Exhale (23 page)

The fire burning low in her belly, along with the heat snaking across their lips, gave her permission to step up the kiss. She pressed her breasts against him. His hands wove around her waist. Hips collided, and his tongue dipped—just barely—into her mouth. She teased it with a subtle swipe in reply. He dropped onto the bed, dragging her along on top of him.

Readjusting, she straddled his pelvis and found the hardness she’d hoped for. Holy hell and damnation. She deepened the kiss by snagging the lip ring between her teeth and pulling, all the while grinding subtly against the erection she was so anxious to meet. Somehow the thing got even harder between her legs, and she squeezed her thighs against him. His body burned hot under hers, and his eyes—God, the way he stared into her soul let loose an army of shudders she fought to command. He smiled at her shiver.

A hand slid up the inside of her shirt. When it reached the cup of her bra, she paused kissing only to catch her breath. The erection nudged her core and set off another heat wave, moving from her belly, to breasts, neck, cheeks, and ears. God, she had to get inside those pants…

Lips parted, she pulled back a couple of inches to check his expression. She hoped she wasn’t making a complete ass of herself. Their eyes locked and something deep rocked the space between them—like an earthquake shaking things up at the surface, redrawing boundaries in its wake, depositing new emotions to be catalogued.

Shit, she’d just performed a DNA cheek swab on Gavin with her tongue. And judging by the desire weighing heavy in his eyes, the hand groping her breast, and the hardness between her legs, he liked it.

Gavin grinned. “Did you miss me?”

“Maybe a little.” Zoe tightened her hips against his with a slow wiggle. His cock pushed back in reply. Jesus Christ. She had no business being with a guy like him, but guilt and consequences could be dealt with later.

She tongued his lip ring once more, and his mouth eased into a soft smile as she tested its strength. Her hand wandered south, past stark abdominal hills made of pure muscle, to the scattering of black hair ducking under the waist of his jeans. His skin puckered with goose bumps as she followed the trail, all the while keeping his mouth occupied with her lips, teeth, and tongue.

God, he tasted like mint, smelled like cedar wood, and felt hard and soft at the same time. Once her fingers reached the button above his fly, they undid it without asking permission and went to work on the zipper.

“Zed—”

She pressed her forehead to his and whispered across his parted lips, “I love it when you call me that.”

Her hand unlocked the cellar door. Without breaking free of his gaze, she reached into his open jeans and rubbed the thick length waiting to be sprung. Saliva flooded her mouth, and she licked her lips.

She wanted to taste it.

His body arched under hers. “Fucking hell. I love it when you touch me like that.”

She stroked him slowly with only his underwear between them. His hips followed the rhythm she laid down with her hand.

Not good enough. Zoe sat up and pushed everything south of his belly button to his feet. Holy cow. A grin almost as big as his erection took over her face. His chest rose and fell in short bursts as she took his cock—first double-fisting it in her hands and then sliding it in her mouth.

One of his knees bent, and he started to roll away. “Zed, you don’t have to—”

Oh, hell yes, she did. She shoved the knee back into place and gazed up at his face with a mouthful of him.

“Fuck.” He hissed. Through thick lashes, he watched her go down on him. His eyes glazed, then closed for a few seconds. He swallowed loud enough for her to hear, and his beautiful bottom lip quivered with a soft, deep moan.

That she could conjure such apparent pleasure in a gorgeous guy like him made her want him even more. Her body responded with the kind of wetness only hot, damn-the-torpedoes sex could quell.

She swirled her tongue around the tip of his length, pulled at it with long sucking draws, then slid her mouth down until she nearly choked. Even then, he still had a couple of inches she couldn’t get to.

She came up for air, then went down again, determined to taste those last few centimeters. Stroking his balls with the tips of her fingers, she used her other hand to trace the hard lines of his stomach—

Gavin tensed. He sat up suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Core aching with the promise of what he’d feel like inside her, she was drunk on him. He couldn’t stop now.

A flash caught her peripheral vision, and she sat up too. Both of his arms lit up like fireworks, as if someone had implanted a thousand watt bulb under his skin, and the tattoos were conductors. He inched away, staring down at himself, an odd expression of shocked acceptance on his face.

Zoe’s chin trembled, and she reached for the arm closest to her—the left one with Earth and Water tats. He jerked away before she could touch him and scrambled off the bed to his feet. He tugged the jeans up, stuffed the erection inside, and zipped up. “I have to go.”

Shit.

She nodded and bowed her head. “Sure.”

Whatever had set his tattoos off must have been something big. She’d accepted him for what he was—a guy who kept people safe from baddies—but even though he was clearly going to do
that job
, it hurt that he chose someone else over her. Especially…now.

She pulled her shirt down to cover the hard nipple peering out the bottom and readjusted her bra. She wiped her lips with the back of a hand, as if it might erase the memory of where her mouth had just been. Fat chance.

“Shit, I’m really sorry, Zoe.” His frazzled expression and red cheeks softened the blow of his imminent departure, but only a little.

She painted on a fake smile and smoothed a hand over her hair. “It’s fine, really. Go. We can catch up tomorrow.”

He bit his lip and nodded. He dropped an awkward kiss on the corner of her mouth, turned to the window, and climbed out.

She shut and locked it behind him.

So that was that.

Planting her butt on the bed where she’d almost had sex with him, she propped elbows on knees and rested her head in open hands. What a selfish bitch she was, whining because he left to help someone.

And why’d she have to jump him like that? She covered her eyes. What had she been thinking?

Easy. She hadn’t.

She lay down and stared at the ceiling.

He wasn’t coming back.

She tunneled under the covers and pulled a pillow over her face. God, she was such moron.

Chapter Twenty-two

Scarlet smiled in her Elemental form when Zoe Morgan appeared along the edge of a dream beach. Perfect. Gavin had taken the bait she’d set, and now Morgan was hers to toy with. If she could pull it off, she might kill the bitch tonight and get it over with. Gavin would never know for sure it had been her. All Fyres pretty much looked the same in their native forms.

Scarlet moved a hundred meters behind Morgan. The bitch was blazing. Both hungry and enraged at the thought of that fucking tart’s hands on her beautiful Gavin, Scarlet fanned her flames toward Zoe for a taste.

It was a mixed sensation—a half-harmony between love and hate, need and disgust. Intrigued—hell, seduced—by Zoe’s trailing Fire, Scarlet closed in. When she got within ten paces, Morgan turned around.

Scarlet’s heat-seeking capabilities were much like those of a pit viper, but a million times more sensitive. Morgan’s body was layered in heat code so deep and complex, only the mind of a Fyre could deconstruct its meaning. Long hair appeared nearly the same color as it was in Realis—dull yellow, probably dyed. Old birds like Morgan usually began to cover their gray at her age.

Eyes and cheeks were dark orange like a pumpkin, and her mouth was the deep red of a claret wine. Further assessment revealed the same red circulating in her breasts, lower belly, and between her legs. Scarlet’s Fire roared, teetering between ravenous hunger and insane jealousy.

She needed a taste of Morgan, but the thought of touching that filth made her stomach turn. Although, taking Zoe’s Fire and turning it against her—and Gavin, for that matter—would be the ultimate ‘Fuck you.’

Morgan laid her hands on hips. “Why are you following me?”

Scarlet lobbed a solar flare at the bitch, but she ducked out of the way. At least the threat got Morgan riled up. Her Fire intensified, outlining her form in deep red.

Scarlet scanned her surroundings for other signs of life but found none. She opened her mind and sucked in the kinetic energy from the outer reaches of her flaming body and the air itself. She mentally arranged the gathered Fire into neat layers, creating a foundation of flame-hardened bone, tight muscle and sinew, super-heated blood, and functioning organs. She topped herself off with a covering of asbestos-worthy skin and fireproof red curls on her head. She didn’t bother with clothes.

Zoe arched an eyebrow, the heat dial at her groin spiking even higher. Must have caught a whiff the sex pheromones Scarlet pumped into the air. She smiled.

“I figured it was you. You can’t seem to leave me alone. What is it about me?” Morgan took a step closer. Bold. Foolish.

“You’re burning hot tonight. I want a taste.” She drew the ‘s’ out long and hard and reached for Zoe’s cheek.

Zoe dodged her fingers. “Are you so hungry that you would stoop to taking
my
Fire? Thought you had better taste. Or is it something else?”

Scarlet raised her gaze with a slow flip of her lashes and met her enemy’s stare. This was the face of the woman Gavin loved. Pathetic. She somehow convinced her upper lip not to curl as she memorized every wrinkle, pore, and subtle movement. “Fire is Fire. I take what I want.”

Zoe closed the space between them and leaned in. “You’re jealous, Scarlet.”

“Hardly,” she lied. A half-smile tipped the left side of her mouth. She closed her eyes briefly and inhaled a deep draught of the Fire-fueled desire pouring off Morgan’s skin.

Hmm…imagine a three-way with her and Gavin,
her Fire whispered.

Between the fucking, jealousy, and hatred pin-balling between them, Scarlet’s hunger would be sated for a week. Oh, the things she could do to both of them…

“Then why won’t you leave him alone?”

Scarlet returned to the matter at hand with a shake of her head. “He feeds me well. I’ve never met Fire like his. Obviously you haven’t experienced it, otherwise you wouldn’t have to ask.”

She offered a pouty, pity-filled look and brushed a hand across Morgan’s cheek, siphoning a taste of her through the contact. Gods, she’d been right about Zoe’s Fire. Sweeter than candy. She licked her fingers.

Zoe’s lip twitched as a wave bounded over the sand, faster than light, and tagged Scarlet’s bare feet. Freezing cold pain bit into her flesh, turning her toes, heels, and ankles to ice. She let fly a shriek to rival a siren’s, lunged at the bitch, and tackled her.

Morgan’s eyes glazed over, her Fire dissipated, and she went limp under Scarlet’s grip. Fuck. Another wave, this time bigger and faster, injected more slivers of ice into her blood. The crystals clogged her veins, choking both her blood flow and her Fire.

“You goddamn bitch!” She clawed at Morgan’s face for Fire to warm her but found only Water. The two became a writhing tangle of hands, arms, and legs.

Scarlet bared her teeth and loosed a concentrated burst of heat into Morgan’s skin. The whore wailed. She pushed away, cradled her elbow, and scrambled to her knees.

Scarlet stood and shook the sand from her hot flesh. “Where’s your Water now? Hard to heal when you’re so filled with
rage
, isn’t it?” Laughter rolled off her tongue.

Approaching from the side, she kicked Zoe in the gut and knocked her over. A patch of crusted, seared skin covered the whole of her elbow and ran down the back of her forearm. Eyebrows drawn in tight, Morgan huffed and stared up with murder in her eyes.

Oh, perfect. Scarlet smiled. Fire danced in frenetic bursts over every inch of Morgan’s exposed body. Hands outstretched, curved red nails glinting, Scarlet closed in. Zoe got to her feet.

The mists behind Morgan swirled to life. Red, yellow, blue, and green ribbons of energy appeared, blurred into pure white, then spat out a human form.

Gavin.

Scarlet hissed.

He jumped in front of Morgan, pushed her behind him, and leveled a palm on Scarlet. Blue pulsed along the edges of his fingers.

The disgusting stench of Water choked her.

“You won’t hurt me, Gavin. You cared about me once. Remember?” She stepped closer.

He tensed and shook his head. “Wrong. I never cared about you. I wanted you for one thing. Had I recognized you as a Fyre, I wouldn’t have touched you with latex gloves.”

Her heart fell, but not fast enough to dodge the knife wound his words inflicted. “You won’t hurt me.” She tried to convince herself she was right, but now she wasn’t sure.

“No?” He tilted his head. The air around him stretched, a low rumble gave rise to a loud pop, and a burst of Water shot out of his hand, straight at her. She ducked left as the stream flew past, missing her by centimeters.

A horrible high-pitched noise filled Scarlet’s ears. Morgan singing that goddamn whale song.

Gavin grabbed Zoe’s outstretched hand, and blue light channeled out of her into him, illuminating the pair like matching neon signs.

Scarlet’s eardrums threatened to burst. She bent over in agony. The light grew stronger, pulsed in time to the song.

Gavin couldn’t do this to her. Couldn’t let Morgan hurt her.

She pointed at him. “If you refuse me now, you’ll regret it. This is your last chance, Gavin. Take me back, or that little bitch of yours dies.” She covered her ears and snarled at Morgan.

“Not. Interested.” His eyes flashed the same neon blue as the energy gliding back and forth between him and Morgan, and forks of lightning-like Water zipped through the sand, targeting Scarlet.

No! Mentally plotting a course through the Dreaming’s doorway, she focused on the candle she always left burning at home in Realis. Water wicked through her feet, into her calves, and up to her knees. The result was excruciating. Scarlet’s molecules shot through the door, then redirected to the tiny candle’s flame in a steady stream. Her Fire energy wove corporeal matter back together in a slow, torturous process, and she opened her eyes amidst a plume of black smoke. The strong, egg-like odor of sulfur rose from her steaming feet.