The Silverwing's Sorceress: THe Shadow Slayers, Book 2.5 (3 page)

He assessed the cliffs, deciding the best route to take, then began making his way down the rocky hillside. It was a nuisance for a silver-wing not to be able to glide down on extended wings. Instead, he had to move foot by foot down the embankment, dirt and pebbles raining down on him as he clung to the stones like a damn spider.

When he finally made it to the bottom and took in the crumpled metal, he ground his teeth. He could have lost Abbey in that mangle of steel. The Neon was on its side, every window was shattered, and the hood and trunk were decidedly shorter than they’d been before.

When he couldn’t get the passenger door open, he ripped it from its hinges and tossed it aside. Without a flashlight, it was hard to see much. But miraculously, he found Abbey’s purse wedged beneath the seat. He strapped the purse over his shoulder, then grabbed their bags from the trunk. Abbey’s perfume, which he enjoyed in small quantities, had smashed in her bag, drenching her clothing. Something white and sticky, shampoo perhaps, covered his.

With a sigh, he sifted through the broken glass of a jar of spaghetti sauce and salvaged what food he could from the mess. The vegetables were battered, but if he could get the broken eggshells from the leaves of lettuce and ensure the carrots didn’t harbor bits of glass, he might be able to make Abbey a salad from it.

When he returned a short time later, he found Abbey in the kitchen, sitting at the table, nursing her soup. “Are our bags bleeding?” she asked.

Given his mood when he’d last seen her, his laughter surprised him. “The jar of sauce broke. I told you we should have purchased the can instead.”

“That’s because it cost less, not because you knew the jar was going to end up at the bottom of a cliff in what was left of my car.”

“I can’t debate with such an intelligent woman,” he conceded. “But I have good news for you. I found your purse.” He placed the pewter-colored purse on the table. “The bad news is, the phone didn’t survive the crash.”

“Crap.”

“But this might brighten your night.” He produced the vegetables from behind his back like a bouquet of flowers and presented them to her.

She smiled and rose from her chair, taking the items from his hand and immediately carrying them to the sink to begin washing the fragments of eggshell and grime from them. “Well, I can’t make a call from this carrot, but at least we’ll be eating something that didn’t come from a can.”

“You didn’t find a phone?”

“No. No landlines, and I’m not sure my cell would have worked here anyhow. Service was already getting spotty halfway up the mountain range.”

“Should we try the neighbors?”

“Absolutely—if we had neighbors to try. One of the reasons my dad loved this place was because no one else lived around here.”

“Yet you have electricity…”

“From a special generator. It’s powered by the energy of the mountain, and I’m glad it’s still running. My dad never taught me the spell to work it.”

“They use a similar generator on Mercury Island, but that isn’t my area of expertise.” He took the carrots and began washing them beside her. When his knuckles grazed hers, she froze.

His heart squeezed when he felt her pull away, but then she must have realized what she’d done, because she smiled and patted his hand. “I hope you didn’t misunderstand me earlier about the whole sharing-a-bedroom thing.”

His gaze met hers. He knew her so well, she didn’t need to speak for him to read the discomfort there. Still, he needed to hear the words. “Oh? In what way?”

“You thinking I’m trying to get rid of you or something. It’s just that I thought you might like to stretch out for once.”

He finished with the bunch of carrots and set them aside. “Don’t, Abbey. I deserve better than your trying to placate me. If I could take back what happened last night…” He stopped short of saying he would, because that would have been a lie.

“So…we kissed. Big deal. It happened, and it won’t happen again. Can we please just let it go and move on?”

“Move on…” He was a fool, but he’d expected more compassion from her. It wasn’t as if he’d planned it.

No, he’d been a flaming saint right up until they’d returned home to an empty apartment and sat on the couch, like they’d done so many times before. A playful argument over the remote had led to grappling, and grappling had led to a heated look, and the heated look had led to the most amazing kiss of his life. He wasn’t sure what made him do it, but when he’d kissed her, there was no doubt Abbey had kissed him back.

Her body had been so incredibly responsive as she’d straddled his lap and wrapped her small hands behind his head. He still wondered where it would have led if their roommate, Kara, and Abbey’s ex, Tray, hadn’t walked in on them and blown it all to hell. With her arms wrapped tightly around her ribs and a look of distrust in her eyes, Abbey had come crashing to her senses…and Jaxon wasn’t sure his body would survive the impact.

She filled her lungs and blew out a deep breath. “See? Easy. Moving on. Now where are the bowls?”

He wasn’t going to argue with her. She didn’t want more from him, no matter what her kisses said. “I would never pressure you into something you weren’t ready for.”

“Oh, right. Like you’ve ever pressured me.”

Her strange look and fluttery fingers confused him. He settled his hand over hers to calm her. “Think nothing more about it. It’s been a long night, and I’ll sleep well enough in the room across from yours.”

He proved himself a liar.

They ate dinner and changed for bed. Abbey took one of his shirts to wear as a nightgown until she could wash the overwhelming fragrance from her own clothing.

And now he lay in the large, empty bed, staring across the hall at Abbey’s open door for what felt like hours, pondering whether or not it was even safe to leave her unguarded…

No, he finally decided. Absolutely not.

Jaxon walked into the master bedroom on silent feet. He would prove to her that he could control himself—that he wasn’t a rutting bull she needed to fear. Abbey was the most important thing to him in this realm, and he wouldn’t lose her over a kiss.

He went around to the other side of the bed and slipped under the covers. She shifted and let out a quiet moan, rolling toward him and tucking her fingers into the crook of his arm as she liked to do. Jaxon cursed himself when that small gesture made him go as hard as stone.

Having Abbey near him made his skin feel tight and his lungs struggle to draw a full breath. How could she possibly believe they would be better as friends when he needed her so desperately?

She stirred, and her eyes opened a fraction of an inch. “What’s the matter, Jaxy? Are you all right?”

“I couldn’t sleep without knowing you were safe.” He ran his hand over her hair and brought her closer. “Shh. I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep.”

He pressed his eyes together when her cheek nestled against his chest. His flat nipples drew tight and his skin broke out in gooseflesh. His rod was so stiff, the covers peaked over his groin. He was a fool if he thought to show her he could control himself after last night. In truth, his cock burned with unspent desire, and the only way to extinguish it would be to plunge inside Abbey’s wet heat.

Jaxon let out a long breath, angry he was being such a lecherous bastard and allowing his wicked thoughts to get the best of him. He reached down to adjust himself, not wanting to take a chance she’d open her eyes and witness his reaction to her. But when he felt Abbey’s throat swallow against his arm, he knew it was too late. He glanced down to see her mouth parted and her small pink tongue dart out to lick her lips.

“That’s not fair,” she said.

“What isn’t fair?”

She glanced to the bulge under the blanket. “You know how long it’s been for me. It’s not fair to wave that thing under my nose, knowing that I’m not going to do anything with it.”

“I’d let you do anything with it you like.” His smile let her know he was teasing, but his cock throbbed in anticipation.

“I might be flattered if I didn’t know it’d been just as long for you.”

“Do you truly believe my desire is from going too long without a woman?”

Her gaze shifted back to his groin. “Well, the evidence is hard to deny.”

When he took her small hand under the covers and ran it the length of him over his silky shorts, Abbey sucked in a breath. “You may not be willing to take me,” he said, “but never doubt that every inch is for you alone.”

Abbey yanked her hand back, her green eyes blazing with righteous indignation. “You dog! Don’t you dare hit on me! You need to purge the pump, go in the bathroom and do it yourself! Honestly, Jaxon. What the hell?”

With a
humph
, she turned away from him, rolling to her side, her rump pressing against his thigh. If his restrained desire had been a sound, it would have been a thousand wings smashing against the rocks as the Maker’s angels plummeted from the sky.

He’d wanted his first mistress, Lace—had been made to go crazy from wanting her—but that couldn’t compare to how he felt in this moment, lying next to Abbey, feeling her ass pressed up against him, knowing that the only things separating him from heaven were two thin pieces of fabric, and one woman too stubborn for her own good.

Perhaps it was true that he’d gone too long without a woman. But if he had anything to say about it, he wouldn’t be going without her much longer.

Chapter Three

When Jaxon woke in the morning, his shaft hurt like it’d been bitten by frost. He looked around the room, but Abbey was nowhere in sight. His nostrils flared, taking in a faint and unfamiliar odor, something akin to burning flesh. Clothed only in his boxers, he sprang from the bed and ran down the hall, throwing open door after door. “Abbey!”

When he got to the kitchen, there she was at the stainless-steel cooktop, smiling at him quizzically. The thin white shirt she wore barely concealed the bloom of her dusky-rose nipples.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“I wasn’t sure where you were.”

“I’m right here, cooking you breakfast.”

After his pathetic stunt last night, he was glad she was speaking to him. He approached her with caution and peered into the sauté pan. It appeared to be meat of some sort, though he was sure the refrigerator had been empty last night. “What is it?”

She selected an herb from the collection she’d gathered and sprinkled it over the meat. “Spam.”

“Ham?”

“Well, sort of. Here, try it.” She speared a bite onto a fork and brought it to his lips.

It was hot against his tongue, but coming from her hand, he’d never tasted anything so delicious. “I like it.”

“Sit down at the table, Jaxy. You’re going to be surprised what kind of breakfast I can come up with in a pinch.”

“You don’t have to cook for me.”

“I know. That’s what makes it fun.” When her slender hand took his shoulder and pushed him towards the chair, it might as well have been the hand of the Maker himself. He sat and followed her with his eyes back to her position at the stove.

His shirt on her was long, but then so were Abbey’s legs. It fell to the tops of her thighs, revealing far too much creamy white skin. What was wrong with him? He’d desired her from the moment they’d met, but he’d never felt out of control like this. Had their episode on the sofa really done so much damage that all he could think of was whether or not the thatch of hair between her legs was as red as the long locks falling across her forehead?

“After you’re done eating and put some clothes on, I thought we could start on the library. I’m hoping there’s something there that can help with the mountain’s ward.”

“Of course. How are you doing this morning with…all this?” His gesture encompassed the house.

“I’m all right. But I have a hundred questions—and no one to ask at the moment.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.

“Okay…I know the cabin was legally mine after I turned twenty-five, so I’m assuming this house is mine, too. But then I start thinking about the fact that Claude couldn’t have gotten the money to build it from the estate. And if he got it from the Northwestern Coven, is it still mine? I have no idea. And furthermore, why was the cabin not good enough for him? And where is my parents’ stuff? From the look of this place, I think Claude planned for guests, like maybe a coven retreat for his inner circle or something.”

“Why would the Northwestern Coven of Witches fund your uncle’s personal projects?”

“Uhhg…” The sound turned into a groan. “I’ll tell you if you swear not to get mad at me.”

“What could you possibly have to say that would make me mad at you?”

“I’m not going to answer that unless you swear.”

He put down his fork, rose from the table and came to stand before her. Taking her hand in his, he met her eyes, his lips drawn in a half smile. “Abigail Sellers, I solemnly swear that whatever you are about to tell me, I will not hold it against you in any way. If I break this vow, may I hand-wash your dirty laundry and give you sole control of the television remote for the next thousand years.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, nice. That’s easy to promise when you know I won’t be around that long.”