “Go get the doctor and tell him I want to go home.”
“I’ll go get him,” Jade agreed, backing away. “He’ll tell you why you need to stay.”
“No, I’m not staying here!”
Her mother was trying to push past her now, push into the hallway, agitation and confusion on her face. “Call my daughter, Jade. Call her right now, and tell her I need her to come pick me up. She’ll take me home. Jade will make sure I’m taken care of.”
“I’m trying to!” Jade yelled, turning away and gulping at the air as tears flooded her eyes.
Her mother stared at her in silence, probably no idea why someone she didn’t recognize was yelling at her. Guilt lanced through Jade’s ribs, and she couldn’t breathe around the pain of it.
It was so weird how the disease cherry-picked what her mom remembered and what she couldn’t. Her mom remembered her house, her things, her family... but couldn’t recognize Jade when she was standing in front of her.
She’d known this was coming since the day her mother had forgotten, and then remembered, that Jade’s dad and
her husband had passed away. But it didn’t make it any better now that the day was here. The only thing that had hurt worse was holding her mother while she cried with fresh grief over her long-dead husband.
“I’m sorry,” Jade said, swiping her eyes and nose and composing herself before she turned back around. “I’m sorry. Let me go get someone to talk to you, okay?”
Her mom sat back in front of the TV, quiet now.
For the first time, Jade left her mother’s room without saying goodbye. She went to the nurse’s station and told what happened, let them know her mom wanted to leave and might need someone to explain things to her. The nurse said she’d get someone, but there was probably only a fifty-fifty chance it would actually happen. Normally, Jade would have stayed and sat in on the conversation, made sure it happened and been there to help, but she could see Micah’s SUV through the doors, parked across from the doors.
Micah would likely wait if he knew what was going on, but honestly, she didn’t have the strength to do it today.
She had to stop herself from running to Micah’s vehicle.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
JADE GOT IN MICAH’S SUV and buckled her belt without a word, her throat thick and tight.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she said, avoiding his eyes, blinking away the moisture on her lashes.
Micah put the vehicle in gear and Jade took a deep breath, trying to blank her mind.
She glanced at Micah when he stopped in an empty end of the parking lot, hedged by trees. He turned off the key and leaned back, looking at her. Waiting.
The understanding on his face, the sympathy, cracked the walls she had built up around her control, around her feelings.
“My momma didn’t remember who I was,” she said, voice choked, hot tears flooding her eyes and rolling down her cheeks before she even finished her sentence.
When he opened his arms, she didn’t even think about it. She threw herself into them.
Crush (Elemental Hearts, #3) Page 10