Redemption (12 page)

“I’m okay. I’m alright,” she kept saying when clearly she was not.

He brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her cheek, tasting tears and sweat. He nudged her chin up so he could nuzzle her neck, taste the flutter of her pulse and, hopefully, give it another reason to race. Her fear didn’t stop her arousal or his. Maybe because the situation was so bleak, it made this—the feel of her in his arms, the rightness of that fit—so much clearer. He slid his hands down the tight muscles of her back, kneading, sinking his fingers into the firm curves of her hips and ass. He liked the give there, the weight of her in his hands. When he’d been behind her, he’d loved the way that sweet flesh quivered after every thrust.

“What the hell was that?”

He looked back the way they’d come. A good four feet of the bridge had crumbled away, an easy enough leap for a jaguar, an impossible one for a human carrying plunder. And that innocuous-looking stone had rocked back into place looking as sturdy as ever. From this angle he could see the broken vine dangling from it. He could lie, he supposed. Sophie’s face tipped up toward him, her eyes wide and blind. He sighed. “Booby trap.”

She fought it for a moment but then her face folded into a smile and she laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls. Clear and bright. He let it flow over him, easing the tight feeling in his chest that had been there ever since he’d first heard her scream. He realized he was grinning too, not caring a bit that she was laughing at him.

“Can we get back across?” she asked, trying to control her amusement.

“I think so, yes.” He’d manage something.

“And the bats are gone?”

He’d nearly forgotten. “Were you bitten?”

“What? Oh, no. No, I don’t think so. One hit me in the shoulder.” Her hands still rested on his hips, thumbs idly tracing the ridge of muscle that marked the lower edge of his abdomen.

“Turn around and let me see it.” He gently urged her around and smoothed his fingers over bruised but unbroken flesh. He pressed his nose to her skin but there was no blood. “You’re good.”

“Do you think we’ll make it back across before the bats come back?”

Not if he lifted her up and drove his cock into her as he wanted to now. He could spend days losing himself in her body. They would need to find a way to get her across the chasm but he wouldn’t worry her about that yet. “Come on. This way.”

“Next is fire,” she said and her voice hardly trembled, her chin lifted and her jaw was set. He touched her cheek and lowered his mouth to savor a slow, deep kiss.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” The truth, he hoped. He desperately wanted it to be.

“I know.” Something twisted inside him at her easy trust. He’d call it naïveté except that he already knew she wasn’t naive and that she didn’t give anything of herself away without a fight.

“How much further? I still can’t see a damn thing. What do you think they would do for fire, maybe it was symbolic?”

She sounded so hopeful he didn’t have the heart to break it to her right away. Incredible. His gaze swept the final chamber. “We’re already there.”

He’d light the fire first and she could make her own decision whether to proceed. The obelisk was set against the far wall with only a barrier of dry brush separating them from it. The way through the barrier was to burn it. Flint sat on a pedestal directly in front of him. The brush was needle sharp, possibly poison tipped although it was doubtful much of the poison remained. Burn it and they would have safe passage. He didn’t want to start the fire. He imagined Sophie’s reluctance would be stronger. Maybe she would wait in the other cavern for him to retrieve the stone.

“Be right back,” he said and moved forward to strike the flint and light the tinder. It took immediately, cackling loudly to life in the enclosed space.

He heard the sudden intake of Sophie’s breath and turned around to meet her wide eyes. A smudge of dirt trailed all the way down her left arm from shoulder to wrist. The blood from the scrape on her cheek had dried in an angry red line. Her feet were filthy, her pale face grim. She stared at the fire and then looked at him.

She tried for a smile but it slid right off her face. “Fire.”

She could do this, she told herself, trying to see what lay beyond that wall of flame but the fire took up all of her vision. Adriano was beside her before she even realized he moved. “Come on. Let’s sit for a minute. We couldn’t push through the brush, they poisoned the barbs. But we’re safe enough here for now. The fire can’t spread and the smoke’s venting up.”

He was right. The brush had been laid in a pit, careful as a campfire. It wasn’t dangerous. It wasn’t a trap, only a symbolic part of some ancient ritual. She let him lead her as far away from the fire as they were able to get in the small cavern. He sat, pulling her down with him and leaning his back against the wall.

He was strangely reserved, nearly solemn and she wondered at that. He had an expressive face, laughing eyes and a wide mouth whose lips had a tendency to curl up at the edges. The only light in his eyes now was reflected from the fire. She’d never seen him so grim.

“What’s the matter?”

He seemed to shake himself and then that mocking half smile was back on his face. “We’re trapped in the belly of the earth, in a temple dedicated to the old blood gods, surrounded by flame with our enemies waiting at the door. And you ask what’s the matter? What do I need to do,
gata,
to satisfy your thirst for adventure?”

She smiled. “I hate adventure.”

“So you say.” He stroked her back, running his hand all the way down to her buttocks, raising goose bumps along the path. “You build up walls for yourself. Little boxes you think will keep you safe. But part of you is smarter than that, hungry, wild and resentful of those walls. It’s why you’re here with me now.”

“Oh? Is that why I’m here?”

“Hmmm.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.

It wasn’t true. Her work was not a prison. It was the only thing that kept her going some days. And Adriano, he was just a crazy lapse in her otherwise sound judgment. A glitch. A hot, wild, sexy god of a glitch.

“I know that I have…needs, I never denied that,” she told him. Because really, there didn’t seem much point in arguing with him. He might not understand why she loved her job but he had a firm understanding of exactly how to fulfill her needs. Getting firmer all the time, she noticed. “How long until the fire burns itself out?”

He raised his eyes to meet hers. “Thirty, forty minutes. I hope not much longer than that. I have no idea how we’re going to remove the obelisk without tools and then drag it back with us.”

He frowned, lost in thought. Looking at him now, so fierce and intent, she could believe that he was half predator. He met her gaze and his expression thawed. “Come here.”

He tucked her under his arm and she rested her head on his chest. Pressing his lips to her hair, his hand started a leisurely circuit on her back, skimming up from her hip toward the base of her neck. “You’re so soft.”

“You mean fat.”

She could feel his smile. “Soft. Beautiful. Perfect. Learn to accept a compliment,
gata.”

Clever fingers found the tight muscles in her neck and shoulders and began to knead them lightly. She sighed and tipped her head to give him better access. “What does
gata
mean?”

“Cat. A beautiful, irresistible woman.”

A generic endearment. One he probably used with all of his lovers. “I’m not a cat.”

The gentle drift of his hands over her skin paused for a moment and then resumed. “No.”

“Does it hurt?”

“What’s that?” He sounded distracted.

“When you turn into a jaguar?”

“The first time, yes. It’s terrifying even when you’ve been told to expect it. And you need to expect it. If you fight the change too hard, it kills you. But then, there’s no explanation really that can prepare you to be…turned inside out.”

“Does it stop hurting once you’re used to it?”

He shook his head. “You still feel your bones break and reform. Your organs shift and your muscles realign but it stops feeling like pain eventually and starts to feel more like…a release.”

There was an odd tone to his voice and she laughed. “Like an orgasm?”

“Once you stop fighting it.”

“Ah.” She smiled, trying to imagine it but completely unable to do so. Too strange. But for Adriano, it was his life. No wonder he was hiding.

“Adriano?”

The muscles beneath her cheek flexed as his arm came up around her shoulders. With a light touch, he stroked his hand down her arm. “Yes?”

She looked up at him. “You bit me.”

His eyes darkened with heat which gave way to confusion and then amusement. “I’m not a werewolf, Sophie. I was born like this. You can’t catch it.”

“Oh.” She flushed with embarrassment and the realization she’d insulted him again. “Not that there’s anything wrong…”

His thigh brushed hers, the coarse hair on his leg scraping her skin. “I don’t expect you to accept it.”

That stung. “Just give me time.”

Time they didn’t have. But she didn’t say it and neither did he. Instead, she tucked her head to his shoulder and traced the edge of his rib cage, the muscles on his abdomen, the jut of hip bone. They both fell silent for a while, watching the fire burn itself out, listening to the crack and pop of dry wood. He was hard everywhere except when she looked up at his face. His eyes were shadowed with the barest hint of vulnerability, especially when he thought she wasn’t looking.

“Adriano?”

When he met her gaze, all signs of weakness disappeared. He lifted his brows and touched her cheek.

“Why are you really here?”

His face tightened and he stared at her for a long time before turning away. It felt like a slap in the face. It must be bad if he wouldn’t tell her. She wanted to shake him, demand an answer but she had no right to his secrets. He was vulnerable here and she of all people knew how hard it was to expose a weakness.

“I thought you’d decided that I was a simple mercenary.” The arm wrapped around her shoulders flexed briefly, then released her. “Are you sure you want to know my secrets, Sophie? You might not like what you find.”

“I want to know.” She did, very badly. She wanted to think that he was the good guy here though all the facts told her he wasn’t.

“I want to sell the obelisk,” he told her. “I’m just not interested in its cash value. I was planning to use it to buy my way back from exile.”

Exile? Like from a country?
“How many others are there like you?”

“An entire city’s worth hidden away. The jungle kept our secret for thousands of years and now this rock places us all in danger. You’re right that its discovery would be international news. At the very least, it would stir interest in my people and this area. The king has enough trouble on his hands right now without a horde of humans traipsing through his territory searching for lost treasure. I planned to use the stone as leverage to force him to accept me back into the fold. Instead, I’ve placed everyone I ever cared about at risk.”

“You couldn’t have known that coming here though. You were only—”

“What? Doing what I thought was right?” He laughed humorlessly. “That’s what got me exiled in the first place.”

She turned in his arms, wanting to comfort but not knowing how to do it. “Adriano, I know you think—”

“I started a fire,” he said quietly.

She drew back. “What?”

“You heard me. I think I was raised to captain specifically for that mission. They wanted someone young, gullible and full of himself.” He raised his face, stared at her until she managed to close her mouth and then turned away. His grim expression scared her and for a moment, she wanted to stop him from talking. She could lean forward and capture his lips, distract them both. He wouldn’t stop her.

Instead, she said, “And that’s why you were exiled.”

“They were supposed to be other warriors, guarding the rebellion’s headquarters. There shouldn’t have been anyone there except an armed guard. Our orders were to destroy the building as a warning to the group to disband.”

“So you set the building on fire?” She wrapped her arms around her torso.

“My men did, yes. I was their captain.” His mouth twisted bitterly but he didn’t look at her. He stared into the flames as if seeing some other time and place. “We expected armed resistance. Instead, it was mostly women and children, poor, vulnerable and crammed six or seven to a room, sound asleep on the floors. I could scent them through the open windows.” His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “They’d been so unprepared for an attack, they slept with their windows wide open to the night.”

She placed her hand on his arm but he shrugged free of her touch. “By the time I realized what was happening, they’d already set the fire. It was an old building, dry as kindling. The rest of my men were slipping into the jungle toward the rendezvous point but I couldn’t leave. Not once I realized…”

She was torn between sympathy for the anguish in his eyes and the thought of those people trapped in the fire. And her own memories too. Heat. Being pinned beneath bent metal. Surrounded by flame. The smell of cooking meat. Her own screams. Pain. God, so much pain. “Did you get them out?”

He was silent for a long time. “Most of them. One little girl…I found her wedged beneath a cot, dead from asphyxiation.”

“You said you didn’t know going in. Those people weren’t supposed to be there.”

“Actually, they were.” He gave her such a cynical look that she barely recognized him. “It turns out the man who gave the order knew full well what that building was being used for. They were mutants, half-human half-Yaguara, and at the time, Vinicius wanted to be rid of all of them. He sent us in to murder those people just to send a message to their leader, Gabriel, who is now our king.”

She swallowed hard, then shook her head. “You didn’t know.”

“My men. My mission. I failed. Any way you look at it.”

“Everyone else ran,” she said. “And you stayed to help. What about the one who gave that order in the first place? Vinicius?”

“Dead,” he said flatly. “During the fight over succession. Gabriel is a mutant too. He owned the shelter. The fire happened just a few months before the old king died. Gabriel came to the tournament of succession and managed to win the crown. Shortly after that, he killed Vinicius himself.”

“Good,” she said fervently.

The corner of Adriano’s mouth quirked and he glanced her way. “Bloodthirsty, human.”

“No.” She pressed a hand to his cheek. The muscle under her fingertips flinched. “And it wasn’t your fault.”

“Does it make it easier for you to hear that, Sophie?”

He didn’t fight fair. Her eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t make it any less true.”

“Maybe. The girl’s mother doesn’t agree with you. My men thought I’d betrayed them, my commanders—”

“Were only using you.”

“Be that as it may…”

“What about Gabriel? You said they were his people you saved that night. They
all
might have died if not for you. He must have been grateful at least for that,” she prodded, thinking that he still wasn’t telling her everything.

“He spared my life. By law, I should have been executed.”

“Because of the little girl?”

“Because I disobeyed orders.”

“That’s barbaric.”

Adriano shrugged. “It’s who we are. Gabriel spared my life but it meant exile. Dishonor for my family.” He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Don’t pity me,
gata.
I deserve what happened to me. There’s still a chance I might find a way to redeem myself and there are some consolations to your world.”

“Like what?”

He stared into her eyes. “I have you.”

For now. He didn’t need to say the words out loud. They were both thinking the same thing. She didn’t want to talk about it. Didn’t want this to end. She gave a harsh little laugh that had Adriano lifting his brows. The best and worst time of her life all tangled together. She, who never wanted to get close to anyone, who surrounded herself with the artifacts of the dead, only wanted to cling to this man, press her cheek to his chest and fall asleep to the solid beat of his heart.

“Would you do it again?”

“I won’t be anyone’s fool again.”

“You’re not a fool. You’re a good man, Adriano.”

“I’m a traitor, an exile and a liar.” He traced her lower lip with his thumb. “I always intended to leave you.”

She shook her head at his questioning look and straddled his lap. She tipped her hips to fit her clit against the base of his cock and rode up his stiffening length. He placed a hand to her waist to still her. “You must be sore.”

“I’m fine,” she said, pressing her lips to the base of his neck. He growled low in his throat but let his head fall back to grant her better access. She licked him there and because he seemed to like that, she nipped at him too. His cock jerked beneath her. “Are you?”

“What?” His voice dropped into a lower register, husky and deep, vibrating into her body where her breasts were pressed flat to his chest.

“Sore?”

He smiled wryly. “A bit.”

She reached down between them and gripped his cock so she could fit it to her entrance. He pushed upward, nudging into her and she slid down to the base. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”

He laughed, a sexy as hell, gravelly sort of sound and then he reached behind her neck to pull her down for a kiss.

He set the heel of one hand to the under curve of her breast and kneaded her gently as she rocked above him. When he bent his knees, she pitched forward, bracing a hand on the rock wall above his head for support. The movement brought her nipple only a few inches from his mouth and he smiled. His long fingers cradled her small breast, toying with her nipple, feathering over the tender skin. She wanted his mouth on her but he waited, watchful as always, though his smile was gone and his eyes were intent.

She usually hated being on top, especially after the accident but even before that. She’d told Delia once she thought it turned sex into a performance. But she liked Adriano’s eyes on her body, his cock hard and high inside her as she sank down, feeling so thick as she slid slowly back up. She liked the stark look on his face like he was completely exposed here too.