Frozen Desires (Asylums for Magical Threats) (6 page)

Marco shrugged. “I kept watch over you. It was quite a show, watching you writhe on the ground in

your wet tank top. I was too far away to tell, but I swear I saw the outline of your bra from where I was

perched.”

Cam growled. “I don’t have time to deal with you and your skeevy comments right now. I’m trying to

do some reconnaissance work, so go annoy someone else.”

The sudden sound of distant voices prevented Marco from replying, but they gave her the out she

needed. If she could reach the safety of the tourists approaching them, Marco would have to leave her

alone, unless he wanted her to scream and draw attention. Having him carted away by the police would

make tonight’s operation easier. Too bad she was required to help and protect other DEFEND members

unless they tried to hurt or betray her. And so far, he hadn’t done either.

She turned, but when she tried to move her legs to walk, they wouldn’t budge. She looked down and

saw that her boots were encased in ice. When had that happened?

She looked over her shoulder and said, “You’re risking a hell of a lot to get my attention. So say what

you have to say, and quickly.”

Marco came up behind her, and despite it being at least ninety degrees outside, the heat of his body

permeated her tank top and thin cotton skirt. His head was facing her cheek and his breath tickled her skin as he said, “Why do you have to be in overkill-mode twenty-four/seven? I already know you’re a badass,

but your hot badass self could use my help. I know the area, the language, and how to charm information

out of people.” He leaned his head around further until it was facing her, his lips a scant few inches away

from hers. “You’re the only one who seems immune.”

His dark chocolate eyes were heavy lidded, and between the heat of his body and his spicy male scent,

Cam’s pulse sped up. This was a man used to getting what he wanted.

Then she remembered the rumors of Marco’s conquests. She would not be one of them.

She cleared her throat and got her heart rate under control. “The simple answer is that I just don’t trust you. I’ve been burned in the past, and with something as important as finding the Talents, I’m trying to

avoid any risk that might cause me to fail.”

His leg brushed the back of hers, but Cam was no longer under the spell of his magnetism. She kept her

posture stiff and unresponsive, hoping he’d take the hint and leave.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work and, if anything, he leaned in closer than before. “Then give me a trial

period, or some kind of test. If I deliver and prove myself, you promise to stop fighting me at every turn and allow me to help you. If I fail, you can tell me to fuck off and I’ll comply.”

She was tempted, but she didn’t want to make a decision like this lightly.

The sound of a giggling couple drew closer and she poked Marco’s arm with a claw. “People are

coming, and if they notice the ice around my feet, they’ll ask too many questions. You need to melt the ice.

Now.”

“Not until you give me an answer.”

As they stared at one another, the giggling drew closer. Cam couldn’t afford to be caught with a first-

born right now, leaving her only a few seconds to decide what to do.

He did know the language and probably had more contacts in this part of the world than she did.

Playing a clueless tourist only went so far. If she did find something inside the observatory later tonight, the clue could lead her anywhere, maybe even to a remote village deep in the jungle. DEFEND had an extensive

web of contacts, but she knew little about their reputations outside of the US or Europe. In the ever-

changing
Feiru
world of political allegiances, too many former trusted allies could be acting as double agents.

Her boss, Neena, was one of the few people Cam trusted with her life, and while she hadn’t fully

endorsed Marco, she hadn’t warned Cam to stay away either.

The giggling people would see them any second, so she decided to trust Neena on the issue of Marco, at

least for now. “Fine, I’ll give you a series of tests. Now, hurry up and release me.”

Marco laid a hand on her lower back, sending a jolt through her body at the contact, and the ice melted

away. He leaned in close and whispered. “Pretend that you adore me for the next thirty seconds.”

Marco had made a mistake.

It wasn’t the fact that Cam was still resisting him, or that he’d had to use his elemental magic in public.

No, his mistake had been donning his fake playboy routine. Because trying to be suave and charming

around Cam had forced him to touch her again, to lean in and smell the wildness of the jungle mixed with

her own womanly scent, to notice the way her shirt clung to her breasts. In other words, he was starting to notice her more as a woman than a fellow DEFEND soldier.

Attachments were dangerous enough for someone like him, with a secret to hide, but on top of that, she

wasn’t just any soldier—she was one of the few who would never see him as anything more than a young,

smooth-talking recruit.

However, he’d been out of options when he’d heard the giggling couple approach, leaving him with the

choice of either letting Cam run away from him or pulling her up against his side and treating her as his

lover. Getting her to stay put and actually talk to him was difficult, and he needed to know exactly what sort of “tests” she had in mind for him, so he decided to go with the latter option.

He moved his hand from Cam’s lower back to her waist, and he hauled her against his side. From a

distance, Cam could be intimidating to strangers, but with her frame pressed up against his muscular one, she almost appeared small.

He barely had time to move his hand to Cam’s hip to get a better grip before a man and woman in their

mid-twenties came around the corner of the building. Cam tucked her head against his side—probably to

hide her pissed off looking face—so he smiled at the couple and said in Spanish, “Sorry, friends, my

girlfriend and I were just trying to steal a few moments alone.”

The man laughed. “No worries. We kind of had the same idea.”

The man looked at the woman at his side, and Marco felt a pang of jealousy at their obvious affection.

Good thing he had lots of experience hiding his emotions. “My girl and I were just leaving. But if you know of any other little secluded spots we can take advantage of, I’d love to hear them.”

Cam chose that moment to lift her head and peek at the couple opposite them. The woman winked at

Cam, and unaware that Cam didn’t speak Spanish, she said, “Get your boyfriend to take you to a secluded

cenote at night. You haven’t tried anything until you’ve been naked in a sunken waterhole with the

moonlight streaming down on you.”

Marco nearly choked. A naked Cam, floating on her back with the moonlight caressing her breasts, was

not the image he needed right now.

When Cam merely stared at the couple, the other man saved him from sputtering some half-assed reply.

“Ah, she doesn’t understand us. That might work in your favor, my friend, because now you can surprise

her. No doubt the sudden ‘romance’ will score you some extra points.”

Marco forced a grin and wink. “Thanks for the tip. I think it’s time for me to go look up cenotes and

plan a big evening.”

The pair laughed and walked past them.

Cam hated not understanding what had just happened. The man and woman had been laughing with

Marco, and her inner control freak desperately wanted to know why.

Still, the experience had only reinforced her decision to accept Marco’s help. She loathed admitting it,

but his language skills alone would no doubt make her mission easier, provided he was honest with her.

When the couple finally left, she’d expected Marco to let go, but if anything, he tightened his grip on her hip. She gave a quick check to make sure the couple was gone before she hissed, “Let me go.”

He merely smiled down at her, which only irritated her more. “Not until you tell me what kind of tests

you plan to put me through.”

“I need some time to think them through, unless you want some half-assed impossible task, like asking

you to take out all of the security guards here tonight without getting caught.”

“I doubt even you could do that.”

“That’s the point.” She inched her arm toward his, but he saw the movement, and took hold of both of

her wrists. She narrowed her eyes. “I may have agreed to give you a try, but that doesn’t give you the right to manhandle me.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What if that couple came back? I’m just keeping up my role, beauty.”

The stupid, meaningless endearment was the last straw. She needed to find a way to get free of Marco’s

ironclad hold on her body.

While Marco was strong, both physically and magically, he was just a man, and there was more than one

way to get out of his hold without letting on that she wasn’t human.

Cam reached out her hand and tickled his side. He yelped and she slipped away. She dashed to the top

of the stairs before he caught up to her with a grin on his face. “So it does exist.”

She spotted Zalika at the foot of the stairs and put on her hat, the signal that everything was okay. “What does?”

“A non-badass version of you.”

“Escape doesn’t always require violence.” When Marco didn’t reply, she looked over at him, but he was

just staring at her. “What?”

“You’re full of surprises, beauty.”

Cam raised her eyebrows. “There is more to women than tits and ass, Alvarez.”

“Oh, I know that. But I’m starting to think that you’re not as harsh as people make you out to be.”

He was closer to the truth than she’d ever admit. “I’m starting to regret my decision to give you a

chance.”

Marco grinned. “Oh, I’m just getting started. Wait until you see what I’m really capable of.”

While she knew deep down that she needed his help on this mission, she was going to make his tests

difficult on purpose. The man was too confident by half.

Cam looked away from him and said, “I’m going to finish scouting the location. Meet us three

kilometers west of the main entrance at 8 p.m.”

She didn’t wait for a reply, but started down the stairs.

“Wait, I know how to sneak in. Some of the peddlers told me about the holes in the security.”

Chichen Itza was filled with locals selling everything from carved Mayan gods to t-shirts. Since there

was a chance Marco was telling the truth, she turned around and went to stand on the same stair as him.

“And?”

“Your meeting spot is close to where they sneak in and out sometimes. I’ll see you there at 8 p.m.”

Marco flew down the stairs before she could ask for any more specifics.

Just in case he was wrong, Cam headed down the stairs and rejoined the tour group. She’d learned a

long time ago to always have a contingency plan because you never knew when someone would betray

you, as her ex-boyfriend had taught her.

Chapter Seven

Marco stood in the pouring rain and looked up at the observatory, the outline of the building barely

visible in the darkness. Cam and Zalika were inside, and while Marco wanted to be there with them, the

first stage of his “test” had been to keep the security cameras fogged up.

While directing a few chilled drops of rain against three security cameras every few seconds was

mundane, the thin ice shield at his back kept his mind occupied. It’d been more than twenty-four hours

since he’d last seen the shadow-shifter, which meant that he had to keep up his guard or risk having the

shifter creep up on him undetected.

Maybe the shifter had been merely a coincidence and wasn’t after Cam or her information, but Marco

didn’t count on it.

He’d warned Cam to be careful before she left, but she’d dismissed him with a wave of her hand,

informing him that she wasn’t an idiot. If he hadn’t been the recipient of her tickling earlier, he wouldn’t believe she’d had it in her.

Playing the part of Cam’s lover had been a little too easy. He’d had to charm and flirt his way through

the world to keep his true self hidden and protect the others who shared his secret, but as he’d pulled Cam up against his side and breathed in her earthy female scent, he’d wanted to charm her into bed for real.

He could still remember the feel of her hip under his hand, strong and toned. Even now, he wondered

what it’d be like to dominate her when she was naked. He wouldn’t have to worry about being too rough

with Camilla—he had a feeling she would fight it as long as possible, before handing control over to him

and enjoying it.

Marco realized where his thoughts were heading, and he focused back on the cameras. Due to his

reputation, he was the last person Camilla would sleep with. His reputation had never bothered him before

since it had kept people from guessing the truth about his elemental powers, but right now, he was tired of living two lives.

The sooner he put distance between him and Cam, the sooner he could go back to his two-faced

existence and forget about getting her naked.

A security guard came into view, and Marco created an icicle in the doorway of the observatory—the

sign to stay out of sight.

The guard reached the foot of the stairs and looked up toward the observatory. Cam hadn’t mentioned

any sensors or internal security cameras, but as the guard started to ascend the stairs to investigate, he had a feeling that Cam had overlooked something.

Not even badass Cam was perfect.

The guard was only a few steps from the bottom of the stairs, so he iced the small pool of water on the