“Yes,” Drina murmured, reaching instinctively for the light switch and glancing around with surprise when Harper caught her arm to stop her.
“It’s probably better not to,” he said quietly. “The wiring may have been damaged in the fire. If we turn on the juice, it might spark something and get it going all over again.”
“Oh, of course.” Drina let her hand drop when he released it and shrugged. “It’s probably for the best anyway. It’s doubtful anyone would be watching the house now it’s uninhabitable, but there’s no sense advertising we’re here.”
“No,” he agreed.
Drina glanced around. It was a clear night, dim moonlight creeping through the windows. With their night vision, they didn’t really need the lights anyway.
“Maybe we should collect some clothes too while we’re here,” Harper suggested, bending to slip off his snow-covered boots. “They’ll probably reek of smoke from the fire, but a good wash or three might take care of that.”
“My own clothes,” Drina said on a sigh as she shrugged out of Teddy’s coat and laid it over the radiator. She didn’t mind going without a bra and panties so much, but had spent most of the day tugging up the joggers Stephanie had brought to her. They had a drawstring, but she’d only been able to tighten it so far. The darn things were loose enough they kept dropping to ride her hips rather than staying at her waist, where she would have preferred them.
Harper tossed his own coat over the radiator next to hers and chuckled as she stepped out of Teddy’s overlarge boots without undoing them. He then caught her hand and headed for the curving staircase. “I’m sure Stephanie would appreciate it too. The poor kid has no hips yet and has had to hold her pants up since she put them on.”
“I’ll pack her things too,” Drina murmured, as he led her upstairs. When he reached the landing and turned left rather than right toward the bedroom she shared with Stephanie, she asked, “Where are we going?”
“We’ll start with my clothes and then stop for clothes for you and Stephanie on the way back down,” he announced.
“Or I could gather Stephanie’s and mine while you get yours. It would be faster,” she said with amusement, but Harper shook his head at once.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight until this business is finished and I don’t have to worry about your getting hurt in sudden attacks.”
“But Stephanie isn’t with us,” Drina pointed out gently, as he turned left at the end of the landing to head for the stairwell leading to the third floor.
“No, but you are,” he said at once.
“Yes, but Leonius isn’t interested in me,” she pointed out, and Harper came to a halt and turned to peer at her solemnly.
“Drina, you’re an incredibly vibrant, sexy, and beautiful woman. If he’s been watching us, he’s seen you, and if he’s seen you, he might be tempted to take you as well as Stephanie. Hell, he might even decide not to bother with her and just take you. You’d be incredible breeding stock.”
Drina blinked. That had all been really sweet right up until the bit about her being incredible breeding stock, she decided. That last part just hadn’t sounded as flattering as she suspected he’d meant it to be. Or maybe other women would find it flattering, and she was an oddball for taking umbrage at being talked about like a broodmare.
She opened her mouth to point out that it was unlikely anyone even knew they were in the house, so they should be safe, but paused as she noted that Harper’s gaze had slid past her to the door to Elvi’s room and that a haunted look had entered his eyes.
Frowning, she glanced toward the door and stilled when she noted the dark stain on the hall wall beside it where the paint had been charred. . as if something on fire had leaned or slumped there. Her gaze then dropped to the floor and she saw large charred spaces-two of them, one larger, one smaller. That must have been where Anders and Edward had encountered Harper and Stephanie and doused the flames consuming them, she realized, and released a slow breath.
Turning back, Drina stepped forward and kissed Harper. He remained still under the caress, but she kept at it, nibbling at his closed lips, and then trailing her mouth to his ear, then his neck, her mind working frantically. She liked this house, she liked the town too, and she liked Teddy. She also liked the other life-mate couples she’d met here, but she especially liked Stephanie. Drina wanted to be able to visit the girl here on occasion, but would never inflict that on Harper if coming here would stir bad memories for him. She needed to try to replace his bad memories of the fire with new, more pleasant memories, and this was the only thing she could come up with. Drina wasn’t sure if it would work, but she was going to give it her damnedest, she decided, nipping and kissing his neck as she began to tug his T-shirt upward so she could play her hands over the skin of his stomach and chest.
“Drina?” he said uncertainly as if coming out of a fog.
She lifted her head and kissed him then, relieved when Harper slowly began to kiss her back. Even so, Drina wasn’t sure she’d fully reclaimed him from his ghosts until she slid her hand down to find him through his jogging pants and felt a shaft of pleasure stir between her own legs.
“Let’s go to my room,” he muttered, breaking their kiss and reaching for her hand.
“Next time,” Drina promised, evading his fingers and dropping to her knees, her eyes never leaving his face.
“But-” Harper began, and she saw his gaze flicker to the wall several feet behind her, but then his gaze jerked back to her on a sucked-in breath as she tugged his joggers down and clasped his growing erection. When she took him into her mouth, he let that breath out on a moaned, “Next time.”
Harper woke up crumpled on the hardwood floor with Drina’s head in his lap. He lifted his head to peer at her and smiled faintly, but the smile faded as he peered at the marks on the wall beyond her. He stared at them for a moment, recalling how they had got there, then let those memories fade away and looked at Drina.
He knew exactly what she’d tried to do, and he loved her for it. It had even worked for the most part. At least, Harper thought it had. When he’d first seen the charred mark on the wall, and then the others on the floor, his instinct had been to abandon the idea of getting clothes and rush Drina back downstairs. Or at least go wait for her downstairs while she collected clothes for herself and Stephanie. He’d wanted to be away from it and the bad memories it roused in him.
Now, however, while he wasn’t exactly happy when he looked at them, Harper didn’t feel an immediate need to get away, either.
Drina stirred sleepily, her hand tightening around his shaft, and Harper bit his lip and closed his eyes as the damned thing began to awaken too. Honest to God, he was bloody insatiable where she was concerned. . and short on staying power. Not that new life mates were supposed to have great quantities of that, but seriously, there were things he wanted to do to her that this shared-pleasure business really put a kibosh on. He just couldn’t keep their excitement level down long enough to get to them.
For instance, he wanted to tie her to his bed and kiss and lick his way from the tips of her toes to her nose, and then kiss her as he plunged himself into her. But he doubted he’d make it halfway up her thighs before they were both screaming and fainting.
And that was another thing, Harper thought with disgruntlement. He had never fainted in his life, and while he knew it was this whole life-mate, mind-blowing-sex business, it was still damned demoralizing to be fainting like a breathless virgin at the end of every encounter. And he couldn’t even blame her for exciting him too much or driving him wild with passion until he lost control.