EDGE OF NIGHT Read online

  The cabin was filled with the sound of the powerful motor, the howling winds buffeting the Plexiglass windows, and the pregnant silence of two people contemplating what the next seventy-two hours would bring.

  After several minutes of silent brooding, Sian said, “Your plan to trap Brucchi is sound.” Kai had explained his strategy over burgers and cokes at McDonald’s just outside of Chicago. “Brucchi’s father is a pragmatist from what I’ve heard. Most of his businesses are legitimate, including the one for which I was in-house counsel. But Tony kept fouling the nest. He’s what my mother used to call a bad egg.”

  Still no response from Kai, although Sian could have sworn his jaw had relaxed a fraction. She rubbed her face against his arm. “Mario will cut Tony off at the knees and let you do the dirty work. He’ll be able to live with himself, because he didn’t kill his son—and because he’ll warn Tony to leave us alone and take his chances with the justice system.”

  “And knowing the type,” growled Kai, finally breaking silence. “Tony will ignore Mario and come to kill us. I’ll shoot the bastard dead, saving the government time and money for a new trial. Mario will bury his dead with all the pomp and circumstance his social standing warrants and will publicly bemoan the fact that Tony had placed himself in a position to be killed despite the paternal warning. End result: Everyone will be a lot happier when Tony is dead and gone.”

  Sian took a deep breath, tears welling in her eyes. “I just wish you didn’t have to be on garbage duty.”

  “I don’t mind,” Kai said. “He threatened the only person in this world who means more to me than anything. I’d kill him ten times if I could.” When they reached calmer waters, he said, “Look at me, Sian.”

  He captured her face between his big warm hands, then wiped the tears streaming down her face with his thumbs. “Aww, baby, don’t cry. If there were any other way...”

  “Shh,” she said, placing her hand over his lips. “I know you don’t mind. I mind for you. But I’ll never blame you or judge you. You’re a good man, Kai Axton, and I’m on your side no matter what.”

  “And you’ll never know how much that means to me,” he whispered just before he took her lips with his.

  Chapter Five

  The word cabin was a misnomer for Kai’s secret hideaway. A better description would be palatial contemporary wood and glass house a la the Frank Lloyd Wright school of architecture. The three-level house was built into a hill overlooking the secluded bay. The view on three sides was one of wild, scenic nature—virgin pine forests, craggy shoreline and hilly meadows. The fourth side looked to be part of the promontory.

  Sian rubbed her arms as she looked out over the lakeshore view, or at least what she could see of it. The snow was falling so heavily that outside the great room’s large ceiling-to-floor windows the world was a blur of white.

  Kai was outside in what only could be called a blizzard—and she had no clue where he was or if he was okay.

  After they’d docked less than sixty minutes before, he’d shown her around the luxurious retreat, then urged her to make herself at home. He needed to fire up the generator and the propane heating system, secure the boat against the predicted rougher weather conditions—and potential theft and sabotage—and set up his perimeter alarms.

  Before he’d left, he’d built a fire and lit some lanterns. “Try the electric lights in about twenty minutes,” he’d told her. “If they work, turn on the heat.” He pointed to the very modern thermostat on a wall near the kitchen. “The heating system is forced air, so it needs the electricity to run the fans. It should warm up very quickly.”

  It had. But she was still cold as she stared into the whiteout conditions. And she was getting beyond worried and zeroing in on panic. The sixty minutes he’d set as his check-in point had passed almost ten minutes ago. She’d give him five more minutes then she’d dress in the heavier snow gear she’d found and go out and look for him.

  Shoving her worries and plans to the back of her mind, Sian turned away from the windows and walked back to the gourmet kitchen. Like everything else in the house, it was top-notch—a Sub-Zero refrigerator, a wine cooler, microwave, restaurant-quality gas range and oven, warming drawers—everything a gourmet cook could want. The preparation area was separated from the great room by a U-shaped, granite-topped counter.

  Sian checked the chili that she’d thrown together from the dry goods that Kai kept in the cabin and some of the groceries they’d bought earlier. She turned it down to simmer, not sure when they’d get to it. She placed the garlic-cheese bread in foil and put it in the warming drawer. The bottle of Merlot she’d opened would be fine at room temperature.

  She poured herself a glass of the heady wine and took a healthy swig of it. Not the best way to savor the bouquet, but she wasn’t going for couth, but for the blood-warming, pain-numbing kick of the alcohol.

  The slamming of a door in the distance startled her. She placed the glass on the granite countertop gently, then called out, “Kai?”

  No answer.

  She hurried toward the stairs leading down to the first level and the mud room. Abruptly, she stopped in the doorway. A large white blob stood in the middle of the room. It looked something like the Abominable Snowman, but rounder and more blurred around the edges. She blinked. The margins of the vision in white became sharper, more delineated until it looked more human than monster. She blinked again. It wasn’t a figment of her imagination—and it reminded her of the fog-mist apparition that she’d seen last night, only this specter was white.

  “Kai?” Sian cautiously approached, reaching out a hand to brush at the thick white snow on what looked to be an arm.

  Her hands met icy wet flakes, the slick feel of waterproof jacket, and then something that wasn’t quite solid. She pulled her hand away. The figure seemed to shrink in width, then elongate, becoming even more humanoid.

  “Stay back, baby.” Kai’s amused voice was muffled slightly by a white ski mask, the kind she’d seen worn by Navy SEALs in a documentary for Arctic training. His eyes were the leaden grey of a stormy sky with flashes of light in them like lightning. “I’m all wet, and I need to shake off this snow. No need for you to get cold and wet again. Go back upstairs. I’ll be up in a second. Something sure smells good.” He winked at her.

  “Okay.” She stepped back, then paused, holding onto the doorjamb for support. Had she seen what she just thought she had? What had she felt? No, more accurately, what hadn’t she felt? She could’ve sworn that Kai’s arm had no bones, no density. But that was just silly. This was Kai. He was as real as the house in which they were standing.

  Sian coughed to dislodge the lump in her throat. “I made some chili. It’ll be ready when you are.”

  Kai pulled off the ski mask and hat in one motion and turned his head her way. He smiled at her, his eyes lightening to silver-grey. “Sounds great. You’re spoiling me already. I could get used to that.” He paused, then frowned. “You okay? You look kind of pale. Are your ribs causing you more pain?”

  “I’m fine.” She shook her head and attempted to smile at him, but failed. “Just tired, I guess. For a moment there ... well, uh, I thought your bones had dissolved. Funny, huh? Must be an awfully thick layer of down in that jacket.”

  Kai’s expression became more guarded. “Yeah. They make these survival jackets extra-thick, but still light-weight enough for long treks in the snow.”

  “That’s what I thought.” She turned and fled the room.

  * * * *

  “Damn and shit,” Kai muttered as he stripped off the cold-weather gear and hung it to dry. He’d forgotten that he’d partially deconstructed so that he wouldn’t freeze as easily in the harsh, blizzard-like conditions. His molecular form allowed him to absorb heat from the atmosphere, even in icy conditions. His ability to work in all sorts of extreme climates had been a godsend to the CIA. Not that they knew about his unique abilities, but they did know that he could survive in almost any type of weather. His n
ickname the Ice Ghost had derived from the coolness left in the air after he’d been and gone—without anyone seeing or hearing him. If they’d only known how close to the truth they really had been.

  Now he’d scared Sian. How could he explain what he was to her? What would she say? He closed his eyes and cursed fluently. He couldn’t lose her—not when he’d just found her.

  “What language is that?”

  Kai’s eyes flew open. Sian had returned and now stood in the doorway, staring at his body clothed only in skin-tight ski underwear. She didn’t look scared; in fact, she looked more than interested in what she saw.

  “Russian,” he said.

  “You swear in that language, right?” Her face was flushed bright pink, yet her eyes ate him up. She was embarrassed—but interested.

  “Yeah. They have lots of really good cuss words.”

  “Will you teach me some?” Sian asked, as she walked toward him, her gaze freezing him in place.

  “Sure.” Kai swallowed. “Uh, baby, why are you looking at me that way?”

  Sian stopped less than an arm’s length away and brushed one hand down the front of his chest, stopping at the waistband of his long johns. Innocence and lust colored her eyes. “Is there something wrong with the way I’m looking at you?”

  “Ahh, no,” he licked suddenly dry lips. “It’s just that you’ve never looked at me that way before.”

  “What way, Kai?” Sian whispered. She stepped closer and put her arms around his waist, pressing her face against his chest.

  “Baby, I’m all sweaty from working outside under all those layers of clothing. You sure?”

  “Stop avoiding the question,” Sian whispered, as she rubbed one small hand across his buttocks. “How was I looking at you?”

  “Like you want to eat me alive,” he mumbled into her sweet-smelling hair.

  “That would be one of my goals,” she said as she rubbed her face against him. “You smell like spice, musk—and you. I love how you smell. How you feel, so solid and strong.”

  Kai tipped her chin up. Her eyes had darkened to the color of smoky tourmalines. “What are the other goals?” he whispered.

  “Well...” Her lashes brushed her pink cheeks as she looked down at his chest and away from his searching stare. “I would like for you to do the same to me.”

  “Eat you alive, you mean?” His cock jerked, then grew painfully harder at the thought of pleasuring her orally.

  “Uh huh,” she said, rubbing circular patterns around his left nipple with her finger as she breathed heavily onto its companion. Her innocent exploration had him hotter than a Bangkok whore ever had.

  “Jesus, baby. Have mercy,” he pleaded. “I don’t want our first time to be on a cold, wet slate floor.”

  Sian peered shyly through slitted eyelids. “I don’t want to wait. I need to be a part of you—now!”

  “But the food? You need your strength.”

  Kai wasn’t sure why Sian had made a one-hundred-eighty degree turn from the food’s-ready-come-when-you-can-mood of less than five minutes ago to this hot-to-bed-his-bones one. Not that he minded. He wanted her as much or more than she wanted him. But still—did it have something to do with the altered state he’d been in when she’d first entered the mud room? Was she trying to prove that he was real and not a figment of her imagination?

  “I’m fine—and the food will keep.” She stroked his jaw with her hand. “I need this, Kai. Make love to me. Make me your woman. I’ve dreamed of you—us—for months. I need the real thing.”

  There was more to it than that. He could touch her mind and find out what it was, but he hated to invade her private thoughts that way—and never would unless she was in danger. He’d have to explain what he could do—his psi and magick abilities—before he was called to use them to defend. But not now. Not tonight. Tonight was for making her his in all the ways a man could bind a woman to him. Maybe then, his revelation about his freak-of-nature abilities wouldn’t drive her away.

  “Kai? Don’t you want me?” Her forehead creased with worry and, he sensed, some kind of pain.

  “God, baby. You don’t know how much I need you.” He kissed her brow, soothing the frown lines. “I’m just afraid that I’ll hurt you with my passion. I’ve waited so long for someone like you.—I don’t want to scare you. Disgust you.”

  “Just love me. That’s all I ask.”

  “I do.” He swept her into his arms and carried her up the stairs and through the great room to the stairs leading to the master bedroom suite.

  * * * *

  Kai shoved the duvet to the foot of the bed with one hand as he held her high against his chest with the other arm. The room swirled around her as he laid her on the large bed’s silken sheets.

  Sian didn’t move as Kai stripped off his skin-tight turtleneck and long johns. His naked body was an artist’s delight, all long lines, sharp angles, and perfectly luscious symmetry. Real, solid and definitely of this world.

  Her gaze moved down his chiseled abs, past the arrow of dark hair, to his penis. She licked her lips nervously. She had only had two lovers before Kai—neither of them came close to his length and breadth. Her mind said she couldn’t handle him. But her body must have known something her head didn’t, because it readied itself to receive him. Her vaginal fluids soaked the sheets where she lay. Her core throbbed at the speed of her rapidly beating heart, waiting for his possession.

  Kai leaned over and unbuttoned her sweater for the second time that day.

  “Sian.” Her name sounded synonymous with “love” the way he murmured it. “Baby, just how many times have you made love?”

  He removed her sweater by holding her against his chest and pulling the sweater away from her with his free hand.

  “A few times,” she mumbled against his chiseled pecs. She swiped one hairy nipple with her tongue. He shuddered. Liking his reaction, she did it again. That she could make a big, strong, experienced man like Kai tremble empowered her—and gave her hope that she might just be woman enough for a man like him.

  Gently, almost reverently, Kai laid her back against the pillows. Her breasts were bared to his searing gaze. Somehow, her bra had disappeared on the trip from his chest to the bed. Kai’s large hands spanned her taped rib cage, right below her breasts. His very talented and agile thumbs massaged her nipples into aching peaks.

  She swore that she could feel the ache all the way to her clit.

  “But...” she faltered, forgetting what she needed to tell him.

  His hands disappeared from her breasts, but the feelings they engendered lingered.

  “But what, baby?” Kai husked as he stripped her jeans and her bikini panties off with a magician’s flourish.

  “But none of them were like you.”

  God, just by removing her clothes, he had her hotter than she’d ever been in her entire life. It was then that she realized that all of her previous sexual experience had been less than nothing in the grand scheme of things. Kai was the real deal.

  She closed her eyes as his body moved over her, straddling her legs. He was like a furnace; his heat bathed her nakedness. The rough hair on his legs sensitized hers and excited her with each little movement. Then his hands returned to her breasts where he began a sensual massage that would either turn her into a raving lunatic or a screaming mass of puddled flesh. Or, maybe there was no difference between the two?

  One of his hands traced a path down her body. With each millimeter his fingers traveled down her abdomen, muscles jerked as if a series of small electrical shocks trailed his touch. When he reached her mons, he used her own copious fluids to heighten his sensual massage of her clitoris. And when he took one of her nipples into his mouth, she knew that she was not in this man’s league. Maybe not even on the same planet of sexual expertise. Her earlier confidence flat-lined.

  Amazingly, somehow he sensed her trepidation.

  “Sian, don’t worry. None of my other lovers were like you, either,” Kai whispere
d close to her ear as he inserted a talented finger, then two, into her vagina and pushed her to a peak she wasn’t sure she could climb—and survive. “None of them were the love of my life. The light for my dark soul. The hope for my future.” He nuzzled her ear, then nibbled the lobe. “We’ll be fine. We’ll just figure out what each of us likes as we go along. Okay?”

  Whatever answer she would have supplied was driven right out of her brain as waves of pleasure rolled through her body. She thought she screamed. She knew she cried. Then there was just a warm, hovering sensation as she floated down from the heights, landing gently on the bed with Kai’s strong body curled around her and his nose nuzzling her neck from behind.

  “Oh, wow.” It wasn’t eloquent, but it conveyed her feelings in the matter. She angled her head to look at him. Kai kissed her lips. “Thank you.”

  “You’re so welcome.” He kissed her nose. “You’re beautiful when you come. I’ll have to make sure I make you come often. Is that okay with you?”

  She nodded, sure that her whole body was flushed with embarrassment. “I want to kiss you all over.” There, she’d said it.

  “I’d like that.”

  She arched her neck as he nibbled at both corners of her mouth, then licked her lips until they opened to him. He kissed her then, a full mouth and tongue kiss that kindled fires in every pore of her body.

  Kai released her mouth and said in a sexy, rough voice, “But I’m not done with you yet. That was just the appetizer. If I let you nibble on me, I’ll never make it to the main course. And, baby, I need to come inside you more than I need to take my next breath. You can eat me to your heart’s content later. I promise.”

  “Yes, please. I want you inside me. Now.” Sian pulled his head back to hers and nibbled on his lips, begging for his touch. She felt so stupid. Of course, he wanted to come inside her. His rock hard penis rubbed against her buttocks.

  “Because of your ribs, I’m going to take you like this,” he whispered in the hair above her ear. “First, let’s make sure you’re ready for me.”