Immortal Cascade 05 Immortal Endgame Page 15

  My anger flares. "Is dead! I know that! But he wouldn't want me to just fade away, pining his loss! I'm a grown woman! A woman with needs! You're just my damn bodyguard! Get the hell out of here!" His eyes harden, sending a look that was obviously meant to warn the detective off, before he spins on his heels and returns to his room, slamming the connecting door.

  "Uh, yeah, Chief. I'll meet you downstairs in fifteen minutes." Jim hangs up his cell phone, pocketing the device in his coat pocket. "I should go."

  "I'm sorry about Jan's actions, Jim. He was out of line." I reach up to lightly caress his face, pleased to see him lean into the touch, and then he catches my hand, kissing the palm before I can pull away. "Gods, keep that up and I won't let you go."

  The smile is flirtatious. "Promise?"

  Standing up on my toes, I wrap my arms around his strong neck, pull him towards me and kiss him. Feeling his tongue flicker over my lips, I open up to his invasion. All too soon, the moment is over and he's pulling away from me.

  "I want to see you again."

  My knees weaken and I lean against his hard, now clothed, body. "So do I." A final hug and kiss is all I get before the man leaves me in need, and he's out the door before I can think to call him back.

  Locking the door behind him, I turn off the lights and return to my lonely bed, lost in the thoughts that if I'm lucky, maybe I can get one Jim Ellison to join me--soon. Still dressed in Azir's robe, I turn off the bedside lamp and try to sleep. Damn, I should've asked Jan-Michel what he was able to find out. Too late now, better to wait for the Watcher/Immortal to cool off before I ask.

  Part 13

  Dee wrapped her fingers around the smooth brass dowels of the headboard, trying very, very hard not to simply grab her lover and just take what she needed. His mouth moved down, his tongue leaving damp trails over her stomach, his breath cooling the warm patches, creating goosebumps. Her back arched up off the mattress as she tried in vain to maintain contact. She watched him watch her as his fingertips traced over her skin, moving slowly downwards. Oh, goddess, she was ready, had been ready for nearly twenty minutes, and still he tortured her. His hand stroked over her hip and to the inside of her thigh, ignoring her aching need, his fingers tickling the back of her leg.

  "You like that, angel?" he purred.

  "Fuck you, Blair," she snapped at him, and he laughed.

  "I'll bet that's what you want," he replied seductively. "Only I'm not ready to give that to you now. You know you like what I'm doing." He bent down, planting a wet kiss at the junction of her thigh and hip.

  Of its own volition, her hand let go of the headboard and snagged in his hair, trying unsuccessfully to guide him to where he was needed most. "Uh, uh. You're not playing fair. You promised." Getting up from the bed, Blair crossed the room to the closet, and returned a moment later, carrying what she recognized as the silk belt from her robe. Her heart began to pound in her chest.

  "Lobo, you know I don't like being out of control. It's hard enough for me to lie here and not touch you. I can't do this."

  "Shh, of course you can, baby. I know not being 'on top' is difficult for you. I'm just going to make it easier, okay?" He looped the soft cloth around her right wrist, tying it off in a quick-release knot, then threaded the other end through the bars of the headboard and tied her left wrist the same way. "See? You don't have to fight your instincts anymore, because it's out of your hands. You can get free any time you want, and you know our safe word." He cupped a hand to his ear.

  "The safe word is 'wolf'." She tugged on her bonds, nervous and excited all at the same time.

  Blair leaned over her, kissing her deeply, thoroughly, then ran his hands down her body, followed more slowly by his mouth. He teased her breasts with tiny licks and bites, hardening her nipples into points he sucked and caressed. He moved down over her stomach, his hands rubbing in long strokes over her abs and down her thighs, while he kissed and licked and nipped at her smooth skin. She could feel herself surrendering under his touch as every nerve ending came alive. "That's it, lover. Relax for me."

  He moved between her thighs, his hands and mouth still teasing, still avoiding the area she wanted him so desperately to touch. He was kissing his way up her inner thigh, having flipped her legs over his shoulders, blowing oh so gently on her hot, damp skin. She felt her muscles quivering in anticipation, needing him to taste her, needing to climax from that intimate caress…

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  And the phone rang.

  "Damn it!"

  "Son of a bitch! Hold that thought, honey." Disentangling himself from between her legs, Blair fumbled for the phone. "What!"

  "Didn't you ever hear of saying 'hello' when you answer the phone?"

  "Jim, this is not a good time." The hand not holding the phone began to stroke Dee's stomach, and he was rewarded with a low moan.

  "You told me to call when I needed picked up. I need picked up. Hang on a second, Chief." Blair found himself listening to a slightly muffled conversation. "Yeah, Lee?"

  "I'm sorry..."

  "So am I."

  "I'm here now, Ellison. You can leave my charge alone." Uh-oh. Who in the hell is that?

  "Jan? I warned you. Back off. What I choose to do, who I choose to do it with, is none of your concern when I'm tucked away in my rooms." Must have been LaFollet. Sounds like Jim did exactly what Blair had warned him about.

  "Azir..."

  "Is dead! I know that! But he wouldn't want me to just fade away, pining his loss! I'm a grown woman! A woman with needs! You're just my damn bodyguard! Get the hell out of here!" Blair winced at the sound of a door being slammed.

  "Jim, man, are you still there?"

  "Uh, yeah, Chief. I'll meet you downstairs in fifteen minutes."

  Hanging up the phone, Blair looked back at Dee. "Did you get all that?"

  Sighing, she said, "Yeah, I got all that. Sounds like I will have to do some smoothing of ruffled feathers. I think Lee and I ought to do brunch tomorrow."

  "Angel, I'm sorry, I don't want to leave you this way…" He was already off the bed, pulling on his jeans.

  "Think of it this way, I'll be waiting for you when you come back." Dee licked her lips seductively, and Blair suddenly had a problem getting his zipper up.

  Yanking a sweatshirt over his head, he turned around to face her. "You still going to be tied up?"

  She raised an eyebrow at him. "You want me to be?"

  He shuddered, and knew she was probably overdosing on the pheromones rolling off of him. Leaning over the bed, Blair kissed her, feeling her tongue slide over his. When they parted, he said, "Yeah, I wanna come back to find you just like this. Wild and untamed and dangerous."

  She growled at him. "Tell Ellison no stops on the way back."

  Blair headed down the stairs. "Right! No stops! And he owes me and you big time!"

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  Blair turned the truck onto the street leading to Lee's hotel. He'd been thinking about what he was going to say to Jim from the moment he'd left Dee's apartment, and he still hadn't come up with the right approach. He slapped his hand against the steering wheel. Damn it, he just should have come back after dropping Dee and Megan off. With both himself and Jim there, any impropriety could have been avoided. He shook his head. He couldn't believe Jim. As many times as he'd gotten in trouble with female witnesses and suspects before, he'd still gone ahead and done it again, judging by the argument Blair had overheard.

  He remembered the conversation he'd had with Dee earlier in the evening. "Then don't you think you owe Jim the opportunity to find this kind of happiness? He's the only one who can say whether or not he can deal with a relationship with one of us." Blair wanted Jim to be happy, he really did, and if Jim decided Lee Eolia was the woman for him, then he would give his blessings, regardless of his own feelings toward the Immortal. But right now she was a s
uspect in a case that was becoming more confusing by the moment. It was not the time to be starting a relationship, as Blair knew painfully well. Maya's face flitted through his memory, and he gripped the wheel a little tighter. If Jim hadn't learned from his own disastrous experiences, then he should have learned from Blair's. And as his Guide, I have the unenviable task of pointing that out to him, without betraying my Watcher's Oath. Perhaps a little humor to start off with?

  Tires squealed on wet pavement as Blair pulled the blue-and-white Ford to a stop under the overhang in front of the Excelsior. Yanking open the passenger door, Jim swung inside. Letting out the clutch and shifting into drive, Blair broke the silence. "Your timing really sucks, man," he said with a grin.

  "Hmm? What? Thanks for the lift." Jim was staring distractedly out the window.

  Sighing, Blair slid around a corner, the truck fish-tailing for a moment before straightening out. Ellison grabbed reflexively for the dashboard, but didn't comment, his lack of response quite out of character. "Okaaaay, is the real Jim Ellison being held prisoner on some alien space ship?"

  "Sorry, Chief. Guess my mind's still back at the hotel."

  Uh-huh. Along with some other parts of his anatomy, if Blair knew his partner. "You didn't listen to a word I said earlier, did you?"

  The other man turned his head toward Blair, his brow creasing in confusion. "You told me my timing sucked."

  Blair shook his head and slammed on the brakes as the stoplight shifted from yellow to red. "I mean, from earlier tonight. My advice to you, guide to sentinel. You know--Jim, you don't know what you're getting into. Redheads and you don't mix, yada, yada, yada. Went in one ear and out the other, right?" He tried to keep his tone light, but his expression was serious.

  Jim growled in his throat. "Chief, not now." Blair began to pull forward now that the light had turned green. "Christ! Watch where you're going, you almost hit that car!"

  "Sorry! Sometimes you just make me so damn mad, you know? Like tonight, when from the moment you said you were staying with Lee, I knew you weren't thinking straight. Maybe you should've called me sooner…or taken a cold shower, a walk in the rain, something to cool down....."

  "Oh for god's sake, Sandburg!"

  "I heard every word of that argument Lee had with LaFollet. Sounded to me like the two of you got a little carried away and got caught."

  "Shut up. It wasn't anything like that."

  "Oh, no? 'I'm here now, Ellison. You can leave my charge alone.' LaFollet isn't someone to mess with Jim, and neither is Lee."

  Ellison's eyes narrowed as he stared at his partner. "You know something I don't?"

  "I know you. And you don't have the best track record when it comes to getting involved with suspects. The names Laura, Lila and Veronica ring any bells? And let's not get started on Alex Barnes." Blair received a snort in reply. "Fine, be that way. Just don't come running to me when things don't turn out the way you planned." He skidded through the turn onto Prospect Avenue.

  "What is with you? And why are you taking it out on my truck?" The sentinel turned toward his guide, and Blair recognized the look of concentration on his face. He was being put under the Ellison microscope. "I interrupted something when I called, didn't I? Is that why I'm getting the third degree about my love life all of a sudden, because I interrupted yours?"

  Blair flashed him a grin of triumph. "So now you're admitting you were putting the moves on her and got caught with your hand in the cookie jar."

  Jim shrugged. "It's not like you've never been in the same situation. I remember last night, for example."

  Bumping over the curb into the parking lot of 852, Blair shoved the truck into park and shut off the engine. "Sleeping with my girlfriend and screwing a suspect are two very different things, Jim." Hopping out of the Ford, he slammed the door and walked toward the building. Jim caught up with him on the second floor landing, grabbing Blair by the arm. His eyes flashing in frustration, Blair wrenched out of his grasp, but made no move to continue up the stairs.

  "I don't need a watchdog, Sandburg. I certainly don't need you to tell me how to do my job and I resent the idea that you think I can't take care of myself when it comes to women. I hope you're planning on spending the rest of the night at Dee's place, because if you're entertaining any thoughts of continuing this conversation, I don't want you in ours." Taking the last of the stairs two at a time, Jim unlocked the door of 307 and slipped inside, closing the door and throwing the deadbolt, effectively locking his roommate out.

  "Great! Just great, Sandburg! You handled that so well--not!" Blair used his key to Diandra's loft to let himself back in. Moving quietly across the studio, he started to strip out of his clothes as he climbed the spiral staircase to the master bedroom. "Dee? Angel?" No soft voice answered his queries. Reaching the top of the stairs, he saw his lover had fallen asleep, her hands still tied by the silk belt to the headboard. Not wanting her to wake with stiff muscles, he untied the belt and released her arms. Crawling into the bed with her, he snuggled up against her back, whispering, "Jim still owes us both, angel."

  Part 14

  After tossing and turning most of the night, Jim stumbled out of bed just before ten in the morning. His head had still been reeling when he'd gone to bed, as he mentally reviewed the QuestScape Incident, his roommate's cryptic words, and what had nearly happened between himself and Lee Eolia. Jim had fallen into a restless sleep sometime around four AM. As he pulled on his robe, he did what had become a habit in the past few years; he scanned the loft with his senses, looking to locate his Guide, and found nothing.

  Swearing at himself, Jim stomped down the stairs while sending his hearing ranging out even further, trying to see if, by chance, Blair had stayed overnight in Pallas' apartment. The lack of any sounds over there bothered him, until he recalled his last words to his friend, and worse, his actions. "You locked him out, Ellison. You didn't even really pay any attention to what it was he was trying to tell you."

  Readying the coffee maker, he set it to brew while he took a shower. Sundays were normally his day off, to relax, putter around the apartment, cleaning or sometimes just taking a long drive or a fishing trip. He was shaving when his whirling thoughts about the encounter with Ventriss suddenly stopped and congealed for him. Jim managed to nick his chin with his twin edged blade as he jerked from the hard thought. "Damn it! Just how in the hell did he know to ask Connor about a disc?" Rinsing his blade, toweling off his face, he continued to ponder the question. "I didn't tell him, neither did Connor or Simon... Who called him? Could they have dropped the ball?"

  Speeding through the rest of his morning routine, Jim gathered up his and Connor's notes and reports on the incident from Friday night and decided to take them in to the station.

  Once there, his first stop was the Communications Office to have the phone logs from late Friday night until early Saturday morning pulled, along with the tapes. Then he stopped by Forensics, checking to see if they had found anything that might lead him to who had attacked Lee in the alley and had murdered her young bodyguard. The technician on duty coolly informed him that the lab was still sorting through everything, but they had managed to clear the rather ornate dagger, newly purchased if the receipt was any indication, and it could be released if needed.

  Jim thanked the harried technician and left the lab. Taking the logs, tapes of all the phone calls that either came into or went out from the central precinct, and the notes and files up to Major Crimes, he was surprised to find Inspector Megan Connor already there. She was sitting at her desk, reading over a thick file and scribbling notes every now and then in a notepad.

  Dropping his load on his desk, he crossed over to the Inspector. "Morning, Connor."

  Megan nearly threw her pen at him. "Ellison! Don't. Do. That!" He could hear her heart racing, and she took a deep breath before growling, "Bloody heart attack in the making. You trying to get rid of me, Jimbo?"

  Jim smiled, amused at her reaction. "Sorry about that, Megan. Tho
ught that you would've heard me come in."

  "That's your area of expertise, not mine, mate."

  Trying to see what had her so engrossed, he nodded and leaned over her shoulder. "So? What's got you so wound up this morning?"

  Flipping the file over so that the senior detective could see the case number and header, she replied, "Captain suggested that I read up on this case, to get a feel for how you and Sandy might react. And to maybe understand why you and Mr. Ventriss seem to get along like water and fire."

  Reading the case header, Jim sighed. "The Chung murder... Can't say that I'm sorry that the punk that killed him is dead."

  "That would be Bradley Ventriss, right?"

  "Brad. Yeah, that's the one." He started to walk back towards his desk, not wanting to rehash the case, not now.

  Megan reached out and managed to snag him by the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him back. "Jim? I get the impression that there is more to this old case than what is in the reports. I was on vacation when this went down back in May and it was out of the news when I got back. Then Sandy and I were undercover on the Cristo case when the kid was killed. Please, talk to me."