Chapter 11
Ishouldn’t have shown Nina my ass, shouldn’t have flirted with her, and definitely shouldn’t have walked out of that bathroom in nothing but a towel. I could’ve just asked the room to give me clothes in there, I felt the spell offering it to me. But no, I wanted her to see me, I wanted to watch that blush rise to her cheeks, hear her breathy sighs and revel in the way I could get her wet.
Dear Gods! The smell of her when she saw me in that towel.
Though it was nothing to how she smelled when I’d walked into the closet naked.
The beast inside of me had preened at how she’d reacted to my body. It rattled the cage I had it in, demanding that we claim Nina for our own. And it was that, more than anything else, that had snapped me out of the temptation to continue flirting with her, which was easier said than done when Nina was being so playful.
She’d charmed everyone at that table by the end of dinner, even sullen April had seemed to thaw a bit toward her. Which was a good thing because I’d been seconds from ripping her head off, literally.
Watching Nina handle that attack, the way she’d showed her power while also rubbing April’s nose it just a little, but not enough to cause too much friction…it was so damn sexy. I wanted to put my hands on her right there at the table, to draw her into my lap and start feeding her bits of food.
But I refrained, and now here we were, back in the room and I could hear her washing her face while I desperately tried to find a way to avoid giving in to temptation.
If she keeps flirting with me, I will take it to the next level and…I can’t. Not with my berserker prowling for her. If I hurt her like that…
I shuddered at the thought and jumped up to my feet. There had to be a way…
“Well, I gotta admit, I’m a bit wired,” she said behind me.
When I turned around, I was struck speechless by the sight of her. Nina’s face was completely devoid of makeup, her curly hair in a messy bun on top of her head and her pale skin was freshly scrubbed. Her bare toes dug into the carpet, muscular legs on full display in those small sleep shorts and…
Fuck, that cami is practically see through. And she’s…her nipples are…
My mouth watered as I imagined drawing them into my mouth and sucking slow, hard. Would she like that? Would she moan for me, beg me to do it harder? Beg me to relieve the ache between her legs?
I snapped my eyes up to hers, forcing myself to detach from such thoughts.
“Is that…I mean, are you sleeping in that?”
“Well,” she bit her bottom lip, fingers playing at the hem, “I could take it off if you want.”
“No!”
I captured her wrists with mine. They were so small that I could wrap my fingers around them completely and then some. The trouble was that this had brought me intimately close to her and now here I was, in kissing distance.
My fingers let her wrists go, but their proximity to her waist meant that my fingertips grazed the sliver of skin that had been exposed by her flirting.
She gasped, a tiny, surprised sound that made my dick stir in response.
“You need to stop flirting with me, Nina,” I growled.
“Well then, you shouldn’t have flashed me,” she said with a grin.
“You’re right, I shouldn’t have. This is going to be hard enough without…”
My fingers had somehow strayed so that I was gripping both her hips, the heat of her skin searing above the waistband of her sleep shorts.
“Without what?” she whispered.
“Blurring the lines,” I breathed.
“Because...?”
“Because I need to protect you.”
“Right…” Her hands were skating up my chest to my bare shoulders and I thought I just might die. “Protect me.”
“From…from me, Nina. I need to protect you from…me.”
“Uh-huh,” her mouth grazed my chest. “From you.”
Those lush pillows were a siren’s call that I was about answer with a very ill advised kiss when someone knocked on our door. I jumped back and raced to answer it. Angelica stood there, eyes wide in surprise as she looked between us. I realized I must’ve yanked the door open much harder than I’d intended, and put on my blank expression, while I attempted to get my libido under control.
“I have a bit of a sweet tooth, would you two like to join me for some dessert?” she asked.
I read from her expression that it was a ruse, and that there was likely something she wanted to talk to us about. So even though I was not in the mood for anything food related, I gave her a nod.
“Sure.” I looked back, “Babe, weren’t you just saying you wanted something sweet?”
Nina gave me a playful grin.
“I sure was.”
Oh fuck me, she is not going to stop this.
“We’ll be down in a minute,” I said.
Angelica gave me a sardonic grin and raised her eyebrows.
“Got your hands full there, haven’t you?”
“You have no idea.”
I closed the door and turned to Nina.
“Put a sweatshirt and some pants on before we go out there,” I growled.
“Yes, sir,” she said with a smirk.
My hands clenched and I let out a growl.
“One of these days, Nina, I’m going to bend you over my knee for that sass.”
“Promises, promises,” she said with a giggle.
This woman was going to be the death of me.
She threw on a pair of pink sweats and a matching hoodie while I found another hoodie in the closet, this one a plain dark blue that went with the sleep pants I was wearing.
When we got downstairs, Trey was popping popcorn and Angelica was sitting in a large arm chair scrolling through channels on the TV.
“Are we meeting?” I whispered as I sat down on the end of the couch.
“Sort of,” Angelica answered, glancing up as Nina went to help Trey. “He’s driving me crazy, practically insisting on sleeping in the same room. I…well, I’m embarrassed, but I needed an excuse to put some distance between us. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, I could use some of the same help to be honest.”
“Yeah, I noticed. Anything you want to…?”
“Absolutely not. Anything you want to…?”
“Nope.”
“Alright then. Wait, stop, right there.”
Angelica gave me a confused frown.
“Jeopardy?”
“Yeah, it’s perfect,” I turned to see Trey and Nina walking into the room with bowls of popcorn, wine glasses and two open bottles.
I took the bowls of popcorn from Nina as she sat beside me, and handed one to Angelica. Trey gave me a very angry scowl and I swear his brown flashed blue before he decided to sit next to Nina, which riled up my berserker a bit.
“Yes!” Nina pumped her fist into the air. “Okay, we can do teams, Trey and me against you and Angelica.”
That’s when I realized that it had been almost ten years since I’d just hung out with anyone except for Nina. I didn’t have friends, not like that. Angelica was the closest thing and I couldn’t remember ever being in the same room with her when it wasn’t about a job.
The last time I’d been in a group of friends, it had been with my Special Investigations team, the night before…
A hot pain lanced through the back of my neck, right along the scar and I rubbed the spot to help make the pain go away. I’d cut myself off for a reason. It was too dangerous to let others in, to get too comfortable. I could lose control, hurt someone.
I was about to get up and leave when Nina’s small hand found mine, and she squeezed.
I looked down and she gave me a soft smile. I didn’t have to ask what she was thinking. Nina knew it all…and she was still here.
My mouth was dry and I swallowed, trying to get a handle on the fear. The longer she held my hand, the longer her silvery laughter wrapped around me and her warm body pressed against mine, the more the fear and discomfort receded like the tide being pulled from the shore.
By the time Angelica had cued up an episode, I could breathe again and I rolled my shoulders as I looked over at her. She had a knowing smile on her face and I chose to ignore it.
“You want a drink, something stronger than wine?” I asked her.
“God yes, scotch, in the cabinet there.”
I got us both two fingers and sat back down. Angelica’s eyes didn’t leave me at first and I braced for a question about Nina, but it didn’t come. Instead, she nudged me and pointed at the categories.
“Okay, so how good are you at this?” she asked.
I gave her a grin.
“Pretty damn good.”
Angelica nodded, took a sip and started the episode.
We weren’t even finished with the first round, when Wanda came down the stairs, trailed by April.
“Jeopardy?” April said, and I braced for a sarcastic follow up when the ghost of a smile came across her face. “I used to watch this with my grandpa.”
“You had TV in your clan?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
I didn’t usually talk about Orc culture with the Orcs I saw within the Sinners. We were all outcasts, banned from our clans for various reasons and it was painful to remember. But I was starting to feel more at ease around this team, whether that was a good thing or not I didn’t want to think about just now. Nina was having a good time, she wanted this and I…well, I wanted to be with her.
“Oh yeah,” April answered, “it was a pretty modern Orc settlement.”
“I’m surprised you weren’t married off.”
Orc females were extremely rare and most families controlled their marriages strictly.
April’s face darkened a little and she shrugged.
“They tried. Didn’t take.”
She sat in front of Angelica on the floor and Wanda plopped a large cushion down on the floor in front of Trey and that was that.
The next round started and Nina looked over at me, face glowing as she chewed her popcorn. It was the happiest I’d seen her since the rescue and I realized that I didn’t care how damn tired I was, or how many rounds I lost, I’d keep this going tonight as long as possible if it meant I got to see her with that smile.
By the second episode it was close, our teams tied as we rolled into Double Jeopardy. Someone had made more popcorn by now, and there was a liberal amount on the floor from throwing it back and forth when one team beat the other to an answer. Back and forth we traded points. The pop culture category was getting dicey, especially since Wanda and April seemed to know each question.
As I sat there, surrounded by the laughter and good natured ribbing, I realized that I hadn’t been nervous or uncomfortable for a while. Was I getting used to this?
It set off a few alarm bells in my head, that was unavoidable. But I took a breath, steadied myself. This wasn’t forever, it was just for a mission. After it was all over I’d be on my own again anyway, so what would it hurt to let myself have this?
I was distracted as the Double Jeopardy board started to get smaller and smaller and I was almost useless helping my team. Still, Angelica and April held on, trading points with Nina’s team.
By the time the board only had one answer left, our two sides were tied again with one answer left in the pop culture category.
The host said the answer, “This song spent 24 weeks at the top of the billboard charts from August 4, 1984 to January 18, 1985 and is also the name of a movie.”
“What is Purple Rain!” Nina shouted.
“What is Pretty in Pink!” I shouted at the same time.
We held our breath and when the question was revealed, Nina and her team yelled in victory as my team groaned in defeat.
Nina jumped onto me, straddling my waist as she pumped her arms in the air.
“In your face!” she said good naturedly.
“It’s not over yet,” I said with a wide grin.
And then everything slowed around us as we both realized the situation we were in. My hands on her hips, hers on my chest while her core was perched just above my crotch. Her hips fit perfectly in my hands, like they were made to be there. Her fingers toyed with the neck of my hoodie and her smile was so bright, so full of life.
I could feel Angelica’s eyes on us, and when I glanced over she was giving me a look that clearly said that I needed to remember our cover. I reached up and brought Nina’s mouth to mine. It was like getting hit with an electric charge. I felt it everywhere, from the tips of my toes to my scalp. I deepened the kiss, dragging my tongue through her mouth slow, tasting the salt and butter of the popcorn on her tongue.
“Geez you two, get a fucking room!” said Wanda, tossing popcorn at us.
We pulled apart, giving her a nervous chuckle, but I couldn’t possibly miss the shine of Nina’s eyes, the way her little fingers had held onto my hoodie for dear life.
I wanted more, to taste her skin, her pert nipples, the cleft between her thighs. I needed to imprint her taste on my memory.
But I let her go and Nina plopped into her seat next to me, cheeks flushed as she giggled from the good natured ribbing Wanda was giving her. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to stretch my arm across the back of the couch and let my fingers toy with the ends of some of the curls that had escaped the messy bun. And what would it hurt to run my fingers up and down the back of Nina’s neck, just light, nothing seductive or rough? Just to let her know I was there?
She shivered and glanced over at me, her lips parted and the most delicious smell rose from between her legs.
It shot straight to my cock and I was both grateful for the people around us and frustrated as fuck because all I wanted to do was drag those sweats down and feast on her cunt.
I was ripped from such thoughts by the Werewolf barreling down the stairs.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jack yelled.
Nina jumped in surprise and everyone stopped talking.
“You all decide to have a Jeopardy party and don’t invite me? Assholes, I need to blow off steam too,” he said with a wide grin before plopping down next to April.
“That makes the teams kind of uneven,” Wanda pointed out.
“Oh don’t worry, he’s dumb as a brick when it’s not a machine,” April said.
“Oh really?”
He pinched her side and she smacked him on the arm.
“Shhh, Final Jeopardy!” Angelica said.
Everyone got quiet as we heard the category and answer. I glanced at Nina who met my eye and we both grinned at each other. This wouldn’t last, we had literal days until the whole mission was done and Nina was sent off to live her life. But I would suck the marrow out of every moment while I had her next to me.
“Ready to lose?” I asked.
“Oh, I’m playing the long game,” she said with a naughty smile.
And I knew without a doubt she was not talking about Jeopardy.