ThirteenNights Read online

  “Interesting food choices for a warrior. I would have bet on cold meats and beer.”

  “Pantheon negotiations had me in and out of Europe. I developed an obsession for wine and cheese. And cappuccino, but that’s breakfast.” Dipping her finger in a wedge of Brie still firm from the cool night air, she brushed it along his lower lip. “Do you mind?”

  Mind? He adored her more every time she bent a rule. His arousal flamed hot, sousing the air. Her nostrils flared and her body detonated in response, her scent a spicy temptation. It took every ounce of control he ever had to stop himself from tearing off her clothes and riding them both to paradise. His heart was intent on seduction—her heart, not her body, the target.

  After a survey of the delicacies she brought, he selected a wedge of cheddar and fed it to her in several bites until his fingers touched her mouth. Next, he lifted a glass of wine to her lips, serving her small sips.

  “How is it?” he asked before setting the glass down on the ground.

  “Excellent. Try some.”

  “I think I shall.”

  Her face cupped between his hands, he lapped up the crimson drops still on her lips. “I want more.” His fingers stroked her cheek to maintain the skin-to-skin contact that was becoming as necessary to him as breathing. Angling his head, he pressed his lips to hers, gentle pressure until she opened to him with a small, eager moan. His tongue swept inside, openly possessive in its exploration. Her arms circled his neck and her body pressed against his as she drank in his kiss with a greed that made his heart sing. Still glued together, he coaxed her to the ground, intending to keep her locked in his kiss until the sun chased the stars from the sky and her warmth became the eternal flame that lit his soul. He didn’t want to be anywhere else but in her arms, sheltered in a kiss that made him whole.

  Her legs wrapped around his waist and she rubbed against him, making her desire clear. At the tempo she was driving them, he’d soon be unable to deny her but now he wanted an intimacy of a different kind. When “Now, baby,” groaned out of her and she broke the kiss, he grabbed the moment.

  Moving so that she could lie along the length of his body, he kept her close with one arm around her shoulder. The other hand tangled in the silk of her hair. “Why did you bring me here?” he asked, his gaze locked onto hers, insisting on an answer.

  “It’s my favorite place. I thought you might like it too.”

  “Thank you. I do. Tell me more about the other horses.” He gently pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “The ones you didn’t choose for us to ride tonight.”

  A startled look flashed through her eyes. He only caught it because he was focused on her face. He wanted her secrets, needed them if he was going to win this unique warrior. Losing had never been in his vocabulary. Raised in a Gargarean camp with his heritage, it would have meant death or dismemberment. He took a chance. “I think you know by now you can trust me.” He stroked her back, softened his eyes, let her feel him care in every way he could.

  “There were three others. Two were like Frick and Frack, damaged but able to heal. Then there was Quicksilver. He’d been a champion once. I found him buried in mud, his leg broken in three places. By all that is Amazon, I should have shot him. Quick and merciful.” Her body had gone rigid in his arms. Remaining quiet, he kept up his caresses, using touch and silence to relax her, coax out more of the story. “Instead, I brought him here. They mended him to a fashion and now use him for their recreational therapeutic riding program. A fallen warrior to serve other fallen warriors.” Her body snuggled closer against him as if searching for warmth and forgiveness. Very un-Amazon, like her tale. It stoked the fire already blazing in his heart.

  “Did they find out?” He felt her nod against his throat. “What did they do?”

  “Retraining.” Six months of a brutal physical and psychological regimen to beat out any weakness such as sympathy or human mercy. Elders used it to threaten out-of-control teens to stay in line. Only Tai’s computer skills kept him under the radar because those traits were a gift from his human father and he wanted to keep them—like he wanted to keep Annie, who dared to save broken horses.

  “By the way you’ve reacted to me, I guess the retraining didn’t really take.” He fluttered kisses against her, stroked her back to let her know that she made him proud, that he valued that part of her.

  “I didn’t let it.” Her voice was pitched so low, he wondered if he imagined the answer. Or was it just the one he needed to hear?

  “Do the Elders know?”

  “I don’t know if they’ve figured it out or just don’t trust me but they’ve made my sister my keeper. We need to have sex. Marta periodically drops by to test me, make sure I’m following the rules.” Rolling out of his arms, she robotically removed her clothes and waited for him to do the same.

  He’d give her the rules, but he didn’t say how. His clothes off, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Then he made love to her, slow, tender, and very, very human.

  Seventh Night

  “Marta came by last night to check on me,” Annie told Tai after she let him in. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep. She couldn’t get her older sister’s disapproving scowls and harsh words out of her head. “I was full of your seed, I don’t know why she suspects anything.”

  “You reveal a contentment in your eyes, carry it deep in your soul after we’ve been together.” His thumb stroked along her cheekbone, the other hand gripped her hip in a hold so possessive she was sure his handprint would be branded there for eternity. “I feel it too…but you know that.”

  As an empath, she sensed his emotions but hearing him say it was still a kick in the gut. She wasn’t used to having someone care for her and she liked hearing it. “It was my sister who reported me for saving Quicksilver. She always seems to know.”

  “Maybe she’s like you, but can’t accept it like you have.”

  Her brain raced through the implications of that statement, a possibility she’d never before considered. “Even so, it was still a knife in the back.”

  “I could hack in, check her records.”

  “Doesn’t matter. She’s a threat either way. I don’t want to have to endure a second retraining.”

  Creases formed on his forehead, his head quirked to the side but sunshine glittered in those beautiful dark eyes of his. “The Elders don’t know what the genetic anomaly does, do they? Am I the only one who does?”

  She nodded, unable to speak as she tried to process why she first revealed her most deeply held secret to this man and now just let him know that. When he hauled her inside his arms and kissed her like a man kisses a woman he intends to keep for a lifetime and more, a part of her relaxed. No matter how this ended, he’d keep her confidence. Seven nights left with a warrior who saw her, accepted her, reveled in her—all of her—and she was going to enjoy every minute of each one, because it’s all they would be allowed to have.

  When his lips left hers an eternity later, her body fidgeted with too much energy, her senses overloaded with emotion. She needed to move. “Let’s run.” He had come in a tracksuit as she requested last night. The part of her that was pure warrior needed to test his physical skills, know he could take her on, give her a real fight. It was a fair question to ask about the man who might father her child, even if that wasn’t why her heart wanted to know.

  They ran the first five miles at a leisurely eight-minute mile along the paths in Rock Creek Park. She was content to feel motion in her body, the wind against her face, the ground against her feet. The Hunter’s moon provided a soft, dusty light but it was sufficient for their superior eyesight.

  Without skipping a beat, Annie body-slammed Tai, but found herself on the ground, no prey beneath. Sleek and graceful as a jungle cat, Tai leapt forward into a forward roll and escaped. Her shoulder ached where it crashed into a rock.

  Quickly, her brain assessed her error—since Tai was smaller than the average Gargarean, he mastered flexibility, speed and technique. T
his would be a fight of strategy, not strength. Up in a flash, she circled him, channeled her pain into power. His eyes had gone lethal but a smirk danced across his face—giving her credit but determined to have fun. He was like no warrior she’d ever known—that unpredictability made him the most dangerous adversary she’d ever fought. His looks were deceiving. While he lacked the brawn of the standard Gargarean, the sharp intelligence in his gaze and the polished agility in his leanly muscled, toned physique showed he was built to kill—fast and clean. What did this say about her sisterhood in that they couldn’t recognize and appreciate the vigor and dominance of this man? But she did.

  She flipped high over his head, twisting her body to land on her feet behind him. As soon as she hit dirt, she launched at him, but he whipped around, caught her mid- jump and slammed her back to the ground. This time, she was ready. Grasping his waist between her legs, she hoisted him over, reversing their positions. Her hands sealed his wrists, her legs held his in a vise, and her ass rested on the tender area of stomach.

  “This all you got?” The lightness of his words made it clear it was far from over even though her grip was ironclad and unbreakable.

  “Looks pretty solid to me. Only way you can break out is if I let you.”

  “Think so?”

  “Know so.”

  With an elasticity she didn’t know was possible, he arched up, coiled his muscles so tight they narrowed, and prey became predator. She found herself facedown, his hand holding her neck to the ground, and the other clasped her wrists behind her back. His cock, hard and thick, rubbed her bottom, an invitation that had her body revving up in anticipation.

  “You’re not fighting fair.”

  “All’s fair in love and war last time I heard.”

  “Which one is this?”

  “It’s not war.”

  Love, warm and flush, blanketed her, stroked her skin, gushed through her veins, filled her breath. He loved her and projected it loud and clear. Where aggression strengthened her, love softened her. This was why she avoided humans, why she preferred the extreme bounty hunting to the diplomacy. The emotions made her less Amazon, less warrior, but did it make her less as she’d always thought? As he rubbed against her, wanting her, loving her, it didn’t seem so.

  “I beat you. Yield to me.”

  “Make me.”

  “With pleasure.” Releasing her neck, he used the free hand to yank her pants to her thighs, inserted a finger to test her readiness and mounted her. Lunging in and out with a slow rhythm, he fastened his hands to her hips, chaining her to him. Fire surged through her every pore and burned away any thought of resistance. As soon as she began to pump back, signaling her yield, he pulled out, drew her upright, and cut off her running shorts with the pocket knife.

  “What the—”

  “I want you facing me, I want the woman’s submission now.” He took her mouth with a ferocity that would have had her begging for him if she had any breath left. Never letting go, he backed her up to a tree, picked her up, making sure his hands formed a barrier between her skin and the harshness of the bark and took her. Her legs wrapped around him in invitation and possession, claiming him, as he just did her.

  Tai made love like he lived. Fiercely. Passionately. He demanded everything, gave everything, never allowed either of them to be less than whole. Stars burst behind her eyes, her body tightened, she was on the edge, so ready to explode into the oblivion he delivered so well. He stopped, ripped his lips from hers. No.

  “Say it, Annie,” he whispered against the edge of her mouth, his breath hot against her cheek.

  She knew what he wanted, could read the feelings he projected loudly. “I feel love, Tai, but I don’t know if those feelings are my own, or I’m reflecting yours.”

  “Yes, Annie, you do.” He did a slow lunge in, pushing his chest tighter against hers.

  He was forcing her to choose, asking her for a different kind of courage. Not that of a warrior picking up a sword or a gun and running into the fray of battle, a job she’d trained for since she was four. He asked her to find the courage of an ordinary life, of choosing to love when the world said no, to break the rules that bound hearts and minds from reaching their potential. Did she have this kind of courage?

  A bite on her chin. “Annie?”

  Lovely Tai, who believed in her, loved all of her, challenged her to accept the true greatness and the difference within herself. “I love you too, Tai.”

  Butterfly nips along her cheekbones interspersed with whispered I love yous, and slow, seductive lunges, as if he were fluttering kisses inside her. When her moans got louder and her nails dug deeper in his skin, he fucked her until they both shattered, let her rest and took her again. Loving her, feeding her, digging himself deeper into her heart and soul until she was sure she would never be able to live without him. After he dropped her off at home, he left her with a kiss so tender she thought she might break.

  Not long after Tai left, Annie whistled her way to a drugstore that catered to the supernatural population with a hidden shopping area behind the hallway with the bathrooms. She never remembered feeling so energized, so damn happy. At the halfway point of the Rite of Thirteen Nights, she was required to test her pregnancy. The pantheons had their own technologies for detecting conception much earlier than humans were able. She wanted to do it alone, without Tai. If she had conceived, he would take on the pantheons to keep his life and make their union permanent. For her, that was a decision she must make alone with no other influences—true only to her own values, her own sense of justice.

  Unlike Tai, she had a mother and sister with whom she shared rituals and celebrations, even a sense of fondness. Even if they struggled with her otherness and interpreted all her actions as a betrayal of their culture, duty and obligation kept her connected to them. She suspected they cared for her, albeit in their own way.

  When she returned home, she spiced her living room and bathroom with incense and flickering candlelight to give her spirit a boost to tackle the task at hand. The stick turned blue. Conception. Her empathy guaranteed that she would build an emotional bond with her child that would grow stronger as it came to term. Could she give it up to the cold metal rooms of the crèche to be brought up in the camps?

  Once they discovered Tai had reshuffled the pairings, which they would when they recorded the child’s DNA, the Amazon Elders would do everything in their power to make sure Tai was put to death. Their protectiveness of the royal line was obsessive, dangerously so. Even if the Gargareans wouldn’t permit his destruction, they would agree to keep them apart and take their baby, and drop him or her into the fiercest of all training regimes—to compensate for its inferior genes. She could never let that happen, she knew that in the inner reaches of her soul. Damn that half-human warrior who had smirked his way into her heart and was quietly freeing her from the restrictive rules that prevented her from being fully herself. The future without him was a nebulous cloud—nowhere she wanted to be. Tai had been leading her toward full rebellion since he first stroked instead of tested her fingers. Did she have the courage to follow him?

  Her phone rang. Her sister’s number flashed on the screen, she was checking up on her again. When Annie hung up, she knew what she had to do next.

  She called Tai. “Babe, here’s the plan for tomorrow night.”

  Eighth Night

  After imbibing a pot of coffee to shake off the lingering fatigue from her sleepless night, Annie headed to Neutral Ground to use their communication room. To maintain the integrity of all negotiations, the room had untraceable phones and internet connections protected by the most skilled pantheon cyber security experts. That Tai could hack them heralded he was among the best in the supernatural world. Even in the protected enclave, she worked her way through her human contacts to unearth her quarry. Slow work, but as part of a bounty hunter fraternity, she could tap into their wide-ranging and very colorful connections. After finding directions and memorizing them, she hopped i
n her car and picked up Tai.

  The drive to Scottsville, Virginia, just outside Charlottesville, should have taken three hours, but Annie zipped there in half that time, stealing glimpses of Tai’s drool-inducing profile every chance she could. She pulled the car off the highway onto an unlit two-lane country road. Darkness was no match for Amazon eyes and she took the hairpin turns at eighty miles per hour with ease, squealing to a halt in the driveway of a squat, nondescript cottage set back from the road. The house was nestled among a swatch of trees that provided cover as if the owner was trying to hide from view.

  “I’ve been pretty patient,” Tai said, making no move to open the door. “I’m not leaving this car until you tell me why we’re here and who lives in this house.”

  “Phoebe—your mother.”

  His jaw hit the seat. He started to respond twice, but no sound came out of his mouth. After he rubbed his chin and cheek so often Annie feared he etched permanent tracks into his skin, Tai finally breathed out a response. “Why?”

  “Because I could find her and I thought you’d want this, to know more about who you are.” Her voice lowered, her hands clenched the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white from the tension. “Tell me I haven’t fucked up completely.”

  He kissed her, tightening her against him. If she were human she’d have suffocated. His mouth devoured her, his tongue jousted hers—the kiss was anger and gratitude, love and fear, every complex emotion projected into that single act. When he finally broke away, he kept her locked against him. “I can’t promise that I won’t hate you a little at some point during the evening, but thank you, I am grateful. Hold that in your heart if it appears otherwise. Let’s go.”