The Enemy Within (Daughters of the People Series Book 3) (7 page)

She whirled
around as anger rose, drowning out the softer feelings he drew from her. “I’m
not so clumsy that I would’ve broken them.”

“That temper’s
going to get you in trouble one day.” He stepped away from the door into the
shadows filling his bedroom. “Since you’re here, you might as well come in.”

She waffled for
a moment, then stepped inside, closed the balcony door, and listened to the
sound of his footsteps as he padded across the carpeted floor in the dark. The
squeak of the mattress came to her. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness, picking
up the dim light as it filtered through the door’s glass. She zeroed in on the
bed, where Hiro sat with his back against the headboard cushioned by pillows,
his legs spread out in front of him.

“If you’re here
to try to proposition me again, you’re wasting your time.” He patted the
mattress beside him. “I was about to watch a Godzilla rerun. As I recall,
that’s what you were watching the last time you broke into my apartment.”

She gave a half
laugh at the reminder. “So you think you’ve got my number now, is that it?”

“I’m just trying
to be a good host.” His chest rose and fall on a deep breath. “Let’s not play
games tonight, India. It’s late, there’s a good movie on. We might as well
enjoy it before you try to bring me over to the dark side.”

It was tempting,
more than she’d ever admit. To lie beside a man, to absorb the warmth of
another body through her skin with even the most innocent of touches. It had
been so long since she’d had that. The loneliness of her life, usually so easy
to ignore, pinged through her with a suddenness that took her breath, leaving
her uncomfortably vulnerable. Was it him she wanted or would any attractive man
have pulled at her emotions?

He turned the TV
on with a remote, flooding the room with the flickering light of Godzilla
rampaging through Tokyo. The sounds of hordes of fleeing Japanese faded when he
turned the volume down. He placed the remote on the nightstand beside the bed
and crossed his arms over his chest, stifling a yawn.

He looked tired.
She bit her lip as another unfamiliar emotion hit her. It took her a moment to
recognize guilt, and when she did, she turned to leave, then felt all the more
foolish because she hadn’t hardened herself against it and pressed her advantage.

“Shoes off.”

She paused with
her hand on the door.

“Weapons, too.”

Indecision tore
at her, and she huffed out an irritated breath. She never waffled. Waffling was
for children and mortals, not immortal Daughters with a high-stakes mission. So
he looked tired. So what? She needed information. More, she needed an in with
Upton’s people. Hanging around with him might bring one or the other into her
grasp.

That she would
be sitting on a bed in a darkened room with a man whose feet turned her on
didn’t enter into the equation.

“I’m bringing my
gear in so it’ll stay dry.”

“Condensation’s
hell on gear,” he said.

She ignored the
laughter in his voice and retrieved her equipment, stowing it in a tidy pile
inside the door, out of the way but close enough to grab if she needed to leave
quickly. She balanced herself against the wall next to the door to take off her
boots and placed them by her equipment before shucking her weapons.

Awareness crept
down her spine. She glanced up and found Hiro watching her, his face an unreadable
mask. “What?”

“I can’t believe
you took off all your weapons.”

She hid genuine
amusement behind a snarky smile. “I don’t need weapons to defend myself against
you.”

She padded
across the room and crawled into his massive bed, settling against the
headboard a good foot away from him.

“I’ve got a
spare set of pajamas, if you want them.”

“I’m fine,” she
said, and ignored the small shifts he made to close the distance between them.

He ran a finger
down the outside of her thigh and her muscles jumped in response. “Those
leathers can’t be comfortable.”

His voice held
just enough reasonable patience to spark her temper. Of course, the leathers
weren’t comfortable. She’d worn them to protect her skin against a fall, not
because she’d expected to crawl into bed with him. She opened her mouth to
scald him.

“Temper,” he
said, interrupting her.

She snapped her
jaws together and started to scoot off the bed. “This isn’t going to work.”

His hand shot
out, closing on her forearm. “It will if you’ll unbend a little. You know how
to relax, don’t you?”

She furrowed her
brows, not wanting to admit that, no, she didn’t know how to relax. It was
damned near impossible for a woman in her position to do so.

“Put the pajamas
on, stay a while.” He loosened his grip and rubbed his hand up and down her arm,
sending tingles of heat across her skin. “I won’t tell a soul.”

She peered at
him over her shoulder, taking in the sleepy plea, the soothing tone of his
voice, the hand stretched toward her on the bed. He was watching her again, his
impassive gaze piercing through her as if he saw everything, the aching
loneliness, the years of servitude to a cause that separated her from her kin,
always apart, always alert. He saw and accepted her anyway, and because of
that, she yearned for him,
him
, the man who drew her like a moth to a
flame, mission be damned.

So she helped
herself to his pajamas and stripped down with her back to him.

A tiny thrill of
satisfaction ran through her when his breath hitched.

Mmm
. She stepped
into the pajama bottoms as satisfaction purred through her.
He noticed the
lack of underwear
.

Indigo would’ve
gone to the bathroom, for modesty’s sake. Then again, Indigo would never have
placed herself in this situation to begin with.

Being the bad
sister had distinct advantages.

India tugged on
the pajama top before crawling back into the bed next to Hiro. He draped an arm
over her shoulders, as casually as if they’d done this a thousand times before,
and she accepted his touch, snuggling into him as the rest of the world faded
away.

Monday morning
dawned bright and early, a perfect October day with the promise of clear blue
skies, once the sun rose fully.

Bobby could not
have cared less. After dropping Indigo off at her apartment Saturday evening
and helping her unload her purchases, he’d gone home and spent the rest of the
weekend brooding. The scene in the store played over and over again in his
mind, and then, just for fun, his memory had thrown in the day he’d made a play
for Indigo, the day he’d become a man in the eyes of the People and decided to
take the woman he wanted.

He closed his
eyes, lost in the taste of her lips, the press of her hips against his, the
smooth silkiness of her skin when he’d eased a hand under her shirt. Then her
startled gasp and the look of pure horror on her face when she’d shoved him
away, raking his young heart over the hot coals of rejection.

What was it
about women that made men feel like perfect fools?

He rubbed his
hands over his face, trying to wipe away the fatigue and the memories, all of
them. The sooner he faced reality where Indigo was concerned, the better off
he’d be. While she accepted his touch, welcomed it, even, she didn’t seem to
want more than friendship.

As much as he
logically knew that he should stick with
just friends
, he couldn’t deny
that in his heart he would always want more, no matter how wrong he was for her.
Friendship was just the beginning, and he hadn’t even figured that out until she’d
poked him in the gut with the past.

Now, how did he convince
her to go beyond friendship, or should he even try? As much as he wanted her,
that very past hung between them, a stain that blossomed and oozed when he
least expected it. Nothing he did could ever erase it.

A tap on the
door snagged his attention. Indigo poked her head in, a hesitant smile on her
face.

“Hey.” He forced
himself to stay seated, when his body begged him to run to her. “I didn’t think
you’d show.”

The dimple in
her cheek flashed as she slid all the way inside his office. She wore skin
tight black yoga tights paired with a loose sweatshirt that hung off of one
shoulder, revealing the strap of a matching top. His heart nosedived somewhere
south of his knees. He’d never get through a workout with her in those clothes,
not without his body giving him away.

“You said you’d
work out with me.” She held up a workout bag and waggled it. “I hope you don’t
mind, but I brought clothes to change into afterward. Is there a shower?”

A vivid image
shot into his mind. Indigo in the shower, water running down her back and over
her firm ass. He bit back a groan and tried to rein in his imagination even as
his body hardened.

“Or I could go
work out in the gym at my apartment complex.” She sighed deeply and sat on the
edge of one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Look, Bobby, I know we parted
a little awkwardly over the weekend.”

“I hadn’t
noticed,” he said drily.

She pressed her
lips into a straight line and gave him a prim look. “But we’re still friends,
aren’t we? I mean, we’re working toward friendship, don’t you think?”

The plea in her
voice was so earnest, he hated to shoot her down. “Yeah, but it’s not the only
thing.”

Her gaze slid
from his to a point somewhere over his left shoulder. She was about to lie,
sure as he was a Son.
Dammit
. When would she shoot straight with him? He
stood abruptly, irritation pushing him to action, and rounded the desk. She sat
back in the chair, panic written all over her face, and a spurt of satisfaction
pinged through him.

She should be
wary of him.

He rested on the
edge of the desk and pulled her up from the chair into the cradle of his
widespread legs. She smelled like spearmint and soap and warm woman, and it was
all he could do to keep his hands on her hips and his mouth to himself when she
landed against him. His erection pressed into the juncture at her thighs, and
he shuddered when she shifted and her body rubbed against his.

“Feel what you
do to me, Indigo,” he murmured.

She looked away,
and his irritation shot straight into anger. He tangled a hand in her hair and
tugged gently until she met his gaze. “Don’t lie to me, ever,” he warned.

“I wasn’t going
to lie.” Her fingers curled into the thin material of his t-shirt where her
hands rested against his chest. “I was just…”

“Going to lie.”
He slid his free hand around, cupping her lush bottom, and inched her forward,
molding her to him, their cores separated by material so thin it revealed every
inch of his erection, and hid nothing of her heat from him. “Feel what you do
to me.”

A flush spread
across her cheeks. “That’s a biological reaction. Any man holding a woman this
way would do the same thing.”

He ignored the
scold in her voice. “I’ve held plenty of beautiful women, Indigo.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “Really.”

“Lots of
beautiful, attractive women. Dozens, even.” What he thought might be jealousy
flickered through her expression. “And I’ve never felt this way about any of
them.”

“You’ve had sex
before.”

The mild
accusation in her voice was hard to ignore. He tamped down the guilt. So he’d
sought refuge in the arms of other women after she’d rejected his young heart.
What had she expected? That he’d pine away for her, forever a virgin? God knows
he’d given her his dues, starting with that drunken night nine years before
when he’d bound himself to her forever and forsaken his chance at happiness
along with it.

Dammit, he
wouldn’t feel guilty about the past either, not one second of it.

“I’m a man.” He
managed a casual shrug. “And I know how it feels to want a woman. There’s no
one like you.”

“Oh.” Her brows
furrowed and her gaze came to rest on his mouth.

“That’s it, just
oh
?”

“Well.” She pursed
her lips into a little moue he ached to nibble and tease. “I suppose now would
be a good time to talk about where this all might lead.”

“You’re
kidding,” he said flatly.

“Or you could
just kiss me.” She slid a hand to the nape of his neck and scraped her nails
along his skin. “If you promise to stick with a kiss.”

His hand tightened
in her hair and she gasped. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Just try,” she
murmured.

He let go of her
hair, slid his hand down, cradling her shoulders. Her eyes fluttered closed and
her breath hitched. Sweet Goddess, she was ready for him, her lips parted and
slick, her face flushed with the same need gripping him. His heart raced and
fluttered as he lowered his mouth to hers, and fourteen years worth of longing
and memory pounded through him.

He groaned at
the first touch of her soft lips on his, tried to temper the need rising in him
to grind against her, to take what she so freely offered, to claim her in a
primal rush. He slanted his mouth across hers and their breath mingled, hers
sweet and hot on his tongue. She arched into him with a moan and slid her
fingers into his hair, and his muscles tightened with a burning desire. When it
threatened to spiral out of control, he pulled back to nibble at her lips, to
lick at the sweet lushness and savor it, to savor
her
.

He’d waited so
long for this, too long between her first sweet kiss, taken by a boy on the
verge of manhood, and this one, given freely by a woman eager to have him.

She opened for
him, deepening the kiss until it raged through them both. Her tongue darted out
in a teasing taste along his lips, then licked against his, and his control
teetered and smashed. His fingers dug into her shoulder and the firm flesh of
her bottom, and he shuddered when she curled her nails into his back through
his t-shirt.

A heavy fist
rapped on the door.

He jerked away
from her, gasping for breath through the roar in his ears and the ache in his
groin. Indigo opened her eyes and he fell into the passion shining from the
sparkling depths. Her lips were red and full from the kiss, her cheeks flushed,
and her breaths came in short pants. Savage need rippled through him. She
wanted him. Sweet Mother, she wanted him. “Indigo,” he breathed, and lowered
his mouth to hers.

The door opened
and Drew stepped inside. “Whoops,” he said, and stepped out again, closing the
door behind himself.

Bobby cursed
under his breath, dropped his forehead to Indigo’s, and struggled to bring the
desire rampaging through his body under control, to stifle the impulse to back
her up against the door, push her pants down, and surge into her over and over
again until she cried out with release. Need shuddered through him.
Soon,
please, let her need him with the same fierce urgency
.

When the need to
claim her dimmed enough for him to think around it, he said, “Why didn’t you
lock the door when you came in?”

“Mmm. Because we
were going to work out, remember?”

He rubbed his
nose against hers and loosened his grip so she could pull back enough to catch
her breath. “All I remember is you telling me to kiss you.”

“Selective
memory,” she accused gently, and nipped at his lower lip, sending a pulse of
heat down his body. “Do you need to go after Drew?”

“I’ll talk to
him later. Kiss me again.” He smacked her bottom lightly when she tried to pull
away, and grinned when she yelped. “I want to make sure we’re doing it right.”

She pushed at his
shoulders and he let her go, and braced his hands against the edge of the desk,
willing himself not to reach for her again.

“This is neither
the time nor the place for that, Bobby Upton.”

He cocked his
head and considered her. It wasn’t a no, exactly. “You say that like you’re
afraid it might go beyond a kiss.”

“It might,” she
said mildly. “I’d rather not take that chance.”

“Does that mean
there’s a chance we might do this again?”

The look she
gave him was both prim and haughty, and made him snicker in spite of the aching
need.

“A man can
hope.”

“A man should
get ready for the gym.” Her eyes drifted down his body and widened when she
spotted his erection, clearly visible through the nylon of his running shorts.
She patted her chest absent-mindedly, as if trying to contain her heart, and
nibbled at her bottom lip before her cheeks flushed and she jerked her gaze
back to his. “Do you, ah, need a moment?”

“Probably a
few.”

“Right.” Her
gaze dropped again and her lips curved into a secretive, womanly smile. “I’ll
just…” She pointed at the door.

“I’ll catch up.”

She snagged her
bag, turned part way toward the door, then stopped abruptly. “I almost forgot.
Do you have time later to talk about India?”

The desire slid
from him in a rush. “I can make time. Why?”

“Something she
said to me on Friday.” She shook her head and jerked at the bag in her hand,
obviously troubled. “About stopping the Prophecy by snuffing out the Light. Her
exact words.”

A cold stillness
filled him, chilling the heat left by her passion. “The Eternal Order?”

“Maybe.” Her
eyes rounded in a face gone suddenly pale. “I should’ve mentioned it earlier.”

“We got a little
caught up.”

“That’s an
understatement,” she muttered.

He laughed and
pushed himself away from the desk to walk across the room and drop a kiss to
her lips, and fought the urge to deepen the brief taste, to finish what they’d
started earlier. “Let me get my things and I’ll go with you.”

“All right. I’m
sorry I didn’t agree to help you right away.” She shifted her stance from one
foot to the other. “You know. To track down India. I shouldn’t have hesitated
like that.”

“Don’t worry
about it.” He drew his workout bag from under his desk and hefted it. “She’s
your sister. I know you love her, in spite of everything.”

“I do.”

Her voice was
gentle. A light shone from her eyes that he’d never seen before. When he reached
her side, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his mouth, a light,
friendly gesture that startled him.

“What was that
for?”

“For
understanding.” She smoothed down the material of his shirt, her hands
lingering on his chest. “I appreciate it.”

He cupped her
shoulder and squeezed. “Hey, what are friends for?”

Her dimple
flashed as she smiled, and he followed her to the elevator with his body still
tingling from her touch.

* * *

Indigo hummed
happily as she made tea in the fully equipped break room at Bobby’s office. The
kiss they’d shared before their workout, and his reaction to it, lingered in
her mind. The glorious touch of his lips to hers. The hard press of his erection
at the juncture of her thighs.