Twice Bitten

  "To change my clothes before the bloodstained side of my pants dries and glues itself to my skin," she muttered, pushing though the swinging kitchen door.

  "Elspeth, wait!" Julianna cried.

  Pausing halfway through the door, she swung back wearily and raised her eyebrows at her sister. "What?"

  Much to her surprise, the twin hesitated, looking anxious, and then swallowed and begged, "Please, can we stay here? We'll sleep in the guest room, or on the air mattress in the dining room to be out of the way, and I promise we'll behave. No attitude, no drinking or eating anything without asking first. Just please don't make us go down there with her."

  "Please," Victoria added.

  Elspeth didn't even hesitate. She simply nodded, then let the door swing closed and continued on her way. She hadn't even taken two steps before the door swung open again and she was suddenly in a sister sandwich, Julianna and Victoria forcing her to a halt as they each hugged her from either side.

  "Thank you," Julianna whispered, squeezing her tightly. "I'm sorry for being such a brat since we got here. Mother just makes me so crazy."

  "Me too," Victoria said.

  "She makes us all crazy," Elspeth murmured, hugging them back. "Now, go grab your suitcases and take them into the guest bedroom."

  "Thank you," Julianna and Victoria repeated, each kissing a cheek and giving her another squeeze before releasing her and slipping away.

  Elspeth turned to watch them slip back into the kitchen, and stiffened slightly when she saw Wyatt standing silent and still next to the door.

  "I'll see you to your room," Wyatt murmured, moving up beside her now and taking her arm as he had while escorting her through the different stores.

  "It's not that big an apartment," Elspeth said with weary amusement. "I'm sure I can get there on my own."

  "I'll walk you to your room," he repeated firmly, but this time added, "You'll wait just inside the door while I check to be sure the windows and doors are closed and locked and that there's no one inside."

  The words were said in a tone of voice she could only describe as businesslike. He wasn't being chivalrous or polite. He was being the professional bodyguard, she realized, and merely nodded.

  Elspeth expected to have to wait in the doorway. Instead, he ushered her into the room, closed the door, and urged her up against the wall next to the hinges.

  "Stay right here," he instructed, his gaze shifting around the room. "If there's trouble in the room, leave and run back to the kitchen with the others. If the door starts to open unexpectedly, stay here behind the door and out of sight until you know if it's friend or foe. If it's a foe, let them come after me and then slip out and return to the kitchen while they're distracted, but make sure they're far enough away not to be able to grab you before you move. Understand?"

  Elspeth stared at him wide-eyed, but nodded.

  Apparently satisfied, he turned away and moved directly to the French doors. She'd left them unlocked when she'd left earlier, and he opened one to peer outside, then quickly closed and locked it.

  "I expected you to make me wait in the hall," she admitted as he closed the blackout curtains.

  "I can't watch you in the hall if I'm in here," he pointed out, moving to her closet next.

  "Yes, but I should have been safe in the hall," she pointed out as he opened her closet door and poked around briefly before shutting it.

  Much to her surprise, Wyatt shook his head. He didn't explain, however, but moved to the bathroom and pushed the door open to look around. He disappeared inside, and she heard the screech of the metal hooks of the shower curtain being opened before he called out, "Someone could have broken in through the guest bedroom window and be in there right now. They could have snuck up and snatched or attacked you without my knowing it if I'd left you in the hall while I searched your room."

  Elspeth gaped at the empty bathroom door, shocked at the thought that someone could break into her home and attack her as he was suggesting. She'd thought of her apartment as her safe haven since moving here, but it was quickly proving less than safe. First her mother and sisters showed up and gained entrance, and now he was suggesting whoever had pushed her into traffic could break in?

  "All clear."

  Elspeth glanced up at that announcement to see Wyatt coming out of the bathroom. Letting her breath out, she nodded and moved to her closet to gather a clean pair of black jeans and a red shirt. Carrying them with her, she stopped at her dresser to collect a bra and panties and then headed for the bathroom.

  "Leave the door cracked open so I can hear if you have any trouble," Wyatt ordered as he stepped aside for her to enter the bathroom.

  Pausing, Elspeth turned to him with surprise. "What?"

  "The lock on the window in there is iffy," he explained gently. "I promise I won't look, but leave the door open just a crack so I can hear if you have a problem."

  "Oh," she breathed and then nodded, and muttered, "Right," as she turned to continue into the room. She almost closed the door all the way behind her by habit alone, but caught herself at the last moment and made sure it was open an inch or two. She then placed her clothes on the hook on the top of the door and set her underwear on the counter before moving to the shower and turning on the water.

  The shower was in the corner of the bathroom on the hinge side of the door. Wyatt would have had to open the door further and stuck his head in to see anything. Still, she was self-conscious about stripping with the door open even the little bit it was. Turning her back to it, she quickly stripped off her bloodstained pants and the rest of her clothes and then pretty much leapt into the shower, yanking the curtain closed as she went. Big mistake. She should have checked the water first, Elspeth realized as ice-cold water poured over her.

  Gasping in shock, she tried to back quickly out of the water, forgot about the need to step over the lip of the shower base, and tumbled backward through the shower curtain. Elspeth instinctively caught at the sheet of vinyl, trying to save herself, and heard the plink, plink, plink of the curtain holders snapping up to hit the shower rod as the vinyl tore free. The next thing Elspeth knew, she was crashing to the bathroom floor with the vinyl shower curtain as her only cushion. It didn't do much to protect her head when it hit the tile floor.

  "El!"

  Groaning, Elspeth reached up to cover the back of her head and rolled onto her side into a fetal position as she tried to ride out the pain. It felt like her head was splitting in two, and she was positive the dampness under her fingers must be blood. God, it hurt!

  She was vaguely aware of Wyatt's concerned voice, and then her hands were forced away so that he could examine her head. It couldn't be as bad as she'd feared, Elspeth decided when he released a relieved sigh and slid one arm under her legs and the other around her back.

  "How is it?" she asked with a frown. The pain was beginning to recede now, surprisingly quickly, Elspeth noted. Still, it had been terrible just a moment ago, so she kept her eyes closed as he lifted her up off the ground.

  "You're already developing a goose egg, but you didn't break the skin, at least, and your skull seems intact," Wyatt said solemnly as he set her on the bathroom counter.

  "But it felt damp," she protested, lifting her head and opening her eyes with surprise.

  "Water," he explained with a crooked smile.

  "Oh," Elspeth grimaced. Sighing, she shifted her attention to Wyatt and then froze when she saw where his gaze had gone. His eyes were roving hungrily over her body, and she could almost feel his gaze like a touch as it burned its way over her breasts, and then down her stomach and between her legs.

  "Wyatt?" she said gently, surprised at how breathless her voice was. She was panting, Elspeth realized with amazement. The man hadn't even touched her and she was panting like an overheated dog . . . or a horny one, she thought, recalling Alex's description.

  "I'm sorry," Wyatt growled, and turned away to quickly search the room. He spotted the bath towel over the towel rack,
grabbed it, and turned back to offer it to her.

  Elspeth automatically reached for it, but froze when their hands touched. For a minute, they just remained like that, both silent and still as shockwaves rolled through them from where they touched, and then Wyatt cleared his throat. His voice a husky rasp of sound, he said, "I know you're not ready for a life mate, and I--"

  That was as far as he got before Elspeth finished taking the towel from him, let it drop to the floor, and reached for him instead.

  "Oh thank God," he growled and bent his head to kiss her.

  Kapow didn't describe the passion that suddenly exploded inside Elspeth as his mouth covered hers. Shocked at the extent of the response her body had to such a simple caress, Elspeth slid her arms around his shoulders and held on in a dazed way as his tongue slid along the seam of her lips. When she opened her mouth and his tongue slid in to explore, she groaned in welcome and instinctively wiggled forward on the countertop, trying to get closer.

  The moment she did that, Wyatt's hands dropped to her thighs, urging them apart. Elspeth obeyed the silent demand, and spread her legs for him. He immediately stepped between them, moving as close as he could.

  Elspeth gasped, and jerked back a bit, though, when her naked breasts brushed across the cold metal of the guns in his double chest holster.

  "Sorry," he muttered, and pulled back enough to unsnap and remove the gear.

  Elspeth let her hands glide over his T-shirt-covered chest as he set the gun holster in the sink next to her. When he then turned his attention to the holster at his hip, she let her hands drop to grab the material of his T-shirt just above his belt and began to tug it upward. Dragging the cloth out of his jeans, she pushed it up until she could run her hands over the skin she'd bared.

  Now it was Wyatt's turn to groan as her fingers skimmed lightly over the rippling muscles of his stomach and up to explore and caress his pecs. The man had some muscle on him, Elspeth noted with appreciation as she squeezed and caressed him, and then she moaned in protest when he broke their kiss.

  "Be careful not to accidentally turn on the taps," he warned, his voice a sexy growl as he set the hip holster with its gun in the sink as well. He then began to remove his T-shirt. Elspeth helped eagerly, taking over tugging it up over his head. She then let it drop to the floor and covered his hands with an encouraging moan as they suddenly closed over her breasts.

  "God, I thought surely it couldn't have been as good as I remembered," he growled, watching her face as he caressed her breasts and rolled her nipples. "I thought I'd built it up in my head, or just gone briefly mad or something, but dear God, just touching you is . . ."

  Rather than finish, he bent to kiss her again. This time the kiss didn't start softly or as a sweet caress. It was a hungry, almost violent taking on both their parts, a violent battle of tongues as his body urged hers back until she was at a fifty-degree angle to the counter. Giving up her hold on his hands, Elspeth clutched at his shoulders to keep from falling, and then he broke the kiss again, this time to lower his mouth and claim one breast.

  "Oh God," Elspeth gasped, her hips jumping and then sliding forward on the counter until his body stopped her. They both groaned then as their groins met, pressing against each other through his jeans, and then Elspeth wrapped her legs around his hips and used her hold to urge him tighter still. He began to grind against her as he suckled at her breast.

  It wasn't long before they both wanted more, though. At least, Elspeth wanted more, and reached for his face with one hand, trying to urge him back up for a kiss. Wyatt responded to the silent request, but not before nipping at the nipple he'd been laving. He let it slip from his mouth then, and raised his head to kiss her again. The moment he did, Elspeth reached for his belt buckle and began feeling around blindly, trying to undo it, a difficult task when she couldn't see it. Fortunately, Wyatt urged her hands away after a moment of fumbling and quickly undid the belt, and then the button and zipper of his jeans as well. He reached for the material on each side to push his jeans down, but jerked to a halt, even his mouth freezing midkiss as she reached into the open jeans, found him, and carefully pulled him out.

  When Elspeth had him out and was finally able to close her hand around his hard erection, he gasped into her mouth, a sound she echoed as the excitement she'd caused in him reverberated through her own body.

  Once that first shock had slid through her and begun to fade, Elspeth moved her hand, groaning along with him as his pleasure rang through her, making her wiggle on the countertop with excitement and need. She knew he was about to find his satisfaction, because she was too, when Wyatt suddenly caught her hand and jerked it away from him.

  Panting heavily, he leaned his forehead against hers briefly to catch his breath. He then kissed her hard and quick, before dropping to his knees in front of her and burying his face between her legs. When he began to rasp his tongue across her soaking and sensitive skin, Elspeth cried out and grabbed for his head, trying to get him to stop, but it was too late. She was too excited. They both were, and she'd barely touched his head when she felt something press into her. Elspeth froze, her body arching so far back now she was sure it would snap, and then something did snap, something deep inside, a fine gossamer string that had been holding back her release. Without it, she screamed and began to thrash on the countertop, vaguely aware that Wyatt was doing the same between her legs as her release poured over him, pushing him into his own, and then she slid away into the unconsciousness new life mates experienced.

  Eleven

  Wyatt shifted sleepily, and grimaced as his body complained at the hard, cold bed he'd chosen to sleep on. He was getting too old for the rough living necessitated by being in the JTF2, he thought wearily, shifting again and barely restraining a moan when his hip began to throb.

  "Elspeth! Wyatt!"

  Frowning, he opened his eyes and peered with confusion around the smoky room . . . until his brain woke up enough to realize that the smoke in the air was a bad thing and that the room he was in was Elspeth's bathroom. Cursing, Wyatt sat up abruptly, bumping his shoulder against something as he did. He looked to see what it was and paused, his eyes widening as he saw that it was Elspeth's knee. She was still seated on the counter; her upper body slumped against the mirror.

  "Wyatt! Elspeth!"

  He turned his head and peered out into the bedroom to find the source of the shouting. He didn't see anyone, but he did see flames filling the next room. Cursing, Wyatt lunged to his feet and moved to the door, doing up his pants as he went.

  "Thank God!"

  That cry drew his gaze to the door, where Sam and Alex were looking in from the hall. Their faces were riddled with anxiety as they peered at him across the burning room, he saw, coughing in reaction to the smoke he was inhaling now that he was off the floor.

  "Where's Elspeth?" Sam asked anxiously. "You have to get her out of here."

  "I've got it!" he assured them, an icy calm settling over him as it always did in a crisis. "You get the twins and my grandmother out, and make sure Martine is out of the basement apartment as well. Go!" he barked when they didn't move at once. "Get everyone else. I'll see to Elspeth."

  The women left then, disappearing away up the hall. Wyatt turned back into the bathroom and quickly turned on the shower taps, allowing the water to pour down over him before he stepped out and grabbed the hand towel off the rack beside the sink. He tied the hand towel around his head so that it covered his mouth and nose, offering some protection from the smoke. He grabbed the bath towels off the rack, and tossed them under the spray to soak up the water pouring down, again taking extra time to stick his legs under the spray while there--first one and then the other. Wyatt then grabbed his T-shirt off the floor and stepped under the water with it to let the spray soak the shirt as well as his body and jeans before he stepped out and moved to Elspeth.

  "El, love, wake up," he murmured, catching her by the shoulders and pulling her upright so that he could put his wet T-shirt o
n her.

  "Wyatt?" she said sleepily, and then blinked her eyes open with shock as the cold, wet material touched her skin. Wyatt pulled the shirt over her head. Her eyes were closed when he tugged it down to her neck, but opened again as he began to urge one of her arms into a sleeve.

  "What's happening?" she asked with confusion. "I smell smoke. Do you smoke? I didn't know you smoked."

  "Not me, sugar," he said with a crooked smile as she helped him get her other arm into its sleeve. "The house is smoking. It's on fire."

  "What?" That brought her awake in a hurry, a sudden rush of adrenaline no doubt helping as she sat up straight and peered around. When she looked out into the bedroom and saw the fire licking across the floors and up the one wall they could see, she issued a foul curse that made him smile. Damn . . . beautiful, smart, sweet, sexy as hell, mind-blowing in bed--or on the bathroom counter, to be more accurate--and she had a potty mouth. He could love this woman, Wyatt thought with a smile.

  "What happened?" Elspeth growled, slipping off the counter. She was not smiling, he noted, and he couldn't blame her. His grandmother's house was going up in smoke, taking Elspeth's home and belongings with it. It was nothing to smile about, and yet he'd found his El again. After four years of searching, and long after he'd given up on ever having her back, here she was. Nothing was going to take her from him again, not her mother, and not even this fire. He wasn't letting her go.

  Pulling her away from the door, Wyatt moved back to the shower and retrieved the towels. They were sopping wet and heavy as he quickly wrapped them around her, leaving only a small hole for her to breathe through. He then scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom door. The fire was following a starburst pattern from the middle of the room outward, and he was pretty sure he could smell gas. A Molotov cocktail, then. Nice, he thought with disgust. Definitely not an accident.

  Mouth compressing, Wyatt tightened his hold on Elspeth and launched himself into hell. That's what it felt like. The air was so hot it was painful to breathe, so Wyatt held his breath. But there was nothing he could do about the fire that licked at his feet and lower legs as he ran through the flames to the bed. When he reached it, Wyatt simply leapt on top and ran across the soft mattress. He pushed off hard, and leapt high when he reached the side nearest the French doors. Still, he came down several feet short of them, his feet disappearing in the flames as he landed, but Wyatt simply continued forward, charging through the broken glass from the shattered door to get out onto the balcony where cool night air greeted them.