Blown (Elemental Series Book 2) (17 page)

“But—” Angela began, wanting desperately to ignore her mother’s argument.

Logan’s hand landed on Angela’s shoulder and he said, “If any of us gets hurt, we’ll let you heal us as soon as we get home, okay?”

Angela spun, yanking her hand free from her mother’s grasp and tossing her brother’s hand from her shoulder as she cried, “No, it’s not okay! I should be there to help!” And she shot to her feet once again, this time turning and running blindly from the room.

Chapter Thirteen

Christopher leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “While your sister’s out of the room, we should talk.”

“What’s to talk about?” Dean asked bluntly. “We have to be out there Monday morning, and we have to fight until they’ve either surrendered, run away, or they’re dead. Otherwise we’ll be the ones who end up dead.”

No one spoke for a long moment, knowing that, whether they liked it or not, Dean wasn’t wrong.

Madison shifted silently, leaning more into Nate without lifting her eyes from the floor. As ridiculous as it sounded—even to her own ears—now that they had a concrete date for the confrontation, everything suddenly seemed more real. Too real.

“That’s all true,” Christopher relented with a drawn out sigh. “But I want to make sure you all understand: I know you’re upset over everything they’ve done to us—recently and in our past—but this isn’t a personal vendetta. Work together whenever you can. Don’t let your anger at one of them blind you to the actions of the other three.”

“How can you say it’s not personal?” Dean asked, keeping his voice down despite the obvious tightness in his words. “
Of course
it’s personal. I wanna burn Eric to ashes for what he did to Angie. And if
Victor
really is responsible for what happened to our uncles, he deserves to burn in his own personal hell, too.”

“That’s not how he meant it, Dean,” Nate said before their father could speak up. He turned his head slightly to look toward his brother as he continued. “Yeah, it’s personal. We all have one or a dozen reasons to hate them. And I’d love to let you burn them out of existence. But it’s
bigger
than that. We’re not just fighting for us—we’re fighting for the nephews and niece we don’t have yet, and for everyone who comes after. We’re fighting to finally put an end to the insanity for all of the people who’ve been dragged into this.”

His hand tightened around hers as he spoke though he didn’t look over at her. She imagined everyone knew what he was saying as well as she did in that moment. They were fighting for everyone that they loved.

Dean’s voice was still tight as he replied, “I don’t know how you can differentiate it like that. That all sounds pretty damn personal to me.”

Interrupting the half-argument, Blake suggested, “Then think about it this way: all we need to do is fight smarter, not harder. If we do that, then Angela doesn’t have to cry over the possibility of losing her brothers, and Mom doesn’t have to worry about losing more family.”

After a long moment, Dean declared, “That I get.”

They drifted into silence again, not knowing what else to say. It was a long minute of restless shifting and distant glaring before Christopher finally said, “I think it might be good to call it an early night.”

Mumblings of agreement drifted around the room, and slowly everyone pushed to their feet. No one was tired enough for sleep, but no one was really in the mood to be social, either. So they bid each other good night and headed off in search of quiet places to think.

Nate and Madison headed upstairs, going straight to Nate’s room in silence. Madison trailed half a foot behind, their hands loosely clasped, as she thought over the turn of events. Dean had been wrong about Monday being so far away. To her, Monday was far too close. She knew—and understood—why it was necessary. If their positions were reversed, she knew she’d be chomping at the bit to protect her family no matter the potential consequences to herself. But she wasn’t the one facing the imminent danger. Only, she felt like she was. She was in imminent danger of losing Nate, and all of a sudden she didn’t think she could handle that. If Monday morning was the last she ever saw of Nate Hawke … she’d be heartbroken.

Oh, God,
her mind whispered as she followed her boyfriend into his room. She wanted to be horrified—or amazed—at how quickly she’d fallen head-over-heels in love with him. But all she could feel was terror at the idea of losing him already. She had always known there were no such things as guarantees in life, and she had been raised not to rely too heavily on anyone. Her mother’s experiences had taught her that love, like beauty, was all a matter of perception, and her own experiences had hammered that reality home. But her heart had stopped listening, or stopped caring, because suddenly the axis of her world had shifted.

If it was true that she had been in love with Doug, then she wasn’t sure how to describe her feelings for Nate. She hadn’t known him long at all, and they had been together much less, but they shared a passion and a connection she hadn’t known was possible. He wasn’t the kind of person she’d ever expected to be attracted to, on the surface, anyway, but she’d gone and given him her heart without even realizing it. And now, just like that, she had to face the very real possibility that their time together was painfully limited. That wasn’t something she knew how to handle.

****

Nate came to a stop halfway across the room and released a heavy breath. “Everything feels a little different now, you know?” he asked awkwardly. He wasn’t sure what to say, or even what he should be thinking. He wasn’t sure how Madison was handling the news—and the associated sudden reality of the insanity that was, currently, his life. Part of him was afraid he’d have to spend the weekend fighting for their relationship, just to rush off on Monday and risk his life. And he wasn’t sure that that would be fair to her.
But who the hell am I kidding?
The fact that they were
in
a relationship wasn’t fair to her.

“Nate,” Madison began carefully, not bothering to respond to his earlier words. She tightened her hold on his hand and tugged him around enough to make him face her. A flicker of fear shone in her eyes and her voice was something less than stable as she said, “I don’t want to talk about Monday tonight. We’ll be talking about it all weekend. Please let that be enough.”

He was honestly surprised at the vulnerability he saw dancing behind her eyes, and his heart ached. So he squeezed her hand, offered her a small grin, and replied, “In here it’s just us, right?” She had said as much the first night they’d stayed in his room, and if that was how she wanted to keep it, then he would accommodate her. He didn’t particularly want to think about Monday, either.

Relief edged into her eyes and she released a small sigh. “Exactly,” she said.

Nate caught the flicker of something else in her eyes. Some thought that distracted her and caught her attention. She pulled her lip between her teeth as she rolled it over in her mind, and he thought about asking what it was. But she was chewing her lip thoughtfully, and all he wanted to do was suck it free of her teeth and soothe it with his tongue. So he stepped into her personal space and bowed his head enough to capture her lips with his. She started, clearly surprised at the contact, but relaxed immediately into his kiss, allowing him to do exactly what he intended.

Madison pulled her hand free of his as his tongue ran over her lower lip slowly, and she wrapped her arms tight around his shoulders. She leaned wholly into the kiss, letting him deepen it and tangling a hand in his hair as his tongue swept into her mouth.

One of his hands slipped beneath the hem of her shirt, skimming and caressing her smooth skin. He rubbed his thumb across her hip, slowly curving his hand around to her back, where he found the sensitive spot over her spine, making her moan into his mouth. Her back arched in reaction to his touch, pressing her breasts into his chest, and she held him tighter. His other hand tangled in her hair as he tore his lips from hers and began trailing them across her jaw.

She gasped breathlessly as Nate’s tongue trailed teasingly along the edge of her ear, and then his teeth were nibbling on her earlobe. Her body quivered against his as his tongue slid slowly down her throat, pausing intermittently to allow his lips to massage the moistened skin. And then he found her pulse-point, latched his lips over it, and did something that had her rolling her hips into his desperately. His name slipped from her parted lips and his arm tightened around her waist in response.

Nate swallowed a groan that wanted to vibrate past his lips as she pressed against his erection. He forced his lips to release her heated flesh and dragged in deep breaths through his nose as he lifted his eyes to hers. But whatever he might have been about to say was lost as soon as their eyes met. He froze, recognizing something swirling within her gaze that had his heart slamming against his ribcage. He wasn’t sure how to interpret that look, but he knew instinctively that he liked it. He liked it a lot.

****

Madison held his gaze for a long moment, drinking in everything she could see in his slightly darkened blue eyes. Suddenly she wanted to tell him her feelings, feelings she wasn’t quite sure she believed yet. But this wasn’t the time, so she swallowed them back, telling herself to figure it out before Monday. Instead her lips lifted in a soft, sultry smile and she released his hair in order to slide her hands over his shoulders and down his chest. Then she curled her hands in the fabric of his shirt, pulled him in for a slow, tender kiss, and stepped back, catching one of his hands with hers.

Madison drew him up beside the bed, lifted her fingers to his chest, and pushed him deliberately onto the mattress. He landed with a soft, muffled thud and had to prop himself up on his elbows to look at her. He watched her pull her shirt over her head and toss it aside. He swallowed heavily, not moving, as she reached back and unclasped her bra. It quickly joined her discarded shirt, leaving nothing at all to obstruct his view.

“Are you going to make me do all the work?” Madison teased as she reached down and deliberately popped the button of her jeans free.

For a moment he looked as though he might say “yes.” But instead he sat up and yanked his shirt carelessly over his head. He watched as Madison slowly shimmied free of her skinny jeans before he shifted again, kneeling now on the mattress, and worked on releasing his own pants. Her jeans and panties fell to the floor, pooling at her feet, at the same time as his remaining clothing fluttered away on a careless breeze.

Their eyes met again, holding for a lingering moment, before Madison flicked her gaze to the bed he was still kneeling on and said, “You should really lie back down.”

He moved on reflex, turning and settling on his back in the center of the bed. He watched her crawl toward him, eyes glued to her body as his throat worked on a swallow.

Madison placed one hand back on his bare chest, letting her fingers dance over his muscles as she leaned closer.

“Maddie…”

She was leaning over him now, her long, loose hair falling forward and framing their faces like a dark curtain. With her lips a hair’s breadth from his she whispered, “Do you want me?”

“Desperately,” Nate replied, his voice appropriately tight. He lifted one hand and buried it in her hair as he pulled her down for a hungry kiss. Their lips molded together, parted enough for their tongues to dance again, and Madison dug her nails just slightly into Nate’s chest. His free hand shifted and landed on one of her thighs, squeezing and massaging enticingly.

Madison pulled back from his kiss, holding his hooded gaze for a moment before she lowered her head and began trailing wet kisses down his jaw and neck. She licked and nipped at his skin, taking pride in the faint groans that purred from his throat. Her tongue ran over his bobbing Adam’s apple before she moved lower, trailing her wet kisses over his collarbone and across his chest. She curled her hands, sliding them down his abdomen as she moved, pressing just enough to lightly scrape his skin.

She kept her pace slow, enjoying the startled leap of his muscles when she first made contact with them, and let her lips and tongue linger over each spot. Her tongue swept over his nipples, causing his hand to tighten in her hair, and then she continued on her intended path. His other hand was slowly sliding up her back as she moved, putting a heavy but not restricting pressure over her spine. She let her tongue swirl around his navel as one of her hands left his side and reached down, wrapping around him.

Nate sucked in a breath when she grabbed him, his muscles tensing and his hand leaving her smooth back in order to clench the sheet beneath him. She squeezed briefly before her hand slowly began moving along his length, pumping in a controlled rhythm. He squeezed his eyes shut as she worked him. She moved in, then, and teased his tip with her tongue for a moment before wrapping her lips wholly around his cock. His hand tightened in her hair as he choked on a moan.

She slid her tongue slowly down the length of him, taking her time as she accepted as much of him as she could. Her hand remained wrapped around his base, and then she swirled her tongue again and sucked. He was groaning immediately beneath her, his body tense as he tried to keep his hips on the mattress. So she did it again, this time slowly pulling back and letting her lips move along him. As she moved back down, deliberately maintaining her pace, his hips finally lifted—just a little—and she took that as her cue.

Madison worked him with her hands, lips, and tongue. Nate strained to keep from thrusting into her mouth, the hand he had in her hair beginning to move along with her, guiding and encouraging. Her tongue flicked over him again, and just like that the tension inside him snapped, exploding outward even as he cried her name.

Madison pulled back as he stilled beneath her, his hand since having released her hair and fallen back to his side. She raked her gaze up his sweat-slickened body and offered him a private smile when their eyes met. She could still taste him on her tongue and that in itself made her nearly dizzy with need. But she loved going down on him.