Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (106 page)

Evie stirs in my arms;
her chin tilts up an
d brushes against my cheek. Butterflies stir
too, increasing at her simple touch. My fingers tighten on her hip as
I react to the attraction between us. Her heart begins to sing to
me, the Siren’
s song
that’s call
ing me to
shipwreck
. I go to it willingly. When her lips meet mine, I know I’m lost, I’
m found—
I’m home.

Something between a groan and a growl comes from me as she shifts in my arms, strad
d
ling my hips. The black silk of her dress
rides u
p her thighs as my hands caress
her bare skin. She
presses herself to me
and the feeling of silk touching
my chest is a thousand times more e
xquisite since being healed
.
My hand
slowly move
s
up her, past the perfect curve of he
r
hip
, up her back to her shoulder
.
Water continues to pour on us as I slip the
dark
strap
of her dress
away from her
.

When my mouth touches her shoulder, her hands slip into my hair and tighten. It does something to me. I reach up and grasp her dress, rending it
in half
and pulling it from her. The only thing that comes be
tween us now
are what’s left of my
jeans
and
a flimsy, lacy square of
mate
rial that attempts to pass as her
undergarment
.
I correct
that
with a soft tug to the delicate fabric that clings
to her hips.
Evie’s
sultry
red
wings spread wide as the lace square falls away from her and is tossed to the corner of the shower.

She reaches down and
pops the button on my ragged
denim
. As I stand up
with her in my arms
,
the heavy, water-drenched fabric
shrugs from my hips.
I hold Evie as her
lissome
legs wrap around my waist.
Her
wet skin against mine is more sens
ual
than the silk
of her dress
had been.
The muscles in my abdomen tighten as my need for her grows.

Her wings f
l
utter and another
deep
growl is torn from me. My wings respond, spreading out t
o full
extension
as I press her against
the
tile
d
wall. Delicate fingertips softly toy with the waistband of my
underwear befo
re she gives them a tug and it
become
s
a nonissue.
My
hands cup her perfect bottom
, and then
my heart nearly explodes when she moves her hands to mine, squeezing it.

I have to kiss her again; I start with her
lips. W
hen I taste her on my tongue
,
I want more. I need more.
Tugging on he
r
bottom lip with mine elicits a s
oft groan of pleasure from her.
I live in the sound of it.

When
our
bodies
fit
together,
like pieces falling into place,
I’m nearly undone by
it and by
her
eyes. T
hey narrow and her forehead leans forward to rest against mine.
Through her eyes,
I can almost see inside her soul. T
hat’s where I long
to be: centered near
her soul, wed
ged between it and
her heart.
Her angel
ic
body and heart are
mine, have
always been mine, but Russell was right when he said her soul loves him and
now
there is a piece of her heart that love
s
Brennus. I want it all; I understand that now. The battle for her
entire
heart
and
her soul start
s now.

I begin my seductio
n as I pull my lips from her
s
.
M
y
assault
on her soul
is a slow rhythm t
hat increases with her heart
beat
. Trailing kisses over her neck, my lips come to rest on my wing
s
imprinted on her chest.
They’re still there.
My aspire.
A
small
smile form
s
for the first time. I press my lips to the symbol branded on her, speaking to her kittenish soul in Angel. I know that Evie doesn’t understand that language yet, but her soul knows it for its own. I tell her
soul
that I love her—
that
I will wait for her
to love me the way that I love her
.

I lose myself in her: her scent, her touch
,
and
the taste of her. I will never get enou
gh. There will never be enough
.
G
oose bumps break out on her arms, ev
en with the heat between us
.
When
Evie cries
out, it’
s my name on her lips; it’s
in the only language I care about: hers.

My self-control reaches its limit
.
I
gather
up
her heavy wet hair at the base of her
nape
in my hand
, pulling her lips from me
so that her eyes are forced to look into mine.
“Evie, I—I can’t be gentle,” I growl between my clenched teeth
.

H
er nails dig into my back.
“I don’t care how you touch me, just touch me.”

My stomach clenches with the rush that only she gives me.
I thrust her back against the wall. The tiles crack behind her wings, spidering and falling in pieces to the shower floor.
Her thighs squeeze me tighter, drawing me nearer to her while her teeth gently rake my shoulder.

“I thought
I lost you,” she murmur
s
close to my ear as she raises her head.

“N
ever
,” I promise
.
Her flat belly rubs against mine
while the sultry scent from
her
wet
hair drives me on.
“I’ll always find the thread that binds me to you.”

“Reed,” my name is a plea on her lips.

My head swims with desire
for her
and I’m
unable to come up for air.
“I love you,” I
murmur, and
b
eing most assuredly
unable to speak further
, w
e both fall silent
, allowing our bodies to communicate
the rest of
what is in
our hearts.

Grace

Evie

My hair lie
s across Reed’s
shoulder like a mantle; the strands shin
e with
brassy fire on his perfect
skin. The
ris
ing sun touches
the rumpled white sheets of our bed, turning them golden.
I haven’t slept. I can’t close my eyes
because the war is just outside our door
; it wages on
. I know that now. Killers will c
all
on me.
I can’t hold back their shadows from falling upon us.

“You have to sleep, Evie,” Reed say
s, softly touching my hair as
his thigh moves against mine
. Its weight is comforting as he pulls me tighter against his body. We’d made love all night, not like we had in the shower, but slowly, a rediscovery of each other—a gentle exploration to assure each other that we
’d
survived.

“I can’t...” I trail off.

“Why not?” Reed prompts me.

“They’re out there,” I say quietly.
Goose bumps rise on
my
body; I suppress the need that I have to shudder.
“Brennus, the Fallen, scary monsters I don’t even know about yet...”

Reed feels my
reaction and his hands smooth over my arms, rubbing them reassuringly.
“
Yes, they are
out there somewhere
. B
ut you can’t fight
the next battle
until it comes
. You have to recognize the moments o
f grace and live in them. F
ight
ing
the invisible enemy
will only lead to exhaustion
.
This
moment is a gift of peace. Take
it.
”

“What if I can’t stop them?” I ask in a shallow voice.

Reed is quiet for a moment as he traces the line of my arm to my shoulder. “You are an
extraordinary
being
, Evie. But, even in that, you’
re not God. If you accept that, then the regret over your inability to control the outcome of any of this is easier to bear.”

I roll over and straddle his hip
s
, looking down at him. His hand comes up to cup my cheek and I turn my lips to it and kiss his palm.
Reed uses his thumb to trace my lips. I part them, lightly nipping his thumb. He watches me with an unwavering stare as I lightly flick my to
ngue over the tip of it
.

“The things that you can do to me with just a simple t
ouch,” Reed murmurs. “C
ome t
o think of it, you can do the same without even touching me
. It can just be the s
cent of your hair as you walk near
me
,
or the
elegant
lift of your eyebrow when you
ask a question. I have to constantly restrain myself from pulling you to me and tearing your clothes from you.”

“I’m at a distinct disadvantage now,” I say, looking down at myself. “No clothes.”

“Then I must press my advantage,” he smiles, sitting up and allowing just about every single inch of our bodies to touch.
I melt against him.
As our bodies mesh as one, I know that this is t
he h
eaven I want to fight for: t
he one in my arms.

In the quiet afterward, I lie in Reed’s arms waiting for my heartbeat to
come slowly down. I wonder
if anyt
hing will ever be normal again. A small fire burns in the grate, warming the room against the
frost covering the windowpanes
.

I breathe Reed in. My ch
eek
rests in the hollow of his
chest;
his fin
gers stroke
the arch of my lower back, following the line downward. Th
ere are no
bruises
upon his skin
. His sca
r
s are all heal
ed
—all the ones I can see, but b
elow the surface, fresh abrasion
s
reside
. He spent days with Brennus. He’
d been abused;
how badly
,
I don’t know.
It comes to me now that this is how Reed must have felt when I was with Brennus and he couldn’t find me. He had to bear that pain for months. I only had a taste; his captivity lasted days.
What is the extent of the devastation?

I turn my lips to his chest, pressing them to him.
I want to be the shelter
from the storm for him, but I’
m the storm. I have a tangled crown upon my brow
, an unwilling queen
. I’m a
tragedy in the ma
king. The phantom
ribbon binding
my heart
to Reed’s
violently rejects such though
ts;
it tightens painfully. I’ll fight anyone who tries to keep us apart, anyone who tries to hurt him again.
But
,
what
if it’s me
who hurts him again
?