Paragon - Chapter 32: Chapter 32

I noticed her hair slip over her face and her breathing slow as we drove quickly to the airport. She wore a white t-shirt and jeans now favouring comfort over fashion. When the car stopped I took a breath before scooping her into my arms and carrying her out the cool interior.
She shifted, not bothering to open her eyes as the humid air hit us on the runway. My driver nodded to me and retrieved our bags behind. I strode swiftly up the stairs to the jet trying to focus on each step. Each movement and not her close proximity and impossible scent. My staff smiled warmly in understanding as I passed them with nods. The pilot was already preparing for a brisk takeoff.
The metal was drawn shut behind us and I walked us into the bedroom at the back before laying her carefully down on the bed. I rose quickly despite a grumbling protest from a half conscious mortal.
"I'll be back." I promised, shutting the door behind me.
The engines hummed around me as I walked down the aisle. I passed the attendants as they took their seats and buckled in for takeoff. They politely averted their gaze and talked in murmurs as I went for the metal cabinets that stored the drinks and food. Though I sort a very different liquid.
The packets were chrome and a pint each. The mortals were none the wiser to what they truly contained. I emptied them into a metal bottle. The dark blood dragged my teeth out. I had already left it too long since I had last sated the growing need. I had felt weaker. Less impossibly strong as I tore through the guards in that compound with William. Another reason for the guns.
I screwed the top on and discarded the packets below.
I took one of the seats and stared out the window as we taxied down the Indian airport. Another brief stay. Another ghost stop.
I pulled the bottle to my lips and the rich liquid hit me like a long lost surge. Powerful and eternal. I drank deeply. The strength rushed my body. Suddenly I was able to think clearly and see in more detail. The ever burning in my throat reduced to just a whisper rather than a shout. When I finally set the empty bottle down I sighed long and low.
My razor edged teeth retracted and I screwed the cap on.
It won't be impossible to lie next to her now. I could have less fear of losing control now. I drummed my fingers against the wooden table. Yet why did I hesitate... For some reason the idea of lying next to a mortal of such innocence made me cringe after the deeds I'd just actioned. Not five hours ago I was painting the walls with corpses. Letting my nature come to life in full unrestrained carnage. Quinn could not be further from that life. Yet here she was. Knowing what I am and overlooking it.
I grit my teeth and heard a crack. I paused my fingers and realised the force had sunk into the wood and splintered a small part of the table. I sighed through my nose in frustration and tried to calm my mind.
But all I could see when I shut my eyes were empty mortal eyes. So much blood. I hunted monsters in London. Paragon did not care who was on the other side of their objectives. So long as the job was done–
"Fletcher?"
I flinched and my eyes landed on Quinn.
"Is everything okay?" She asked, glancing down at the dent my hand had made in the table.
"Yes. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb–"
"I don't care about a few lost hours of sleep, detective. I don't even know what time it is anymore." She said dryly, looking out at the night beyond the windows.
"Two in the morning local." I murmured distantly.
She scanned my face for a moment before turning back to the bedroom. "Come on."
I turned in my seat as she carried on through the door without hesitating. The jet had paused before the last stretch to take to the sky. I ripped myself from the seat and paced after her.
She was already cocooned in sheets by the time I leaned against the doorframe. I smirked at her vulnerable position curled in the centre of the bed. So mortal. So fragile. The stark differences in us were becoming all too clear again–
"Stop sulking and get in bed." She grumbled.
"I'm not–" She raised an eyebrow and I stopped my words. "–I might be more melancholy than usual." I finally admitted. She dragged the sheets to the side in response and I sighed again. I moved to the side of the bed and sat, pulling my shoes off. I heard her shift upright behind me before I felt her arm snake around my chest and pull me back. It made my blood flash cold at her sudden closeness and still beneath her touch.
She chuckled at my expression as she lay my head down across her legs and watched me. She was propped against the backboard with her hand left casually over my collarbone. I hardly breathed. The engines grew suddenly louder and our speed increased.
Quinn glanced out the window as we sped through the night. Her heart increasing in the familiar anxiety. I felt her hand clutch at my shirt tightly. I set my hand over it and she relaxed under me slightly.
"Will you tell me what's bothering you?" She asked distractedly watching the world flash by.
I watched the side of her face carefully as her heartbeat slowed. Our plane started to level in the air. Her green eyes finally dropped down to me.
"I keep thinking about what a monster I am next to you." I blurted honestly.
Her brows raised in surprise. She shook her head slowly. "I don't think that–"
"I am not saying you do. But it's hard not to think that when I'm with you, Quinn. You're so far from what I am." I murmured, feeling a familiar aching emptiness.
She pushed her hand under the collar to feel my cool skin. The very slow pulse near my neck. I swallowed and she frowned hard. "It's impossible for me to see. The woman I met in London chased the darkness from my life–the monster from my life." She gave a humourless laugh. "I've worked for a monster, Tara. You don't quite fit the bill."
"Maybe you haven't seen it yet." I averted my eyes. "You know–"
"I remember you confirming that it was other immortals that told rather than asked you to carry out that work." She interrupted with conviction. "It doesn't seem like you get the luxury of choice."
Despite it all I snorted.
"Such a lawyer's response to immortal dealings."
She smiled and dipped down to replace her hand with her lips. I stiffened under her and she suddenly drew back realising the mistake.
"I'm sorry–"
"It's alright. I'm good for a few days." I got out, trying to rid my mind of those soft lips.
It was at that moment the cabin and interior lights flicked off for the night part of our flight. It would be another six hours until we hit solid ground again. Quinn's pulse stuttered in surprise before she lay her hand back in its place against my skin.
"You should sleep, Quinn." I said into the darkness.
"I know."
I rolled to face her fully in her lap. I could still make out all the details of her face while she could likely only see shadows of mine. She sighed and traced her fingers against my collarbone and neck. I shivered under the warmth and her lips cracked a smile.
"I made you a promise." She answered my thoughts.
"I am thinking of breaking it." I retorted, enjoying the way her hand paused and her pulse spiked. She took a breath and closed her eyes against the headboard again.
"What's stopping you."
"Other than the fact you're about to be unconscious or that I may kill you?" I asked casually.
She grinned in the dark and resumed her tracing. "I think you would surprise yourself and I am not that tired."
"You've slept all of a few hours in two days." I deadpanned.
"You don't know much about lawyers do you detective." She quipped with heavy amusement.
I chuckled and rolled off her lap suddenly to pull my body under the sheets. Quinn readjusted herself so her head was against the pillows now. I pulled a separate pillow next to hers and placed my head down facing her slowly. She moved her hand in the dark again to trace the edge of my face. I let her map out the outline of my jaw and run burning lines across my cheeks.
I released a small breath when they passed over my lips. I wanted to feel that warmth she brought to me again. To be intimate with one so breakable. She was true to her word and did not initiate more but I could feel the heavy change in the air. The charge and energy that seemed to ignite between us.
"You're making the lines very hard to stand behind." I murmured against her fingers.
"You can redraw them whenever you want." She answered simply.
I watched her closely. The way her eyes lingered where her hand was, like she could see right through the darkness and see the shape of my lips. The lines were becoming blurred. Thin and changeable. Impossible.
It wouldn't take anything at all to close the distance between us. Just to close that gap and feel her again. I had control. I had come back from the desire before. But dancing with fire always had a cost. It was so damn consuming the closer you got.
"Fletcher." She murmured into the darkness.
My thoughts halted and everything seemed to light inside me at the way her voice sounded low and smooth.
"When are you going to kiss me?"
There was nothing so simple and sure as the way she spoke those words. And nothing as simple and sure about my response to run my hand through her hair at her temple and dropped my lips down to hers. They shaped around me seamlessly, as if waiting for the feeling. Her response was like a sigh of something that said 'finally'.
I truly tried to ignore the fast burn desire that altered my actions. I was better at handling them now–only I did not entirely want to. I ran my free hand along her side slowly and pulled her flush against me under the sheets. She threaded her leg between mine as I rolled on top of her. This is where things needed to slow–to be considered–
Her tongue glided along my lower lip and a low sound came from my throat. It made her hands work their way under my shirt in response. I dragged my lips off her and took in a shallow breath testing my control.
"Are you–"
I nodded against her and pressed my forehead to hers. She smiled under me and drifted her hands against the bare skin of my stomach. It was tensed under her which is what I think she was enjoying touching–
"Trying to push the limit tonight aren't you?" I grit out.
"You do have very nice abs." She grinned. I shook my head and tore her attention away with a deep kiss that consumed. A light moan left her as I poured all my effort into the way my lips moved deftly against hers and claimed them. Her hands moved around to my back and moved up. It was as far as I had ever let her roam my bare skin and I could not get enough of the way it lit flames up my body.
I pressed my body against hers more intently losing a part of my conscious action with it and gaining a darker tone of desire. Quinn sucked in a breath as my leg pressed between hers. I did not let her lips escape for long. I grazed my teeth against her bottom lip and this time she dragged my face back to breathe heavily between us.
"If you keep this up–I'm going to respond–"
"At this point I'm not against the idea." I half growled.
She paused and a small spike of adrenaline flashed in her sweet blood. "Now I'm not sure how much of that is you talking or the other part of you..." She said breathlessly.
I gave her a dark smile she couldn't see and pressed my lips against her forehead. "I'm in control, Adams. But you have a point."
She deflated slightly under me and I chuckled.
"Painful isn't it? Having to be the responsible one."
She pushed my shoulder back suddenly and I sunk into the bed as she straddled my waist. The desire in me flashed darkly at the feel of it. The way her soft and firm legs wrapped either side of me. The demon was suddenly very present. My teeth became pointed.
"Quinn." I grit out.
She pressed her hands down on either side of my head. "Maybe I'm not that responsible." She muttered, ignoring my warning and taking my lips in hers. My hands found her hips and drew her impossibly closer, enjoying the way her heat felt against me this way–the much darker side of my being was taking more control by the moment.
I felt her hips rock slowly against me and my desire for her almost blackened my mind entirely. Each enticing, deliberate movement against me brought out a new desire to tear away the clothes between us and taste her. I tightened my grip on her hips and found more of me falling to the need. The need to encourage each press against our bodies, each press of our lips–
I heard the rip in her jeans before I acknowledged the action. Her breathing was more deep in need against my lips now. I was drifting further and further from a reason to stop it at all. I tore the denim and silk underwear away from her skin entirely. Now there was nothing but her warm arousal against me and the unanswered questions being answered in full.
Her hands went into my hair and gripped against my scalp. Ripping me back to the distant thoughts of my mistake in the past. It held a leash over my darkness and I think some part of her recognised it. Yet it allowed me have a hold on my demon while my hands roamed the bare skin of her legs. When she rocked deliberately against me again I drifted my hands higher. Up her legs and she dragged in a breath against my mouth in anticipation. I teased the inside of her thighs carefully, noting the amount of me it consumed and didn't consume.
"I need you–to touch me–" She rushed in heavy breaths.
"I need you to keep–your hands there." I got out, taking another heavy drag of air that scorched like her. She nodded against me and kissed me deeper, moving her warmth hard between my legs again. If it weren't for my clothing left I had no doubt there would be nothing stopping me at all.
I slipped my fingers between her then and savoured the sharp breath she dragged in when our skin met. It was so much like before but so different. The darkness heightened every sense of me while it surrounded our desire. She groaned out as I slowly ran my fingers against the length of her hot desire. Each movement making her grind into my hand more in demand than before. The demon would oblige her–would claim every inch of her arousal before drinking her–I shook my head trying to clear it.
Quinn moved her head to my shoulder and moaned against me. It made so much of me battle once more. But the other half was revelling the feel of her needful press against me. The way she was lost to each stroke of my fingers. The desire was clear, it was slick against my hand. My teeth were ready for more than just a small drink. I opened my mouth and ran my tongue along the line of her neck without fully registering the action. Another low sound left her throat as she got closer to her peak.
Her ecstasy was muffled into my shirt as she reached the height of her desire. A low growl left me wanting what was rightfully mine. A predator with the prey within reach. So simple. As it had always been. I let the demon acknowledge the woman below me. Feel and taste the warmth of her skin. Linger on her impossible scent.
Her breathing was heavy as I moved her off me slowly and pressed her down. She stilled and tried to gauge what was left behind of me–but I needed this or I would never be able to get closer to her. The darkest part of me needed to see her in all her desirable glory and know she is never the prey–
"It's me." She whispered, as I hovered over her analysing every inch of her face in the dark. "I know you're in there."
I dipped my lips down and let the points of my canines graze along her skin. The very same way an immortal would before the final bite. She froze, allowing me to do this. Facing the monster that lurked beneath the surface and doing nothing to stop it. I pulled my free hand up and slowly claimed her throat. The same way you would hold a glass vase. Her rapid breathing halted all together as she weighed my predator and what was left of my humanity.
I was doing as much myself.
"Come back to me." She whispered.
I ran my teeth along her jaw and took in one final gulp of her beautiful scent. Then I levelled my face with her own.
"I never left." I murmured darkly.
She finally took in a breath and I released my hold over her neck, still watching her pant beneath me. She shook her head and swallowed in the darkness.
"You could have–fooled me."
"I wanted that side of me to see you. To accept you. There's no other way I will be able to control myself unless I expose myself to you completely."
She exhaled heavily again and I pulled myself off her and rolled onto my back. The plane shuddered briefly in turbulence before becoming still again. She finally moved and placed her head beside mine on the pillows facing me.
"I want this to work. For both of us." She murmured, "I hate feeling like I can't give you anything–"
"Don't finish that sentence." I ordered, turning my attention to her. "This is not about me getting something in return."
"I don't want it to be one sided, Fletcher."
I thought about that for a moment. Turning her words over my head and briefly imagining a world in which I was with her with no restraint. There was only one way that was possible and I dismissed the notion as fast as it had appeared.
"We'll work on it." I answered, with a small hint of irony.
It didn't go over her head and she sniggered beside me. I pulled more sheets over her body and between us so she wouldn't feel my cold but she nestled against my side regardless. I sighed when her cheek pressed against my chest. Her breathing was becoming steadier by the moment and lulling me into my own temporary sleep. The days had been long and the nights longer... We both needed this now.
"Goodnight, detective." She mumbled.
"I'm not a detective anymore–"
She poked me in the ribs and I smirked. Instead testing the waters once more and dipping my head to press my lips against the top of her head. I could feel the shock in her body briefly before she wrapped an arm across my waist and held me tighter. This was becoming dangerous. Routine. Too good to last. Especially for an immortal. She was lighting fires in me I did not know how to put out–and even worse–I wasn't sure I wanted to anymore.
"Goodnight, Quinn." I whispered.