Cassius Read online

  Coming from her mouth and hand was a strong preview for what it’d be like once he could plow into her and make her throw her head back to scream and run her nails along his back. He looked down at the ground.

  CJ could have told her the truth. If she knew he was a hybrid, she might have been willing to complete their bonding. Then he’d be sure. Though he was already mostly sure.

  He shook his head. That was stupid.

  Getting pissed over not having sex in the middle of a mission was pathetic. CJ questioned whether the mutual seduction was a good idea at all.

  Despite telling himself that, he knew what his body craved. He was already addicted to Kendra. Coming once without being inside her wasn’t enough.

  Questioning her superstition wouldn’t have accomplished anything. Superstitions, by their very nature, weren’t rational, and if she was his Vestal like he suspected, then he needed to make sure he respected her. He couldn’t force all his baggage onto her only days after meeting. Just because they were meant to be together didn’t mean she’d put up with any crap he threw her way.

  Julius cleared his throat. “Care to tell me what happened, or do you want to slam another door and get us kicked out of this place? Because I don’t think having to find a new hotel in the middle of a mission is a great plan, but maybe you know something I don’t.”

  “No on both counts,” CJ growled, tightening his hands into his fists. He stomped over to a bed and dropped onto the edge, taking slow, even breaths. “The situation is under control.”

  “Let me rephrase that.” Julius’s smile vanished. He sniffed at the air. “I know what you did, and I don’t care about that. What I do care about is why you seem so pissed and how it affects our mission.”

  CJ shot up, glaring at the other hybrid. Their superior senses could be annoying at times. Julius stared back at CJ until he sat back down. Getting pissed with Julius wouldn’t help.

  “I don’t know,” CJ said. “And we didn’t go as far as you think.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “We played around, and she got me going, but I didn’t get to go all the way. I’m a little frustrated about that. What can I say?”

  “Does that mean you’ve lost her as an informant?” Julius asked. “From what I’ve found out, we can visit the race without knowing anyone. She’s not strictly necessary, and you should only care about her in so far as it helps us out.”

  “We need her. We won’t know what we’re looking for.” CJ sucked in a breath. “But it’s not a problem. She’s not mad at me. She just doesn’t like to have full sex before events.”

  Julius snickered. “Oh, is that all? I thought we had an actual problem here. Your blue balls aren’t a mission-critical concern.”

  “She got me off. But I wanted to be inside her.” CJ gritted his teeth. “Things are bad though.”

  “Why? You can sleep with her after the mission.”

  “But I think she might be my Vestal.” CJ swallowed. “Much more so than before.”

  “How do you know?” Julius shook his head. “Having a little fun isn’t enough. You didn’t go all the way, which means you didn’t bond. This is just you getting overly excited about some hot internet star. I wouldn’t have expected it from you, but I guess all that shit with Maximus has everyone not thinking straight.”

  “But I…” CJ stared at the wall, trying to separate what his brain and body were telling him. “I feel something. More than before, a pull. I did from the beginning, but it’s even more intense. Not as overwhelming as what I’ve heard about Vestals, but you’re right, I didn’t fully bond, but this isn’t like anything I’ve experienced before.”

  Julius shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “How the hell doesn’t it matter?” CJ snapped. “She could be my Vestal!”

  “You don’t know that for certain. You just told me so.” Julius shrugged, a disinterested look on his face. “You might just be a guy who really needed to get laid. And even if she is your Vestal, it doesn’t change anything for our job.”

  “It damned well does.” CJ growled. “How can you say it doesn’t?”

  “Because we have a duty to Alpha Squad and all the other hybrids out there that the existence of Ouroboros threatens.” Julius gave him a cold look. “We have a job to do, so we’ll do it. And you need to keep your focus on the job. I don’t give a shit if banging your little climbing hottie will make you feel better, or if she follows us around and points out anything weird at the race, but our mission always comes first.”

  “She could be in danger. They might be targeting her because she’s a Vestal. Our mission is to investigate and stop Ouroboros, and you’re acting like a Vestal showing up isn’t a big deal!”

  “Coincidences happen,” Julius replied. “Ouroboros wasn’t hunting Selena when Maximus ran into her.”

  “Coincidences or fate?” CJ asked.

  Julius snorted. “I don’t care if it’s all some secret alien plot. We don’t get to decide how the universe works. We only get to decide how we’ll react to it. But, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t think she’s in any immediate danger.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I can’t, but you can’t be sure she even is a Vestal.” Julius shrugged. “Think about it for five seconds. She’s constantly in public, and they haven’t grabbed her already. It would be easy to snatch her from her motel if grabbing her is what this is about, and there was no reason to wait until she went on a well-advertised trip that’s being filmed half the time.” He shook his head. “Nothing’s going to happen right away. That gives us a little room to maneuver and figure out what they’re really up to here.”

  CJ hopped up, the nervous energy making his hands twitch. He wanted to punch something, but trashing the room wouldn’t help. “I won’t risk her getting hurt. We can protect her and still pull off the mission. You’re right. If it’s not about just grabbing her, then Ouroboros might be planning something big at the race, after all.”

  “If they’re here of course they’re planning something, and Maximus wouldn’t be happy if we let Ouroboros cause trouble, Vestal or no.” Julius stood, eyeing CJ with a frown. “That’s why we’re here, but we also need to make sure we don’t make the situation worse, or end up exposing ourselves unless it’s absolutely necessary. That’ll only increase risk to all hybrids and Vestals going forward.”

  CJ gave a slight nod. Julius wasn’t wrong. Charging after Kendra without intel or a plan was too risky. He needed to stop and think.

  “Then what do we do?” CJ asked.

  “We have an advantage,” Julius replied. “And we need to make sure we exploit it to our maximum ability.”

  “Kendra?”

  Julius scoffed. “Not the woman. If anything, she’s a liability.”

  CJ frowned, but didn’t say anything. At least Julius wasn’t feeding him lines about not seeing her again or spending the entire conversation trying to convince him she wasn’t his Vestal. That might be annoying, only if because CJ wasn’t a hundred percent sure.

  “They don’t want to be exposed anymore than we do,” Julius said. “We’ve known that from the beginning based on what we saw in Hawaii and how they went out of their way to keep anyone away from their base, including messing with permits.” He shrugged. “With that in mind, we know this won’t be a terrorist attack or high-profile assassination, and from what Maximus told us, the government is content to leave most of the Ouroboros hunting to us because they’re not convinced it’s a significant organization on par with the Horatius Group. If Ouroboros does anything to change that opinion, then they won’t last long.”

  “That makes sense.” CJ nodded. Knowing Kendra wouldn’t be targeted would help him concentrate more. “Then what’s this about?”

  Julius shrugged. “We still don’t know. We’ll need your race bunny’s help in the meantime. I’m still betting on nothing fancier than money laundering. I think after what happened in Hawaii, they’re trying to be more careful and not s
tand out. I could be wrong, but as long as we’re both there and monitoring things, we can mess up whatever they have planned.”

  “And you’re convinced they’re here?”

  “Yes. There’s enough evidence for that.”

  “And you still don’t think it’s odd this happens to conveniently be where a probable Vestal is?” CJ replied with incredulity in his voice, the concern over Kendra creeping back in.

  He thought about lying to her and saying he’d found evidence of a terrorist attack, but that wouldn’t work. She’d tell the cops, and they’d cancel the race. The trail of the enemy would go cold, and Julius was right there was no evidence of a violent threat.

  “First of all, again, we don’t know she’s a Vestal.” Julius pointed to his nose. “That little problem with our nose changes everything, and you going halfway with her muddies the water, but if she’s a Vestal, then trying to grab her anytime during or before the race is a terrible idea. She spends a good chunk of her time walking around with a cameraman in public, and millions of people know she’s here and are expecting her to race.” He snorted. “Stop thinking with your dick for a second, and think with your head. If they grab her in NYC, they are all but guaranteed to get attention. They won’t do it unless they’re desperate.”

  CJ nodded slowly, the fire of concern fading. “Okay. You’ve convinced me. She’s safe during the race.”

  “Again, assuming she’s a Vestal, yes.” Julius shrugged. “If they’re going to grab her, they’d do it on her way back home.”

  “Then I need to warn her. I might not be able to catch up with her after the race, and I can’t risk sending her a message.”

  Julius stomped across the room. CJ squared his shoulders, letting out a low growl as he stared down the other man.

  “You’re not doing crap until you know,” Julius snarled. “Not just because you suspect. Is that clear?”

  CJ resisted the urge to shove Julius. “You’re not my commander.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not going to let you sink the mission on a mere chance.” Julius’s nostrils flared. “You confirm things, then we’ll figure out what to do. I don’t even care if you want to screw her. Do what you want with her when she lets you, but as long as you always keep the mission in mind.” He backed away and smiled thinly. “Right now, you get to have it both ways because she might be our best bet at identifying anything unusual. So, stick to her.” He smirked. “Even if that ends up being a little frustrating, blue balls never killed a man.”

  “Screw you.” CJ headed over to the desk and pulled out a chair.

  “Isn’t the problem people aren’t screwing you?”

  “Very funny, asshole.”

  Julius gave him a lopsided grin. “I try to be, but at least you’ve calmed down. Keep your eyes forward and your attention focused, and if you’re right, you might end up finishing up this mission with a nice little bonus.”

  CJ settled into the chair. His Vestal. He’d not thought it’d happen so soon, if at all. Keeping hope alive wasn’t the same thing as expectation, but now he was almost certain she was there.

  He swallowed, his dick straining against his pants at the memory of her warm mouth on it. He needed to be sure, but he couldn’t scare her off by demanding sex. He wasn’t some barbarian, despite what his dick thought.

  For now, he needed to keep close, protect her, and figure out what Ouroboros was up to. But if Kendra decided her superstitions were silly, CJ wasn’t going to complain about sinking into her and making her moan.

  CJ licked his lips, his heart pounding. No. He didn’t need to go farther to know she was his Vestal. His body was sure, even if his mind wasn’t, and he would protect her.

  “I’ll arrange a follow-up meeting for tomorrow morning at the course,” CJ said. “As far as I know, I was supposed to go with her anyway. She wanted to help when I gave her BS about my PI investigation.”

  “Follow-up meeting? Is that what you’re calling it now?” Julius chuckled. “Doing it in public? You’re brave.”

  “Just shut up for a while.” CJ sighed. “I need to get in the headspace to write this text and not sound like a stalker.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Kendra’s tracksuit protected her from the light morning breeze, but it couldn’t do anything to stop her self-doubt. She kept rubbing her wrists, glancing at the small stream of workers heading past the fences and toward the obstacles to continue their set-up work for tomorrow’s race. Other people, tourists and competitors, though smaller in number, wandered the course, chatting among themselves.

  The varied obstacles were laid out in a circle around the central large building. From what she’d read, the sportsplex building was often rented for events, both inside and outside. It came complete with a large kitchen and plenty of storage.

  Kendra didn’t care much about the building. The obstacles weren’t inside. It was an all-outdoor course, with pools for safety. There wasn’t any mud pits or similar nasty obstacles. She didn’t mind getting a little dirty, but also loved when the only threat was a little free bath.

  Although she wasn’t the only person checking things out, there wasn’t that many other non-staff visitors there. The course would be choked with competitors and spectators the next day. Many people had traveled from across the country for what might amount to minutes of participation. The problem with a lot of obstacle course races of this type is that all the training in the world didn’t guarantee victory.

  Kendra smiled at the thought. She’d had her share of early exits. They were embarrassing, but made for good reminders that victory was never guaranteed. They also made good footage for blooper reels with added funny music.

  There was nothing wrong with failure during an attempt to make herself stronger. Challenge was what pulled her forward. When the races and events stopped being a challenge, it’d be time to move onto something else.

  But, for the moment, she didn’t care about that. Right now, there was only one man she was interested in talking to. She’d never felt such longing and regret mixed together before. She wasn’t so sure hanging out with him before the race wasn’t a mistake, but it was hard to care.

  The whole point of her pre-race ritual was to ensure she was in top shape for the event, but she’d had a lot of trouble sleeping after everything that had happened. CJ and his hands and mouth haunted her mind and dreams. Her silly superstition ruined everything.

  Superstition? It sounded ridiculous when it came out of her mouth. Believing it didn’t make it any less insane.

  Bad luck was an excuse. Athletes succeeded through discipline and hard work.

  When she pondered the events of the night before, she realized it was arguably less a superstition than an understanding she needed to keep her focus before anything important. She’d stopped the night before to not be distracted, but ended up in a worse position. Dressing it up in ritual and superstition was a way to better convince herself of its importance, but now she couldn’t help but worry she’d made a horrendous mistake by not trusting her ritualized habits.

  Kendra had felt incomplete before, and now a dream man all but fell into her lap, a man who made her feel more alive than she had in years. It might have sounded silly to say she suspected the man could complete her after just meeting him, but there was something about him that called to her.

  Even before their fun together, being around him left her nervous but yearning. A woman who was superstitious about pre-competition rituals couldn’t turn her nose up at the idea of soulmates.

  Kendra gasped. Soulmate. That’s exactly what it felt like. She had no logical reason to suggest that, but somehow the word felt right. Not right. Perfect.

  “This is crazy,” she whispered. “I’m crazy, and if I’m not crazy, I’m not screwed because we didn’t screw.” She ran her hands through her hair. “But he made me feel like it with just the pregame!”

  She sighed. It didn’t matter. She’d ruined everything and maybe even chased off her soulmate. A ma
n could take being slapped once, but twice?

  Kendra had run CJ off the first time by overreacting to an innocuous comment, and she’d lucked out in running into him again. He’d already gotten his satisfaction, but he still took the time to make sure she got hers. CJ had already proven he was an attentive lover.

  He was a perfect specimen of a man who cared about her in bed and lacked pretention. He also stood a good chance of being her soulmate, and she’d run him off over some stupid race.

  Well not exactly stupid but certainly inconvenient.

  Graham’s warnings about sponsors weren’t something she was ready to ignore. She understood the race’s importance to her career, but she found it hard to believe one single race would prove that critical, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever find a man like CJ again. No woman was that lucky.

  The thought tormented her.

  Kendra sucked in a breath and blinked, surprised by her own intensity. She’d hungered for CJ from their first meeting, a fiery attraction she’d need to be in Antarctica to cool.

  Nope. Even Antarctica wouldn’t be good enough. Right now, she’d burn right through the ice and all the way to the center of the Earth.

  Kendra had never, ever felt so attracted to a man before in her life. Admittedly, she’d never run into such a great-looking perfect guy before, but whatever she was feeling went beyond mere surface attraction, which is why she couldn’t ignore the idea he might be her soulmate.

  She wanted to learn more about him, the sad parts and the happy parts. She wanted to meet his friends and hear more about his work, even his tragic childhood he alluded to. At this point, she didn’t mind sitting and watching him eat without talking at all.

  But now it might all be over. She clung to hope that his coordinating a morning meet up at the course meant something, but he’d made it clear he was in NYC on a job.

  At this point, she was probably nothing more than a convenient source of information about the race. He’d track down some mobsters dealing drugs out of the building, and she’d go back home still single.