by May Dawson
My palm was on his hard shoulder, which was, I realized suddenly, naked. He’d taken his shirt off for a makeshift bandage. Suddenly I was all the more keenly aware of how I was cradled against his broad, muscled chest. I rubbed my palm over his shoulder. “What are we going to do to get my strength back?”
“You’re incorrigible,” he said. I felt him brace his leg against the doorframe, holding me against his body, as he used his free hand to open a door. “My room.”
“This seems like a big place. I don’t get my own room?”
“You really want one?”
I shook my head faintly. Ryker carried me over to the bed, laying me down on soft blankets, and I shivered when the warmth of his body pulled away from mine. He turned to the nightstand and clicked on the light.
Ryker’s bedroom was clean and bright. I was on a king-sized bed, made up with a thick, soft navy throw and a blue-and-yellow patchwork quilt. Ryker leaned over me, drawing the quilt over my legs, tucking me in. Then I watched him turn away. He headed for the dresser, where he rifled through his top drawer. His lean, narrow waist was dramatic in contrast to the broadness of those shoulders and his powerful arms. He pulled a t-shirt out of the drawer and pulled it over his head; it was tight over his shoulders and then draped loosely over that defined waist.
He turned around, his face amused as if he knew I’d been staring, and I jerked my gaze away, taking in the rest of his room.
Twin swords hung below a shield on his wall; it was the only decoration in the room. The swords looked shiny, sharp, and I realized after a second that this was not décor; it was an armory kept close at hand. On the nightstand next to me were a couple of framed photos alongside a pile of old leather-bound books and a desk lamp. I picked up the photos, curious to know more about Ryker.
One photo showed two boys, one green-eyed and one blue-eyed; Levi was taller now that they were adults, too, but it was even more dramatic in the photos. Levi and Ryker had their arms around each other, and they grinned innocent freckle-faced smiles out at the camera. I glanced from the photo to Ryker.
He stood at the foot of the bed, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re awfully snoopy for a girl who was just passing out in the car.”
“Snooping restores me,” I said, slipping the photo back and picking up the second frame. “You can’t deny me.”
“Watch me,” he said, but he didn’t try; he sat beside me on the bed, one leg folded under. His hand found my blanket-covered leg, patting it comfortingly.
This photo showed a teenage Ryker, tall and lanky but athletic. His arm was around a woman’s shoulders. They both wore black tank tops that exposed the elaborate tattoos that ran up their biceps, and neither smiled at the camera. They looked dangerous. The woman was beautiful, too, her dark blond hair pulled back from her face, her eyes as wide and blue as Levi’s. Those innocent eyes stood in stark contrast to the bleak way she looked back at the camera.
“Your mom?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“So she was a Hunter too? Is that a different thing than…” I gestured back and forth between us.
“Yeah,” he said. “She wasn’t a Lilith. Just a Hunter. Which meant she knew what we were from… early days.”
“How’d she know?”
His lips quirked up slightly as he leaned forward. He tilted my jaw up, looking into my eyes, and my heart stopped. I expected him to kiss me, but he paused, just looking into my face. “Can we talk about this in the morning? It’s been a long few… months. Kidnapped. Tortured. Waiting it out so at least the Company might bring you to me, so we could rescue you.”
“You stayed for me?” I felt my lips parted with surprise, and I closed them, running my tongue quickly over to wet them. It wasn’t fair that Ryker’s kissable, lush lips were so near mine, and I felt so hungry for him, and he seemed unmoved.
“I was afraid that if we escaped, we might never know they’d found you.”
The thought of being trapped in that haunted, horrible place alone made me shiver. The worst part was Nurse Tom and Beefy and Burly, and I thought again of the way Tom had barreled after me with murder in his eyes.
“I’m glad you were there,” I said honestly. “Even though I hate that they hurt you.”
“Eh, don’t feel too badly. We’re Hunters. We can take a beating.” Those green eyes were dark and dangerous, but his mouth still called me to kiss him.
I bit down on my lip, trying to hold myself back if he was going to hold back, but I couldn’t bear it. “Ryker,” I said softly.
“Mm?” His eyes widened slightly, his lips quirking up into even more of a smirk. As if he knew damn well what I wanted.
“Do you think I could have just a little of your… energy?”
“I think a good night’s sleep would serve you better, Firestarter.”
But he closed the small gap between us anyway, pressing his lips to mine. One chaste little kiss.
Heat sparked between us. I rested my hand on his jaw, turning his face back into mine before he could pull away, kissing him harder. I felt his lips smirking against mine, and then our lips met again and again, and I felt the smirk fall away.
His lips parted against mine. “God, what you do to me, Ellie.”
I hadn’t heard that nickname in years. It had been what Ash had called me when we were little.
I sat back from him abruptly. I had that sense of freefall, just for a second, one has when you realize you’ve forgotten something important. Ash was still lost in the land after life, caught up in waves of fire over and over, and I was here snuggling up with a handsome man when my only thought should have been of doing what I had to do to help her. What the hell would Ash think if she saw me now?
Ryker met my eyes, confused. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. But no matter how badly that had broken my train of thought, I felt better now. Brighter. Clearer.
But still exhausted.
I left myself fall back down into the deep pillows. Ryker hesitated.
I held my arms out to him, and without needing me to say another word, he slid into the bed beside me. I felt his powerful body settle in beside me, drawing me into his warmth; I nestled my head onto his shoulder. It felt like his shoulder had been made for me; we fit together like puzzle pieces.
I thought again of how he’d evaded when I asked how his mother had known he and Levi were part of the Four. But I was so tired and comfortable against his body that I was afraid to ask. I ran my hand over the soft material of his t-shirt, feeling my fingers skate over each hard edge of defined ab.
“In the morning, you’ll tell me all your secrets?” I asked lightly.
He nodded, his jaw brushing my hair. “In the morning, Firestarter.” He pulled a pillow over my face teasingly. “For now, less talk. More sleep.”
I pushed the pillow away, yawning, already turning my face into his chest. I breathed in his peaches-and-smoke scent and let go of all my questions, all my worries, lost in his warmth and in rest for now.
Chapter 16
When I woke up the next morning, I was still nestled in Ryker’s arms. I stretched, warm and sleepy, and turned my face up to find his eyes amused.
“You’re not asleep,” I accused. My voice sounded rusty, and I cleared my throat.
He shook his head. “I thought you might not want to wake up alone.”
“That’s surprisingly thoughtful,” I said, sitting up in bed; the blankets fell away from my body, and I looked down at the plain black curves of the utilitarian bikini Parrish had given me. I shivered in the cool air, away from the blankets and the heat that Ryker and I generated whenever we were close, no matter how innocent our touch was.
“Surprisingly thoughtful?”
“I thought Levi was the thoughtful brother.”
Ryker suddenly grabbed me around the waist, pulling me back over onto the bed, and I giggled as I felt his hard bicep around my waist and the tickle-scratch of his beard scruff across his jaw. He tickled me, u
nexpectedly playful, and I heard myself laugh out loud as I tried to scramble away from him. I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. The realization struck me hard.
Ryker sat up slightly, still pinning me down, and I saw his eyes change as he took in my face. I grinned back at him, wanting him to know that I was okay. What we were doing was better than okay.
“I might not be the nice brother,” Ryker growled into my ear, and I felt myself squirm with desire, “But I promise, I have my selling points.”
“I don’t doubt it.” I yawned. “Can I take a shower? Are there ghosts here too?”
Ryker started to shake his head, and then said, “But you know, you can’t be too careful. I can come in with you. Make sure you’re safe.”
“And you said I’m incorrigible.” I shoved his shoulder. But even though I was being playful, I couldn’t help feeling that arch of lust that ran between the two of us no matter how trifling our touch was. “What day is it anyway?”
He grinned, turning away from me. For the first time, I realized he’d slipped his jeans off sometime during the night, and now he pulled his jeans from the foot of the bed to pull on over his boxers. “Why?”
“Just… trying to get my bearings.” Just trying to figure out when my eighteenth birthday was going to be.
“It’s Thursday,” he said.
Tomorrow was my birthday. I bit down on my lip, biting back the temptation to tell Ryker just that; I knew my lust for him would shine through if I did.
Luckily, he went on, “Almost the weekend. Too bad there’s no rest for the wicked.”
“For the wicked?” I slipped out of bed, feeling suddenly awkward in front of him in my jeans and bra, and padded across the warm-honey hardwood floor to the door I hoped led to a bathroom. “Isn’t it the Company that’s wicked? I’m pretty sure I’m a good guy. I feel like a good guy.”
I was joking, but when I glanced back to take in Ryker’s face, he looked troubled.
“Ryker?” I asked, my voice coming out sharp. “We are the good guys, right?”
For a second, I was back in the hospital bed, drifting in and out as the doctors probed me, as a police officer asked what I remembered before the accident. My mother had stood at the foot of the bed. Her eyes on me had been steady. Full of fury and hope.
Ryker jumped to his feet and crossed to me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear; his gaze when he looked down into my face was fond, and his broad-shouldered presence made me feel better. He sure looked at me like I was one of the good guys.
“We’re the good guys,” he promised. With one finger, he tilted my jaw up to meet his eyes; this close, I took in the dark blond beard stubble across his jaw, the faintest faded freckles on his high cheekbones, the ruddiness in his cheeks like he spent a lot of time outside. There was a cut in the corner of his plush pink lips, as if he’d been hurt in one of the fights. He was so handsome. But more than that, he was magnetic to me.
“Good,” I said. I pulled open the door, and stared into his closet. It was neat, rows of shirts and a few boxes stored on the shelf above the bar. There was a leather trunk beneath the hanging edges of the clothes. The leather trunk stood open; it was full of weaponry. For a minute, my eyes were drawn to the sharp things, the knives and swords and rifles. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be part of such a violent world. I wasn’t sure I had a choice. Then I raised my eyes back to his shirts. “You sure have a lot of flannel.”
“It’s comfortable,” he said. He rested his hands on my shoulders, his body intimately close to mine as he turned me towards another door. “That’s the entrance to the bathroom. Levi’s room is on the other side, if you want to check on him before you get in the shower. I’ll go get you some clothes.”
I remembered the long country road the night before. “Is there a mall handy?”
He shook his head. “I’m going to go raid my mom’s closet. Can we not talk about this? Let’s not make it weird. Weirder than it already is.”
“I’ll pretend if you do,” I told him. “I hope she was a size six.”
He hesitated at the door to his room, and then ducked out into the hall. The door closed firmly behind him.
I walked into a narrow bathroom. It was dated, black-and-white tile and oak cabinets, but impeccably clean; the sink was bright white and the room carried a faint scent of soap and lavender. I wouldn’t have expected a bunch of guys living together to keep their house so clean. I hesitated with my fingers on the doorknob on the other side of the bathroom, and then tapped tentatively on the white paneled door. No answer. Not even a sound like stirring from within the room.
So I gave up and just pulled it open. I leaned against the door. “Levi?”
His room was dark. I could just barely make out a second big bed and a long, blocky figure wrapped in the quilt. A few candles flickered on the dresser across from the doorway. I breathed in that Levi scent, stronger than ever, that scent of cinnamon and bitter chocolate and fresh sawdust, and I stepped through the doorway. “Levi?”
He sat up in bed, startled, and I took a step back myself. My foot on the tile almost slid out from underneath me. Then he stopped, raking his hand through his long blond hair; the movement made his broad shoulders shift, his abs rippling. He was still shirtless. A thick white bandage covered half of those abs.
“How are you doing?” I asked, my curiosity stronger than my sense of being awkward and impolite as I invited myself into his room. I went to the window, drawing open the curtains.
Levi groaned, squinting at me as I turned back to him. The light fell across his handsome face and the fingers still tangled in his hair as he leaned over, his elbows braced on his raised knees still covered by the blankets.
“Good,” he said. He didn’t meet my gaze. “Ellis. I’m sorry that I hurt you.”
“I’m not,” I said. I sat next to him on the bed, close enough to him that my hip was against his, my shoulder against his, even though I didn’t try to make eye contact. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. I wanted to help.”
“Of course you do,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let you put yourself in a position to get hurt, though. That’s not how this works.”
I rested my head against his warm, broad shoulder. “Have you done this before?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know how this works?” I asked. “I meant it when I said I was no damsel in distress. I want to be your equal. Fighter. Healer. I want to do whatever it is I can do with these…” I trailed off. I still couldn’t say powers with a straight face. In the cool light of day coming through the windows, it all seemed a little ridiculous. No matter what I’d seen and done.
“You’re not our equal, though. You’re our queen.”
“Our?” I felt myself smile. “Jacob certainly doesn’t seem ready to crown me anytime soon.”
“Jake’s a tough case,” Levi said.
“What’s his problem?” My tone came out rougher than I meant it to; I’d been trying to ask it lightly. But I was still hurt by the way Jacob seemed to hate me from first glance. It reminded me of how hated I’d been for the past few months.
Levi slid his arm around my waist, as if he understood that I needed him without me putting it into words; he hugged me into his side. I leaned into him carefully, afraid that I would hurt his wound.
“You should talk to him about that,” Levi said. “It’s not my secret to tell, Ellis. And if you talk to him, maybe you’ll start to knock down those walls of his. He didn’t care much for me or Ryker either when we first met. Or maybe still.”
“He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“So don’t give him a choice.” He turned his head, pressing a chaste kiss to the top of my hair. “Be a good girl, Ellis. Let me get out of bed without an audience.”
I glanced at him quickly, wondering if he was implying what I thought he was, and he looked back at me frankly, his lips quirked to one side. “You can’t wake a guy up,” he said, shrugging. “Not like that.”
<
br /> I glanced down at my bikini top, feeling embarrassed. I should have thought to steal one of Ryker’s t-shirts. “It’s an ugly bikini.”
“Not to me,” he said fervently. He picked up a pillow from behind his bed and threw it at me. “Come on, go. I’ll get started on breakfast once I get out of bed and cleaned up.”
My stomach rumbled. “Okay,” I said. “I’m going. I’m going to take a shower.”
I headed for the door, and when I stopped to turn around, hesitating, I was promptly pegged with another pillow. I grinned and ran for the bathroom. “Okay, okay.”
I closed the door between us, still smiling. I felt a lightness that I hadn’t for months, from the boys’ moments of playfulness, and when I turned into the mirror, I almost didn’t recognize the smiling girl reflected back at me. My hair fell in snarls around my naked shoulders, but even so, for once I saw myself as pretty, as bright. I knew the differences between Ash’s face and mine well, even though we were fraternal twins; her nose were just a little narrower than mine, and she had a faint scar on her temple from an accident when we were toddlers and she fell off her trike. But for a second, I saw her, happy and well, before I saw my own face.
I stared into the mirror, not sure what that meant. Vision? Wishful thinking?
Whatever it was, I was still filthy. I yanked the shower curtain open dramatically—checking for ghosts, ax murderers, whatever—but the clean white shower stood blissfully empty.
Within seconds, I had turned the water on hot, shucked off my bikini, and ducked underneath the hot spray of water, which pounded relaxingly over my tense shoulders. It ran through my hair, and I rifled through the boys’ stuff for shampoo and soap. I worked a lather into my tangled hair, and found myself idly thinking about how much I would rather it was Ryker or Levi’s fingers in my hair. I could imagine them tracing the path of suds down the curve of my back. I bit down on my lip. What was wrong with me? I’d always been a normal red-blooded American girl, noticing when boys were cute—and Ryker and Levi and eve surly Jacob were more than cute—but the way I acted around them was something else. I wanted both Ryker and Levi so badly. And I would have expected them to react… poorly… to that. But Ryker had told me to ride in the back with Levi like he wanted me to kiss him. Well, of course that made sense; he would want his brother to be okay, even if it meant me kissing him. But still, neither of them seemed jealous.