Deadshifted (3 page)

That shut me up. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Asher agreed, then sighed again.

“And he’s here? Like just on board?”

“Apparently.”

My brows furrowed in thought. “Did his research succeed? It can’t have, otherwise we’d be knee-deep in vampires and living in caves.”

“No—I reported him. To the Consortium.” Asher twisted his lips sideways, still looking at the floor. “I reported him after his check cashed. I knew he was evil—I touched him, Edie, I knew who he was, and what he was doing—and I waited a week to make sure his money was good. Plus—” Here Asher’s voice drifted, and he shook his head again. “I didn’t want him to know it was me. It’s not like I had any protection, or a private army.”

“What happened next?”

“I don’t know. I checked up on him after that—at first, all the time. I was waiting to see an obituary. When that didn’t happen, I checked less. Honestly, I thought they’d wiped him off the map. But eventually he resurfaced, his name on a few medical patents that were genetically based, back when that was really starting to break out. He must have made millions on some of them.”

“So the Consortium didn’t do anything to stop him?”

“I don’t know. You don’t get to ask the Consortium about things like that. You don’t even want to know what I had to do to get in touch with them. They want you to think they’re always paying attention, but they’re not.”

The Consortium was some sort of loose governing group for paranormal creatures. I’d only ever met one of their members, when it’d briefly taken up home in my old charge nurse to reprimand us after a war.

Now I was staring at the carpet too. There were a hundred different questions I wanted to ask him, but only one that really mattered now. “Does he know this version of you?”

This Asher was the one Santa Muerte had given me when she’d saved his life. Sandy-blond hair, blue eyes, and lips that quirked up at the corners half a second before he smiled.

Asher finally turned toward me and gave me a bemused look. “No. No one else knows this me but you, our neighbors back home, and your silly Siamese cat.”

I gave him a hopeful grin. “She’s cross-eyed. She has no idea what you really look like.” He forced a smile back.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. His prior abilities—what I called
the strange,
in my mind—limited as they now were, still affected us, usually at intervals just long enough apart for me to forget that he had them. He’d change into looking like Hector the Doctor for work, and we’d take separate trains in, and then at work we’d pretend to be coworkers. After the first few illicit-seeming months, it hadn’t really been that hard. The shapeshifting itself wasn’t the strange part—it was all the other things. Instances when he’d made us leave diners after he’d recognized someone back in the kitchen, or him changing banks after a merger. Once he’d gotten out of a speeding ticket by reminding a cop about taking a bribe. As much as, like any girlfriend, I’d wanted to pry into Asher’s past—pasts, even, heavy emphasis on the plural—I hadn’t. Moments like this were why.

I wished I could open the doors to our room’s balcony, let in the sea air, and let it chase out the strange. Every time I thought I’d gotten used to it, I realized I hadn’t really—I’d just gotten used to hoping the bulk of it was behind us. Sitting beside him, though, I realized there was no way we’d ever completely outrun it. It was who he was, who he’d been. It followed him wherever he went, like a tail. And right now he looked so alone. I squeezed his hand harder.

“Well, everything’s okay now,” I said, with the same comforting tone I used on patients all the time.

“You can’t just let me off the hook, Edie.”

“Why not? It sounds like you’ve been carrying this around long enough.”

“He’s not the only person I worked for. None of the rest were as bad as he was—but there’s a four-way tie for second place. And you don’t want to know how many people are in the running for third.” He carefully took my hand off his and released it back to me. “As evil as I know he was, what he was working on—with data I gave him—I can’t help but wonder what working with him once makes me.”

I took his hand back fiercely. “It makes you someone who changed. That’s not a bad thing. I love you.” Suddenly I didn’t want him to tell me anything else about his past. It was behind us, and it could stay there, forever, where it couldn’t hurt us ever again.

He swallowed and stared down at my hand, covering his. “I know you love me. But sometimes I think back on all the things I’ve done, and I can’t see why.”

This wasn’t the brash devil-may-care Asher I usually knew. I leaned up and kissed his forehead, where wrinkles were starting to show. “I can’t speak to all those other Ashers. But the one I love saved my life a few times, and he takes care of people who need him. I love him quite a lot.”

A soft smile took the edge off his serious face. “I love you, Edie.”

“Not to mention, he brought me on this excellent vacation,” I went on.

He gave me a wry look. “I thought you weren’t completely sold on the ocean?”

I elbowed him. “I’m trying to make you feel better. Stop making it hard.”

He laughed, turning toward me and taking me in his arms.

CHAPTER THREE

Sex was always easy with Asher.

Being with him had always been the kind of hot trouble that normally only strangers can get into, the fearless kind that makes you demanding and loud, both people fighting to take control, neither stopping until they’d been satisfied.

And this time was no different. Arms still around me, Asher’s mouth found mine at the same time his hands reached for the button of my jeans.

Just like that, I was ravenous for him as well. Mouths dueling, I returned his kiss with aggression, as he growled low in his throat.

My hands yanked off his shirt, reveling in the feel of his skin against mine, soft and warm, rippling over muscles. I ran my hands down his tightly muscled back and down into his jeans, pulling him close. At the feel of my hands, he shuddered and broke our contact, pulling back to free himself from his clothes, and then to pull my clothes off me.

Returning to me naked, cock erect, he lay down on top of me, forcing his legs between my own. I wrapped my legs around him, trying to urge him farther, desperate for more. But just when I thought he was going to ram inside me, he paused, hot and heavy against me. To prove he could control himself, and that he was in charge of my desire.

“I hate it when you do that,” I whispered to him.

“No you don’t,” he whispered back.

Slowly, he lowered himself so that the smooth underside of his cock ran against me. I shuddered as he began to kiss my breasts and throat. He rubbed himself against me, soft, then hard, but never entering like I wanted him to, instead teasing me, making me wait. I knew if I asked for it I’d get it, he just liked to hear me beg—or make me so hot I couldn’t control myself anymore.

Suddenly I needed to be in charge. I pushed him back, off me, to one side, rolling him onto his back. He fought me only for a second then went with it, watching me rise up to straddle him, all of us touching, but still separate. Now it was my turn to grind, chastely, against him. He laughed, pleased to be beneath me, his hands tickling up the insides of my thighs.

“My turn,” I announced, reaching down to set the tip of him inside me. His hips arched and I rose to deny him what he’d been denying me. “Tell me that you’ll always be mine,” I said from above him.

He stopped playing around, sensing the solemnity of my request. “Of course.”

“Say it.”

His hands slid down my back to rest against my buttocks. “I’ll always be yours. Assuming you’ll have me.”

I grinned down at him, showing teeth. “Oh, I’ll have you all right.” I shifted my hips as I rocked back down, his cock sliding home. He hissed with the sensation, and I let out a low moan.

After that, there were no more words; we moved as one. I leaned over him, my breasts against his chest, and his hands on my ass to trap me there, as his cock pulsed up and into me and my hips rocked downward to meet him. We found a rhythm together, one that matched the rocking of the boat and the sound of the waves, sweat soon drenching both of us like the sea spray outside. I took his cock deep inside me, arching my whole body forward until it found that secret place deep within that only this position hit. His hands clenched at my ass, pulling me closer, forcing him in deeper, the skin above his cock grinding into my clit—I knew we were both on the edge of coming, that any second now one of us would be thrown overboard and we’d take the other with us when we went. I fought it, I didn’t want release yet, I wanted us to stay here forever, the head of his cock rubbing that spot inside, making me feel electrified.

Asher’s breathing was ragged now and I realized I’d been moaning with each of his strokes, trying to hold on and not let the moment go. His eyes met mine, dark, wild.

“You’re mine,” he said, his voice thick.

If any other man had ever said that in the entire history of my sexual career I probably would have laughed him out of bed. But right then I wanted to be Asher’s, I wanted him to be right, I wanted it to be true. His motions became exaggerated, sliding all of himself into and out of me. The third time he buried himself inside me, his thick cock rubbing that spot and him grinding against my clit. I screamed, arcing forward against him, as I finally let myself go.

He rode me through my spasms, my body grabbing him tight. And then it was his turn. His cock rock-hard, his thrusts trying to find the deepest part of me, almost desperately. I watched his face as he suddenly let go, his last thrusts quick and sharp, making one low moan of my name.

I didn’t want to be the one to break the bond between us, so I lay down on top of him, with him still inside. My hair spilled over his chest, and he raised one hand to absently stroke down my back.

“I love fucking you,” he said quietly, almost to himself.

I grinned into his neck, where he couldn’t see me. “I can tell.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Sex had swept our room free of the past, for now. I heaved myself off Asher, and he complained. He liked snuggling even more than I did. Plus, he was almost asleep. Truth be told, after a day of travel, jet lag, and vigorous sex, I could be almost asleep too.

“Hang on. I have to do girl things.”

I went into the bathroom and cleaned up. No blood.

As I stood in front of the mirror, I couldn’t help but examine my belly. Despite not having any proof, I was 80 percent sure I was pregnant. Crap. Yay? Crap … yay? I poked at my stomach, which looked exactly the same. “I hope we didn’t shake things up in there too much for you. Also, sorry about the sperm. Just kick them out of the way or something,” I said. Maybe the fetus had hung an
OCCUPADO
sign up outside my uterus already, and the sperm were milling uselessly around outside. I laughed aloud at the idea. “Sorry, boys.”

Asher knocked on the door. “Did you say something?”

I gave him an innocent smile as I emerged. “No.”

*   *   *

As tired as we both were, we made a pact to stay up later. If we went to sleep now we’d only wind up awake at 3
A.M.
We reluctantly hauled ourselves out of bed and unpacked. Just as I reached the end of my bags and began thinking maybe we could revisit the staying-up-until-a-decent-hour plan, another set of bells chimed overhead and Asher got one more of those looks on his face.

“They’re starting a going-away party upstairs now. We should go up and give ourselves a tour.”

“Or, we could just stay here?” I said with hope and exhaustion.

“We could … or we could go upstairs where people will be dancing and drinking. And make a lap around the boat. So that we know where things are tomorrow.”

I crossed my arms in an accusatory fashion. “You seem to know where everything is already.”

He made a face at me. “I will admit to having touched more than one cruise employee in my past.”

“Touched?” I said, feigning indignant surprise. “Or touched-touched? Like, with your penis?” My voice rose in horror, teasing, as I crawled back out of tickling range on the bed.

“Hey now!” he protested, coming after me. “I can’t help it that I was a man-whore!” He paused and looked off into space dramatically, owning the moment. “Wait. That sounds wrong.”

I started giggling as he caught up to me on the bed and held himself over me on one arm. “You know I have a troubled past, Edie,” he said solemnly, like a movie-trailer announcer. “But from here on out, I swear, my penis only has eyes for you.”

I lost it and laughed so hard I snorted. Which made him laugh in turn, falling down to land beside me. I regathered myself first, gulping in several large breaths of air. “Okay, okay. If I say we can go on a tour, will you never tell me about your penis having eyeballs again?”

Still naked, Asher got a silly look on his face. “But, Edie, he’s nearsighted. What if he needs to see you close up?”

“Oh. My. God.” I rolled out of bed and threw the sheets at him with a laugh. “You’ve won. I’m going. I’m gone. Get up, or you’ll have to meet me in the hallway.” I reached down to haul on the clothes I’d been wearing before as he sprang out of bed and bowed, using the sheets like a cape.

“We, fair lady, are at your service.”

I opened my mouth to say something else, and then I shook my head and clasped my bra. “I don’t even want to begin to encourage your use of the royal
we.
”

He grinned challengingly, and I beamed back. This was the man I was in love with. The silly, sexy man of the now. Past or no past.

*   *   *

I finished pulling on the clothes I’d been wearing earlier so as not to get anything clean funky. I could shower when we got back to the room. We held hands in the elevator on the way up to the top deck, and I could see my bed head from several unflattering angles on the elevator’s mirrored walls. I’d blame it on the sea air or something, if anyone asked. It didn’t matter really—I was with Asher. He smiled at my reflection, and I smiled back.