when he spoke. “I’m glad you’re okay. I…I couldn’t deal with losing you,” he said, and it sounded so strange to be on the other end of those words. “And I’m glad Katy’s going to be okay.”
Unable to find the right words, I hugged my brother. There was a moment when neither of us moved, and then Dawson stepped away. As he went downstairs, I stepped back into the room lit with just a candle I’d placed on the desk.
“Daemon?”
Kat’s voice was hoarse, but it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. Walking to the bed, I sat down beside her. Shit, my throat clogged a little. “I’m here. Right beside you.”
She turned her head, and her gaze focused on me. “I can’t move my arms.”
I chuckled. “Here, let me fix that for you.” Either Ash or Dee had tucked her in to the point she was practically sealed to the bed. I found the edges of the blankets and loosened them. “There you go.”
“Oh.” Her arms appeared, and the blanket slipped down her bare shoulders. Her eyes widened, and then she winced as she clasped the edge of the blanket. “Why am I naked?”
“You don’t remember?”
Kat stared back at me for a moment, and then she sat up suddenly. Dark hair tumbled over her shoulders. She moved to yank the blanket down, but I stopped her. “You’re fine. There’s just a tiny mark—a scar, but it’s really faint.” I closed my hand over hers. “Honestly, I doubt anyone would notice it unless they were looking really close, and I’d be perturbed if anyone was looking that close.”
Shock flickered across her face. Her mouth moved without words, and I knew she had to be remembering everything, even the things I didn’t know about yet.
“Dee helped get you cleaned up. So did Ash.” I paused. “They put you in the bed. I didn’t…help then.” I started to touch her but stopped. Her silence was starting to worry me. A lot. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Kat nodded slowly. “I shouldn’t be sitting up and talking to you. This is…”
“I know. It’s a lot.” I touched her then, placing the tips of my fingers on her lips. Feeling her warm breath on my fingers was like touching the sun. “It’s really a lot.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “How did you know?”
“I felt short of breath all of a sudden.” I dropped my hand and inched closer to her. “And there was this red-hot feeling in my chest. My muscles wouldn’t work right. I knew something had happened. Luckily, Andrew and Dawson were able to get me outside without causing a scene. Sorry, no chicken-fried steak.”
I smiled faintly. “I’d never been so scared in my life. I had Dawson call Dee to check on you. I…was too weak to get here myself.”
“How do you feel now?”
“Perfect. You?”
“I feel fine. You saved my life—our lives.”
“It was nothing.” And it should’ve never happened.
Kat gaped at me before twisting on the bed. She looked at the nightstand clock. It was past one in the morning. Panic flashed across her face as she gathered the blanket around her. “I have to go home. There has to be blood, and when my mom comes home in the morning, I don’t—”
“It’s all been handled.” I stilled her. “They took care of Will, and the house is fine. When your mom comes home, she won’t know anything happened.”
She relaxed a little, but it was short term. Her eyes closed, and her forehead wrinkled.
“Kat,” I said. “Kitten, what are you thinking?”
“I killed him.” Tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks. “I killed him, and I didn’t care at all.”
I placed my hands on her bare shoulders. “You did what you had to do, Kat.”
“No. You don’t understand. I didn’t care. And I should care about these kinds of things.” She laughed hoarsely. “Oh God…”
Pain, as real and as potent as any, slammed into me. “Kat—”
“What’s wrong with me? Something is wrong with me. I could’ve just disarmed him and stopped him. I didn’t have to—”
“Kat, he tried to kill you. He shot you. You acted out of self-defense.”
She shook her head, and then she broke. The pain and horror of what she had faced, what she had to do, was etched into her face, and it filled every tear that fell. I made a sound in the back of my throat as I pulled her into my arms, keeping the blankets and all. The tears continued to come as I rocked her, holding her so close.
Kat started to pull free, but I held her. “I’m a monster,” she said. “I’m like Blake.”
The words cut through me. “What? You are nothing like him, Kat. How can you say that?”
“But I am. Blake—he killed because he was desperate. How is what I did any different? It’s not!”
In a state of disbelief, I shook my head. “It’s not the same.”
Kat dragged in air by the lungful. “I’d do it again. I swear I would. If anyone threatened my mom or you, I would. And I knew that after everything that happened with Blake and Adam. That’s not how people react—it’s not right.”
“There’s nothing wrong with protecting those you love,” I argued. “Do you think I’ve enjoyed killing those I have? I haven’t. But I wouldn’t go back and change those things.”
She wiped at her cheeks with the backs of her hands as her shoulders shook. The tears kept coming. “Daemon, it’s different.”
“How is it?” I grasped her face, forcing her to look at me through tear-soaked lashes. “Remember when I took out those two DOD officers at the warehouse? I hated that I did that, but I had no other choice. If they reported back they saw us, it was all over, and I wasn’t going to let them take you.” I chased the tears from her face, catching her gaze when she tried to look away. “And I hated what I have done—I hated every time I’ve taken a life, Arum or human, but sometimes, there is no other choice. You don’t accept it. You don’t become okay with it, but you do come to understand it.”
She grasped my wrists. “But what…what if I was okay with it?”
“You’re not okay with it, Kat.” How could she not see how incredibly not okay with it all she was? “I know you’re not.”
“How can you be so sure?” she whispered.
I smiled a little. “I know you’re good inside. You’re warmth and light and everything I don’t deserve, but you—you believe that I deserve you. Knowing all that I have done in my past to other people and to you, you still believe I deserve you.”
“I—”
“And that’s because you’re good inside—you’ve always been and will be.” I slipped my hands down to her shoulders. “There is nothing you can say or do that will change that. So grieve what you had to do. Mourn it, but never, ever blame yourself for things that are beyond your control. Now get the rest of that crap out of your head, because you’re so much better than that. You’re more than that.”
The tears slowed, and those stormy eyes turned soft. Still shaking, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine. My fingers tightened on her shoulders. Kissing her—hell, kissing her was something that I’d feared I would never experience again. I could taste her tears on her lips and a rising, heightened yearning. The kiss deepened, and it was different, so very different from all the times before.
Because there were a hundred emotions pouring into the kisses—hope for a tomorrow and for a real future, acceptance of each other, and so much pent-up longing that it threatened to swallow us whole, and damn, I wanted to be swallowed. I wanted it to drag us down.
Kat pulled back. Our eyes locked. I cupped her cheek and spoke three short words in my own language, words that were powerful but still didn’t match what I felt for her.
“What did you say?” she asked.
Smiling, I kissed her again. The moment she let go of the blanket, letting it slip to her bare hips, I faltered.
I gently guided her onto her back, and she wrapped her arms around me. Time sped up and slowed down as we kissed. There was nothing else but us in this room, e
xperiencing what we were sharing. There was no place for anything else. The blanket was pushed aside, and her legs were curled around mine. We moved and twisted against each other. My arms shook; my hands trembled against her flushed skin as she arched her back. I explored her, paying extra attention to the faint scar so close to her heart, tracing the tiny mark with my finger, then my mouth, and finally my tongue.
Lifting my head, I pressed my cheek to hers. My voice felt raw and scratchy when I spoke. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
Instead of saying no, she looped her arms around my neck, and she tugged me back down for another scorching kiss. I settled over her, not quite touching at first. Static built between us, filling the air with electricity. She pulled me closer, sweeping her thumb over my lower lip, and then she slid her hands down to my chest. I trembled and closed my eyes.
Kat’s slightest touch could do that to me.
And then her hands were moving again, over my lower abs and down to the button on my jeans. My eyes snapped open. Heat rolled off me as I sat up, pulling her into my lap. Our hearts pounded in unison as my hands cradled her hips, tugging her as close as I could get her. Her soft moans were a symphony, a prayer, and I wanted this to last. It had to last. I laid her back down, marveled at her beauty, at the fact that she was choosing me—had chosen me.
I didn’t want to rush a moment of this.
Even as she pressed against me, her hips twisting and her nails digging into my skin, I wanted to savor every damn second. I kissed her skin, blazing a path down the column of her throat and then lower…and then lower again. I didn’t speed it up, not even when I started to lose the hold on my human form. Light flickered, fading in and out.
When I made a trail all the way back to her mouth, she whispered against my lips, and she tugged on my hair. Message received, loud and clear.
Damn, girl.
Rising off her, I shucked my pants, and I grabbed protection. Then our bodies were flush, hard against soft. Our hands were everywhere—hers and then mine. There wasn’t a part of me she didn’t touch. There wasn’t a square inch of her I didn’t familiarize myself with. I slowed it down, kissing and nipping, touching softly and holding her until neither of us wanted to wait a heartbeat longer.
I hated that moment of pain, the way her entire body tensed, and I did everything I knew, and then I got creative, to take away that pain. And I washed it away, as if it were never there, but that was nothing compared to what she did to me. She twisted me up into knots, so tight I thought I would snap apart, and she did—I did.
Our breaths slackened. Our racing hearts and pounding pulses slowed. I was shaken, blown apart and stitched back together. What we’d done, what we shared…nothing had ever felt like that. Sounded so freaking cornball, but it was true and it was so right, so damn perfect that there was that thickness in my throat again.
Dragging my hand to her cheek, I kissed her softly. “Are you okay?”
“I’m perfect.”
And then Kat yawned, right in my face.
I busted into laughter. Damn. Kat turned her cheek into her pillow, trying to hide, but I wouldn’t let her. I chased after, kissing her once more. Rolling onto my side, I pulled her with me, situating her so we were face to face.
Damn, I was full—my heart was full. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
I trailed my fingers over her arm, smiling when she shivered. “For everything.”
Chapter 22
Silvery moonlight streamed through the bedroom window, shining enough light for me to see what I was doing. I should be asleep. Tuesday morning, and school was going to come soon enough, and I should be exhausted after messing around with onyx all evening, but I wanted to get this done before I forgot.
I carefully wrapped the white rope around the center of the piece of opal. The rope was thin, leaving most of the stone bare. It would work, at least temporarily. Kat would be able to wear it under her shirt.
Most likely, she was going to fight me on the opal, but that was one battle I wasn’t going to lose. Speaking of Kat…
Lifting my chin as I felt the warm tingle along the back of my neck, I smiled as I placed the opal and the white rope into my desk drawer. I turned toward the bedroom a second before the door cracked open. Slim fingers curled around the door.
“Kitten…” I chuckled. “Breaking and entering again?”
“I didn’t break anything. I let myself in.” There was a moment, and then Kat poked her head in, brow furrowed. “You’re awake,” she whispered.
“Uh-huh.”
Her frown increased. “You were supposed to be asleep.”
My lips kicked up on one side. “For what reason?”
More of her head appeared. Her hair was pulled up in a topknot. “I wanted to sneak into your bed and surprise you.”
“I can make that happen.” I started to stand. “I’ll go crawl into bed and pretend to be asleep.”
She pouted. “Not the same thing.”
“No?”
Kat shook her head. “No, because you’re awake.”
“All right then.” I sat back down, grinning. “Are you going to come into my room or stay halfway in the hall?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I chuckled. “Kitten…”
Huffing, she slipped inside my bedroom and closed the door behind her. Muscles tightened all over when I got a good look at her. Wearing striped cotton shirts and a long-sleeved shirt that was amazingly thin, she was dressed for bed.
I toed my desk chair around so I was facing her as she made her way across the room. “Your mom is going to be very upset if she catches you not in your bed.”
“She won’t catch me. I was quiet and stealthy—”
“Like me?” I reached out, catching one of her hands.
She grinned. “Better. Like a ninja.”
Chuckling, I tugged her into my lap. The chair groaned under our combined weight. She placed her hand on my bare chest as she dipped her head to mine. My lips brushed overs hers. “When I left your house, you were half asleep.”
“I napped.” She slid her hand up my chest and looped her arm around my neck. “I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep.”
Leaning back in the chair, I dragged my thumb along the side of her jaw. “You were missing me.”
“Maybe.”
“Just admit it.” I swept my finger over her lower lip.
She pressed a soft kiss to the tip of my finger. “I don’t need to admit anything, because if your ego gets any bigger, it’ll need its own zip code.”
I snorted. “I know something else that’ll need its own zip code if it gets any—”
“Oh my God.” Kat laughed. “Don’t even finish that sentence.”
Chuckling, I kissed her, and she melted into me. Everything and nothing had changed between us since Saturday night. Each kiss and touch seemed to mean infinitely more, and I didn’t think it had to do with the sex. Though the sex was really awesome. It had more to do with the whole almost-dying part.
Both of us knew there was no guarantee of tomorrow, but what happened Saturday had been a real harsh reminder that no second was promised. It made every moment with her more precious.
“Why aren’t you asleep?” Her lips brushed mine as she spoke.
I kissed the corner of her lips. “I was missing you.”
“Shut up.”
Folding my arms around her, I held her tight as she pressed her cheek to my chest. “Just wasn’t sleepy.” I rested my chin atop her head.
“Hmm…” She wiggled a little, getting comfortable. “Were you thinking about Sunday night?”
I kissed the top of her head. “I was thinking about Saturday night.”
Kat laughed. “Whatever. You were not thinking about prom.”
“Maybe I was. I have big things planned for you.” That was the truth.
“What stuff?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Tell me,” she demanded.
&
nbsp; I laughed. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, Kitten. You know