Authors: Stephanie Rowe
“No, no, no, not yet.” The pain vanished from her backside again, and Natalie was suddenly filled with the most lovely feeling. Of total joy. Of peace. Of appreciation. She beamed at Gina. “Even though I met you only a few months ago, you are my best friend ever, to trade your body with mine. I love you so much.”
Gina winked. “No sweat, hot stuff. I’m glad to be of assistance.”
“And you.” Natalie whirled around to where Trinity was struggling to her feet. “You’re my best friend, too. I’m so sorry I hurt you.” She threw herself at Trinity, knocking her friend over again with a giant hug. “I love you, Trinity!”
“I love you, too,” Trinity gasped. “Nat, you’re getting awfully strong. Are you still afraid of dying?”
The words, the question, made something go queasy in her belly. “Oh, no. I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy, actually. No fear at all.” The happy feelings began to infuse her even more, getting stronger and stronger. She whirled toward Gina. “Hit me up. Now.”
“Done.” Gina raised the gun and fired it.
The dart hit Natalie in the shoulder.
She waited.
They all waited.
She didn’t fall down. “Do it again!”
“Again? It’s an elephant dosage,” Gina said. “It’ll kill you.”
“It can’t kill me. I have to die in a more dramatic way. It’ll be fine—”
“Oh, my love!” A male voice filled the room, and Natalie whirled around.
Her heart filled with delight when she saw Vlad the Impaler standing halfway down the staircase. He was wearing the same tux he’d had on the night before. It was wrinkled and dirty, and he was missing one shoe. His hair was disheveled, stubble encased his jaw, and he had a golden arrow broken off in the front of his thigh. He looked
beautiful
. “Matt!”
He beamed at her and held out his arms. “I’ve missed you, my love!”
“Shoot her!” Trinity shouted.
There was a loud crack, and Natalie was vaguely aware of something slamming into her hip, knocking her back.
“My love! You’ve been shot!” Matt’s face paled, and he vaulted down the stairs.
“I’m okay!” She jumped up. It was so marvelous to see him. She felt like her life had just come to meaning. To purpose. “I’m so happy to see you!” Natalie reached the bars and flung herself against them. Matt caught her and hauled her close. The metal bars pressed against her breasts as she shoved her face through the bars.
His lips met hers instantly, and she felt like her world had just exploded. She gripped his shirt as he showered kisses all over her. “I love you, Matt.”
“Oh, babe, I love you, too.” He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his heart. “I never thought I would feel like this. I feel so alive. I feel like there is someone out there who cares, who loves me despite all my flaws.”
Trinity yanked Natalie back. “Hey, testosterone boy, if you make love to her now, she’ll die, and you’ll lose her. Is that what you want?”
Matt’s brow furrowed slightly. “I don’t want to kill her.” He backed up.
Natalie screamed, her whole body aching for him. “Don’t leave!”
His face was panicked now, terrified. “I can’t live without you, my love. I would be devastated if I killed you.”
“I can handle it.” Natalie shook the bars, frantic as he began to move away. He couldn’t leave her, couldn’t walk away, couldn’t abandon her. “I need you!”
Matt was standing at the base of the stairs, gripping the railing, head bowed as if he were trying desperately to summon the strength to walk away. And as she watched, he took a step, and then another and another— “Matt!”
He spun around, sweat trickling down his temples. “What is it, my love?”
Natalie gripped the bars, her throat so tight, so desperate. “If you love me enough to walk away, then don’t you think you love me enough to keep from killing me when we make love?”
He stared at her.
“That logic is way too sound,” Trinity muttered. “Gina! Hit her again.”
“Again?” She cocked the gun. “I hope you’re right.”
Natalie was reaching for Matt when the dart thudded into the back of her head. “Enough already!” She yanked it out and hurled it at Gina, then grabbed the one in her hip and unleashed it at Trinity. Both darts hit their marks square in the chest.
“We’ll be fine.” Trinity yanked the dart out and dropped it to the floor as Gina did the same. “The tranquilizer has already been released into Natalie. There won’t be enough left to affect us.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m calling Reina, though. It’s time for her to sleep with her boss for the promotion. No time left to do it the old-fashioned way.”
“I’ll knock out the sperm factory.” Gina bent to pick up the gun. She positioned it on her shoulder aimed right at Matt… And then she yawned.
Natalie smiled. “I love you guys, but you don’t know what’s right for me. I do.”
“When you’re sane you do, but right now, not so much.” Trinity jerked her head sloppily at Gina, in a not-so-subtle attempt to tell her to shoot the good guy. She tapped the speaker on her phone, and the ringing began to echo in the cell.
“I’ve got it.” Gina pulled the trigger, promptly tranquilizing the flat screen television on the wall. “Whoops.”
Trinity swung her head around to look. “Oops.”
“Hello? Trin? What’s going on?” Reina’s voice echoed out in the cell.
Trinity stared blankly at her phone. “Reina? Did you call me?”
“No. You called me. What’s going on?”
“I think—”
Natalie blew on the back of Trinity’s head. Her friend swayed, the phone dropped to the floor with a clang, and then she tipped over. Asleep.
“Wow, Nat.” Gina gave her a bleary-eyed thumbs up. “That was really cool.”
Natalie blew her a kiss, and Gina immediately tipped over and was asleep by the time her head landed on the well-worn pink teddy bear that Natalie had slept with every night of her life.
Until tonight. Tonight she would sleep with Vlad the Impaler.
Natalie turned back toward the entrance, and of course, her lover was still there. Waiting. Natalie strode over to the bars. “How many times will you make love to me if I can open these up?”
He ripped off his shirt, revealing a buff, toned body. “I’ve never made love before,” he said. “I’ve only had sex. This time… it’s making love, and I’ll make love to you as many times as my heart wants to tell you it loves you. A million, maybe? For starters?”
The most delicious warmth rippled over her, and she yanked at the bars. For a moment nothing moved, and then Matt walked up, took her face in his hands, and lightly kissed the tip of her nose.
Strength surged through her, the bars moved aside if it they were overcooked noodles, and then she was in his arms.
And this time, there was no one to stop them.
Jarvis might not be able to fly, even on his best days.
But he could land.
He hit cement easily, executed a textbook tuck and roll, followed by a round-off and two handsprings to absorb the excess momentum, and came to a graceful stop right at the entrance to the alley where he’d left his vehicle.
He hated to give Angelica any kudos, but his gymnastic talents had come in handy on more than one occasion. Shit. Maybe the chick knew what she was talking about—
He staggered as the full force of the Mean and Nasties smacked him, and he reeled as the purple shadows batted at his face. Since when were the hate goblins corporeal? He decapitated the lot of them to the sound of giggling that no grown warrior wanted to hear from the death shadows chasing him.
More came out of the ground, squeezing out of the cracks in the sidewalk, bulging out of blades of grass. He felt them piercing his skin, eating at him. Black smoke began spiraling out of his fingertips, filling the air with noxious fumes.
A couple passing by began to argue and then shout at each other. The cars began to honk. A dog howled. A cat squealed and hissed.
Shit. This couldn’t be good. He was contaminating the world.
“Jarvis!” Reina, looking like an angel in her blue jeans and white T-shirt, sprinted out the front door of his building, past the very proper doorman who was, thanks to Jarvis, currently berating the sweet old lady from the first floor for daring to outlive his own grandmother. “You’re alive!”
His throat was thick, too thick to talk, so he just held his arms out.
Come to me, babe.
Reina, bless that loving heart of hers, threw herself into his embrace without hesitation. Her kiss was like magic, the soothing of magical touch, of peace, of sanity. He stumbled back toward the car, gripping her like she was his lifeline to sanity.
Oh, wait, she was.
Yeah, it was so not manly to rely on some sweet thing to stay sane, but what male could really control the monster inside? Wasn’t that what Angelica’s point had been? Maybe there was some truth to the notion that the warrior shit was all well and good, but in the end, a man needed a woman to bring out his soft side.
Hell, now was as good a time as any to give it a try, right?
Reina’s lips were warm, her tongue daring and a little saucy as she played with his teeth, her hands enfolded in his hair as he yanked open the driver’s door with one hand. He set himself in the driver’s seat without breaking contact and she straddled him, her knees on either side of his hips. He pulled her down on top of him and kissed her, drinking in the tenderness of her kiss, the softness of her body.
“You’re going to drive like this?” she whispered against his mouth.
“No.” He worked his hands under her shirt and shuddered at the feel of her bare skin beneath his touch. “I’m going to make love to you like this.”
“What?” She pulled back, her flushed cheeks a stark contrast to the surprise in her eyes. But not fear. There was excitement and anticipation in her expression, revealing a woman who had just realized how badly her man needed her and was thrilled by that discovery. “We’re in a car! In public! People will see—”
He cupped her face with his hands. “I need you right now. I need to feel your body against mine. We don’t have time to go upstairs, or even to take two minutes to get physical.” He tightened his grip, unable to keep the raw need out of his voice. “But I have to make time, because I need to get connected to you. I need to feel your soul wrap around mine and ease the pain.”
Her face softened, and she touched his face. “Jarvis—”
“We’re in an alley. No one comes back here. And if they pass by, they’ll just see two fully clothed adults kissing in the front seat. They can’t see what else is going on out of view.” He pulled her down and kissed her mouth, working it until she began to kiss him back. Every muscle in his body was trembling with the need to be with her. “Two minutes of your soul and your body,” he whispered. “That’s all I need.”
Longing flared in her eyes, and she leaned toward him ever so slightly. Calling to him, to them, even while the old Reina, the fearful Reina, tried to be heard. “But—”
He gripped her hair and pulled her close, his fingers twisting in her silken locks as the darkness pulsed inside him. Fighting to get free. “I can’t live without you,” he whispered. “Let me make love to you. Not on the edge of insanity, like before.” He pressed his mouth to hers, a tender, soft kiss. “Let me feel what it’s like to make love. To experience that tenderness. I need to go there, and I need it with you.” His skin was hot, too hot, and he felt bad shit churning inside him.
It was trying to take over, trying to taint his mind, and he didn’t want to go there. He knew his time was getting near, and before he died, he wanted to experience the peace that he knew only Reina could give him.
He had to experience it. He couldn’t go another moment without it. So, he took over the moment. Took over her choices. Kissed her with the passion and depth and tenderness he’d never been able to do before she’d given him the gift of human contact.
Reina leaned forward, pressing her breasts against his, in an unspoken acknowledgement of her own need for him. “But if someone sees us—”
“Sweetheart.” He kissed the side of her neck, whispered in her ear. “I’ll keep watch for anyone. You’re safe with me.”
Reina pulled back then and looked at him. Her blue eyes were dark with passion and need, and she looked like she was almost ready to cry. “I’m always safe with you, aren’t I?”
He nodded. “I would never let anything happen to you.” He slid his fingers in the back of her hair, no longer able to talk. He needed to touch her. To connect. So, he pulled her close and kissed her. Harder. Deeper. Yet with a tenderness he hadn’t ever felt before.
And this time, Reina finally capitulated to her desires and his and kissed him back with a commitment that made his heart soar. She accepted her own need for intimacy and connection. She stroked his shoulders with a tenderness that made his whole body shudder.
Hands that soothed. Not hands that hurt. A gift.
He caressed her back, her hips, drank in the feel of her womanly curves, loving the differences between their bodies, the gentleness of her being. Something deep inside him, something soft that was buried beneath the monster within, fought for acknowledgement, struggled to surface in response to her touch.