Sanctum (Guards of the Shadowlands, Book 1) (39 page)

“Please let me kiss you now,” he said in a low voice that raised the temperature inside the car by about a thousand degrees.

“We shouldn’t…maybe Diane is—”

He leaned forward slowly, giving me a chance to stop him, and then his fingertips were on my cheek as his nose traced along my jawline, breathing me in, melting me down.

“Just for a second,” I whispered.

I didn’t have time to say anything else before his lips met mine, setting me on fire, making me feel like the earth was falling out from under me. He took my face in his hands, his long fingers stroking at my temples. My hand slid up to his neck, to the smooth, silver-swirled scar that was a souvenir from Juri, a deadly enemy and the first person—no,
thing
—I’d ever killed.

Malachi’s tongue traced mine as our kiss deepened and my thoughts scattered, leaving me with only the taste of him, the
halting rhythm of our breaths, and a bone-melting hunger that made me feel like I was inching toward the edge of a very high cliff.

His fingers tangled in my unruly curls as he scooted closer. I put my hand on his chest to feel the thunder of his heart against my palm. But when my fingers drifted to his stomach, they did not find the hard ridges of muscle I’d expected.

Malachi felt the tremble of laughter run through me and pulled back from my mouth. “I had to put them somewhere.” He sounded like he’d run a mile, and it made me glad that I wasn’t the only one.

I looked toward the front of the house, wondering if Diane was peeking at us through the curtains. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, so I figured it was dark enough. I leaned back and pulled his hoodie up, revealing the six throwing knives holstered against his torso.

“I knew you’d come prepared,” I said.

“I brought you some as well,” he said, pulling a pack from the backseat. “Michael dropped these off for us this afternoon and Raphael tucked them in here when we arrived this evening.”

I unzipped the pack a few inches and peeked inside, taking in the knives, two batons, and
good God
. “He gave us
grenades
?”

Malachi shrugged as he left a trail of heated kisses along my jaw, scattering my thoughts again. “It will be up to you whether we use them or not,
Captain
,” he mumbled against my neck.

As much as the feel of him made me shiver, that word was enough to make my insides shrivel. Malachi must have felt me tense, because he moved back to his side of the car and watched me take a few shaky breaths. “You’re going to be fine, Lela. I’m here to help you.”

I gripped the steering wheel for a moment, then pulled the keys from my pocket and jammed them into the ignition. “My first real patrol as a Guard,” I said quietly, wishing saying it out loud made it sound real instead of crazy. Wishing it made me feel brave instead of scared enough to pee my pants. Wishing it made me feel proud instead of angry as hell at the Judge, the seemingly all powerful-being I was pretty sure had coldly manipulated both Malachi and me into this situation.

“Your first patrol as a Guard,” Malachi repeated in a voice that told me nothing about what he was thinking. He pulled the pack from my lap and set it at his feet, then leaned back and smiled at me, all relaxed. Like we really were just going to the movies. “Let’s go hunting.”