Just Breathe (31 page)

“I want you to fill me up, Gavin.” She fiddled with his lip ring with a quick flick of her tongue, then bit it.

The thickness of his length rubbed hot against her walls. The tempo increased. A low growl rolled out of him, and he held her gaze in a firm stare.

“Christ… Zed…” His lids swept shut in a slow motion blink. His already tighter-than-a-high-wire abs clenched against the soft skin of her belly, and breath flowed out in a long exhale as his release jetted into her.
Thrust. Groan. Thrust.
She smiled as she counted five…six…seven trembling lunges.

He was so beautiful when he came. Staring into her eyes, big hands gripping her, his ink surrounding her, protecting. Coveting.

No one had ever coveted her before. It felt pretty damn good to be held in such high esteem by a guy who lived a fairy tale on the covers of magazines.

Man, if only life were that simple.

Running the tips of her fingers down his arms, she pressed her hard nipples into his chest. The damp skin on his left forearm was cooler than the rest of him. She tilted her head to the side and peered down the slope of his shoulder. The Water tattoos. They glowed. Not the usual blaring that signaled the presence of an Elemental. Just soft, multi-hues of blue beaming from under the flesh. Almost like stained glass.

She took his arm and brought it to her lips. Gavin tipped over to his right, and she rolled with him, not willing to lose her grip on him down there. He was still hard, and it still felt amazing, even after the orgasm. The intense connection between them consumed her. She craved it like a drug.

“Your tattoos are gorgeous. I’ve never seen them glow like that.” She rubbed his arm. The magic trapped inside hypnotized her.

“It’s Water.” He smiled. “See what you do to me?”

She flipped up her lashes. “You and I did this. Together.” She laid her palm over his pecs. “We can beat Scarlet with the Water we share.”

Gavin flinched. He pulled out of Zoe and rubbed the spot above his stomach, worry evident in his tight brows and the frown on his perfect lips.

And there he went again. The warmth evaporated.

She sat up. “What’s wrong?”

He paused as if gathering his thoughts. “I didn’t want to scare you, but last night, Scarlet attacked Trevor in the Dreaming.”

Oh, shit. With shaking hands, Zoe drew the covers to her neck. “Is he okay?”

He shook his head. “No. He and about twenty other Wyldlings are unresponsive, in critical condition at the hospital. All suffering from the same unexplainable symptoms: extreme agitation, fever, hallucinations, and increased heart rate.”

“Loss of Fire can do that to a person?” She swallowed hard.

“If you lose enough, yes.” He picked at a hanging string on the blanket. “She took almost all of his Fire before Jack stopped her. Trevor may not make it.”

“Oh my God.”

No wonder Gavin seemed distant and upset. Setting the research house afire wasn’t enough for Scarlet. Now she was after Gavin’s friends, too? When would this end?

“What can I do? I want to help.”

He centered his gaze on hers. A hint of vulnerability snuck through the windows of his eyes. He quickly bricked it up with his serious, badass Sentinel façade. “Keep giving me Water like you just did. When you’re with me, I’m a thousand times stronger. I need that Water, Zed. I need
you
.”

“You’ve got me.” Zoe curled into him in a full-body kiss.

Gavin released a long breath and wound his thick arms around her.

This was love. Pure. Intimate. Perfect.

Laying an ear against his chest, she listened to his heartbeat. Brave enough face a legion of Fyres alone. She dotted kisses over his muscled contours. Strong enough to defend a nation. He squeezed her, the blue ink on his arm pulsing brighter than before.

“I love you.” A trace of regret lay buried deep under the sincerity of his words. “So fucking much.”

She had a few regrets of her own. Despite her growing unease, she knew one thing was true. In this moment, the love they shared—their Water—was
everything
.

Zoe kissed him and pressed her forehead to his. “Ditto. I’m right here with you.”

Chapter Thirty-two

September 21

When she woke alone beneath the cold sheets the next morning, Zoe lifted her head and squinted through the pre-dawn darkness. Where was Gavin? She rolled onto her back. He must have slept on the couch. Again.

Sigh.

Much as she loved him, this sleeping apart thing sucked ass.

The curtains winced as a breeze from the open window tiptoed inside. Catching Gavin’s cedar scent on the pillow beside her, she rubbed a hand across the linens. Then a sound from the living room stole her attention.

Music. Beautiful, haunting notes floated from guitar strings through the air. The song started and stopped a couple of times, and then the flow picked up and played steadily for several measures. The melody brought shivers to her skin. Hard to believe a guitar could sound so lonely.

She kicked off the covers and sat up. Gavin played a few more notes. Stopped again. Repeating the pattern for several minutes, he added a little more to the song with each new run. Just like the whales. The same song, but woven with strands of improvisation, development, evolution.

Enthralled, Zoe crawled from bed. She threw on her shorts and tee shirt, padded barefoot to the door, and headed down the hall. Pausing, she leaned against the wall and watched from the shadows.

Shirtless and stretched over his guitar, Gavin scribbled some notes on a page lying on the coffee table before him. His tattoos cast a vague blue hue under the weak light penetrating the windows. The sexy as hell bed head got her heart chugging. To think she had a hand in taming that wild hair into something a tad softer. She beamed.

His tanned toes spread and dug into the carpet, gripping its short nap. With his navy cargo shorts bunched just above his knees, he looked pensive. Vulnerable. Here was the Gavin Cassidy no one else knew. Not the rock star or Sentinel.
Her
Gavin.

He dropped the pencil on the table and snapped the guitar pick from his lips as the digits on his left hand found their places along the frets. Strumming with his right, he closed his eyes. His fingers worked their magic. His face remained placid through the poignant melody.

Tears formed at the corners of her lids. She couldn’t help it. Blinking over the watery blur, she saw a gifted young man who’d been robbed of his dreams, cheated out of his future. Music was his true love. His friends probably never saw past the happy-go-lucky rock star persona, but she did. The passion, the mastery, the depth of feeling—

The Dreaming and its Sentinels had claimed him like an early death.

So unfair.

Gavin deserved a beautiful life he’d never get to lead, thanks to the Fyres.

Palming the tears aside, Zoe shuddered through a hard breath, those touching notes stealing bits and pieces of her soul. Didn’t matter. He could have them.

Gavin stopped again and jammed the pick between his teeth. His long black lashes angled downward as he wrote something else on the paper. He hummed a short tune, just as moving as the notes he’d played.

Overflowing with sadness for all the things he’d sacrificed for the sake of the Wyldlings, Zoe turned away.

She walked into the bathroom. After using the facilities, she brushed her teeth and washed her face, scrubbing away the signs of wear and tear. Gazing into the mirror, she ordered a smile to her lips. She patted her skin with a hand towel that smelled like him, then made her entrance into the living room.

Gavin turned when she came in, and her breath caught. God, up close, he looked rough—like an innocent man who’d accepted a wrongfully levied death sentence.

“Morning, love.” He reached over top of the guitar, pulled her down, and kissed her. “You sleep all right?”

She dropped to her knees, ignoring the instrument between them, and double fisted his sunken cheeks. “Yeah. But I missed you. I hate waking up alone.”

He smoothed the hair down her shoulder. Cranked out a half-hearted smile. That wistful look came back. “So do I.”

Gavin’s Aer tattoos lit up like halogen bulbs.

Vexx fluttered into the room, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. “How goes it, you two?”

He grabbed the rumpled blanket beside him and shouldered it to cover the yellow glare.

She fell into the sofa, blew a bubble, and sucked the pink in with a loud pop. Her legs crossed, the top one bobbing against the bottom. “Good sex last night.”

“Excuse me?” Zoe stood up and laid her hands on her hips.

Vexx flashed a toothy white grin, the bubblegum peeking out from between her top and bottom molars. “You guys were kinda loud.”

Zoe exchanged glances with Gavin. “No, we weren’t. We—”

The Aer Elemental winked and tapped her index finger to her temple.

“Keep your mind to yourself, smart ass,” Zoe said.

“Then don’t think about sex so loudly. I’m just sayin’.”

Zoe huffed. Not only could they not sleep together, they couldn’t have a normal morning with just the two of them.

Shaking his head and covering a smile, Gavin got up. He rested the guitar against the wall, and dropped a kiss on Zoe’s shoulder as he rounded her for the kitchen.

Vexx’s leg bounced to an invisible rhythm. “Wait. Play it again, Gavin. I liked that song.”

Man, Zoe did, too. Her heart still raced from it.

He halted his steps, scratched the back of his head, and glanced at Zoe. “Thanks, but I can’t play on demand.” The lines in his brow deepened with a heavy yawn. He must have been busy in the Dreaming last night.

Vexx’s gaze seesawed between them. She pointed at Gavin. “Play it for
her
.” Clouds of yellow mist swirled across her eyes.

What was she doing?

Gavin went back to the guitar, picked it up, and strummed a chord. He sat on the edge of the couch cushion and did as he was told.

Vexx shot Zoe a sideways look, grinning under her knuckles.

The gentle melody, so unlike the hard rock he played with Just Breathe, repeated a couple of times, then Gavin stopped. “That’s as far as I’ve got.”

Vexx clapped. “Bravo. It was beautiful.”

Indeed. He damn near melted Zoe’s heart with that song. Kind of like the way he looked at her right now. The boyish embarrassment was too freaking cute. He was blushing.

Zoe leaned over to Vexx as Gavin went into the kitchen. “You made him do it, didn’t you? You put the thought in his head.”

“There may have been a tiny bit of coaxing on my part, but my victims—er, targets—won’t do anything they don’t want to deep down. I just suggest things. They can always refuse.”

Gavin leaned around the corner. “I knew it. You fucked with my mind, didn’t you?”

Vexx’s purple-striped hand sock swept the décolleté above her cami. A fat pink and black pigtail brushed her bare shoulder with the defiant tilt of her head. “Me? Why would I do such a thing? Now take your shorts off.”

Zoe covered her mouth and giggled when he started to reach for his zipper, then stopped himself.

“Goddamn Elementals. Stay out of my head, Vexx.”

“You’re really good at that.” Zoe high-fived the Aer. It felt nice to laugh.

The scowl on Gavin’s face slipped when an invisible bulb lighted over his head. “You know, I could use someone with your talents for a little investigation I’m running into the members of the Sentinel Council. You interested in spending some time with me while Zoe’s on the boat today, Vexx?”

A slow grin eased across her mouth. “A day with a rock star? My heart’s all aflutter.” She pressed the back of her wrist to her brow in over-dramatic fashion.

“Stick with him long enough, and you’ll have to start carrying a drool rag. He has that effect on women.” And to think he was Zoe’s.

Jet came out of Whetu’s room, dressed in a brown tee shirt and Army fatigues. Her chestnut hair swung as she closed the door, and her glasses caught light from the lamp on the table between two chairs. Standing in the hall, she took up a huge chunk of space—not because she was fat or super tall. Because her presence was so imposing. The woman was a machine.

Filled with awe and a little jealousy, Zoe greeted her. “Good morning, Jet.”

“Hi, guys. I have some errands to do, but I’ll be back to sit with Whetu in a few hours. Jack’s still in there.” She gestured to the bedroom with her head.

“Busy day?” Vexx asked.

Jet paused halfway to the door and faced them for a moment. “Nope.
Trash
day.”

“I see.” Vexx pulled a long string of bubblegum from her lips and twisted it around her index finger three times. “Be careful.”

Cracking her knuckles, Jet continued out and shut the door.

What unfortunate soul would find him- or herself at Jet’s mercy? And what did a person have to do to warrant a visit from a tough-as-nails Erthe Elemental?

Vexx narrowed her gaze on Zoe. “Don’t worry. She does this all the time. A little Fyre clean-up never hurt anything.”

“If I didn’t have shit to do, I’d join her.” Gavin looked anxiously after the door.

Zoe had a pretty long To Do list herself. She would check in with the whales again to see how the Water collection went. With the equinox only two days away, it was crunch time. She’d steer every humpback she could find toward the Elementals. The whales had tons of the Water they needed. It was no surprise so many were Elementals.

Vexx slung an arm across Gavin’s back and grinned. He dwarfed her pixie-sized body. “Looks like it’s you and me, babe. Information is my middle name. It’s the only currency I deal in. If good ol’ Vexx can’t find out what you need to know about your old fart Council members, nobody can.”

Zoe just hoped the information wouldn’t stab Gavin in the heart. With so many players in this game, no one was above suspicion. Though Zoe didn’t know any of the Council members, she was certain there were a few Gavin trusted. Loyalty could shift without warning at the least opportune moment.

Two more days.

Please, just let them get to the equinox without incident, and then they’d see where the cards landed in the aftermath.