Waking Eden (The Eden Series Book 3) (21 page)

Trinity’s gaze locked on the rock wall opposite him.

He gently squeezed her hand. “Look at me, Trinity.”

Her lips tightened and he’d swear for a second she held her breath before meeting his eyes, the fear and doubt that radiated out of them slicing cold as a blade.

“I let you in,” he said. “I let you in and it scared the shit out of me. You being Spiritu was the perfect excuse for me to run. A way to keep you out.” His throat seemed to close in on itself, like it knew instinctively the danger behind the words bubbling up. “Laying there during your awakening, holding you and wondering if your Myren lineage was enough to get you through the transition, I realized running was the last thing I needed to do.”

“I—I’m not sure I follow.”

He cupped her face. Funny how touching her, being close to her, soothed and comforted his anxiousness. “I’m saying I’ve never contemplated what love might feel like, much less felt it. What I feel for you, I’m not sure there’s a word for it. Powerful, maybe. Whatever it is, it’s huge, and you’re the one who gave it to me. Dared me to face it just by being you. For a man who’s held himself apart from everyone his whole life, I’d say that’s a pretty impressive lesson.”

Trinity blinked over and over. Her hand twitched between his, and her shaky exhalation fluttered across his face. “What are you saying?”

This was it. The biggest battle of his life, fought with nothing more than words. Words he never thought he’d say. He palmed the back of her neck. A calm, almost fated certainty settled over him, bits and pieces of his purposefully disconnected life snapping together. “I love you, Trinity. I’ve got a short fuse sometimes and don’t know the first thing about how good relationships work, but I’m smart. Smart enough to know The Great One made you for me. I’m not about to let you go.”

“You love me,” she muttered, quiet and broken.

“I knew it that last night at your apartment. Had it driven home when I held you through your awakening.”

Her gaze roamed his face. “You barely know me.”

“I knew you were special in the first five seconds I saw you. In the time it took me to blink, everything about my world changed. I just didn’t realize what it was at the time. And for the record, I come from a long line of quick study men—my father, Eryx, my grandfather. Every one of them fell fast for their mates. I don’t see why my Shantos genes would be any different.”

Trinity pulled her hand free, her mouth slightly ajar and rounded. Like her body was ready to protest but her mind was too upended to cough up the right words. Not at all the response he’d hoped for. Reasonable, but still a long way from taking that victory lap.

Ramsay stood and stuffed his hands in his front pockets. “So, I guess you might need a little time to process all that.” He checked the tray, the bedside table, even glanced out the window. Give him a battle over intimate conversation any day. It was a hell of a lot easier. “There’s coffee if you want. Might want to add some creamer. Ours is a little stronger.”

Trinity stared at him. Was that shock on her face, or good old-fashioned disbelief?

He motioned to the double doors in the corner of his suite that led to the bathroom. “There’s a shower and a tub through there. I laid out everything you’d need while you were sleeping. One of Galena’s outfits too. I figured Lexi’s a little too tall for you. Actually everyone’s a little too tall for you, but Orla’s rounding up your own wardrobe.”

Geez, Shantos, shut the fuck up already.

He scratched the back of his head and stared at his boots, gathering up what was left of his pride. “I’ll give you a little time to yourself. Maybe after you’re dressed we could head to the beach, try out some simple skills. Unless you’d rather work with Lexi. I’m sure she’d—”

“I didn’t know I was Myren.”

Her statement scrambled his jagged exit strategy. “What?”

“When I told you I was Spiritu and human, I really meant it. My dad never told me anything else.” She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to think I was holding anything else back.”

He sat on the bed, most of the awkwardness shattered by the simple sound of her voice. “I don’t care what you are, Trinity. Yeah, the Spiritu thing surprised me, but I just want you. You being Myren’s icing on the cake.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why is it icing on the cake?”

The answer to her question rushed in, loud and clear, staking the most profound claim of his life. He leaned in and kissed her forehead. Her crisp, clean scent filled his lungs and fueled him to the point he felt invincible. He met her eyes. If he told her the truth, he’d likely ratchet the whole crazy awkward vibe back into the stratosphere.

Fuck it. He’d already laid one big boom. Might as well throw in full bore. “It’s icing because if you’re Myren, it means you can be my baineann and take my mark. And I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

S
erena jolted from a deep sleep
. A large, calloused hand clamped on her mouth, and she strained to focus in the darkness. Only a sliver of moonlight filtered through a crack in the drawn curtains, outlining a towering masculine body.

“Not a sound, Serena.”

Uther. The bastard was early.

The sun’s position registered well below the horizon. Past midnight, close to one in the morning. She nodded beneath his firm hold, her frantic exhalations rebounding off his hand and onto her face.

He eased back, his broad shoulders blocking what was left of the light.

She lit a single candle on her dresser, one far enough from the windows not to rouse the warriors watching the house, but enough to level the visual playing field. “Are you out of you mind coming this late?”

“Would you rather I come in broad daylight?” He eased onto the rose silk chaise nestled in the corner of her room, arms stretched out along the sides. “Nice security you’ve got these days, by the way.”

She snapped her covers aside and swung her legs free. “Thanks to you and your stupid tricks in Evad.”

“You get the books?” He crossed one leg over the other, completely at ease. Like he’d been in her room countless times and hadn’t just masked his way through The Great One only knew how many guards.

Her silk robe lay neatly situated near the foot of her bed, an elegant dusty pink that matched her fitted nightgown. She ran her fingers along the smooth fabric, eyes to Uther. Four days she’d debated how to handle this moment. Four days of powerlessness and not enough options. Only two choices, actually. Meet Uther head on and gain his trust over time, or grasp the upper hand quick with good old-fashioned seduction.

He held her stare, an interesting stir of power flowing between them.

Forgoing the robe, she gave Uther her back and locked eyes with him once more in the dresser mirror. “I’m not comfortable getting you anything or jumping into your schemes without more information.” Her silk nightgown shimmered in the candle’s glow, the fabric whispering with each step. She pulled her hair over one shoulder, exposing the low dipped back and the snug lace trim barely covering her ass. She picked up her brush.

“Are you saying you’re not willing to comply?”

“I’m saying I need to understand what I’m supporting.” Brushing the inconsequential knots from her hair, she imagined the two of them naked and tangled in her bed, his powerful torso flush against her breasts, the rhythm of his hips against hers. She pushed the image and emotion his way.

Uther uncrossed his legs and splayed one along the chaise. “I think it’s safer you don’t know.”

She sat the brush aside and prowled toward him, hips swaying with invitation. He’d be a powerful lover. Demanding without all of Maxis’ psychological whips and chains. A means to an end, yes. A sacrifice? Not in the least. Especially if it gave her the knowledge she wanted. “So you’re looking out for me then?”

“You don’t need looking out for.”

She halted just outside his spread legs. Her breasts tightened, nipples straining against her nightgown. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

With a slow, deep breath, she kneeled between them and imagined taking his cock with her mouth. The stretch of her lips around him. His taste. She pushed the thickening sexual tension that came with the thought around him and leaned in, enough to make her nipples strain at the lace trim of her neckline. “You’re right. I can look out for myself. But only if you tell me what I need to know. Make me a partner in this, Uther. Maxis trusted me. You can trust me too.”

A slow growl rumbled from his chest and he gripped her nape, pulling her to him. His lips were close. Warm and full. Heaviness weighted his eyelids, his sage irises more evergreen in the shadows.

No, not a sacrifice at all. She could easily envision him above her, thrusting fast and deep. She reveled in the sensation, let it mushroom around them both, her pussy clenching at the thought.

His nostrils flared and his fingers tightened on her neck. “Get back.”

Her heart thrashed inside her chest, torso seizing as surely as if she’d been doused in ice water. “You don’t mean that. You want me as much as I want you.”

Praise The Great One, it was the truth. Right now she wanted him with or without information. The heat coming off him alone was delicious. She could only imagine what he’d feel like naked and commanding her body.

He gripped her shoulders and forced her backward.

Serena stumbled to a stand, nearly ripping her gown’s hem in the process.

The room crackled with his energy, angry and sparking against her skin. “If I wanted pussy, I’d get it from someone without political aspirations and a love for daggers.”

“You bastard.” No one treated her this way. Let alone some scrapper from the Underlands. She pointed at her bedroom door. “Get out.”

“Not until you give me what I came here for.”

“And you’re not getting anything until you give me information.”

“Why should I?”

A lifetime worth of emotion surged to the surface, flaring as dangerously as a challenged cobra. “Because I don’t want to live the next year cooped up in this house. Because I don’t want to watch my every step for the next five. Because I want the throne that should have been mine, even if it means getting Eryx off his to get it.”

“Not a damned bit of which means a shit to me. So again, why should I?”

Reason pinged a subtle note in her mind, penetrating the anger and mortification of Uther’s rejection. She settled with it a moment. Breathed through the emotion. Maybe he just needed to see the true value she brought to the equation. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re after, and I’ll tell you how I might help you get it.”

Uther studied her room, his gaze traversing the fine rose and gold accents, lingering last on her sumptuous bed. “You ever think about what it would be like living without rank? Without a place in society? Limited gifts and resources?”

“Only so far as to be glad I’m not in that situation.”

He scowled at her, though there was an element of appreciation to it. “At least you’re honest.” He glanced to his left where open doors led to a bathroom bigger than his shack’s kitchen. “That’s all I’ve ever had. A family that lived on the fringes of society with nothing to our name. Of all of us, my powers are the strongest. A fluke compared to the rest of my line. Everything I have I’ve sweated for and made my own name.” He pegged her with a stare that resonated through every pore. “I want more.”

“You want the throne?”

“I want power. Enough of it I make my own rank, whatever the fuck that means. What I’m working on will give it to me.”

Interesting. Something to work with. She paced toward her bed, head down, mind racing ahead. “What kind of power are we talking about?”

“What kind of power do you think is capable of creating its own rank in our society?”

Serena stopped and faced him.

Big power.

The kind of power that had allowed the Shantos line to rule since the beginning of their race. The sum of all known gifts.

“And that ties in with the prophecy how?” she asked.

Uther strolled to the window and peeked behind one panel. “Something ancient. Handed down through my family from the first generations.” He dropped the curtain and faced her. “I don’t know its details, but I know the legend promises power. Loads of it.”

A slow, steady roar of adrenaline built in her bloodstream. She’d never had a means to out-power Eryx before. No one had. But this, this could be huge. “With strength and rank comes the need for politics. Are you prepared to navigate those waters?”

A flicker of doubt flashed in his eyes. Not much, but enough to let her know she’d hit a nerve.

“I am,” she said before he could answer. She ambled closer, this time not with a gait of seduction, but defiance. “I’m damned good at it. Enough I got a jury to look past my crimes.”

“Did you use the same trick you threw on me a few minutes ago to make it happen?”

His blocking skill. She’d assumed it might be a factor. At least now she knew it applied to her influence as well. “One and the same.” She smiled, strength and certainty fueling a confidence she hadn’t felt in days. “Now, are we going to partner up and get us both what we want? Or are you going to keep wasting time?”

T
hree days
. Three idyllic, magical days, and Trinity still couldn’t shake the bubble-bursting paranoia that dogged her every waking moment.

Ramsay’s hand tightened around hers, his usual long strides shortened so she could keep up as they wound through the thick forest. “You okay? You seem distant.”

“Yep.” Perfect. Couldn’t find a thing to complain about and hadn’t since he’d emotion-bombed her after her awakening, which was precisely the problem. Nothing this good lasted. “Just thinking. Where are we headed anyway? I thought we were having a picnic.”

“We are.”

That devilish grin of his hadn’t dimmed once. Not when he’d all but ordered her to shower after telling her he intended to marry her. Or whatever it was Myrens called it. Not when he’d shown her how to levitate pebbles and rocks the size of her fist at the beach later that day, or when he’d taught her to fly the day after. Certainly not when he set about physically pleasuring her, which seemed to be any spare second they were alone.

“I’m taking you to one of my favorite spots,” he said. “There’s a clearing in the middle of all this that’s quiet and private. I go there a lot for natxu or when I want to clear my head.”

“Natxu?”

He held a branch back so she could pass a tight spot. “I guess you might compare it to something like Tai Chi, but on a much more demanding scale. Our warriors use it as a part of daily training.”

Warrior training. Another perk of her recent stay in Eden. He’d taken her with him the last two days to watch him work with his men, just as Eryx had taken Lexi.

Man, talk about visual gratification. Ramsay in motion, chest bare, sun beating off his sweat-covered skin, and black leather molding the rest of his delicious assets. Oh, yeah. Perfect. Lexi had laughed herself silly and teased Trinity for the way she gapped through most of day one.

A fallen tree lay directly in her path, but before she could jump over it, Ramsay levitated her up and over the barely decayed wood. Her half-gasp, half-giggle bounced between the tall, chocolate-colored tree trunks and the thick canopy of huge pearlescent leaves. “You should warn me before you do stuff like that.”

“All right.” He tugged her so she faced him and wrapped her up tight. The picnic basket Orla had made them dangled from one of his hands and grazed the back of her legs. “I plan to see to your needs for an indefinite period of time, including, but not limited to navigating you through difficult terrain either mentally or physically.” He kissed her. Not chaste, and not wild, but a perfect mesh of his full lips against hers. “Consider that a blanket warning.”

She laughed and playfully shoved his shoulders, though the last thing she wanted was escape. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what to do about their situation. Ramsay had been dangerous when all he’d seemed to want was decadent sex. Ramsay on a mission for the whole enchilada, which was what he kept insisting he was after, was downright lethal.

“Come on. We’re not far now.” He released her and reclaimed her hand, striding toward the edge of the forest.

“Why not fly in? Wouldn’t that be faster?” More fun for sure. She’d never imagined what it would be like to be Superman, but now that she’d done it for herself, she’d pick it over a car any day.

Ramsay shrugged. “Peaceful, I guess. Kind of a way to center my mind and prep for natxu.”

A very Zen-ish attitude. Yet another surprising aspect to the man who’d swept into her world and turned it upside down.

They stepped from the last line of trees and her breath left on a rush.

Green grass with scattered tiny white flowers stretched out in a misshaped oval nearly three football fields long. Unlike the sod back home, Eden’s glinted in the sun, the silver-tinted blades making everything seem magical.

Trinity pointed to the odd rectangular stones arranged like doors, or monuments, at the end closest to them. Kind of like the pictures she’d seen of Stonehenge but in an arch instead of a circle. “What’s that?”

Ramsay shrugged and pulled her forward. “Not a clue. My dad said they date back to our first generation and the first malran, but that’s all anyone knows. Rumor has it the castle was purposefully built to be close to this spot, but for all we know, it’s just that. Rumor.” He smiled back at her. “Wanna eat there?”

And give her librarian/fantasy girl a little chance to indulge her curiosity and imagination in one swoop? “Heck, yes.”

Ramsay laid out the thick blanket Orla had packed while Trinity rifled through the basket.

“Good grief,” she said, setting aside a fourth sandwich made of the buttery, crusty bread she’d helped Orla make the day before. “How many of us did she think she was feeding?”

Ramsay peeked over her shoulder. “Looks like enough for us. Three for me, one for you.” He kissed her cheek, then lay on his back and stared up at the holographic rainbow sky. “Soon as we eat, we can spend some time figuring out what your best element is.”

Oh, that. She’d been avoiding the whole fire-throwing, water-conjuring, and whatever else Myrens could do. What if she burned something down? Or worse, couldn’t do anything? “No rush. I’m not in any hurry.”

“That’s a different spin than Lexi gave it. She wouldn’t give playing with her new gifts a rest. ’Course she also thought she was gonna have to go head-to-head with Maxis and Serena solo, so she had a bit more incentive.”

Trinity handed him a sandwich and settled in to devour her own. “So, Serena’s contained now?” She knew Maxis was dead, but the idea Serena could still cause problems for her new friends, or worse, somehow pair with the Spiritu who’d forced Serena into killing Maxis, didn’t sit well.

“She’s under guard. Whether or not she’s the one who took people to Eden we can’t prove yet, but Eryx has men on the house.”

Which meant the humans being brought to Eden might not have anything to do with Serena at all and everything to do with the prophecy. Lexi had given her updates on that score everyday too. The journal she’d seen in her box was apparently written in an old language. One no one used anymore, which made deciphering tricky.

“I tried to help Lexi translate some pages from the journal while you were huddled up with Eryx yesterday,” she said.

Ramsay popped the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth.

Trinity snagged a drishen and ate it, waiting for him to say something.

He stared back at her.

“She said Eryx told her written communications from that time period were less literal than ours. That because of the pictorial slant to the words, it was easy to misinterpret things. Have you tried working on it?”

He wiped his hands on his napkin. “A little.”

Well, gee, Trinity. Why not tiptoe around the subject a little more?

“Why don’t you talk about it anymore?” she said. “The prophecy, I mean.”

“Because you’re more than a means to an end, and I want it to be clear my intent with you is completely separate.”

Her belly did a barrel roll and her heart missed at least two beats. The message alone was enough to bowl a girl over, but added with his rumbly voice, her mind clocked out. “And when we…” She motioned between them. “You know.”

He cocked one eyebrow and grinned. “When we what?”

Ugh. Stubborn Ass. “You know. When we’ve been together. Every time since my awakening, I seem to be the only one getting to fully enjoy things. Does that have anything to do with your intent?”

He grabbed her hand and stretched back out on the blanket, pulling her so she lay half on and half off him. “You mean the fact that I’ve only gotten you off with my mouth and my fingers? That you’re the only one who’s come? Yeah, it’s got something to do with my intent.” He caressed her neck and his thumb skated back and forth along her hairline. “Telling you I love you and proving it are two very different things.” His eyes locked onto her lips. “I’m more interested in the latter.”

What if I said I love you too?
Was it really possible to feel such a thing so quickly? And what if everything changed after she said it? For all she knew, she was just a challenge to Ramsay. A shiny new toy that would lose its luster the minute she uttered the words.

She pushed the thought aside. Ramsay might be a lot of things, but shallow wasn’t one of them. He might have been deceptive at first, but it wasn’t without cause. Now that everything was out in the open, there was no point in him jumping through hoops for something he’d been willing to flat-out say he wanted a few days ago.

Ramsay shifted beneath her, tilting his head to one side. “If I wanted to talk with your father, how would I do that?”

Why would he want to? “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never needed to call him. He just shows when I need him. When I think of him.”

“So you talk to him at will? Like telepathy?”

Another good question. Not that she knew yet how telepathy worked since she had no Myren family to connect with. She’d tried to communicate with Lexi, but came up with a big nothing. Which sucked because it confirmed they weren’t related.

“No,” she said. “I wouldn’t call it telepathy. I mean, except for during the awakening. I heard his voice in my head then, but most of the time I just think of him and he poofs in.”

Ramsay grinned. “He poofs in?”

She smiled back, his boyish charm infecting her the way it always did. “Yeah.”

“Tell me about him.”

She traced the metal torc at his neck, mostly platinum, but with yellow gold bars at either side of a black Pegasus etched at its center. Except for the first day after her awakening, he’d always worn it, along with the drast and black leather pants the rest of the warriors wore. “His name is Kazan. His build is similar to yours, about the same height as you too. My mom must’ve been the blond because his hair is as black as it gets.”

“He’s with the Black contingent?”

She nodded and reality dimmed for a minute, warm memories flooding up from the countless easy conversations she’d had with her father. “The good side, he’d say. Passion. Lust for life.” She met Ramsay’s gaze. “Personally, I’ve never seen that side of him. He’s always calm with me. Reserved, like a part of him is missing.”

Ramsay tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Sounds like a good man. Though I don’t think he’d appreciate the term poof. Pop, maybe. Or appear. Not poof. Men do not poof.”

A happy giggle bubbled up. When was the last time she’d felt this light? This unencumbered by responsibility and have-nots? “Why all the questions?”

His gaze slid to the skies for a second, then returned to her. “I’d like to talk to him. Do you think you could tell him that?”

Ramsay and her father? In the same room?

Oh, wait. It was probably prophecy talk. “He can’t help you with the prophecy. If he does, he’ll forfeit his existence. He barely survived the penalty for his indiscretion with Mom.”

Ramsay cupped the back of her head. If she weren’t sprawled across him already, the intensity of his expression would’ve knocked her over. “It’s something more important than the prophecy, Sunshine.”

“Then what is it?”

His ornery grin flipped back into place, and he rolled them until he had her pinned against the blanket. “Things a man who wants another man’s daughter needs to say one-on-one.” He studied her a minute. “Now, are you going to help me out and give Dad a jingle, or do I need to persuade you?”

A towering form solidified behind them. Black T-shirt, black jeans, black boots. Her father, who, from the scowl on his face, appeared to be in a black mood.

His powerful voice sounded above them before Trinity could say a word to warn Ramsay. “I can hear you fine.”

* * *

R
amsay froze above Trinity
, biceps flexed and ready for action.

It had to be her dad. And didn’t that figure. His first introduction to the guy, and he was nearly on top of his daughter, forearms braced on either side of her head. Logic said to roll away and spring to his feet. Something far more primitive kept him rooted in place, the need to protect, even mark her as his, knocking reason out of the way.

Trinity pushed on his chest, urging him to move, her eyes wide and locked on the man behind her.

“Look at me,” Ramsay said, quiet enough to keep the communication between the two of them.

Her gaze slid to his. With every second the pretty pink flush on her cheeks strengthened.

He kissed her, a soft, innocent touch, and murmured against her lips. “Breathe.”

Kazan’s shadow fell across them. “A little hard for her to do that considering the circumstances, don’t you think?”

Fuck. He’d forgotten their powers. The Great One only knew how vast they were.

“Far more than yours,” Kazan said, answering Ramsay’s thought. “And I think I’ve been more than patient holding them back where my daughter’s concerned.”

So, he could read minds on top of exceptional hearing. Good to know.

He eased back to his knees and helped Trinity up, keeping his back to Kazan despite his instincts to do otherwise until she was steady. Weird how centered he felt. No need for posturing or anger, just a single-minded focus to handle what needed handling.