Love for a memory, p.28
Love for a Memory, page 28
Sin stopped by the door, looking back at her with an expression of sadness on his face that did not come with an explanation. “You’re going to be alright, Sandy.” His voice seemed to move through her, as if it was changing something within her irrevocably, but not violently. “Not today, and maybe not for a while, but eventually, you will be alright, and so will Travis.”
She didn’t look back at him as he spoke, and through the massive wall of glass her eyes fixed on the lake off in the distance. If it was peaceful, maybe she could be too, eventually. “I hope so.”
Thirteen
Two days passed in a blur for Zeke and Sophia, stuck in their hotel room by the price they were both paying, Zeke for getting caught and Sophia for healing him afterward. Her paralysis set in a few hours after she sedated Zeke. He could barely move himself, but he held her still form against him, looking down into her eyes that were the only sign she was still alive at all.
A day passed into night as the two of them rested in each other’s arms, sleep overcoming them at different intervals. When Sophia opened her eyes again, her paralysis was gone, at least for the moment, and there was light coming in the curtains across the room.
The clock on the bedside table read 11:14 AM, with “MON” lit up in angry red letters beneath the time. Across the room, she could hear the light sound of fingers on a keyboard, with the occasional curse in one of a hundred languages whispered into the otherwise perfect silence of the room.
Sophia’s body felt sore from not being able to move for so long, but she was grateful she was able to move again at all. She couldn’t help but smile as soon as she saw Zeke at his computer. She wasn’t really sure how his laptop had shown up, since she’d hardly had time to collect anything in her haste to get to him, but she could only assume that Sin had come through for them. “Looks like Sin brought your computer. Did you see him here?”
“No, this was your brother, actually. Who is staying in a room on the far side of the hotel with Maria and the Porter brothers. There’s a three-on-one I’d pay not to see.” He got up from his computer as soon as he saw that she was awake, and headed over to sit on the side of the bed with her. “I’m not gonna ask how you feel. I imagine that’s a pretty stupid question at this point. But you picked a hotel with a decent shower, since I imagine you want one right about now.”
“I was thinking about the hot tub, actually. I feel alright, just a little sore. A body isn’t meant to get used to paralysis.” She sat up slowly and smiled as she reached out to touch his arm. He looked better, and she was grateful for it. “You don’t look nearly as mangled. That’s a good thing.”
“I imagine I have the rest of the covenant and you and your paralysis to thank for that.” He glared down at her, but he leaned down and kissed her once. He went for her to start the hot tub filling with the water as hot as it could go. “I told Darius you’d call him as soon as you were up, so a few hours from now when you remember, just drop him a line to let him know you didn’t die.”
He was walking with a limp and he still had marks of scratches and scars all over his arms and neck, but at least he wasn’t completely a bleeding mess anymore. “There’s food in the fridge, also courtesy of your brother, whenever you feel up to eating anything.”
“Sounds like he’s being exceptionally nice.” She said with obvious hesitation, since it was difficult to remember the last time her brother wasn’t yelling at her. “Are you sure he didn’t poison the food?”
“I ate about three hours ago, and given the general composition of most common poisons, if he had slipped me something, I would have been feeling it by now.” He went to the fridge and grabbed a coke before handing it to her as he helped her sit up.
“Thanks.” She opened it and took a few sips. It really felt nice to actually handle her own body again, instead of feeling trapped inside of it. Once she set the coke aside, she got up with his help and started to undress so that she could get into a nice, warm jacuzzi as quickly as possible. “So what are you working on?”
“I was patched into my system back at home, did a sweep on travel arrangements for the last forty-eight hours. There’s a few red flags, but nothing I’ve been able to get a fix on yet. I’m sure after we skipped out, Amsterdam would’ve sent in reinforcements. Just wanted to put a few faces to suspicions.” He helped her undress as well, though it was more because she was so weak than anything sexual, even though she could see him checking her out every chance he got. “I was wondering how long you’d be under.”
“I was too, trust me. I didn’t trap them for much longer than twenty minutes, so I paid quite a price for it. My suggestion would be to avoid temporary paralysis as a pact.” Once she was finally undressed, she walked over to the tub and slid in slowly, groaning in pleasure as soon as she was sitting in the hot water. “I really should talk to Darius about what we’re going to do from here. I know the Head Bitch of Hunters put a hit on my head, so I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go back to Vegas.”
“Funny story about that, actually.” He started undressing so he could get in with her. “When I got back on my system, I still had a trace running to follow my car, accumulating server info so I knew where to delete footage. It got picked up yesterday, headed north toward Reno, and I wasn’t the first one into the feed. I lost it in Reno, but for now, it looks like somebody noticed it parked outside the coffee shop overnight and jacked it.”
“Unfortunately for them, they’re not going to like who tracks them down.” She sank a little lower in the water, but she moved close to him once he joined her in the water. “Still, I know they’re going to keep their eyes on Vegas. And I’m sure Darius would appreciate it if I laid low for once.”
“What are you thinking, extended Tahoe vacation? Because that didn’t work out so well this last time.” He turned the jets on to massage their strained muscles and pulled her into his lap, holding her gently against him since he didn’t want to hurt her. If she’d taken on a share of his injuries, he knew she’d be hurting just as much as he was.
“No, I was thinking we could go out west for a while or something.” Sophia slid into his lap easily, but she turned herself around so she was facing him. It was easier to converse when she wasn’t staring at a wall across the room. As soon as she was facing him, though, she leaned in to kiss his shoulder. “You like the beach, right? We could be Californians for a few months.”
“Fine by me. I’ve never been to California.” He cupped some of the hot water in his hand and brought it up to run over her bare shoulders to warm her. “I can start looking for real estate from here if you like, or if you want to go home for a few days and get everything together, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“I’m sure we can have our things shipped.” She slid in even closer to him as her legs wrapped around him. She ran her fingers across his face and across some of the marks left behind by his torturers. Honestly, she hoped that Travis and Cassandra’s own people would get rid of them for failing to keep her a second time. “I’m sorry they got to you. Especially now that I know they were just trying to get to me. I don’t think you’re paying much attention to how dangerous I am.”
“You can’t fault me for being distracted by everything else about you, can you?” His hands ran over her legs and massaged every inch of her that he could reach, which, at the moment, was all of her, and he liked it that way. “It sounds like you took a lot from them. You were saying something about that before I passed out. A few months in California sounds like just what Darius will probably agree we need right now, to sort through it all.”
“I took more than a decade of memories from the woman.” She said without regret, especially because she knew, intimately, what the woman had put Zeke through. Though she hated having those particular memories, it made her feel justified for what she had done. “You’ll be able to do a lot with the information, I’m sure. I hope you’re right, that Darius will agree. Even though I’m sure he’s eager to have you back as soon as possible. You keep everything running smoothly.”
“You two managed to run things pretty smoothly before I came along. Though your brother, for all the completely justifiable terror he inspires in the world around him, has always been absolute shit with computers. I don’t know how the man survived the last century, I truly don’t.”
He leaned back against the side of the tub and held her against him in a lingering kiss, the jets massaging along both her thighs on either side of him. “As for me, I can work from wherever we are with no problem, and Darius won’t have to deal with running into me all the time, which I’m kind of excited about at the moment. Since I’m pretty sure he wants to disfigure me just for being in,” he moved his hips once beneath her eloquently, “these kinds of positions with you.”
“I think he blames me for the current situation. I don’t think he thinks you would make a move on me, or else you probably would have done it sooner than six months ago.” She smiled and leaned in to kiss his cheek. “We’re not doing anything inappropriate. We’re practicing good hygiene.”
“Mmmm…” he ran his hands over her chest once to her neck as he pushed her hair back over her shoulders. “Very good hygiene.”
She laughed softly but his attention to her body made it hard to laugh about anything. “I was trying to, anyway, before you got in with me. Did you plan this?”
“Hey, you’re the one who rented a room with a hot tub. It’s your evil plan I’m going with, here, not mine.” His hands started massaging her back as his lips returned to hers.
Sophia was grateful for his massage, intensifying her kisses so every time he planned to pull away, he was held in by her lips. Her hands slid underneath the water to settle on his sides as her core teased his cock. “I was acting like a celebrity for privacy. That’s all.”
“If you define celebrity as someone who is celebrated, then you’re certainly a celebrity to me.” His hands dipped below the surface of the water again as she slid against him, and he yanked her into another kiss. “One caveat about California. I suddenly require that whatever house we live in has a hot tub.”
“That seems like a reasonable request. Even though I think it makes you a little too relaxed.” Sophia slid her hand up the length of him slowly, almost too slowly, but she savored every touch. Not being able to move on her own for a time made her appreciate what her body could do when it wasn’t paralyzed. “I can’t believe I almost lost you.”
She could feel him shiver in response to her grip on him, but he wasn’t hurrying anything along either. He savored the feel of her there with him again. “It’s amazing what the Voice offers us in times like that.” His hands roamed over her back as she stroked him slowly, his lips never leaving hers except to speak. “I’ve never actually killed anyone before. Not personally. Though I’ve assisted on a few with Maria and the twins. But every time I got close to dying, that was the price it required. Take a life to save my own when it shouldn’t be saved. I would’ve done it, too, if it had asked too many more times. I would’ve done whatever I had to do to get back to you. I’m stubborn like that.”
“Even though you don’t really remember me?” Her lips trailed down to his neck and shoulder, kissing her way along his skin as her hand stroked him under the water. She held firmly to him as her pace increased, and she loved feeling him harden with every stroke.
“I remember enough.” One of his hands went down her chest and between her legs as she handled him. His fingers trailed along the center of her, his hand hot against her clit.
“I remember how you’re the one person in the universe who actually takes all the shit I throw at you and asks for seconds. I remember you wanting to go off and deal with these Hunters on your own because you didn’t want anyone else put in harm’s way. I remember a damn fine lunch you made me and just how damn fine you looked doing it. I remember waking you up in the middle of the night, and I remember you coming after me to save my ass.” His fingers teased her insistently as he smiled, shivering under her fingers around his cock. “I remember enough.”
She gasped softly against his lips as his fingers worked up an incredible distraction. Her hand slowed, but she still held him firmly for a moment until she bucked against his hand, silently begging for more. “You also remember…exactly what you’re…doing.”
“Some things you just don’t forget.” He let her rock her hips against him for a moment before he pulled her in to close the distance between them and slid himself inside her slowly. To his knowledge, he’d never had sex in a hot tub before, but the slow pace both of them needed at the moment was about all that they could manage under the circumstances. He certainly didn’t mind taking his time with her.
Sophia wrapped her arms around his neck and kept the pace slow as her hips took most of the control over the situation. The heated water made everything more relaxing, and she appreciated the less-than-frantic sex between them. Every feeling, every kiss was concentrated, and it felt more like making love than anything they’d done before. Every time he filled her completely, she trembled.
“This…This is hot.” She whispered into his ear, though he could feel her quickened breath against his skin.
“You,” he corrected with a shaky breath, his hands gripping her waist beneath the water so that he could feel her riding him. He let her have as much control as she wanted, as usual, even as he thrust up into her from time to time to give a shock to both their senses. “You…are the hot one here.” As she took him into her completely one more time, he wrapped his arms around her back to hold her there against him with a kiss accompanied by a moan that hummed through their bodies. “And you’re mine, god help me. Just like I’m yours.”
She devoured his lips as the hum of his moan rippled through her body. It wouldn’t take much more to drive her over the edge, and the suspense he created by holding her still was quickly shattered as soon as he made the smallest flicker of movement inside of her. Sophia groaned loudly against his lips and trembled as her orgasm tore through every part of her body.
The slow pace continued between them as he listened to her cry out over and over, loving every sound he wrung from her body. He relished the way her body gripped him in the midst of her own much-needed ecstasy. When his own climax finally came, he crushed her against him painfully, driving himself deep inside her as he gasped against her neck. Sweat flowed down their faces as the steam rose up around them.
Zeke never imagined himself being with someone and actually staying with them, at least not since he’d received the Mark. But with Sophia, he couldn’t imagine anything else. Even with a huge part of his life missing from his memories, he knew she was everything he wanted. Everything he would ever need. “Maybe…I’ll just buy a hot tub company. Just to be on the safe side.”
Sophia laughed softly as she gripped tightly to his body. Her fingers ran along the back of his neck against his wet hair. “That sounds good.” She tilted her head back slightly to look into Zeke’s eyes. They really were going to figure everything out, despite the damage her pact had inflicted upon them. After believing they were truly over, she couldn’t be happier to be so wrong. “Just don’t spend a lot of time in the warehouse. You’d get so distracted by the ones with flaws that soon the business wouldn’t have anything to sell.”
“The only time I’ll spend in the warehouse will be to pick out ours. If they can sell the others for a profit, more power to them.” He kissed her again and slowly leaned her back away from him in the water. He supported her body as her hair dipped into the water and washed away the beaded sweat from her shoulders and his. “I only get distracted by hot tubs with you, as of now. It’s a new rule of mine, hope you like it.”
“I think I do.” His tongue on her breasts felt as intoxicating as ever, and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take before she fell apart entirely. “I don’t care what rules you make up, as long as I get to stay with you. I have no problem with your need for specific boundaries.”
“Specific boundaries? What are you talking about?” He was confused but still kissing her before he finally slid her away enough to pull out of her and settle her on his thighs.
“You told me once that you didn’t think we could ever move in together because I desperately need to consolidate my shoe collection, because I have far too many bathroom necessities, and because I often steal the blanket at night whenever we stay together somewhere.”
“Hm.” He grinned as he rested his arms along the sides of the tub. “Well, bigger closet, bigger bathroom, that’s two problems solved. Bigger blanket might help with the third one, but you’re right about that, you did steal the blanket that one night at Sin’s place. That one we might have to fight about.”
“You also said that you weren’t sure you could stand being with someone who knew…” She slid her hands up his sides seductively until she got to a spot just below his armpit and he flinched instinctively at the ticklish spot. “Your vulnerabilities.”
“Okay, that was an act of war, and neither of us are in a state to fight right now.” He grabbed her hands tightly, though she was stronger than him.
Sophia grinned and kissed him again as he held her hands. “Alright, alright. We’ll both heal up, and then we can resume the war.” She kissed the side of his neck and before she slid away slowly. “Come on, let’s finish up. Darius is going to come knocking soon, and that would be awkward.”
“I don’t know.” As she moved away, he ran his hands through his hair and over his face to remove the last of the sweat he’d worked up. “The beating to follow would be almost worth the look on his face, and having just come off a beating, that means a lot.”
“He’s not going to beat you. I would seriously injure him if he even thought about touching you.” She ran her fingers through her hair as she dunked it once more, then sighed in contentment as her body felt more relaxed. She didn’t linger quite like he did, though, and she stepped out to get their towels. Without saying it directly, he’d actually agreed to move in together. That was a big step for them, but it didn’t seem so big after his near-death experience. Once he stepped out, she gave him a good look-over as she wrapped up her towel around her hair. “I’m going to call him real quick just to keep him in his room a while longer. You start looking at houses.”
