Revealed (3 page)

Chapter Three

Sixteen minutes
later, Riley was walking out of the facility with her bag on her shoulder and
head held high. She saw Hector standing beside a vehicle and shook her head.
“This one doesn’t fit you. Is this your friend’s car?” she asked and reached
out so she could touch him again.

“No, our vehicle
is a little farther out. I wanted to be where you could see me.” He took her
bag and drew her in close. “You’re late. Don’t think I didn’t notice.” He gave
her a squeeze before loosening his hold enough for her to breathe again.

Hector drew back
to look down at her for a moment before turning and guiding her through the
parking lot. He was headed toward a darkened area where a large, hulking
vehicle sat, with a massive man leaning on the bumper. When they got close, he
slowed down. “Riley, this is Gaius Julius Alexander. Gaius, this is Riley, and
she’ll be coming along with us.”

Riley cocked her
head to the side. “Your parents had some kind of sense of humor, didn’t they?
Naming you after a Roman leader.” She couldn’t help but step closer to Hector.
This man was dangerous. Exceptionally so. He had the look of a man that would
kill you without hesitation if he thought that the world would be better off.
Or if you just plain pissed him off. “Hector made me an offer of truth I simply
can’t deny.”

The other man
shot Hector a look and shook his head. “This should be interesting,” he
muttered in a deep, gravelly voice.

“Gaius,” Hector
chided softly.

She watched them
have some sort of wordless exchange that ended in Gaius shrugging. Then,
pushing off the vehicle, he moved around to the door of the SUV and slid into
the back. Hector urged her to move only after the door shut. He helped her into
the passenger seat, setting her bag down at her feet before closing her into
the vehicle with his friend.

Riley closed her
eyes and leaned her head back. She was missing something. Something very, very
important. She didn’t know what it was, so she reached out and placed her hand
on top of Hector’s, which was resting between them on the gearshift. Without
saying a word or opening her eyes, she told him that she was there with him.
Because she wanted to be.

She felt the
brush of his thumb over her skin before the hand under hers tensed as he
changed gears and got them moving. But that thumb returned soon enough in a
slow, even slide back and forth over her skin. Soft music from the radio filled
the space, but there was no chatter, no idle comments … just a comfortable
silence—even with Gaius in the backseat, directly behind her own.

They traveled
for the remainder of the day. When they pulled up to a house, Riley frowned.
“Do the two of you live here? Somehow, I don’t see this house fitting either of
your personalities.” The home was charming, quaint, and quite small. “But the
lawn is beautiful,” she said. It seemed to be kept incredibly well, but she saw
spaces—odd depressions that made her frown again. “I think something might be
digging under it, though.”

Gaius snickered
as he left the vehicle to stretch.

Hector looked to
her with amusement. “No, this is one of our safe houses. We’ll stop, sleep, and
talk. Stay off the grass. The depressions you see are explosives to guarantee
that no one can sneak up on us. Bad guys don’t tend to remain on the path right
to the front door.” He slid out of the SUV and came around to let her out.
Gaius was already inside.

Riley waited
until Hector was at her side before she began to move along with him. “Is this
where we’ll watch the videos?” She looked over the lawn and cocked her head to
the side with a thoughtful expression. “Wouldn’t explosives damage the house
and us too?” She looked down at her feet and stepped in just a bit closer to
Hector, not fully trusting herself to stay off something that would make her explode.

“They’re laid
out in a way so that the explosion projects away from the house. The
depressions are only there because each explosive sits within a bowl of sorts
with a light covering of soil and grass. We’re working on a better way to hide
them, but too much weight sets them off, and the soil tends to settle.

“One of our
guardians is looking into a webbing to lay under the grass so that it remains
flat. Unfortunately, he’s at a point where the webbing creates an issue with
the explosion. It’s not pretty, but he’ll figure it out in time.” He led her
into the house, shutting and locking the door behind them. “We’ll stay here
long enough to eat, rest, and talk. We won’t watch any of the videos until we
reach the Mountain.”

Guardian?
Mountain?
She
was sure these were two very important words, but she also knew he would
explain in due course. He had promised, and she knew that he would keep it. “I
could go with a bit of all of the above. Eating, talking, and resting in some
sort of order that makes sense.”

Once they found
a bedroom, he stowed her bag on the king-sized bed.

She looked up at
him. “Are you going to nap with me?” There was a hint of hope in her tone.

“If you want me
to,” he said quietly. “I don’t want you to think I’m pushing for anything, but
I’m finding that it’s hard to leave your side. At the sanitarium, it was a
battle for me to stay outside waiting on you. Had you taken even a few seconds
longer, I would have stormed inside.”

She turned a
shocked expression to him. “Really?”

Hector sent her
a clearly annoyed look and rolled his eyes. Walking right up to her, he cupped
her face in his hands. “Yes.” Leaning in, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips
before stepping back again. “Come, we should collect you something to eat.
You’re much too thin,” he commented.

She looked down at herself and
shrugged. “There’s only so much mashed potatoes and Jell-O that a person can
eat before they just stop trying. I was safe, though. That’s something you
should know. I checked myself in there because while I was in there I was safe
from the monsters that wear the human façades.”
Now, we’ll see if he thinks I’m as crazy as I feel at times
.
He
apparently chose not to comment on the last bit at the moment. “Well, tonight
you’ll be eating something much more filling and definitely more appetizing.”
Taking her hand in his, he led her through the small house to the open, and
surprisingly large, kitchen. Going to the freezer, he dug inside and lifted out
a pan. “Lasagna?” he asked, shooting her a look.

“Oh God. I could
totally kiss you right now.” Her stomach rumbled. “Lasagna is one of my
favorite foods. Actually, anything with pasta in it is one of my favorites,”
she admitted, heat creeping across the bridge of her nose and cheeks. “Where
can I use the bathroom and get a little more cleaned up?”

He set the pan
aside and led her into the hall. Stepping through a door, he turned on a light.
“It’s the only bathroom in the house, but there’s lots of hot water. I’ll get
the pan in the oven, but it’ll take some time to heat through. I’ll make a
snack to tide us over until it’s ready. We should be able to talk a bit and
even catch a nap before it’s done.”

He stepped back
out of the bathroom to allow her access. “Towels are in the cupboard above the
toilet. If you need a toothbrush or anything, dig through the vanity drawers.
We keep travel-sized items in all the locations, so there are always new,
sealed items for us to use should it be required.”

“You are truly a prince among
men,” Riley told him with a grin, leaning up on her toes and kissing the base
of his throat before all but pushing him out of the room. She needed to go.
Now
!

* * * *

Half an hour
later, Riley stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in one of the nightgowns and
robe that her nurse had bought her one year for Christmas. She was clean, and
she felt much better now. Stepping into the kitchen, she moved immediately to
Hector’s side and slipped her hand into his as if she had been doing it her
whole life. “So, how long for our food?”

“Two hours or
so. I made you something to tide you over.” He led her to the table and pulled
out a chair. “Sit, eat, and then we’ll go relax in the room so we can talk and
you can rest.”

Riley eyed the
sandwich, fresh strawberries, and glass of milk with interest. “You’re too good
to me.” She gazed up at him with a silly smile on her face. She couldn’t help
herself. This man was larger than life, and the sweetest person ever imagined,
and he was treating her as if she were someone that he wanted to stay with for
longer than just a day or two. It was utterly humbling. “That sounds good. Has
your friend already went to bed? Did you make yourself something to eat too?”

“He is in
speaking with his girlfriend,” Hector told her as he sat down with her at the
table. “But he will likely sleep soon enough. He’s been up as many hours as I
have, most of it straight travel time to reach the sanitarium. And I made
something to eat while I waited on you, so I wouldn’t pace the hall outside the
bathroom.”

She’d never had
anyone to care for her like this. Reaching out, she placed her hand into his
once more, giving his a squeeze. “I’ll finish, and then we’ll go have our chat.
And he has a girlfriend? He seems a little uptight.” The poor man looked like
he was wound so tightly that if there were a stiff breeze, he would spring and
crack.

Hector smiled.
“Emily is a very sweet and gentle soul. She’s good for Gaius. She was injured
during an attack when he was attempting to get her to the safety of the
Mountain. She’s fine. Just healing from a broken arm. He doesn’t like being
away from her, though. Something I’m starting to understand well.”

That had her
frowning. He didn’t have a significant other—everything about him screamed that
he was single—so she didn’t understand his last comment. Right before she took
a bite of her sandwich, she asked, “What do you mean it’s something you
understand?”

“Just what I
said, Riley. Since meeting you, I’m realizing his need to remain close to the
one that is his. They are bonded, tied together for all time. I didn’t truly
understand why he was so against going out on a mission at the time. Now I have
a much greater understanding for why he’s been checking on her every hour.”

Riley found
herself leaning into him and biting her lower lip. She sighed, and when she
opened her eyes, she looked up at him with a smile. “Yeah? And why is that?”
She had to know if it was because of her.

“Because when
you care for someone, as he does for Emily, you can’t be away from them without
worrying. Especially in a world as fucked up as ours.” He slid a finger down
her cheek. “The bond is strong, especially when the woman you care for carries
something so amazing and precious within. When she is your other, better half,
you need to be close to her in the hope that some of that goodness will rub off
on you and help to lighten the load we all carry.”

“And you’ve found her?”
Damn him for making me ask
. She leaned
into his touch, all but purring when he stroked his finger down her cheek
again. She was as close to him as she could possibly get, her hand resting
lightly on his chest as she looked up at him. “Tell me,” she whispered. She had
to know that she wasn’t alone in this feeling, that he was as attracted to her
as she was to him.

“I did,” he
answered. “She is an amazing beauty, a pure and kind soul, elegant, poised, and
much too good for a warrior like me. She could have any man falling at her
feet, yet she seems to have taken an interest in only one. For which I am
grateful.”

“I have a
feeling that she would move heaven and earth for you,” Riley admitted quietly,
her face turned up to him as she spoke. Licking her lips, she all but shivered
at the need that was in his eyes. “I really think you should kiss me again.”

“I think you may
be right.” His arms came around her, pulling her up close to his chest, and his
head lowered. But he didn’t kiss her immediately. Instead he brushed his nose
over hers, then over her cheek. As the anticipation began to build to a nearly
explosive point, he finally pressed his lips to hers in a hard, demanding kiss.

Riley gave in
completely to his passion. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Her hands
fisted into his hair. She shuddered and opened to him, his tongue brushing over
hers before he took full control. He was dominating her in that moment, and she
was fully willing to allow it to happen.

Hector’s arms
tightened around her as he bent her back over an arm. One hand was soon up in
her hair, holding it tight. His mouth devoured hers, and he let out a low growl
that shot through her entire body.

Then his lips
were gone, but his heavy and hard breathing was still a hot brush over her
skin. “We should talk first,” he said, his voice not entirely steady.

Riley nodded and
moved so that she could hug him. Her feet were off the ground, and he was
keeping her up, but she was fine with that. She pulled back and smiled
teasingly. “You running from this?”

He huffed out a
breath. “It’s called a strategic retreat, for your information. It’s either
that or I have you naked, on the table, with my cock buried inside of you,
without a care for the fact that there’s someone else in the house with us. We
need to talk before we do anything like that. You need to know what’s going on,
and I made you a promise.” Stepping back, he grabbed one of her hands and
tugged her up the stairs and down the hall to the room they would be sharing.

She moved along
with him. Once they were in the bedroom with the door closed, Riley slipped her
hand from his and settled onto the bed. “Just so you know—if you wanted to do
that, I wouldn’t have stopped you. At all,” she admitted bluntly, really
putting herself out there.