Chapter 8
I raced by the handful of lingering agents cataloging the attack and through the apartment to my bedroom, where Angel jerkily shoved his stuff into his backpack.
He’d practically been living out of the thing for the past two weeks.
Our whirlwind relationship had landed him at my door because my life was more complicated than his.
“Angel,” I breathed, hesitating to touch him for fear he’d turn on me. Too many bad relationships left a mark.
“He’s right,” Angel said after a long minute, pausing in his angry packing.
“About?”
“I can’t protect you.” The tightness in his tone made me leap forward and wrap my arms around his middle from behind. A long breath released from him, and he sagged into my embrace. “It’s true,” he said after a long minute. “I can’t protect you from a fucking god.”
“And if I say that I don’t want your protection?” I asked.
He stiffened.
“But I need your support.”
He looked back at me, eyes watery, jaw set in a hard line with a touch of hope.
“We’re a team, right? You and me? I’ll never be as strong or as fast as you, and sometimes I get lost in the weird shit I see, but you’ll always have my back?”
“Yes,” he breathed, turning to face me and rest his forehead on mine.
“And you won’t hate me if I have to learn some of this magic stuff to protect myself, my brother, and you.”
“No, never, but...” he hesitated.
“What?” I prodded him, catching his face between my hands to keep his focus on me. This thing between us might be new, but touching him, existing in his space, grounded me in a way I had never dared to hope for before.
“I’m afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No. Not that. More that learning this stuff will draw more attention to you.” He let out a sigh. “It already has. The military, this shadow thing, the cult of summoners.”
“I think that means I need to pick up the pace in learning.”
“And my focus needs to be on building the team for support,” Angel agreed. “Just...” He traced my face with his fingertips. “Promise me you won’t let the magic take over.” His voice cracked, raw with worry. “I need you here. With me. I’d given up on finding a mate.”
I gave him a tight laugh. “Then you got stuck with me.”
He groaned.
I caught his wrist, pressing his palm to my lips. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His breath hitched. Then, with a growl, he yanked me against him and crashed his mouth onto mine.
It wasn’t gentle. It was desperation and teeth and the unspoken mine that had been simmering since the moment we met.
I melted into it, fingers twisting in his shirt like I could fuse us together through sheer willpower.
“This is why we need the two bedrooms,” I gasped for breath a half minute later, his body pressed to mine. “I want to keep Ivan safe,” I slid my cheek against his to whisper in his ear, “and I want you to fuck me over the bathroom sink.”
He caught my mouth with his again, teeth tugging on my lip to open me to his seeking tongue as he ground his hard cock into my hip. “Promises, promises.”
“Yes,” I groaned, wishing we were alone already.
I stroked his face with my thumbs, dreaming I could drag him into the bathroom and restart this day on a better note. “Doors are good,” I added. “No one can hear you make me beg.”
The tension bled out of his shoulders. “Jude.”
“Just you and me, a bed, and lube. We have the rest of the weekend.”
A growl vibrated through his chest. My mate was needy, and since I’d never had a guy as obviously into me as he was, I was living for it.
“Don’t tease.”
“Naw,” I said, kissing the tip of his nose. “I’m not teasing. Maybe we should pack up the game console to keep the kid entertained while I show you how not teasing I am?”
“Since it’s one of Xavier’s units, it likely already has one, but we can ask.
” He cupped my ass, fingers digging in as if he were desperate to have me naked under him, and technically I was too.
“Next week is going to be brutal. I’m going to want to touch you, but we’ll be stuck with everyone else in our business. ”
“Don’t remind me,” I grumbled, wanting to stay in his arms as long as possible.
A loud thump from under the bed shattered the moment.
We broke apart, both of us turning toward the bed, half expecting a shadow monster to leap from beneath it. “The fuck?”
A Maine Coon kitten leapt up onto the bed, emerging with all the grace and indignation of the tiny lion he was. He stretched and sauntered our way. Maybe he had been hiding under the bed like Ivan thought.
Nox, the not-cat fae dragon, patted a giant leather tome now sitting beside us on the bed with his paw and gave a triumphant mrrow.
“Uh...” I said.
“Advanced Warding for the Magically Disinclined?” Angel read. “That is not a thing. How is that a whole-ass book?”
Nox chirped and wove himself to rub against each of us.
“I know that book wasn’t in anything Remi gave me,” I said. “Is Nox pulling books of magic out of nowhere?”
Nox headbutted my arm.
“Is that a yes?”
He pawed at the book, which flew open to a page. Shielding against the Dark (for beginners).
Angel stared. “How did you manage to rescue a fae dragon who hoards weird books of magic?”
I stared at the fluffy pest, more than a little shocked. “We all agreed I attract chaos. Is there anything more chaotic than a fae dragon and his hoard of magic books?”
“You did not just tempt fate that way, did you?” Angel said with a groan.
Nox meowed low and deep, then yawned as if we bored him, and climbed on top of Angel’s open backpack.
“Yeah, yeah, kitty. You’re coming with us,” I said. As if Ivan and Peanut Butter would have it any other way.