Only when Kevin was sure he could occupy the same space with Raina, regardless of the size of the room, and keep his hands and mouth to himself, did he venture to her office. The door was open, her last client having left over an hour ago. A half hour later her assistant had also departed, leaving the house quiet and almost empty feeling.
Kevin had checked every window and door lock into the house, finding nothing broken and no signs the locks had been tampered with. Raina’s office was the last remaining room for him to check.
After a restless night and a workout that did little to ease the frustration of the break-in and the sensual torment following, Kevin found himself in a poor mood. And Raina didn’t deserve the venom he’d likely direct her way. While his control slipped toward nonexistent thanks to her, she was blissfully unaware of the havoc she created within him. He’d barely made it through her doctoring his wounds without hauling her over his lap and finishing what they’d started earlier that evening.
While Kevin had never been a love-them-and-wake-up-before-they-do kind of guy, he could in fact count his lovers on one hand, he’d never felt anything close to the way Raina made him feel. Impatient, hungry, almost obsessive with need to know more of her.
When she’d traced a scar down his back, the pain of his wounds had all but disappeared. Not to mention when she’d stepped so close to him last night, the heat of her body and swell of her breasts brushing his back, he’d almost leapt out of his skin. How she could set fire to his blood with barely a touch?
Shaking off the uneasy thoughts, Kevin convinced himself he was not a coward and could face his pixie wife, and gently rapped on her office door. She stood behind her spacious desk. Three maps overlapped and she had a folder open on top of them.
Dying sunlight streamed in through the wide windows behind her desk, casting her in a beautiful hazy orange glow. Several locks of light brown hair had worked free from the bun atop her head. In the vibrant light they appeared almost red. When she finally glanced up, her hand froze over the folder and her lips parted. Blinking, she quickly looked back to her work.
“What can I do for you, my Guardian?”
Kevin raised a brow. My Guardian? Were they back on formal grounds? Perhaps that was for the best. “I wanted to know if your stylist locks the door when she leaves for the night.”
He crossed the distance to the windows on the right and carefully checked the locks and edges. All looked untouched.
Raina’s pale gaze watched him cross the room to the next set. “Yes, she’s supposed to. Why?”
“There isn’t any evidence of forced entry. I wanted to know if those who attacked me last night could have just walked in.”
She straightened, turning his direction when he reached the windows. “I certainly hope they didn’t, but you’re more than welcome to ask Tabby.”
Kevin headed to the oversized window behind her. “Would she lie?”
Raina considered the question. “Perhaps I should ask. You might intimidate her.”
Since he knew his effect on most people, he didn’t disagree. He inspected the latches behind her desk and the edges of each frame, frustrated when the results were the same. When he turned around, Raina took a step back. In her haste she bumped the desk, shifting the maps and sending papers fluttering off the other end. One large step separated them.
The wise course of action would be to leave. He’d seen all he needed to. Raina’s hands gripped the edge of the desk with such intensity her knuckles were white. Jaw clenched, she stared at him in a mixture of cautious awareness. Kevin reached across the space. His finger caressed along the smooth, silky skin of her jaw to her ear, where he tucked a wayward lock away.
“What about you, Raina? Do I intimidate you?” he asked softly.
The straight, long navy skirt and matching vest style top she wore over a crisp white shirt were meant to give her a professional appearance. At one point in the day, her traditional hairstyle had been immaculate, capturing the essence he was sure she’d hoped to achieve. Now, with her arms reaching behind, pressing her breasts against the shirt and vest until the buttons strained, and her hair a wild mess around her face, Kevin wanted nothing more than to clear the desk of the rest of her work and see just how far she’d let him go.
Her gaze flickered to his mouth. “I’m… no.”
Kevin took a small step forward, closing half the distance between them, leaving enough room that if she wanted to bolt, she could. He wouldn’t stop her. “You don’t sound very convincing.”
She pressed further back, practically forcing herself onto the desk, but a flash of defiance lifted her chin. “Do you want me to be frightened of you?”
“Of course not.” Kevin chuckled and shook his head. “I’m pleased you don’t react like most people. I seem to annoy you more than anything. The only other people that are at ease with me took a year or two to be comfortable in my presence.”
Some tension left her shoulders and relaxed her frame. “You don’t annoy me.”
Kevin took another small step forward. She didn’t shift this time. Good. Though he really shouldn’t think so. If she knew what was best for her, she’d be scared. And if he knew what was best for him, he’d be leaving. “Could have fooled me.”
“Somehow I doubt you can be fooled.”
Ah, but she was making a spectacular fool of him now. Kevin closed his eyes and leaned in close enough to her neck to inhale her sweet, floral and peach scent. When he opened his eyes, his gaze locked on the maps. The delicate yet heavy sensation of her breathing across his ear told him she wasn’t immune to his nearness.
“What are you working on?” he asked.
“What?” Her voice was weak, almost confused.
Kevin resisted the urge to smile. Stepping to the side of her, he pulled a half-hidden map free. “You use maps to plot courses or for something else?”
“Um.” She turned around. Her slender fingers traced over the lines of the map as though she were attempting to ground herself. Kevin gritted his teeth at the memory of that same feathery touch over his back. “I don’t plan routes unless I’m directing for a shipping fleet. Usually, I use existing fleets to move goods for my clients. I need the maps so I can locate where the fleets are and plan how to move commodities efficiently.”
“Do you often direct a fleet?”
“No, I don’t like to. There are too many factors. Weather, tidal shifts, port schedules. I much prefer to route the goods themselves. Most fleets staff a Gen-Heir logistics expert to manage plotting. I work with them if it’s an unusually large delivery that may require an entire ship for cargo space.”
Kevin looked over the maps. She’d made notations along coastal cities and others well inside land. Kevin pointed to one. “What are these?”
“Rail stations. They move cargo faster than anything else on land. I have to get cargo to a railhead and then to the nearest port city that has one of the fleets I’m contracted with, whichever one has an outbound ship with space available.”
“And there aren’t maps with the rail routes on them?”
“There are, but they’re usually outdated. As more and more areas are being developed closer to the Uninhabited Zones, they’re finding preserved lines from before the cataclysm to repair and utilize. Some countries are even able to have more than one line, and competitors don’t like to occupy the same map. It’s easier for me to make my own.”
Kevin stared at the three maps, one for Westica, one that covered Cairo, Ravenna and Thanzia, and another for New Columbia. “Mason could consolidate for you.”
“Do you think he would?” The hopefulness in her tone had him glancing at her.
“He draws maps for us in almost every city we go to.”
Her attention still on the maps, she slid a new one forward. “Is that what he does on your team?”
“No, he’s our strategist.”
The tip of her tongue danced across her bottom lip. “And Primary Guardian Wintersfall?”
Kevin turned and propped his rear against the desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Besides our leader, he’s also our Medical Scientist and a Sympath, so if we need answers…”
Raina gasped before meeting his stare. “A Sympath? I’ve never met one before. Can he really experience other people’s emotions as his own?”
“Yes, when he touches them. So, now you can say you’ve met one.”
“How does his wife deal with him being gone so much?”
Kevin worked his jaw and glanced out the window. The dying ball of the sun shimmered brilliant red, casting long pink shadows across the immaculate side yard. Warm light reflected off the greenhouse windows. Soon any trace of warmth would leave when the suns last rays died under the horizon, leaving behind a cold so intense frost would form within in an hour.
If he told Raina about Kat, he’d have to tell her about himself, too. Sean and Mason were safe, they didn’t actively search out and sometimes kill people. That dreadful task was left to Katria and less often, Kevin. Granted, on Kevin’s end they were usually trying to expire his life first.
Kevin doubted her lack of fear regarding him would remain if she knew how lethal the man she’d been forced to marry was. For some reason, that bothered him. From what he’d observed, she was different with him than around others. Off guard. He didn’t want anything to change.
He could answer one thing. “She’s on the team too, they travel together.”
Raina’s mouth dropped open. “What does she do?”
Kevin shook his head. “You will have to ask her.”
“Does she travel with you?”
“Normally it was just her and Sean. Mason and I would meet them wherever we’re assigned.”
She faced him, bracing her hip against the desk and her palm flat on the surface. The faint wisps of light still peeking over the horizon cast every curve of her face and body in harsh relief. Kevin turned his attention to a safer view of the floor. A fluttering touch brushed from his knuckle to his wedding band.
“You never took this off?”
The gold band glinted as he lifted his fingers from his bicep. “Nope. And I refused to pretend to be married to anyone else either.”
“Why?”
Kevin shrugged. “Made Synintel’s job that much harder.” He gave a sardonic chuckle. “And it pissed him off.”
“Did anyone have to pretend to be married often?”
“Not really. Only Sean and Kat, which ended up being ironic since they were in fact married the entire time and didn’t even know.”
Raina gasped sharply. “No.”
Kevin couldn’t help but grin, remembering the shock on their faces the day Voklane handed them their very real marriage contract. “Oh yes. I wish I could say I felt bad for them, but we’re all so close I just thought it was hilarious.”
She slapped his arm and he winced. With a cry of alarm, Raina grabbed his elbow. “I’m so sorry, I forgot!”
Kevin rubbed the tender flesh beneath the cut. “I’m fine.”
Her frown said she didn’t believe him and the worry in her eyes warmed his heart. “Still, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Kat would approve of your retribution in her honor.”
“She’s important to you, isn’t she?” Raina joined him with her back to the desk, her gaze at the window and the last bloom of colorful streaks painting the sky in a gradient of orange, purple and gray.
“Who, Kat?” he asked, looking over long enough to see her curt nod. How exactly was he supposed to explain his odd, almost sibling relationship and trust in a woman whose genetic ability was looking through a scope and pulling a trigger? “They’re all important to me. Sean and Mason are like brothers, and whenever we worked together, Kat was a cousin, or my ward. For Mason, she was usually a cousin or sister. With their straight black hair and light eye color, they never would have been believable as anything else. I came to see her as family too.”
And they were, one strange, deadly family. Kevin sighed.
“Do you think I’ll have a chance to get to know them, before…?” Her words died and she turned back to the maps.
Kevin finished for her. “Before I have to leave again.”
Yet another reason he had to keep his hands off her. Even if Synintel decided to let the Raiventon rank stay in Kevin’s family, he’d just send his son-in-law off for another four years. Rolling his neck to ease the tension in his shoulders, Kevin straightened.
“I’m sure they’d all love to know you better. I will see what I can arrange.”
When he headed around the desk and then for the door, her almost anxious words stopped him. “Where are you going?”
Kevin glanced over his shoulder. “I want to look at the doors again, make sure I didn’t miss anything. You’ll speak to your stylist soon I hope?”
She nodded. “Yes. She’s probably upstairs waiting for me.”
Waiting to change Raina into something more comfortable since no more guests were expected. Kevin quickly left his wife’s office before images of her undressing could creep into his mind. The desk was still too tempting an option…
Alone in the dining room, Raina stared at the full plate of food a server had set on the table before she’d arrived. The moment she’d sat, he’d removed the warming lid with a flourish and disappeared. At least from her view. Looking at the open doorway and into the empty hall, she realized the reason why Kevin had closeted himself away in his study for meals. If he’d been sitting at the table across from her, their entire conversation would have been for someone else’s ears. The lack of privacy wasn’t something she ever considered, or had been bothered by.
When Kevin had walked into her office earlier in the evening, the huge room had suddenly seemed so much smaller. And when he crowded her space, he hadn’t touched her. Not once. Raina didn’t know which was worse—his restraint, or her disappointment.
Even now she wanted to see him, hear his deep voice wash over her like silk. Wanted him to stir something in her she hadn’t known existed before him. She knew she played with fire, in more ways than one. Yet the woman in her, too long denied, yearned for the man just outside her reach.
Raina stood and went to the swinging door dividing the small dining space with a large, formal dining room. Sure enough, the moment she peered around the edge of the door, her server peered back with grayish blue eyes. She smiled warmly, but didn’t enter the room.
“Are there any more courses this evening?”
“Two, my Guardianess.”
“Please bring them, and Master Guardian Raiventon’s as well, and you may be dismissed for the evening.”
“His Guardianship already has his full meal.”
Raina kept her shock to herself. “Very well, then please bring mine, and you may retire.”
He performed a quick bow, his dark brown hair falling over his forehead. “As you wish, my Guardianess.”
In the dining room, Raina bunched her fingers into the fine-spun cotton of her dress. A simple lavender gown made for comfort rather than entertaining, had a discreet floral pattern woven along the hem and bodice, with a row of impossibly small buttons up the back.
If she asked Kevin to join her, would he accept? Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she edged for the door, convincing herself if the answer was no, her feelings wouldn’t be hurt. Out in the hall, she paused again, took a deep breath and then turned past the stairs to his study. The door was firmly closed.
Raina raised her hand to knock, but Kevin’s muffled voice from the other side beat her to it. “You can open the door.”
Snatching her hand down, she stared at the light polished wood. How had he heard her when she hadn’t made a sound? At least, she didn’t think she had. The knob creaked in her hand as she turned it and let the door fall open by its own weight.
Kevin stared at her from across his desk, his plate off to the side, a black pen poised in his hand, ready to write. He still wore the same clothes from earlier, a simple maroon button up shirt rolled halfway up his corded forearms, and light brown pants. No shoes. Raina wondered if the man had something against them.
“Yes?”
Raina straightened her shoulders in anticipation of rejection. “I wanted to know if you’d join me for dinner.”
“I don’t much care for the extra company.”
Her guess had been correct. She held in a triumphant smile. “I dismissed the server for the evening, it’ll just be us.” Then she added a bit of truth to her request. “I eat by myself every meal. The other morning was nice, when I didn’t.”
Kevin pushed his seat back and picked up his plate. “After you.”
Pleased her effort paid off, Raina led the way back to the dining room. The second course of her meal waited beside the first. She noted all of Kevin’s food had been on one larger plate. A second set of silverware wrapped in a dark green linen napkin rested on the table near her seat.
After pulling out the chair nearest to her, and sliding a little closer, Kevin set his plate on the table and sat. Raina joined him and pulled her plate forward. In comfortable silence, they both ate. Since Raina often had her means alone, the quiet was normal.
“What did your stylist say?” Kevin asked.
Raina pushed a small pile of raw tomatoes in a sauce along the center of her plate. “She swore she locked all three of the bolts at the back door before leaving for the night. She said she wasn’t used to you being home yet and forgets I’m not alone, and she’d never leave me in that type of danger.”
“Don’t you have a stylist’s quarters off your dressing room?”
Raina nodded, pushing her near empty plate away. “Yes, but Tabby married a couple months ago. She refused to live in the house. Something about it being too quiet at night.”
Kevin coughed and Raina realized they’d been left with nothing to drink. She stood and glanced around the room. She wasn’t sure where her server may have left a beverage. Kevin motioned her back to her chair, still coughing.
“I’ll go look for something.” He left and returned moments later with a pitcher of water and two glasses. After pouring both cups, he sat and took a healthy drink. “I guess the break in routine made them forget about drinks.”
Raina chuckled, wrapping her fingers around the cool glass. “This house is nothing but routine. My father set the schedule when I first moved in, I don’t think it’s changed even by a minute in the last four years.”
“Do you want it to?”
Surprised by the question, Raina turned her attention to him. “I don’t know, I never really thought much about it.” She gave a little insecure laugh again while she sipped at her water. “I don’t know what I’d change.”
Kevin shrugged, easing back in the chair he’d angled toward her. One long leg stretched out, brushing past her ankle. “Sleep in for fifteen more minutes. Have dinner earlier or later. It’s your house, they’re your staff.”
Frowning, Raina sighed. “Not really, all the staff in the house with the exception of Tabby, are my father’s. He still pays them and they report to him for orders.”
A rivulet of condensation rolled down the edge of Kevin’s glass. He traced the droplet. “I see.”
“Is it too fanciful for me to feel like we’re two people stuck in a prison of my father’s making?”
His dark gray eyes met her stare. “I can think of worse prisons to be stuck in.”
Heat bloomed across her cheeks. She turned her focus back to the safety of the water. “I doubt you are attacked anywhere else you’ve lived.”
“Neither you or Synintel hired those men.” His foot nudged her ankle. “Unless you really don’t want me here.”
She gaped at him. “I would never… I don’t even know…”
He reached across the space and grabbed her hand, still damp from the death grip she’d had on the cup of water. “I was teasing. Does no one tease you?”
Blinking, Raina stared down at his hand, larger than hers, with long elegant fingers. “Who would?”
“Your friends?”
In relaxed, lazy motions, his hand intertwined with hers. He brushed along her sensitive palm and slid his fingers between hers in a constant, seductive motion. The butterfly sensations were having an odd effect on her. She couldn’t look away.
“Friends?” While she counted Patricia a friend, the woman rarely teased. Only recently having shown a playful side Raina hadn’t known about. No one else would dare do anything more than be completely respectful to her. Well, except Cora Dandridge. She’d been decidedly unfriendly. Anyone else had too much fear of the Arch Guardian and his powerful reach.
“Yes, you know, those people you can be comfortable around.”
“I know what friends are,” she said with a frown. But dare she admit she could count only one? His fingers weaving and sliding along hers distracted her to the point she almost snatched her hand away. “They don’t tease. And somehow I don’t think you’d take your friends pestering you.”
She had a suspicious feeling he was teasing her in an entirely different way with his touch.
Feathery light, his fingers shifted from her palm to her wrist, and then brushed along her forearm. Little flips danced low in her belly. She found herself perched on the edge of her seat in anticipation. The cool, polished wood under her arm allowed her to focus on something other than his maddening caress.
“Depends on my mood.”
Desperately she wanted to ask about his current mood, but she didn’t know if she was ready for the answer. He leaned in close until his knees touched hers. Raina kept her gaze fixed on a lighter strip of wood next to her arm. The caress continued up her skin, past her elbow, fluttering briefly at the sleeve of her dress before moving on to her shoulder. Everything in her went into not biting her lip and ignoring his presence drawing closer.
Yes, she’d wanted this, but the overwhelming sensation curling at her center had started again and she found herself scared. Maybe being a dormant woman was okay. She’d gone this long without knowing what all the fuss was, or wasn’t, about. Then Kevin’s fingers were tangling in the long hair at the nape of her neck and he applied a strange pressure that forced her head toward her shoulder, baring the tender flesh below her jaw.
Her eyes closed as the whisper of his breath slid across her skin. The warm, moist tip of his tongue glided along the pulse thrumming with the same intensity as the one in her ears. Raina swore she felt him smile a second before his lips touched where he’d licked. He kissed up her neck, to her ear and across to her jaw. She wanted to scream kiss me already! But ladies didn’t demand.
“Guardianess Raiventon?”
Raina jumped an inch from her seat at the sound of her stylist elite’s voice echoing from the stairs. The schedule! How could she forget? The time had arrived for her to change into her sleeping gown for the night. Perhaps there were changes she’d make after all…
Sighing heavily, she opened her eyes. And found the seat across from her empty. Gasping, she grabbed her chair and searched the room. Where had Kevin gone? And how had she once again not heard him make a single sound? Or felt him withdraw from her presence? If curses were allowed to come from her mouth, Raina would have spoken one.
The only evidence she hadn’t imagined the entire encounter was the still moist spot on her neck where he’d given her the most intimate experience of her life. Leaving her to wonder what else the man knew how to do.