The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) (18 page)

When he finally released his hold on my hand where it wrapped his slowly softening length, he returned his fingers, shaking, to under my chin, lifting my face back up to his. His eyes blazed gold and he rasped, "How the hell could I be so fortunate?"

Then he was on his knees, his lips on mine, his hands - real hands - fisted in my hair, as he kissed me with utter devotion. Letting his
Stoicheio
finally finish what it had started, stroking, flicking, rubbing and then
consuming
me, as the orgasm crashed and rolled and carried me away. For several blissful moments I was floating, surrounded with Fire, caressed from the inside out.

My eyelids flickered as I came back to awareness, cradled in the circle of his arms as his lips trailed light kisses across the curve of my neck.

"Utterly beautiful," he murmured against my skin. "Do you see now, Cassandra? How much you control? How much of me you own?"

I nodded, panting for breath still, clinging to him for fear I'd float away again.

"About as much as you control me," I finally murmured, receiving a chuckle from deep inside his chest.

"
That
is what being
Thisavros
means." He kissed me again, ran hands through my wet hair and over my sensitive skin. "I'm in heaven," he murmured against my lips, lifting me to my feet smoothly, and then beginning to spread liquid soap all over my body. His heated gaze watched as the fine hairs on my skin lifted, and my frame shook with tiny trembles.

He looked fascinated as he washed me. Totally absorbed in what he was doing and how it was affecting my body. Completely lost to the moment, even though it was simply a moment to show he cared. To clean me, with me returning the favour and cleaning him. Nurturing each other, loving each other in a non-sexual way, but sensually nonetheless.

We towelled off in silence and then with robes on again we returned to the main room. Taking in the disarray of the sheets on the bed, the smoke marked ceiling and scorched furnishings.

"Not even twenty-four hours together again and we're destroying the place," Theo quipped, as he delved into his suitcase and began taking clothes out to get dressed.

He surprised me by having an outfit for me to wear. Obviously he'd not thrown my small wardrobe of clothes out after I'd left Auckland. He presented me with my familiar yoga pants, singlet top and hoodie, all in black. Not necessarily appropriate tropical wear, but mine. All mine. I hugged them to my chest and dipped my nose in amongst them, smelling Aktor's laundry detergent. A smile graced my lips when my eyes came up, meeting the amused hazel of Theo's.

"It's all I could grab on such short notice."

"It's perfect," I replied, grabbing the underwear he'd also provided and getting dressed quickly.

I hadn't realised Theo was just watching me, wonder and that ever present hunger in his eyes.

"You have grown so much, little
Gi
," he murmured, when I raised questioning eyebrows at him. "You would never have gotten dressed so casually in my presence before."

I offered a smile and small shrug. "Some things don't seem so important anymore," I admitted. Then suddenly thought to add, "But don't think I won't still make you work for it."

He threw back his head and laughed, mirth flashing in his eyes as he slowly slipped the robe off his shoulders and made a show of stripping what little he had on for me.

"Will this do as payment?" he queried, seductively.

"Theo Peters," I chastised. "Do you wish us to get out of Manaus or not?"

He continued to laugh as he picked up speed, dressing in a more normal fashion. I returned to the bathroom and brushed my hair out, searching through his toiletries for some moisturiser for my face. I heard the main door knock again, making me frown at who would be on the other side of it. I couldn't find the cream I wanted, so with defeated eyes stared at myself in the mirror, wondering if I passed the Isadora test. Knowing I'd fail in comparison to her well put-together image.

I sighed, straightened my shoulders and walked back into the room.

And immediately came up short at Isadora in trim linen pants and a fitted blouse, wedge-heel sandals and sunglasses. But that's not what made me stop in my tracks. She had a brown long haired wig on, and when she removed her glasses, her eyes were dark blue.
Gi
wannabe.

I snorted. She turned an imperious arched look at me.

"Something the matter?" she queried.

"You don't even look
Gi
," I pointed out, a little snottily. She did bring out the worst in me.

"And you do?" she shot back.

"Dora," Theo warned.

"
Isadora
," I corrected through gritted teeth, making her smile triumphantly.

Theo let out a frustrated sigh. "This is going to be a very testing day."

"Only if you forget to call her by her full name," I growled.

"Your
Gi
has grown claws," Isadora murmured, almost a purr in itself.

"You have no idea, lady," I shot back.

"Casey," Theo warned now. My eyes flicked to his and he shook his head. Just a small movement, but it relayed so much. He didn't trust her. He didn't want her to know I was
Pyrkagia
now too. That I was
Aether
.

I gave him a beaming smile, which made him shake his head for a different reason. I was quite happy to keep Isadora in the dark, and more than happy to see that Theo didn't blindly trust his ex-lover.

Take that, bitch!

I blinked at the unusual-for-me sentiment.

Everyone shuffled slightly on uncomfortable feet, until Isadora decided to get the show on the road.

"So, has your pet regained her strength enough to travel at last?"

Pet? My hands fisted and Theo took a step forward, his eyes blazing gold and sending a message to Isadora I don't think she wanted to see.

"My
Thisavros
has recovered nicely. Thank you for your concern." He emphasised
Thisavros
, which made it forgiveable that he was talking about me as though I wasn't there. I understood his message, even if Isadora chose to ignore it.

"Well, while you've been amusing yourself, Theodoros, I've been catching up with a few of my informants."

"And what have you found out?" he asked, ignoring her jibe at what she considered his hobby.

"The
Basilissa
is no longer in the
Gi
fortress."

I sank onto the side of the unmade bed, not even caring that Isadora had seen it and could work out how it had gotten that way. News that the
Basilissa
hadn't just sent her Guards after me was not good. I concentrated on breathing, until tension eased from my frame when Theo's hand started to rub gentle circles on my back.

Isadora pouted.

"What else?" Theo asked, not taking his concerned eyes off my face.

"Two
Gi
Guard regiments are also missing since the day before yesterday."

"How many in a regiment?" Theo asked, voice low and level.

"Usually twenty-five for a Scout regiment, but these are the Queen's Guards. Highly trained, extremely efficient. So, a dozen per regiment instead of the normal amount."

"So, twenty-four Guards in total on our tails. Plus the Queen," Theo surmised.

"Eighteen," I corrected, absently.

"Excuse me?" Isadora demanded, as though my speaking was an indiscretion right then.

But Theo talked over her. "Of course," he said with burgeoning pride. "You took out six the first day of your escape."

"Really," Isadora remarked, sounding unimpressed. "That would be with the help of your
Gi
doctor. Just how did you win him over, Cassandra?" she queried. "Offer him a little something on the side?"

Theo growled, gold flashed, but it was my
Stoicheio
which reached out to slap that smug look off her face. Theo pounced on my mistake. With a sweep of his arm he pushed me back on the bed, making me lose my concentration.

Then placed himself between me and Isadora, and shouted, "Enough!"

His own
Stoicheio
filled the room, masking mine and washing us all in its heated Fire.

"I may be exiled from
Pyrkagia
right now," - What? Exiled?  Someone hadn't divulged all
their
secrets, had they? I stared daggers at his back, for all the good it would do me. - "But I
am
still your Prince," he added, in a feral growl. "Do not test me Isadora Petros."

Silence met his statement, thick with the weight of unsaid words. I glanced around Theo's stiff frame and watched Isadora stare him directly in the eyes. Defying him openly for a moment. Letting him know we needed her, more than she needed to kowtow to royal titles.

But then she slowly lowered her head and with a small nod said, "Your Highness. Forgive me."

Theo nodded in return and turned back to me. His eyes held mine, letting me know what he'd risked by throwing his position in her face. We were on thin ice and we needed Isadora's guidance to avoid capture in
Gi
land. I had to improve my attitude. I had to work on my control when angered by her smug, smarmy smirks. I couldn't let Theo step in like that again; covering for me. One more time and Isadora would lift that defiant, superior pointed chin of hers and stomp away.

We needed her.

I sighed, my eyes no doubt letting Theo know exactly how I felt about that.

He offered a small smile, then with a brief touch of his fingers to my cheek, turned back to the
room at large and said, "Well, I guess we should get going. Any ideas on which route you plan for us to take?"

Isadora straightened her spine, seeing that the theatrics were over, and then settled into the persona she loved best. Self-satisfied know-it-all.

"The airport is out," she announced. "
Gi
are crawling all over it. So I've organised a vehicle and we'll head east to Belém, then attempt an airline there."

Theo whistled. "That's a hell of a journey by car."

"Yes," Isadora replied, shrugging her shoulders and somehow managing to stare down her nose at me at the same time. "Three thousand and eighty-eight kilometres on the BR-230. We'll have to head south-west in a dog leg and then east towards the coast and Belém. Unless you'd like to take your chances in the rainforest? Then we could try Santarém. But the
Gi
have a stronghold there as well. They are extremely territorial and guard the Amazon as though it were their lifeblood."

"It is," I pointed out. "It thrives, they thrive. It suffers, they suffer."

"How primitive," she remarked.

"How over opinionated," I shot back.

"Being of a superior intelligence does not necessarily mean I am over-opinionated," she snarled.

"Doesn't mean you're not a bitch either," I argued, forcing a pleasant faux smile, with a flash of teeth.

Theo sighed.

"Two days in a vehicle with you two sniping at each other. Somehow I think my luck has run out."

"Oh, Theo," Isadora purred. "Just think, you can take your pick at the end of each night. Mix it up a bit, compare notes. I'm sure you remember how inventive I was."

She did not just say that.

Theo growled and said warningly, "Casey." Casey? Not Isadora? Not even Dora? What the...?

"I'm not the one being a bitch," I finally settled on as answer.

"Little
Gi
," she said, the diminutive term sounding like a derogatory one coming from her lips. "It takes Fire to hold Fire. Of which you severely lack."

"Theo, can I please?
Please?
" I begged, standing up to glare at the woman and fisting my hands at my sides. "Just one shot, that's all I ask. That's all it would take. Just one."

The bastard started laughing, took the necessary steps to bring himself in front of my face, cutting off all vision of the witch. He tipped my chin up, let me see his amusement - and could that be pride? - flashing in his eyes. And then dipped his head down and kissed me hard. On the lips. Tongue and teeth and all. In front of Isadora.

"Delicious," he murmured, hot breath across my face. "Maybe this will be fun after all."

I seriously doubted that. I really, truly did.

Isadora left us in a huff to get her luggage and rendezvous in front of the hotel in fifteen minutes. Barely enough time to round on Theo and have it out.

"I don't trust her." A repeat of my earlier statement.

"So you have mentioned," Theo drawled.