Mindy turned without saying a word and scampered into the apartment, presumably to put on her shoes. Her bare feet had been driving him crazy. He could have done without knowing she wore pink polish on her toes. That seemed far too intimate.
Outside Braxton honked the horn of the car. Jonah rolled his eyes. He knew eventually he’d get used to all of this, but until then? This was going to be ridiculously hard.
Chapter Four
Jonah wanted her. Mindy drummed her hands on the car and tried to think about something else. There were life and death situations going on—they were standing outside the house where she’d royally screwed up waiting for a Shaman for goodness sake. As far as she knew she’d never laid eyes on a Shaman before in her life. What would he look like?
Braxton had been avoiding her question as to what they had done with the homeowners, but she didn’t intend to let the topic drop just because he went all silent on her.
“Seriously. You have to tell me.”
Braxton stood next to her and when she spoke he pulled his coat tighter.
“Tightening your clothing against the wind doesn’t count as an answer.”
Jonah hung up the phone and turned to them. “The Shaman is almost here. What’s going on?”
“He won’t tell me what he did with the homeowners.”
The man who wanted her shook his head. “That’s because he didn’t do anything. I did.”
“What?” Mindy whirled on Braxton. “You could have just said that.”
“It’s not my business to tell what Jonah does or does not do.” He tugged on his coat again.
“You really are cold, aren’t you?” Either that or he had some kind of clothing tic.
“I am. A bit. Weather is different in San Francisco.”
Right at that moment, she wished she had a bottle of cold water to dump on his head. Make him colder. The jerk. It wasn’t his business to tell her? What? Were they in grade school?
She whirled on Jonah. “Are you going to tell me what happened to the homeowners? I have a vested interest in this. I care what happened to them. This mess is my fault.”
“It’s not…”
Mindy interrupted him before he could let her off the hook again. For some reason, he never let her feel responsible for anything bad that happened. If she caused a mess, the least she could do was say so.
“It is, Jonah. So would you please tell me what happened to them?”
“They got sent on an impromptu vacation to Disney World. His employer suddenly had a conference he couldn’t make. He sent the guy who lived here instead. All expenses paid for the whole family. They didn’t even have enough time to stop home and pack. They have a suitcase full of new things waiting for them in Orlando.”
“How did you do that?” Tears threatened to pool in her eyes and she looked away before he could see. If he thought she was a mess he’d change his mind on this whole thing.
“Foy has contacts everywhere in Chicago. Master may have taken himself off into la-la land for a while but I can still use his people to get what I want.” He shrugged and she wanted to hug him. Probably he wouldn’t like that even though he’d told her he desired her. She’d bungled their encounter earlier. His hug had come seemingly out of the blue and she hadn’t known what to do. Of course, she wished she could redo it. Squeeze him tightly until he took her inside and…
Pushing away the rest of that imagery, she leaned back against the car to regard his profile. “You did something amazing.”
“I did something necessary. It will always be my job to protect us from outsiders knowing what we do. That’s how we get to keep doing it. You, for one, should never have known.”
“There is always going to be a part of me that wishes I didn’t know too.” She rubbed at her cheek.
Jonah had come into her life when a demonic clown had torn up Austin. Her best friend had gotten involved with a blood-oathed man who lived across the hall. Around the same time Mindy’s boyfriend had been slaughtered, Jonah had arrived in town. He’d sat outside her door at night so she could sleep and then taken care of her when she’d stupidly gotten herself bitten up by a hellhound.
Before vanishing to Chicago for months with no word.
Then suddenly he’d returned and offered to take her with him if she wanted to learn. Jonah Wylie defined the word enigma. One second the hero, the next the cold, distant, typical male.
“You’re beautiful, you know.”
She didn’t even know what to say. No, she did not know she was beautiful. Maybe at one time—before her hair happened and her face got destroyed—she’d been presentable. Men hadn’t turned away being invited to her bed, even if she hadn’t asked that many of them to do so. Truth was, she’d never had really fantastic sex.
But she would bet she could have some. With the hottie who stood next to her. Mindy licked her lips.
“Thank you for the kind words. I think, right now, I look a little scary.”
Jonah reached out and touched her cheek where she’d been bit. “Nonsense.”
He dropped his hand and walked away. Mindy stood, slack-jawed, watching him move down the street. Where was he going? And why did he run away?
“How long are you going to torment my boy over there?” Braxton rubbed at his nose before jamming his hands in his pockets.
She turned to him, moving slowly. “Pardon?”
“I asked you how long you were going to torture poor Jonah. The guy clearly has the hots for you. Don’t be a bitch. If you don’t want him, tell him so—then he can move on.”
Her head spun. “Are you for real?” Never in her life had she wanted to punch someone in the nose as much as she wanted to reach out and break Braxton’s nose right off his face. Who did he think he was? She hadn’t been leading Jonah on.
She stopped and tried to regain her equilibrium. Had she been doing something? Heavens knew she was attracted to Jonah. Was she sending out some kind of signals?
A car pulled up in front of them stopping her thoughts and right at that moment her cell phone rang. Nothing could ever happen by itself. She looked down at her phone. It was her girlfriend Dodie calling. She answered it before it could ring again.
“Dodie.” Her friend was one of the few people in the world she could tell the truth of her situation to. “Can I call you back? A Shaman just arrived to do something about the poltergeist I stirred up in a house I broke into.”
Mindy’s best friend didn’t speak for a second. “Sure. If you’ll answer one question for me.”
“Okay.” Even as Mindy answered her she watched an African-American man get out of the car. He had dreadlocks and wore a suit and tie along with a pair of Birkenstocks on his feet. The effect made her do a double-take.
“Will you be my maid of honor?”
All of Mindy’s attention flew back to the phone call. Her eyes filled with tears and they spilled onto her face. “Yes, of course. I would love to. You know that. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love you.”
“Thanks.” Dodie sniffed on the other end of the phone. “I promise not to put you in pink. Now go back to your Shaman. I don’t want to know too much about that. I worry enough about Christian.”
“Love you.” Mindy hung up the phone.
The Shaman had been speaking with Jonah and Braxton while she spoke on the phone. He turned now toward the house and Mindy hurried to catch up with them.
When she reached them, the Shaman turned to speak to her. “So you’re the young lady who made this mess worse.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m the one who foolishly thought I could handle something I had no business messing with.”
The Shaman laughed. “You learned a lesson and no one was hurt.”
Jonah smiled at her. “That’s right. No one was hurt.”
“You were.” Braxton pointed out to Jonah and Mindy looked at the floor.
“No, I was hurt with the Satan worshipers. This was a re-injury.”
“Well, I see Foy’
s boys are back to their old ways. Never a dull moment with any of you around.” The Shaman shook his head.
Mindy realized she’d never learned the man’s name. She stuck out her hand. “I’m Mindy Spellman.”
He stared at her hand for a second before he took it. “I’m Lance Torant. It’s nice to meet you, Mindy.”
Lance blinked rapidly, looking between Jonah and Mindy. “Well.” He dropped her hand. “This is an interesting turn of events. Foy always said there would be a shift for you boys. I just didn’t see this particular set of circumstances coming.”
“What?” Jonah shook his head. “I’m afraid I didn’t follow that, Lance.”
“No. But you will.”
Lance stepped over the threshold into the house. He raised his hands into the air, closed his eyes and then threw his head back. With a loud sigh, he exhaled.
Mindy waited, not sure what to do with all of her nervous energy.
Lance opened his eyes. “The house is clear.” He nodded and walked out the front door.
She looked at Jonah. “That was it?”
“Apparently.” He nodded.
“How can you be sure he did anything at all? I mean I hate to vocalize that thought. But he may have taken money—I assume he got paid—and pretended to clear this house.” There had to be fraudulent people in this business. She knew Jonah to be legit and if he trusted Braxton that was good enough for her. But who knew Lance?
A loud thunderclap sounded outside and she turned her head toward the door. Lance stood, hand extended, with a bolt of lightning streaming from the sky into his outstretched fingers. He cocked his head at her while he played with the lightning as if it were nothing at all.
Jonah whispered in her ear, “Were you saying something?”
She groaned. “No.”
* * * * *
“Where are you going?”
Braxton walked away from the house, shivering in his coat. The man really had to readjust to Chicago if he was going to make it through the winter here. They were all from here. How long had it taken Braxton to become so weather wimpy?
He turned back to Jonah. “You guys need to work this out between the two of you. We’ll meet here in the morning and start figuring out what to do about the kid making the poltergeist. Unless Foy has returned to the world by then.”
“What do you mean?” He chased after Braxton. “What do Mindy and I have to work out?”
Braxton laughed but didn’t respond. He just kept walking. Jonah stopped trying to follow him and turned around. He supposed he could try to delve into self-denial but he had a pretty good idea of what Braxton and Lance both thought.
He turned to regard Mindy who was climbing into the car. They all knew he had to deal with his feelings for that woman or he wouldn’t be able to get anything done.
Steeling his spine, he stormed to the car. Getting in the driver’s seat didn’t help anything. The car smelled like apricots, which seemed to be the scent that followed Mindy around.
“Look…”
“Hey…” They spoke at the same time.
He cleared his throat. “You go.”
“I would like you to take me home, since Braxton left and we’re, I assume, not going to do any strategizing.”
He put the key in the ignition. “That’s fine. Mindy…”
She wasn’t done talking. “And I want you to come in with me and, well, I want you too, Jonah. I really, really do.”
He stepped on the accelerator.
* * * * *
They pulled up to her apartment building and he wondered how they had gotten there. He knew he’d driven the car, but he had no memory of it. Mindy’s words still hung in the air as if she’d uttered them just now instead of half an hour earlier.
She wanted him.
Mindy got out of the car and walked toward the building. He stayed tight on her heels lest she change her mind. Still, in the vein of the schizophrenia he seemed to have inside him whenever he was around Mindy, he had to warn her away from him.
“I’m not good news. You know that, right? You probably got hurt the way you did in Austin because I showed up.”
Mindy laughed, covering her mouth after the abrupt sound. She put her key in the door. “You really know how to get a girl turned on.”
“I’m serious.” He followed her into her apartment, checking all the doors and windows. The closets were next. He’d seen her place before she’d come down. He’d picked it out for her. Decorated now in her way—strong colors, blue, red, maroon, not the pinks or pastels of some girls’ apartments—it suited her. “You want to stay away from me.” Her eyes were big when he turned to her. “Are you okay?”
“You checked my apartment to see if it was safe.”
“Ah. Yeah. I hope that didn’t freak you out.” He hadn’t even thought of how invasive that would be. Protecting her seemed second nature to him. Whatever happened now, he had to see that where she slept was secure.
Mindy leapt into his arms and he caught her. Before he could breathe, or even think about his wound, she kissed him, square on the mouth. This was not their first kiss, but their second one. Still, if the first one had been ill thought out, this one felt like a claiming.
She plunged her tongue against his and he groaned. His cock hardened instantly. He’d meant to tell her to never invite him to her bed again. Only he couldn’t because he would take her now and then again until they were both sated.
If such a thing was at all possible.
Jonah carried her through the apartment and over to the bed. A surge of the most profound need moved through him. He set her down on top of her quilt. It had the same color scheme as the rest of the room.
She looked up at him. “You saved me. Do you get it? In Austin, I would have died. Or lost my mind. And then coming here gave me something to live for. So hush about this being your fault. I won’t hear it anymore.”
He would have argued but then she kissed him again. Her lips were warm, her breath sweet, and the way she fit against him as if she’d been made for him. How could he resist?
Jonah took control of the kiss. He wouldn’t have her thinking he didn’t want this too. Their kisses became more frantic and he ran his hands up and down her arms, her back, the side of her face. Anywhere to feel the softness of her skin beneath his fingers.
She shivered beneath his touch and looked up at him. “Jonah. Please, not my face.”
“Mindy. I won’t do anything you don’t like, okay? You can trust me. Just let me say this one thing. You’re scarred and maybe that bothers you, maybe it even makes others uncomfortable. Frankly, if it does, they can go fuck themselves, but that’s neither here nor there at the moment. For me? It makes you fierce. Beautiful. Strong. A survivor, a constant reminder to me that you lived. That you’re here, real, and with me.”
If she really didn’t want to be touched there, then that would be the end of it. Somehow he’d keep his hands off her face even though he burned to memorize her features, to know if the skin beneath her eyes felt as smooth as it looked.
“Touch me.” She swallowed and the muscles in her throat clenched. “Touch me anywhere.” Her lips curved into a smile. “If you still want to.”
He shuddered. “Yes. I still want to.”
Jonah fumbled with her shirt and she eventually had to help him get it over her head. Her bra was white and lacey. He fingered the soft material that was nothing in comparison to the way her skin felt on the pads of his fingers.
“Do you bathe in moisturizer?”
She blinked. “What?”
“You are just so darn soft. I’m trying to figure out how that can be.”
Mindy blushed. “I never really thought of myself as being soft.”
“Well you are.” He licked her neck and she giggled. “And curvy in all of the right places. Just as a woman should be.”
He kissed her again and she met him tongue to tongue. She made his senses go haywire. It was as if the entire world had ceased to exist
and all that he could see, smell, taste or even think about revolved around Mindy.
Jonah couldn’t remember ever being so focused on another human being before. Someone could bust in on him and kill him from behind. He wouldn’t notice.
After he took one of her nipples in his mouth, she squirmed, arching her back. The small bud peaked on his tongue and he bit down. A little pain with her pleasure, if she didn’t mind.
Mindy sighed loudly. “Oh. Do that again.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes. I mean I can’t imagine that I actually like that, being bit, but I do. Again, please.”
“My pleasure.” He gently bit down again and she dug her fingers into his back. God, the way the woman moved. Every caress of her body against his brought a surge of heat to his cock. His balls had already gotten so hard they throbbed. If he didn’t find some self-control, and fast, this would be over before it even got started.
Her breasts fit perfectly into his hands and he stopped to admire the two twins. They were round and her nipples, which he loved having in his mouth and intended to taste again many times before the end of the day, were pink and pert.
“You’re looking at me as if you want to eat me up.” Her voice had lowered.
“If I consumed you, I wouldn’t have you to play with anymore.” With his fingertip, he traced her skin all the way down to her bellybutton until he reached the top of her pants.
The rest of her clothes needed to come off. Now. He’d never been a patient man. Seeing Mindy bared to his viewing had become priority number one.
“You’re going to take off my jeans?” Her eyes sought his and he got lost in her depths, wanting to know her every thought, every desire so he could fulfill them.
“That was the plan.”
She sat up. “Not until you’re naked too.”
Jonah grinned. “It’s so easy to give you what you want when it falls totally in line with my own desires. There’s nothing I want more than to be pressed up against you.”