Touch of Temptation (19 page)

His eyes narrowed with concern. “Why not?”

Her stomach knotted with tension. “Well, you know how we’ve talked about the curse?” She lowered her gaze to his chin.

His tone was almost painfully dry. “You mean the way you’ve spent the past few days harping at me about it?”

Ignoring the chorus of voices in her head that were screaming for her to shut up and simply enjoy him for as long as she could, she forced herself to say, “Yeah, well, the thing is, there’s something I didn’t tell you.”

With a sharp, explosive sigh, Kellan rolled onto his back, one hand tucked beneath his head as he stared up at the wooden rafters. “What now?”

Chloe took a deep breath, then spoke in a quick, rambling rush. “What I didn’t tell you before was that, well, I think I might be projecting my emotions onto you. That the Merrick might somehow be corrupting the curse, twisting the spell’s power for its own purpose. See, I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want you, and I think…actually, I’m
terrified
that the Merrick might somehow be using the force of that desire to get what it wants from you.”

Popping his jaw, he slowly turned his head toward her, the look in his eyes a volatile combination of fury and frustration. “Damn it, Chloe. That’s not how the curse works and you know it.”

“But I’m not a pure-blooded Mallory,” she argued, sitting up. “Who knows how the Merrick might affect the curse? And if I’m right, then it’s an even grosser
manipulation of your emotions than the original curse. I could be
forcing
you to do this, Kellan. Don’t you see that?”

His eyes narrowed to a hot, angry glow, his big body vibing with tension. “Bullshit.”

“All I’m saying is that you should think about what this means. Maybe you don’t even want sex. Maybe the Merrick’s power is making you want it!”

“Look, I’m going to say this one last time, so make sure you’re listening. I do
not
want you because of a curse. I want you because you make me hot as hell,” he growled, the muscles in his abdomen bunching as he rolled up and grabbed hold of her. Then he pulled her against him and he kissed her, making it impossible for her to argue. And, God, did he know how to kiss. His mouth worked over hers, the kiss rich and drugging and deliciously explicit, damn near melting the few brain cells that had managed to survive those mind-shattering orgasms.

“I wasn’t trying to make you angry,” she whispered against his lips, unable to get enough of his taste.

“Then forget about that bloody curse.” He gave her another hard, eating kiss, before letting her come up for air.

“You know,” she panted, “before we get carried away again, I should probably point out that the bed over there looks awfully cozy.”

“If I carry you over there,” he murmured against her mouth, nipping at her bottom lip, “then you’ll owe me.”

“What do you want?” she asked, drawing back so that she could read his expression.

A slow smile touched his lips, too sexy to be real. “Let’s see if you can guess.”

“You know,” she snickered, grinning back at him, “for a werewolf, sometimes you are
such
a guy.”

With a gritty laugh, he got to his feet and took care of the condom. Chloe couldn’t help but enjoy the view as he moved through the room, his body like some decadent, alluring work of art, all long, beautiful lines and tough, powerful muscle. After pulling back the covers on the bed, he grabbed the condoms, scooped her up off the floor, then carried her over, laying her down on the soft, cool sheets, before snuggling in beside her. She knew she should have tried harder to make him understand her concerns about the curse—knew that she’d given in too easily—but damn it, she only had so much willpower. And she wanted so badly to believe that what he’d said was true.

“So,” he murmured in another one of those dark, rumbling drawls, “you’ve never wanted a guy as much as you want me?”

“I should have known
that
was the one thing you’d take from that conversation,” she snorted, rolling her eyes.

“H
EY
, I’
M NOTHING IF
not an attentive listener,” Kellan rasped, leaning close to kiss her, but she stopped him at the last second with her hands pressed against his shoulders, her eyes going wide. “What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes,” she whispered with a shiver of fear. “The blue is turning red.”

“It’s okay. It’s just a Lycan thing,” he lied, silently cursing, knowing damn well that his eyes were turning because of the poison. While Chloe had been bathing,
Kellan had managed to pull Juliana Sabin aside for a quick talk without any of the others noticing. Though the vampire thought he was making a mistake by not being honest with the others, she’d agreed not to share what she knew about the Reykers’ poison. She’d also warned him that she’d heard the poison was fast acting, and that after it had changed his eyes to red for the first time, he would have a week left, at the most. Fortunately, his eyes would return to their natural color…but they could still change from time to time as the poison continued to weaken his system.

“If it’s a Lycan thing, then what does it mean?” Chloe asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Just that I’ll need to hunt soon.”

“Oh.” Her voice was soft…and a little unsteady. “I was afraid it meant something was wrong.”

“I should have told you,” he said, feeling like a total jackass. “Should have explained how the wolf can affect my body so that you wouldn’t be caught by surprise.”

“You mean like the way you keep getting thicker when you come?” she asked, reaching down and curling her fingers around his cock, which was already growing hard for her again.

“Uh, yeah.” He slid her another sheepish smile. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about that before, but the change has never been quite so intense as it is with you.”

A myriad of questions swam through her eyes, but she didn’t ask them. Instead, she simply said, “No need to say sorry. I like it, Kell.”

“Yeah? What else do you like?” He reached down, covering her hand with his, showing her that she could squeeze him as hard as she wanted and it wouldn’t hurt him.

“Everything,” she whispered, her beautiful eyes going heavy with desire, “which is an awful thing to say, because it’s only going to inflate your ego. But I like the way you smell. The way you kiss me. Touch me.” She ran her thumb over the moisture easing from the crease in the tight, swollen head of his cock, and he gritted his teeth, her voice a little huskier as she said, “And I really love the way you feel when you’re inside me.”

“Damn it,” he groaned, quickly reaching for the strip of condoms, knowing he had to be inside her again…or risk going out of his ever-loving mind. The instant he had himself sheathed, Kellan pulled her on top of him, positioning her so that she straddled his hips, her sweet little sex warm and wet against his shaft as he pulled her down for a deep, ravaging kiss that left her trembling and breathless. Then he nudged the heavy, bruise-colored head against her soft entrance, tearing a low moan from her kiss-swollen lips. “You like that, don’t you, Chloe?”

He pushed a little deeper, feeding himself into her slick heat, and her eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she gasped, “What’s not to like?”

With a husky laugh on his lips, Kellan curved one hand around the back of her neck and pulled her closer, her soft, silky hair falling around them like an intimate veil. “God, you make me happy,” he groaned, unable to hold still. Hunger gnawed at his insides as he gripped her hip with his free hand and started pushing up into her, working himself deeper…and deeper, until he was snugged up tight in her, soaked in her heat. “I know we’re overdoing it, but I can’t stop. You feel too perfect.”

“So do you. And I feel wonderful, so stop worrying.”

“Not too sore?”

“Only in a good way,” she told him with a sweet, provocative smile. “I think being a Merrick must make a difference. I know I should be in some serious pain right now, but instead, I feel amazing. It’s like…magic.”

Kellan could tell by the way her voice had trailed away there at the end that she was thinking about that bloody curse again, and he hated that she thought he wanted her because of some centuries-old spell. He wasn’t some inexperienced idiot, damn it. He knew his own emotions. Knew that what he felt for her was unlike anything that had ever happened to him before.

With his body buried deep in hers, he rolled her beneath him and grasped her hands, pressing them into the bedding as he put his face close to hers, staring deep into her eyes. “This is real,” he growled, giving her a deep, heavy thrust. “No matter what happens, Chloe, I want you to remember that this is as real as it gets. You understand me?”

She nodded, her eyes hazy with passion, and for long moments afterward, Kellan set about showing her just how much he wanted her, his rhythm hard and demanding as he took her on the bed, then against the headboard with his knees digging into the mattress, their bodies burning and slick with sweat. Their kisses eating and hungry and wild. She accepted every part of him, no matter how dark or aggressive, and he relished the bite of her nails and her husky cries. Relished the beautiful way that she arched against him in complete, breathtaking surrender. And in the quiet hours of the night, when she finally fed from him again, taking his blood into her body, the sensation was so intense he had to bury his guttural shouts in her hair, his cock nearly turning itself
inside out as the devastating pulses of pleasure wrenched through him.

Kellan knew, damn well, that the more he touched her, the worse the pain was going to be in the end—but he couldn’t keep his hands off her. He was setting himself up for a major catastrophe, rolling more and more boulders down the side of the mountain, and he wouldn’t be able to get out of their way when they reached the bottom. When the end hit, it was gonna shatter him into a million fractured pieces and crush him into dust, the agony more destructive than anything else he would have to face in the coming days. Hell, it was going to be worse than dying. But he didn’t care.

Whatever the consequences…his time with the witch was worth it.

Thursday morning

K
ELLAN’S HEAD WAS STILL
spinning, and he couldn’t make it stop.

As the Lycan walked through the crisp morning air toward Seth’s tent, leaving Chloe with Morgan, who was telling her the story of how Olivia had fallen in love with Aiden, he tried to think of an adjective that would do the night justice, but they were all blurring together.
Mind-blowing. Bone-melting. Breathtaking.
Impossible to pick just one. The brutal, violent warrior in him was sneering with embarrassment, but hell, it wasn’t as if he’d ever spent the night buried inside a fiery, impossibly sweet, white-hot goddess before. A guy was bound to get a little sappy after something so freaking amazing.

He knew Chloe would never believe him, considering his reputation, but the sex had truly blown his mind. When he was inside her, Kellan had a feeling of…of what felt like peace, as if everything was finally as it should be. She’d made him realize how cold sex had always been for him, just a physical act that got him by, but never really touched him. Never satisfied the ache. He’d had raunchy sex. Aggressive sex. Dirty sex. But none of it had ever meant anything, until he’d found himself sinking inside Chloe Harcourt, pushing his body
into hers, becoming a part of her. And God help him, he couldn’t wait for the day to be over, so that he could lose himself in her all over again, driven to make the most of the time they had together.

He refused to think about how brief that time was, his jaw tightening as he forced the bitter thought from his mind.

Spotting Seth standing outside his tent, Kellan nodded his head in greeting. After a few hours of sleep, his eyes had thankfully returned to their natural color, and he squinted against the soft rays of dawn as he headed toward the soldier. “How’s Raine doing?” he asked.

Seth hunched his shoulders against the biting wind, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “She’s still pretty groggy, but she’s finally starting to come around.”

“She feeling okay?” he murmured, noting that Seth looked tired and grim, as if he hadn’t slept well.

“I think so. Juliana said she’s healing more slowly than a Deschanel normally would, but that she’ll eventually be okay. It’s just going to take some time.” With a stiff roll of his shoulder, he added, “She’s pretty skittish, though.”

“What do you mean?”

Seth cut his hard gaze toward the surrounding forest as he explained, his deep voice grittier than usual. “When she opened her eyes a few minutes ago and I started talking to her, she looked scared as hell of me. That’s why I came outside.”

“Well, that’s not too surprising,” Kellan drawled, trying to lighten the soldier’s mood. “I mean, have you ever looked in a mirror? You
are
pretty scary looking.”

“Fuck off,” Seth grunted, and as he lifted a hand to
his face, rubbing it over his mouth, Kellan caught sight of the bandage wrapped around the soldier’s right forearm. Recalling the conversation that he’d had with Chloe, he wondered if Seth had actually allowed Raine to feed from him…using the bandage to cover up the mark.

Deciding it was better to leave the subject alone, since the guy was already vibing with tension, he said, “I’ll talk to Raine. Tell her she doesn’t have anything to fear from you. Explain you really
are
one of the good guys.”

“I’d have thought rescuing her from the compound might have done that,” Seth muttered, his tone as dry as autumn leaves being raked off the ground.

“For most guys, yeah. But then, you’re not like most guys, are you?”

“Why do I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?” The soldier’s voice was little more than a graveled scrape of sound, his green gaze suddenly locked on Kellan’s with piercing intensity.

“There’s probably a lot I’m not telling you,” Kellan replied in a wry drawl. “But if you’re talking about Raine, I don’t think I’ve left anything out. You already know she’s psychic.”

Seth nodded. “You told me yourself that Westmore used her to keep an eye on Saige, so he’d know where to send the Casus to search for the Markers.”

“That’s right,” Kellan continued, sensing that Seth hadn’t quite understood what he meant. “But maybe I didn’t explain it all that well. See, the way she was able to do that was by getting inside Saige’s mind.”

Seth’s green eyes went wide. “Are you telling me that she can…what? Read minds?”

Pushing his hands into his pockets, Kellan gave a
slow nod. “Yeah, with a lot of people, she can read their minds, as well as see into their pasts. And in your case, man, I’m guessing there are a few things in there that would make a woman who’s half Deschanel a little uncomfortable.”

Another rough curse left the human’s lips, and as he lowered his gaze, Kellan noticed there was a muscle pulsing hard in his jaw.

“Just so you know,” the Lycan murmured in a low voice, “I think Westmore’s going to want her back.”

“Because of her power?” he asked, staring at the snow-crusted ground, his tall body still radiating tension.

“Not just that,” Kellan admitted. “It was the way he would look at her. Westmore never touched her, as far as I know, but I think he was working up to it. Though that didn’t stop him from letting the others have at her.”

Seth’s green eyes burned with anger as he lifted his gaze. “The Kraven bastard can try, but he’s not getting her back.”

“I know that, man. But if you’re going to be helping take care of her, I thought you should know.”

“Take care of her?” The soldier’s chest shook with a grim, breathless bark of laughter. “Get real, Kell. After what you’ve just told me, I doubt the woman is going to want me anywhere near her.”

“Like I said, I’ll talk to her,” he murmured, then jerked his chin toward the tent. “Now let’s see how she’s doing. There’s something I need to ask her.”

Seth cursed something foul under his breath, but he followed Kellan as he headed into the tent. Raine was sitting up against a pile of pillows on the pallet in the far corner with one hand held over her eyes, as if the
soft glow of the candle Seth had left burning was too bright. “Hey,” Kellan rumbled, keeping his voice soft as he moved toward her. “How you feeling?”

She lowered her hand, her gaze shadowed with worry and pain as she asked, “Is Chloe okay?”

“Yeah, we all got out fine. I’m just sorry you got so banged up.”

“I’ll be okay. But…”

“What is it?” Kellan asked, noticing the way she kept stealing glances at Seth, who had remained near the entrance.

“Now that we’ve escaped,” Raine said, twisting her hands in the pallet’s blankets, “I’m worried that Westmore will try to harm my family again.”

“Do you know where they are?”

She nodded, saying, “They’re staying with one of my uncles in Italy.”

With his hands shoved in his pockets, Seth finally stepped forward. “I could send Garrick to them,” he told her. “He could take them to one of the Watchmen compounds, where they’d be safe.”

“You’d do that?” Raine whispered, surprise showing in her eyes as she stared up at the man who now stood at Kellan’s side.

“Of course,” he grunted. “It wouldn’t be a problem.”

Kierland came into the tent before Raine could say anything more, and Kellan introduced his brother to the psychic. After Kierland told them the group would be setting off soon, Kellan said, “We found the archives, Raine, but there’s record of a journal having been removed from them. I was hoping that maybe you could
tell us something about it. Or even where the journal might be.”

Rubbing her bandaged arm, she gave a small shake of her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about a journal.”

“Could you try to use your power?” Kellan asked. “Maybe tune into someone who’s read it? I know you can’t read Westmore, but we’re hoping that maybe someone else has it.”

“All right. I can try,” she said softly, pushing her honey-colored hair back from her face as she closed her eyes, a small crease forming between her brows, and Kellan could have sworn that she looked a little paler than she had a moment before.

Beside him, Seth muttered, “Maybe this is something you could bother her with later, Kell. I don’t think Raine should be doing much of anything right now but resting.”

Thinking the soldier sounded surprisingly protective of the vampire, he said, “I wouldn’t bring it up, but that journal could be important.”

“And her recovery isn’t?” Seth grunted, cutting him a dark look.

“Please, don’t argue,” Raine murmured, her eyes still closed in concentration. “I…I can see that there’s a journal in Spark’s possession. She calls it the ‘death’ journal. Westmore didn’t find it important, since it didn’t list anything about existing clan species that he didn’t already know, so he let her take it.”

“Why does she want it?” Kellan asked.

Lifting her lashes, the psychic gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “I don’t see her very clearly, but I think she just found it interesting. There’s information
in the journal about species that don’t even exist here, but she likes reading about them.” With a frown, she added, “As an assassin, I think she finds death kind of fascinating.”

“Kellan, last week, on the night that I found you with Spark and her men, but you sent me away so that they would bring you to the compound,” Kierland said quietly, “I saw Spark reading a small leather journal.”

“Yes. That’s it,” Raine told him. “That’s the journal that was taken from the archives.”

Running a palm over his chin, Kellan stared down at Raine, thinking over everything that she’d just told them. “You said it holds information about species that don’t exist here. What exactly does that mean?”

“Species that aren’t a part of our world, but exist in others.”

Kierland slid him a significant look, as if to say,
You thinking what I’m thinking?

“Has she read anything about the Death-Walkers?” Kellan asked.

For a moment, the pain in Raine’s gray-blue eyes was overshadowed by exasperation. “Don’t you think I would have told you if she had?”

“Then there’s nothing about them in the journal?” he pressed, pushing his hand back in his pocket.

Rubbing at her bandaged arm again, she said, “I don’t know. From what I can tell, Spark only picks the journal up every now and then, leafing through its pages. If something about the Death-Walkers is written inside, I don’t think she’s gotten to it yet.”

“Can’t you just tap into whoever else has read the journal?” his brother asked.

Raine shook her head. “As far as I know, Westmore’s
the only other person who might have had access to it, and I can’t read him.”

“What about someone in the Collective?” Kellan questioned, running a hand over the back of his neck. “It is possible that they read it?”

“Maybe,” she replied, “but I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“What about the Casus or the Kraven? Can you see what they’re doing?”

She shook her head again, her long hair tumbling over her shoulders. “I don’t think so.”

“Can you try?” he asked, the rough words thick with impatience. “What about Gregory? Do you know where he is?”

“That’s enough,” Seth cut in, his tone flinty. “Stop pushing her.”

“You’re right.” Blowing out a rough breath, Kellan scrubbed his hands down his face. “I’m sorry, Raine. I didn’t come in here to act like an ass.”

“And I don’t mean to be difficult.” She looked miserable, the shadows under her eyes becoming darker…deeper, as if her strength was draining right before their eyes. “It’s just that…my powers don’t seem to be working that well at the moment.”

“What do you mean?”

She looked away, her eyes glistening with tears of frustration. “I’m only getting glimpses of things, but nothing’s really clear. I’m sorry. I know you need information, but I don’t know how much I’ll be able to give you.”

Feeling like a jackass, he muttered, “Christ, don’t be sorry. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

A low laugh slipped from her lips, and she lowered
her gaze to her lap, where her hands were twisted together into a knot. “You know that’s not true, Kell.”

“Raine, we know you were only trying to protect your family,” Kierland told her, his tone one of easy reassurance. “No one here blames you for the things you told Westmore.”

“They don’t need to.” Her voice was soft, tight. “I blame myself.”

Moving around Kellan, Seth crouched down beside the pallet and reached out, looking as if he was going to push the heavy fall of Raine’s hair back from her face, but she flinched, and he quickly stood up again, heading back outside. Kellan and Kierland said that they’d give her some privacy so that she could get ready to leave with them, and then joined Seth, who was pacing outside the entrance to the tent, his face set in a hard scowl.

“I think you should find someone else to look after her,” he muttered, as soon as Kierland had closed the tent flap behind them. “She’s scared to death of me.”

Choosing his words with care, Kellan said, “I wouldn’t say she’s afraid of you, man. More like she’s just being cautious.”

Seth cut him another dark look. “I know when a woman’s scared, Lycan. Don’t fucking patronize me.”

Kellan rolled his shoulder. “All I’m saying is that she’s skittish around everyone right now. You remember what I told you yesterday, right? Those bastards beat and raped her I don’t know how many times before I reached the compound. Hell, Seth, after what she went through, I’m amazed she doesn’t scream her head off whenever any man goes near her.”

“I’m trying not to think about what happened to her,”
the soldier growled. “Whenever I do, I…Christ, that Westmore bastard needs to pay.”

“We’ll deal with Westmore later. Right now,” Kellan told him, “it’s important that we get Raine back on her feet. Just stay mellow with her, because she needs someone like you to keep a close eye on her. I meant what I said about Westmore coming after her.”

Before Seth could respond, the three of them caught sight of the Granger brothers heading into the camp, talking to Aiden and Quinn, who had been running the early-morning patrol. “It’s about time you got here!” Kierland called out, heading toward them, while Kellan and Seth followed. Kellan had never actually met the two Deschanel
Förmyndares
before, but he recognized Ashe Granger from Morgan’s photographs, and assumed the tall, dark-haired vamp walking beside him was his brother—Gideon’s hair was a bit longer than Ashe’s, but their features and builds remarkably similar. Kierland made the introductions, then asked, “Where the hell have you two been? Seth told us some kind of family business came up, but he didn’t know anything more.”