Raintree Read online

  He snagged her panties and quickly pushed them down and off. Just like that, she was naked but for the protection charm he had made for her and insisted she wear. She slid her trembling fingers into the waistband of his boxers and pushed them down. Down and eventually off, leaving him wearing no more than she.

  Before he covered himself, she wanted to touch him. She wanted to feel him in her hand, and she did. She wasn’t shy, and neither was he. Not about this.

  They kissed again, and this time Gideon spread her thighs and touched her while their mouths met and danced. A deep trembling had settled into her body, and nothing could stop it but the finale of this dance. There was only one possible end, only one acceptable conclusion, and that was Gideon inside her and the release they both needed. Her hands rested easily but insistently on his bare hips, her fingers gently rocking in much the way that her hips did.

  He took his mouth from hers and reached for the bedside table, fumbling around and finally delving into the back of the messy drawer to snag a condom. It was a necessary but annoying delay, like stopping for gas when you were just five miles from your destination. But soon he was back, touching her again, slipping his fingers inside her and circling his thumb against her in a way that made her gasp and lurch. She had never wanted anything as much as she wanted him inside her. Now. And then he was there, pushing into her, stretching her slowly until she was accustomed to his size. She almost gasped at the sensation. Nothing had ever felt this good; no moment in her life had ever made her want to cry with the beauty of it.

  Gideon made love the same way he did everything else: with complete dedication and an extraordinary level of skill. Hope closed her eyes and let him love her. He filled her body and took her to that place where she was on the edge, and he kept her there. Ribbons of pleasure danced inside her, strong and promising and demanding. Just when she was about to come, he backed away and slowed his pace, then started again.

  She opened her eyes and whispered, “You’re torturing me.”

  “Just a little.”

  The room was dark, thanks to the thickness of the drapes that covered the picture window and the French doors. If it hadn’t been so dark, she never would have noticed the hint of a glow that rimmed the green irises of Gideon’s eyes.

  “You’re glowing again.” Oddly enough, she didn’t find that fact at all disconcerting.

  “Am I?”

  “It’s beautiful.” She shifted her legs so that they were wrapped around his hips, lifted her body to his and pulled him to her, until he was buried fully inside her. He didn’t draw back this time but plunged deeper and harder, faster and more completely, until she came with a cry. The release racked her body and went on even after she was sure it would end, unlike anything she had ever known before. She cried out again and grasped at Gideon’s shoulders. He came with her, shuddering above and inside her.

  Eventually he slowed, and so did she, and then he lay down on top of her and continued to hold her close while he remained cradled inside her. When he finally lifted his head to look down at her, she flinched a little in surprise.

  “You give a whole new meaning to the word afterglow, Gideon.”

  He was indeed glowing a little. His eyes shone with that unnatural green light, and there was a hint of sparkling luminescence around his body.

  “Is this…normal?”

  He withdrew, physically and mentally, and rolled away from her. “It’s happened a time or two. I wouldn’t exactly call it normal.”

  She reached out to touch him, to stop him, to tell him that she wasn’t complaining. Quite the contrary. But he moved faster than she did and left the bed before she could touch him, heading for the bathroom.

  Heart, body and soul. Gideon didn’t remember exactly how he knew that all three had to be involved for the literal afterglow to happen, but he did. He took an extra minute in the bathroom to wash his face, again, and brush his teeth—again. Normally he would have done those things before, not after, but nothing about this morning had been normal.

  He barely knew Hope Malory. So she was gorgeous, so she was hot, so she’d seen what he could do and hadn’t fled as if a monster was on her heels. Yet. Beyond that…shit, there couldn’t be anything beyond that.

  She was an interesting diversion, that was all, and sleeping with her would bring an end to the unwanted partnership. She would have to ask for a transfer now, like it or not, and that was what he wanted more than anything else. So why the damn glow?

  An aberration, that was the answer. Next time, if there was a next time, nothing out of the ordinary would happen, and eventually Hope would convince herself that what she’d seen had been a trick of the light or the simple aftereffect of coming so hard that she’d temporarily screwed up her own eyesight.

  And she had come hard. What was a woman like that doing alone? She was alone in the same way he was. He knew it, the same way he knew his heart, body and soul had to be involved for what had happened to happen.

  No big deal. He’d thought himself in love once before. The woman in question had seen a small hint of who he really was, and that had been the end of that. That short relationship had really screwed up his ideas of having anything normal in his life. In the end, he’d gotten over her well enough, and he would get over Hope, too.

  “It’s Emma who’s got my head all twisted around,” he muttered to the mirror, studying his too-bare chin. “Dante and his damned turquoise.”

  All of a sudden he saw Emma’s reflection in the mirror and instinctively grabbed a towel to wrap himself in before he turned. Appearing maybe five years old today, she was floating above the tub, dressed all in white again. Her dark hair curled a bit and was fashioned into two long pigtails.

  “Hi, Daddy. Did you call me?”

  “No, I didn’t call you.”

  “I heard you say my name,” she protested, with all the innocence and persistence of a stubborn little girl.

  A horrifying thought crossed his mind. “Were you just here?”

  “No,” she said, wide-eyed and growing more and more substantial as he watched. “I was waiting, and then I heard you call my name.”

  “Waiting for what?”

  Emma smiled. “Be careful, Daddy,” she said as she began to fade away. “She’s very bad. Very, very bad.”

  “Who’s very…?” Before he could finish the question, Emma was gone. Surely she was warning him about Tabby. A warning last night before he’d gone to the riverfront would have been nice. Not that it would have stopped him from going.

  By the time he returned to the bedroom, Hope was gone. He heard her moving around in the guest bathroom down the hall. After a few minutes the bathroom door opened and she shouted, “Raintree, you wouldn’t happen to have an extra toothbrush, would you?”

  “Second drawer to the left,” he answered.

  Gideon chastised himself as he pulled his clothes for the day from the closet. At least Hope wasn’t being emotional about this. She recognized this morning for what it was: fun, in a world where there wasn’t nearly enough fun. Release for two adult, apparently neglected, bodies that needed it. Just another day in along line of days.

  Yeah, Hope was hot; she was gorgeous; she was brave. But he couldn’t love her, and this couldn’t last.

  “You must have more clothes around here that would fit me. I’d rather wear something of yours than this!”

  “My clothes are too big for you,” Gideon said sensibly. “Echo’s fit just fine.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion,” Hope grumbled as she tugged on the hem of the cutoff T-shirt that revealed her belly button. She was a good three inches taller than Echo Raintree, so it was a miracle anything the other woman had left here would fit.

  They’d both showered and changed clothes, but then she’d been stuck with choosing between the wrinkled blouse she’d slept in and the even more wrinkled trousers Raintree had thrown on the floor last night, or something from the drawer of clothes his cousin had left here on one of her infre