The Siren's Code (Siren Legacy Book 3) Page 13

  “Robin?” Hal’s sleepy voice came from just above her head.

  She pressed her hips back against him with a little shimmy, and a low groan sounded from him, vibrating through his chest into her, stoking the flames of her hunger for him. Now that he was awake, she rolled to face him, throwing a leg over his hips so he pressed against her.

  “Hey there, sleepyhead.” Her hand ran up his side, delighting in the soft golden skin that she could touch.

  “Robin.” He cleared his throat. “If you don’t stop, I won’t be able to, either.”

  “Good. I don’t want you to.”

  His greenish-blue eyes stared down at her, hooded from his own desire. His head bent to hers in what felt like slow motion. When his lips finally brushed hers, it sent a shockwave through her body. Her body melded to his as she kissed him back. The kiss wasn’t delicate or nervous; no, her kiss was a devouring, undeniable beast, and once loosed, it couldn’t be reined in until it had what it wanted. She let go of her restraints, letting her mouth and hands do as they wanted. Her tongue swept through his mouth, tangling with his own as her hands gripped his shoulders before going in search of those squeezable butt cheeks she’d seen earlier.

  Without realizing it, she had rolled herself on top of him. Now his hands were the ones at liberty to explore. He was tentative at first, but as he began to relax, his hands slid down to her own butt, cupping and squeezing in a way that made her feel like her blood was on fire. She made encouraging noises into his mouth as she continued to kiss him silly. Pulling herself tightly onto his hips, she could feel every part of his erection pressing at the panties and boxers that separated them. His hips ground up against her, and she gasped with pleasure, her brain shorting out every time he did so. Her hands sought out his nipples and found them hard and waiting for some attention. Each time she ran her fingers over them, his body jerked deliciously underneath her and he grunted his enjoyment.

  His hands traveled up, coming around and holding her breasts, which felt heavy and overly sensitive under his touch. The moment he mimicked her movements, running his fingers across her nipples, her body spasmed and she found herself grinding against him, her panties getting in the way of what she really wanted. If nothing else, she wanted to get rid of the T-shirt she was wearing, so she sat up as his cock pressed against her even harder, making her want to laugh with pleasure and scream with frustration at the same time. Whipping the T-shirt over her head, she looked down at Hal. A look of adoration was plainly on his face, making her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.

  Hal sat up to meet her. She wrapped her legs around his back as he dropped his head to lick her nipples. Little bolts of lightning shot through her every time he rolled a nipple with one hand and sucked on the other. The pleasure was exquisite, especially when paired with the gentle rocking he was doing as his erection rubbed against her core. Her breathing had turned into panting as her body became tight with need.

  He flipped them both over again so he was on top, kissing his way down her body. The stubble on his cheeks scratched lusciously against her inner thighs as he kissed his way up to her hips. She couldn’t believe what he was doing. Her heart beat in her throat at the thought of what he might do next. When his kisses followed the edge of her panties, she thought she might black out from the pleasure, and then his mouth landed directly over her hot center, leaving her dizzy with enjoyment.

  A low sound emanated from Hal. “Robin, I could eat you up, if you’d let me. Your scent is intoxicating.” He nipped at the band of her panties.

  She reached down and began pushing them down, trying not to think about the words that he had just spoken, since it might push her over the edge. He took the hint and pulled the scrap of clothing all the way down, fingers trailing behind it along her legs. Finally she was free, naked and bared to him. She had never felt anything so erotic as Hal looking at her, lust naked on his face.

  “Take your boxers off.” Her voice sounded like it belonged to someone else, rough and deep.

  He smiled at her then, and her heart almost gave out. One man should not be allowed to be so irresistible. The boxers were gone before she even noticed what color they were, and his erection now stood proud and free. She gulped. True, she wasn’t a virgin, but she hadn’t had sex in just over nine years. While her body demanded it, she also knew that she would be tight, and judging by Hal’s cock, it was going to be a close fit. Her eyes skated all over his body, unable to stay in one place for too long because he was moving toward her. The tattoos on his thighs ran up to his waist, and she couldn’t wait to study them in detail. But just then, his face filled her vision, and his eyes captivated her.

  She had never seen anything like them before—the greens and blues swirled together in a way that made her want to stare at them for hours. His head dropped and his hands gripped her thighs, spreading her open to him. As his stubble scraped her inner thighs once more, she held her breath in anticipation.

  The first kiss was the softest thing she’d ever felt, so gentle and delicate, she had to look down to make sure it was still Hal. His eyes met hers, burning with desire, making her skin feel hot. She watched as his tongue came out and licked her most sensitive area, circling her clit maddeningly slowly. Blinding pleasure flowed through her entire body as her head fell back down onto the pillow. She couldn’t even control the sounds she was making as he continued to lick and suck on her. Robin could barely register anything other than the sensations of Hal’s tongue on her body, and then he eased a finger into her, and her world threatened to explode with joy.

  Before it could, everything came crashing down. Pain burst out from the scar on her back, and her whole world was nothing but pain. She could feel herself screaming once more, and Hal’s urgent pleas to tell him what was wrong. She couldn’t form words, though, couldn’t even form thoughts that could become words. Everything was searing pain, which focused to a single point on her body—the scar on her back.

  Chapter 16

  Robin was screaming again, and Hal had no clue what to do. Again. Frustration whipped through him sharper than a knife.

  “Rin! Robin, talk to me!”

  He could tell she was trying to form words, but the pain was too overwhelming. Standing, Hal pulled on his boxers and jumped downstairs, grabbing ice and wetting a towel with cold water. If nothing else, he could try to ease the pain. Last time, it had been the markings on her back that hurt; he was willing to bet the same thing was happening again. Whatever it was, it seemed to happen when they were close to having sex, or just being intimate with each other.

  She wouldn’t have been able to see them, or at least, not very well, with the markings being on her back, going up into her hairline. Hal was going to take a damned good look at them once the pain subsided and try to figure out what was going on with them.

  Hal jumped back upstairs. Robin’s scream had quieted into groans as she rocked herself, trying to soothe whatever was happening inside her.

  “I’ve got some ice, Rin. I’m going to put it on your back to try and help, okay?”

  She nodded, although her eyes were still squeezed shut.

  He gently rolled her onto her stomach and laid the towel-wrapped packet of ice over the mark while running the cold, damp towel over her forehead. Fraction by fraction, he could see her muscles relax, the tension that had gripped them while she was in pain fading away before his eyes.

  A weight he hadn’t realized was there eased off his heart. He hadn’t expected the fear. He was usually pretty clear-headed in a crisis, but when it came to Robin, he was swamped with emotions he never expected. At that moment, it was fear that he would lose her when he hadn’t even had a chance to help her live again now that she was free.

  Eventually, after a few incredibly long minutes, Robin’s face turned toward him.

  “Thanks,” she croaked out.

  “Any time, although I would rather this not happen to you at all.”

  “Me too.” She laughed, but with
how raw her throat was, it sounded almost like a cough instead. She took a few deep breaths and sat up to face him.

  Even now she was stunning. Hal had to keep his mind focused on the mission, and currently the mission was to find out what the hell was happening to Robin. “Do you have any idea what’s causing it?”

  “It’s something to do with the mark.”

  “I figured that much, but why at those specific moments?” Hal rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting a bad feeling about this.

  “Your guess is as good as mine. The only thing we can do is find Nimue. I’m hoping that since she put it on, we can get her to take it off. I promised her that when I escaped, I’d find a way to go back for her. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I figured Randall would be more guarded when I ran away, but now I don’t care. Screw being cautious—I want to rescue Nimue and get this damn mark off my back.”

  “Right. Find the Lady of the Lake. Shouldn’t be difficult. It’s not like people have been searching for her for centuries or anything.”

  This time Robin did laugh, and her whole body shook with it, which was incredibly distracting since she was still naked.

  Hal focused his mind on the task. “Would you mind if I looked at it with my healing abilities? I probably can’t fix it, but it couldn’t hurt to try.”

  “If you think it can help.” She nodded.

  Jumping downstairs, he grabbed a glass of water before jumping back to Robin. Calling his powers forth, he could feel the water all around him. Each droplet, each speck, everything. The moisture from Robin’s breath, the rain threatening to fall above them, the waves lapping in the lake behind the house. If he focused, he could find water almost anywhere. He centered on the water in the glass, bending it to his will, pulling it upward and around to her back.

  The cool water lay across her skin, showing him in his mind’s eye the shape of the mark. What he had first thought was one single scar was in fact layers of scars on top of one another, each one slightly different from the last, appearing to contain symbols eerily familiar to him. He couldn’t place them, but he knew they were familiar. If he saw them again, he would know.

  Hal pulled the water together under her skin, trying to heal the scar; after all, it was only a few days old, if that. They were something only magic could create. Doing something like this without magic would be excruciating and would take much longer, years probably, since the skin would have to heal before the next markings could be made. The fact that the Lady of the Lake had done this in moments spoke to her power. If they could wrest her from the grasp of the Order of Talos, that would be a severe blow to them.

  Knitting the skin together didn’t work, and neither did trying to heal the skin around the scarring.

  Pulling the water off her back and putting it into the glass once more, Hal sighed. “You’re right. If we want to get this fixed, we will need to get Nimue.”

  Robin nodded. The only problem was they had no idea where the estate was.

  Anger was a living, breathing thing within Dem. It had been ever since Aster had yelled at him. His mind swirled with images of Isabeau and Aster. Two vastly different women, yet both had drawn him. They were irresistible and inescapable. The trouble was, Dem had been down this road before. Isa had been the light of his life, and she had been taken away.

  Her ebony locks were always at the corner of his sight, but when he turned his head, she was never there. Zeus had made sure of that.

  The big Z-man had tormented her into madness. At first, it was little things—talking to her without taking physical form, moving objects around the room. Over time, she began to spend more and more time with Dem, since that was when she didn’t hear the voices. The few times that Dem wasn’t around, Zeus often took his form, seducing his lovely Isa, or yelling at her, tearing at her emotions like tissue. When he realized what had been happening, Dem had confronted Zeus himself.

  It didn’t go well.

  Zeus had warned them all a long time ago not to get attached to mortals or they would face the consequences, but Dem couldn’t resist Isa.

  They had met on a train while he was tracking down one of Dionysus’ cats. A leopard, or maybe a panther. Either way, he couldn’t rely on teleporting to a location, so he had to take the train, which was frustrating. At least, until he saw Isa. She sat next to a window, her hair glowing in the sunlight. Her light-blue eyes had been lined with black and a dark eye shadow smudged on the lid. He remembered so clearly because she was one of the first women he had seen so made up. Her cherry red lips had captivated him, making it impossible not to introduce himself.

  It was all downhill from there, though. The closer they got, the more Zeus interfered, the more he played mind games with Isa.

  Dem shook his head. He couldn’t let himself get lost in the what-ifs of his relationship with her. They were together for as long as they could be, and then he took care of her as best as he could.

  Aster was a different story.

  He paced up and down his home, trying to think of anything but the petite blonde who had infused his life with confusion. When they had first met, they both knew it was supposed to be a single night of passion. It wasn’t as if he had hidden that from her. They had both agreed, but that single night had turned into a weekend, and even then it was a challenge to drag himself away.

  Seeing his family expanding was a punch in the gut. Why now? How had Zeus’ powers deteriorated so much in the last two centuries?

  First it was Ellie, and then Cin, and now, if he was judging his brother’s expressions correctly, possibly Robin? Each of them were nails in the coffin of his heart. But then, Aster seemed to be right behind them, pulling the nails out again. Light and energy suffused any room she stepped into, making him crave her like the warmth of summer after a long winter.

  He didn’t remember jumping, but he was standing in Hal’s kitchen, looking at a surprised Aster.

  “What the hell, Dem?” Irritation flowed through her, making her amber eyes glow.

  “Sorry. I—”

  He took in the scene completely, and for a moment, his heart stuttered in his chest. Her skintight leggings and sports-bra-clad body made his brain blank out as all the blood in his head rushed south. Her long, wavy blonde hair was scooped up into a messy ponytail, and sweat glistened on her skin. He could lick it off; that was how much he wanted her.

  “I’m waiting!”

  “I wanted to make sure you were okay.” His mind made his mouth move and sounds came out, but he was still dumbfounded by her beauty.

  “As you can see, I’m fine, so why don’t you just go back to being a jackass in your own home.”

  “Is Hal here?”

  “No. He and Robin have vanished again. I don’t know where they are going, but it’s fine by me. Means I get this whole place to myself.” She sipped on her water bottle, the moisture clinging to her dusky pink lips.

  His pants were uncomfortably tight.

  “Aster, I’m sorry—”

  “You have nothing to apologize for. You made it perfectly clear how you want us to be with each other, and now I suggest you follow your own advice. Go home, Dem, before we both make a mistake.”

  She had come around the edge of the counter, approaching him as she spoke.

  His hand snaked out and wrapped around her waist. “You mean like this?”

  Dem’s mouth crushed Aster’s, her soft pillowy lips giving way under his own insistent ones.

  Her body reacted immediately, relaxing into him, pressing against him, her skin, slightly sticky under his hands, only turned him on even more. Everything about her was an aphrodisiac, making his body and mind react in ways they hadn’t for centuries.

  His tongue was twined with hers when her hands came up, pushing against his chest. He relented. He’d never force himself on a woman. She wanted him; he could practically scent her arousal in the air.

  “Dem, that was a mistake. We can’t do this. You made that clear. And I’m certainly not g
oing to be second prize for anyone. We just need to forget about the weekend and this and try to live normal lives next to each other.”

  She backed away, her lips swollen from his kiss.

  He wanted to curse and rage, but she was right. Aster didn’t deserve to be second place behind Isa. No one deserved that. Just because they had amazing chemistry and phenomenal sex didn’t mean they would be good together or good for each other.

  Her liquid-gold eyes searched his, and his heart broke as he jumped out.

  “Can’t you just do a tracking spell or something?” Robin’s voice was tight with frustration.

  Hal knew that this was an almost impossible task, but they didn’t have another choice. “I wish it were that easy, but we don’t have anything from the house, unless you’ve been holding out on me?”

  “No. Can’t you use my scar?”

  Hal thought for a moment. “Maybe, but we would have to take a sample of it, which wouldn’t exactly be pleasant for you. Otherwise, we would just go everywhere you’ve been your whole life.”

  “Well, that’s not really much of a journey.” She let out a bitter laugh that made Hal want to pull her close and kiss away all the bad memories.

  She tapped the tip of her nose while she thought. “Maybe we can go about this logically. Compare properties Randall owns with locations, see if any fit the bill?”

  “The last time we checked was when we were looking for Aster, and all we could find was the Eclipse headquarters in Boston and the farm up in New Hampshire.”

  “Yes, but you went the simple route. Can you get me a laptop?”

  “Sure, you can borrow Alec’s or something.”

  “Would he mind if I put some software on it?” Her nose tapping had slowed as she thought.

  “I can ask.” Hal shrugged. He wasn’t sure what Robin was up to, but she definitely had an idea of some kind.

  An hour and an exhaustive conversation later, Hal was back with the laptop.