Chapter Twenty-One
In the clearing by the Hudson River, Allhan stared down at the female in front of him, and talk about splitting and projection. Half of him wanted to make sure she left here and never, ever went anywhere near his sister’s glass house. The other half of him wanted…
A thrust of what he’d woken up with thickened behind the fly of his jeans.
“Tell me what’s on your mind,” he said in a voice that was so deep, he was sure it was someone else’s.
He certainly felt like his body belonged to a stranger.
His muscles seemed to be swelling up all around his bones, and his skin was hypersensitive to the clothes he had on, the cold in the air, the breeze that passed between them.
As he breathed in through his nose, it was like he was drawing this female inside of him, and he needed her more than air.
Meanwhile, an infinity stretched out between them, one where he felt heavy on the ground and yet floating in space, full of purpose but free of burden. All he wanted, all he needed, was to kiss her.
As if pulled by some invisible force, he found himself bending down—
Denne stepped back and cleared her throat. “I was thinking how now that we’ve been properly introduced, I could go save your girlfriend.”
The distance between their bodies was just a yard, but it was also a million miles. And as the urgency that had taken him over ebbed, Allhan felt chilled in a way that had nothing to do with the temptation.
But at least his brain snapped back to attention. “No,” he said roughly. “You can’t do that.”
A week. The lesser had said he had a week.
And though you couldn’t trust the enemy, he knew he could put his faith in what that slayer wanted and how the bargain had been set.
He also saw now that his own intelligence and belief in his ability to construct and control outcomes had led to an arrogant blind spot that had proved deadly: Because Shuli’s friends hadn’t recognized him, he’d assumed that nothing could be traced back to his sister.
But the lesser knew who their father was, knew the surname, the former address.
No doubt knew what Carmen looked like from scoping out their mansion from before.
And the enemy had no clue that Allhan had buried his old identity, and the people he was with now were not, in fact, his nearest and dearest.
Tracing Carmen’s location, from fellow members of the glymera while under torture, would not have been that hard. Had not been that hard.
He should have seen this coming. Should have stayed away from Shuli and the others.
And that was why he needed to never see this female again.
Denne crossed her arms and shook her head. “There’s no shame in asking for help.”
For a second, he had to catch up with her words. It was not shame he was worried about.
“I don’t want you to be in danger.” He refocused on her beautiful face. “That I cannot live with. And before you say you won’t be, I believed that about… other things, and it turned out I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong.”
There was a pause. “God, you remind me of myself.”
“How so?”
“You do the right thing, even if it’s stupid.” She shrugged. “So okay, fine. How’m I going to even our score, Al? I settle my debts, that’s how it is.”
“There’s no debt to settle. You took care of that woman and fate put me here last night to take care of you with the knife.”
She frowned. “What about you, though.”
“I’m working off my own debts.”
“And what are they?”
As his eyes drifted down to her mouth, his blood thundered. “Well… right now, there are some things I want to do that I shouldn’t. Not at all.”
“Oh?” One of her brows lifted. “Such as.”
There was a deliberate defiance to her, and that turned him on even more. “She’s my sister, by the way,” he said in a low growl. “Carmen is my sister.”
Those lids lowered so that she stared up from under her lashes. “Is she.”
“Yeah.”
There was a long moment. And then Denne’s lips lifted in a smile that held all kinds of promise. “So what’s your next move, Al.”
“I want to kiss you.”
The chuckle was soft. “Oh, my God, how romantic. Right here, next to a crime scene. I mean, really, it’s what every girl dreams about.”
Oh, God, he was messing this all up. “I’m so sorry—”
When he went to step back, she captured his hand and laughed. “It’s a joke, Al.”
He nodded awkwardly. “I’m not good at reading situations.”
Glancing out at the glass house, he thought that had never been more true. Why had he ever assumed he could win at this dangerous game he was playing with that slayer? And what was he doing with this incredible female? He was in so far over his head, he was next-level drowning.
“I’m not sure that’s true,” she murmured. “You had a presence of mind last night that I sure as hell didn’t.”
Looking back at her, he knew he was going to remember this forever. How the wind moved through the ends of her hair, and she blinked really slowly, and the way she stood so still and confident as he continued to stare at her.
“Denne, can I say something that’s going to fuck this all up?”
A wave of laughter went through his ears and directly into his nervous system. “Well, in case you’ve forgotten, last night, I lost my truck and almost brought the entire CPD down on my own neck. So I’m setting a pretty high standard for tits up out here—”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he blurted. “All day long, you were on my mind. Even while I was sleeping.”
He redacted the part about how he’d woken up.
There was a pause. “She really your sister? Or are you just saying that.”
“She is my only close relation. My sister.”
“Why does she hate you?”
“Long story.”
When there was another stretch of quiet and he lifted his brows, she laughed again with that purring sound. “What, you think I’m going to bug you to tell me all your gory details? Nah, I have long stories of my own. No reason to bring anybody’s up out here.”
As the winter wind continued to swirl around them, she stepped forward again, but this time it was fully into his body. Alllllll the way against him.
Holy. Fuck. If things had been kindling with space between them, now the need to get on top of her, to penetrate, to be inside of her, bonfire’d in his veins and blanked out everything.
“Al,” she whispered in a husky way. “Have you done this before?”
He shook his head like the dumb idiot he was.
“No?” A frown flickered across her brows. “Nothing? No… anything, then. Even during your transition?”
“No,” he said.
And P.S., he really didn’t want to dwell on his transition right now. Although it was weird. Up until last night, he’d had Lyric on his mind constantly, both before she’d given him her vein and afterward. But ever since he’d met Denne?
He had a new obsession, apparently.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked him softly.
God, how to answer that. “Would I freak you out if I said… I’ve never needed anything more.”
There was an ancient quality to the smile that bloomed across her beautiful dark face. “It should. But it doesn’t.”
Allhan felt like they were balanced on a cloud, high above the earth, each of them tipping forward toward a plunge that was going to change everything. Or at least it was going to change him.
Denne lifted up onto her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ve never been someone’s first before.”
With that, she sealed their mouths, and Allhan groaned at the sensation.
All at once, he knew nothing but the soft, warm pull against his lips, her scent of arousal in his nose, the pounding of his own blood.
And she was patient when he fumbled a little, not knowing how to dance with the kiss.
She just coached him by example, sucking and caressing and licking—and go figure, he was a quick learner.
Someone was moaning.
Him? Yes, it was him.
No… that wasn’t a moan. He was growling.
With need.
Denne was so one hundred percent in, it was a revelation.
She’d never particularly thought much about what she was into sexually.
Over the last ten years, she’d gone home with a human man once or twice, more from curiosity than any kind of real desire.
Well, curiosity and maybe some rebellion.
The fumblings in the dark had been performative and boring, and when the inevitable can-I-see-you-agains had come, she’d wiped their memories like she was cleaning off a countertop.
But this?
This she wanted. This massive male, who was totally fucking turned on, who had all the muscle and all the erection, who was ready to come with just a kiss… who needed someone to teach him about his own body.
Someone to teach him about a female’s.
This she was fucking into.
And when she felt like she needed a proper, deep breath, Denne eased back and relished what she saw: Those pale blue eyes were glassy, there was a flush on his cheeks, and he was panting like he’d been running.
Except then she glanced around at the clearing, saw the bloodstains in the snow and all the yellow tape, and was reminded of that good ol’ not-the-right-place, not-the-right-time thing.
“Give me your phone,” she commanded.
Al went into the pockets of his sweatshirt like he was looking for world peace in there, and came out with two phones.
“Which do you want me to use?” she said.
He looked down in confusion and put one of them away. “This Samsung.”
She took the thing. “I’m an Apple girl myself. Smile for the camera.”
He looked so confused, she wondered whether facial recognition was even going to work. But it did: As she put the screen up to his face, she knew by the change of light that the thing had opened.
Going into his contacts, she started entering her name and number.
“We’re not allowed to have Apple anything.”
She glanced up. “Says who?”
“The male in charge of things like that.”
“Well, if I ever meet him, he and I are going to have a debate.” She gave the cell back to him. “Call me during the day. We’ll talk.”
“I would like that.” He cleared his throat. “I would like… to get to know you better.”
“Well, I promise you one thing.” Denne put her hand on one of his pecs. “You and I are going to get to know you very much better.”
“Yes, please. Thank you.”
Like she was doing him a favor. Except she had every intention of getting just as much out of it as he did.
Yes, the timing sucked. But this might be her last chance to do something she chose—and wanted.
“You’re so polite,” she murmured. “And I like your accent.”
“I don’t have one.”
Denne shrugged. “Well, it sounded like that just now. Whatever. I like your voice, too. It’s very deep.”
She went back up on her tiptoes. “I’m going to like the way it sounds when you beg me to touch you.”
As he gasped, she put her mouth back where it had been. And he might not have had any experience, but the male had picked up things quick. He instantly responded the way she’d taught him to, mirroring the way she kissed him, letting her lick her way into him.
“Put your arms around me,” she said against his lips. “Pull me in. Tighter.”
His hands were broad and gentle on her waist, and she leaned in on his tentative direction, her breasts pressing into the intractable wall of his chest through her parka.
God, she wished there were less clothes involved here, she really fucking did.
Especially as she found the nape of his neck under the folds of his sweatshirt’s hood.
His hair was soft and silky against her fingers. Warm, too.
“Tighter,” she ordered. “Closer.”
There was some fumbling as his palms dropped to the small of her back—and briefly went lower. To encourage him, she covered one of them with her own and placed it right on her ass.
The groan that vibrated against her mouth was oh, so satisfying. And then like the good student he was, he put his other hand down there and—
His arousal was a hard rigid at the front of his jeans, and through her black work slacks, she could feel it. Proud. Thick. Long.
Arching further into him, she rolled her hips and enjoyed an instant tightening of his hands. The power in his grip was immediately apparent, and in her mind, she had them back at her private quarters at the s’Hisbe—
No, that was never going to work.
Her cabin. Yes, that was it. She could imagine them at her cabin, up against one of the uneven, rough walls, him pinning her there as she snuck under his clothes and ran her—
With a laugh, she separated their mouths. Then she stepped back for a second time.
What do you know. She was breathing hard, too.
“Do you want me to call you?” he said with the kind of awe that made her feel like Cleopatra. “Like, really.”
She wiped off his lower lip. “Guess you’ll find out if you hit me up, huh.”
As she dematerialized away, he was nodding like she’d asked him if he wanted to win the lottery, and she wasn’t going to lie. She’d been feeling like her whole life was over courtesy of those two fucking stars from the night before.
Kissing Al?
Made it seem like she had something to live for.