Adrenaline pumped through her system, making her vision go pinpoint.
No. It’s not the adrenaline making my eyesight wonky, she realized. I haven’t drawn a full breath since we heard the gunshot.
After she’d retrieved In Darkness and Dreams from her purse, she’d read the sex scene aloud to Romeo. Only, it hadn’t turned out to be a sex scene. At least not in the traditional horizontal hula sense. Instead, P.J. Warren had written that Ursula Lobo had seduced the obscenely sexy Lazarus Luxido by giving him a slow, intensely erotic blow job.
After Mia finished reading, she’d snapped the book closed and turned to Romeo with what she’d hoped was a seductive grin. “Let’s see if that’s as hot in real life as it is on the page,” she’d told him.
For the record, it had been hotter.
If she lived to be a hundred years old, she would always remember the way Romeo had arched beneath her, his hands tangled in her hair, her name a harsh whisper torn from the back of his throat as he exploded into her mouth.
“God bless P.J. Warren,” he’d said once he stopped breathing like he’d been stuck under water for too long. “And god bless Mia Ennis,” he’d added before flipping her onto her back.
He’d kissed her until the flames of passion had once more become a conflagration, and then he’d nibbled his way across her jaw, back to her ear, and down to her neck. By the time he’d gotten to her collarbone, she’d been begging him to kiss her nipples. And his hot lips had just closed over one greedy peak when she’d told him, “P.J. Warren didn’t write about this.”
“Sure she did,” he’d said, briefly blowing across her nipple and watching it furl tight. “In book three.”
Mia had groaned, remembering the sex scene in book three where the alpha werewolf spent an hour going down on his fated mate, making her climax so many times that she passed out from the pleasure.
She had been all set to let Romeo give the scene his best shot when the unmistakable boom of gunfire ripped through the stillness of the night, and he’d torn himself out of her arms so quickly, she’d been left holding nothing but the empty airspace his big, warm body had occupied.
“Wha—” she’d started to ask, pushing up on her elbows. He’d cut her off by hissing, “Stay here! Stay down!” And then he’d taken off through the trees and darted down the beach, his long, strong legs making fast work of the distance despite his bare feet sinking into the sand.
When a shadow disengaged from the tree line, making a mad dash for the water, Romeo had immediately changed directions, cutting the mystery man off and tackling him into the surf. It’d been too dark for Mia to make out much, but she’d seen the glint of moonlight as it reflected off the long blade the intruder wielded.
Her heart had immediately jumped into her throat. But she shouldn’t have worried. Romeo, with moves that reminded her of something out of a kung fu movie, easily disarmed the man and then proceeded to beat on him for a bit before marching him up the beach toward the glow of the fire.
But even after she’d lost sight of the men when they disappeared into the trees, she hadn’t moved. Romeo had told her stay down and stay put. And that’s exactly what she’d done because she wasn’t an idiot, or one of those ridiculous damsels in distress who disregarded the advice of someone trained in dealing with danger because she thought her meager skill set might be of some use when, in fact, she just created a distraction.
She’d nearly cried out when she’d heard him call her name.
And even though her heart still raced a mile a minute, she felt like she had her fear under control when she walked up behind him. Of course, seeing him standing so tall, his beautiful naked back dripping seawater but otherwise unmarred despite the wicked looking knife that could’ve done so much damage, probably went a long way in tamping down her terror.
The man he’d battled with stood in front of him. Or rather, was being held in front of him. Romeo had the guy’s arms wrenched up behind his back so high his shoulder blades poked painfully against the cotton of his T-shirt.
She couldn’t see the man’s face, partly because she didn’t have the right angle, but mostly because she got distracted by the behemoth face-planted in the sand. She could tell the overgrown guy was dead by his utter stillness.
By contrast, the skinny blond man standing next to him twitched like he’d stepped in an anthill. Of course, the fact that Doc was aiming at the dude’s balls might have something to do with his nerves.
“I, uh, brought your clothes,” Mia told Romeo, taking a step closer so he could see her out of his peripheral vision.
Two things happened then. The first was that Cami said, “Oh, come on, Mia. The only men in my life right now are Ben and Jerry and their amazing gift to the world known as Chunky Monkey, so this is a rare treat. Don’t ruin my fun.” The second was that Mia saw the profile of the man Romeo held captive.
Her kneecaps turned to immediate dust, and it was a wonder she didn’t crumble onto the sand. She knew her expression was a mixture of confusion and dismay when she whispered, “Carter?”
“You know him?” Doc asked at the same time Romeo said incredulously, “This is your cousin?”
She didn’t answer either of them. Instead she took a step back when Carter turned and his green eyes bored into hers.
Her mind raced with a million questions, but the biggest one was...why? Why is he here? Why is he looking at me with a hatred so hot it burns the very air around us?
She voiced her first question aloud, and he smiled. The expression looked sinister thanks to the blood staining his teeth.
“I would think that’s obvious.” He shook his head and let out a laugh that sounded hard and brittle.
Understanding dawned, and traitorous tears pricked behind her eyes. “It was you? You brought down the plane? You tried to kill us?”
“For the record,” he said, “I was only after you. Everyone else was collateral damage.”
She stumbled back another step, shaking her head uncomprehendingly. Again, that one question rang inside her mind. “Why?” she demanded again. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t you?” His upper lip curled, once again revealing his blood-stained teeth. “Or have you pretended to have the moral high ground for so long that you actually believe you belong up there?”
“Careful how you talk to her.” Romeo jerked Carter’s hands higher behind his back, forcing Carter up on tiptoe lest Romeo pop his shoulders out of joint.
“Carter, I seriously don’t understand what you—” That’s all she managed, because the twitchy guy let out a cry of desperation and lunged for the pistol lying next to the dead man.