Chapter 33
The rest of the evening, the group traded ideas about why Nessum might have left.
Not one of the theories was any better than another.
The exercise left us all frustrated. Frustration and several glasses of wine made me a little restless.
We all said our good nights and headed back to our rooms to turn in.
“I really need a run,” I said to Jordan, taking his hand.
“Not a chance, little girl.” He kept walking toward my chambers.
Tilting my head to look up at his face, I gave him the best pout I could through the wine buzz. He drew his eyebrows together and shook his head. “Not going to work, I can’t keep up with you.” He was right. The man was built for power and strength, not speed.
“Fine, a walk then. I need to be outside for a while. I want to feel the forest around me. Please?”
He sighed, and his shoulders fell. “Okay, but just a walk.”
I dropped the high heels at the edge of the woods.
He picked them up and took my hand to keep me at his pace.
Inhaling deeply, I let the night cleanse my lungs.
Bats fluttered their wings in the distance as they did their midair dance to catch insects.
A raccoon led her kits through the undergrowth ahead to get them out of our way.
I felt alive and free, even walking. I fought the urge to take off and run.
“No, you don’t,” Jordan interrupted. I’d had my wall up to his thoughts so he must have felt the tension in my body.
“Just a walk,” I said, heading in the direction of the clearing by the well. It was nice, almost like a real date or something, but the entire time my legs were itching to go.
We meandered, not talking, simply walking and enjoying each other’s company.
He even tried to help me through the thicker part of the woods, lifting me over a downed tree and lifting me into his arms to cross a creek.
Jordan was domineering and overbearing when it came to my protection, but he was also trying to be a gentle lover. So cute.
“I’ve seen you change so much,” he said as we met almost nose to nose as he lifted me.
“You have?” I asked, looking at him. His face softened for just a moment, that tender look I knew was just for me.
“I’ve seen you through much of your life, just like Manus. I witnessed your graduation from college, your jobs. When I couldn’t be there for the bigger things, Manus reported to me.”
“I never saw you.” He sat on a massive downed tree that brought him about to my eye level.
He laughed that arrogant laugh of his. “If you had seen me, I’d be pretty crap at my job, would I?”
“If you were such an admirer, how come I’ve been here for months and only recently met you?” I started walking. These emotions were making me uneasy. He had known me for years and I had just met him. He didn’t answer. “Well?”
I looked back at his chiseled profile and saw something on his face I couldn’t read. The mountain of a man sat still and looked like he would shatter if I touched him. But he said nothing. He started walking again, pulling me along with him.
“I’m not sure of the sensitive side of you, Jordan. I think I prefer the bossy, arrogant grump. At least then I know what to expect.”
We hit the clearing and walked to the far end of it.
“I think we should head back, Keena. It’s late and you need some rest.” He tried to sound stern, but I had him figured out now.
He was just as drawn to me as I was to him, maybe more so.
I wouldn’t see this side often and I could tell it made him uneasy. That was to my benefit.
He stepped into the circle I had made to create the potion for Howard the hawk’s amulet. I swiftly closed the circle from the outside, trapping him in. Circles were used to call Demons and hold them, so when Jordan tried to leave the circle, he couldn’t.
He looked shocked. “You closed a circle without ritual magic?”
I walked around the circle that held my own personal Demon. “I said I’d been practicing. You’re the chief of WildLand security, Sarge, you should have known all this.” I was teasing.
“Very funny. My people said you and the Imp were playing around in the woods.”
I came right up to the edge of the circle and pressed a finger into it.
The glowing bubble gave just a little. “Well, I guess your people had better learn the difference between girls playing in the woods and Witches practicing. We did have fun but we definitely had an agenda.” I circled him again.
“I guess I can go for a run now, can’t I? ”
The little vein in his temple started to pulse. “Keena, this is not funny. I can’t protect you from in here. Now break the circle.”
“I don’t think so.” I moved into the woods and started running.
He was shouting all sorts of obscenities at me.
I stayed close and only ran enough to feel the earth give beneath my feet and the woods come alive to me, the colors expanding and brightening.
I don’t know why running made it all seem so much more alive, but it did and I drank it all in.
The volume of his cursing let me know how far I was from the huge man in my circle. I also didn’t know how far away I could be and still hold the circle closed, so I ran through the trees surrounding the clearing a couple times to stretch my legs. It wasn’t all I wanted, but it was enough.
I made my way back to the clearing and broke the circle before I got all the way back to Jordan. He was seething and marched over grabbed my arms below the shoulders and lifted me off my feet. “Do not ever leave yourself unprotected like that again. Do you understand me?”
I should be mad at his attitude, but I wasn’t. After all, I had pissed him off and Cliona was right. It was kinda fun.
“Protecting me isn’t your job anymore, Sarge.” I wrapped my legs around his waist and used them to pull myself closer to him. His power rushed over me, sending shivers down my spine, and I purred at the feel of it. His hard, muscled body and his magic turned my body into an instant raging fire.
He raised his eyebrows and let go of my arms. I held myself in place with my legs tight around his waist, clenching my abs hard. I wrapped one arm around his neck and ran my other hand over his chest. He growled.
“The Vamp queen isn’t here, is she? So it is still my job.” His breath ran cold over the heat his power was pushing through me. I relaxed my legs, sliding intentionally slowly down his body, making him close his eyes as my mound passed over the bulge in his leather pants before dropping to my feet.
“Like that, do you?” I let my hand trail the length of his stomach and stop just above the top of his pants. He opened his eyes and looked down at me. I smiled sweetly. “Then catch me if you can.”
And I took off running toward the manor. “Temptress,” he growled and came after me.
I kept it to a jogging pace to stay within sight of him. I was laughing freely, taking in the sounds and the essence of the night. I didn’t think I would ever feel this free again after Tynan. But having Jordan grumbling behind me and the wind in my face was freeing. Joyful.
I felt a warning presence in the woods. A nearby squirrel jumped in alarm so I stopped suddenly and tried to listen over Jordan’s footsteps. When he realized what I was doing, he stopped, immediately silent. “What is it?” he whispered and moved noiselessly up behind me, covering my body with his.
I turned my head just a bit to the left to listen. “Someone coming, quarter of a mile maybe.”
Jordan lifted the earpiece he had taken out when we were talking and put it back in his ear.
He mumbled a command and waited for responses.
“One of mine.” He had moved his arms possessively around my waist. I turned inside them and got up on my tiptoes to kiss his chin.
He looked down and frowned at me. I pulled his head to mine and insisted on a full kiss.
Obliging, he took the last moment of our time alone to try to convey his feelings in that kiss.
His lips were warm, his tongue insistent in my mouth.
I pulled away and turned as the incoming guard burst through the trees.
“Sir, there’s another crime scene.”
“Detail, Charles.” Another guard came in from the left. He had been closer to us. I knew it instinctively. “Jordan!” I said, with a large hunk of anger attached to it.
He turned his attention to me, not happy that I’d interrupted his work, and gave me his terse look. “My lady?”
“Have your men been following us all night?” My hands were on my hips.
“Of course. We have to keep you under surveillance at all times now. You understood that.”
I did understand and I tried to keep myself calm.
I had to get over the feeling of being trapped and realize the need for security.
I thought of Manus in the bed with the huge scar.
But I was still angry about my sudden lack of privacy and his casual attitude about it.
“And if we had decided to play priestess and her boy toy?”
The two guards dressed like SWAT members were turning red faced, trying not to laugh.
Jordan frowned deeply but didn’t flinch. “Then they would have been in for a good show.” He turned back to the red-faced men and gave them a look that evidently they had seen before. They went straight backed and completely blank faced. “Report, Charles,” Jordan repeated in a smooth, stern voice.
“Another Witch. Sector two. Same MO.”
“How long?” he barked.
Charles answered with quick words. “Less than an hour, sir.”
Jordan stood still for just an instant and then started barking orders into the small radio in his ear before pausing and turning back to his men. “Charles, Tomson, escort the priestess back to the manor,” he ordered the guards as he started off in a different direction.
“I’m going with you,” I argued.
“No. You are to go to your chambers. Cliona will meet you on the way.”
He kept moving away from me and Charles nodded toward the manor. “My Lady.” I walked beside Charles as he headed for the manor. Tomson trotted behind me.