The Relic (12 page)

Her mouth opened to protest, but he was too quick. He’d moved up her body again, and thrust inside her so deeply surely he was touching her heart. He stilled for a few seconds and she could feel the effort it took him to control his body. He wanted her pleasure and she loved him for that.

Lifting her head, she kissed his shoulder and pulled her arms around his back, hugging his beautiful body closer to hers. Vince moved up to lean on his elbows and smiled as he slowly withdrew, then plunged in again, this time even further than ever before. Her body clamped around his, never wanting him to leave.

Sighing, she closed her eyes. She had never before been this close, this connected with another human being.

“Look at me, Mags,” he said as he started a slow rhythm in and out.

His eyes never left hers as his hard cock worked its magic. As they both reached a mind-shattering climax, Magda felt tears of joy trickle down her cheek. When he smiled, the fight was all over. He was definitely the victor and she never wanted to fight again. Even if he could never love her as much as she did him, she knew she couldn’t give him up now if she tried.

* * * *

As soon as the sun was up, they made the trip back to the clearing that held the monument to Sultan Abdullah in relative silence, which was a good thing, given that Vincent needed some time to absorb what had just happened.

Never in a million years would he have predicted that Magda and he would have sex again, let alone the mind-blowing experience they’d just shared together. Shaking his head back and forth a few times to make sure his brain was actually in working order, he took in a couple of deep breaths. Slowing down his stride, he caught a better glimpse at her arse as she hiked a few meters in front of him. His dick certainly appreciated the sway of her hips and his mouth salivated just looking at those cute, rounded butt cheeks. They’d tasted pretty good a little while ago.

Fucking hell, get a grip, Vince!
Those bastards could find them at any time and he needed to be on alert, not fantasizing about the best sex of his life. Especially since it would all be just a memory soon. He knew she was the one woman for him, but he couldn’t see any way for them to be together the way things stood. It wasn’t fair to her to have a man with no roots, a man who wandered from one job to the next looking for excitement. She deserved more and he didn’t want to hold her back.

“Hurry up, Stone. We want to find this bloody thing and get the fuck out of here before they find us!”

Magda stood in the middle of the track, hands on hips and an exasperated look on her face. She could be a terrier when she wanted to, and that was probably why she was so good at what she did. He knew why she was a successful romance novelist. Anyone with that much imagination in the bedroom had to be able to pen a good yarn. It was her determination and hard work that made her stand in the crowd, both in the writing and the crime-fighting worlds. Yep, she was one fine woman, all right. Too damn fine for him.

“Keep your shirt on, Mags. I’m coming. Just taking a breather.”

She smiled, her eyes sparkling. “Wore you out, did I?”

“Oh no, sweetheart. I could definitely go another few rounds, but unfortunately, we don’t have time for that right now,” he said, winking back at her.

Her sexy laugh filled the air. “What a poser!”

“What? You don’t believe me?”

“Sure, I do,” she said as she turned to the track and started walking. “But I’ll leave the confirmation session until after we get back home to Sydney.” Slapping a mozzie on her arm, she picked up her pace. “If we hurry, we should be reaching the clearing soon.”

“You realize that I’m just blindly following you? This track looks like any other track to me. Why are you so sure it’s the right one?”

She turned her head and chuckled. “No magic secret, Stone. I left a trail the first time we found it.” She stopped and reached for a tree, bending it toward him and pointing to a bend in the stem. “I bent several small branches along the way so when I saw branches along this track that were bent the same way I do them, I followed them. If my calculations are right, we should be just about there.”

The jungle parted in front of them to reveal the clearing where they’d been captured. The same place where Magda had seen the symbol that matched the one on the statue of the Sultan Abdullah. Going back to the clearing was a huge gamble, and it might still be a dead end. They had no way of knowing if the symbol had any significance to the relic at all, but it was the best lead they had.

The
only
lead they had.

Vincent scanned the surface of the stone circle, looking for the one that held the imprint of the symbol. The debris from their last visit had been scattered and added to and the area was an even bigger disaster area than before. Rocks and soil had been upturned over the whole area, making it difficult to find a stable surface to place their feet. Balancing on a loose rock as he saw Magda stepping her way around the circle, Vincent whispered loudly to her, “Be careful, Mags. These rocks are dangerous.”

Magda laughed loudly when he lost his balance and fell flat on his face into the dirt. Well, as loudly as she could when she was whispering. He lifted his head and she was there at his side, gripping his arm and helping him to his feet.

“You were saying?” She ran her hands over his sides, checking for injuries. The resulting tingles left him momentarily without the ability to talk, because even though he still had residual pain from the beating he’d taken, it felt bloody amazing to have her hands on him.

Her eyes narrowed when he didn’t immediately answer her. “You big lug—you
did
hurt yourself, didn’t you?”

Somehow he found a voice. Unfortunately, it was a really scratchy voice that didn’t sound like him at all, but sometimes you had to take what you could get. “Um, no. I’m fine. Just a little winded, I guess.”

Apparently she didn’t hear his response. Instead she stared at the ground next to his feet. Crouching down, she brushed away some dirt off one of the stones that was partially buried.

“What is it, Mags?”

“It’s the symbol. The one from the statue.” She started digging with both hands now, dislodging the stone and going deeper into the soil. “Ugh!” she grunted, as more and more dirt flew across his feet. “I can feel something solid just below the surface.”

Vincent crouched down beside her, moving some of the smaller rocks out of her way. “Maybe it’s another stone. This whole place had been upended.”

She grunted again as both her hands grasped something from below the surface. Giving it one last hard tug, she fell backwards as the object in her hands sprung free.

Vincent grabbed her hand and helped her right herself and they both stood up. The object in her hand looked like some sort of carved wooden box. Magda brushed more of the dirt off it and found a latch. She looked at Vincent, excitement in her eyes. Maybe this was the relic they were looking for. He bloody hoped so. He was getting mighty sick of this cat-and-mouse game through the jungle.

Magda hesitated. “Shall I open it?”

“Go ahead. What are you waiting for?”

“I’m just remembering that if this is the relic, it’s supposed to have magical powers. What if it’s booby trapped?”

“I’ll open it then. I don’t believe in that bullshit, so I guess I’m safe.”

Magda threw him an irritated look. “No, I found it—I’ll open it.”

“Actually, I will open it.”

Fuck!
Vincent’s heart stopped.

“I knew our escape was too easy,” said Magda. “You followed us, of course.”

The blond man smirked. “Of course. I knew neither of you would tell me where to find the relic, so I thought it best to let you do the work for me. I have to say, you gave us quite a show at the waterfall. That was an unexpected bonus.”

“You fucking bastard!”

Vincent touched Magda’s arm to stop her reacting. Her face had paled and he could feel the smoke coming out of her ears.

“Tsk tsk, Magda. Name calling is so crass. Now be a good girl and hand me that box.”

Magda pulled the box close to her body and growled. “Not on your life, arsehole!”

Several of Thornton’s henchmen moved closer and surrounded them, each pointing their AK-47s directly at Magda and Vincent.

“My men are a little trigger happy, Magda, so I suggest you give it over now or I cannot be held responsible for the consequences.”

A loud explosion sounded from close by in the jungle. The ground beneath them shook and Vincent grabbed hold of Magda to stop her from losing her balance.

“What the fuck was that?” asked Magda.

“Buggered if I know, but it scared the shit out of the minions. It looks like your men are deserting you, Thornton.”

Thornton swung around, his face contorting in rage as his men ran off in different directions. “Stop! You won’t get your payment if you don’t come back here now!”

Vincent chuckled. “It looks like they’ve deserted you. Now if you will excuse us, Mags and I have somewhere we need to be.”

Taking Magda’s hand, he started leading her away when the sound of a gun being cocked stopped him in his tracks. The barrel of a handgun was pointed directly at him, but the words Thornton spoke were for Magda.

“You will hand me the relic now, my dear, or I will shoot your lover through the heart.”

Bullshit
.
No way is she giving him that damn relic
. “Don’t listen to him, Mags, he knows he’s lost.”

“I assure you, my dear, I do not intend to lose. I am also a crack shot, so you can be very sure I will not miss.”

Magda flashed Vince an exasperated look and shrugged. “I don’t know, Vincent. It’s a tough decision. The relic? Or you?”

What does she mean a tough decision?
“There’s no guarantee he won’t shoot you as well, Mags.”

“True. But then again, he might not. I mean…pissing off the League of Amazing Women is never a good idea. We’re mean when we’re provoked.”

He didn’t know where she was going with this but he played along anyway. “Oh yeah. I certainly wouldn’t take that risk. I am quite fond of my manhood.”

“Excuse me, but can we cut this little chit chat short? I want my relic now, or I’ll shoot the both of you.”

Vincent stepped in front of Magda, pushing her back further out of harm’s way. “I don’t think so.”

Laughing malevolently, Thornton waved his weapon at Vince and zeroed in on Vincent’s chest. “So what are you going to stop me with? You have no weapons, you fool!”

“But we do.”

Thornton spun around toward the voice and Vincent took the opportunity to kick the gun out of his hand while he was distracted. As he dove toward his weapon, Magda took out his knee with a Tae Kwon Do kick her Master would have been proud of before restraining him with her foot to his neck.

“It’s about time you girls got here. What took you so bloody long?”

“Ha! We traipse through this godforsaken jungle risking life and limb and this is the thanks we get?”

Turning his head, Vincent saw three grinning Amazons heading their way. The blonde out in front doing the talking and swinging a dangerous looking sword had to be Phoenyx. The other blonde brandishing the bow and arrow could only be that Celtic goddess Brigid, and the brunette with the dagger must be Rhae. These women looked as lethal as their reputations that preceded them. “Nice to meet you, ladies, and can I say you have excellent timing?”

Phoenyx sauntered over to him and leaned in close to him. “Great to finally meet you, too, Stone.” She stepped back and winked her pretty green eyes at him. “I’ve heard plenty about you, and I must say, reality is even better than rumor, handsome.”

As Rhae and Brigid trussed up Thornton and handed him over to the Penang police who had just arrived, Magda walked back toward Vince, standing so close he could feel the heat of her body. “So the transponder in the tablet worked then?”

The other women gave each other knowing smiles as Phoenyx moved back a short distance. “Yep. As soon as the signal came on and we realized the device wasn’t moving we figured you were in trouble and we headed right on over. So where is the tablet anyway?”

Rhae bent over and picked up something from a pile of rubble and held it above her head. “Here it is.”

Magda’s face lit up. “I must have dropped it when we were captured. A lucky break that it was just where we came back to.”

Lucky break? Arsey, that’s what it was.
Some people had arse, and some class. These women had both, in spades. He should have figured she’d have some way of being tracked. The LAW had a reputation for being careful. The gods had certainly been smiling on them when she’d dropped it just where they needed to be found. “So what do you say, Mags? Do you want to open the box and make sure it’s what we came for?”

Her face paled, although her eyes were bright with excitement. He could see the pulse in her neck beating a fast rhythm, almost in unison with his own. Her hands trembled as she lifted the box up in front of her. After a few struggles, the latch gave way and the lid sprung back of its own volition, making her jump.

A bright light exploded all around them, blinding them all until Magda snapped the lid shut.

“Shit!”

“Fuck, what was that?”

“Holy crap!”

Magda held the box tightly and looked up at Vincent, smiling. “Yep, that looks like the famous relic.”

Vincent pulled her into his arms, crushing the box between them. “It sure does, Mags. And thank Christ for that.”

Chapter Seven

The party was as good as any they’d had at the Mansion, but Magda’s heart wasn’t in it. The food was delicious, the drinks were flowing and dozens of gorgeous hunks were on tap. What more could she ask for?

Stone. Bloody Vincent Stone
.

The bastard
.

Three weeks had passed since they’d left Penang and handed over the relic to the government of Malaysia, and he’d left her, saying that he’d call her. Ha! Three weeks and no contact at all. Maybe he was pissed that they’d gotten a smaller finder’s fee because she’d insisted in giving it to the local authorities?