“Enchanting the masses with your perfect rear can cut into your services for me,” he said, voice husky and low. It sent hot shivers through me, which heated into pure desire.
I couldn’t tell if we were fighting anymore. Is this how Vivien felt when Grim first realized how provocatively she liked to dress? Granted my friend had the taste of a high-class hooker, but she rocked that shit.
And now that I was getting blowback over a measly pair of shorts, I suddenly wanted one of her skimpy dresses to parade around Xander and give him a coronary.
“The shit you’re saying is some masochistic bullshit, you realize.” I’d never let my son Jamal talk to a girl about her clothes like this. And I sure as hell wouldn’t stand for it. I don’t give a damn if he is a big scary, feral god. I deserved respect for my choices.
“The shit I’m saying is that I can’t focus if you're going to wear those. It makes me. . .” His eyes glazed over at the same time a supernatural spark ignited in them. “Miranda,” he growled. “The things you do to me when you're on the other side of those bars… you could be wearing a paper sack and still drive me right into madness. Have you no mercy for a poor god like me?”
I was stunned. All thoughts of my kid flew right out of my head as I realized what Xander was saying. He advanced on me, and I didn’t retreat. Standing mere inches from me, the heat of his chest radiated into mine. My nipples tightened, but his eyes were trained on my lips.
“Miranda,” he rasped. Then he reached his hands around me and grabbed my ass cheeks, dragging me to him. His eyes fluttered shut. “Fuck,” he muttered. Then he picked me up and my legs naturally wrapped around his toned waist.
I groaned loudly when his hardness ground into me. His body felt mind-meltingly good. Logic threatened to crowd its way in and ruin the moment, but I managed to keep it at bay. All I could focus on was how his hands massaged my ass, pressing me against the hard length in his sweatpants.
Again, my body took on a weightless feel as if I weren’t really here.
He didn’t kiss me. Instead, he ran his nose up along the column of my neck. Then his lips skimmed my sensitive flesh until I was ready to beg him to latch onto me anywhere. Suck, lick, bite me anywhere, anyway he could.
A wave of power rippled through the air, beating into my body.
“Xander,” I said in warning.
My bones creaked and groaned as another wave of intensity seemed to clamp down on them, making them strain under the weight.
Pleasure was swept away by pain. His name escaped my throat in a breathless gasp.
The heat of desire turned into something else. My skin burned. It burned painfully and I was reminded of the dream I had before. The one where I was running and couldn’t get away from an entity far more powerful than anything I’d know.
Forcing my eyes open, I looked down at Xander, but it wasn’t him anymore. He’d changed, morphed into the monster that had stalked me before. It wasn’t his signature blue flowing energy that wafted off him. Xander was bright and scalding like the sun. Beams shot from his open eyes into my chest until I screamed from the searing agony.
He set me on fire, my skin bubbling and melting. He refused to release me from his arms. I had to kill him, or I would die. Thankfully my sword was in my hand. I raised my arm before plunging the killing blow into his chest.
“Miranda!” a familiar voice screamed.
The world swirled around me, but the blinding light only grew brighter accompanied by a blaring horn as I realized I was seconds from my end. I dove and rolled away, my skin scraping along the asphalt as I tumbled into the grass. The car sped by, not even slowing.
“Oh thank fae,” Bob breathed a sigh. “I thought we were goners for sure.”
I blinked hard several times, my fingers digging into the grass and dirt underneath me.
I’d been sleepwalking again. And this time, I found myself on a highway near my house. I clutched Bob but I was still in the oversized shirt I wore to bed.
“What the fuck?” I breathed.
“What the fuck, indeed,” Bob agreed. “I think it’s time we start discussing the prospect of putting chains on your bed to keep you from taking these little midnight jaunts.”
Rolling over until I lay on my back, I let out a heavy sigh. “Bob, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m thinking you might be right.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
THE BADASS
Today it was back to work, but I could already tell my heart wouldn’t be in it. I was exhausted. The nightmares and sleep walking were really wearing on me.
How did one treat those things? Therapy?
Pretty sure that wasn’t an option for me. Unless the gods had a psychiatrist who specialized in immortal problems.
