Edge of Dreams

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  I shrugged, not wanting to lie. “I was panicking. I didn’t know if you’d decided to run off after Percy on your own. Touray was trying to get me to tell him what was going on. I wasn’t exactly coherent.”

  He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, then pulled me against him, his arms wrapping hard around me. His body coiled so tight he was shaking with the tension. “No one hurts you.” I could feel him twisting to look at Touray, keeping himself between us. “No one.”

  I leaned back so I could see him better. “Which is what your brother’s been explaining to me.”

  “By restraining you. No. We can go to my place. It’s safe.”

  Touray snorted. “Like hell it is.”

  “Shut up,” Price snapped over his shoulder. “I told you to stay away from her. You weren’t supposed to talk to her without me in the room.”

  Not that I wanted to sit around shooting the breeze with Touray by myself, but still—“Shouldn’t I be the one to decide who I spend time with?”

  “Exactly,” Price said. “I know he scares you. I know you don’t want anything to do with him.”

  Again, I’m not the smartest bulb in the box, but I translated that just fine. Price didn’t want me to be so scared of his brother that I dumped him. Again.

  I tightened my grip on his waist. “He thought you’d be here with me. He wanted to tell me I was safe from him.” I couldn’t believe I was actually defending Gregg Touray, Tyet crime boss. Two months ago, I’d have crawled through a vat of snakes rather than sit on the same park bench. “We’ve decided we’re family.”

  I wish I had a picture of Price’s face in that moment. He looked like I’d just told him I was a Martian.

  “I won’t hurt her, Clay. I promise. I promised her, too. As for what you saw—can you blame me? I knew once you found out that that bastard burned Riley with cigarettes, you’d be on the warpath. I didn’t think she’d told you, or—”

  Price was no longer listening. He turned back to me, his voice so cold and quiet I could hardly hear him. “He did what to you?”

  His blue gaze wouldn’t let me look away. I was pinned in place. “Burned me. On my arms, with cigarettes. He was making a point. I’d been rude.”

  Price’s lips opened, and no words came out. He pressed them together and nodded as if making a decision. “There were no signs. I’d have seen them when—” He broke off and swallowed. “When you were lost in the dreamspace.”

  “I had a heal-all.”

  The corner of his mouth quirked and flattened. “I’m surprised. You don’t usually make of a habit of carrying one of those.”

  “It wasn’t my idea,” I admitted.

  “Whose was it?”

  “Leo’s and—Leo’s.” I wasn’t going to tell him about Dalton, not yet. He wasn’t over the news of the fumigation and Percy burning me. Finding out I’d been letting a squad of potential assassins follow me around me for weeks would send him over the edge.

  “Leo’s and Leo’s?” He wasn’t fooled.

  I licked my lips, and his gaze fastened on the movement. Heat flared in his eyes, and a burst of inappropriate feminine delight at his reaction suffused me. I’d never lit such a fire in any man before, and to do it in this tough, unyielding man—it was breathtaking and thrilling. I wanted to drag him off some place private to have my way with him, despite his brother looking on, despite me having just escaped from Percy, despite the war we were about to ignite together.

  Price’s pupils dilated, and he sucked in a sharp breath, all too aware of my response to him. All the same, he wasn’t going to be distracted. “Leo’s and Leo’s?” he prompted again, his voice rough.

  He was right. He and I had to wait, which meant I needed distance. I shook my head, uncurling my fingers from their hold on his waist and stepping back. Instantly, I felt cold. “I’d rather explain when you get everybody together. Telling the story in bits and pieces is making a hash of it. Besides, I could eat.”

  “I’ll get everyone. Be downstairs in fifteen minutes,” Touray said briskly.

  “I sent for Cass. She’s on her way.” Price slid his arm around me and latched me to his side. He faced his brother. “Don’t ever touch her again.”

  Touray flinched from the hostility and threat dripping from Price’s words. “I won’t.”

  He stepped around the broken furniture and slipped out the door, closing it firmly behind him.

  “Where were you burned?”

  “My arms.”

  He lifted each one, turning them and examining them carefully. When he found nothing but healthy skin, he took both my hands and pressed a kiss into each palm, then looked at me, his eyes haunted. “I hate that I almost lost you. I wouldn’t even have known it. You have to stop risking yourself.”

  I shrugged. “I’ll work on it.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted. He knew as well as I did that my life wasn’t getting any safer. “About the Sparkle Dust you ingested. You’re not . . . craving?”

  I shook my head. “No. I was told that I would have been begging for it a while ago, so I think I’m okay.”

  He closed his eyes and let go of a quiet breath. Almost like a prayer. “Okay.”

  “So,” I said, stepping back and looking down at myself. “I’d better change. I’m covered in coffee.” I didn’t wait for him to respond, but simply unbuttoned my jeans and shoved them and my underwear down to the floor. I kicked them away. “Oops. Looks like my shirt got some on it, too. Can’t have that.” I yanked it off. “Damn. How did my bra get soaked?” I unhooked the totally dry garment and dropped it on the floor.

  I stood in front of Price, bare-assed naked. I cast a challenging look at him. My ego took a bruising as he impassively stared back, totally unmoved by my striptease or my nudity. Maybe he needed a bigger hint.

  “Thirteen minutes and counting before we have to be downstairs.”

  He gave me the once-over from head to foot and back up, his gaze lingering low and then higher. Finally, he returned to my eyes and gave a faint shake of his head, his mouth curving in an irritating smile. “You’ve been through too much. Exposed to SD, burned, and nearly lost in the dreamspace. Sex is the last thing you need.”

  I wasn’t so easily discouraged. “Wrong,” I said, closing the space between us, my fingers working the button free on his jeans before he his hands closed on mine. I wriggled my fingers under his waistband. “It’s the thing I need most. Are you saying you’re not interested?”

  He gave me an arrogant look down his nose. “You’re in no condition for sex.”

  I lifted my brows and stepped back. I spread my arms and looked down at myself. I’m no stick. I’ve got hips and boobs. Price’s gaze dropped, and I jiggled a bit as I slowly turned around in a circle. “Really? I know I’m not that familiar with my own body, but I sure feel like I want to make love to you.”

  I slid my hands slowly over the sides of my breasts and down my belly. I was rewarded by a groan from Price. Taking that as encouragement, I moved forward again and unzipped his pants. This time he didn’t stop me. His hands hung at his sides; his head tipped back. He wasn’t on board yet.

  I slid my hands under the waistband, reveling in the silky warmth of his skin and the way his body shivered like a plucked guitar string in response to my touch. I went up on my tiptoes and flicked my tongue along the taut cables of his neck. He caught his breath.

  “I need you,” I murmured as I nibbled his neck. “Skin on skin. I need to feel you inside me. I need to hear you lose control for me. I need to feel alive and whole. I need—” I needed him to be sure of me. I needed to show him how much I loved him.

  “You need?” he prompted, his voice unsteady.

  “You. Now. Please.” I nudged his pants down so that they hung on his hips and looked up at him. I didn’t
even try to hide the tears that burned my eyes. “Don’t say no.”

  He held himself still for a breathless few seconds, and then he pulled off his gun holster and let it fall to the floor. His arms wound tight around me. He lifted me off my feet, grappling me to him, his mouth slanting over mine. The kiss was raw and desperate with need. I clamped my legs around his hips and held on to him like he was a rock in a hurricane.

  He carried me through the massive closet and back to the bed. Instead of laying me down, he turned and sat down. With my legs behind his back, I was helpless to fulfill the raging hunger inside me. Somewhere between the sitting room and the bedroom, he’d kicked off his pants, but his underwear still kept me from him. I rocked my hips against his hard length and made a complaining sound.

  His chest shook as he laughed. He stroked his hands over my back and hips, his touch sending sparks dancing through my blood. His lips moved down the column of my throat. He licked the tops of my breasts. I arched to give him better access. Doing so pressed me harder against his cock. He groaned. I did it again. He got revenge by bringing his hands up to push my breasts together, lifting them so that he could lick and suck my nipples. Electric delight made me cry out. I gripped his shoulders, pulling him closer.

  “Please, Price.”

  That was all he needed to hear. He pushed my legs down and lay back, leaving me straddling him. His sapphire eyes glittered. He rubbed his thumbs over my taut, wet nipples. “Take what you want, Riley.”

  I reached down between us, pulling his cock from his boxer briefs. I cupped his balls. He hissed and bucked in my hand. I smiled and gripped his rigid flesh firmly as I lowered myself down onto him. We didn’t have time to play, and I didn’t want it. I just wanted to be full of him. I moaned as he slid inside me. Pleasure spiraled through me, adding to the delicious ache winding me tighter and tighter.

  When I didn’t move, savoring the feeling of his rigid length, he thrust his hips gently. “Riley,” he grated. “You feel so damned good. Don’t make me wait.”

  I didn’t need more encouragement. I lifted myself until I almost lost him, then I lowered myself just as slowly. I did it again, then again. Price’s eyes thinned to slits as he watched me ride him, his hands running over me, cupping my breasts, tugging my nipples, drawing down on my hips.

  It wasn’t long before the pleasure inside me turned to a searing agony of need. I moved faster, clutching Price’s shoulders. He leaned up and took my breast into his mouth. At the same moment, he slid his thumb across my clitoris.

  I exploded. I shuddered and shook as euphoria crashed through me, clenching and contracting. As my pleasure crested, Price rolled me over, hooking his elbows under my knees and thrusting into me. He caught my pleasure and stoked it higher. Another orgasm roared through my body. I was helpless before it. Price groaned my name as he came, his body shaking and shuddering over me.

  I was boneless. My body quaked with the aftershocks of extraordinary bliss. I let my eyes drift closed. Even if Price’s grip on my legs hadn’t held me pinned, I couldn’t have moved. He drew his arms out from under my knees and held himself above me on one elbow as he brushed the hair from my face with his free hand.

  “Riley?”

  “Mmm?” I couldn’t form coherent words yet. I felt whole in a way I hadn’t since I’d kicked him out of my life.

  “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you?”

  “You killed me,” I said. “In a good way.” I rubbed my cheek against his arm, breathing in his scent. “I could stay here forever.”

  “But you won’t.”

  Hearing a hint of bitterness in his voice, I opened my eyes. “No. Would you want me to?”

  “I want you to be safe.” He traced a finger over my lips. “You could have died. Or worse.”

  “I know. You could have, too. Remember the explosion? Neither of us lead safe lives. That’s why I’m not wasting any more time. I want to be with you.”

  He pressed a kiss to my lips, pulling away before I could respond. “Then you have to promise me one thing.”

  I eyed him warily. “What’s that?”

  “Two weeks.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Two weeks. Just the two of us together. No tracing, no family, no friends, no Tyet business. Just us. So we can figure out what ‘us’ is and how to be us.”

  I smiled. I could definitely do that. “When?”

  “As soon as we take this asshole, Percy, down. Is it a deal?”

  I hesitated, then shook my head. “I’m afraid we can’t.”

  He scowled. “Why?”

  “We have a date for dinner at my stepmom’s on Saturday. She’ll hunt me down with dogs if I miss it. Besides, if you’re moving in with me, you have to meet her and my other brother, Jamie, first, or they’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches. Taylor will be there, too.”

  His thunderous expression smoothed. “All right. Dinner with your family Saturday night. Sunday we start our two weeks. Even if we have to go find a deserted island to hole up on. Deal?”

  “Deal. But if we’re staying at my house, you should know I only have some ramen, a jar of peanut butter, some chocolate-chip cookie-dough ice cream, and a couple boxes of mac and cheese. We’ll need to stock up on some groceries. I don’t want you to starve.” I smiled slyly. “Or run out of energy.”

  “I’m a good cook, but even I can’t make anything out of that revolting collection.” Price nuzzled my neck, sending delightful chills down to my toes.

  “It’s why I spend so much time at the diner. Patti and Ben make sure I eat well.”

  “Uh-huh. Grease and more grease, with a side of toxic fat and a pile of salt.”

  “Never say that where Patti or Ben can hear you or your life won’t be worth living.”

  Price bit my neck lightly. I shivered and groaned, then rolled away. “We are not going to make your brother’s deadline downstairs if you keep that up.” I sat up. “So you plan to make me healthy, is that it?”

  “I plan to make sure you don’t run out of energy,” Price said, running his hand up my leg to just above my knee.

  “Never,” I said, and then scooted off the bed. The last thing I wanted was to get hauled out of bed by Touray.

  “Riley.”

  Something in Price’s voice stopped me cold. I turned. His face had turned to stone. Only his eyes revealed the turbulence of his emotions. My heart clenched. “What now?”

  “I’m going to kill this Percy, you know that, right?”

  “I know that someone will.”

  He sat up. “Not just someone. Me. Not for justice. Not to save a life or in self-defense, but for what he did to you.”

  “Revenge,” I said, my mouth dry. I knew what he was saying. Asking really. I’d feared his Tyet side, the enforcer who killed on the orders of his brother. I’d come to understand that Price didn’t kill without good reason. He wanted the law and justice on his side. But this time would be different. Price was no longer a cop; even if Percy surrendered without a fight, Price would kill him. He wanted to know if I could live with that. If I could accept murder and still love him.

  Could I? But it wasn’t murder. It was extermination of an evil man. Eradicating him would make the world a safer place. It was no different than exterminating Hitler or Ted Bundy. No matter why Price did it, it was the right thing to do, the necessary thing.

  “I understand,” I said at last.

  “Do you? I have to do this. It’s about more than revenge. It’s about keeping you safe in my world. I can’t let anyone get away with touching you. They have to know they’ll pay and pay dearly. I’ve got to make a lesson of him.”

  I sighed. This was a part of his life I didn’t like thinking about, but he was right; I needed to face it. I didn’t like it, but I lived in a Ty
et world, and this kind of violence was how business was done. If I couldn’t live with it, then Price and I were over before we started. For a moment I couldn’t breathe. No. I wasn’t living without Price anymore. I wasn’t sure I even could.

  “I can’t promise not to have issues in the future,” I said. Price started to say something, but I held up my hand. “Even if I have issues, I won’t walk out on you. I promise.” I said it like a wedding vow. Maybe it was. All I knew was that it was the truest thing I’d ever said.

  “But as far as Percy goes, he needs to be killed. What he’s doing—” I shook my head, nausea churning in my stomach as I remembered the cavern of drug-feeding pens. “Putting him in jail just makes him a recipe book for someone else to take and use. He needs to be put down and everything about his Sparkle Dust manufacturing has to be destroyed. Whatever your reasons for wanting him dead, the fact is that Percy’s too dangerous to let live.”

  Price stood up. The stone mask had dropped away and his expression was a mixture of hesitation and doubt. “Be sure, Riley.”

  “I am sure.” I leaned against him, feeling his skin feverish against mine, feeling his heart thundering in his chest. I licked the spot where his pulse fluttered madly in his neck. “I’m all in. Body and soul.”

  He caught my head between his palms, searching my face for hints of uncertainty. I had none. At last he nodded, the tension releasing from his body. “About fucking time.”

  He’d said the same thing in his text when I’d asked him to dinner. Ordered him, really. Only now, I could feel the relief pouring off him as he held me close and kissed the top of my head with something that felt like reverence.

  That’s when it dawned on me that he was mine as much as I was his. Body and soul. That’s also when I realized exactly why he was going to kill Percy. Because if anybody touched Price, I’d slaughter them. Literally. He was mine to have, mine to hold, mine to protect. I was never going to let him down.