Protector (6 page)

Chapter Ten

[

Pizza, her favorite.  She scooted her chair around like she was going to leave me so I accidentally went into demanding mode as I am who I am.  My hand flattened out in front of her calling her to a halt.   

“Hold on.  I have something.”  I stood and zipped behind her back knowing Claire had helped me plan this.  Claire
’s winning smile told me she was as much into this as I was.  She giggled sometimes when I mentioned all the things I needed for Anastacia's arrival.  I think she had my best interest at heart, but also a certain cupid’s arrow handy at a moment’s notice.

...
trust him but I don’t know why.

“Happy Birthday to you. 
Happy birthday to you.  Happy Birthday dear...Happy Birthday to you,” I reminded myself how much of a freaking dork I was being.  For her.

I slid the made-for-one sized cake in front of her and kneeled down.  With yellow icing to match her hair and a single candle in my own hope to have her join me as one, it was the perfection of lop-sided and obviously
home-made.   “Not what I would expect from your kitchen.”

“I made it.” By her look,
I might not should have admitted it.

“You made this, for me?”

I wish she hadn’t looked so shocked. I felt damn stupid now.  I smiled anyway goofy and stupid like for her.  “Make a wish.”

She pouted,
“Only if you do too.”

“Why?” That surprised the hell out of me.

“I don’t know.  You just should.”

She watched me even after I closed my eyes.  I knew because she leaned in close enough I could feel her breath on me.  Her scent alone was heaven.  “I can feel your breath on me.”

She shot a little a bullet in the air. 
I was too close to him... repulsed by me.

“Just the opposite.  I am mesmerized by everything you do.”  My emotions didn
’t lie either, nor did hers. 
She
thought I was repulsed and here I thought she felt the same. 

Can he feel mine? 

Her emotions, she meant.  Her pinked cheeks told me the compliments were getting easier but not fully welcomed yet. 

I nodded so slow I felt my head would explode with the possibilities.  She knew what I meant.  Where was the ring?

When she leaned over on her own volition and didn’t shy away from her own desire, she felt my own loudly. 

Like
a radar, she answered my own questions
.    ...explains the eyes. 

Taking yet another risk was worth it if I gained her trust so I leaned in further on my knees and enjoyed the way her breathing became a staggering wisp.  She floor-boarded me with her next words. 

Staggering, speechless, completely taken aback is more like it.  I can’t seem to think logically when you get that close to me.   I can smell you, sense you, HEAR you.

As soon as her confession ended she felt around her neck for the ring and realized what I knew now.  As desperate as I was to hear more, she hugged it close to her skin again cutting me off.  

“You’re wish now!” I informed her.  The smoke circled around us and left rings above us.  Her eyes followed it at first and then reprogrammed on mine.

“And yours?” she narrowed her eyes and I couldn't read her for a second.  Her mind was closed and I was forced to read her face only.  Torture bit like a nail to concrete.

I let her know the truth she
maybe
wanted, “It already came true.”

She sighed and held her breath.  I listened to her reason a few things out.  I also figured out how to make her lean just a little to the left to make the ring lose its connection to her skin.  Heck yeah! 

The only thing that concerned me was that she felt unwanted and doubted her own beauty inside and out.  How did she not know I was totally into her?

I cut the cake after a few watchful exchanges of just rubbernecking looks.  After that, she wouldn't look at me but swallowed a dozen times. 

“Ladies first.”

She hesitated at sharing a plate, but examined my bite and then followed suit.  I wanted to laugh when she interpreted me taking the first bite due to poison tasting and not a gentlemen-like manner. 

We took turns waiting for the other.  Three bites later, she was done.  “Thank you.  That was…I can’t believe you made that.”

I ventured to remove the permanent smile from my face, but she was forever making it reappear.  I led her to the den in hopes of information for a chance to spar her again and be able to touch her more. 

“A few questions answered perhaps and then maybe a little swordplay?”

I wonder if he would take his shirt off
.  Her eyes sparked and I lost my footing but hid it extraordinarily well.

Leaning! 
Wow!  She was asking for me to shed my clothes
.

She flopped back in her seat on the sofa where she curled into a ball again. 
By the gods
!

You know, a girl should have some secrets.  I
’m going to die of embarrassment.  While I am at it, let us feed the fire with some facts. 
“Sacrificial virgin princess?” her voice cracked.  “You were going to trade me for my brother.”

I was dumbfounded.  Did she really say that? 

“Answer!”  She was angry too fast. 

“No!  I had no part in that.  Your brother was a part of it from the beginning.  He knew the
sacrifice
was evident.  He did it to save you.  He was only a distraction to keep you safe.”  For me!

“Szar!  He hates me.  He only cares about the crown.  He wouldn't do anything to save me.”

Was she serious?  “He does not hate you, I think if you will let me theorize, you will find a jealousy of the fact that you were marked and he was left blank in his eyes.  He will become the Valkyrie king one day.”

What about me? S
he thought then asked
, “
And where does that leave me?  And how would you know?”

“Are you ready to know that yet?”

Her lips peeled to nonexistent. 

“Tell me what you do know?”  I could fill in the blanks without scaring her.  “If you
don’t trust my intentions, you could simply remove the ring and nothing could I hide.”

She answered with my own sarcastic moves, “You know, I could have used one of these when I was growing up.   I would have found all the things my brother snatched from me and had revenge.”

“Yet it only is needed for me.”

“Why is that?” she challenged me not for the first time.  The curiosity is written all over her face.

“You’re ideas first.”

She slyly slinked her hand around the ring with a flare of deception.  I allowed her this in recognition that it may get me what I want in the end.  Her!

“We are marked.  The sun for us.  The stars for…aside from all the other likes we listed last night, you are the Hunter by night with the sun.  I know the prophecy says they will come together.”  While I enjoyed her blush and heated with the idea that she forced herself not to say the Hunter’s name, I grew concerned with other ideas of why she might avoid his name.  And...she twisted the necklace like she would open the lines of communication, but no thoughts were coming through.

Heaven help me I wanted to know why her cheeks burned.  What was she thinking?  I wrapped my huge hands on her small neck tracing a line around the curve of her jaw.  Bold was winning.

Suddenly, I heard her.

Why did I let him do that?  Why did he do it? 
She started in,
“I am confused about who this prophecy is really talking about and wonder if it is really me at all.  People are trying to kill me and I only know that they held my brother hostage, or so I thought.   My birthday is essential somehow, and being sent to Hunter school was an assignment to get more information about Szar’s kidnappers, or was it really to keep me with Calum like I guessed.  You could be that person for all I know and I am telling you everything like I have been taught never to do.  I have been lied to my whole life about who I am, my mother wasn’t human in any way and left me.  What else?  I am completely frightened at what possible choice I may have to make that I know has to be very soon, and above all that is the reverse of everything I thought myself to be, I have just shown a complete stranger every single one of my moves on the floor and allowed him to take me even in my sleep.”  She took a long drawn out breath.

I refused to move just yet.  I wanted to hear what her next words would be.  She gave more than I bargained for.

I above all, wanted him to kiss me.  Taste his lips.

Chapter Eleven

No, I seriously didn’t move.  She had just said she wanted me to...“I have not and will not lie to you.  The prophecy is real.  I have watched it unfold for a decade now.  I can’t see the outcome, but I have seen the events play out.  I don’t count myself as a stranger anymore, for we have shared a plate.”  I used her thought as a gateway, “I envision only fighting you for pleasure, and I most likely will not take you while you sleep without your permission.”

She blinked twice.  “How do you eat?” She covered her eyes, hiding herself.

Was that what she worried about?  “Meaning?”

“Do you kill people with your mouth?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

I had been asked this before.  “No!  I keep my refrigerator well stocked.  I have never bitten anyone if that is what you are fishing for.”

And like that, the threshold let the dam free. 

Like a match lighting the fire, her face changed and went through at least three emotional turns and she rose on her knees that registered in slow motion at first as she hurdled my legs and landed atop me, against me.

My body was petrified so quickly from the warmth of her, but just as swiftly I melted into her curves and the forcefulness of her lips.  She urged my mouth open to her.

I had kissed girls, but no one had ever initiated a kiss, nor ever once demanded such action.  I hoped she didn’t feel how my body shook from her hands moving up and over the edge of my hairline giving me a numbing feeling that was slowly moving in a downward spiral as she twisted her fingers through the loose strands.  And I sure hoped she didn’t feel what she had made happen with her abrasive desire that had been building in my own body for years.  Every girl before was just a girl.   Every girl is her.  I knew that now.

I had searched for years for someone to replace her.  Make me forget her.  It never happened once.

I felt along her bottom lip with my tongue and parted her now closed lips in the midst of pulling her closer still to invade my own personal space past what was already there.  When our tongues collided I knew in that moment I would never let her go.  Couldn’t let her go.    Her mind was open like my own and simultaneously a collective inner sigh was felt and heard by the both of us.  She didn’t want to stop, and I didn’t offer.

The closeness of her body made me
lock everything else out. 

For someone so small and fragile at most, she incinerated any evil in my life and inexplicably took my breath away.  Risky moves now were not good, but I wanted more.  Touching her anywhere was like meeting the sun, warm and all consuming.  She flinched at first when my hand went into the small of her back and then relaxed into me, pushing even like she needed more. 
Please make me stop?

Yank!  Panting and full of something she
shouldn’t see in me yet, she half thought of the supposed “yellow flecks” she saw in my eyes and yes, wanting more.  I was in heaven and hell.  I told her,
I can’t hurt you.  I will not!

Halfway across the room she jumped out of my arms and the cold hit me like a brick.  I
couldn’t feel her and it was painful.   

“Hurt me?” she panted.

“Not what you think.  I wouldn't hurt you.  I meant,” I panted back.  Our breath’s in unison, “I mean I don’t want you to do this and then find out more and hate me tomorrow.  It will hurt you.  My selfishness kissed you back.”

“You
didn’t want to kiss me?”  A tear slid down her swollen cheek that I had just tasted, and I wanted to kiss it away. 

Such a dang girl,
she cursed herself for crying.

“Anastacia Anat, I have never wanted anything more in this life than to have you or your lips or your thoughts or, heck, I want everything.”  I covered her with kisses and hands and
...too much.  My brain told me it was too much. 

“Stop!” she yelled.  “Like everything I have never known, I want you and I have no idea why.  But I have to know.  Will you hurt me?”

Still too far away from me, she adjusted her dress and kept her eyes away from mine halting at my shirt line.  Oh, her eyes sought out my mark. 

“I will never hurt you!  No one
will ever hurt you.  Didn’t you you hear me?  I've protected you for a decade and vowed death before anyone harms you.”

“Death!  Why?” She was at least listening.

“Anastacia, you are the sun.  I had to wait this long for you.  I found you.  I will be in a thousand pieces if you die.  And that will not happen.”  My anger mixed with her own, but I couldn't figure where her anger surfaced from.  She liked hearing her name.  I decided she felt my anger and let it run into her.  We were already merging in some way.  I liked that but not the anger.

The ring loose she asked,
Why have I not been allowed to know you?

I told her the truth.  I would always tell her the truth no matter how much I left out.
  I was made to stay distant.  If they got me too, they would have killed all three of us a long time ago.  Your father’s cleverness and amazingly loyal guards kept us all three alive.  I couldn’t meet you.  Although we did meet at least one other time.

I know
. She moved back to me.  I didn’t remember her moving.
 
She touched my left shoulder where the scar sat.

I curled my own lip up thinking selfishly of times she had touched me in the past and dang if I
didn’t blush at thinking of my previous fantasies.  I finally found my voice and finished my previous thoughts.

One other Kissa.
 
I lifted my shirt up to show her.
  Remember your first mission?

She nodded at me and questioned,
Where are you going with this?

“You were sent into the
Were court hideout near the side of the mountain.  You were there for information only.  I met you that night.  I read your thoughts and you read mine.  You didn’t want to kill anyone.  That amazed me and kept me staring a second too long.  Long enough you had time to see me and throw your #1 into my shoulder.” 

“I know what you said.”  She reverted back to talking aloud like it was second nature.  I did it on purpose just as a little experiment and felt very satisfied with my results. 

She continued on, “Someone from the darkness told me to look out when the two knives were coming behind me just after I struck you.  You saved me.”

I laughed inwardly,
“And you have your knife back now I see.”

My #1.
  It was you.  And you saved me.
  Her shock was everything I had hoped it would be.  And then...

...
she freaking attacked me again with her luscious mouth.  I had no choice but to comply.  What man wouldn't? 

I pulled her back again wanting to be sure she really wanted this.  I
couldn’t hurt her. 

Stop that
! She pushed the ring aside like it burned her. 

“Are you sure this is what you want?” I panted like a dang dog at her.  Heck, if she did make me a dang Labrador retriever I would follow her anywhere.  Next I would be cooking her meals and buying her things just to see her smile.  Alread
y done.  Stick a fork in me, because I am so well-done.

She out-lined her words one at a time, “More positive than about anything else in my world.  I want…”

She came back for me.  Oh, yeah!  I kissed her slowly this time savoring each taste of her tongue and mouth.  I sent little shivers all over her with the small butterfly kisses to her jaw and neck and side of her mouth.  She even made an all moped out face when I pulled back to see her own.  I wanted to see her eyes when I kissed her, what they held for me.

I
can’t live without this.

Neither can I.
I answered the long awaited words I couldn’t believe she had emphasized so precisely.

You know, this thought reading could come in handy.  It
’s a great secret weapon.

I frowned heavily.  Was she hinting that she knew the
future, that I would lose her?

I mean torture.  I could torture you with this.  My friend Maze, she schooled me in the art of understanding men a little better.

Oh, do tell.  “Really,” I alleged with curiosity just thankful she hadn’t meant the end of her.

Hmm!
was all she commented as she stood and walked to the balcony, leaned over the edge.  She pictured her hands moving up from my mark to my chest and then my arms...she was feeling me up in her freaking mind.  I
had
to have this girl.

I kissed the back of her neck after yanking her back from the rail using the speed my kind have embraced as a weapon for evil and I now can say can be used for good.   Real good.    She had pictured all this in the weapons room downstairs, with swordplay.  I growled outwardly. 
Want to go for that crack at the swords?

I grabbed the ring to have all control.  I
didn’t want her to take me away from her.  What was wrong with me?

Do all the girls do this to you?

NOT even close
.  Never found out.  You keep forgetting you are the only one who can do this with me.

She went on in her head no doubt forgetting I could listen.
The way he kissed me.  It was so amazing and…
she realized her broadcasting system streamline straight to me thought radar was on.
   Can you hear me? 

I acted innocent and without blame until she called something back to me.

I’m ready to spar.

“Well then, I
’m listening.”

She huffed at me, “That
wasn’t fair.”

She was completely out of control and had no idea what she was capable of.  I needed to show her.  Her
well faked innocent show wasn’t always the case.  I knew this.  She could go on thinking in her female mind of hers that I was oblivious.  The game was fun and I enjoyed the banter between us.

“Torture.  Not knowing your thoughts is torture.  But I can torture too my little Kissa,” I countered.  I clasped her hand in mine and squeezed. 

I will take my turn later.

Silence invaded my senses like a sad wave of the ocean.  She said nothing as went into our own rooms to change.  Not even a whisper. 

And he presumes that most battles happen in the unexpected,
she thought to herself from the other side of the wall I stood changing from my leathers to jeans.  Her reasoning out of a fight was programmed into her.  She just didn't have the execution down for surprise attacks.

I yelled through the wall, “That
’s because they do.  I’ve trained since I was five.”

“And I,” her deafening scream reverberated through the wall.

Oh how I looked forward to her temper tantrum comments.  She was riled so easily.

“Yes, but I have guarded and shielded you since you were ten,” I yelled back.

“Ten?” she pierced the air.

She knew this already.  I told her.

I hurried promptly enough in the changing process that I now stood right outside her door in wait like a dang dog, but was I complaining?  Nope!  I was begging for more.  She emerged like an angel with a blond halo.  “Ten.  For which you were ten also.  I told you this.”

I held my hand for her to lead the way enjoying the sway of her girlish hips the entire way down the stairs.  For someone who professes to be such a badass, she is all female.  And my maleness was kicking in with each sway.  Left.  Right.  Left.  Right.