Quinn spun on her feet, her sunglasses pushed high in her hair. She watched the ocean sprawling ahead. I watched her leaning on the front of the car.
She turned over her shoulder with that trademark smile.
"What?"
I shook my head and nodded her forward. She seemed only too happy to comply. My dark shirt fluttered against her body as she walked the wooden plank path to the villa ahead.
The palms surrounded us in bright lime and yellow leaves. The sand was whiter than sugar and the villa was nothing but paradise in the tropics. Wide glass panes and wood for nothing but uninterrupted views.
But who cared about any of that with her here...
The staff had left the front window door open and the long white curtains shifted in the breeze. Her fingers brushed them as she passed inside.
She left her bag by the door and shook her head as she took in the modern yet natural interior of stone floors and finely cut furniture.
"This stuff just doesn't exist in the real world, Fletcher..." She murmured, leaning against a marble counter and gazing at the aqua blue water kissing the shore.
I dumped my back and rolled my shoulders with a smirk. She caught it and rolled her eyes.
"We can sleep on the beach if you prefer."
"As long as there's a we in the sleeping arrangements." She replied with a sly look.
I returned it with an innocent one and took my place beside her on the counter looking out the glass. Unlike the cities, this never changed.
"There may be if you have trouble sleeping in the heat." I mused, before meeting her dark smirk. "But we have good air conditioning."
"Leave it off." She stated.
It made me laugh despite her serious expression.
"I should be worried shouldn't—"
She rolled off the counter and stopped my lips with her finger. "Terrified." I stilled under her touch and let the heat and scent of her wrap itself around me.
"Want a swim?" She blurted.
I raised an eyebrow wordlessly and stopped breathing when she unbuttoned her shirt—my shirt—someone's shirt—in front of me.
"Quinn." I got strangled.
She turned her back to me as it fell from her shoulders and left her in some of the finest lace underwear I'd ever had the honour of seeing... Her hips swayed as she slid open the back glass door and trailed down the sand beyond.
I cursed a non existent god and then myself.
This is what I wanted wasn't it? Freedom and time to be with her. Just a moment without death around every corner. Now the mortal was waltzing off into the ocean practically naked knowing exactly what she was doing and I was stood here like—
She turned around, still walking backwards to the ocean and pointed directly at me. My body cooled seeing every line of her and curve before she pointed behind her.
I sighed long.
You are an immortal. An elite assassin that has averted doomsday more than once and that woman is just asking you to move. Why was facing ancient, world altering elites easier than facing Quinn Adams?
I shook off my own ridiculousness and strode after her.
Her ankles were already in the water as she watched me cross the threshold into the sunlight. I pushed my hand back into my hair and tore it free, letting the wind carry the dark waves behind me. She faltered a step when she didn't see me hesitate at the lip of the water.
Even when the saltwater hit my shoes I strode forward and picked her off the sand, walking us deeper. The waves hit my waist and soaked me but I hardly noticed.
Quinn grinned gazing down at me and threading her fingers slowly through my hair.
"There you are." She whispered, pressing her forehead against mine.
"I'm not a fan of swimming. But I make the exception when you're involved."
"Oh?" She murmured slightly breathless. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fully aware of how closely the heat of her body was pressed to my waist and chest—and that it wasn't sending my instincts mad.
"You can't swim, Fletcher?"
I smiled at her slowly.
"I've singlehandedly disabled a nuclear submarine without an oxygen tank in the pacific. Does that count?"
She slowly slid her hands down my neck and shook her head. "Sounds like you really struggle."
"Well, I can drown." I admitted.
Quinn raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Yes, you're so..." She dipped her lips near my ear, "-fragile."
I closed my eyes and listened to her heartbeat. She moved her fingers over my lips and I kissed them. My arms tightened around her and she pushed my hair further back from my face that I knew she watched. When I opened my eyes those forest green eyes were inches away.
"Hey, detective." She whispered.
I kissed her hard.
It had been days since I really kissed her. Kissed her like time didn't matter and we had it to ourselves. She felt the difference. Of course she did.
We were a tangle of heat and cool skin. Only she didn't mind it—not here and not now. She wrapped her arms around my neck and closed impossibly closer as our lips collided and I got more lost in everything that was her. Her tongue glided over my lower lip sending me further away. She wasn't interested in stopping anywhere—in playing anything safe.
Her hands roamed my neck then my back. She dragged her hands under my shirt and I shuddered at her heat against me. Then she let her nails rake down my skin and a low sound left my throat.
I walked us back onto the sand without even noticing. I dropped her onto the soft powder and she didn't even open her eyes.
The salt water made her skin smoother, hotter to touch, heightened in every way possible. It moved against me in ways that sent me much further from the human part of me.
"Quinn—" I breathed.
She only responded by shifting her leg between my own and rolling on top of me. I sucked in a quick breath that taste of her. My desire rushed me like the first time.
Dripping wet and barely clothed she was impossible to handle—no mortal in their right mind would let alone—
Her thigh moved between my own and pinned me into the sand making my entire being tear into focus. I growled low and felt my teeth sharpen as she assaulted my neck.
"Wait—Quinn you're—"
She dragged her mouth away just for a moment to give me a darker look than any mortal had a right to. Those burning green eyes were dangerous. They had intent.
"I won't." She promised, then dipped her mouth to my jaw. "Just maybe a bit..."
"Adams." I growled low as she bit my mouth and made me want so much more.
The way her body was soaking my clothes through and passing her heat so directly was driving me insane. No. It was driving me immortal.
I gripped her hips tightly and dragged in another breath only to have my mouth stolen by hers and her hips drag across mine. I groaned into the kiss and she smiled.
"You torture me on purpose..."
"C'mon Fletcher. It's the best torture you ever had." She murmured into my mouth.
A sentence had never been so beautiful.
I growled low and took control of the situation before she ventured too far with me. I pinned her hands back above her head and made her grin.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
I tilted my head, scanning her body deliberately.
"Just getting started." I agreed, letting the most desirable darkness of the predator flow in the air between us. Her eyes dropped a shade again as she watched me back.
"Let me go." She murmured.
"Why?" I asked low.
"Because I'm going to touch you. And there's nothing you're going to do to stop me." She answered, as sure as she was with powerful people. With clients. With an immortal.
I watched her for what felt like an eternity. Before slowly letting her hands go.
"Quinn. It's not that I don't want you to—"
"I know." She interrupted. "But I'm going to anyway. Because everything is too short. Life, time, us... I'm not going to let you pass me by without knowing."
I had no words for that. I wasn't expecting them. I wasn't expecting her. Yet she hit me like a storm all over again.
"Where were you for the last hundred years?" I whispered seriously.
She smiled shaking her head and dropping her lips to my own slowly.
"Trying to find you."
When her hands went for my shirt I let her take it off. I let her run her hands over every inch. Sweep lines over my shoulders and down my stomach. It burned wherever she went but I have never wanted to burn more. Quinn Adams could set me on fire whenever she wanted, if only to stay warm.
Her hands went over the curves of my chest making the demon in me want to shred what was left of her clothing but I stayed still under her, only tracing my own lines over her hips with my hands.
More clothing disappeared between us until only our skin lay wrapped in powder white sand under the rising sun.
"I've wanted to do this for so long." She told me, tracing her eyes along me as she brushed her lips against my collarbone.
I was wrapped in a mix of burning desire and love for this woman. The fact that I was in control told me which was stronger now.
"And I've wanted to let you." I told her, watching her eyes.
She brushed her lips over my shoulder before meeting my gaze. "Are you..."
I gave her a slight nod. "You're pushing every limit as usual—but I'm in control."
She grinned, kissing my skin before moving to kiss my lips. Her hips and legs tangled in mine as she pressed closer. The desire from her body hot and clear. The feel of her, of having that heat between her legs move tightly against my body—
It made a part of me slip.
I grabbed her hips and rolled her beneath me loving the feel of every inch of heat—the scent of that rich life blood singing to me—
She moaned against me as my thigh pressed her between the legs. She was so mortal. So perfect. So deliciously close. She wanted more. Her body moved against mine bringing us closer. Her breathing was filled with desire.
My teeth were razors and they could open her neck to me as easily as a knife through butter. One bite. Nothing more... One drop.
"Stop." I said to myself more than her.
But Quinn froze all the same. Her body was pure electricity under me and I could already feel her need. Feel what that monster in me was drawing out of her.
"That was... god Fletcher—"
"I know." I murmured low.
I tried to steady my own breathing above her as she watched me. Her heart didn't calm. She was still filled with the same desire. The way our bodies were still pressed... I ran my hand along her hips and up. She shivered against me but didn't dare to shift her body against mine.
I ran my eyes over her and almost lost the will all over again. I finally met her eyes.
"We have time." I promised her.
She watched me back with a look I couldn't quite pin but she answered my thoughts by pulling my neck forward and kissing me deeply. I let a mixture of a sigh and hum leave my throat.
When she finally pulled back she bit her lip. I wanted to continue that assault for her.
"You're not putting your clothes back on." She said simply making me laugh against her.
She groaned and pressed her head back against the sand. In fact we were covered in it now.
"Don't laugh when you're on top of me, Fletcher... You make rules impossible."
"How about a shower." I drawled watching that expression turn much more amicable.
I rolled my eyes and rolled off her. But not before scooping her up and taking her back in the direction of the villa with an exasperated look.