Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (31 page)

He groaned, breathing heavy against her cheek. “
Atsila
, little fire, you are so hot and so ready.”

“I believe that’s what I’ve been telling you,” she rasped.

He widened her legs with his knee. Kailin’s breath came in hitches and starts as he explored untouched territory. Wild horses hammered through her. Rushing heat built higher and higher until she felt consumed. “More,” she said. “There’s more. I want all of it, all of you,” she said.

Jackson shifted, rising above her, centering. Fear edged to her periphery and she concentrated on the heat and ripples coursing over her skin.

“More,” she breathed and wrapped her legs around him.

“Open your eyes, Kailin.”

She hadn’t realized that she’d squeezed them shut and blinked open. His face was dark with shadows but the moon gave enough light that she could see the fierce set of his features as he held himself over her straining body.

“Mine,” he groaned and filled her in a swift press.

“Uuuuhhhh!” she huffed as he fully claimed her body.

“The sting will fade,” he said between pants. He brushed the hair from her face as he held still. “Then it will feel good again.”

She nodded. The pain was already ebbing but so was the heat. “Kiss me.”

Jackson’s lips met hers gently, but Kailin needed fire. She slanted and her hips rose against his loins.

He groaned. “Kailin, I’m trying to be easy on you.”

“That’s the problem. Move, Jackson.”

Jackson kissed her. He poured heat and passion into her. Kailin’s hips rose again and this time he answered. The twinges of residual pain were lost in the sensations of Jackson’s touch below. He slid so deep that she felt his power in her very center, binding them together as one. They moved, finding the primitive rhythm that claimed Kailin’s entire focus. There was no magic to control, no boundaries to keep up. She was open and consumed, outside and now inside. She gave herself over to all the sensations, reveling in them, swimming deeply in them, in the essence of Jackson. She surrendered everything. Nothing stood between them.

“Mine,” she said as they moved together. “My man.”

“Mine,” he answered and kissed her. “My woman.” He dove once more for a soul-consuming kiss.

Kailin felt the crescendo, the beat of their passion rising but didn’t know where it led. “Please,” she murmured between kisses. “Where…I…”

“Surrender, Kailin, don’t think, just feel,” he instructed against her lips and then moved to her jaw line where he stroked kisses down to her neck.

Kailin strained against him, pushing higher, reaching for the promise of some primitive ecstasy that she could barely believe. Yet it was there, within sight. She could almost find it. “Jackson,” she moaned as he rubbed faster, his body moving in an erotic ride over hers, fully surrounding her soft body in muscle and man. The wave built higher with each thrust. Kailin pounded upward against him. “Oh God, Jackson!” She found the crest and dove blindly over.

“Kailin!
Atsvila
!” Jackson roared. Wave after wave jolted through her body, like lightning radiating out from her pelvis, reaching every muscle, every single nerve ending. The rush of blood pounded with her moan and Jackson’s back muscles contracted over her and his arms flexed on either side of her face.

Their bodies continued the ride. Slowing slightly with each exhale, squeezing out every last drop of exquisite sensation.

Jackson leaned over her, kissing Kailin gently on love-swollen lips. They stared at each other in silence as their breaths climbed back down together. His weight felt heavy on her even though just moments ago she’d urged him to pound even harder. He must have felt her move a little, and he tried to roll to the side.

“Stay,” she whispered.

“I don’t want to crush you.”

She smiled. “You seemed to a moment ago.”

“You weren’t complaining.” He tried to move again, but she held tight.

“Wait. Just for a moment.” He looked at her but waited without asking. Kailin wet her lips. “It’s just the first time I…well I’ve never been totally surrounded by anything before and not been panicked.”

“Surrounded.” He glanced at his biceps on either side of her head. “You’re definitely one trapped woman.”

Happiness bubbled out of her. “I’ve never felt so free actually. Imagine that.” She shook her head. “And yet I can’t even see the sky.”

He held over her for another moment. She shrieked slightly when he rolled them and covered their heads with the blanket. In the complete darkness Jackson enveloped her again within his arms. Against his chest, their heat still lingered.

“Little fire, you are amazing,” Jackson murmured into her hair. “And trapped. I’m not letting you go.”

For the first time ever, Kailin fell asleep peacefully, without being able to see the stars.

Chapter Thirteen

Warmth, dark, peaceful warmth surrounded Kailin on all sides like a perfectly heated bath. Comfort melted along her bones as she luxuriated in the subtle scent of man and love. She sighed inside the confines of her dream. Sunset colors blended with storm clouds and collapsed into perfect gray eyes.

“Shhh,” his whisper penetrated her sleep. “Don’t move. Someone’s out there.”

Kailin’s awareness flooded back into her body with a jolt of magic. Luckily Jackson’s body still lay against her, dampening her power, once again saving whoever or whatever moved about their small camp. They lay beneath the blanket outside the tent. Kailin kept her body perfectly still but her eyes opened to a dazzling show of stars. A limited scan of the canopy she could see without moving showed a fading toward the east. Dawn was fast approaching. Could Moghadam have returned?

The stark click of a gun cocking startled Kailin. A quick squeeze from Jackson told her it was his. She gritted her teeth. If she used her magic, would it call the demons? Would people try to manipulate her if they knew about her abilities? Power, like none she’d ever encountered in her life of exploration, and she couldn’t even use it.
Damn useless
. Very well, she’d let Jackson take the lead.

The rustle of canvas showed that the intruder had entered their tent. Goodness! She was naked beneath the blanket! And the orb was in the tent!

“Jackson, the orb,” she whispered where her lips brushed against his jaw.

“When I roll, get dressed fast,” he instructed on a slow exhale. “Then run.”

Yes, definitely getting dressed. Hell no, not running away. He had to know that. No orders about her magic? Maybe he knew she would do her own thing anyway.

Jackson lifted the side of the blanket and rolled away from Kailin. The cold off the desert sands washed under and across her bare skin. Kailin fought the shiver as she silently grabbed her trousers. No time for drawers. She shuffled around as quietly as possible looking for her shirt and shrugged into it. Hell, the bloody buttons were on the inside. She buttoned them anyway.

Shifting in the tent was punctuated by a soft curse.

“Looking for me?” Jackson’s voice cut through the dark. “Back out of there. Leave the orb.”

A man spoke softly in Arabic. Kailin heard her name.

“She’s returned to Luxor. So there’s no one here to stop me from shooting a thief so don’t tempt me.”

“Ahh, Mr. Black.” The cool, articulate voice stopped Kailin in mid-crouch. “Do you really think I’d send one hired local to retrieve the Orb of Life?” She knew that voice.

“Where’s Anthony Whitaker?” Jackson asked and Kailin heard shuffling of feet in the sand. She crouched back down in her turn, her booted toes spiraling in the sand. At least six bodies stood outlined by the slow lightening of the sky behind them. Jackson’s form was the tallest. A man held a gun to his head. Kailin felt the heat of magic well up in her and held tight to it. Uncontrolled, her magic was no help at all.

“Doctor Whitaker is waiting for his daughter to return to her hotel room.”

“You’ve released him?”

“Of course. It was tiring holding him blindly captive. And one of my sources made it back last night after the strange storm.”

“One of Moghadam’s men?”

“So Moghadam thought. Of course he’s no one’s man now. Blathering idiot ranting about cyclones and evil wind. I had to put him out of his misery.”

Kailin watched the outlines, unable to move or look away. Though logic dictated that if it became light enough for her to identify the leader, it would be light enough for his men to spot her. But she couldn’t leave. Not when a gun sat at Jackson’s temple, not when she was almost certain of the identity of the man with the familiar voice. Kailin lay flat against the cold sand, wishing she could turn tan and blend in like a viper.

“As soon as I heard you had the orb, I released the good doctor and came to find it before you disappeared with it. A treasure hunter like you couldn’t release the ultimate treasure.”

Kailin shifted to ease the tension in her muscles. The tent blocked the speaker but the hair on the back of her neck prickled. The voice was practiced, British, and smooth. Yet she’d never heard it so calculated, so cold. As she edged the final inch, her neck straining to see around the canvas, the man’s words stopped her.

“I’m so glad Kailin left. I plan to marry her eventually so I didn’t want to kill her.”

“She’s mine, Dallinton,” Jackson said, jarring Kailin out of her initial shock. Her eyes froze on Jackson. She was his? Yes, she pinched her lips together. She was his, and he was hers. And she wasn’t about to let anyone shoot the man she loved. Her heart pounded in her ears. Loved? Yes, loved. The realization spread through her chest as if the warmth of the sun was exploding inside. Her stomach flipped and she concentrated on silent breath.

She blinked. Dallinton? Henry Dallinton, the gulpy hanging on Samantha’s skirt hems?

Henry Dallinton laughed. The cold, empty sound squelched the sun inside. She shivered.

“Kailin Whitaker can’t belong to a dead man.”

“You need me,” Jackson said. “You don’t know how the orb works.”

Kailin continued her silent scoot until she could see the front half of Henry Dallinton. He stood in a long pale duster, a felt hat, and sported a rifle. One of his men still held a gun to Jackson’s head. If he fired before Kailin was ready, there’d be no way she could stop the bullet from penetrating Jackson’s brain. Her heart pounded through her chest against the sand. Love, she’d finally realized the most elusive treasure and now he could fall through her fingers. Kailin’s chin rested in an indent of sand.

“Kailin will help me unravel its mysteries and I will be the most powerful man alive.”

“I doubt your bosses will let that happen.”

Henry laughed. “The British government is utterly foolish. Just like your bloody government. Both of them hired you, a known treasure hunter, to steal the orb for them, when I have little doubt that you planned to take it for your own.”

Kailin stopped breathing.
Deny it. Say you never agreed to anything like it.

Instead: “Kailin will never help you.”

“Why not?” Henry huffed dramatically. “Really, Black, do you actually think the woman will mourn your death when she finds out your role in her father’s abduction.”

Kailin’s lungs emptied numbly, injected with the poisonous words. Jackson didn’t say anything.

“The only man her dear father saw during the whole ordeal was you when you lured him away from his apartments. When she identifies your body and her father realizes who you are, she’ll be thankful she didn’t fall prey to your duplicity.” Henry stared into Jackson’s unwavering face. “Or has she already?”

Say something! Say anything! Say he’s lying, that you had nothing to do with Anthony!
Kailin’s silent scream thudded behind her temples while she stared at the motionless speakers. Memories of Jackson jumping over her railing, delivering the ransom note, insisting he help her find the orb, flooded her. The lie about her name and working with Anthony twisted in Kailin’s stomach until she felt like she could throw up.

“Kailin knows nothing,” Jackson said between his teeth. “Leave it that way.”

“Certainly not,” Henry growled. “If the twit has somehow lost her heart or worse to a scoundrel like you, I have every intention of punishing her for it.”

“You just want the orb. Leave her alone,” Jackson nearly hissed.

“I just wanted the orb until I saw her. She’s a beauty despite her ice.” Henry squinted. “Oh don’t condemn me, Black. You want the same things: the orb and the girl. You took my money quick enough to help abduct her father and bring her to Egypt. I knew all along that you wouldn’t be able to give up the treasure. What were you planning to do? Steal the girl’s heart and then her treasure?” Henry shook his head and
tsk
ed. “She’ll be glad I killed you. Maybe she’ll thank me properly”—he laughed then—“or rather improperly.”

“You won’t touch her,” Jackson threatened, his voice so cold that Henry’s cocky smile faltered, but then righted itself.

“We’ll see,” Henry said, his eyes shifting to the hired native holding the gun. Henry’s nod to the man shot through Kailin, melting the ice that held her paralyzed. Instinct took over, the building blocks of basic, uncluttered truth. Jackson could not die! No matter what was real and terribly true, Jackson could not die.

Jackson dove at the same time Henry’s eyes shifted. Jackson’s back leg kicked out, catching the armed man’s knee cap. The gun exploded with a crack that splintered through the dawn stillness.

“No!” Kailin leapt upright out of the sand. Her power pulsed out of her toward the bullet, toward Jackson. Her Jackson. Jackson Black, who had lied to her, who had kidnapped Anthony, who wanted the orb for himself. “No!” she screamed, her arms rising. Everyone turned toward her, everyone except Jackson.

The bullet struck his middle, its power slamming him to the sand. Blood, dark and primal, wet his shirt from the inside, spreading outward in a ragged circle from the impact point. The bright color sucked the breath from Kailin. Her magic surged on its own and her focus bored into Henry.