Giving It Up for the Gods (8 page)

Lindy squared her shoulders and headed back down the stairs. Her heart raced as she imagined Jase naked in her bed. Would he be a generous lover who stroked her body into orgasm after orgasm before he screwed her senseless? She certainly hoped so. Or maybe since she was Siren strong, she’d exhaust him. Yeah, and he was part demon, which meant he was supercharged with sexual power. Just thinking of dragging Saul into her bed seemed sordid when she wanted Jase so badly her nipples peaked. Those things out there left her no choice. Nothing would be as bad as being staked out naked over an altar for Neptune’s pleasure.

She flung open the sitting room door. “Outside. There’s this ring of car headlights like monsters with glowing yellow eyes surrounding your protected area. Look, forget what I said about waiting. Could one of you please screw me? Like now. Then those fish folk of Neptune’s will up and leave.” Lindy couldn’t help herself. She yawned. “Sorry. I guess everything that’s happened has knocked me for a loop.”

Jase grinned up at her from the sofa. “Then sleep now, screw later. Or maybe we could just leave.”

“What? Just walk out through the door? You have got to be joking,” she squeaked.

Saul’s smile was as condescending as his raised eyebrow. “There’s always the priest’s hole and tunnels.”

Sirens hated dark places—not that they’d admit it. “A secret way out? Where? And is it well lit?”

Mercury stuck his head around the door. “Is it safe to come in? Hey, Lindy, I bet you can’t find it. I couldn’t when they told me about it.”

Siren to the core, Lindy rose to the challenge. “Okay, if I was an early Elizabethan with Catholic tendencies, where would I stash the priest so the Protestants couldn’t find him? I wouldn’t want to forfeit my home and my lands, so let me think. The paneling’s too obvious. What about the fireplace?”

She started toward it but stopped when she spotted the smirks on the menfolk’s faces.
Okay, not the fireplace. Think, girl, think
. Maybe the bay window flanked by solid stone cylindrical pillars was an original feature. It certainly looked like it. She ran her fingers over the stonework and even lifted the blue cushion, but nothing jumped out at her. “Common sense says it should be here, but I can’t… Oh, hang on. There’s the tiniest crack in the stonework around this pillar. It’s somewhere around here. Right?”

Jase sauntered across the room. Despite his arrogance, when he moved he was all fluid poise and come-fuck-me hips. “See, Merc, she’s got brains as well as beauty. Sit on the window seat and kick your feet back really hard.”

She followed his instructions, but nothing happened.

“You cheating, Jase?” Mercury asked.

Jase held up his hand in mock surrender. “Would I?”

“Yes,” Saul and Mercury answered.

“Never.” Jase laughed.

Gods, she’d been right. His smile was as devastating as the way his hips moved with gunslinger grace. Lindy resisted the urge to lick her lips, but their gazes locked as he stepped toward her. Her heart pounded, and her pussy clenched.

He bent toward her, and she thought he meant to kiss her. Then the blasted man paused, his lips inches from her ear, and whispered, “Kick harder.”

She’d expected something softer, more complimentary. And he knew it.
I suppose I shouldn’t expect pleasantries from an uptight, supercilious demon
. Angry that he knew just how to affect her—play her more like—she forced a smile. If she was going to kick anything, it should be him. Instead, she took out her frustration on the stone seat, swinging both her feet into it so hard she winced. One of the pillars swung outward. “Great. How wide is that gap? Eight inches? Didn’t the Elizabethans let fat priests conduct Mass?”

Jase’s wicked grin said he knew he’d won that encounter. Her fingernails curved into claws, but she refused to rise to his bait. Well… If he offered, she’d still be his best, most-willing girl ever. Damn him, he’d rather torment her than fuck her.

As Jase sat beside her, he said, “Maybe they didn’t all eat like Friar Tuck. Besides, once they were inside, the passage widens into a hidden room between the entrance hall and here. In a dire emergency, there’s a tunnel out to the barn.”

Saul smiled at the teenager. “For a Siren, she’s got a good grasp of human history, not to mention a good dose of common sense.”

Lindy blushed. “So, do we go now? Does anyone have things to pack?”

Jase turned all bossy and protective. “We travel light and buy what we need as we go. Hey, Merc, you’re smaller than me. As edible as Lindy looks in my shirt, can you lend her some sweats and a pullover? A jacket would be good too.”

Edible? Really? Only, how had he put it earlier—whether he wanted to or not? That definitely rankled
. Suddenly conscious of her aching nipples and damp pussy, Lindy added, “Yeah, please. Anything’s better than his cast-off shirt.”

A quarter of an hour later, Jase squeezed through the narrow gap.

“Suck it in, buster. Good thing you’re a demon, not a priest. For a moment there, I didn’t think you were going to make it,” Lindy taunted. When she stared past him, she saw nothing but darkness. Her throat dried, and her gut felt like someone had coiled thick chains around it and yanked them tight.
Steps down into a dark hole? So not part of the aspirational Siren lifestyle.

The dark interior muffled his response, but she’d lay odds it was rude. Definitely insulting. Distraction was necessary if she wanted to move forward, and it felt good to abuse him.
Score one for the Siren side.

They gathered in the long, narrow room concealed within the walls. Lindy started when, as if of its own accord, the pillar swung shut behind them. She could barely see in the darkened room, but why hadn’t anyone brought a torch? She bit back a whimper, almost. Jase must have heard, because he gave her hand a squeeze. She didn’t see what he did, but she heard a soft rasping noise—stone sliding over stone—a hiss through the night. A tunnel opened like a black gullet, and a narrow stair led them down into utter darkness. Lindy had never wanted her cell phone more. Any light at all, really. Jase turned sideways, took her hand, and led her down an unlit stair.

Again Jase squeezed her hand. “It’s okay, princess.”

That tunnel? All right? Pitch-black and oppressive more like. Shaken to the core, she couldn’t muster a snarky response. She followed reluctantly, her free hand flat against the wall, her breathing jagged. The primordial fears every Siren hid from the world set her shaking. Even when she inhaled, slow and deliberate, panic kicked at her gut like a mule. Jase’s thumb traced small circles over the back of her hand, and that slight considerate touch calmed her soul.

She tried to think happy thoughts as she stumbled forward.
So not working
. They waded through darkness so thick she thought blankets swaddled her head.
Neptune’s balls, I’m suffocating down here. Can’t see. Can’t breathe. Can’t stop. Got to keep moving
. She curled her free hand around Jase’s forearm and kept the other intertwined with his. Her grip would have crushed a lesser man. He was safety and protection, an anchor in the sea of blackness that engulfed her. She longed to wrap her arms around his waist, cuddle up close, and rest her head on his broad chest. Maybe that way she could pretend this wasn’t happening. Her claustrophobia was rising right along with a Siren shriek she feared would bring the roof down. She bit her lip rather than let it out. She’d done nothing to deserve this. As a distraction, she counted her steps.

One hundred… Three hundred… Six hundred… One thousand… Would this tunnel never end? All the while, Jase stroked his thumb over the back of her hand and spoke soft, encouraging words.

Finally the passage hit a dead end, and Jase stopped.
Maybe there was another door or something. Whatever, Jase. Hurry up and open it. Please.

He let go of her hand. “Stay here.”

There he went with the order thing again. And where the hell did he expect her to go? Overhead, a chink of light showed—more the darkness of night than the stygian darkness of the passage she hated. It was the most beautiful thing ever. Then Jase stretched overhead and grasped a narrow ledge, pulled himself up, and vanished. Even though Saul and Merc were close behind her, she’d never so felt lost or alone.

Those two minutes he was gone were the longest ever. Then he reached down and gripped her forearms. “Okay, princess, up you come.”

As he hauled her up, he carefully avoided her wrists. One minute she dangled in darkness. The next she was snuggled in his arms, breathing in his frankincense essence and craving his kiss.

His gaze was warm, as hungry as her body, and he leaned in for a kiss. He hesitated, his mouth almost touching hers. She parted her lips and swept her tongue over them. Finally he was going to kiss her. Then he shook his head and snarled, “You’re still a Siren.”

Saul and Merc emerged from the tunnel. Part of her wondered why they walked when they were gods.
Invisible walls, lightning strikes, and winged helmets—they have powers. Why don’t they use them?
Maybe Jase wasn’t the only one who hated Sirens. Why else would they torture her like this?

Jase dragged her upright, surprised her with a brief touch of his lips against hers, and shoved her into a tumbledown barn. A beat-up vehicle—small, with no glass in the windows—rusted behind a patched-up barn door. Souped up with twin exhausts, it looked like something that had survived a demolition derby. She just hoped the engine was better than the chassis.

“Get in and stay down,” Jase commanded.

If Neptune’s goon squad wasn’t close by, she’d have told him where to stick his orders. Instead, she curled up in the rear footwell. Jase relaxed and shot her a grin that almost made her blood steam with need, but that stern look still lingered in his eyes.
Damn it, I can’t take much more of his hot-and-cold thing
. Still, desperate times, desperate measures, and for one night, she’d give it a go. She’d have to.

The barn doors swung open without anyone touching them. Jase waited until the others lined up beside the car. “Okay, guys. Push.”

Push? What’s the use of a car that doesn’t go?
Then she realized they were sneaking off into the night. The instant Neptune’s fish-folk spotted them, Jase, Saul, and Merc would pile in and speed off. Then she’d finally get to fuck Jase.

Chapter Eight

Lindy woke slowly. Unsure where she was or how she had gotten here, she lay still and listened; then she gently tensed each muscle in turn. She heard the distant roar of traffic on a busy road and regular breathing close by. Her body was toasty warm, swaddled in a duvet, and she lay on a soft mattress. When she peered through half-closed eyelids, her surroundings—all cream-colored walls and cheap white furniture—shouted
run-down hotel room.

She didn’t remember much about the journey, since she’d fallen asleep once they hit the road. Her protectors had pushed that beat-up car down the country lane without even breaking a sweat. Once they reached the main road, they’d piled in like sardines.

Saul had squashed in behind the steering wheel, Mercury at his side. They coasted downhill and away from Neptune’s minions. Finally he’d let out the clutch, and they’d left the farmhouse far behind. Jase had leaped in the back with her. She stifled a giggle when she remembered his long legs in that confined space. Mercury had fit okay. Saul and Jase looked ridiculous, their knees pulled up to their chins as they hunched up in the tiny seats. Jase had shuffled uncomfortably. Finally he figured out that if he pulled her onto his lap, he could spread out across the rear seat. She’d curled up against him, her head resting on his chest, and she’d let him stroke her hair until she fell asleep.

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t woken as he carried her into the hotel room. Still, it beat running around the car park in the oversize pair of flip-flops Mercury lent her.

The sun already shone in through the open window, and as she peered at the TV’s digital clock, it flipped on to 12:00. A quick warrior’s appraisal—ground-floor room, window open, door closed—told her she was safe for the time being. How she’d slept so long or so deeply with Neptune’s goons on her heels was a mystery, but she felt better for it. Too many strange things to take in and absolute dread for her future. Thirty-six hours, and she’d be safe from Neptune forever. Sooner maybe, if she could persuade Jase to forget his Sirenophobia and screw her.

That brought her thoughts right back to Tall, Dark, and Dangerous and the things she’d like to do to his body—like lick her way down his chest and peel off his jeans. Maybe she’d rip them from his body and then taste every inch of his cock. She’d never ached inside like this, but just imagining Jase stretched out beneath her while she nibbled and teased his muscles made her hum.

Careful, girl. Sirenophobia, remember? I can’t waste my heartsong on a man who has already rejected me once.

She deepened her breathing to check out her ribs, but they’d healed as she slept. Even her wrist throbbed only a little, so it was time to properly check out her surroundings. Time to fuck Jase more like. He lay on the other bed, arms behind his head, ankles crossed as he stared at the ceiling.

He turned on his side and studied her. “Back with me, princess? I hoped the fresh air from the window would wake you, not that the lack of glass in the car windows bothered you last night. Don’t worry. We’re safe for the time being, but your hair’s still a mess.”

“And you’re still an overbearing bastard. Fuck me and get it over with; then you can leave.” Even as she snarled her instinctive response, she felt bereft—as though leaving him would rip her apart inside. He hated Sirens, her included. He’d made that clear from the start. Not that it stopped her from wanting him. Her one-way attraction ran so deep it consumed her, but she was too damn proud to tell him that. Better to think he was a desperation fuck and move on. Maybe.

She craved his lips brushing her breasts or his tongue rasping over her nipples. His fingers belonged in her cunt, caressing her clit until liquid heat flowed through her blood. Her pussy creamed at the thought. Her soft moan thrummed with longing and unfulfilled desires. Her climax was building inside her, and he hadn’t touched her yet. With Jase, sex would be heavenly…probably. If only his hatred of Sirens wasn’t firmly in the way. What sort of starstruck loser was she to crave someone who’d tossed her on the bed and walked away? One as stupid as she was besotted. It was time she grew some backbone here. Sirens wrapped men around their little fingers, not mooned over their broad chests and gold-flecked gazes. With Jase, she felt as though she’d swallowed a whole bunch of butterflies, but her best option was to get over him and get laid.