Jim was not leaving the pair of them unprotected. As he stood with his hands on the outside of the woman’s cute little house, he passed some energy from his core into the structure itself, the transfer creating a brief flare of light … along with a protective barrier that would warn him if the demon, or any of her types, crossed its threshold. It would also inform him if that man or woman took off as well.
He was so over sleeping on her couch, however. It was five a.m., well, nearly six, actually, and he wanted to go home to catch an hour of sleep, have a shower, food up. The truth was, he was dizzy from lack of rest and nutrition, and as much as he was committed to this round of the war, his years at XOps had told him that he was a danger to himself and others if he got as worn-out as he was.
Not that he would necessarily have been sleeping at home.
Goddamn Devina. Just when he thought she’d nailed him for the last time? She popped a new and different kind of shit.
Unbelievable, he thought for the hundredth time as he removed his palms from the clapboard and stepped back.
To his eyes, there was a light field all around the home, starting at the ground line and rising up past the first and second floors to run over the hip roof.
Tight as a tick.
Ghosting home, he walked up the front steps of the mansion and reached for the door. As he pulled it open, no squeaks … and no creaks as he went down to the kitchen and cracked the refrigerator. Lots of food, now, and he ate the remnants of that beef stew Sissy had cooked cold and standing up.
The stuff was really good even under those circumstances.
His next move was to go up and hit the shower. Funny, the water tasted different as he opened his mouth under the spray—it used to be copper and dirt; now it was like it came from some kind of spring, a sparkling clean rush that danced over his tongue and down his throat.
Hard to believe that Sissy had managed to scrub up the inside of the pipes, too, but he’d take it.
Stepping out from the water, he wrapped a towel around his hips, picked up his clothes and went into the hall. It was impossible not to think of her down even farther, past those closed doors, lying in between her sheets.
He wanted her in his bed. But he was willing to bet his left nut that he wasn’t going to be lucky two nights in a row—not when he was getting back this late.
Cursing, he pushed his way into his room, dumped his duds on the dirty pile, and draped the towel on a hook on the back of the door. Then he walked barefooted across—
“You’re home.”
His steps faltered as he closed his eyes in relief and gratitude. “You’re here.”
“Where else would I be?”
The world went for a little spin, the pitch-black room whirling around him. “Lemme get some sweats on. Hold up.”
Throwing a hand out, he navigated his way across to the clean pile and bent down—
As light blinded him, he jacked upright and went for his cock, covering it with both hands. “Clothes—need clothes.”
Fuck him, he thought as he glanced over. Sissy was sitting up in the bedding, blond hair tangled, cheeks pink like she was a little warm from having been curled up. The white T-shirt she had on was entirely modest … except when the letch part of him began to speculate what was under it.
She seemed totally shocked as she looked at him. “I figured you … couldn’t … see…”
While her voice drifted, he could feel her eyes on his body—and she was looking at just about everything he had. “Let me get dressed first,” he told her roughly.
But she didn’t move, and that meant he couldn’t: She’d caught him on the side view, so if he dropped his hands to pick up his sweats, he was either going to flash her his ass, or give her a lateral full monty.
Which, considering how he was hung? Would still give her a hell of an eyeful.
“Sissy, look away, would you.”
God, it was impossible not to remember the last time he’d said those words to her … down below, after Devina had worked him over and the remnants of the abuse were all over him.
Now he was ordering that for a different reason: He still had her best interests at heart, one hundred percent. The problem was, his body wasn’t connecting all that well to his brain at the moment.
Because he had the horrible conviction that she might, possibly, like what she saw.
She certainly wasn’t screeching away in horror. In fact, it seemed as though she were—
“You’re beautiful,” she whispered.
Jim closed his eyes. Prayed for self-control. “Listen, you need to—”
“Let me see you …” She cleared her throat. “Please, just let me…”
“Sissy, it’s not going to happen. We can’t
“I got cheated, Jim. I was taken too soon—don’t make me spend an eternity wondering what it’s like.”
For the second time in however many hours, he found himself thinking, She couldn’t possibly have just said that to me.
The groan that rattled up through his chest was an expletive if he’d ever heard one.
“Why do you think I’ve come in here every night?” He could hear the sheets shifting on the bed as if she were sitting up even further. “I’m hoping … praying … that you’ll…”
His breath was starting to get harsh, his body getting waaaaay far ahead of him—and the reaction was as strong as it was quick. Which suggested something he really hated to look at too closely: Yeah, he’d gotten her out to save her. But he also wanted her.
Now, to be fair, the latter had been a very recent development. It hadn’t started until he’d gotten a sense of how much she’d aged down below—he’d never been into chippies before, and he sure as hell wasn’t starting now.
She was a woman, though. After all she’d been through, she was a child no longer.
“Are you going to make me say it?” Her voice grew small. “Jim?”
“Don’t ask me this. For the love of God, don’t ask me this.”
“Why, Jim?”
He really wished she’d stop using his name. “I can’t … it’s not right.”
“Why?”
Releasing one of his hands, he scrubbed his face. “You know why.”
“Are you in love with someone else?”
Strange question. “No.”
“Do you … want me? Jim?”
More rustling, and Jesus, he could just imagine the sheets falling down to her hips, pooling around her waist. Except in his OMG fantasy, she wasn’t wearing anything more than he was, and her breasts were—
“You’re going to kill me,” he moaned.
“That’s not what I want to do right now.”
“Sissy—”
“Who else can I go to? Who else is there? If not you … then who?”
Well, now, put like that? It made him want to castrate the balance of the male population in Caldwell. Make that New York State as a whole … or maybe the eastern seaboard.
Do not look over at her, he told himself. You look at her once and you’re—
The sound of her crying softly brought his head around. Oh, fuck him. She’d put her face in her hands and was trying to keep her dignity as much as she could.
“You don’t want me,” Jim heard himself say. “Not really. You just think you do.”
At that, she dropped the shield of her palms. “Don’t tell me what I feel or think. You don’t know me like
