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"Well, you can't send it home anymore," I said.
She nodded. "That makes me think. With the OIA pulling out so abruptly, my guess is that they won't bother to do anything about ownership of the buildings. We'd better find out if there's a monthly mortgage on the bar and the Indigo Crescent. If the OIA is still paying them off, we'll have to make the payments. At least for the bar. There's no way we can let go of the Wayfarer, since it houses the portal."
I grunted and jotted down a note in my book as she headed for the door. "Good idea. The last thing we need is someone trying to foreclose."
Morio stood and stretched. "I'm going to drive Smoky home," he said. "I'll be back, if you don't mind me crashing in the parlor tonight."
"Not a problem," I said. "I'll leave a note for Iris that you're here." The two men left, leaving Chase and me alone. I looked at him and let out a long sigh.
"Things are so messed up," I said, so exhausted I could barely think. So many things were unresolved. I wondered if we'd make it through this. Once again, I longed for the days of my childhood when life had seemed simpler.
Chase said nothing, just opened his arms. I walked into his embrace, and he pulled me close. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry I was such an ass out there on the porch. I know what you are, and I love what you are. I don't want you to change just for me, but it's hard. I've never felt this way about a woman before. I never expected to feel like this."
I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder. "My mother and father made it work, Chase, but I don't know if I can. I'm… I'm a Windwalker. I don't fit in anywhere. Can you live with uncertainty? Can you live with the possibility that I might sleep with someone else? I'm not like Camille. I'm not experienced enough to know what I want yet. I'm still new at this whole sex thing, but my hormones have woken up, and for the Fae, they're a powerful and driving force."
Chase kissed my forehead, then tipped my chin up and kissed me on the lips. "I guess I'll have to live with it. I wondered how Trillian and Morio could stand sharing Camille, but I think I understand. Being with you part of the time is better than the thought of never touching you again, never making love to you, never kissing you."
I swallowed a lump that rose straight from my heart to my throat. I wanted to tell him that I'd be his. I wanted to make the promises that I knew he wanted to hear. But I couldn't. And I wouldn't lie to him or to myself. So I did the next best thing. I took his hand and led him up to my bedroom.
* * *
CHAPTER 14
As I closed the bedroom door, Chase gave me a long, smoldering look. My stomach lurched, and suddenly, the only thing I could think about was screwing our brains out. He usually took the lead, but this time, I wanted to be in charge.
I took two quick steps and, before he could speak, pushed him back onto my big four-poster bed. His eyes widened with surprise as I straddled him, and he gave me a wicked grin that told me he didn't mind being on the bottom one bit.
I unfastened his shirt, one button at a time, leaning over to trail kisses down his chest as I pulled away the material. I let my tongue linger on his salty skin, then kiss by kiss, inched my way down. As I unbuckled his belt, I was gratified to see the impression I'd made. He moaned gently as I slid his pants down.
"Delilah—" he started to say, but I shushed him, slowly licking the length of his cock, using only the tip of my tongue as I worked my way from the root to the head. I couldn't take him fully in my mouth—we'd tried that and lost the battle to my fangs—but I tickled him, fluttering lightly up and down his rigid length. The scent of his lust was heady as he gently reached down to run his fingers through my hair.
Leaning back, I pulled off my turtleneck. Chase stared at me with naked lust, his gaze taking in every movement I made, every jiggle and bounce of my breasts as I unhooked my bra. I pushed myself off the bed, quickly unzipping my jeans and stepping out of them. Chase folded his hands under his head, silently watching as I slid my panties down my hips.
Somehow understanding that I needed to call the shots, he waited. I knelt by his feet and took off his shoes, then helped him out of his pants. As he sat up, I climbed astride his lap, and he wrapped his arms around my lower back, his lips closing around my nipple. The warmth of his tongue on my skin echoed through my body, and I let out a little sigh as he slid one of his hands between my legs, fingering me gently at first. The tension began to build, rippling through my body until it cascaded into a tidal wave.
The sight of him, all sweaty with breath coming hard, pushed me over the edge, and I squirmed, lowering myself onto his hips, sliding down his length with silken ease, nestling him as deep inside me as he could get. Pushing him back on the bed, I leaned down to kiss him.
Chase wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me tight. As our rhythms flowed into synch, I forgot about the Autumn Lord, forgot about the war, forgot about everything except the rocking of our bodies.
As we were lying in bed afterward, Chase changed his nicotine patch, slapping a new one on his shoulder, while I sipped a bottle of root beer. Reluctantly, I brought myself back to the present and our problems.
"Chase, remember I mentioned what the Autumn Lord said about the Hunters Moon Clan?" I dug into my nightstand, looking for a candy bar. Success! A Snickers was hiding right below the notepad that I kept at the ready for any odd ideas that might surface while I was sleeping.
Chase adjusted the comforter—a thick, blue patchwork quilt—so that it covered his chest. "Damn it's cold. Has the snow let up yet?"
"Dunno, but I'll check." I padded over to the window, shivering in the chill of the room. Outside, the snow had picked up, and I estimated there was a good three inches on the roof right now. "Nope, and it doesn't look like it's going to. I think we're in for quite a storm. So, do you?"
"Do I what? Oh, you mean the werespiders. No, not really. I kind of lost track of things when the whole Death Maiden business came up." He finished applying the new patch and dropped the old one in the garbage. "Hey, I'm going down a step tomorrow. I may actually kick this habit because of you, babe."
I gave him one of my happy smiles. Cigarette smoke bothered me so much that I went to great lengths to avoid it. And he'd be healthier when he quit.
"Good for you! I'm proud of you," I said, unwrapping the candy, ready to scarf the entire thing down. He looked at the chocolate bar with those puppy-dog eyes of his, and I relented, handing him half of it. "Why I was asking was this: the waterfall that the Autumn Lord mentioned is supposed to be in a city east of Seattle. Do you know anything about any waterfalls around here?"
I swallowed the last bite of chocolate and jumped out of bed to slip into my pajamas. Contrary to popular belief, the heat in our house sure didn't rise to the top. It just seeped out the cracks. My floor was always the coldest.
Chase thought for a moment. "Yeah, actually, I think I know what he was talking about. The town of Snoqualmie is just east of Issaquah, and Snoqualmie Falls are there. They're beautiful—they were featured in the show Twin Peaks some years back. Weird-ass show, though now it seems tame compared to what life's become with you guys around. Anyway, there's a lodge there, very pretty place. And once you hit Snoqualmie, you're heading into the foothills of the Cascades. A lot of undeveloped country out there."
"Foothills… that fits. The Autumn Lord said we'd find their nest in the foothills near this waterfall. It's perfect. Close enough to the city that it wouldn't take them long to drive in, yet out where they won't be noticed." I thought about it for a moment. "Chase, we have to hunt them down. Zachary's going to keep an eye on Tyler. If he's mixed up with this, then he's probably going back to the nest every now and then, especially if he doesn't think anybody's onto him."
