“It’s fine,” Zara said, sitting down with a cooler and a handful of glasses, a finger in each one held them together in the middle. “We usually have a table and the guys will moan, but if we remind Rave that he’s the reason there’s no table, he’ll shut up fast.”
“What?” Kadie asked. She hadn’t registered that Zara was setting a picnic in the middle of the floor or that it might be awkward or unusual for the battle-hardened Kindred to eat this way. “No, I meant, what will we do if they don’t come back?”
“Kick their asses,” Zara said, opening the cooler to take out a bottle of wine. “Withhold sex? I don’t know, we’ll coordinate punishment.” Another smile joined Zara rising onto her knees as she twisted a corkscrew into the bottle. “It’s going to be fun having another woman around.”
Hunkering down, Kadie set the two wine glasses side by side. “What could we do? You’re more capable than I am, and I’ll do whatever it takes, but could we be effective in getting them out? Alone?”
Zara put the bottle on the floor, but didn’t push down the arms of the corkscrew because she was fixated on her new colleague. “We’re not alone. They’ll get out of there, just give them time.”
“And if they don’t?” Kadie asked.
Zara put a hand on her cheek to stroke and soothe. “We’re not alone,” Zara said. Kadie took her loose hand. “The Kindred is more than just who you’ve met. If we have to mount a mission to save their asses, we’ll have plenty of help.”
“We leave you guys alone for two seconds and you’re getting it on.”
Kadie hadn’t heard the door open, these men had to still be in stealth mode. When she whipped around, Tuck was inside with Raven behind him who was closing the door. “What have I told you about the alarm, woman?” Raven said, scowling at Zara.
Leaping from the blanket, Kadie flew into Tuck’s arms, jumping up to loop her limbs around him and kiss him deep. “Phew,” he said, taking his lips away. “This is like one of our hellos, how long do you think I’ve been away this time?”
Every time he was away from her and she’d greeted him like this for returning, it was because she missed him and needed the connection. Now she knew that he deserved it for saving the world in silence so many times. Pride and gratitude made her kiss him again, he was an incredible human being, capable and skilled, and all hers.
They ate dinner, discussed what had gone on, and expressed great frustration at not getting the information they needed from Sikorski about Leatt. Apparently, that was important, the Kindred were wary of him, confused by him. Kadie could tell that they didn’t like to be in the dark because that set them behind.
A few times she made eye contact with Tuck and wished she could ask for them to be alone. As much as she appreciated what Zara and Raven had done and how pleased she was to have Howie safe, she still wanted time alone with the man she loved.
Somehow, she felt his need to be alone too, though given their circumstances, there was nothing either of them could do to achieve their want. She’d expected them to spend the night where they were in the motel and make plans for the future tomorrow. But the Kindred didn’t hang around.
At least, Tuck didn’t. He disappeared, leaving her alone with Raven, Zara, and Howie. As soon as he was gone, Zara started to pack up, she said they were going back to the manor. Kadie wasn’t sure what that meant, but she helped to tidy and pack, helped to wipe fingerprints from the room while reassuring Howie that everything would be ok.
As it turned out, the reason Tuck left, was to get a wad of cash and a vehicle, which he handed over to Howie the minute he got back. Making the boy swear to never discuss what had happened here, what he’d seen, or who he had interacted with, Tuck told him to get himself home. Kadie had more to say to the youngster who’d wanted to be her shining knight. She wanted to talk to Howie alone and she could tell he wanted to talk to her as well.
But just because they said goodbye now, didn’t mean they were saying goodbye forever and that was how she reassured him during her short talk with him outside next to the car Tuck had procured. She said some of the things that she wanted to and once Howie was resigned to the fact that he wasn’t going with the Kindred, Howie was eager to get in the car and get on the road.
She could understand his want to put as much distance between this area and himself as possible. Neither of them had had a time they wanted to remember. After watching Howie leave the parking lot, she turned around to see Tuck, Raven, and Zara coming out of the motel room with the last of their things.
“That’s it,” Zara said.
The truck was packed and beside it was a motorcycle that Raven tossed a leg over before kicking away the stand. “Are you coming with us?” Tuck asked Zara. “It’s a long way on the back of a bike.”
Zara nodded. “If you guys don’t mind a gooseberry.”
Tuck laughed. “For all the times I’ve played that role with you and Rave, I think you’re owed a shot.”
Zara kissed Raven and then got in the back of the truck. The journey was long and she understood why they’d started it when she was told that they wouldn’t get where they were going until the next night. They drove through the night and into the daylight, and still they kept on going.
Zara took a turn at driving, Kadie offered, but Tuck said no, which made sense because she didn’t really know where she was going. They stopped for food and it seemed that Raven was always close by, on their tail or scouting ahead on his bike.
They stopped at diners where they could view their vehicles at all times. Whatever was in that truck, they were packing precious cargo that they wanted to monitor. The Kindred didn’t like complications, just as she’d always known from Tuck.
As she’d been told, by the time they reached their destination, it was dark. Not that she recognized where they were. But they slowed on a street right by the shore, that she would’ve put money on being abandoned. It didn’t look much to her like there was a property here and she wondered if the Kindred resided in a secret cave.
The land rose in a sharp cliff that jutted out onto a peninsula that she couldn’t see. A wall ran almost parallel to it then carried on beyond the landscape in a long straight line that faded into the darkness. The motorcycle roared away and for half a second, Kadie thought Raven had crashed because he vanished in a blink. When the other two didn’t bat an eye at the magically-disappearing, suddenly-invisible motorcycle, she assumed that that was part of the plan. They carried on at a trundling pace and it was odd because what had been a jovial journey became somber.
Tuck slowed the truck and she almost missed the large black gate to their left that was opening ever so gradually. Yet, when it was just open enough for them to turn, they did. The gate wasn’t even fully open, it was still retracting. But in the mirror she noticed it stalled and began to close before they were all the way through.
“You always think of him, don’t you?” Tuck said, his eyes turned up to the rearview to examine Zara who was in the middle of the backseat.
Zara’s mood had dropped and she was distracted by the side window. “I don’t know why, but I always think of the first time I came here. I was defeated, so sure that I would never see Brodie again and then, there was Art opening that gate to let me in, standing in the beam of his headlights like some kind of sinister savior. At first I was terrified, I didn’t know what he was going to do, I still thought he hated me then. But he welcomed me here. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here now.”
“And neither would the rest of us,” Tuck said. “You’ve saved our asses so many times. He would be proud of you.”
“Of all of us,” Zara said.
The chief. Kadie almost said it aloud. It was something about the way that they shared the memories that made her feel like she should keep her mouth shut. She didn’t want to ask questions, she would learn what she needed to know in time.
“Five people,” Zara said and leaned forward to rest her forearms on the back of the front seats. “Art to
ld me five people had set foot in this house in the last twenty years. He asked if I wanted to be the sixth. So…” Zara straightened one arm so she could put her hand on Kadie’s shoulder. “I guess you’ll be the seventh.”
Seven people in twenty years, that was a daunting prospect. Whether or not she was going to be accepted into the Kindred, she had their trust. The house that emerged at the end of the tree-flanked road was large, gothic, and completely unexpected. They drove downwards into an underground garage that looked surprisingly modern given the exterior.
Going up spiral stairs, they paused at a doorway that Kadie expected to go through, but Tuck caught her hand so that she didn’t. “This is my stop,” Zara said and gave Kadie a quick hug. “You guys settle in.” She made eye contact with Tuck. “You know where we’ll be.”
“One of three places,” Tuck said. “One of which I’ll avoid at all costs.”
They shared a hug and then Zara disappeared through the door. “Where will you avoid?” Kadie asked.
“Their bedroom,” he said and winked before bobbing his head sideways. “Come on.”
Taking her hand, he led her farther up the stairs, through another door into a hallway. They went one way, then the other, and kept on going. The house had been large from the outside, but she hadn’t comprehended just how confusing it would be inside.
“Don’t worry,” he said, letting go of her hand to put an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll get used to it.”
“Will I?” she asked. They stopped and he pressed his thumb pad to the center of a doorknob to open the door attached to it. Gesturing her inside, he stepped back to give her a good view of the room she was about to enter. “Will I get used to it? Will you give me the chance to do that?”
Her breath was stolen when she scanned the room they’d gone into. The room was huge, the ceiling had to be twenty feet high. It was filled with beautiful, antique furniture that was made of real, heavy wood that had to be extortionate. There was a huge dresser and the bed was bigger than any she’d ever seen, suggesting it was custom made.
Doors stood in opposite corners and she speculated on where they might lead. Just behind her, on the same wall as the door, was a massive TV mounted on the wall with an entertainment center below it.
“This is…” she stuttered. “This is like a hotel. Like some luxury, twelve-star resort.”
He exhaled a laugh. “Don’t worry about it. We won’t get slapped with a bill, this is our room.”
It was a wonder that he ever came back to her if this was his alternative. But he was unfazed by the opulence and went over to sit on the bed to take off his boots. Pulling his tee shirt over his head, he gave her a glimpse of the body she’d been thinking about all night, then flopped onto his back.
He exhaled. “It feels good to be home.”
A spike of irrational hurt made her self-conscious. “So this is home?” she asked. She’d always believed that the apartment they shared together was the place he called home and felt safe. Kadie couldn’t understand how that would measure up against this opulent manor with its upmarket décor and exquisite furniture.
Here he had tech and tools and friends. As she moved toward the bed, she caught a glimpse of the vast ocean beyond the towering pointed arch windows. “It’s incredible here, the house is amazing, and Zara, Brodie,” she said, using Raven’s real name felt odd. “You have quite a life here.”
“Yeah,” he said, lifting his hand. Kadie took his offer and allowed herself to be yanked forward on top of him. Tuck absorbed the impact of her fall, but she quickly recovered and sat up to straddle his hips. “It just got better, having you here makes it better.”
“You had all this and I never knew,” she said. “I’m not surprised you walked away from me.”
“Hey now,” he said, crunching up to cup her face with his palms. “This was nothing. Toots, you were home. It feels good to be here. But it feels better to be with you, no matter where the hell that is.”
“How will we explain this to Dempsey?” she asked.
While he was sitting up, she straightened her legs to then crook her calves around his back, crossing her legs to keep him inside the circle of her lower limbs.
“Well you’ll have to call him and tell him that you’re safe,” Tuck said.
“He always believed I was,” she said, running her hands over his chest and into his hair. “But we have to decide what comes next. Are we going to do this here? Are you coming home with me? Or is this it for us?”
“Is that place home for you?” he asked. “Is that how you think of it? Could you be happy elsewhere? If that’s the place you want to be then you have to go there. You can have the business, have the apartment.”
“And you?” she asked. “Would you come with me or is your life going to be here?”
His certain gaze became less assured and dropped to her cleavage, not in a show of desire, but one of contemplation. “I love you,” he said. “But I can’t walk away from them. When we lost Art, the chief, Brodie had a meltdown, we nearly lost him. And then his brother died and so much shit has gone wrong. The only reason we’ve got through and we’ve managed to keep fighting is because we know we can rely on each other.”
Stroking him, she sensed his internal conflict. “I’m not asking you to choose. I understand that they’re important to you.” And it was important to her that he looked her in the eye, so she made him by scrunching his hair in her hands and urging his head back. “I want to be with you. But I can’t pretend I match up to what you have here and I don’t have the same skills as your friends. I’ll give you my all. I’ll do everything I can—”
“You always have,” he said. “And you do give me everything I need, just by being here, being patient.”
Patience was something she’d always had to have with him. Patience that he would come back. Patience with his lack of explanations. Patience that, while he gave her everything in the world she could possibly ever dream of, he wouldn’t trust her enough to tell the truth.
“So I guess what we’re saying,” she said. “Is that our life is here. We just have to figure out how we’ll make it work. How we’ll work.”
“You’ll learn,” he said. “Zara knew nothing when Raven appeared in her bedroom and told her that the end of the world was coming. But she stuck by him, she persevered, she took crazy risks that I don’t even want you to think about taking. But she learned and they’re stronger for it.”
“Then we will be too,” Kadie said, tightening her legs and resting her elbows on his shoulders. “I already feel closer to you. In all the years we were together and how crazy in love with you I was, I didn’t believe I could love you more and now I know that that was just the beginning and there’s still so much to come for us.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “So much to come.”
Tuck’s hands went under her top and he managed to pull it off over her head. Kadie hadn’t meant more sex, but she wasn’t going to say no. It felt like they hadn’t been alone in weeks, even though it had only been a few days.
He rolled her to her back and began to tease her body with his mouth. Kissing her lips, her face, her eyes, he brushed his hands across her neck, down her arms, over her breasts. As he slowly stripped her clothes from her body and discarded his own, Kadie felt content in this warm veil of security shimmering over them.
She didn’t have to worry about Sikorski. Howie was safe. Dempsey was running the business, and probably in his element without her there to constantly get on his ass or tell him what he was doing wrong. And here she was, with Tuck, her mission was complete. She had set out to find him and somehow they’d found each other. In horrible, despicable circumstances, but still they’d found each other.
As he moved inside her, she felt that this was new. He was the same man she’d always known, the same man she’d always loved, and yet there was so much more to him. There was a strength to his character, and a resolve in his eyes that she’d either never seen or failed to identify.
Tuck had purpose and he was sharing that purpose with her.
The shaft of his dick was thick and insistent in its objective. He wanted her to yield to him and her body was powerless not to.
“Tuck,” she said. “Tucker Holt.”
Calling his name aloud liberated her, she was tired of using the alias. She would get used to it, she’d have to, as the Kindred had their rules. But here in this house, on this land, Zara had switched from Raven to Brodie as soon as they’d crossed the threshold of the gate. So it was safe here, they were safe here, and that meant she could be with her man in any way she chose to be.
Slowing his pace to take his time in fondling each of her breasts, he lowered his mouth to them. Sucking, licking, teasing the pampered flesh, his attention made it hard for her to concentrate on breathing. One short breath followed a deep one, and she couldn’t find her rhythm, but his stimulating behavior carried on, sending her into an endless loop of torment. Hormones fizzed, buzzed, and ached inside of her.
They’d been doing this for so many years and yet he could still enliven every cell in her body, every part of her being wanted to reach that peak he strove to drive her over. “I’ve missed this body, my pet,” he breathed. “I love you and I’ll never leave you again. I’ll never let you out of my sight.”
That seemed almost impossible, but she appreciated what he was saying. “No,” she panted, tightening her thighs around his hips. “Because I won’t let you go. I want you here. I need you here.”
“Inside you?” he asked, while wearing an almost half-smile.
“Inside me,” she whispered and pulled him down to kiss her again.
It didn’t take long to lose control. Just like in their frantic joinings after he’d been gone for periods of time, that insistence, that need, burned and built until the pressure was too much for either of them to contain. Moving faster, he hit the wall, and in one long satisfied groan he compelled her into climax, making her body cease into static, matching the white noise buzzing in her ears.
Swift (Kindred Book 4) Page 28