Seduced by the Storm (36 page)

She
opened her mouth to say something, ended up storming off to the bathroom—the
only private place on the plane. Creed thought about going after her, but his
body was wracked by pain, by grief and guilt, and he was afraid he’d lose his
resolve if he attempted to comfort her.

Kat
rubbed his shoulders, her worry for him coming through loud and clear.

"I’m
fine, Kat," he said wearily, even though both of them knew that was a
complete lie.

Bite
it back. Concentrate. An operative doesn’t let anything get in the way of the
mission.

Yet
there was so much in the way.

But
Creed told himself that this wouldn’t be so bad, that things would be the way
they were before.

You
and me, Creed,
Kat whispered.

"Yeah,
you and me, Kat, and you’re not here out of choice either," he muttered.
If it hadn’t been for Oz casting a spell and calling Kat to Creed, Kat could’ve
crossed over. Been happy. And when he thought about it like that, it made him
sadder than ever.

But
something wasn’t sitting well with Kat—Creed knew her as well as he knew
himself, and yet he couldn’t figure out where her discomfort was coming from.

Just
then, the plane bounced and jerked, moved up and down in a sickening motion,
and there was no way this rerouting was going to happen.

To
concur, the pilot’s voice came over the speakers. "We’re going to have to
land and try again for Ireland when the storm passes. For now, prepare for a
rough landing."

"Shit."
Annika slammed out of the small bathroom, didn’t look at Creed as she buckled
herself in. Creed did the same. Flying hadn’t ever been his favorite thing,
especially not in rough weather, and he just concentrated on the fact that
Wyatt, his friend, was alive. Something to celebrate. Something to concentrate
on to get him through the next hours and days.

After
that, he had to hope that something else would come along that would.

ANNIKA
REMAINED BUCKLED in for about ten seconds. She couldn’t sit still and she
didn’t give a shit if the goddamned plane was bouncing around like glitter in a
snow globe, and besides, they were at least several minutes from landing.

I’ll
be there for you when you need sex, until you find another guy you can’t shock
to death.

Seriously?
He seriously thought that was all she wanted from him? Man, it had hurt to hear
him say that. Hurt so much that she didn’t know how to deal with it.
Confronting emotions all by herself had been something she’d never had to do.
She’d always ruthlessly beaten them back or let them out on Dev.

"Get
back in your seat and buckle in," Creed shouted—but defiantly, she marched
over to him.

"Not
until you listen to me." She put her hands on her hips, which would have
been much more impressive if she didn’t have to keep shifting her weight to
keep from falling. "I’m sorry I’ve put Dev ahead of you. You have to
believe me." That sounded so lame, but she’d never been good at apologies.

He
stiffened, like he wanted to be angry, but then, in the dim light, she saw the
tiredness in his eyes. "That’s the thing, Annika. You don’t need to be
sorry for being who you are. Even though I can’t deal with it, how can I fault
you for your loyalty to Dev?"

"You
can fault me because I gave him what I should have given you." She ignored
the slap of an invisible hand across the face, no doubt Kat’s way of telling
her she agreed. "I’ve felt torn in two for so long, and when I had to go
one way, I almost always made the wrong choice."

"I
didn’t force you to choose."

"No,
you didn’t. But I’m making that choice now. I choose you, Creed." She
threw out a hand to brace herself on a seat back when a particularly bad gust
of turbulence knocked the jet around. "You’ve been so patient with me. So
much more than I deserved. I was blind and stupid. I didn’t put you first, and
I should have. I’ll do anything to make it up to you. Anything. Even if you say
no, I won’t give up."

His
face fell, as if he wanted to believe her but couldn’t allow himself to.
"It’s too late."

"It’s
never too late," she said fiercely. "I love you. You’re all I want,
and I’ll do whatever it takes to make our relationship work. I’ll cut back on
my work schedule to spend more time with you. I’ll move in with you.
I’ll—"

A
screech nearly shattered her eardrums. What felt like fists slammed into her
chest and knocked her against the forward bulkhead.

Creed
swore and unbuckled himself. "Kat! Stop it!"

It
took everything Annika had not to charge herself up with a million volts and
turn that little spectral bitch into a smoking blob of ectoplasm. Instead, she
held still, let the ghost mash her into the wall with such force, Annika could
hardly breathe.

"Let
her go, Kat," Creed growled. "See, Annika? That’s why it’s too
late." The bleak look in his eyes tore into her heart like a bullet.
"Oz died before he could…"

Get
rid of Kat.

It
really was too late. A raw, keening noise ripped from her throat, echoed
through the tomblike cabin, which had seemed so spacious before. "I waited
too long to decide, didn’t I?" she whispered, partly because Kat was
strangling her.

He
didn’t say it, but she knew. This was her fault. Utterly, completely. She’d
dicked around for months, stringing Creed along because she couldn’t make up
her mind, and now she’d truly lost him, even though she had no doubt he wanted
them to be together.

"It’s
over, Kat." He sounded resigned. Empty. "Release Annika."

The
pressure faded, but Annika remained where she was, slumping now that Kat wasn’t
holding her up. Creed’s strong arms hauled her against him, banded around her.

"I
love you," he said hoarsely. "I’ll always love you." She felt
him jerk, knew Kat had done something to him, and he pulled away. Didn’t look
her in the eyes. "We need to get back in our seats."

"No.
No, dammit. It’s not going to end this way." Squaring her shoulders, she
braced herself for what was sure to be the strangest, most humiliating suck-up
job she’d ever done. Hell, the only suck-up job.

"Quaty,"
she began, and saw Creed blink in surprise. "I know you don’t like me, and
honestly, the feeling is pretty mutual." That probably wasn’t the way to
start the grovelfest, but Kat wouldn’t believe anything else. "But I know
you love Creed. And I know that you’re a big part of why he is who he is. You
also helped me get him on this plane, so obviously you want him to be
happy."

Annika
paused. "Is she listening?"

Creed
gave her a stunned nod.

"Okay,
good." She closed her eyes. Opened them and locked gazes with the man she
loved. "Quaty? Creed needs you. That will never change. You protect him.
Keep him safe. But think how much safer he’d be if I were around. I love him,
so much it hurts. You know how that feels, don’t you? When we talked about
getting rid of you, it hurt you.

"We
were wrong," Annika said, looking around like maybe she could catch a
glimpse of the ghost. "He needs you in his life. And I need him. I want
him to be safe; I also want him to be happy. That’s what you want too. I can
make Creed happy. I know I haven’t done a great job of it so far—"

"That’s
not true," he said in a guttural whisper. "I’ve never been happier. I
hate being apart from you. It’s like—"

"Like
part of you is missing," she finished, and he nodded. Tears welled up,
making her vision blurry. "I don’t like that feeling. I hate it. I can’t…I
can’t live like that. I can’t live without you. I don’t want to." A
massive, shuddering sob shook her body. "Please, Quaty. I’m begging you to
share him."

God,
if someone had told her a year ago that, in tears, she’d be pleading with a
ghost to let her play a part in some fucked-up threesome, Annika would have
forcibly committed that person to a nuthouse. She certainly wouldn’t have asked
anyone or anything to share anything of hers. One of the few things Annika did
not do well was share.

The
air stilled. Grew cold. Dead silence hung like fog around them.

"How
about it, Quaty?" Desperation made Annika’s voice unsteady. "Will you
let me be with Creed?"

Suddenly,
a warning klaxon filled the cabin with deafening shrieks, the oxygen masks
dropped and the pilot’s voice blared over the intercom: "Brace for a rough
landing."

Creed
grabbed her hand and yanked her toward the seats. She’d never seen him as pale
as he was now, and he went even whiter when the jet banked hard and sent them
both crashing into the port bulkhead. "Shit," he said hoarsely.
"Thanks for dragging me along."

They
crawled toward the nearest seats. "Sarcasm duly noted." He really
must not like to fly.

His
hand tightened on hers, pulling her to a halt in the middle of their mad dash
to get seated. "I was serious. If something is going to happen to you, I
want to be there. We’re in this together."

"Oh,
Creed," she whispered. "But what about Kat? What’s her answer?"

The
plane began to shake. A blow like a strike from a baseball bat connected with
the back of Annika’s skull. Pain exploded in her head and she landed in a heap
of agony on the floor, blood streaming from the corner of her mouth.

It
seemed that Kat had given her an answer.

"ANNIKA,
SHIT." Creed rushed to her side and helped her to sit up, even as she
resisted his help. Appearing weak was not something Annika did well—or at
all—and she tried to shrug off his concern.

"I
guess that’s a no," she mumbled as with his thumb he gently wiped some of
the blood from her lip.

"That
wasn’t Kat," he told her. "We were tossed—a box from the overhead bin
caught you hard. Are you all right?"

"I’m
fine." She pushed him away but remained next to him, eyes scanning the
window. "We’ve landed—where the hell are we?" Agent Annika was on
full alert.

Kat
was also next to him, on his right, where she’d always been.

Flanked
by the two women in his life once again, and neither one seemed very happy with
him.

Suddenly,
Annika stormed to the cockpit, and a minute later delivered the bad news to
Creed.

They’d
landed in bumfuck Nova Scotia. Annika had laid into the pilot, but he’d been as
pissed as anyone. Apparently, the plane’s course should have taken them well
away from Hurricane Lily, but the storm had made a sudden wobble that caught
them on the edge.

Remy
working his weather mojo, probably.

The
pilot calmly told Annika that the jet had taken minor damage, so now they were
sitting on some godforsaken tarmac and waiting for repairs. "It could be
hours," the pilot said.

Hours.
Hours of sitting here next to the woman whose heart he’d just broken, hours of
feeling like his own heart would explode out of his chest. He remained on the
floor, buried his head against his knees and tried to breathe.

Oz
would’ve laced into him for acting this way—Devlin too, no doubt.

Annika’s
cool hand stroked the back of his neck—soothing, comforting, everything he
didn’t deserve. And she was still here. Dammit, that meant something—it had to
show something to Kat too.

"You’ve
been through so much, Creed. I know you’re probably still mad at me, but can
you let me help you? You can still be pissed and—"

"I’m
not pissed, Ani. I’m not." He lifted his head and pulled her down to him
so he could nuzzle his head against her neck, breathe in the unique scent that
he would know in the dark and from thousands of miles away. "You called
Kat Quaty. She liked that."

"It’s
time to start showing respect to the other woman in your life. I should’ve done
that a long time ago…but I don’t like to share. Now I see that I’m going to
have to if I want to be with you. And I do want to be with you."

He
pulled back. "I can’t do the same sharing with Devlin—not the way we were,
Ani. You’ve got to understand that. I love the man and I respect him,
but…"

"But
he’s not a ghost."

"All
I know is that when I’m with you, everything else falls away. I want it to be
the same with you."

"It
is, Creed. It does."

"There’s
still so much to integrate, to deal with," he said softly. "Still so
much I want to know."

"About
Oz? He did what he thought was best," Annika told him. "I didn’t like
Oz, that’s no secret. He was intense and serious. I guess with a gift like his,
he wasn’t able to be any other way."

"Communicating
with the worst of the worst spirits was tough on him," Creed admitted.
"He didn’t like to let that show, but it was beginning to take its
toll."

"He
and Dev always had a rocky relationship, and all I saw was Oz leave and Dev
upset. But maybe that’s not the way it really was." She smiled weakly.
"Kills me to admit that. Oz never truly left you. He may have left you for
Martha and Dave to find, but he stayed close. You were always in his
sights."