CHAPTER 12
Kade ignored the stabbing burn in his chest as he tried to find a position in the passenger seat that wasn’t as painful. He said nothing as Violet spewed word after word, pouring out her adrenaline and her questions.
“Whoever she is, she hates me. Did you see the way she looked at me, the way she said, ‘You,’ as though I were vermin? Or is that a vermin? Anyway, she wanted me dead. But then she looked at that girl, and you could see she wanted to kill her for no good reason at all. And she was going to enjoy it. What kind of Crescent does that? Would she be considered a Red?”
The car swerved a little with her hand movements, the headlights washing over the yellow line in the center.
“Red Lust makes you crazy,” he managed to say. “I don’t think she was crazy. In fact, it would be better if she were. It’s a lot easier to take out someone in the throes of mindless bloodlust than the ones who just like to kill people.”
He sank into his thoughts. The Carnelian knew about the taser, and not many did. It was a fairly new weapon, conjured by one of the powerful old Deuces on staff after much experimentation. More disturbing, Ferro’s map had a yellow pin where Paul Slade was killed. The yellow pin in the August territory had changed from yellow to red. Target to completion.
Nothing about this situation felt right to him. Ferro had not been willing to explain a damn thing to Kade. If he’d had evidence, a few words would have cleared it up.
Not only was Kade’s career in ruins, but also everything that he was, everything he believed in, was sliding through his fingers like sand on a Miami beach. He glanced at the clock on the dash; it was nearly five in the morning. Soon Ferro was going to grow impatient, pull Kade, and send someone else to finish the assignment. He had to get to the bottom of this before that happened. He glanced over at Violet, who was still working it all through in her mind.
“Ferro had a yellow pin in Slade territory,” she said, echoing what he’d just thought. “Do you have a Seer on staff?”
“There are very few true Seers, and, as far as I know, the Guard doesn’t employ one. Be a lot easier if they did.”
She turned to him. “So how does he— You’re hurt!”
He was way beyond physically hurt. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You’re wincing like this.” She made a face that almost made him laugh, which would really hurt. She pulled over and turned on the car’s interior light. “Let me see.”
He shifted to reveal a gash on his stomach. “It’s not deep.”
She winced again in sympathetic pain. “Can you heal yourself? I know so little about Deuce magick.”
The Guard knew everything he could do. Few others did.
“My magick can heal me, but it takes time.”
“I can heal you faster, but I don’t know if I can heal a non-Dragon. We…” She had also been trained not to share too much information, no doubt. Crescents, regardless of class, didn’t go advertising their abilities.
“It’s not mortal. I’ll be fine, Violet.”
The pain wracking his soul was much worse. He had deceived her, had at one time intended to kill her. He didn’t deserve her healing. Or her trust. Or…well, anything else. He wasn’t ready to divulge his suspicions yet. If she suspected Ferro was corrupt, she’d lose trust in the Guard, and in him. Right now he couldn’t leave her to deal with this by herself. He didn’t want to delve too deeply into his reasons.
They drove down the long road to her house, a nice change from hoofing it on the sly. They got out, but Violet paused and stared into the darkness of the property to the west.
“What is it?” he asked, instinctively going on alert. His dagger tingled, and his fingers flexed, ready to receive the weapon.
She shook her head. “Sometimes I see a shadow move. It’s probably an animal, maybe a deer. No one’s been over there in years. I wandered over once, just to see. It was creepy, with vines overtaking one of the houses and weeds growing up everywhere. And sad,” she added on a sigh. “We did that to them, obliterated their whole family.”
She rubbed her arms and headed to the house. Kade surveyed the area, uneasy with all the places someone could hide here. She opened the door and stepped in, flicked on the light, and left the door open for him. He remained on the porch, uncertain that he wanted to follow her in.
She returned to the door opening. “What are you doing out there? Come in. I want to heal that gash. You’ll probably want another shower. I sure do.”
He stepped inside. “Oh, but I really liked your hose down,” he said, trying to work up a wry smile. Inside he felt heavy and cold, like his organs had turned into a block of frozen mud.
Her mouth quirked. “Apparently too much. We had better stick to a shower. Separate showers, just to be safe. There’s something about being outside, with a stream of water, that apparently has a strange effect on us.”
“You think that was it?” he challenged. He’d thought her reaction was out of grief, her need for comfort. But now, he wasn’t so sure.
“Of course.” A light shone in her eyes, one he hadn’t seen before. It tugged at his numb shell. “We fought together. And well. I thought Dragons were the only beautiful fighters, that Deuce magick was boring. Though it was pretty cool when you changed into a tiger that one time. Even if you were using it against us.”
Was she calling his magick beautiful? Another tug. “I have to admit, I’ve never considered a Dragon gorgeous before. But you are.” She had been beautiful, maroon scales glistening in the orb’s light. It had reminded him of the vivid colors of underwater sea life when he went scuba diving.
She bent down to look at his stomach. “I’m going to try to heal you.”
“Let me get cleaned up first.” He’d stopped bleeding at least.
She held his gaze for a moment, and he felt another pull on his emotions. More like a jerk this time, the kind that knocks you off your feet. “I’ll get you a towel,” she said. “You can crash here if you want. I don’t have a guest bedroom, but you can sleep on the couch. It’s late.”
Too late. He felt lost in her eyes, her soft voice. Get out! Go. Say you’ve got to check in at work and sleep in your car. “All right.”
“I’ll get you some sheets and a pillow, too.”
She turned and walked away from him, his shirt barely covering her ass. Her long legs were scraped up, her feet dirty from walking barefoot through the woods. Beautiful, every inch of her. She opened a door in the hallway and pulled out a towel and washcloth. He felt his body move toward her, his hands reach out to accept them. For the second time within the last few hours, he was showering in her house.
He remained in the shower a while, letting the hot water pound his body. His thoughts twisted inside his head, crushing his chest even more than that damned Dragon had. He had to check in with Ferro soon.
Kade finally emerged, wearing jeans and nothing else. His first glimpse of Violet was a silk-clad behind as she bent over to tuck the sheets over the couch. He watched her for a moment as she set the pillow at the end after fluffing it up.
She turned suddenly. The blue tank top she wore, the same silky material as her shorts, tightened across her chest. “Lie down. You’re still hurt, Kade. I’m going to heal you. No arguing.”
He couldn’t really tell her that the pain suited his mood, that he didn’t deserve her healing, so he submitted. That she was ordering him…flashes of being pinned to the barn wall, under her control, tightened his groin.
Forget that. You’re a mess.
She assessed his injuries. “Between my brothers and the Carnelian bitch, you’re beat to hell.”
He fingered the edges of his wound. Add the gash on his back and several broken ribs, and she’d have her work cut out for her.
She pushed the coffee table several feet away. “I’ll need to Catalyze.” She sat next to him, her hip brushing his thigh. He saw vulnerability in her rich, brown eyes. In the way her long fingers trembled as they tucked her damp hair behind her ear.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded too quickly, dislodging that lock of hair again. “It’s just hitting me now. No one’s ever tried to kill me.” Little did she know. And she wouldn’t know, if he had any say in the matter. She continued. “Not me as Violet, for personal reasons. Our family has had attacks where everyone’s fair game. But she wanted to kill me.”
He shouldn’t reach for that hand, shouldn’t rub his thumb along the back of it. He was a cold killing machine. A man who didn’t know how to connect emotionally to a woman, which was all the better.
“I’m all right,” she said, staring at his thumb as though she’d never had anyone touch her like that.
Maybe she hadn’t. No one to hold her while she grieved or processed what had happened. He didn’t think, just pulled her down so that her cheek rested on his upper chest. Pain rocketed through him as she pressed against his broken ribs, but he held in the hiss.
He’d seen female Vegas deal with adrenaline after an altercation. They processed it differently. Rather than being immersed in it right away, like men did, women held it together in the moment and fell apart later. Most hid it, swallowing back the tears or letting them loose only in the restroom or in their car out in the parking lot. They would never reveal it to their comrades, who wouldn’t offer more than cold comfort anyway. The men showed no emotion. For most of the senior Vegas, any empathy had been conditioned out of them.
Violet’s shoulders shook, and he stroked her back, over the silk and the lace edge to the warmth of her skin. His fingers brushed against the strands of her damp hair.
“I’m supposed to be healing you,” she said, the tears she was holding back thick in her voice.
“Let me comfort you first.”
She shook her head, her mouth brushing against his bare skin. “Castanegas are tough. We don’t cry.”
“I’ve already seen you cry, Vee. I don’t think any less of you for it. You lost your brother. You were almost killed.” Twice. “I’ll never tell.”
A cry gasped out of her, one last attempt to hold it back failing. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because no one comforted me when my father died.” They looked at him askance or whispered. Some gave him a sympathetic look while others acted as though he had the plague. “And I didn’t cry either. Because Vegas are tough. We don’t cry.”
She laughed, mixed with a sob, and lifted her face to his. Her eyes were glossy with tears. “Then you can cry, too.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need to cry. But you can.” He brushed a tear from her cheek.
“What do you need, Kade?”
He let his thumb linger against her cheek. You. In my arms, my life. Thank the gods he pulled the words back before they rolled out. “Right now, nothing.”
She buried her face again and cried, but nothing like she’d done earlier when her sobs had ripped out his heart. Her hand lay on his stomach, fingers flexing, nails scraping softly against his skin.
Something he’d never felt before opened inside him, an overwhelming need to protect her, take care of her. Give her warm comfort, hot love…everything.
He would have killed her. The robot he was the day before would have come here, killed her when she was grieving, and then left. He would have gotten a “well done” at work and gone on to the next assignment. The obedient killing machine. And this beautiful, caring woman would be dead.
She sat up. “I’m hurting you, aren’t I? I can hear your breathing coming in short puffs.”
The release of pressure was as painful as when she’d first leaned against him. “It’s okay,” he said, though his voice gave away his pain. “It’s just a broken rib or two.”
“Kade! Why didn’t you say something? Men! ‘It’s fine,’” she mimicked. “‘I’m just wonderful, but don’t mind my gasping in pain.’” With a growl, she stood and swiped at her tears. “Close your eyes.”
He did, and heard the swish of her clothing hit the floor. The Catalyzation process was silent, but her heavy footfalls weren’t. He opened his eyes, looking into her face. The lines of her head were like a fine horse, regal and elegant; her scales glistened in the dim light. Her wings, black with maroon highlights, were tucked against her back. Her eyes were catlike, as were her graceful movements when she planted her hands on the edge of the couch and leaned down.
“I’m going to send my Breath into you,” she said, her voice low and gravelly. “It’s the opposite of when a Dragon Breathes another’s power. Instead of taking your essence, I’m going to send my essence into you. It’ll feel hot, and maybe weird, but shouldn’t hurt. I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth trying.”
He was staring at her, unable to do more than nod.
“Don’t worry, it won’t bond us like it does Dragon to Dragon. At least I don’t think so.”
Hell, he was already bonded to her in a way he couldn’t understand. “I didn’t know you could bond that way.”
“It’s not a romantic bond, but the healed Dragon will carry the healer’s essence inside them for a while. Close your eyes. Open to me and relax.”
Open to her.
He did, and felt the heat of her breath as she neared him. Her lips were softer than he imagined, though he felt the graze of her fangs. He opened his mouth, and her Breath flowed into him. Not down his throat, but into him. It felt exquisitely exotic. Her magick rushed like water pooling around each injury. He inhaled sharply at the sensation, breathing in the scent of her: like incense, musky and sweet all at once.
He heard her back away, and the magick continued to work its way through him until the heat subsided. When he finally opened his eyes, she was human again in her silky pajamas. She was sitting back, her hands on her thighs, watching him.
“It worked?” she asked, looking hopeful.
He patted his ribs, feeling nothing but a slight bruise. “Yeah. Amazing. We have healing Deuces on the Guard staff. This felt different.” Because Violet cared. Being treated by someone who cared…the feeling of it tumbled through him. More sensual, definitely hotter. He sat up. “Thank you.”
“It’s the least I could do, after all you’ve done for me.”
For a moment he thought she knew everything, and she was all right with the fact that he’d once been about to kill her. But no, she’d never be all right with that.
Their gazes lingered, and he felt that flash that had hit him at the station. She abruptly stood, running her hands down her pajamas as though to smooth them. “I should get to bed. Let you sleep and continue healing.”
He stood, too. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
They both stood motionless, neither making any move to leave. Then he stepped forward and kissed her. She fell into him, her mouth engaging his. Her hands slid down the sides of his body, around to his back, her fingers digging into him. He rubbed the back of her neck, then moved down the length of her spine. She shifted closer, making a sweet sound deep in her throat.
Crash. The rest of that numb shield fell away. Along with his convictions.
There wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He was as lost as she seemed to be. He needed to feel her all over, sliding his hand underneath the back of her top. The action pulled it up in front, too, and he felt the bottom swell of her breasts brush his chest. Holy hell but he wanted to feel every inch of her naked body against his. From that first contact, the smell and taste of her had been burned into his memory.
She pressed closer against him, and her hardened nipples grazed his skin. He pulled her top up, and she lifted her arms in perfect unison. The scrap of silky material fell to the floor.
“Amazing,” he uttered on a whisper, trailing his fingers over her curves and between her exquisite breasts. When her breath caught, he cupped them. Firm, yet soft, a perfect fit.
She tilted her head back, which pushed her breasts more fully into his hands. Suddenly feeling her wasn’t enough. He needed to taste her, and so he kissed her, sucking on her tongue, exploring her mouth. Then he tasted every inch of her from her chin down her throat, tracing the edges of the hollow at the base. She tasted of clean female and the faint tang of soap. He wanted to taste more of her.
She exhaled in pleasure, her fingers moving through his hair, tugging it like she couldn’t pull him close enough. His cock throbbed with wanting her, making his jeans uncomfortably tight. He wanted—needed—to be buried inside her. Tendrils of magick crackled over his skin and through his body. What the hell? He’d never felt anything like that before.
There was a lot that he’d never experienced before meeting Violet.
Her Dragon was heating up, too, all around her waist where he now held her. Its essence was now in him. He felt it connect to his own magick, twisting together the way magick vines could wrap all around you. She must have felt it, too, because her hand went to her tattoo. Her Dragon stretched sensually, its eyes afire like sparkling amethysts.
“It’s not supposed to want a Deuce,” she whispered, surprise in her voice.
“Does it want a Deuce?”
“Very much.”
He traced his finger lightly over her tattoo, feeling the energy it exuded. He knew enough about Dragon essence to gain an advantage in battle. He knew nothing about how it felt to be Dragon. “Do you want a Deuce?”
Her gaze held his. “Very, very much.”
He pressed his forehead against hers. He was disciplined. Strong. But not with Violet. “Something about you pulls at me, tears away my resistance.” His voice was raw. “You tug at my wild side, the part of me I buried long ago.”
“Is that the part you forgot was inside you, the ache that never went away?”
He brushed her hair from her face, his thumb grazing her cheek. “I forgot until you. Every time I’m close to you, that side of me takes over. And right now, more than ever, I need to keep my head straight. We shouldn’t do this.” The mist in his eyes swirled something fierce, belying his directive.
Violet felt his words in her body. The ache in them, the wanting. “You’re trying to be Vega-like, and I get that. Honor. Discipline,” she said. “And there are sound, logical reasons for not going further. But right now, I need your arms wrapped around me so I feel safe for the first time since Arlo’s death. I need your body pressed up against mine so I can pull your heat and strength into me. And what I need, really need, is the hot kind of comfort that only a man can give me. Only you.”
He hesitated for a moment, and then reached for her on a groan. His mouth found hers, his hands cradling her face. “Why are you making it so hard for me to be good?”
He was hard. He wanted her. She didn’t want to think about all the differences between them, didn’t want to think about tomorrow or what consequences it might bring. She wanted him, too, and she wasn’t going to let him suffer another unresolved hard-on. Remembering how Kade had told her his fantasies, how he’d responded to her when he’d been blindfolded, made her shed her own inhibitions. She gave a tug on his pants. “Take these off, Kade. That’s an order.”
Surprise sparked in his eyes, and he lifted his face to the ceiling. “Oh, no. You’re really killing me here, Violet.”
“No backtalk.”
He pulled his gaze back to hers, both agony and arousal on his expression. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Faster.”
“Anything you say, ma’am.” Now it was only arousal burning in his eyes. He unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, pushing them down to the floor and stepping out of them.
She hooked her finger over the waistband of his boxer briefs. “Now these.” She pulled it and let it snap back against his erection. He blinked at the sensation, then complied.
“You looked good on my bed. I want you on it again.”
He grabbed a crinkly package out of his pants pocket and marched to her room. When he tossed it onto the nightstand and turned around, he was at full attention…in every way.
She stepped up close to him. “Make love to me. We’ll sort out everything else later.”
She slid her hands over his chest, the contours of his muscles and smooth discs around his nipples. The feeling of being alive rushed through her, her blood pulsing, her heartbeat pounding. And a strong man crushing her against him as though he couldn’t get enough of her. Oh, yes, hot comfort.
His tongue moved through her mouth, exploring, devouring. His hands skimmed down her back and beneath the waistband of her panties. He cupped her cheeks and let the tips of his thumbs trail up the seam of her behind as he drew his hands back up. She pressed her hips closer, rocking her pelvis against his erection. He let out a soft growl, drawing his hands low enough to touch her wetness. She’d never been wet without the guy having to work at it. Kade had gotten her that way and hadn’t even touched her intimately. Now she growled, echoing the roar of her Dragon. She’d never made that sound before. The primal nature of it stirred her deep inside.
“Vee,” he whispered, lowering her to the bed and nuzzling her neck as he came down with her.
She remembered the way she’d told him not to call her that. Now the word trickled through her blood on her soft exhale. He braced himself over her, his mouth working its magic across her skin, her breasts. He sucked just hard enough to make her squirm without hurting her. She clutched at him, tracing her nails across his scalp.
His fingers hooked on the waistband of her pajamas and shoved them down her hips. She wiggled the rest of the way out of them and kicked them off the bed. His fingers and thumb drew a line to the delicate skin of her inner thighs, and then he cupped her pubic area. A tantalizing vibration pulsed deep into her core, so wild, so crazy, she shuddered.
“What was that?” she managed between gasps as waves of an electrical thrumming sensation shot pleasure through her body.
His chuckle was low and throaty. “Sex magick. It’s a nonlethal way to use our magick.”
“Nonlethal, my ass. You’re killing me.”
The sensual spiral wound through her entire body, making her pull his thick hair as her body arched.
His sexy chuckle was just as stimulating. “Oh, you’ll live, babe, and then you’ll be begging me for it again and again.”
She shot him a look at his arrogance, but his devilish smile extinguished any spark of ire. Then he sent another wave of magick that knocked her flat on the bed again. She clutched at the sheets, feeling like she might lift right off the bed.
She was on the edge of a mind-bending orgasm when his mouth came down on her, and his tongue slowly moved around her folds. Her breath came in short pants now. Her hips writhed, seemingly of their own accord. She opened herself to him and fully spread her legs. Her hands tangled in her sheets in an attempt to anchor herself. She screamed, long and guttural, as the climax swept her mind and body away. Her Dragon’s essence rolled over her, heating her skin as it pressed close to the surface. It reveled in the sensuality and danced in pleasure.
More, more, more…
“More,” she echoed on a halted breath.
Yeah, she was begging. That’s how good it felt. She didn’t even care that she was begging.
He ran his right hand down her inner thigh and slid a finger into her vagina, while his thumb circled her already sensitive *. Another wave of sex magick flowed from it, convulsing her body and loosing another orgasm. Along with another primal scream. She thought she might have ripped the thousand-thread-count sheets she’d paid a fortune for, but who cared? This time he let his tongue alone take her to yet another orgasm, and damn, it was good that way, too.
When she could breathe and think again, she realized he was kissing his way back up her body. The tip of his penis left a wet trail as it glided along the path his mouth had just made. It felt like velvet and steel against her heated skin. He kissed along her jawline and murmured, “You even taste good, like a summer wine.”
Violet pushed him back to the bed and straddled him, leaning down so that her hair grazed his chest. She ran her tongue down his neck and across his pecs. Her body was low enough to skim his as she moved. Her nipples tingled as they glided over the hard planes of his chest. She felt his thick erection beneath her stomach, and then in the hollow between her breasts. He let out a low exhale as she sank lower against him.
He ran his hands along her back, his fingers flexing whenever she put extra pressure on his penis. She felt the faint sprinkling of hairs that grew soft and even more sparse as she moved down the center of his stomach. She took the thick length of him into her mouth, though he was too long to take him wholly in.
She laved the smooth head with her tongue, the length of his shaft with her mouth. Her teeth brushed softly against his skin, and he panted. When he arched, his fingers curling into her shoulders, she moved to his inner thighs. She wanted him to come inside her, hungered for it. He didn’t wait for her leisurely ascent, pulling her level to his face and kissing her so hard and deep, she lost herself in it.
“I’ll get the condom,” she said on a gasping breath a few moments later. She crawled to the nightstand and grabbed it with trembling fingers. Sex had never been a need like this, a desperate need to have him inside her.
While she was still on all fours, his hands slid around her waist, and he pulled her ass against his pelvis. He leaned close behind her, his body over hers, and kissed the back of her neck. She glanced up and caught the shadowy reflection of them in the mirror above the dresser. The sight of him draped over her, predatory, animalistic, rocketed through her.
Her Dragon purred and made her arch into him even more. She handed him the package and heard him tear it open. He moved away for a second, then braced his hands on her behind and positioned himself to enter. She pushed against him, wanting to feel all of him.
He braced his weight with one hand, the other slid beneath her stomach, and he filled her in exactly the way she needed. Like that unnamed ache he’d spoken of, she had yearned for this but never knew what it was. No, it wasn’t just a man inside her, or sexual release, but something more.
Something Kade.
He leaned down over her, as he’d done before, his mouth near her ear. She loved the sound of his breathing growing ragged and the way his fingers tightened on her stomach when she moved into the thrust. When her own breathing grew labored and her insides felt as though they were about to burst, he touched her * again and sent another blast of sex magick.
Sparks caught her eye. In the mirror, she saw a flash of blue light shimmer over his skin. It tickled all along her back.
“You’re sparking!” she said between breaths.
“Yeah…I know.” He sounded as surprised as she did. And then he sent another surge of magick.
The orgasm tore through her, ripping her apart. Kade thrust hard into her, and his body shuddered. He held her tight, more of those sparks tripping over her as their orgasms swept over them.
“Holy dragonfire,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah,” he managed on his own sawed breathing.
They rode the sensations, moving in a slow rhythm inside her. Several seconds later, he gently pulled out and wrapped his arms around her, falling to his side with her in his embrace. He looked beautiful, his face flushed and dewy, his eyes bright. She hoped she looked half as good.
She ran her fingers along his arm. “You had electricity—magick running all over you,” she said, watching the last of the glimmers fade from his skin.
He lifted his arm, flexing his hand. “I’ve never had that happen before. That was wild.” He brushed his fingers down her face. “Everything about it was wild.”
She nodded, moving her mouth to kiss the tip of those fingers. “Thanks for…well, the hot comfort.”
“It was a lot more than that.” He pinned her with his gaze. “Wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” What were they going to do about it? She couldn’t quite nudge that question past her lips. Too many things were already zinging around in her mind, her body. Like how right it felt to be in his arms, how everything about him felt so right, which didn’t make any sense at all.
He glanced toward the window, where dawn was beginning to lighten the sky. “It’s almost morning.”
“Does that mean you have to go?” She was kidding, yet the thought tightened her chest.
“I’m not going anywhere, babe.”
The words washed over her, spoken in his low, intimate voice. Especially babe. No one had ever called her that other than Kade’s pretend usage. Maybe a whispered “oh, baby,” but nothing meaningful. “Good.” She snuggled closer, her face next to his. She wouldn’t ask him about the future, wouldn’t extract any promises. She wasn’t ready to make any herself.
She would always be a Dragon, a Fringer. And Kade was a Deuce, a Vega to the core. But in the quiet afterglow of the most incredible sex of her entire life—hell, she’d never even imagined that it could be that good—Violet didn’t care about their differences or the inevitable end to their arrangement. She wanted to sink into this moment. She stroked his dagger tattoo. “Does your tattoo have a consciousness? Does it make demands?”
“No. The tattoo is probably like your Dragon in the way it changes my cellular structure, but mine is just a weapon. The Guard commissions a magick inker to make them.”
Her finger traced the V on the dagger’s hilt. “Tell me what it’s like to be you. To be respected, perhaps feared.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “The people whom I want to fear me—my opponents—aren’t usually afraid of me. They think they’re better, faster. They’re usually wrong.”
“Oh, and tell me what it’s like to be so humble, too, while you’re at it.”
Another laugh, as rich as chocolate. “Who needs to be humble when you’re great?”
She nudged him.
His smile faded. “People respect me because I’m a Vega, not because I’m Kade Kavanaugh. Probably like they disrespect you for being a Castanega. It’s not personal.”
“I wish I could see it that way.”
He kept staring at the ceiling, absently stroking her arm with his finger. “I know how it feels to have people look at you like you’re dirt.”
She propped herself up on her elbow. “I would have guessed you had a charmed life.”
“I did until twenty years ago, when my father tried to release a prisoner.”
He told her the sketchy details, pain and humiliation etching into his voice. “It drives me crazy not knowing exactly what happened. Did he fall madly in love with this delusional woman? Seems unlikely. Everything for him was about his reputation.”
“But why did people look at you like you were dirt? Your father was the one who supposedly went against the law. Ah, people judging you for your family’s sins.”
“Yes, but that was only part of it. There were some who were jealous of my fast rise to Vega, especially since I flouted the rules. When they called my ascent into question, the Guard backed down and demoted me.” He met her gaze. “The way you probably felt walking in there was how I felt every day. For five years, sacrificing who I was, toeing the line and ignoring my instincts just to prove myself. And now…” His expression tightened. He obviously wasn’t used to sharing, which made this even more special. “My sister is an Argus. If I screw up, she’s going to pay for it.”
Violet remembered the woman with the green eyes like Kade’s. “You mean screw up as in investigating this on your own?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you did.”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “Me too.” His sincerity saturated those words…and her heart.
“It’s odd how much we have in common,” she said. And how perfectly natural lying there sharing their bodies and souls felt. “My father also died under mysterious circumstances. We’ll never know why he ended up on Garza land, and why they felt compelled to shoot him.”
His expression darkened. “Did you ever doubt your father? Ever think he was up to something he shouldn’t have been?”
She shook her head emphatically. “My people have flaws, no doubt, but my dad wouldn’t have been up to no good.”
“I thought my father had fallen prey to human emotions. I didn’t know him, not on any deep level. I believed the rumors. I bought into the corruption of a man but never considered the corruption of the Guard.” Kade looked torn. “My father was a regimented, cold hard-ass, but he always backed me up. When I got into trouble for breaking the rules, he reminded my commanding officer that I went with my gut, just like he’d taught me. That I usually succeeded.”
“And you regret not believing in your father,” she said, reading his pained expression.
“Yes.”
She sighed, looking at her closet door. “My biggest regret is not wearing the dress my father bought me when I was nine. I was a tomboy, because that’s how I was raised. I knew Dad suspected that I wanted to be girly, at least at times. It meant a lot to me, but the only time I wore the dress, my brothers teased me and called me ‘baby doll.’ I put the dress away. Dad never even saw me wear it.”
Kade pulled her closer against him. “Regrets suck. But I don’t regret this.”