Great-looking group, she thought, and the body language spoke of affection and happy. In front of the arcade, which, she realized by what she could see of it, was a lot bigger than she’d envisioned.
She took the clothes back, pushed them into his hands. “Hurry up and get dressed before I start gnawing on my own hand.”
“Hurry up and get undressed, hurry up and get dressed. Orders, orders.” He sent her an exaggerated smoldering look. “Dominant females make me hot.”
“I’ll see if I can find my whip and chain later.”
“Ah, a brand-new fantasy to explore.”
“Don’t forget to call me ‘Mistress.’ ”
“If you promise to be gentle. By the way, I like the tat.”
“Good-luck charm,” she told him. “If I wear the dragon, the dragon doesn’t wear me. How about yours?” She walked around to tap the letters scrolled over his left shoulder blade. “Teine,” she said.
“It’s pronounced ‘teen,’ not ‘The-ine.’ Old Irish for fire. I guess if I wear the fire, it doesn’t wear me.”
“It just gets to try us both on from time to time. How’d you get that one?” she asked, gesturing to the scar along his left ribs.
“Bar fight in New Orleans.”
“No, seriously.”
“Well, it was, technically, outside the bar. I went down for Mardi Gras one year. Have you ever been?”
“No.”
“Not to be missed.” His hair, still damp from the shower, curled at the collar of the shirt he pulled on. “I was in college, went down with some friends. After the revelry, we hit a bar. This asshole went after this girl. Sort of like the asshole who hassled you, but this one was drunker and meaner, and she didn’t have your style.”
“Few do,” she said with a grin.
“No argument. So, when I suggested he cease and desist, he objected. One thing led to another. Apparently he didn’t like the fact I was kicking his ass in front of witnesses, so he pulled a knife.”
The grin changed to openmouthed shock. “Well, sweet baby Jesus, he
“Not exactly. The knife sort of skimmed along my ribs.” Gull motioned a careless finger over the spot. “He didn’t get much of me, and I had the pleasure of breaking his jaw. The girl was really grateful, so a night well spent.”
He tied his sneakers. “I have a spotted and unruly past.”
“You’re a puzzler.”
“Okay.” He held out a hand. “How about I buy you dinner and a couple of cold beers?”
“I say since meals come with the job, that makes you a cheapskate, but what the hell.”
Later, after Gull proved he did indeed work well horizontally, Rowan gave him a sleepy nudge. “Go home.”
“Nope.” He simply tucked her in against his side.
“Gull, neither of us is what you’d call petite, and this bed isn’t exactly built for two.” Besides, sleeping with a guy was different from sex.
“It worked pretty well so far. We’ll manage. Besides, you saw the jump list. We’re first and second man, first stick. If we get a call, all we have to do is put on the clothes currently strewn all over the floor, and hit it. It’s efficient.”
“So you always sleep with your jump partner for the sake of efficiency.”
“I’m trying it out with you first. Who knows, if it saves enough time, it might become regulation. If we’re clear, do you want to take a run in the morning?”
His hand, trailing lightly up and down her back, felt good—soothing. It was late anyway, she thought, she could make an exception on the sleeping rule this one time. Except she’d already made an exception on the sex, and now...
“Are we going to keep doing this?” she wondered.
“Okay, but you’re going to have to give me about twenty minutes.”
“Not tonight. I think we’ve rung the bell on that.”
“Oh, you mean as a continuing series.” He gave her ass a light, friendly pat. “Definitely.”
“If we continue the series, there’s a rule.”
“Of course there is.”
“If I sleep with a guy, I don’t sleep with other guys, or sleep with that guy if he’s banging anyone else. If either of us decide someone else looks good, that’s fine. Series over. That one’s firm. No exceptions.”
“That’s fair. One question. Why would I want anybody else when I get to take showers with you?”
“Because people tend to want what they don’t have.”
“I like what I’ve got.” He gave her an easy squeeze. “Ergo, I’m happy to abide by your rule on this matter.”
“Ergo.” She chuckled, closed her eyes. “You’re something else, Gulliver.”
Right then, tucked up with Rowan in bed, an owl hooting dourly in the night and the moon shafting through the window, Gull figured he was exactly who, and where, he wanted to be.
It took less time to burn a body than a forest. An uglier business, but quicker. Still, collateral damage couldn’t be avoided, and probably served as an advantage. She didn’t weigh much, considering, so carrying her up the trail, through the lodgepole pines, wasn’t as hard as it might have been.
The shimmer of moonlight helped light the way—like a sign—and the music of night creatures soothed.
The trail forked, steepened, but the climb wasn’t altogether unpleasant in the cool, pine-scented air.
Better not to think of the unpleasant, of the horror. Better to think of moonlight and cool air and night birds.
In the distance, a coyote called out, high and bright. A wild sound, a
They’d probably come far enough.
The task didn’t take much effort or require too many tools. Just hacking away some dried brush and twigs, soaking them, her clothes. Her.
Don’t think.
Soaking it all with gas from the spare can.
Try not to look at her face, try not to think of what she’d said and done. What had happened. Stick to what had to be done now.
Light the fire. Feel the heat. See the color and shape. Hear the crackle and snap. Then the whoosh of air and flame as that fire began to breathe.
A thing of beauty. Dazzling, dangerous, destructive.
So beautiful and fierce, and
It would purge. Erase her. Send her to hell. She belonged there. The animals wouldn’t get her, tear at her as the dogs had torn at Jezebel. But she’d earned hell.
No more harm, no more threat. No more. In the fire, she would cease to be.
Watching it take her brought a horrible thrill, a bright tingle of unexpected excitement. Power tasted. No tears, no regrets—not anymore.
That thrill, and the rising voice of the fire, followed down the trail while smoke began to climb toward the shimmering moon.
14
For the second time Rowan woke curled up to Gull with her head on his shoulder. This time she wondered
