Awakening Kiss (Watcher's Kiss Book 4) Page 14

  Morso… Enza strained to remember if she’d heard that word before, or some variation of it. She looked up at Rhys. “Where are you going?”

  “You and me. Not letting you out of my sight, or at least Watcher protection, until we get more intel.” His tone was resolute, as if he’d blast apart even a hint of an argument.

  “It’s that bad?” she whispered.

  Dark eyes snapped to hers. “Yes. It’s that bad. Deserati are as powerful as Lash. They’re strong and fast, and their tails give them an added weapon.” He sat beside her on the couch. “Your power is rare and kicks ass, but it doesn’t do you any good on a nice sunny day. And you’re untrained.”

  “Do I have to hide? What about work?”

  “I may need to be there. Or one of the guys, or Miranda. Damn it.” He closed his eyes. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. I also don’t want those two ripping apart your shop and co-workers.”

  Enza squeaked and clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my god. Did I put them in danger?” She peered down at her Java Genie T-shirt. “Oh shit.”

  “We don’t know how much they saw. It was crowded and we were behind several people.” He rubbed a hand on her back, over her wet shirt. “But you should probably get out of this.”

  Her breath, already choppy, caught. Her brain was a mix of high and low, excitement and fear, and through it all cut a deepening attraction to this dangerous man. “I…um, on another day, that line might be hot.”

  He leaned close, breath brushing her ear. “On another day, you’ll do it without me suggesting it.”

  Oh. She swallowed. God, he was right. Despite him turning her world inside out, she was drawn to him in a way she couldn’t explain. She turned to him as a new purpose surged through her. Meeting his lips, she spoke against them softly. “You’re right.”

  A growl—yes, definitely a growl—came from him and his hands came down on her shoulders. Keeping his lips against her, he murmured. “Bella, I need you to hold that thought because I’m going to cash in later. But right now, we’re in the middle of a situation I don’t like.”

  She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against his. He knew more about this stuff than she did. “Where are we going?”

  “A club called Morso.” He pulled back enough to put space between them, and pushed her hair back off her shoulders. “I’m betting you haven’t heard of it, even though you’re a lifetime city girl.”

  She shook her head. “No. But the name sounds familiar.”

  He grinned. “It’s Italian.”

  Recognition flared and she sat up straighter. “Oh! Right! It means…bite, or bitten?”

  “Yup.”

  “How does a club for other worldly creatures end up with an Italian name?”

  “Word is, it goes way back to Chicago’s Italian immigrant roots. Certain famous mob bosses had underground hideouts and clubs.”

  “Oh. Right. Prohibition didn’t work out so well with all the tunnels below ground.”

  “Yeah. And there’s another important detail you need to know. Well, several.”

  Uh-oh. But she squared her shoulders. She’d said she’d clean up her mess, she said she’d trust him, so it was time to put that into action. No matter what. “What’s that?”

  “It’s run by werewolves.”

  Her jaw dropped and she readied herself to yell What??? But she stopped. Paused. Blinked. And realized, the surprises were going to keep coming. “Werewolves. Okay.” Werewolves exist. He’d said that already. She just hadn’t expected to meet any this soon.

  “Brenin will meet us there.”

  “Will we be safe?” She would never underestimate Rhys and Brenin, based on muscle and size alone, but if they were going into a club filled with werewolves…

  “Yes. It’s a neutral zone. Anyone who tries to start a fight, or use their power in the club, will get eagerly shredded by the pack. Then tossed onto the subway tracks at an inopportune time.”

  Enza opened her mouth in horror. “Oh my god.”

  “The alpha of the Chicago pack runs a tight ship. Name’s Zach, and he tolerates zero bullshit. I wouldn’t take you there if I didn’t know you’d be one hundred percent safe. He and his pack keep tabs on who’s around. Part of it is just observing who comes in, and part is him hoarding info so he can sell it.”

  “Is he, um, on our side?”

  “He’s on his own side. The wolves ally with no one, except other shifter species and even that’s rare. As long as money, alcohol, and information flow, he’s content. But he’s not worth pissing off.”

  “Okay.” She twirled a damp lock of hair. “We’re going to a werewolf-owned club. Are humans allowed?”

  Rhys shook his head. “Nope. That’s rule number three, after no fighting and no magic.”

  “They’ll just assume I’m…other?”

  “You still have a trace of energy around you.” He circled his finger in the air and winked.

  “Oh. When will it go away?” She didn’t like having a supernatural indicator floating around her body, announcing her inner nature.

  “Soon, I would think. It’s been fading since we got inside.”

  “Thank goodness. Where’s the club?” She couldn’t imagine any supernatural creatures just walking into some bar, somewhere.

  “Under State Street.”

  “Under…Oh.” The tunnels. The subway tracks. “And we’re going now?”

  “Yup. After you get a new shirt.” He walked to the door and opened it. “Lisetta?”

  The tiny pixie came down the hall with a smile. “What can I help you with?”

  “Enza needs dry clothes she can wear to Morso.”

  “Ah.” Lisetta nodded. “Stay here, I have something that will work.” As she shuffled down the hall, she murmured to herself, “I knew there was a reason I placed that order with that new distributor…”

  The fortune teller pixie stocked club wear? Then again… “Can she really tell fortunes? Did she know we were coming today? Is it like a thing that pixies can see the future?”

  Rhys snorted. “No. Fortunes are a human idea. Some of the pixies are skilled at reading people, like she said. So they do well with these shops. But anyone can gab about life lines and the future, if you can sell what people don’t need but want to hear.”

  Enza tilted her head. “You don’t think we have pre-determined life events? Destinies?”

  “Oh, I think we do. But I don’t think sitting down for one moment in time, when you think you want to hear it, will tell you much.”

  His words were loaded like heavy artillery, each one packed with meaning that was palpable to her. “Go on,” she whispered.

  He shrugged. “It’s life. Our lives unfold when they want to, not when we think they’re ready. Things happen, events play out and suddenly you’re on a new path. Maybe you didn’t intend to take that path, that day, or ever.” He frowned. “Ah hell. I sound like a philosopher or some shit.”

  She giggled at his self-deprecation, but stood and walked close. “You sound like there’s a life behind those words.”

  He framed her face in his palms. “Maybe.”

  “Will you tell me someday? About you, things you know, things you’ve seen?”

  Rhys took her hands and kissed her knuckles. “Anything.”

  Warm lips tickled her skin. “Looks like I’m on one of those new paths now.”

  “I’m happy you are.” Heat radiated from him as he loomed over her. She wanted to learn everything, but also to hide away with him for hours. Days. She wanted to be skin-to-skin—

  “You’re in luck.” Lisetta’s voice preceded her down the hallway as if she knew what she might walk into and needed to give warning. “I have the perfect thing.”

  Enza stepped back from Rhys, but he didn’t release her hands. Lisetta appeared, holding a black and gray sleeveless tank, leggings, and black ballet flats. “You can’t just wear the top.” The pixie winked. “You need to complete the ensemble.” She set the
shoes down and handed a fresh black T-shirt to Rhys.

  Enza took the tunic-style shirt, appreciating the wide straps that would hide her bra. It was softer than the T-shirt she wore. Black at the top, it gradually lightened to gray at the hem. Ombre. She had heard Meena and Josie talk about this color effect for hair and clothing. The neck line had a deep vertical slit. Not a V, so she might not be flashing cleavage. Unless she leaned forward. Hmm. “This is nice.” And it was. Not slutty, not cheesy, not casual. If she had to wear something to a werewolf club, she guessed this would be it.

  “Want to try it on? We can step out,” Lisetta said.

  “Yes. And you can stay, Lisetta, but you,” Enza pinned a look on Rhys and twirled a finger in the air between them, “turn around.”

  Rhys’s lips twitched and his eyes twinkled, as if he were dying to remind her that he’d already more than seen what was under her shirt, but he obliged and peeled off his own shirt.

  Enza took a second to appreciate his muscular back before he donned the new tee. So hot. Then she yanked off her work clothing and pulled on the gray and black tank. Soft cotton clung to her skin, cool and close, but not too tight. Next she tried the leggings, thankful that they stretched to fit and that the long top covered her rear. She smoothed her hands over her hips. “I like this.” She slid her feet into the shoes and found them to be the perfect size. “How do you have things that fit me?”

  “Sometimes I have a hunch that I need to place a specific order. And some basics, I keep on hand. Never know who will need a change of clothes.” Lisetta smiled. “You look perfect for the club.”

  Rhys turned, and she loved the way his eyes went from admiration to something deeper and carnal in the space of a heartbeat. They roamed her torso from neckline to breasts to waist, lingering long enough to make her squirm.

  “All right, we’re good to go. Lisetta, thank you. I’ll send payment now.” He reached for his phone.

  “Pfft, no you won’t. I have a new vendor and this is overstock they sent, and refuse to take back.” She shrugged. “Your gain.”

  She stepped out. Rhys crowded close. “Stay by my side at all times,” he growled.

  “I wasn’t planning to be anywhere else,” Enza whispered.

  “That’s my girl.” He skimmed his hands down her sides, making her shiver. “There’s one other thing about Morso.”

  “Yeah?” Her eyes started to slide languorously shut and she leaned into him.

  “Sex happens.”

  Sex? Her eyes flew open. “Like, publicly?”

  “Sometimes. There are back rooms too. All consensual. Zach doesn’t put up with coercion. But,” Rhys slid his hands up to her neck, caressing, “unmated creatures get lots of extra attention.”

  “Okay. So I’ll stay close to you and then no one will bother me?”

  “That’s part of it.” His eyes took on an amber glow and his thumbs rubbed her collarbones.

  That glow…heat shot through her abdomen, remembering what that meant. “Your eyes are lighter.”

  His finger moved to the slit at her neckline and traced down to where it ended. A growl vibrated through the few inches separating them. “That’s because I’m five seconds away from tearing this top off you. Don’t care if you haven’t even had it on for that long.”

  Oh my god. Her lips parted on an exhale. Rhys’s rough sexiness was off the charts and melting her from the inside out. “So we act like boyfriend and girlfriend?”

  “Yeah. But most important, we need to carry each other’s scent. Like couples, or mates, do.”

  Mates? “H-how do we do that?” The words escaped, breathy, as confusion and arousal twined around her heart.

  “Touch. Lots of it.”

  Too turned on to even suggest that it sounded like a line, a ruse to get his hands on her, she slid her hands up his sculpted biceps. “Like this?”

  “Not here. Gods, I’ll never let you out of this room if you keep that up.” He grabbed her hands and lowered them to her sides. “We do it before we walk in there.”

  She gulped, unable to do anything except agree. Make out in an underground tunnel, or in the back room of a fortune teller shop? Both were preposterous but with Rhys so close and focused on her like she was the very sun in the sky, everything else melted into a dim background of unnecessary detail.

  CHAPTER 19

  RHYS TOOK ENZA’S HAND AND led her into the hallway of Lisetta’s shop before he stripped that damn clingy shirt off her and worshipped her breasts until she came. Goddamn it. She was covered, but the thing left nothing to the imagination. And that slice of an opening that was like an arrow to the fullest part of her chest? The peeks of her creamy flesh as she moved were going to kill him. He was having a hard time walking as it was.

  Lisetta stood in the main room, a dark, fabric-swathed area with two tables each decorated with softly lit lamps. Some kind of instrumental music played, and the fragrances she used swirled in the small space. It was all ambience to enhance a human’s experience. She did well with it and good for her, but he needed out of here now.

  Guessing his urgency, the pixie led them toward the rear stock room where they’d first entered. She pulled aside a drape of fabric hanging on one wall, revealing a metal door. She unlocked it with a key on her wrist, and it opened into what appeared to be a closet.

  Enza peered around his shoulder, pressing her curves into his arm. Damn. He willed his cock under control. They still had work to do and two rogue demons roamed the city.

  Lisetta pushed on a section of the wall at the back of the closet, and what looked like a wooden panel slid to one side, revealing another metal door. She unlocked this one with a spell, speaking softly and quickly in an old dialect, and it swung open to show a metal staircase leading down. A single fire bulb flicked on with the sudden movement.

  Enza gawked. “What is that?” She gazed at the baseball-sized sphere of fire that floated gently near the concrete ceiling.

  “It’s called a fire bulb. They run on magic, not electricity.”

  “How does it stay in place? No, wait, duh.” She shook her head. “Magic. Can you move them around?”

  “You may bring it with you,” Lisetta said. “It’s easy to get more.”

  “We’ll take it down to the freight tunnel level. I’ve got it from there,” Rhys said.

  “Be safe,” she said. “Call if you need to come back up this way.”

  “Thank you,” he said to the pixie. “Ready?” He squeezed Enza’s hand.

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Thank you, Lisetta.”

  With a tug, he pulled her through the door and Lisetta closed it behind them.

  “Whoa,” Enza murmured. “Thank goodness I’m not claustrophobic.”

  The staircase was narrow, in a tightly enclosed column of space built a century earlier. “It won’t take long to get to our level, then things will open up a little.” With a spell, he “unhooked” the fire bulb so it was mobile and it followed along, hovering above them as they descended.

  A rumble vibrated the stair column, unmistakable even through who knows how many feet of concrete.

  “The El.” She glanced around. “This is so weird, to go lower than it.” She pulled her bottom lip in. “It’s kind of fun. I mean, regular people don’t get to access these tunnels, ever.”

  “Thought some company did tours.”

  “I think only the upper tunnels, and I’m betting they’re not as fun as this.” Her heated brown gaze lingered on his lips.

  She was beautiful and too tempting. “Let’s keep going.” He reluctantly turned and started down the next flight of stairs. They had a club to get to, and some serious lip-locking to do before they could go in.

  They continued down a few more flights, until they reached the freight level. Rhys and the Watchers had been here enough, they knew exactly where to go. Though to the untrained eye, each dingy metal door probably looked the same.

  He twisted the bashed-in handle and it opened on ancient hinges, its
protests echoing off the concrete. Stepping through, they emerged into a tunnel with an arched ceiling about eight feet high. Close-set rails ran down the length of the passage. “Gonna leave this here.” He nodded at the fire bulb. “It’ll go back up to Lisetta’s door eventually. But this way, someone else might benefit from it.”

  “How will we see?”

  “My own fire,” he said. He didn’t need it, as most predators didn’t. But his sweet baker hadn’t inherited night vision from her absent papa. He pulled the door closed and summoned a fire ball in his hand.

  “Wow.” Enza took in the grimy tunnel in the flickering light. “This is so old, creepy, and kind of cool all at once. To think they used to move supplies around down here? I wish they still would. No more delivery trucks double parking or taking up three spaces.”

  He held her hand as they walked down the center of the old rail line. Leave it to her to admire a defunct system and see the options for another use. “Well, there is the flooding thing.”

  “Ah, true.” She peered left and right. “Not even any rats down here.”

  “Just wait.”

  “I should keep my mouth shut,” she muttered. “I’m about to walk into a werewolf club. Rats will probably seem like the better option.”

  “Nah, any rodents will run if they know what’s good for them.”

  They picked their way along the old rails. “It doesn’t smell bad,” she remarked. “You know, for an old tunnel with who-knows-what down here. It’s just musty. And how did you guys get access to this? The city made a huge deal out of sealing these up years ago.”

  “You’d be surprised at who works on the construction crews that win the city’s bids.”

  She stopped, staring at him. “You guys do?”

  “Not us.” He gave the fire ball in his free hand a lazy bounce. “The wolves like the trade, and are good at that shit.”

  “The wolves…” She frowned. “Does that give them any unfair advantages? They could have secret tunnels and stuff.”

  “They are creatures of their word.” Rhys said. “I have to give them credit. They don’t do bullshit. And honestly, they’re as neutral as Switzerland.”