The Haunting (Immortals) (22 page)

In what had to be record time, she heard the faint wail of sirens. Soon, the wharf was crawling with police. She told her story to the uniformed cops while Nick stood by her side. She was relieved when her kidnappers were cuffed and stuffed into the back of a patrol car.

The adrenaline rush was starting to wear off and Mai was wondering how much longer she’d have to be there when two plainclothes detectives came over to talk to her and Nick.

“Hey, Nick,” the taller officer said. “What’s going on here?”

“Ted. Paul,” Nick greeted them. “This is Mai Groves. She’s a reporter who’s been working on a story about Bill Preston. My guess is he’s the one behind the kidnapping. This is the second time this week he’s tried to stop her. The first was two days ago when he shot at her in Central Park. Maybe you found that body?”

They eyed him quizzically. “If you know something about that shooting, you should tell us.”

“I will, back at the station. You’ll want us both to come down and give statements.”

It took the better part of two hours before Nick and Mai were finally able to leave the station. “I don’t suppose you still feel like eating?” Nick asked.

Mai smiled. “Actually, I’m pretty hungry.”

He returned her smile. “Good. Tell you what—let me
get my clothes and wallet and then we’ll go wherever you want.”

Since she wasn’t ready to be alone yet, Mai agreed. She had a brief moment of panic when Nick hailed a cab, but the cabbie turned out to be just a regular driver.

What surprised Mai was that he didn’t take them to Nick’s apartment, as she’d expected, but rather to his office.

“I was working when I got your call,” he explained as they rode the elevator up. “I had to leave everything behind.”

“Wasn’t that your floor?” she asked as the elevator continued past it.

“Yeah. When I say I left everything here, I mean I left it on the roof—it’s more private.”

They reached the top floor and continued up the stairs to the roof. In all her years of living in New York City, Mai couldn’t remember a time when she’d stood on the roof of a building. The sun had gone down while they were inside the police station, but this was the city that never slept. From up here, the lights along the skyline looked like one gigantic Christmas display. It was beautiful—provided she didn’t get too close to the edge.

“You want to come over here with me?” Nick invited as he started across the roof.

“No, thanks. I’ll just enjoy the view from here.”

Nick came back to her. “You afraid of heights?”

“It’s not so much a fear of heights as a fear of falling from a great height, but so long as I don’t get close to the edge, I’ll be fine.”

“Why don’t we go back inside? You can wait in my office while I come back and get my things.”

“Don’t be silly. We’re already here.” She waved his concern aside. “I’m fine, really. Go get your stuff.”

After Nick walked off, Mai studied the view, becoming so absorbed with it that she hardly noticed the passage of time. It seemed he wasn’t gone long at all before he came strolling back fully dressed in business attire, except for his tie, which peeked out from his pants pocket.

“Wow, you look different. Very nice,” Mai complimented him.

“Thanks, but don’t stand downwind. After all the changing, fighting and walking barefoot on the wharf, I’m in definite need of some soap and water.”

“Let’s go to your place, then, so you can shower.”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost eight. I really hate to put off dinner too much longer. I don’t know about you, but I’m starved.”

Mai had to admit she was pretty hungry herself. She’d run out of the apartment without eating lunch, and the bagel she’d had for breakfast had worn off a long time ago. “I can wait,” she offered.

Nick was staring at her like he wasn’t sure if he should take her offer seriously when her stomach chose that moment to emit a rather large growl. He smiled. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Food first, shower later.”

“Or we could compromise. Let’s go to your place and order pizza. Better yet, let’s order it now since you know it’s going to take them a good forty-five minutes to deliver. You could be done with your shower by the time it gets there.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that? I mean, I really wanted to take you out tonight—and we have your story to celebrate.”

“Actually, a nice quiet evening enjoying pizza sounds good. But I’ll take a rain check on the dinner.”

He smiled. “You’re an easy woman to be with, Mai Groves—when you aren’t off getting yourself kidnapped
or shot at.” He pulled out his cell phone and placed the order. Mai took a final look around, trying to memorize the view from the roof, and then they left.

Forty-five minutes later, Mai was sitting beside Nick on top of his bed, a box of hot pepperoni pizza open between them and an action thriller playing on his big screen. She was feeling so relaxed and content that the kidnapping had already faded to a distant memory.

“Sorry about the accommodations,” he apologized. “Dave’s little parties can get pretty loud. I thought we’d have more privacy in here. If you’d feel more comfortable, we could still go out.”

“Are you kidding? And waste all this great pizza?”

“It’s just pizza.”

“I beg to differ,” she said with a smile. “This is New York–style pepperoni pizza—only the best around.”

He chuckled as he reached over to grab a dangling thread of cheese off the slice she held in her hand.

She caught his wrist as he started to lift the thread to his mouth and redirected it to her own. Tilting her head back, she took the thread
and
the tips of his fingers into her mouth. She heard the way his breath caught as she gently sucked each finger before releasing his hand and a thrill went through her.

“Careful, now,” he warned. “You’re walking a very thin line.”

She smiled. “Maybe I like living on the edge.”

He lifted a piece of pizza to his mouth. “Maybe I wasn’t talking to you,” she thought she heard him say.

The action thriller picked up its pace and Nick seemed to become absorbed in the story, much to Mai’s disappointment. They finished the pizza before the movie was over, so Nick put the empty box on the floor and they both settled back against the headboard to watch the rest of the show.

The minute she’d decided she wanted to make love to Nick again, Mai lost interest in the movie. What confused her was Nick’s reaction. She knew he was interested, but he refused to pick up on any of the cues she dropped. It became a challenge to break down his resistance. A touch here. A look there. She’d played this game many times before but never with someone she truly cared this much about.

Just how much she cared scared her a bit, but she wasn’t going to let that keep her from trying.

She got off the bed and straightened the covers. “I felt like I was sitting on ridges,” she offered by way of explanation. When she climbed back up, she made sure that when she settled back against the headboard, she was sitting close enough to Nick that their arms were pressed together. Feeling his body heat and hard muscle against her skin was enough to make her breathless.

Nick seemed completely unaffected—at least to a casual observer. However, Mai noticed the slight rise in his temperature, the deeper rise and fall of his chest, the way he moved his hands to his lap to cover what might be stirring below.

Any minute now, she thought, he would make his move. She’d done everything she could to get his attention short of throwing herself into his arms—which she refused to do. She’d already taken off her cardigan, shoes and socks under the pretense of being hot. She had no more clothes to shed and stay decent. She couldn’t hop off the bed and pretend to pick up something so he’d look at her butt because she’d just been off the bed to straighten the covers. She couldn’t lean over him to check the time because the clock was on the nightstand beside her. Her next move would have to be bold. The poker equivalent to laying her cards on the table. Winner takes all. Loser goes home to empty house feeling lonely and humiliated.

Nick sat beside Mai completely oblivious of the movie. All his energy was focused on not allowing his body to react to her—and that was no small feat. God, he wanted her. Fighting the two men on the wharf had been easy compared to this.

It certainly didn’t help that she was doing everything she could to draw his interest. Little did she know that if he could have, he’d have had her beneath him in that bed so fast…

But having a spirit mate was like being in a committed relationship. Of course, he hadn’t seen his spirit mate these last several nights and he assumed that was his fault. He didn’t like being bound to one woman when he had such strong feelings for another.

He supposed he should do something to change that. He supposed—

The bed dipped as Mai pushed herself onto her knees. Then, before he could anticipate what she was doing, she’d pulled her sweater shell over her head as she straddled his legs, facing him.

“You’re a hard man to distract,” she said, looping her hands behind his head.

The movement forced her breasts together and the twin mounds of flesh were a temptation that drew his eye and made his pulse race.

She wiggled her hips, and his cock, already hard from her earlier attempts to make him notice her, strained to be free.

“Mai,” he begged, “we shouldn’t.” He reached for her, unable to stop himself, and pulled her to him. “I can’t,” he muttered right before he kissed her.

Her lips were soft and sweet, and when he ran his tongue along the seam, she opened her mouth to give him access. His breathing grew ragged and he kissed her over and over again, unable to control his hunger for her.

Kissing her wasn’t going to be enough. He needed more. He reached around her back to undo the clasp of her bra. She leaned back so he could slip the straps from her shoulders and let the bra fall away. Nick stared at her firm, full breasts and knew he was a weak man. He took them in his hands, caressing and kneading their fullness in turn. Her dark nipples were hard and stiff and he was taking one into his mouth before he’d made the decision to do so.

As he suckled her, Mai held his head, running her fingers through his hair. She moaned when he fastened on one nipple with his mouth and pulled. His need for her was nearly painful and he knew it was a matter of seconds before he had her beneath him. He could only remember one time that he’d been this aroused. It had been in his dreams with…

His spirit mate.

The thought of her was like being doused with an ice-cold bucket of water. He closed his eyes and fought for control.

“Nick?” Mai’s voice was throaty.

“I can’t, Mai.” He lifted her off him and set her to one side so he could escape off the other side of the bed.

“Oh.” The word, which sounded hurt and angry, was followed by a flurry of activity. Nick imagined she was dressing and kept his back to her, wanting to give her some semblance of privacy. “My mistake. I guess I misread the signals. When you said we were dating, I assumed that meant you were interested.” Now she sounded clinical, as if she were discussing a lab experiment.

“It’s not like that,” he told her, finally turning around. She was dressed and there were so many emotions playing across her face that he didn’t know how to begin to explain.

“It’s not?”

He sighed. “I mean, yes, I’m interested. God, Mai, I can’t begin to tell you how much I want you, but…”

She was watching him like a hawk. “But?”

“I guess you could say there’s someone else.”

“What?” Surprise made her voice sharp and loud. “Are you telling me that you’re already involved with someone? Oh my God. Then why the hell did you have sex with me the other day? And why did you ask me out to dinner tonight?”

He rubbed a hand across his jaw trying to figure out what to say. “The other day—I didn’t mean for that to happen. It just…did.” Her harrumph told him what she thought of that explanation. “As for asking you to dinner, I did that because I wanted to…” He realized too late there was no way this was going to sound good.

“Yes?” she encouraged.

“I was hoping you’d changed your mind about introducing me to your friend—the one who had the bizarre dream.”

She stared at him in total disbelief. He could see it on her face. Anger made her eyes shine bright and her jaw took on that stubborn set. “No. And before you ask, it would be a waste of time. She tells me that she’s seeing someone—so I doubt she’d be interested in you. And don’t bother seeing me out.”

With that, she turned and walked out his door. A minute later, he heard the front door slam and knew she was gone.

He couldn’t leave things with her this way. He’d give her time to cool off and then he’d try to explain things.

It was another sleepless night. Mai had wasted good tears over what had happened, first crying over Nick’s rejection and then crying over her own humiliation. Somewhere around 4:00 A
.
M
.
, she’d finally fallen asleep.

Now, four hours later, she felt about as good as she looked—which was like crap, she thought, staring into the bathroom mirror. She hoped taking a shower would make her feel better.

She let the water run until it was nice and hot. As she stripped out of her clothes, she noticed the steam escaping into the room. It brought back frightening memories and, unable to resist, she cast a quick nervous glance at the mirror. Her worried expression was all she saw staring back at her.

You’re being silly
, she told herself as she stepped over the tub and pulled the shower curtain closed. That hallucination had been in the old apartment.

As the water worked to relax her muscles, the tight rein on her thoughts loosened. It had been a strange couple of weeks, starting with her therapist’s death, then Lenny’s. Followed by Sarah’s disappearance, Jenna’s collapse and then the kidnapping attempt. On top of that, there was Nick’s hot-and-cold behavior, which she couldn’t begin to figure out.

She put a stop to her train of thoughts, afraid that if she continued, she’d want to get out and slit her wrists. Okay, not literally, but she was really starting to depress herself. She forced herself to focus on nothing more than shampooing her hair.