No! She was on a mission to save the world. She'd lose the Lykae and get on with it. She had to.
Or every being on earth would pay for what she'd done - and for what she would never do again...
At that thought, she renewed her struggles beneath him. Oh, gods, MacRieve was getting hard!
In a hushed, threatening tone, he said, "We've unfinished business to take care of."
"I want you off this boat, MacRieve!" Lucia snapped.
Garreth was growing erect, stiffening for her with a swift heat, and she had to feel it. "Do you, then?" His tone was disbelieving - because even now his Lucia was responding to him so sweetly. A blush tinged her high cheekbones, and her pupils were dilated with interest. Her lips parted as she stared at his own.
Then her dazed expression seemed to clear. "Get off me, you brute! If you won't leave, then I will!"
"You think I've searched - and fought and protected you from afar - for this long just to let you go now?" Not from too afar. Moments ago, he'd slaughtered two demon assassins who'd been lying in wait in an alley - for her. They'd had their swords raised, intending to take her head. He'd collected theirs instead.
But now Garreth had her safe in his arms. The urge to squeeze her into his chest grew nigh overwhelming. To have her truly under his watch... after so many months when she'd been in constant danger.
Satisfaction soared within him, and he eased his face down to her mane of glossy hair, taking her scent into him once more.
Gods, nothing smelled as fine as Lucia.
"Are you... smelling my hair?" She sounded aghast. Or titillated. Who could tell with Lucia, the Mistress of Mixed Signals?
His voice was rough when he admitted, "Aye, just one of the things I missed about you." Just as satisfaction mounted, so did lust. The smell of her hair was almost his undoing. And her body was so soft and warm beneath him.
She squirmed harder, but he wouldn't budge. "MacRieve, I'm here on important business! Business that doesn't concern you. If you're trying to win me over - "
"I'm no'. Gave up on that in the first month."
She flushed guiltily, which heartened him. Maybe his female wasn't as cold and unemotional as her vicious sisters, though she'd certainly convinced him otherwise over the last year. "No, my only aim these days is to keep you alive." They were in the midst of an Accession, and in this treacherous time, she'd come here, to his least favorite place on earth.
And one of the most perilous, even for immortals.
She struggled to free her arms and her bow, brushing her hip against his erection. A pleasured breath escaped him. "I remember the last time we were in this position." Of their own volition, his hips curled, making her gasp. At her ear, he grated, "I rocked against your sex till you came for me. You feared I'd stop before you could."
She glanced away, her blush deepening, her squirming intensifying.
"Little to the left, sweet. And harder."
She cast him a withering glare as she thrashed her arms. "I'll shoot you so full of arrows - "
He held her tight. "Eventually, you will run out of those."
"I make my own," she said between gritted teeth.
"O' course you do. But I consider your archery our foreplay. So - fire - away."
"You've stalked me, hunted me to the ground. I'm sick of it! I should have shot you when you leapt."
"Oh, so I'm to be the bad man? Have you forgotten what you've done to me? To my family?" And the worst of it hadn't even occurred until after she'd fled New Orleans. Then the fun had really begun - hijinks and traps all over the world for the last year. "And you should no' have run from me with no explanation."
She met his gaze with a mulish look. "I wasn't running from you. I've been doing my own deal. And I didn't owe you an explanation! Still don't. Now release me!"
"Maybe you dinna owe me an explanation, but thanking me for saving your life might no' be too much."
Instead, her chin jutted.
So that's how she's to be? Finally, he allowed her to scramble up but shot to his feet beside her, cupping her nape. "Take me to our cabin."
"Have you gone insane?"
"Would you blame me if I had after all you've done to me? All you've denied me, denied us - "
"Who the hell is this?" a male demanded from behind them.
Garreth turned, spied a drunken human. Must be the captain. The man eyed Lucia's bow and Garreth's dripping clothes. With the look of a bloke who'd seen it all, he said to Lucia, "Is there a problem, doc?"
Doc? Though the mortal was packing muscle, Lucia had to know that he couldn't do anything to help her.
Her lips thinned. Oh, aye, she knew better. "No, no problem, Travis."
This Travis turned to him. "Lemme guess, you're our obligatory stowaway?"
"New passenger." Garreth dug into the pocket of his soaked jacket, then handed the man a soggy wad of cash. "Garreth MacRieve."
Travis glanced from Lucia to Garreth, then to his handful of bills, accepting it with a nod. "We don't have any cabins left - "
"No' a problem. I bunk with this one from now on."
Lucia opened her mouth to protest, but Travis said, "Then welcome the hell aboard." With that, he turned and climbed back up to the wheelhouse.
Lucia jerked from Garreth's grasp. "This isn't over. And if you lay another paw on me, MacRieve, I'll make you regret it."
When she turned from him, he laid another paw on her, giving her arse a possessive squeeze, groaning with pleasure; she whirled around and punched him with shocking force in the Adam's apple, doubling him over as he coughed.
As she hastened away, he grated, "Still doona regret it."
19
On her way back to cabin seven, she swooped up her pack, then unlocked the heavy door, slamming it behind her. The rusted hinges screamed in protest.
At first glance, the wood-paneled room was larger than she'd thought it would be, the bed as well. Probably because both were so old, from a bygone era of luxury.
There was a writing desk and chair, a bedside table and lamp. A mosquito net dangled above the bed. Both a decent-sized bathroom and a cramped balcony adjoined.
After tossing her bag to the floor, she leaned back against the door, propping her bow and quiver against the wall.
What am I going to do? She was traveling on a vessel lousy with humans, dispatched on a mission by a half-mad being, replete with an embarrassing secret identity, an impending apocalyptic deadline, and now a nemesis who could prove her undoing.
A sexy nemesis.