Key Of Valor - Key Trilogy 3 Part 48

Flynn bit into bagel. "And the word is?"

" 'Bulls.h.i.+t.' It's crude," he continued as Flynn sprayed crumbs. "And it's human and to the point. And the other thing is, well, he was sloppy. I can't say it wasn't effective, especially at first. I felt sixteen. h.e.l.l, I was sitting by the campfire, drinking warm beer and thinking about Patsy Hourback's body."

"She did have a great body," Jordan recalled.

"Anyway, I was pretty obsessed with Patsy that summer. Actually I was mostly obsessed with s.e.x, but Patsy was the headliner. So in the beginning of it, I was back there, in the woods by the Peak. Then Flynn starts screaming like a girl-"

"How do you know it wasn't Jordan?" Insulted, Flynn sulked over his bagel. "How come I have to scream like a girl?"

"Take it up with Kane," Brad suggested. "At that point, I was just whacked out. You were both screaming and calling for me. But it started to go off, just a little. The wind, the fog, the cold. It was overkill, and it started to click in my head. When I saw you, the two of you lying there, I lost it again for a minute. Then I was sliding on Flynn's brains, or maybe his intestines."

"Trying to eat here," Flynn complained.

"It was too much, you know? And it wasn't holding. I wasn't sixteen anymore, not in my head. He'd lost the grip, I guess you could say. And I knew it was him. I knew it was bulls.h.i.+t."

Brad rose to get the coffeepot. "Going over it for the last couple hours, I figured out what he was trying to do."

"Separate us," Jordan said.

"Got it in one. Isolate me-sitting alone while you two are off together. Then finding you mauled when you'd been calling to me for help."

"Then having us turn on you," Flynn finished. "The zombie twins. Pits us against you. How are you going to trust, much less work with, a couple of guys who try to eat your brains? I've seen the movies," he added. "That's what zombies do."

"He wanted me to feel alone and alienated, and threatened."

"Maybe worse," Jordan added. "If you hadn't yanked yourself out, we might have done some damage. When he tries for you again, he'll be more direct."

"That's okay." Brad picked up his coffee. "So will I."

"I think you need more than your das.h.i.+ng good looks when you're taking on a sorcerer, pal," Flynn pointed out.

Nodding, Brad picked up the knife beside his plate, flipped a thumb over the tip. "Even sorcerers bleed."

"Are you planning on telling Zoe what happened?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah. We stick together on this, until it's done. I thought I'd run by Indulgence this morning."

"She's not going in until afternoon," Flynn told him. "Malory said she had things to take care of at home first."

"Even better."

He finished up a call on his cell phone as he pulled in behind her car, then took a minute to plug in the new appointment on his Palm Pilot. Thinking of the meeting with his architect, the expansion plans, and the changes he wanted to implement in the design, he walked to the front door and knocked.

All of that dropped right out of his head when she answered.

She was wearing jeans ripped at both knees and one of those belly-baring tops. It was the bar today, he noted. That erotic little silver bar glinting in her navel.

Her feet were bare, with toes painted an Easter-egg pink, thin and enormous silver hoops swung at her ears. And she held a rag that smelled strongly of lemon.

"I've been cleaning," she said quickly. "I just finished in the bedroom." As if realizing she held her polis.h.i.+ng rag, she stuffed it into her back pocket. "I needed to have some time around here before I went in today."

"Okay." He stepped in, managed to take his eyes off her long enough to look around the living room. Every inch of wood gleamed, every piece of gla.s.s sparkled. "You've been busy."

"Cleaning gets my mind going, and I was thinking about the house. That maybe the house is part of it. And if I took the time, paid attention to it, to everything in it, things might-What is it?" Flus.h.i.+ng a little under his unblinking stare, she rubbed at her cheek. "Is my face dirty?"

"Your face is perfect. It's the most perfect face I've ever seen."

"That's nice to hear after I've been chasing dust bunnies."

"Simon in school?"

"Yes." Her eyes widened as she recognized the glint in his. "Well, for heaven's-it's almost ten in the morning. Don't you have to work?"

"I do." He stepped forward as she backed up. "But I made a little time because I needed to talk to you. Looks like talk's going to have to wait."

"We can't just..." Could they?

"I bet we can. Let's try this."

He scooped her right up, and her stomach did a long, lovely roll as he started back toward her bedroom.

"Golly." She couldn't quite stop the nervous giggle. "Just like in a romance novel. Except I'd be wearing something s.e.xier than old jeans."

She smelled of her furniture polish and ripe plums. "There's nothing s.e.xier than old jeans when you're in them."

"Oh, that's good." Delighted, she nuzzled his neck. "That's really good." She nipped at his earlobe. "I've got laundry going. It sort of backed up on me the last few days. So... I'm not wearing anything under these jeans."

He turned his head, looked into her laughing eyes. "Oh, yeah, then talk definitely has to wait."

Her arms linked around his neck as he laid her on the bed, and she drew him in, welcoming. "This must be my reward for doing all my ch.o.r.es," she murmured.

"I've thought about making love with you again ever since I made love with you."

He took her lips with his, nibbed gently, then sank deep.

It was like her own personal miracle, Zoe thought as she let herself float on the moment. Being swept up and away by a man who could make her feel as precious as diamonds.

He kissed her as though he could spend his life doing nothing else but mating his lips and hers. He would spend time in the warmth even when she could feel the need for heat pulsing from him. The quiet joy of it, of him, wound around her heart in soft, silky ribbons.

He touched her as though her body was a delicate treasure he would never tire of exploring. Each caress with those marvelous hands soothed, stirred, and promised. The sweet wonder of it slid through her blood like wine.

Here, in the morning sunlight, was patience that glided over her in long, almost lazy strokes. She let herself rise under them and drift down again as the world outside went on its busy way without her.

Stealing time for each other added a gauzy layer to intimacy.

He toyed with flesh exposed by ripped denim, skimmed his fingers along where her blouse rode up. Heard the low sound of arousal as he traced the silver bar. When his lips nibbled down her throat, she turned her head and sighed.

All the worries, all the fatigue that had dogged her melted away.