Protector (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 5) Read online

  He’d been quiet, although whether that was because he was trying to focus on the unfamiliar roads, or because he’d sensed that she really didn’t want to talk, she didn’t know for sure. And was it actually that she didn’t want to talk, or was just worried she’d say exactly the wrong thing?

  At least it wasn’t dead quiet in the SUV; as they were leaving Blythe, he asked if she minded if he turned on the radio. She’d said that was fine, and since he chose a station that played the rock and alternative music she liked, it helped to fill the silence without being too intrusive. The problem was that even the music couldn’t distract her from the man sitting just a foot or so away from her.

  And what was she supposed to do when they got to Pasadena? She’d already agreed to share a hotel room, so there was no backing out of that arrangement.

  You shouldn’t have asked for separate beds, she told herself, and that thought had to be the craziest thing that had crossed her mind yet. She’d barely known the guy for two days. And now she was okay with sleeping with him? That was just…no. Never mind that she’d never slept with anyone. Her big dark secret. She’d come close a few times, but always something in her held back, told her it wasn’t the right time. Her boyfriends hadn’t been too thrilled with her, that was for sure. In fact, the guy she’d been dating at Northern Pines — a civilian — called her a “cock tease” right before he dumped her. But she hadn’t been teasing him. She’d thought she wanted to, had told herself that the whole situation was ridiculous and that it was time to lose that unwanted virginity. She wasn’t some prima holding out for her consort, after all. At twenty-one, she thought she was way overdue.

  And yet…she still couldn’t make herself take that final step. Until now. Well, she hadn’t taken any steps, beyond that one kiss she and Alex had shared, and yet she wanted to. The intensity of that desire shook her. She’d never experienced anything like it before. For some people, it might have been enough to throw aside any remaining reticence they might have possessed. But could she do it? Could she take that final step?

  She was afraid of the answer, but in her heart, she knew exactly what it was. Never mind that it was truly insane to be considering such a thing when her friends were being held captive by an insane warlock, when she’d only met Alex the day before yesterday. What did she know about him, really? A few things about his family, about where he worked and how a few of his dreams had been thwarted. She knew he was attracted to her. But how deep did that attraction go? As deeply as hers did?

  They’d passed through the outskirts of Palm Springs, and Caitlin had barely noticed, she was so preoccupied. It wasn’t until they crested a hill some miles past the desert town, and the bright, glittering lights of the inland suburbs were laid out before them, that she realized how much ground they’d covered. Surely it couldn’t be that much farther to Pasadena.

  But it was, as mile after mile passed by in the dark, the freeways around them widening and yet at the same time growing more and more congested, even though it was far past what she would have thought of as rush hour.

  She must have let out a sigh, because Alex said, “Not too much more. Maybe another half hour.”

  Half an hour until she was alone with him in a hotel room. So many thoughts and questions had been chasing themselves around in her head, she couldn’t keep them straight anymore. She nodded, then blurted out the first thing that rose to the surface of her mind. “So what’s with your house, anyway? Does being a store manager really pay that much?”

  Even though he’d been keeping his eyes on the road pretty much the whole time, he swiveled his head toward her and gave her a startled glance. “Um…what?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said at once, mentally kicking herself. Yes, she’d been wondering about the house ever since the first time she set foot in it, but did she really need to have asked that question? “It just — I’m a dork. Never mind.”

  He actually grinned. “I don’t think you’re a dork.” Something in the way he said the words sounded almost like a caress, and Caitlin found herself daring to hope that maybe she hadn’t completely screwed up. “Actually, I suppose it’s sort of an obvious question. My grandfather — my dad’s dad — passed away a few years ago. He left each of us grandkids a chunk of money. So I bought the house…and this car.” Even in the darkness, she could see the teasing glint in his eyes. “Are you after me for my money, Caitlin?”

  “Very funny,” she retorted, and he chuckled, albeit somewhat grimly.

  “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  She wondered who those other girls had been, the ones who’d seen a guy in his mid-twenties with a solid job and a house that was already paid for, and thought he was a great prospect. Obviously, none of them had gotten their claws into him, but still. Alex was an amazing person. The house and everything else didn’t even factor into it. Caitlin knew she’d feel the same way about him even if he was living in a crappy studio apartment and driving a ten-year-old pickup truck.

  “Don’t worry,” she told him. “We McAllisters may not be as rich as the Wilcoxes, but we do okay. I get my own stipend every month — and I work two part-time jobs. I’m completely self-sustaining.”

  “Two?” he said. “And go to school full-time?”

  “Well, I tutor, so that’s not like going to a regular job, and the other one is only ten to fifteen hours a week. It’s not like I’m doing a full-time gig or anything.” She knew she should leave it at that, and forced herself to keep from mentioning her other source of income.

  “Still.” He seemed to think for a moment. “I put in a few hours a week at the store while I was in college, but that was it. My parents didn’t want anything interfering with my education.”

  “You were doing a double major. It makes sense that you wouldn’t have much time left over for a job.”

  “I suppose.” Another one of those quick glances in her direction before he returned his focus to the busy freeway around them. “What are you majoring in, anyway?”

  “English.” Utterly boring, she knew.

  “Really? What do you want to do — teach?”

  “If I have to. But really” —she took in a breath, deciding she would tell him and see if he laughed— “really, I want to be a writer.”

  “Seriously?” Someone cut right in front of him, so he didn’t have the luxury of looking over at her. In fact, she thought she heard him mutter a curse in Spanish under his breath before he went on, “What kind of writer?”

  “Oh, you know.” She sort of flapped at the air dismissively, then told herself if she’d been foolish enough to confess her dream to him, she might as well go all the way. “Novels. Fantasy novels.”

  He didn’t laugh. “That’s cool. Are you going to write about witches?”

  “No,” she replied, trying to sound severe but not being terribly successful about it. “I know they say write what you know, but….”

  “But familiarity breeds contempt?”

  She did chuckle a bit at that question. “‘Contempt’ is a strong word. And it’s kind of hard to write fantasy without writing about magic, too. It’s just a really different kind of magic.”

  “So have you written anything yet?”

  And now she was about to divulge her biggest secret…well, except that whole thing about still being a virgin. “Yes. Three novels so far. I finished the third one in December while I was on winter break.”

  “That’s impressive.” He did sound impressed, and Caitlin relaxed slightly.

  “I’m still editing it, but it should be ready to go next month sometime. And then I’ll have that trilogy done and published, and I can move on to the next one.”

  “Wait,” he said. “You mean you already have a publisher?”

  Oh, boy. “Not exactly. These days, you can upload your work directly, you know? I’m in an online critique group to get feedback, and I trade tutoring with someone who’s studying graphic design at my school, so she does my covers. I’m not selling a lot yet, bu
t I make a couple hundred bucks every month.”

  “Wow.” His admiration didn’t seem at all feigned. “I had no idea.”

  Neither do my parents, she thought. The books were published under the pen name of C.J. Marsters, and her royalty payments directly deposited into her checking account, so no one knew — except Tracie, the graphic design student who was brilliant at typography and Photoshop manipulation, and not so great at writing term papers.

  “I don’t talk about it, really,” she confessed. “Even Danica doesn’t know, and we’re roommates. She just thinks I have to write a lot for my classes, and since I’m an English major, it makes some sense.”

  He changed lanes, edging over the right, and she realized he was getting ready to exit the freeway. So they were almost at their destination.

  It wasn’t until they’d pulled off onto a feeder road that ran parallel to the highway and were waiting at a red light that he asked, “Are you ever going to tell them?”

  “Eventually.” She hesitated for a moment, watching houses that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Jerome pass by outside the window. This part of Pasadena appeared to be fairly old. “It’s just — if I say anything now, they’ll think I’m taking time away from my coursework. And I’m not. I’m really careful about that. And also…I guess I’m hoping I’ll start making some real money from it, once I have my trilogy done, and then they’ll have to take me seriously.”

  “You really think they wouldn’t?”

  “Did your parents, when you said you wanted to go into local television instead of working at the store?”

  “Ouch.” He shook his head. “No, not really.”

  They turned left then, passing back over the freeway and into a much more commercial area. An impressive-looking building fronted the street they were currently driving on, and Alex turned again, this time onto a much smaller street so he could head into the hotel’s underground parking garage. When he took the ticket, he looked at the prices and winced. “Twenty bucks a night just to park? We really are in the big city.”

  “If it’s a problem — ” Caitlin began, and scrabbled in her purse for her wallet.

  “It’s not a problem. It’s just highway robbery.” He took the ticket from the machine, and the automated gate arm in front of them lifted.

  At least there was a parking space not too far from the elevators, so Alex pulled in there and turned off the engine. It only took a minute or so to unload their luggage, and then it was time to check in.

  By then it was past ten o’clock at night, and the lobby was almost deserted, except for the woman behind the front desk and a bored-looking bellhop standing duty by the sliding doors that opened on the street. He gave the two of them the side-eye as they passed, and Caitlin wondered if he was annoyed that they’d parked themselves in the garage instead of using the valet service out front.

  No time to worry about that, though, because Alex had moved purposefully to the front desk and was giving his information to the woman there, along with his credit card. Caitlin waited off to one side, trying to look as if she checked into hotels with guys all the time. All right, not all the time, but at least she didn’t want to give the impression that she was doing something illicit.

  The transaction settled, Alex turned back toward her. “Looks like the elevators are down that hall. We’re on the tenth floor.”

  She nodded, mostly because she didn’t know what to say. All of the easy dialogue they’d shared during those last few minutes of the drive melted away as if it had never existed. For each floor the elevator ascended, she could feel her throat constricting and her stomach tightening just that much more. It didn’t help that they were standing fairly close to one another in case someone else got on the elevator, close enough that she thought she could hear the beating of Alex’s heart. Or was that hers, hammering away in her chest?

  The room was large and clean, with a fairly spectacular view of the downtown Pasadena area. Caitlin went to look out the window and stared down at all the lights sparkling beneath them. How big was Pasadena, anyway? Bigger than Tucson? Smaller? She had no real sense of scale, because everything felt big to her, compared to where she’d come from.

  “What do you think?” Alex said, coming up to stand next to her and look out at the night cityscape.

  “It looks pretty from up here,” she replied cautiously.

  “True, but unless you want the whole world looking in, you might want to close the drapes.” He reached up and grabbed a sort of plastic wand hanging from the heavy outer curtains and pulled them shut.

  Right. She should have thought of that. But she’d never stayed in a hotel in her life — up until this past summer, when she transferred to Northern Pines and moved into the apartment with Danica, she’d never even ventured farther afield than Prescott. Her whole life had been spent in tiny Jerome and the small towns of the Verde Valley.

  “So…when do you think we should visit Simón tomorrow?”

  If Alex was surprised by her abrupt change of subject, he didn’t show it. “Not until after ten. Maybe closer to eleven, just in case he isn’t a morning person. That gives us plenty of time to sleep in.”

  Did he mean anything by that? Caitlin wasn’t sure, and she definitely wasn’t about to ask. “Okay,” she replied. “I’ll go ahead and start getting ready. You don’t mind if I take over the bathroom for a bit?”

  “No,” he said, and then paused, gazing down at her. She tried not to flinch and look away, but it was hard. Those dark eyes seemed to be piercing right through her, seeing the crazy thoughts that had passed through her mind during the drive here. He continued, in a much different tone, “Thank you for telling me all that. About your writing, I mean. I think it’s an amazing thing you’re doing.”

  Her mouth went dry. How was she supposed to reply to that? Tell him she thought he was pretty amazing, too? Finally, she managed, “Thanks.”

  The word should have fallen flat, but he seemed to ignore how woefully inadequate it really was, and instead moved closer to her. Without truly understanding how it had happened, she felt his hands holding hers, pulling her closer to him. And then he was bending down, those strong, full lips of his touching her mouth, kissing her, making her open to him so she could taste him once again.

  Something in her seemed to break, and melt, and she was pressed against him, feeling his body on hers, one of his hands reaching up to run through her loose hair. The kiss deepened, and then he was picking her up and carrying her to the nearest bed, only a few feet away from where they’d be standing by the window. His weight was on her, and his hands moving up under her top, warm against her flesh.

  A moan escaped her lips, and that seemed to be all the encouragement he needed. He pushed her shirt up even further, fumbled with the front hook of her bra. Then it was loose, and it wasn’t just his hands on her, but his mouth as well, trailing feathery kisses up her stomach until at last he closed on her breast, suckling, and then she cried out even more, her fingers caught in his thick dark hair as she held him against her.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d gone this far, but it had never felt like this before. Warm, heavy pulses of desire flooded through her, heat growing between her legs.

  “Oh, Goddess,” she murmured.

  He undid the button of her jeans, then pulled down the zipper. And then he was reaching down to stroke her, while she had to practically bite her lip from crying out at the sheer ecstasy of his touch, that strong finger caressing her right where she wanted it the most. The waves of heat grew stronger, and she felt it building in her, knew he was going to make her come right then and there.

  Which she did, clinging to him as the orgasm flooded through her, blood surging through every limb and to her fingers and toes. Her head fell back against the pillow, and she gasped for air like someone who had nearly drowned. Maybe she was drowning. She knew she couldn’t fight this anymore, couldn’t tell herself it was crazy and that she had far more important things to worry about. Right
then, Alex was the most important thing in her world. If that was wrong, well, she’d face the consequences later. But she also knew she had to tell him the truth.

  “Alex,” she said, once she felt as if she might be able to string two coherent words together.

  He’d been lying next to her, holding her as the last of shudders had finished wracking their way through her body. Now he propped himself up on one elbow, dark eyes sharp and worried, as if he was expecting her to tell him that was all they could do, that they needed to stop this madness here and now. “What, Caitlin?”

  “I — ” Her tongue seemed to be stuck to the back of her throat. No wonder, really, with the way she’d been panting. She sucked in a breath and started over. “I just — I need to tell you something.”

  His mouth tightened. “What is it?”

  Just get it over with! “I’m a virgin,” she said simply.

  He didn’t quite pull away, but she could feel him go very still. “You’re — seriously?”

  “Is it that unbelievable?”

  “For a girl as gorgeous as you? It’s kind of unbelievable.”

  He called me gorgeous! a part of her mind burbled happily, but she forced herself to say, “It’s not as if I really meant to wait this long. It just never felt right before.”

  He watched her, eyes half hidden by the sweep of his lashes, thick and dark as his hair. Then, finally, “Are you saying this feels right?”

  “Yes. Doesn’t — doesn’t it feel right to you?”

  His expression softened, and then he was pulling her close, kissing her cheek, her neck. Once again he caressed her, his mouth warm against the sensitive skin of her breast. She shivered, let him touch her, explore her, his fingers moving deeper. But then he paused, murmuring, “We don’t have to go any further than this if you don’t want to.”

  She shut her eyes, made herself pull in a deep breath. Then she blinked and gazed back up at him, at the sensual curve of his mouth, the dusting of late-day stubble against the warm tones of his skin. Every part of him seemed so perfect, so uniquely Alex, that she knew she could never have said this to anyone else.