“How was that?” she asked.
“Absolutely terrible.” His lashes fused, hiding the brilliance of those angry hazel eyes. “The worst.”
Brutal honesty sucked sometimes. “I’m sorry.”
“You should be.”
“I’ll do better.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Hey! “You’re seconds away from being slapped!”
“That would be a welcome change.”
She shoved him off, and he rolled to a stand. They’d been training for hours, and she was tired. She hadn’t slept last night—even after Kane had made love to her and exhausted her—her mind too busy outlining every possible flaw to his crazy plan. The only real fight she’d ever been in had happened in hell, but at the time she’d had the abilities of the Phoenix and had simply burned everything that had approached her. She didn’t have that luxury now.
He helped her stand, his calluses tickling her skin. “You have to use every weapon at your disposal. A rock on the ground. Your knees. Whatever. Don’t be afraid to get down and dirty, and inflict major damage. If your attacker’s face is within striking distance, like mine just was, poke out his eyes. Break his nose with the heel of your hand, sending cartilage into his brain.”
Josephina anchored her hands on her hips. “Until now, I haven’t wanted to do those things to you, and that’s the only reason you’ve been able to take me down so many times.”
“The onlyreason?”
Argh! She ripped off her tennis shoe and tossed it at him.
The heavy heel banged into his shoulder and toppled to the ground.
“Better.” He nodded with his first display of pride. “That’s a habit that must run in your family.”
“Do you want to feel the sting of the other shoe?”
“I needto know you can take down an opponent, Tink. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”
Okay. All right. That, she could understand. The plan hinged on her, and what she could do. She would be in the thick of danger, and he would be worried.
Shewould be worried, but she wasn’t going to let it stop her. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. I’m determined. I know the stakes.
I deserve to live and love. And I will.
“Kane,” she said, stepping toward him. “You’ve left me no choice. I have to do this.”
She punched him in the mouth. Pain exploded through her knuckles and arm, and his head whipped to the side. Slowly he faced her. A cascade of crimson flowed from the corner of his lip, obscene against the bronze of his skin. He grinned, the blood even staining his teeth.
“Now that’s my girl. Good job.”
A knock reverberated through the room, saving her from an embarrassing display of self-congratulations.
“We’re ready for you,” Sabin called.
Kane’s grin disappeared. “We’ll be down in fifteen minutes.”
He tugged Josephina into the bathroom, stripped her, stripped himself and turned on the water for a quick shower. Soapy hands wandered, and once again Josephina found herself panting from exertion. As much touching as they’d done, her body was already primed.
“We only have a few minutes,” she said.
“That’s all I need.”
“Really?” But, every time before had taken hours. “Are you sure I’ll enjoy this? I mean, I want you, but I also want to reach the end.”
“I consider it a personal mission to ensure that you do.” He donned a condom and pushed her against the wall. He was inside her a second later, and oh...oh! The way he moved...hard and fast, nothing held back...he wrung groan after groan from her. He kissed her, a tinge of desperation to every thrust of his tongue.
“I could drain the life out of you in seconds,” she rasped. “I could kill you.”
He moaned with pleasure-roughened arousal. “Tell me more.”
“You’d never know what happened. One moment you would be lucid, the next you would be dead.”
He became a wild man, whatever tether he’d had on his control broken. Her thoughts derailed as he hammered at her, the pleasure too much, not enough and... yes, yes, yes...
“Kane!” she shouted, her body breaking apart, reforming, every inch of her branded by the man in her arms.
He bit the cord between her neck and shoulder as he shuddered against her, the pressure somehow propelling her into another level of rapture. For a minute...an eternity...black dots flashed behind her eyes and silence cloaked her ears. She was lost to the pleasure.
When she came down, Kane was grinning at her. “Told you,” he said, all masculine satisfaction.
The tub shattered beneath their feet. He slipped and caught himself on the curtain rod above their heads. Her legs were still wrapped around Kane’s waist, her feet protected from the shards. But not his. Blood welled from several incisions.
“This will pass,” she said.
“I know.” Scowling now, Kane carried her out of the debris. He set her on her feet, and they dressed as swiftly as possible and rushed to the ballroom to meet with his friends.
The women formed a line in the center, their men behind them.
“I don’t like this,” she muttered.
“Trust me.” He gave her a swift kiss. “Your family will never see you coming.”
And she had to do whatever was necessary to defeat them. That way, they would never again think to use her.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked the women. She was to borrow the strength and power of everyone but Scarlet, who was demon-possessed, Ashlyn, a nursing mother, and Danika, whose visions of the future could distract her.
Each female squared her shoulders, raised her chin.
“Very well.” Trembling, Josephina reached toward Gwen. She stopped just before contact. “Last chance to back out. When I’m done, you’ll be weak. It could last a few hours or a few weeks.”
“Weak schmeak. I know the problems dirtbag dads can cause.”
“Her father is Galen, keeper of Hope and Jealousy,” Kane explained, stepping up beside her to offer moral support. “Though he doesn’t carry the kind of hope you might think. It’s false hope that Galen offers. Real hope is essential...miraculous.” He looked at her, his hazels bright. “The kind that you gave me.”
The kind he’d given her.
She melted into him.
“Do it. Drain me. You’ll need what I’ve got,” Gwen added as Sabin came to stand behind her. “I’m amazingly strong and faster than light.”
Sabin placed his hands on his wife’s shoulders. “Just don’t hurt my favorite toy, and we’ll be fine.”
Gwen preened as she tapped her thumb against her chest. “Today I’m his toy.” Next, she hitched that thumb in Sabin’s direction. “Tomorrow he’s mine.”
Toy. Yes. The perfect word to describe such a delicate-looking female; Josephina wasn’t sure how much strength she would be able to take without putting the girl into a coma.
“I’ll be gentle,” Josephina promised, wrapping her fingers around Gwen’s wrist. “And thank you for this. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you.”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
She closed her eyes, flipped the mental switch that she now knew caused her pores to open and create suction...pulling...pulling on the strength the female possessed.
Energy fizzed in her veins, as potent as if she’d stuck her finger into a light socket, and she reeled at the force, feeling shocked and giddy.
When she released Gwen, the poor girl sagged into her husband’s arms. “Wow! That was amazing.”
Kane urged her to turn to Kaia.
“You’ll want what I’ve got most of all,” Kaia said. “I’m part Phoenix, and I start fires when I’m angry.”
The moment they touched, Josephina experienced the same crackling surge of energy, but also a flood of warmth. Heat...so much heat swept through her, and she felt as if her body would erupt into flames at any second. It was a familiar sensation, the same one she’d encountered with the other Phoenix.