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Her laugh is high and brief. “That so? Is this about mysafetyagain?”
Jaden moves forward, rolling his jaw and rubbing his neck. His scowl practically mirrors Arden’s. “I’m sorry, Kell. But antiques guy has a good point.”
“Antiquities,” Arden clarifies through clenched teeth.
“Whatever. Point is, if theHysminaifound you before, they’ll be able to do so again—faster and better than before. For that matter, I’m likely on their list now too.”
“Until I have a chance to make sure Rerek is clear about where his liberties with this behavior stop, you both have to lie very low,” Arden adds. “That means even my place is off-limits.”
Jaden’s gaze bugs. “Small miracles doexist.”
“But so are the Ritz, the Maybourne, the Peninsula, and”—he cocks a brow at the last vestige of hope on Kell’s face—“the Marmont.”
There hasn’t been a word from Hecate since Arden and I reemerged, though her composure has been an even keel of quiet alertness. “The question about your hiding place is already solved. Iremia is for all our diamonds, as well as those they love,” she says. “I’ll proceed ahead and ensure the others are preparing for your arrival.”
She’s barely finished before there’s nothing left in her place but glitter bits in the air. None of us bat an eye except for Kell and Jaden, who make up for the rest of us. Half demons or not, their last twenty-four hours have featured supernatural interference of unreal proportions.
Kell underlines the point by hinging back toward Kara, already shaking her head like a truckload of glitter just got dumped on her too.
“You arenotkidding, K-demon. We’ve got some catching up to do.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
KARA
An hour later, after settling Kell and Jaden into Iremia’s two-bedroom guest cottage, Maximus and I head up the little knoll that borders the stream, back to our cozy place. I’m so spent that when Maximus stops for me to hitch onto his back, I don’t mount a shred of fuss about it. All I want to do is get home in one coherent piece.
Home.
It’s unnerving, how easily that designation pops to mind. Have I ever applied it to any place in my life? Such feelings were few and far between about the Beverly Hills mansion, despite growing up in the place. None of our vacation homes were that kind of a fit either. While the house I share with Kell is a little closer to the mark, the place still seems…temporary. A very fancy dorm room with a great view, but never anything more than a home base to sleep, study, and hang out with my sister.
But here, in the smallest and most basic place I’ve ever lived,homefills my head like a slipper that fits perfectly. Weirder, like it’s just been there for years, not days.
The reason is already so obvious.
I’m here with the person who makes it feel that way.
Who feels even more like home once we walk through the door and he turns to lower me onto the couch. But I’m not ready to let go yet. This feels too good.
Maximus laughs when realizing I’ve turned him into a climbing tree with my rapid scramble around to his front. He follows with a wonderfully masculine chuckle, its vibrations resonating in the massive chest to which I eagerly mold myself.
He adjusts his hold, securing the new position of my thighs. I rearrange mine, one hand at his nape and the other against his scalp. He handles the shift with ease, so steady and strong. He hums into my ear, so intimate and inviting. He holds me tighter, surrounding me like an easy chair. And his scent is just as awesome. A mix of worn leather and sea wind. Comforting but intoxicating. Wrapping around so many parts of my heart and spirit…
“Thank you,” I whisper into the base of his neck, though I lift my head the next moment. I need to look at him for this. Need him to see all the sincerity in my gaze, surging from my full heart. “Thank you for everything about today. Tonight too. Most guys would have told Arden to go screw himself earlier, if they believed him at all. But you—”
“I’ve learned to believe a lot of stuff that I never did before,” he murmurs before lowering his lips to my nose. “But most of all, I believe inyou. And I wouldn’t have missed sharing today with you, every second of it, for all the nectar in Olympus.”
The new husk in his tone speaks to deeper parts of me. I tilt my head back, offering my mouth to his again. As soon as he accepts the gift, erasing every millimeter of personal space remaining between us, my senses collide in wild celebration.
Our bodies press closer. Our lips mash with new passion. It’s a kiss that makes me forget all others, even the ones from him. It’s like we’re crashing together for the first time, only all the familiar notes are still here too. How I pray he’ll open my lips with his tongue. How I know I’ll let him and pull in more of him with a long, needy groan. How his grip will turn just as critical, kneading my thighs until it hurts.
But I still want more.
And I’m telling him so by rolling my hips as much as possible beneath his demanding hold. By moaning once more, unable to ignore how even the tiny friction is like a torch to my sex. So many blissful shivers. So much impatient need. I long to scream in joy when his body reacts too. He’s throbbing beneath my insistence. Surging toward me by hotter and hotter degrees.
“Perhaps…I can interest you in another kind of nectar, Professor.”
Maximus’s low laugh is an aphrodisiac all its own. That and the aroused smoke in his hooded gaze. “Perhaps I like the sound of your buzzing bees, Miss Valari.”
