Chapter 24
Jamie
We found a flat on the second floor of a brick building that still had most of its windows and a secure iron door.
There was a rusted fire escape out the back if we had to get out of there fast. I liked it the second I stepped inside.
There were good sightlines through the windows around the building, which meant we could see if anything was coming for us.
It was as good as it would get as a shelter for the night.
“Aye,” I said, shouldering the door closed until the latch slid home. “This’ll do.”
We moved around just as we’d done it a hundred times.
Logan checked the street from the balcony and through the windows on one side.
As Aidan and Declan kept eyes on the main living areas and watched through the windows opposite the balcony, Edward cleared all the other rooms. Sera hung back, staying very quiet.
I knew what it was though. It wasn’t fear. It was the weight of responsibility.
I knew that kind of weight when I saw it. It was familiar because I had carried some of my own.
I set an alarm at the stairs using fishing line, two tins, and a broken shard of mirror, just enough to make noise if someone decided to sneak up on us.
Then I told the rest of the group that I’d scrounge kindling and slipped back to the street.
We had a small camp stove and a candle, but I’d never trusted nights without light or a flame.
The dark came alive sometimes, and I liked to see what was stalking me in the night.
Down on the quay the wind came in sideways, bringing the scent of the sea with it.
I pried loose a few chair legs from a dead café, grabbed some broken boards lying in the street, and found a crate sturdy enough to carry everything.
Then I saw her, tucked under a fraying tarp three moorings down.
A boat. Fiberglass, not very big, nothing fancy.
Pretty in the way a tool is when it wants to be used.
“Well then,” I muttered, glancing up and down the promenade to ensuring I was completely alone. I slipped the tarp off and stepped aboard.
The cabin was clean enough. The instruments were sun-faded. I popped the tank lid, sniffed, and grinned. Full of fresh diesel. I don’t know how it was possible, but I thanked my lucky stars for such good fortune. Then I found a set of keys on the dash.
“Bless the lazy,” I whispered, and turned the engine just long enough to hear the cough of life. Killed it quick.
Then I got an idea.
I pulled the tarp back tight, patted the boat like I was telling it just to wait there, picked up the crate of wood, and made my way back to the flat. I carried the crate upstairs with my heart thumping in my chest.
My pack had made the flat something of a home while I was gone.
A candle burned on the counter. Declan’s laugh echoed from one of the back rooms. Aidan’s voice came in hushed undertones, asking Logan a question I couldn’t quite hear.
Edward had a map open on the floor, already drawing potential routes for our journey tomorrow.
Sera sat near one of the windows, in that black thermal and the charcoal cargos we’d nicked for her, one knee up, elbow loose across it. She had a knife in her lap and a far-off look in her blue eyes that I wanted to take away from her and carry myself.
My chest did a daft thing. I let it.
I set the kindling by the little camp stove and took a breath.
“Find anything?” Declan asked, eyes flicking to my empty hands and then to the crate full of wood by my boots.
“Aye,” I said, keeping my voice easy.
Sera looked up then, that faraway look breaking. The candle worked gold into her irises, and for a moment, I was spellbound. I watched her shoulders shift by a few degrees. She didn’t smile.
She would though. Soon. I would make sure of it.
I dropped a chair leg into the stove, set a flame, and checked the window one more time. The boat sat there sweetly, and I grinned, my secret plan coming together bit by bit.
“Sleep in shifts,” Edward said. “We move at first light.”
“Right,” I said. “I’m nicking Sera for a minute. Going to take her off and deal with her properly for just deciding that she was going to leave us and not come back.”
Four heads came up like I’d just announced that I was going to juggle knives.
Declan’s smirk was instant, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “How can you even think of getting it up, Buchanan? We’re wrecked.”
Aidan didn’t miss a beat. “Stretch first. Wouldn’t want you pulling something.”
Edward, deadpan as all hell. “There a sign-out sheet for that? I’d like to avoid double-booking the disciplinary wing.”
Logan just folded his arms and tried not to smile. He failed. “Keep it at least sort of quiet.”
Sera crossed her arms and gave me a look that could have peeled paint. “Deal with me how, exactly?”
“Oh, you know,” Declan chimed in, helpful as a cliff. “Firm hand, bit of correction, maybe a good fucking if you’re lucky.”
Aidan made a show of considering the possibilities. “Or a good hard spanking over his knee on your bare ass with your legs kicking.”
Edward, without blinking: “Do log any corrective measures for accountability.”
“Gods,” Sera muttered, cheeks going pink in a way that did not help my self-control. “You’re all insufferable.”
I leaned in, close enough so that the heat of her flushed face warmed mine. Kept my voice for her alone. “Trust me, lass.”
She held my gaze for one long heartbeat. Then she huffed, put on a pout, and jerked her chin toward the door. “Fine. Do what you need to do to make yourself feel better.”
“Enjoy sitting for the moment because you won’t for long,” Declan sang after us.
“Bring her back thoroughly used then,” Aidan called, his tone wicked.
“If you’re doing it right, she’ll be nice and sore for a good day or two when you’re done with her,” Edward added.
Logan cleared his throat in a tone that said I didn’t hear any of that and waved us out. “Make sure you get some rest and don’t wear yourselves out.”
I tugged Sera into one of the back rooms and shut the door with my hip. The room smelled like damp carpet and old paint. She glared at me. I loved her for it.
“If you really think you’re going to spank me—” she started.
“We need to keep up pretenses, lass,” I said quickly, both hands up.
Some of the fight bled out of her shoulders, but the pout stayed, because she was stubborn, and I was an idiot for liking it. “Then what is this, Jamie?”
“This is me helping you out,” I whispered.
She blinked. The anger cracked just enough to show the worry underneath. “Helping me how?”
Quietly, I told her my plan. “There’s a boat down on the quay and I got the keys in my pocket. I can get you out of here. I can get you to the Isle of Man.”
Her breath snagged, and she whispered urgently, “You’d go against them?”
I shrugged like it was easy. “They’ll come round eventually, or they’ll catch up. Either way we need the Watch aware of what’s going on.”
Sera looked at me like she was cataloguing the parts of me she could trust and the parts she’d break if she had to. “But I thought you didn’t like the Watch.”
“Sometimes needing something doesn’t always coincide with liking it,” I said.
She went quiet.
“Listen, if this is going to work, the others are going to need to believe that I’m actually in here dealing with you, so come here and get over my knee,” I said boldly, reaching out to take her hand and pulling her toward the queen bed that was set up in the middle of the room.
“You can’t be serious,” she said, blushing harder, but she let me pull her along.
“Aye.” I couldn’t hide my smirk. “I am.”
She was quiet for a long minute. Then, “You’ve got the keys?”
I pulled them out of my pocket and dangled them for her.
She nodded, jaw set. “How long until it’s safe to move?”
“You can leave tonight.”
She looked at me, all that trust and hurt mixed up in those eyes. “Why would you help me?”
“Because I can’t stand the look on your face when you think you’re the only one who can save the day. Because you’re my mate. Because I can.” I grinned. “Because I want to. Come on, Sera. Let me help you.”
She nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
“Now, lass, I think it’s time I got you out of those clothes,” I murmured, meeting her eyes and noticing how the blush staining her cheeks had grown rosier in color.
She swallowed hard, but didn’t protest. I reached for her, my hands going to the bottom of her shirt and lifting it up and over her head. Then I tossed it to the side.
“Fuck, you are sexy,” I growled, and she flushed deeper, but preened under my attention.
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” she teased, a smile on her face.
“Nah, lass,” I answered. “Only you.”
“Smooth talker,” she said, and then my hands went to the button of her pants, and she sucked in a breath.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” she said, but she was breathless, her pupils dilated with lust. Her fingers brushed the front of my jeans, and my cock twitched in response. She bit her lip, and fuck, if that didn’t make my cock as hard as a rock.
“It’s alright,” I reassured her. “We have some time.”
I unzipped her pants and pushed them down her legs.
She kicked them away, leaving her standing there in front of me in just her bra and panties.
I reached for her, bringing her closer and undoing the clasp of her bra.
She helped me pull the fabric away from her breasts, revealing them to me in all their feminine glory, and I sucked in a breath.
My hands went to her tits, cupping the small mounds, my thumbs rubbing over her nipples.
She gasped, her eyes falling closed, and then she was reaching for my pants, her hands unbuckling my belt, undoing the button and the zipper. I groaned when her fingers brushed my cock through my boxers and then my mouth was on hers, our tongues sliding together.