Edge of Dreams (18 page)

Finally, he looked up at the ceiling and drew a breath, letting it out slowly. Then he shocked the hell out of me.

“I was wrong. You are perfect for Clay.”

“Say what, now?”

“I understand now why Price could fall so hard for you,” he said. “You are his match. Just as hardheaded, and brave, as well.”

He took my cold coffee and set it aside, pouring me a fresh cup and adding cream and sugar in near perfect amounts. He’d been paying attention. He handed it to me, then poured himself a cup, no cream, no sugar. Nothing to sweeten his personality. He sat back down, leaning back and crossing his legs like he hadn’t just threatened my life. He ran his fingers through his short hair, making it stand up.

“I apologize for losing my temper. I abhor the Sparkle Dust trade more than I can say. I’d like nothing more than to shut it down, permanently.” He paused. “If you know how it’s made, then you know how to stop it. I need to know that. Will you tell me?”

Trust was a two-way street. Three-way, now that it wasn’t just Price and me. I nodded. “I will.”

He eyed me, the fingers of his left hand tracing a pattern on the arm of the chair. He must have read the doubt in my voice. “You really do have a low opinion of me, don’t you?”

I laughed at his surprise. “Shouldn’t I? Look at your track record with me.”

“Maybe I can change your mind.”

That sobered me. He was going to be a fixture in my life now.
Family
. The word finally sank in. Christmas and Easter and the Fourth of July. “Fuck me,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead.

He chuckled, and I glared at him. “You think that’s funny? Guess what, buddy. If I’m stuck with you, you’re stuck with me. Your friends will be mortified.”

“My friends, such as they are, will be delighted. If not, they can go to hell with my blessing. Clay has been miserable since the two of you split. I want my brother happy; you make him happy. End of story.”

That’s when I remembered the way Price had walked out on me. I sat up straight, sloshing hot coffee onto my legs. I didn’t notice. “What the hell have I been doing? We have to find him!”

I leaped up. I hadn’t gone two steps before he grabbed my arm and jerked me around to face him. His face had gone thunderous. “What’s going on?”

“I told him about Percy. I think Price might be going after him on his own.” If he was caught, if he was fumed—“Let me go!” I jammed my hand against Touray’s chest to help lever me away. It was like wrestling with the Hulk.

He grabbed my other arm and gave me a hard shake. It rattled my teeth. “Calm down. Tell me what happened.”

“There’s no time! Price can’t go after him alone.” Panic had set in. I was shouting. I kicked at his shins and twisted away. “Let me go!”

A blur thrust between us. I heard the sound of a fist hitting flesh. Suddenly I was free of Touray’s grip. I staggered back and fell over a table. Sharp pain bit into my thigh and shoulder as I went ass over teakettle. More thuds and grunts and a crash as bodies crashed into a table. Wood splintered and glass shattered. I scrambled to my feet.

Price and Touray were locked together. Price’s face was twisted with animal fury. Touray was holding on to him in a bear hug, trying to keep Price from punching him.

Price must have seen Touray grabbing me and had put two and two together and come up with his brother attacking me. Which, technically, was sort of true. Touray had been worried about Price, though, so I could forgive him. Not that he’d hurt me. Maybe a couple bruises on my arms and a little bit of whiplash. I could live with those. But I couldn’t let Price go after his brother. He wouldn’t forgive himself later.

I jumped out of the way as the two of them barreled past. “Hey!”

They didn’t notice me. I wasn’t about to jump between them. I may not be the smartest bulb in the box, but I did have some sense of self-preservation. I grabbed a pillow and smacked at them to no effect. Price was still wearing his gun in his shoulder holster. What if he decided to use it? That spurred me to think creatively. I resorted to a movie scream. I braced myself, sucked air deep into my lungs, and screamed with all the force I had.

That got Price’s attention.

He shoved his brother away and whirled to find me. He put one hand on my shoulder and pushed my hair away from my face with the other. He looked me over from head to toe. “Are you okay?”

“Are you insane?” I put my hands on his hips and curled my fingers through his belt loops. “You just mauled your brother.”

He cupped his hand around my neck, his thumb rubbing gently along my cheekbone. “Did he hurt you?”

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.