[Southern Arcana 2.0] Crossroads (11 page)
“Probably because it is.” Though if he didn’t stop thinking about it, they’d skip breakfast again.
There had been something incredibly satisfying, something
primal
, about having her in his bed. If he hadn’t pulled her out of it, they might have ended up spending the morning naked and groping each other like horny college kids.
Derek gathered the sugar and baking powder and turned, and his heart kicked up into his throat when she smiled at him over the rim of her coffee cup. Sweet, a little goofy, and so very, very
Nick
. It wasn’t the wolf who wanted to sweep her off the stool and hold her close.
So maybe it wasn’t
all
instinct.
Maybe she heard the way his heart skipped, or maybe his expression revealed his thoughts. Either way, a soft look came into her eyes, and her smile gentled. “Thank you, Derek. For being here, and being you.”
He cleared his throat and dropped the ingredients onto the counter. “The supernatural world makes dating an adventure, huh? At least I’m not having to chase you all over the country like Jackson and Mac.”
“No, you’re just having to abandon your life in order to keep me sane.”
“Not really.” Though maybe he shouldn’t tell her how little of a life he’d had to abandon. “I was supposed to be on vacation already, remember?”
“Exactly.” She toyed with a dry measuring cup. “This can’t be very restful.”
“Restful’s overrated.” Derek grinned and shoved the flour toward her. “You can apologize until you’re blue in the face, but I’m still making you cook. Cowgirl up, Peyton.”
“All right.” Nick rose and studied the ingredients he’d already laid out. “Just remember, though, that you asked for it.”
The first batch tasted like baking soda, and the second was so runny they couldn’t even cook them.
Derek thought she might have had it with the third batch, but the celebratory kiss turned into dirty, celebratory sex against the counter, and they forgot to unplug the waffle iron this time.
By the time they actually got breakfast on the table, it was nearly ten in the morning and the kitchen looked like Kat had performed one of her doomed high school science experiments in it. Derek ignored it and drenched the waffles in maple syrup, then handed the bottle to Nick. “Told you so.” She’d already torn off a corner of her waffle for a taste test. “Mmm, nowhere near as good as yours, but not bad.”
“Just takes practice. So what’s your plan for today? Didn’t Jackson say he’d take you out to visit your sister?”
“This afternoon. He has to come back to the city anyway, and he said he’d drop by and we could follow him out there.”
We.
Instinctive pleasure was more satisfying than the damn waffles. “Good. Anything we should take?”
60
Crossroads
She shook her head as she reached for her coffee. “I don’t think so. They should be pretty well stocked on everything.”
Except hope, but he couldn’t pick a bag of that up at the corner market. If Derek was climbing out of his skin half the time, he couldn’t imagine what life was like for Aaron, trapped in a tiny house with a pregnant lover and a death sentence over his head.
It put a damper on his enjoyment of the waffles. “Any news from New York? Or Alec?”
“Not yet. It looks like Enrica bought the story about me needing time to think about—about Luciano’s proposal.”
His fingers tightened, but he didn’t shatter the coffee mug in a blind, instinctive rage.
Progress.
“That’s good right?”
“It bought us some time, and we need it, if only to make them believe I’m getting desperate enough to walk away from all the power they crave.” Her hand slid over his. “What matters now is what happens next.”
He liked the feel of her skin on his, the soft, casual brush of her fingers. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, inhaling the scent that was slowly becoming as familiar as his own. “Then eat up, Nicky. We’ve got places to be.”
www.samhainpublishing.com
61
Chapter Eight
The night was unusually warm and damp, humidity gathering on his skin like a blanket. Derek leaned against the tailgate of his truck and scrolled through his cell phone’s directory looking for Andrew’s home number. Nick had disappeared out the back door with Jackson a few minutes ago for what looked to be a potentially tense conversation, and every instinct in his body screamed at him to follow her. To protect her.
But she’d asked for privacy, and right now it was the best thing he could give her. The gift of his absence.
Which was the whiniest thing he’d thought all day.
Fuck.
He stabbed the call button a little too violently, and swore again when the plastic casing creaked. But a moment later the call connected with a soft sound, proving he hadn’t done in this phone like he had the last one he’d tried to use during a temper.
Andrew answered on the third ring, sounding as crabby as he felt. “Is your cousin always unreasonable, or is she just that way with me?”
It wasn’t nice to be amused, but it didn’t stop Derek’s smile. “I don’t know. Has she started screaming about Cousin Arrest yet?”
“I take it that’s a familiar refrain?”
“Tell her she’s the one who thought working for supernatural PIs would be more fun than a video rental store. What the hell set her off? She was fine when I talked to her earlier.” Andrew hesitated. “I might have told her she couldn’t get her stuff from the office until I could go with her. And she just started screaming at me.”
Screaming wasn’t an understatement, because Derek heard Kat’s voice clearly through the phone.
“That’s because you joined the dark side, you impossibly chauvinistic
bastard
.” A door slammed, and Andrew sighed. “On the upside, she’s not trying to climb in my pants anymore.”
“I guess not.”
Thank God.
“Sorry, man. If it helps, she’ll probably forgive you a lot faster than she forgives me.”
“Did you miss the part where she just compared me to Darth Vader?” Derek fought another grin. “I don’t know, I’m pretty sure I was Darth Vader in that insanely fucked-up insult.”
“Dude, in this metaphor, I’m Vader. You’re obviously Palpatine.”
Crossroads
This time he lost the battle with laughter, and it felt good to laugh about something. “Shit, man.
Sometimes I forget why my geeky little cousin’s in love with your rock-climbing frat-boy ass, and then I remember you’re just a big fucking dork.”
The front door slammed open, and Nick stormed out of the house. She muttered harsh curses as she jumped off the porch, avoiding the steps altogether.
Derek’s laughter faded. “Hate to leave you to the enraged geek princess, but I’ve got to go. Hang in there, okay? She’ll get over it, I promise.”
“Take care, Derek. Tell Nick I said… Hell, I don’t know. Something reassuring.”
“I will. Thanks. I owe you one. Or two. Or twelve.”
“What you owe me can’t even be quantified, man. Later.”
Derek snapped the phone shut and shoved it into his pocket as he pushed off the tailgate. “Nick?” Color flamed high in her cheeks as she growled and covered the space between them with quick steps.
“I’m angry. I’m angry because it’s easier.”
He reached out and caught her shoulders in a gentle grip. “Easier than what?” She looked up at him and laughed almost hysterically. “Easier than completely and utterly losing my shit.”
“Oh, Nicky.” She felt so tiny as he slid his arms around her, delicate and fragile. Even knowing that seeming weakness was deceptive, every urge in his body clamored to find someplace safe to hide her away from the world and the misery in it.
But it was her world. He didn’t know the first damn thing about protecting her from it.
Her teeth scraped his arm through his sleeve, and she stumbled out of the circle of his arms. “I’m sorry. I just—I’m losing it.” Her eyes had gone wild, and she dragged her shirt over her head as she kicked off her sandals.
Too late he realized what the power gathering around her meant. “Are you going to run?”
“I have to, Derek.” Her skirt billowed to the ground, and she tore at her underwear. “Come with me.
Please.”
“Of course.” His instincts wouldn’t let him stay there while she ran off by herself. Derek tugged his T-shirt over his head, anticipation prickling along his skin. The heat that preceded a change stole through him, something hot and heavy and tinged with a lust fueled by Nick’s naked body.
Her wolf must have been close the surface, because she’d barely hit the ground when the air around her shimmered and then pulsed with energy that washed over him in a hot wave. She stood before him, a small gray wolf who shook and pawed impatiently at the grass under them. Derek yanked at his belt and kicked off his boots, itching with the need to join her.
The change was usually easy, but he’d never done it in front of Nick before. He was far too aware of his body’s reaction, of the fact that he was hard and aroused and shaking under the force of the magic.
www.samhainpublishing.com
63
Moira Rogers
Closing his eyes, he sucked in a breath and reached for that flickering bit of power inside him, the animal waiting just below the surface.
It felt like magic because it was. Pleasure pounded through him and his skin tingled, and he crouched down and gave in to it. The most natural feeling in the world, because now he was
free
…
Instinct lifted his face, and the wolf howled pleasure at being let loose. When his exultant howl faded, he found Nick watching him. After a moment, she yipped and took off toward the woods.
Her scent enflamed him. Her challenge entranced him. Human concerns bled away as he launched himself after her, wanting nothing more in the world than to run at her side.
Nick’s muscles burned. She had to focus on breathing, on drawing in one gulp of muggy night air after another. That was exactly what she wanted, to occupy her mind with something other than the fact that, one way or another, her sister might die.
Even if she hadn’t heard him, she would have sensed Derek behind her, a warm zing of magic that dovetailed perfectly with her own. He felt solid,
right
, with his trampling steps echoing hers.
She knew he’d follow her until exhaustion claimed him, if it didn’t take her first. But it was too hot to run for long, and Nick stumbled over a fallen log and tumbled to the ground under an ancient oak tree.
Letting go of the wolf was easier with fatigue quelling her nervousness. Twigs snapped under hands and feet instead of paws, and she collapsed onto a bed of moss, her chest heaving.
Fire.
If it had only been the pull of exertion, she could have ignored it. But the change burned through her and scraped her nerve endings into a vicious flurry of arousal. “Derek,” she rasped.
It took him longer to regain human form, but soon enough he crouched at her feet, his muscular chest straining under his panting breaths. He looked massive in the moonlight filtering through the trees, a hulking giant of tanned skin stretched over hard muscles. When he lifted his head, she caught a glimpse of eyes still glinting yellow.
His gaze caught hers and drifted down her body, the stare so blatantly sexual it stole her breath. One hand dropped to her ankle, and his large fingers encircled it easily. “Tell me to stop.” She couldn’t. She
wouldn’t
. “No.”
Derek dragged her ankles apart and dropped to his knees between her legs. He tickled his fingers up her calves as he jerked his gaze to hers again. “Put your hands over your head.” Sheer primal instinct drove her to obey. She licked her lips and exhaled a shuddering breath. “I need you.”
“Not as much as I need you.” His thumb traced along the inside of her knee, a small teasing caress that vanished when he moved his hands to the ground on either side of her hips. He loomed over her, his wide shoulders blocking out the light filtering through the trees.
His expression was wild. Feral. His gaze locked with hers, and he shuddered. “Do you trust me?” 64
Crossroads
“Yes.” The answer would have been the same even if she hadn’t been aching to feel his skin against hers, even if they hadn’t spent the last few days learning about each other. “With my life.” A rumbling noise of approval started deep in his chest and escaped his lips as he lowered them to her breast. His tongue circled the tip in a teasing flick, and he drew her nipple into his mouth with another low noise.
Nick tried to stifle the cry that accompanied the sharp rush of pleasure, but it rolled out of her between clenched teeth. Her back arched off the ground, toward his mouth, and she barely remembered not to move her hands.
She felt the scrape of teeth, then the heat of his mouth disappeared. A low, masculine laugh rose as he nuzzled her stomach and dropped tiny kisses on her damp skin. “I can smell how hot you are for me.” Something witty should have popped to mind, the perfect rejoinder to his soft, sexy words. “I want you so bad it hurts. I always have.”
He dragged his tongue up the center of her chest before veering off to nip at her shoulder. “And now you have me.”
Do I?
The words hung in her throat as the throbbing need in her body grew worse. Her skin flamed wherever he touched her, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. “Derek, please.” Her fingers curled into the mossy earth above her head. “Let me have you.”
His teeth closed on her neck, hard and possessive, and he groaned against her skin and shifted his weight above her. One hand skated over her hip and slipped between her legs, and his fingers stroked through slick folds. He lifted his head and watched her, his face tight. “I want to see you come,” he growled a moment before his fingers centered on her clit.
She thrust her hips up with a whimper. He touched her as if he’d been doing it forever, as if he knew every inch of her already. Desire took over, and she felt him watching as she bit her lip and arched her head back. “Don’t stop.”
He
did
, but only long enough for his thumb to replace his fingers. Then his fingers shifted lower, easing into her as he groaned. “God damn it, Nicky.
Come.
Come so I can be inside you.”
