“Her people, your people, I don’t give a Light’s damn.” Arim glared, his patience coming to an end. “Just get it the hell done. If you need me, cast a beckoning spell. I’ll be circling in the between.”
With a whisper, he cast himself into the pathways between worlds, seeking the strands of Cadmus’ signature elemental earth energy. As he flowed with life’s ever-present magic, he caught stray bits of Dark, icy tendrils of feminine energy that instantly called Lexa Van Nostren to mind.
Startled to be thinking of her again, when he should be focused on his nephew, he shook free of the woman and zeroed in on Cadmus. When he finally found the wayward Earth Lord, questions would be answered. No more games, no more stand-offs. He needed information about the Djinn only Cadmus could tell him, and Arim intended to get it, one way or the other.
“Come on, Ellie, you know you can’t stay mad at me forever.” Cadmus grinned, but Ellie couldn’t see past the haze of anger to his charm. Clutching the strap of her purse, she hurried into the nearest coffee shop and ordered a latte with a double shot of espresso.
“I cannot believe you announced to everyone in the bursar’s office that the only reason Jane Rascoll took the new teaching position is because she’s probably sleeping with the head of the department!”
He arched one arrogant, black brow. “It’s what you were thinking. What of it?”
“What of it?” She poked him in the chest, gratified by the scowl that replaced his grin. “I was thinking it. I never said it aloud. Several of the students that were in there know me. They’re going to tell Jane and the professor what I said.”
“But I said it.” He actually had the nerve to look puzzled.
“Are you really that ignorant, or are you just playing at stupid?” He scowled, but before he could speak, she cut him off. “This is not a large school, and the English department is a tightly knit group. No one knows who you are here, Prince Big Mouth. But they know me. Since you were all over me like a cheap suit, they’ll know who put those words in your mouth.”
His brow furrowed. “Cheap suit?” Glancing down at his plain black t-shirt and denims, he shook his head. “I hadn’t realised this passed for a suit.”
She glared at him and muttered a thank you to the girl with her coffee. Swallowing the potent brew, she could only pray her day would grow better. As it was, her patience had all but frayed to nothing, her bright career seemed in the toilet unless she moved to bum-diddly university far away from here, and her head was beginning to throb, she feared, due to the vivid sunlight.
Tuning back in to Cadmus, she noted the feminine speculation directed their way. She saw him flirting with the girl behind the register and cursed him under her breath. Leaving him to fend for himself, she found a table outside and sat, watching the passersby while deliberately subjecting herself to the sun, refusing to be anything but a normal woman.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger ran like a mantra through her head.
“What the hell are you doing?” Cadmus growled in her ear and yanked her hard to her feet.
“Hey, you just made me drop my drink!” She watched with no small sorrow as her latte disappeared down a nearby drain.
“You intentionally put yourself in pain. This is unacceptable.”
Trying to ignore the pounding behind her eyes, she pulled back, only to find Cadmus refused to let her go. Not wanting to cause a bigger scene than they were already stirring in front of half a dozen mooning women, she smiled through her teeth and let the royal busybody haul her into the shade of an adjacent building.
Ripping her arm away, she lowered her eyes and rubbed at the sore lids. “Thank you.” “I could have done that myself, Cadmus.”
“Ah, I love the way my name ripples off your thoughts so lovingly when you’re angry.” He stroked her arm, causing shocks of warmth to shoot through her system. Immediately, her blood heated as he sent her beads of his energy to soothe her hurt.
Unfortunately, he’d taken her anger away with her pain. “I don’t need your help with this.”
“Little Djinn. So angry all the time. You don’t want anyone to help you.”
She watched several young professionals eating up the sidewalk with their three-inch heels and designer suits. She wished she needed to be somewhere and in a hurry. “I’m five-eleven, Cadmus. I’m not little. I’m an independent woman—a woman used to making her own decisions in this world.”
“Then I’m doubly glad you gifted me with your body not so long ago. The memories keep me more than warm at night.” He leaned closer, subtly working her with his nearness, with his earthy scent that made her want to melt. His lips touched the rim of her ear as he whispered, “Do your dreams haunt you as much as mine haunt me? I can’t stop seeing you naked, over me, taking me into your body.”
“That’s enough.” To her horror, she found herself breathing hard. She glanced at him and felt marginally better to find him in the same state. The rigid evidence of his desire pressed against his blue jeans.
“That’s right, baby. I want you. I’d take you right here, right now, if you’d only say the word.”
Her lips parted before she thought the better of it. “But I thought you wanted me to beg.”
His gaze caught and stayed on her mouth. She licked her lips, and he groaned. “Ellie, with little effort, you could have me begging you.”
The thought brought forth the wicked streak she’d been suppressing since he’d showed at her door. “Is that right?” She projected her vivid recollection of the last time she’d trailed her mouth down his frame, licking at the tantalising skin on his perfect body. Nibbling her way towards that most impressive part of him.
“Stop,” he said hoarsely. “I swear, if you’ll teleport us to your home, I’ll get down on my knees and apologise for anything you want me to.”
She started to smile when his words penetrated. “Teleport us to my home?” The idea he still thought of her more as a Djinn than a regular woman stopped her in her tracks. Despite the desire coursing through her, she resolved to avoid going down that road with Cadmus again, and start instead with a fresh, platonic slate. Swallowing around a dry mouth, she forced herself to grin. “Look, Cadmus, I was just teasing. We have more errands to run. Let’s get started, okay?”
Deliberately keeping space between them, she invited him to accompany her downtown with a polite smile and friendly chatter, her mind a careful blank. She could feel his will trying to force its way through, but she remained firm. The sexual tension between them was thick enough to cut with a knife, and even the cabbie who dropped them off on Pine Street gave them a second glance before leaving.
“I really have my work cut out for me,” Cadmus muttered. He sighed. “Fine. Show me your world, Ellie. I know little more of Seattle than Outpour, Greenlake and Mt.Rainier. If I don’t see it now, I may not get a chance before Tanselm beckons me home.”
The realisation Cadmus was not in his homeworld, was in fact hiding from a powerful enemy, of whom some Djinn were a part, made her feel a moment’s compassion. Then a pretty woman eyeballed him as she passed, and Cadmus openly returned her smile.
All bets were off.
“Great, Cadmus. I’m so glad we can at least be friends.” She smiled, syrupy with as much sincerity as she could muster, considering she wanted to send that flirty woman a bouquet of knuckles for breakfast. “Today is going to be so much fun.”
Shoe shopping, clothes shopping, and more shoe shopping. She’d teach him to ogle strange women in the midst of an argument.