She savored the challenge.
Despite his issues, Michael had more than lived up to her dreams. She couldn’t believe how good they were together, and how much fun they had. Between the physical activities and card games, they spent hours into the night sharing stories. He even reviewed some of her designs and gave constructive comments.
They no longer snipped at each other, having finally found the right outlet for their passionate exchanges. But her attraction to him went beyond him being heart-stopping gorgeous, smart, and sexy. He was really good to her.
Being with him made her feel like she’d come home.
Sienna hailed a cab and crawled into the backseat. After giving the driver Michael’s address, she picked up her cell and dialed him.
“Hello?” a woman answered, a provocative tone deliberately applied to the simple one-word greeting.
Maybe she had the wrong number? Sienna paused and looked at her phone. Nope, it was Michael’s name on the display.
“Is Michael there?” Sienna asked tentatively, trying not to think the worst.
“We just finished our… workout. He’s in the shower. Who’s this?” she purred.
“Who’s this?” Sienna snapped.
“His… partner,” she replied.
Ice water rolled through Sienna’s veins. Partner, as in sex partner? So much for all the happy thoughts she’d been having. In a split second, her world had flipped from light into darkness.
Stunned, Sienna pressed END, her devastation transforming into unbridled rage. The heat of anger started in her belly and traveled throughout her body until it radiated from every pore in her skin. She shook. They hadn’t been together even a week, and he’d already cheated on her!
Two could play at this game. Hell hath no fury and all that bullshit. Boy was he ever going to regret this…
By the time Sienna reached Brooklyn, she had hatched a plan.
MICHAEL
Where the hell is my cell phone? Michael wondered as he waited for Sienna to arrive. It wasn’t in his bedroom. He couldn’t find it anywhere. It must be at the dojo.
Oh, well. He’d get it later.
After finishing an early evening sparring with Deva, he’d raced home to shower before Sienna arrived. Shopping for food earlier, he planned on making her a nice dinner. Since they’d spent the last two nights in Manhattan at her place, he’d taken the plunge and invited her over. Still nightmare-free with no unwanted hints of cinnamon, he prayed it was a sign his past was losing its grip. If so, his secret would be safe forever, and maybe he’d have a shot at a normal life after all.
He glanced around his living room to admire his quick clean-up job. Not that there’d been much to pick up, but he made a special effort to make the place perfect. Between his eye for design, his mom’s help, and a little bit of money, he was proud that his place had a mature, grown-up feel rather than the garage sale look of a bachelor pad. Sleek modern furniture, some black and white photography surrounding the flat screen mounted on the wall, and a neutral color pallet with a splash of aqua did the trick.
Sienna was the first woman he had invited for dinner since he bought the place last year. At first, he felt uncomfortable extending the offer, wondering if they were moving too fast. But in the end, he decided “to hell with it” and gave himself a pat on the back for consciously working on his self-esteem and control issues.
She might even stay overnight. The thought made him a little queasy and sent a small shudder through him. But he’d take it one step at a time.
Their night at the Mercer, and every night after that, had been amazing. The jury was still out on anything long-term but this was definitely more than “friends with benefits.” Surprisingly, he was okay with that.
He opened a bottle of wine while he waited, deciding to see how hungry she was before making dinner. If the last couple of nights were any indication, food would be the intermezzo between courses of bedroom-related activity.
He said a little prayer that they wouldn’t be interrupted by Angelorum business tonight. Anything could happen with the looming attack. The Guardians had investigated the warehouse on the Lower East Side yesterday, finding it empty with no trace of their enemies. Had it not been for Cara’s encouragement, Michael might’ve thought twice before extending tonight’s invitation to Sienna.
The bell rang as he uncorked the bottle of red in the living room. Setting it down next to the glasses on the coffee table, he went to answer the door.
He ran his fingers through his hair, still damp from the shower. His heart beat a little faster as he opened the door and let Sienna in.
Chapter 53
CARA
New York City. Penthouse. Tuesday, May 28, 7:30 PM ET
THE DELICIOUS SMELL of béarnaise sauce wafted up from the stove. Cara wrapped her arms around Simon’s waist from behind and rested her head in the hollow of his back, inhaling the fresh scent of cotton mixed with citrus.
“Mmm. Smells good,” she said.
He dipped the wooden spoon into the saucepan. “Want a taste?”
“Definitely,” she said, playfully nipping his back and sliding her hand down along the front of his jeans across the relaxed budge underneath the fabric.
“I meant the béarnaise,” he said followed by a deep chuckle.
“I know, but I keep thinking about what Irene said,” she said in a deep throaty growl. “I’m picturing you cooking in just an apron.”
He laughed. “Let’s save that for when we don’t have a house guest.” He twisted in her arms and offered her the spoon.
“Deal.” She closed her eyes and savored the sauce. “Mmm. This is the only way to eat asparagus in my book.” Simon had prepared one of her healthy favorites for dinner: salmon served with asparagus and a crisp green salad with vinaigrette.
Simon rested the spoon on the stove and swept her into his arms. “And what would you like me to cook for you while wearing just this apron?” He asked, and then buried his face into the soft skin at the base of her neck, nuzzling it.
“I’ll get back to you on that one.” She giggled from the tickle of his feather-light touch as his groin hardened against her.
“Would you consider returning the favor?” he asked in a low, sexy voice.
“As long as you don’t really expect a meal out of it,” she said. Her cooking skills were worse than awful.
“Um … am I interrupting?” Kai asked, throwing up his hand as he walked into the kitchen with a smirk.
Simon winked at her, dropped his arms, and turned toward the stove. “Dinner’s ready. Why don’t you both take a seat at the island?”
“Sorry to make you wait.” He put down his cell phone and pulled up a stool.
“No need for an apology. Cara mentioned you liked salmon,” Simon said. “I hope this meets your expectations.”
“I’ve no doubt if last night was any indication,” Kai replied and patted his stomach. “I wish I had even half of your culinary talent.”
Cara couldn’t have been more pleased at the friendship she felt forming between them. After she and Simon had returned from meeting with the wedding planner in Connecticut, Kai had spent the afternoon with Simon teaching him some basic medical tasks—like how to check her vitals, draw blood samples, and take basic measurements, among other things.
“Did you talk to the Sanctuary?” Cara asked, eager to hear his news as she took a sip of her Sauvignon Blanc.
Kai’s smile faded. “Yeah. They’re still running tests. I won’t have full results until we’re at the Sanctuary. Your basic labs were fine, but Celine wants to do some genetic testing when we’re back. In the meantime, I found out something interesting.”
“What’s that?” Simon asked, his shoulders stiffening.
“Nephilim pheromones can act as an aphrodisiac. But it’s usually strongest in males.”
“Really? Why’s that?” Cara asked, between mouthfuls of salmon.
“Even though Nephilim can’t procreate, they have a
strong mating instinct. With so few females born compared to the number of males, it’s the male who releases the most powerful scent in order to get a female to choose him over the others. It’s subtle when it’s between two Nephilim but between a Nephil and a human—it’s ten times worse for both parties.”
Finally. Some justification. “Thank you,” she said, giving Simon a wide smile.
He let out a breath. “Point taken,” he said, and stabbed a couple spears of asparagus.
“Did you talk to Sara? How’s she doing?” Cara asked, quitting while she was ahead to bask in her hard-won validation.
Kai’s eyes softened. “She’s doing well. My mom’s doing a spectacular job of spoiling her.”
“That’s what grandparents are for, aren’t they?”
He pushed his food around on the plate, distracted. “Yeah. She’s growing up so fast sometimes I forget she’s only four. She’s been saying the craziest stuff lately.”
“What do you mean?”
“She said not to worry about her, that Isa—her name for Ishmael—will keep her safe while I focus on what’s important to keep the world safe.”
“You’re right. Seems like a very grown-up perspective for a four-year-old,” Cara said, finishing her last bite of salmon.
Kai sighed. “Yeah. She’s been saying things like that since before the rescue. “Kinda weird, huh?”
“Define weird,” Cara said. Her whole life was weird.
“Do you think it’s possible she could be gifted in some way?” Kai asked.
Cara thought about it. Kai could have passed something down to Sara, since the Messenger traits pass through the father. “It’s possible…”
Out of the corner of her eye, Simon’s fork stopped on the way to his mouth.
“Speaking of weird, Simon how’s Isaac—”
Simon held up a finger signaling for her to give him a moment.
She gave him a quizzical look, and turned to Kai who just shrugged. Simon grabbed the pad of paper and pen from a basket in the center of island. He wrote a word and pushed the pad over to Cara and Kai.
Michael.
Cara frowned. “Why isn’t Michael talking to both of us?”
Instead of answering, Simon winced and reached up to rub his temple. A moment later, a chuckle boiled up in his chest. Simon bit his lip, struggling to suppress his laughter.
Cara frowned at him. “What’s going on?”
Simon burst out laughing until tears cascaded down his cheeks. He wiped them away as he gripped his side.
Cara glanced at Kai. No help there. Was Simon losing it? “What’s going on? I’ve never seen you laugh so hard. Are you still talking to Michael?”
Simon shook his head.
“What’s going on? Why didn’t he call me, too?” That was their usual protocol. At least once a day they shared a three-way conversation.
Kai sat back and tried to hide a grin.
Still clutching his side, he held up a palm. “It’s a guy thing,” he managed to say, gasping for air.
“A guy thing? What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
Kai sat back and glanced at Simon… like he knew what was going on.
Is testosterone the price of entry on this joke? Cara wondered in a huff.
“I’ve got to go, love.” He rose and leaned across the granite to give her a quick kiss before heading down the hallway, his laughter waning to a steady chuckle.
Cara yelled after him, “Wait, where are you going?”
“Brooklyn,” he said from the living room followed by the sound of the terrace door sliding open. “Can you wrap my dinner for me? I’ll finish it when I get home.”
“Wait, is it safe? You shouldn’t go alone.”
“I’ll fly down and pick up Paco on the way. See you later,” he said, the sliding door closing behind him.
“What the hell? What couldn’t Michael tell me?” Cara said to Kai.
Kai grinned at her.
Cara narrowed her eyes at him. “You heard the conversation, didn’t you?” Before she could grill him, her cell phone rang.
Cara looked at the display and then back at Kai. “It’s Sienna.”
“Better pick it up.” He chuckled, and returned to eating his dinner.
“Hey, Senny. What’s up?”
All she heard was the sound of Sienna crying. Cara stiffened and went on high alert. “Sweetie, what’s the matter?”
Sienna sniffled, blew her nose, then said meekly, “I handcuffed Michael to his bed and left him there… naked.”
“You did what? Why?” Well that explained a lot. She didn’t want to know how they’d ended up with a pair of handcuffs in the first place.
“He cheated on me,” she whispered through her tears.
“Senny, what are you talking about? There’s no way that’s true. Not even a small chance. I promise. What happened?”
“I called him before I went over for dinner, and a woman picked up his phone. She said they had just had a—‘workout’—and that he was in the shower.”
Cara spun through her earlier discussions with Michael. He’d mentioned a packed schedule, including a special late afternoon training match with Deva. Michael had once mentioned that he suspected she still hoped to rekindle their old romance. But Cara was sure Michael would never go there. He’d been happier this week than she’d ever remembered, and it had everything to do with Sienna.
“Senny,” Cara said in her best schoolmarm voice, “he had a sparring match with Deva at the end of the day. She probably just answered his phone. He has zero interest in her. The only person he has any interest in, at all, is you!”
There was silence on Sienna’s end of the phone. “Do you think she tried to make me think something was going on when there wasn’t?” she asked timidly, followed by the sound of more nose blowing.
“In a word, yes! They dated back in high school. She’s probably been jealous ever since she found out about that sex-fest you had at the Mercer on Saturday night. Senny, he hasn’t had a steady girlfriend in a long time. He’s not a man-whore. I promise.”
“Really?” she asked in a small voice that contained the first hint of regret. “Can you send Simon over to set him free?”
Cara fibbed, not able to reveal that the telepathic SOS had already been received. “Of course.”
“Shit, so you don’t think he cheated on me?”
Cara shook her head even though Sienna couldn’t see her. “Um,’fraid not. You just ruined what could have been a perfectly good night.”
“Oh shit. He’s never going to forgive me. I would’ve never been this angry if I didn’t care about him so much,” she wailed.
In all the years Cara had known her, Sienna had pulled many spectacular stunts. This one just nudged into the number one spot.
“Well, I’ll give you points for both creativity and execution,” Cara said. “I think this even beats the time you released all those baby pigs from the 4-H fair into the high school library. They were cleaning up pig poop for a week.”
She sniffled. “I wasn’t doing this to be funny. I was so angry. Cara, I don’t want to lose him. I… Can you help?”
Cara released a breath. “I think you’re going to need to beg for mercy, but I’ll see what I can do. Hang in there.” Why did the road to romance need to be this rocky?
Chapter 54
MICHAEL
Brooklyn, New York. Tuesday, May 28, 8:15 PM ET
MICHAEL LAY STEWING as he waited for Simon to come and release him. Thanks to Sienna, she had single-handedly supplied him with two of the most mortifying moments of his life. The first time was back at end of March when she made a mockery of his manhood in front of Cara over the Calvin Klein campaign, and then this. If he added the foursome disaster—that would make three. She had played a part in them all.
God help him, but he wanted to bury himself inside her and pound some sense into that beautiful head of hers.
While he’d been lying there, Michael thought ab
out what Sienna had said. The only logical explanation was that he’d left his phone at the dojo and Deva must’ve answered it. That alone was enough to piss him off. She clearly violated his privacy.
Sienna had spewed something about a workout and a shower as she left, and given how he’d spent his afternoon, technically nothing Deva had told Sienna had been a lie. But he could imagine that, depending on how it was said, it could’ve been construed in exactly the way Sienna had understood it.
Fucking Deva! He had every intention of blowing back over to the dojo to confront her once he was free and dressed. He would pick it out of her head if he had to.
Michael heard the front door open and Simon’s heavy footsteps enter the house.
“Back here, Simon,” he said.
“Be there in a minute.”
Michael kept his eyes on the doorway, his face hot with embarrassment. Simon’s low chuckle echoed in the hallway as he stopped in the bathroom.
Michael rolled his eyes and yelled to Simon. “You wouldn’t be laughing if our positions were reversed.”
“True, but it’s improbable that I’d ever end up in your position,” Simon called from the hall. Knowing Cara, Michael had to agree, making him feel even more foolish.
Simon’s smiling face filled the doorway as he tossed a towel with uncanny precision. It landed on Michael’s midsection. “I thought you might appreciate a little modesty. Now, where are the keys?”
Michael lay back, relieved. “On the dresser, next to you.”
Simon plucked them off the wood surface and strode over. Standing over Michael, he unlocked the handcuffs one wrist at a time and stepped back.
Michael slowly sat up and shook his arms to get the feeling back into them after having had them suspended above his head for an hour. Then he rubbed his wrists.
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