Fire Kissed (16 page)
Which was why Kaye found herself leaning back against her seat, closer to Bastian, who stood behind her. If Ferro was a strong forward current, taking and pulling and wanting, Bastian was an anchor, keeping her steady. If Ferro was cold iron, Bastian was light—and she needed very much to stay warm.
“Ms. Mathews works for Segue,” Kaye said, picking up her fork, “and she wants a meeting with the Council of Houses.”
Ferro had gone trendy and expensive in his choice of restaurants, the kind with a celebrity chef who served dollops of deconstructed whatnot alongside her branzino.
“Why would you be speaking to a human about the Houses?” A kind, baffled smile.
“I told her nothing, merely accepted the card,” Kaye said. “You said you wanted to earn my trust; well, how about you start by trusting my judgment.”
It was brazen to challenge him, but more dangerous to show weakness. She took a bite and tried not to swallow the mass whole. Ferro Grey would probably take her apart bone by bone for pushing him so.
“Segue,” Ferro said, sliding his gaze up to where Bastian stood behind Kaye. “I’ve done some checking on you.”
Kaye’s heart stopped, but her mouth didn’t. “As long as we’re on the subject, one of my clients also inquired about contacting the Houses. Wanted to make a deal. That’s twice in as many days. It is not
I
who is indiscreet.” Another small bite. Swallow. She went for it. “Word of the Houses has gotten out, and since hundreds of years have gone by since magekind moved in the open, I can only conclude that that public knowledge of the Houses is deliberate. I’d go even further”—now she was really going to die—“and guess that
you
are behind it. What’s going on?”
I
who is indiscreet.” Another small bite. Swallow. She went for it. “Word of the Houses has gotten out, and since hundreds of years have gone by since magekind moved in the open, I can only conclude that that public knowledge of the Houses is deliberate. I’d go even further”—now she was really going to die—“and guess that
you
are behind it. What’s going on?”
Ferro pressed his lips together, considering. Then his eyebrows darted up in a facial shrug. “We are going public.” He set the card aside. “It’s happening more quickly than I’d like, but there it is.”
“Public how?”
“Very carefully.” Ferro covered her hand with his. Possessive. He still wore that ugly iron ring. “Take your business, for example. You cater to only clients who can pay. They witness great power in a controlled environment. And they are left desperate for more. That is the reason you’ve been allowed to continue. It serves the Council’s purpose. Power. Discretion. Yet aloof.”
How did he know the way she worked?
“Your approach is exactly in line with my own,” he continued.
“In all honesty, I’m more mercenary.” She didn’t want to be in line with him. “I didn’t seek to further the Council’s ends, just my own.”
Ferro smiled, handsome. “And now that I’ve put in my sponsorship of your bid for a seat before the Council?”
She affected an avaricious kind of smile. “You did?”
“Your interview is tomorrow.”
“So fast?”
“Well, I do sit in the big chair.” He withdrew his hand and picked up his fork. “Would you like one by my side?”
Kaye’s head swam. She had to force herself not to look behind her to gauge Bastian’s reaction.
“Is the chair’s location a condition of regaining a seat on the Council?” She had to ask.
Ferro actually looked hurt. “No.” He took a bite. Swallowed. “But I hope that soon you might consider my company bearable.” He paused again. “I’d like to make you happy.”
“You can’t fault me for being on my guard.”
“No,” Ferro said. “I remind myself of that fact every minute or so. A formal arrangement would be easier, I think. House to House. But I don’t want formality.”
Kaye remembered: He wanted a marriage. A wife. Was that so bad?
“And yet times are changing quickly,” he continued. “We’ve just met, I know, but I’m giving you all you ask, and as quickly as I can make it happen.”
“I’m new and shiny and you decided you wanted me on the spur of a moment,” Kaye countered. “Because you don’t
know
me at all.”
know
me at all.”
His voice was low and harsh when he answered. “I know enough. One look and I desire. One conversation and my mind quickens. One show of power and my ambition is satisfied.”
Such passion, yet all Kaye felt was Bastian at her back. He probably had that impassive, stony look on his face again. The one that hid his thoughts. What would it be like if she could make the angel desire, quicken, and be satisfied? But Bastian couldn’t be seduced and he sure wasn’t interested in her ambition or her House power. All those he treated with contempt.
“What if I’m a romantic?” she tried, lightly touching her chest.
“You’ll find I’ve got a heart too,” Ferro said, too serious, “and I would be more than happy to dedicate each beat to you.”
Damn. She looked away, searching for a way out of this conversation. “I’m not ready for this. I’ve had two death threats recently.”
Ferro followed close behind her shift in conversation. “Come live at Grey House. There will be more danger. I can protect you.”
Apparently every topic led to a union between Grey and Brand.
Kaye used the opening to turn and look at her current protection. Bastian didn’t even flick a glance down at her, but his jaw was tight, hands clasped in front of him.
“I’ll make a bargain with you,” she finally said, turning back around. “How about we have a pleasant evening, and I’ll agree to consider your proposal, but for now we leave it at that?”
Ferro smiled slightly. “I’m still going to try to hold your hand later.”
Kaye smiled back. That would be fine.
“And I’ve been practicing a deft move to get you into my arms.”
The smile on her face faltered.
He must have taken her expression for encouragement. “And you’d better believe that every second I’ll be calculating how and when to kiss you.” He speared another bite with his fork. “But by all means, let’s leave off and have a pleasant evening. How’s your fish?”
The driver sped them home. The wet night rushed by the slick windows, but all Jack could see was the moment Kaye’s hand went up to the back of Ferro Grey’s neck as she returned the mage’s kiss. A glare of headlights, and Jack saw Grey’s arm around her waist, the forward list of her body. The press of their mouths.
Jack couldn’t breathe.
The ten seconds had lasted ten minutes. Ten hours. Would be in his mind for ten years. At the very least.
Kaye did her job too well, but Jack couldn’t blame her for it. He’d set this in motion. What did that make him?
A kiss today, deeper tomorrow. How long before she was in Grey’s bed?
Jack’s chest, lungs, heart, shoulders ached viciously, but from no wound or magic. Not the Shadow kind anyway. Kaye was strong and fast and agile, but it was still miserable not to be able to protect her from Grey.
Jack couldn’t even look at her, though she sat three inches to his left. And there was nothing to say.
It was just a kiss.
It was just a kiss.
Like hell. If Jack had done the same, it wouldn’t be “just” anything.
The car stopped in front of the town house. Jack got out and held the door for Kaye. She brushed by and left the lingering scent of Twilight in her wake. The wet night misted around her, like steam to her fire. She was doing her goddess thing, above it all, untouchable.
When she’d just. Been. Touched.
Just.
He was strangling with the little word.
The house was dark. He slammed the door behind him.
She flipped on the entrance hall light. Took off her coat. Put it over her arm. Regal. Her act. Liar. Couldn’t believe a thing the woman did or said.
Her mouth was moving. “... suspend meeting with clients ...”
But the sounds were warped. The tilt of her face shifted slightly this way. And slightly that. Her tongue artfully shaping sounds that made no sense.
“... can’t very well continue when ...”
She tucked a curl behind her ear.
Just.
“... for a little while ...”
Touch.
“... not when Ferro ...”
And then Jack was kissing her. Because she couldn’t say that name again, not one more time tonight, or tomorrow, or ever again, in his presence. He had to kiss all knowledge of it out of her and leave nothing but himself behind. He was a moth to her flame and he didn’t care.
His hands gripped her upper arms, but when she opened her mouth under his, her body saying yes, he made a grab for all of her. Hauled her up against the wall.
He trapped her there, his hand at her breast, his tongue rasping against hers, wild and wet. A bolt of lightning heat went through him, as if God struck, but Jack held on to Kaye and for once refused to care. His groin beat dark and needy, while he gripped the fabric of her dress and ripped because he couldn’t begin to think about zippers or buttons.
He felt a flutter of movement at his waist. Her bare hands found the skin at his navel. And he made an inhuman sound of longing.
She pulled out of the kiss to
shhhh
him, comforting, while she stroked and peeled off clothes to get them closer. Coat. Suit jacket. A tug and yank at his shirt.
shhhh
him, comforting, while she stroked and peeled off clothes to get them closer. Coat. Suit jacket. A tug and yank at his shirt.
“I’m here. I’m yours,” she said, answering the need he couldn’t have put into words if he’d tried.
But he had to know it. Needed to prove it. Had to kiss her more deeply. More absolutely than any before.
His shirt opened and the skin-to-skin contact darkened his mind. Mouth to neck. Kisses to breast. He ripped cloth as he went down to his knees, his mouth claiming. He stroked that waist, circled the knot of her belly button. He found a band of lace across her pelvis. His hands were busy, so his teeth yanked downward at her underwear. Above him, she cried out. Then his tongue found a paradise all Kaye in scent and taste.
Her hands were in his hair, trembling. Her legs parted; heeled shoes kept her way up high. He gripped her perfect ass. He was determined to get a real reaction out of her, a response she couldn’t fake. A kiss that truly claimed.
She gave a high sound, as if afraid, but he held her and wouldn’t stop because she was everything he wanted, all his lives, forever. Shadow could have him at last. He used his teeth and tongue and mouth, angry and hungry, to consume her until her body acknowledged with deep, surrendering shakes that she was his.
When he stood again, he was shaking too. Tears had left pink trails down her cheeks, but he didn’t care about that either. Her eyes were wide and bright, breath still coming fast. Her exposed body was glorious.
“I love you,” Jack said, the taste of her still on his tongue. He finally sounded like himself. The himself from eons ago, and not the soldier he’d become.
“I know,” she answered back. “I didn’t know what to do when he kissed me.”
“I do. Burn him,” he bit out. “You’re done with this job.”
Her head dropped to his shoulder, and the abrupt ecstasy of holding her in his arms knocked the breath out of him.
“I can’t quit,” she said to his neck. “I’ve been caught in this all my life. I have to be done with it. I can’t just run. Not anymore.”
“You’re fired then.” He turned his face into her hair. Tightened his hold because she felt so right.
She laughed weakly against him. “You’re missing the point.”
“I think you are.”
“Are we going to argue?”
“No more Grey,” Jack said again, pulling back to find her eyes. That one thing had to be clear. “And I’ll protect you from the rest.”
“No more Grey,” she repeated. Promised, and he’d hold her to it.
“All right then.” Jack picked her up and threw her across his shoulder.
Mine.
She shrieked and laughed a protest, but suddenly he had the strength of a hundred angels, though he wasn’t quite sure if he was one anymore.
Mine.
She shrieked and laughed a protest, but suddenly he had the strength of a hundred angels, though he wasn’t quite sure if he was one anymore.
A hand at her ass balanced her weight. The other tamed her kicking legs. Faker. He carried her up the stairs to her bedroom. He’d have dragged her to the closest soft surface for what he wanted next, but she was right: the couch was as hard as hell.
When Bastian tossed her onto the bed, Kaye had a pang of worry. She was molten with need, had been wanting him for so long now, but ...
“The angel thing?”
His beauty was beyond human, beyond her race even. There was something old and frightening in his eyes, but she couldn’t help the way she needed him. She was greedy, desperate to lose herself, to be consumed by him, her enemy, her lover, dangers ignored for lust. Magekind would kill her if they knew. And yet, there were a lot of ways to die. She figured riding Bastian into blind ecstasy was as good a way as any.
A swift movement, and he dropped his unfastened shirt onto the floor. “What about it?”
“Are you going to Hell for this?” Though that might have been okay with her. She was burning; why shouldn’t he be too?
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