Chapter Twenty
When Shannon came out the front door after her shower, Merck almost told her to go change. How the hell did she expect him not to peel the flowy halter sundress off her before they even made it to the dock? It molded to her body, leaving little to the imagination. Of course, he already knew what lay beneath, so his brain easily filled in details of every curve.
She grinned and did a spin. Her blonde hair lay loose down her back, hitting her shoulder blades. But that wasn’t what made him lose all train of thought. The dress had almost no back, which meant no bra. The missing part of the back didn’t go all the way to her butt, but ended high enough to discreetly cover the scarred area. Still, it showed off her otherwise unblemished skin. He wanted to kiss the indentation of her spine as it traveled south. His throat tightened up, as did other parts of his body.
“Nice dress.” Shit. Could he be any more lame?
“Nice enough to rip it off?” She leaned in close, fisted the front of his shirt, and whispered, “Because right now I want to yank this off you. We’ve got an audience, though.”
She pulled away with a hooded smile. Naughty witch.
She patted a sunhat down onto the top of her head. Her delicate fingers laced through his. “Dad, Eli...they think me going out with you is a waste of time, but I’m not seeing any answers coming my way. So, let’s go.”
She led down the porch stairs. Her scent teased his nose, something floral he recognized as her shampoo mixed with the coconut essence of sunscreen. Somehow he managed to walk them to his boat and even untie it, although he barely remembered. As he navigated out of the No Wake Zone, she squeezed in next to where he stood at the wheel. He wrapped an arm around her slim body, cataloguing the curves pressed against him. She chatted about how she loved the birds and the beautiful weather and some other mundane topics. He managed a few coherent small-talk phrases, but seconds after he said something, he hoped she didn’t quiz him. He couldn’t remember a single thing that came out his mouth. All he could focus on was the feel of her pressed against him out here, on his boat, and in the world he loved. He wanted her fully his out here.
“Hang on,” he warned when they hit open water. He shifted the boat into a higher gear.
Shannon squealed and grabbed her hat to hold it on when the bow pounded against the water, throwing spray around the sides. With a wipe she removed a few drops of salty water from her face and squeezed closer to him in the sheltered area around the wheel. The brilliance of her smile punched him mid-chest.
He headed for a sandbar he knew well. The tide was low. It’d be perfect for walking, even though what he planned involved not getting off the boat for a while.
“Why’d you want me to leave your place? Is it you want to be alone for your judgment or something else?”
Damn. He hadn’t thought she’d let him get out of that one without an explanation. “What’s coming at me is going to be dangerous.”
“The gods’ judgment?”
He shook his head. “Owen Campbell is here.”
“What? How’d he find me?”
“He’s looking for you, but I don’t think he knows you’re here. He’s here to talk to me. He probably thinks he or his necromancer girlfriend can coerce me into giving up info about the Trident or recruit me to find you.”
“Why would he link the two of us?”
“I don’t think he’s linked us together. He knows a bit about my water abilities.”
“Ah. Then, you’d be a good starting place to find the Trident. I thought the same.”
“I don’t want you hurt in the crossfire of whatever he has planned. It’s safer for you to stay away.”
“If he’s down here why are we out joyriding and not preparing?”
“This may be it for us. Not bringing you out here at least once would be a big regret.” He gazed over the bow, lost in thoughts of this being his last ride on the water. He’d never again feel the salty spray on his skin, see the pelicans, or visit with the dolphins.
She took his hand and held it in silence for a while as the boat smacked its bow through choppy water. She leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder. “It won’t be it. It can’t be. You know, I might’ve listened if you’d been honest at your house.”
He snorted out a sarcastic yeah right. “You wouldn’t stay away. You think Owen knows more about the Trident than we do, which I don’t.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I might have a few questions for him.”
“Let’s keep you being down here to ourselves.”
She sighed deeply and rested her head against his shoulder. “Maybe we can strike a bargain about my whereabouts during this confrontation.”
“A bargain?” He slowed in the waters near the sandbar and raised the motor in the shallow water. “Want to get off and discuss this bargain?”
“Not yet.” Her eyelids grew heavy as she looked up at him, hooding her blue irises. She kissed his jaw and throat while her fingers traced the stubble on his face he’d neglected to shave.
Damn it, he should’ve shaved. He hadn’t anticipated doing this again with her. “What kind of bargain?”
She smiled a true, wicked-witch smile. “I want to have you out here.”
“What else do you want?”
“Everything. I get you and I want this.” She rested her hand over his chest. “I want the one thing you never gave to anyone else.”
“How do you know I loved someone else?”
“I already have your heart.” She smiled when he frowned. “I knew you loved me the moment you said my pie was pretty good.”
“What more is there, then?”
“For today, possibly the last few hours of your life, I want everything that’s you.”
“My soul?” But you already have it. Looking into her pale eyes, he felt a jolt of something close to fear. From the first moment he’d met her so long ago she’d been the woman in the back of his mind. He couldn’t imagine a world without her and didn’t even want to know what it would be like. This must be the hell Brian was living through if he felt something like this for Shannon’s mother.
Somehow Shannon had been roped into the game the gods played with his life. He couldn’t control that. He couldn’t predict the outcome. Yet he had to figure out how to keep her from being collateral damage.
She nodded. “Everything.”
“I give you everything and you’ll stay away when Owen and his friends arrive?” He cradled her head and claimed her mouth. She drew him in deeper, but he was still in command of the kiss, giving her everything he had until she clung to him and whimpered.
He pulled away. “Well?”
“You drive a hard bargain. I don’t think you’ll walk away from us right now if I say no.”
“I might walk. This is important. They can’t know you’re here.” He leaned in as if to kiss her but didn’t make contact.
She groaned in frustration. “Okay. Fine. I’ll go home after this.”
He reached for the clasp at the top of the halter top. “I’ve been imagining this since the second you walked out the front door.” The yellow fabric collapsed to her waist. Coherent words failed him as he skimmed his fingers from her collarbones to her breasts. He bent his head and curled the tip of his tongue along one of the pebbled pink tips. She arched into him and grabbed on to his shoulders.
“God, I want so much…” She trailed off.
“Don’t worry, darlin’. I’ll give you everything you want. Just tell me how you feel.” His mind should be cluttered. He should be running through eventualities and preparing for today’s confrontations. Making plans fell into the background. Only she had the ability to stop his brain from analyzing and plotting. It felt pretty damned great.
“So little time.” She moaned when he nipped at a nipple.
“We’ll make it enough.”
***
Shannon’s world tilted as he continued to kiss her breasts, curling his tongue against her skin. His breath teased her before he straightened and pulled away. She whimpered complaint. “Merck?”
“Shh.” He cupped her face, then he stepped away and placed towels from a storage box on the floor of the bow. She would’ve thought her dress and panties disappeared by magic if she hadn’t felt him swipe them off. He lowered her to the boat floor.
Merck teased her with his touch, sliding his fingers through her folds. Lightly at first but enough to make her squirm. When she tried to push closer, he moved his hand away, denying her. He caged her with his arms, his body not touching hers. “Tell me what you want.”
“You without clothes is a start.” She plucked at his T-shirt.
He didn’t make any motion to remove his clothes. “Then what?”
“I need you to want me so much you can’t stand it.”
He leaned in and whispered, “I already do.”
“I want you wild. I want all that you keep caged.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“You don’t trust who you are. You keep yourself too much on lockdown. For me…” She intoned as if weaving a spell, “Let it go. You’ve got nothing to lose.”
Merck’s mouth slanted over hers with intense kisses. It was hunger, pure and unadulterated. Unchecked, it spilled out of him without finesse. The trembling clench of his fingers on her drowned her in the truth of how much he wanted her. Good Lord, she needed this man.
He trapped her arms above her head, caught one nipple in his mouth, and sucked hard, the edge of his teeth scraping her flesh. Everything about him surrounded her, overwhelmed her. When the world began to swim, he drew back. He said some compliment she barely heard. He released her hands. His fingers grazed through her sensitive folds, his fingers slicking back and forth in an intense rhythm until blood pounded in her ears. Her vision blurred.
“Merck.” She rasped his name as his rhythm quickened. She scratched her nails across his back with a shiver.
“Jason,” he corrected. “Out here. You and me. It’s Jason. Say it. Say it while you’re coming.”
“Ja—” Her body exploded.
“Shh,” he soothed, keeping her on edge with clever twists of his fingers. “My beautiful witch.”
He lifted his head, giving her the full impact of his blissed-out eyes. She skated her fingers around his rib cage and down to the bulge in his pants. With a gentle tug, the zipper of his fly opened. His body tensed beneath her touch when she freed him. He groaned.
No more teasing. With one hand holding her down and the other angling her hips upward, he pushed into her. He felt huge. Her head spun.
“Does it scare you to know you’re stuck with me for however long that may be?” He pushed a little deeper, a little harder.
“No.” Pleasure spiraled as she sought that edge again.
He angled her pelvis to hit all the right spots. “It should.” Every thrust got a little harder, a little rougher as if his self-control was fraying.
The sparkles in her sightline multiplied.
“Is this what you wanted?” he rasped out.
Yes. The word didn’t come, but she did. His entire body shook. Rumbling started in his chest, giving way to a string of words bitten off between fast jerks of his hips. His forehead dropped to rest on her chest as he panted.
She tried to soothe him, but her arms felt too heavy to move.
His lips brushed over her forehead before he rolled the two of them to the side. “You okay?”
“I can’t move.”
“Me neither,” he said, even though he did.
His hands were gentle as he eased her panties back into place and pulled her dress closed.
“You won’t die. You can’t,” she whispered.
“Too many reasons say I will.”
“None of this means anything if you’re not here.”
He cradled the back of her head. “I wish I could promise what you want to hear, but maybe all I can give you is me right now. If we’re destined, that means maybe I’m just supposed to give you whatever kid you need and that’s it.”
“That’s not what I want. I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
He shuddered where her hands touched him.
She said, “If you can’t be here, then neither can I. I need you.” She fanned his face with her hands and kissed him. “You’re not an evil person. The gods will see that.”
“You name a sin, any sin, darlin’, and I’ve done it. I’ve lied, stolen, and cheated. I’ve treated women and men like shit. I’ve killed so many I can’t even keep count anymore. With those deaths came collateral damage. I’ve caused too many to die, which was my fault especially in the beginning when I first became the Enforcer.”
“Are you trying to scare me away or convince yourself you deserve to die?”
He gazed upward. Birds flew in lazy circles above them, looking for a meal on the exposed sandbar. The wind carried the sound of the sea as the boat rocked with the small waves. “I’ve been rationalizing my impending death for a long time. Me dying makes sense. Your dying doesn’t. You haven’t done anything to deserve this kind of end.”
His aura swirled with sadness. “I think you being forced to find the Trident is about me.”
“You think it’s your fault someone a continent away shoved a bespelled sword in my stomach which somehow linked me to the Trident?”
“I’m beginning to think it probably was.”
“Whether or not it does, right now, this feels right.” She snuggled closer to him.
He slid his hand over her nape to twine his fingers in her hair. “It is. This is where we belong. If I could give you every day like this, I would.”
She fell back against the boat with a grin. “You’re so stubborn.”
“What?” His forehead wrinkled, confused.
She rolled back toward him, smiling. “Those three little words won’t kill you.”
He grinned.
“God, you’re annoying.” She punched his shoulder.
“I’m not sure we’re at a three-little-words point in our relationship. We haven’t known each other like this long enough.”
They rested in silence for a while.
He suggested, “Let’s walk on the sandbar before the tide comes in.”
She hopped off the boat, her feet landing in the soft sand and knew deep warm water. As they walked in silence, the warm, dark sand squished through her toes.
“I might not be here tomorrow. This is as real as it gets.”
She didn’t reply. Couldn’t. No Merck. For her. For anyone, anymore.
Him gone? Her palms sweated. Her heart beat so hard she thought it’d bounce right out of her rib cage. A world in which he didn’t breathe or laugh or fight…
This was worse than someone showing up on her doorstep to inform her he’d died. At least there was finality with that, even though no less devastating. This was letting him go like sending a soldier into war, only the outcome seemed certain to be a coffin coming back.
“Okay?” He squeezed her hand. His bright blue eyes trapped hers. The hard expression that tightened his face reminded her he wasn’t just Merck the man, but he was the Enforcer. Tough. Stubborn. And totally ready to face whatever manner of weird magic might be thrown his way.
“Okay.”
No, not okay. Not even close.
Why couldn’t she have a normal life? Two people love each other, get married, and then everything was all roses, puppies, and happy days.
This was real life. It sucked.
“Before I go, I’m going to try to negotiate about the Trident for you with whomever presents my judgment.” Birds squawked overhead. He glanced upward. “It’s time. We have to return to shore.”
The ride in was quiet. The closer they got to land, the more her nerves drummed up. She held his hand tighter, although she wanted to wrap her arms around him and never let go.
Merck tied the boat to his dock, smooth and efficient. Not a wasted movement. He helped her onto the dock. Her arms wound around his neck to kiss him as if it were the last time she’d get the chance.
“I love you,” she said, getting lost in the deep blue of his eyes.
“I won’t forget it.” His mouth turned into that annoying grin. He enjoyed torturing her. She’d get the words out of him eventually.
He turned toward the house but held out his hand to halt her.
“What is it?” she asked.
His sudden stillness sent her natural alarms shrieking.
“Run for the trees. Go as fast as you can. Don’t look back. Get across the creek. If it’s too high where you end up, then run toward the ocean and it’ll get shallower.” He glanced down at her. “Hurry. You promised.”
Her heart beat hard as she gauged the distance to the trees. “What’s here?”
“Something evil.”