Edge of Desire

by Rhyannon Byrd

  Riley could have kept on kissing her forever, lost in the moment, if Shrader hadn’t cleared his throat, his voice dry as he drawled, “Should I…uh, cover my eyes here or something?”

  A low laugh rumbled in Riley’s chest, feeling strange in his throat—but then, it’d been so long since he’d laughed out of happiness…out of pure, blinding joy. And yet, as happy as he was, there was still a knot of dread sitting in his gut over Kellan. Riley was just about to tell Shrader what Pasha had said, knowing they needed to get to the motel to see if they could pick up a trace of the Watchman, when Ian and Noah raced into the clearing, his brother nearly sagging with relief to see that he was alive. His gaze moved between them, taking in their tender embrace, and before Ian could even ask the question, Riley said, “She’s coming back with us.”

  “About damn time,” Ian grunted, before slanting his gaze toward the pile of ashes that were still smoldering, its spiraling tendrils of smoke struggling against the stormy wind. “Gregory?”

  Riley shook his head. “Pasha.”

  Looking around, Ian said, “Then where’s Gregory?”

  A proud smile curved his mouth. “Hope shot him and he fell off the cliff.”

  Ian blinked with a stunned look of amazement, then asked, “Do you think he could have survived the fall?”

  Riley shrugged his shoulders, pulling Hope into his side, his arm wrapped possessively around her waist. “In his Casus form? Who knows? But I doubt it.”

  Shrader walked to the cliffs, staring over the edge. “There’s no sign of him down there,” he called out. “Hopefully the tide’s pulled him under.”

  “Pulled who under?” a deep voice called out from the edge of the trees.

  Everyone turned to find Kellan standing there with his shoulder braced against one of the towering cedar trees that lined the clearing. He was drenched from head to toe, as the rest of them were, his skin was chalky, and his eyes were red-rimmed and bleary.

  Hope stiffened, giving a sharp cry of joy, just as Ian narrowed his eyes on Kellan and growled, “What in God’s name happened to you? You look like hell.”

  “Feel like it, too,” Kellan muttered, shaking his head as he pressed one hand to his stomach.

  “I was just about to tell you guys that we needed to get to the motel,” Riley said. “Pasha told me that she’d drugged him, leaving him there for Westmore’s men to pick up.” Catching Kellan’s gaze, he asked, “How did you get away?”

  The Watchman snorted. “Luckily, the drug she gave me must not have been dosed for a full-blooded lycan, because it started to wear off before Westmore’s men even showed up. The bitch was stupid enough to leave my keys behind, so I was able to drive myself back here in the truck.” Looking around, he said, “Speaking of the little green-eyed fiend, where is she?”

  It was Ian who answered, saying, “Riley fried her.”

  Kellan’s eyes went wide, his gaze lowering to the Marker that rested against the center of Riley’s T-shirt-covered chest. “You found the Marker?” he asked, his surprise obvious. “How the hell did you do that?”

  “Yeah,” Ian added, pushing his dark hair back from his face as he swung his gaze toward Riley. “How did you do that?”

  Lifting his free hand to rub the back of his neck, the other arm still wrapped around Hope, Riley explained how he’d used his newfound power to somehow pull the Dark Marker to him. “We must have been right on top of it today,” he added, “and just didn’t dig deep enough.”

  Gesturing toward the trees that surrounded them, Noah finally spoke up, saying, “It might have even been trapped beneath one of those trunks, if the tree is young enough. You guys could have kept digging and never found it.”

  Kellan did a double take at Noah, as if only just noticing that he was there. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “It’s a long story,” Shrader rumbled, making his way toward Kellan. “He can explain it on the way back to the house. I figure we can warm up with some coffee, if the power’s back on, then get started on cleaning up those bodies.”

  “How many bodies?” Kellan groaned, looking ready to collapse.

  Shrader slapped the redhead on the shoulder as Noah joined them, while Ian remained with Riley and Hope. Riley could hear Shrader making some smart-ass comment, in a low voice, about the tree he’d used to kill Westmore’s men, and then the Watchman looked at the three of them over his shoulder. “You guys coming?”

  “In a minute,” Ian replied. When the men were out of sight, Ian turned, meeting Riley’s gaze. “If I were you,” he said, “I’d get out of here. We got damn lucky tonight, but there’s no sense taking any chances. You should head out of town, and get her someplace safe for the night. Then drive straight for Ravenswing tomorrow.”

  Knowing his brother was right, Riley agreed to do just that.

  ONCE HOPE HAD packed a bag and they’d grabbed Riley’s things, they loaded into her car and drove for a few hours, wanting to put as much distance between them and Purity as they could, before checking in to a hotel for the night.

  It’d been a stroke of luck that before they’d even left the clearing by the cliffs, Seth McConnell had finally shown up with a small group of Collective soldiers who’d remained loyal to him after he’d broken ranks with the Collective Army. And while Seth had been pissed that he’d missed the battle, at least he’d gotten there in time to aid with the cleanup, helping the others to dispose of the bodies. Riley had quickly given the soldier a rundown of the events that had transpired, explaining about Westmore and the Casus, as well as Gregory and Pasha. As she listened to the harrowing account, Hope realized it was truly a miracle that they’d all made it through the nightmare alive. Then, once they were alone, Riley had told her about what had happened when Gregory had claimed she was dead, and it terrified her to know she’d come so close to losing him.

  Shivering at the thought, she finished washing her face in the hotel’s bathroom sink and opened the door to find Riley waiting for her in the center of the room. They’d only been there for a handful of minutes, but she knew that before another sixty seconds had passed, he would be inside her…covering her…reminding her that while things were far from perfect in the world, they’d somehow managed to find their own little corner of paradise.

  Breathing in the rich, provocative scent of desire that warmed the air between them, Hope walked to him, not stopping until their bodies were touching, chest to chest. With a dark, intense expression of lust shaping the angles of his face, he lifted his hands, pushing her hair back from her brow as he said, “No more talk about tonight, okay? I just want to hold you in my arms, under my body, and know that you’re all right. That you’re safe.”

  She nodded and, with shaking hands, he slowly undressed her, his dark gaze lingering on each bit of skin as it was revealed. Then he laid her down on the bed, covering her with the hardness and heat of his body while he threaded their fingers together. Pressing their joined hands into the pillow beneath her head, he buried himself deep inside her, giving her every inch. “Nothing between us, Hope. Just you and me,” he murmured in a deep, husky rumble of words that melted through her like hot, bubbling honey, while the dark, beautiful cross swung from around his neck, its polished edge catching the light. He filled her, enormous and thick, pressing hard against her womb, and then held there. It was a symbolic gesture. One of significance and intent. He was telling her what was going to happen. That he would fill her up…and give her a baby. And afterward, as they lay wrapped in each other’s arms, he kissed her mouth, and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything sooner. About the ceremony. About how I feel.”

  As she stared into his deep blue eyes, her mouth twitched with a grin. “I’m sorry I lied and said that I just wanted to use you for sex.”

  “You mean you don’t?” he asked, lifting his dark brows in a playful look of hurt surprise.

  “Oh, I want to use you all right,” she murmured, snuggling against him, “but I also want to love you. And
I knew that if I told you that, you’d never have laid a hand on me.”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled in that sexy way that she loved, a slow, kind of crooked smile softening his ruggedly sculpted mouth as he growled, “I want to lay more than that on you.”

  She smiled at his sexy teasing, then slowly tilted her head, her smile slipping as she said, “It almost doesn’t seem real, does it? I mean, so much has happened. Tonight was such a nightmare, and yet I’m so happy right now. Is that terrible?”

  “No, honey, you deserve to be happy.”

  “So do you, Ri. You’ve lived with your secret for so long,” she murmured, smoothing a fingertip over his dark brows. “Did you ever tell Elaina what you saw the night of the ceremony?”

  “I tried, but she wouldn’t listen. I think she felt guilty, and then I decided it was something for me to deal with alone. You’ll never know how hard it was for me to do that to you, Hope. I’ve missed you for so long.” His voice trailed off, and he studied her eyes for a moment, before saying, “Are you sure you’re okay with leaving Purity and going back to Colorado with me?”

  “I’ve loved it there, but it was never home,” she told him. “The only thing that I’m not okay with is being away from you.”

  “Won’t happen, sweetheart. We’re always going to be together,” he promised in a low voice. “I just hate that this is how it has to be. If I could stay in Washington with you, I would. In a heartbeat. But there’s—”

  She put her fingers over his lips to silence his troubled confession. “I know you would, Ri. But until this war is over, you need to be at Ravenswing. So I’ll go where you go.” She took a deep breath, then said, “And it’s the right thing to do, for me and Millie. She’s looked after me for so long, and I love her so much, but it’s time she got to enjoy her own life now, without me around.”

  They’d gone by the hospital to check in on her aunt as they’d driven through Wellsford, bringing her up-to-date on everything that had happened. Millie told them that Hal had come out of recovery. She also said that he didn’t remember anything about his attack, and they hoped it would remain that way. It had been strange saying goodbye, but Hope knew it was time for both of them to move on. After almost losing him, Millie had vowed that she wasn’t going to let Hal out of her sight, and maybe together they’d keep the café going…or just keep renting the cabins. It was their future, their destiny, and she’d do everything she could to help them.

  “Hal, he’ll be good for her,” she murmured with a smile. “But what about your job back in Colorado?”

  “I don’t know,” he rasped, staring into her eyes as he rubbed his battered knuckles against her cheek. “I didn’t think I’d still be around, so I hadn’t planned that far ahead. But now that I’ve awakened, it’s too dangerous for me to stay on as sheriff.”

  She nodded, understanding the troubles that still lay ahead for them. But she had no doubt that together, they could face whatever those assholes threw their way. After years of lonely desperation, they finally had one another, and nothing was going to take him away from her.

  As he rolled her beneath him, his blue eyes smoldered with a breathtaking look of love and possessiveness as he stared down into her face, saying, “Here’s the way it’s going to happen. You can argue, but I’m warning you now, it isn’t going to do any good.”

  “You’re just telling me, huh?”

  “That’s right,” he rumbled in a low, sexy slide of words. “And for once, you’re going to listen.”

  “I’m all ears,” she whispered, knowing instinctively that she was about to hear something wonderful.

  “Our lives aren’t always going to be this crazy,” he told her. “And someday, when this war is over, we’ll build a house, Hope. Wherever you want. Washington. Colorado. Hell, I don’t care if you want to move to the farthest reaches of the earth, so long as I’m there with you. And we’ll have a family. The life we should have had a long time ago. The life we’ve always wanted.”

  She smiled at the exquisite vision of their future glittering in his dark, beautiful eyes, and as he kissed his way into her mouth, she tasted the breathtaking promise of his love…and a wild, wonderful forever.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3397-7

  EDGE OF DESIRE

  Copyright © 2009 by Tabitha Bird

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