“Wait!”
Then there was a cry, a thunk, then a thunk, thunk, thunk and dust drifted past my nose like confetti. Jimmy looked at me; I looked at him and we turned.
Sawyer was too busy staking revenants to notice either one of us.
CHAPTER 24
My mouth hung open. Dust stuck to my lips, and I snapped them shut, then made spitting sounds, minus the spit, until the particles sailed away.
“Sawyer to the rescue,” I murmured.
“You live a very full fantasy life.”
“Considering my life, can you blame me?”
Sawyer sawed his way through a few dozen revenants. I’d never seen him so worked up. He appeared truly pissed.
“How did he know we were here?”
I no longer wore the turquoise, which, in light of recent events, was just plain stupid. Except . . . there he was.
Jimmy inched behind me. I glanced over my shoulder with a frown. That wasn’t like him. Usually we were shoving each other as the both of us tried to place ourselves in the path of every danger.
Jimmy pressed his crotch to my bound hands. “Take it off,” he murmured. “Quick. Before there’re more minions to ice than he can handle.”
I returned my gaze to Sawyer. His chest covered with dust, his bare feet made tracks in the mess on the floor as, face fierce, he just kept mowing them down.
More minions than he could handle? I didn’t think that was going to happen. However—
“Now, Lizzy.”
We did need to move along before the Phoenix showed up. Sawyer might be crazy powerful, but who knew what she could do? I’d forced Jimmy to bring back his vampire self; the least I could do was let him use it.
“You can’t kill Sawyer,” I cautioned, fingers fumbling with the button on Jimmy’s jeans, then the zipper.
“I’m sure I can.” His voice was low and a bit hoarse.
I paused, zipper halfway down. “I mean it, Jimmy.”
He cleared his throat. “I won’t be me when I’m like that. I’ll kill anything in my way, so keep him out of it.”
“Fine.” I yanked the zipper the rest of the way down, ignoring Jimmy’s sharply indrawn breath. Then I skimmed my fingertips across his belly; the muscles fluttered beneath his skin. His chest was hard and warm against my shoulders; his breath stirred my hair. Memories flickered.
Ruthie’s kitchen in the middle of the night. Jimmy comes up behind me in the dark. His arms go around me; he presses his lips to my neck, and my heart tumbles.
The image was so sweet and nostalgic, the feelings that went with it so raw, I couldn’t help it, I stroked his stomach, tracing the spike of his hipbone, the dip where it casted inward, the well of his navel and the happy trail that drew me ever lower. I remembered my quip about removing his collar with my teeth. Too bad I didn’t have the time.
The clink of my nails when they tapped the metal made me catch my breath. As I wrapped my fingers around it, around him, he leaped, then began to swell.
Too late I understood what a bad idea touching him had been, because when I tried to remove the cock ring, it was stuck.
“Sanducci,” I said in a low voice. “Get a grip.”
He leaned closer, and his lips brushed my ear, making me shiver. “I think the problem is that you’ve got one.”
I yanked my hand out of his pants. “Think of England or something. Paint chips. Wallpaper swatches.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“Turn it off!” I swatted his swelling erection.
“It’s not that simple. This happens whenever you’re around.”
“I thought you hated me.”
“Hate. Love. Doesn’t matter to that part of me. You touch him and he’s lost.”
That we were talking about his dick with a pronoun was almost as weird as why we were talking about it at all.
“Listen, you have to—”
“Too late,” he murmured, and I glanced up.
Sawyer was right in front of me. I jumped so high I nearly knocked Jimmy’s teeth out when my head thumped his chin. Sawyer grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me toward the door.
“Wait.” I tried to dig in, but with revenant dust all over the floor, I only slid along like a water-skier being towed by a powerboat. “Sawyer. Sheesh. Stop.”
I couldn’t leave. I’d come here for the key, and I didn’t have it yet.
I looked back at Jimmy, whose pants were hanging open and his privates peeking out. He hurried after us, sliding along too in the dust strewn across the wooden floor.
Sawyer swung around, fist pulled back to punch Jimmy in the nose, then paused, gaze first lowering to Jimmy’s crotch, then lifting to my face. “What is wrong with you?” he asked.
“What’s wrong with you?”
He didn’t answer; I hadn’t expected him to.
There was something off about him. He was furious. Furious and Sawyer did not go together. Coldly homicidal maybe. Calmly murderous. Serenely dangerous.
Since he was still touching me, I closed my eyes and opened my mind. He shook me so hard my teeth snapped together, and said, “Stop that!”