Cash snapped his fingers, and Kate levitated off the floor, oddly curled like she was still on the couch. I opened my mouth to ask why he’d done it, but my face was quickly pinned to his naked chest. A breath later, I suffered a hard tug on my stomach.
“The others—” I looked around the room in confusion. It was too dark to have any idea where we’d gone. The last place had been dark, but not this dark. We could be in Hell for all I knew.
Cash snapped his fingers again, and Kate was gone.
“Hey—”
But his hands were on my face, fierce cat eyes beaming down at me. The sensations that stroked my skin before came back with a vengeance.
“She won’t leave the realm with me here, love. She knows what I am. Maybe not who, but certainly what. Those you care about are safe while she’s locked realm travel. Her power goes both ways, I know at least that much. She won’t be able to travel without lifting it. She’ll be extra careful until she’s got a hold over you again. As a Hand of Death, I pose the most risk to her. If that barbaric devil woman was swift enough to cross over, she does too. It’s why that old slag tried to isolate you in this realm, but I was too fast. My guess is that devil woman was, too.”
“Jo?”
Cash sighed, his thumbs stroking my face. How was even that small caress so damn intense?! “Loathe as I am to admit it, that barbarian was long gone before I’d even felt the tug. My guess is that she took extra measures to track you after failing to do it last time.”
Tug?
“She’s probably locked somewhere in this realm. I truly doubt her shadow ability could track you. It was likely disconnected when you crossed over. She’d be here otherwise.”
My mouth fell open in surprise. “You know about Jo’s ability?”
A grin split Cash’s face. “It’s not only the Royal Sirens this realm fears, love. Even powerful Fae like them have contenders. I wasn’t called the Monster of the Realm for nothing. Let’s just say I figured it out after a little…hmm, investigating.”
I didn’t like how he said investigating, and he mentioned that name again that sounded like nothing good, but I was more concerned about Jo to ask more about it.
“We need to find her,” I said, breathless again with his attractive face so close to mine. “We can’t leave her out—”
Cash cut me off with a hard kiss, and I didn’t fight it like I should’ve. It felt too damn good. Like he’d rolled a thousand kisses into one.
His tongue teased my mouth like he’d been doing it all my life, like he knew just how to make me melt. And I did. I pressed into his body and forgot everything and everyone. I met his all-consuming kiss with the same level of passion, nearly climbing into his arms to be closer.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been eager to touch him like this again. Not after I decided to embrace whatever this was between us. Like? Love? Stupidity?
When he drew back slightly, I unintentionally gave chase, but he stayed frustratingly out of reach. “And ruin what this unfortunate debacle has made possible? Just you and me? And at this time of the Fae season? I think not, love.” His laugh hit my mouth with both heat and promise. “I’d exploit the end of the world if I thought it’d give me any amount of time alone with you.”
I was walked backward until the back of my knees hit something solid.
“Acting too quickly will only ensure we go in with the least advantage. We mustn’t be hasty, yeah?” He murmured with another few kisses, pressing against me and taking full advantage of the moment. “Not with the challenges already facing us.”
My head was fuzzy and uncooperative. I wasn’t the snappy comeback artist I usually was, but I did manage to say, “That’s awfully convenient, asshole.”
“But the truth, surely. Your friend will be unconscious for a few hours, and I need to call on some favors before we move locations again.” I was pushed back until I realized I was laid out on something soft. “And it’ll be nearly impossible to now that the Season is upon us.”
The Season? What the fuck was he talking about?
Cash didn’t waste time crawling over me and sneaking his hand under my shirt. A sharp gasp fled my mouth. My body was entirely too quick to betray me. It melted under his touch the same way it had when he first kissed me. Almost like he’d cast a spell on me. Almost as if some sort of lustful heat had come over me.
Wait a damn second…
“What the fuck is happening? Why am I—”
“So randy?” he finished with a cute snicker.
Parts of his face were covered in shadow before his features blurred and our lips met again. His tongue toyed with mine for several long strokes, the sensations otherworldly and burrowing inside my nerves like erotic barbs. “I fear the effect on the Fae in the Nether this time of the seasonal turn is…particularly potent.”
I already didn’t like what he was implying. The sensation of his touch, of his lips moving against mine, of the itch to remove anything on my body in our way, was only making the heat spreading through me worse. I was close to begging him to fuck it all and do whatever he wanted, when I was nearly confident I’d never been this damn eager. At least that was what I kept telling myself.
“Explain,” I demanded breathlessly.
