Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave (12 page)

“I hate you.”

There was no real bite to the words, and that made Felix laugh all the harder because it told him just what he wanted to know. She most definitely did
not
hate him. In fact, he’d wager she actually kind of liked him.

“You don’t have the best luck with people, do you?”

“Don’t have the best luck, period. I’m stuck with you, aren’t I?”

He put his hand over his heart. “Ouch. You almost said that like you meant it.”

She shook her head, and he caught her smile out of the corner of his eye.

If only they hadn’t been interrupted earlier …

• • •

“You really don’t have to look so on edge,” Cali told Felix as she jimmied her key in the lock.

Felix pushed the door open for her and went in first.

“Hey! I’m not defenseless.”

“No,” he agreed, “but you can’t Erase things coming at you either. Let’s say, for example, like if some crazy Illusionist was hiding out in your apartment ready to gut you with a knife.”

When it was obvious no one was going to gut her, she pushed him aside to turn on the light. Everything was as she’d left it. Half empty. It looked like Jessica really had left her. Off to the side of the main living room sat her easel, naked. The oil painting that had been sitting there for two months was now in the hands of God only knew who. It was probably propped against a wall somewhere, unseen. The idea made her hands fist.

Felix bumped his shoulder against hers. “You okay?” The man could read her
way
too easily. And just like that, she remembered his powerful body atop hers, pressing into her in all the right places. It made her throb all over with sexual frustration. She wanted Felix with a carnal need that was only getting stronger the longer she spent in his presence.

Hell, if Felix hadn’t seen that man in his backyard, she probably would have let him take her right there on the sofa.

Get to know him better, indeed …

She looked up at him. He was still waiting for her answer, his brilliant blue-green eyes regarding her with nothing but openness. His five o’clock shadow was a little fainter today, he must’ve shaved that morning, but she remembered all too well the tantalizing feel of his face scraping against her neck.

She swallowed thickly and turned from him. “I’m just upset because, for some stupid reason, I thought Jessica might have come back. That she would bring my painting back.” She pointed to her easel, amazed she’d admitted that much to him. “I worked so hard on it,” she added quietly.

She felt the heat from Felix’s body as he came up behind her. His arms wrapped around her waist, putting her back flush with his firm chest. His breath tickled her neck, and when his lips brushed the skin there she wanted to moan from the pleasure of it.

She could feel his erection pressing into her from behind.

He didn’t try to comfort her with false words, he simply held her. She didn’t step away. Not yet. She wanted to memorize the way his body fit against hers.

He kissed her neck again. Heat flooded her body and without conscious thought she pushed back against him, rubbing against the obvious bulge in his pants. The growl in her ear was such a turn on that she was afraid her knees would buckle. But he would never let her fall. Somehow she knew that. His arms tightened around her, and she arched into him as he gently thrust against her. Together they started an agonizing rhythm that had Cali wishing she were naked and he were inside her.

His tongue trailed along her neck, leaving a warm, wet path that had her shivering in need.

Step away
, some conscious part of herself yelled.
You can’t have sex with a man without getting attached.

She knew the voice was right but just as she was getting ready to break from him, one of Felix’s hands drifted down from her waist to cup her sex. White-hot pleasure ripped a gasp from her throat.

He nuzzled his cheek against the side of her face. “I can’t stop myself when I’m around you.” His voice was ragged, as if he’d been running a marathon.

“I — ” Her throat had suddenly gone dry. “I don’t want — ”
you to stop.
She never wanted him to stop touching her.

The doorbell to her apartment rang, followed swiftly by three harsh knocks.

Cali jumped from Felix’s arms, her face scalding, as if she’d been caught, like that time her father had walked in on her first make-out session.

“Who is it?” Felix’s voice, and the pinched look on his face told her how much distress he was in. The bulge in his pants looked down-right painful.

Her chest was heaving. “My landlady.” She quickly smoothed out her clothes.

Felix nodded. “I’ll leave you two alone, then. Where’s the bathroom? I need to fix myself.”

She tried to avoid staring at his pants. “The room on the left just before the kitchen is mine. When you enter, the first door on your left is the bathroom.”

Her heart was still pounding even after he was gone.

She tried on a smile and opened the door. “Mrs. Deder.”

The crotchety old woman was eye level with her chest. She sneered at Cali’s breasts, as if she were wantonly jiggling them in front of her. Naked.

Mrs. Deder held her ever-present walking stick in her left hand, though everyone in the building knew she never used it unless it was to pound at someone’s door. Usually Cali heard it on her door the day her rent was due.

When she was done giving her chest the evil eye, Mrs. Deder looked up to meet Cali’s stare. Her eyes were a washed-out blue, her face only marred by a few wrinkles, and when she spoke, it was with a voice raspy from years of smoking. “Rent’s due tomorrow, Crazar. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment to take care of my cough so I won’t be here to hound your lazy, criminal ass.”

Cali’s jaw ached from how hard she was clenching it. Ever since she moved in, Mrs. Deder had taken one look at her dark hair and dark nail polish and instantly tagged her as a criminal. And on the days she didn’t call her a criminal, usually the words “street corner” or “whore” weren’t far from her vocabulary.

She cleared her throat.
Stay professional,
she chanted to herself. “I actually wanted to talk to you about this month’s rent, Mrs. Deder. You see … ” She glanced over her shoulder at the half-empty apartment. “Jessica broke her contract and left, so I don’t think I’m going to be able to make the full payment tomorrow. If I could pay you — ”

Mrs. Deder’s face twisted. “I know all about poor Jessica, criminal. She said she left because you stole money from her, and she couldn’t stand to live in fear anymore.”

She what?

“That bitch. She stole from
me
!”

So much for professionalism.

“I don’t care who stole from who, but you have two weeks to get me my money.” She turned her back and made her way down the staircase.

Cali stood stupefied. That had gone better than she’d imagined. Only now she had two weeks to make twelve hundred dollars.

She was so screwed.

If she emptied out her entire savings, she’d only need two hundred dollars or so. But then she’d have no money for food. Or clothes. Or her art supplies.

She tried not to think about that and closed the door so she could start packing her things.

Maybe Sydney would let her live out of the clinic.

I’m sure Felix would let you stay with him …

The stray thoughts had her stopping dead in her tracks. Since when had she started thinking about the super squad like they were her BFFs?

She was getting too comfortable with the idea of them being in her life. She’d been fine on her own up until now. Hadn’t she?

“How’d it go with the landlady? She let you off the hook for the month?”

She sidestepped Felix to get into her room, being extra careful not to touch him. “She gave me two more weeks.”

He followed her and took a seat at the foot of her bed.

He looked good there, like he belonged in her room, his bronze skin offset by the white-and-purple sheets.

She could just imagine walking over to him, pushing him flat on his back and riding him till she screamed.

“ — ali?”

“Huh?”

Her whole body shook with need, the burning between her thighs incessant.

“I asked why you don’t sell any of these.” He motioned to the wall covered with license plate holders.

She grabbed a duffle out of her closet and avoided looking at Felix, lest she do something really stupid. Like throw herself at him. “Those are more like a creative assignment. They force me to paint according to whatever is written there. I use it to make sure I don’t get sucked into painting the same old pictures over and over again.” She grabbed a handful of T-shirts and thrust them into her bag.

She methodically made her way around her room. By the time she got to her underwear drawer, Felix was standing to examine her art close up. She hesitated.

“Afraid I might see something?”

He’d snuck up on her. She glared at him over her shoulder and shoved him away. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

Her shove moved him about two inches. The man was like a mountain of muscle. She could still feel the heat from his chest on her hand, as well as how firm he was to the touch.

“Are you just going to stand there?” He hadn’t moved, which meant he would still be able to see into her drawer. For some reason the idea of Felix seeing her lingerie made her skin hot.

That roguish grin was back. “Are you asking me to help?”

Not dropping his challenging stare, she ripped open her drawer and purposely went to the side with the lace. She grabbed the first thing her fingers grazed. Whatever she ended up pulling out wiped that grin right off of Felix’s face.

“I-is that … edible?”

Her head whipped around in alarm. Sure enough, she held up the gag gift Garnet had sent her on Valentine’s Day. “Shit.” She shoved them back in her drawer and slammed it shut. She stormed over to Felix, who still looked as if he’d been bashed over the head, and practically dragged him from her room. “Get out. Now.”

Once alone, she packed in humiliated silence.

Edible underwear.

Edible. Underwear.

Edible fucking underwear.

Felix ran a hand through his hair. “Fucking hell,” he breathed. As if his cock wasn’t hurting bad enough already. Now he had the image of Cali in … edible underwear. He slapped a hand to his forehead and groaned. “Stop thinking about it.”

He forced his feet to move him over to the kitchen and sat his ass at one of the barstools. He continued to stare at the door, as if he’d develop x-ray vision and be able to see through it. It was useless of course. He could hear Cali moving around in there, knew he should be on high alert in case anything came in through the front door, but he couldn’t get himself to focus.

It doesn’t matter what’s in her underwear drawer, you’re never going to see it anyway.

The harsh reality was like a face full of cold water. No matter how much he’d like to think he was making progress with her, Cali’s words from ten minutes ago kept repeating over and over in his mind.

“I don’t want — ”

There were a million different ways that sentence could have ended. The one that bothered him the most, and what she had probably been going to say was:
I don’t want you. Ever. End of story.

He slammed his fist down on the counter. The connection between them was not a figment of his imagination. He knew she had to feel something. Chemistry like they had wasn’t an everyday occurrence. She had pushed back against him. She’d been the one to kiss him in his home. Which meant she had to feel something. Anything.

It didn’t fucking matter. He wasn’t about to give her up. He’d waited a long time for his Mirror Mate to come along. He could wait a little longer.

• • •

It turned out Sydney’s clinic had some overnighters scheduled for surgery the next morning. Ergo, Cali was not staying the night there.

Sydney had been alarmed to find out that someone had been inside her clinic the previous night, but like Felix, Cali had no explanation of what had happened. There was nothing for them to do. Sydney couldn’t Shield everyone 24/7, no matter how much she might’ve wanted to try. The best course of action they all decided on was for her to stay with Felix.

And so it was that she found herself back in his Hummer on her way to his house.

At least you won’t be alone.

The thought was comforting, but Cali didn’t want to have to rely on the others constantly. She needed to learn to take care of herself. She needed to learn control of her powers.

Who knew? Maybe there was more to her power than she thought.

She looked around the Hummer for anything to Silence when an idea struck her. Silence the entire car. The task was a daunting one, but Cali was determined. It was just like her license plate painting exercises. If the plate read “I’d rather be snowboarding,” she painted a mountain range. If the plate read “I’d rather be surfing,” she painted the ocean. “Daddy’s little girl?” No problem. She sketched a fictitious little girl growing into a beautiful woman.

She could do this.

She settled back into the passenger seat and focused her body. She imagined herself like a black hole. A vacuum for sound. The back of her neck tingled. She branched out, pulling the sound from beneath her feet. She imagined going into the flooring, into the wheels, and noticed with some satisfaction that the radio grew louder without the outside noise from the wheels rolling across the pavement.

A dull ache started behind her eyes, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins pushed her to go farther. She reached out with her powers for the engine of the car, traveling up the middle console into the radio. The light-up display still showed the radio station but the music disappeared.

Felix reached for the volume knob.

She watched the volume rise but nothing came from the speakers. Cali switched her focus to Felix himself, seeing him in her mind, trying to keep him from going Silent. It was the most difficult task — keeping someone
in
sound when she was taking away everything else, but she did it. Or so she hoped.