Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Kainda
I f I could afford it and I thought Uttu wouldn’t make a play for him, I’d have demanded separate rooms. Instead, I got stuck sharing a room at a hotel that didn’t believe in rooms with two beds. Ugh! Elijah had started to drive me crazy. We trudged up to the second floor corner room with my gear bag, magic bag, and a small backpack of supplies the coven had given us.
The next order of business, secure the room with a magical alarm system and then food. I was starving, and about a half hour ago I’d begun hearing Elijah’s stomach growling. Thankfully, I could still order a pizza for delivery from one of those chain places. Elijah checked the bathroom and mattress, probably inspecting for bugs and level of cleanliness. I couldn’t blame him, we’d stop at one of those budget chain hotels, so the appearance of clean versus the actual cleanliness was dubious at best.
Taking the salt from my bag, I poured a thin line in front of the doors and all the windows, silently sending up an apology to the poor maid. I placed a quartz crystal in front of the door, windows, and one in each corner of the room. Elijah had my phone sitting on the bed, ordering us a pizza and some drinks. I sat in lotus position on the floor at the end of the bed with another crystal in my hands. Closing my eyes, I focused my energy into the stone as I whispered the words for the alert spell.
I struggled to concentrate, made all the more difficult as I could smell Elijah, hear him moving around on the bed, and feel his presence in my soul. The spell from last night had ended, but it had left me with some unforeseen side effects. He already tended to project his thoughts and feelings, but now they came through so much clearer, like a radio dialed into the correct frequency. To top it off, I could feel him. I needed this spell to wear off like immediately.
Blowing out a breath, I activated the spell and opened my eyes. The crystal had warmed in my hand as I cast the spell, turning, I placed it on the bedside table on my side of the bed. Really, I had no intention of sleeping in that bed next to him. He smiled at me as he handed me my phone and stretched out like a cat on the far too small queen-sized mattress. Although, even a king-sized mattress wouldn’t be big enough if I had to share it with him. Nope, after last night, I needed an ocean’s distance from him.
“Food should be here in twenty minutes.” He kicked his shoes off, watching me try to figure out what to do next to avoid being so close to him.
“I’m going to take a shower.” At least then I could hide in the other room with a locked door between us. Too bad the hot water wouldn’t last until morning, or I’d stay in there all night.
He smirked at me like he could read my mind. That smirk got bigger. Holy shit! “You’re picking up my thoughts, aren’t you?”
Elijah only nodded as I screamed through my teeth. I stormed off into the bathroom for some damned peace. Flipping the lock for good measure, I cranked the shower as hot as it would go. Striping out of my clothes, I walked under the shower head first, yanking the tie out of my hair. I allowed the water to undo the braids I’d kept my hair in during the day. Letting the water attempt to wash away everything and ease the tension. I scrubbed my hair a little harder than necessary, wishing I could that easy to rid myself of the thoughts and memories of one Elijah Henry.
The problem, despite knowing better, I still cared for him. And the sex magically enhanced or not had rocked my world, he hadn’t lied about that. I wished the hotel soap smelled better, without doubt the stupidest thought I had all day. Well, the thoughts floating in the back of my head about having a repeat of last night probably won out for the stupidest, but I planned to ignore the shit out of those and hope they took a one way trip to Tartarus.
Elijah knocked on the door, thankfully shoving those ideas further to the back of my mind. “Kainda, pizza is here.”
“Be right there.” I shut off the water and wrung the water from my long hair. The bathroom only had two clean towels, wrapping one around my hair and the other around my body, I decided to be selfish. If he wanted a shower, he could go down to the front desk for more towels and give me a longer break from him. If that makes me a bitch, well, I could live with that.
I walked out into the room for fresh clothes because like the idiot I’d turned into, I’d forgotten to grab them before going into the bathroom. Ignoring his sharp inhale, I grabbed my clothes. Walking back to the bathroom, I caught his thoughts. ‘Stubborn, teasing woman. She doesn’t want this, but she’s still determined to make me insane.’
Oh, he thought this was me teasing him. I’ll show him teasing. I never said I wasn’t stubborn or able to pass up a challenge. It may not have been a real challenge, but he pushed all my buttons, good and bad. Dropping the towel, I dressed as if time had slowed. I refused to look at him, but I could feel his stare from across the room. His jaw probably rested on the damn floor like yesterday. Though this time I had the feeling he wasn’t trying to protect my modesty by staring above my head.
“Kainda.” My name came from his as a groan I that I planned to ignore, and he could just get over it.
Apparently he didn’t get the memo on that, though. Elijah’s arms wrapped around my waist and picked me up off my feet. Normally I don’t squeal when taken by surprise— mainly because I’m rarely taken by surprise— but he brought out a different side of me. He carried me across the room in nothing but my pants and a sports bra. As leanly built as he was, it shocked me that he could move me around like I weighed nothing. He dropped us down in a chair by the table, keeping me on his lap.
“Would you let me go?” His arms just tighten around my middle, his fingers gripped my hip tighter. “If you make me say please, I will not be responsible for whatever damage I inflict on your person.”
He chuckled, his mouth very close to my ear. I could feel his warm breath on my neck. “I think I’ll take my chances with you, Kainda.”
Leaning back into his chest like I had given into him got his guard down and as soon as his hold loosened I threw all my weight away from the table. It took us and the chair to the floor. His grip fell away, and I rolled away, hoping I didn’t just give him a black eye with an elbow, knee, or foot. Regardless of what I’d said, I didn’t actually want to hurt him, but he didn’t just get to manhandle me.
“What the hell was that?” He looked at me from his ass on the floor a few feet from where I crouched, poised to spring back at him.
My smile felt a little bit evil to match my mischievous eyes. “My daddy taught his badass demon hunting daughter a thing or two on self-defense. Can’t take out your target if you’re dead.”
“I probably shouldn’t mention how good you look right now, then.” He actually enjoyed this far too much. Jumping to his feet as if the moved required no effort at all surprised me. His smirk told me he knew it too.
“E, unless you wanna get hurt, you had best stay on that side of the room until you agree to a truce.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think I can agree to that, Kainda.”
“Last warning, you’re playing with fire here.” I suspected as much, and he just wanted to play with me.
He chuckled at me, crooking his finger. “All talk. You sure you’re a demon hunting badass?”
Did he really just say that? Oh, it was on now. I launched myself across the small space, aiming for his shoulders to take him to the floor. He took the impact, staggering a step before getting his balance. Damn him! I went limp in his arms, letting him take all my deadweight. It threw him off for just long enough for me to topple us. I had him pinned to the floor before he could blink. How the fuck had he not hit the floor with my tackle? Was I loosing my touch?
My knees pinned his hands just above his shoulders and my ass sat on his chest, leaving my hands free to go for a weapon. Not that I actually planned to pull something on him, muscle memory hand me reaching. I sparred with the girls and had done this same maneuver on them, though none of them had shoulders quite this wide. The position pinched at my hip joints, which kept my balance slightly off.
“You going to yield now?”
He looked me up and down, giving me that smile that set the butterflies to flight. “When I have you like this, why would I want to do something like that?”
For the first time, I realized how sexual this position could be. Shit! If I moved up a couple inches, I’d be sitting on his face. A few inches back, and I could be riding him. The heat of my blush mixed with the heat from exertion. I knew from experience my face, neck, and chest had turned pink. My still damp hair hung down around us, sticking to my breasts, thankfully I was in good enough shape my breathing didn’t have them heaving over the edge of the bra cups.
I flung myself to my feet to stand next to him. Nope, I this little game stopped now. I realized how much I’d enjoyed the bantering and the rest of it. But this couldn’t continue. Going into this battle against Uttu with feelings for him, the least smart thing I could ever do. Ending Uttu had to be my top priority, I couldn’t waste any thought to his safety or distract myself with worry or worse, love for him.
“Stop, E!” I almost yelled when he made a move toward me again, my knee twitched with the urge to stomp my foot. “Enough. We need to eat and get some shut-eye.”
I turned away and righted the chair. Eating in silence without looking at him again was for the best. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself. Sleeping next to him the rest of the night would suck.