Retribution (52 page)

Fighting for air, she turned her head, and her gaze landed on his reflection in the mirror. Damn, he even looked like a god – muscles flexing as he slammed into her, his hungry eyes flipping between her back and butt, which was, in fact, perched in the air in all its naked glory, but he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the view, so she enjoyed giving it to him.

His gaze went to her head, then the mirror, and a sexy grin stretched across his handsome face when he found her watching him. He winked. Then he went back to work, forcing a deeper arch in her back as he lifted her ass higher.

His movements quickened, and her vision blurred, her fingernails digging into her own palms. But it didn’t hurt. All she felt was pleasure, as if the only parts of her body that were real were those he touched. All her energy, all her senses, all her emotions, flowed toward him and gathered in her core, building and strengthening until she was ready to explode.

She turned her face into the bed, a squeal rising from her diaphragm as she ripped the sheets from the mattress. Then she hugged the blankets close, her muscles suddenly steel.

He cursed as her body closed around him, slowing him down while spiking the ecstasy, and with a roar he forced himself deeper. One of his hands gripped the headboard, and the other stretched across her upper back, keeping her in place as his hips pressed against her backside and lifted it higher.

The bed shook with his release, and so did Layla’s insides. She felt like a tub of sloshing liquid that had been hit with a live wire, sizzling and churning and unable to react. All she could do was lie there and take it… and love it. Everything about it.

The quaking eventually eased, and they both shivered as tingles swam through their sated bodies.

“Wow,” he breathed, alleviating the pressure. Then he sent chills down her spine as he swept her hair to one shoulder. She turned her head, and he lowered his lips to her cheek, kissing before sliding his mouth to her ear. “That was incredible.”

“You’re incredible,” she returned. “And we’ll be doing that again very soon. I can’t believe you went a week without it.”

He laughed as he nibbled her ear. Then he slowly pulled himself from her body and lowered her stomach to the bed. After letting himself fall to the spot beside her, he urged her to move closer. “Do you feel more experienced?”

She smiled as she cuddled into his side. “Yes I do.”

“You should. That was my favorite position before you came along.”

She scowled and puckered. “Why not with me?”

“Several reasons, but mostly because I love watching your face.”

Her expression smoothed as her smile returned. “Oh.”

“I also love feeling your pulse, but now that my heart keeps time with yours, I can get that in any position.”

“That’s good.”

“It’s better than good. It’s a dream come true. But we still can’t do it like that all the time. Not only because I love watching your face, but because I can’t last as long in that position as I do in others. It gets me too worked up, and it’s never gotten me more worked up than it just did. Your ass is perfect, Layla. You need to know that.”

She laughed as she raised her knee to his stomach, giving him a glimpse of the ass in question.

“There it is,” he approved, covering it with a large palm. “Perfect.”

“I didn’t realize you were an ass man.”

“Baby, if it’s on you, I’m an everything man.”

She giggled as she kissed his shoulder. Then she rested her cheek on curved muscle. “I think that was a fantastic way to celebrate one week of bonding.”

“Oh we’re not done,” he countered. “But first we need to get some work out of the way.”

“Right,” she whispered. “There’s that whole
saving our lives
thing.”

“And what beautiful lives they are, my love. Just remember that when it gets rough.”

“I’ll never forget, Quin.”

And she wouldn’t. These moments were seared deeper than her mind. They were bound to her soul and buried in her heart.

Chapter 36

The lawn was crowded and buzzing with conversation when Layla and Quin left the house, but they bypassed everyone and headed for food and coffee. Once they had plates, they found seats between Cordelia and Morrigan.

“We're discussing how to move our army,” Kemble noted.

“Where's it going?” Layla asked.

“Closer to the glacier,” Kemble answered. “We don't want the confrontation taking place here or the clearing near Mount Hood. We would do too much damage to the forest, and the clearings aren’t big enough, so we're going to draw Agro to the glacier.”

“How will you get him there?”

“We’ll tell him you’re there. He’ll probably come here first, and when he does, we’ll let him know where he can find you.”

“How?”

“A magical message, and we’ll include visions of you as proof. If he’s as obsessed as we think he is, he won’t be able to stay away. The hard part will be getting him there when we’re ready for him. Hopefully the close eye we’re keeping on his camp will do the trick.” He paused and pointed. “Speaking of guards.”

Several men approached and stopped behind Quin, who stood and concealed them. “See you in a bit,” he said, offering the invisible group a wave.

A rush of air fluttered the grass, and Quin took his seat, summoning Layla a chocolate chip cookie before looking at his dad. “When are we moving the volunteers?”

“As soon as grandpa Cat returns with the latest news on Agro. As of 7:30 this morning, his camp was quiet, definitely not prepping for battle, but we haven’t seen new soldiers arrive in two days, which means he has his ammo. We don’t want him surprising us with it, so we need to set the pace. Besides, we can’t keep our volunteers forever. If this doesn’t happen soon, we’ll lose them, so we’re going to finalize our plans and aim for tomorrow night.”

Layla's coffee and cookie vanished, and she huffed, sitting empty-handed and disgruntled, her heart thundering out of control. The trigger was definitely the mention of how much time they had left.

After vanishing her cup, Quin vanished his own. Then he laid a hand over her heart while pulling her onto his lap. The moment they made skin contact, his heart conformed to hers, and he jolted as the organ pounded against his ribs, like it had been hexed with an aortic earthquake. Growing numb from head to toe, he looked down, stunned as he watched his chest palpitate quicker than ever.

“Is it hurting you?” Layla asked.

“No,” he answered, looking back up.

She wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. I'm probably feeling the same thing you are. Does it hurt you?”

“No.”

“There's your answer.”

“Still, it's not the most comfortable feeling in the world, and there's no reason for you to have to deal with it.”

“Maybe there is,” he countered, summoning her mug. “Now stop worrying about me and drink your coffee.”

“You're encouraging me to drink coffee while our hearts are going crazy?”

“Yes. Apparently caffeine has nothing to do with it, and now I know it doesn't hurt, so drink all the coffee you want.” He handed over her coffee then flexed his fist, wondering if his grip was as weak as it felt. Summoning a stick from the surrounding forest, he reached up and caught it.

“What's that for?” Layla asked.

“To test my grip,” he answered. “Cover your coffee.”
 

She did, and he grasped the middle of the stick, holding it out away from her as he squeezed his hardest. It snapped into several pieces, and most of them fell to the ground, but the section in his fist crumbled to dust and blew away with the breeze. He watched it with wide eyes. Then he let go of Layla, breaking their connection and returning his heart to normal.

“What's wrong?” she asked.

He didn't answer, his throat swollen as he looked between his hands.

Kemble leaned forward, concern etching his features. “What's going on, son?”

“I'll hurt her,” Quin whispered. “What I just did was the definition of not knowing one's own strength. I could break her and not even realize I'm doing it.”

Layla shook her head. “You weren't hurting me.”

“That doesn't mean I won't.”
 

“I see your predicament,” Kemble mumbled.

“There’s no predicament,” Layla argued, grabbing Quin's hand, but he panicked and yanked it free.
 

“Quinlan,” Cordelia gasped.

Layla’s chest expanded, her lips quivering as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Shit,” Quin breathed, once again vanishing her coffee. Then he carefully took her face in his palms. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pull away like that.”

Her tears broke free, running down her red cheeks to his fingers. “I understand why you did it, Quin. But it still hurt.”

“I know,” he whispered, gently drying her cheeks. “It won't happen again.”

She reached up, unexpectedly grabbing his hands, and like before, his first reaction was to pull away. But she put her own enhanced strength into the grip, and it kept him there long enough to rethink his first reaction and go with his second. He relaxed, letting his hands go limp in hers, and more tears blossomed in her sad eyes.

“Please don't do that,” she quietly pleaded. “If you're going to refuse to hold me when my heart's acting like this, I'll change it. I'll force it to slow down, because I hate the way this feels. I'm not going to put up with your refusal to touch me.”

“It's not like that, angel.”

“I know, but that doesn't change the way it makes me feel.”

He sighed, but he didn't say anything or move his hands, and Layla set her jaw as she narrowed her eyes. “Hold my hands, Quin.”

He swallowed a lump as he shook his head, hating the way he was making her feel. But he couldn't even gauge the pressure he touched her with, so how was he supposed to control it?

“Fine,” she huffed, closing her eyes.

Quin’s heart rate started decreasing as she magically slowed her own, and he looked to Serafin, who merely shrugged. “You have nothing?” Quin asked, mad at the whole damn situation.

“I have the same information you do,” Serafin replied. “Letting her alter her heart seems contradictory to what's supposed to happen, but we haven't seen that it serves a purpose, so maybe it's okay. Looks like that's exactly what's going to happen, because she's not bluffing and you're not caving.”

She'd managed to get her heart rate halfway back to normal, but then she got stuck.

Quin watched her struggle, noting her mounting frustration. Then he closed his eyes and filled his lungs. “Layla.”

“What?”

“Stop. It's not slowing any further. You've been at the same rate for over a minute.”

“I'll stop when you're holding my hands.”

He took a calming breath. Then he carefully picked up her hands, giving them a kiss before sliding his fingers between hers. “Open your eyes, love.”
 

She obeyed, satisfied she'd gotten her way. “Thank you.”

“Leave your heart alone from now on.”

“That depends on you.”

Withholding another sigh, he returned her coffee and laid his empty hand on her thigh, fidgeting with her skirt as he closed his eyes. “Any plans besides moving the volunteers?”

“Nothing set in stone,” Kemble answered. “But we’d like to make one more trip to the glacier to test our tactics, and it's going to take a while to move the volunteers. We'll probably transport them in groups of twenty, and they'll need your concealment spells. If you still plan on keeping Layla's anonymity, you'll be on your own in hiding over a hundred people.”

Quin nodded. “I don’t want to be gone all night, so let’s be ready to go when grandpa Cat gets here. We’ll need to round up some help – people to guide the groups and extra security.”

“I’m on it,” Caitrin offered, getting to his feet. Then he held out a hand to Morrigan. “Would my sweet peach like to go on a scouting mission with me?”

“Of course,” she answered, tucking under his arm.

They walked off, and everyone else looked at Quin, who was staring into the distance and seemed lost in thought. The others left him to his meditation, but Layla stayed on his lap, waiting for him to come back.

She was tempted to bug him, but sipped her coffee instead, letting her mind wander. And when it wandered, it found Travis and Phyllis. Oh crap. She hadn't done anything to prepare them for her possible disappearance.

She looked at Quin with the intention of bringing up the issue, but then a large cluster of colored mist sped through the air and landed in the middle of the clearing. Everyone jerked to attention, and Quin jumped from his chair, pulling Layla with him as he faced the intruders.

Coffee sloshed over her hand, so she vanished her mug, magically cleaning her mess as she wiggled within his powerful grip. “Quin,” she breathed, unable to do more. “Situate me. This feels awkward.” That was putting it mildly, but if he knew how tightly he held her, he’d never hold her again.

“It's Drystan and Devlin,” he said, recognizing two of the four auras. His grip eased. Then he turned her around and hugged her to his chest. “Sorry, love. Their entrance had me worried.”