By the Horns (29 page)

The last piece snapped into place. “You accepted the Snake because… Well, fuck.”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Snake gives me what I didn’t have—the power to kill my father. Please, you have to understand.”

His mind spun with Nat’s revelations. Her father was the man she would kill in his vision… Nope. Not going to happen. He would do what he must to ensure the vision didn’t come to pass. Starting with wedging himself into her plans. He’d be there, to make damn sure she didn’t succumb to evil.

He smoothed a hand down her back and coaxed her closer. “Wait a minute. Back up.” All this time, she’d been after her father, Xing, who was somehow involved in Zhao and the Empress’s schemes? “Does the Matchmaker know you’re going after your father?”

She slumped. “I haven’t mentioned him to her in a long time. I don’t think she suspects what I plan to do. I doubt she would have given me the Snake if she did.”

“She might agree if you fill her in. This is some serious shit you’ve stepped into. You shouldn’t tackle this alone.” His throat tightened as he pictured Nat battling Xing by herself, that malevolent glint in her eyes. Images of Zhao’s deformed body flashed through his mind. He couldn’t fathom what the hell Zhao had done to himself but, apparently, he wasn’t the only freak. If there were more of them, more half-demons roaming the streets, gathering, building…what? Shit, an army?

“I can’t drag anyone else into this.” She rose and hovered above him, her hair cascading around her face like a dark veil of silk.

“The fuck you can’t.” He surged upward, wrapped his hand around her neck, and smothered her with a kiss until they were both breathless. “I’ve been waiting to get my shot at your father ever since…” She twisted aside and his gaze dropped down her back, to the scar on the side of her spine. Nat had told him what happened only because he’d promised not to pummel her dad.

Yeah, he had a grudge the size of Ox’s ballocks.

“If I had realized what he would become, I would have let you.” Regret seeped into her voice.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t call for backup on this one? We don’t even know what we’re dealing with.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “Yes, I do. I’ve been tracking him for years. I’ve seen the destruction he leaves in his wake.” Her expression grew dark, like the shadows of haunted memories clouded over her.

“Okay.” He tilted her face and she lifted her lashes. “How do we find him?”

The corner of her mouth curved. “We don’t.” She padded to her duffle bag. “We set a trap and he’ll find us.”

Chapter 26

Nat shuffled through her duffle bag for her clothes.

“Hey. I didn’t say you could leave yet.” To add emphasis, Kassian reclined as lazy as a panther bathing in sunlight. “Helicopter’s not ready and I’m pretty worn out from that…exertion.” He winked, melting her heart and warming every part of her body below it.

Oh, but if she climbed back into his outstretched arms, she feared she’d never relinquish them. This whole time, she’d been worried he’d deem her a monster for planning to murder her father.

He understood and, even more, he wouldn’t hesitate to help her.

Kassian was on her side. He had her back in ways no one ever had. In the one way
he
always had.

She swallowed the lump of lamentation for a past she’d sacrificed and a future that would never be actualized. Her path had been her choice and nothing would knock her off it. Not even the evidence of his heightening arousal. She tore her gaze from his decadent body, bottom lip drawn into her mouth. This island fling had to be just that.

Dipping her toes into the water once had been wonderful. If she stayed any longer, she’d be dragged under and might never resurface.

Her final mission was still her endgame. Confronting her father was a suicide mission. She’d always known that because, even if she didn’t die, the Matchmaker would never tolerate Nat’s disobedience.

She was breaking every rule. Using her Lotus status to pursue her own agenda. Worse, she would employ her Chosen spirit in the act.

It would be unforgiveable.

Which was precisely why Kassian could not be there for the final act.

This was one assignment she had to complete alone.

Even if Nat didn’t have this task hanging over her head, she could never leave the League to be with Kassian. Hell, she could beg and plead with the Matchmaker all day long, until Nat had no more breaths in her body, but the woman would never change the rules. Precedent and all that bullshit. If she let one quit the Lotus League, she’d have to permit others the same.

“Chop chop, big boy. Time’s a-ticking. Demons don’t wait for anyone.” Gah. She spewed a bunch of nonsense because her brain had checked out. Though she’d turned her back to him to dress, her mind was fixated on his gorgeous body, on the care with which he’d pleasured her, and hell…

Enough.

“Okay, then.” He cleared his throat and stomping thudded as he probably searched for his clothes. “Guess I’ll get back to work. How about you run through this plan of yours while I fix our ride?”

“
Mmm hmm
.” She hummed an affirmation, keeping her gaze off him until he was clothed. Not that a clothed Kassian was any less sexy or tempting than a naked one.

She twisted her hair into a long braid and tied it with an elastic band from her duffle before facing Kassian. He’d tossed on a T-shirt and shorts. His slick hair had dried, the ends curling around his collar while the tips on the top of his head he spiked with his fingers.

He didn’t glance in her direction as he strode toward the helicopter.

She followed him and assumed a seat a safe distance away, one where she could carry on a conversation with him while staring out toward the ocean instead of at his flexing muscles.

While she ran through her plan, he added his suggestions. It wasn’t as simple as she’d first conceived but, after a couple of hours, they’d hashed out a thorough strategy.

Kassian dug around in the shed and reappeared bearing several cans with non-descript labels. She raised a questioning brow to which he smirked. “Dinner.”

Well, it beat starving to death.

They gathered driftwood as they hiked to the beach. Once she had an armful, she dropped it in a pile beside the stone-ringed fire pit Kassian assembled.

She crouched beside him. He used a flint rock to light the tinder. The wood caught flame easily, just like the sparks between them did. After a few minutes, a blazing bonfire crackled before them. Kassian placed a grate over the top of the flames and, after cutting open the tops of two cans, he set them on the grate.

Within a few minutes, they had hot, hopefully appetizing food.

“Cheers, mate.” Kassian handed her a heated can wrapped in a palm leaf and tilted his can toward hers.

“Cheers. To a lovely, mysterious meal.” She winked and he chuckled.

“One of my favorite games. Meal roulette. Never know what you’re gonna get.”

She laughed until she lifted the can to her nose and peeked inside. “
Ugh.
” She reared back, scrunching her nose. The contents smelled more like dirty laundry than a product made for consumption. “What the hell is this?”

“Pungent, that’s what it is.” Kassian curled his lip and held the can away before rolling back his arm and chucking the contents into the fire. He set aside the empty can. “Let’s hope round two has a better chance at being edible.” He grabbed the second set of cans and heated them on the grate.

“Okay, but why keep cans without labels? Makes no sense.” She scuffed a fingernail along the glue and paper left over from the peeled off label.

“Monkey.” Kassian chuckled. “When we caught her, she laughed her ass off like it was a great joke. Mischievous little thing.”

Ah. Any words Nat might have offered him lodged in her throat. He was hurting and she regretted reminding him of his pain.

“She’s going to be okay. That girl’s tough.” She rubbed her hand up and down his arm. His closed overtop, his large warm fingers sliding between hers.

“Sitting here with you feels like old times, yeah? Big bonfire on the beach.”

The dreaminess in his wistful grin tugged a smile at her lips.

“It was never the same after you stopped visiting.” He squeezed her fingers. “Everything got worse. I got worse.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not blaming you. Just coming to terms with it, I guess.” He kept his gaze trained on the ocean and she struggled to do the same.

“How are your parents?”

He shrugged. “Same as always. They assume I’m off partying in KL. Or Thailand or wherever. They don’t care. I transfer the funds they put in my account to Mei’s vaccination efforts and it looks the same to them.”

Ouch. Her father might be a monster, but his was an asshole. Kassian’s older, successful brother was the only child their father acknowledged. It wouldn’t have mattered if Kassian had become a brain surgeon or a world class CEO. Probably part of why he hadn’t. Why try so hard to be accepted when he never would be?

His mother was, perhaps, even worse. She was obsessed with herself and her “charities,” which were a front for her many lovers. When Nat had gone to one of the functions, the woman had acted like she wasn’t a mother, as though having children made her less desirable.

No wonder she and Kassian were screwed up. Doomed in the love department. They’d both had the worst of upbringings. His—cold; hers—hot, and neither a role model for love.

Oh, she believed in love…for others. It seemed to work for Sheng and Lucy. She didn’t doubt the successes of the Matchmaker’s pairings.

There was a difference between caring for someone and being able to share her life with them. Because she cared for Kassian, she could never be with him. Someday, she’d fail him as surely as their parents had each other. She couldn’t hurt him.

He’d probably concluded the same about her. She laid her head against his shoulder and gazed at the emerging stars.

“Does the Jade Emperor even give a damn about what’s going on down here? The Red Death, the army Zhao is building… I mean, he never sends us any orders.” The Jade Emperor—the ruler of the deities in Heaven—had assembled the Chosen, but that appeared to be the extent of his involvement. The Council of Elders supposedly handed down his decrees, but those had been eerily nonexistent, of late.

“What I think is, fuck him.” Kassian sighed. “If he doesn’t care, it’s no loss for me.
I
will fight for what I believe is right, regardless of the orders from above. It’s better if he doesn’t tell us what to do. What if I didn’t agree?”

“True.” She sighed and her eyelids fluttered. The smoky flames, the rich, decadent scent of firewood, and the salty breeze from the ocean. This moment was like every summer she’d spent with Kassian. Although this time, he saw her as a woman, not a girl. He’d made love to her, not just kissed her.

If she had her way, he’d be the one to abandon her this time.

***

Nat’s eyelids closed and she drifted off, her head slumping against Kassian’s arm. In her sleep, she snuggled against him, clutching his shoulders. Too bad conscious Nat wouldn’t do the same. Wouldn’t put up such a front of being independent. Would
need
him.

She did. No matter what she showed the world, Nat was the same as him on the inside.

Now that he was aware of what consumed her—the guilt over her father that had gnawed at her for years—he was empowered. He would stop her father. For her. Maybe then, she’d realize she didn’t have to be alone. There was no one to fight anymore, except herself.

He shook his head. If he didn’t stop, he’d dream up all manner of foolish fantasies. Nat remained a Lotus. That wouldn’t change.

She’d given him no indication she’d even like him to stick around. He wouldn’t be that guy—the one who refused to accept rejection.

Kassian let the flames of the fire die out before he picked her up and carried her to the bed. He laid her down, but her arms remained clasped around his neck, tugging him down with her. She clung to him, limbs sticking to him like a spider’s web he’d been caught in.

“Kassian?” she murmured, her eyelids fluttering.

“Yeah?”

“Stay with me?”

“Always, Nat,” he whispered back and kissed the top of her head. Reclining on his back beside her, he snuggled her into his side and tucked his free hand behind his head. These mixed signals from Nat would be the death of him.

She moaned against his chest and her hand smoothed across his abs, silken fingertips trailing a path to his cock.

Well, damn. She stroked his length and it sprang up, jerking into her palm like she was its fucking puppeteer. He gritted his teeth to stop from rolling her over and driving into her. Was she awake or acting out the scenes of her dreams?

As she stroked the slit on the tip of his shaft with her thumb, he didn’t bloody care anymore. She couldn’t tease him like this. Play hot and cold, and never feel the burn of their passion like he did.

He rolled to face her and cupped her chin in his hand, bringing his mouth down upon hers. Her lips parted on a soft moan. She draped her thigh across his hips and rubbed her pussy along his hard-on.