“Why?” she murmured.
Against his better judgment, he rested his head in the crook of her neck, felt her pulse pounding under her skin, and groaned.
She clawed at his back, trying to get him to satisfy the need rushing through her, but he resisted.
“I can’t. Not yet, sunflower,” he whispered against her skin.
“Why?” she demanded again.
“Because I would rather not traumatize my family with the sight of me thrusting into you, and I’d prefer to keep your screams to myself.”
“Luke,” she moaned, squirming in the chair, a blush falling over her pale skin all the way down to the tops of her breasts.
The scent of her desire grew heavier in the air. He took a deep breath, inhaling it. He could almost taste it on his tongue. And the sight of her, with her legs spread around him, hands on his chest, and her beautiful full breasts rising and falling with every short, rapid breath she took had him begging the gods for patience and strength. Luke had to force himself away from herright now, or else he would go back on everything he’d said and find out exactly how good her pussy would feel when it was milking his cock.
Finally he shifted, and Johanna’s hands fell away as he stood. His voice was still thick and husky as he said, “I’m going to go find out what Dani saw. I’ll be right back.”
Johanna blinked sharply, as if he’d dumped cold water on her. Then she nodded, and Luke left while he still could.
CHAPTER 11
Luke entered his kitchen to see Dani huddled between Greg and Mya. Her red eyes met his and he sighed as he crossed the space to stand at the island in front of her.
Her eyes darted around and behind him before coming back to his face. “Where is she?”
“In the living room,” Luke said.
Dani’s voice cracked as she spoke. “How is she?”
“Confused.” Luke reached across the table to squeeze Dani’s hands. That they had stood so many times in this same position while she comforted him wasn’t lost on Luke. In fact, it terrified him. It had been months since he’d seen Dani so shaken.
“Johanna is … struggling,” he said finally. “Whatever the two of you did has forced her to feel things from the last few months. She still doesn’t remember anything, but she’s experiencing the emotions of those lost memories. Right now, the primary one is guilt. I’ve explained to her that there’s no reason for her to feel that way, but I don’t know what I’m fighting yet, Dani. What did you see?”
Dani looked to Greg, who nodded. She sniffled and rubbed her eyes before taking a deep breath and letting it out. “I could only see the surface level, there’s … a lot under there that I can’t access. I don’t think it’s safe to say his name around her right now.” Her gaze touched each of them and Luke knew she meant Zachariah. “But we don’t have to worry about him coming after her. That’s the good news. I don’t quite understand how, but I think she teleported to you.”
Luke jerked back. “To me?”
“Yes. I don’t know how her magic works—she’s the only one who can answer that—but her desire was to see you. This house has the biggest concentration of your energy, so she came here. He doesn’t know where she is. He doesn’t know your address. At least, he never learned it from her, so she’s safe here.” Dani’s eyes narrowed and she balled her hands into a fist. “But he will come after her, Luke. He enjoyed using her powers as a weapon, and he won’t be willing to lose them.”
A deep, animalistic growl came out of Luke. “Over my dead fucking body.”
Dani took a deep breath. Greg squeezed her arm and Mya rubbed her back in comfort while Dani leveled him with a heartbreaking stare. “That’s not the worst of the news. H-He raped her. Brutally. For sport. Every time we won, he took it out on her. Every single time. Hebutcheredher. Those marks that were on her body when you found her were just from one day. He figured out how to use something similar to Mya’s power to heal her so that we wouldn’t see her wounds when she came to work. But he took his hatred of us out on her every chance he got.”
Luke couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel anything besides rage. Insurmountable, undeniable, soul-binding rage that made him want to scream. He wanted to wage war, to tear the city apart until he found Zachariah and killed him and everyone that stood in between them with his bare hands.
Luke turned, looking for something, anything, to use as a weapon as he prepared for the fight of his life.
In an instant Mya was in front of him. "Luke! Stop!”
He went to push past her, but she refused to move. “Stop! Stop it, Luke. Don’t do anything to scare her right now, please!”
But it wasn’t Mya’s voice that reached him, or Dani’s or Greg’s presence that shocked him still. It was Johanna’s form standing in the kitchen. He took in her wide eyes and the sudden paleness of her skin, and he knew that she had heard everything. Instantaneously everything fled him and all he saw, all that mattered, was her.
Luke stalked over to her, but she put up a hand. He watched her erect that shield of hers, the one he had hoped she would never feel the need to use again.
“Sunflower—”
“It’s okay, Luke,” Johanna said in a level tone.
