He’d just had the thought when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced to the side and down. He was lying on his back between the two RVs with his feet toward the back of the RVs and the midway, and his head toward the front of the RVs and the back lot where the bunkhouses were. The movement he’d glimpsed was several pairs of feet, maybe a half a dozen, walking along the back of the RV. Within half a dozen steps the owners of those feet would be at the opening of the space between the two RVs and able to see them.
Marcus moved quickly then, shifting to the side to slide under the RV that Divine was supposed to use, and dragging her with him through the dirt. He tried not to think about what the action must be doing to her new clothes, more concerned with getting them both under the cover of the vehicle before they could be spotted. And they would have been spotted for certain, he thought grimly as the six pairs of feet turned down the row between the RVs to make their way to the back lot.
“These are new,” someone said, the words slightly slurred.
A group of the young carnies returning from celebrating the end of a long workday, Marcus thought and didn’t doubt that was the case. He didn’t know where they got the energy though. They worked like dogs all day in the heat and should have been sacked out, exhausted in their beds when midnight came and the carnival closed.
“Maybe Divine got a new trailer and is back,” another voice suggested. The first had been female. This one was male.
“That’d be awesome,” another male voice said. “Divine’s hot.”
“Hot?” another female demanded in sulky tones. “She’s old. She has to be at least twenty-five.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m twenty-four, so I guess I’m old too. Too old for you at least. What are you anyway? Twelve?” he taunted as they passed the spot where Marcus and Divine lay.
“Eighteen,” the girl snapped with irritation. “Bob and Madge would hardly hire a twelve-year-old.”
“Whatever,” the fellow laughed, his voice growing fainter.
Marcus tipped his head to watch the group reach the front of the RV and turn left to walk along the back lot. He waited a moment, and then glanced around, checking under the RVs in all directions to be sure no one else was approaching. Only then did he slide out from under the RV, taking Divine with him again. Once he had them both in the lane between vehicles, Marcus quickly stood and then stooped to scoop up Divine.
She wasn’t sleeping. Divine didn’t even stir. She was definitely unconscious, which was another sign of life mates; they usually passed out during or after life mate sex. The thought made him cuddle her closer against his chest. She was his. His life mate, his partner, the light that would stave off the darkness over the next two millennia or more of his life. She would be his reason for rising in the morning and she would be why he went to bed at night at peace with his world . . . so long as she wasn’t Basha Argeneau.
That thought made Marcus frown. She couldn’t be Basha. She was Divine.
“Divine,” he murmured softly, tasting the name on his lips. She had certainly chosen the right name for herself. She was divine, in every way.
Marcus was still smiling at that thought as he carried her around the RV to the door halfway down the passenger side. This RV was not custom-made. It was your standard setup. Rather than a door at the back, the door was on the side and led directly into a combined kitchenette and lounge, though the kitchenette was on the left and the lounge on the right with a curtain that could be drawn between the two as it had been in Divine’s RV. Beyond the kitchenette was where the bedroom was, and behind it, running from one side of the RV to the other, was the tiny bathroom with a shower at one end, the toilet at the other, and a sink in the middle.
Divine had parked the RV next to the fencing around a ride called the Zipper. She’d parked it with the back end a little farther out than the back end of Vincent’s RV so that the side door was visible and easily accessible where the fence around the Zipper curved back.
Marcus stopped at the door and shifted Divine a bit to be able to open it, but paused and glanced around at the sound of footsteps rushing toward him.
“What happened?” Jackie gasped as she reached them. Her worried gaze slid over Divine. “Was she attacked again?”
Marcus grimaced. He supposed that depended on how you looked at it. He certainly hadn’t been overly gentle or careful in what had passed between them. Although he didn’t think it would be classified as an attack, unless you wanted to say she attacked him too. They’d both behaved like animals really . . . and it had been awesome!
“She’s fine,” he assured her as Jackie pulled the screen door out of the way and reached to open the inner wooden door for him. “She just . . . fainted.”
“Does she need blood?” Jackie asked with concern, following him as he carried Divine inside.
“No. She’s fine,” he repeated as she flipped on the lights. “A little rest and she’ll be as right as rain.”
“But what—?”
The way she stopped so abruptly made him glance her way to see that she was staring wide-eyed down at Divine. Marcus followed her gaze, biting his lip when he saw that Divine’s peasant blouse was still pulled down from when he’d been lavishing her breasts with attention. They were on full view and her nipples were still erect. When Jackie then glanced to his ripped shirt and he switched his own gaze there to see that his own nipples were also still erect, he sighed with resignation.
“Oh,” she said with sudden understanding and then arched an eyebrow as she looked them both over again more fully, taking in their filthy state. “Outside in the dirt?”
Marcus grimaced and merely said, “We’re definitely life mates. One kiss and we both lost all sense.”
“Yeah.” Jackie sighed the word with a little smile and warned, “It’s going to happen again and again, and don’t think good intentions will stop it. One touch, a kiss . . .” She shrugged helplessly. “You two might as well just lock yourselves up in here for the next year and have fun, because you’ll be useless for anything else.”
“Somehow I don’t think Divine would go for that,” Marcus said dryly, carrying her through the RV to the bedroom at the back.
“No, perhaps not,” Jackie agreed, following, flicking on lights as she went. She paused in the doorway to the bedroom, turned on that light as well, and then watched him set Divine on the bed before saying, “Okay, so . . . then you might want to avoid certain situations.”
Marcus straightened next to the bed and raised an eyebrow. “What situations?”
Jackie pursed her lips and then began to list things off on her fingers. “Public elevators, movie theaters, moving vehicles unless someone else is driving—”
“You’re kidding,” Marcus interrupted with amusement. “Moving vehicles?”
“She’s not kidding,” Vincent said, appearing behind his wife. Slipping his arm around her waist, he tugged her back against his chest and kissed the top of her head before saying, “You haven’t lived until you find yourself flying down the highway at top speed with your life mate bouncing around on your lap, shrieking with pleasure like a crazed baboon.”
Jackie flushed with embarrassment and elbowed her husband in the stomach, making him release her as she muttered, “You were the one shrieking like a crazed baboon.”
“Perhaps I was,” Vincent agreed with a grin as Jackie pushed past him to get out of the confined space.
“I’ve seen your car,” Marcus said dryly. “I wouldn’t think there was enough room in that little Lexus to—”
“It’s a convertible,” Vincent interrupted. “The top was down.”
“Dear God,” Marcus muttered as he got the visual. He was surprised there hadn’t been a pile-up, or a video caught and put on YouTube.