Chapter 4 #2
“There’s nothing to tell. You were adamant about finding out the truth, you told me.
So I figured you’d gone snooping.” Rael was responding but Cal tucked his phone back into his pocket, not caring to hear the response.
“You were gone longer than I thought you would be, though. What happened? Did Dottie come at you with rich tales of her family’s sordid history? ”
“No,” she said. “That’s what you do.” Fire glimmered in the depths of her eyes, making him ache to provoke her further, if only to admire the resultant conflagration.
“Hm. That’s true. But unlike our dear mayor, my family’s history can’t be packaged so prettily for the public.” He slid a thumb through his beltloops. “It’s not all silver and secrets.”
“Lots of scandals, then?” she asked disapprovingly.
“Oh tons.” And I’m willing to make at least one more.
“Is that why your family left England? Or were they kicked out? For the scandals.”
It seemed Dottie had been feeling particularly forthcoming on this fine morning.
Usually the tour stopped with the mine’s EPA closure and Argentum’s brief flirtation with becoming yet another dead mining town.
Had she delivered the usual spiel of thralls and seduction his family was known for?
Maybe that was why she was looking at him like he was some kind of satyr.
“Well, you’ve certainly been busy. But digging through the history books isn’t going to help you find your sister, Nadine. No matter what you think you’ve found.”
The light in her face dimmed. “Screw you.”
Don’t threaten me with what I crave, Nadine.
She glared at him, scoffed, and nearly collided with Rael, who had a small cage under his arm that was exactly the right size for a large bird. Halting just short of impact, he stared at her a beat too long before his eyes shifted to Cal. “I’m here for the bird,” he said slowly.
“H-how did you get here so fast?” Cal didn’t miss the suspicious look she aimed at him. Add psychic powers to my list of offenses, he thought, keeping his own face expressionless.
“Cal texted me,” Rael said shortly. “My father’s office is only just down there. So where is it? The bird.”
“Nadine will show you. It’s her raven.”
There was an old family legend that when the ravens left, their collective fortunes would crumble into ruin. Cal had never been one for superstitions, but the sight of those circling birds hovering over the woods every morning had always been a comforting sight.
Seeing Nadine tending to that wounded raven felt like an omen, just like the pair of birds that had interrupted their dance at the wedding.
His great-grandfather’s blood flowed in his veins, yes, but it was the chase he longed for—not the killing.
Ravens, however fierce, mated for life. If he found a woman capable of taming his instincts, perhaps they could both be saved.
Cal tilted his head, his eyes returning to Rael and Nadine.
She was supervising the bird’s capture, head cocked, hands planted on her hips.
Her ponytail swung with agitation every time she moved her head.
It really was quite attractive, her hair, even bound.
Sparrow-brown with glittering red veins that flared like hot copper in the sun.
He imagined it would look even better wrapped around his fist.
She didn’t speak to him again until Rael had left. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I’m well aware. And you should be aware that if you wanted a tour, you should have asked me. As you see, I have my connections and there’s very little here that can be denied me. I know this town like the back of my hand, little sparrow.”
Her gaze flicked to his great-grandfather’s statue. “I’m not your sparrow.” She dumped her water out over the little yellow flowers peppering the green lawn before crumpling the empty bottle into her purse with a crepitant burst of noise.
“You could be,” Cal said. “Where are you going now?”
“Nowhere you’d be interested in.”
“I doubt that. I find you very interesting.”
“Why?” Her face turned up towards his like a flower. There was more than a hint of frustration in it. “You don’t know me.”
“But you’re such a sweet little prude, Nadine.”
Her thick brows slashed downward, even as color flooded her face. “Well—at least I don’t have sex orgies in the woods!”
An image popped into his head unbidden: Nadine pinned to the topsoil with her hands crossed over her head as if in supplication.
He could imagine how the shadows of the trees would play over her bare skin, leaves and twigs tangled in her unruly locks of hair.
How her screams would drive the sparrows from their trees as he surged between her thighs, again and again.
How good it would feel, to see her flushed and satisfied and leaking his come.
Fuck.
“Is that where you’re headed?” he demanded harshly. “There’s nothing in there for you. As I said, if you wanted a tour so badly, you should have come to me. I’m parked across the street. Let me take you out to lunch and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
Sweat glistened above her lip and at her temples. He’d watched her pour out her water and the sun was hot and unforgiving. She had to be thirsty and probably hungry, as well. The mine had no ventilation and the terrain was rough and exacting.
Come with me, he thought at her.
But she shook her head, vehemently. “You haven’t told me anything!”
“Well, you’ve successfully worn me down. Congratulations. Ten questions, Nadine, and I get to pick the venue. It’s the best you’re going to get out of me, so I suggest you take it.”
“What’s the catch?”
Cal closed what space remained between them, giving her ponytail a little tug that had her mouth dropping open in shocked outrage. So he did it again, smiling fiercely as he wound the silky auburn locks around his fingers like a lead. “This.”
Whether her mouth opened in invitation or protest, the effect on him was still the same. Her lips were just as plush as he’d imagined during all those restless nights, and the way she yielded to his brutal assault made him anticipate even sweeter surrenders.
She put her hands on him, pressing against his chest as if she were trying to move a boulder. Putting her weight into it. He pushed back, muscles flexing, and nearly growled at the sensation of her fingers spreading to touch him through his shirt with more boldness than he’d expected.
And when his fist tightened around her hair, winding her closer, she bit him.
Cal kissed her harder, abandoning any pretense of genteel courtship to claim her mouth in a thorough, desperate sweep.
She jolted against him as his fingers traced over the soft, bare skin of her midriff, her breaths staggering against his face and throat.
He slipped his hand beneath the hem of her shirt, strumming the lower bars of her ribs until he encountered the cotton band of her bra.
The loosely tied sweatshirt fell to the ground, one less layer between their hips.
He wondered absently if she could feel how hard he was.
Probably, if her trembling was any indication.
Her breasts rose and fell against the hard wall of his chest, and she squeezed her eyes shut as if the sensations were far too much. She was like a small, trapped bird in his hands and gods help him, he wanted to take her.
Fuck her.
Breed her.
Cal exhaled sharply, moving his palms back to her hips, her round belly.
A sound left her when his thumb grazed the downy skin around her navel before dipping to the straining button of her too-tight jeans.
Watching her face with a predator’s intent, he took in her quivering lashes, every syncopated puff of air from her nose as she struggled to breathe.
Look at me, he thought, running his thumbnail over the seam of her fly.
I want to see your eyes while I touch you.
A bead of pre-come rolled down his shaft. The gouge of the zipper track against the sensitized flesh of his cockhead was verging into agony, but he didn’t adjust himself.
Her moan was barely audible as he traced the tops of her jeans, just grazing flesh. She was hot to the touch and he could imagine—that soft warmth giving away to slick, luxurious heat. There was no doubt in his mind she was wet. Her fucking legs were shaking.
“I could do this all day,” he whispered, giving her lower lip a final tug with his teeth before allowing it to snap back into place, “but perhaps—we should relocate.”
She looked at him like she was drunk. Her pupils were so dark that her pretty grey eyes were nearly black; he could see his own reflection in them like dark mirrors. “What?” she asked dazedly.
Cal tilted her head with his hand, and her limbs stiffened in his embrace as she took in the people who were now busily trying to pretend that they hadn’t all been staring.
“Oh!” she cried out, yanking back from him as if burned.
She rubbed her palms on her jeans in a way that might have caused offense if he hadn’t been touching him like she couldn’t bear to let go, either.
He touched his still-stinging lip with a smile and was pleased to see her eyes track the movement. “Funny,” he murmured. “You don’t kiss like a prude.”
She glared at him for that, tugging down her shirt. Molding it to her torso. It became imminently clear, even in this stifling heat, that her nipples were hard.
He looked at them with interest until she folded her arms, blocking his view. “Why did you do that?”
“Because I wanted to.” Cal picked up her sweatshirt and gave it a few shakes to get the grass and dirt off. She eyed it like it was a snake before freeing up a hand to snatch it back, hunching her shoulders as she knotted it back around her waist.
Soon you won’t want to hide from me, he thought.
Nadine dropped the sleeves, letting them dangle against her knees. Cal carefully schooled his expression as he popped on his sunglasses, throwing the town square back into comfortable sepia-shaded darkness.
For now, he could be patient. Civil. Gentlemanly. He could playact the lord of the manor until she realized it was a cage. Hers. His. Did it even really matter?
He was a raven and she was a sparrow.
Fate had already decided for them both.