Frost Line Read online

  The facts were, with Markham dead the threat to the child was past, and there was no reason for Lenna to remain here to see to the child’s safety herself. Nevertheless, there was time to do things her way—not a lot of time, but time enough. And he didn’t have to like it; he simply had to do it.

  Vae, he had never before even considered completing an assignment to someone else’s specifications. Then again, he had never before taken his target as a lover.

  This was likely his last opportunity to be private with her. When they left the hotel today, the odds were they wouldn’t be returning. And because this was likely the last time, he seized the privacy they had now and laid her, naked, on the bed … one last time. He lost himself in her, one last time. She wrapped her legs around him as if she could hold them together, as if she could keep them linked and earthbound and caught in a never-ending whirlwind of physical pleasure.

  If only …

  The sex was quick and hard, an almost brutal goodbye expressed with their bodies, in sweat and racing hearts and finally a sharp pleasure they shared. Lenna shook and sighed and whispered his name. He was silent, because what was the point in speaking what they both already knew?

  Did she understand that being close to her for days on end had been torture for him? Did she understand that he would miss her when this job was over?

  Vae.

  Afterward, they showered again, then Caine quickly dressed and collected his weapons, strapped them on. At first he intended to leave the computer in the hotel room for a maid to find. It wasn’t as if he could take it with him; a trip between worlds would fry the circuits. But he thought of another use for it, and all but dragged Lenna with him into the parlor, where he downloaded a video. He was certain there was no Wi-Fi on Wiley’s island, and he wanted Elijah to see something.

  As he prepared himself for departure, Lenna put on her white dress, the one that made her look like the powerful, regal being she was. He watched her dress, the male part of him scowling as each glowing inch of flesh was covered, but not wanting to miss a single second of having her near. She retrieved a handful of jewelry from the bottom of her bag. Like any woman adorning herself, she sat on the side of the bed and slipped on large, sparkling rings that suited her, as well as a bracelet that was obviously not of this world. The light from the pale green stones danced and splintered, like tiny rainbows.

  She was not of this world, and now she looked it. Lenna—Strength—glowed. She sparkled. No matter what world she inhabited, she would draw every eye.

  “What about not calling attention to yourself?” he asked wryly.

  She smiled as she stood and walked to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and leaned into him. She came to him so easily now, and he accepted her the same way. His arms automatically adjusted to holding someone so much smaller than he, his head automatically bent to find her scent, to take her lips. They fit, as if she belonged here, with him, always close.

  “You’re one to talk,” she chided, glancing pointedly at his laser blaster.

  “I know how to avoid detection—it’s part of my job.” She, on the other hand, screamed, Look at me! And it was completely unconscious, a simple grandeur of being, rather than dressing or acting for attention. The attention was already hers. She dressed to please herself, for the joy of a luxurious fabric, for the beauty of the jewels.

  “I won’t be here on Seven much longer,” she explained. “When I go before the Emperor, I need to be myself in all ways. Elijah has already seen me as I am, and there’s no need to disguise myself for Wiley and Chantel.” She smiled. “Besides, now that I have spent a few days here, I understand that there is no true norm. If anyone else sees me, they’ll dismiss me as a …” She stopped, searched her brain—what she had of his brain—and finally finished with, “An odd duck.”

  Caine snorted. Lenna was no odd duck. She was a treasure, a goddess, a remarkable woman.

  She smiled up at him. With all the turmoil ahead of and behind them, she still managed a radiant smile. “You’d have me wear baggy flannel all the time, if I left the choice to you.”

  It wouldn’t matter what she wore. Flannel or silk—she would always draw his attention, and he’d been a fool to think otherwise.

  “You don’t deny it,” she teased when he didn’t respond.

  “No, I don’t,” he said in a low, strained tone.

  He didn’t want to lose her, either, but he didn’t see any point in talking about it. She would soon return to her life, and he would return to his.

  With that, he brought himself sharply back to the hardness of reality. “Boots or barefoot?”

  She dropped her arms from around his neck and crossed the room to grab the boots she’d been wearing since arriving on Seven. He was, out of necessity, right behind her. She sat down to pull on the boots. Any other woman would look ridiculous, in a flimsy white dress and winter boots, but she didn’t, because she didn’t care.

  It would be a waste of time to tell her how he felt, so he didn’t bother.

  “Ready?”

  “For it all to end? No. To see Elijah? Yes.”

  He put his arms around her, and took them there.

  “You’re back!” Elijah shouted from the front porch of Wiley and Chantel’s island home. He didn’t look at all distressed. In fact, there was a bit of color in his cheeks, as well as a bounce in his step as he ran down the steps to meet them. He was already slightly tanned, a little grubby, totally ecstatic.

  Lenna braced herself as Elijah launched himself at her. She caught him and then she laughed, as her heart broke a little—laughter and pain, wrapped together in one important moment. She shouldn’t care so much for a human child—she knew the difficulties—but she did. In the fatalistic approach of Seven, it was what it was. Elijah was hers, now and forever, in a way she couldn’t explain.

  He wiggled in her arms, and she released him. Evidently finished with her, he turned to Caine, tilting his head as he studied the multitude of weapons Caine wore. The hug he gave was more sedate because he had to avoid touching all the guns and knives, but no less forceful. Caine’s big hand rested on the shining dark hair for a moment, stroked down to the thin little shoulder.

  “Why are you wearing your weapons again?” Elijah asked as he finally released Caine and backed away. “Are you going to war? You look like you’re going to war. I caught a fish, and Chantel cooked it for supper last night! I didn’t think I could eat a fish I’d seen while it was still alive, but I did, and it was good. I’m glad I didn’t give it a name. She made cookies, too. They had coconut in them. I like coconut.” He turned and looked up at Lenna. “You’re wearing your nightgown again! How come?”

  “It isn’t a nightgown,” she said, as she had upon arriving in this world.

  “It looks like a nightgown, kinda,” he said. “But it’s pretty. I like it.”

  Caine put a hand on Elijah’s shoulder. “Before we leave here, there’s something I’d like you to see.”

  Wiley and Chantel stood on the porch, watching and smiling at the enthusiastic reunion and Elijah’s flood of questions. Probably they’d heard their share of questions from him, too. As they went up the steps Caine nodded to Wiley, and Wiley nodded back. It was as if they used some type of man-communication that didn’t need words. Everything all right? Right as rain. Finished with this mess? Hell, no.

  Or something along those lines.

  Inside, Caine placed the laptop on the table and turned it on, waited for it to boot up. He pulled up a chair and sat down, motioned for Elijah to climb on his lap. The child clambered up without a second of reservation, sitting astride one of Caine’s muscular thighs, leaning back to rest trustingly against him. “Are we going to watch a movie?”

  “No, I’m going to show you some people who know you.”

  “Know me? How? Do I know them? Why are they in a movie?”

  Instead of reiterating that it wasn’t a movie, as soon as the computer was ready for use, Caine pulled up the clip of th